f/ / . * /// ' j J yO . * / / C- fjBP KL+ Jt Jr* Jr • if/ L.s '/ 7 / f IvT ... V V % O PRINCETON, N. J. Presented by Mr. Samuel Agnew of Philadelphia, Pa. BT 200 . A49 1830 v.l Ambrose, Isaac, 1604-1664. Looking unto Jesus Nuniber t r \ > V, I 4 AMBROSE’S L O OKING UNTO JESUS. LOOKING UNTO JESUS A VIE W * OF THE EVERLASTING GOSPEL; OR, THE SOUL’S EYEING OF JESUS, AS CARRYING ON THE GREAT WORK OF MAN’S SALVATION, FROM FIRST TO LAST. BY ISAAC AMBROSE, MINISTER OF THE GOSPEL. LOOK UNTO ME, AND BE YE SAVED, ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH. Isaiah xlv. 22. j _ IN TWO VOLUMES . VOL. I. BERWICK I PRINTED BY C. RICHARDSON, FOR W. BAYNES, PATERNOSTER ROW, LON DON. ia*o « • AN ACCOUNT OP THE LIFE, CHARACTER & PRINCIPLES OF THE AUTHOE. Mr. ISAAC AMBROSE was bom in the year 1591 : and though we are at a loss to know his parentage, yet, by the figure he made both in the learned world, and more especially in the church, it appears his education was liberal, and himself assiduous in his application to his studies ; of which he has given evident proof in his wri¬ tings, (it being impossible that such precious fruit should grow either in a barren or uncultivated soil) through all of which there shineth the greatest piety, zeal for God’s glory, and concern for the salvation of souls. In his youth he made himself perfectly intimate with Plutarch and Cicero, and was well acquainted with the other fine writers both of Greece and Rome : by which means he was well instructed in the belles lettres} and the b 11 LIFE OF TIIE AUTHOR* various thoughts and opinions of the greatest men among the Ancients. Yet, notwithstanding this conversation w ith those sages, he wras not so superstitiously fond of an¬ tiquity, as to sit down there, in contempt of all latter helps and advancements. Being thus prepared, he addressed himself to the more close, particular and thorough know¬ ledge of Theology. In that science, he exercised his mind upon what he read ; he considered, compared and inferred. He had the felicity of clear and distinct thinking. By reading he rendered his understanding full, and by medi¬ tation he kept that fulness from being disorderly and con¬ fused. He thought it not enough to read a few systems or bundles of novel opinions, to understand the current or¬ thodoxy of the times, or to gain the faculty of speaking to the common people in the taking tone and phrase in vogue, (things that constituted the divines of that age) but enqui¬ red into the state of religion in former days : he read the his¬ tory of the church, and applied himself to a careful perusal of the fathers of the three first and purest centuries. In them he looked for the doctrines and practices that were in the beginning : he considered that religion was most pure in those primitive times of holiness and martyrdom ; and that, by knowing what w as the belief and use then, he might be enabled to judge better of the more modern ways and opinions : that though other knowledge grew, and was much advanced by time, yet divinity wa§ in its per¬ fection in the days of the apostles, and the nearest ages to them ; and had still b^en degenerating, more or less, in following times : that it was therefore best to enquire after the old way, and to take the measures of faith and prac¬ tice from primitive doctrine and usage. This wras his method, and sure it wras the best. He read also the his¬ tory and observed the growth of sects; he examined the tiFE of the author. • • h in books of the chief reputed heretics, and considered the ar¬ guments wherewith they endeavoured to establish their opinions : he descended even to the wild scribles and con¬ tentions of the several parties in our then distracted land ; he acquainted himself thoroughly with their spirit, princi¬ ples, phrases and ways of reasoning ; as rightly judging, that none could deal effectually in the exposing and confu¬ ting any sect, but those who well understood it. Besides all this, he directed his study to the Jewish learning, that he might be instructed in the rites, opinions and usages of that people, for the better understanding many things in the Scripture that relate to them. He enquired into the reasonableness of the great principles of religion, and parti¬ cularly of the Christian ; and enabled himself thereby to deal with atheists, infidels and enthusiasts, with which that age did abound. — It is easy to enlarge ; but let this suffice to ^hew that this eminent man was well qualified to do good in the world.- — As to his orthodoxy, — it was built on the good foundation of the prophets and apostles ; and, except them, it was his principle, NuUhis in verba jurare magistfi. In those days great were the disputes concerning justi¬ fication by faith, and by works. — The favorite doctrine then was, that justification is obt ained only by an imputed righteousness, by which, they said, we are formally righ¬ teous ; that faith justified only as we laid hold of that, (as they phrased it) ; and that inherent righteousness was to be renounced, and had nothing to do here. These were the great dear mysteries of their Theology, that seasoned all their doctrines and instructions, which by this means also were rendered exceedingly fanciful and dangerous : but in due time some eminent divines interposed, and de¬ li 2 IV LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. monstrated the vanity and mischief of such fulsome and groundless conceits : they, indeed, stated the true and war¬ rantable sense in which Christ’s righteousness is imputed, viz. metonymically , and as to effects*. Then, in a word, faith was preached up as the whole of religion, and that represented variously, fantastically and after an unintelli¬ gible manner, dressed up in metaphors, and phrases and dangerous notions, that prescinded it from good works, and made them unnecessary. Here our author appeared also, and detected the vanity and canting of this airy divinity ; stating the notion of faith plainly and clearly, and bravely stripping it of its chimerical clothing, teaching in every page of his works, That faith, in the general, is, the belief of a proposition affirmed ; and divine faith, the belief of a divine testimony ; and evangelical (saving) faith, such a belief as works on the will and affections, and produceth the works of righteousness, viz. gospel-holiness : so that the faith that is said to justify (in the forensic sense) is a complex thing, and takes in an holy life, and all the graces of the Spirit, which are called by the name of Faith, be¬ cause that is the root of all the rest. Thus he asserted the necessity of a real inward righteousness, against the Solifi- dian and Antinomian heresies, which had poisoned the whole system of the then current Theology, and was counted the only spiritual doctrine. During the long parliament under Oliver Cromwell, * That is, That for the sake of his righteousness God was pleased to pardon penitents, and to deal with them, upon their faith and sin¬ cere obedience, as if they had been righteous themselves. Not as if he passed false and mistaken judgments, and looked on Christ’s righteous¬ ness as really and properly theirs ; but that for his sake he pardoned their sins, and accepted of their personal imperfect righteousness, as if it had been perfect. This account of the thing is agreeable to sacred Scripture, and the analogy of sound faith and practice. LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. V he was settled at Preston in Lancashire, where he laboured in his ministerial work, for a considerable time, with great success, and regarded of all. From thence he was re¬ moved to Garstang, within ten miles of Preston, where the act of uniformity found him in the year 1662, which was the second year after the restoration of King Charles II. when he, with near two thousand more ministers, lectu¬ rers, &x\ were silenced and laid aside from the public work of the ministry, for not conforming to the established church of England ; and he was never again restored du¬ ring life. Yet that time was not spent in inactivity by him, but employed to the most valuable purpose ; for then it wTas he revised and gave the finishing stroke to the greatest part of his works, and composed other parts of them ; in particular, his discourse concerning angels, which was the last of all these his performances ; through which, and through all the rest of his works, there runs a con¬ stant strain of piety, holy devotion, and meditation, and the greatest fervour of spirit ; which very well agrees with the following character given of him by a very learned and eminent hand:* while speaking of the Rev. Mr ISxiAC Ambrose, he says, 4 He lived and died a Noncon- 4 formist ; and was a man of that substantial worth, that 4 eminent piety, and that exemplary life both as a minister 4 and a Christian, that it is to be lamented the world 4 should not have the benefit of some particular memoirs * concerning him from some able hand,’ The same author addeth further, 4 One thing that wras peculiar in him de- 4 serveth to be mentioned here : it was his usual custom 4 once in a year, for the space of a month, to retire into a 4 Jittlc hut in a wood, and, avoiding all human converse, to * See Dr Calamy’s lives, vol, 2. p. 41*;. b 3 vi LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. 4 devote himself to contemplation. Possibly by this prae- 4 tice he was fitter for his sacred ministration all the rest 4 of the year. lie lived, in the latter part of his life, at 4 Preston ; and, when his end drew near, was very sensible 4 of it. Having' taken leave of his friends abroad with un- 4 usual solemnity, as if he foresaw that he should see them 4 no more, he came home to Preston from Bolton, and set 4 all things in order. In a little time some of his hearers 4 came to Garstang to visit him : after discoursing freely 4 with them, and like a man sensible of his death being 4 near, he accompanied them to their horses, and when he 4 came back shut himself up in his parlour, the usual place 4 of his soliloquy, meditation and prayer. They thought 4 he staid long, and so opened the door, and found him just 4 expiring. This was in the year 1664, aged 72. He 4 was holy in his life, happy in his death, and honoured by 4 God and all good men.5 The following is a List of the AUTHOR’S WORKS, viz. PRIM A MEDIA ULTIMA; OR, THE FIRST, MIDDLE, and LAST THINGS: Wherein is set forth, 1. The Doctrine of Regeneration; or, the New Birth. 2. Of Sanctification, in the Means, Duties, and Ordinances, both public and private, for Increase and Continuance of a Godly Life. 3. Certain Meditations on Man’s Misery, in his Life, Death, Judgment ; and on Heaven and Hell : as al~ so, on God’s Mercy in Man’s Redemption and Salvation. LOOKING UNTO JESUS, As carrying on the Great Work of Man’s Salvation.. WAR WITH DEVILS, Ministration of and Communion with ANGELS, A SERMON added, concerning Redeeming the Time*. b 4 RIGHT HONOURABLE WILLIAM, Earl of Bedford, Lord Russel, Baron of Thornhaugh . RIGHT HONOURABLE, Once i made bold to prefix an epistle to your honour, before my book, intitled Ultima : since which time, you have continued with increase, your wonted favors : as the sun that rejoiceth to run his race, and is unwearied after his many revolutions, so, year after year, have you indefa- tigably expressed your great bounty, whereby both my¬ self, and family, have been exceedingly refreshed. As I cannot, but in the way of thankfulness, acknowledge thus much, so I shall be a sincere remembrancer, both of your honour, and your nearest relations, at the throne of grace. My Lord, I have now composed this work, containing a necessary practice, and high privilege of every Chris¬ tian : it is by way of supplement to the other duties set X DEDICATION. down in my book called Media, but because of my large handling it, I reserved it for a tract by itself. Indeed of all other duties, I prefer it as the chief; and I exceedingly wonder, that before this time, it hath not been undertaken by some abler hand. Christians ordinarily go to prayer, sacraments, hearing, reading, and meditation, of the word ; and sometimes, (though more seldom) they set on the ex¬ ercise of other duties, as self-trial, self-denial, the improv¬ ing of experiences, the clearing of evidences, extemporary and deliberate meditation, &c. But, in the mean time. How is the main, the prime employment, even the duty of duties, Of looking unto Jesus, wholly neglected ? If many, or most have been ignorant of it hitherto, I think it is high time to discover it to the sleepy world ; and it may be, w hen day is clear, they wTill walk in the light, and bless God for finding out a way wherein they may more immediately have commerce with Jesus Christ. I could have washed that others more able had appeared in this service in a particular handling of this excellent subject. 1 find it in print, wished for by a godly brother, where he complains, That Christ’s love had been so little studied ; men have been very swift in searching after other truths, but slow in searching after this. An ample, exact disco¬ very of this love of Christ, I say of this love (in carrying on our soul’s salvation from first to last) may well be set down amongst the desiderata, the desirable of divines, it having been so little handled (unless in some parts or pie¬ ces) by any ; surely it is very sad to think, that the know¬ ledge of this love of Christ, (in a continued series) being of such necessary and high concernment, hath been so little enquired into. O what a gallant gospel design wrere it for some one who is acquainted with the Spirit in a large measure, to go over the whole history of the “ Gospel, (of LIFE OF THE AUTHOR. XI the everlasting gospel of Jesus)” and to observe the glori¬ ous shillings of the love of Christ to believers in all ! It would 44 he precious if some would take it in hand,” and perfect it to the purpose : but it is sad to think it hath been neglected so long. As the Lord hath enabled, I have adventured ; and, if for my rashness, in not waiting any longer, to see if any star of a greater magnitude would have appeared, I must be censured, I flee to your honour for patronage, not only for patronage, but I humbly beg of you and yours, to peruse and practise this slender w ork : Who can tell, but some of the golden oil of grace may come out of Jesus Christ, the true Olive Tree, even through these pipes ; and if so, your own experiences will be satis¬ factory answers to all other censures. Sure I am, in this exercise, (however the directions may be weak) you will find the advantage of lying at the well-head, and so you may drink more sweetly than others, that make use only of the streams. That you, (My Noble Lord), and your virtuous Lady, with your hopeful issue, may receive spirit¬ ual good by this treatise, and all other helps which God’s good Providence, may put into your hands, is the hearty prayer, * My Lord, Of your Honour’s Thankful, Faithful, Though very unworthy Servant, ISAAC AMBROSE. . • • y; “• *' l ' - J * . * i ■ - v • . ; . . . . I \ • . ' % * . I . :• " t • . • • ■ ‘ 1 ■ -i ' , 1 ' j* " - . < •» /;:J; t - i: . ■ ‘9 •<* . - 5 T» ■ - ■ - V £V ■ ' , " . . ' - * » ( _i • x « : . . 4 ' ■ • / ' •* .• ■ • : ' ' ■ • • ; ( % • « \ THE CONTENTS OF VOLUME FIRST. BOOK I. Chap. I. T HE proeme, division and opening of the words, Chap. II. Sect, I. The duty of looking off all other things confirmed and cleared, - « Sect. II. An exhortation to look off all other things. Sect. III. Directions how to look off all. other things. Chap III. Sect. I. An explanation of the act and object. Sect. II. The main doctrine and confirmation of it. Sect. III. Use of reproof, - Sect. IV. Use of exhortation, - Sect. V. Motives from our wants, in case of neglect. Sect. VI. Motives from our riches, in case we are lively in this duty, - - Sect. VII. More motives to encourage us in this work. Sect. VIII. Use of direction, - BOOK II. Chap. I. Sect. I. Of the eternal generation of our Jesus, Sect. II. Of our election in Christ before all worlds. Sect, III. Of that great treaty betwixt God and Christ to save souls, - Sect. IV. The project, Sect. V. The counsel, - - - Sect. VI. The foreknowledge, * » % PAGE, l 3 9 12 14. 17 20 24s 26 31 34s 41 43 49 51 54 55 59 XIV CONTEXTS. Sect. VII. The purpose, - - - Sect. VIII. The decree, - Sect. IX. The covenant, - - Chap. II. Sect. I. Of knowing Jesus as carrying on the great work of our salvation in that eternity, - - Sect. II. Of considering Jesus in that respect. Sect. III. Of desiring after Jesus in that respect, Sect. IV. Of hoping in Jesus in that respect. Sect. V. Of believing in Jesus in that respect. Sect. VI. Of loving Jesus in that respect, - - Sect. VII. Of joying in Jesus in that respect. Sect. VIII. Of calling on Jesus in that respect. Sect. IX. Of Conforming to Jesus in that respect. BOOK IIL Chap. I. Sect. I. Of Christ promised by degrees. Sect II. Of the covenant of promise, as manifested to Adam, Sect. Ill Of the covenant of promise, as manifested to Abraham, Sect. IV. Of the covenant of promise, as manifested to Moses, Sect. V. Of the covenant of promise, as manifested to David, Sect. VI. Of the covenant of promise, as manifested to Israel about the time of their captivity. Chap. II. Sect. I. Of knowing Jesus as carrying on the great w’ork of our salvation from the creation until his first coming, - Sect. II. Of considering Jesus in that respect. Sect. III. Of desiring Jesus in that respect, Sect. IV. Of hoping in Jesus in that respect. Sect. V. Of believing in Jems in that respect. Sect. VI. Of loving Jesus in that respect. Sect. VII. Of joying in Jesus in that respect. Sect. VIII. Of calling on Jesus in that respect. Sect. IX. Of conforming to Jesus in that respect. BOOK IV. PART I. Chap. I. Sect. I. Of the tidings of Christ, Sect. II. Of the conception of Christ, Sect, III. Of the duplicity of natures in Christ, PACE 62 64 66 72 73 86 90 94 99 102 103 104 109 113 122 133 149 157 173 174 1S5 192 197 203 209 212 215 225 229 234 CONTENTS, XV Sect. IV. Of the distinction of the two natures of Christ, Sect. V. Of the union of the two natures of Christ in one and the same person, - Sect. VI. Of the birth of Christ, - - Sect. VII. Of some consequents after Christ's birth. Chap. II. Sect. I. Of knowing Jesus, as carrying on the great work of our salvation in his birth. Sect. II. Of considering Jesus in that respect. Sect. III. Of desiring after Jesus in that respect. Sect. IV. Of hoping in Jesus in that respect. Sect. V. Of believing in Jesus in that respect. Sect. VI. Of loving Jesus in that respect, Sect. VII. Of joying in Jesus in that respect. Sect. VIII. Of calling on Jesus in that respect. Sect. IX. Of conforming to Jesus in that respect. PAGE 338 240 256 267 272 274 281 2S4 2S9 298 303 303 309 BOOK IV. PART II. Chap. I. Sect. I. Of the first year of Christ's ministry, and therein of the beginning of the gospel, - - 30 0 Sect. II. Of the preaching of John the Baptist, • - 322 Sect. III. Of the baptism of Jesus, - - - 326 Sect. IV. Of the fasting and temptation of Christ, - 332 Sect. V. Of the first manifestations of Christ, - - 3 44 Sect. VI. Of Christ's whipping the buyers and sellers out of the temple, - - - 349 Chap. II. Sect. I. Of the second year of Christ’s ministry, and of his acts in general for that year, - - 355 Sect. II. Of Christ’s sermon this year, - - S 55 Sect. III. Of Christ’s prophetical office, - - 357 Sect. IV Of Christ’s miracles, - 362 Chap. III. Sect. I, Of the third year of Christ’s ministry, and generally of his acting that year, - -3 70 Sect. II. Of Christ’s ordination of his apostles, « - 371 Sect III. Of Christ’s reception of sinners, - - 376 Sect. IV. Of Christ's easy yoke and light burden, - 3S7 Chap. IV. Sect. I. Of the fourth year of Christ's ministry, and generally of his actings in that year, - - 401 XV contents. page Sect. II. Of the distinctions, or several divisions of Christ’s righteousness, - 402T Sect. III. Of the holiness of Christ’s nature, - - 403 Sect. IV. Of the holiness of Christ’s life, - - 405 Sect V. Of the great controversy, Whether we are not justified by the passive righteousness of Christ only, without any consideration had to the righteousness of Christ, either inherent in him, or performed by him? - - 410 Chap. V. Sect. I. Of knowing Jesus as carrying on the great work of our salvation in his life, - - 414 Sect. II. Of considering Jesus in that respect, - - 41 6 Sect. III. Of desiring after Jesus in that respect, - - 429 Sect. IV. Of hoping in Jesus in that respect, - - 433 Sect. V. Of believing in Jesus in that respect, • - 439 Sect. VI. Of loving Jesus in that respect, - » 447 Sect. VII. Of joying in Jesus in that respect, - - 451 Sect. VIII. Of calling on Jesus in that respect, » - 455 Sect. IX. Of conforming to Jesus in that respect. - 456 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. BOOK L CHAP. I. Heb. xii. 2. Looking unto Jesus, the Beginner and Finisher of our Faith.. — — The Proeme , Division , and Opening of the Words, rjjHHE most excellent subject to discourse or write of, is Jesus Christ. Augustine, having read Cicero’s works, commended them for their eloquence, but he passed this sentence upon them, “ They are not sweet, because the name of Jesus is not in them.” And Bernard’s saying is near the same, “ If thou writest, it doth not relish with me, unless I read Jesus there ; if thou disputest or conferrest, it doth not relish well with me, unless Jesus sound there.” Indeed ail we say is but unsavoury, if it be not seasoned with this salt. “ I determined not to know any thing among you (saith Paul) save Jesus Christ and him crucified.” He resolved with himself, before he preached among the Corinthians, that this should be the only point of knowledge that he would profess himself to have skill in ; and that, in the course of his ministry he would labour to bring them to : this he made “ the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of his knowledge : yea, doubtless (saith he) and I count all things but loss for the excellency , of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord,” Eph. iii. 18. Phil. iii. 8. ' In this knowledge of Christ, there is an excellency above all other knowledge in the world; there is nothing more pleasing and com¬ fortable, more animating and enlivening, more ravishing and soul contenting ; only Christ is the sum and centre of all divine revealed truths, we can preach nothing else as the object of our faith, as the ne¬ cessary element of our souls salvation, which doth not some way or other, either meet in Christ, or refer to Christ ; only Christ is the whole of man’s happiness, the sun to enlighten him, the Physician to VOL. I. B LOOKING UNTO JESUS, heal him, the wall of fire to defend him, the friend to comfort him, the pearl to enrich him, the ark to support him, the rock to sustain him under the heaviest pressures. “ As an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of waters in a dry place, and as a shadow of a great rock in a weary land,” Isa. xxxii. 2. Only Christ is that ladder betwixt earth and heaven, the Mediator betwixt God and man, a mystery, which the angels of heaven desire to pry, and peep, and look into, 1 Pet. i. 12. Here is a blessed subject indeed, who would not be glad to pry into it, to be acquainted with it ? “ This is life eternal, to know God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent/' John xvii. 3. Come then, let us look on this Sun of righteousness : we cannot receive harm but good by such a look ; indeed by looking long on the natural sun we may have our eyes dazzled and our faces black¬ ened ; but by looking unto Jesus Christ, we shall have our eyes clearer, and our faces fairer ; if the light of the eye rejoice the heart,” Prov. xv. 30. How much more, when we have such a blessed object to look upon ? As Christ is more excellent than all the world, so this sight transcends all other sights ; it is the epitome of a Christian’s happiness, the quintessence of evangelical duties. Looking unto Jesus. In the text we have the act and object, the act in the original is very emphatical, (aphorontes eis ;) the English doth not fully express it ; it signifies an averting, or drawing off the eye from one object to another: there are two expressions, (apo and eis ;) the one signifies a turning off the eye from all other objects ; the other a fast fixing of the eye upon such an object, and only upon such. So it is both a looking off, and a looking on. On what? That is the object, “ a looking unto Jesus;” a title that denotes his mercy and bounty, as Christ denotes his office and function. I shall not be so curious as to enquire why Jesus, and not Christ is nominated : I suppose the person is aimed at, which im¬ plies them both ; only this may be observed that Jesus is the purest gospel-name of all other names; Jesus was not the dialect of the Old Testament ; the first place that ever we read of this title as given to Christ, is in Matth. i. 21. “ Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” Some observe that this name Jesus, was given him twice ; once till death, Matth. i. 21. and after¬ wards for ever, Phil. ii. 10. The first, was a note of his entering into covenant with God, to fulfil the law for us, and to die for our sins ; the second was a note of so meritorious a person, who for his humility was more exalted than any person ever hath been, or shall be. First, Jesus LOOKING UNTO JK5US. 3 was the humble name of his deserving grace ; now Jesus is the ex¬ alted name of his transcendant glory; at first the Jews did crucify Jesus and his name ; and the apostle did then distrust, whether Jesus was the true Jesus ; but now God hath raised him from the dead, and hath “ highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things on earth, and things under the earth,” Luke xxiv. 21. Phil ii. 9} 10. My meaning is not to insist on this name, in contradiction to other names of Christ, he is often called Christ, and Lord, and Mediator, and Son of God, and Immanuel ; why ? Jesus is all these, Jesus is Christ, as he is the anointed of God; and Jesus is the Lord, as he hath dominion over all the world ; and Jesus is Mediator, as he is the reconciler of God and man ; and Jesus is the* Son of God, as he was eternally begotten before all worlds ; and Jesus is Immanuel, as he was incarnate, and so God with us. Only because Jesus signifies Saviour, and his name was given him upon that very account, “ For he shall save his people from their sins.” I shall make this my design to look at Jesus more especially, as carrying on the great work of our salvation from first to last. This indeed is the glad tidings, the gospel, the gospel-privilege, and our gospel-duty, “ Looking unto Jesus.” CHAP. If. SECT. I. The Duty of looking of all other Things confirmed and cleared. First Doctrine. But first we must look off all other things, the note is this. We must take off our mind from every thing which might divert us in our Christian race from looking unto Jesus. (Aphorontes,) the first word, or first piece of a word in my text, speaks to us thus, hands or eyes off from any thing that stands in the way of Jesus Christ. I remember it was wrote over Plato’s door, “ There is none may come hither, that is not a geometer ” But on the door of my text is written clean contrary ; “ No earthly minded man must enter here.” Not any thing in the world, be it ever so excellent, if it stand in the way of Jesus Christ, is to be named the same day; we must not give a look, B 2 4 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. or squint at any thing that may hinder this fair and lovely sight of Jesus. This was the Lord’s charge to Lot, “ Look not behind thee/’ Gen. xix. 17. He was so far to renounce and detest the lewdness of Sodom, as that he must not vouchsafe a look towards it. “ At that day shall a man look towards his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect to the holy One of Israel, and he shall not look to the altars, the works of his hands,” Isa. xvii. 7, 8. This was the fruit of God’s chastisement on the elect Israel, that he should not give a look to the altars, lest they diverted, or drew his eyes from off his Maker. “ We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen,” saith Paul, 1 Cor. iv. 18. A Christian’s aim is beyond visible things. O when a sold comes to know what an eternal God is, and what an eternal Jesus is, and what an eternal crown is ; when it knows that great design of Christ to save poor souls, and to communi¬ cate himself eternally to such poor creatures, this takes off the edge of its desires as to visible temporal things ; what are they in comparison ? 1. Question, But what things are they that we must look ofF in this, respect? I answer, — 1. Good things. 2. Evil things. 1. Good things. The apostle tells us of a cloud of witnesses in the former verse, which no question, in their season we are to look unto. But when this second object comes in sight, he scatters the cloud quite, and sets up Jesus himself ; now the apostle willeth ( apkoran ) to turn our eyes from them, and to turn them hither to Jesus Christ, q.d. If you will indeed see a sight once for all, look to him, the saints though they be guides to us, yet are they but followers to him ; he is the arch¬ guide, the leader of them, and of us all. Look on him. There is a time when James may say, “ Take my brethren the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example.” But when Jesus comes forth, that said, “ I have given you an example,” an ex¬ ample above all other examples, then “ be silent, O all flesh, before the Lord,” James v. 10. John xiii. 15. Zech. ii. 13. Let all saints and seraphims then cover their faces with their wings, that we may look on Jesus, and let all other sights go. 2 Evil things. 1. In general. 2. In special. 1. In general. We must look off all things that are on this side Je¬ sus Christ, and so much the rather, if they be evil things. In a word, LOOKING UNTO JESUS. we must look off all self ; whether it be sinful self, or natural self, or religious self, in this case we must draw our eyes off all these things. 2. Jn special. We must look off all that is in the world ; and that the apostle compriseth under three heads, “ The lusts of the eyes, the lusts of the flesh, and the pride of life,” 1 John ii. id. 1. Pleasures, profits, and honours. 1. We must look off this world in respect of its sinful pleasures; Jude tells us, such as are sensual have not the Spirit, Jude ver. 18, ig, W7e cannot fixedly look on pleasures, and look on Jesus at once. Job tells us, “ That they that take up the timbrel and harp, and rejoice at the sound of the organ, that spend their days in mirth,” are the same that say unto God, “ Depart from us, for we desire not the knowledge of thy ways ; what is the Almighty that we should serve him ? And what profit should we have if we pray unto him?” Job xxi. 12, 15, 14, 15. We have a lively example of this in Augustine’s conversion ; he would indeed have had Christ, and his pleasure’s too, but when he sawr it would not be, Oh ! what conflicts are within him ? In his or¬ chard (as he stories it in his book of confessions) all his pleasures past, represented themselves before his eyes, saying, “ What wilt thou de¬ part from us for ever, and shall we be no more with thee for ever ? O Lord, (saith Augustine writing this confession) turn away my mind from thinking that which they objected to my soul ! What filth ? What shameful pleasures did they lay before my eyes ?” At length after this combat, a shower of tears came from him, and casting himself on the ground under a fig-tree, he cries it out, “ O Lord, how long, how long shall I say. To-morrow, to-morrow? Why not. To-day, Lord, why not, to day ? Why should there not be an end of my filthy life even at this hour ?” Immediately after this he heard a voice, as if it had been of a boy or girl, singing by, “ Take up and read, take up and read and thereupon opening his Bible, that lay by him at hand, he read in silence the first chapter that offered itself, wherein was written, “ Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wrantonness, not in strife and envying, but put ye on the Lord Jesus, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof,” Rom. xiii. 13, 14. Further than this sentence I would not read (saith Augustine) neither indeed was it needful, for presently, as if light had been poured into my heart, all the darkness of my doubtful¬ ness fled away. His eyes was now taken off his pleasures, and for ever pfter it was set on Jesus. 6 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 2. We must look off this world in respect of its sinful profits. A look on this keeps 01T our looking unto Jesus. “ Whosoever loveth the world, the love of the Father is not in him,” 1 John ii. 15. Just so much as the world prevails in us, so much is God’s love abated both in us, and towards us, “Ye adulterers and adultresses, (saith James) know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God ?” James iv. 4. Covetousness in Christians is spiritual adultery, when we have enough in God and Christ, and yet we desire to make up our happiness in the creature, this is plain whoring. Now there are degrees in this spiritual whoredom, as — 1. The minding of this world; ye know there may be adultery in affection when the body is not defiled; unclean glances are a degree of lust, so the children of God may have some worldly glances, strag¬ gling thoughts ; when the temptation is strong, the world may be greatened in their esteem and imagination. 2. The setting of the heart upon the world ; this is an higher de¬ gree of this spiritual adultery, our hearts are due and proper to Christ, now to set them on the world, which should be chaste and loyal to Jesus Christ, what adultery is this ? “ Ye cannot serve God and Mam¬ mon,” Matth. vi. 24. That woman that is not contented with one husband, must needs be an harlot. 3. The preferring of the world before Christ himself. This is the height of covetousness, and the height of this adultery ; what, to make the members of Christ the members of an harlot ? Why, worldings ! those admiring thoughts are Christ’s, those pains are Christ’s, that love is Christ’s, that time, that care, that earnestness is Christ’s ; they are all Christ’s, and will you give that which is Christ’s unto the wrorld ? And prefer the world before Christ with his own ? What, live as professed prostitutes, that prefer every one before their husbands? How will this expose you to the scorn of men and angels ? At the last day they will come pointing, and say, “ This is the man that made not God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches ; this is the Gadarene that loved his swine more than Christ Jesus,” Psal. lvii. 2. u Love not the world,” (saith John) 1 John ii. 15. Christ is never precious in man’s apprehension, so long as the world seems glorious to him. As we begin to relish sweetness in Christ, so the world begins to be bitter to us. The more sweetness wre taste in the one, the more bitterness we taste in the other. 