A Description of Christ and Other Sermons

Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my Spirit upon him, and he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not strive, nor cry; neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets … (Matt 12:18-19).

The words are the accomplishment of a prophecy taken out of Isaiah 42:1-2, as we may see by the former verse, “that it might be fulfilled” (Matt 12:17). Now the occasion of bringing them in here is a charge that Christ gives in Matthew 12:16, that they should not disclose him and make him known for the miracles he did. He withdraws himself. He desired to be concealed; he would not live too much in public view, for he knew the rebellious disposition of the Jews, who were willing to change their government and to make him king. Therefore he labored to conceal himself in every way he could.

Now, upon this charge that they should tell nobody, Matthew brings in the prophet Isaiah prophesying of him: “Behold my servant …; he shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets.” Other kings labor that their pomp and magnificence may be seen; but he shall not care for ostentation, and he shall not be contentious nor clamorous. For these three things are meant when he says, “he shall not strive, nor cry, neither shall his voice be heard in the streets.” He shall not yield to any ostentation, for he came in an abased state to work our salvation. He shall not be contentious, nor yet clamorous in matters of wrong. There shall be no boasting of any kind, as we shall see when we come to the words. You see, then, why the words are brought in here.

In the prophet Isaiah the words are brought in to comfort the people, and to direct them how to come to worship the true God, after he had declaimed against their idolatry, as we see in the former chapter: “Behold my servant …” Great princes have their ambassadors, and the great God of heaven has his Son, his servant in whom he delights, through whom and by whom all dealings between God and man are carried on.

It is usual in the prophecies, especially of Isaiah, that evangelical prophet, that when he foretells anything comforting to the people in the promise of temporal things, he rises to establish their faith in better things by adding a prophecy and promise of Christ the Messiah. He does this to imply as much as this: “I will send you the Messiah, and that is a greater gift than this that I have promised you; therefore you may be sure of the less.” It is as the apostle reasons so excellently: “If he spared not his own son, but delivered him to death for us all, how shall he not with him give us all things?” (Rom 8:32).

So here God says in effect, “I have promised you deliverance out of Babylon, and this and that. Do you doubt that I will perform it? Alas! What is that in comparison with a greater favor I intend for you in Christ, one that shall deliver you out of another kind of Babylon?” Therefore he says, “Behold my servant whom I have chosen,” and in Isaiah 7:14, “Behold a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son …” It is as though he said, “I will send you the Messiah; God shall become man; therefore I will not hold back any outward favor or deliverance whatever.” So he goes to the grand promise, that they might reason from the greater to the less.

There is another reason why, in other promises, the promise of the Messiah is mentioned: to uphold their faith. The people might say, “Alas! We are unworthy of these promises; we are laden with sin and iniquity.” “It is no matter,” God answers. “I will send you the Messiah. ‘Behold my servant in whom my soul delighteth,’ and for his sake I will delight in you. I am well pleased with you because I am well pleased in him; therefore, do not be discouraged.” “All the promises are yea and amen in Jesus Christ” (2 Cor 1:20). For all the promises there are, though they are for the things of this life, are made for Christ; they are yea in him; and they are performed for his sake; they are amen in him. So much for the occasion of bringing in these words, in the evangelist St. Matthew and likewise in the prophet Isaiah.

To come more directly to the words: “Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased …”

In the words you have a description of Christ, his nearness to God: “Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul is well pleased.” And then his calling and qualification: “I will put my Spirit upon him.” And the execution of that calling: “He shall show judgment to the Gentiles.” Then the quiet and peaceable manner of the execution of his calling: “He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets …”

Behold! This word is, as it were, a beacon lit up for all the rest. In all the evangelists you have this word often repeated, and in the prophets likewise when they speak of Christ; there is almost no prophecy that does not have this word, “Behold.”

Why? I will not spend time on the variety of its senses, but will speak of it as may serve the present purpose. Its use in the prophet, and especially in the passage from which these words are taken, was to present Christ to the hearts of the people of God then. Therefore he says, “Behold,” for Christ was present to the believers then. He profited them before he came; he did good before he was openly shown, because he was “the Lamb of God slain from the beginning of the world” (Rev 13:8). He was yesterday as well as today, and tomorrow as well as today, “yesterday, today, and the same for ever” (Heb 13:8). He was present to their faith, present to them in types and sacrifices, and present in God’s acceptance of him on their behalf. Therefore the prophets mount up with the wing of prophecy, and because of the certainty of the things to come they speak as if they were present, as if they had looked on Christ present: “Behold my servant,” and “Behold a virgin …”

But that is not all. Another use of this word “behold” was to call the people’s minds away from their miseries, and from other abasing objects that dejected them and might force them to despair. Why do you dwell upon your unworthiness and sin? Raise up your mind: “Behold my servant whom I have chosen …” This is an object worth beholding and admiring, especially for a distressed soul, which may see in Christ whatever may comfort it.

A third purpose of it is to raise the mind from any ordinary, common, base contentments. You look on these things and are carried away with common, trivial objects, as the poor disciples were when they came to the temple. They stood wondering at the stones: What wondrous stones! What a goodly building is here! (Mark 13:1). So it is with shallow-minded men: when they see any earthly excellence, they stand gazing. Alas, says Christ, do you wonder at these things? So the prophet here raises up the minds of men to look on an object fit to be looked on: “Behold my servant …”

So the Holy Spirit would have them raise satisfaction for their souls, in every way, from this saving object, Christ. Are you dejected? Here is comfort. Are you sinful? Here is righteousness. Are you led away with present contentments? Here you have honors and pleasures and all in Christ Jesus. You have a right to the common pleasures that others have, and besides them you have a claim to other, everlasting pleasures that shall never fail. So there is nothing dejecting and abasing in man for which there is not comfort in Christ Jesus. He is a salve for every sore, a remedy for every malady; therefore, “Behold my servant.”

This word “behold” is a word of wonderment, and indeed in Christ there is a world of wonders; everything in him is wonderful. Things new and wonderful, things rare, and things that are great, that transcend our capacity, are wonderful; they stop our understanding so that it cannot go through them. Ordinary things we see through quickly. But when we see things that halt our understandings, that raise our understandings higher, and that are larger than our understandings, here is matter for admiration and wonder. Now whatever may cause wonderment is in Jesus Christ, whose name is Wonderful, as it is in Isaiah 9:6; therefore the prophet says, “Behold.”

My servant. Christ is called a servant, first, in respect of his creation, because, being a man, as a creature he was a servant. But that is not all.

He was a servant in respect of his condition. Servant implies a base and low condition. Christ took upon himself the form of a servant; he emptied himself (Phil 2:7); he was the lowest of all servants in condition, for none was ever so abased as our glorious Savior.

And then, it is a name of office as well as of base condition. There are ordinary servants and extraordinary servants, as great kings have their servants of state. Christ, besides his abasement, was a servant of state. He was an ambassador sent from the great God; a prophet, a priest, and a king, as we shall see afterwards; an extraordinary servant, to do a piece of service that all the angels in heaven and all the men on the earth joined together could not perform. This great masterpiece of service was to bring God and man together again, who were at variance, as it is in 1 Peter 3:18, “to bring us to God.” We were severed and scattered from God. His office was to gather us together again, to bring us all to one head again, to bring us to himself and so to God, to reconcile us, as the Scripture phrase is (Col 1:20).

Now, since it was the greatest work and service that ever was, it required the greatest servant, for no creature in the world could perform it. All the angels of heaven would have sunk under this service, if they had undergone satisfaction to divine justice. For the angels themselves, when they sinned, could not recover themselves, but sank under their own sin eternally. Thus we see how he is the servant of God, who set him apart and chose him for this service.

And then he was a servant to us, for the Son of man came to minister, not to be ministered unto (Matt 20:28). He washed his disciples’ feet. He was a servant to us because he did our work and suffered our punishment; we made him serve by our sins, as the prophet says in Isaiah 43:24. He is a servant who bears another man’s burden. There was a double burden, of active obedience and of passive obedience, and he bore them both. He came under the law for us, both doing what we should have done, and indeed far more acceptably, and suffering what we should have suffered, and far more acceptably. Being our surety, being a more excellent person, he bore our burden and did our work. Therefore he was God’s servant and our servant; and God’s servant because he was our servant, because he came to do a work needful for us.

Here appears the admirable love and care of God for us wretched creatures; here is matter for wonderment. If we look to him who was a servant; if we look to that in God and in him which made him stoop to be a servant; if we look to the manner in which this service was performed; if we look to the fruit of that service: they are all matter for wonderment.

If we look to the person who was this servant, the apostle in Philippians 2:6 will tell you that he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, yet he took upon himself the shape of a servant. Was this not wonderful, for God to become man, for the glorious God to abase himself to be a servant? God-man, glorious God and base servant! For the living God to die, for the incomprehensible God to be enclosed in the womb of a virgin, for glory itself to be abased, for riches to become poor, what matter for wonderment is here! The very angels stand gazing and wondering; they pry into these things (1 Pet 1:12). His name may well be Wonderful.

There are four notable unions that are especially wonderful, two in us and two above us.

One in us is the union of so excellent a thing as the soul, breathed in by God. The soul of man is an admirable thing. The world is not worth it, in the judgment of him who gave himself for it. That this should be joined to a piece of earth! Indeed, I am wonderfully made, says David (Ps 139:14), in regard of his body; but the union of the soul and body together, of so excellent a substance to so base a thing as earth, to a piece of red, well-colored earth, to a lump of flesh, is a wondrous union.

But there is a more supernatural union of man, when all of us, sinners as we are, are knit to Christ our head, and head and members make one Christ. Here is a wondrous union. St. Paul calls it a mystery (Eph 5:32). These unions in us are wonderful.

But now, to go higher, in Christ there are more wonderful unions: for the greatest and the lowest to join together, for God and man to come together, the Lord of all and a servant, and such a servant as should be under a curse; for the Highest of all to come to the deepest abasement. For there was never any abasement so deep as Christ’s, in a double regard.

First, none ever went so low as he, for he suffered the wrath of God and bore upon him the sins of us all. None was ever so low.

And then, in another respect, his abasement was greatest because he descended from the highest top of glory. And for him to be man, to be a servant, to be a curse, to suffer the wrath of God, to be the lowest of all! Lord, to what depths do you descend? Here is a wonder in these unions.

Next to Christ’s abasement was Adam’s, because he was the most excellent, being in the state of innocence, carrying the image of God, and being familiar with God. For him to come at once into that fearful condition was the greatest abasement, because it was from the greatest dignity. It was this that made the abasement of Christ so great. For lordship to submit to service, for God to be man, for the blessed God to become a curse, here is matter for wonder indeed.

In Christ, again, there was a union of perfect body, perfect soul, and perfect God, and all make one Christ. In the Trinity there is a union of three persons in one nature. That is a wondrous union, but it does not belong to our present purpose. Here you see there is matter for wonder in the person, that Christ should be a servant.

There is matter for wonder likewise in the source from which he is a servant. Where does it come from, that Christ is a servant? It is from the wondrous love of God and the wondrous love of Christ. To be so abased was wondrous love; it was wondrous love in God to give him to us to be so abased. And it comes from the wondrous misery we were in, which we could not otherwise be freed from. For such was the pride of man that he, being man, would exalt himself to be like God. God became man; he became a servant to expiate our pride in Adam. So it is wondrous in its spring.

There was no love like Christ’s in becoming a servant; there was no misery like the one we were in, out of which we were delivered by this abasement of Christ in becoming a servant. So it is wondrous in that regard, springing from the infinite love and mercy of God, which is greater in the work of redemption and reconciliation than in the creation of the world. For the distance between nothing and something was less than the distance between sin and happiness. Nothingness adds no opposition, but in a sinful state there is opposition.

Therefore it was greater love and mercy for God, when we were sinful and so liable to eternal destruction, to make us, who were sinners, not only men but happy, to make us heirs of heaven out of a sinful and cursed estate, than to make us something out of nothing, to make us men in Adam. For there God prevailed over nothing, but here his mercy triumphed over what is opposite to God, over sinfulness and cursedness. To show that the creature cannot be so low that there is not something in God above the creature’s misery, his mercy shall triumph over the basest estate where he wills to show mercy. Therefore there is mercy above all mercy and love above all love in this, that Christ was a servant.

Third, it is wondrous in regard of the fruit we have by this service of Christ, the work of our redemption: to be transferred from the kingdom of Satan to the glorious liberty of the sons of God (Rom 8:21), to be brought out of darkness into marvelous light. It is a marvelous matter for wonder, the good we have by this abasement of Christ: “Behold what love the Father hath showed us, that we should be called the sons of God!” (1 John 3:1). Now, all this comes from Christ’s being a servant. Our liberty comes from his service and slavery, our life from his death, our adoption and sonship and everything from his abasement. Therefore it is a matter for wonderment for the great things we have by it. O the depth, O the depth, says St. Paul (Rom 11:33).

Here are all dimensions in this excellent work that Christ has wrought by his abasement, by his incarnation, and taking upon himself the form of a servant, and dying for us. Here is the height and breadth and length and depth of the love of God in Christ. O the riches of God’s mercy! The apostles stand in wonder and admiration of this; and indeed, if anything is to be admired, it is Christ, that wondrous union, the wondrous love that brought it about, and the wondrous fruit we have by it.

It is the baseness of our nature that we can wonder at shallow things. There cannot be any foolery but many will gather around it at once and stand admiring every empty, idle thing that the nature of man is carried away with; whereas in truth there is nothing worthy of admiration but the wonderful love of God. O how wonderful are thy works, says David of the works of creation (Ps 8:1). The work of creation and the work of providence, by which God guides the world, are wonderful, and the psalmist cries out against the folly of men who do not regard the work of the Lord: fools regard not this (Ps 92:6); the works of the Lord are worthy to be considered, they are known of all that delight in them (Ps 111:2).

But if these things are so wonderful, and are to be regarded and delighted in, alas, what then shall we say of the whole work of redemption! “Great is the mystery of godliness, God manifested in the flesh …” (1 Tim 3:16). There are mysteries, matters of admiration; but carnal men think these trivial matters. They can hear matters of greater rarity. And when they speak of these things, alas, they are too wise to wonder. Oh, they know the gospel well enough! Whereas in truth, as we see here, these are things that deserve the admiration of angels; and as they deserve it, so the angels pry into these excellent secrets in Jesus Christ (1 Pet 1:12).

Christ was a servant by office and by condition. We must not rest in this base condition, for he took upon himself the form of a servant that he might be an excellent servant. There is both baseness and excellence in the word servant, for his humiliation was a degree of his exaltation and a part of his advancement. If we regard his human nature, it was an advancement for man’s nature to be grafted into God by conception and incarnation. But if we regard his Godhead, for him to conceal himself, and lay aside the beams and rays of majesty, and clothe himself with man’s flesh, this was the first degree of humiliation. It was an advancement to his flesh, but it was a concealing and hiding to his Godhead. For God to become a servant, this was an abasement. But then consider the excellence of the service, how God delighted in it and how useful it was to us, and we shall see that he was a servant in the most excellent way.

There was first in Christ human flesh, abased flesh, and then glorious flesh. Abasement was first necessary for Christ, for he could not have performed the office of a servant unless he had undertaken the condition of a servant. He must first be abased and then glorious; our ill must be his before his good could be ours. And how could he undergo our ill, our sin and misery and the curse due to us, unless he were abased? Our sins must be imputed to him, and then his righteousness and whatever is good is ours. So here is both the abasement of his condition and the excellence of his office, to be a king, priest, and prophet to his church, as we shall see afterwards.

Is the Lord Christ a servant? This should teach us not to insist on any terms. If Christ had insisted on terms, if he had refused to take upon himself the shape of a servant, alas, where would we and our salvation have been? And yet, wretched creatures, we think ourselves too good to do God and our brethren any service. Christ did not stand upon his greatness, but, being equal with God, he became a servant. Oh, we should dismount from the tower of our conceited excellence! The heart of man is a proud creature, a proud piece of flesh. People insist on the distance between themselves and others: “What! Shall I stoop to him? I am this and that.” We should come down from the heaven of our self-conceit, take upon us the form of servants, and abase ourselves to do good to others, even to anyone, and count it an honor to do any good to others in the places we are in. Christ did not think himself too good to leave heaven, to conceal and veil his majesty under the veil of our flesh, to work our redemption, to bring us out of the cursed condition we were in. Shall we think ourselves too good for any service? Who for shame can be proud when he thinks of this, that God was abased? Shall God be abased, and man be proud? Shall God become a servant, and shall we who are servants think it too much to serve our fellow servants?

Let us learn this lesson, to abase ourselves; we cannot have a better pattern to look to than our blessed Savior. A Christian is the greatest freeman in the world. He is free from the wrath of God, free from hell and damnation, from the curse of the law. But then, though he is free in these respects, yet in regard of love he is the greatest servant. Love abases him to do all the good he can; and the more the Spirit of Christ is in us, the more it will abase us to anything in which we can be of service.

Then again, here is comfort for us: in whatever Christ did in our redemption, he is God’s servant. He is appointed by God to the work, so both God and Christ meet together in the work. Christ is a volunteer in it, for he emptied himself, he took upon him the form of a servant (Phil 2:7), he came from heaven voluntarily. And then, along with this, the Father joins with him. The Father appointed him and sent him, the Father laid him as the cornerstone, the Father sealed him (John 6:27), the Father set him out, as it is written: “He hath set him out as the propitiatory” (Rom 3:25).

Therefore, when we think of reconciliation and redemption and salvation accomplished by Christ, let us comfort ourselves in the solidity of the work: it is a service perfectly done. It was done by Christ, God-man. It is a service accepted by God; therefore God cannot refuse the service of our salvation accomplished by Christ. Christ was his servant in the working of it. We may present it to God: “It is the obedience of your servant; it is the satisfaction of your servant.” Here is what will give full contentment and satisfaction to the conscience: whatever Christ did, he was God’s servant in it. But we will better understand the intent of the Holy Spirit when we have gone over the rest of the words, “Behold my servant whom I have chosen.”

Christ was chosen before all worlds to be the head of the elect. He was predestined and ordained by God. As we are ordained to salvation, so Christ is ordained to be the head of all who will be saved. He was chosen eternally, and chosen in time. He was singled out for the work by God, and all others who are chosen are chosen in him. There would have been no choosing of men except in him; for God saw us so defiled, lying in our filth, that he could not look upon us except in his Son. He chose him, and us in him.

What is meant here is not only choosing by eternal election to happiness, but a choosing to office. There is a choosing to grace and glory, and a choosing to office. Here a choosing to office is meant as well as a choosing to grace and glory. As God chose Christ to grace and glory, so he chose him to the office of Mediator. Christ did not choose himself; he was no usurper. No one calls himself to the office (Heb 5:4), but Christ was called and appointed by God. He was willing, indeed, for the work, and took it upon himself voluntarily; but as Mediator, God chose him, God the Father and he joining together.

Whether we consider eternal salvation, or grace, or office, Christ was chosen with respect to his manhood. For, as theologians have well observed, Christ is the head of all who are predestined, and the human nature of Christ could not merit its being chosen. It could not merit its incarnation, it could not merit union with the Godhead; it was purely from grace. How could Christ’s manhood deserve anything from God before it existed? Things must have existence before they can work. Our blessed Savior is the pattern of all election, and his manhood could not merit being knit to the second person. How could it, being a creature? Therefore the knitting of the human nature of Christ to his divine nature is called the grace of union. The choosing of the human nature of Christ to be so gracious and glorious was of grace.

Christ was both a chosen servant and a choice servant. In calling him a chosen servant, the word implies his excellence, as with a chosen vessel (Acts 9:15), a chosen arrow in God’s quiver (Isa 49:2); so he is a chosen servant, excellent in every way.

This adds to our comfort, that whatever Christ did for us, he did as one chosen. He is a chosen stone, as St. Peter says, “a precious cornerstone” (1 Pet 2:6); though refused by the builders, yet precious in God’s sight!

Was Christ a chosen servant of God, and will we not take God’s choice? Is not God’s choice the best and the wisest? Has God chosen Christ to accomplish our salvation, and shall we choose any other? Shall we run to the mediation of saints, to the Virgin Mary and others, for intercession, which is a part of Christ’s office? Who chose Mary, and Peter, and Paul for this work? There is no mention of them in Scripture for this purpose, but “behold my servant, whom I have chosen.”

God in paradise chose a wife for Adam, and so God has chosen a husband for his church; he has chosen Christ for us. Therefore it is intolerable, sacrilegious rebellion and impudence to refuse a Savior and Mediator of God’s choosing, and to set up others of our own, as if we were wiser in choosing for ourselves than God is. We may well enough content ourselves with God’s choice, because he is the party offended.

Besides, it is folly to go out from Christ, where there is all fullness and contentment, to leave God’s chosen servant and go to any other servant, to any broken vessel. God rests in this servant as Pharaoh did in Joseph, the second person in the kingdom (Gen 41:40, 43). Therefore let God’s choice and ours agree.

This also directs us how to conduct ourselves in our devotions to God, in our prayers and services: we are to offer Christ to God. “Behold, Lord, your chosen servant, whom you have chosen to be my Mediator, my Savior, my all in all to me. He is a Mediator and a Savior of your own choosing; you cannot refuse your own choice. If you look upon me, there is nothing but matter of unworthiness; but look upon him whom you have chosen, my head and my Savior!”

Again, if Christ is a chosen servant, O let us take heed how we neglect Christ. When God has chosen him for us, shall we not think him worthy to be embraced and regarded? Shall we not kiss the Son with the kiss of love, and faith, and subjection? He is a Savior of God’s own choosing; do not refuse him.

What is the reason that people refuse this chosen stone? They will not be laid low enough to build upon this cornerstone, this hidden stone. The excellence of Christ is hidden; it does not appear to men, and men will not be squared to be built upon him. Stones for a building must be framed, and made even and flat. People stick out with this and that lust; they will not be pared and cut and fitted for Christ. If they may have their lusts and wicked lives, they will admit Christ. But we must make choice of him as a stone to build upon; and to be built on him, we must be made like him. We do not like this laying low and abasing, and therefore we refuse this cornerstone, though God has made him the corner of the building for all those who have the life of grace here, or will have glory hereafter.

The papists admit him to be a stone, but not the only stone to build on; they build upon him and saints, upon him and works, upon him and traditions. But he is the only cornerstone. God has chosen him only, and we must choose him only, so that we may be framed and laid upon him to make up one building. So much for that, “Behold my servant whom I have chosen.”

My Beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased. How do we know that these words in the prophet Isaiah rightly apply to Christ? By the greatest authority that ever was from the beginning of the world, by the immediate voice of God the Father from heaven, who applies these words in Isaiah to Christ at his inauguration when he was baptized: “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt 3:17). That is, this is that Son of mine, that beloved one, the beloved Son, so beloved that my soul delights in him. He is capable of my whole love; I may pour out my whole love upon him. “In whom I am well pleased” is the same as what we have here, “in whom my soul delighteth”; the one expresses the other.

How, and in what respect, is Christ thus beloved by God?

First, as he is God, the Son of God, the engraved image of his Father, he is the first thing worthy of love that ever was. When the Father loves him, he loves himself in him. So he loves him as God, as the second person, as his own image and stamp.

And he loves him as man, for as man he was the most excellent creature in the world. He was conceived, fashioned, and framed in his mother’s womb by the Holy Spirit. It is said that God gave him a body (Heb 10:5). God the Father, by the Holy Spirit, fashioned and framed and fitted him with a body; therefore God must love his own workmanship.

Again, there was nothing in him displeasing to God, no sin found in his life in any way; therefore as man he was well pleasing to God. God took the manhood and engrafted it into the second person, and enriched it there; therefore he must love the manhood of Christ, taken as it was into so near a union with the Godhead.

Especially as Mediator, God and man, he loves and delights in him. In regard of his office, God must delight in his own ordinance and decree. Now he decreed and sealed him to that office; therefore he loves and delights in him as a Mediator of his own appointing and ordaining, to be our king, and priest, and prophet.

Again, he loved and delighted in him in regard of the execution of his office, both in doing and in suffering. In doing, the evangelist says, “He did all things well” (Mark 7:37). When he healed the sick, and raised the dead, and cured all diseases, whatever he did was well done. And as for his suffering, God delighted in him for that, as it says in John 10:17, “My Father loves me, because I lay down my life”; and so in Isaiah 53:12, “He shall divide him a portion with the great, because he poured out his soul unto death”; and in Philippians 2:9, because he abased himself to the death of the cross, “God gave him a name above all names.” Therefore God loves and delights in him for his suffering and abasement.

It is said of Noah that he offered a sacrifice after the flood, and “the Lord smelled a sweet savor of his sacrifice,” and thereupon he said, “I will not curse the earth again” (Gen 8:21). So God loves and delights in Christ as he offered himself a sacrifice of sweet-smelling fragrance in which God rests. He perceived such a sweet fragrance in the sacrifice of Christ, he is so delighted in it, that he will never destroy mankind, he will never destroy any who believe in Christ. The sacrifice of Noah was a type of Christ’s sacrifice.

Now, for the truth that Christ’s sacrifice was so acceptable to God, there is a direct text in Ephesians 5:2: “Walk in love, as Christ hath loved us, and hath given himself an offering and a sacrifice to God of a sweet smell.” And indeed, how many sweet fragrances there were in the sacrifice of Christ offered on the cross! Was there not the sweet fragrance of obedience? He was “obedient to the death of the cross” (Phil 2:8). There was the sweet fragrance of patience, and of love to mankind. Therefore God delighted in him as God, as man, as Mediator, God-man, in his doings, in his sufferings, in every way.

Does God delight thus in Christ in his person, or considered mystically? I answer: both. God loves and delights in the mystical Christ, that is, in Christ and his members, in the whole Christ. “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased”: not only with whom, alone by himself, but “in whom,” in him as God, in him in body and soul, in him as head of the church, in him mystically, in all who are under him in any kind of way. God delights in him and all who are his.

Is it possible that he should delight in the head and refuse the members? That he should love the husband and dislike the spouse? O no! With the same love with which God loves Christ, he loves all who are his. He delights in Christ and all who are his with the same delight. There is some difference in degree, “that Christ in all things may have the preeminence” (Col 1:18), but it is the same love. Therefore our Savior sets it down excellently in his own prayer. He desires that the same love wherewith his Father loved him may be in them that are his (John 17:26), that they may feel the love with which his Father loves him; for he loved him and his members, him and his spouse, with one and the same love.

This is our comfort and our confidence, that God accepts us because he accepts his beloved; and when he ceases to love Christ, he will cease to love the members of Christ. They and Christ make one mystical Christ. This is our comfort in dejection for sin. We are this and that, indeed, but Christ is the chosen servant of God, “in whom he delighteth,” and God delights in us in him. It does not matter what we are in ourselves, but what we are in Christ, when we are once in him and continue in him. God loves us with that inseparable love with which he loves his own Son.

Therefore St. Paul triumphs, “What shall separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus?” (Rom 8:35). This love is founded in Christ; therefore “neither things present, nor things to come” (as he goes on there gloriously) “shall be able to separate us.” You see what a wondrous confidence and comfort we have from this, if we labor to be in Christ: then God loves and delights in us, because he loves and delights in Christ Jesus.

And here is a wondrous comfort, that God must love our salvation and redemption when he loves Christ because “he poured out his soul to death” to save us. Does God not delight that we should be saved, and that our sins should be forgiven, when he loves Christ because he abased himself for that purpose? What a prop and foundation of comfort this is, when the devil presents God to us in a terrible, hideous manner, as an avenging God and “consuming fire” (Heb 12:29). Indeed, out of Christ he is so.

Let us present to ourselves thoughts of God as the Scripture sets God forth to us, and as God sets forth himself, not only in that sweet relation as a Father to Christ, but as our Father: “I go to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God” (John 20:17). So he and we have both one God, and one love and care. There is not one of us but the devil will have something to say to us, either in the time of our life, in some terrible temptation, especially when any outward abasement comes, or at the hour of death; and all the heart-reviving remedies we have gathered out of the Word will then be little enough to support the drooping soul, especially in the hour of temptation.

O beloved, what a wondrous support and satisfaction this yields to a distressed conscience, that Christ in all that he has done for us is God’s chosen servant, whom he loves and delights in, and that God delights in him for this very work, that he abased himself and gave himself for us, that he wrought God’s work, because he wrought reconciliation for us! If we can believe in Christ, we see here what ground of comfort we have, that God loves and delights in us as he does in his own Son.

And what a comfort it is now, in our daily approach to God, to give us boldness in all our petitions, that we go to God in the name of one whom he loves, “in whom his soul delights,” that we have a friend at court, a friend in heaven for us, who is at the right hand of God and interposes himself there for us in all our petitions, who makes us acceptable, who perfumes our prayers and makes them acceptable. His intercession is always by virtue of his service, his dying for us. He intercedes by virtue of his redemption. If God loves him for the work of redemption, he loves him for his intercession; therefore God must regard the prayers made by him, by virtue of his dying for us, when he loves him for dying for us.

Be sure, therefore, in all our petitions to God, to take along our elder brother, to take our beloved brother, take Benjamin with us. Offer all to God in him: our persons to be accepted in him, our prayers, our hearing, our works, and all that we do, and we will be sure to succeed; for he is one in whom the soul of God delights.

There must be this passage and return. God looks upon us as lovely in him, and delights in us as we are members of him. All God’s love and its fruits come to us as we are in Christ and are one with him. Then, in our passage back to God, we must return all, and do all, to God in Christ. Be sure not to go to a naked God, for so he is “a consuming fire,” but go to him in the mediation of him whom he loves, “and in whom his soul delighteth.”

And shall God love him and delight in him, and shall not our soul delight in Christ? This therefore should stir up our affections toward Christ, to be faithful in our wedded love as the spouse of Christ, and to say, “My beloved is mine and I am my beloved’s” (Song 2:16). Christ calls his church, “My love and my dove” (Song 5:2). Does Christ delight in us, and God delight in Christ, and shall we not delight in Christ, who delights in us and in whom God delights? In 1 Corinthians 16:22 the apostle is bold to pronounce a bitter curse, “Anathema Maran-atha,” upon anyone who does not love the Lord Christ Jesus, a most bitter curse.

When Christ becomes a servant to do our work for us, to suffer for us, to bear the burden of our sins upon the tree, to become our husband, to bestow his riches upon us, to raise us to the same condition with himself, and when he is, along with all this, the one whom God has chosen out to love and delight in as the best object of his love and the most capable of it, for us then not to find our solace and delight in him in whom God delights, when God delights in him for our sake! God loves and delights in him for the work of salvation and redemption by his blood, and shall we not love and embrace him for his love, which is for our good? What good does God have by it, except only the glory of his mercy in saving our souls through Christ? Therefore if God loves him for the good he does to us, much more should we love him for the fruit of it that we receive ourselves.

It should shame us, therefore, when we find dullness and coldness upon us, when we would rather hear of anything than of Christ, and arguments concerning Christ are cold to us. Alas! Where is our love, and joy, and delight, when we can make no better than a carnal use of the incarnation and the other benefits we have by Christ! We should therefore ask God to shed the love of Christ into our hearts more and more, so that we may feel in our souls the love he bears us, and may love God and Christ in return for what he has done for us.

Here we also have a ground for esteeming Christians as excellent persons. Does God value poor sinful souls so much as to give Christ for them to become a Savior? Does he delight in Christ for giving himself for them? And shall we not love one another, whom God and Christ so love?

But if God loves and delights in those who are in Christ with the same love and delight that he has in him, how shall I know that I am in Christ, and that God thus delights in me?

Briefly, a person may know that he is in Christ if he finds the Spirit of Christ in him. For the same Spirit who, when Christ took our nature, sanctified that blessed mass of which he was made, when there was a union between him and the second person, that same Spirit sanctifies our souls and bodies. There is one Spirit in the head and in the members. Therefore if we find the Spirit of Christ in us, we are in Christ and he in us.

Now this Spirit is renewing. “Whosoever is in Christ is a new creature” (2 Cor 5:17). All is new. “Old things are done away”: the old manner of language, the old disposition, old affections, old company; all old things are past, all is new. And if a man is a new creature, he has right and title to “the new heaven and new earth” (2 Pet 3:13). Let us examine the work of grace in us. If there is no change in us, we have no present share in Christ. We have to do with him because he is still wooing us to be in him, but as yet we have no title to him.

The very beholding of Christ is a transforming sight. The Spirit who makes us new creatures, and stirs us up to behold this servant, makes it a transforming beholding. If we look upon him with the eye of faith, it will make us like Christ; for the gospel is a mirror, and such a mirror that when we look into it, and see ourselves as having a share in it, we are changed from glory to glory (2 Cor 3:18). A person cannot look upon the love of God and of Christ in the gospel without its changing him to be like God and Christ.

For how can we see Christ, and God in Christ, without seeing how God hates sin? And this will transform us to hate it as God does, who hated it so much that it could not be expiated except by the blood of Christ, God-man. So, seeing the holiness of God in it will transform us to be holy. When we see the love of God in the gospel, and the love of Christ in giving himself for us, this will transform us to love God. When we see the humility and obedience of Christ, when we look on Christ as God’s chosen servant in all this, and as our surety and head, it transforms us to the same humility and obedience. Those who do not find their dispositions brought in some comfortable measure to this blessed transformation do not yet have the eyes that the Holy Spirit requires here: “Behold my servant whom I have chosen, my beloved in whom my soul delighteth.”

I will put my Spirit upon him. Now we come to the qualification of Christ for his calling, in these words, “I will put my Spirit upon him,” that is, I will clothe him with my Spirit, I will put it, as it were, upon him as a garment.

Now there were various degrees of Christ’s receiving the Spirit at different times. For he was conceived by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit sanctified that blessed substance from which his body was formed in the womb of the virgin. He was given life in the womb, at his conception, by the Holy Spirit. And he was graced by the Holy Spirit, and led by the Spirit in all things before his baptism.

But afterward he came to take up his office, to be the prophet and priest and king of his church, that great office of saving mankind, which he did not solemnly take up until he was thirty years old. Then God poured upon him a special portion of the Spirit, equal to that great calling; then the Spirit alighted upon him (Matt 3:16).

Christ was ordained to his office by the greatest authority by which anyone has been ordained since the beginning of the world. For at his baptism, when he was ordained and set apart to his office, there was the Father, uttering an audible voice from heaven, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matt 3:17). There was Christ, the one baptized and installed into that great office. Then there was the Holy Spirit, in the form and shape of a dove. Since it was a matter of the greatest consequence that ever was in the world, greater than the creation, it was fitting that it should be done with the greatest authority. And so it was, with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit present at the admission of Christ into his office.

This is what is especially intended here, though his earlier receiving of the Spirit is included: “I will put my Spirit upon him,” that is, I will anoint him, as it is in Isaiah 61:1, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,” says Christ, “because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings to the meek, to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, to open the prison for them that are bound, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,” that is, the year of jubilee, for that was a type of Christ. It means to preach the deliverance of the gospel to all who are in captivity, servitude, and bondage under Satan and sin.

This was fulfilled when Christ, at his baptism, entered upon his office. God put his Spirit upon him to set him apart, to ordain him, and to qualify him with abundance of grace for the work. For these three things are especially meant by putting the Spirit upon him: separation or setting apart, and ordaining, and enriching with the gifts of the Spirit.

When anyone is called to a high position, there is a setting apart from others, and an ordaining to that particular position, and a qualifying. If it is a calling from God, he always qualifies where he ordains.

But Christ had the Spirit before, someone will say. What, then, does God mean when he says he will put the Spirit upon him now?

I answer, he had the Spirit before, suited to the condition he was in. Now he received the Spirit suited to the condition he was to undertake. He was perfect then for that condition. Now he was to be made perfect for the office he was to take up. He was always perfect. He had abundance of the Spirit for the state he was in, but now he was to enter upon another condition, to preach the gospel, to be a prophet, and afterward to be a priest. Therefore he says now especially, “I will put my Spirit upon him.”

Now, this putting of the Spirit is expressed in Isaiah 61:1 and other places by anointing. There were three sorts of persons who were anointed before Christ: prophets, priests, and kings. Now Christ was to be a prophet, a priest, and a king. Therefore he was to be anointed with the Spirit, to enable him for these three offices.

I might take occasion here to enlarge on the offices of Christ, but I will speak of them only as the text gives just occasion.

There are three main defects in man since the fall.

There is ignorance and blindness.

There is rebellion in the will and affections.

And in regard to his condition, because of the sins of nature and of life, there is subjection to a cursed state, to the wrath of God and eternal damnation.

Now, to answer these three great evils, whoever is ordained a savior must provide remedies in proportion to them. From this comes a threefold office in Christ, who is ordained to save man, to cure this threefold mischief and malady.

As we are ignorant and blind, he is a prophet to instruct us: to convince us of the evil state we are in, and then to convince us of the good he intends for us and has accomplished for us, and to instruct us in all things concerning our everlasting comfort. He is such a prophet as teaches not only the outward but the inward man. He opens the heart; he teaches us to do the things he teaches. Men teach what we should do, but they do not teach the doing of them. He is such a prophet as teaches us the very things themselves; he teaches us to love and to obey, and so on.

And answering to the rebellion and sinfulness of our dispositions, he is a king to subdue whatever is evil in us, and likewise to subdue every opposing power outside us. Little by little he will trample all enemies under his feet, and under our feet too, before long.

Now, as we are cursed because of our sinful condition, so he is a priest to satisfy the wrath of God for us. He was made a curse for us (Gal 3:13). He became a servant so that, being a servant, he might die and undergo the cursed death of the cross; not only death, but a cursed death, and so his blood might be an atonement as a priest. So, answering to the threefold evil in us, you see here a threefold office in Christ.

Now Christ performs these three offices in this order.

First of all he is a prophet. When he was baptized the Spirit was put upon him, as in Isaiah 61:1, to preach deliverance to the captives. First, he preached why he came into the world and why God sent him, and he revealed to the world the state they were in. And when he had preached as a prophet, then as a priest he died and offered himself as a sacrifice.

After death his kingly office was most apparent. For then he rose again as a triumphant king over death and all our enemies, and ascended in his triumphant chariot to heaven, and there he sits gloriously as a king on his throne at the right hand of God. So although at his baptism, and before, when he was sanctified in his mother’s womb, he was king, priest, and prophet, yet in regard to the order of manifestation he showed himself first to be a prophet, second a priest, and third a king. For his kingly office broke forth only seldom in the time of his abasement. Sometimes it did, to show that he was ruler and commander of earth and sea and devils and all. He worked miracles, but the glorious manifestation of his kingly office came after his resurrection.

Now, the fundamental, the chief office to which he was anointed by the Spirit, upon which the rest depend, was his priestly office. For why did he teach, except to instruct us in what he must do and suffer for us, and what benefit we have by his sacrifice: reconciliation with God, and freedom from the wrath of God, and a right to life everlasting, by his obedience to the cursed death of the cross? And how does he come to be a king, to rule over us by his Holy Spirit and to have a right to us, except that as a priest he died for us first?

He washed us with his blood, he purged us with his blood, and then he made us kings and priests (Rev 1:5). All other benefits came from this: he washed our souls in his blood first. Whatever we have from God comes especially from the great work of Christ as a priest, abasing himself and dying for us; and on that ground he comes to be a prophet and a king. Thus we see the order of Christ’s offices, and how they come to be fruitful to us, the rest especially by virtue of his priestly office.

Note this by the way: Christ’s priestly office, his sacrificing himself for us, includes two branches. A priest was to offer sacrifice and to pray for the people. Our Savior Christ did both in the days of his humiliation, in his prayer in John 17. There, as a priest, he commends his sacrifice to God before he died; and now he is in heaven making intercession for us, to the end of the world. He appears for us there.

We see, then, for what purpose God put the Spirit upon Christ: to enable him to be a prophet, a priest, and a king, and so to take away those mischiefs and evils to which we were subject and enslaved. So we have a supply for all that may in any way abase us and cast us down, in the all-sufficiency that is in Christ Jesus, who was anointed with the Spirit for this end.

It may be objected that Christ was God himself; he had the Spirit and gives the Spirit. How, then, could the Spirit be put upon him?

I answer, Christ is both God and man. Christ, as God, gives the Spirit to his human nature; so he communicates his Spirit. The Spirit is his Spirit as well as the Father’s. The Spirit proceeds from them both. Christ, as man, receives the Spirit. God the Father and the Son put the Spirit upon the manhood of Christ; so Christ both gives and receives the Spirit in different respects. As God, he gives and sends the Spirit. The spiration, the breathing, of the Spirit is from him as well as from the Father, but as man he received the Spirit.

And this is the reason for it: next under the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Christ the Mediator was to be the spring and source of all comfort and good. Therefore Christ’s nature must not only be sanctified and ordained by the Spirit, but he must receive the Spirit to enrich it, for whatever is worked in the creature is by the Spirit. Whatever Christ did as man, he did by the Spirit. Christ’s human nature, therefore, must be sanctified and have the Spirit put upon it. God the Father, the first person in the Trinity, and God the Son, the second, do not work directly, but by the Holy Spirit, the third person. Therefore whatever is worked upon the creature comes directly from the Holy Spirit. So Christ received the Holy Spirit as sent from the Father and the Son.

Now as the Holy Spirit is from the Father and the Son, so he works from the Father and the Son. He sanctifies and purifies, and does all from the Father and the Son, and knits us to the Father and the Son; to the Son first, and then to the Father. Therefore it is said, “The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the communion of the Holy Ghost” (2 Cor 13:14), because all the communion we have with God is by the Holy Spirit. All the communion that Christ as man had with God was by the Holy Spirit; and all the communion that God has with us, and we with God, is by the Holy Spirit. For the Spirit is the bond of union between Christ and us, and between God and us. God communicates himself to us by his Spirit, and we commune with God by his Spirit. God does all in us by his Spirit, and we do all back again to God by the Spirit.

Because Christ, as a head, as the second Adam, was to be the root of all who are saved, as the first Adam was the root of all who are damned, he was therefore to receive the Spirit, and to have it put upon him in a more excellent and rich manner. For we must know that all things are first in Christ, and then in us.

God chose him first, and then he chose us. God singled him out to be the Savior, the second Adam, and he calls us in Christ.

God justified Christ from our sins, since he was our surety and took our sins upon him. We are justified because by his resurrection he acquitted himself of the guilt of our sins, as one who has paid the debt.

Christ is the first fruits of those who rise again (1 Cor 15:20). We rise again because he is risen. Christ first ascended; we ascend in Christ. Christ is first loved; we are loved in the Beloved. Christ is first blessed; we are blessed with all spiritual blessings in Jesus Christ (Eph 1:3). So whatever is in us, we have it at second hand. We have the Spirit in us, but he is first in Christ. God has put the Spirit in Christ as the spring, as the second Adam, as a public person who was to receive the Spirit for us all. He is first in all things; Christ must have the preeminence. He has the preeminence in all, before time, in time, and after time: in election, in whatever is done here in this world, and in glorification. All is first in Christ, and then in us. He is the elder brother.

We must understand this, to give Christ his due honor and respect, and to know from where we have all we have. Therefore the Spirit is said here, first, to be put upon Christ. We do not have the Holy Spirit directly from God, but we have him as sanctifying Christ first, and then us. And whatever the Holy Spirit does in us, he does the same in Christ first, and he does it in us because he does it in Christ. Therefore, in John 16:14-15, Christ says, “He shall take of mine.” Whatever the Holy Spirit works in us, he takes of Christ first. How is that?

Like this: the Holy Spirit comforts us with reasons from Christ. Christ died and has reconciled us to God; therefore God is now at peace with you. Here the Holy Spirit takes a ground of comfort from the death of Christ. When the Holy Spirit would raise a man up to holiness of life, he tells him, Christ your Savior and head has been made alive and is now in heaven; therefore we ought to rise to holiness of life.