4. We must look off the w7orld in respect of its sinful honours, what LOOKING UNTO JESUS. ( is this honour but a certain inordinate desire to be well thought off, or well spoken of, to be praised, or glorified, of men ? As if a man should run up and down the streets after a feather flying in the air, and tossed hither and thither with the gusts and blasts of infinite men’s mouths, it is a question, whether ever he gets it. But if he do, it is but a fea¬ ther ; such is this pride of life, honour, vain glory ; it is hard to obtain it, but if obtained, it is but the breath of a few men’s mouths, that alter upon every light occasion ; but that which is the worst of all it hinders our sight of Jesus Christ. “ Not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called,” 1 Cor. i. 26. Worldly honours keeps many back from Christ, and therefore Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, — Esteeming the reproaches of Christ, greater riches than all the treasures of Egypt,” Heb. i. 25, 26. If the blind man in the way to Jericho, had depended on the breath, or liking, or approbation of the multitude, he had never received the benefit of his sight, for they (saith the text “ which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace,” Luke xviii. 3Q. They dissuaded him from running and crying so vehemently after Christ, experience tells us, how these things pull and draw us off from Jesus Christ. “ The lusts of the eyes, the lusts of the flesh, and pride of life.” 2. Quest. But why must we look off every thing that diverts our looking unto Jesus? 1. Because we cannot look fixedly on Christ, and such things toge¬ ther, and at once ; the eye cannot look upwards and downwards at once in a direct line we cannot seriously mind heaven and earth in one thought, “ No man can serve two masters,” saith Christ, Matth. vi. 24. Especially such as jar, and who have contrary employments, as Christ and Mammon have. 2. Because, whiles we look on these things, we cannot see the beauty that is in Christ • suppose a squint look on Christ, whilst we have a direct look on other things, alas ! Christ, will be of no esteem that while ; this was the voice of sinners concerning Christ, “ He hath no form nor comeliness, and when we see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him,” Isa. liii. 2. Indeed beauty is the attractive of the soul, the soul must see a beauty in that which it lets out itself to in desiring: but our wishing looks on other things makes Christ but mean and contemptible in our eyes. 3. Because all other things, in comparison of Christ, are not worthy B 4 8 LOOKING UNTO JESUS, a look, they are but as vile things, as under things, as poor and low and mean, and base things, in comparison of Christ, “ I count all things but loss (saith Paul) for the excellency of the knowledge ot Christ Jesus my Lord. — I count them but dung, that I may win Christ, Phil. iii. 8. ( skubala ,) some translate it chaff ; others dogs-meat ; others excrements, dung ; all agree, it is such a thing as men usually cast away from them with some indignation. 4. Because it is according to the very law of marriage. “ Therefore shall a man forsake father and mother, and cleave to his wife,” Gen. ii. 24- The Lord Christ marries himself to the souls of his saints, “ I will betrothe thee unto me for ever, I will betrothe thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mer¬ cies,” Hos. ii. 19- And for this cause the soul must forsake all, and cleave unto Christ, as married wives use to do, we must leave off all for our husband the Lord Jesus ; “ Hearken, O daughter, and consider and incline thine ear, forget also thy own people, and thy father’s house,” Psal. xlv. 10. 5. Because Christ is a jealous Christ ; now, jealousy is a passion in the soul, that will not endure any sharing in the object beloved ; the woman that hath a jealous husband, must leave all her old companions: if she cast any amorous looks or glances after them, the husband will be jealous, and “ jealousy is cruel as the grave,” Cant. viii. 6. Chris¬ tians ! our God “ is a jealous God,” Exod. xx. 5. Our Christ, is a jealous Christ, he cannot endure that we should look on any other things, so as to lust after them. 6. Because all other things can never satisfy the eye, “ All things are full of labour (saith Solomon) man cannot utter it, the eye is not satisfied with seeing,” Eccl. i. 8. It is but wearied with looking on divers objects, and yet still desires new ones : but once admit it to be¬ hold that glorious sight of Christ, and then it rests fully satisfied. Hence it is, that the daughters of Zion are called to come forth ; “ Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart,” Cant. iii. 11. Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, lay aside all private and earthly affections, and look upon this glory of Christ. As the daughters of Jerusalem sitting or remaining in their chambers, closets, houses, could not behold the glory of King Solomon passing by, and therefore they were willed to come forth of their doors : even so, if we will behold the great King, Jesus LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 9 Christ in his most excellent glory (a sight able to satisfy the eye, and to ravish the heart) we must come out of our doors, we must come out of ourselves, otherwise we cannot see his glory ; we are in ourselves shut up in a dark dungeon, and therefore we are called upon to come forth into the clear light of faith, and with the eyes of faith to behold, in daily meditation, the glory of Christ Jesus. SECT. II. An Exhortation to look ojf all other things.. One word of exhortation, Christians! I beseech you look off all other tilings, especially all evil things. I know I am pleading with you for an hard tiling, I had need of the rhetoric of an angel, to per¬ suade you to turn your eyes from off these things ; nay, if I had all were too little, “ It is God only must persuade Japheth to dwell in the tents of Shem, and yet let me offer a few considerations, venture at a persuading of you, and leave the issue with God. 1 . Consider that all other evil things are in God’s account as very nothing. “ Verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity,” Psalm xxxix. 5. Not only man, but every man; nor every man in his worst condition, but every man at liis best estate ; nor every man at his best estate is little worth, but every man at his best estate is vanity, emptiness, nothing ; it may be so in part, nay, but in every part, he is wholly, totally, altogether vanity. Would any man think, that a great, rich, honourable man whom we look upon with such high admiring thoughts, should be laid thus low in God’s esteem ? O wonder, -won¬ der ! and yet it is no such wonder, but one day you shall find the ex¬ perience of this truth yourselves. “ Rich men have slept their sleeps, and none of the men of might have found their hands,” or as others render it, “ They have found nothing in their hands,” Psal. lxxvi. 5. That is, rich men have passed over this life, as men do pass over a sleep, imagining themselves to have golden mountains, and rocks of diamonds, but when they awake at the day of death, they find them¬ selves to have nothing. Why, Christian, “ Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not ?” Prov. xxrii. 5. First, Observe that riches are not, they are nothing, those things that make men great in the e}rcs of the world, are nothing in the eyes of God. 2dly, Observe, That God would not have us so much as set our eyes upon them, they are not objects worth the looking on. Sdly, Observe with what indigna- 10 LOOKING UNTO JESUte. tion he speaks against those that will set their eyes upon these vanities* wilt thou set thine eyes upon a thing which is not ? q. d. What a vain, unreasonable, sottish, senseless thing is this ? 2. Consider, That all such things (if they are any thing) they are but trifles, deceits, thorns, miseries, uncertain things ; this is an ordi¬ nary theme, it is every man’s object, and every man’s subject, and a very easy thing it is, to declaim upon the vanity, misery, uncertainty of the creatures : aye, but do you make it the matter of your medita¬ tion, and be you serious in it, think of it deeply, and desire God to be in your thoughts. Oh what work will it then make in your breasts ! Oh how would it wean your loves and desires off all these things ! Christians ! consider all these adjuncts of all sublunary things. When the creatures tempt you, be not enticed by the beauty of them, so as to forget their vanity ; say, there is a flower, fair, but fading ; here is a glass that is bright, but very brittle. 3. Consider the difference of these objects, Christ and all other things ; as thus, all other things are vanities, but Christ is a real, solid, substantial, excellent, glorious thing ; all other things are temporary, fading things, but Christ is an enduring substance, “ The same yes¬ terday, to day, and for ever, which is, and which was, and which is to come,” Rev. i. 4. All other things are thorns, vexations of spirit, but Christ is full of joy and comfort, a most ravishing object, all composed of loves, or “ altogether lovely.” O who would make it his business to fill his coffers with pebbles when he may have pearls, or gold, or silver, or precious things ? What, must you look off your sins ? Why, see before you the graces of the Spirit of Christ. Must you look off your idle sinful company ? See before you “ the fellowship of the Father, and the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 John i. 3. Must you look off your pomp and glory ? See before you the privilege of adop¬ tion ; you shall be called the sons and daughters of God, heirs and co-heirs with Christ, Rom. viii. 13. Must you look off worldly riches? See before you the riches of the graces of Christ. Must you look off sinful pleasures? See before you the fulness of joy, “ at Christ’s right hand are pleasures evermore,” Psalm xvi. 11. Must you look off your own righteousness ? See before you the righteousness of Christ Jesus. O what a vast difference is there betwixt these objects, Christ, and all other things ! 4. Consider, that Christ looked off heaven and heavenly things for you, how much more should you look off the earth and earthly tilings. LOCKING UNTO JESUS. 11 the world and worldly tilings for him ? Christ left the glory, the com¬ pany, the pleasures of paradise for you, and “ he made himself of no reputation,’’ he nothing’d himself (as it were) for you ; “ you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christy who though he was rich, yet for our sakes, he became poor, that you through his poverty might be rich,” 2 Cor. viii. 9* O let that melting love win you to him, and wean you off all other things ! 5. Consider, that the rational soul of man is of too high a birth to spend its strength upon other things ; the soul of man is of the same nature with angels ; is a kind of divine spark. Now if a man have a golden miln, he will not use it to grind dirt, straws and rotten sticks in. The soul, the mind, the thinking faculty of man is too high to be exercised in the things of this earth. The soul is of a most excel¬ lent capacious nature, it is fit to converse not only with angels, but with the eternal God himself, with Father, Son and Holy Ghost; it is of a transcendant being ; put all the world into the balance with it, and it is nothing in comparison. The soul of the meanest galley slave is more than heaven and earth, than sun and moon and stars, and all the host of heaven. Now, if a man’s soul, be of such an high-born nature, if the Lord hath put such a spirit into the bosom of man ; for him, to bestow the strength of it upon low, base, mean and earthly things. Oh what an evil is this ! 6. Consider, how short is the time that you have here in this world ; this is the argument of the apostle, “ Because the time is short, there¬ fore let U3 use the world as if we used it not,” 1 Cor. vii. 29* SI. Therefore let our hearts be taken off these things, yet a few days, and you shall be here no more ; time pas^eth on, many hundred diseases are ready to assault you : }rou that are reading, or hearing, talking or walking, you must very shortly be carried on men’s shoulders, and laid in the dust, and there left to the worms in darkness and corruption : you are almost there already, it is but a few days, or months, or years, and what is that when once they are gone and past ! And Oh ! “ What is a man profited, if he gain the whole world, and then lose his soul ?\ Matth. xvi. 26. 7. Consider the great account that you are to give of all earthly things ; it is the sin of most of the sons of men, to look on creature comforts, but they consider not the account they must give for them. Oh here is a prevailing motive to take off your eyes ! Consider the last accounts ; what if ye were now to die, and to go the way of all flesh. 12 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. and then to make up your reckoning, what good would it do you to remember all those contentments, and pleasures you once enjoyed upon the earth ? If the factor after many years spent in foreign countries, at last returns home with his bill of accounts, “ Thus much for sing¬ ing, so much for dancing, this for courting, that for feasting.” Who would not blame him for so fond a reckoning ! Oh it will be a sad reckoning ! if the bill come in, that you have spent most of your time in looking and gazing upon earthly things. SECT. III. Di?'edio?is how to look off all other Things . j . Study every day more and more the vanity of the creature : read over the book of Ecclesiastes well, it is enough, through the assistance of Christ, to teach you that lesson. A serious and fruitful meditation of that word, “ Vanity of vanities, saith the preacher, vanity of vani¬ ties, all is vanity,” Eccl. i. 2. What work might it make in your hearts ! Men usually look on these things through some false glass, or at a dis¬ tance, which makes them so admire them ; but if they could see them truly in themselves. Oh how uncomely would they be ? Or if they could see them as compared to Christ, Oh how vain would they be ? Honours and greatness in that respect, would appear as bubbles, plea¬ sures and delights in that respect, would appear as shadows. 2. Converse but a little with any evil thing on this side Christ : have as little to do with the world, the sinful pleasures, profits, riches, manners of it, as possibly you can ; the lesser the better. Things of this world have a glutinous quality, if you let the heart lie any while amongst them, it will cleave unto them, and if it once cleave to them there will be no way, but either repentance or hell-fire must part them. 3. Be more and better acquainted with Jesus Christ : get nearer to him, be more in communion with him, get more tastes of Christ and heaven, and earth will relish the worse for them. Oh ! when 1 look on Christ and consider. That he that wTas the Lord of heaven and earth, put himself into so poor and low a condition, merely for the redeeming of his elect, how should this but deaden my heart to the world ? “ I account all things but loss for the excellency of the know¬ ledge of Cbn’ist Jesus my Lord; and account them but dung, that 1 may win Christ,” Phil. iii. 8. Jf Christ be in view, all the world then LOOKING UNTO JESUS, IS is but dung and dross, and loss in comparison ; the glory of Christ will darken all other things in the world. 4. Set before us the examples of such saints, who accounted them¬ selves pilgrims and strangers upon earth. The apostle gives you a catalogue of such, Ci who confessed that they were strangers and pil¬ grims on the earth and see how they are used, They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword, they wandered about in sheep-skins, and goat-skins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented.” Who were these ? They “ were they of whom the world was not worthy,” Heb. xi. 13. 37, 38. Oh ! when you read, or hear how joyfully these servants of the most High went through their wilderness condition, methinks this should take off your hearts from earthly things. 5. Go in your meditations to heaven, and keep there a while : the mind that is in heaven cannot attend these earthly things : would a man leave his plough and harvest in the field, to run with children an hunting after butterflies ? No more will a soul that is taking a sur¬ vey of heaven and heavenly things, fix his eyes on such poor things below : Non vcicat exiguis, Sf c. is the character of a truly prudent man : the children of that kingdom above, have no while for trifles, and especially when they are employed in the affairs of the kingdom. Oh! when a Christian hath but a glimpse of eternity, and then looks down on the world again, how doth he contemn and vilipend these things ? te How doth he say of laughter, thou art mad, and of mirth, what is this thou dost ?” Eccl. ii. 2. Whilst the saints are tasting heaven they feel such sweet, that they care not for other things : Christians ! How would this meditation wean your hearts, and make you laugh at the fooleries of the world ? And scorn to be cheated with such childish toys : if the devil had set upon Peter on the mount, when he saw Christ in his transfiguration, and Moses and Elias talking with him, would he so easily have been drawn to deny his Lord ? What, with all that glory in his eye ? So if the devil should set upon a be¬ lieving soul, and persuade his heart to profits, or pleasures, or honours of the world, when he is taken up in the mount with Christ, what would such a soul say ? “ Get thee behind me Satan, wouldst thou persuade me from thence with many trifling toys ! wouldst thou have me sell these joys for nothing ? Is there any honour or delight like this ? Or can that be profit, which loseth me this ?” Some such answer would the soul return : Oh ! if we could keep the taste of our souls continu- 14* LOOKING UNTO JESUS* ally delighted with the sweetness of heaven, as a man would spit out aloes after honey, so should we spit out all these baits of the world with disdain. 6. Cry mightily unto God, that he would take off your hearts and eyes, « Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity/* Psal. cxix. 37. prays David. Either God must do it, or you will be wearied in the multitude of your endeavours : but, if the Lord draw' off the eye, it will be drawn indeed. “ Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to covetousness,” Prays David again, Psal. cxix. 36. If the heart bend downwards, then go to God, to erect it, and to incline it heaven¬ wards ; if it be after covetousness, then cry to God, and say, “ Lord, not after covetousness, but after thy testimonies incline my heart.” I have hitherto stood only at the door of the text, to call you in ; if now you will enter and be intent, and fix your eyes, I will shewr you a blessed, a most glorious sight. But, first, I must explain the Act, You must look. (Secondly, the Object, You must look on, Jesus.) CHAP. III. SECT. I. An Explanation of the Act and Object. For the act you must look. Looking is either ocular or mental. First, For ocular vision, there may be some use of that in heaver, for there wre shall look on Jesus. - “ With these eyes shall I behold him,” saith Job xix. 27* “ And we shall see him as he is, saith the apostle, 1 John iii. 2. Now we see him as in a glass, then wre shall see him face to face,” X Cor. xiii. 12. But till then, “ We must walk by faith, not by sight,” 2 Cor. v.,7. Secondly, For mental vision, or the inward eye, that is it that will take up our discourse, and that is it which the apostle speaks of in his prayers for the Ephesians, “ That the eyes of their understanding may be opened, that they may know,” &c. Eph. i. 18. Now the ex¬ cellency of this mental sight is far above the ocular sight : for there are more excellent things to be seen by the eye of the mind, than by the eye of the body ; we only see a piece of the creation by the eye of the bod}', but the mind reacheth every thing that is in it, yea, the mind reacheth LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 15 io him that made it : God is invisible, and yet this eye sees God. It is said of Moses, That “ he saw him that is invisible,” Heb. xi. 27* 2. It is the sight of the mind, that gives light and vigour to the sight of the eye : take away the inward sight, and the light of the external sense is but as darkness and death. 3. It is the sight of the mind that looks into the worth, use, and property of any thing presented. The eye can see a thing, but not the worth of it ; a beast looks on gold as well as a man, but the sight and knowledge of the worth of it, is by the internal light of the mind ; so the eye can see a thing, but not the use of it ; a child looks on a tool in the hand of a workman, but the sight and knowledge of the use of it, is only by a man of reason that hath internal light to judge of it: and so the eye can see a thing, but not the propriety of it ; a beast looks on his pasture, and he likes it, not because it is his, but because it is a pasture and well furnished. Now, we know that the worth and use and property of a thing, are the very cream of the things themselves, and this the eye of the mind conveys, and not the eyes of the body. It is said of Joseph, that “ he saw his brethren and knew them, but they knew not him,” Gen. xlii. 7, 8. This was the reason why Joseph was so exceedingly taken at the sight of his brethren, that his bowels wrought with joy, and a kind of compassion towards them ; but they were before him as common strangers ; though they saw Joseph their brother a prince, yet they w ere taken no more with the sight of him, than of any other man, because they knew him not. Again, this mental looking is either notional and theoretical, or practical and experimental, the first, we call barely the look of our minds ; it is an enlightening of our understandings with some measure of speculative sight, in spiritual and heavenly mysteries. The second we call the look of our minds and hearts, whereby we not only see spiritual things, but we are affected with them : we desire, love, be¬ lieve, enjoy and embrace them. To this purpose is that rule, < 18 ^LOOKING UNTO JESUS* Doctrine 2. “ Inward experimental looking unto Jesus, such as stirs up affection & in the heart, and the effects thereof in our life, it is an ordinance pi Christ ; a choice, an high gospel-ordinance.” Or thus, “ Inward experimental knowing, considering, desiring, hoping, be¬ lieving, loving, joying, calling on Jesus, and conforming to Jesus, it is a complicate, folded, compounded ordinance of Jesus Christ.” I need not so much to explain the point, you see here is an ordi¬ nance, or a gospel-duty held forth* Many other duties we have else¬ where described, but thus we have kept for this place ; and the rather for that, this. is a choice duty, a compounded duty, an high gospel- ordinance. No question, but watchfulness, self-trial, self-denial, ex¬ periences, evidences, meditation, life of faith, &c, dwell in their place and order. Yet as oars in a boat (though it be carried with the tide) may help it to go faster. It is tc Jesus lifted up, (as Moses lifted up the serpent”) which strikes more soundly into the beholder, than any other way. Looking unto Jesus, is that great ordinance appointed by God for our most special good. How many souls have busied them¬ selves in the use of other means ? And though, in them, Christ hath communicated some virtue to them ; yet because they did not trade more with him, they had little in comparison. Such a one, as deals immediately with Christ, will do more in a day, than another in a year ; and therefore I call it a choice, a complete, a complicate, an high gos¬ pel-ordinance* Now, what this ordinance is, the text tells you it is a looking unto Jesus. 1. Jesus is the object; and Jesus is Jesus, as he is our Saviour, as he hath negociated, or shall yet negotiate, in the great business of our sal¬ vation* I ground this on all the texts jointly, as on Isa. xlv. 22. Isa. lv. 1. Micah vii. 7. Zeeh. xii. 10. Numb. xxi. 8. John iii. 15. Heb* xii. 2. Phil. iii. 20 2 Cor. iii. 18. Matth. i. 21, &c. 2. Looking unto is the act ; but how ? It is such a look as includes all these acts. Know¬ ing, considering, desiring, hoping, believing, loving, joying, enjoying, of Jesus, and conforming to Jesus. It is such a look, as stirs up our affections in the heart, and the effects thereof in our life. It is such a look, as leaves a quickening and enlivening upon the spirit. It is such a look, as works in us a warm affection, raised resolution, an holy and upright conversation. Briefly, it is an inward experimental looking unto Jesus. For confirmation of the point; this was the Lord’s, charge to the LOOKING UNTO JESUS- 19 Gentiles of old, “ Look unto me, and ye shall be saved, all the ends of the earth. And I said, behold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called by my name,” Isa. xlv. 22. 65. And according to this command was their practice. “ Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord, (saith David) and they looked unto him, and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed,” Psal. xxv. 15. 34. Thus in the gospel, after this command, looking unto Jesus, it follows, “ Consider him that hath endured such contradiction of sinners against himself,” Heb. xii. 3. And according to this command, is the practice of gospel-believers. “ We all with open face beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord,” 2 Cor. iii. 18. Instead of the veil of Mosaical figures, God hath nowr given to his church the clear glass of the gospel, and hence all believers under the gospel, do by contemplative faith, be¬ hold Christ, together with the glorious light of his mercy, truth, good¬ ness, and the rest of* his divine attributes : and by means thereof, they are made like unto him, in the glory of holiness, and in newness of life. The reasons why we are thus to look unto Jesus, will be as so many motives, which we shall reserve to an use of exhortation : but the rea¬ sons why this looking unto Jesus, is, 1. An ordinance. 2. An ordi¬ nance of Christ, may be these, 1. Why an ordinance ? Here is only this reason, the will of the Lord, “ Even so father, for so it seemed good in thy sight.” Ordi¬ nances, are certain impositions set forth by an external mandate of a lawgiver, having authority to command. It is the will of Christ, to impose this lav/ on all the sons of men, that they should look up unto him ; and concerning this, what have we to do, to enquire into the reason ! It is our duty to obey, and not to know of him, why he com¬ mands. If auto ephe was enough in Pythagoras’ school, to put the business past disputing amongst his scholars, I am sure it should be much more in Christ’s school ; we will therefore require no further reason for it. 2. Why an ordinance of Christ, it is this ; because all spiritual ordi¬ nances, laws, institutions do hold on Christ ; it is not in the liberty of man, to erect any new spiritual ordinance in the church of Christ. I will not deny but the power of man may come in, to order such things as are not proper, but rather common to the church with other so¬ cieties, as to meet together in some place, and at some time, &c. C 2 20 LOOKING UNfO J£SUiL according to that rule. “ Let all things be done decently, and in good order,” 1 Cor. xiv. 4. For this is not an institution, but only the die- tates of right reason. But when it comes up to an ordinance, law, institution, i. e. when something more shall be put on the thing, than nature hath put on it, when by virtue of the institution, there is con¬ joined to it, some kind of spiritual efficacy to work upon the soul, this only holds on Christ. Hence, because in the preaching of the word, and in the administration of the sacraments, we expect a virtue, a spi¬ ritual efficacy, more than they have, or can yield in any natural way, therefore we say, these are ordinances of Christ : and so because in looking unto Jesus, we expect a virtue, a spiritual efficacy, to go along together with it, more than nature can give it, therefore we call this an ordinance, and an ordinance of Christ, to distinguish it from all other ordinances, rules, constitutions of men whatsoever. SECT. IIL Use of Reproof Use 1. Well then, is inward experimental “looking unto Jesus*' & choice, an high gospel-ordinance ? How may this reprove thousands ? How many are there that mind not this duty ? The truth is, that as ee the whole world lies in wickedness,” 1 John v. Ip. So the eyes of the whole world are misplaced ; there is few that have a care of this choice, of this high gospel-ordinance. 1 shall therefore reprove both the ungodly, and godly. 1. First for the ungodly, “ not God, nor Christ, is in all their thoughts,” Psal. x. 4. Alas ! they never heard of such a duty as this they cannot tell what it means to look unto Jesus. Nor speak I only of poor Indians, and other savages of the unchristian world, whose souls are overclouded with the blackest mists of irreligion, that the prince of darkness can possibly in wrap them in, who came into the world, not knowing wherefore, and go out of the world, not knowing whither, an heavy case, which cannot sufficiently be bewailed with tears of blood : but I speak of such as live within the paradise of the Christian church, that have nothing to distinguish them from these Indian mis¬ creants, but an outward conformity, outward formalities, the charity of others, and their own slight imaginations. Why, alas ! these are they, that the Lord complains of, that “ they have eyes, and see not ; my people have forgotten me days without number,” Jer. ii. 32. They LOOKING UNTO JESUS, 21 have negligently suffered me to be out of their minds, and that for a long time. You will say. Is there any such here ? Can I tax any of you, that you should not look up to Jesus ? Are not your eyes towards Christ in your prayers, praises, soliloquies, public and private duties ? Nay, are not you now in the duty, whilst I am speaking, and you hearing ? I answer, however you may deem, that you do this, or that ; yet God reckons it as a thing not done in these respects. 1. When it is not done to purpose, as if our look to Christ, makes us not like Christ ; a man may give a thousand glances every day to¬ wards Christ, yet if there be no effectual impression upon the heart, Christ takes it, as if he had never looked towards him at all. 2. When it is done unwillingly. Sometimes men think of Christ, but they know not how to shun it : the Lord breaks in upon their spirits, whether they will or no, w hereas their own temper is to follow, and to pursue other objects: thus you drop into our assemblies out of custom, or fashion, or for some sinister end, and here is Christ lifted up upon the pole, he is discovered in his beauties, graces, sweetnesses, excellencies, but when you see him, you say, “ He hath no form nor comelinesss, there is no beauty, that we should desire him,” Isa. liii*. 2. Let no man deceive himself, though he cast his eves towards hea¬ ven all the day long, if he love not this work, he doth nothing, he looks not at Jesus. 3. When it is not done according to the rule, “ This is not to eat the Lord’s supper,” said Paul to his Corinthians, 1 Cor. xi. 20. No question they did eat it, but because it was not done after its due manner, he said “ This is not to eat the Lord’s supper.” Many think of Christ, and look up to Jesus, but because their thoughts are not holy, awful and subjecting to the Spirit, in no way proportionable to the goodness and glory of the Son of God, thev look loosely, care¬ lessly and carnally upon him, he therefore reckons it as not done, this is not to look unto Jesus. 4. When a man makes it not his course and trade to look unto Je¬ sus. A man may come into a carpenter’s house, and take up his tools, and do something at his work, but this makes him riot a carpenter, because it is not their trade. The best saints sin, yet because it is not their trade and course, they are said not to sin, “ Whosoever is bom of God sinneth not,” 1 John v. 1 8. And so ungodly men may look, and muse, and meditate, and think of Christ, but because tliis is not C 3 22 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. their course and trade, they make it not their work to look to Christ, they are therefore said, not to look to him. Why, now consider, you that plead that you are Christians, and that you mind Christ at this very instant, that you are in the duty, even whilst I am speaking of it, and yet you neither do it to purpose, nor willingly, nor according to rule, nor as it is your trade ; it is not with you, as it was with them of whom Christ spake, Matth. vii. 22, 23. “ Many will say to me at that day. Lord, Lord, have we not prophe¬ sied in thy name ? and in thy name have cast out devils ? and in thy name have done many -wonderful works ?” They w ill plead at the last day as you plead now, but for all that, you know the answer, te I never knew you, Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity.” Surely Christ will say to you one day, I know you not, I was a stranger to you upon earth, I could not have an eye from you, but when your lazy idle spi¬ rits pleased ; and now out of my sight, I will never own you, nor look upon you more. 2. For the godly, are not they careless of this duty r O their excur¬ sions from God ! Sad dejections of Spirit ! Inordinate affections of the world ! And in the mean -while, O the neglect of this gospel-ordinance even amongst saints themselves ! I know not whether through want of skill, or through want of will, but sure I am this duty lies dormant, neglected of most of the people of God : their faults I may express in these respects. 1. In not sending out their understandings, in not pointing their minds towards Jesus. “ I write unto you,” saith the apostle “ to stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance,” 2 Peter iii. 1. It is in the original, ( egeioein,) “ to awaken your pure minds,” and it was but need. See how David calls upon himself, “ Awake, my glory !” Psal. lvii. 8. And see how Deborah calls upon herself, Awake, awake, Deborah, awake, awake, utter a song,” Judg. vii. 12. Aw ak¬ ing, is a word that imparts rouzing, as birds that provoke their young ones by flight, to make use of their wings. Now, how few are there, that thus call upon themselves? It was the prophet’s complaint, “ No man stirs up himself to take hold of God,” Isa. lxiv. 7. O what a shame is this ! Is it fit that our understandings, which God hath en¬ trusted us withal, should be no more improved ? Is it fit, that our minds (those golden cabinets, which God hath given us to be filled with heavenly treasure) should either be empty, or stuffed with vanity, nothing, worse than nothing ? Q ! that such glorious creatures a? LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 23 oar souls, should lacquey after every creature, which should be an at¬ tendant upon Christ, which should be like angels, waiting and stand¬ ing in the presence of our God ! O that such glorious things as our immortal spirits, should run after vanity, and so become vain ; which if rightly improved, should wake with angels, should lodge themselves in the bosom of the glorious God ! Do we not see, how Christ is send¬ ing out to us continually? The thoughts of his heart are love, eternal love ; and shall not we send out our thoughts towards him ? Shall not we let our minds run out towards him ? 2. In not bending of their minds to this work. It may be the mind looks up, but it is so feeble, that, like an arrow shot from a bow weakly bent, it reacheth not the mark, it is the wise man’s counsel, “ What¬ soever thine hand findeth to do, do it with all thy might,” EccL ix. 10. O that God’s people should be so lazy, dull, sluggish, slothful in this spiritual work ! As Jesus said to the multitudes concerning John, “ What went ye out into the wilderness to see ?” Matth, xi. 7- So may I ask believers in their looking unto Jesus. What went ye out to see ? Wlien ye crawl, and move, as if ye had no hearts, nor spirits within you, whom go ye forth to see ? What, him that is the Lord of glory ? What, him that is “ the brightness of his Father’s glory, and the express image of his person,” Heb. i. 3. What, are such heavy and lazy aspects fit to take in such a glory as this is ? You see in what large streams your thoughts fly forth to other things, and are you only languishing, weak and feeble in things of so great con¬ cernment ? Oh that Christians should be so cold in spirituals, and hot in the pursuit of earthly temporal things ? 3. In not binding of their minds to this object, in not staying the eye on Jesus Christ. Some may give a glance at Christ, but they are presently wheeled off again : but why, doth not the eyes abide there, at least till it come to some profitable issue ? Is not Christ worthy on whom oar souls should dwell ? Certainly, if we love our Jesus, that love will hold us : Christ then will be in our thoughts and minds, and we cannot be off him. As the load-stone having drawn the iron, it keeps it fast to itself, so, if love draw our hearts, it holds them fast to the object loved. Christ himself acknowledged! such an operation of love upon himself, “ Turn away thine eyes, for diey have overcome me. Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse, with one of thine eyes,” Cant. vi. 5. iv. 9* Christ wras held in the galleries, and captivated with love to his people, so that his eye, was ever upon them. C 4 24 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. Nay, he could not get his eyes off them, “ Can a mother forget her child ? No more can I forget you, “ Isa. xlix. 14. And is Christ so tender in his love towards us, that he ever minds us, and shall our minds be so loose to him ? so fluttering, and fleeting ? Shall there be no more care to bind ourselves in cords of love to him, who hath bound himself in such cords of love to us ? 4. In not daily exercising this blessed duty : it may be now and then they are awakened, and they get up into heaven to see their Jesus, but it is not daily. Oh consider ! Is this now and then going to hea¬ ven within the veil, to live the life of friends ? Is this to carry our¬ selves as children? What, to be so strange at home? But now and then ? Once in a month, in a year ? There to be seldom, where we should always be ? Is Jesus Christ such a mean thing, that a visit now and then should serve the turn ? The queen of Sheba hearing Solo¬ mon’s wisdom. Oh ! said she, “ Blessed are those thy servants, that always stand before thee, and hear thy wisdom,” 1 Kings x. 3. If she was so taken with Solomon, remember, “ That a greater than Solomon is here and shall we deprive ourselves of that blessedness, which we might enjoy, by standing always in the presence of Christ, to hear his wisdom, and to behold his glory? Oh ! my brethren, let us take shame to ourselves, that to this day we have been so careless in sending, bending, binding our minds to this blessed object Jesus Christ : yea, let us blush that we have not made it our daily business. David describes the blessed man by his “ delighting in the law of the Lord,” and by his “ meditating on that law day and night,” Psal. i. 2. How then is he to be reproved, that neither meditates on the law of the Lord, nor on the Lord the law¬ maker, day and night ? O alas ! we keep not a constant course, we are not daily in the exercise of viewing Jesus. Nay, I fear we look upon this duty of looking unto Jesus, as a questionable thing ; it seems to many as a duty unknown, unheard of, unthought of, it is not in their notice, and how should it be in their practice ? But I leave this first use. SECT. IV. Use of Exhortation. Use 2. Is inward experimental looking unto Jesus, a choice, and high gospel-ordinance ? One use of exhortation. “ I beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ,” 2 Cor. x. 1. “ I beseech LOOKING tJNTG JESUS, you, by the mercies of God/5 Rom. xii. 1. w LOOSING UNTO JfiSUS. their cause, answering all the accusations of Satan, and praying to his Father in their behalf. 7. That Christ gives life unto them, “ Pie that hath the Son hath life,” 1 John v. 2, He that hath Christ in his heart as a root of life living in him, or as a king setting up his throne within him, or as a bridegroom betrothing himself in loving kindness to him, he hath life, the life of grace, and the earnest of the life of glory. 8. That Christ gives wisdom unto them, “ Christ hath in him all the treasures of wisdom,” and therefore he that looks most to Christ, is the wisest man in the world ; he that hath the sun, hath more light than he that hath all other lights in the world, and wants the sun. 9. That Christ gives a taste of his goodness unto them. They cannot look unto him, but he makes them joyful with the feeling of himself and Spirit; and hence it is that many times they break out into “ psalms, and hymns and spiritual songs, and make melody in their hearts unto the Lord,” Eph. v. 1 9. O there is a goodness of illumina¬ tion, regeneration, sanctification, consolation, contentation, pacification, and spiritual freedom flowing from Christ to the souls of his saints, which to carnal men is a sealed well, whose waters their palates never tasted. 10. That Christ gives a sincere and inward love of himself unto their hearts. No sooner is their eye of faith of looking unto Jesus but presently their heart is all on fire. Such a suitableness is betwixt Christ and their souls, as is betwixt the hearts of lovers ; their love to Christ is like the love of Jonathan to David, a wonderful love, and “ passing the love of women,” 2 Sam. i. 26. They love him as the bridegroom to whom their souls are married, as the choicest pearl by whom they are enriched, as the sun of consolation, by whose beams their souls are comforted, as the fountain by whom their hearts are refreshed, and their desires every way satisfied. 1 1 . That Christ gives the sense of his own love to them ; they cannot look on Christ but they see him loving, and embracing their humble souls : they see him bind¬ ing up their broken hearts : they behold him gathering to himself, and bearing in the bosom of his love, and comforting with the promises of his word their wounded spirits : they behold, him like Jacob, serving in the beat and in the cold for Rachel ; serving in manifold afflictions, from his cradel to his cross, to make a spouse unto himself. 12. That Christ gives the experience of his power to them. They that look on Christ, do feel the power of Christ inwardly in their souls dissolving the works of Satan, casting down his kingdom, and mighty holds with- LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 33 in them, healing all their spiritual maladies, sustaining them in all afflictions, filling their souls with all spiritual and heavenly might, mak¬ ing them strong in knowledge, and strong in faith, and strong in love, and strong in motion, and coming to Christ, as a river of much waters is strong in coming home to the ocean. 13. That Christ gives the sense of his own worth and excellency unto them, they see now in Christ is wisdom surpassing the brightness of the sun, even all the trea¬ sures of wisdom ; in Christ is power excelling the strength of rocks, he is not only strong, but strength itself ; in Christ is honour transcend¬ ing all the kings of the earth, for he is “ King of kings, and Lord of lords in Christ is beauty excelling the rose of Sharon, and lily of the vall ey ; he is fairer than all the flowers of the field, than all the precious stones of the earth, than all the lights in the firmament, than all the saints and angels in the highest heavens. 1 4. That Christ gives the sense of their wants, and of the world’s vanity, and of his suitable goodness unto them. In looking unto Jesus, they see themselves in themselves miserable, and all other things miserable comforters : they have learned the meaning of that Psalm, “ Put not your trust in princes, nor in the Son of man, in whom there is no help, his breath goeth forth, he retumeth to his earth : in that very day his thoughts perish. Hap¬ py is the man that hath the God of Jacob for his God, whose hope is in the Lord his God,” Psal. cxlvi. 3, 4. 1 5. That Christ gives all things, every tiling unto them. All things are yours (saith the apostle) whe¬ ther Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, all are yours ; and you are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s, 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23. All things are yours ; first, all the ministers of Christ from the highest to the lowest, “ whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas they are your servants ; they are men that watch over you for your salvation. Secondly, The world is yours ; Indeed the world stands but for your sakes, if your number were but once completed, quickly would the world be set on fire. You will say. Ay ! but how is the world ours ? We find not this, for who hath the world at will ? Why, though you have not, yet the misery you find in the world, the want of wealth, as well as the enjoying of it is yours, (i. e.) it tends to your advantage. Thirdly, Life is yours. It is a fitting, a preparing, a squaring of you for better life, even for eternity. Fourthly, “ Deatli is yours for you shall die just then when it is best for you, death shall serve but as a servant to your advantage. Fifthly, (< Things present, and things to come are yours ; godliness hath the T) VOL. i. LOOliING UNTO JES U?. 84< promise of this life, and of that which is to come/* 1 Tim. iv\ 8. Sixth¬ ly, I will add, the Lord himself is yours. Take God, and look on him in his greatness, in his mighty power, even this great .God, the Lord of heaven and earth is yours, he is yours, and all that he hath is yours, and all that he doth is yours, and all that he can do is yours, “ I will be thine, (saith God to Abraham). And I will be to thee an exceed¬ ing great reward,” Gen. xv. 1. Here is a catalogue, an inventory of a Christian’s riches ; have Christ, and have all. When a Heathen was but asked, where all his treasure was, he answered, C6 Where Cyrus my friend is,” And if any ask you, where all your treasure is, you may an¬ swer, “ Where Christ your friend is.” In tills respect you may truly say. There is no end of your riches, they are called LOCKING UNTO JESUt*. liveth,” Jer.xxxviii. 16. ii. 4. Hereof likewise is that asseveration or oath, so often used by God, “ As the Lord liveth,” Numb. xiv. 21 * And, As I live, saitli the Lord,” Rom. xiv. 11. Well then, the understand¬ ing of God being active, or working from all eternity, it must needs have some eternal object on which it acts or works ; every action re¬ quires a suitable object about which it must act or be exercised ; so hen, if God’s understanding act eternally, it must have some eternal tobjeefc, and if God’s understanding act most perfectly, it must have some most perfect object to act upon; and what is that but only God him¬ self? That God’s understanding should act out of himself, would argue his understanding to act upon that which is finite and perfect. Cer¬ tainly nothing is infinite, eternal and perfect but only himself, and therefore if his understanding will act upon any suitable object, he must act upon nothing but himself. And now, we come to the manner of this high mystical, spiritual generation of Jesus the Son of God. As the understanding of God doth act and reflect upon itself from all eternity, so it works this effect, that it understands and conceives itself; it apprehends in the under¬ standing an image of that object which it looks upon, and this very image is the Son of God. This we shall lay out by some similitudes. A man’s Soul (we know) doth sometimes muse and meditate on oth; v tilings ; as it thinks of heaven, or thinks of earth ; this we call a right, or direct, or eminent thought ; but sometimes the soul doth muse, or meditate on itself, as when it thinks of its own essence, or faculties, or the like ; and this we call a reflex thought ; why now the soul under¬ stands itself, now it hath some idea, or image of itself, now it conceives itself; this is our phrase, “it conceives itself.” There is not only a carnal, but a spiritual conception ; as when I understand this or that, I say, “ I conceive this or that,” I have the idea or image of this or that within my soul. Or, as in a glass, a man doth conceive and get a perfect image of his own face, by a way of reflection ; so God, in beholding and minding of himself, doth in himself beget or conceive a most perfect, and a most lively image of himself, which very image is that in the Trinity, which we call the Son of God. Thus you read in scripture, that Jesus the Son of God is called, “ the brightness of his Father’s glory, and the express image of his person,” Heb. i. 3. 1. “ The brightness of his Father's glory;” herein God the Father is .compared unto a lightsome body, and God the Sen unto a beam, or splendor sent forth, or issuing out from that gh.rious body. 2. « The BOOKING UNTO JESUS. 47 express image of his person,” herein God the Father is compared unto a seal, and God the Son unto an impression resulting from the seal. Now look, as wax upon a seal, hath the engraven image of the seal; so the Son of God (which the Father has begotten or conceived of his own understanding) is the very image of his Father’s understanding § hence not only the Father, but also the Son is called understanding itself. “ I have counsel and wisdom, (ssith Christ) I am under¬ standing,” Prov. viii. 14. Whatsoever the Father is, the Son is; in¬ deed the understanding in men and the thing understood, are not usually one and the same, but in God it is all one : God’s conceivings and be- gettings are the most inward of all ; the Father conceives of himself, and in himself ; and his conceiving is a begetting, and his begetting abideth still in himself, because his understanding can no where meet with any thing suitable, but that which he himself is, and that conveying of himself, or begetting of himself, is the second subsistence in the Trinity, which we call the everlasting Son of God. 4, For the mutual kindness and loving kindness of him that begets, and of him that is begotten, we say this brings forth a third person or subsistence in God. Now, for the understanding of this matter, we must consider two things. First, That in the essence of God, besides his understanding, there is a will. Secondly, That this will doth work everlastingly upon itself, as his understanding doth. For the first, that in the essence of God, besides his understanding, there is a will is very clear ; for he that gives a will to all rational creatures, cannot want it himself ; how should he be without will, whose will it is that we will ? of necessity it is that there should be some prime or chief will, on whose will all other wills should be ; but the scrip¬ tures are plain, “ 1 am God, and there is none else, I am God, and there is none like me. — My Counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure,” Isa. xivi. 9, 10. For the second. That this will in God doth everlastingly work upon itself, is clear ; for, as doth the understanding, so doth the will ; but the understanding of God doth act upon itself as the chief and most perfect truth : therefore the will of God doth will himself as the chief and most perfect good. Indeed what other suitable object can the will of God have besides himself? An infinite will must needs have an infinite good, and in this sense, as our Saviour tell* us, “ There is none good but one, that is God,” Matth. xix. 17. Hence it is that the will .of God doth reflect upon itself, and acquiesce in itself as in an infinite good. 43 liOOKfXa UNTO JESUS. And now we come to the manner of this high mystical, spiritual procession of the Spirit from the Father and the Son. As the will of God doth act and reflect upon itself from all eternity ; so it works this effect, that it delights itself in the infinite good, which it knoweth in itself, for the action of the will is delight and liking ; and this very delight which God or his will hath in his own infinite goodness, doth bring forth a third person, or subsistence in God, which we call the Holy Ghost: so that indeed if you would know what the Holy Ghost is, I would answer, “ It is the mutual kindness and loving kindness, and joy, and delight of the Father and the Son,” The Father by this act of will doth joy and delight in his Son, and the Son by this act of will doth joy and delight in his Father; and this is it which the Son saith of himself, and of his Father, “ I was daily his delight, re¬ joicing always before him,” Prov. viii. 30. q. d. I was from all eternity his delight, and he was from all eternity my delight; the Father (as it were) from all eternity aspired in his will, and love, and joy unto the Son ; and the Son (as it wrere) from all eternity aspired in his w ill, and love, and joy unto the Father; and from this common desire and aspiring of either person the Holy Ghost proceeds, which makes up the whole Trinity of Persons. I shall lay out this by some similitude or resemblance : as wrhen a man looks in a glass, if lie smile, his image smileth too, here is but one face ; and yet in this unity we may find a Trinity : the face is one, the image of the face in a glass is another, and the smiling of them both together is a third, and yet all are in one face, and all are of one face, and all are but one face ; so the understanding which is in God is one, the reflection or image of his understanding, he be¬ ll old eth in himself as in a glass is a second, and the love and liking of them both together, by reason of the will fulfilled, is a third ; and yet all are in one God, ail are of one God, and all are but one God. In this Trinity there is neither first nor last, in respect of time, but all are at once, and at one instant ; even as in a glass the face, and the image of the face ; when they smile, they smile together, and not one before nor after another. —For conclusion of all. As we have the Son of the Father by Ills everlasting will in working by his understanding; so we have the Holy Ghost of the love, and joy, and delight of them both, by the joint working of the understanding and will together ; whereupon we conclude three distinct persons, or subsistences, which wre call the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, in one spiritual, yet un¬ speakable substance, which is very God himself.— -My meaning is not LOOKING UNTO JESUS, 49 to insist on the Father, or the Holy Ghost, but only on the Son. Yet thus far I have added, that you may better understand the manner of this generation of die Son of God; together with the mutual kind¬ ness, loving kindness, joy, and delight betwixt the Father and the Son, even from everlasting. SECT. II. Of our Election in Christ before all Worlds. Now, let us look on Christ in his relation to us before all worlds. God being thus alone himself from everlasting, and besides himself there being nothing at all ; the first thing he did (besides what ye have heard) or the first thing he possibly and conceivably could do, it was this ; “ A determination with himself to manifest his glory ; or a purpose in himself to communicate his glory out of his aloneness ever¬ lasting imto somewhat else I say, unto somewhat else, for what is communication but an efflux, an emanation, an issuing from, or a mo¬ tion betwixt two terms ? I have now brought you to the acts, or ac¬ tions of God in reference to his creatures : follow me a little, and I shall anon bring you to Christ in relation to yourselves. These acts or actions of God were and are; 1. The decree. 2. The execution of the decree of God. I must open these terms. 1. The decree is an action of God, out of the counsel and purpose of his own will, determining all things and all the circumstances, and order of all things from all eternity, in himself certainly, and un¬ changeably, and yet freely. “ Who worketh all things (saith the apostle) after the counsel of his own will,0 Eph. i. 11. And this work, or action of God is internal, and for ever abiding within his own es¬ sence itself. 2. The execution of the decree, is an act of God, whereby God doth effectually work in time all things as they were foreknown and decreed. And this action of God is external, and by a temporal act passing from God to the creatures. Now, for the decree; that is of divers kinds; As, First, There is a decree common and general, which looks to all the creatures ; and it is either the decree of creation, or the decree of providence and pre¬ servation. 2. There is a decree special, which belongs t6 reasonable creatures, angels, and men ; it is called the decree of predestination, and it consists <4 the decree of election and reprobation, 50 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. the common and. general decrees we have but little laid down in scrip¬ tures, and it is little or nothing at all to our purpose ; and concerning the special decree of angels, there is not much in scriptures, and that is as little also to our purpose ; we have only to deal with men, and with God’s decree in relation to man’s salvation before all worlds. And this we call predestination, or the decree of election : winch is either of Christ, or of the members of Christ. Christ himself was first predestinated ; this appears by that saying of God, “ Behold my ser¬ vant whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth,” Isa. xlii. 1. “ I have put my Spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judg¬ ment to the Gentiles,” Matth. xii. 18. These very words the evange-* list interprets of Christ himself. And Christ being predestinate, trie members of Christ were predestinated in him : so the apostle, “ ac¬ cording as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,” Eph. i. 4. We are chosen in Christ as in a common person, he was the first person elected in order, and we in him. Suppose a new * V kingdom to be set up, a new king is chosen, and all his successors are chosen in him; why God hath erected a kingdom of glory, and he hath chosen Jesus Christ for the King of this kingdom, and in him he hath chosen us, whom he hath made kings and priests unto the most high God. But observe we this of the apostle, ec he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.” 1 . He hath chosen, ( i. e.j God the Father hath chosen ; not that the Son and Spirit chose not also ; for if three of us had but one will common to us all, one could not will any thing, which the will of the other two should not also will ; but because the Son sustains the person of one elected, and the Spirit is the witness sealing this grace unto our hearts, therefore the Father only is expressed; as the Father alone is often named in prayer, not that die other persons are not to be prayed unto, but because the Son is considered as the Mediator, and die Spirit as the instructor, teaching us to pray as we ought, therefore the Father only is expressed. 2. He hath “ chosen us in him,” this him, denotes Christ God-man ; and this in him, denotes the same Christ God-man, as the head and first elect, in whom, and after whom in order of nature, all his body are elected ; mark here the order, but not the cause of our election : though, Christ be the cause of our salvation, yet Christ is not the cause of our election: it is only the foreknowledge of God, and his free lovy that is the cause thereof., . S. “ He hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world. LOOKING UNTO JESUS. SI ( i e.) from all eternity ; but because within eternity God doth foresee the things which are done in time ; therefore this phrase, (say some) may be extended not only to respect the actual creation, but the decree itself of the world’s being ; q. d. He hath chosen us in order of na¬ ture, before his decree did lay the foundation of the world. My meaning is not to enter into controversies ; this all grant that the an¬ cient love which the Lord hath borne us in Christ is not of yesterday, but before all worlds. Paul mentions “ grace given us before all worlds,” 2 Tim. i. 9- But that which is the most observable in the text as to our purpose, is, that we are chosen in him ; we read of three phrases in scripture speaking of Christ ; sometimes we are said to have blessings in him, and sometimes for him, and sometimes through him. Sometimes in him, as here, “ he hath chosen us in him sometimes for him, as elsewhere, “ to you it is given, for Christ’s sake, not only to believe, but to suffer,” Phil. i. 29- Sometimes through him, as in that of Paul, “ Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Cor. xv. 57- Now blessings come through Christ, in respect that Christ is a Mediator, not only of impetration, but execution ; not only obtaining and receiving from grace all good for us, but in executing and applying efficaciously the same unto us : and blessings come for Christ, in respect that Christ doth by his obe¬ dience obtain every good thing, which in time is communicated to us ; and we have blessings in Christ, because that in Christ, as a common store-house, every thing is first placed, which is to be imparted after¬ wards to any of us. And thus we are chosen in Christ as in a common person. This grace of election began first at Christ our head, and so descends downwards to us his members ; Christ is the first begotten amongst all his brethren, having the pre-eminence, or Christ was, “ the first born among many brethren,” Rom. viii. 19. The first that opened the womb : Christ was sealed and set apart to be the prince of our salvation, before (in order of nature) we are elected. Concerning this election or predestination of Christ, the apostle puts all out of ques¬ tion, “ Who verily was foreordained before the foundations of the world, but was manifested in these last times for you,” 1 Pet. i. 20. SECT. III. ■% Of that great Treaty in Eternity betwixt God and Christ to save Souls. Now 'was it that God the Father called forth his Son to perform the E 2 tOOKING VNT*' J2SUS. office of the Mediator, that in him all those that should be saved might be chosen. Concerning this call of God the Father, in a special sort the apostle is clear, “ No man taketh this honour unto himself, but he that is called of God,” as was Aaron : so also Christ glorified not him¬ self, to be made an high-priest, but he that said unto him, “ Thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee.” He called him to this honour ; Heb. v. 4, 5. Christ thrust not himself into this office, but he came to it by the will of God the Father, and by his appointment ; “ For it pleased the Father, by him to reconcile all things unto himself,” Col. i. 19, 20. and “him hath God the Father sealed,’ John vi. 27* And why ? But the more to assure us of the good will of God to save us, seeing he hath called his Son unto it : for therefore will he accept of all that Christ should do for us, as that which he himself hath or¬ dained. And now was it that God the Son embraced the call of the Father and undertook the office of Mediator, Then said I, “Lo, I come, Heb. x. 7* No question it was truth from everlasting ; “ The Lord God opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back,” Isa. 1. 5. And “as the Father gave me commandment, even -so I do,” John xiv. 31. and vi. 27* No sooner the Father called, but Christ accepts the office to which he was designed by the Father: this is plain by those words, “ Him hath God the Father sealed ; sealed by ordination, and sealed by qualification, and sealed by way of investiture, as public officers are invested in their places by receiving their commissions under seal. And it must needs be so, because what¬ soever the Father wills, the Son wills also, “ I and my Father are one,” saith Christ, John x. 30. How one ? Why, one in will, and one in power, and one in nature. 1, One in will, that appears in the words precedent concerning Christ’s sheep, “ My Father gave them me, — and I give unto them eternal life,” verse 28. They are both agreed to save Christ’s sheep ; the Father is willing, and Christ is willing : look, how much the will of the Father is in it, so much the will of the Son is in it, “For he and the Father are one.” 2 One in power; that appears likewise in the words precedent, “ These sheep shall never perish,” (saith Christ) “ neither shall any pluck them out of my hand : my Father is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand,” verse 28, 29. Here is first the power c-f Christ, and all in him engaged for the salvation of his sheep, that if lie have any power in him, and be able to do any thing, not one of looking UNTO JESUS 53 them shall perish ; and he gives the reason of the prevalency of his power from his Father’s power, engaged as much as his own in this business ; they are alike fast in his hands, and in his Father’s hands, " For he and the Father are one.” 3. One in nature, and of this 1 suppose are the words more especially understood ; the Father and the Son are both of one nature, of one essence, of one being, and this is not only an argument that they did both agree, and were like to agree in that great transaction of saving souls, but that they can neve,! disagree ; two that essentially have two wills, though for the present agreeing in one yet they may come to disagree, and will not the same things, but if essentially they have but one will, it is impossible then but that they ever must agree. — So then the Father from everlasting calls the Son to the office of Mediator, q. d. “ Come, my Son, the Son of my joy, and high delight ; my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased ; there is a thought in my heart to communicate myself out of this aloneness everlasting into somewhat else ; and my thought, or purpose, or intention lies in this order: First, I intend my own glory, then Christ, then the church, then the world ; thus is my providence to dispose every thing so much more principally and timely, by how mcti it is the more excellent, next to my glory, and the manifestation of it, I will have a Christ, and this Christ shall be the chief pattern of me elect ion of grace ; and next to Christ the head I intend a body, and this body I will predestinate to be made like, or to be conformed to the image ofjny Son. And now, behold, I call thee to the office of Mediator, thou art my Son, to day (even in this day of eternity) have I begotten thee ; and to day (even in this day of eternity) do I call thee to this honour to be an high priest for ever.” And as the Father calls, so the Son from everlasting accepts the office to which he is de¬ signed by the Father, q. d. Come, “ Is that the voice of my everlasting Father? Why, lo I come in the volume of thy book it is written of me ; to do thy will, O God. This is my mind ; yea, and this shall be my mind for ever ; when I am incarnate this shall be my meat, to do the will of him that sent me to finish his work, Heb. x. 7. Glorious Father, thy will is my will ; I seek not mine own will (as if I had a will distinct from thine) but the will of my Father, John iv. 34. Now therefore I accept this honour. Be it to me, or be it with me even as thou pleasest, John v. 30. This call of the Father, and answer of the Son is fully confirmed by that saying of Christ, I was set up from everlasting, Prov. viii. 23. JE 3 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 54 But concerning the particular passages of these treaties betwixt God and Christ to save souls, I shall shew, 1. The project. 2. The coun¬ sel. 3. The foreknowledge. 4. The purpose. 5. The decree. 6. The covenant, we shall find all these in our first period, in that eternity before all times until tlie creation. Sect. iv. - The Project . Tiie project to save souls is diversly laid down by dissenting bre¬ thren. Some give it in thus, 1. That there should be a Mediator and Redeemer unto mankind, considered as fallen in the state of sin. 2. That all such should be received into favour as shall repent, and be¬ lieve, and persevere unto the end. 3. That sufficient and necessary means of grace should be offered and administered unto all men with¬ out exception. 4. That certain singular persons should be saved, whom God foresaw would repent, and believe, and persevere. This way is justly opposed by others, who deny God’s acts and intention to be in the same order as we see them in production. In order of ma¬ terial existing it is granted that Christ is revealed, promised and exhi¬ bited after sin, and that we repent, believe, persevere before we are saved ; but in order of God’s intention Christ is before sin, and salva¬ tion before repentance, faith, perseverance. The apostle reckoned the order in which things exist thus, 1. The world. 2. You the elect. 3. Christ. 4. God, 1 Cor. iii. 22, 23. But he gives us to understand the order of intention thus ; as first, God intends his own glory, then Christ, then the elect, then the world. Certainly it is an hard thing to marshal the eternal emanent acts of the divine understanding, or will into first, second, third, fourth ; all God’s projects are like himself ; who is iota simul et perfect a possema sui, a whole and perfect possession of himself together and at once ; so as in him considered there is no prius nor posierius in any of his acts ; but considered in effects, or in respect of us, one thing may be said to be first, second, or third in na¬ ture, time, and being before, or after another. And thus in respect of us, we say the end must be in nature before the means to the end ; now the permission of the fall, repentance, faith, perseverance are used by God as means to bring some to salvation ; God therefore doth first project our salvation, and then the means’; and both the end and the means are the product of God’s election or predestination. Here thou BOOKING UNTO JESUS. is the project, that “ God will glorify his grace, and to this end he will predestinate Christ, and in Christ he will choose some of the sons of men to salvation, whom, notwithstanding sin, he will make holy and without blame before him in love,” Eph. i. 4. This project, or plot, or design of God will be further enlarged in the next passage, viz. his counsels. '*'1 \ SECT. V, The Counsel. Of the counsels of God concerning man before all worlds, we read in several texts, “ Christ was delivered by the determinate counsel of God,” Acts ii. 23. “ For of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel were gathered together, for to dq whatsoever thy hand, and thy counsel determined before to be done,” Acts iv. 27, 28. And thus the members of Christ are said to “obtain an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” Eph. i. 11. Of this counsel of God’s will we know but little now, yet this will be made known when we come to glory ; yea, it will be a great part of the glory of heaven for the Lord to make known the counsel of his iv ill ; we now know his will, but we shall then know the counsel of this will, and praise him to all eternity for it ; this shall be the glory of the saints, that they shall see into the counsel of God’s will in choosing them, and calling them, and passing by others, and letting others go. In the mean while thus far we may know, for thus far he hath revealed himself concerning his counsels about man from everlasting.. 