If the Holy Spirit is to work comfort or grace or anything else, he not only does the same thing that he did first in Christ, but he does it in us by reasons from Christ, by grounds fetched from Christ. The Holy Spirit tells our souls that God loves Christ first, and loves us in Christ, and that we are those for whom God gave Christ, those for whom Christ makes intercession in heaven. The Holy Spirit witnesses to us the love of the Father and the Son, and so he fetches from Christ whatever he works.

And so the work of the Holy Spirit is distinguished from illusions and delusions, which are nothing but frantic fancies of comfort that have no ground. The Holy Spirit fetches all from Christ in his working and comfort, and he makes Christ the pattern of all. For whatever is in Christ, the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of Christ, works in us as it is in Christ. Therefore in John 1:16 it is said, “of his fullness we receive grace for grace,” that is, grace answering to his grace. There are three things that we receive answering to Christ by the Spirit.

We receive grace, that is, the favor of God answering to the favor God shows his Son. He loves his Son, he is graciously disposed to him, and he loves us.

So also with habitual grace. We have grace in us answering to the grace in Christ. We have love answering to his love, patience answering to his patience, obedience and humility answering to those in Christ. The Spirit works a conformity to Christ in all things.

Likewise, in the third place, the Spirit assures us of the same privileges that issue from grace. Christ is a Son; the Spirit tells us we are sons. Christ is an heir; the Spirit tells us we are heirs with Christ. Christ is the king of heaven and earth; the Spirit tells us that we are kings, that his riches are ours. Thus we have “grace for grace,” both favor and grace in us, and privileges issuing from grace; we have all as they are in Christ. Even as in the first Adam we receive of his emptiness, curse for curse, evil for evil (our blindness and rebellion answer to his; we are born as he was after his fall), so in the second Adam, by his Spirit, we receive grace for grace.

From this issues the truth that our state now in Christ is far more excellent than our state in Adam was.

How does it spring from this?

Like this: Christ is God-man. His nature was sanctified by the Spirit; he was a more excellent person; he gives and sends the Spirit. Adam was only a mere man, and therefore his goodness could not be so passed on to his posterity. For although the Holy Spirit was in Adam, yet the Holy Spirit did not so fill him; he was not in him as he is in Christ. The Holy Spirit is in Christ in a more excellent manner, for Christ, being equal with God, gave the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit comes from Christ as God.

Now since the second Adam is a more excellent person, we who are in Christ the second Adam are in a more excellent and a safer state; we have a better keeper of our happiness than Adam. Adam, being a mere man, could not keep his own happiness, but lost himself and all his posterity. Though he was created after the image of God, yet being only a mere man, he showed himself to be a man, that is, a changeable creature. But since Christ is God and man, with his nature sanctified by the Spirit, our happiness is now in better keeping, for our grace has a better spring.

The grace and sanctification we have is not in our own keeping. It distills into us as our necessities require, but the spring is inexhaustible, it never fails, the spring is in Christ. So the favor that God bears us is not first in us, but first in Christ. God loves him, and then he loves us; he gives him the Spirit, and us in him. Now, Christ is the keeper both of the love of God toward us and of the grace of God. And whatever is good, he keeps it all for us; he receives all for himself and for us. He receives the Spirit not only for himself, but he receives it as Mediator, as head, for “we all of his fullness receive grace for grace.” He receives it as a fountain, I say, to diffuse it. This shows us our happy and blessed condition in Jesus Christ: that now the grace and love of God and our happiness, and the grace by which we are sanctified and fitted for it, are not in our own keeping originally, but in our head Christ Jesus.

These are comforting considerations, and indeed the life and soul of a Christian’s life and comfort. If we conceive them rightly, they will enliven us to obedience, and we shall know what the gospel is. Let us come now to make some use of it.

I might observe this, that no one should take upon themselves an office to which they are not called by God, nor qualified by his Spirit, especially ministers, because Christ did not take up his office until the Spirit was put upon him. The Spirit must enable us and fit us for everything. But I leave that, and come to what concerns us all.

First, then, has God put the Spirit upon Christ? The evangelist says so in John 3:34: “He whom God hath sent” (that is, Christ) “he speaketh the word of God: for God gives him not the Spirit by measure.” God does not stand measuring grace out to Christ; he pours it out upon him, full measure, running over, because he receives it not for himself alone, but for us. We receive the Spirit by measure, “according to the measure of the gift of Christ” (Eph 4:7). Christ gives us all a measure of sanctifying knowledge and of every grace, until we grow to be a perfect man in Christ (Eph 4:13). Therefore it is called the “first fruits of the Spirit” (Rom 8:23): as much as will fit us for heaven, and grace sufficient, though it is not the measure we will have hereafter, or the measure we would like to have here.

Christ had a full measure, the fullness of a fountain that spreads itself abroad: not only abundance for himself, but redundance, an overflowing for the good of others. For he is the head of the church, not only a head of eminence but of influence, to bestow and convey all the grace in him to all his members, in proportion to the service of every member. Therefore he did not receive the Spirit according to measure, that is, sparingly; it was showered upon him. He was filled and clothed with the Holy Spirit. Is it so?

Let us labor, then, to see where to find supply for all our needs. We have a full treasury to go to. All treasure is hidden in Christ for us. What a comfort this is in anything we lack! If we lack the favor of God, let us go to his beloved Christ. Let us ask God to love us in his beloved, and to accept us in his gracious Son, in him whom he has made his servant and anointed with his Spirit for that purpose.

If we lack particular graces, let us go to the wellhead, Christ. Consider Christ now filled for us, as it was with Aaron. The oil that was poured on Aaron’s head ran down to his beard and to the skirts of his clothing (Ps 133:2); the humblest parts of his garment were bedewed with that oil. So the graces of God’s Spirit, poured upon our head Christ, our Aaron, our High Priest, run down upon us, upon all ranks of Christians, even upon the skirts, the weakest and lowest Christians. Everyone has grace for grace; we all partake of the oil and anointing of our spiritual Aaron, our High Priest.

If we lack anything, therefore, let us go to him. “I can do all,” says St. Paul, “in Christ that strengtheneth me” (Phil 4:13). Go to him for patience, for comfort, for everything, because God has put his Spirit upon him to supply all our needs. He has “the oil of gladness above his fellows” (Ps 45:7), but it is for his fellows that he has the oil of grace more than any; it is not only for him, but for us all.

Therefore, let us have comforting meditations on the fullness of Christ, and make use of it: all this is for me. In Colossians 2:9 St. Paul sets it out: “in him the fullness of the Godhead dwells personally,” for that is what is meant by the Greek word for “bodily”; and it follows after, “in him we are complete” (Col 2:10). To what end is all the fullness that is in him? To show that in him we are complete.

So in 1 John 5:20-21, to show how the spirits of the apostles agree, John says on this point, “we know that the Son of God is come in the flesh, and hath given us an understanding to know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is true God and eternal life.” Christ is true God and eternal life for us all. For our comfort, “we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding … Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” How does this depend on what came before? Like this: will you go to idols, to stocks and stones, to devices of men’s brains, for a supply of grace and comfort? Christ, whom God has sent, has come into the world; he is God and eternal life. “God hath given eternal life, and this life is in his Son” (1 John 5:11). Therefore, why should you go to idols?

What is the ground of popish idolatries and abominations? They do not rightly conceive the fullness of Christ, and why he was ordained and sent by God. If they did, they would not go to idols and saints and leave Christ.

Therefore let us make this use of it: go outside of Christ for nothing. If we lack favor, let us not go to saints; if we lack instruction, let us not go to the traditions of men. He is a prophet wise enough, and a priest full enough to make us accepted by God. If we lack any grace, he is a king able enough, rich enough and strong enough to subdue all our rebellions within us, and in time he will overcome all by his Spirit. “Stronger is he that is in us than he that is in the world” (1 John 4:4). The spirit in the world, the devil and devilish-minded men, is not so strong as the Spirit of Christ; for little by little the Spirit of Christ will subdue all. Christ is a king; therefore go outside of him for nothing. “Babes, keep yourselves from idols” (1 John 5:21). You may well do so, for you know whom to go to.

Therefore let us shame ourselves. Is there such a storehouse of comfort and grace of every kind in Christ? Why then are we so weak and comfortless? Why are we so dejected, as if we did not have such a rich husband? All our husband’s riches are ours for our good, and we receive of them in our measure. Why do we not go to the fountain and make use of it? Why, in the midst of abundance, are we poor and beggarly?

Here we may see the misery of the world. Christ is a prophet to teach us the way to heaven, but how few there are who will be directed by him! Christ is a king to subdue all our spiritual and worst enemies, to subdue those enemies that kings tremble at, to subdue death, to subdue the fear of judgment and the wrath of God; and yet how few will come under his government! Christ is “the light of the world” (John 9:5), yet how few follow him! Christ is the way, yet how few tread in his steps! Christ is our wisdom and our riches, yet how few go to him to fetch any riches, but content themselves with the transitory things of this life!

Men live as if Christ were nothing, or as if he did not concern them at all, as if he were a person removed from them, as if he were not a head or husband, as if he had received the Spirit only for himself and not for them; whereas all that is in Christ is for us. I beg you, therefore, let us learn to know Christ better and to make use of him.

Again, if Christ has the Spirit put upon him for us all, then in our daily slips and errors let us make this use of it: offer Christ to God with this argument. Take an argument from God himself to bind him. God will be bound with his own arguments. We cannot bind him with ours, but let us go to him and say, “Lord, though I am sinful in this way and that, yet for the sake of Christ Jesus your servant, whom you love, upon whom you have put your Spirit to be a priest and to make intercession for me, for his sake pardon, for his sake accept.”

Plead God’s consecration of Christ by the Spirit before God himself, and bind him with his own mediator, and with his own priest of his own ordaining. “You cannot, Lord, refuse a Savior and mediator of your own, sanctified by your own Spirit, whom you have set apart and ordained and qualified in every way for this purpose.” Let us go to God in the name of this mediator, Jesus Christ, every day; this is to make good use of this truth, that God has “put his Spirit upon him.”

But to make use of this as a test: how will we know whether this comfort belongs to us, whether Christ has the Spirit put upon him for us or not, whether he is ordained a king, priest and prophet for us? What I said before will give light on this. We must partake of the same Spirit that Christ has, or else we are none of his members. As we partake of his name, so we must also partake of his anointing. That is why we are called Christians, because we partake of the anointing and Spirit of Christ. And if we have the Spirit of Christ, it will work the same in us as it did in Christ. It will convince us of our own evil, of our rebellions and cursed state, and it will likewise convince us of the good we have in him.

And then, he is a Spirit of union, to knit us to Christ and make us one with him, and thereupon to make us alive, to lead us and guide us, and to dwell in us continually; to stir up prayers and supplications in us, to make us cry familiarly to God as to a Father, to comfort and support us in all our needs and miseries, as he did Christ, “to help our infirmities.” So the apostle sets down at length, in Romans 8:26, the excellent office of the Holy Spirit, what he does in those who are Christ’s.

Let us therefore examine ourselves, what the Spirit does in us, if Christ is set apart to redeem us as a priest. Surely all his offices go together. By the same Spirit he rules us: “He hath washed us in his blood, and made us kings and priests” (Rev 1:5). Whomever he washes in his blood he makes a king and a priest; he makes him able, by the power of his Spirit, to rule over his base corruptions.

We may know, then, whether we have benefit by Christ through his Spirit, not only by the Spirit’s witnessing that we are the sons of God, but by certain arguments whereby the Spirit may witness without delusion. For though the Spirit of Christ tells us that we are Christ’s, yet the proof must come from his guiding and leading, comforting and conforming us to Jesus Christ, in making us kings and prophets, enlightening our understandings to know his will, and conforming us to be like him.

The Spirit of Christ is a Spirit of power and strength. It will enable us to perform duties above nature, to overcome ourselves and injuries. It will make us able to be in want and to abound; it will make us able to live and to die, as it enabled Christ to do things that another man could not do. So a Christian can do and suffer what another man cannot do and suffer, because he has the Spirit of Christ.

At the least, whoever has the Spirit of Christ will find that Spirit in him striving against what is contrary to it, and little by little gaining ground. Where there is no conflict, there is no Spirit of Christ at all. I will not enlarge on the point; I speak this only by way of test, to know whether we have the Spirit of Christ in us or not. If we do not, we have nothing to do with Christ; for Christ does not save us only as he is outside of us.

Christ was to do something by himself that we have no share in; only the good of it is ours. He was to redeem us by his blood, to be a sacrifice. The title to heaven and salvation was won by Christ outside of us. But there is something that he does not only for us, but works in us by his Spirit: the fitting of us for what he has given us title to, and the applying of what he has done for us. Whoever, therefore, has any benefit by Christ has the Spirit to apply it to himself, and to fit and qualify him to be a member of such a head and an heir of such a kingdom. Whomever Christ does anything for, he also works in them. There is a Spirit of application, and that Spirit of application, if it is true, is a Spirit of sanctification and renovation, fitting us in every way for our condition.

Let us not deceive ourselves concerning Christ, as the world commonly does. They think God is merciful and Christ is a Savior. That is true, but what has he worked in you by his Spirit? Do you have the Spirit of Christ? Or “else thou art none of his” (Rom 8:9). Wherever Christ is, he goes with his Spirit to teach us to apply what Christ has done for us, and to fit us to be like him. Therefore let those who live in any sins against conscience count it a diabolical illusion to think that God and Christ are merciful. Yes, God and Christ are merciful, but where is the work of the Spirit? All the hope you have is only that you are not in hell as yet, a hope only for the time to come; but for the present I dare not say you have anything to do with Christ, when there is nothing of the Spirit in you.

The Spirit of Christ conforms the spouse to be like the husband, and the members to be like the head. Therefore, beg Christ that he would anoint himself king in our hearts, and prophet and priest in our hearts, to do what he did: to know his will as a prophet, to rule in us as a king, and to stir up prayers in us as a priest; to do in some proportion what he does, though it be in ever so small a measure, for we receive it in measure, but Christ beyond measure. We must labor for as much as will show us the truth of our state in Christ, that we are not dead but living branches.

Now Christ gives and conveys his Spirit especially, and most of all, since his ascension and sitting at the right hand of God. For after his resurrection he declared his victory over all his enemies, and therefore was able to give the Spirit without opposition. Upon his resurrection, death and hell and the anger of God were overcome, and our sins were satisfied for. Now Christ was head indeed, having trodden all his enemies under his feet; now he was enabled to give the Spirit. But upon his ascension into heaven and his sitting there, he was more enabled. For even as the sun, being so high above the earth, conveys its light and heat and influence upon the lower bodies, so Christ, being so highly advanced, is the fitter to infuse his Spirit and grace here below since his exaltation.

Therefore the church is fuller of grace, and grace has been more spread and diffused since the ascension of Christ than before. The evangelist gives this as a reason: The Spirit was not yet given, because Christ was not ascended (John 7:39), intimating that after his ascension a fuller portion of the Spirit was given, God being fully appeased by the death of Christ, and Christ waiting for the time that was fittest for giving the Spirit. Now God the Father gives the Spirit with the Son, so in both respects there was a greater fullness of the Spirit. Therefore the prophets, speaking of the times of Christ, especially of his exaltation, show that then they would be filled with the Spirit, that the Spirit would be poured upon all flesh more abundantly than before.

And that is why the apostles so differed from themselves before and after Christ’s ascension. What a wondrous alteration there was! Peter, before, flees even at the voice of a maid, and they were full of contention and vainglory. But afterward we see, when the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, came down after Christ’s ascension into heaven, how courageous and valorous they were, so that they counted it a matter of glory to suffer anything. And indeed, we have more or less valor and courage according as we have more or less of the Spirit. Now they, having received a greater abundance of the Spirit, were thereupon more courageous and undaunted at one time than at another. And this abundance of the Spirit comes especially since Christ’s advancement.

But how, or by what means, does Christ give his Spirit to us? This Spirit that is so necessary for us is given by the ministry of the gospel, which is the ministry of the Spirit. “Received ye the Holy Ghost by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith preached?” (Gal 3:2). When the love of God in Christ and the benefits by Christ are laid open to us in the preaching of the gospel, God gives his Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ.

Now God in Christ would save us by a triumphant and abundant love and mercy, and the Spirit of God never goes except where there is a magnifying of the love and mercy of God in Christ. Therefore the ministry of the gospel, which alone discloses the friendship and love of God toward mankind, now reconciled in Christ, is accompanied by the Spirit, to assure us of our part and portion in those benefits; for the Spirit is the fruit of God’s love as well as Christ. Christ is the first gift and the Spirit is the second. Therefore that part of the word which discloses God’s exceeding love to mankind, leaving the angels in their cursed state when they had fallen, and yet giving his Son to become man and “a curse for us” (Gal 3:13): this disclosure of the love and mercy of God, and of his Son Christ to us, is joined with the Spirit.

For by the Spirit we see our cursed state without the love and mercy of God in Christ, and likewise we are convinced of the love of God in Christ; and thereupon we love God in return, and trust in his mercy, and out of love to him perform all cheerful obedience. Whatever else we do, if it is not stirred by the Spirit, apprehending the love of God in Christ, it is but morality. A man will never go to heaven except by such a disposition and frame and temper of soul as is worked by the Holy Spirit, persuading the soul first of the love and favor of God in Christ. What are all our performances if they are not out of love to God? And how shall we love God unless we are persuaded that he loves us first? Therefore the gospel breeds love to God in us, and has the Spirit together with it, working a blessed frame of sanctification whereby we are disposed to every good duty.

Therefore if we would have the Spirit of God, let us attend upon the sweet promises of salvation, upon the doctrine of Christ; for together with the knowledge of these things, the Holy Spirit slides and winds his way and infuses himself into our souls.

Therefore the ministers of the gospel should be much engaged in laying open the riches of God in Christ. In unfolding Christ, all other things will follow, as St. Paul says in Titus 2:11-12, the grace of God has shined, has appeared gloriously, teaching us to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live holily and soberly in this present world. Where the soul is persuaded of the grace and love of God, and it is shed into the soul, all will follow.

What is the reason that former times were called dark times (and so they were), the times of popery a dark age? Christ was veiled, the gospel was veiled, there was no preaching of salvation by Christ alone. People were sent to stocks and stones and to saints, and instead of the word they were sent to legends and such things. Christ was obscured, and so they were dark ages. The ages in which the Spirit of God is most present are those where Christ is most preached. People are always best where there is most of the Spirit, and they are most joyful and full of comfort and holy where Christ is truly laid open to the hearts of people.

The preaching of mere morality, if men are not careful to lay open Christ, to know how salvation is worked by Christ and how all good comes by Christ, will never make a man perfectly good and fit him for heaven. It may make a man reform many abuses, like a philosopher, which has its reward and respect among men, but it has nothing to give comfort at the hour of death and on the day of judgment. The only thing by which the Spirit is conveyed is the knowledge and preaching of Christ in his state and offices.

Again, the Spirit of Christ is given in obedience to this gospel (Acts 5:32). He gives the Holy Spirit to those who obey him. Now, there is the obedience of faith and the obedience of life. When the soul is brought to obedience, to believe and to be directed by God, then the Holy Spirit is given in a further measure still. The Holy Spirit is given to those who obey, to those who do not resist the Spirit of God. For in the ministry of the gospel the Spirit is given in some degree to reprobates. It is offered; it knocks at the hearts of the vilest persons, who live in filthy and false courses of life, whose tongues and bodies are all instruments of an unsanctified soul to offend God. They have gracious stirrings offered to them, but then they do not obey them. Therefore the Spirit does not seize upon them to rule in them. They have the Spirit knocking upon them, but he does not dwell in them and take up his lodging in them. The Spirit is given to those who obey its sweet stirrings.

Now, who is there that hears the blessed word of God, the blessed tidings of salvation, but has sweet stirrings of the Spirit to be in love with God and the mercy of God, and to hate sin a little for a time? Then immediately upon it corruption joins in and swells against those stirrings, and they rest only in the bare stirring and never come to any perfection. This is the state of reprobates in the church. They have many stirrings by the Holy Spirit, but their hearts are not subdued to obedience, not to constant obedience.

Therefore, if we would have the Spirit of Christ, let us labor to subject ourselves to it. When we have any good stirring by the ministry of the word, or by holy conversation, or by reading good things (for holy things have a savor in them, and the Spirit breathes in holy exercises), oh, give way to the stirrings of God’s Spirit. Perhaps we will not have them again. Do not turn back those blessed messengers; let us entertain them, let the Spirit dwell and rule in us. It is the most blessed lodger we ever entertained in all our lives.

If we let the Spirit guide and rule us, it will lead us and govern and support us in life and death, and never leave us until it has raised our bodies. At length the Spirit of Christ in us will give life to our dead bodies (Rom 8:11). It will never leave us until it has brought us to heaven. This is the state of those who belong to God, who give way to the stirrings of God’s Spirit to rule and guide them. Therefore, if we would have the Spirit of Christ, let us take heed of rebelling against it.

This is the state of many of us (the Lord be merciful to us and cure us): not only do we not receive the stirrings of the Spirit deeply into us, but if they are such as cross us in our pleasures and profits, then, though the word and Spirit join together, there is a rising of the proud spirit of man against so much of the Spirit and its stirrings, and against such parts of the word as cross us. This will be laid heavily to our charge one day, that we would bring the Spirit of God to our corruptions, and would not bring our hearts to God’s Spirit.

And from this come those phrases in Scripture about tempting the Spirit. Ananias and Sapphira tempted the Spirit (Acts 5:9); that is, when men will do what is wicked, and try whether God will forgive them and let it pass or not. How many there are who tempt the Spirit, who put it off: “Perhaps I will have the same stirrings another time.” “I will have a better occasion when I can gain no more, when I can have my pleasure no more.” Thus men resist the Spirit, as St. Stephen says (Acts 7:51); that is, when the Spirit discloses to them what they should believe and what they should do, and they see it crosses their resolution to be wicked. Thereupon they resist the work of the Spirit, which otherwise would close with their souls, and sanctify them, and fit them for heaven, if they would give way to it. And there is a quenching of the Spirit; that is, when men have sweet stirrings of the Spirit, and immediately by some evil language or course of life they defile their vessels and quench the sweet stirrings of the Spirit. Let us take heed of all these: of tempting, of resisting, and of quenching the Spirit. For undoubtedly, living in the bosom of the church, we have many heavenly stirrings, especially those who have so much goodness in them as to attend upon God’s ordinances. They have stirrings at those times that perhaps they never have afterward, but they either resist them or quench them, and wrong and grieve the Spirit, as St. Paul says, “Grieve not the Spirit of God, whereby you are sealed to the day of redemption” (Eph 4:30).

Men speak or do something that grieves the Spirit of God in them. Their conscience, being enlightened by the Spirit, tells them that they have done what is wicked; yet even so, for this or that advantage, to please this or that company, they will speak or do what is evil, and then the Spirit that was given in some measure before is grieved at this carnal and sinful liberty. Therefore, if you would be guided by the Spirit of Christ, take heed of all these and of all such courses.

Another means by which we may come to obtain the Spirit is prayer. To be guided by the Spirit of Christ is, next to Christ himself, our Savior, the most excellent thing in the world; therefore it is worth the begging and the getting. “How much more shall your heavenly Father give his Holy Spirit to them that ask him?” (Luke 11:13). This implies that we can ask nothing greater than the Spirit.

A man who has a sanctified judgment, next to the forgiveness of his sins through Christ, begs for nothing more than the Spirit, to witness the favor of God in Christ and to fit him for other favors, especially to fit us for the world to come. God can give nothing greater, nor can we beg anything greater, if we have sanctified judgments, than the Spirit of God. Therefore let us hold the Holy Spirit and the Spirit’s stirrings in high esteem, and out of a high esteem in our hearts beg of God the guidance of the Spirit, that he would lead us by his Spirit and subdue our corruptions, so that we may not be led by our own lusts, and so consequently by Satan, who leads us by our own lusts in the way that leads to perdition. So much for that phrase, “I will put my Spirit …”

And he shall show judgment to the Gentiles. After Christ was fully furnished, as he was furnished with the Spirit of God and with a commission from heaven, from Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, then, having this high commission and gifts for it by the Spirit, he sets about his office at once. We are never fit for anything till we have the Spirit, and when we have the Spirit, that Spirit is active and vigorous and working. “He shall show judgment to the Gentiles.”

What is meant by judgment here?

By judgment are meant laws. He shall declare his laws, his truth; and together with declaring the truth of the gospel, which is his evangelical law, he shall declare it in the soul, and bow the neck of the inward man to the obedience of this his judgment. Christ then, by himself and his apostles and ministers, shall declare his truth, which is the scepter of his government, to the Gentiles; and he shall not only declare it as princes do their laws, by proclamations and statutes and the like, but he shall declare it to the heart by his Spirit.

Now, in the Hebrew language, wise government is ordinarily called judgment. He shall declare judgment, that is, his manner of government; he shall declare it by his Spirit and cause our spirits to submit to it.

And indeed, in the language of Scripture, grace is called judgment, the grace of sanctification, because it agrees with judgment, with God’s law. It agrees with it and is worked by it in the soul, and it is the best judgment. For grace, by which the soul is subject to the judgment and law and rule of God, must of necessity be the best judgment, because it agrees with God’s judgment. Grace judges rightly of things, and subdues all things, the affections and the inward man, to itself.

But why is the word of God called judgment?

It is called so frequently in the Psalms and in other places of Scripture, because the truth of God shows what God judges. Judgment is originally in God, who is the first truth and the first good. The first truth judges best of truths: what is light and what is darkness, what is truth and what is error, what is good and what is evil, what is safe and what is dangerous. All will grant that God is the first light and the first truth; therefore he originally judges of the difference of things. For even as in the creation he put an eternal difference between light and darkness, and severed things that were in the confused chaos, and established an orderly world, that heaven should be above and earth below, that one thing should be above another, and all in judgment; so in the governing of mankind he shows his judgment by his word, and that word shows how God judges of things.

Laws show judgment, what is to be done and what is not to be done. The gospel shows God’s judgment, what he will have us believe and hope for, and how we must carry ourselves by way of thankfulness. If we do this, then the gospel, the word of God, judges what will become of us: we shall be saved (Mark 16:16). If we do the contrary, the word again judges what our state will be: we shall be damned (Mark 16:16). So it is called judgment because it judges what is good and what is evil, and because it determines what will become of us if we obey or disobey.

This is why the word of God is a mirror in which we may infallibly see our own condition, what will become of us. The word of God judges thus: he who lives in such and such sins will come to this end; God will inflict these and these judgments upon him. Judgment in the first place is this: You shall do this and this, because it is good. Judgment in the second place is this: Because you have not done this, this shall befall you. So the evangelical judgment of the gospel is this: He that repents and believes shall not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:15). But he who arms and furnishes his heart for rebellion shall perish in his sins: “He that believeth not is condemned already” (John 3:18), the wrath of God hangs over his head.

So from this, that God’s truth is called judgment, we may know how to judge of ourselves, even as God judges in his word. We may see our own faces and conditions there. He who is a man of death may see it in the word, and he who is appointed for happiness may see his condition there.

Again, not only the word of God, the gospel, which is outside us in the book of God, is called judgment, but the work of God in the soul, sanctification, is called judgment. From this we may observe what is the most judicious course in the world, the most judicious frame of soul: it is when the soul is framed to the judgment and truth of God, the first truth. When a man is sanctified and set in a holy frame, it comes from a sanctified judgment. The flesh is subject to the Spirit. Here all is in a gracious order. The baser part does not rule the higher, but the higher part of the soul, a sanctified judgment, rules all, because the whole is in right judgment. Therefore sanctification is called judgment, and other courses, however fashionable they may be, are in the verdict of Scripture nothing but madness and folly and disorder. Nothing is judgment and true wisdom but sanctification and the obedience that flows from sanctification.

Therefore Moses says in Deuteronomy 4:6, Then shall you be known to be a wise people when you obey the laws that I have given you. That alone shows a wise, judicious man: to be obedient to God’s truth by the Spirit sanctifying him. Without the truth of God and the Spirit in us, framing our souls in conformity with the truth, we are out of all good order. For then the affections that should be ruled rule us; then the body and the lusts of the body rule the soul; and the devil rules by both. What a shameful disorder this is, when a man is ruled by the devil and his own lusts, which he should tread underfoot and trample upon! And this is the state of all who do not have this judgment in them, who do not have the word of God written in their hearts, bowing and bending them by the Spirit of God to spiritual obedience.

To prove this, I will name only one place among many, Titus 3:3, where the apostle shows the state of all men who are not brought into subjection by this judgment, by the word and Spirit of truth. We ourselves, he says, “were sometimes foolish and disobedient.” Till this judgment is set up in us, we are foolish in our understandings and disobedient in our wills and affections, deceived and misled by the devil and our own lusts; for that follows upon folly. Those who are foolish and disobedient are deceived and led away to eternal destruction. “There is a way that seems good in a man’s own eyes, but the issues of it are death,” says Solomon (Prov 14:12). This is the state of all men who are not led by the judgment of God’s truth and Spirit, sanctifying and framing their souls to obedience: they are foolish and disobedient and deceived, and so it will prove with them in the end, “serving diverse lusts, and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hating one another” (Titus 3:3).

Now when God by his blessed truth and Spirit sets up his rule in the heart, it brings all into captivity. As St. Paul says, it brings all the inner man into subjection: The word of God is the weapon of God; these judgments are mighty in operation, together with the Spirit, to beat down all strongholds and to set up another judgment there; it brings all into captivity to the truth and command of God, and to the stirrings of the Spirit (2 Cor 10:4-5). The word and Spirit beat down all the strongholds that are raised up in the heart by Satan and our corruptions. So we see here what is meant by this phrase, “he shall declare judgment to the Gentiles.” It is a militant word; therefore I have dwelt somewhat longer in unfolding it.

Now this is accomplished by the preaching of the gospel: “he shall declare judgment to the Gentiles.” All grace comes by declaring: “The gospel is the power of God to salvation” (Rom 1:16). Just let the gospel (which is God’s judgment how men shall be saved, and how they shall walk in obedience by way of thankfulness to God) be declared, and all who belong to God shall come in, and yield homage to it, and be brought into subjection. The devil in the antichristian state knows this well enough. Therefore he labors by all means to hinder the declaration of judgment; he will not have God’s judgments declared, but men’s traditions. He knows that the declaring of God’s judgments will quickly breed an alteration in men’s dispositions. For when the text says that he shall declare judgment to the Gentiles, it means the consequence as well as the thing: Christ shall so declare judgment that they shall yield spiritual obedience and come in and be saved.

Let the devil do his worst, let all seducers of souls do their worst: if they would only give way to the preaching of the gospel, let judgment only be declared, let God’s arm be stretched out in delivering the truth, and he would soon gain souls out of the captivity and bondage of Satan. They know it well enough; therefore by all the ways they can, they stop the preaching of the gospel, and disgrace and hinder it, and set up men’s traditions instead of the gospel. But I will not enlarge further upon these words, but go on to the next.

He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets. These words set down the mild and sweet and amiable manner of Christ’s conduct on earth. Here, in his first coming to work the great work of our redemption, he did not carry the matter in an outward, glorious manner, in pomp; but he would often have his miracles concealed and himself hidden. His Godhead was hidden under the veil of his manhood. He could not have accomplished our salvation otherwise. If the devil and the world had known Christ for what he was, they would never have made those attempts against him. Therefore, considering he had such a dispensation, to work our salvation as a king, priest, and prophet, he would not cry and contend and strive; he would not come with any great noise.

Now, here is a contrast with the giving of the law, and likewise with the coming and conduct of civil princes. You know that when the law was given, all the mount was on fire, and the earth around it quaked and trembled, and the people fled. They could not endure to hear the voice of God speaking on the mount; there was such a terrible smoke and fire that they were all afraid. Thus came Moses. Now, did Christ come as Moses did? Was the gospel delivered by Christ as the law was, in terrors and fears? Oh, no. Christ did not come in such a terrible manner, in thunder and lightning; but the gospel came sweetly.

A dove, a mild creature, alighted upon the head of Christ when he was baptized, to show his mild manner of conduct; and he came with blessing in his mouth in the very first of his sermons: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, blessed are they that mourn, blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness” (Matt 5:3-4, 6). The law came with curses: “Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the law to do them” (Gal 3:10). Christ came in another manner; the gospel was delivered in a mild, sweet manner. Christ, as an ambassador, came sweetly to entreat and beseech. There is a crying, indeed, but it is a crying out of love and entreaty, not a shouting in a terrible manner as there was at the giving of the law, no, nor as at the coming of other civil princes into a city, with shouting and the noise of trumpets, with pomp and state and great attendants.

Christ did not come into the world to execute his kingdom and office in such pomp and noise, as it is said of Agrippa, “He came with great pomp” (Acts 25:23). So worldly princes carry things, and in some sort it is needful. People must have shows and pomp; the outward man must have outward things to astonish it. It is a policy of state to do so. But Christ came in another manner. He did not come to make those who came to speak and deal with him quake and tremble. He did not come with clamor and fierceness, for who would have come to Christ then? But he came in a mild and sweet and amiable manner. We see a little before the text (Matt 12:16), in the occasion from which these words are drawn, that he commands and charges them not to disclose him and make him known. When he had done a good work, he would not have it known.

Now, there are three things especially implied in this description, “He shall not strive nor cry, neither shall any man hear his voice in the streets”: that Christ should not be outwardly glorious, to publish his own excellency, nor contentious; he should not cry or quarrel; nor should he be clamorous if he suffered any wrong, to be all on fire at once; but he should be as a meek lamb, he should make no noise, he should not come in vainglory or clamor, and the like.

But here we must know that Christ was a wise discerner of the fitness of times; for sometimes he would have things published, sometimes he would not; sometimes he would be known, sometimes he would not. Christ, in his second coming, shall come all in majesty and glory with his angels, and all the earth shall appear before him. But at that time his wisdom told him, now that he came to save the world as a prophet, priest, and king, to work man’s salvation, that he must hide and conceal himself; and so he ordered all his courses by discretion. Every sacrifice must be salted with salt; everything should be seasoned with the salt of discretion. This is the steward of all our actions, to know what is fit. Christ knew it was fittest to conceal himself then, at that time.

Now, by Christ’s example we should learn this: not to be vainglorious, not to make a great noise. You have some who, if they do anything good, must have all the world know it at once. This was not Christ’s disposition. It is a disposition that is not easily worked out of man’s heart without an exceedingly great measure of the Spirit of God; for we see that good men have been inclined this way.

David would number the people, that it might be known what a great monarch he was, what a great number of people he had (2 Sam 24). He was a good man, yet vainglorious. He smarted for it. So it was with good Hezekiah. Ambassadors were sent to him from the king of Babylon, and so that they should know that Hezekiah was no beggarly prince, out must come the vessels of the temple and all his treasures, to show what a rich king the king of Judah was (2 Kgs 20:13 and following). His vainglory cost him all his riches, as the prophet told him.

So it was with the disciples. Before they received a great measure of the Spirit, how vainglorious they were! They contended for the higher place; therefore they advised Christ to go up to Jerusalem, that he might be known. As Jehu said to Jonadab, “Come up and see my zeal for the Lord of hosts” (2 Kgs 10:16); he accounts it nothing unless it is seen. So it is with flesh and blood. If anything good is done, all the world must know it at once. Christ charges them that no noise should be made, but that they should conceal him.

What should we learn from this?

To be of Christ’s disposition; that is, to have no more care for the knowledge of things than the light of the things themselves will reveal. We are to do works of light, and if the things themselves will break forth to men’s eyes and they must see our light shine, then let them, and let them imitate our good works; but for us to blazon them abroad ourselves is not the spirit of Christ.

Let us labor to have humility of spirit, that it may grow up with us in all our performances, that all the things we speak and do may savor of a spirit of humility, that we may seek the glory of God in all things more than our own.

And let us commit the fame and credit of what we are or do to God. He will take care of that. Let us take care to be and to do as we should, and then, as for noise and report, let it be good or evil as God will send it. We know it often happens that what is precious in man’s eye is abominable in God’s. If we seek to be in the mouths of men, to dwell in the talk and speech of men, God will abhor us; and at the hour of death it will not comfort us what men speak or know of us, but sound comfort must come from our own conscience and the judgment of God.

Therefore let us labor to be good in secret. Christians should be like minerals, rich in the depth of the earth. What is least seen is a Christian’s riches. We should have our treasure deep. As for the disclosing of it, we should be ready when we are called to it; and as for all other accidental things, let them fall out as God in his wisdom sees good. So let us look through good report and bad report to heaven; let us do the duties that are pleasing to God and our own conscience, and God will be careful enough to get us applause. Was it not sufficient for Abel that, though no great notice was taken of what faith he had and how good a man he was, yet God knew it and disclosed it?

God sees our sincerity and the truth of our hearts and the graces of our inward man; he sees all these, and he values us by these, as he did Abel. As for outward things, there may be a great deal of deceit in them, and the more a man grows in grace, the less he cares for them. As much reputation as is fit for a man will follow him in being and doing what he should. God will look to that.

Therefore we should not set up our sails to our own meditations in such a way that, unless we are carried by the wind of applause, we are becalmed and do not go a whit forward. We should be carried by the Spirit of God and by a holy desire to serve God and our brothers, and to do all the good we can, and never care for the speeches of the world, as St. Paul says of himself: “I care not what ye judge of me, I care not what the world judgeth, I care not for man’s judgment” (1 Cor 4:3). This is man’s day.

We should, from the example of Christ, labor to subdue this infirmity, of which we are naturally sick. Christ concealed himself till he saw a fitter time. We shall have glory enough, and be known enough to devils, to angels, and to men before long. Therefore, as Christ lived a hidden life, that is, it was not known what he was, so that he might work our salvation, so let us be content to be hidden men. A true Christian is hidden from the world till the time of manifestation comes. When the time came, Christ then gloriously disclosed what he was; so it shall be disclosed what we are. In the meantime, let us be careful to do the duty that may please the Spirit of God and satisfy our own conscience, and leave all the rest to God. Let us meditate, in the fear of God, upon these directions for the guidance of our lives in this particular.

For I am in a strait between two, having a desire to depart, and to be with Christ, which is best of all; nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is most needful for you (Phil 1:23-24).

The apostle Paul here had a double desire: one in regard to himself, to be with Christ; another, out of his love for God’s church and people, to abide still in the flesh. Between these two he is in a great strait, not knowing which to choose. But the love of the church of Christ triumphed in him above the love of his own salvation, so that he was content, out of self-denial, to go without the joys of heaven for a time, that he might further comfort the people of God.

In the words you have, first, St. Paul’s straits. Second, you have his desires that caused them, both in regard to himself, which was to be with Christ, and in respect of the church of God, which was to abide still here. Third, you have the reasons for both: (1) to be with Christ is far better for me, and (2) to abide in the flesh is more needful for you. And fourth, you have his resolution upon it all, being willing for the church’s good still to abide here, rather than go to heaven and enjoy his own happiness.

St. Paul’s soul was like a ship between two winds, tossed up and down, and like iron between two lodestones, drawn first one way, then another. The one lodestone was his own good, to be in heaven; the other was the good of God’s people, to abide still in the flesh.

Observation. Observe from this that the servants of God are often in great straits. Some things are so exceedingly bad that, without any deliberation or delay at all, we ought at once to abominate them, such as Satan’s temptations to sin, to distrust, to despair, and the like. Some things also are so good that we should immediately cling to them, such as matters of religion and piety. There should be no delay in these holy businesses. To deliberate here shows weakness. Some things, again, are of an ambiguous and doubtful nature, requiring our best consideration. Such was Paul’s strait in this place. He had reasons swaying him on both sides, and such is the happy state of a Christian that whatever he had chosen would have been well for him. Yet God, who rules our judgments, will have us make a choice.

God might have determined whether Paul should live or die, but he would not do so without Paul’s choice. What is good is not good to us except by choice and deliberation. Since God has given us abilities to reason and examine things, he will have us make use of them. Therefore the apostle uses reasons on both sides: to die is better for me, to live is better for you.

Wicked men have their deliberations and their straits too, but it is with them as with the rich man in the gospel: what they shall do, how they may pull down their barns and build bigger (Luke 12:18). Their main strait is at the hour of death. Live they cannot, die they dare not. There is so much guilt of sin upon their consciences that they do not know which way to turn. Oh, what fearful straits sin will bring men into! But the apostle was in a strait of a higher nature than this: whether it would be better for the glory of God (which he aimed at above all) for him to go to heaven and enjoy happiness in his own person, or to abide still on earth for the comfort of God’s saints.

The ground of this difficulty and strait was his present desire.

I have a desire. Desires are the immediate offspring of the soul, its motion and stirring toward something that pleases it. When anything is set before the soul that has a magnetic force, like the lodestone, to draw out its motions, we call that desire, though for the present the soul does not enjoy it.

1. St. Paul’s desire was spiritual, not after happiness so much as holiness. “O miserable man that I am,” he says, “who shall deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom 7:24). His desire of death was to be freed from the body of sin more than to be taken out of the flesh, and his desire of holiness, to have Christ’s image stamped on his soul, was greater than his desire of eternal happiness. Nature cannot do this. It is a work above the flesh, for the flesh will not hear of departing, but rather bids God and Christ depart from it.

2. This desire came from a taste of sweetness in communion with Christ, and those desires that most ravish the soul in its apprehension of heavenly things are always the most holy. St. Paul knew what a sweet communion Christ was.

3. It was a constant desire. He does not say, “I desire,” but “I have a desire”: I carry it about with me, and it carries me to a love of Christ and his members.

4. It was effectual, not a bare, idle inclination, not a wish of the sluggard, “I wish, and I wish,” but a strong desire, carrying him even through death itself to Christ. Desires of this quality are blessed desires. As where we see vapors rise there are usually springs below them, so where these desires are, there is always a spring of grace in that soul. Nothing characterizes a Christian so much as holy and blessed desires, for there is no hypocrisy in them.

I desire to depart. There must be a parting and a departing. There must be a parting in this world from all outward excellencies, from the sweet enjoyment of created things. There must be a parting between soul and body, between friend and friend, and from whatever is near and dear to us. All shall end in death.

And there must be a departing also. Here we cannot stay long. Away we must go; we are bound for another place. Oh, that we could make use of these common truths! How far we are from making a right use of the mysteries of salvation, when we cannot make use of common truths that we experience daily! That holy man Moses, considering the suddenness of his departure from here, begged God to teach him to number his days, that he might apply his heart unto wisdom (Ps 90:12).

Death is but a departing, a word taken from loosing from the shore, or the removing of a ship to another coast. We must all be loosed from our houses of clay and be carried to another place, to heaven. Paul labors to sweeten so harsh a thing as death by comforting expressions of it. It is but a sleep, a going home, a laying aside of our earthly tabernacle. He speaks this way to teach us this point of heavenly wisdom: that we should look on death as it is now in the gospel, not as it was in the law and by nature, for in that way it is a passage to hell, and lets us in to all miseries whatever.

Some things are desirable for themselves, such as happiness and holiness. Some things are desirable not for themselves, but as they make way to better things, being sour and bitter to nature in themselves, as medicine is desired not for itself, but for health. We desire health for itself, and medicine for health. So to be with Christ is a thing desirable in itself; but because we cannot come to Christ except by the dark passage of death, Paul says, I desire to depart, that so my death may be a passage to Christ. So then, death was the object of St. Paul’s desire so far as it made way for better things.

I desire to depart, and to be with Christ.