1 . That man should be a reasonable creature, and because that every creature is unavoidably subject to the Creator (for “ he n. ide all things for himself/’ Prov. xvi. 4-. and all is to return that glory to him for which lie made them,) therefore man should serve him as all other creatures must, only his service should be after a reasonable manner, out of judg¬ ment, discretion and election ; hence David is said to “ have chosen the way of truth,” Psal. cxix. 30. and Moses to have “ chosen the affliction of God’s people, and the reproaches of Christ before the plea¬ sures of sin, or the treasures of Egypt,” Heb. xi. 25, 26. And hence it is, that holiness in the phrase of scripture is called judgment, “He jhall convince the world of judgment,” John xvi. 3). and “lux shall E 4 56 LOOKING UNTO JESUS, bring forth judgment unto victory,” Matth. xii. 20. And hence it is that our service is called, “a reasonable service/ Rom. xii. 1. God would not set any such determinating law over the operations of man, as over other creatures, that, so he might truly work out of judgment, and stand or fall by his own election. 2. That if man should deviate from this reasonable service, and break the law, which God would give, and which he himself should have an original power to perform, that then he should incur the displeasure of God ; and such a curse, and such a penalty should be inflicted: and here comes in the fall of man into God's consideration; he looks upon it as a wilful transgression of his law, and by how much the law was more just, and the obedience more easy, by so much he judges the transgression more unreasonable, and the punishment more certain and intolerable. 3. That sin should not pass unrevenged : and that for these reasons, I. Because of God’s infinite hatred thereof, (i He is of purer eyes than to behold evil, he cannot look on iniquity,” Heb. i. 13. It provokes a nauseousness arid abhorrency in him ; “ for ail these are things which I hate, sal th the Lord, —they are a trouble unto me, I am weary to bear them,” Zech. viii. 17- 2. Because of his truth, he hath said, “ In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die, or. thou shalt dying die,” Gen. ii. 1 7*. die temporally, and die eternally; and surely God will in no ways abolish his law. “ One jot, or tittle shall in no ways pass from the law till all be fulfilled,” Matth. v. 18. 3. Because of his terror and fearful majesty, for Qod will have men always to tremble before him, and by his terror to be persuaded from sinning, < And chosen of the Father, “ Behold my servant whom 1 uphold, mine elect, or chosen one,” Isa. xlii. 1 . 2. There was a commandment from the Father to the Son, which he must obey, and submit unto. As first, he had a command what to teach his people, as the prophet of the church, “For I have not spoken of myself, (said Christ) but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment what I should say, and what I should speak,” John xii. 4-p. Secondly, he had a commandment to lay down his life for those that were given him, “ No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself : I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again ; this commandment have I received of my Father,” John x. 18. 3. There was a promise from the Father to the Son, the Father covenants with him in these things ; 1. That he will give him the Spi¬ rit in abundance, “ Behold my servant whom I uphold ; — I have put my Spirit upon him, he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles,” Isa. xlii. 1. “And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord,” Isa. xi. 1, 2. 2. That he will give him assistance and help in this great work of re¬ demption. “ I the Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand,” Isa. xlii 6*. What is that ? Why, I will strengthen thee with my power, I will so hold thy hand that thou shalt not be discouraged in the work ; “ lie shall not fail, nor be discouraged, til} he have sent judgment upon the earth,” Isa. xlii. 4. 3. That he will give him a blessed success, that he shall not labour in vain. “ He LOOKING UNTO JESUJL 85 shall sec his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands : He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied,” Isa. liii. 10, 11. Christ’s sufferings were as a woman’s travail, though she suffer many pains and pangs, yet she sees her child at last ; so shall Christ see many believing on his name : they are the promise made by the Father to the Son, that “ nations that knew him not shall run unto him,” Isa. Iv. 5. 4. That he shall give him and his redeemed ones everlasting glory : to Christ himself there is a promise of glory, “ he hath glorified thee,” And to the members of Christ there is a promise of glory, and this promise of glory to them was made known to Christ from everlasting : it was one of the secrets of God, and Christ brings out th at secret from the bosom of his Father, and reveals it to his disciples. “ It is my Fa¬ ther’s pleasure (said he) to give you the kingdom,” Luke xii. 32r Christ knew his Father’s will by the covenant passing betwixt his Father and him, and this will of the Father concerning" glory pro¬ mised to the saints, Christ doth bring forth to light. These were the articles of the covenant on God’s part ; now, O my soul, see them on Christ’s part in these particulars. 1. There wTas an acceptation of the office, to which he was de¬ signed by the Father ; he did not take the office of mediatorship up-* on himself, but first the Father calls him to it, and then the Son accepts it ; “ Christ glorified not himself to be made an high-priest, but he that said unto him, thou art my Son, to-day have I begotten thee,” he called him, and then the Son answered, Lo, I come, Heb. y. 5. and i. 10, 7* 2. There was a promise on Christ’s part to depend and trust upon God for help, “ and again, I will put my trust in him,” Heb. ii. 13. They are the words of Christ to his Father. And Isaiah brings in Christ as looking for help from God, " for the Lord God will help me, therefore shall I not be confounded. — And behold the Lord will help me, who is he that shall condemn me?” Whereto agrees that other passage, " and my God shall be my strength,” Isa. 1. 7, 8, 9. and xix. 5f 3. There was a promi.se of submission to his Father’s will in bear¬ ing the reproaches and injuries that should be done to him ; and to lay down his life for those that were given to him by the Father. « The Lord God opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back, I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair, I hid not my face from sharrje and 86 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. spitting/’ Isa. 1. 5, 6. f, And therefore my Father loves me, because I lay down my life,” John x. 17. Christ first thus covenanted with his Father, and then he was careful to discharge the same, and at last he tells God, “ I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do,” John xvii. 4. 4. There was an earnest expectation of that glory which die F ather promised Christ and his members : “ And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine ownself, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.” And “ F ather, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world,” John xvii. 5, 24. These were the articles of the cove¬ nant on Christ’s part, and hence it is that God is called “ the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” Eph. i. 3. vis. by reason of the covenant. O my soul, with what delight mayest thou consider, muse, and ponder on these articles ! what, that God should make a covenant, and enter into these, and these articles with his own Son, for thy good, for thy eternal good. What, that God should bring in the second per¬ son in the Trinity to be the Head of the covenant as on thy part ? What a mercy is this ! O run over, and over this meditation, a thou¬ sand, and a thousand times ! O consider thy “ hope of eternal life which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began !” Tit. i. 2. If thy soul question what promise was there made before the world began ? To whom was the promise made? Who was there before the world began for God to make any promise to ? Why now thou hast learned it was only to the Son of God, the second person in the Trinity. There was a most blessed transaction between God the Father and God the Son, before the world began, for thy everlasting good and upon that transaction depends all thy hope, and all thy salvation. O ! this Is worthy of thy deep, and sad, and serious, and inmost meditation. I have been particular and large in this passage of looking into, or considering Jesus, but I shall be brief in the rest. SECT. III. Of desiring after Jesus in that Respect 3. We must desire after Jesus carrying on the great work of cm salvation in that eternity. It is not enough to know and consider, but we must desire. Now “ Desire is a passion looking after the attain- LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 87 ments of some good which we enjoy not, and which we may imagine to be fitting for us.” In this respect we cannot desire after Jesus, as now to carry on that work of our salvation before the world began, for that work is already perfectly done ; but these things we may desire after. As, 1. After the manifestation of the work in us. 2. After God and Christ the complotters and actors of that great work for us. 3. After the full and utmost execution whereby God effectually works in time according to all his workings, or decrees before time. 1. We must desire after the manifestation of this work in us ; we have heard of marvellous, excellent, glorious things done by Jesus Christ for his saints from all eternity, and oh ! wThat desires now should be in us to know that we are of that number ? When I hear and con¬ sider that there was such a project, and such counsels, and such love, and such a purpose, and such decrees, and such a covenant betwixt God and Christ for salvation of souls; and withal, that they are but few in comparison concerning whom God and Christ hath all this care, will not this whet on my desires ? and make me cry, and cry again, “ Oh that these loves were mine ! how happy were I, if I had a share in these eternal thoughts of God ! Methinks we should not hear of such transactions, but it should stir up our hearts in infinite desires ; methinks we should pant after assurance, and still be wishing, f O what is truth 1 and what is Christ! and what did Christ for me before I was, or before the world was ! I would I knew him, I would I could enjoy him, I would I were assured that he had one good thought of me in that eternity !” Christians ! if you have any share in those transactions, sooner or later you will feel these desires : nay, if my sinful heart deceive me not, upon the very consideration of these things, I feel myself another creature in my desires than I was before. Tell me, }tou that have taken a full view of God and Christ, and of all these wonders of eternity, do you not sensibly differ from yourselves in your affections ? Is not the world, worldly pleasures, worldly pro¬ fits, and worldly honours, fallen too, yea, ten in an hundred with you ? Have they not lost their price ? Would you not be rather as¬ sured that “ your names are written in the book of life,” than to have ail the world yours, yea, and all the devils in hell subject to your commands ? Certainly, if these revelations work nothing in your hearts, if your affections be so strong and hearty to the world, and the vani¬ ties of it, if your desires be so impure, and strongly working down¬ wards, that God’s ancient loves and everlasting workings have np G 4 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 8$ power on your hearts, it is a very sacl condition. If David may have his wish, it runs thus, “ Lord, lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us,” Psal. iv. 6. He would have the manifestation of God’s eternal love ; one smile of his countenance (as an image of that coun¬ tenance which God had towards him before the world began) was more gladness to his heart, than all that which the men of this world had, a in the time that their corn and their wine increased.” 2. We may and must desire God and Christ, the complotters and actors of that great work for us, what hath the gospel revealed this truth, that before the creation God and Christ were busied about our good ? Yea, and hath Christ especially, that came out of the bosom of his Father, and brought the treasures of his Father’s counsel to the world, discovered such loves to men ? How then should our desires be after God and Christ ? “ Whom have I in heaven but thee ? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides thee,” Psalm lxxiii. 25. A right beholding of Christ in his eternal workings will cause a desire of Christ; above all desires ; the heart now thirsts for nothing but him that Is all, all power, all love, all holiness, all happiness. Tell such a soul of the world, gold, and glory : Oh what are these ? The soul will quickly tell you, the world is dung, and glory is dung, “ all is but loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord,” Phil. iii. 8. Give me God and Christ, saith the soul, or I die ; oh my desires are to him who hath done all this for me. Is not this the period still of thy expression at the end of every discourse. Would Christ were mine? Thou hearestit may be some worldlings talk, such an one hath got so much in these times : he that was yesterday as poor as Lazarus, he is this day like the nameless rich man, “ clothed in purple, and fine linen, and faring sumptuously every day,” Luke xvi. 19. Ay, but dost not thou reply either in word or heart, “ Would Christ were mine, and then I had got more than he ?” Poor soul, dost thou not gasp only after Christ, when thou fetchest (as I may say) the very deepest breath ? Canst thou read over the generation of Jesus the Son of God, the time when he was begotten, the manner of his beget¬ ting, the mutual kindness and love of him that begets, and of him that is begotten ; and dost thou not pant, and breathe, and gasp after Jesus at every period? Canst thou read over Jesus his acts and decree in reference to thyself, eanst thou turn over those many leaves, in every one of which is discovered those everlasting loves of God in his projects, counsels, foreknowledge, purpose, decree, and covenant for thy soul’s LOOKING UNTO JESUS, 89 happiness, and art thou not ready at every discover}’’ to sing David’s Psalm, “ As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. Mv soul thirsteth for God, for the living; God, O when shall I come and appear before God?” Psalm xlii. 1, 2. O my soul, hadst thou but these pantlngs, Burstings, breathings after God and Christ, thou mightest comfortably conclude, these are the fruits of God’s Spirit, it is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus “ which makes these sighs and groans in thee, which cannot be expressed,” Rom. viii. 2(). He and thee sigh together, one in another, and one after ano¬ ther, O therefore look, look unto Jesus, and sigh, and desire after him, 3. We may and must desire after the full and utmost execution whereby God effectually works in time according to all his workings or decrees before time. God that purposed and decreed from all eter¬ nity, he will not have done the full execution of that purpose or de¬ cree till that after-eternity, in that world without end. Indeed some part is a fulfilling now, but the main, the great part is yet to come : why then, as we see the plot, let us desire after the full accomplish¬ ment, let us desire after that glory without end, to which we were pre¬ destinated before the beginning. It was Paul’s “ desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ,” Phil. i. 23. As men burthened, so shall we desire and groan after the enjoyment of God in the world to come. O my soul, that thou were but cast into the apostle’s mould, that thy affections were but on the wing, that they might take the flight, and steer their course towards heaven, and thereupon that thou mightest say, Yonder is the glorious house, the goodly building, made without hands, which God from all eternity decreed to be my home, my rest, my dwelling place to all eternity ; and in yonder stately fabric, is many an heavenly inhabitant before I come : there are angels, and there are the souls of saints that from Adam to this day have had their pass out of this sinful world : yea, there is Jesus the Son of God, and there is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost ; and if I am predestinated to this fellowship. Lord, when shall I have run through the means that I may come to this end ? O my end ! Where is my end ? Where is my Lord, my God, my Comforter ? Where is my rest ? Where is my end ? I cannot be at rest without my end, and therefore come. Lord Jesus, come quickly, “ Be like a roe, or a young hart upon the mountains of spices,” Cant. viii. 14. Christians, why are not your spirits always breathing thus after the glory, to which you are predes¬ tinated ? Why do not you long after full enjoyment, the utmost execu- 90 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. tion of God’s decree ? Why are not your hearts, your souls, your spi¬ rits already in heaven ? Surely there be your relations, your Father is there, your elder brother is there, and there are many, I dare say, most of your younger brethren : again, there is your interest, your estate is there, if you believe : and therefore where should your hearts be, but where your treasure is : Come then, come : set in tune those desires of your souls, “ Set your affections on things above,” espe¬ cially on that one thing Jesus Christ : Looking unto Jesus. SECT. IV. Of hoping in Jesus in that Respect . 4. We must hope in Jesus, as carrying on that great work of sal¬ vation for us in that eternity. It is not enough to know, and consider, and desire ; but we must hope, and maintain our hopes as to our own interest. Now, hope is a passion whereby we expect probably, or cer¬ tainly some future good. All the question is, whether that salvation, concerning which the great transaction was betwixt God and Christ, belongs now to me ? and" what are the grounds and foundations on which thy hope is built ? I know some exceedingly abuse this doc¬ trine, “ If God had before all worlds appointed me to salvation, -why then I may live as I list, I need not hear, or pray, or confer, or per¬ form any holy duty ; for I am sure I shall be saved.” And thus at once they take away all grounds of hope. It is true, God’s decrees are unchangeable, but they do not afford any such inferences or deduc¬ tions as these : you might as well say. The Lord hath appointed me to live such a time, and before that time I shall not, cannot die ; and therefore I need no meat nor drink, nor clothes, nor any other tilings : ah silly, foolish, devilish arguing ! God’s decree is for the means as well as for the end ; whom God hath decreed to save, them also he hath decreed to call, to justify, to sanctify, before he save ; O my soul, look to the grounds, whereupon thy hope is built : if those be weak, thy hope is weak : but if those be strong, thy hope is strong, thy hope will prove most strong, and certain, and prudent. In the disquistion of these grounds, “ Say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven ? Or who shall descend into the deep ?” Bom. x, 6. Seek not above, or below ; it is not possible for thee to LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 91 go bodily into heaven to see the records of eternity, and to read thy name in the book of life ? but search into these fruits and effects of thy election. As, 1. If thou beest within God’s decrees for salvation, then sooner, or later, God will cause the power of his word to come with authority and conviction upon thy conscience : “ Knowing, brethren, beloved your election of God, for our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power,” 1 Thess. i. 4, 5. The apostle speaks thus of others; he might know they were the elected of God, either by his j udgment of charity, or by a spirit of discerning, which was vouchsafed to some in the apostles times ; but how comes he immediately to know this truth ? By this glorious effect, “ Our gospel came not in word only, but also in power.” Oh it is good to consider with what power the word preached falls into thy heart. Doth it convince thee ? hum¬ ble thee? mollify thee, soften thee? This argues thou belong- est to God. The word preached will be more than the word of a man, more than a mere human oration, or verbal declamation. Where it comes in power, it will be like fire in thy bowels ; like a two edged sword in the secret places in thy heart, thou will cry out, verily God is here : oh the power ! the conviction ! the meltings of my soul, that I feel within me ! 2. If God hath ordained thee to salvation, then, sooner or later, God will effectually call thee. “ Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called,” Rom. viii. SO. This calling is a calling of the soul from sin, from amongst the rest of the world unto Jesus Christ ; it is such a call as enables the soul to follow Christ ; as Matthew, being called by Christ, “ He arose and followed Christ,” Matth. ix. 9* These two are linked together in Paul’s golden chain, predestination and effectual vocation, “We are bound to give thanks always unto God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord : and why so? Because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. Whereunto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ,” 2 Thess. ii. 13, 14. All those that belong to God’s election, are sometimes or other effectually called by the word and Spirit of Christ ; and it must needs be so, because, as the Lord hath put a difference betwixt his elect and others, before the world was, and he will make a final difference betwixt them and others, after the end of the world, so he will have them differenced and distinguished whilst they are in this world, by tills inward, effec- LOOKING UNTO JESUS. tual, operative calling ; they are men of other minds, wills,, affections, dispositions, conversations ; they are “ called from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God,” Acts xxvi. 18. As the apostle, “Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. Be ye not therefore partakers with them,” Eph. v. 7, 8. 3. If thou art chosen for salvation, then sooner or later thou shalt have true soul-saving, justifying faith ; “ As many as were ordained to eternal life believed,” Acts xiii. 48, When God hath a people to call home to himself he either brings them to the means, or the means to them, and those that belong to the election of grace believe. O my soul, hast thou this saving faith ? not a fancied faith, dead faith, an easy faith, but saving faith ; such a faith as was wrought in thee by the word and Spirit with power ; such a faith as was not in thy power to give, nor in thy power to receive until God enabled thee by his Spirit ; then here is thy ground that thou art ordained to eternal life r c< for whom he calls he justifies, and we are justified by faith,” Rom. viii. SO. and v. 1. Not that the essence of faith justifies; but faith justifies instrumentally, in that it lays hold upon that which justifies, even the righteousness of Christ Jesus, 4. If thou art decreed for salvation then sooner or later the Lord will beget and increase in thee grace, holiness, sanctification : “ Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctifica¬ tion of the Spirit,” 1 Pet. i. 2. God predestinates his people unto holiness ; “ He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before him,” Eph. i. 4. If God appoint thee to eternal life, he doth here in this world appoint thee to an holy gracious life. No sanctification, no election ; no grace, no glory : thou art to be a precious jewel here, ere God will make thee up at that great day. Observe the chain, Rom. viii. 80. If I be sanctified with the divine nature, in which glory is begun, then I am justified; if justified, then I have been called, according to the purpose : if called, then I was predestinate ? and if predestinate to means, then was I foreknown, as one whom God would choose to the end, even to immarcessible and eternal glory. 5. If thou art appointed and prepared for glory, then God will give thee a thankful heart for so great a mercy ; thou canst no more keep in the heart from overflowing, when thou art sensible of this everlasting love, than thou canst put bounds to the sea : See Paul praising God for the election of himself and others, “ After I heard of your faith, LOOKING UNTO JESUS, 9§ «md love, I cease not to give thanks ; and, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world,” Eph. i. 15, 1 6. and i. 3, 4. And what glorious triumphs doth Paul in the person of all the elected make over all kind of enemies that can be thought of ? He challengeth every adversary to put forth his sting, and why ? Even because God hath elected, and nothing can separate them from this unchangeable love ; and this was it that begot his thanksgiving, “ I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord,” Rom. viii. 33, 39- and vii. 25. O my soul, how is thy heart affected with praise and thankfulness in this matter ? He that bestoweth great things, looks for great returns of thanks, especially this being all thou canst do. 6. If the project, counsel, love, purpose, decree, and covenant of God with Christ, concerned thee, and thy soul’s happiness, then God will crown thee with perseverance, and a stedfast continuance in that way of grace thou was first set in : final apostacy, and total back¬ sliding from the wrays of God, can never befal those that are thus cho¬ sen : “ They went from us because they are not of us,” said the apos¬ tle, 1 John ii. 19. And, “ if it were possible, they should deceive the very elect,” said Christ, Matth. xxiv. 24. But it is certainly im¬ possible, and why ? “ I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall never depart from me,” Jer. xxxii. 40. Oh what a blessed mercy is this, when there are so many hours of temptation in the world, so many blustering storms and tempests that are able to raise up the very roots, did not that immortal seed preserve them. Of this sign we are sure, if any of the former belongs to us; but to tins we can¬ not actually seal till the end of our life. Come now, are these, O my soul, the grounds of thy hopes? Hath God’s wrord come with power on thy heart? Hath the Lord so effectually called thee, that thou hast left all to follow Christ? Dost thou believe on the Lord Jesus for life and for salvation? Art thou holy ? Is thy life holy ? Dost thou w alk exactly, as the grace of God which bringeth to salvation teacheth ? Canst thou with enlarged thank¬ fulness amplify the love and grace of God in thy election ? Surely these effects are the very fewel of hope, they are the blessed and clear evidences of thy soul’s election ; and therefore hope well, take strong consolation : it is clear as the sun, that God hath predestinated thee to life, and that thy name is written in the book of life, and that none LOOKING- UNTO JCSL3, 94 in heaven, or on eaith, or in hell, shall be able to blot it out again. Away, away with all sad, dumpish dejected thoughts: look unto Jesus : hope in Christ, That that very salvation, concerning which that great transaction was betwixt God and Christ, belongs even to thee, and that one day thou shalt see it, and enjoy the happiness of it to all eternity. SECT. V. | Of believing in Jesus hi that Respect. 5. We must believe in Jesus, as carrying on that great work of salvation for us in that eternity. It is not enough to know, and con¬ sider, and desire, and hope: but we must believe. Now, this is the nature and property of faith, to apply all these ancient and future doings and dealings of God to ourselves, as if they were now present. Some difference there is betwixt hope and faith ; as hope hath respect to that which the word promised!, rem verbi : but faith respects the word itself, verbmn rei ; hope eyes chiefly the mercy and goodness of the promise, but faith eyes mainly the authority and truth of the pro- miser ; hope looks upon its object as future, bat faith only looks up¬ on the object as present; both make a particular application to them¬ selves, but hope in a waiting for it, and faith in a way of now enjoy¬ ing it. Hence faith is called, “ the substance of things hoped for,” Heb. xi. 1. It is the substance or confidence of things hoped for, as if we had them already in hand : faith gives the soul a present interest in God, in Christ, in all those glorious things in the gospel of Christ, even in the things of eternal life. Faith is an appropriating, an ap¬ plying, an uniting grace. It is a blessed thing to have the sight of God, there is much power in it ; but to see God in his glory as my God : to see all the majesty, greatness, and goodness of God, as those things that my soul have an interest in ; to see how the eternal coun¬ cils of God wrought for me, to make me happy ; why this is of the nature of faith : and herein lies the sweetness of faith : in that we be¬ lieve not Christ only to he a Saviour, and righteousness, but my Sa¬ viour, and my righteousness ; and therefore Luther affirmed, that the sweetness of Christianity lay in pronouns ; when a man can say, “ My Lord, and my God, and my Jesus. I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me,” Gai, ii. SO, looking UNTO JESUS. 96 O my soul ! believe for thyself ; believe, and be confident of it, that those eternal projects, councils, love, purpose, decree, and covenant betwixt God and Christ, were all for thee ; hast thou not a promise ? Nay, was there not a promise before the world began ? and that very promise of eternal life ? Mark the words, “ In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began,” Tit. i. 2. Here is a promise, and a promise of eternal life made by God, by God that cannot lie, and that before there was a world, or any man in the world. If thou inquires!, to whom then was this promise made ? Sweet soul, it was made to Christ for thee : many promises thou hast in scripture made more immediately to thyself ; but this was the grand promise, and all the other promises they are but a draught of that grand promise, that God the Father made to his Son before the world began. O cries the soul, I cannot believe. What, is it possible that God in his eternity should have any thought of me ? What, of me, “ being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil ?” Rom. ix. 11. WThat, of me, born in these last times of the world, the least of saints, the greatest of sinners, less than the least of all God’s mercies ? That of such an one the great God, the majesty of heaven and earth, should have a thought, a project, a counsel, a knowledge of approbation, a pur¬ pose, a decree : nay, enter into a covenant with his Son for my salva¬ tion ? I cannot believe it. Alas ! what am I to God ? or what need hath God of me ? If “ all the nations of the earth are to him, but as a drop of a bucket, and as the small dust of the balance,” Isa. xl. 1 5. Oh what a minim am I of that drop ? or what a little little atom am I of that small dust ? And is it probable that the greatness of God, the good¬ ness of God, the power of God, the wisdom of God, the eternal coun¬ cils of God, should work for me, to make me glorious, blessed, happy ? to make me one with himself, and one with his Son, and one with his Spirit ? What care take I of every dust of the earth or every sand of the sea-shore ? and yet these are my fellow-creatures : there is a thousand times more disproportion betwixt God and me, and would God take care of me before I was, or before the world was? What, would he busy himself and his Son about such a worthless wretched worm ? Would he decree Christ to come from the Father for me, to be mv Redeemer, my Jesus, my Saviour ? I cannot, I dare not, l will not believe. O stay, my soul ; and be not faithless, but believing, I will take thy COOftiNO UNTO JESUS. argument in pieces ; As, 1. Thou, sayest, “ I lath God any thoughts of me t” Yes, saith God, I know the thoughts that I think towards you, thoughts of peace, and not of evil,” Jer. xxix. 11. And before the world was, my thoughts and “my delights were with the sons of men,” Prov. viii. SI. 2. Thoii sayest, “ I have no thoughts, no care of my fellow creatures as of the dust, or sand, or atoms ?” And what then ? “ My thoughts are not as your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord ; for as the heavens are higher than the earth, sc/ are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts,” Isa. Iv. 8. What if thou hast no thoughts or care of the smaller creatures ; yet God extends his thoughts, and care, and provi¬ dence not only to thee, but even to them, “ Neither can a sparrow fall to the ground, nor an hair from thy head, nor a leaf from the tree with¬ out the providence of our heavenly Father,” Matt. x. 29, 30. 3. Thou sayest, “ I dare not believe, I am astonished at, confounded in these thoughts of God’s eternal love ; It is too high for me, I cannot be¬ lieve it. I answer. Herein thou sayest something : I know it is an hard thing to great mgs in rererenee to thyself: but see now, how God and Christ stoop and condescend to make thee believe : Cod stands much upon this, that the hearts of his saints should confide in him ; he accounts not himself honoured, except they believe. And therefore mark, G ray soul, how Clnist suits himself to thy weakness ; what is it that may beget tins faith, this confidence in thy soul ? What is it (saith God) that you poor creatures do one to another, when you would make things sure between yourselves ? Why thus, — 1. We engage ourselves by promise one to another. And so will I, saith God : poor soul, thou hast my promise ; my faithful promise ; 1 have made a promise both to Jews and Gentiles, and thou art the one of these two sorts ; “ The promise is to you, and to your children, and to all that are alar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call,” Acts ii. 39- Be only satisfied in that ground of thy hope, that thou Art called of God, and then every promise of eternal life is thine, even thine? Thou may eat fold a thousand promises scattered here and there in the book of God ; and all these promises are a draught of that promise which was made from all eternity, and therefore it is so much the more sure : it U as if ChrLt should say, “ Wilt thou have engage¬ ment by promise ? This is past long ago; my Father hath engaged himself to me before the world began ; yea, and I have made many, and many a promise, since the w or Id began, Bead in the volume. LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 97 and thou wilt find here and there a promise, here and there a draught of that first copy of that great promise which my Father made unto me from all eternity.” 2. When we would make things sure to one another, we write it down; and so will I, saith God, thou hast the scriptures, the holy writ, those sacred volumes of truth and life, and therein thou hast the golden lines of many gracious promises, are they not as the stars in the firmament of the scriptures ? Thou hast thy Bible, and in the Bible thou hast many blessed, glorious truths ; but of all the Bible methinks thou shouldest not part with one of those promises, no not for a world. Luther observing the many promises wrote down in scripture, expres- seth thus, “ The whole scripture doth especially aim at this, that we should not doubt, but hope, confide, believe that God is merciful, kind, patient, and hath a purpose and delight to save our souls.” 3. When we would make things sure to one another, wre set to our seals. And so will I, saith God ; thou hast my seal, the broad seal of heaven, my sacraments, the seals of my covenant ; and thou hast my privy seal also, the seal of my Spirit. cc Grieve not the holy Spirit, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption,” Eph. iv. 30. 4. When we would make things sure to one another, we take wit¬ nesses. And so will I, saith God ; thou shalt have witnesses as many as thou wilt, witnesses of all sorts, witnesses in heaven, and witnesses on earth ; “ For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. And there are three that bear witness on earth, the Spirit, and the Water, and the Blood, and these three agree in one,” 1 John v. 7, 8. 5. When we would make things sure to one another, we take an oath. And so will I, saith God : God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, con¬ firmed it by an oath,” Heb. vi. 1 7. q . d. There is no such need of an oath ; but I will be abundant to thee, because I would have thee trust me, and confide in me thoroughly ; and as I swear (saith God) so will I swear the greatest oath that ever was, “ I swear by myself,” Heb. vi 1 3. God swears, “ by God : he could swear by no greater, and there¬ fore he sware by himself.” And why thus, but for their sakes who are the heirs of nromise ? He knows our frame, and remembers that we are dust ; and therefore to succour our weakness, the Lord is pleased to swear, and to confirm all by his oath. 6'. When we would make things sure to one another, we take a II VOL. I. LOOKING jKTO JESUS. pawn. And I will give thee a pawn, saith God, and such a pawn, a3> if thou never hadst any thing more, thou shouldest be happy. It is a pawn of my Spirit. “ Who also hath sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit into our hearts/’ 2 Cor. i. 22. q. cl. I will send my Spirit into your hearts ; and this Spirit shall be a pawn, an earnest in your hearts of all the good that I intend to do for you for ever. 7- When we would make things sure to one another, something it may be is presently done, as an engagement of all that which is to come. And thus will I deal with thee, saith God, who livest in these last of times. Wh}r, thou seest the greatest part of thy salvation already done : I made a promise from all eternity of sending my Son into the world, to be made a curse for sin : yea, and if thou believest, for thy sin ; and this is the greatest work of all that is to be done to all eternity. Surely if I would have failed thee in any thing, it should have been in this ; it is not so much for me now to bring thee to heaven, to save thy soul, as it was to send my Son into the world, to be made a curse for sin : but when I have done so great a work, and have been already faithful in that promise, how shouldest thou but believe my faithfulness in making good all other promises ? If a man should owe thee a thousand pounds, and pay thee nine hundred ninety and nine, thou wouldst think surely, he w ould never break for the rest. Why God hath paid his nine hundred ninety and nine ; and all the glory of heaven is but as one in comparison of what he hath done : wre may therefore well believe that he that hath done so much for ns, will net leave the little undone. Come then, rouse up, O my soul, and believe thy interests in those eternal transactions betwixt God and Christ : is not here ground enough for thy faith ? If thou art but called, the promise of God is thine : or if thou darest not rely on his promise (which God forbid) thou hast his indenture, his seal and witnesses of all sorts, both in heaven and earth : or if yet thou believest not, thou hast an oath, a pawn, and the greatest part of thy salvation already done to thine hand: nay, I will tell thee more, poor soul, than this ; even Christ himself from all eter¬ nity hath engaged for thee, that thou shalt believe : O then put not Christ to be challenged of his engagement, by refusing the gospel ! surely when thou believest, thou makest Christ’s word good ; I ? e that believetli not, makes God a liar, though in another sense, and, fur ought he knowetli even in this. That he frustrates Christ’s undertaking in tlx? covenant. And therefore believe ; yea, and cry, “ Lord, I believe-, LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 99 help thou my unbelief : increase my faith, till I come to full assurance of faith. Faith in this sense is the very eye of the soul, reading its name written in the book of life ; it is an apprehension of our particu¬ lar election. O believe, till thou comest up to this fulness of persua¬ sion, of God’s love in Christ. SECT. VI. Of loving Jesus in that Respect. 6. We must love Jesus, as carrying on that great work of our sal¬ vation in that eternity. And this is the fruit, or effect of faith, if once we believe, that all those designs and transactions were for us, even for us ; O then how should we but love that God, and love that Christ, who thus first and freely loved us ? God loved us before we loved him, for he loved us in that eternity before all worlds ; surely then we are bound to love him, first and above all things. As the dia¬ mond formeth and fashioneth the diamond, so love formeth and fa¬ sh ion eth love, or as fire eonverteth fewel into fire, so this ancient love of God and Christ may well cause our love again. O Christ ! didst thou not love us ? Who doubts it, that but reads over the project, council, foreknowledge, purpose, decree and covenant of God and Christ ? Who doubts it, that but reads the eternal design of God, that Christ should go out of himself, and suffer an extasy through the ve- hemency of his love ? That Christ should so far debase his Majesty, as to die for us, that we might not die but live with him ? O then, how should this but kindle in our hearts a most ardent love towards God and Christ ? What more effectual motive to work man’s love than to be prevented by the love and bounty of another ? That this fruit doth spring from the sense of our election. Bernard observes, Epist. 1 07 : ce Who is righteous, but he that requiteth the love of God with love again ? Which is never done, except the Holy Ghost reveal unto a man by faith God’s eternal purpose concerning his future salvation.” And hence it is, that the heart is most in frame, when it is a consider¬ ing the eternal love of God in Christ : as David said of Jonathan, “ Thou hast been very pleasant to me, thy love to me was wonder¬ ful,” 2 Sam. i. 26. So a poor soul, gathering up all the goodness of God in that eternity, and feeding upon it, and the variety of it, breathes out in that expression. ff Thou hast been very pleasant to me, O God, thy love to me hath been wonderful,” O my soul, that thou couldst so H 2 100 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. live by faith on these eternal passages, as that thou mightest attain to the highest fruits of faith, not only to love God and Christ, but to love them with a burning love, with a mighty love, such a love as lies in the most vigorous prosecution after Jesus Christ, and in the most faithful resignation of thyself to God ; such a love as works the most delightful aspect of God and Christ, as makes a man to behold God and Christ with all cheerfulness ; such a love as works a man to extol the praises of God. O in these hinges lies the strength of love. But alas ! this is, or at least this should be thy grief. That thou canst not love so well, and so warmly as thou art beloved. Christ comes towards thee, “ Skipping like the hart, or roe on the mountains of spices,” Cant. viii. 14. But thy love toward Christ is creeping like the worm in the unwholesome valley. Indeed the best affections have their fits of swooning ; it may be for the present thy love is cold : O but come up to this fire : consider how God and Christ loved thee in every one of these. 1. His project to save thy soul sprung out of his love : love was the first wheel that set all the eternal works of God a going ; what was that great design of God, but only an expression of his love ? It was his pleasure to communicate himself, and the rise of that commu¬ nication was his love. 2. The councils of God were all in love. Had not love been as president of the council, where hadst thou been ? When all the attri¬ butes of God were at a stand, it was the love of God in Christ that re¬ solved the question for thy sal vation. 3. The foreknowledge of God was a foreknowledge of love and ap¬ probation : in his eternal love he embraced thee as his own : he fore¬ knew thee, i. e. of his free love he set thee apart to life and to salva¬ tion ; “ God hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world,* Eph. i. 4. He chose us in Christ, but not for Christ; nothing at all moved him to elect thee, but his own good pleasure and free love. 4. The purpose of God was a resolution of love ; it speaks of his love to be a constant, settled, abiding love : no unkindness shall alter it : “ For having loved his own, he loves them unto the end,” John xiii. 1. Nay, he loves them without end: from everlasting to ever¬ lasting. 5. The decree of God was an order (as I may call it) or an act of LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 101 love, to give in that grace unto his elect, which before all time he de¬ creed should be an effectual means to bring them unto glory. 6. The covenant betwixt God and Christ wras an agreement of love : God and Christ struck hands to save our souls ; grace was given in Christ Jesus before the world began, 2 Tim. i. 9- Grace was given us, that is, the gracious love and favour of God in Christ was given us before all secular times. This was God’s meaning from everlasting, this was the design, yea, the greatest design that ever God had, to set out the infinite glory, and the riches of his love in Jesus Christ. No question but he had other great designs in doing such great things as he hath done : but above all the designs that ever God had in all his works, this is the chief, to honour his mercy, to glorify the riches of his love and grace : had it not been for this he would never have made the world ; and therefore in that world to come, it will be the delight of God, to shew his saints and angels what he is able to do for a creature ; yea, he will to all eternity declare to them, to what an height of excellency and glory, his love and mercy able to raise poor souls ; so that the very saints and angels shall admire and adore, and magnify the name of God everlastingly for it. O my soul, canst thou ponder on this, and not love him dearly, who hath thus loved thee ? Come f • stir up the gift that is in thee if thou art a Christian, thou hast some sparks, though nowT (it may be) under the ashes : come rub, chaff and warm thy affections at this fire : love, like a watch must be wound up, or else it will fall downwards : what dost thou ? “ Why standest thou idle in the heat of the day ?” Christ hath fire in his hand, it is but looking up, and reaching out thy hand to take it from him : O take it with both thy hands and be thankful for it. Prayer, ejaculation, contemplation, judicious observation of the Spirit’s season, are the best instruments to kindle this fire of love in thee. And methinks thy heart should begin now to melt, methinks it should receive more easy impressions from the object before it : me¬ thinks these eternal works and acts of God and Christ towards thy poor soul should begin to overcome thee, and to burn thy heart as with coals of juniper. Cant. vi. 5. and viii. 6. Why, Lord, is it thus ? Was I elected from all eternity in Christ ? Was I ordained to a glorious in¬ heritance before there was a world ? Was this business to make me happy, one of the chief deep councils of God ? Was this one of the works of his w isdom that he was exercised about before the world be- H 3 102 LOOKING UNTO JESUS, /* gan ? Was this the great design of God in making the world, and in making heaven, that place of glory, to glorify himself, and to glorify such a poor wretch as I am ? O then how should this but mightily in¬ flame my heart with the love of God, and love of Christ ? How should X choose but say, as the martyr did, “ Oh that I had as many lives, as I have hairs on my head, to lay them down for Christ ?” Ah w hat flames of divine affection, what raptures of zeal, what ravishments of delight, what extasies of obedience can be enough for my blessed God and dearest Redeemer ? SECT. VII. Of joying in Jesus in that Respect. 7- We must joy in Jesus, as carrying on that great work of our sal¬ vation in that eternity, This joy is a passion arising from the sweet¬ ness of the object we enjoy. O my soul, dost thou believe ? And art thou now cast into a pang of love ? How then should thy joy come on ? As Christ said to the seventy, “ In this rejoice not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice, because your names are w ritten in heaven,” Luke x. 20. So rejoice not thou in this, that the w orld is thine, that riches are thine, that thou hast subdued men and devils ; but herein rejoice that thy name is written in the book of life. O what a comfortable point is this ! that the Father and Christ should transact a bargain from eternity, concerning thee by name, that the Father and the Son should commune together concerning thy heaven, as if their language had been thus ; “ Father, what shall be given to thy justice to ransom such an one, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, Mary, Martha, Hannah,” &c. Why no more but this, “ Thou shalt die, my Son, and whosoever believeth in thee shall live for ever.” Why then saith Christ, “ I will engage for such and such an one ; I will enter into bond for such and such a person ; Abraham shall believe in time : see I have wrote down his name in the book of life.” And who art thou that readest? Art thou a believer? Dost thou believe in the Lord Jesus Christ ? Christ said the same of thee, and entered into a bond for thee, and entered thy name in the book of life, see the cer¬ tainty of this in Phil. iv. 3. Thou Thomas, Andrew", Peter, Christ knows thee by name, and thy name is written in the book of life. O go thy wray, and rejoice, and take strong consolation ! is there not cause ? Why, I tell thee, thy name is in the book of heaven ; and, if 103 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. this may add to thy joy, know there is none in heaven or earth shall ever be able to blot it out again. No, no, poor soul, “ There is no con¬ demnation to them that are in Christ Jesus,” Rom. viii. 1. God hath decreed thy salvation, and God’s decree shall stand, let men and de¬ vils say what they will to the contrary, t( The counsel of the Lord standeth for ever, the thoughts of his heart to all generations/’ Psalm xxxiii. 1 1 . It is as possible for God to deny himself, as it is possible for thee a believer to perish. “ We are kept (saith the apostle) by the power of God through faith to salvation,” 1 Pet. i. 5. And therefore “ rejoice, and again rejoice :” Yea, raise up thy joy to that pitch of triumph, w hich is joy elevated ; and elevated so high that it comes to victoriousness and magnanimous conquest of heart over all things. Say with the apostle, “ What, my name is written in the book of life, who shall lay any thing to the charge of God’s elect ? — Who then shall se¬ parate me from the love of Christ ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sw ord ? Nay, I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus my Lord,” Rom. viii. 23P 35 &c. SECT. VIII. Of calling on Jesus in tleat Respect. 8. We must call on Jesus, or on God the Father in and through Jesus. This also is included in looking ; as David while praying* <( Unto thee do I lift up mine eyes, O thou that dwellest in the hea¬ vens,” Psalm cxxiii. 1. Now this calling on God, or looking to God contains prayer and praise. 1. We must pray that all these transactions ■betwixt God and Christ may be assuredly ours, and that God would clear up our titles more and more ; yea, "and seeing all good tilings tending to salvation were from all eternity prepared for us, we are therefore to pray, that by prayer wre may draw them down from hea¬ ven ; for what though our evidences be dear ; yet this must not cast out means ; God doth not use to bestow his saving graces on lazy slug¬ gards ; those therefore who from the certainty of predestination do n retend that the duty of prayer is superfluous, ’do plainly shew that II 4 104< LOOKING UNTO JESUS. they have no certainty at all. Aquinas, Part. 1. q. art. 8. was- orthodox in this, Cf The predestinate must pray, because by these effects of pre¬ destination, the salvation of souls is best ascertained.” The same Spi¬ rit which witnesseth to our spirit that we are his chosen, is also the Spirit of prayer and supplication ; and therefore he that believes that he is one of God’s elect, he cannot but pray for those things which he believeth that God hath prepared for him before the foundation of the world. — -2. We must praise God. What that God should look on us, and predestinate us to life? That he should pass by so many on the right hand, and on the left, and that I should be one whom the Lord did elect? What such a vile and sinful wretch as I am ? Was there ever like love ? Was there ever like mercy ? May not heaven and earth stand amazed at this ? O what shall I do to be thankful enough to this dear God ? Thus thou that knowest thy interest in Christ, study praise and thankfulness. Say in thyself. Who made me to differ from those cast away souls ? alas ! we were all framed of the same mould, hewed out of the same rock. It is storied of one of the late French kings, that in a serious meditation, consider¬ ing his own condition of being king and ruler of that nation, « Oh (said he) when I was bom, a thousand other souls were born in this kingdom with me, and what have I done to God more than they ?” O my soul, what difference betwixt thee and those many thousands of re¬ probates that live with thee in the world at this day ? Nothing, surely nothing, but the free mercy, goodness, and love of God in Jesus Christ O then praise this God, yea sound forth “ the praise of the glory of his grace.” Remember that was God’s design, and that is thy duty, SECT. IX. Of conforming to Jesus in that Respect. 9- We must conform to Jesus; we must fix our eyes on Jesus for our imitation ? that also is the meaning of this looking in the text, And, in respect of our predestination the apostle speaks so expressly, “ He did predestinate us to be conformed to the image of his Son,” Rom. viii. 29- This is one end of predestination, and this is one end of looking unto Jesus, nay it is included in it. A very look on Jesus hath a power in it to conform us to the image of Jesus. « We are changed by beholding,” saith the apostle, 2 Cor. iii. 18. Oh when I LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 105 see God’s love in Christ to me even from all eternity, how should this but stir up my soul to be like Jesus Christ? Where there is a depen- dance, there is desire to be like even among men ; how much more considering my dependance on God in Christ, should I desire to be like Christ in disposition ! All the question is. What is this image of Christ, to which we must be conformed ? I answer holiness, and happiness : but because the latter is our reward, and the former is our duty, therefore look to that. But wherein consists that ? I answer, in that resemblance, likeness, and conformity to Christ in all the passages fore-mentioned : and in every of these must we conform to Christ. As — 1. Christ is the Son of God ; so must we be God’s sons. “ As many as received him, to them he gave power to become the sons of God,” John i. 12. O what lies upon us in this respect ; “ If I be your Father, where is mine honour?” Mai. i. 6. And, “ if ye call on the Father, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear,” 1 Pet. i. 17. God looks for more honour, fear, reverence, duty and obedience from a son than from the rabble of the world : if thou art God’s son, thy sins, more offend God than the sins of all the reprobates in the world ; why, alas, thy sins are not mere transgressions of the law, but committed against the mercy, bounty, and goodness of God, vouchsafed unto thee ; thy sins have a world of unthankfulness joined with them, and therefore how should God but visit ? “ You only have I known of all the fami¬ lies of the earth, therefore will I visit you for all your iniquities.” Amos iii. 2. O think of this, you that are God’s sons, and conform to Christ, for he was an obedient Son. 2, Christ the Son of God delights in the Father, “and his delight is also with the sons of men so must we delight in the Father, and delight in his children. “ Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thy heart,” Psalm xxxvii. 4. “ And the saints that are on the earth are they, in whom is all my delight,” saith David, Psalm xvi. 3. It is storied of Dr. Taylor, That, being in pri¬ son, he could delight in God : and he rejoiced that ever he came into prison, because of his acquaintance with that angel of God, as he called Mr Bradford, O this is heaven upon earth ! not only God, but the very saints of God, are sweet objects of delight. Mark them, and if they be saints indeed, they are savoury in their discourse, in their du¬ ties, in their carriages : their example is powerful, their society profita¬ ble, how should we but delight in them ? 206 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 3. God and Christ laid this plot from all eternity. That all the world would do should be “to the praise of the glory of his grace:” so must we purpose this as the end of all our actions, “ Whether we eat or drink, or whatsoever we do, we must do all to the glory of God,” 3 Cor. x. 31. But especially if from God we receive any spiritual good, then give all again to the glory of his grace. “ Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever,” (saith Daniel ii. 20, 23) for wisdom and might are his ; — And I thank thee and praise thee, O God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might. An excellent spirit of wisdom and might w rought in Daniel, and he acknowledges all to the Giver : “ wisdom and might are his.” Christians, if you feel grace in your hearts, I beseech you acknowledge it to Christ. He does all ; he subdues lusts, heals wounds, stays inward issues, sets broken bones, and makes them to rejoice ; and therefore let him have the glory of all ; do you acknowdedge grace in its latitude to the God of all grace. 4. God and Christ counselled about our salvation ; there was a great conflict in the attributes of God : justice and mercy could not be re¬ conciled, till the wisdom of Gcd found out that glorious and wonderful expedient, “ the Lord Jesus Christ so let us counsel about our salva¬ tion : the flesh and the spirit whereof we are compounded, draw seve¬ ral ways ; the flesh drawrs hell- ward, and the spirit heaven-ward : Come then, call wre in heavenly and spiritual wisdom to decide this con¬ troversy ; you may hear its language in Job xxviii. 28. “ Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understand¬ ing.” If we would draw heavenward and save our souls ? Come then, “ Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God, and keep his commandments, for this is the w hole duty of man,” Eccl. xii. 1 3 Keep Iris commandments in an evangelical sense, i. e. look at the ex¬ pedient, Jesus Christ, who hath kept them for us, and in w hom, and through whom our imperfect obedience is accepted with God. 5. God and Christ loved us with an everlasting love, so must we love him who hath first loved us ; this is the nature of spiritual love, that it runs into its own ocean, “ O love the Lord all ye his saints !” Psal. xxxi. 23. Who hath more cause to love him than you have ? Who hath been loved so much ? Or who hath so much come under the power of love as you have ? Hath not Christ loved you, not only w ith a love of well -washing, which is from everlasting (some call it the love of election, the fountain of love, the well head of salvation) but also w ith & love of complacency ? Hath not Christ shed abroad his love into your LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 107 hearts, and shall lie lose by it? Will not these cords of love draw up your hearts to love him again ? Sure it is but reason to love him, who hath first loved you, yea, and loved you when you were unlovely, and had nothing in you worthy of love. Christians ! then it was that Christ loved you in rags, it is meet therefore that you should love him in robes. 6. God and Christ appointed, or purposed us unto salvation: Ilia, love was a sure, and settled, and firm, and constant love, “ The pur¬ pose of God according to election must stand,” Rom. ix. 11. So must we love him, and cleave unto him for ever : “ I have inclined my heart to perform thy statutes always even unto the end,” Psalm cxix. 112. David’s heart was much taken with the statutes of God, and therefore he gives this expression of the fulness of his heart, “ always and even to the end,” It is a kind of pleonasm, his resolutions wej’e such, that he would never depart from his God. 7- God and Christ decreed, booked and sealed our salvation ; and so must we put to our seal that God is true, i. e. we must believe on Christ ; for when we believe we make Christ’s word good. He that believes not, makes God a liar (as ye have heard) in that he frustrates, or en¬ deavours to frustrate Christ’s undertaking in his predestination. 8. God and Christ entered into covenant concerning our salvation : so must we enter into covenant with him ; we must take him to be our God, and give up ourselves to be his people : — Why thus we must in all particulars conform to Christ. The sum of all is this. We must be like Christ in grace, and gracious actings. O my soul, see to this grace, see to this conformity to Jesus Christ in gracious actings, and this will enable thee to read thy name written in the book of life. O abhor and repel that devil’s dart, “ I am pre¬ destinate, and therefore I may live as I list, Eph. i. 4. How contrary is this, to the apostle, “ He hath chosen us in him before the founda¬ tion of the world, that we should be holy, and without blame before him in love ? And, as the elect of God, put on bowels of mercy, kind¬ ness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forgiving one another, even as Christ forgave you?” Col. iii. 12, 13. This confor¬ mity to Christ in grace is the very effect of our predestination : O look unto Jesus and be in grace like unto Jesus : why, Christ is full of grace, a vessel filled up to the lip, or very brim, " Thou art fairer than the children of men, and grace is poured into thy lips,” Psal xlv. 2. Christ was as it were grace speaking, Luke iv. 22. Grace sighing. JOS LOOKING UNTO JESUS. weeping, dying, Heb. ii. 9- Grace living again, and now dropping, or rather raining down floods of grace on his living members, Eph. iv. 11. Christ is the great apple tree, dropping down apples of life, Cant. ii. 3. And all that falls from this tree, as apples, leaves, shadows, smell, blos¬ soms, are but pieces of grace fallen down from him, who is the fulness of all, and hath filled all things. Christ is the Rose of Sharon, Cant. ii. 1. and every leaf of this rose is an heaven, every white and red in it is grace and glory, every act of breathing out its smell from everlasting to everlasting, is spotless and unmixed grace : why then, my soul, if thou wilt conform to Christ, conform in this : “ be holy as he is holy, of that fulness of grace that is in him, do thou receive, even grace for grace,” John i. 1(3. Christians ! where are we ? O that ever men should hear of so much grace, and of such acts of grace in that eternity before all worlds, and yet no impression of grace upon their hearts ! O that God and Christ should both be in that business of eternity : that heaven, hell? justice, mercy, souls and deep wisdom should be all in that rare piece, and yet that men should think more of a farm, an ox, an house, a pin, a straw, or the bones of a crazy livelihood ! O look up ! look up ! if thou art Christ’s consider what he hath done for thy soul ; why art thou “ predestinate to be conformed to the image of Christ.” Thus far we have looked on Jesus, as our Jesus, in that eternity before all time until the creation : our next work is to look on Jesus, carry¬ ing on the great work of man’s salvation in the creation, the begin¬ ning of time, until his first coming. LOOKING UNTO JESUS, FROM THE CREATION UNTIL HIS FIRST COMING v BOOK III. CHAP. I. — SECT. I. Of Christ Promised by Decrees. Isa. xlii. 6, 18. The LORD will give thee for a Covenant of the People, — Hear, ye deaf, and look, ye blind, that ye may see. J N this poriod, as in the former, we shall first lay down the object and then direct you how to look upon it. The object is Jesus, carrying on the work of man’s salvation ; in that dark time before his coming in the flesh. No sooner was the world made and the things therein, but man was created, that a way might be made for God to shew his grace in the salvation of his elect. And now was it that God’s eternal project, and counsel, and foreknowledge, and purpose, and decree, and covenant with Christ began to come into execution. Indeed at the first moment there was no need of Christ; for man at first was made in holiness to the image of God, and to bear rule over the rest of the visible creatures ; but, alas ! this his state was but of little standing : it was the received opinion in former ages, that our first parents fell the very same day they were created. Augustine, amongst the rest, writes that they stood but six hours : but though we cannot determine the certain time, very probable it is, that it was but short : this we find, that after Moses had set down the creation of man, without the interposition of any thing else, he comes immediately to the fall ; and the devil, no doubt, took the first occasion he possibly could to bring man to the same damnation with himself. Weil then, long it was not, but Adam by his sin deprived himself, and all his pos¬ terity to the image of God : as all mankind was in his loins : so, by the i 10 LOOKING UNTO JESUS.’ order and appointment of God, all mankind partakes with him in the guilt of his sins : hence is the daily and continual cry, not only of Adam, Abraham, David, Paul, but of every saint, “ O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death ?” Rom. vii. 24. But, sweet souls ! stay your complaints, here is gospel news, — In this sad hour of temptation God stepped in : he will not leave man without hope ; he tells the devil who began this mischief, “ I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel/' Gen. iii. 15. At the very instant, when God was pronouncing judg¬ ments upon the several delinquents in the fall ; nay, before judgment was pronounced on the persons tempted, a Jesus is hinted, the covenant of grace is proclaimed. O the infinite riches of the mercy of God in Christ ! But you will say, how comes Jesus in ? how carried he on the great work of our salvation in this dark time ? I answer, 1. By assuming and taking upon him the form and shape of a man, and so discharging some special offices in that respect : we read often of Christ's separations, before his incarnation, and then espe¬ cially when he had to do with this great negociation of man’s eternal happiness. Some think it not improbable that Christ assumed the form of man when he first created man, and so he made man, not only in his own image, which he had as God, in holiness, and true righteous¬ ness, but in respect of that form which he had assumed. Howsoever, this we find, that after man had sinned, Christ then appeared, first to Adam, then to Abraham, then to Isaac, then to Jacob, then to Moses, &c. — First, he appeared to Adam in the garden, “ And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden, in the cool of the day,” Gen. iii. S. God, as he is God, hath neither voice to speak, nor feet to walk, but assuming the form and shape of a man, lie exercised both : and so he was the first that published that first promise to the world, “ It shall bruise thy head.” 2. He appeared to Abraham “ in the plain of Mamre,” where “ the Lord talked with Abraham,” and Abraham calls him “ the judge of the earth,” which can be ascribed to none but Christ tc the judge of quick and dead,” Gen. xviii. 1, 13, 25. Some from that saying of Christ, “ Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad,” John viii. 50. do gather that Abraham saw Christ, not onfy with the eyes of faith (as all the rest of LOOKING UNTO JESUS, 111 the patriarchs and prophets did) but also in a visible shape which he assumed, like unto that whereunto he was afterwards to be united ; and so it was Christ that renewed the covenant with Abraham, saying-, « I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee and to thy seed after thee,” Gen. xvii. 3. — 7- He appeared to Isaac, Gen. xxvi. 2, and to Jacob, Gen. xxxii. 