To be with Christ, who came from heaven to be here on earth with us, and descended that we should ascend; to be with him who has done and suffered so much for us; to be with Christ, who delighted to be with us; to be with Christ, who emptied himself and became of no reputation, who became poor to make us rich; to be with Christ our husband, to whom we are now betrothed here, that all may be completed in heaven: this was the thing Paul desired.

Question. Why does he not say, “I desire to be in heaven”?

Answer. Because heaven is not heaven without Christ. It is better to be in any place with Christ than to be in heaven itself without him. All delicacies without Christ are but a funeral banquet. Where the master of the feast is away, there is nothing but solemnity. What is anything without Christ? I say the joys of heaven are not the joys of heaven without Christ; he is the very heaven of heaven.

True love is carried to the person. It is adulterous love to love the thing, or the gift, more than the person. St. Paul loved the person of Christ, because he felt by sweet experience that Christ loved him; his love was but a reflection of Christ’s love first. He loved to see Christ, to embrace him, and to enjoy him who had done so much and suffered so much for his soul, who had forgiven him so many sins.

The reason is that it is best of all. To be with Christ is to be at the fountainhead of all happiness. It is to be in our proper element. Every creature thinks itself best in its own element; that is the place it thrives in and enjoys its happiness in. Now Christ is the element of a Christian.

Again, it is far better, because to be with Christ is to have the marriage consummated. Is not marriage better than the betrothal? Is not home better than absence? To be with Christ is to be at home. Is not triumph better than to be in conflict? But to be with Christ is to triumph over all enemies, to be out of Satan’s reach. Is not perfection better than imperfection? Here all is but imperfect; in heaven there is perfection. Therefore that is much better than any good below, for here all things are but shadows, and there is the reality. What are riches? What are the worm-eaten pleasures of the world? What are the honors of the earth, but mere shadows of good? At the right hand of Christ are pleasures indeed (Ps 16:11), honors indeed, riches indeed. There is the reality.

If we speak of grace and good things, it is better to be with Christ than to enjoy the graces and comforts of the Holy Spirit here. Why? Because they are all stained and mixed. Here our peace is interrupted with desertion and trouble. Here the joys of the Holy Spirit are mingled with sorrow. Here the grace in a man is with combat of flesh and spirit, but in heaven there is pure peace, pure joy, pure grace; for what is glory but the perfection of grace? Grace indeed is glory here, but it is glory with conflict. The Scripture sometimes calls grace glory, but it is glory with imperfection. Beloved, perfection is better than imperfection; therefore to be with Christ is far better.

And is it so much “far better” to die, that we may be with Christ, than to live here a life of conflict? Why then should we fear death, which is but a passage to Christ? It is but a grim sergeant that lets us into a glorious palace, that strikes off our shackles, that takes off our rags so that we may be clothed with better robes, that ends all our misery and is the beginning of all our happiness. Why therefore should we be afraid of death? It is but a departure to a better condition. It is but as the Jordan was to the children of Israel, by which they passed to Canaan. It is but as the Red Sea, by which they were going that way. Therefore we have no reason to fear death.

Of itself it is an enemy indeed, but now it is harmless; indeed, it has now become a friend, friendly to us, a sweet friend. Death is one part of the church’s marriage settlement. “All things are yours,” says the apostle: Paul and Apollos, “life and death” (1 Cor 3:22). Death is ours and for our good. It does us more good than all the friends we have in the world. It terminates and ends all our misery and sin, and it is the suburbs of heaven. It lets us into those joys above. It is a shame, therefore, for Christians to be afraid of what Paul here makes the object of his desire.

But may not a good Christian fear death?

I answer: not so far as a Christian is led by the Spirit of God and is truly spiritual, for the Spirit carries us upward. But as far as we are earthly and carnal, and biased downward toward things below, we are reluctant to depart from here.

In some cases God’s children are afraid to die because their accounts are not ready. They love Christ and are on a good path, and yet they have not prepared themselves with care. They are like a woman whose husband is abroad, who desires his coming, but because all is not prepared in the house, she desires that he may stay away a while. So the soul that is not exact, that is not in the frame it should be in, says, “Oh stay a while that I may recover my strength, before I go hence and be no more seen” (Ps 39:13). But as far as we are guided by the Spirit of God sanctifying us, and are in the condition we should be in, so far the thoughts of death ought not to be terrible to us; nor indeed are they.

Beloved, no one but a Christian can desire death, because it is the end of all comfort here, the end of all callings and employments, of all sweetness whatever in this world. If another man who is not a Christian desires heaven, he does not desire it as heaven, or to be with Christ as Christ. He desires it under some idea suited to his corruption, for our desires are as we ourselves are, as our aims are. Every carnal, worldly man has carnal, worldly aims. A worldly man cannot go beyond the world. It is his sphere. A carnal man cannot go beyond the flesh. Therefore a carnal man cannot desire heaven. A man who is under the power of any lust can desire nothing but the satisfying of that lust. Heaven is no place for such.

No one but a child of God can desire that. For if we consider heaven, and to be with Christ, to be perfect holiness, can he desire it who hates holiness here? Can he desire the image of God upon himself who hates it in others and in himself too? Can he desire the communion of saints who, of all societies, hates that one the most? Can he desire to be free from sin who continually engulfs himself in sin? He cannot. Therefore, as long as he is under the slavery and dominion of any lust, he may indeed desire heaven, but only so far as he may have his lusts there, and his pleasures, honors and riches there too. If he may have heaven with that, he is content. But alas, brethren, heaven must not be desired that way. St. Paul did otherwise. He desired to be dissolved, to be with Christ. He desired it as the perfection of the image of God, under the idea of holiness and freedom from sin, as I said before.

Which is far better.

Observation. Again, we see that God reserves the best for the last. God’s last works are his best works. The new heaven and the new earth are the best. The second wine, which Christ himself created, was the best. Spiritual things are better than natural. A Christian’s last is his best.

God will have it so for the comfort of Christians, that every day they live they may think, “My best is still ahead, my best is to come,” and that every day they rise they may think, “I am one day nearer heaven than I was before; I am nearer death, and therefore nearer to Christ.” What a solace this is to a gracious heart! A Christian is a happy man in his life, but happier in his death, because then he goes to Christ, but happiest of all in heaven, for then he is with Christ. How contrary it is with a carnal man, who lives according to the sway of his own base lusts! He is miserable in his life, more miserable in his death, but most miserable of all after death. I beseech you, lay this to heart. It seems to me, considering that death is but a way for us to be with Christ, which is far better, that this should sweeten the thought of death to us, and we should comfort ourselves daily that we are nearer happiness.

Question. But how shall we attain this sanctified, sweet desire that Paul had, to die and be with Christ?

Answer. 1. Let us carry ourselves as Paul did, and then we shall have the same desires. St. Paul, before death, in his lifetime, had his way of life in heaven (Phil 3:20). His mind was there, and his soul followed after. No man’s soul comes into heaven unless his mind is there first. It was an easy matter for him to desire to be with Christ, having his way of life in heaven already. In meditation Paul was where he was not, and he was not where he was. He was in heaven when his body was on earth.

2. Again, St. Paul had loosed his affections from all earthly things; therefore it was an easy matter for him to desire to be with Christ. “I am crucified to the world, and the world is crucified to me” (Gal 6:14). If once a Christian comes to this point, death will be welcome to him. Those whose hearts are fastened to the world cannot easily desire Christ.

3. Again, holy St. Paul labored to keep a good conscience in all things. “Herein I exercise myself, to have a good conscience towards God and men” (Acts 24:16). It is easy for him to desire to be dissolved who has his conscience sprinkled with the blood of Christ (Heb 10:22), free from a purpose of living in any sin. But where there is a stained, defiled, polluted conscience, there cannot be this desire; for the heart of man, naturally, as the prophet says, “casts up mire and dirt” (Isa 57:20). It casts up fears, and objections, and murmurings, and complaints.

Oh, beloved, we do not think what mischief sin will do us when we allow it to seize upon our consciences. When it is once written there with the claw of a diamond, and with a pen of iron (Jer 17:1), who shall get it out? Nothing but great repentance and faith, applying the blood of Christ. It is no easy matter to get it off there, and to get the conscience at peace again; and when conscience is not appeased, there will be nothing but clamors within. It will fear to appear before the judgment seat. A guilty conscience trembles at the mention of death. Therefore I wonder how men who live in swearing, in looseness, in filthiness, in debauchery of life, who labor to satisfy their lusts and corruptions, I wonder how they can think of death without trembling, considering that they are under the guilt of so many sins. Oh, beloved, nothing but exercising the heart to keep a clear conscience can breed this desire in us to depart and to be with Christ.

You have a company of wretched persons, proud enough in their own opinion, and censorious. Nothing can please them. Their whole life is driven by Satan joining with the lusts of their flesh, and they do nothing but put stings into death every day and arm death against themselves. When once death appears, their conscience, which is a hell within them, is awakened, and where are they? They can stay here no longer; they must appear before the dreadful Judge. And then where are all their pleasures and contentments, for which they neglected heaven and happiness, peace of conscience, and all? Oh, therefore let us walk holily with our God and maintain inward peace all we can, if we desire to depart from here with comfort.

4. Again, Paul had gained assurance that he was in Christ, by his union with him. “I live not,” he says, “but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2:20). Therefore labor for assurance of salvation, that you may feel the Spirit of Christ in you, sanctifying and altering your carnal dispositions to be like his. “I know whom I have trusted” (2 Tim 1:12), he says. He was as sure of his salvation as if he already had it. How few live as if they intended any such thing as this, assurance of salvation, without which how can we ever desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ?

Will a man leave his house, however poor it may be, when he does not know where he is to go? Will a man leave the prison when he knows he will be carried to execution? Oh, no; he would rather be in the dungeon still. So when there is guilt on the soul, so that it is not assured of salvation but rather has cause to fear the contrary, can it say, “I desire to depart, and be with Christ”? No; such souls would rather abide in the flesh still, if they could, forever, for all eternity. Therefore, if we would come to Paul’s desire, let us labor to come to the frame of the holy apostle’s spirit. He knew whom he had believed. He was assured that nothing could separate him from the love of God, neither life, nor death, nor anything whatever that could befall him (Rom 8:38-39).

5. Paul had an art of sweetening the thoughts of death. He considered it only as a departure from earth to heaven. When death was presented to him as a passage to Christ, it was an easy matter to desire it. Therefore it should be the art of Christians to present death as a passage to a better life, to labor to bring our souls into such a condition as to think of death not as a death to us, but as the death of itself. Death dies when I die, and I begin to live when I die. It is a sweet passage to life. We never live till we die. This was Paul’s art. He took care to look beyond death to heaven, and when he looked upon death, he looked on it only as a passage to Christ. So let it be our art and skill. Would we cherish a desire to die? Let us look on death as a passage to Christ, and look beyond it to heaven. All of us must go through this dark passage to Christ, and when we consider it as Paul did, it will be an easy matter to die.

I come now to the next words: Nevertheless, to abide in the flesh is more needful for you.

This is the other desire of Paul that brought him into this strait. He was troubled whether he should die, which was far better for himself, or live, which was more needful for them. But the love of God’s people prevailed in holy St. Paul above the desire of heaven and the present enjoyment of his own happiness. Oh, the power of grace in the hearts of God’s children, which makes them content to be without the joys of heaven for a time, that they may do God’s service in serving his church here upon earth!

Observation 1. Observe from this that the lives of worthy men, especially magistrates and ministers, are very needful for the church of God.

The reason is that God’s way of dispensing his gifts is to convey all good to men by means of men like ourselves, for the most part; and this he does to knit us into a holy communion with one another. Therefore it is needful that holy men should abide. In regard to the church of God, their lives are very useful.

If we consider the good, the great benefit that comes by them, we shall easily yield to this; for what a great deal of sin a good magistrate stops and hinders! When there were good judges and good kings in Israel, see what a reformation there was. Antichrist could not come in when the Roman empire flourished (2 Thess 2:7), though now the Roman empire hinders the fall of antichrist, because antichrist has given her the cup of fornication, and they are drunk with the whore’s cup; but at the first it was not so. Beloved, while good magistrates and good ministers continue in a place, there is a hindrance of heresies and sin and the like. If they are once removed, a floodgate is opened for all manner of sin and corruption to break in. Indeed, abundance of good comes in by gracious persons.

1. By their counsel and direction: “The lips of the righteous feed many” (Prov 10:21).

2. By their reformation of abuses, by planting God’s ordinances and good orders, by which God’s wrath is appeased. They stand in the gap and stop evil. They reform it, and labor to establish what is pleasing to God.

3. Gracious persons, in whatever condition they are, carry the blessing of God with them. Wherever they are, God and his blessing go along with them.

4. They do a great deal of good by their pattern and example. They are the lights of the world (Phil 2:15), who give others something to aim by in the darkness of this life.

5. They can by their prayers bind God, as it were, that he shall not inflict his judgments. They do a world of good in this way. A praying force and army is as good as a fighting army. Moses did as much good by prayer as the soldiers in the valley when they fought with Amalek. They are favorites with God in heaven; therefore St. Paul says, It is needful for you that I abide in the flesh.

Gracious men are public treasures and storehouses, in which every man has a share, a portion. They are public springs in the wilderness of this world, to refresh the souls of people. They are trees of righteousness, which stretch out their boughs for others to shelter under and to gather fruit from. You have an excellent picture of this in Daniel, in the dream of Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 4:21). The magistrates there are compared to a great tree, in which the birds build their nests and the beasts shelter themselves; so a good magistrate, especially if he is in a great place, is like a great tree for comfort and shelter. Oh, beloved, the lives of good men are very useful. A good man, says the philosopher, is a common good; because as soon as a man becomes gracious, he has a public mind, as he has a public place; indeed, whether he has a public place or not, he has a public mind. It is necessary, therefore, that there should be such men alive.

If this is so, then we may lament the death of worthy men, because in the loss of such men we lose part of our strength, since it is God’s custom to convey much good by them. And when there is a scarcity of good men, we should say with Micah, “Woe is me, the good is perished from the earth” (Mic 7:2). They keep judgments away from a place and draw a blessing down on it. However the world judges them, and counts them unworthy to live, yet God counts the world unworthy of them. They are God’s jewels; they are his treasure and his portion. Therefore we ought to lament their death and to desire their lives. And we ought to desire our own lives as long as we may be useful to the church, and be content to go without heaven for a time.

Beloved, it is not for the good of God’s children themselves that they live (as soon as they are in the state of grace they have a title to heaven), but for others. Once we are in Christ, we live for others, not for ourselves. That a father is kept alive is for his children’s sake; that good magistrates are kept alive is for their subjects’ sake; that a good minister is kept alive, away from the present enjoyment of heaven, is for the sake of the people God has committed to him to instruct. For as Paul says here, speaking for himself, it is better for me to be with Christ.

Use. If God conveys so much good to us by worthy men, then what wretches are those who malign them, persecute them, and the like, and speak ill of those who speak to God for them? Does the world continue for the sake of a company of wretches, a company of those who live profane, blasphemous, loose, disorderly lives? Oh no; for if God did not have a church in the world, a company of good people, heaven and earth would fall to pieces. There would be an end immediately. It is for good people alone that the world continues. They are the pillars of the tottering world, they are the stakes in the fence, they are the foundation of the building; and if they were once taken out, all would come down, and there would be a confusion of everything.

Therefore those who oppose and disquiet gracious and good men are enemies to their own good. They cut the bough they stand on; they labor to pull down the house that covers them, being blinded with malice and a diabolical spirit. Take heed of such a disposition. It comes near to the sin against the Holy Spirit to hate any man for goodness, because, perhaps, his good life reproaches us. Such a one would hate Christ himself if he were here. How can a man desire to be with Christ when he hates his image in another? Therefore if God conveys so much good by other men who are good, let us make much of them, as public persons, as instruments of our good. Take away malice, and pride, and a poisonous spirit, and all their good is ours. What keeps us from having any good from them? Pride and an envious spirit, and the like.

Observation 2. A second thing I observe from this is that holy and gracious men, who are led by the Spirit of God, can deny themselves and their own best good for the church’s benefit. They know that God has appointed them as instruments to convey good to others. Knowing this, they labor to attain Paul’s spirit here: to desire to live, to have life in patience and death in desire, as far as they themselves are concerned. For it would be much better for a good man to be in heaven, out of misery, out of this condition of conflict with the devil and devilish-minded men.

Reason 1. The reason is that a good man, as soon as he is a good man, has the spirit of love in him, and “love seeketh not its own” (1 Cor 13:5), but the good of another. And as the love of Christ and the love of God possess and seize upon the soul, so self-love decays. What is gracious love but a decay of self-love? The more self-love decays, the more we deny ourselves.

2. Again, God’s people have the Spirit of Christ in them, who did not set his mind on his own things (1 Cor 10:24). If Christ had set his mind on his own things, where would our salvation have been? Christ was content to leave heaven and to take our nature upon him, to be Emmanuel, God with us, that we might be with God forever in heaven. He was content not only to leave heaven, but to be born in the womb of a virgin. He was content to stoop to the grave. He stooped as low as hell in love to us.

Now, where Christ’s Spirit is, it will bring men down from their heights and excellencies, and make them stoop to serve the church, and count it an honor to be an instrument of doing good. Christ was content to be accounted not only a servant of God, but of the church: “My righteous servant …” (Isa 53:11). Those who have the Spirit of Christ have a spirit of self-denial of their own. We see that the blessed angels are content to be ministering spirits for us, and it is thought that the devil’s sin, pride, lay in this, that he scorned to stoop to the keeping of man, a creature inferior to himself. The blessed angels do not scorn to attend upon a poor child, “little ones.”

A Christian is a consecrated person, and he is not his own. He is a sacrifice as soon as he is a Christian. He is Christ’s. He gives himself to Christ; and as he gives himself, so he gives his life and all to Christ, as Paul says of the Macedonians, that they gave themselves and their goods to him (2 Cor 8:5). When a Christian gives himself to Christ, he gives all to Christ: all his labor and pains, and whatever he knows Christ can use of him for his church’s good and his glory. He knows that Christ is wiser than he is; therefore he resigns himself to Christ’s disposal, resolving that if he lives, he lives to the Lord, and if he dies, he dies to the Lord (Rom 14:8), so that whether he lives or dies, he may be the Lord’s.

Use 1. Oh, beloved, that we had the spirit of St. Paul and the Spirit of Christ, to set us to work doing good while we are here, to deny ourselves (Titus 2:12)! Oh, it would be meat and drink to us, as it was to our blessed Savior Christ, to do good in all kinds of ways. Consider all the capacities and abilities we have to do good, this way and that way, in this relation and that relation, that we may be trees of righteousness, so that the more we bear the more we may bear.

God will mend his own trees. He will purge them and prune them to “bring forth more fruit” (John 15:2). God cherishes fruitful trees. In the law of Moses, when they besieged any place, he commanded them to spare fruitful trees. God spares a fruitful person until he has done his work. We do not know how much good one man may do, though he is a person of low degree. Sometimes one poor wise man delivers the city (Eccl 9:15), and the righteous man delivers the land. We see that for the sake of one servant, Joseph, Potiphar’s house was blessed (Gen 39:5). Naaman had a poor maidservant who was the occasion of his conversion (2 Kgs 5).

Grace will set anybody to work. It puts skill into anyone, however lowly. Such people carry God’s blessing wherever they go, and when they are in any condition to do good they reflect, as he says in Esther 4:14, God has called me to this place, perhaps for this end. We should often put this question to ourselves: Why has God called me to this place? For such and such a purpose?

1. Now, that we may be fruitful as Paul was, let us labor to have humble spirits. God delights in a humble spirit, and not in a proud spirit, for that takes all the glory to itself. God delights to use humble spirits, that are content to stoop to any service for others, that think no office too lowly.

2. Get loving hearts. Love is full of invention: How shall I glorify God? How shall I do good to others? How shall I bring to heaven as many as I can? Love is a sweet and boundless affection, full of holy devices.

3. Labor to have sufficiency in our places, so that we may have ability to do good. Oh, when these meet together, ability and sufficiency, and a willing, a large, and gracious heart, and a fit object to do good to, what a great deal of good is done then!

4. And when we find opportunity of doing any good, let us resolve upon it, resolve to honor God and serve him in spite of flesh and blood. For we must get every good work that we do out of the fire, as it were; we must get it out with travail and pains. We carry that about us which will hinder us. Let us therefore labor to have sincere aims in what we do to please God, and then resolve to do all the good we can.

To stir us up to be more and more fruitful in our places, let us consider that once we are good Christians, we live for others and not for ourselves. It was a good saying of that godly Elector Palatine, great-grandfather to the present one (Frederick the Godly they called him), when he was about to die. “I have lived hitherto for you,” he said, “now let me live for myself.” We live here all our life for others; therefore let us think, while we live, how we may do the most good in the church of God.

For encouragement in this, consider that God will undertake to repay all the good we do, even to a “cup of cold water” (Matt 10:42). We shall not lose a sigh, a groan, for the church. God would count himself dishonored if it were not rewarded. He has pledged his faithfulness upon it: he is not unfaithful to be unmindful of your good works (Heb 6:10).

Indeed, we have a present reward and contentment of conscience. As light accompanies fire, so peace and joy accompany every good action. Not all is reserved for heaven. A Christian has some beginnings of happiness here. When he does what is contrary to flesh and blood, how full of sweet joy is a fruitful soul! Those who are fruitful in their places never lack evidences of good assurance of salvation. It is your lazy, lukewarm Christian who lacks assurance.

Therefore I beseech you, be stirred up to live desired in the world and die lamented. Labor to be useful in your places all you can, to be like the olive and the fig tree, delighting God and man, and not to cumber the ground of the church with barrenness. Sins of omission, because men were not fruitful in their places, were a ground of damnation: “cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness” (Matt 25:30). Suppose he did no harm; yes, but he was unprofitable. Such was the cursed disposition of Ephraim; he brought forth fruit to himself. Oh, this looking to ourselves! When we make ourselves the beginning and the end of all the good we do, it is evidence of a barren person. None ever came to heaven but those who denied themselves.

I see I cannot go on with this point. You may by the Spirit of God enlarge it in your thoughts, and bring home what has been said to your own souls. Labor to be such as others may make use of, and not the burdens and calamities of the time, as many are, who live for nothing but to do good men good by vexing them. That is all the good they do; by vexing their patience they exercise their grace in a contrary way. Let us not be briars and unfruitful plants, laboring to become great by the public miseries. As they say, great fishes grow big by devouring many little ones; as a dragon comes to be great by devouring many little serpents, so many grow great by the ruin of others. Oh, beloved, it would have been better for such people if they had never been born. Therefore, as we desire to have comfort when we die, let us labor to be fruitful while we live.

St. Paul, when the time came that he should die, when he had done his work: you see how gloriously he ended his days, he who was so full of self-denial. The second epistle to Timothy was the last epistle he ever wrote, and when he had done his work, he says, “I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith, I have finished my course: from henceforth there is a crown of righteousness reserved for me” (2 Tim 4:7). What a glorious end is here! And indeed those who are thus careful and fruitful in their lives and conduct end their days full of comfort, and resign their souls to God with full assurance of a blessed change; and only those.

For there are many, and when they come to die, what hinders them? “Oh, I have been unfruitful; I have not done the good that I might have done; I have not ‘wrought out my salvation with fear and trembling’ (Phil 2:12). In such a thing I have done ill; such a thing I have omitted.” So they are enemies to their own comfort. Enlarge on this in your own meditations, and consider what will comfort you hereafter, when you will most need comfort. So I leave the text and come to the occasion.

This holy and blessed man whose funeral we now solemnize was of St. Paul’s spirit. He did desire to die and be with Christ; he had a desire, while he lived, to take every opportunity to do good. I speak of the time when he lived, that is, when he was good, for we live no longer than we are good. Let us not count that as life in which we do no good. After God had worked upon his heart, he had a public heart to do good.

If I lacked matter to speak of, I could tell you of his family connections and birth, for he had two worthy judges of reverend esteem, the one his grandfather, the other his uncle. The one raised him; the other fostered and promoted his study and endeavors. But why should I speak of these things when he has personal worth enough? I need not go outside the man himself to commend him, for there were those graces and gifts in him that made him so esteemed that, truly, I think no man of his place and years lived more desired and died more lamented.

1. His natural abilities were fertile and solid; but, as one said to Melanchthon, his disposition and loving mind gained as much love from men as his abilities did, though they were great.

2. His learning was good; for besides his own profession, he was a general scholar, and had good skill in what we call elegant learning and in disputed points of divinity. He was a good divine. Indeed, at the turning point of his life, when he was to venture upon a profession, he had some thoughts of becoming a divine, until his friends, especially his uncle, Judge Yelverton, inclined him otherwise by promoting his study in the law. And when he took up that profession, he grew so much in it that he was a credit to the profession for integrity, sincerity, and ability.

3. In disposition he was in every way a man of an excellent sweet temper: mild, and yet resolute; meek, and yet bold where there was cause; discreet, yet not so over-discreet as to fail to stand out in the defense of a good cause. He was humble, yet thought himself too good to be an instrument of any services other than those that were consistent with the peace of his conscience. He was tractable and gentle, yet immovably fixed to his principles of piety and honesty. He was exact in his life, yet not censorious; very conscientious and religious, but without any vain curiosity. Indeed, he was in every way of a sweet temper. If he stood out in dislike of anyone, in any matter, he usually carried it with evidence of such sincerity, and such denial of self-seeking, that he usually prevailed where he intervened.

4. To come to his private, personal conduct, it was very pious. He was accustomed to withdraw from his employment and labor, to bring his heart under to God, to the guidance of God’s Spirit. His study was to study to die; for many years before he died he gathered choice things about death out of the sermons he heard, to lay up a store of provision against that time. And two or three terms before he died he took special care to inquire after nearer communion with God. He asked those he associated with about the way to attain it, and was willing to hear any discourses that tended that way.

5. As for his care of the Sabbath, it was his delight. His custom was, after the sermon, to retire and ruminate upon what he had heard, to turn it into his spirit. Alas, for lack of this, how many sermons are lost in this great city! How much seed is spilled in vain! What nourishment can there be without digestion? It is the second digestion that breeds nourishment, when we chew things, and call them to mind again, and make them our own. This was his custom every Sabbath.

6. As for his conduct toward others, he was a constant friend, and his study was to labor to make those he associated with good. He associated with few, but they were the better for him, he was so fruitful; and he would have intimate fellowship with none unless he could do them good or take good from them. There are many in the society where he lived who may bless God all the days of their life that they ever knew him.

7. As for his conduct in the government of the place where he lived, I think there are none able to judge who will not give him the testimony of a faithful, prudent governor. He was so careful of the town where he was recorder that he provided for them after his death, and gave them a large legacy, two hundred marks, to set the poor to work.

8. As for the honorable society in which he was a governor, he carried himself with such resolution for good order and good exercises, and was such a strict opposer of anything he judged to be an abuse, that the house will feel a special lack of him, I fear. Or rather, I desire from my soul that that honorable society may so flourish that they may feel no lack of good Master Sherland.

9. As for his more public conduct, by virtue of his position at Northampton, where he was recorder, he was called to be a member of the representative body in Parliament, in which both his ability and his spirit appeared to all who knew him. You may see by this what manner of man we have lost.

He died before he had come to the middle of his years, a young man, so to speak; and he did a great deal of work in a little time. God had ripened him for his business extraordinarily, and gave him a spirit to bestir himself to do all the good he could. These are wondrously evil times, beloved, in which to lose such men as he was; therefore we have cause to lay it to heart the more. The commonwealth misses him, the town and country where he lived will miss him, the society where he was a governor will miss him, the family where he was a governor will feel the loss of him. He went wisely in and out; he was able for family duties; he had more than ordinary sufficiency; he was of Joshua’s mind, Choose who you will serve, but I and my house will serve the Lord (Josh 24:15). And to help him the more, he had the happiness to marry into a religious family; he had a good helper.

Now for the church. Though his profession was the law, yet the church will greatly miss him. He was a hearty and true promoter of the cause of religion, and showed his love to the church by his care of it now that he is departed. He gave four hundred pounds to buy back impropriated church livings; he gave a hundred pounds for the raising up of poor scholars; and there is not a good minister anywhere around where he lived who did not have encouragement from him. Indeed, he was a man of special use and service; and as he honored God in his life, so God has honored him in his death, as you may see by this honorable assembly of worthy people, met in love to him.

His death was, as the death of strong men usually is, with conflicts between nature and his disease, but with a great deal of patience. And in his time of sickness he would utter Paul’s disposition. “Oh,” he said, “you keep me from heaven, you keep me from glory,” being displeased with those who kept him alive with conversation, out of love.

He had a large heart to do good; for though he was fruitful, and studied to be fruitful, yet often in his sickness, in a complaining manner, he would say, “Oh, I have not been so wise for my own soul as I ought to be; I have not been provident enough in taking opportunities of doing and receiving good.”

Beloved, shall such a man as he was, so careful, so fruitful, so good, shall he complain like this? What shall a company like us do? Beloved, those who have warmed their hearts at the fire of God’s love think zeal itself to be coldness, and fruitfulness to be barrenness. Love is a boundless affection. He did not speak this from lack of care; but love knows no bounds. Therefore he took the more opportunities of doing good.

Well, I beseech you, beloved, do not let this example pass without making good use of it. God will call us to a reckoning, not only for what we hear, but for what we see: he will call us to a reckoning for the examples of his people. Therefore, as we see here what a holy disposition there was in St. Paul, and in this blessed man now with God, so let us labor to find the same disposition in ourselves. Paul now has his desire; he is dissolved, and he is with Christ, which is best of all. This holy man has his desire; he desired not to be kept from his glory and happiness, on which his mind was set before.

Let us therefore labor with God, in the use of good means, to have the same disposition; and in this moment let us provide for eternity. Out of eternity before and eternity after comes this little spot of time to do good in. Let us sow to the Spirit, and count all time lost in which we either do no good or take no good. Opportunity is God’s angel. Time is short, but opportunity is shorter. Let us catch at every opportunity. This is the time of worship. Oh, let us sow now. Shall we go to sowing then, when the time comes that we should reap? Some begin to sow when they die, and that is the reaping time. While we have time let us do all good, especially where God loves most, to those who are good.

Consider the stations and places God has set us in; consider the advantages in our hands, the price that we have; consider that opportunity will not stay long. Let us therefore do all the good we can, and if we do, beloved, we shall come at length to reap what this blessed saint of God, St. Paul here in the text, and this blessed man, for whose sake we are now met, enjoy.

Therefore, if we desire to end our days in joy and comfort, let us lay the foundation of a comfortable death now, in good time. To die well is not a thing of such light moment as some imagine; it is no easy matter. But to die well is a matter of every day. Let us daily do some good that may help us at the time of our death. Every day by repentance pull out the sting of some sin, so that when death comes we may have nothing to do but to die. To die well is the action of the whole life. For the most part, he who does not die daily never dies well. As Paul says of himself, “I die daily” (1 Cor 15:31); he labored to loosen his heart from the world and worldly things. If we loosen our hearts from the world and die daily, how easy it will be to die at last! He who thinks of the vanity of the world, and of death, and of being with Christ forever, and is dying daily, will find it easy to end his days with comfort.

But the time being past, I will make an end here. Let us ask God to make what has been spoken effective, both concerning Paul and likewise concerning this blessed man, for whose sake we are met together.

About the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? (Matt 27:46)

The dying speeches of men of worth are most remarkable. At that time they stir up all the spirits and abilities that remain to them, so that they may speak with the greatest advantage to the hearts of others and leave the deeper impression behind them.

These are some of the last words of our blessed Savior, uttered from the greatest affection, with the greatest faith, and to the greatest purpose of any words that were ever spoken, and therefore they deserve your best attention.

In this portion of Scripture you have Christ’s address to God, My God, and his complaint, Why hast thou forsaken me?

1. An address, with a repeating or doubling of the words, My God, my God, to show the strength of his affection and of his desire for help at this time.

2. A complaint by way of reasoning with God, Why hast thou forsaken me?

I will draw all that I have to say into these four propositions:

1. That Christ was forsaken.

2. That he felt it keenly, even to the point of complaint, Why hast thou forsaken me?

3. His disposition and bearing in this extremity. His faith did not fail: My God, my God. His present grief tied him all the closer and faster to his God.

4. Nor was it faith only, but a faith flaming in prayer, by which he expressed that God was his God. He not only prayed but cried to him, “My God, my God…” This is the sum of what I intend.

1. Christ, being in extremity, was forsaken.

2. Being forsaken, he felt it keenly; and out of that feeling he complains, pouring out his soul into the bosom of his Father.

3. And he not only complains, but believes certainly that his Father will help him.

4. And to strengthen his faith the more, he puts it forth in prayer. The fire of faith in his heart kindled into a flame of prayer (and that not in an ordinary manner, but in strong supplications), and he cried out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Now to come to the particulars.

Observation 1. Christ was forsaken.

I will briefly touch on some circumstances, and then take up the point itself, as follows.

1. The time in which he was forsaken: a time of darkness (the sixth hour), when there was darkness over the whole earth, and in the land of Judea especially. Nor was the darkness only outside him; it was within him as well. His soul was troubled from a sense of his Father’s displeasure (Matt 26:38). Two eclipses seized on him together: the one of the glorious light of the sun, the other of the light of his Father’s countenance. Whoever is encompassed with such darkness must be in a disconsolate condition, and doubly miserable.

Whatever was done to Christ our surety shall be done to all who are out of him. Blackness of darkness is reserved for them. As Christ lacked the comfort of light from heaven, so those who are out of Christ shall have no comfort from any creature at the last. The sun shall not shine on them, the earth shall not bear them, they shall not have a drop of water to cool their tongues. They were formerly rebels against God, and now every creature is ready to serve the Lord against them. When the king is displeased with a man, which of his servants dares to show him favor?

This darkness, being in Judea, also portended the miserable condition of the Jews in this world, and that eternal darkness in the world to come which would be their portion if they did not repent.

2. Another circumstance may be this: God was a long while before he removed his heavy displeasure from Christ. He was three hours in torment; and though God delayed him long, he still said nothing by way of complaint until now. We should beware of darkness of spirit in trouble. God may delay help to his dearest children, as he did here to his only Son, in order to perfect the work of sanctification in them. Therefore, submit to his will, rest contented with whatever he sends, look to your Head and Savior, and so on. But more of this shortly.

3. His greatest grief and conflicts came toward his latter end, toward the shutting up and close of his life. Though a little later he says, “All is finished” (John 19:30), yet now he cries out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” Afflictions are sharpest toward our end. I say this to prevent discouragement in those who find extremities upon them. When miseries are extreme, help is nearest. They will either mend or end then. The darkness is thickest a little before the morning appears; and Satan raged most a little before his casting down.

I say it also to keep complacency from seizing on people. Take heed of putting off repentance until your last hours; there may be a confluence of many extremities upon you then: pains of body, terrors of conscience, Satan’s temptations, God’s wrath, and the like. When all these meet together, and the poor soul, at its best strength, finds it enough to contend with any one of them, what an unhappy condition that will be! Oh, do not put off your repentance to this time. But I pass over these circumstances, and come to the point of forsaking itself.

In unfolding this I will show:

1. In what sense Christ was forsaken.

2. In what parts he was forsaken.

3. Upon what ground; and

4. To what end all this forsaking of Christ was.

For the first, forsaking is nothing else but God’s leaving the creature to itself, either in regard of comfort or in regard of grace and assistance. I will show you how Christ was left by his Father, and how he was not left.

(1) How Christ was not forsaken. He was not forsaken in regard of God’s love, for “My Father loveth me,” he says (John 10:17), “because I give my life for my sheep” (John 10:11). God never loved Christ more than now, because he was never more obedient than at this moment.

(2) Nor was he forsaken in regard of union, for there was no separation of his divine nature from the human. There was indeed a suspension of vision; he saw no comfort from God for the present. But there was no dissolution of union, for the divine nature did many things in this seeming forsaking. It was the divine nature that supported his human nature to sustain the burden of our sin and the wrath of God, and it was the divine nature also that gave his sufferings their merit and their worth as satisfaction.

(3) Nor was this forsaking in regard of grace, as if faith or love or any other grace were taken from Christ. Oh, no; for he believed before he said, “My God, my God.” Would he have committed his dearest jewel into the hands of God if he had not believed in him?

Question. How, then, was Christ forsaken?

Answer. 1. In regard of his present comfort and joy. Otherwise he could not have been a sacrifice. For just as we cannot suffer by way of conformity to Christ unless there is some desertion, so that we may know the bitterness of sin, so neither could Christ have suffered for our iniquities had there not been a suspension of light and comfort from his gracious soul.

2. He was not only deprived of all joy and happiness, by way of loss, but by way of positive infliction he felt the wrath and fury of the Almighty, whose just displeasure seized on his soul for sin, as our surety. All outward comforts likewise forsook him. The sun withdrew its light from above, and everything below was irksome to him. He suffered in all the good things he had: body, soul, good name, in his eyes, ears, hands, and so on. He was reproached, and forsaken by all the comforts around him. He did not have the common comfort of a man in misery, pity. No one took compassion on him; he was the very object of scorn.

Question. But in what part was Christ forsaken?

Answer. In all, both in body and in soul too, as may plainly appear.

(1) Because he was our surety, and we had stained our souls, and our bodies too, offending God in both (but in the soul especially, because the soul is the contriver of all sin, the body being only the instrument). Some sins we call spiritual sins, such as pride, malice, infidelity, and the like. These do not touch the body, yet they are the greatest sins of all.

(2) If he had not suffered in his soul the sense of God’s displeasure, why should he cry out like this, when the poor thieves who suffered beside him made no such exclamation? If he had suffered in body only, the sufferings of Paul and Moses would have been greater, for they wished to be separated from the joys of heaven out of a desire to promote God’s glory on earth. That is why he says in the garden, “My soul is heavy unto death” (Matt 26:38).

Objection. Some will grant that Christ suffered in soul, but, they say, it was by way of sympathy. For there are sufferings of soul directly from God, and there are sufferings by way of sympathy and agreement with the body, when the soul has a fellow-feeling of the body’s torments; and it was in this way, they say, that Christ suffered in soul.

Answer. That is not all, beloved. There were direct sufferings of his soul as well, which he groaned under. God the Father laid a heavy stroke on his soul. He was smitten of the Lord (Isa 53:4); and when God deals directly with the soul himself and fills it with his wrath, no creature in the world is able to bear it. None can inflict punishment on the soul but God only. Satan may urge and press arguments of discouragement, and frighten us with God’s displeasure; but the inflicting of anger on the soul issues directly from the hand of the Almighty.

We must here, therefore, consider God as a righteous Judge, sitting in heaven on his judgment seat, exacting the punishment of the sins of all his people upon Christ. All the sins of the faithful, from Adam to the last man who shall be in the world, met together, as it were, at one point upon him, and the punishment of all these was laid on his blessed shoulders, who suffered for them in both body and soul.

3. Question. But how could Christ be forsaken by God, and especially so forsaken as to suffer the anger of his Father, being an innocent person?

Answer. 1. The Passover lamb was an innocent creature, yet once the Passover lamb is made a sacrifice, it must be killed. However blameless Christ was, if he will stoop to the office of a surety, he must pay our debt and do what we should have done. If a prince’s son becomes a surety, however much his father loves him and pities him, he will still say, “Now that you have taken this upon yourself, you must discharge it.”

2. As in natural things the head is punished for the fault of the body, so Christ, by sharing his blessed nature with ours, made up one mystical body, and suffered for us.

Question. But on what ground should Christ become our surety?

Answer. 1. Because he was able to discharge our debt to the uttermost. He was more eminent than all mankind, having two natures in one, the manhood knit to the Godhead.

2. Christ most willingly gave himself as a sacrifice for us.

3. He was designed and predestined to this office. Indeed, he was anointed, set forth, and sealed for this business by God himself. And is this not sufficient ground for him to become our surety? Especially if we consider,

4. That Christ took the communion of our nature upon him for this very end, that he might be a full surety, so that, his righteousness being conveyed to us and our guilt to him, God’s wrath might be satisfied in the very same nature that offended. You see in societies and cities that if some people offend, the whole city is often punished. Though perhaps many are guiltless in the matter, yet by reason of the communion, all are punished. So likewise a traitor’s son, who never had any hand in his father’s sin, but behaved himself as an honest subject should, yet, having communion with the person of his father, being indeed a piece of him, is on that account justly disinherited by all law.

Objection. But how could Christ take our sins upon him and not be defiled by them?

Answer. He took not the stain of our sins, but the guilt of them. Now in guilt there are two things:

1. A worthiness and desert of punishment.

2. An obligation and binding over to it.

Christ did not take the desert of punishment on himself from any fault of his own; he took on himself whatever was penal, but nothing that was culpable. As he was our surety, so he discharged our debt in every way, being bound over to all judgments and punishments for us.

Now we owe to God a double debt:

1. A debt of obedience; and if that fails,

2. A debt of punishment.

And Christ has freed us from both of these: first, by obeying the will of his Father in everything; and second, by suffering whatever was due to us for our transgressions.

Some heretics who would shake the foundation of our faith will grant Christ to be a Mediator to intercede for us, and a Redeemer to set us at liberty from slavery, and so on, but not to be a surety to pay our debt by way of satisfaction to God for us.

Let such people remember that it is God’s pleasure to redeem lost mankind not so much by way of power and strength as by way of justice. Therefore it is said, “Christ is become our surety” (Heb 7:22). And Paul, when he became a mediator to Philemon for Onesimus, a fugitive servant, did it by way of surety: “If he owe thee anything I will discharge it” (Phlm 18). And Christ Jesus our Mediator, blessed forever, so intercedes with God for us that he fully satisfies his justice for our offenses.

4. Question. But why was Christ thus forsaken by his Father?

Answer. 1. To satisfy God for our forsaking of him. Christ’s forsaking was satisfaction for all our forsakings of God. Beloved, we all forsook God in Adam, and indeed what else do we do in every sin we commit but forsake the Lord and turn to the creature? What are all our sins of pleasure, profit, ambition, and the like, but a leaving of the fountain of living waters, to fetch contentment from “broken cisterns” (Jer 2:13)?

2. But Christ was chiefly forsaken that he might bring us home again to God, so that there might no longer be a separation between his blessed Majesty and us.

Some shallow heretics there are who would have Christ to be an example of patience and holiness in his life and death, and do us good in that way only. Oh no, beloved, the main comfort we receive from Christ is by way of satisfaction. There must first be grace, and then peace in our agreement with God. Bernard says sweetly, “I desire indeed to follow Christ as an example of humility, patience, and self-denial, and to love him with the same affection with which he has loved me; but I must eat of the Passover Lamb, that is, I must chiefly feed on Christ dying for my sins.”

So every true Christian soul desires to follow Christ’s obedience, humility, patience, and the like, and to be transformed into the likeness of its blessed Savior. Whom should I desire to be like more than him who has done so much for me? But still the main comfort I receive from Christ is by eating his body and drinking his blood; my soul feeds and feasts itself most of all on the death of Christ, as satisfying for my sins. And what a comfort it is that Christ, being our surety, has made full satisfaction for all our sins!

Assuredly we shall never be finally and wholly forsaken, because Christ was forsaken for us. Now we may think of God without dismay, and of sin without despair. Now we may think of the law of death, the curse and all, and never be terrified. Why? Christ our surety has given divine justice full contentment for wrath and law, sin and curse, and all the rest. They are all links of one chain, and Christ has dissolved them all. Now sin ceases, wrath ceases, the law has nothing to lay to our charge, death’s sting is pulled out. How comfortably, therefore, may we appear before God’s tribunal!

Oh, beloved, when the soul is brought almost as low as hell, then this consideration will be sweet: that Christ was forsaken as a surety for me; Christ overcame sin, death, God’s wrath, and all for me; in him I triumph over all these. What welcome news this is to a distressed sinner!

Whenever your soul is truly humbled in the sense of sin, do not look at sin in your conscience (your conscience is a bed for another to lodge in), but at Christ. If you are a brokenhearted sinner, see your sins taken away in Christ your Savior; see what he has endured and suffered for them; do not see the law in your conscience, but see it discharged by Christ; see death disarmed through him, and made an entrance into a better life for you. Whatever is ill, see it in Christ before you see it in yourself. And when you behold it there, see not only its hurt taken away, but all good made over to you; for “all things work together for the best to them that love God” (Rom 8:28).

The devil himself, death, sin, and wrath all help the main end. The poison and mischief of all of them is taken away by Christ, and all good is conveyed to us in him. We have grace answering to his grace. He is the first seat of God’s love, and whatever mercy we enjoy is sweetened by this, that it comes from the fountain, God the Father, through Christ to us. I beseech you, embrace the comfort that the Holy Spirit affords us from these sweet considerations.

Again, in that Christ was forsaken, and not only so, but endured the displeasure and direct wrath of God seizing on his soul and filling his heart with anguish at this time, we may learn from this how to discern the ugliness of sin.

1. In what mirror to look at the ugly thing, sin, to make it more ugly to us. Beloved, if we would conceive of sin rightly, let us see it in the angels tumbled out of heaven and reserved in chains of darkness for offending God (Jude 6). See it in the casting of Adam out of paradise (Gen 3:23-24), and all of us in him. See it in the destruction of the old world, and in the Jews carried into captivity, in the general destruction of Jerusalem, and so on.

But if you would indeed see the ugliest colors of sin, then see it in Christ on the cross. See how many sighs and groans it cost him, how bitter a thing it was to his righteous soul, forcing him to weep tears of blood and to send forth strong cries to his Father, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” If sin merely imputed to Christ our surety so affected him who was God-man, and lay so heavy on his soul, what will it do to those who are not in Christ? Certainly, the wrath of God must burn to hell; he will be a “consuming fire” (Heb 12:29) to all such.

See sin, therefore, chiefly in the death of Christ. How odious it is to God, that it could be purged away in no other way than by the death of his beloved Son! All the angels in heaven and all the creatures in the world could not satisfy divine justice for the least sin. If all the agonies of all creatures were put into one, it would be nothing compared with Christ’s agony; if all their sufferings were put into one, they could not make satisfaction to divine justice for the least sin. Sin is another kind of matter than we take it to be. See the attributes of God: his anger against it, his justice and holiness, and so on. Beloved, men forget this. They think God is indeed angry against sin, but that his justice is soon satisfied in Christ.

Oh, we must think of the Almighty as a holy God, separated from all stain and pollution of sin whatsoever, and so holy that he enforced a separation of his favor from Christ for becoming our surety, and Christ underwent a separation from his Father because he undertook for us. So odious is sin to the holy nature of God that he left his Son while the Son struggled with his wrath for it; and so odious was sin to the holy nature of Christ that he thus became a sacrifice for it. And so odious are the remainders of sin in the hearts of the saints that all who belong to God have the Spirit of Christ, which is as fire to consume and waste the old Adam out of them little by little. No unclean thing must enter into heaven (Rev 21:27).

Those who are not in Christ by faith, who have no shelter in him, must suffer for their transgressions eternally: “Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire” (Matt 25:41). So holy is God that he can have no society and fellowship with sinners.

Do you wonder why God hates sin so much, when men regard it so little? Not only the wicked sort of the world but common dead-hearted persons set so little by it that they do not regard spiritual sins at all, especially hatred, malice, pride, and the like, clothing themselves with these things as with a comely garment. Certainly you would not wonder that God hates sin, if you would only consider how sin hates God. What is sin but a setting of itself in God’s stead, a setting of the devil in God’s place? For when we sin we leave God and set up the creature, and by consequence Satan, who brings the temptation to us, setting him in our hearts before God.

Beloved, God is very jealous, and cannot endure that filthy thing, sin, in his place. Sin is such a thing as desires to take away God himself. Ask a sinner when he is about to sin, “Could you not wish that there were no God at all, that there were no eye of heaven to take vengeance on you?” “Oh yes,” he would say, “with all my heart.” And can you then wonder that God hates sin so much, when it hates him so much as to wish that God did not exist? Oh, do not marvel at it, but think of sin as God thought of it when he gave his Son to die for it, and as Christ thought of it when, in the sense of his Father’s anger, he cried out, “My God, my God…”

The deeper our thoughts are of the odiousness of sin, the deeper our comfort and joy in Christ will be afterward. Therefore I beseech you, work your hearts to a serious consideration of what that sin is that we cherish so much, and will not be reproved for, and which we leave God and heaven and all to embrace. Conceive of it as God does, who must be a Judge, and will one day call us to a strict account for it.

If Christ cried out thus, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” as our surety for our sins, we may see the better what to think of sin, and of God.

But above all things I desire you to look often in this mirror, in this book of Christ crucified (it is an excellent book to study), and see there the mercy of God and the love of Christ, the height and depth and breadth of God’s love in Jesus Christ, which has no dimensions. What set God to work to devise this excellent work of our salvation and redemption by such a surety? Was it not mercy? Did not mercy awaken wisdom to reconcile justice and mercy by Christ? But what stirred up this wisdom of God? Oh, compassion toward man from the very depths of his heart! He would not have man perish without remedy, as the angels did.

Therefore let us desire to be inflamed with the love of God, who has loved us so much. All the favors of God in Christ tend, next after satisfaction to justice, to inflame our hearts to love him in return. For what other reason are the favors of creation and providence given? How sweet God is in providing for our bodies, giving us not only what is necessary but abundance, withholding no comfort that is good for us, and so on.

But chiefly in his masterpiece God would have us grasp the greatest love of all, because there he has set himself to glorify his mercy more than anything else! Therefore we may well cry with the apostle, Oh the height of his love… (Eph 3:18). I beseech you, fix your thoughts on this. Do not think of it slightly, now and then, but dwell on the meditation of the infinite love of God in Christ, until your hearts are enlarged and warmed and inflamed by considering it. Then love will set you forward to all good works.

What need is there for us to tell you to be generous to the poor, to be good subjects, to be just in your dealings, and so on? All this may be spared when there is a loving heart. And when shall we have loving hearts? When they are kindled and fired at God’s fire. When they are persuaded of God’s love, then the apprehension of his love will breed love in our hearts in return. That is the reason why the apostles are not so exact as heathen authors in the particulars of duties. They press upon men especially the love of God and the foundational points of religion, knowing that when the heart is once seasoned with that, it is ready and prepared for every good duty. Think seriously of this: “The love of Christ constraineth me” (2 Cor 5:14). There is a holy violence in love; there is a spiritual kind of tyranny and prevailing in this grace.

One thing further we may learn from this forsaking of Christ, namely, that it is no strange thing for God’s dear children to be forsaken.

To apprehend their sins and the wrath of God, to be forsaken as to the sense of all comfort: do we not see this done to the natural Son? And shall we wonder that it is done to the adopted sons? We see this forsaking was in the natural branch, and shall we wonder that it is done in the grafted branches? It was done to the green tree, and shall we wonder if it is done in the dry? No, certainly.

The whole church complains of drinking gall and wormwood (Ps 69:21; Lam 3:15), that God was hidden in a cloud (Lam 3:44), and so on. Both the head complains and the body too, as we see in David, Job, and other saints; so there is a kind of desertion and forsaking that the child of God must undergo.

Question. What is the ground and purpose of it?

Answer. 1. God’s prerogative is such that sometimes, when there is no great sin to provoke him to withdraw comfort, he will still leave holy men to themselves, to show that he will do as he pleases.

2. Another ground is our own estate and condition. We are here absent from the Lord, strangers on earth. Now we would take our pilgrimage for our country, if we always had comfort and new supplies of joy.

3. Again, our disposition is to live by sense more than by faith. We are like children in this. We would have God always smile upon us, that we might walk in abundance of comfort. And I cannot blame Christians for desiring it, if they desire the work of grace in the first place, if they desire the work of God in them rather than the shining of comfort by the Spirit, for that is the best work. Now because Christians desire to live by sight rather than by faith, by which they might honor God more, he often leaves them. Sight is reserved for another world, for the church triumphant. There we shall have sight enough; we shall see God face to face.

4. Sometimes God’s children are negligent, and do not keep a holy watch over their souls. They cleave to the creature too much, and then it is no wonder if God forsakes them, since they will have stolen waters of their own, and fetch comfort elsewhere.

5. But one main ground is conformity to Christ. He suffered for our sins, and God will conform the members in some measure to their head. Though Christ drank the cup of God’s wrath to the bottom, yet we must sip and taste a little, that we may know how much we are beholden to Christ. There are few who come to heaven, few who truly belong to God, who do not know what sin is and what the wrath of God is, first or last. The wrath of God is the best corrosive in the world to eat out sin. A little anger of God felt in the conscience will make a man hate pride and malice, and all sin whatsoever.

Question. But for what purpose does God leave his children, as he did here our blessed Savior?

Answer. 1. In regard of himself.

2. In regard of his children.

1. In regard of himself, he leaves them that he may comfort them more afterward, that he may bring more love with him, and that they may love him more than before. After a little forsaking there will be a mutual reflection of love between God and a Christian. God delights to show himself more abundantly after a little forsaking, and the soul enlarges itself after it has lacked the love of God; for want enlarges the capacity of the soul, and want makes it stretch itself to receive more comfort when it comes. God does this for the increase of his love to us, and of our love to him in return. He both draws near to us and goes away, in regard of feeling, for our good.

2. He leaves us that we may be more watchful over our hearts for the time to come, and that there may be a more perfect divorce and separation wrought in us from the creatures. Our adulterous hearts have stolen delights that God does not like; and therefore, when we have smarted for it in the anger and displeasure of God, a divorce will be wrought. It is hard to work a separation from sin, sin and the soul being so closely wrapped together; yet for this reason God uses this way of spiritual desertion to effect it.

3. Likewise, he leaves us to make a Christian soul ransack and search the ground of all the comforts left to him by God. It will make him rifle through and search all the Scriptures: “Is there any comfort for me, poor wretch, who am troubled with sin?” It will make him search the experience of other Christians: “Have you any word of comfort for me?” It will make him regard a gracious man as “one of a thousand.” It will make him stretch his heart in all the degrees of grace: “Have I any evidence that I am the child of God, and not a castaway?” It will make him search his heart in regard of corruption: “Is there any sin that I am not willing to part with?” and so on.

Beloved, God many times leaves us; and not only leaves us, but makes our naked conscience smart for sin. Oh, this is an enlivening thing! A child of God who is of the right stamp will not endure being under God’s wrath for long. Oh, it is bitter! He knows what it is to enjoy communion with God. He will not endure it. Therefore it stirs him up to all manner of diligence whatsoever.

Question. But is there no difference between Christ’s sufferings and smart for sin and ours?

Answer. Yes. (1) The sufferings of Christ came from the retributive and avenging hand of God, as a just Judge; but ours proceed from him as a loving Father. For God, when we are in Christ, is changed. He lays aside the role of a Judge. Having received full satisfaction in Christ, he now stands in the relation of a sweet Father to us.

(2) Again, there is a difference in the measure. We take only a taste of the cup, sweetened with some comfort and moderated; but Christ drank deep of it.

(3) In the purpose and use. The sufferings and forsaking of Christ made satisfaction to divine justice; but ours do not, and are only medicinal. Their nature is quite changed. They are not for satisfaction; if they were, we would die eternally, and undermine the satisfaction of Christ. They are crosses indeed, but not curses. Whatever we suffer in soul or body is a cross, but not a curse to us, because the sting is pulled out. They are all medicinal cures to fit us for heaven. Whatever we suffer in our inward or outward man prepares us for glory, by mortifying the remainders of corruptions and fitting us for that blessed estate.

(4) All other men’s deaths are for themselves. As Leo says, they are single deaths for single men. But it is otherwise here, for all the children of God were forsaken in their head, crucified in their head, and died in Christ their head. Christ’s death was a public satisfaction. No man dies for another, let the papists say what they will; only Christ died for all, and suffered for his whole body. So much for the first general point, that Christ was forsaken.

2. The second general point is that Christ felt it very keenly, even to the point of complaint and expostulation: “My God, my God…” Why should it be thus between the Father and the Son, between such a Father and such a Son, a kind, loving Father to his natural, obedient, and only Son? The word is strong, beloved. He was not only forsaken, but exposed to danger and left in it, and he felt it very keenly. Every word here expresses the depths of his heart.

He does not say, “The Jews have forsaken me,” or “My beloved disciples and apostles, whom I made so much of, have forsaken me,” or “Pilate would not do the duty of a true judge,” or “My feet are pierced, my head is wounded, my body is racked, hanging on the cross,” and so on. He complains of none of these, though they were things to be complained of, and though to feel in the body what he felt would have sunk any creature. What went nearest to him was this: “Oh, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” As if to say, “I do not dwell on the forsaking of others, but why hast thou forsaken me? I dwell more on your forsaking than on the forsaking of all others.” Christ felt this very keenly; it went to his very heart.

But what special reason was there that Christ should take this so deeply?

1. Because the lovingkindness of the Lord is better than life itself, as David, the type of Christ, well said (Ps 63:3), the forsaking of God being indeed worse than death. The lovingkindness of the Lord is what sweetens all discomforts in the world; the lack of it embitters all comforts to us. If we are condemned traitors, what will all comforts do for a condemned man? The lack of God’s love embitters all good, and its presence sweetens all ill: death, imprisonment, and all crosses whatsoever. Therefore Christ, having a sanctified judgment in the highest degree, judges the loss of this to be the worst thing.

2. The sweeter the communion is with God, the fountain of good, the more intolerable and insufferable is the separation from him. But no one ever had so near and sweet a communion with God as Christ our Mediator had, for he was both God and man in one person, the beloved Son of his Father. Now since the communion before had been so near and so sweet to him, even a little lack of it could only be insufferable. The nearer things are, the more difficult the separation will be. When the skin is severed from the flesh, and the flesh from the bones, oh, how painful it is to nature! How much more was Christ’s separation from the sense of his Father’s love! Those who love live more in the one they love than in themselves. Christ was in love with the person of his Father, and lived in him. Now to lack the sense of his love, considering that love desires nothing but the return of love, could only be death to him.

3. Another ground for Christ’s feeling it so keenly was that he was best able to apprehend the worth of communion with God, and best able to apprehend what the anger of God was. He had a large judgment and a more capacious soul than any other; therefore, being filled with the wrath of God, he was able to hold more wrath than any man else. He who had so deep a taste of love before could most deeply apprehend wrath.

4. Again, in regard of his body: the grief of Christ, both in body and soul, was the greatest that ever was, for he was in the strength of his years. He had not dulled his spirits with intemperance. He was quick and able to apprehend pain, being of an excellent constitution.

Use. Did Christ feel the lack of his Father’s love so exceedingly, though it was only for a while? I beseech you, then, let us have merciful thoughts of those who suffer in conscience and are troubled in mind. Oh, it is a far different matter from what the world takes it to be! It is no easy thing to conflict with God’s anger, even a little of it. This was the fault of Job’s friends: they should have judged him charitably, but they did not. Take heed, therefore, of drawing desperate conclusions against ourselves or others, when the arrows of the Almighty stick in us, when we smart and show our distress in the apprehension of the terrors of the Lord seizing upon our souls. God is about a gracious work all this while; the more keenly men feel the anger of God, the more keenly they will feel the return of his favor.

There are some unfeeling, stupid creatures who feel neither the afflictions they suffer in body nor the manifestation of God’s anger on their soul. Though he follows them with his corrections, they are like dead flesh, unmovable. Therefore God says, Why should I smite them any longer? (Isa 1:5).

This comes from three grounds:

(1) From pride, when men think it a shame for such Roman spirits as they are to stoop.

(2) Or from hypocrisy, when they will not reveal their grief, though their conscience is out of tune.

(3) Or else out of stupid blockishness, which is worst of all, when they are not affected by the signs of God’s wrath. It is a good thing to be affected by the least token of God’s displeasure, when we can gather by good evidence that God has a quarrel against us.

You see how keenly Christ felt it, and so it will be with us if we do not get into him in time. We shall feel sin one day whether we will or not; conscience is not put in us for nothing. You may stupefy conscience and stifle its mouth with this or that trick now, but it will not be so forever. It will discharge its office, and lay bitter things to our charge, and stare us in the face, and drive us to despair one day. Sin is another matter, when it is revealed to conscience, than we take it to be, however blockishly and stupidly we go on now. It is sweet in the temptation and allurement, but it has an ill farewell and a sting. If we could judge of sin as we shall when it is past, especially when we come to our reckoning at the hour of death and at the day of judgment, then we would be of another mind. Then we would say that all sinners, as the Scripture terms them, are fools (Ps 94:8). But to go on.

We see that Christ expresses his feeling of it by complaint: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Caution. Here some cautions must be given, so that we do not mistake. Christ complains not of God but to God.

Objection. Was Christ ignorant of the cause of God’s forsaking him?

Answer. No, he knew the cause, for his sufferings were intolerable; but taking our nature upon him, he takes our speech also, and expresses himself like a miserable man, having the greatest affliction that ever was upon a creature. The divine nature of Christ stopped the excess of any passion. He was stirred but not disturbed; he was moved with the sins of men, but not removed. He was like water in a clear glass. However much you stir it, there is nothing but water; if there were mud in it, it would soon be unclean. We cannot stir our affections and complain without a tincture of sin. It was not so with Christ. He knew when to raise and when to calm his affections. And though there was much of nature in these affections, a natural shunning of grief and a natural desire of God’s presence, yet here was grace to direct and sanctify them. For nature sometimes carries grace along with a stronger wind, and more fully, when they both go in one current, as here. It was grace to have the love of God; indeed, it was death to be without it. And it was sinless nature to desire ease, for nature may desire ease without sin, provided that it does so with submission of itself to God.

For the soul may have various desires, as there are various objects presented to it. When the soul perceives release and ease, it rejoices and is glad. But when, on higher considerations and for better ends, pain is presented to the soul to do it good, the soul may desire that, and on deliberation choose what it refused before. A man may have his hand cut off, and cast his wares into the sea. He would not willingly do these things, yet when on deliberation he considers, “I will save my life by it,” he will do it. So Christ, by a natural desire and without sin, might desire release from pain. But when this was presented to him, “What then will become of the salvation of men and of obedience to God?” upon these considerations, which looked to higher ends, there might be another choice. So in things subordinate one to another, one thing may cross another, and yet all be good too.

But you must know this also: to be forsaken, and to feel that forsaking, is no sin, especially when it is not brought on by any sin of ours. It is a suffering, but not a sin; and to feel it is no sin. It is rather a sin to be affected otherwise. God allows those affections that he has planted in us. He has planted fear and sorrow for when painful objects are presented to us. If a man does not sorrow over objects of sorrow, he is not a man as God made him. God allows grief and fear in afflictions and trouble, always remembering that it must be with submission to him: “Not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matt 26:39).

Again, consider that Christ was now in a state of conflict between doubting and despair, the powers of hell being round about him. As Satan was busy about him at the entrance into his office (Matt 4:1-11), so he was now vexing his righteous soul with temptations: “God has forsaken you,” and this and that. We do not know the malice of Satan at such a time, but certainly the powers of hell were all let loose upon him then. The truth is, God purposed to finish his sufferings immediately upon his complaint. And because he will have all of us, even Christ himself, receive what we receive by prayer and by opening our desires to him, God allows Christ to complain and to pour out his supplication into God’s own bosom, so that immediately afterward he might be released from everything, seeing he had now fully satisfied for the sins of man.

Use. In a word, the use of it is this: God, having stooped so low to poor creatures as to be a father and a friend to them, will allow them to lay open their griefs into his bosom familiarly (for there is a great deal of familiarity in the spirit of adoption), yet reverently, and to reason the case with his Majesty without sin: “Why, Lord, am I forsaken like this? What is the matter? Where is the yearning of your heart? Where are your former mercies?” and so on. There is another kind of familiarity between God and his children than the world takes notice of. Yet remember also that these are not murmuring complaints, but complaints seasoned with faith and love, as here: my God, my God still. From this you see that Christ in his greatest extremities had a spirit of faith.

3. There is a question between the papists and us about Christ’s faith. They will have it that he was at once a possessor of the heavenly vision and a traveler still on the way. Indeed, he needed no justifying faith to apply anything from outside himself, because he had righteousness enough of his own. Yet he did have faith in this sense, that he depended upon God as his Father. Nor was he always in the state of happiness, for that distinction confuses the abasement of Christ with his exaltation.

Though there was the happiness of union (the human nature being always united to the Godhead), yet there was not always the happiness of vision. He did not see the face of God, for then why did he cry out, “My God, my God…”? Sight was due to him from his incarnation, considered in himself, not as our surety. Now what stopped the influence of comfort to his soul was this: that he might fully suffer for our sins, that he might be humbled and tempted, and suffer even death itself. Therefore, in regard to the state of humiliation, there was faith in him, a faith of dependence; there was hope in him, and he made great use of it to support himself.

Question. But what supported the faith of Christ in this woeful, rueful state he was in, being forsaken by God as our surety?

Answer. Christ presented these things to his faith.

(1) The unchangeable nature of God, my God… Whom he once loves, he loves to the end (John 13:1). Therefore he lays claim to him: “You have been my God in the past, and so you are still.”

(2) Again, faith presented God’s manner of dealing to the soul of Christ. He knew well enough that God brings contraries to pass by contraries. He brings to heaven by the gates of hell, he brings to glory by shame, to life by death. And therefore Christ resolves, “Notwithstanding this desertion, I will depend upon my God.”

(3) Again, Christ knew well enough that God is nearest in support when he is furthest off in feeling. So it often is: where he is nearest the inward man, to strengthen it with his love, he is furthest off in comfort to outward sense. To whom was God nearer than to Christ in support and sanctifying grace? And yet from whom was he further off in present feeling? Christ knew that there was a secret sense of God’s love and a felt sense of God’s love. He had a secret sense of God, that he was his Father, because he knew himself to be his Son, but he did not have it in feeling. Faith must be suited to the thing believed. Now Christ, in saying “My God,” suits his faith to the truth that was offered to him. He knew God to be nearest at hand in the greatest extremity: “Be not far off, for trouble is near” (Ps 22:11).

This should teach us, in any extremity or trouble, to set faith to work, and to feed faith with the consideration of God’s unchangeable nature and the unchangeableness of his promises, which endure forever. We change, but the promise does not change, and God does not change; my God still: “The word of the Lord endureth for ever” (1 Pet 1:25). God deals with his people in a hidden manner. He supports them with secret, though not with felt, comfort, and will be nearest when he seems to be furthest off from his children. I beg you, acquaint yourselves with these things, and do not think it strange that God comes near you in desertions, considering that it was so with Christ.

Present to your soul the nature of God, his custom and manner of dealing, and so you will perceive favor in the midst of wrath and glory in the midst of shame. We shall see life in death; we shall see through the thickest clouds that are between God and us. For as God shines secretly in the heart with his love through all temptations and troubles, so there is a spirit of faith that goes back to him again: “My God, my God.” For faith has a quick eye, and sees through contraries. There is no cloud of grief but faith will pierce through it, and see a father’s heart under the bearing of an enemy.

Christ had a great burden upon him, the sins of the whole world, yet he breaks through it all: “I am now sin, I bear the guilt of the whole world, yet under this role that I sustain, I am a son, and God is my God still, notwithstanding all this weight of sin upon me.” And shall we not say, beloved, “My God,” in any affliction or trouble that befalls us? Oh yes. In the sense of sin, which is the bitterest of all, and in the sense of God’s anger, in losses and crosses, in our families, and so on, let us break through those clouds and say, “My God, still.”

Objection. But you will say, “I may be laying hold of a lie. Perhaps God is not my God, and then it is presumption to say so.”

Answer. Whoever casts himself upon God, out of the sense of sin, to be ruled by God for the time to come, will obtain mercy. Now, do you do this? Does your conscience tell you, “I cast myself upon God for better direction; I want to be ruled hereafter as God and the ministry of the Word would have me”? If so, you have put this question out of question. You doubt whether God is your God. I tell you, God is the God of all who seek him and obey him in truth. Now your conscience tells you that you do this; then certainly, whatever you were before, God has now gone ahead of you. He offers himself to be your God, if you trust in him and will be ruled by him. And not only that, but he entreats us (we should beg him, but he entreats us, such is his love); indeed, he commands us to believe in his Son Jesus Christ.

Now, when I join with God’s entreaty, “O Lord, you offer yourself, you invite me, you command me; I yield obedience and submit to your good word,” then the match is struck and made up in doing so. God is your God and Christ is your Christ, and you must make use of this claim and interest here, in all the passages of your life, your whole life long. “Lord, you are my God, therefore teach me. You are my God; I have given myself to you; I have set you up in my heart above all things; you are in my soul above all sin, above all profits and pleasures whatsoever; therefore save me and deliver me, have pity upon me,” and so on. The claim is good when we have truly given ourselves up to him. Otherwise God may say, Go to the gods you have served (Judg 10:14); men were your gods, for whom you cracked your consciences; riches and pleasure were your gods; go to them for help.

Oh, beloved, it is a harder matter to say “My God” in the midst of trouble than the world takes it to be. There was a great conflict in Christ when he said “My God,” when he broke through all the molestations and temptations of Satan, together with the sense of wrath, and could say notwithstanding, “My God.” There was a mighty strong spirit in him. But no wonder. Faith is an almighty grace, worked by the power of God, and, laying hold upon that power, it lays hold upon omnipotence, and therefore it can do wonders; it overcomes the invincible God. He has made a promise, and cannot deny his promise; he cannot deny himself and his truth. Suppose his dealing is like that of an enemy. His promise is to be as a friend to those who trust in him. He is merciful, forgiving sins; such now is his nature. Satisfaction to his justice makes him show mercy.

I speak this so that you might beg from God the gift of faith, which will carry you through all temptations and afflictions, yes, even through the shadow of death. As David says, “Though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, yet will I fear no ill” (Ps 23:4). Why? Because you are with me, my God and my shepherd. Though we are in the valley of the shadow of death, yet notwithstanding, if God is with us, if we are in covenant with him and can lay just claim to his promise by giving ourselves up to him, we shall not fear. One beam of God’s countenance, when we are in covenant with him, will scatter all clouds whatsoever. I beg you, therefore, labor more and more for this precious grace of faith, and increase it by all sanctified means, hearing the Word, reading the Scriptures and treasuring up promises, considering what special use we have of this above all other graces. But to proceed.

Christ here not only believes, but

4. He gives vent to his faith by prayer.

Good works are but faith incarnate, faith working. They do not differ much from it. So prayer is but faith flaming, the breath of faith, as it were. For when troubles possess the soul, it immediately sends out its ambassador; it speeds prayer forth. And prayer does not stop until it comes to heaven, and there takes hold upon God, and gets a message and answer back from him to comfort the soul. Faith and prayer are in a manner all one. When the soul has any great desire for grace, or is in grief, perceiving the displeasure of God, faith would, if it could, work its way to heaven. But we are on earth, and cannot do that until we die. Therefore when it cannot go to heaven, it sends prayer; and that mounts the soul aloft, and wrestles with God, and will give him no rest until the petition is granted and it can say, “My God.”

Therefore, if you have any faith at all, exercise it, and make it bright by frequent prayer: The prayer of faith prevails much (Jas 5:15). “How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?” (Rom 10:14). Indeed, it is no prayer at all without faith. Great faith, great prayer; weak faith, weak prayer; no faith, no prayer: they both go on in an even strength. Christ here prays to God under this complaint, Why hast thou forsaken me? There is a hidden prayer in it: “Oh, do not forsake me, deliver me out,” and so on.

I beg you, even as you would have comfort from the fountain of comfort, that usually conveys all grace and comfort to us by a spirit of prayer, labor to be much in communion with God in this blessed exercise, especially in troubles: “Call upon me in the day of trouble” (Ps 50:15). The evil day is a day of prayer. Of all days, in the day of trouble especially, make your request known to God (Phil 4:6).

Objection. But perhaps God will not hear me.

Answer. Yes, he will, and this fruit follows: “The peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds” (Phil 4:7). When you have eased your souls into the bosom of God by prayer, you may go on free from care, and know that he will let you reap the fruit of your prayers at the best time.

Objection. Yes, but I have prayed long and have had no answer.

Answer. Wait in prayer; God’s time is the best time. The physician keeps his own time. He turns the hourglass, and though the patient cries out that he is tormenting him, it does not matter; he knows his time. The goldsmith will not take the metal out of the fire until it is refined. So God knows what to do; wait for his good leisure. In the meantime, because we must have everything from God by prayer, I beg you, draw everything from him in this way. Pray for everything, and then we shall have it as a blessing indeed.

Objection. But suppose I cannot pray, as sometimes we are in such a state that we cannot make a long prayer to God.

Answer. Then do as Christ did: cry. If you cannot pray, groan and sigh, for they are the groans and the sighs of God’s Spirit in you. There is a great deal of oratory in these words. What is the use of eloquence but to persuade? And what could persuade God more than when Christ showed how he esteemed his love, and how he was now, in its absence, surrounded with grief before him? Here was rhetoric. If Christ had not spoken, his wounds would have said enough, and his pitiful case would have spoken sufficiently. Everything has a voice to cry for mercy. But he adds his voice to all, and cries vocally, aloud, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”

Beloved, if you acquaint yourselves with God in prayer, then you may go readily to him in any extremity. Therefore, in the time of health and prosperity, cherish communion with his blessed Majesty, and make him your friend. And on every good occasion make use of this plea, “O my God.” If we have riches, if we have a friend at court, we will make use of them; if we have anything, we will make use of it. Have we a God, and will we not make use of him? Have we a God who is our God, and do we lack grace? Do we lack comfort, and strength, and assistance, and have we a God, the fountain of all, to go to? Shall we have such a prerogative as this, to have Jesus Christ as our great peacemaker, so that we may go boldly to the throne of grace through him, and shall we not make use of it?

We may go boldly to God, and be welcome, because God is infinite, and the more we go and beg, the more he gives. We cannot exhaust that fountain. Oh, let us make use of this blessed prerogative; then we shall live the life of heaven upon earth.

Especially when the conscience is troubled with sin, as Christ was now with the displeasure of his Father, then let us go to God and plead with his Majesty. And we may plead lawfully with him: “Lord, your justice is better satisfied in Christ than if you should send me to hell. If you will, you may destroy me” (for conscience must come to a great resignation; it cannot desire mercy unless it sees its own misery). “Lord, you may justly call me to hell, but it would not be so much for your glory. You are more glorious in satisfying your justice in Christ than if you should damn me to hell.”

Why? Because God’s justice is better satisfied in Christ. Man sinned, but God-man satisfied for sin; man would be like God in pride, God becomes man in humility. The expiation of God is greater than the sin of man. He prayed for his persecutors, and gave his life for them. Does this not answer to the justice of God more than the sin of man does? The law requires only a guilty person to suffer. Christ was innocent. The law requires that man should suffer. Christ was God. Therefore Christ has done more than satisfy the law. The satisfaction of Christ is more than if we had suffered. We are poor men, creatures. His was the satisfaction of God-man. Our sins are the sins of finite persons, but he is infinite.

Therefore the soul may plead, “Lord, I am a wretched sinner, but I would take you away and take Christ away if I should despair. I would make you no God and make Christ no Christ if I should not accept mercy. For Christ is given to me, and I labor to make him my own by laying hold of him.” Faith has a power to make everything it touches its own. Particular faith (which is the only true comforting faith) makes general things mine. When the soul can lay a particular claim to God as its God, by giving itself to him only, then we may plead in Christ a better satisfaction to God’s justice than if he should cast us into hell. What a stay this is for a distressed soul to make use of!

Beloved, the church of God, the mystical body of Christ, is thus forsaken in other countries, besides many particular humble, brokenhearted Christians at home, who find no beams of God’s love and mercy. What shall we do? Let the body imitate the head. Go to God on their behalf, and pour out your complaints before him: “Lord, where are your mercies of old? Where is your ancient tenderness of heart toward your church? Why should the enemy triumph?” and so on. God delights when we lay open before him the miseries of his people and our own particular grievances. If there is a spirit of faith in it, oh, it works upon his heart! If a child can only say, “O father, O mother!” though he can say not a word more, the heart is touched; there is eloquence enough. So when we can lay open the pitiful state of God’s poor church, what a blessing we may obtain for them!

“It is your church, Lord, your own people. Your name is called upon them, and they call upon your name. Though they have sinned, yet you deserve to be like yourself, and Christ has deserved mercy for them.” Thus, if we contend with God, and do not keep silence, and give God no rest, faith would work wonders. The state of the church would not long remain as it is, if we would all make use of our interest in heaven on their behalf.

Beloved, Christ struggled with the powers of darkness and the wrath of his Father for a while, but immediately afterward all was finished. So let us contend boldly. “Fight the good fight of faith” (1 Tim 6:12), and do not yield to desperate suggestions. Let faith stir up prayer, and prayer go to God, and before long it will be said of the church, and of all particular troubles, “All is finished.” Then we shall enjoy the sweet presence of God, “where is fullness of joy” (Ps 16:11), and that for evermore.

The presence of God is what the child of God desires above all things in the world. It enlivens and strengthens him; it puts zeal and fire into him; it does everything. What will the presence of God not do when a man enjoys his face? Therefore, let us be content to wage this conflict here, to be exercised for a while in faith and prayer. We shall surely say before long, “I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; henceforth is laid up for me a crown of righteousness” (2 Tim 4:7-8).

I beg you, learn these lessons and instructions from our blessed Savior. We cannot have a better pattern than to be like him, by whom we all hope to be saved one day. So much for this time.

I have declared unto them thy name, and I will declare it; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:26).

You have heard the connection of this verse already, when I entered upon its first part. Our Savior, intending to commit his disciples to the love of his Father, so that they might be the fitter objects of his love, sets down here his own care for the present and for the time to come. For it is hypocrisy in prayer when we pray for what we do not endeavor after. For as he prays the Father to take them into his charge, so he sets down his own care about them: “I have manifested thy name, and I will…” The verse contains this blessed act of Christ:

1. What he has done.

2. What he will do.

3. The end of it.

“I have declared thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.” “I have declared, and will declare.” I unfolded this at length last time. Among many other things, I observed this one: that we are in perpetual progress in this life. We never know so much but that we may know more, and we ought to know more. So by consequence there is a perpetual necessity of Christ’s prophetical office.

“I have declared, and I will declare…” We see that the church in general grew to knowledge by degrees, till Christ, the Sun of righteousness, came gloriously in the flesh; till John pointed at him with the finger, “This is the Lamb of God…” (John 1:29). And as with the whole mystical body, so with every member: we grow to knowledge by degrees.

“I have declared…” Christ fits his work to our needs. We need further knowledge, and he is bountiful to promise a further declaration. “I have, and I will.” He is never weary of well-doing. As his love is infinite, so the expression that comes from his love is unwearied.

This is a ground of special comfort, as we showed, to all Christians, and especially to laboring, weak Christians: their beginnings are pledges of further degrees. For where Christ is Alpha, he will be Omega; where he is the author, he will be the finisher of our faith; where he has laid the first stone, he will at length set up the roof. He has declared, and he will declare. He is not so unwise a builder as to abandon his work. He knows what he can do. Therefore we may enter upon all the means of saving knowledge with this confidence, that we have a teacher who will carry us along from one degree of knowledge to another.

And let us never despair over any insufficiency of abilities. It is no matter what the capacity or the incapacity of the scholar may be, when there is such a teacher. When God is the teacher, it is no matter how dull the learner is. For Christ not only brings doctrine, but he brings understanding, grace, and ability to the inward man. That is, he gives not only a declaration, as man teaches the outward man, but he unlocks and opens the heart, the ears of the inward man, as he opened Lydia’s heart (Acts 16:14). Let no one distrust, if they are conscientious and careful in the use of good means.

I observed many other things from this, which I will not unfold at length.

“I have declared to them thy name…”; that is, that by which you might be known. Now in the covenant of grace, God would be known by the sweet name of Father, by the attributes of mercy and love. That by which he will be known is his name: his mercy in the covenant of grace, in condescending to be our Father in Jesus Christ, together with the sweet attributes of love and mercy, from which all things spring. This is his name.

Now he will not be known only as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God who brought them out of the land of Egypt, or out of the North; but he will be known by the name of “the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,” and our Father; as the Father of mercy, and the God of all comfort. Thus we must labor to present God to ourselves now by his right name. This name makes all the other names he has sweet. For once he is gracious and merciful, and a Father in covenant, his power is ours, his wisdom is ours, and all is ours. Then this name of God is set forth at large: “Jehovah, Jehovah, merciful, forgiving iniquity…” (Exod 34:7). “I have declared thy name…” But I dwelt on this at length.

What was the end of our blessed Savior in this his gracious dealing? “That the love wherewith thou lovest me may be in them, and I in them.”

In unfolding these words, I proposed these general heads, leaving other things aside. First, that God loves Christ, because he is the first object of his love, his own image; for he represents God’s attributes, and whatever is good in him, exactly in every way. He is the Jedidiah, the beloved of the Lord. He is the true Isaac, the true matter of joy. He is the first Son, the first beloved. This was the first thing we unfolded and applied.

The second was this: that after Christ, God loves all who are Christ’s with that love with which he loves Christ. There is indeed a former love of God, to give us to Christ; but I am speaking of the carrying out of our salvation, all of which is in Christ. He loves Christ, and he loves us in Christ, and not otherwise. There is a love that moved him to give Christ, but this love must concur with the other attributes. It must be such love and mercy, and so apprehended, as to offer no violence or wrong to the other attributes. His justice and his holiness must not be wronged.

And therefore, though he bore love to those whom he knew before all worlds, yet in the carrying out of salvation he intended actually to set his love upon them in such a way that it should be in one who should make satisfaction for them, since they were considered as sinners in themselves. And God would have in our salvation the glory of infinite love to man, and also of infinite hatred of sin, and likewise of infinite wisdom in reconciling these together.

How could he show his infinite hatred of sin more than this, that rather than leave it unpunished, his Son must become incarnate, to be a surety for sin and to take it away? How could he show his infinite love more than by giving such a gift as Christ, and his infinite wisdom more than by devising such a way to bring these two together, justice and love, and to reconcile them?

So though God loved a certain company whom he foreknew to everlasting life, yet he intended, in the carrying out of their salvation, to do it with the manifestation and glory of his attributes, so that no attribute might be wronged or complain, and that justice might be fully satisfied, but especially that his mercy and love might triumph. For what in God stirred up a fatherly heart? What stirred him up to reconcile justice and mercy, but love, which set all his other attributes to work, his mercy, and love, and goodness?

God therefore loves us in Christ, and only in Christ, because only in Christ is his wrath satisfied. Christ alone is the mediator, the only treasury of the church to convey all to us. The adopted sons have their excellency, and all that they have, by virtue of the natural Son. But I have unfolded this at length before, and showed the use of it last time; this was the second thing.

The third general thing out of the text is this: that the love of God to us is in Christ, loving us in him, as electing us and doing all good to us in him. It is the ground of all other favors and graces whatsoever. And therefore he sets it here as all in all: “I have declared… that the love wherewith thou lovest me may be in them…” What! Does he not say that he might be merciful to them and full of pity, and that those who love him may have other graces? What need is there of all this? He sets down the spring of all: “I have manifested thy name,” your gracious name, that in the apprehension of that they may find my love.

And so, when we feel the love of God and of Christ, know that all other graces flow from there; for indeed all graces wrought in us issue first from God’s love to us. Where do pity, and mercy, and love come from, but from God’s shining in our hearts first by his love? That love molds and frames the heart to all duties and graces whatsoever, and to the first grace, which is to love God. For how can we love him unless we first have an apprehension of his love?

You know that if iron, and stones, and things that are cold by nature have any heat, we say it is the sun that has heated them, or the fire that has warmed them, because intrinsically they have no heat. So when there is any goodness in the creature, any pity, mercy, or love to God or to those who are his, it implies that there has first been the fire, the light of God’s love to us. And therefore Christ says, “I have manifested thy name to them, that thy love may be in them.” This love in them will be enough to set them on fire for all good things whatsoever.

“We love him, because he loves us first” (1 John 4:19). We know him because he knows us first (Gal 4:9), and we choose him because he chooses us first. We joy and delight in him because he joys and delights in us first. Whatever good comes from us is all a reflection from him. This was the third thing. We made use of it from there, and so broke off.

To go on. The fourth thing I proposed to speak of out of the words is this: that this love of God to us may be known, and ought to be known by us. It may be known with an experiential knowledge and with a knowledge that applies it to ourselves. The next was that the way to know God’s love to us is the manifesting of his name in the gospel; that follows from the connection of those two together. And the last is Christ’s being in us, which I cannot come to at this time.

So then, to clear this point: that we may labor to know God’s love to us, and it is our duty to do it. We ought to labor that God’s love may be in us, and that we may know it: not just in general that he loves us, but that his love is in us, that it is incorporated and invested into us, so that we have a taste of it and feel it. For this is the end of Christ’s prayer, “That the love wherewith thou lovest me may be in them…” And the next way to know it, which we shall speak of at this time among the rest, is this: the manifesting of God’s name by Christ. For the first, then.

Doctrine 1. That we may and ought to know God’s love to us in Christ. That we ought to know it, what need is there for me to speak at length on the point? I will not, because it is so clear. For if it is, as I showed at length last time, the spring of all duties, of all other graces, which sets all to work, then surely we ought to labor for that which may make us good, and not only good, but full of comfort. Now all our goodness and comfort come from this source, the knowledge of God’s love to us, when that is in us; for we have no love to him until we know that we are beloved by him.

1. We cannot be thankful to God till we know that he loves us in Christ. I am speaking of his special love to one as his child. Who can be thankful for what he does not know? Not knowing it overthrows all thankfulness and denies it. We ought to labor for the assurance of the love of God in Christ. For it is a duty to joy in the Lord as our portion. Now we must be certain of his love first. How else can we practice this duty of rejoicing in the Lord always? What joy and cheerfulness can come without the love of God shining upon us and enlarging our hearts to joy? As the shining of the sun enlarges the spirit of the poor creatures, the birds, in the springtime, to sing, so proportionally the apprehension of the sweet love of God in Christ enlarges the spirit of a man, and makes him full of joy and thanksgiving. He breaks forth into joy, so that his whole life is matter of joy and thanksgiving.

2. Again, in suffering any cross, any opposition, who will endure to lose his temporal goods, his life and liberty, or to be restrained in any way, if he does not know God’s love? Who will bear anything for one he does not love? What sets us to suffer all things that may be suffered for God? The apprehension that he loves us. What makes a man willing to end his life and to yield up his soul to God? He knows he shall yield his soul to him as to a father who loves him and will save his soul. Can a man be willing to leave his home here, when he does not know whether he shall have a better one or not? Can a man commend his soul to one he does not know to be his friend? No. Can he commend such a jewel to one who, for all he knows, is an enemy? Can he say with Simeon, “Lord, let thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation” (Luke 2:29)?

Does not all joy and comfort come from the love of God in Christ? Why should I enlarge on the point? We can neither have grace nor joy, nor suffer anything with thankfulness, nor end our days with joy and comfort, till we get assurance that we are in the covenant of grace and that God’s love is in us.