24, 30. And to Moses, Exod. xx. 1 , 2, 3. and to many others, of which I shall comment in order. And these apparitions of Christ were as praeludiums of his in¬ carnation. But this is not the way I shall insist upon. 2. Christ carried on the great work of our salvation in that dark time, not by himself exhibited, (as when he was incarnate) but only promised. The great King would first have his harbingers to lead the way, before he himself would come in person. As the Lord had observed this method in creating the world, that first he would have darkness, and then light ; and as still he observes this method in up¬ holding the world, that first he will have dawning, and then clear day ; so in the framing and upholding of his church, he will first have Christ held forth in ceremonies, rites, figures, types, promises, covenants, and then like a glorious sun, or like “ the day spring from on high, he would visit the world, to give light to them that sit in darkness,” Luke i. 78. To this purpose we read, that as Christ, so the covenant of grace (which applies Christ to us) was first promised, and then pro¬ mulgated, the covenant of promise was that covenant, which God made with Adam, and Abraham, and Moses, and David, and all Israel in Jesus Christ ; to be incarnate, crucified, and raised from the dead ; the covenant promulgated, or new covenant (as the scriptures calls it by way of excellency) is that covenant which God makes with all be¬ lievers since the coming of Christ, believing in him that is incarnate, crucified, and risen from the dead : and it was meet that the promise should go before the gospel, and be fulfilled in the gospel, that so great a good might earnestly be desired before it was bestowed. In a time of darkness men desire light; as the morning-watch watcheth and longeth for the morning, so the obscure revelation of Christ in a pro¬ mise, raised the hearts of the patriarchs to an earnest desire of Christ’s comm- in the flesh. But in this obscurity we may observe some de¬ grees: before the law given by Moses, the promise was more obscure; the law being given even to the time of the prophets, the promise was a little more clear ; in the time of the prophets even to John the Baptist, 112 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. it was clearer yet, as the coming of the Messias did approach nearer and nearer, so was the promise clearer and clearer still : just as the approach of the sun is near or further off, so is the light that goes before it greater or lesser ; in like manner was the revelation that went before Christ more dim or clear as the rising of the Sun of righteousness was more remote, or nigh at hand. It was the good pleasure of God to manifest the riches of his grace by degrees, and not all at once ; we see to this very day, that God in his several approaches of mercy and goodness draws nearer and nearer to his church ; even now in this mar¬ vellous light of the gospel we have our divine ceremonies and sacra¬ ments, we see him afar off, we know him but in part ; but time shall come (even before his second coming) that we, or our children shall see him more clearly, perfectly, immediately. My present business is to hold forth Jesus in the covenant of grace as promised, and because the promise receives distinction of degrees according to the several breakings out of it to the dark world, we will consider it as it was ma¬ nifested, 1. From Adam till Abraham. 2. From Abraham till Moses. 3. From Moses till David. 4. From David till the Babylonish captivity, or thereabout. 5. From the captivity, or thereabout till Christ. In every of these periods will appear some further and further disco¬ veries of God’s mercy in Christ, of the covenant of grace, of our Jesus carrying on the great work of man’s eternal salvation in that dark time. You heard before of the covenant betwixt God and Christ concern¬ ing our salvation : but that was not the covenant of grace, which God immediately made with man as fallen ; but a particular covenant with Christ to be the Mediator : or so far as it was a covenant of grace, it was then made betwixt God and Christ, and after to be made betwixt God and us : for a time we were hid in the womb of God’s election, and not being then capable to enter into covenant with God, Christ undertook for us ; but yet so that when we come to be regenerate, we are then to strike covenant ourselves. And hence we read expressly of God’s covenanting with sundry particular persons, as with. Adam, and Abraham, and Moses, and David, &c. Of wliich in the next sections. LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 113 SECT. II. Of the Covenant of Promise, as manifested to Adam. THE covenant of grace in this sense is nothing else but a compact made betwixt God and man, touching reconciliation, and life eternally by Christ. Now, the first breaking forth of this gracious covenant was to Adam and Eve, immediately after the fall, expressed in these words, “ I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed, it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel/ Gen. iii. 15. This promise, as it is the £ rst, so. the hardest to be understood : it contains in it good news of the overthrow of Satan’s kingdom, and of man’s freedom by the death of Christ. But the obscurity is such, that Luther exceedingly complains. The text which of all men should rightly be known, is of no man, that I know (saith he) especially and accurately unfolded : amongst the ancients there is not one that hath explicated this text according to the dignity of it. The occasion was this : the Lord looking down from heaven, and seeing how Satan had prevailed against man, and in some sort undone the whole fabric of the creation, he resolves upon Satan’s ruin, and man’s preservation : “ And the Lord God said unto the serpent. Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed,” Gen. iii. 14. This literally is understood of the serpent, but spiritually of the devil ; both were as means to draw man unto sin, and therefore they are joined as one in the punishment : “ The Lord cut off the feet of the serpent ( say the Rabbi’s) and cursed him, and he cast Sammael (the devil) and his company out of heaven, and cursed them,” R. Eliezer, C. 14. Indeed man being in the transgression, must also have his punishment, as it follows, verse 17, 18, 19- And yet that God might manifest the riches of his grace, he includes in the serpent’s malediction the everlasting gospel, “ I will put enmity between thee and the woman,” &c. For the sense of the words, we shall open these terms, as, 1. Who is the serpent ? 2. Who is the woman ? 3. What is the seed of the ser¬ pent? 4. What is the seed of the woman? 5. What is that HU in our Bible translated It ? 6. Wliat is the serpent’s head, and the bruis¬ ing of it ? 7. What is the heel of the seed of the woman, and the bruising of it ? 8. Among whom was the enmity, or rather enmities ? for in the text we find many armies, “ I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed,” &c. I YOU. I. LOOKING UNTO JESUS. m 1. Who is the serpent? I find diversity of opinions among interpre¬ ters : some say, it was only the serpent, and that which belongs unto Satan is but mystically understood : others say, it was only Satan under the notion of a serpent, as sometimes he is called the great dragon, " And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceived the whole world,” Rev. xii. 9- Others say, it was both Satan and the serpent ; as men are said to be possessed of Satan, so was the serpent possessed of the devil. Satan could not pro¬ voke our first parents to sin by any inward temptation, as now he doth by the help of our corruption. Nor could he enter into their bodies, or minds, because of the holiness and glory that was in them : and therefore he presumed to take a beast of the earth, and by disposing of his tongue he speaks within him. But what, must the serpent have punishment, that was only Satan’s instrument in the temptation ? Yes: Such was God’s love to man, that he condemns both the author and instrument of that evil : as one that in anger breaks the sword where¬ with his son, or his friend wras wounded ; so God breaks Satan’s swrord : the serpent is punished according to the letter of the text, and Satan is punished in the spiritual meaning of the word. Who is the woman ? Some are all for allegories, and they wrill tell you, that the serpent and the woman are the superior and inferior facul¬ ties of the soul, and that ever since the fall there hath been a continual war betwixt these : but I look on this commentary as vain and trifling, though it be fathered on some of the ancients, and of no small note ; others say this woman is the blessed virgin, in relation to w hich they read the last words thus, “ she shall bruise thy head this reading is not only allowed, but confirmed by the council of Trent; and in some of their prayer books, they call her the mother of the Lord, the tree of life, the breaker of the serpent’s head, and the gate of heaven. Anli- phona de Domina nostra secundum usum Eccles. Hildensheim. But i look on this commentary as ignorant and idolatrous, and wholly deio- gatory to the kingdom of Christ. Others are not so easily misled, and therefore say, that the woman wheresoever mentioned in this text, is Eve, and none but Eve ; she it wTas whom the tempter had seduced, and in just judgment for her familiarity with the tempter, God meets with her, “ I will put enmity (saith God) betwixt thee and the woman.” 3. What is the seed of the serpent? In scripture phrase seed is sometimes taken collectively, for many at once; as when the Lord said to Abraham, “ I will be thy God, and the God of thy seed: and ty LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 115 thee and to thy seed will I give this land ; and I will multiply thy seed as the sand of the sea/’ Gen. xvii. 17, 18. And sometimes it is taken singularly for one only person thus, Eve called her Son Seth, “ For God, said she, hath appointed me .another seed instead of Abel/' Gen. iv. 28. And so it is said of Christ, “ In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,” Gen. xxii. 18. Now, in this place the seed of the serpent is taken collectively, for all the families of devils, for the devil and his angels (as Christ calls them) and for all the sons of the devil, i. e, for all the reprobate men, whose father and prince is the devil, as Christ told the Jews, “ Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do,” John viii. 44. And as John tells us, “ he that committeth sin is of the devil. — In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil,” 1 John hi. 8, 10. And thus both devils and reprobates are reckoned as the seed of the serpent. 4. What is the seed of the woman ? — The seed of the woman is that posterity of the woman which do not degenerate into the seed of the serpent: This is the meaning of the first sentence. “ I will put en¬ mity and then it follows, “ between thy seed and her seed :” and for this sense we have these arguments. 1. The opposition of the seeds ; for as the seed of the serpent is taken collectively, so the seed of the woman must be taken collectively, that the opposition may be fit. 2. The enmities fore-spoken do strongly evince it, now the enmi¬ ties pertain both to Eve and to all her posterity, if godly, to the end of the world: hence “ all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution,” saith the apostle, 2 Tim. iii. 12. “ And I will put enmi¬ ty (saith God) between thee and the woman.” Is that all ? No, but also “ between thy seed and her seed :” and who can deny but these enmities have been ever since betwixt Satan’s brood and the saints ? “ We are all wrestlers against principalities, and powers, and rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual wickednesses in high places,” Eph. vi. 12. 5. What is that HU in our Bibles translated IT, “ It shall bruise thy head.” Some observe this hu, it is of the masculine gender, and zera, seed is of the masculine gender ; and jesaphera, shall bruise is of the masculine gender : which confutes the translation that renders it thus, “ She shall bruise thy head,” and which confirms our translation which is thus, he, or it, or that same seed, i. e. one singular person of that same seed, “ shall bruise thy head.” W ell then, who is this he ? I 2 nti LOOKING UNTO JESUS* or what one is he ? even Jesus the Son of the living God. Here is the first hint of Jesus that ever was read or heard of in the world. This was the proto-evangel,, or first gospel that ever was published after the creation. O blessed news ! fit for God’s mouth to speak, and to break first to the world now fallen. O dear parents ! how would you have despaired, if before sentence you had not heard these blessed tidings ! O our first parents upon earth where had you and we been, if this bles¬ sed text had not been ! come, set a star upon it, write it in letters of gold, or rather write it on the very tables of our hearts : here is the blessedest news that ever was, or ever shall be : but for this we had all been firebrands of hell; yea, but for this Adam and Eve, and all their sons and daughters that are now gone out of this world, had been smoking and frying in hell-fire, away with all gross mistakes, erroneous conceits, and as you love your souls, yield to this blessed sense ! this it, or he, is one of that same seed, and this one of the same seed is Jesus, and only Jesus, and none but Jesus : and for this sense we have these arguments. 1. Some observe that this sentence is separated from the former with a period, or great stop ; however God goes cm to speak of the seed of the woman, yet he says not, “ and that seed shall bruise thy head ;” for so we might thought he had spoken of that seed collectively as he did before : but stopping there, and not repeating that same word again, he gives it thus, “ It, or he shall bruise thy head,” i. e. some individual person of that same seed, some singular one of that same common seed of the woman “ shall bruise thy head,” as David alone of all the host of Israel goes forth to fight with Goliath, and overcomes him : so Christ alone of all the seed of the woman was so to fight with the serpent by his own power as to overcome him, and to bruise his head. 2. The Seventy in their translations of this place (with which agrees the Chaldee paraphrase) renders it ( autos ) he, which must needs de¬ note some singular person, or son of the woman, and the rather because the seed spoken of before is rendered (to sperm a,) to which if the rela¬ tive had rightly agreed, it should have been ( auto ) or ( tauto ) and not ( autos ). Hereto we may add, that to this it, or he, the seed of the serpent, is not opposed as it was in the former sentence : but the ser¬ pent itself ; one singular antagonist : here is ( singularis inonornachia ) a duel, or a combat of tjvo, hand to hand : only Christ and the serpent : he shall bruise thy head, and thou shall bruise his heel.” LOOKING UNTO JESUS 117 3. The bruising of the head doth plainly discover this it, or he, is Jesus Christ: for none can bruise the serpent’s head but only God: « The God of peace (saith the apostle) shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly,” Rom. xvi. 20. Now there was none of the seed of the woman, that was ever God but only Christ, God-man, Man-God, bles¬ sed for ever : and therefore it must needs be Christ, and only Christ that can bruise this serpent’s head. O there is a divine power, a power and virtue of God in it, to bruise the serpent’s head. Observe but the manner of this duel, Christ treads on the serpent ; and by this means he comes to have a bruise in the heel, whilst with his heel he bruised the serpent’s head. A wonderful thing that Christ should lay at the serpent’s head with no other weapon, but only with his heel ; it were much for any man to strike at any common serpent with a bare and naked foot ; rather would he take a dart, or club, or any other wea¬ pon ; but with a foot to bruise Satan’s head, (that great and fierce, and monstrous serpent) this exceeds any man’s power, or any man’s daring to attempt : hence it is that some one person of more than human strength must do this deed, and who is that of the seed of the woman but only Jesus Christ. 4. God himself in other places of scripture, doth expressly declare, that this seed here promised is Christ, and only Christ. Mark but where this promise is repeated to the patriarchs, as when the Lord said to Abraham, “ in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,” Gen. xxii. 18. And when the Lord said to David, “ I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons, and I will esta¬ blish his kingdom,” 1 Chron. xvii. 1 1 . And you may see it clear that this seed is Christ, and only Christ, concerning that promise made to Abraham, the apostle interprets it, (i Now to Abraham, and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ,” Gal. iii. 1 6. And con¬ cerning that promise to David, the prophet interprets it, “ He shall sit upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it. — Who is that ? in the former verse, his name is. Wonder¬ ful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of peace,” Isa. ix. 6, 7- *. e. Christ and none but Christ ; “ For unto us a child is born, and unto us a Son is given/’ &c. And who is that but Jesus Christ ? 5. The accomplishment of this promise in Christ is expressly and clearly made out in the New Testament. Was not Jesus Christ of the I 3 118 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. seed of the woman, born of a virgin ? Was not his heel bruised, him- seli crucified ? And did he not bruise the serpent’s head, break the power and dominion of Satan? What saith the gospel, For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil, 1 John iii. 8. And the seventy returned again with joy, saying. Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven : behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you, Luke x. 17, &c. And now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out, John xii. 31. And for as much as children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil,” Heb. ii. 1 4. In these and many other places, we find this very promise fulfilled in Christ : and only in Christ : and therefore he, and only he is the seed of the woman (that Hu, it, or he) that shall bruise the serpent’s head. Yet I will not deny, but by way of participation this promise may per¬ tain to the whole body of Christ : “ through him that loved us we are more than conquerors,” saith the apostle, Rom. viii. 37. We may con¬ quer Satan, though not in our own strength but Christ’s; and so in a secondary sense, by way of communication with Christ, under this seed all the faithful are, and may be contained. 1 . Because the head and members are all of one body, “ Both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified are all one,” Heb. ii. 11 2. Because the faithful are called the seed of Christ, ff When thou shalt make his soul an offer¬ ing for sin, he shall save his seed,” Isa. liii. 10. 3. Because Satan doth not only bruise the heel of Christ but of all the faithful, “ All that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution,” 2 Tim. iii. 12. 4. Because Satan’s overthrow, by Christ our head, is diffused to all the members, “ And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly,” Rom. xvi. 20. In this sense many of the ancient and modern divines do extend this seed to the whole body of Christ ; but primarily, originally, especially and properly, it belongs only to Christ, and to none but to the Lord Jesus Christ. He only is the seed by whom the promise is accomplished, though the faithful also are the seed to whom and for wdrom the promise was made. 6. What is the serpent’s head, and the bruising of it? 1. For the serpent’s head, it is the power, rage, reign and kingdom of Satan ; it LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 119 as observed, that in the head of a serpent, lies the strength, power, and life of a serpent ; so by a phrase of speech fitted to the condition of this serpent, that was Satan’s instrument, God tells the devil of the danger of his head, i. e. of his power and kingdom : now, this power and kingdom of Satan consists more especially in sin and death “ for the sting of death is sin,” 1 Cor. xv. 26. And the power of death is in Satan? Ileb. ii. 14. Hence sin and death are usually called the works and wages of Satan : they are his own, he owns them, and carries them at his girdle. 2. For the bruising of his head, it is the overthrowing of Satan’s power : “ he shall bruise thy head,” i. e. Christ shall break thy power ; Christ shall destroy sin, and death, and “ him that had the power of death that is the devil.” I say, Christ shall do it, though, as I have said, in a secondary sense, the faithful shall do it ; Christ over¬ comes by his own power, and the faithful overcome by the power of Christ ; the victory is common to all the seed, but the author of the victory is only Christ, the head and chief of all the seed : “ Ye have overcome the evil one,” 1 John ii. 13. But how ? Not of yourselves, it is “ the God of peace that bruiseth Satan,” Rom. xvi. 20. Well then, here is the sense, the serpent’s head is bruised, i. e. the devil, and sin, and death, and hell are overthrown ; not only the devil in his per¬ son, but the wrorks of the devil, which by the fall he had planted in our natures, as pride, vain glory, ignorance, lust, &c. not only Satan’s works, but the fruits and effects of his works, as death and hell ; so that all the faithful may sing with Paul, “ O death, where is thy sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ? Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ,” 1 Cor. xv. 55, 57. 7- What is the heel of the seed of the woman, and the bruising of it? 1. For the heel, it is the humanity of Christ, according to which Christ properly hath an heel, or (as others) it is the ways of Christ, which Satan by all means he could possibly, would seek to suppress. ft. For the bruising of his heel, it is the miseries, mockings, w'oundings, death and burial of Christ, all which he endured in his heel, i. e. in his humanity ; or it extends further to all the hurts, reproaches, afflictions, and persecutions of the faithful, by the devil and his agents, all which are but as a bruise in the heel, which cannot endanger the spiritual life of their souls. It is observed, that the serpent hath but one head, but the seed of the woman hath two heels : so that the one may be some help, while the other is hurt : besides an hurt in the heel is far from the head and heart ; and though it may be painful, it is not mortal, I 4 120 ROOKING UNTO JESUS. Indeed, Christ’s heel was bruised, L e, he was delivered to death, even to the death of the cross ; yet he rose again from the dead ; neither had the devil any advantage by his death, for as angry bees stinging once, make themselves drones, so the devil, now he may hiss at us, but he cannot hurt us ; by that wound which Christ received at his death, he wounded all his enemies irrecoverably ; the very fight itself was Christ’s triumph ; even then was the kingdom of darkness utterly overthrown ; sin, death and Satan w'ere conquered, and taken captive, and whatso¬ ever might be brought against us was taken away, as the least bill or scroll. O blessed riddle ! “ Out of the eater came forth meat, and out of the strong came forth sweetness,” Judges xiv. 14. In reference to this promise, thou shalt bruise his heel, Christ is said to be “ the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,” Rev. xiii. 8. Here is good news betimes. 8. Amongst whom was the enmity, or this hostile war ? W e find in the text three hosts, and three battles ; as, — 1 . Betwixt Satan and the woman ; “ I will put enmity between thee and the woman ;” i. e. betwixt the seducer and her whom thou hast seduced. This enmity is opposed to the amity and familiarity which had been between the woman and the serpent, and upon that account the woman, and not the man is named ; not but that enmity must be betwixt the devil and the man, as well as betwixt the devil and the woman, but because the woman had more tampered with Satan, and being deceived by Satan, was first in the transgression, therefore is she only named, “ I will put enmity between thee and the woman.” 2. Betwixt Satan’s seed, and the seed of the woman : “ I will put enmity,” not only between thee and the woman, but also “ between thy seed and her seed.” q. d. This enmity shall not cease with the death of the woman, but it shall continue to her seed, and to her seeds seed, even to the end of the world. We see to this day how the ser¬ pent and the serpent’s seed are striving and warring against the church ; and a wonder it is (considering the malice of the enemy) that there is a church upon earth, but only that we have Christ’s promise, “ the gates of hell shall not prevail against it : and lo I am with you always, even to the end of the world,” Matth. xvi. 18. and xviii. 20. 3. Betwixt Christ and the serpent ; O this is a bloody conflict on both sides ! c* he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” 1. “ He shall bruise thy head,” Christ shall break thy power, i. c. the power of the serpent, or of the devil himself ; he fights not so LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 121 much with the seed, as with the serpent ; if Satan be overthrown, his seed cannot stand. 2. “ Thou shall bruise his heel ; thou shall afflict him and his ; thou shall cast out of thy mouth a hood of persecutions ; thou shalt make war with him, and all them which keep the com¬ mandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Rev. xii. 17- I have held you a while in the explication of this first promise, and the rather because of the darkness of it, and the much sweetness that contained in it : it is full of gospel-truths, strike but the flint, and there will fly out these glorious sparkles. 1. That a Saviour was promised from the beginning of the world 2. That this Saviour should free all his saints from sin, death and hell, the head, and power of the devil. 3. That to this end this Saviour should be a Mediator, for God would not grant an immediate pardon, but the promised seed must first intervene. 4. That this Mediator should be of the seed of the woman, that is, a man ; and yet stronger than the devil, endued with a divine power, and so he is God. 5. That this Man- God should according to his priestly office be a sacrifice for sin, the serpent shall bruise his heel, he should suffer and die for the people ; and yet according to his kingly office lie should overcome Satan, for he shall bruise his head, overthrow liis kingdom, and make us more than conquerors in him that loved us. 6. That this promise of Christ, and of our justification is free ; God of mere mercy, and free grace brings forth this promise, there could be now after the fall no merit in man ; and even now he promiseth remission of sins, and life eternal in, for, and through the Lord Jesus Christ. No question but in belief of this promise, the patriarchs and fathers of old obtained life, glory and immortality ee By faith the elders obtained a good re¬ port ; by faith Abel obtained witness that he wras righteous : by faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death : by faith Noah be¬ came heir of the righteousness of Christ,” Heb. xi. 2, 4, 5, 7- And how should it but revive us in these last times, to hear, that the first thing that ever God did after the world was fallen, it was this act of mercy, to make a promise of Christ, and to reconcile lost man to him¬ self through the same Jesus Christ ; surety he began to do that soon, which he meant to be always a doing, even to the end of the world. Thus far of the promise as it was manifested from Adam to Abraham. 122 LOOKING UNTO JISU3. SECT. III. Of the Covenant of Promise , as manifested to Abraham , The second breaking forth of this gracious covenant, was to Abra¬ ham, and now it shines in a more glorious light than it did before ; at first it was propounded in very dark and cloudy terms, not easy to be understood, and most things sparingly expressed, but in this second rise and manifestation, we have it laid down in plainer terms, “ I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee, in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee,” Gen. xvii. 7- For the right understand¬ ing of this, we shall examine these particulars. — 1. What a covenant is ? 2. What is the establishing of this covenant ? 3. Betwixt whom is the covenant to be established ? 4. For what time is the established covenant to endure t 5 . What are the privileges of this covenant ? (). What is the condition of this covenant ? 7. Who is the head both as undertaker, and purchaser, and trea¬ surer upon whom this covenant is established ? 1. What is a covenant ? It is a contract of mutual peace and good will, obliging parties on both hands to the performing of mutual bene¬ fits and offices. Thus was the covenant betwixt God and Abraham ; there was a mutual stipulation in it ; on God’s part to perform his pro¬ mises of temporal, spiritual, and eternal grace ; and on Abraham’s part to receive this grace by faith, and to perform due obedience and thank¬ fulness to Gcd. Hence a little nearer, and we say the covenant is a mutual compact, or agreement betwixt God and man, whereby God promiseth all good things, especially eternal happiness unto man ; and man doth promise to walk before God in all acceptable, free, and will¬ ing obedience, expecting all good from God, and happiness in God, according to his promise ; for the praise and glory of his grace. Others describing the covenant of grace (for with the covenant of works we will not meddle) they give it thus. “ The covenant of grace is a free and gracious compact, which God of his mere mercy in Jesus Christ hath made with sinful man, promising unto him pardon of sins and eternal LOOKING UNTO JESUS. t QO, happiness, if he will but repent of sin, and embrace mercy reaching forth by faith unfeigned ; and walk before God in willing, faithful, and sincere obedience.” — In this description many things are consider¬ able. As, 1. That the author of this covenant is God; not as our Creator, but as our merciful God and Father in Christ Jesus. 2. That the cause of this covenant is not any worth, or dignity, or merit in man, but the mere mercy, love, and favour of God. 3. That the foundation of this covenant is Jesus Christ, in and through whom we are reconcil¬ ed unto God, for since God and man were separated by sin, no covenant can passs betwixt them, no reconciliation can be expected, nor pardon obtained, but in and through a Mediator. 4. That the party covenant¬ ed with, is sinful man ; the fall of our first parents was the occasion of this covenant, and God was pleased to permit the fall, that he might manifest the riches of his mercy in man’s recovery. 5. That the form of this covenant stands on God’s part in gracious and free promises of forgiveness, holiness, happiness ; and on man’s part in a restipulation of such duties as will stand with the free grace and mercy of God in Christ. 6. That the stipulation on man’s part required, is repentance for sin, belief in the promises ; and a yielding of fear, reverence, wor¬ ship and obedience to God according to his word. These I might in¬ sist on, but my purposed brevity will not permit. 2, What is the establishing of this covenant ? Some say, this speaks the duration of it, of which anon. I suppose it intends also the confir¬ mation of it ; we find that the Lord had before made a covenant with Abraham, Gen. xv. 4, 5. And now he doth not abolish the former, and make another, but rather he renews, confirms, and established the former. It may be there was some hesitation or doubting in Abraham so we see, Gen. xv. 2, 3. But now God would assure him infallibly of his will and purpose. O when a man hears that God will vouch¬ safe so much favour as to enter into a covenant with him, he is ready to say as Gideon did, “ Alas ! my family is poor in Manasseh, and I am the least in all my father’s house ; and who am I that I should be raised up hitherto ; that God should make such promises as these to me,” Judges vi. 15. And hence to prevent such objections, the Lord will confirm and establish his covenant ; as, sometimes by his promises ; sometimes by an oath ; sometimes by the blood of Christ himself ; sometimes by seals. So here, in this very place, Gods adds the seal of circumcision, “ Ye shall circumcise the flesh of your fore-skin, (saith God) and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you,” 124 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. Gen. xvii. 11. As sometimes he said of the rainbow, " I do set mv bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth ; — That the water shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh. — For I will look upon the bow, that I may remember the everlasting covenant,” Gen. ix. 13, 15, lt>’ After this manner are the signs and seals of the covenant ; circumcise yourselves, saith God, and when I see the circumcision, I will remember my covenant, and I will make good to you all the promises thereof. But what is circum¬ cision to the covenant? Much every way, circumcision was not with¬ out shedding of blood ; because the covenant was not yet established in the blood of the Messiah. Sure there was much in this ; howso¬ ever the rite of itself was nothing ; yet as it led the faithful patri¬ archs to the blood of Christ, and as it assured the purging away of sin by the blood of Christ, and as it signed the circumcision of the heart by the Spirit of Christ ; so it found acceptance with God. No sooner he looks on it, but he remembers his covenant, and confirms it, and makes it good to Abraham, and to his seed after him. 3. Betwixt whom is the covenant to be established ? “ Between Me and thee (saith God) and thy seed after thee.” The tw o heads of this covenant are God and Abraham ; on God’s part are the whole Trinity of persons, the blessed angels, and all the host of heaven ; on Abraham's part are all liis seed, and his posterity, yet with this limitation, that “ all are not Israel, which are of Israel ; neither because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all children of Abraham ; but in Isaac shall thy seed be called ; that is, they which are the children of the flesh, are not the children of God ; but the children of the promise are count¬ ed for the seed,” Rom. ix. 6, 7. 8. No question this covenant w as not to be extended to the Ishmaelites, Idumeans or Keturians, Abraham’s carnal seed ; these quickly departed both out of Abraham’s family and Abraham’s faith : no, no, saith God, “ I will establish my covenant with Isaac for an everlasting covenant, and w ith his seed after him •” Gen. xvii. 19- With Isaac, and with his seed, i. e. with the spiritual seed of Abraham. Now, under the seed, 1. All believing Jews, and 2. All Gentiles are comprehended ; all may be called the spiritual seed of Abraham that walk in the steps of the faith of Abraham : and indeed thus runs the promise. “ In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed,” Gen. xii. 3. And “ in thee shall all the nations cf the earth be blessed,” Gen. xviii. 18. These families and nations must needs comprehend the Gentiles. The apostle is very plain, “ As it is written, LOOKING UNTO JESUS. TO ,X 1 A L.'- [ have made thee a father of many nations/’ Rom. iv. 17. “ That he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circum¬ cised/’ verse 11. That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles, through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith,” Gal. iii. 14. Christians ! here is our happi¬ ness, the covenant was not “ written for Abraham’s sake alone, but for us also, if we believe in him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,” Rom. iv. 23, 24. You may think all this while, we are only discovering the privileges of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and of the Jews: No, blessed be God, heaven is no freer to a Jew, than to a Gentile ; “ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, male nor female,” &c. “ But if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise,” Gal. iii. 28, 29* 4. For what time is the established covenant to endure ? It is not for a few days, or months, or years, but for ever and ever ; it is an everlasting covenant : and indeed the word established sounds this way ; “ I will establish my covenant,” that is (say some) I will have it stand and continue for ever ; as it was said of David, I have made a cove¬ nant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant, thy seed will I establish for ever,” Psalm lxxxix. 