And therefore it is clear to anyone who knows anything in religion, or desires anything, that we ought to labor that God’s love may be in us. I beseech you, therefore, make use of this to see the abominable doctrine of popery (I cannot speak too harshly of it), which teaches that we ought to doubt God’s love. It cuts the sinews of endeavor. Who will strive after attaining the love of God, and this assurance, when this is laid in the way, that we ought not to do it? Are we not prone enough to distrust, without being taught it? Is Satan not malicious enough, without our lighting a candle to him and arming his malice with this doctrine, that we ought to doubt?

He is the master of doubtings. For the works of darkness, and all the discomfort and sin he brings on us, are in darkness, in this particular darkness, that we do not know whether we are the children of God or not. And therefore some say, “Why should we leave our gain, our profit, and the present pleasures that we have?” And what does Satan aim at by the sins he tempts us to, but to shake our assurance of God’s love?

Well, the papists teach the doctrine of devils in various things, and among them is this one, which greatly strengthens the kingdom of Satan: that people ought to doubt, and that there is no way or means to get assurance of God’s love. This is to overthrow the intent of Christ’s prayer. Why does he pray here, and what does he promise in his prayer? That God would show them his love, and that he may do it: “I have declared thy love…”

So it is clear that we ought to respond to Christ’s aim. Why does Christ declare his Father’s name? And why are there all the means of salvation, except that we may have God’s love in us? Is it not our duty, then, to respond to Christ’s course, and his promise, and his love? Taking that, then, as a ground, that we ought to labor to have God’s love in us, we will show that we may attain to it, and come to know that God loves us. I will not be long on it; it is a clear point, which I have spoken of before on another occasion.

We may attain to it. Here is the way, as I shall show in the next point: by the declaration of God’s name. For what is faith, which is the work of the gospel and the grace of the new covenant, but the apprehension of the love of God in Christ? It is nothing else; and therefore we may attain to it in the covenant of grace. Faith is nothing but the act by which we apprehend this effectual love of God to us in Christ.

Therefore we who are Christians may attain to it, because we have the Spirit of God, which “searcheth the deep things of God” (1 Cor 2:10). Our spirit knows what is in us, and God’s Spirit knows what is in God, and we have the Spirit of God to show us the things of God, and all the benefits and fruits of his love, with the affection itself. The Spirit searches the deep things of God, as it is in 1 Cor 2:10. It is a point I have pursued at length before.

A Christian in the covenant of grace knows that God loves him. There is no truth in the world so illustrious, so gloriously and manifestly true, as this. Would you have a better pledge of his love than Jesus Christ, the Son of his love, given for us, the dearest thing that God has? He who has given such an invaluable thing as his own Son to assure us of it, besides all that comes from this, would not have us doubt his love. For if he has once given him, he gives all things with him (Rom 8:32). He who has given us his Son for our Redeemer and Savior gives us heaven for our inheritance, and his Spirit for our leader, guide, and sanctifier. He has given angels for our attendants. He gives us peace, and joy, and all things. In Christ, we have all.

But here, because it is a main point, I will enlarge a little, and speak as familiarly as I can to every conscience.

Question 1. How shall a sinner who is not yet converted be persuaded of God’s love to him?

Question 2. And how shall we, in the time of temptation, deal with sinners in the state of grace? I am speaking of the ordinary course, how a Christian may be persuaded of it.

For the first, which is how those who are unconverted may be drawn to the sense of the love of God, to find that they have any portion in it at all, so that they may have it for the time to come, though they do not yet feel any goodness in them:

Answer 1. I answer, we must draw them to a sense that they are not yet in the love of God, by those things that their corruptions suggest to them to measure the love of God by. For example, you have a company who think their case is good because God has given them outward blessings, and accompanies his blessings with patience and long-suffering; gives them abilities and gifts, and promotions in the church; gives them position, great esteem, and such things. On this they begin to reason, “Certainly God is in love with me.” Yet if a man should search their lives and examine them, you would find that there is no act, no evidence of God’s special love to them at all.

Such people, therefore, must be convinced that they must not measure God’s love by these things; that what is common to castaways cannot be a mark and sign of God’s love; but these things are common to castaways. Did not Abraham give Ishmael and the rest of his children movable goods? But Isaac had the inheritance (Gen 25:6 and following). Esau had his portion in the things of this life, but Jacob goes away with the blessing. Castaways and reprobates may have the blessings of the left hand in abundant measure. God fills their bellies with abundance of outward things, whose hearts he never fills with his love, as in the case of Dives (Luke 16:25).

Not to enlarge myself, look at such instances. What do they tend to, but to show that these outward things are no evidences of God’s love? And as for God’s patience in enduring me in such a state as I am in, that is no argument. For God in his patience endures the vessels of wrath, who treasure up “wrath against the day of wrath” (Rom 2:4-5), God permitting them to prolong their days in judgment, so that he may pour the full vials of his wrath upon them. He bears with them to lead them to repentance; and when they do not make a right use of it, God afterward justifies his vengeance and judgment the more when he pours it upon them. So plenty in outward things, accompanied with patience, is no true sign of God’s love.

Think likewise of abilities and gifts. Did not Judas have excellent abilities? Indeed, did not the devil himself? Who comes near him in depth of understanding and craft, and the like? Judas had a place in the church; he was an apostle. And as for gifts, Ahithophel and Saul had gifts of government. None of these are evidences as yet that the love of God is in us, or that he has any interest in us.

The way, therefore, to bring those who do not have the love of God to love God is to show them their vain confidence: that they trust to a broken reed, and to that which in the time of sickness, the hour of death, and the day of judgment will deceive them, seeing they trust to a cracked title. Well, if the consciences of such as are not yet in the state of grace are once awakened, we may thus draw them to be within the compass of the love of God.

Otherwise, when they see the vanities of other things, and likewise that there is sin in them, something that lays them open to the wrath of God, then Satan will help their conscience. Satan and their conscience will often tell them everything, and make them reason, “As for such a wretch as I, there is no hope; I might as well go on in a sinful course and have something in this world, as lack heaven and the comforts of this life too.” And so Satan keeps them in darkness, because they think it is to no purpose to set about another course, and that it is impossible they should come to assurance. Such are the notions he has.

But we must know that in the covenant of grace, now in the gospel, this is not put as a bar to God’s love, that I am a sinner, that I have committed any degree of sin whatsoever. None are shut out but those who will be as they are. And therefore all objections are taken away in the proclaiming of the gospel.

“Yes, but I am guilty, and oh, I am laden with sin!” Be of good comfort; you are called, you are the man: “Come unto me all ye that are weary and heavy laden” (Matt 11:28). “Oh, that I might find mercy,” says one. Why, blessed are the hungry and thirsty; blessed are the poor in spirit; blessed are the mourners (Matt 5:3-6); and “Ho, every one that thirsteth, come” (Isa 55:1). There is hope for you. He keeps open house for everyone. He shuts out none but those who shut out themselves, who think these things are too good to be true, and therefore will enjoy their pleasures, and go on still, and daub over their conscience.

But if their hearts are awakened, if they will go to God and cast themselves upon his mercy, whoever is weary, whoever is athirst, whoever is heavy laden, God shows no partiality; but at what time soever any sinner whatsoever repents of any sin whatsoever, God will show mercy (Ezek 18:22), if he comes in and accepts the proclamation of pardon. If he comes in, and will not continue in his rebellion still, but casts himself upon God’s mercy, and resigns and yields himself to God and to Christ’s government, to be ruled by him as a subject should be, he shall find mercy. Let the devil, therefore, keep no one in bondage, in the dungeon of ignorance and unbelief; for the end of the gospel is to bring in all such, if they will.

But to come more particularly to those who have true goodness in them, and yet the devil takes every advantage to hinder the apprehension of God’s love to them in Christ:

Question 2. How shall we, in various states and cases, bring men to be persuaded of God’s love in Christ, when conscience and Satan, together with some outward occurrences, urge them to unbelief and to stagger?

For instance, a sinner who is converted and in the state of grace may often fall into some great sin. Then Satan, taking advantage of the sin, together with conscience, which always helps Satan in this case, speaks bitter things.

Answer 1. Thus we must answer those who are drawn by Satan to sin and afterward accused by Satan for sin, and to whom God is presented as a hateful God: that notwithstanding this they should not be discouraged. We have many examples in Scripture: “If we sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Christ Jesus…” (1 John 2:1); and he is the propitiation for our sins. We ought not, therefore, to be discouraged from going to God, humbled as we ought to be. Here is place for humiliation, but there is no place for base discouragement and calling God’s love into question.

A son under anger is a son. And therefore, though Satan presents to him an angry God for sin (for this temptation is then sharpened indeed, when Satan makes it a weapon, because God accompanies the sinner who has fallen into sin with some judgment as a punishment), yet he ought to lay hold of the rich mercies of God in Christ. What else should he do? Shall he run away from God? No. A bastard, a slave, will do so; but a son runs to God. Even as a child, when he has offended his father, does not run away from him; but knowing that his father is merciful and loving, though he has offended him, and that he is a son now, though under his wrath, he goes and strives to appease his father, casts himself upon his favor and mercy, and will endure his correction gently. Thus we ought to do.

Satan, when he has gotten us to sin, says, “Now you might as well run on still, for God follows you with judgments; you have offended God, and there is no hope for you.” By this means he keeps us without comfort and God without service, and so we run deeper and deeper into debt in God’s books. Oh, come in early, and repent. It will be easier. Your comfort will be stronger. God will be the sooner pacified. Your heart will not be so hardened. Do not call God’s love to you into question; for Satan tempts, and corrupts, and draws you to sin for that very end, that you may call it into question. God may love you, though he follows you with shows of anger; for he may be angry and yet love you too, as we shall see afterwards.

Answer 2. Again, to shake our sonship or adoption and our standing in God’s love, Satan uses as a weapon manifold temptations and crosses and the like, to discourage us. He comes with “If.” “If you were in the love of God, and the love of God in you, and it belonged to you in any way, would God follow you in this way and that, with these declarations of wrath and anger?”

I answer, a man may turn that back upon Satan the tempter and upon his own heart. The spirit turns it back upon the flesh: “God corrects every son, and he is a bastard that hath not correction” (Heb 12:8). In this world, to thrive in a course of sin when a man has offended God is a sign of reprobation rather than otherwise. Every child God corrects; and as for poverty, shame, and the like, we must not measure God’s love by these, for God loves us as he loved Christ. Mark here Christ’s prayer: “That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them” (John 17:26).

Question. How was God’s love in Christ? Was it to fence him from poverty, from disgrace, from persecution, from the sense of God’s wrath? No. The first-begotten Son, the natural Son, was persecuted as soon as he was born. He was disgraced, defamed, slandered, and abused even to death. More than that, he felt the wrath of God: “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46). So we may be in the love of God if we are in no other condition than the natural Son was, in whom the love of God was when he was at his lowest. In the lowest degree of his abasement, God loved him then as much as at any other time, even when the sense of the wrath of God accompanied him.

And therefore reject and beat back all temptations with this invincible argument: “It is no otherwise with me than it was with his natural Son. Should I desire to be loved by God in any other way than Christ was loved? His love to Christ did not exempt him from slander, from disgrace, from abasement, from the sense of his wrath, and yet he was always the Son of God. And shall I, being in this same case, doubt my adoption? Shall I dishonor God? Shall I add this sin to the rest of my sins?”

Satan is wonderfully prone to take these weapons and sharpen them, as I said before: weapons of sin, of desertions, sometimes of temptations and outward afflictions. And so he comes with his “If”: “If you were the Son of God, would he deal with you in this way and that?” This has always been his course. To repel all such temptations, therefore, we must keep present in mind that God loves us as he loves his Son, that he chastens every son, and that God’s love is not always and only manifested in exempting us from these things.

Let us measure the love God bears to us in Christ by the best fruits of his love. What are those? A heart to seek him, to fear his name; love for his majesty; love for his children; delight in good things; hatred of what is evil. None but his own can esteem and value his love by these things. By these, therefore, and the like distinctive marks and stamps of the Spirit that are in us, let us judge of his love, and not by any outward thing whatsoever; for all outward crosses whatsoever befell his own Son. And can we desire that he should love us in any other way than he loved him? We are predestined to be conformed to him (Rom 8:29), and why should we refuse to be conformed to him in abasement, when we hope to be conformed to him in glory?

Let faith therefore plead against all the suggestions of Satan and accusations of conscience. By faith in the word of God let us persuade ourselves that we are in the love of God. As for any evidences of his love that we may find in our spirits, we will come to them shortly. But first I will name one or two directions for how we may come to have God’s love in us, and how to know that his love is in us.

1. We may come to have his love in us if we are careful to keep ourselves under the means of salvation, and if in so doing we present God to ourselves as he is presented in our glorious gospel. When we are first convinced of sin (I speak of those who are thoroughly convinced of a sinful state), such people may come to the knowledge of God’s love in Christ by the gospel, and by presenting God to their souls as he is presented in the gospel, to be the Father of mercy and the Father of Christ. The devil puts other colors upon God: he presents him as a tyrant, as a judge, as a revenger, as one who hates them.

2. Again, labor to be such as God may love. God loves his own image. Why does he love Christ, but because Christ perfectly represents him? If we would come to have God’s love in us, let us beg him to stamp his likeness in us by his Spirit: that as he is light, we may be light; as he is love, so we may have love; as he is compassionate, so we may have our hearts enlarged; as he is free in love, so we may be free in love. Let us beg that we may be holy, as he is holy; that as he hates sin, so we may hate it; that we may rejoice in him, love what he loves, and hate what he hates; so that he may look upon us as his own image, and delight in us as the representation of his own likeness.

3. Again, we may come to have God’s love by more and more separating ourselves and our affections from conformity with his enemies; for this helps the other. If we would be like God, and so come to have him delight and take solace in us, we must at the same time labor to be unlike the world and wicked persons, who are still in the state of corruption and in danger of damnation. Let us labor not to conform ourselves to them, but to frame ourselves after another fashion altogether. For you know, if we fashion ourselves to the world, the world is not of God, but is God’s enemy. How shall God delight in us when we delight in courses that are sinful, wretched, and worldly? The world must perish and be condemned; as Paul says, “God afflicts us that we should not be condemned with the world” (1 Cor 11:32). The world lies in evil. Our special care, therefore, must be that we have no fellowship with it.

4. But especially, to come to what I intend to make a distinct point, we come to have it by the Spirit, and by Christ’s manifesting God himself in the gospel: “I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them” (John 17:26).

Exhortation. Beg of Christ, therefore, the Spirit of revelation, as it is called in Ephesians 1:17, that you may know the exceeding love of God in Christ, and see the height and breadth and depth of God’s love in him. Beg Christ to show the Father to us. You know what that holy man said in the gospel: “Show us the Father, and it is sufficient” (John 14:8). So let us desire no more than to see the Father once. We must go to Christ, that he would show us the Father; and we must go to God the Father, that he would reveal his Son. For each of them reveals the other. God draws us to Christ. “There is none come to me,” says Christ, “but the Father draws them” (John 6:44). And Christ opens and reveals the Father to us, and the Holy Spirit reveals them both; for as he proceeds from both, so he shows us the love of both. He shows us the love of the Father and the Son.

Labor, therefore, for the manifestation of Christ, that Christ would manifest his Father’s love to us, and that God would manifest Christ by his Spirit: that the Father would give us his Spirit, and the Son would give us his Spirit, which is his love. For God’s love is always with God’s Spirit. This Spirit comes from him, and his love is always with his Spirit. The same Spirit who sanctifies us, who bears witness, is the Spirit of love. Now Christ manifests this. We must not only pray, but we must know how Christ manifests himself.

Christ manifests God’s name to us, as I said before, which is his truth. He opens the understanding by his Spirit (Luke 24:45), and then he speaks to every man’s own soul by his Spirit: “I am thy salvation” (Ps 35:3). He gives faith. All knowledge of God’s love is from the knowledge of the gospel, together with his Spirit. For how can I know that God loves me, except by his own word and Spirit, by his own Son, Christ? I say, the Spirit and the word, which are divine, persuade me of God’s love. What convinces my heart of God’s love in Christ must be above nature, above Satan, and above all opposition whatsoever. The arguments must be divine, taken out of God’s truth; and those truths must be pressed home by the Spirit of God, who is above my spirit, and by Christ, God and man, who sends his Spirit.

This will silence all objections whatsoever that the heart can make, as indeed our hearts are full of cavils against the love of God. God’s Spirit will do it by Christ, together with the truth, the word and Spirit going together. And therefore, because I cannot enlarge on this, beg for the Spirit of revelation. And because the Spirit and the word go together, attend always upon the word, and consider that the promises are God’s promises, and desire that Christ would set the promises upon our hearts, that we may know the things that belong to us in particular.

Use. Well, if this is so, that the declaring of God’s favor and mercy is the way for his love to be in us, as it is, then what shall we think of those who are enemies to the declaration of the name of God, to the preaching of the gospel, to the reading of Scripture? They are enemies of our comfort and of God’s glory. For how shall I know that God loves me, except by the declaring of his name by the word and by the Spirit? Christ by the Spirit and by the word declares his Father’s name, and so I come to know the Father’s love to me.

How pitiful is the state of those souls who live where there are no means, no word of God, no declaring of God’s name! Can the love of God be in them? No; this manifesting of God’s love comes with the manifestation of the truths of the gospel. “I have manifested thy name in the teaching of the word, that thy love may be in them.” Let us therefore be persuaded to attend upon the means of salvation, and upon the Spirit of God together with the means. God will work together with the means of salvation, and persuade our hearts of his love to us in Christ, if we attend meekly upon them, at one time or another.

Objection. Oh, but I have attended long upon the means, and have prayed, and yet I cannot find the love of God to me.

Answer 1. Wait, wait a while; not all are called at one hour. Josiah was called when he was young (2 Chr 34:2), and so were Timothy (2 Tim 3:15) and Joseph, when they were young; Paul when he was old. Those who were converted at Peter’s sermon were men of years (Acts 2:38). Wait; the good hour will come. Perhaps God will keep you under the law a little longer before you come under grace. He will convince you of the cursed state you are in by nature, and make you see yourself as more vile; and when he has wrought and perfected the work of humiliation, then in time he will call you. Do not leave the porch of wisdom’s house, do not leave the manifestation of God’s truth; for in time God will speak to you, and will say to your soul that he is your salvation. To come now to an evidence or two of this state.

1. We may know that we have the love of God in us, among other things, if we come by this love through the manifestation of God’s name, the manifestation of the truth of God, which is his name revealed in the gospel. If we have in us the love of God that we claim to have, we can say that it came by the declaration and manifestation of God’s truth with his Spirit: from there I came to know God’s love to me.

2. I may know it likewise in that I love God in return, freely. He has loved me, and therefore I love him. I will not offend him, even if it were to save my life. I love his truth so much that I value it as a pearl, above all things. I could sell everything, I could part with everything, rather than with that. Therefore God’s love has certainly been made known to me before now, in that I so love God and value his truth.

3. Timely afflictions (which the devil moves us to think are evidences of God’s hatred) are evidences of his love, if they are sanctified, to make us wary of our ways, and to make us see the more the depth of our corruptions, which we can never see sufficiently in this life. They are proofs of God’s love. But especially this:

4. If our love to God comes from the word and Spirit, and from good things that are manifested from there. When you find God’s love in you by some beginnings of faith, hope, love, and hatred of evil, and find that there is peace and joy and such things in you, which are peculiar to his own, then comfort yourself in your portion, whoever you are, whatever state you are in for outward things. We see what kind of man St. Paul was for outward matters. He reckons up his own afflictions and abasements (2 Cor 11:26); but how full of thankfulness he was, because he knew that God loved him in Christ, that God’s love was in him! Our Savior, Christ, what did he care for all these outward things? He knew his Father loved him.

Let us therefore labor to have our part and portion in this special love of God, and to be assured that God’s love is in us. As for other matters, let us leave them to God’s wisdom, who knows what is good for us, and beg God in this way: “Lord, I do not ask you for riches, I do not ask for glory, I do not ask for advancement in the world, I ask for none of these. I ask for your love, in which is all that is good.”

For the love of God is a rich love, as is that love which he bears to his Son. If he loves me once, he loves me as he loves his Son. Now, he loves him freely, and richly, and unchangeably, and with an incomparable love. God’s love both to him and to us is an incomparable love. For what is the love of a father but a drop from his love? And what is the love of a mother? “Can a mother forget her child? Yet if she could, I would not forget thee,” says God (Isa 49:15). So David: “When my father and mother forsook me, God took me up” (Ps 27:10). Behold the incomparable love of God to us! And therefore if we have that, we have all that is good.

The love of God, even with afflictions, with crosses, with whatever in the world is contrary, is yet the most desirable state; for one glimpse of God’s fatherly countenance in Christ will put us in such a condition that we will not care about any affliction whatsoever. Paul in the dungeon: God gave him a taste of his love, and what did he care for whipping, for the darkness, for the filth and stench of the prison (Acts 16:25)? He was, as it were, in paradise. God’s love was in him. If God’s love is in us, even if we are with Daniel in the lions’ den, the den will be a kind of paradise. I say, where God is, there is paradise; yes, indeed, where God’s love is, there is heaven itself. So long as we have God’s love, it is no matter what we lack; indeed, it is no matter in what state of misery we are in this world.

If God has kindled love in us, there is no state so sweet. If it comes from God, it will make us digest anything. Love will put such life in us that we will lack or suffer anything quietly. When we feel the love of God in us, that he loves us to immortality, that he loves us to life everlasting, to an inheritance immortal and undefiled, that he loves us in things that accompany salvation, special blessings, this will swallow up all discouragements whatsoever; it will make us be in heaven before our time. The sense of the love of God, when it is shed into our hearts, as it is in Romans 5:5, what will it do? It will make all tribulations, afflictions, crosses, and wants sweet to us. “The love of God,” says Paul, “is shed into our hearts by the Spirit.” When the Spirit of Christ Jesus is shed into our hearts, and bears witness to us of the love of God and of Christ, it makes us rejoice under hope, and triumph in all tribulation, in all states whatsoever, as he says excellently (Rom 5:3-5). But now to add one thing.

Question. When does Christ manifest his Father’s love to us most by the Spirit?

Answer. This is not alike at all times. For it is with a Christian’s soul as it is with the days of the year or the seasons of the day. There is foul and fair, there is darkness and light, there is an alternation, not always an even apprehension of God’s love in Christ at all times. God sees reasons why it should not be so. Among many, there are these:

1. To sharpen our desires for heaven, which is a constant, immutable, unchangeable state.

2. And likewise to make us watchful, that when we have tasted God’s love we do not lose it.

3. To make us observe how we lose it at first, so that we may recover it again.

4. To be a correction to us likewise for our boldness to sin, and for keeping carnal company, and the like. God has many ends in withholding the taste and sense of his love from us, that we may fear him at one time as well as at another.

Question. But when is it most of all?

Answer. God’s love is in us most when we stand most in need of it, in extremities. When no creature can help us, when we stand most in need of the manifestation of God’s love, we have it. When do parents show their love most of all? Is it not in the extremities of their children? Then they bemoan them and pity them, whom before, in the time of health, they corrected sharply. But now they see the child is sick and unwell, now they show it all love. So when all comforts are taken away, then God’s comforts come in their place, and then especially; for then they are known to be God’s, who does all things as will be most for his glory. Then it is most for his glory to help when no one else can, and then it is most for the comfort of a poor distressed Christian; for then God comes, as it were, directly, and helps even to the ravishing of the soul.

If a prince or a king, sending no messenger, should come to a man directly, in his own person, and should say to him, “Do not fear, you will lack nothing, you will have the best encouragement I can give,” and so on, oh, what a comfort it would be to any man! Yet what are all these to the sweet report of God’s love in Jesus Christ? When nothing else can help us, then God’s Spirit comes directly to us and tells us, “Be of good comfort; heaven is yours, God is yours, Christ is yours: all is yours, to work for your good.” And he not only feeds us with promises, but enlarges the soul with present comfort.

Who, then, would be discouraged from enduring anything for God’s name when cast into extremity, since that is the special time to feel God’s love more than at other times? And the sense and feeling of that love in Christ is the best state in the world. There is no state comparable to the sense of God’s love. What makes heaven heaven, as it were, but the sense of his love, of his sweet fatherly face in Christ shining upon us in his Son, and persuading us that we are his sons?

Why, this divine comfort that comes from the favor of God is what makes all things nothing, commands all the creatures, rebukes all, Satan and all. The beams of such a rich and gracious God are above all discouragements; for those are human or diabolical, and go no higher. And if they are discouragements from the sense of the wrath of God, from divine desertion, when God shows himself an enemy, yet when he reveals himself as a friend and a father in Christ, they all vanish, even as a cloud, as a mist, before the sun. What are all earthly discouragements to the sense of God’s love in Christ? Thus we see how God’s love is manifested to us by the manifesting of God’s name by Christ, and when especially, and to what end: “That thy love may be in them,” says Christ.

Use 1. Only raise these thoughts in your meditations, what a comprehensive thing this is that Christ aims at in his prayer and in his endeavor: “I have declared thy name, and I will…”

Is this not, therefore, a main thing that we should aim at, that Christ aims at? Must this not necessarily be an excellent state, to have the love of God in us? Let us therefore, to conclude everything for this time, have it in our thoughts and in our aims that God’s love may be in us. It is no matter who hates us, if God loves us; if God and his love are present with us, it is no matter what troubles are present. Though we are in the valley of the shadow of death, if God is with us, and the assurance of his love to our hearts, it is a heaven upon earth. Rejoice in your portion, whoever you are who find the love of God to you in regard to the best things.

We see it is the aim of Christ’s prayer and of his endeavor. It is the aim of the declaration of the gospel that God’s love may be in you; that when God, in regard to his Spirit and grace and comfort, is in you, you may have a rich portion. Would you have more than God himself and his love? What if you lack a beam? You have the sun itself, God’s love. You lack riches or friends, perhaps; yes, but you have God’s love, which is a wise love. If he saw it were for your good, you would not lack them. If you lack a stream, you have the spring itself.

Rejoice, therefore, in this your portion. Let it be an argument to comfort you, and an argument and motive of endeavor to us all, to labor to find this love of God in us, and to root and purge out of your souls all other things that cannot stand with the love of God. Desire God by his Spirit to subdue in us, and to work out of us mightily by the strong operation of his blessed Spirit, whatever cannot stand with his love in Christ: that he would reign and rule in us by his blessed Spirit; that he would make us such that he might, as it were, keep his court in us; that he would make our hearts, as it were, a heaven for himself to dwell in; that he would cast down all high and proud thoughts whatsoever; that his love may be in us.

Use 2. And when we lack any grace, compassionate hearts, love to men or to God, we must take the method here laid down. I know all this comes from the lack of the feeling of God’s love to me; for if God’s love were rooted in my heart, even if it were as hard as steel, it would make it flexible, pliable, compassionate, and tender to others, and I would love God in return. My heart is cold and dead; what is the reason for it? I do not feel God’s love. And therefore it should sharpen our prayers in this way: “Lord, let me feel your love in Christ. I cannot love holy duties without the manifestation of your love; and therefore manifest your love to my soul.” “I give you a new commandment,” says Christ, “that ye love one another” (John 13:34).

Question. Why, how does this commandment of love to the brethren come to be a new commandment in the gospel?

Answer. Because the declaring of the name of God, of his mercy, and of his love in Christ, gives us new hearts; and where there is more manifestation of God’s mercy, there is more love to others. And therefore, because there is a new enlargement of God’s love in Christ, it is a new commandment. The heart is set on fire now with the love of God, which is manifested in Christ, and which was not declared before.

And therefore, if we would have new hearts for this new commandment, this love to God and to others, let us labor to have the declaration of the name of God, more of the mercy of God in Christ, more declaration by his word and Spirit, so that by his sanctified means, having his love in us, we may have new hearts, new love, and new affections to one another. This is the way, in the lack of grace, to come to have the love of God in Christ: desire him that he would by his Spirit reveal himself, and reveal Christ to us, and that we may see the dimensions of his love, “the height, and breadth, … of the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge” (Eph 3:19), and then all our grace and comfort will follow.

When we are in darkness we are glad to come into the light of the sun; so when we have any disorder in our souls, let us come to this light of God’s love in Christ, and by frequent meditation on God’s word, see there how he presents himself to us as a father in covenant; not only a friend, but a father, a gracious father. Beg, with all means, with reading, with hearing, with spiritual conversation, with God’s Spirit, that he would reveal his fatherly affection in Christ, and as for other things, they will be easy.

I speak this all the more because men go plodding on in duties and do not take the right method. When we find any disorder and deadness of spirit, let us search out the cause of it. If it is negligence, irreverence, or any such thing, let us repent, and do the first works. But let us always take this in: “Lord, show yourself, show your love: your pardoning love first, and then your curing love; your forgiving love, and then your giving love. I am in a sinful state; forgive what is amiss, and give me what I lack. Show your large love in every way, both in giving and forgiving; heal me and cure me; let me feel this love of yours in its sweetest and most special fruits.” And then reformation will follow upon all. Then, when we have the love of God, our care will be continual so to walk that we may abide in that love, and that love in us, that we do not displease him or give occasion of distaste.

Therefore there must be a great deal of reverence and love, much humility and watchfulness, if we would preserve ourselves in the love of God. For when someone has once tasted his love, his desire is always to taste it, to taste how gracious the Lord is (Ps 34:8). If we would do this, then, let us keep a narrow watch, as someone does who wants to keep up his acquaintance and love with a great person. For we must know the distance between the great God and us. There must be humility. Humble yourself, and walk with your God, and “make an end of your salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil 2:12). Let it be with a fear of jealousy, especially that we do not grieve the Spirit, who seals us to the day of redemption (Eph 4:30).

And therefore, if we have the Spirit witnessing this love, which is the cause of all comfort and all grace, do not grieve the Spirit, do not quench the Spirit. When the promptings of the Spirit come, do not resist the gracious Spirit with carnal delights; let the Spirit do a full work; let us lie open to the Spirit of God. God’s love reigns in us, then, when we will do nothing contrary to it.

Now the sweetest fruit of that love in us is his Spirit. Let us not quench or resist the Spirit, but cherish the Spirit by all duties and by all holy means. One day led in this way by a Christian, though with some conflict with corruption, in the taste and sense of God’s love to him in Christ, is worth all the contentment this world can afford. And therefore David knew well enough what he was wishing when he desired neither corn, nor wine, nor oil. Let them, he says, desire what they will; but “Lord, show me the light of thy countenance” (Ps 4:6), and in it I shall have all that I desire to have; and without it I care neither for corn, nor wine, nor oil, nor anything.

So let it be our prayer that God would show his love and mercy, that he would show his love to us in Christ, which is better than life itself. And then, as for other things, be settled, be indifferent. We see the apostles’ prayers in their epistles, all of them being led by the same Spirit. They pray for grace, and mercy, and peace. Why do they not pray for all other things? To show that if they had grace, and mercy, and the love of God, they had everything. If we do not have that, it does not matter what we have. But there are some other things to be unfolded, which must be put off until another time.

Sermon 2

That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:26).

I have spoken about this verse on several occasions. We proposed earlier to handle these points from it:

First, that the love with which God loves his own Son is the love with which he loves those who are in him.

Second, that God loves his own Son best and first.

Third, that the love of God is the cause of all good to us.

Fourth, that this love of God may be known.

Fifth, that one way and ground of knowing that God loves us with the love with which he loves his own Son is the manifestation of God’s name: the manifestation of God’s truth in the gospel. By that we come to know that God loves us; for this is the connection of the text, “I have manifested thy name to them, that thy love may be in them.” So then, as we see from this, the scope of the gospel and of the manifesting of it is to lay open the riches of God’s love to us, that we may know that God loves us in his beloved Son Christ Jesus. Indeed, so it is. For we have a throne of grace revealed to us in the gospel: God reconciled in Jesus Christ. All is love and mercy to those who are in Christ. “I have manifested thy name, that thy love may be in them.”

The more, therefore, God’s name is manifested (God’s truth and the covenant of grace, his love and mercy, his name by which he is now known in the gospel), the more, I say, it is revealed and laid open, surely the more we know God’s love, which is as a banner (Song 2:4) displayed over us in the gospel. The use of a banner, you know, was to draw swords under it. Now God’s love in the gospel is displayed as a banner; and therefore it has an attractive, drawing force, to bring us under the sweet government of God in the gospel, because there we are under God’s love; and his love, where it is displayed, is like a banner. But this I shall have occasion to touch on hereafter.

The point I am now to take in hand is this: That Christ manifests his Father’s name, his love, his mercy, his goodness and truth, that God’s love may be in them, and himself in them.

We see, then, that God’s love and Christ go together. Wherever his love is in the best things, there it is in Christ and with Christ: “That thy love may be in them, and I in them” (John 17:26). “This is eternal life, to know thee, and whom thou hast sent, Jesus Christ” (John 17:3). All comes from God’s love to us, together with Christ and in Christ. Where Christ is not, the love of God is not; and where the love of God is, there is Christ.

The sweet union of the Trinity is not only a pattern of love and agreement to us, that we should love one another, but a main ground of comfort as well; for they join in love for our good. The Father loves us as he loves his Son, and with his Son. Where Christ is, there is his Father’s love; and where his Father’s love is, there is Christ. “I am in the Father, and the Father in me” (John 14:10). All that the Father has is mine, and all that I have is the Father’s.

I say, it is not only a pattern of agreement, that we should labor to agree as the Trinity does, which is an exact form of unity, but it is a ground of special comfort; they agree in our good and eternal salvation. The Father looks upon us as we are in his Son, as he has given us to him to bring us to salvation by his merit and passion. Christ looks on us as we are in the Father’s love: “Thou gavest them me” (John 17:6). And we look on ourselves first in Christ, and then in God’s love, when we see ourselves in Christ. So there is this mutual beholding: God loves us as we are in his Son; he is in the Father, and we are in Christ. We see ourselves in Christ, know ourselves in him, and love ourselves in him, as having our being and living in him; and we are known by him, and his love is known by us, because they both go together. “That thy love may be in them, and I in them.”

“And I in them.”

We are in Christ as the branch is in the vine, as the members are in the head, knit to it in the body; and he is in us as the vine is in every particular branch, as the head is in the members by his influence, imparting to them life, government, and motion. “In them”: that is, to explain the term, “that I may be in them,” and dwell in them as in a temple, in a house; that I may infuse strength into them, as the vine into the branches; that I may impart spiritual life into them, as the head into the members. This, says Christ, is the purpose of my manifesting your name: that I may be in them, that so your love may be in them.

I might observe from this (I will only touch on it) that whoever does not know Christ, and has no being in him, has nothing to do with the Father. I gather this by combining these two parts together: “That thy love may be in them, and I in them.”

“I in them.”

Doctrine 1. The purpose of Christ’s manifesting his Father’s name is that he may be in them, and that his Father’s love may be in them. To unfold the connection a little.

Question. How does this hang together, “I have manifested thy name to them, that I may be in them”?

Answer. In this way. God’s mercy and truth in the gospel, the covenant of grace, are all in Christ and for Christ. When this is revealed and manifested to the soul, the soul sees the love of God in the gospel. There it is opened and revealed. There God’s love and mercy are offered in forgiving sins and in giving all privileges in Christ: not only revealed, but offered to all believers who will receive Christ. Thus when all the good in him is revealed and offered to the soul, the soul comes to lay hold of Christ and to embrace him, as offered by the Father and presented to it by the Spirit of God, who is given together with the gospel and the manifestation of it. The Spirit works faith and belief in the heart, which embraces Christ thus offered; so Christ dwells in the heart by faith. Faith ascends to heaven and lays hold of Christ; faith goes back to Christ crucified, and Christ dwells in the heart by faith (Eph 3:17). Upon the manifestation and revealing of the Spirit, the Spirit being given with the manifestation, faith is worked, by which Christ dwells in the heart. “I have manifested thy name, that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them …”

Now, for some points worth noting, observe this:

Doctrine 2. Christ is in all believers.

His further dwelling in believers and revealing himself to them is the purpose of this manifestation of God’s name in the gospel. Christ is in them as the vine is in the branches; as the head is in the members, Christ is in them all.

Christ is in all believers.

Here is a notable bond of union between them: Christ by his Spirit is in them all, and therefore they should all labor to be one. Christ is one in them all, not divided; his Spirit is the same Spirit in them all. It would be an excellent thing if all the men in the world had the same thoughts, the same religion, the same aims, the same affection for good things, all as one man. How strongly they would then be carried against any opposition whatsoever! And how much comfort they would have in themselves, if all had one heart, one affection, one aim! This is how it should be, and this is the aim of Christ’s prayer. It is the aim of everything: to bring us all to be one in ourselves, to be one in him and in the Father. Now here is one argument to enforce it, that all may agree in good things, in our aims, love, and affections. There is one Christ; there is one head of all the members. “I in them.”

We must take care not to think this a shallow phrase, as it is in common life. We say of two friends that there is one soul in two bodies, because the soul lives in the person loved; and that would make it nothing but a matter of affection. No; if “I in them” meant only, I dwell in them because I love them, it would follow that we are in Christ because we love him, and so Christ and we would make one soul in two bodies, as though it were nothing but a unity, a dwelling by reason of the affection he bears to us.

No; I am in them, Christ says, and I have manifested your truth that I may be further in them. This argues more than a union in affection, just as in marriage there is more than the union of love: there is the bond that gives the wife a title to all the goods of her husband. Christ is in us more than in love, for he is in us in very deed.

Question. Yes, but is he in us body and soul and Godhead and all? What need is there of this, as the papists will have him in the sacrament?

Answer. No; but he is in us in regard of his human nature, because his Spirit is in us, and the same Spirit who sanctified that nature, that same Spirit sanctifies us. So there is a union between us and his human nature, though it is in heaven. As I said last time about the sun: the sun is in the house when the beams of the sun are there. So when we find the efficacy of Christ, that Christ dwells in us by his Spirit, then though his human nature is not there, yet the power of the grace of Christ is there, because the same Spirit who sanctified his human nature sanctifies and comforts us, and does all. It is a wonderful working and operative being when Christ is said to be in us. Even as the vine transfuses juice and life to the branch, so that it comes to be fruitful, so we must conceive deeply of this phrase, “I in them.” To pass over other things:

Question. How shall we know that Christ is in us?

Answer. 1. This is one way: if Christ is once born in us. If he is in us by his Spirit, he will work great matters in us; there will immediately be tumults in the soul. For when Christ is in us, he does not come to friends, but finds everything in rebellion and opposition; when he is in us, therefore, there are immediately stirs in the soul. In the same way, as soon as ever he was born into the world, you know, Herod was mightily troubled and all Jerusalem with him (Matt 2:3). Herod had little cause, but much troubled he was. He thought one had been born who would dispossess him, and therefore he was jealous, much troubled, and tried to kill him if he could.

So it is when Christ is born in the soul: there are tumults. Those lusts that held sway before, those desires, down they go; they plead their long possession and are loath to yield. Natural desires that have been there from before are loath to yield to Christ, a newcomer. He is like a new conqueror who comes with new laws, fundamentally new. He overturns all the laws of lust and of the flesh. He comes in with greater strength; and so in conversion, wherever Christ is born, there is first a strife, and the soul does not immediately yield to him.

This is spoken of those who have not been converted from the beginning. There are some now in the bosom of the church who have no violent conversion from a wicked state to a good one, but grow more and more from a lesser degree to a greater. They have the Spirit of Christ from the beginning. They are not much troubled with such inward oppositions.

2. Where Christ is, he will drive out all that is contrary. As when he entered the temple he drove out the money-changers and whipped out those corrupt persons there (Matt 21:12), so, as soon as ever he comes into the soul by his Spirit, out go those lusts, those desires that were there before: worldliness, profaneness, fury, and rage, by which the soul was carried away before, and which possessed the habitation God should dwell in. When Christ comes in, he scourges out all. Where these are in any force, therefore, there certainly Christ is not.

3. Again, where Christ is, he rules; for he takes the keys of the house himself and governs all in some measure. He gets into the heart, rules, and sets up a throne there. For I reckon that if he goes no deeper than the brain and the tongue, that is to give him no better entertainment than he had when he was born, to be put in a manger. No; where he is (I mean, where he is in the heart and affections), there he rules; and where he does not take his lodging in the affections and in the heart, in the joy, desire, and delight, he is not there at all to any purpose.

To have him in the brain for talk and in the tongue for discourse, and to keep the heart for worldly lusts and such things: I do not account this an inbeing of Christ to any purpose, to any comfort. Where Christ is present to our comfort, he takes his throne and lodging in the heart; he dwells in it by faith. By heart I mean especially the will and affections. He draws the will to cleave to him, to choose him as the best good. And therefore where Christ dwells, there is an admiring of the excellencies and of the good things that are in him, and contentment in him above all things in the world. For he dwells in the heart and affections, especially in the will. The will chooses him to be a head and husband. It cleaves to him as the chief good. The affection of joy rejoices in him above all things. The affection of love and desire, of zeal in his cause, is strong against those who oppose him and his truth. Thus he takes up his seat and his throne in the heart wherever he is in truth.

4. And therefore this follows from that too. Where Christ is in the heart by faith and takes up the affections, there is a low esteem of all the excellencies in this world whatsoever. Moses only saw from afar the excellency that came by Christ, and he accounted all the pleasures of sin for a season to be nothing (Heb 11:25), and took upon himself the rebuke of Christ instead. St. Paul accounted all but dung and dross (Phil 3:8); all his former works, all his Pharisaic excellency, and all things else he accounted as nothing and of no value, having in his heart and soul an admiration of the all-sufficiency and excellency in Christ.

Zacchaeus, as soon as ever Christ came once into his house (but he was in his heart before he was in his house, or else Zacchaeus would never have done it), grew generous: “Half my goods,” he says, “I give unto the poor” (Luke 19:8). He loved extortion and base courses before, but now down they go; he will be no base dealer, no oppressor any more. No; the half of his goods he gives to the poor, and he satisfies those he had wronged.

And so the disciples, however busy they were before: when Christ once took up his lodging in their hearts, and opened their spirits by his Spirit to see why he came into the world, “to save sinners” (1 Tim 1:15), and opened their eyes to see the excellency that was in him, away went all the trash they had been occupied in before, that they might follow Christ. Matthew follows him immediately (Luke 5:27), and so do the rest.

It is impossible that the heart which entertains our blessed Savior Jesus Christ should hold any earthly excellency whatsoever in too much admiration. For it is the nature of the soul, upon the discovery of better things, to let the estimation of other things of less value immediately fall. As we see in ordinary life, children, when they become men, are ashamed of childish toys. So it is with a man who is converted: when Christ enters he so opens the understanding and enlarges the heart to see and admire better things that at once it begins to care nothing for this world in comparison. Thus we see how we may know whether Christ has taken his seat and lodging in us or not.

5. To go on a little further: if Christ is in us, he frames us to himself. He transforms us to his own likeness where he rules by the Spirit; for he is such a head as changes his members, such a husband as changes his spouse (2 Cor 3:18). Moses could not change the complexion of his Ethiopian wife: she was black, and he left her black. But Christ renews and changes his spouse. He is such a head as gives life to his members, such a vine as puts life in the branches. And therefore you may know by this altering, changing, transforming power whether he is in you or not.

He alters and changes us to his own likeness, so that as he is set down in the gospel in his life, conduct, and disposition, so, if we have entertained him and he is in us, we should have the same disposition, the same mind, and the same will as he has; for he will alter us to himself, that he may take the more delight in us. We shall judge of things as he judges of them; we shall judge meanly of outward things. There will be a delight to do our Father’s will, as it was his meat and drink to do his Father’s will (John 4:34). We shall have a spirit of obedience, as he had, to look to our Father’s glory and to his commandment in all things. We shall have compassion and melting hearts toward the misery of others, as his heart yearned to see sheep without a shepherd. We shall have humble and meek hearts, as he had. “Come, learn of me, for I am humble and meek” (Matt 11:29).

For where he dwells, I say, and takes up his throne, he alters and changes the disposition in all things to be like his own. For when he comes to the soul, he takes up all its parts and keeps out all that may hinder his work. He takes up the eyes, the ears, the understanding, and the affections; and even as we shut the doors and windows against all that is contrary to us, so the Spirit of Christ, where he is, shuts the door of the senses both to Satan and all his suggestions and to whatever else might hurt us.

6. Where he enters, likewise, he possesses the whole inward and outward man for himself. He changes it to be like himself; he rules the eyes, the ears, the hands; he renews all, so that our delights are entirely other than they were before. If there is such a power in his truth that, like a grafted scion, it changes us into itself, certainly where Christ dwells, he has as much power as his word. His word is like leaven, which alters the whole lump to be like itself (1 Cor 5:6). For the word engrafted makes the soul that believes it heavenly like itself. How is this? Because Christ comes with his word, leavens, alters, changes, and turns the soul. Christ by his Spirit and word is said to do it, because the Spirit of Christ comes with the word, and the Spirit does all.

In those, therefore, whose dispositions are contrary to Christ, Christ is not begotten. For certainly he alters and changes and fits his temple for himself, and drives out and chases from it, as I said before, all that is contrary; and he keeps the door of the senses and keeps possession against all. He uses every member as an instrument of the Spirit and a weapon of defense.

7. Again, you may know who dwells within by what servants come out of the house, and who comes in. Would you know who dwells in the soul? See what comes from within the house: filthy thoughts, blasphemous words, oaths, rotten talk; eyes full of adultery, ears open to receive what may taint the soul. Who dwells here? Christ? No; where nothing but filth comes out, the devil dwells there. These two are immediate opposites; there is no third; either Christ or the devil dwells in us.

Now when nothing comes out of a man but scorning of goodness and what is rotten and offensive (if there are other things, they come from the brain and not from the heart; they have no seat there), the devil is there; Christ and his messengers are not there. There come no good thoughts, no good desires, no good speeches; and is Christ there? Is Christ in the heart that drinks in corruption at all the senses? that lets all the senses lie open to all that is wicked, to hear all kinds of things that may cherish corruption, that will be at these corrupting pastimes, that will see everything that may inflame the flesh? What is this within that is thus cherished? Is Christ fed with filthy talk, with filthy sights? Does Christ, in us, delight in these things? Oh no! Who dwells there, then, that is thus fed? Surely the spirit that is fed there is the devil. The devil dwells in our spirits and in our corruptions, which are like the devil, in the proportion that he dwells in us and stirs us up to feed him with these things, to the destruction of the soul.

No, no; from the heart where Christ is there proceed often prayer, sighs, and groans to God, and fruitful talk to others; and all the senses and passages of the body are open for good things. Such a person has desires to see what is good, what may edify. He desires to speak, and to have others speak, what may feed the soul. “The lips of the wise feed many,” says Solomon (Prov 10:21). So where Christ is, Christ’s Spirit is thus fed. In this familiar way I have shown you how you may know whether Christ is in you or not.

Question. What if he is not?

Answer. He must be, or else you are reprobates. So the apostle says: “Know you not that Christ is in you, except you be reprobates?” (2 Cor 13:5). He does not mean eternal reprobates, but this: if Christ is not in you, the devil and corruption are. Dissect a carnal man, and what is in him? In his brain, a host of wicked plots and devices of the world; in his heart, a great deal of love for the world and for money; in his memory, material for revenge; in his conscience, what will stare him in the face on the day of death, and what will damn him unless he repents. Examine yourselves, therefore. If Christ is not in you, you are reprobates; and whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ is none of his. I beg you, therefore, put yourselves to the test, and enlarge on the point in your own meditations. Examine what spirit is in you.

If we find the Spirit of Christ to be in us, as indeed he is in all who are his in some measure, what a comforting state this is! He is the best guest we could ever entertain in this world, for he does for the soul what the soul does for the body. What does the soul do for the body? Where does the body get the beauty it has? Where does it get the vigor it has to work with, to move from place to place? Where does it get the government to rule itself? Where does it get all that is excellent, good and useful? From the guest that dwells in it, the soul, the reasonable, understanding soul. For as soon as the soul is out of the body, the body is an ugly, deformed thing, a dead creature, unfit for anything. It cannot stir itself, a loathsome thing; it cannot rule itself, a mere lump of earth.

Now, as the soul is to the body, so Christ is to the soul, if he dwells there. For he gives it beauty and loveliness. He transforms it to his own likeness and image, that it may be the object of God’s love; that God may love us, not only because we are in his Son, but because his Son’s image is in us. We have not only beauty from Christ dwelling in us, but where he is he works and stirs us to all holy and heavenly duties.

8. Where the Spirit is, there is often prayer, as Christ often prayed; there is a perpetual endeavor of doing good, as his Spirit in him stirred him to go from place to place to do good. Where his Spirit is, there is holiness. If we consider what a sweet guest Christ is, where he is there is all beauty, work, comfort, strength, and all. And where he is, he is forever. He never forsakes his lodging; he never forsakes his house and temple. He had two temples built with stone, one by Solomon and another after the captivity. Both now lie in the rubble, demolished forever, and shall never be repaired again. But his spiritual temples he never leaves wholly; for those whose souls he now dwells in, he will take by that Spirit that dwells in them, and carry to heaven, to be where he is. The divine Spirit that dwells in our souls now will give life to our dead bodies, and make them like his glorious body.

What an excellent honor and happiness this is, to entertain such a one as will rule, govern, and adorn our souls while we live, and carry them to himself and to his Father in heaven, and will give life to our bodies as well! He is an everlasting inhabitant. If Christ is in us, therefore, we may comfort ourselves. But here an objection must be answered.

Objection. Christ often seems to be absent from the soul to which he was present before; he sometimes seems to leave his house and his temple.

Answer. I answer: he is said to leave that soul into which he never actually entered, the soul that shut the door to his knocks and resisted the sweet stirrings of his Holy Spirit. But he never leaves the soul into which he has once entered to dwell. Indeed, sometimes he withdraws into a corner of the soul. For when we do not entertain him and respect him as we should, and do not preserve the stirrings, comforts, and graces of his Spirit, but give way to the suggestions and temptations of the devil and of bad company, and the like, then he retires; but he is still in the soul.

For God the Father, when he would have his own beloved Son Christ Jesus abased on the cross, did not withdraw his divinity from Christ’s human nature, but only the sense and comforts of it, that he might suffer for us on the cross (Matt 27:46). He loved him still all the while, so that the divinity did not forsake him, but only rested and ceased to support and comfort him at that time, that he might perform the work of satisfaction for our sins. So it is with us, though the case is different, when God humbles us for our rashness, and for our lack of reverence, of careful walking before God, and of preserving the sweet work of his Holy Spirit. Then Christ only hides himself; he does not take himself away.

Christ was God on the cross, but the comfort was withdrawn, that he might suffer. So the comfort of Christ’s presence is withdrawn, that he may humble us for our former sins, that we may make more of this guest than we did before, that we may be stirred up to entertain him better, and may be more careful for the time to come to cleave closer to him. So much for the answer to that: Christ is often in the soul when he does not reveal himself to be there, just as he was near to Mary, though, her eyes being full of tears, she could not discern him (John 20:15).

Question. But how shall I know by any discovery at all that he is there, that he has any being at all in the soul at such a time?

Answer 1. Yes, a man may know he is there. There will be some pulses, some beating of the soul. Where Christ and the love of God are, they always go together. Is there any love of God, any love to him? Again, is there a longing after Christ’s presence? Is there a grieving when we do not feel the comfort we had before? Oh, this is a sign he has been there. He has left something there by his Spirit. Though he has retired into a corner of the soul, yet he has left something behind him to work a desire for further communion and fellowship with him. So it was when he stopped knocking at the door because the spouse would not open: he left something behind, the droppings of his fingers, that drew the love of the spouse to him (Song 5:5).

So he never leaves us, no, not even to humble and abase us for our bold walking, without leaving something in the soul, some desires, some sense of his love, so that such people think their state is not good until they have recovered their former state. They linger after him; in this temper of soul they are never pleased with earthly contentments. In desertion they are not themselves; they are not quiet, because they think Christ is lost. As Christ’s mother, when she thought he was lost, was full of woe (Luke 2:48), so a Christian soul, when it imagines it has lost Christ, is never quiet until it has found him again.

Answer 2. Again, Christ may be very near, and dwell in us at times, and we not see him, because we may so dwell on corruption, and be so full of grief in affliction, that we forget Christ. So it was with Mary, who, though Christ was near her, could not discern him, her eyes were so full of tears (John 20:15); and with Hagar, who was so full of grief that she could not see the fountain appear (Gen 21:16). There may be, I say, in desertion of soul such grief over our other things, crosses, losses, fears, and the like, that a man may forget Christ, until he recovers himself by meditation, prayer, and conference with others more skillful than himself, who can tell what is in him by his pulses, conversation, and desires. Sometimes we must trust the judgment of others above our own to know what is in us. But I will not enlarge on this. Thus we may know that Christ is in us, which is a point of special comfort.

Objection. But the soul thinks, “Is the Spirit of Christ in us? Will such a Holy Spirit, whom we cannot conceive in the height of his holiness and greatness, condescend to dwell in such sinful spirits? We cannot conceive how the Spirit of Christ should dwell in us, who are as corrupt as we are.”

Answer. Indeed, I must say it is proof of wonderful love that infinite holiness should be joined with such corruption, that greatness will be in such narrow straits, that glory will be in such an obscure place and habitation as our souls. Here is a wondrous condescending; it must be admirable mercy.

But let us not be discouraged. Christ by his Spirit is in us, in spite of our corruption, because he cannot be a bit corrupted by it. The Spirit is an active thing; nothing acts upon it. The spirit is like fire, which endures nothing done to it: it is always doing, always in action; it is an active element. So the Spirit of Christ in us, though it is in us, does not join with our corruptions. As the sunbeams are still pure, though they shine on impure and filthy places, so it is with Christ’s Spirit; it is a working, fiery thing. As fire consumes dross, so the Spirit, being like fire, though it is where corruption is, is there as an enemy to it, opposing, consuming, and wasting it little by little.

Question. But why does he not do it all at once?

Answer. There are various reasons. God will have us to have cause for abasement here, to make us desire to be with him. Yet in the meantime Christ will be in the church his spouse in such a way, cleansing and fitting her for himself, that by his Spirit dwelling in her she will daily oppose, and little by little subdue and bring under, all corruption whatsoever, until at last she has gained a full and perfect conquest and triumph over all. All the imaginations, desires, and lusts that exalt themselves against the Spirit of Christ will be brought down at last; the Spirit will subdue all. Stronger is the Spirit that is in us than the spirit that is in the world (1 John 4:4), though it is in us in ever so small a measure; and therefore little by little it will conquer all, within us, without us, the devil and all, at the last. That is enough to answer that doubt.

Use 1. What further arises from this, that Christ is in us, is not only matter of comfort, but it also shows and directs us how to look on other Christians: to look on them as the temples and houses where Christ dwells. Why should we not reverence and respect Christians for the guest that is in them, the Spirit of Christ? If Christ condescends to dwell in such a man, shall he not dwell in our love? Shall not one place contain us here, whom heaven must contain before long? We shall all be together in heaven, and shall we not be loving together here?

Thus, considering that Christ is in all who are his, how greatly should we respect Christians, who are the habitation of Christ, the second heaven? For Christ has but two heavens: the heaven where he is, and the heart of a believing Christian, where Christ is, and rules in a comforting measure, and will rule more and more. How we should value such people! Not like many cursed, devilish spirits, who disgrace and oppose Christ in his members. What they do to his image in his children they would do to him himself, if they had him in their power.

Use 2. The last use shall be a use of direction, how to keep Christ, and to preserve him, and the sense of his being in us with comfort, seeing it is so comforting a state to have Christ in us, and that yet we often lack the sweet comfort of his presence. In a word, mark here the connection: “I have manifested thy name, that thy love may be in them and I in them” (John 17:26). Christ is in us, then, by the manifesting of divine truth. He conveys himself into our hearts by way of our understandings. He manifests his truth, the means of salvation, by his ordinance; he manifests divine truths to the understanding by his Spirit, which goes together with his word. From the understanding he goes to the heart, and there he dwells; for the manifesting of divine truths and Christ’s being in us go together.

1. Those who do not care for the revealing and manifesting of Christ’s truth in the gospel, let them never think to entertain Christ into their hearts, for he will come with his word and with his own ordinance; his word and Spirit always go together. Therefore let this be one chief direction. If we would have Christ in us, to fill our hearts and remain with us, let us attend on the blessed means of salvation, and be where he is, and then he will be with us. He is in the church, and he is in every particular member; but especially where his ordinance is, there he is with the Spirit. God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all there if we have Christ in us.

And therefore attend often on the ordinances of God and the communion of saints, and then you will find experience of Christ. Christ joined with the two disciples when they were talking of him as they were going to Emmaus (Luke 24:15). So let us often stir up the grace of Christ in us by conferring about good things, and Christ will be with us, joining with good company, and the like.

2. Again, would we preserve Christ’s presence in us? Labor, then, that he may dwell largely in our hearts. Now what enlarges the soul is humility. For it empties the soul and makes it large. Pride swells the soul up and drives out Christ. God gives grace to the humble; Christ dwells in the humble soul. You know he was born in a humble virgin’s womb, and he is new born in the womb of a humble soul. Let us preserve, therefore, humble, low opinions of ourselves: that in us there is nothing that is good, nothing worthy of respect, so that Christ may dwell largely in our hearts. Let us have no wit, no reason of our own, contrary to Christ. Let us have no wills, no desires contrary to his. Let us even give up the keys and the government of our souls to him, and then he will dwell largely there. Humility keeps him there.

If his word is our reason, his commandment our will, and his comfort our joy and delight, then he will dwell largely in us, for there is nothing in us to oppose him. But if we have separate states of soul, distinct from his government, it is no wonder we banish him, when we will not live by faith in him, but by our wits, schemes, tricks, lusts, the examples of others, and the spirit of the world. It is no wonder, I say, that we savor only of earthly things if we live this way. It is no wonder that Christ is not preserved in us if we are not ruled by his Spirit. It is no wonder that he departs from us when we set ourselves against him, and have wills and reasons of our own opposed to his and at odds with them, and ways of getting wealth and raising ourselves contrary to his gospel and truth.

Will Christ rule in such a soul? No. He subdues all. The Spirit of Christ is like a mighty wind, as Christ compares it when speaking to Nicodemus (John 3:8), that beats all down before it. If we cherish desires and delights contrary to Christ, it is no wonder if he does not delight to dwell in such a soul.

3. Beg Christ likewise to stay with us, as they did in the gospel. When he made as if he would have gone forward from them, they constrained him to stay, saying, “Abide with us: for it is towards evening, and the day is far spent” (Luke 24:29), and he went in to tarry with them. So let us lay hold of Christ by the means of salvation. Let us keep him with us by prayer and persistent pleading, especially when the night of death, and of error, and of superstition comes. Say, “Lord, night is near; stay with us, do not depart from us.” Let us lay a holy violence on God, as Jacob did: You shall not go from here. Let us lay hold of him by prayer, and not leave him until we have drawn power and gotten some blessing from him. He must be kept by entreaty.

4. And then ask him to perfume our souls for his dwelling, as the church does: “Arise, O north wind; and blow, O south; that my beloved may come into his garden” (Song 4:16). Ask Christ by his Spirit to blow upon us, that our beloved may come into his garden, that he may find something there to solace himself with: humility, love, pity, large and loving hearts such as he himself had, to do all good. Ask him to plant those blessed spices of grace in our hearts, and to blow upon them by his Spirit, that they may prosper and thrive, so that he may come into his garden and solace himself. Let us still desire further and further communion with him; let us never be content. As the church says, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth” (Song 1:2): he has been familiar with me, but I desire more still.

So every Christian soul that has once entertained Christ is never content until it is with Christ in heaven, but still desires a fuller measure of comfort, grace, strength, and assurance. And why does the soul desire after him in this way? “Oh his love is better than wine” (Song 1:2). So says the church, having had a sense and feeling of his love. “Thy love is sweeter than wine,” and therefore “let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.” Desire, therefore, a nearer communion in his love; for it is sweeter than wine, once it has been tasted.

5. And having gained the enjoyment of communion with God, shut the soul to other things. The comfort of his presence is a heaven on earth, sweeter than wine, and to be desired above all other things. Let us take heed, therefore, that we do not grieve his good Spirit and force him to retire, that we do not quench his sweet stirrings by anything contrary to him. Those who have guests they respect will do nothing that may offend them. So let us watch over our souls, that nothing may come in that may grieve Christ, and nothing come forth to grieve his Spirit in us.

Let us not thrust ourselves into such occasions and company as may do or speak such things as may grieve the Spirit of God in us. Let us neither grieve the Spirit in ourselves by cherishing what is evil in our own hearts, nor by thrusting ourselves into the company of those who, we know by experience, will grieve the Spirit. A man cannot go into bad company without being either grieved, or tainted and corrupted. Who would buy familiarity and favor with them? Who would exchange comfort and the sense of Christ’s Spirit for the favor of such men as grieve the Spirit in us? No; a soul that walks in the strength of the comfort of Christ’s dwelling in it must be watchful and jealous over itself, and preserve heavenly stirrings, cherish them, make them strong, and banish all that is contrary.

Question. But how shall I recover him again, if I have grieved the Spirit and lost the sense of his being in me?

Answer. I will name only one means. Observe how you lost it, and recover him by the contrary. If you would renew the experience of his love, and of his dwelling in you with comfort, consider how you lost him. Was it by negligence? By omission of duties? Did you not read when you could, or hear the word when you could? Or did you give your thoughts liberty to range? Or did you not walk with God as you should? Did you cast yourself into bad company, or cherish carnal desires? Then take a contrary course. Converse with those who are good. Stir up the grace of God in you by meditation, and by renewing your purposes and resolutions. Hear the word as much as you can; speak to God as much as you can; maintain communion with the saints, and so on. As you lost it, so labor to recover it by a contrary way, and then Christ will come again to the soul.

We see that after Christ had stood knocking and calling to his spouse, “Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled,” until his head was filled with dew and his locks with the drops of the night, and yet found no entrance, he retired and withdrew himself, because she would not rise and put on her coat (Song 5:2-6). But afterward, when she exerted herself and used means contrary to her former sluggishness, seeking him and saying, What has become of my beloved? then Christ came again into his garden, returned to his spouse, and forgot the former unkindness.

We deal with such a Savior that though we lose the sense of his presence for a time, yet if we use contrary means and knit ourselves to his ordinances, at last we shall find his love to our souls again. Indeed, he is so loving, so indulgent, that he never reproaches us with our former sins; as we see in Peter, whom he did not reproach with his former denial. Who would not maintain love, respect, and communion with such a Savior as this, especially considering what a sweet state it is to have Christ with us at all times and in all conditions, and so to have the love of God, for both go together?

And what are all discouragements where the love of God in Christ is? What are all the creatures compared to God’s love, to Christ? Where the soul is persuaded that it is in covenant and peace with God through Christ, and when it knows that Christ’s Spirit is in it, this is a comfort above all discouragements whatsoever. Discouragements are carnal, outward things; the comforts are the presence of divine things. The Spirit of Christ, whose presence drowns all things, is precious above all creatures, strength, beauty, wit, and the like; yes, and prevails over all the afflictions and sufferings in the world.

All afflictions together cannot hinder the life of reason, and can they hinder the life of grace? No. Paul says excellently, the more our outward man decays (the more we suffer in our outward man), the more the life of Christ is manifest in us (2 Cor 4:16). So far are we from being hurt by any outward sufferings in the world, or discouraged by them, that the life and presence of Christ in us is made more glorious by them; Christ triumphs and rules all the more, the more outward opposition we have.

If God’s love, and consequently Christ, is in us, what if all the creatures were against us? Is there not more in God and Christ than in all the creatures? Did he not make all things from nothing? What made the martyrs in the primitive church sacrifice their blood so willingly and cheerfully? It was because the love of God was manifested to them in Christ Jesus. His name was manifested and declared as a sweet ointment poured forth, which caused those virgins to follow him. The sense and apprehension of the love of God, manifested by the Spirit of Christ, begot in them such a love to God in return that it was strong even to death. It engendered such a heat within that it made them endure all the heat and flame without, so that all the torments the malice and wit of persecutors could devise could not daunt their invincible spirit; but in all these things they were more than conquerors, through him that loved them. A sweet state it is.

I beg you, therefore, every day examine whether Christ is in you, and in what measure he is in you, and labor to give him more room in your hearts. Will not the contrary daunt us? If he is not in us, we are reprobates, castaway creatures, and the devil is in us. But on the other hand, if he is in us, he will fit us to be with him. He comes to us that we may come to be with him; for why does he dwell in us? One main reason is to fit us for heaven. Let us labor, then, that he may be in us, that he may fit us for himself, to dwell with him in heaven. Labor that none may rule us but his Spirit.

In death, what a comfort it will be that Christ is in us! “The Spirit of Christ, who has ruled me all my life, will carry my soul to heaven, and will raise my dead body.” If Christ is in us, what need have we to fear judgment? Will the head condemn the members? Christ is in us while we live, and therefore we may joyfully expect judgment. Why? Our Redeemer, our Savior, our Head, our Husband will be our Judge. Therefore, of all states in the world, get into Christ, and labor by all means to get Christ into us, by prayer, by getting grace, and the like, that he may delight and solace himself in us. It is the best state in the world.

Out of Christ, a man is like a branch cut from the vine, subject to the fire. Out of him, a man is like a member cut from the head, cut from the body, good for nothing, neither lively nor fruitful. Get into Christ: it is a state of all grace, for all grace is derived to us from him. It is a state of comfort in life and death, and forever. He is the second Adam; and as all our misery is derived and communicated by being born of the first, from whom sin and corruption are derived, and misery with sin, mortal diseases, and all other misery, so, as soon as the second Adam, Christ, has gotten into us, his Spirit reigns to glory with us: he never leaves us until he has made us like himself. It should be our main endeavor in this world, therefore, to get out of the cursed state we are in by nature, and to get into Christ, the second Adam, and then we are safe. For there is more comfort in him than there was sin and misery in the first.

Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities: and thou wilt cast all their sins in the depth of the sea. Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old (Mic 7:18-20).

The aim and scope of this passage is to show God’s infinite and constant mercies to his children, who are tossed and tumbled in a world of the miseries of this life, at times left altogether empty of comfort and of the sense of God’s love. This is set forth in two ways: first, in the benefits they receive; second, in the reasons that move him to give them.

The benefits he promises are two in number: first, justification by the blood of Christ; second, sanctification by his Spirit.

Now this justification is set forth, for our better understanding, by several arguments.

1. He shows what he will take away. First, he says he will take away original sin, in these words, “pardoneth iniquity.” Second, he shows that he will take away our rebellion, in these words, “and passeth by transgression.” In sum, he shows that he will take away both the root and the fruits of sin.

2. He shows the fruits of this justification in what he will pass by: “He passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage.” The sum is that he will both forgive and forget. The original reads it this way, in the present tense: “taking away.” This argues and shows a continual act of God, even a continual act of mercy in him. It implies that as there is a continual spring of original corruption in us, which stains all our best actions and makes us continually liable to the wrath of God, so in him there is a continual spring of mercy flowing from him, both to pardon and to wash away this iniquity.

And now, having shown this benefit of justification, he next comes to describe the persons who will obtain this great favor, and he does so in two ways: first, they are only a remnant; second, they are God’s heritage.

Now, before he comes to the other benefit, sanctification, he answers two objections.

Objection. First, some poor souls may object, “What! How can this be? Is God such a God as pardons iniquity and passes it by? I find my sins lying heavy and sore upon me. They accuse me day and night, and they pursue me.”

Answer. To this he answers: It is true that God is forced to take notice of your sins, and to let them accuse you, in order to curb you and keep you in. If we will not take notice of our sins, then God must do it. Yet, he says, rejoice for your comfort: he “retaineth not his anger for ever.” Be patient a while, and you will see deliverance. It is for your good that you are afflicted in this way.

Objection. Yes, but here the afflicted soul may object again, “But I am not only troubled with outward crosses and afflictions; many inward temptations assail me as well. I have committed sins of knowledge and presumption since my calling. I have trespassed against the light I was given, grieved the Spirit, and forced God to depart from me. This seems hard, to be without the favor of God.”

Answer. To this he answers: It is true that God, to your thinking, seems to be gone from you. Yes, but do not despair; stay your mind in peace a while. He has only turned away his face for a little. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon you. Though he correct and humble you for a while, yet you will have a joyful outcome of it all.

Now, having set forth this first mercy of our justification, he comes to the second benefit, that of sanctification. It is amplified by two degrees: first, in this life; second, in the life to come.

For the first he says, “He will subdue our iniquities.” That is, though at first we were sinful, ruled and overruled by our sins, yet now, when God comes to us in this way in justification and works sanctification, he says he will subdue them. That is, little by little he will master them, so that their force and power will be taken away.

Second, he shows that all the sins of those he subdues he will throw into the bottom of the sea. To understand this we must call to mind a piece of history from former times, for the Lord will deal with our sins as he once dealt with the temporal enemies of his people. When Pharaoh and his army pursued them, the Lord overthrew the chariots and horsemen of Egypt, and drowned them in the bottom of the sea. To this the Spirit of God alludes here: for the sake of our assurance, he will drown all our sins forever. So, as Moses said to the Israelites, “The Egyptians whom ye have now seen, ye shall not see any more” (Exod 14:13), so here the Lord says that our sins, which vexed us, we will never see any more hereafter. For he will drown all our sins out of his sight. They will never again either vex us or grieve him; they will all be cast into the bottom of the sea.

Now, the reasons that move God are taken from his nature: first, from his mercy; second, from his truth, supported by four reasons.

For the first he says that mercy pleases him, or, “he delighteth in mercy.”

For the second, God’s truth, because above all things we are full of unbelief and can hardly believe this, he therefore strengthens and confirms it with several other reasons.

First, from antiquity. It is an ancient truth, even from the days of old, so that a thing of such ancient truth must surely be believed.

Second, from its frequent repetition: to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So a truth that has been repeated so often must surely be true.

Third, it is a truth confirmed by many witnesses, even a truth known to all our fathers. So what is confirmed by such a cloud of witnesses must surely be true.

Fourth, if all this will not serve, yet he says that “God hath sworn it.” It is as true as God’s truth, so that it would be better for all the world to fail than for God to fail in his truth. And therefore, if we insist on keeping and observing our oaths, much more must God. He is bound to defend his truth.

Thus far the opening and meaning of the words. Now let us come to the instructions arising from them.

And first, we see in the connection of the text that he comes in as it were in triumph, challenging all the powers in heaven and earth, angels and devils, and crying out in wonder, “Who is a God like unto thee?” From this we learn:

Doctrine 1. There is none so merciful as God. So the Lord speaks in Isaiah 49:15: “Can a woman forget her child, and not have compassion upon the son of her womb? Though they should forget, yet will not I forget thee.” He shows here that all natural compassion is nothing compared with the great care God has for us. So also Psalm 103:13: “As a father hath compassion on his children, so the Lord hath compassion on them that fear him.”

We may also see the same thing practiced in examples. For at the first, when Adam had forfeited his estate and was fleeing from God’s presence, yet we see that God comes and finds him out, then forgives his sin, and lastly comforts him in the promise of the blessed seed (Gen 3:15). And for the loss of a paradise on earth, he brings him to a far more glorious and eternal paradise in heaven.

So it was with Saul (Acts 9:3 and following). As he was going to Damascus in fury and rage to persecute the saints, we see that Christ comes to him, finds him out, lovingly reasons the matter with him, and forgives him, sending him to the means of his final conversion.

And as with sins of nature, so with sins after regeneration, we may see the same thing. When David had sinned in adultery and murder, before he could half make confession of his sin, the Lord met him, as it were, halfway, and pardoned his sin, put it quite away from his sight, and did not impute it to him. So we too may justly cry out with this prophet, “Who is a God like unto thee?”

There are several reasons for this.

Reason 1. Because mercy is God’s nature. It is his name, even an attribute as infinite as himself. And since he himself is infinite in measure and infinite in continuance, his mercy must be as infinite as he is.

Reason 2. Because all creatures in heaven and earth have their mercy by derivation from this mercy of God. In him it is his nature; in us it is derived from him, as a drop to the ocean. So all our mercy is nothing else but a drop of his infinite mercy, and therefore he is merciful above all.

Reason 3. Because mercy in God is free, without any cause in us moving him to it. In us, mercy and love are always drawn out by something in the person we love. In God it is not so, for he loves freely, without any moving cause in us, so that his mercy is over all his works.

Use. The use is this. Is it so that mercy is God’s nature, is an infinite essence, is free in him? Why then, in all distresses let us come running freely to him, and, reaching out the hand of faith, let us confidently promise ourselves whatever mercies the best child has ever found from the most kind and tender-hearted father and mother. For it is certain that if we come to God with a good opinion of his mercy, and of its infinite, immeasurable depth and length and breadth and height, we will return from the throne of grace filled with a great measure of this mercy.

The prodigal son, before he resolved to go to his father, first had a good opinion of him by a secret comparison of unequals. “Oh,” he says, “how many hired servants are at my father’s, and have bread enough, and I die for hunger! therefore, I will rise, and go to my father …” (Luke 15:17). And so it is that we very often come to God with small comfort. Why? Because we have no high opinion of God’s attributes. We judge him to be like ourselves, and we fare accordingly, for the most part departing as we came.

And I ask you, if our children should lament, weep to us, and bemoan themselves, would we not pity them? What pride then is this in us, to think better of ourselves than of God? If we are this merciful, is he not much more merciful to his children, since all our mercy is only a small drop of his infinite mercy?

It was a good speech that Ben-hadad uttered, though he was a heathen. Because of a flying report he had heard, that the kings of Israel were merciful, he humbled himself in sackcloth and found mercy. So, I say, if Ahab, a wicked man, was merciful to Ben-hadad on this account, though to his own destruction, how much more, do we think, does God exceed in mercy?

So many of us lack comfort because we will not go to him for mercy. And this is also why we lack comfort even from our dearest friends: because God would have us run to him, call earnestly for his mercy, be so much the more desirous of it, and be acquainted with him.

Now, in the second place, where he begins to reckon up what this mercy is, he shows first that he pardons iniquity, which is the remission of sins. Here the doctrine is:

Doctrine 2. It is the mercy of all mercies to have our sins forgiven, to have them covered, buried, and done quite away. Now there are many reasons to prove this, that it is the mercy of mercies to have our sins forgiven.

Reason 1. Because other mercies the reprobate may have, such as an abstinence from some sins, a show of sanctification, some outward gifts of the Spirit, and the like, but this mercy none can have but the elect.

Reason 2. Because this benefit is the chief fountain that flowed from Christ’s blood: “He hath loved us, and washed away our sins with his own blood” (Rev 1:5).

Reason 3. Because it brings us the happiest fruits and benefits, both here and hereafter. First, here: by this we are at peace with God, yes, in a more perfect peace than God had with Adam before his fall. Second, by this we have peace of conscience. When God favors us, then our conscience favors us, and all is at peace once we are sprinkled with the blood of Christ. Third, the one forgiven has peace with all the creatures, and is even in league with the beasts of the field, as Job says. And so also for the world to come.

Reason 4. This brings us to an everlasting peace in heaven, enabling us to stand without fear in the great day of his appearance. And even now it is no small benefit that, with the forgiveness of sins, God heals the nature of his children, so that sin and Satan will never have their former dominion over them.

Use 1. Since, then, we see that it is so great a benefit and mercy to have our sins forgiven, this must teach all of us to prize it earnestly, since those who have their sins forgiven are so blessed. The means is to pray often and earnestly for their forgiveness, to confess them often, and to appeal often to the payment Christ has already made for us. For if we come to confess our sins before God, we come only to get a discharge of the debt that Christ has already paid for us.

Use 2. It is a comfort to those who have been sorry and grieved for their sins, and who have gained power against them. It is cause for them to be thankful for such deliverances, yes, to be thankful for all crosses in the meantime. For all such following crosses are only wholesome medicines to cure our souls of our sins, so that we may have our corruptions and the cry of our sins removed. This is a great cause for rejoicing, as in Psalm 103:1: “Praise the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me praise his holy name; which forgiveth all thy sins …”

Objection. But here the trembling soul may object, “Oh, but I am sinful, and full of sins!”

Answer. What of it? If you believe in Christ, he has paid all. Imagine two men in debt, one owing a hundred thousand pounds and the other a small sum, with one surety for both. May not a man demand the hundred thousand from the surety as well as the little sum? Even so, I say, it is all one to Christ your surety to pay your great debts as well as your small ones, if you come to him.

Objection. Yes, but here the trembling soul may object again, “But I am a daily sinner. I sin again and again. How then can I be sure of still being forgiven?”

Answer. To this the Lord answers, as it is in the original, in the present tense, “passing by iniquity,” which argues a constant, continual act of forgiving in God. He is more ready, he says, to forgive than you are to sin. As there is a continual spring of wickedness in you, so there is a greater spring of mercy in God.

It is not, as many think, that God expects that after regeneration we will sin no more. No, he looks only for us to keep on cleansing our bodies and souls, and to keep coming to him for new assurance. God does not cleanse us like a cistern, which does not foul again, but like a vessel that will foul again, and so must continually be emptied and filled, until it breaks by dissolution.

Use 3. It is for imitation. Is God this merciful to us, and this ready to forgive? Why, then, we must labor to be like God, and merciful to one another.

Objection. “Oh, but my enemy has a spring of evils against me.”

Answer. And I answer: But God has a greater spring of mercy to forgive you. “Oh, but it is great!” you say. Oh, but God has forgiven us much more.

And further still, as St. Luke says, it is a matter of great credit to forgive (Luke 6:35), for by it we are declared to be the children of our heavenly Father. It is also a matter of comfort for us, for if we forgive, so we also will be forgiven.

If a poor man had a few shillings owed to him, and he himself owed the king many thousand pounds, would he not, do you think, be a madman, if he would not forgive the shillings in order to have the many thousand pounds forgiven him? Even so, we all owe God many thousand pounds. We must then forgive our shillings, that he may forgive our pounds. And so we see how the poor, as well as the rich, may be merciful, even to forgiving wrongs, returning love for hatred, and the like.

Having thus shown you both what God forgives, in the wonder of the forgiveness of sins by a still more wonderful mercy, and also how he forgives, none being like him, the prophet now comes to describe the persons who will enjoy these great benefits. First, he calls them God’s heritage. From this learn:

Doctrine 3. God in a wonderful and special manner has regard for his heritage. The proof of this I need not stand upon. It is evident enough, and known both by his working since the creation and in our time of the gospel. I come to the reasons for it.

Reason 1. Because they are God’s purchase. For whereas the elect forfeited all their estates, he has purchased them again by the blood of Christ. The rest of the world are none of his. If we, then, make much of our purchases, much more will God make much of his. This is the reason: God has paid a full and a valuable price for them all.

Reason 2. Because of his providence, in that he keeps a continual watch over them, as in Isaiah 27:3, where the Lord says, “I the Lord do keep it, I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep my vineyard night and day.” Again, he speaks to the same purpose in John 15:2: “Every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.”

Reason 3. Because he dwells among his church, and therefore he will have a special care of his own heritage, to do them all manner of kindnesses.

Use 1. The uses are these. Since, therefore, the Lord is so ready, present, and willing to defend and prune his heritage, we must labor to be fruitful to him with some proportionable obedience (Heb 6:7-8). We see that good ground will be fruitful and drink in the rain, and therefore receives a blessing from God; but that which brings forth thorns and briers is rejected, being near to cursing and burning. It is no strange thing to see brambles and thistles on a heath, but to see such weeds in a watered garden of good ground would be more than strange. So let us look to it, and be sure that now, when God has bestowed much cost on us, he looks for some fruits to answer it.

Use 2. It is a matter of comfort to us that, since God always dwells with his heritage, he therefore sees all our sorrows and cares. And because of this abode of his, the church will stand, because he loves his dwelling place. Yes, though all the power of hell should be turned loose, yet they will not hurt the church of God. Yes, though the sin of his people draw down judgments upon them, yet those judgments will not rest upon them forever.

In the second place, we see that the persons are described by being called “a remnant,” “a little flock.” From this the point is:

Doctrine 4. The people of God are only a remnant in comparison with the wicked, even like the gleanings of the grain, a small company, which is one cause of their being so despised by the world. The uses of this are as follows.

Use 1. We must not be discouraged, though we see few going with us in the way to heaven. Many are ready to object and cavil against such people, but few are ready to profess and suffer with them. Yet let all those who walk forward with the multitude remember that it is only a remnant that will be saved.

Use 2. Is it so, that this small remnant is so opposed and scoffed at? Why then, let us labor so much the more to love and make much of one another, and thus we shall be assured of doing more good than all the power of hell can do us hurt. The devil labors to sow sedition among us; but by love we shall overcome all. The church has always received more hurt from discord than from open enemies.

Having thus described the parties on whom these great mercies shall be bestowed, the prophet now proceeds to anticipate an objection of some troubled souls, which might arise from the former doctrine.

Objection. “You say that God is thus, and thus, and thus merciful, yet I feel him scourge me often and for a long time together for my sins. I am sure he seems to be angry for the time.”

Answer. To this he answers, “He retaineth not his anger for ever.” From this the doctrine arises:

Doctrine 5. The afflictions of God’s children will have a seasonable and a speedy end. The Lord knows best when it is good to begin, and when to make an end. So the Lord speaks in Isaiah 54:7: “For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee; in a little wrath I hide my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy redeemer.” So says the psalmist: “Heaviness may come in the evening, but joy cometh in the morning” (Ps 30:5). The reasons for this are various.

Reason 1. The first is taken from Lamentations 3:33: “Because the Lord doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.” He does it not to hurt us, but to mend us and make us come to him; otherwise we would not come.

Reason 2. Because we have such a sure friend in the court of heaven, even Christ Jesus, to make intercession for us at the right hand of the Father, it is not possible but that our afflictions should have a seasonable end. For if the church, having Esther, so sure a friend in the court of Ahasuerus, found by her so speedy and true a deliverance, much more shall the church now, by the intercession of Christ, obtain deliverance from the court of heaven.

Reason 3. We shall have speedy and seasonable deliverance from afflictions, because by afflictions we gain instruction. This leads us to humiliation and confession of sins, and then, the Lord having bound himself by promise and oath, it is not possible but that we must have deliverance. He cannot choose but be merciful. The ground of this is that as soon as God has his end, which is our unfeigned humiliation, confession, and amendment of life, we instantly have our end also, which is deliverance.

Reason 4. They shall have speedy and seasonable deliverance, because he corrects them only for their profit. Lest, therefore, they should faint and mourn under the burden, he will hasten help and has promised to do so, as the psalmist says: “The rod of the wicked shall not always rest upon the just, lest the wicked oppress and triumph over him” (Ps 125:3). Excellently also to this purpose the Lord speaks in Isaiah 57:16: “I will not contend for ever, neither will I always be wroth: for the spirit shall fail before me, and the souls which I have made.” So certain it is that God will not beat his children to death; he does not beat in revenge, but to bring us home and amend us. The uses are these:

Use 1. Reproof to God’s own dear servants, who, in a sharp and quick cross, where they see no way out, begin to murmur and repine, saying, “Oh! I shall never get out of this cross.” But what, tell me, would you think of your child if, when you are chastising him for some fault, he should have such a notion of you as that you would beat him to death? Might you not think him an unnatural child? Yet much more unnatural are we to God, who is a great deal more loving; for if he once begins, we immediately imagine that he will never make an end. But we ought not to repine this way, but rather quench his anger with repentant tears, and take away the fuel of sin which kindles the sense of this wrath, and then the fire will cease. So let us take away the proud and dead flesh, and the plaster will quickly fall away.

Use 2. We must hereby learn to imitate God and be like him. If we must be angry now and then, let it be quickly gone; let us spend our anger upon our sins, and not let the sun go down upon our wrath.

But now here arises another objection, worse than the former, for the troubled soul might object, “Oh! but I have driven God quite away by my innumerable sins. I have lost my feeling, angered my God, grieved the Spirit, and forced God to depart from me.” This is a miserable estate; but yet the prophet, in the next verse, answers for the comfort of such people that God has not quite gone away. “He will turn again,” he says, “and have compassion.” From this I gather:

Doctrine 6. Those who have once had any saving comfort shall have it again. We see this in David. He quenched the Spirit, made a foul house, and brought all things out of frame; he kept his union with God, but he lost his communion with Christ. The graces of the Spirit seemed dead in him, yet this man had much comfort again, and did much good to the church, and died in peace and prosperity.

So we see that the church at first quite lost Christ, in a manner (Song 3:1). She had no feeling, yet she sought him up and down; indeed, she went through all the means of salvation, yet did not find Christ. It seems a strange thing that one should sometimes use all holy means, and yet find no comfort or feeling; yet it is most true. But what then? She went a little further, and then she found him whom her soul loved.

So let us always learn this much: when we have used all the means to find feeling and comfort in vain, we are still to go a little further, which is to wait in patience for God’s good time, and to hope above hope. Then we see the outcome: we shall find him whom our soul loves; yes, then he will enable us to lay surer hold on him than ever, and also to keep him more surely. So Peter fell for a while, yet we know Christ came to him again, and made sure work of it, so that he was the stronger forever. The reasons are plain.

Reason 1. Because all God’s saving graces are given forever, they shall never be finally taken away from his children, as those outward graces of the Spirit which were in Saul were.

Reason 2. He will turn again and have compassion, though he turns away his face, because his heart is near to us. He is like a mother, who in seeming anger turns her face away from her child, yet she longs until she turns to it again. Even so the Lord, when his face is turned from his children, longs until he turns again and has compassion.

Reason 3. Of all burdens the absence of God’s favor is so intolerable that Christ himself at that time could not endure it, but cries out, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46). And David, you know, cries out, “Thy loving kindness is better than life” (Ps 63:3). Therefore, I say, God being a most loving Father to his children, and knowing how precious his favor is to them, and how grievous his absence, so that they cannot live without him, why then, as surely as he is God, and goodness itself, no more can he be without them. He will turn again and have compassion, though not in our time, yet in a better time, even in such a time as he sees fittest. Therefore let us not be dismayed, but redouble our courage.

Use 1. The use of this is reproof to those who say that if their peace is once lost, oh! they shall never have it again; they shall never have comfort, favor, or feeling of God’s love. But mark our error: in this case we judge God to be like a man who will say, “Oh! I will never again love this man who has deceived me.” But let us remember that God foresaw all the errors and sins we should ever commit, before we committed them. Now if, before our calling, these our sins which we were to commit in the course of our life, being all before God’s face, could not hinder his love to us, what folly is it to think that now, after our effectual calling, our sins which he foresaw can stay his mercies from us?

This is what the apostle aims at in Romans 5:10: “For if, whilst we were enemies, we were reconciled unto God by the death of his son; much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.” So it is most certain that he will turn again and have compassion. For if a father should foresee such and such faults in his son, do you think he would punish his son for those faults which he foresaw would of necessity be in him? Certainly he would not. Though he seemed angry, yet he would love him still.

Use 2. If we have lost our feeling, like the church (Song 3:1), let us seek it again night by night, that is, constantly, diligently, and earnestly. As in Isaiah 62:7, let us give God no rest until he returns; let us, with David, entreat him to restore unto us his Spirit again (Ps 51:12). Now, restoring implies a former having, so he will return and have compassion, according to the multitude of his mercies.