3. And again, “ My mercy will I keep for him for evermore, my covenant shall stand fast with him,” Psal. lxxxix. 28. Now this covenant is said to be everlasting a parte ante (as we say) and a parte post. 1 A parte ante, as being from everlasting in respect of the promise made to Christ for us, which was done (as you have heard) before the foundation of the world : it is not an infant of days ; this covenant bears the same date with the divine being itself ; as the “ mercy of God is from everlasting,” Psalm ciii, 17- so the covenant of grace is from everlasting ; the writs, evidences and charters of our salva¬ tion were concluded, and passed the sign and seal of the blessed Trini¬ ty from eternity ; the gospel and this covenant is not of }-esterday : no, no, it is an old counsel of the infinite wisdom of God. 2. A parte post , as continuing from everlasting to everlasting. Hence it is called, “ A covenant of salt,” 2 Chrcn. xiii. 5. Because it cor- rupteth not, it faileth not ; hence all the blessings of the covenant are said to be everlasting : forgiveness of sins is everlasting, being once forgiven, they are ef never remembered any more,” Jer. xxxi. 34. Peace and joy is everlasting: “ Your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you,” John xvi. 22. Salvation is everlasting . 126 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. “ Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlaing salvation/' Isa. xlv. 17- Decretal covenant mercy was not a lease, but a making the fee-simple (as we call it) of grace and glory to the saints for ever ; death may put an end to other covenants, as betwixt man and man, or betwixt man and wife ; but this covenant betwixt God and us stands fast for ever ; though Abraham be dead, yet God is Abraham’s God still, and by virtue of this covenant Abraham shall be raised up at the last day. 5. What are the privileges of this covenant ? I answer, the privileges of the covenant are many : as, they are great things, and great blessings which our God promiseth, so they are very many and numerous ; the covenant is full of blessings, it is a rich store-house, replenished with all manner of blessings ; it is not dry, nor barren, but like the fat olive or fruitful vine ; it is a well of salvation, a fountain of good things, a treasure full of goods, of unsearchable riches, which can never be emptied, nor come to an end. Hence it is that our finite narrow ca¬ pacities can never apprehend the infinite grace that this covenant con¬ tains ; yet as we may see things darkly as in a map, so let us endea¬ vour, as we are able, to view them in some map, or brief compendium ; that by the little v/e do see, we may be raised up to the consideration of things not seen, which shall be revealed in due time. The privileges of the covenant are folded and wrapped up in the pro¬ mises of it ; every promise contains a privilege ; but the time of unfold¬ ing every promise is not yet come ; then only shall the promises of all Sorts be unfolded, when the heavens “ as a vesture shall be folded up,” Heb. i. 12. In the mean time we have a right and interest in the privileges of eternity by virtue of the promise ; and hence the very terms of a covenant and promise are taken for the same, Eph. ii. 12. Rom. ix. 4. I shall for the present confine myself only to those pro¬ mises and privileges of the covenant, which were manifested to Abra¬ ham. And they were. Of Things Temporal and Spiritual. 1. Of things temporal. Thus we read God promiseth Abraham, “ I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great ; and thou shalt be a blessing, and I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee, and unto thy seed will I give this land,” Gen. xii. 2, 3, 7- We may add hereto the repetitions that God makes of these promises over and over, “ Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art, northward, and south- LOOKING UNTO JESUS, 127 ward, and eastward, and westward, for all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever. And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the dust of the earth: then shall thy seed also be numbered.” Gen. xiii. 14, 15, 16*. “ And the Lord brought forth Abraham abroad, and said. Look now towards heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them : and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be,” Gen. xv. 5. And the Lord again appeared unto Abraham, and said, I will make my covenant be¬ tween me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly ; and thou shalfc be a father of many nations, neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be Abraham, for a father of many nations have I made thee. And I will make thee exceeding fruitful, and I will make nations of thee, and kings shall come out of thee. And I will give unto thee, and thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession, Gen. xvii. 2, 4, 5, 6, 8. “ By myself have I sworn, saith the Lord, that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of heaven, and as the sand upon the sea shore, and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies,” Gen. xxii. 16, 17. See here the temporal blessings that God promises Abraham, they are heaped together in Gen. xii. 2, 8, 7. As, 1. “ I will make of the a great nation; and this he promiseth once and again ; it seemed a thing incredible, because Abraham was old, and Sarah was barren and old, and it ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women ; yet for all this God is all sufficient : Abraham shall have his desire, he shall be a father, not only of a few children, but of a numerous nation ; yea, of many nations, Ishmaelites, and Midianites, and that famous nation of the Jews (of whom it is said, “ What nation is so great ?” Deut. iv. 7, 8.) must all descend from Abraham. Scrip¬ ture and Heathen authors use these three things proverbially, to signify an huge and exceeding great number, the dust of the earth, and the sands of the sea, and the stars of heaven ; and all these are brought in to resemble the number into which the seed of Abraham should break forth, 2. “ I will bless thee,” saith God ; and this blessing had relation to his wealth and riches, “ Abraham was very rich in cattle, in silver, and in gold,” Gen. xiii. 2. No question those riches came from this blessing ; “ The blessing of the Lord maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it,” Prov. x. 22. This was God’s care of the children of Abraham, that he would give them riches,, but least their hearts should 1-24* LOOKING UNTO JE3U3. be lifted ap, and they should forget the Lord in the midst of their riches, he learns them, and bids them remember this lesson, “ Say not in thine heart. My power and the might of my hand hath gotten me this wealth ; but remember the Lord thy God, for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth, that he may establish his covenant, which he sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day,” Dent. viii. 17, 18. True riches come from God, and by virtue of this covenant : O that none of us had any wealth, but such as comes by virtue of a promise, and of the covenant of grace ? 3v I will make thy name great, saith God ; and no monarch ever was so famous in conquering nations, or the whole world, as Abraham for his faith and obedience ; God hath magnified his name amongst the Hebrews, who, for these three thousand years and upward, have ac¬ knowledged none (except Moses) greater than Abraham : the Jews could say to very Christ, “ Art thou greater than our father Abraham ? - — Whom makest thou thyself?” John viii. 53. And God hath so mag¬ nified his name amongst Christians, that all believers look upon it as a glory to be called children of Abraham : nay, we cannot be Christ’s, we have no part in Christ unless we be Abraham’s “ sqed, and heirs according to the promise,” Gal. iii. 29. 4. “ Unto thy seed will I give this land,” saith God, as “ an ever¬ lasting possession,” Gen. xvii. 8. But how should that which the Is¬ raelites possessed only for a time, be called an everlasting possession ? The answer is. That the word translated everlasting, doth not ever signify that which shall have no end ; but an age, a term, or continu¬ ance ; as it was said of Samuel, “ He should appear before the Lord, and there abide for ever,” 1 Sam. i. 22. i. e. As long as he lived. And “ I will praise the Lord (saith David) for ever and ever,” Psalm cxlv. 1, 2. i. e. While I live will I praise the Lord. “ As long as I shall have any being I will sing praises unto my God,” Psal. exlvi. 2. And the desolations of the captivity were called, “ Perpetual desolations,” Jer. xxv. 9* 2* e. Long desolations, even for seventy years. Touching these blessings, or privileges, I have no more to say but this, that God gave more of the temporal, less of the spiritual to the natural seed in the first ages, but in the latter ages, more of the spirit¬ ual privileges, and less of the temporal; yea, and thus it is this day, for the most part among the Christian seed of the Gentiles: “ For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called,” 1 Cor. i. 26, LOOKING UNTO JESUS 12.9 2. Of tilings spiritual, thus we read, “ Fear not, Abraham, I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward ; I am God all-sufficient, or omnipotent, the almighty God ; and I will be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee,” Gen. xv. 1. and xvii. 1. 7* O what precious pro¬ mises are these ! 1. I am thy shield, to keep thee from all evil ; such a shield as that no creature can pierce through, such a shield as shall cover thee over ; nay, such a shield as shall cover thee about ; as sometimes God spoke of Jerusalem. “ I, saith the Lord, will be unto her a wall of fire round about,” Zech. ii. 5. So here, I will be a shield, a wall of fire round about : not only a wall to keep thee safe, but a wall of fire to consume all them that are against thee ; as a fire which stands about like a wall, doth not only defend those that are within, but it burns those without that come near unto it ; so is God to his people. 2. I am thy exceeding great reward ; I am the almighty God ; I will be a God unto thee. This is the very soul of the uovenant, and of all the promises of God : q. d. Quantus, quantus sim vester ero ; all I am is thine, myself, ray goods, my glory, whatsoever is in me, all that I have, and all my attributes are thine ; my power, my wisdom, my counsel, my goodness, my riches, whatsoever is mine in the whole world, I will give it thee for thy portion ; I and all that I have are thine, for thy use ; Christians was not this an exceeding great reward ? Who can under¬ stand the height, and depth, and length and breadth of this reward ? Surely, “ Happy is the people that is in such a case ; yea, happy is that people whose God is the Lord,” Psalm cxliv. 15. But more of this hereafter. 6. What is the condition of this covenant ? I answer. The condition of the covenant of grace is faith, and only faith ; to this purpose it is said of Abraham, “ He believed in the Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness,” Gen. xv. 6. Rom. iv. 3. Gal. iii. 6. James ii. 23. This text is often alleged by the apostles, the word believed imports. That he thought the word of God to be sure, certain, stable and con¬ stant : it is such a belief as is opposed to fainting : as it is said of Ja¬ cob, when he heard the report of his sons, that Joseph was alive, his heart fainted, Gen. xlv. 26. Because he believed not : but when he believed, his heart revived : and David said of himself, “ I had fainted, unless I had believed,” Psal: xxvii. 13. So that it is a lively motion of the heart, assenting unto, and trusting on God, and in the word of God as firm and constant. This wast he very condition of the covenant K VOL. L 130 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. which God required of Abraham, q. d. Abraham, dost thou believe that such a Messiah shall be sent into the world ! Art thou able to believe t Yes, I believe. Lord, said Abraham. Well, said God, I will put thee to the trial : I will give thee a son, though thou art as a dead man, and Sarah as a dead woman ; yet I will promise thee a son, art thou able to believe ? Again, thou seest the land of Canaan, thou hast not one foot in it, yet I will give thee this land, the length and breadth of it for thy possession, art thou able to believe this ? You will say. What are these to the condition of the covenant, which is only to believe in God, and in Jesus Christ? O yes, 1. These were shadows of the great promise, Christ : and therefore that act of faith, whereby Abraham be¬ lieved that he should have a son, and that his children should possess the land of Canaan, was likewise a branch, a shadow, a pledge of that main act of faith, whereby he believed the promised seed, in whom himself and all the nations of the earth should be blessed. But, 2, Let this be remembered, that Abraham did not only believe the temporal promises, but every promise ; as I will be thy shield, and thy exceed¬ ing great reward : now, who is our shield but Christ, and who is our reward but Christ. But especially he believed the promise of the seed, and who is the head of the seed but Christ ? And who is our re¬ ward but Christ ? Yea, he believed in that promised seed, in whom all the nations of the earth should bo blessed ; and who was that but Christ? “ Your father Abraham (saith Christ) rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad,” John viii. 56. He saw it, how could he see it ? Thou art not yet fifty years old, (said the Jews) and hast thou seen Abraham? Or could Abraham see thee, or thy day? Yes, even then he saw it, when he believed in Christ : he could see it no other- ways but by an eye of faith : and therefore no question he believed in Christ, and that was counted to him for righteousness. But (may some say) if faith alone be the condition of the covenant, then what need is there of any obedience, or works of holiness ? — Tins was the old plea of loose libertines in the apostles times, to whom James gave an answer, “ But wilt thou know, O vain man that faith without works is dead,” James ii. 20. “ A good tree (saith Christ) is know n by its fruit?” and so is right and sound faith: let a man believe in truth, and he cannot but love ; and if he love, he cannot but be full of good works : thus Abraham was justified by faith, “ Abraham believed God (saith the apostle :) and it was imputed to him for righteousness.” But was not this faith accompanied with works? observe but (saith the LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 131 apostle) when God bid him offer his son, did he not do it ? And was not that an exceeding great work ? Surely “ his faith wrought with his works, and by faith was works made perfect/' James ii. 23. compared with 21, 22. 7. Who is the head, both as undertaker and purchaser, and treasurer upon whom this covenant is established ? I answer Christ, and none but Christ. “ All the promises of God in him are, yea, and Amen, unto the glory of God by us,” 2 Cor. i. 20. This was very darkly held forth in the first manifestation of the covenant to Adam ; but now in this second breaking forth of it, it is very fully expressed, and often repeated; thus, Gen. xii, 3. “In thee shall all the families of the earth be blessed.” And Gen. xviii. 18. “ All the nations of the earth shall be blessed in Abraham.” And Gen. xxii. 1 8. “ In thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed See Gen. xxvi. 4. and xxviii. 14. In comparing these texts, we have a clear understanding thereof; in thee, in Abraham shall all the families and nations of the earth be blessed ; but lest Abraham himself should be thought author of this universal blessing, therefore is the explication. “ In thee, i. e. in thy seed ; and this seed, saith the apostle very expressly, is Jesus Christ.” “ Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, and to seeds, as of many ; but as of one, and to thy seed which is Christ,” Gal. iii. 1 6. So then here is the sense ; out of thy posterity shall spring the Messiah, by whom not only thy posterity, but all the nations of the earth shall be blessed. You may remember in the first promise Christ was called the seed of the woman ; but now the seed of Abraham ; Christ was the son of Eve, or (if you will) the son of Mary, and so the seed of the woman ; and Mary was a daughter of Abraham, and so Christ, and Mary, and all upwards were of the seed of Abraham. But where shall we find mention of the passion of Christ in this express sure of his covenant to Abraham ? In the first manifestation it was in¬ cluded in that phrase of bruising his heel ; and surely this is essential to the covenant of grace in any overture of it ; some answer, that this is thrice put on in the passage of this covenant with Abraham ; first, in the federal confirmation, by “ the smoking furnace, and burning lamp, that passed between those pieces of the sacrifice,” Gen. xv. 17- As the sacrifice was divided, so was Christ’s body torn ; and as the smo¬ king furnace, and burning lamp passed between the divided pieces, so the wrath of God run betwixt, (as I may say) and yet did not consume the rent and tom nature of Christ. In that federal confirmation by the Iv Q I 135 - LOOKING UNTO JESUS. sign of circumcision : there could not be circumcision without shedding of blood, and where God commands shedding of blood in any of his ancient ordinances, it doth certainly reach to the blood of Christ, and his everlasting testament. 3. In the resolved sacrifice of Isaac, which was a plain type of the death of Christ, Gen. xxii. 10. See it in these particulars, 1. Isaac was Abraham’s son, his only son, his innocent son, the beloved son of his hither, and yet Abraham freely offers up his son ; so Christ was the Son of God, his only Son, his innocent Son, “ like to us in all things, sin only excepted and the beloved Son of his Father, “ this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased;” and yet God more freely offers up his Son out of his own bosom. 2. Abraham by God’s commission rose up early in the morn¬ ing to sacrifice his son ; and the Jews by God’s permission rise early in the morning to condemn the Son of God ; and hence he is called the Hind of the morning, Psal. xxii. 16. compassed wdth dogs that hunted and pursued his life. 3. Abraham must offer up his son upon the mount, the very mount on which Solomon’s temple v/as built, which typified the body of Jesus Christ, John ii. 19 So God offered his Son upon the mount, if not on the same mount (as Augustine thinks) yet on a mountain not far distant from it ; Golgotha was the very skirt of Moriah ; the one being within the gates of the city, and the other not far without, the very nearest to the city of all. 4. Abraham first laid the wood on Isaac, and then he laid Isaac on the wood : so God first lays the cross on Christ, “ He bearing his cross, went forth unto a place called the place of a scull,” John xix. 17, 18. And then he lays Christ on the cross ; there they crucified him, saith John : or there they bound him to the cross, and fastened his hands and feet thereto with nails. 5. Isaac must be offered alone, the servants must stay at the foot of the hill, little knowing the business and sorrow in hand ; so Christ must tread the wine-press alone ? Isa. lxiii. 3. The disciples fear and flee, and little consider the agony of their master. 6. Abra¬ ham carries in his hand the sword and fire against his son ; so God carries in his hand the sword and fire, the sword signifying the justice of God, the fire his burning wrath against the sons of men : and both these were bent against Christ, in whom the justice of God is satisfied, and the dame of his wrath extinct and quenched. That this was a plain type of Christ’s passion, is hinted at in the blessing that Gcal speaks to Abraham after this trial: this day have I begotten thee,’» Psal. ii. 6, 7. Acts xiii. 33. “ The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool. The , Lord shall send forth the rod of thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies,” Psal. cx. l, 2. 6. That he must be a priest, as well as a king ; and a sacrifice, as LOOKING UNTO JESUS* 157 well as a priest ; “ The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent. Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec,” Psal. ex. 4. Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest 'wickedness, therefore God, thy God hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows, Heb. v. 6\ Psal. xlv. 7- *. e. Above all Christians, who are thy fellows, con¬ sorts, and partners in the anointing ; “ Sacrifice and burnt-offering thou wouldst not have, but mine ear hast thou bored ; burnt-offering, and sin-offering hast thou not required. Then, said I, Lo, I come, in the volume of thy book it is written of me, that l should do thy will, O God,” Psal. xl. 6, 7 • Heb. x, 5, 6, 7* Mine ears hast thou bored, or digged open ; the Septuagint , to make the sense plainer, say,- “ But a body hast thou fitted to me, or prepared for me,” meaning that his body was ordained and fitted to be a sacrifice for the sins of the world, when other legal sacrifices were refused as unprofitable. O see how clearly Christ is revealed in this expressure of the covenant ! it was never thus before. And thus far of the covenant of promise, as it was manifested from David till the captivity. SECT. VI. Of the Covenant of Promise , as manifested to Israel about the Time of the Captivity. The great breaking forth of this gracious covenant was to Israel about the time of their captivity. By reason of that captivity of Babylon, Israel was almost clean destroyed ; and therefore then it was high time, that the Lord should appear like a sun after a stormy rain, and give them some clearer light of Christ, and of this covenant of grace than ever yet. He doth so, and it appears especially in these words, “ Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah ; not according to the covenant which I made with their fathers in the 4 day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, (which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord:) but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying. Know LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 158 the Lord : for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more,” Jer. xxxi. 31, 32, 33, 34. In this expression of the covenant we shall examine these particulars. — 1 . Why is it called a new covenant ? 2. Wherein the expressure of this covenant doth excel the former which Cod made with their fathers? 3. How doth God put the law into our inward parts? 4. What is it to have the law written in our hearts ? 5. How are we taught of God, so as not to need any other kind of teaching comparatively ? 6. What is the universality of this knowledge in, “ That all shall know me, saith the Lord ?” 7. How is God said to forgive iniquity, and never more to remem¬ ber sin ? 1. Why is it called a new covenant? I answer. It is called new, either in respect of the late and new blessings which God vouchsafed Israel in bringing back their captivity with joy, and planting them in their own land again ; or it is called new in respect of the excellency of this covenant : thus the Hebrews were wont to call any thing excellent, new, “ O sing unto the Lord a new song,” Psal. xevi. 1 . That is, an excellent song ; or it is called new, in contradiction to the covenant of promise before Christ came ; in this latter sense the very same words here are repeated in the epistle to the Hebrews, “ Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and the house of Judah. In that he saith, A new covenants he hath made the first old ; now that which decay eth, and waxeth old, is ready to vanish away,” Heb. viii. 8, 18. The new covenant is usually understood in the latter sense ; it is new because diverse from that which Gad made with their fathers before Christ ; it hath a new wor¬ ship, new adoration, a new form of the church, new witnesses, new tables, new sacraments and ordinances ; and these never to be abro¬ gated or disannulled, never to wax old, as the apostle speaks ; yet in respect of those new blessings which God bestowed upon Israel imme¬ diately after the captivity, this very manifestation may be called new, and in reference to this, “ Behold the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no more say. The Lord iiveth which brought up the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt, but the Lord Iiveth which brought up, and which led the seed of the house of Israel cut of the north LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 15 9 country, and from all countries whither I had driven them, and they shall dwell in their own land,” Jer. xxiii. 7, 8. 2. Wherein doth the expressure of this covenant excel the former which God made with their fathers ? I answer, — 1. It excels in the very tenor,- or outward administration of the co¬ venant : for this covenant after it once began, continued without in¬ terruption, until Christ, whereas the former was broken, or did expire. Hence God calls it if a new covenant,: — not according to the covenant which 1 made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of the land of Egypt, which 1113/ covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord.” In this respect it might be called new, or at least it may be called an inchoa- tion of the new, because it continued till Christ, which no other ex¬ pressure of the covenant did before, and so it excelled all the former. 2. It excels in the spiritual benefits and graces of the Spirit. We find that under this covenant they were more plentifully bestowed upon the church than formerly, mark the promises, “ I will set mine eyes upon them for good, and I will bring them again to this land, and I will build them, and not pull them down, and I will plant them, and not pluck them up ; and I will give them an heart to know me, that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, for they shall return unto me with their whole heart. — Again, I will shake all nations, and the desire of all nations shall come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the Lord of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts : the glory of this latter house shall be greater than the former, saith the Lord of hosts, Hag. ii. 7, 8, 9- And I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts ; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people, and they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying. Know the Lord ; for they shall ail know me, from the least of them, unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more,” Jer. xxxi. 33, 34 3. It excels in the discovery and revelation of the Mediator, in and through whom the covenant was made. In the former expressions we discovered much ; yet in none of them was so plainly revealed the time of his coming, the place of his birth, his name, the passage of his na¬ tivity, his humiliation and kingdom, as we find them in this. X. Concerning the time of his corning, “ Seventy weeks arc determine i6o LOOKING ONTO JESUS. ed upon thy people, and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy,” Dan. ix. 24. 2. Concerning the place of his birth ; (i But thou Bethlehem Ephra- tah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be Ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting,” Micah v, 2. 3. Concerning his name ; “ Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulders ; and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, the mighty God, the ever¬ lasting Father, the Prince of peace, Isa. ix. 6. In his days Judahshall be saved, and Israel shall dwell safely : and this is his name whereby he shall be called. The Lord our righteousness, Jer. xxiii. 6. Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a Son, and thou, O virgin, shalt call his name Emmanuel,” Isa. vii. 14. 4. Concerning the passages of his nativity, that he should be born of a virgin, Isa. vii. 14. That at his birth all the infants round about Bethlehem should be slain, Jer. xxxi. 15. That John the Baptist should be his prodromus, or forerunner, to prepare his way, Mai. iii. 1. That he should flee into Egypt, and be recalled thence again, Hosea xi. 1. I might add many particulars of this kind. 5. Concerning his humiliation, Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows : yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities : the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes were we healed. — Pie was oppressed, and he was afflicted : yet he opened not his mouth. — He was taken from pri¬ son, and from judgment, and who shall declare his generation ? He was cut off out of the land of the living : for the transgression of my people was he stricken.— It pleased the Lord to bruise him ; he hath put him to grief,— Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors,” and he bare the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgres¬ sors,” Isa. liii. 4, 5, 7, 8. One would think this were rather an history, than a prophecy of Christ’s sufferings ; you may, if you will take the pains, see the circumstances of his sufferings ; as, that he was sold for LOOKING UNTO JESUS. l6i thirty pieces of silver, Zech. xi. 12. And that with those thirty pieces of silver there was bought afterwards a potter’s field, Zech. xi. 1 3. That he must ride into Jerusalem before his passion on hn ass, Zech. ix. 9- I might seem tedious if I should proceed. 6. Concerning his kingdom ; “ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, shout, O daughter of Jerusalem, behold, thy King coineth unto thee ; he is just, and having salvation, lowly, and riding on an ass, and up¬ on a colt the foal of an ass,” Zech. ix. 9* Isa. lxii. 11. Matth. xxi. 5. Behold a King, behold thy King, behold thy King cometh, and he comes unto thee. 1. He is a King, and therefore able. 2. He is thy King, and therefore willing. Wonderful love, that he would come ; but more wonderful was the manner of his coming ; he that before made man a soul after the image of God, then made himself a body after the image of man. And thus we see how this covenant excels the former in every of these respects. 3. Hove doth God put the law into our inward parts ? I answer, God puts the law into our inward parts, by enlivening, or qualifying of a man with the graces of God’s Spirit suitable to his commandment. First, There is the law of God without us, as we see it, or read it in scripture, but when it is put within us, then God hath wrought an in¬ ward disposition in our minds, that answers to the law without us. For example, this is the law without, “ Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength /' Deut. vi. 5. To answer which there is a promise, “ I will circumcise thy heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,” Deut. xxx. 6. Now when this promise is fulfilled : wrhen God hath put the affections and grace of love within our hearts, when the habit of love is within, answerable in all things to the command without, then is the law put in our inward parts. Again, this is the law without. “ Thou shall fear the Lord, and keep his ordinances, and his statutes, and his commandments to do them,” Deut. xiii. 4. To answer wrhich there is a promise, “ I will make a covenant with you, and I will not turn away from you to do you good, but I will put my fear in your hearts that you shall not de¬ part from me,” Jer. xxxii. 40. Now, when this promise is accom¬ plished, when God hath put the affection and grace of fear within our hearts, when the habit of fear is within, answerable to that command without, then is the law put into our hearts. Surely this is mercy that God saith in his covenant, “ I will put my law In their inward parts M VOL. I. LOOKING JNTO JESUS, 1 63 many a time a poor soul cries out, it is troubled with such a lust, ana he cannot keep this and that commandment, he cannot out- wrestle such and such strong inclinations to evil, O but then go to God, and press him with this, “ Lord, it is a part of thy covenant, thou hast said thou wilt circumcise my heart : thou hast said thou wilt put thy law into my inward parts : thou hast said thou wilt dissolve these lusts. Lord, I beseech thee do it for thy covenant’s sake.” — But here is another question. How may w e know this inward work of grace, this law in our in¬ ward parts ? The best way to satisfy our doubts in this, is to look within : open we the door, and the closet of our hearts, and see what lies nearest and closest there : that we say is intimate, and within a man, which lies next to his heart : “ He that loveth father or mother more than me, (saith Christ) is not worthy of me,” Matt. x. 3 7- We know" the love of father and mother is a most natural thing : it comes not by teaching, but it is inbred in us as soon as v/e are born, and yet if we love not Christ more than these, if Christ lie not closer to our hearts than father or mother, we are not worthy of Christ. Our natu¬ ral life is a most inward and deep thing in a man, it lies very near the heart, “ Skin for skin (said the devil once truly) and all that a man hath will he give for his life,” Job ii. 4. “ Butlie that hates not father and mother — yea, and his own life also, (said Christ) he cannot be my disciple,” Luke xiv. 26. Hence the apostle, to express this intimate, inward life of grace, he saith, “ I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, the life which I now live in the flesh, 1 live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me,” Gal. ii. 20. What an emphatical strong expression is this, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me ? q. d, I live not the life of sense, I breathe net bodily breath, that is comparatively, to the life of faith : his very natu¬ ral life, though inward, is said not to be lived in respect of this life of grace, which is more inward.. And let this serve for resolution to that question. 4. What is it to have the iawr written in our hearts ? This writing contains the former, and is something more, the metaphor is expressed in these particulars. — L It is said to be written, That there might be something w ithin answerable to the law without, it was written without, and so is written within. This writing is the very same with copying, or transcribing. The writing within is every way answerable to the writing without : i LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 163 Oh ! what a mercy is this. That the same God who wrote the law’ with his own iimjer in tables of stone, should also write the same law with the finger of his Spirit in the tables of our hearts ? As you see in a seal, when yon put the seal on the wax, and you take it off again, you find in the wax the same impression that vras on the seal ; so it is in the hearts of the faithful, when the Spirit hath once softened them, then he writes the law, i. e. he stamps an inward aptness, an inward disposition on the heart answering to every particular of the law ; this is that which the apostle calls the law of the mind, I see another law' in my members warring against the law of my mind, Rom. vii. 23. Now, what is this law' in the mind, but a disposition w ithin, to keep in some measure every commandment of the law without? And this is the writing of the lawr ; (or if you will) the copying or transcribing of the law within us. 2. It is said to be written, that it might be rooted and riveted in the heart, as, when letters are engraven in marble, so is the manner of God’s writing ; if God write, it call never be obliterated or blotted out ; letters in marble are not easily worn out again, no more are the writings of God’s Spirit ; some indeed would have them as writings in dust : but if Pilate could say, “ What I have written, I have written,” how much more may God ? Hence are all those promises of perfor¬ mance : “ My covenant shall stand fast with him,” Psal. Ixxxix. 