Having thus at length set forth and spoken of the first benefit God promises, justification, the prophet now comes to the second, sanctification: (1) in this life; (2) in the life to come.

First, then, for this life. After he has spoken of justification, he now comes to sanctification as a necessary, inseparable fruit of it; and he shows that whenever God comes to have mercy on us, he then also subdues our sins, and brings them into subjection. “He will subdue,” he says, “our iniquities.” From this learn:

Doctrine 7. Where God forgives sin, there he also subdues sin. So it was with Paul: as soon as God was merciful to him in effectual calling, so soon did he begin to subdue sin in him. So we see of Mary Magdalene, how penitent she was after the forgiveness of sins; and so of Peter, weeping bitterly after the same; and so of Manasseh, that great sinner, who, when his sins were once pardoned, left off his sins; they were subdued also.

Reason 1. The reasons are, first, that the power of Christ’s death can never be separated from its merit. Now the merit of his death is the purchase of our free pardon, by what he has done for us being imputed for the forgiveness of sins; and the power of his death, which is to kill and wound sin by degrees, to subdue it and bring it under, to mortify the affections, can never be separated from that merit.

Reason 2. Without this subduing of sin upon forgiveness, neither would we have comfort from him, nor he glory from us; for as long as we groan under the burden and dominion of sin, we cannot rejoice in God heartily, we cannot serve him. Now, because God would have his servants rejoice and serve him fully here, therefore upon the acceptance of our persons, he will also loose our bands, and make us able to serve him.

Use 1. The use is reproof and terror to those who say they hope their sins are forgiven, when in fact they are not subdued. For it is certain that with forgiveness of sins God also heals the nature in such people, so that the like sins are committed no more; at least there is a resolution, and a total, constant endeavor and striving, to leave all sin.

Use 2. This serves us for strong consolation, to see that it is not a death of sin that is meant here, but that sin shall not assail so often, come so strong, act with such delight, and be so violent. No; the child of God in this life shall never have sin so subdued as to find a death of it; it shall only be subdued. Therefore this is a stronghold for us, that if God has abated the force of sins in us, this is a sure sign of our justification.

Use 3. It is a matter of instruction for us all, that whenever we find our sins too strong for us, we should then fly out of ourselves to him who is stronger than all, and has sworn to subdue them.

Objection. Some object and say, “Oh! I would come if I could only subdue this sin.”

Answer. No, I say: because you cannot overcome this or that sin, come nevertheless. God bids you come because you are not able to subdue it, that he may come against it with his mighty power and subdue it. Otherwise, if it were in our power to subdue our sins, we should be like so many gods.

Now, I mean that we must go to God in all his means: to prayer, and to the word also, which is mighty to cast down holds, all strong mountains of sin. Again, we must go to the sacraments, which, we must think, are as able to feed us to life, by the eating and drinking of a little bread and wine, as the eating of a little unholy food was at first to bring destruction upon us. This is a stronghold to rest upon. Again, for the subduing of our sins, let us bind them up in fetters and chains; let us bind one another by reproofs and holy admonitions. I do not deny, for all this, that God’s children have, and may have, many vexing sins, but with humiliation let them be humbled for them. This is a death of sin, even this weakening and subduing of it.

Now follows the second part of this sanctification, after this life, in these words: “He will cast all our sins in the depth of the sea,” meaning that he will drown all our enemies, dealing with our spiritual enemies as he once did with the temporal enemies of his church. Pharaoh and all his army he drowned in the bottom of the sea; so he says that at length he will drown and destroy all our spiritual enemies. After the subduing of sins shall come the drowning of them. From this the doctrine is:

Doctrine 8. Those who have their sins subdued while they live shall have them all drowned when they are dead. We see it is said, the last enemy we have is death (1 Cor 15:26); but this is only in regard of nature. To those whose sins are subdued it is a passage to heaven; for the others, to hell. In Revelation 14:13 the dead in the Lord are pronounced blessed, for then all their enemies are quite subdued. Here we labor under the burden of many crosses and afflictions, but then is deliverance. Here we are troubled with many sins, but then comes freedom from sin; then we labor no more, then all shall have an end. Wait but a little until then, and all shall appear most exceedingly glorious. For then, to our comfort, all our sorrows and troubles, with which we are now refined in the furnace of affliction, shall be quite forgotten, as though they had never been: former things shall be remembered no more.

Use 1. The use of all this for us is, since all our sins and sorrows shall then be subdued and forgotten, to fight our battles cheerfully here, and look up to heaven for help.

Use 2. Again, it is that we should be exceedingly comforted in this, that our battle is so short, our victory so sure, and our reward so infinite and eternal. For after a little while all our sins and crosses shall be drowned; they shall be put as far from us as the east is from the west, as heaven is from hell. Then, then our long, tedious enemies shall all fly away.

Use 3. It is infinite consolation for us against the fear of death, that the death which parts body and soul shall also part us from all our sins, sorrows, and crosses forevermore. All the means we now use serve only to weaken sin, but death kills and vanquishes it forevermore. So the speech of Moses to the Israelites may as truly be said of our enemies: “The Egyptians whom you have seen today, you shall never any more see” (Exod 14:13). Even so, I say, though you are vexed and troubled with many sins, crosses, and afflictions, yet stand still but a while, yet a little while, no, a very little while, and all these crosses and sins which vex you, you shall never see any more: he will drown them all in the bottom of the sea.

I now come to the reasons of these doctrines, which are two in number, and in them I must be brief: (1) his mercy; (2) his truth. I will only touch on them, and so make an end. The first is that he delights in mercy. If we are determined to perform speedily and earnestly what we delight in, much more will God. The point is this:

Doctrine 9. It is impossible that what God delights in should fail to come to pass. Now since he delights in mercy, it is of necessity that he must pour upon us an abundance of all his mercies; for he is the perfection of goodness, the perfection of love. Nothing can stay him from performing what he delights in; therefore all these excellent mercies must be bestowed on his children.

The next reason, as I showed in the opening, is taken from the truth of God, supported by many reasons: of antiquity, often repetition, many witnesses, and the oath of God confirming it. So the giving of these mercies, and the certain assurance of them, depends on God’s truth. From this learn:

Doctrine 10. God is bound, in regard of his truth, to fulfill all his former mercies to his children; and therefore as certainly as God is true, so certainly shall all his benefits and mercies be given to them.

Use 1. The use of this for us is, notwithstanding all these promises, to see our weakness, how in temptation we are ready to rob God of his truth, neglecting the promises because we do not find present help. Behold how we deal with God! If a man promises us a thing again and again, we believe him; but if he swears and confirms it with an oath, then we doubt no more. And yet when God promises us again and again many precious promises, yes, and gives us the pledge in hand, and swears to us, yet, lo, our wretchedness, we do not trust in him with assured confidence. A mortal man would take it ill to be used this way at our hands. So every small temptation makes us rob God of his truth, and think that he will not be as good as his word.

Use 2. It must be a matter of instruction for us all, that when we come to God we must promise ourselves good success, since God is most true to his promises; and we must labor by all means to remember and apply them, and so to turn them into prayers, thus reasoning the matter: “What! I am in this and this necessity, and God has promised to help. Since he is true, it must be that he will take care to fulfill his truth; for if I should not be heard, God would be the greatest loser, in losing his truth.”

O beloved, it is easy for us to speak. But in the evil day to put on our armor, to fly to prayer, to hang upon God, to fight against temptations, to give God the praise of his attributes, so that as he is true, loving, just, merciful, all-sufficient, infinite, omnipotent, we expect infinite love, infinite truth, infinite mercy from him, this is no small matter. Yes, it is true Christian fortitude, in temptation and affliction thus to reason the matter, to rely on God, and as it were to bind his help near to us with the chains of his loving promises. If a promise binds us, much more it binds God; for all our truth is only a small spark of that ocean of truth in him.

And therefore, to conclude all with this promise, worthy to be engraved in everlasting remembrance upon the palms of our hands: God has promised that all the afflictions of his children shall work for the best (Rom 8:28). “This is as true as God’s truth. I shall one day see and confess as much if I wait in patience; why, therefore, I will wait. God is infinite in wisdom and power, to bring light out of darkness; so also he is true, and he will do it. Therefore, because I believe, ‘I will not make haste’ (Isa 28:16); I will walk in the perfect way until he shows deliverance.” This must be our resolution, and then it shall be to us according to our faith; which God, for his Christ’s sake, grant to us all!

But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall. And ye shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be as the dust in that day (Mal 4:2-3).

In the former chapter we may read of a sort of wicked men, yet not the worst of them, who in their corrupt observation had noted that God seemed to approve of those who were notorious idolaters. Therefore they contested with him: “What profit is there,” they say, “that we have kept his ordinances?” (Mal 3:14-15). This God could not endure, and therefore he reproves their boldness, telling them that they had robbed him and had spoken stout and rebellious words against him (Mal 3:8, 13). From laying open their rebellious conduct he proceeds to describe the conduct of some who were good, who spoke often to one another. From this we may observe by the way that in the worst times some take God’s part.

Some are notoriously wicked, carrying on their sin with a high hand. Others are more respectable, yet irreligious, murmuring and complaining as if Christ were not king, and as if true religion were not worth caring for; and these are as hateful to God as the others. For this complaining proceeds either from anger, because things do not suit their moods, or from murmuring at God’s government, as if they were wiser than God in disposing of things.

And there are likewise some who recover themselves from such misapprehensions of God’s dealings, and justify God: “Just art thou, O Lord, and righteous; and it is thy mercy we are not consumed” (Neh 9:33). Such people look at the favors they have, though burdened with other calamities, and it is to these that these words are spoken: “But to you that fear my name…”

In the former verse there is a terrible denunciation against the wicked, and therefore there is no ground for anyone to be offended at their prosperity. There is a day of vengeance, when they shall be burned up, and neither root nor branch shall be left them. This vengeance began upon the Jews at the first coming of Christ, and was accomplished at the destruction of Jerusalem. They did indeed look for the Messiah and the day of the Lord, but woe to them, for it shall be a day of darkness (Amos 5:18).

The persons against whom this denunciation was threatened are said to be proud men, those who sin against their own consciences, casting off God’s rule and laws. When he bids them not to swear, they will; when he commands them to attend the means of salvation, they will not; they will live by their own law. So pride is an ingredient in every sin, as humility is in every virtue; for humility gives God place above ourselves and above our lusts.

But to the present purpose. These words are a gracious promise made to those who fear. In the worst times God has a number who do fear him. Otherwise it would follow that there would be an act without an object, that we would believe in a church where there is none, that there would be war without enemies, and that there would be God without glory. For what glory does God have from those who rebel and shake off all rule? No; it is the saints who praise God: “All thy works praise thee, and thy saints bless thee” (Ps 145:10). This should comfort us, in that our posterity will always have some to stand for God in the worst times; indeed, in the worst places, where Satan’s throne is.

In the next place we may observe that comfort belongs to those who are God’s, for here it is pronounced to those “that fear.” The ground of this is that Christ is given to them, and ministers should give such their portion, and not grieve those whom God does not grieve; for those who do not do so are carnal in their disposition, and steal the word from the people.

But to proceed. Good men are described here by this, that they fear the name of God. That is, they fear lest by their infirmities there should be a divorce between God’s outward favors and themselves, and they fear lest they should offend so good a God. And so they fear his name; that is, they fear him as he has revealed himself in his word. For the devil will fear when God comes in his person.

Therefore it is no credit to men to fear his presence. Indeed, those who fear God most when God declares his presence in his judgments, as when the wicked are struck with horror and trembling, as Belshazzar was at the handwriting, have the least true fear. And therefore to come to church at a set time with a composed manner, and to do outward duties, is not enough to make a man one who fears God.

Some solace themselves while they are in prosperity: oh, they will repent when judgments come! The devil will do as much; he will tremble. Can there be any comfort in this fear? Can we think that a man who lives in all manner of notorious crimes until judgment overtakes him will heartily repent of the faults he has committed, out of love to God? No. It is the fear of wrath and judgment that terrifies him. If this is repentance, the damned in hell have it.

How then shall this fear be discerned where it is? I answer, if we fear the name of God there will be a watchful suspicion of ourselves, and a special suspicion of our inward corruptions. Fearing the traitor within us, we will not give ear to everything, nor give our eyes liberty to look on temptations, but will eat with fear and keep company with fear; for those who fear temptations and do not fear God are not secure.

Second, where this fear of God is, it frees us from base fears. We will fear no man when we are in a good cause. “The man that feareth God shall not be afraid of evil tidings,” for his heart is fixed upon God (Ps 112:7), and he fears no creature further than as it has a beam of God’s glory. He does not fear death itself, though it is the king of fears. God he fears as his king, father, husband, and master, and he considers him accordingly, to stir up in himself an awed reverence for so great a majesty. There is indeed a covenant between God and him, but it is such a covenant as is made with those who fear him.

“Shall the Sun of righteousness arise.” From the most glorious creature, “the sun,” he sets forth the most glorious Creator, Christ Jesus. He takes occasion to help our understanding in grace by natural things, and so teaches us to make a double use of the creatures, bodily and spiritual, raising our minds out of the excellence of the creatures to consider the excellence of the Creator. If these things have beauty and strength and give comfort, how much more does he who endows these things with these qualities! Thus, as the rivers lead to the sea, so these creatures should lead us to the glorious majesty of God.

But the main observation is that Christ is the Sun of righteousness; for as by nature there was no guile found in his lips, so he is habitually and actually righteous. He is wisdom, justification, sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor 1:30). He is compared to the sun:

1. Because as all light was gathered into the body of the sun, and from it passed on to us, so it pleased God that in him the fullness of all excellence should dwell (Col 1:19). Therefore those who look for perfection outside of Christ are looking for light without the sun.

2. As there is but one sun, so there is but one Sun of righteousness. What need is there, then, of two heads, or two husbands? One of them must be an adulterer. Christ does everything by his Spirit, who is his vicar. No other vicar is needed, though there were a thousand worlds more.

3. As the sun is above in the firmament, so Christ is exalted on high, to convey his graces and virtues to all his creatures here below; even as the sun conveys life and enlivens the earth, yes, all things on it, though it is only one.

4. As the sun works widely in all things here below, so does Christ.

5. As the sun is the fountain of light, and the eye of the world, so Christ is the fountain of all spiritual light. “I am the light of the world,” he says of himself (John 8:12). He was that light that enlightens the world, says St. John of him (John 1:9), and therefore Zechariah calls him “the dayspring from on high” (Luke 1:78).

6. As the sun directs us where to go, and which way, so Christ teaches us to go to heaven, and by what means; what duties to perform, what things to avoid, and what things to bear.

7. As the sun is pleasant (Eccl 11:7), and darkness is terrible, so Christ is a comfort; for he makes all at peace where he comes, and sends his Spirit the Comforter. Now he is in heaven. Therefore as ignorance and error are expressed by darkness, so, on the contrary, joy and honor, and knowledge, which brings it, are expressed by light (Esth 8:16). And Christ is our director, our supporter; and without him what are we? And what do we but glory in our shame?

8. By the beams of the sun influence is conveyed to make things grow, and to distinguish between times and seasons. So Christ by his power makes all things cheerful, and therefore is called the “quickening Spirit” (1 Cor 15:45); for he gives life to the dead and dark soul, which, until Christ shines on us, is a dungeon of ignorance and unbelief. And as his Spirit blows on our spirits, so it also works a spring in growth of grace, or a summer in strength of zeal.

9. The sun works these effects not by coming down to us, but by influence. Shall we, then, be so senseless as to imagine that Christ must of necessity come bodily to us in the sacrament, or else that there is no work of the Spirit by that ordinance? Can the sun be so powerful in operation by nature, and shall not this Sun of righteousness be more powerful by the influence of his Spirit to comfort and enliven us, though he does not come bodily down into a piece of bread?

10. As the sun works freely, drawing up vapors to dissolve them into rain upon the earth, to cherish it when it is dry, so does Christ. He freely came from heaven to us, and he freely draws our hearts up to heaven, which cannot rise there except by his drawing power. Christ is our lodestone, who draws these iron-hard hearts of ours upward, causing us to despise this base world, counting it “dross and dung”; as the church is shadowed forth in the Revelation, treading the moon under her feet.

11. As the sun shines upon all, yet does not heat all, so Christ is offered to all. He shines on all where the gospel comes, but not all are enlightened; and not all who are enlightened burn in love to him. Indeed, some are more hardened by it, as it is the nature of the sun to harden some bodies.

12. Lastly, as the sun revives and puts life into dead creatures, so Christ by his power will revive our dead bodies, and raise them up again when he comes to judgment.

Yet notwithstanding all these particulars, he is not in every way like it. For the sun shines upon all alike, but Christ does not do so, for many are in eternal darkness notwithstanding this light. He is mercy, yet many are in misery.

How, then, shall we know whether Christ is a sun to us or not?

I answer, if we find that we feel the heat and comfort of a Christian, it is a sign that Christ has effectually shone upon us. We know that if a stone, being naturally cold, is hot, either the sun has shone on it or it has been near some fire. The papists ask us how we know faith to be faith. We may ask them how they know heat to be heat, or light to be light. Even so, by experience, we find Christ’s presence by enlightened hearts and holy affections. They, if you please, will have the pope judge of these main things, and of the Scripture itself, and so they teach men to look for the sun by candlelight.

Second, he will see his marvelous light, and wonder at it. Think of a man newly out of a dark prison, or a blind man restored to sight: how cheerful and joyous he is! Or a lame man when he is healed: oh, how he skips and leaps! So a Christian shows forth the joy of his own heart by telling how good God has been to his soul. Carnal men wonder at fine buildings, precious jewels, and the like, but David cries out, “Lord, lift up the light of thy countenance upon me, and then I shall rejoice” (Ps 4:6).

Third, if Christ has shone upon anyone effectually, they will walk becomingly as children of the light. And therefore if they live in a course of sin against conscience, the light will tell them that their conscience is lying to them if they think the light has shone on them. And indeed it is a wonder how a man can be so senseless as to think he is a child of the light, and yet live in such sins as a man should be ashamed to name; yes, such as the heathen condemned. This will be their condemnation, precisely because they sin against the light: “light is come into the world, and yet they love darkness more than light, because their deeds are evil” (John 3:19).

But how shall we conduct ourselves so that Christ may shine on us?

For answer to this, we should always be under sanctified means. All the light is gathered into the Scriptures. Let us attend on them, in humility and obedience to God’s commandment, and leave it to Christ to make them profit us. It is he who gives us to will and to do according to his good pleasure. Let us keep the company of those who are good, for by conversation together God often works remarkably, as in the hearts of the two disciples who went to Emmaus (Luke 24:13). On the other hand, let us beware of filthy company. Christ will not shine on base houses, and company where everything serves to fire temptations and strengthen our lusts.

Question. But here it may be asked, what comfort was this to the Jews to whom it was spoken, when it was still nearly a hundred years before Christ came?

Answer. It was a comfort to them to be assured that their seed and posterity would see this “Sun of righteousness.” Abraham rejoiced because the promise was made to him; the Jews rejoiced because of the conversion of the Gentiles that was to come. Where grace is, there will be joy for any good that comes to others who are led by the same Spirit, and one spiritual member is engaged in the good of another.

Second, Christ was a sun before he was in the flesh. He was “a Lamb slain from the beginning of the world” (Rev 13:8), in virtue and force, and also to the eye of faith, so that by this those Jews saw this Sun of righteousness as present, and so Abraham saw Christ’s day and rejoiced. And so the second glorious coming of Christ is present to every believer, and wraps up the soul in joy, as if it were in heaven; for faith regards no distance of time or place, and therefore it sees Christ really present in the sacrament without the help of popish presence.

Now for the use of this doctrine.

Use 1. Is Christ a Sun of righteousness? Then we should pity the condition of those who are in darkness, and never had Christ to shine on them by his Spirit or ordinances, as in many places of this kingdom. It is a cruel, bloody practice of those lay pastors who, for want of the ministry of the word, betray the souls of many poor people into the jaws of the devil.

Use 2. If Christ is the Sun of righteousness, we should, when we are cold and numb, go to him, and think of him as one having excellencies suited to our wants. Are we dark? He is light. Are we dull? He can heal us. Are we dying? He is life. And are we in discomfort? He is the fullness of love. He is therefore the Sun, that we should seek to him, and make him ours, all in all: our Prophet, to direct us by his light; our Priest, to make atonement for us; our King, to help us overcome all our corruptions, and to make us more than conquerors.

“With healing in his wings.”

By wings are understood the beams of the sun, for beams are spread from the luminous body as wings are from the body. And so Christ, though only one, can spread all his graces to all parts of the world. By the beams all that is in the sun is conveyed, such as light and power, and the like effects that grace works in us. Again, wings have a power to keep warm and to comfort the young ones; and therefore God is said to gather his children as a hen gathers her chickens (Matt 23:37). In the beams there is a healing nature also. So the meaning is evident, that this Sun of righteousness will be a healing sun.

For by nature we are all sick and wounded. Some see and feel their diseases and pain, and others do not; but those who do not are the most dangerously afflicted. We are all sick with a general, spreading leprosy; and besides this, every one of us has our particular diseases. Some swell with pride, as men do with dropsy. Others, who are covetous, always have an imagined hunger, always crying, “Give, give.” Some burn in wrath and anger, as men do in a burning fever. And as we are sick, so we are also wounded, by terror of conscience and by Satan’s temptations, and therefore we need healing.

This is done by Christ, but in a wonderful way: from heaven he comes to invite us to come to him. “Come to me, all ye that are weary” (Matt 11:28). Healing is ordinarily by natural medicines of drugs and the like, but Christ heals with a plaster of his own blood, even by “his wounds and stripes are we healed” (Isa 53:5).

He heals by his Spirit, enlightening our understanding, which by nature is dark and soon led away to mistake light for darkness and darkness for light. This he heals by his word, which breeds sound affections and judgments, by which we esteem things as they are and are accordingly affected toward them. He heals the wounds of conscience that Satan makes by his darts and sharp temptations, by which he would have us believe that we are reprobates and that God is angry with us. Against these he strengthens our faith and trust in God, yes, though God should kill us. These temptations, and many others, may gather together to cloud this Sun, but it will at length scatter them all. So there is always hope of comfort so long as we use good means.

Indeed, among bodily diseases there are some that are called “the shame of physicians”; but in the soul there is no disease that, if it is felt, cannot be cured. The soul that hungers after comfort shall find it; for Christ is a universal healer, healing both the bodies and the souls of men, and healing them from all evil, both blindness and deafness of heart. Indeed, he can restore the very dead heart to life.

And this serves to reprove the carelessness of men. It is astonishing that if the head only aches, no cost or labor is spared to relieve it. The physician is sent for at once. But in the soul’s sickness they are so far from sending for its physicians that they hate them. Am I not your enemy because I tell you the truth? says the apostle (Gal 4:16). And so nowadays none are greater enemies, in the esteem of ordinary men, than the minister who deals faithfully with them.

Again, this should teach us to take notice of our diseases in time, and to go to the healing God, as he terms himself (Exod 15:26), and lay open our condition to him, and confess, as David did, “Heal me, Lord, for I have sinned against thee” (Ps 41:4). And so let us lay open our sores, as beggars do to move pity; for as there are beams of majesty in this Sun, so there are beams of mercy and a heart of compassion in him.

To this end we should claim his nature and his truth in the performance of his promises, and we should attend on the means; for there is a tree in the church of God, even “the tree of life,” whose leaves are appointed “to heal the nations” (Rev 22:2), and this is the word of God.

We should also beware of despair. Though for now Satan lulls us asleep, telling us that the sin we are tempted to is only a little one, that God will let it pass, that we may yet a while swear and commit adultery and may repent when we die, do not believe him; for when death approaches he will change his rhetoric: “Oh, you have lived in sins against conscience a long while. Though you have been told of it often, your sins are scandalous. You have resisted God; he will now resist you. Never hope for mercy; you are mine.”

What comfort is there then for a poor, miserable wretch, except to be well grounded in the knowledge of his Physician, and to be assured of his healing power, which has cured innumerable souls?

We should furthermore beware of ignorance; for many, when temptations come, have not the least knowledge of any healing power in Christ, and so they go on until death, and die like blocks.

We should meditate on his commandments and promises, on his goodness and nature, and on the encouragements he has given us to come to him: “Come to me, all ye that are weary” (Matt 11:28). We praise physicians who have their own special, sovereign medicines, who can work extraordinary cures. Now Christ has a medicine of his own able to cure any disease, however desperate, and any person, however sick; Mary Magdalene as well as Paul; Zacchaeus as well as Manasseh; all come whole from him. And therefore when Satan would tempt us to despair, we should call to mind that we have a merciful God who “forgives all our sins, and heals all our infirmities” (Ps 103:3).

Question. But it will be asked, why then are we not healed? What does it mean that we are subject to these infirmities of ours?

Answer. Some of Christ’s works are perfected all at one time, but some by degrees, little by little. Christ heals the soul of guiltiness immediately, but the corruption and the dregs of this disease remain for heavenly purposes. And so he heals by not healing, and leaves infirmities to cure enormities. He allows us to be abased and humbled by our infirmities, lest we should be exalted above measure, as he dealt with Paul (2 Cor 12:7), even as a man’s body is cured of an apoplexy by an ague. It is profitable for some that they should fall. Peter more profitably displeased himself when he fell than he pleased himself when he presumed.

And therefore we should turn Satan’s accusations back on him when he tempts us to despair because of our sins, and reason like this: Because we have infirmities, we will pray all the more earnestly, “forgive us our trespasses.” Because we are sick, we will go to Christ, who took our nature not to cure the whole but the weak. For we may be sure that Christ will not perfectly cure our weaknesses, because he will have us live by faith, going every day to the throne of grace and depending on his promise for the forgiveness of our sins, assuring ourselves that the spirit, like David’s house, shall grow stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul weaker and weaker (2 Sam 3:1); and this flesh, once it begins to fall, shall surely fall.

“And ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall” (Mal 4:2).

Most translations have it, “you shall leap forth,” and the latest translation is, “you shall grow up.” All comes to one end, signifying a cheerful movement. The place they go out from is sickness or bonds. Those who are sick are God’s prisoners; but here it is taken for weakness of the spirit, and the promise is that they shall go forth in all good duties, and that they shall walk with strength. So Christ’s benefits go together.

Where there is forgiveness, there is also strength of grace promised; and where there is strength, there is promised an increase of it, even to fullness. For where Christ begins, he does not leave off until his work is complete, in wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. And therefore he comes by both water and blood, for God is unchangeable, and the love that moves him to elect moves him to justify, and sanctify, and glorify us. And all the promises join these together, justification and sanctification: “I will put my fear into their hearts, and they shall not depart away from me” (Jer 32:40). Where forgiveness of sin is, there is also power against sin, and strong resolutions to labor against it; and where there is justification, it will show itself in works of sanctification. This will convict many who boast of the forgiveness of sins of being no Christians.

But where is this healing power of Christ seen? In their conduct. He who is cured can rise and walk, as the lame man did, in the good duties of a holy life; for the Spirit of adoption is the Spirit of sanctification, and we are sick in the bed of sin if we do not come out.

In the next place we may observe that in every Christian there is a going out, for so it is promised here, and this has many degrees. There is a going out of misery in this life, for at that time the church was in great misery, and “a going out” was promised to them; for when a comfortable worldly estate is good for the church, it shall have it. Secondly, there is a going out of the bonds of sin, little by little in this world. And because here we are in a state of war, and our freedom here is only from the dominion of sin, there is another “going out” at the last day, when we shall all go out of the graves perfected, body and soul being freed from sin; and then our joy shall be full.

But in this world there is a going out to good duties, for true believers have hearts enlarged to “go forth” in good duties. Their hearts are set at liberty, being freed from damnation and free to walk in good courses. For where grace enables us to go, it enables us to go freely, so that God’s people are a free people. In the building of the tabernacle and the temple, they offered “freely,” and David praised God for it (1 Chr 29:14), and Ezra likewise (Ezra 2:68). And the reason is that these have Christ’s Spirit, which is a Spirit of liberty (2 Cor 3:17); and it is a promise that Christ’s people shall be willing (Ps 110:3). God’s people are all volunteers, doing holy duties freely, for they are freed from exaction and compulsion. The Spirit that witnesses the one also works the other, and sets them at liberty.

And as this is true, so it is also true that this liberty is dearly bought. It cost the blood of Christ, who redeemed us “to serve him without fear” (Luke 1:74), and that we might be a holy people, zealous of all good works (Titus 2:14). And therefore our lukewarm, cool behavior shows that we are not yet at liberty. And that is the reason we cannot spend an hour in good duties without its being very irksome and tedious to us. It was otherwise with Zacchaeus after his conversion; how free he was in charitable works! And with the jailer, how cheerful he was in feasting the apostle, whom a little before he had tormented! In the primitive church, how willingly they endured persecutions, living together with one heart and one mind, and having all things common (Acts 2:44)! So it is in some measure in all Christians, once they are heated by this Sun of righteousness.

In the next place, God’s people not only go forth, but grow up, and go on in a continued motion; for it is promised that the soul shall grow strong in grace as well as the body in natural strength. And as nature enables the body, so grace enables the soul, always giving a desire of liberty to grow up and to grow in strength, in order to overcome all weaknesses of the soul whatever, by those holy means appointed to that end.

And this is necessary in regard of God, that he may have the more glory; for when we pray or do any good duty with strength, as when we can be resolute in the defense of a good cause, God is honored by it, and his truth honored, and his wisdom justified. And it is likewise necessary in regard of others, that they may be won, and strengthened by our examples, seeing that such things are possible to be done; and so they too are won. When in our actions toward one another we do them with all our might and cheerfulness, how pleasing and lovely it is to them!

And it is likewise necessary in regard of ourselves; for the stronger we grow, the less burdensome our profession will be to us. For why are we so unwilling and dead that goodness comes from us as fire out of the flint, by force, except that we lack this habit, which should grow on us by practice? This is why we have not yet grown, and therefore cannot pray privately or hear conscientiously, but only with an almost insensible heart.

And this is likewise necessary in regard of oppositions, which are such that whatever good we labor for must be gotten out of the fire. We daily feel the strength of our own corruptions and of outward oppositions, through the indispositions of others and the scandal of the times, and therefore we need to grow up.

Now, as for the means to this, we should first purge and cleanse the soul of weakening matter. Practice the duty of repentance daily; and though it is bitter, it is better to burn, to cut and lance here, than to die hereafter. It is better to renew our repentance daily than to go on in complacency to desperation. And as it is in a sick body, the more it is nourished the greater the strength the humors gather; or as it is in leaking ships, the longer we allow the leak to open, the more danger the ship is in.

The best of us daily gather ill humors, partly because of our own corruptions within us, partly because of the corruption in others with whom we associate. And these make us like sick men, either without appetite or with stomachs that can digest nothing but unwholesome food. Once these are purged out, it makes us hunger after goodness, stronger than before, and more intense in our love to Christ, as Peter was after his bitter tears.

In the next place, we should come to good food. When we have purged out the ill humors of our corruption, digest some comforting truths, and do so immediately after we are humbled, lest Satan gain advantages over us. Therefore we should resort to the preaching of the word while we may. That study is accursed that occupies a man when he should be at God’s ordinances; and the good that is gotten at home, when we may go to church on the Sabbath, is like the water of cursing, because it is gotten in contempt of God’s ordinances.

And what if, as many poor Christians object, we often immediately forget what we hear? Yet for the present it will strengthen our souls to walk more strongly afterward. So it is with our food: when it has passed from us, its virtue still remains behind in us.

Third, we should use the exercise of holy duties. We see how strong men who are given to daily labor are to bear burdens, and what appetites they have for their food. And so it is with those who are often in prayer and meditation: how they long after the word! And how sweet it is to them! And how they treasure it up! On the contrary, those who use no exercise, let them boast as they please, are full and do not care for the word. They are graceless, however much they may excel in moral and intellectual gifts. If they come to church, or like any of that bread, it must be to their taste, or they will have none of it; coarse food their finer stomachs cannot digest. The preacher must be like a player on a well-tuned instrument; and this sort of men are never good at practice, but are commonly given to vanity.

But let us take heed that we do not esteem God’s ordinance lightly, but in reverence use all means for the strengthening of our faith by the word, sacraments, and prayer. We have only a short time to work. Our wages are in heaven, and it should be a shame to us that we do no more work for so great a reward as we shall have. We should set no stopping point or limit in religion, but always pray and endeavor that God’s kingdom may come, and that his will may be done on earth as it is in heaven. Do not be dejected by the length of the way, or by the fierce serpents of this world. Beware of returning to Egypt in our thoughts, but go on from grace to grace, and from one degree to another, until God calls us to rest.

Question. But does a Christian grow perpetually?

Answer. Not at all times in all parts. Trees, as we know, grow in the root in wintertime. Christians do not always grow in all graces, but only in some one root grace, such as faith, or humility, or the like. If there is any stop, it is to further his speed afterward, as we see in those who stumble in their course, and as water that is stopped breaks out more violently. So it was in the slips of David and Peter. And God’s children, after such times, are like a broken bone: after it is set, it grows stronger in that part than in any other.

Objection. But someone may say, “I do not perceive this growth.”

Answer. We do not perceive the grain growing or the shadow moving, yet with the passing of time we perceive that the grain has grown and the shadow has moved. So, though we do not perceive it, yet every act of repentance and faith strengthens us. There may be many cloudy times in every Christian’s life. David, a man after God’s own heart, had many infirmities; and this may so cloud a man’s eyes that he thinks he is going quite backward. But even so, these should not hinder our faith in God’s love, for God does not call every slip in a man’s life to reckoning. Any traveler may set his foot awry and may go out of his way, yet at length he gets home. And God does not judge us by single acts, but by the tenor of our lives.

How then shall we know whether we have grown or not? I answer that our growth may be discerned by these signs.

1. The first is if we can taste and relish the food of our souls, the word of God; for in this it is with the soul as with the body. If our food is not loathsome to us, our stomach is good, and it is a sign of health. So if we can hear the word of God with delight, and if it is not tedious to us, it is a sign of our Christian growth.

2. Another sign is if we find ourselves able to bear great burdens of the infirmities of our brothers. So Christ long bore the infirmities of his weak disciples who followed him; and the apostle counts it the office of those who are strong to restore such as have fallen with the Spirit of meekness (Gal 6:1).

3. A third sign of our growth is if we find ourselves able, like Samson, to break the green cords of pleasure and profits, so that they cannot bind us, and to run lightly away with a heavy load of afflictions, as Samson did with the city gates of Gaza, counting them light and momentary, as the apostle calls them (2 Cor 4:17).

4. Lastly, our growth in grace is seen in our performance of duties, if they are performed strongly, readily, and cheerfully. We have an example of this in the apostle, who could abound and suffer want (Phil 4:12), and indeed could do all things through Christ who strengthened him. And this is in all Christians, more or less: to content themselves in the will of God, and to run the race of God’s commandments with a large and cheerful heart.

“And ye shall tread down the wicked, and they shall be as dust” (Mal 4:3).

This is another promise made to the church, and in it to every member of the church, of victory over their enemies. God’s children and the wicked are like scales: when the one is up, the other is down. Therefore, as this is a promise to the children of God, so it is a threatening to the wicked; for it is the happiness of the church “to tread down the wicked.” These words must have a broad interpretation, for the wicked generally seem to tread down the godly. And so we must know that these words were spoken to the Jews, and in them to all other Christians by analogy.

And it was fulfilled, first, when the good Jews saw the overthrow of all the rebellious Jews under Vespasian, when the temple and the city were destroyed, and they were made a byword to the nations. Secondly, the words may refer to the conversion of the Jews, when all the enemies of their glorious conversion shall be trodden down, as it is in Micah 4:13, “Arise, O Zion: thou shalt beat in pieces many people.” For undoubtedly there is a glorious conversion of the Jews to come; in what manner and at what time we hope before long to know. For ever since this prophecy their estate and condition has been very low and mean, and there must come a time of restoring.

In the next place, these words may be intended as a promise to all God’s church; for while they gloriously and powerfully profess the truth, they are the head and not the tail, ruling and not ruled, as appears by the example of the Jews.

1. While they obeyed God, they were a terror to the whole earth, but once fallen from God, they were and remain a scorn to all people. And so it is now: where the white horse goes before, the red horse follows after, as it is in Revelation 6:4. So long as the church keeps on good terms with God, none are so terrible as they, and their enemies know this full well: “Let us take him, God hath forsaken him, and he shall fall into our net” (Ps 71:11).

2. The church treads down its enemies in regard of true judgment and discernment of their estate; for they think and account of the wicked as a vile and abominable thing, and as an object of pity. The wicked know this, and this makes them hate God’s children.

3. The church of God tramples on all the things that rule wicked men, such as riches, honors, and the like. And therefore in the Apocalypse it is said to tread on the moon (Rev 12:1), that is, putting all earthly, worldly things under it. So did Moses, Daniel, and Paul. All is dross and dung in comparison with Christ; and thus the church and the child of God is a spiritual king.

4. The church and children of God tread down the wicked in regard of their example, for by it and by the word they subdue the spirits of the world, and bind kings in chains, bringing down their mighty strong corruptions and hard hearts to obedience. And if not, yet by making them inexcusable we fasten on them a censure and a sentence of condemnation, which is executed on them hereafter. And so the saints in old time were said to condemn the world, and the white horse to go forth conquering. There is no man but must either yield or else he is condemned already; and the arrows of God stick fast in him even here, and the liberty they seem to have is no other than the liberty of a prisoner in the Tower.

5. But lastly, this promise is accomplished at the last day of judgment, when we shall sit with Christ as kings, ruling with him, and as judges of the twelve tribes of Israel, judges of the world. We are conquerors here of the world, the flesh, and the devil, but then all things shall be put under our feet. And this should comfort us in our sufferings under wicked men; for at that time those who now triumph over us shall be trodden down as dust.

And again, we should learn not to fret at seeing the prosperity of the wicked (Ps 37:1). They are only flowers of a day’s continuance. Who envies the estate or happiness of a base person who acts the person of a king in a play? This world is no other than a stage play. However great a place the wicked man may hold, he must return to his rags; and the good man, though he acts the part of a beggar here for a while, shall be a king hereafter forever. And in the meantime God regards him as his dear son, and it does not matter how high or low he stands in the tax book.

If we see evil men advanced, therefore, and scandalous men insulting, let us enter into the sanctuary, and then we shall see their end to be cursing. And let us feed ourselves with meditations, by faith seeing ourselves sitting in judgment on these wicked men. For God’s truth and justice will not always allow these men to swagger; otherwise the devil would be a better master than Christ.

And as for the present times, if we see that wicked men prevail and increase, do not be scandalized by it. We know we have as great promises as the Jews ever had. Though God purges and quickens his church by these trials, it will not always be like this. The beast is going to destruction. Wicked men may serve for a while as scouring stuff to purge the church, or as horse-leeches to suck the corrupt blood of the church, and when this work is done, they shall be thrown on the dunghill. It will be so before long. “Babylon is fallen” (Rev 14:8); and as Christ out of his deep and basest abasement under death rose to the highest pitch of glory, so his enemy antichrist, on the contrary, when he is most high and lifted up, shall suddenly and irrecoverably come tumbling down, and at the judgment day shall be more despicable and confounded. He shall be cast into the lake of fire burning with brimstone (Rev 19:20). Amen!

I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem, as the tents of Kedar, and as the curtains of Solomon. Look not upon me, because I am black, because the sun hath looked upon me; my mother’s children were angry with me; they made me the keeper of the vineyards: but mine own vineyard have I not kept (Song 1:5-6).

In the former verses of this chapter, the church has shown her fervent love and dear affection for Christ and her longing for nearer communion with him. She has also confessed and professed her own weakness and inability to come toward him, which is why she says, “Draw me, we will run after thee” (Song 1:4). Now, in the words I have read and in the verse following, she comes to remove certain objections and impediments that might either discredit her or discourage her daughters. She does this by turning her speech to them, and they are answered as though they had expressed their objection in direct words; for the Spirit knows how to meet our secret thoughts, whether present or yet to come.

Now these daughters who make the objection here are taken to be such as have no sanctifying grace in them as yet, or at least very little, as appears by their contempt of the church (Song 1:6) and their unfamiliarity with Christ (Song 5:9). Yet they are daughters of Jerusalem. The first objection the church has to meet comes from those who live in the church, who are bred and born there, who partake of the ordinances, who are in the church, though not all of them are of it; and these the church has to deal with. As for the daughters of Babylon and those outside the church, they do not heed what she says, nor understand her language in any measure; they are neither for her nor for her love.

Well, with these daughters she deals, and taking up their objection, first she answers it (Song 1:5); second, she enlarges her answer (Song 1:6). The objection is, “You are black,” and this is aggravated by a comparison, setting her condition beside the love she has fixed her heart on, in this manner: “And is Christ indeed, as you report him, the best lover, full of sweetness and holiness, a king? What an unwise woman you are to entertain any hopes of marrying him, since you have nothing, and are poor, afflicted, filthy; in a word, black, yes, very black.” This is the objection, which she answers nimbly in two ways.

1. By yielding what was said: “I am black”; that is, my condition here is imperfect, subject to sin, to affliction; not beautiful, therefore, in carnal eyes and judgments, but deformed.

2. By denying the argument that she must therefore be despised by men and rejected by Christ, as one who had nothing in her. No, black people may be handsome and desirable. And so she says, I am contemptible to the eye, yet inwardly rich, desirable, and lovely; and she shows this by two comparisons.

First, thus: It is with me as with the tents of Kedar. The Kedarenes lived in Arabia, and they lived in tents covered with hair (as Solinus and Pliny say). These tents were very coarse to look at, tanned, exposed to all weather, rough from the sun, and hard; and yet in those tents they had much treasure. They were full of wealth, in cattle, in spices, in gold, in precious stones. So it is with the church: though she is outwardly lowly, yet there are treasures within, and much glory, as she goes on to show, saying she was like Solomon’s curtains. His bed is mentioned afterward, and beyond question all his doings were admirable.

This is her second comparison. You read what a glorious house he built, and how long it was in building. If the church, therefore, is like his curtains, she is very glorious, lovely, and rich. But how is she like them? In this way: the curtains of Solomon’s bed were most glorious, and yet they did not lie open to every eye, since it was for those especially favored to be admitted into such a king’s bedchamber and inmost rooms, which are for the king and his spouse. So it is with the church: she is rich, though her riches are inward and not discernible by every eye, as in Psalm 45:13, “The king’s daughter is all glorious within,” like Solomon’s curtains and Kedar’s tents.

It is as if she should say, “I am black,” so are the tents of Kedar, and yet they have treasures in them. And not to send you so far, you daughters of Jerusalem, know that there is much treasure and glory in Solomon’s palace, which not everyone sees; and so it is in me.

Thus she answers the objection, and next she dwells upon it and enlarges it (Song 1:6). But first let us consider this. As for the meaning of it, you see how we understand it; we do not wish to prejudge anyone’s opinion. The very substance of the matter is this: she contends that it is possible for her to be rich, glorious, and lovely inwardly, though not in outward show (because her outward blackness exposed her to censure in the eyes of most men). And this she proves by two instances well known to these daughters: first, that of the Arabians, who brought treasure yearly to Solomon (2 Chr 9:14), which proved their riches, though they lived in sun-burnt tents; and second, that of Solomon, who was as rich within doors as without, though not everyone saw it.

Thus you have the church’s confession and her defense: she is black outwardly, and inwardly too by reason of some corruption, as is objected after this. This much is yielded. From this, then, let us learn.

Doctrine 1. The church of God and Christians, while they are here, are in an imperfect state. No Christian in this life attains full happiness and brightness, but is attended by those sins and sorrows that prove an imperfect condition. The church of God, and every converted Christian, must necessarily confess that they are black outwardly and inwardly. This we hear from her own mouth not only at her first conversion but afterward. For however we may understand these things in the first chapter and part of the second as agreeing especially with the first age of a Christian, yet they do not agree with it only; what is said of her here is always true while she is on earth, though the degree varies somewhat.

The Holy Spirit uses a fair comparison: he makes the church to be born in the night and to travel toward the day. She is going toward perfection, like one who sets out before daybreak; indeed, she has gone so far that it is drawing toward the dawn. There is a mixture of some light and darkness together, and so it will be till we come to heaven, both for sin and for sorrow, for sins and defects in the soul.

So the saints have faults in this life and are buffeted for them (1 Pet 2:20). There must be the addition of grace to grace (2 Pet 1:5), and so also Ephesians 1:18: the eye of our understanding is shut until it is opened, and we have wonderful things to look after, beyond the power of our present condition. As for our outward condition, see Proverbs 4:18: the church’s path is like the shining light, “which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” For in both respects she is dusky between night and day, and so she will be till that full morning comes.

So also Psalm 49: what is its whole tenor but a large commentary on our frailties and imperfections while we live here? So we find by Paul’s description of the church (Eph 4:12): she is a house not yet fully furnished or beautified, but exposed to storms, and imperfect; she is a body not yet grown, like the tabernacle, an imperfect thing.

This we see in Revelation 2-3. Every church there is noted for sins, or afflictions, or both. If we take these churches to be types, the proof is most convincing. If not (for I am persuaded God has finished teaching his church by types; for, as Hebrews 1:2 says, “In these last and latter days he speaks unto us by his Son, whom he hath made heir of all things”), yet since no church was more famous than those, and they nevertheless had blemishes and frailties in plenty, it gives warrant here and strengthens the point we have in hand.

Hence comes the church’s confession here of both sin and sorrow. Hence Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:9, speaking of the church’s condition, “We know in part, and prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.” Hence it is said in 1 John 1:8, “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”

The causes why God will have it so are these.

Reason 1. In regard to outward infirmities, that we might be made conformable to his Son (Rom 8:17), and so reign with him, being first made suitable to the body. Christ was to be like us in all things, sin excepted, and to partake with us in flesh and blood, that he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil (Heb 2:14). And we are to partake of him and his afflictions, that so we may come to partake of the divine nature and be all dressed alike, as servants of the same master.

2. In respect of outward and inward infirmities, both because God’s glory is seen in our infirmities (2 Cor 12:7), his grace being sufficient to uphold us, and also because our weakness commends his strength, and our folly his wisdom.

3. Because he would draw us out of the earth, and have us hasten to accomplish the marriage and come away, he sends us so many crosses and so little rest in the flesh.

4. Again, because God would have us humble, patient, and compassionate people, none of which we would be unless our state were imperfect. We would never know ourselves, our brethren, and God unless it were so, that on both sides we saw the prints of our imperfections.

The use is twofold.

Use 1. Is this so? Learn these lessons. First, if we are of the church, confess as much. No one is more ready to charge the church than she is to confess her infirmities. She never hides them, she never justifies them. She is black, she has afflictions, she did not keep her own vine, she lacks knowledge, affection, discretion, love. She never denies it, but confesses all freely from her heart. She does not hide her sin, but tells what she is and what she has done, that so she may give glory to the Lord God of Israel.

And indeed, it does much for the honor of Christ, and commends his grace, that he, such a king, will set his heart and his eye upon such a deformed, slovenly woman as the world takes her to be. It makes for the comfort of her poor children, and greatly steadies them, when they hear the church in all ages, and in her Abraham, David, and Paul, saying, “I am black”; I have affliction and corruption as well as others. It serves to silence all insolent daughters who would upbraid her; an honest confession stops their mouths and puts them all to silence. It greatly quickens her to the use of the means, and makes her cry, “Show me, O thou whom my soul loveth, where thou feedest” (Song 1:7), and makes her seek her comfort in Christ Jesus.

Oh, it does her good to receive the sentence of death, shame, poverty, damnation, in herself, that so she may be found in Christ, arrayed with the rich robes of his righteousness. Hence her plain-hearted openness in her confession. Let us do the like, and leave it to the harlot and whore of Babylon to say of herself that she is a queen, she is glorious, she cannot err. But let us say with the church, We are black. Yes, let us see it, let us speak it with sorrow, with shame, as the saints have done, and be so affected with our condition that it truly humbles us and causes us to say, “It is the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed” (Lam 3:22).

And let us so confess it in ourselves that we pity others and bear with them, though they are full of sins and miseries. Let us so confess it that we stir up others by it to run, as Paul did, and to use the ordinances with all diligence: to pray much, to read much, to hear, to confer, to advise, and to be humble and sincere. A verbal confession of frailties, without humility, mercy, and diligence, without the use of the means, is hypocrisy. If we will speak with the church, we must feel what we say, and so well understand ourselves and our condition that we may gain humility, mercy, and watchfulness by it.

Use 2. In the second place, thirst after heaven, or rather, after the day of resurrection. Well may it be called the day of refreshing, the day of marriage. Till then the church is parched by the sun and not half tried; till then she is accompanied by various imperfections in her outward part. The saints are subject to aches and shames; their bodies are vile and corruptible, and though in the grave they are free from pain, yet they are not free from dishonor.

There are many imperfections within the soul: conflicts, corruptions, temptations, fears, sorrows, and the like. There are imperfections also in her company: she is not taken out of the world; she has her dwelling in the tents of Kedar, and meets with hypocrites, atheists, persecutions, devils. There are imperfections in her means: she sees but in a glass, she beholds Christ but through a window; she is in prison and speaks through it. And there are imperfections in her services: repentance, faith, prayer. And there are imperfections in her parts and members: some members are not yet called, and it grieves her; some who are called are very sickly, weak, headstrong. The best on earth are imperfect, and those in heaven are not perfected till we come also (Heb 12:23). Indeed, Christ himself, as head of the body, is not yet perfected in his members and in his church, which is his fullness, as Paul says (Eph 1:23).

Oh then, since nothing in the church attains its perfection till that day, since Christ calls, Come away, that head and members may have the same glory together, since the creatures here and all the saints cry, Come, let us so well understand our condition here and there, and the difference between them, that we too may say, Come, fly, my beloved, and be like the roe, that so all the shadows may fly away. And therefore let us not only pray and hasten ourselves, but hasten others also, so that the harvest may be ripe when we sow early.

Well, then, she yields that she is black, but still she is not discouraged. She will not be put down; she is comely for all her blackness; she will still go to Christ, as the verse tells us. From this learn:

Doctrine 2. Though our condition here is imperfect, yet we must not be discouraged. God’s children must so see their sins and sorrow for them that, though they are thereby sent to humiliation, they may yet retain hope of mercy. So the church does: “All this is come upon us, yet have we not forgotten thee, neither have we dealt falsely in thy covenant; our heart is not turned back …” (Ps 44:17). So in Isaiah 63:17, though the church was hard-hearted, yet she goes to Christ to bemoan herself: “Oh Lord, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return, O Lord …”; yet she conceives hope.

This was Samuel’s counsel to the people: “Fear not: ye have done all this wickedness: yet turn not aside from following the Lord, but serve the Lord with all your heart” (1 Sam 12:20-21). And David likewise said to his soul, “Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou discouraged within me? yet trust in God” (Ps 42:11). Paul’s practice is the same: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me? …” (Rom 7:24). Then he answers, “I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 7:25). Thus you see the point is plain; now for the reasons.

Reason 1. We have a great and mighty deliverer. He loves his children in the midst of all their deformities. Like a good father, he cares tenderly for us in our weaknesses of soul and body; and as a father pities his child the more for being sick, so here he calls her, for all this, “O thou fairest amongst women …” (Song 1:8).

2. He is able to help them in all conditions; his grace is still sufficient, and he has present help. Why should the child be dismayed by pain, when the Father can remove it at his pleasure?

3. The saints of God in all ages have gone through imperfections; they have been sick, poor, doubting, given to passion, as well as we. God has brought them to heaven, to happiness, through all storms, though in their life they cried, “We are black,” we are forsaken. And why should we fear to wade through those waters where all who went before us have escaped?

4. Uprightness may stand with imperfection; some gold may be among earth. As the church shows here, beauty and deformity may stand together, some light and some darkness. Now God bids the upright hope and rejoice, and says he is blessed (Ps 23:6).

5. Lastly, because the effects of discouragement are too bad, such as fretting (Ps 42:11). Indeed, this not only keeps out praises but causes neglect of all the ordinances, drives one from God, and makes one fierce, envious, comfortless, powerless, and the like.

Use 1. This is to humble ourselves for our weakness; for, alas, how soon we are swooning and discouraged! Every slight affliction, corruption, or temptation dismays us and puts us to silence. If storms fall and winds blow, if the flesh stirs and Satan is busy, our faith trembles and our hearts are shaken. We brood, we fear and suspect ourselves; we suspect God and shun his presence, and say in our haste, “We are forgotten.” This is our death. Oh, how unworthy of Christ is this conduct! How unlike the church in this place! She is charged with faults, upbraided with her lowliness, yet she holds on; she prays still. To Christ she runs; no affliction, no temptation, no corruption shall keep her from him, because nothing can keep him from her, as is shown at length in Romans 8:38. Where is our faith, strength, courage, patience? Where is the spirit of power, that we are so weak in every temptation? Truly, these faintings of spirit, these despairing questions, these violent fears, show much weakness. Let us be humbled for this; humbled, I say, but not discouraged; for even the church sometimes, sometimes Manoah, yes, even a David, have failed in this way.

Use 2. Now learn to be courageous. Are afflictions upon you? Feel them, be humbled in them, but never shrink from your hold of Christ or your hope of mercy. Be of Paul’s resolution: We are distressed, he says, but yet faint not. See God at your right hand, as David did, and therefore do not be moved. See what is gained by affliction: the inward man grows. See what is laid up for these light and short afflictions, “even a far more excellent and eternal weight of glory” (2 Cor 4:17).

Are you censured and scorned by men? Make use of it, but not to your discouragement. Remember that Christ was despised, counted a worm, judged wicked, and then say with the church, “Rejoice not against me, O my enemy, though I fall I shall rise again: When I am in darkness, the Lord he will be a light unto me” (Mic 7:8).

Are you assaulted by Satan? Cry out with Paul and bemoan yourself; but know along with this that God’s “grace is, and shall be sufficient for thee” (2 Cor 12:9), and that he has overcome. Therefore resolve, with Job, to receive from God whatever he will put upon you, yes, to die at his feet (Job 13:15).

Are you led captive by your corruptions? Mourn with Paul, but say as well, It is not I, but sin in me; “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom 7:17, 25).

It is a most worthy service to give Christ the glory of his riches in poverty, of his power in weakness, of his grace in sin, of his life in death. Then we live by faith; then we show forth the strength of the Spirit.

To this end, first learn to know yourself, what you are by nature, and what all other men are. The lack of this knowledge breeds pride, discouragement, error in judgment, mistaking and misapplication of things. Secondly, know what Christ is: how lovely, how rich, how able, how true; how willing he is to help the distressed and miserable, never adding affliction to affliction. Thirdly, see what he has done for others, and for yourself in times past.

Now set graces beside infirmities, as the church does here. When the devil upbraids you with your maims, look on your cures. When he sets before you the tempestuous dark works of the first Adam, oppose them, and lay before yourself the quiet fruit of righteousness and the peace-making reconciliation and works of Christ, the second Adam, your surety, who has paid your debts and satisfied divine justice to the full.

Further, in that the church here stands upon her comeliness, notwithstanding all her deformities and infirmities, let us learn:

Doctrine 3. There is a glory and excellence in the saints of God in the midst of all their deformities and debasements. Though they are encompassed with many miseries, yet they are glorious even in this life. Indeed, their glory is like Solomon’s curtains, not obvious to every eye; like Kedar’s tents, or a heap of wheat in the chaff, outwardly base but inwardly excellent.

Their life is sanctified indeed, and they live the life of grace. Hence they are termed glory (Isa 4:5). Hence, after their misery, it is promised that they should be as the wings of a dove, covered with silver, and her feathers with yellow gold (Ps 68:13). Hence they are called princes in all lands (Ps 45:16), all glorious within, and said to be of excellent beauty. Hence their beauty is termed a holy beauty (Ps 110:3). Yes, what is said of the church of Smyrna may be said of every church: She is poor, but rich (Rev 2:9). And what Paul says of the apostles may be said of all: they are poor and rich, base and honorable, dying and yet living, having nothing and yet possessing all things (2 Cor 6:8 and following). And why?

Reason 1. It must be so, for being converted, they obtain a new name (Rev 2:17). Yes, they have this peculiar favor granted, to be called the “sons of God” (1 John 3:1). This is set down with a “behold,” so that we may admire the wonderful love of God and the excellency of the saints, who are also called princes on earth (Ps 45:16).

2. They have a new nature, being made partakers of the image of God, and so of the divine nature, as it is written, “having escaped that corruption which is in the world through lust” (2 Pet 1:4).

3. They have a new estate. Christ Jesus makes them free (John 8:36), and he also makes them rich, supplying all their wants with the riches of his glory. As the prophet says in Psalm 4:3, “But know that the Lord hath set apart him that is godly for himself.”

4. Lastly, they have a new kindred and guide. God is their Father; they are members of Christ (1 Cor 12:13); they are “led by the Spirit of God” (Rom 8:14). God dwells in them, and the Spirit of glory rests upon them even in affliction (1 Pet 4:14), and fills them with glorious faith and precious graces.

Use 1. This first reveals a wonderful blindness in us, who can see no such thing in the saints of God. Christians shine in the world as stars in a dark night, and as far excel all others as grain excels weeds and chaff; yes, as far as lilies and roses excel thorns and briars. And yet we cannot see it, unless we find riches, titles, fashions, wit and beauty to grace them. We see no beauty in them; we do not regard or reverence them; we neglect, no, despise them. Oh fleshly hearts, oh carnal eyes, that can see nothing but outward trinkets and toys! How we stick in the outward mud of this world, we who serve only the world! How we judge by the outward appearance! How carnal, to hold the glorious faith of Christ with partiality toward persons (Jude 16)! How blind we are, who cannot see the sunshine, and see no excellency in those whom all the glorious angels serve, whom the King of glory terms “the fairest of women”!

Brethren, what shall I say to you? If your eyes are so blinded that you cannot see that the church is like Solomon’s curtains, cannot see beauty in a Christian’s face, wisdom in his language, glory in his behavior, even in affliction, then when their happiness is revealed, it will be a proof against you that you do not have that anointing of God which teaches you all things, and that you are nothing but natural men. Therefore ask yourselves this question: “What men do I most admire and reverence, and who is most glorious in my eye?” And if the Christian is not, you have only fleshly eyes, hearts and affections. Strive and labor for reformation.

Use 2. This is comfort to saints now and hereafter. Now they are glorious, but they are still only on the way to glory: “The path of the just is as the shining light” that waxes more and more unto the perfect day (Prov 4:18). Yet their life is hid with God in Christ (Col 3:3). When Christ, which is their life, shall appear, then shall they likewise appear in glory (Col 3:4). Now they are the sons of God; but it does not appear in this world what they shall be. And if they are such now, while black, what will they be in heaven, when Christ is made glorious in them? If they are thus in their pilgrimage, what will they be at home in their own country? If thus while imperfect, what in perfection? If thus in corruption, what when this corruption shall put on incorruption? And if thus in mortality, what when mortality shall be swallowed up by life?

Thus we have heard the church’s defense of herself in her blackness. The next verse, which I cannot now speak of as I would like, contains the rest of her answer, in which she goes on to show this much: that the church and Christians, even at their worst, are not to be despised for their infirmities. This she takes for granted, as proved already, and then goes on to show the causes which produced her blackness and misery.

1. Outwardly: the sun had parched her, that is, many afflictions had overtaken her. And then, more particularly, her mother’s sons had crossed her: false hypocrites, erroneous and proud professors of religion, bearing the name of brethren, had vilified her and taken every occasion to put base drudgery upon her.

2. The second cause was inward: she kept not her own vineyard, that is, she did not tend her own soul rightly; she did not look to her own work and charge. These words do not lessen her blackness, but rather enlarge on its causes.

Thus you see the church’s mind: she thinks men should comfort and encourage her rather than despise her for her many afflictions, seeing that she so freely confesses them, and that those who are in misery ought to be comforted. Not to stand upon this, we learn from it:

Doctrine 4. We must not be forever poring over the deformities of God’s church and people, like flies on raw sores, or dogs on garbage and raw flesh. For:

Reason 1. This is a practice which utterly crosses God in his commandments, who charges us not to despise “the day of small things” (Zech 4:10).

Reason 2. This is quite against justice, for Christians have beauty as well as blackness, graces as well as corruptions.

Reason 3. This neither comes from any good nor works any good. It arises from pride, ignorance and the like, and shows that a man knows neither his own estate nor God’s proceedings with his people, who brings them to honor through baseness, and puts the glory of the world to shame with base things.

Use 1. This condemns those Christians who keep their eyes continually on the blackness of the church, who are of three sorts.

First, papists, who deck out a whore and call her Christ’s spouse, and in the meantime despise the church of Christ for her blackness and outward deformities.

Secondly, it is against those who stumble as much at our inward deformities as these do at our outward debasements, at our discipline, preaching, ministry, sacraments, calling and ordinances, as though all were antichristian. Why will such men not see white with black, good with bad? We confess that in our church, as in every visible church, there are grain and tares, fish good and bad, sometimes children, sometimes bastards, sons only on the mother’s side. We never knew it to be otherwise in any church.

Thirdly, this is against those who, like bats, can see to fly only in the dark. The prosperity of Christians they cannot see, nor their graces, nor comforts, nor good works, so as to be provoked by them to obedience. But if anyone is crossed in his profession, they speak of it; if anyone falls into sin, they remember him; if anyone suffers shipwreck, if anyone lives less comfortably or dies less cheerfully, oh, then there is work enough: “Who would be a Christian? How it makes men mopish and lumpish, and drives them out of their wits!” And where does all this come from, but from ignorance, or great hypocrisy, or malice? In love there is no such offense, as John says, and therefore to these the church speaks: “Look not upon me, because I am black” (Song 1:6).

A word only about the causes of her affliction, and then I am done. It came by her mother’s sons, such as live in the church. So we see that the church has those who afflict and persecute her even within herself. On this point see Rebekah’s sorrow and the struggling within her, two nations (Gen 25:22). Next, see how they treat her, and why. They take her by violence, force her into slavery, and exercise too much harshness over her; and the reason she perceives is her own neglect of her own business. Putting these together, we learn:

Doctrine 5. God’s children pay for it when they do not do their own work and do not keep their own post. It is with them as with soldiers and scholars who do not keep their own places and do not learn their own lessons: they are set upon from every side. And this is so,

Reason 1. Because no man fares well out of his own place, and Christians worst of all (Prov 27:8). A thousand mishaps befall a man, both himself and his charge, when he is absent. God will be upon him, and will leave him to himself until he has wound himself into woeful thickets.

Reason 2. Men will be on his back, as Paul was on Peter’s, or else will grow distant until he is humbled; but bad men will curse him, and all the hypocrites in the town will be at his heels.

Reason 3. The devil will be upon them, and having drawn them out of the way, will either keep misleading them, or else cut their throats and steal everything, or hold them back, if he possibly can, from returning to God, as in the case of the prodigal son.

Reason 4. Their own consciences will be upon them. It is with them as with a child who plays truant: his heart throbs, he has no peace. So it is with a Christian: whether he prospers or does not prosper, he has no peace; he does not eat in peace, he does not sleep in peace.

The uses are briefly two.

Use 1. Is this true? Then it teaches us, first, to do as the church does, to examine ourselves when troubles come, when the Lord sends officers to arrest us and sets dogs on us to fetch us in. When we meet stirs and storms abroad, when wicked men bark and brawl, when they tyrannize and lay tasks on us, when good men look strangely at us, when God hides his face and our consciences give us no comfort, oh, then let us ask ourselves the question: “Where am I? What have I done? Where have I been negligent?” This, this is what God aims at. Therefore he makes our paths uncomfortable, so that we should examine our boasts; therefore he turns wicked men loose, so that we might inquire. This is what will work patience in us in all provocations, drive us to repentance, and bring us home. This will make a man lay his face in the dust, and justify God rather than charge him foolishly.

Therefore let us not fret or chafe at men, at their pride, malice and the like, but say, Why does a living man fret? He suffers for sin (Lam 3:39). Say with the church here, “I kept not mine own vine: and this hath hurt me.” And then, however much God’s people may sometimes smart for not keeping their vines and performing their own duties, yet those crosses do not sting, but comfort. Before long they abound with joy, peace, and increase of love and watchfulness, which for the most part are let in by former negligences.

God saw his people drowsy, worldly and complacent, and therefore was constrained to send persecution; so that if evils are upon us, we have cause to say, “I kept not mine own vine,” and, “There was a time when I was idle all day in the vineyard and did nothing, and I am still too negligent.”

Use 2. Here see what is the best way to prevent crosses. All crosses are rods, as Christ speaks in the gospel, and scourges. Now if a child will do well, what father will whip him? If we will learn the lessons of our salvation, of Christ, God will not scourge us. If we would follow the shepherd and not stray, what need is there for dogs to run at us? Why then, let us know the duties of our place and do them, and keep ourselves close to them, for all our safety, peace and comfort lie there.

Our place is a ship on the seas. Now we fail in our course in two ways. First, by outrunning our callings. We grow too far overbusy, and indeed this most besets the church in her first beginning. She is then too nimble with others, and too busy; her zeal, as she thinks, carries her captive.

Secondly, by running too slowly. This besets Christians of riper years. After a while they slacken, cooling quickly. It is with us as with children, so eager to go to school at first that there is no quiet, but afterward drawn there only with difficulty. So it is with us.

Therefore amend, amend these things: turn neither to the right hand nor the left, for if you do, you are likely to smart for it. Then up, and to your callings, as Christians, as masters, as servants, as magistrates, as husbands, as wives. Everyone has a vine to look to; look to your callings. And then, whatever befalls you, if you suffer not as evil doers, blessed are you (1 Pet 3:14).

Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth: for thy love is better than wine (Song 1:2).

The Holy Spirit is pleased here to condescend to our infirmities. So that we might help ourselves in our spiritual state by our bodies, he speaks here of heavenly things in an earthly manner, and with a comforting mystery. As in other places the Holy Spirit sets out the joys of heaven by a sweet banquet, so here he sets out the union we have with Christ by the union of the husband with the wife. And so that we might better understand what this union is, he condescends to our weakness, that we might see in a mirror what we, through our corruptions, cannot otherwise discern.

This book is nothing else but a plain demonstration and setting forth of the love of Christ to his church, and of the love of the church to Christ. It does this so familiarly and plainly that the Jews take great offense at it, and would not have anyone read this book until they have come to the age of thirty years, lest they should be tempted by it to unchastity. In this they would seem wiser than God himself.

But the Holy Spirit is pleased in this way to set out, by bodily things, these spiritual things that are of a higher nature, so that by thinking of and tasting the one, people might be stirred up to transfer their affections (which in youthful age are most strong) from the heat of natural love to spiritual things, to the things of God. And all those who are spiritually minded (for whom chiefly the Scriptures were written) will take special comfort and instruction from it, though others take offense and scandal at it. So here, the union between Christ and his spouse is so familiarly and vividly set forth by the union between the husband and the wife that, though ungodly men might take offense at it, yet the godly may be bettered by it.

“Let him kiss…” These words are the words of the spouse to Christ, and they contain two particulars.

First, an earnest desire, in these words, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.”

In this note three parts.

First, the person desiring, the church.

Secondly, the person desired, Christ.

Thirdly, the things desired, an intimate kiss of his mouth.

Secondly, the ground of the desire, drawn from the excellency of the thing desired, in these words, “For thy love is sweeter than wine.”

From the whole in general observe a spiritual contract between Christ and his church. There is a civil contract between man and wife, and the spiritual contract between Christ and his church bears a firm resemblance to it.

1. For this civil contract to hold, both parties must consent. So it is between Christ and his spouse. He was so in love with mankind that he has taken our nature on himself; and this his incarnation is the ground of all our union with Christ. First, his incarnation is the cause or ground of our union with him in grace here; and, secondly, our union in grace is the ground of our union in glory. Now, so that we may be a spouse to him, he gives us his Spirit to testify his love to us, that we might give our consent to him in return, and also that we might be made a fit spouse for him.

2. Likewise in marriage there is a sharing of all good things. So it is here. Christ here in this spiritual contract gives himself, and with himself all good things. The Spirit is the church’s. His happiness is the church’s. His graces are the church’s. His righteousness is the church’s. In a word, all his privileges and prerogatives are the church’s; as the apostle says, All things are Christ’s, and Christ is yours (1 Cor 3:21); for all are Christ’s, and all that are Christ’s are yours by this spiritual contract.

This excellency is set down by the prophet Hosea toward the end of his second chapter, where, speaking of this spiritual contract between Christ and his church, he says that in that day, when he shall marry her to himself in faithfulness, he will make a covenant for her with all creatures, with the beasts of the field, the fowls of heaven, and all that creep on the earth (Hos 2:18 and following). So upon this contract there comes in a league between the church and all the creatures. All that he has done, all that he has suffered, is by this contract made ours. We have the benefit of it all.

Objection. But what do we have to give him in return?

Answer. Nothing at all, neither portion nor proportion, beauty nor riches, but our miserable and lowly condition that he took on himself.

Use. This is a wellspring of much comfort and a ground of much duty.

1. Christ, who has all things, condescended so far to us, into so near a league, as to take us to be his spouse. What then can we lack when we are at the fountain of all things? We can lack no protection, for that is the covering of this well. We can lack no good thing that he will not supply. We have free access to him, as the wife has to her husband. Who has free access to the husband if the wife does not? So who has free access to Christ but the spouse?

Objection. Yes, but we have infirmities.

Answer. True indeed; but shall a man bear with his wife because she is the “weaker vessel” (1 Pet 3:7), and shall not Christ much more bear with his spouse? Here then is our chief comfort, that this union, this contract, is not for a time, but forever: “I have married thee unto myself for ever” (Hos 2:19). And therefore we shall never lack protection, or direction, or anything that is good for us.

2. Now, the duty on our part is to love him in return with a mutual love and an obedient love; to honor him as Sarah did Abraham, by calling him Lord (1 Pet 3:6); and to show it by doing what he would have you do, and by suffering what he would have you suffer.

To come to particulars.

First, of the person desiring, “Let him kiss me.”

“Me” is here the speech of the whole church, and so of every particular member who is the spouse of Christ.

Doctrine. All Christian favors belong to all Christians alike. We have one faith, one baptism, one Spirit. As every Christian may say “me,” so may the whole church, and every Christian as well as the church. All Christian privileges belong to all alike.

Use 1. Take comfort in this, then, that whatever belongs to the church in general belongs to every member in particular.

Use 2. This teaches us to reason from one spiritual thing to another, as thus: Abraham believed, “and it was counted to him for righteousness” (Rom 4:22); and therefore if I believe I shall be counted righteous. David sinned, and David repented and found mercy; and therefore if I… So all privileges belong alike to all Christians. Every Christian soul is the spouse of Christ as the whole church is.

Therefore St. Paul sets himself forward as an example to all who would believe in Christ. God had mercy on him (1 Tim 1:16), and therefore he encourages all to come to Christ by this, that he will have mercy on you as he had on him. Whatever is promised to the whole church, apply that to your own soul in particular; and whatever is required of the whole church, that is required of you in particular by Christ, if you are a member.

But though in spiritual favors all have a like portion, yet it is not so in outward things; for some are rich, some are poor, some honorable, some lowly. But in the best privileges and best gifts there is an equal extending to all alike, to the poor Christian as well as to the rich, to the one who is lowly in the eye of the world as well as to the one who is honorable.

Secondly, of the person desired, “Let him.”

Many court the spouse, such as the devil, the world, and the flesh. The devil and carnal persons court the soul to draw her away from Christ, but she still looks to Christ. “Let him kiss me.” She does not go, as the papists do, to Peter and Paul, but to Christ, and to Christ alone. He “is my well-beloved, and I am his” (Song 2:16); he is my own special possession, and I am his special possession; “none have I in heaven but him, and there is none that I desire in comparison of him” (Ps 73:25). He has singled me out, and I have singled him out: “Let him kiss me.”

Thirdly, of the thing desired, “Let him kiss me…”

The thing desired is a kiss. There are various sorts of kisses spoken of in Scripture. There is a kiss of superiors to inferiors, and of inferiors to superiors. There is a holy kiss (Rom 16:16; 1 Cor 16:20), and a hypocritical kiss, as of Joab to Amasa (2 Sam 20:9) and of Judas to Christ (Matt 26:49). There are kisses of love; so Jonathan kissed David (1 Sam 20:41). There are also kisses of subjection, as “Kiss ye the Son” (Ps 2:12). But here is the kiss of a superior to an inferior.

“Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth,” that is, let him show me further testimony of his love by his presence; let me enjoy still further communion with him; let him further assure me of his love.

Consider what the church meant. Although she had an interest in this spiritual contract and covenant from the first, yet the church, according to the different stages of time, had different degrees of desire to be further and further assured of his love. As in Solomon’s time, so before, from the beginning, there was a desire in the church for the kisses of Christ, that is, that he would come in our nature, and that he would manifest little by little, clearer and clearer, his coming in the flesh.

And accordingly he did reveal himself by degrees: first in paradise, The seed of the woman shall break the serpent’s head (Gen 3:15); then to Abraham, “In thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gen 12:3). After that he revealed himself to one tribe (Gen 49:10), the tribe of Judah (Heb 7:14); then to one family of that tribe, the house of David (Luke 1:27); then a virgin shall conceive (Isa 7:14); and after that he was pointed out by the finger of John the Baptist, “Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). So you see how Christ revealed himself more and more by degrees to his church.

Corresponding to these degrees were the desires of the church for the coming of Christ, as the prophet Isaiah says, “Come down and break the heavens” (Isa 64:1); and then it was prophesied of by those who waited for the consolation of Israel. So before Christ came in the flesh the church had a longing desire for his incarnation, as here, “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth.”

But that is not all. For she knew this would not be until the last days, and therefore she desires some further means of acquaintance with him and knowledge of him, desiring that he would manifest himself more and more by his word, by his grace, and by his Spirit. And therefore, as then the desire of the church was for the coming of Christ, so now what Christians desire and long for is to go to him, that they may remain with him in glory. They love his appearing; but because this shall not be yet, though the church is still in expectation of it, she therefore desires to hear his words, and to have him kiss her with his mouth in his word.

But this is not all. Let me find his Spirit now walking with me here, she says, and further, let him “kiss me with his mouth,” by increasing his graces in me, manifesting his love to me more and more. This is the desire of the church, and of every Christian soul, that Christ would thus kiss her; that he would reveal himself every day more and more to her, in his word, in his sacraments, by his Spirit, by his graces, by increasing them. This is the desire of the church and of every Christian soul, that Christ would thus “kiss her with the kisses of his mouth.”

Now we have come to the ground of this desire, taken from the excellency of the love of Christ, which is here said, by the experience of the whole church and of every Christian soul, to be “sweeter than wine.”

From this we note two things.

Doctrine 1. Every Christian soul, and the spouse in general, has a sweet taste of the love of Christ even in this life.

Doctrine 2. After this contract and taste of this love, she always has springing up in her a further desire for the increase and manifestation of it.

Doctrine 1. For the first: after the betrothal contract there is a greater manifestation of love than there was before, yet not a full manifestation of love until after the marriage. So Christ gives his spouse a taste of his love here, and sends love-tokens to her, some graces by which his love is made more manifest than before (as Isaac sent to Rebekah some jewels and bracelets to manifest his love to her, Gen 24:53). Yet though he does this, his love is not fully manifested in this life, but is kept until the great wedding celebration. Christ cannot delight in the spouse unless she is adorned with his graces, and therefore he gives them to her; and these are not only a taste of his favors, but the fruit of his favors.

There are various reasons.

Reason 1. It is to solace their long absence, so that they may not faint, but, having a sweet taste of his love here, may rest their hearts on it until the day when he will fully manifest his love to them. The Lord sees that his children are prone to be weighed down with heaviness here; therefore he gives them a taste of his love here, so that by it they might be comforted when nothing else can.

Reason 2. The Lord gives his children a sweet taste of his love here so that when they fall away through weakness and frailty and lose their first love, then by their former taste they might return and recover themselves again, considering how sweet and how strong that love was which they once enjoyed from Christ; and by this they might say with the church, “I will return…” (Hos 2:7).

Reason 3. It is because the manifestation of this his love wonderfully strengthens a Christian to go lightly through the heaviest affliction; for when Christ assures a Christian of his love, then, though affliction will seem grievous, he will go through it all; he will suffer whatever befalls him for Christ’s sake with joy.

Reason 4. Lastly, Christ gives his church, and so every Christian, a taste of his love in this life because he knows we have many temptations in this world which are ready to steal away our affections, such as carnal pleasures, riches, honors, and the like. Now, so that these might not draw away our affections, he gives us a taste of his love, which is better than all other things, “which is sweeter than wine,” that by this our affections might be preserved chaste to him. So then Christ gives us, his spouse, a sweet taste of his love in this life, so that afflictions on our left hand might not press us down too much and discourage us, nor the pleasures and delights on our right hand steal our hearts away from him.

Use. This is to teach us to wonder at the goodness of God in this, that he is pleased so to provide for us as to keep us from being too much overcome with heaviness through the multitude of temptations and afflictions to which we are subject in this life, expelling their bitterness with the sweetness of his love, and thereby preserving our affections chaste to himself.

Now we come to the second doctrine.

Doctrine 2. The church (and so every Christian), after this contract and taste of Christ’s love, has evermore springing up in them an insatiable desire for a further taste and assurance of his love.

There are two reasons for this doctrine.

Reason 1. It is taken from the nature of true love, which is never satisfied. And hence it is that though Christ gives his spouse a taste of his love in his word, by sending his ambassadors, his ministers, with his love letters, the gospel of peace, giving a taste of his love in it, and also by his Spirit, by his sacraments, by his graces, yet all this will not satisfy her soul. Rather, Christ having once manifested his love to her, there is a continual desire to have a further taste and assurance of it.

Reason 2. It is drawn from Christ’s infinite riches, for he is infinite in his glory, in his power, in his beauty, in his pleasures and joys, and the like. He has all things: “All power is given him in heaven and in earth” (Matt 28:18). He is every way infinite in himself; and hence it is that the spouse has an infinite desire to have a further taste of his love and a nearer communion with him.

So you see that whether we regard the nature of love, which is never satisfied, or whether we consider his infinite riches, both make this truth plain, that there is an insatiable desire in a Christian to be further filled with, and more fully assured of, the love of Christ. Where grace is, there is a further desire for growth in grace. It is a higher degree of love to desire to enjoy the presence of Christ than to enjoy heaven itself; but this will not be yet.

Use 1. Therefore let us test our love by our laboring for that sight of Christ which we may have, as in his ordinances, where he manifests himself in a special manner. Is it the great grief of your soul that you are shut out from the presence of Christ in his ordinances, from the congregation of the saints, where by intimate kisses he is accustomed to manifest his love to you more and more?

I can only wonder that some persons dare to take on themselves the name of Christianity, and yet think that people are too holy. These lack this mark of a Christian, namely, a further desire for the manifestation of Christ’s love. Many of them neglect the ordinances of God, or if they do come there, they do not desire further inward kisses of his love, but content themselves with the outward.

When the Spirit should witness and seal up the love, the love of Christ, to their souls by an inward kiss, they content themselves only with the outward, the bare hearing of the word. But where this further desire for intimacy with Christ is not found, there is only a barren soul; there is no taste of Christ’s love. If there were a taste, there would be a further desire for growth in that love.

There are some who make a profession of religion, like many who marry to cloak their adultery; so these profess Christ to cover their strong covetousness and strong faults, that they may have the more strength to commit sin. We must not content ourselves with these outward kisses, but give the outward man, and so also sacrifice the inward man (Rom 7:22), the soul, to God.

Let those who find, after this testing, these desires springing up in them, comfort themselves in this, that they are Christ’s, and Christ shall manifest his love more and more to them. For God has promised to grant the desires of the righteous (Ps 37:4). Do you then have a longing desire for a further taste of the love of Christ? Use the means, and then be sure that Christ will manifest his love more and more to your soul.

Use 2. This is for exhortation and spiritual direction on how we shall come to a further assurance, sign, and fruit of Christ’s love. If we desire this, we must labor to have, first, chaste judgments, and secondly, chaste affections. That is, a chaste judgment, kept from error, heresy, and schism, and our affections chaste, kept from the world, from pleasures, and the like. For Christ is wonderfully jealous of our judgments and of our love. Therefore Paul desires to present the Corinthians as a “pure virgin unto Christ” (2 Cor 11:2).

So then, as we must love goodness, so we must profess truth. We must have chaste judgments as well as chaste affections. The spouse of Christ, as she is pure in affections, so she is pure in judgment; she hears his voice and follows him. Whatever does not come from the word, do not receive it, but reject it. So much for the judgment.

So likewise labor for chaste affections. Christ will not have us divide our affections, partly for him and partly for the world, or partly for pleasures and partly for him. He will not have it so. He will have the whole heart and the whole affections, or he will have neither heart nor affections.

If we give our hearts to the world or to the pleasures of the world, the love of which is enmity with God (Jas 4:4), then we have an adulterous heart; and to do this is a double sin. As for a wife to commit whoredom is a double sin (there is adultery, and there is breach of the marriage covenant), so to embrace the world after we are contracted to Christ is spiritual whoredom and a breach of our covenant in spiritual contract. Beware of worldly-mindedness, which will glue your affections to the earth and will not allow them to be lifted up to Christ. Beware of the pleasures of the world, lest they drown your soul, as they do the souls of many who profess themselves to be Christians.

Use 3. If we will grow in the assurance of the love of Christ, and have more intimate kisses of his mouth, then let us labor to get a humble heart, by searching out our own unworthiness in respect of what we are, or were by nature. Indeed, we may damage our reputation by abasing ourselves before men, but we can never be too much humbled before our Savior in acknowledging ourselves unworthy of all that we have.

There is no danger in thus debasing ourselves before our Savior; no, it is for our honor with God. For those who thus honor him he will honor with his graces; for he gives grace to the humble, and with such a spirit he delights to dwell (Isa 66:2). Let us then with humility acknowledge all to be from his free grace, and with Jacob acknowledge ourselves to be less than the least of his mercies (Gen 32:10).

Use 4. If we will grow in the assurance of the love of Christ, we must give Christ no peace. Take no refusal from him until he has given you the kisses of his love. Many times he delays the manifesting of his love. What of it? Still wait on his pleasure, for he has waited long for you.

We see what a stir Mary Magdalene made when she could not find Christ. He, having manifested himself to her at the beginning, at length calls her by her name, asking what she wept for and whom she sought (John 20:15-16). Give him no rest, take no denial, until he answers you, for he will do it.

What did the woman of Canaan do? She gave him no rest until he turned to her (Matt 15:22 and following). Jacob wrestled with God, and would not let him go until God had assured him of his love and favor (Gen 32:24 and following). He has promised to grant the desires of the righteous (Ps 37:4). Has he given us such strong desires for him? Then continue constantly pressing him in prayer, and he cannot hold out against us long; he cannot deny us some further assurance of his love.

Use 5. Again, take everything to your advantage, such as his former love and favor, his power, fidelity, and stability. Take advantage from these, and plead for your desires, as the woman of Canaan did. Christ counts her a dog (Matt 15:26). I am indeed, she says. She takes advantage of his words, and by them pleads for her desire. As the servants of Ben-hadad catch at words of comfort from Ahab (1 Kgs 20:33), so continually take advantage from your own experience: He has been good to me in this way and that; I have enjoyed these means and those, and in this way and that they have worked for my good; I will therefore follow him now until he assures me of his love in a further degree.

Use 6. Again, consider that you must be modest in your desires of this kind. Desire no great matter at the first. I mean, do not desire full assurance of the love of Christ at the first, but observe the degrees of his kisses and of the manifestation of his love. The thief on the cross desired only to be remembered by Christ when he came into his kingdom (Luke 23:42), which was no great matter. So you too should desire any taste of his love, however little. Indeed, this is what the children of God do. First they desire the pardon of their sins, and having obtained this, they grow more and more in desiring the graces of the Spirit, as seals to assure them of the pardon of their sins, and of his love to them, and of nearer communion with him.

Objection. But this communion is not always felt.

Answer 1. I answer that if Christ is a stranger to us, it is from ourselves, not from Christ; for he is all love. It is either because our loose hearts run after some carnal satisfaction, and then it is no wonder if Christ shows himself a stranger to us, and we go mourning all the day long without a sense of his love.

2. Or else it is when we will not seek his kisses, a further taste of his love, as we should, in his ordinances, nor exercise the graces we have as we should, in attending on the ordinance, resting by faith on God’s promise for a blessing.

3. Or else we are so negligent that we do not stir up those graces of God in us by private duties.

4. Or else we join ourselves to evil company, or to persons led by an evil spirit. These are the causes why Christ is a stranger to us.

5. Or else it is to exercise and test our faith, and to let us see ourselves and our own weakness. In this way he left Peter. Otherwise, it is Christ’s very nature to manifest himself and his love by intimate kisses of his mouth. Search your hearts, and you will find that these and similar things are the causes why Christ is a stranger to you, and why you have no sense of your communion with him.

Use 7. Consider, again, when it is, at what time it is that we have the sweetest kisses and are most refreshed with Christ’s love. Is it not when we put our strength to good means, as when we strive with God in prayer, and labor in humility to use all his ordinances rightly and profitably? Mark these two things well, as a means to preserve and increase the assurance of Christ’s love in you.

First, how you fall into deadness, and the causes of it.

Secondly, how you come to have most communion with Christ, and at what time, and after what duties performed. Can you say, I was dead in this way and that, and without any sense of Christ’s love, but now I am comforted and refreshed in this way and that? It was either when you denied yourself something your heart was strongly set on, or when you had been most careful in holy duties. If we deny ourselves anything our hearts are strongly set on, because it hinders us in holy ways, God will be sure to repay us abundantly in spiritual things, yes, and many times in temporal things as well.

Use 8. Consider, again: when I was afflicted and had no one else to comfort me, then the Lord was most sweet to me, then he refreshed my soul with a sense of his love.

These things may help us much in getting a further assurance of Christ’s love. Be stirred up, then, to desire to be where Christ is, and to have the kisses of his love in his ordinances, as further testimonies of his favor, and never rest from desiring to increase in grace and communion with Christ. So you will never lack assurance of a good state, nor comfort in any good state.

Cast such a man into a dungeon, and he has paradise there. Why? Because Christ comes to him. And if we have this communion with Christ, then though we are surrounded by death, it cannot frighten us, because the great God is with us (Ps 23:4). Do with such a one what you will; cast him into hell, if that were possible; having sweet communion with Christ, he will still be joyful. And the more sense we have of the love of Christ, the less we shall regard the pleasures or riches of the world. For what joy can be compared with this, that the soul has communion with Christ? All the world is nothing in comparison.

Now, then, seeing that you cannot repay this love of Christ, yet show your love to Christ by manifesting love to his members, to the poor, and especially to such poor as have the church of God in their families. As the woman poured oil on the head of Christ, so we shall do well to pour some oil on the feet of Christ. What we would do to him if he were here, let us do to his members, that by this we may further our communion with Christ.