28. and “ the root of the righteous shall not be moved,” Prov. xii. 3. And “ even to your old age I am he ; and even to hoary hair will I carry you,” Isa. xlvi. 4. I deny not but men of glorious gifts may fall aw*av, but surely the poorest Christian that hath but the smallest measure of grace, he shall never fall away ; if the law be written in our hearts, if still remains there ; grace habitual is not removcable ; sooner w'ill the sun discard its own beams, than Christ will desert or destroy the least measure of true grace, w'hich is a beam from the Sun of righteousness. 3. It is said to be written, that it might be as a thing legible to God^ to others, and ourselves. 1. To God, he writes it that he may read it, and take notice of it, he exceedingly delights himself in the graces of liis own Spirit : and therefore the spouse after this writing, after the planting of his graces in her, she desires him to “ come into his gar¬ den, and eat his pleasant fruits,” Cant. iv. 16. q. d. Come, read what thou hast written ; come, and delight thyself in the graces of thy own Spirit. The only delight that God has in the world is in his garden, a gracious soul : and that he might more delight in it, he makes ift M 2 1 64 LOOKING UNTO JESU5- fruitful, (and those fruits are precious fruits) as growing from plants set by his own hand, relishing of his own Spirit, and so fitted for his own taste. 2. The law is written that it might be legible to others. So Paul tells the Corinthians. (t You are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ/’ 2 Cor. iii. 2, 3. How manifestly declared ? Why, known and read of all men. As we are able to read letters graven in stone : so may others read and see the fruits and effects of the law written in our hearts. And good reason, for wheresoever God works the principles of grace within, it cannot but shew itself in the outwrard life and conversation. It is God’s promise. First, “ I will put my Spirit within them,” Ezek. xxxvi. 27. And then,. I will cause them to walk in my statutes, and it is God’s truth, “ Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh,” Matt. xii. 34. What the mind thinketh, the hand worketh. 3. The law is written. That it may be legible to ourselves, a gracious heart is privy to its own grace and sin¬ cerity, when it is in a right temper : if others may read it by its fruits, how much more we ourselves, who both see the fruits, and feel that habitual disposition infused into us ? Nor is this without its blessed use, for by this means we come to have a comfortable evidence both of God’s love to us, and of our love to God. You see now what we mean, by this writing of the law within us. 5. How are we taught of God, so as not to need any other kind of teaching comparatively ? I answer, — 1. God teacheth inwardly, “ In the hidden part thou hast made me know wisdom,” saith David. And again, “ I thank the Lord, that gave me counsel, my reins also instruct me in the night season,” Psal. li. 6. and 16, 17- The reinsure the most inward parts of the body, and the night season, the most retired, and private time : both express the intimacy ^of divine teaching. Man may teach the brains, but God only teacheth the reins ; the knowledge which man teacheth is swim¬ ming knowledge ; but the knowledge which Got! teacheth is a soaking knowledge. “ God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, hath shined into our hearts man’s light may shine into the head ; but God’s light doth shine into the heart : Cathedram habit in cedis qni corda docet ; his chair is in heaven that teacheth hearts, saith Austin. 2. God teacheth clearly $ Elihu offering himself instead of God to reason with Job, lie tells him, cc My words shall be of the uprightness ol my heart, and my lips shall utter knowledge clearly,” Job xxxiii. 3. If ever the word come home to an heart, it comes with a convincing LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 1 65 clearness ; so the apostle, “ Our gospel came unto you, not in word only, but in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much full assu¬ rance,” 1 Thess. i. 5. The word hath a triple emphasis, assurance, full assurance, and much full assurance ; here is clear work. 3. God teacheth experimentally ; the soul that is taught of God can speak experimentally of the truths it knows : “ I know whom I have believed,” saith Paul, 2 Tim. i. 13. I have experienced his faithful¬ ness and all-sufficiency, I dare trust my all with him, I am sure he will keep it safe to that day. Common knowledge rests in generals ; but they that are taught of God can say, “ As we have heard, so have we seen f they can go along with every truth, and say it is so, indeed ; I have experienced this and that word upon my own heart. In this case the scripture is the original, and their heart is the copy of it, as you have heard ; they can read over the promises and threatenings, and say, Prohatum est. David in his psalms, and Paul in his epistles, speak their very hearts, and feel their very temptations, and make their very objections ; they can set to their seal that God is true, John iii. 33. They can solemnly declare by their lives and conversations, that God is true and faithful in his word and promises. 4. God teacheth sweetly and comfortably : “ thou hast taught me,” saith David, and then it follows, “ How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yen, sweeter than honey to my mouth,” Psal cxix. 102, 103. He rolled the word and promises as sugar under his tongue, and suck¬ ed from thence more sweetness than Sampson did from his honey¬ comb : Luther said, “ He would not live in paradise, if he must live without the word.” Cum vcrbo in inferno, facile est vivere, Tom. 4. oper. lat. “ But with the word (said he) I could live in hell.” When Christ puts his hand by the hole of the door to teach the heart, “ Her bowels were moved, and then her fingers dropt upon the handles of the lock, sweet smelling myrrh,” Cant. v. 5. The teachings of Christ left such blessings upon the first motions of the spouse’s heart, that with the very touch of them she is refreshed ; her fingers dropt myrrh, and her bowels are moved at the very moments of his gracious teach¬ ings : So, in Cant. i. 3. “ Because of the savour of thy ointments, thy name is as an ointment poured forth, therefore do the virgins love thee. * Christ in ordinances doth as Mary, open a box of ointments, which dif- fuseth a spiritual savour in church-assemblies, and this only the spiri¬ tual Christian feels. Hence the church is compared to “ a garden shut up, a fountain sealed,” Cant. iv. 12. Wicked men are not able to M 3 166 LOOKING UNTO JESUS* drink of her delicacies, or smell of her sweetness ; a spiritual sermon is a fountain sealed up, the spiritual administration of a sacrament is garden inclosed : “ Sometimes, O Lord, thou givest me a strange mo¬ tion, or affection (said Aug. lib. 1 6. Confess, c. 40.) which if it were but perfected in me, I could not imagine what it should be but eternal life.” Christians ! these are the teachings of God, and in reference to this, <rn,” and of a mighty God. But how he should be God and man LOOKING UNTO JESUS. in one person, it was very darkly revealed. 2. Concerning the offices of Christ, his mediatorship was typed out by Moses, his priesthood was typed out by Melchisedec among the Canaanites, and Aaron among the Jews, his prophetical office was typed out by “ Noah a preacher of righ¬ teousness his kingly office was typed out by David ; but how dark these things were unto them, we may guess by the apostles, who knew not that he should die, who dreamed of an earthly kingdom ; and till the Holy Ghost came, were ignorant of many things pertaining to the kingdom of God. 3. Concerning the benefits that come by Christ ; justification was signified by the sprinkling of blood, and sanctification by the water of purification; heaven and glorification by their land flowing with oil olive, and honey : thus the Lord shewed the Jews these principal mysteries, not in themselves, but in types and shadows, as they were able to see them from day to day : but in the new cove¬ nant Christ is offered to be seen in a fuller view ; the truth, and sub¬ stance, and body of the things themselves is not exhibited ; Christ is clearly revealed without any type at all to be our “ wisdom, righteous¬ ness, sanctification, and redemption,” 1 Cor. i. 30. 7- In the number of them that partake of the covenant ; at first the covenant was included in the families of the patriarchs, and then with¬ in the confines of Judea, but now is the partition wrall betwixt Jew and Gentile broken down, and the covenant of grace is made with all na¬ tions, “ He is the God of the Gentiles also, and not of the Jews only/ Rom. iii. 29* Christians ! here comes in our happiness ; Oh how thankful should we be ! what ? That our fathers for many hundreds * and thousands of years together should sit in darkness, and that we should partake of this grace ? What ! that we that were dogs before, should now be set at the children’s table? The very Jews themselves hearing of this, are said “ to glorify God, When they heard these things, they held their peace, and glorified God, saying, then hath God also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life,” Acts xi. 18. If they praised God for it, how much more should we do it ourselves ? But of that hereafter. I have now propounded the object we are to look unto, it is Jesus as held forth in a way of promise or covenant, in that dark time from the creation, till his first coming in the flesh ; our next business is to di¬ rect you in the art or mystery of grace, how you are to look to him in this respect. LOOKING UNTO JESUS, CHAP. II. SECT. I. Of knowing Jesus as carrying on the great Work of our Salvation from the Creation until his first coming. Looking comprehends knowing, considering, desiring, &c. as you have heard ; and accordingly that we may practise. 1. We must know Jesus carrying on the great work of our salvation in the beginning, and from the beginning of the world ; come let us learn what he did for us so early in the morning of this world : he made it for us, and he made us more especially for his own glory ; but presently after we were made, we sinned and marred the image where¬ in God made us ; this was the saddest act that ever was : it wras the un¬ doing of man, and (without God’s mercy) the damning of all souls both of men and women to all eternity ; O my soul ! “ Know this for thyself,” thou was in the loins of Adam at that same time, so that wrhat he did, thou didst ; thou was partaker of his sins, and thou wast to partake with him in his punishment : but well mayest thou say, “ Bles¬ sed be God for Jesus Christ,” at the very instant wrhen all should have been damned, Christ intervened ; a covenant of grace is made with mar*, and Christ is the foundation, in and through whom we must be recon¬ ciled unto God : come, soul, and study this covenant of grace in refer¬ ence to thyself. Had not this been, where hadst thou been ? Nay, where had all the world been at this day ? Surely it concerns thee to take notice of this great transaction. After man had fallen by sin, Christ is promised ; and that all the saints might partake of Christ, a covenant is entered ; this at the beginning of the world was more dim, but the nearer to Christ’s coming in the flesh, the more and more clear¬ ly it appeared : howsoever dimly, or clearly, thus it pleased God in Christ to carry on the great work of our salvation at that time, viz. By a promise of Christ, and by a covenant in Christ : and for thy better knowledge of it, study the promise made to Adam, and Abraham, and Moses, and David, and Israel. Come, soul, study these several break¬ ings out of the covenant of grace ; it is worth thy pains, it is “ a mystery which hath been hid from ages, and from generations, but now is made manifest to the saints,” Col. i. 26. Here lies the first and most firm foundation of a Christian’s comfort ; if thou canst but study this* 174 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. and assure thyself of thy part in this., thou art blessed for ever. O how incomparably sweet and satisfying is it to a self-studying Christian, to know the faithful engagements of the Almighty God, through that Son of his loves, in a covenant of grace. SECT. II. Of considering Jesus in that Respect. We must consider Jesus carrying on the great work of our salvation in that dark time ; it is not enough to study it, and know it, but we must seriously muse and meditate, and ponder, and consider of it, till we bring it to some profitable issue. This is the consideration I mean, when we hold our thoughts to this, or that spiritual subject, till we perceive success, and the work do thrive and prosper in our hands. Now, to help us in this. — - 1. Consider Jesus in that first promise made to man, “ It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel,” Gen. iii. 15. When all men were under the guilt of sin, and in the power of Satan, and when thou, my soul wert in as bad a case as any other, then to hear the sound of’ this glad tidings, then to hear of Jesus a Saviour and Redeemer, sure this was welcome news ! come draw the case nearer to thyself, thou wast in Adam’s loins; suppose thou hadst been in Adam’s stead ; sup¬ pose thou hadst ee heard the voice of the Lord walking in the garden,” suppose thou hadst heard him call, Adam, “ Where art thou,” Peter, Andrew, Thomas, where art thou ? What ? “ Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat ?” Gen. iii. 8, 9, 11. Why then appear and come to judgment, the law is irrevocable, “ in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die,” Gen. ii. 17- There is nothing to be looked for but death tem¬ poral, and death spiritual, and death eternal, O ! what a fearful con¬ dition is this, no sooner to come into the world, but presently to be turned over into hell? For one day to be a monarch of the world, and of all creatures of the world, and the very next day to be the slave of Satan, and to be bound hand and foot in a darksome dungeon? For a few hours to live in Eden, to enjoy every tree of the garden, “ pleasant to the sight, and good for food,” and then to enter into the confines oi eternitjr, and ever, ever, ever to be tormented with the devil and his angels ? It is no wonder, if, « Adam hid himself from the presence of the Lord God, amongst the trees of the garden;” Gen. iii. 8. O my LOOKING UNTO JESUS, 175 soul ! in that case thou wouldst have cried to the rocks and to the mountains, “ Fall on me, and hide me from the face of him that sitteth on the throne,” Rev. vi. 16, 17- If God be angry, who may abide it? ff When the great day of his wrath is come, who shall be able to stand ? And yet despair not, cheer up, O my soul : for in the verv^ midst of wrath, G od is pleased to remember mercy ; even now when all the world should have been damned, a Jesus is proclaimed, and promised : and he it is that must die according to the comminatioft, for he is our surety ; and he it is that by death must overcome death and the devil,” “ It shall bruise thy head,” said God to Satan, q. d. Come, Satan, thou hast taken captive ten thousand of souls, Adam and Eve are now ensnared, and in their loins all the men and women that ever shall be from this beginning of the world to the end thereof; now is thy day of triumph, now thou keepest holy day in hell; but thou shall not carry it thus, I foresaw from all eternity what thou hast done ; I knew thou wouldst dig an hole through the comely and beautiful frame of the creation ; but I have decreed of old a counter- work, out of the seed of the woman shall spring a branch, “ And he shall bruise thy head/ he shall break thy power, lie shall tread thy dominion un¬ der foot, he shall lead thy captivity captive, he shall take away sin, he shall paint out to men and angels the glory of heaven, and a new world of free grace. In this promise, O my soul, is folded and wrapped ud thy hope, thy heaven, thy salvation ; and therefore consider of it, turn it upside down, look on all sides of it, view it over and over : there is a Jesus in it ; it is a field that contains in the bowels of it a precious treasure ; there is in it a Saviour, a Redeemer, a Deliverer from sin death and hell ; are not these dainties to feed upon ? Are not these ra¬ rities to dwell on in our meditations ? 2. Consider Jesus in that next promise made to Abraham ; “ I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be. a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee,” Gen. xvii. 7- In respect of this covenant Abraham is called “ the father of the faithful,” Rom. iv. 1 ] . And they which are of the faith, are called the children of Abraham, Gal. iii. 7. And, O my soul if thou art in covenant with God, surely thoi* dost by faith draw it through Abraham, to whom this promise was made ; for “ if ye be Christ’s, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise,” Gal. iii. 2Q. Consider what a mercy is this. That God should enter into a covenant with thee in the loins of Afcra - 176 LOOKING UNTO JESUS. ham. God makes a promise of Christ, and inclusively a covenant of grace, in his comforting Adam, but he makes a covenant expressly un¬ der the name of covenant with Abraham and his seed : O muse, and be amazed ! What, that the great and glorious God of heaven and earth should be willing to enter into a covenant ; this is to say, That he should be willing to make himself a debtor to us ? O my soul, think of it seriously ; he is in heaven, and thou art on earth ; he is the Creator, and thou tirt his creature ; “ Ah, what art thou, or v/hat is thy father’s house, that thou should be raised up hitherto ?” The very covenant is a wonder, as it relates to God and us, what is it but a compact, an agreement, a tying, a binding of God and us ? When Jehoshaphat and Ahab were in covenant, see how Jehoshaphat ex- presseth himself, ‘f I am, as thou art, my people as thy people, my horses as thy horses,” 1 Kings xxii. 4. So it is betwixt God and us ; if once he gives us the covenant, then his strength is our strength, his power is our power, his armies are our armies, his attributes are our attributes, we have interest in all ; there is an offensive and de¬ fensive league (as I may say) betwixt God and us ; and if we put him in mind of it in all our straits, he cannot deny us. As it was with the nations allied to Rome, if they fought at any time, the Romans were bound in honour to defend them, and they did it with as much dili¬ gence, as they defended their own city of Rome ; so it is with the people allied to God, he is bound in honour to defend his people, and lie will do it if they implore his aid ; how else ? Is it possible God should break his covenant ? Will he not stir up himself to scatter his and our spiritual enemies ? Certainly he will. Thus runs the tenor of his covenant, I will be a God to thee, and to thy seed after thee.” This is the general promise, I may call it the mother-promise that carries ail other promises .in its womb ; and we find a Jesus in this promise, consider that it is God in Christ that is held forth to us in this phrase, I will be as a God to thee : O sweet ! here is the greatest promise that ever was made, Christ, God is more than grace, pardon, holiness, heaven ; as the husband is more excellent than the marriage robe, bracelets, rings, the well and fountain of life is of more excel¬ lency than the streams ; Christ Jesus the objective happiness, is far above a created and formal beatitude, which issueth from him. O my soul ! is not this worthy of thy inmost consideration ? But of this more in the next. 3. Consider Jesus in that promise made to Moses and the Israelites, LOOKING UNTO JESUS, “ 1 am the Lord thy God, that brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Much hath been said to the promise before, as matter of thy consideration: but, to contract it, consider in this promise the sufficiency and propriety. 1. Here is sufficiency, it is a promise of infinite worth, an hid treasure, a rich possession, an oter- flowing blessing, which none can rightly value ; it is no less than the great and mighty, and infinite God ; if we had a promise of a hun¬ dred worlds, or of ten heavens, this is more than all ; heaven indeed is beautiful, but God is more beautiful, for he is the God of heaven, and hence it is that the saints in heaven are not satisfied without their God ; it is a sweet expression of Bernard, “ As whatsoever we give unto thee. Lord, unless we give ourselves, cannot satisfy thee ; so whatsoever thou givest unto us. Lord, unless thou givest thyself, it cannot satisfy us ;” and hence it is. That as God doth make the saints his portion, so God is the portion and inheritance of his saints. Con¬ sider the greatness, the goodness, the all-sufficiency of this promise, te I am the Lord thy God !” no question but Moses had many other rich promises from God, but he could not be satisfied without God himself ; “ if thy presence be not with us, bring us not hence,” Exod. xxxiii. 1 5. And no wonder, for without God all things are nothing ; but in the want of all other things, God himself is instead of all: it is God’s alone prerogative to be an universal good. The things of this world can but help in this or that particular thing : as bread against hunger, drink against thirst, clothes against cold and nakedness, house against wind and weather, riches against poverty, physic against sickness, friends against solitariness ; but God is an all-sufficient good, he is all in all, both to the inner and outward man. Are we guilty of sin ? There is mercy in God to pardon us. Are we full of infirmities? f here is grace in God to heal us. Are we strong of corruptions ? There is power in God to subdue them in us. Are we disquieted in conscience ? There is that Spirit in God that is the comforter, that can. fill us with joy unspeakable and glorious ; and for our outward man, all our welfare is laid up in God, he is “ the God of our life,” Psalm, xlii. 8. He is “ the strength of our life,” Psal. xxvii. 1. “ He is a quickening Spirit,” 1 Cor. xv. 45. Which, though it be in regard of the inner man ; yet there it is spoken of the outward man, which the Lord shall quicken after death, and doth new keep alive by his mighty power, for “ in him we live, and move, and have onr being,” Acts xvii. 28. VOL. I. N 17$ LOOKING UNTO JSSUS. Omy soul,’ that thou wouldstbut ruminate and meditate, and con ¬ sider this promise in all thy wants and discontents ; when means fail, and the stream runs no more, O that thou wouldest then go to the fountain, where the waters run sweeter, and more sure ; for as Joseph said to Pharaoh, It is not in me, God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace,” Gen. xli. and 1 6. So may silver and gold, and such tiling- say to thee. It is not in us ; God shall give enough out of himself ; have God, and have all ; want God, and there is no content in the enjoyment of all ; it was the apostle’s case, “ as having nothing, and yet possessing all things,” 2 Cor. vi. 10, Surely he lived to God, and -enjoyed God, and he was an all-sufficient good unto him. God may be enjoyed in any condition, in the meanest as well as the greatest, hi the poorest as well as the richest : God will go into a wilderness, into a prison with his people, and there he will make up all that they are cut short of, thy discontents therefore arise not from the want of outward means, but from want of inward fellowship with God ; if thou dost not find a sufficiency, it is because thou dost not enjoy him who is thy all sufficient good. O stir up faith, and consider the covenant, think seriously on this promise, “ I am God all-sufficient, I am the Lord thy God.” 2.. Here is the propriety of saints, “ the Lord thy God,” O what is this that God is thy God ? Heaven and earth, angels and men, may stand astonished at it, What ? that the great and mighty God, God Almighty, and God all-sufficient should be called thy God ? It is ob¬ servable what the apostle speaks, “ God is not ashamed to be called their God,” Lleb. xi. 16. W ould not a prince be ashamed to take a beggar, a runuagate, a base and adulterous woman to be his wife ? But we are worse than so, and God is better than so ; sin hath made us worse than the worst of women, and God is better, holier, higher than the best ol princes ; and yet God is not ashamed to own us, nor ashamed that we own him as our own, I am thy God. It is as if the Lord should say. Use me, and all my power, grace, mercy, kindness, as thine own ; go through all my attributes, consider my Almighty power, consider my wisdom, counsel, under¬ standing ; consider my goodness, truth, faithfulness, consider my patience, long-suffering, forbearance ; all these are thine ; as thus, my power is thine, to work all thy works for thee, and in thee, to make passage for thee in all thy straits, to deliver thee out of six troubles, and out of seven ; my wisdom is thine, to counsel thee in LOOKING UNTO JESUS* 17 9 finy difficult cases, to instruct thee in things that be obscure, to reveal to thee the mysteries of grace, and the wonderful things contained in my law ; my justice is thine, to deliver thee when thou art oppressed* to defend thee in thy innocency, and to vindicate thee from the injuries of men. What needs more ? O my soul, think of these, and all other God’s attributes ; say in thyself, all these are mine ; nay, more, think of God in Christ (for otherwise what hast thou to do with God in the covenant of grace?) and say in thy heart, Jesus Christ is mine, my Saviour, my Redeemer, my Head, my elder Brother ; his doings are mine, and his sufferings are mine ; his life and his death, his resurrect tion and ascension, his session and intercession, are all mine : nay, more, if Christ be mine, why then all good things are mine in Christ ; 1 say in Christ, for they come not immediately, but through the hands of a sweet Redeemer, and though he be a man who redeemed us, yet because he is God as well as man, there is more of God and heaven, and free love, in all our good things, than if we received them imme¬ diately from God. Ravens have their food, and devils have their being from God by creature-right, but we have all \tre have from God in Christ by covenant-right ; this surely, this very promise is the main and principal promise of the covenant ; it is the very substance, soul and life of all ; O then how careful should thou be to improve the strength of thy mind, thoughts and affections on this only subject ? 4. Consider Jesus in that promise made to David, u He hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things and sure,” 2 Sam. xxiii. 5. 1 . An everlasting covenant, consider this in the in¬ ternal efficacy, and not in the outward administration, it is Christ that hath built and prepared a kingdom that shall never fade, a spiritual and an heavenly kingdom which shall never cease ; and as he hath prepared it, so, if thou believest, he hath entered into a covenant with thy soul, to bestow it on thee ; it is an everlasting covenant, and he will give thee everlasting life. 2, It is ordered in all things : the co¬ venant of grace is sc marshalled and ordered, that it stands at best ad¬ vantage to receive and to repel all thy objections. Many and many an objection hast thou raised ; how often have such thoughts been in thee, “ Oh ! I am miserable, I shall not live but die, my sins will damn u me, I am lost for ever ; And again, If God hath made with me a “ covenant, why then I have something to do on my part, for this is of the nature of the covenant to bind on both parts ; but, alas, I tc have failed ! I can do nothing, I can as well dissolve a rock, as make V 2 180 LOOKING UNTO JESU5- rt my heart of stone an heart of flesh ; I can as well reach heaven, with “ a Anger, as lay hold on Christ by the hand of faith?” Have not such arguings as these been many, and many a time in thy heart ? O con¬ sider how the covenant is ordered and marshalled in respect of the Author of it, of the persons interested in it, of the parts of which it consists, of the end and aim to which it refers ; and in some of these, if not in all of these, thou wilt find thy objections answered, removed, routed. 3. It is sure, God is not fast and loose in his covenants, hea¬ ven and earth shall pass away, before one jot or tittle of his word shall fail. Consider, O my soul, he both can and will perform his word, his power, his love, his faithfulness, his constancy, all stand en¬ gaged. What sweet matter is here for a soul to dwell upon ? What needs it to go out of other objects, while it may find enough here ? But especially, what needs it to bestow itself upon vain things ? O that so much precious sand of our thoughts should run out after sin, and ;»o little after grace, or after the covenant of grace ! 5. Consider Jesus in that new covenant or promise, which God made with Israel and Judah ; cc I will put my law into their inward parts, and write it in their hearts and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his brother, and every man his neighbour, saying, Know the Lord, for they shall nil know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord : for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sins no more,” Jer xxxi. S3, 34. Oh what an error is it, that there is no inherent righteousness in the saints. That there is no grace in the soul of a believer, but only in Christ? Is not this the ordinary scripture phrase, “ I will put my Spirit within you,” Ezek. xxxvi. 27- And the water that I shall give you, shall be in you a well of water springing up into everlasting life,” John iv. 14. And “ the anointing which you have received of him abideth in you,” John ii. 27. And, “ Christ in you the hope of glory,” Col. i. 27. Observe how “ the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels,” Ezek. i. 20. So that when the Spirit went, they went, and when the spirit was lifted up, they were lifted up ; even so is the Spirit of Christ in the saints, acting and guiding, and framing, and disposing them, move and walk ac * cording to his laws. “ The kingdom of heaven is within you,” saith C hrist, Luke xvii. 21. And, “ I delight to do thy will, O my God, saith David, yea, thy law is within my heart,” Psal. xl. 8. O my -mil, il thou art in covenant with God, besides the indwelling of the LOOKING UNTO JESUS. 181 Spirit, there is a certain spiritual power, or principle of grace, which Christ by his Spirit hath put into thy heart, enabling thee in some measure to move thyself towards God. And this principle is some¬ times called a new life, Rom. vi. 4. Sometimes a living with Christ,” Rom. vi. 8. Sometimes, “ a being alive to God,” Rom. vi. 11. Some¬ times, “ a revealing of his Son in man,” Gal. i. 1 5. And sometimes, tc. a putting of the law into our inward parts, and a writing of the law within the heart,” Jer. xxxi. 33. O consider of this inward principle, it is an excellent subject worthy of thy consideration ! 1. “I will be their God, and they shall be my people ;” Consider God essentially, and personally, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost ; God in himself, and God in his creatures : this very promise turns over heaven, and earth, and sea, and land, and bread, and clothes, and sleep, and the world, and life, and death, into free grace. No wonder if God set this promise in the midst of the co¬ venant, as the heart in the midst of the body, to communicate life to all the rest; this promise hath an influence into all other promises, it is the great promise of the newr covenant, it is as great as God is, though the heavens and the heaven of heavens be not able to contain him, yet this promise contains him, God shuts up himself (as it were) in it. I will be their God. 2. They shall he my people, i. e. they shall be to me a peculiar people,” Titus if. 14. The word hath this emphasis in it, that God looks upon all other things as accidents in comparison, and his substance is his people : they are his very portion, " For the Lord’s portion is his people, Jacob is the lot of his inheritance,” Dent, xxxii. 9. They are his treasure, his peculiar treasure, his peculiar treasure above nil people; “ If ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me, and above all people, for all the earth is mine,” Exod. xix. 5. Observe, O my soul. All the earth is mine, q. d. All people is my people, but I have a special interest in my co¬ venanted people, they only are my portion, my peculiar treasure. “ Blessed be Egypt my people, Assyria the work of my hands : and Israel mine inheritance,” Isa. xix. 28. I have made all people : Egypt, and Assyria, and all the world is mine, but only Israel is my inheri¬ tance: the saints are those that God satisfies himself in: the saints are those that God hath set his heart upon: they are children of the highest God, they are the spouse that are married to the Lamb: they are nearer Godin some respects than the very angels themselves, for the angels are not in a my?Jical union so married to NS * LOOKING UNTO JL6US, 182 Christ, as God’s people are. Oh the happiness of saints ; U J will be their God, and they shall be my people.” 3. “ They shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying. Know the Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord.” Con¬ sider of this ! Oh poor soul, thou complainest many a time of thy weakness, then knowest little or nothing : why, see here a glorious promise, if thou art but in covenant with God, thou shait be taught of God, and then thou shait know God far more clearly than the Jews of cld, he will open to thee all his treasures of wisdom and knowledge, lie will bestow on thee a greater measure of his Spirit, So that out of thy belly shall flow rivers of living waters,” John vii. 38. We say, a good tutor may teach more in a day, than another in a week, or a month, now, the promise runs thus, ef That all thy children shall be taught of God,” Isa. liv.TS. Not that private instruction, or pu¬ blic ministry must be excluded ; we know these are appointed under the New Testament, and are subordinate to the Spirit’s teaching ; but that the teachings of God do far surpass the teachings of men, and therefore the knowledge of God under the New Testament shall far sur¬ pass that under the Old : herein appears the excellency of Christ’s pro¬ phetical office, “ He is such a Prophet, as enlightens every man within, that comes into the world : • he is such a Prophet as baptiz- eth with the holy Ghost and with fire, John i. 9, 83. He is such a Pro¬ phet as makes men’s hearts to burn within them, when he speaks unto them,” Luke xxiv. 32. He is such a Prophet, as bids his ministers,