m

arose, and entered into the city." As a prince, in his inauguration or solemn state, openeth prisons, and unlooseth many that were bound, to honour his solemnity; so did Christ do to those saints at his resurrection, and in them, gave assurance to all his of their conquest over the last enemy.

The

What a fearful condition then are all men out of Christ in, who shall have no interest in his resurrection? Rise indeed they shall", but barely by his power as their judge; not by fellowship with him as the first-fruits and first-born of the dead and therefore theirs shall not be properly, or at least comfortably a resurrection, no more than a condemned person, going from the prison to his execution, may be called an enlargement. Pharaoh's butler and baker went both out of prison, but they were not both delivered: so the righteous and the wicked shall all appear before Christ, and be gathered out of their graves; but they shall not all be children of the resurrection, for that belongs only to the just. wicked shall be dead everlastingly to all the pleasures and ways of sin, which here they wallowed in. As there remains nothing to a drunkard or adulterer, after all his youthful excesses, but crudities, rottenness, diseases, and the worm of conscience; so the wicked shall carry no worlds nor satisfactions of lust to Hell with them; their glory shall not descend after them. These things are truths written with a sunbeam in the book of God: First, That none out of Christ shall rise unto glory'; Secondly, That all who are in him, are purged from the love and power of sin', are made a people willingly obedient unto his sceptre, and the government of his grace and Spirit; and have eyes given them to see no beauty but in his kingdom; Thirdly, Hereupon it is manifest, that no unclean thing shall rise unto glory." A prince in the day of his state, or any royal solemnity, will not admit beggars or base companions into his presence. He is of purer eyes than to behold, much less to communicate with, unclean persons. None but the pure in heart shall see God. Fourthly, That every wicked man waxeth worse

and worse; that he who is filthy, grows more filthy; that sin hardeneth the heart, and infidelity hasteneth perdition. Whence the conclusion is evident, That every impenitent sinner, who, without any inward hatred and purposes of tevenge against sin, without godly sorrow forepast, and spiritual renovation for aftertimes, allows himself to continue in any course of uncleanness, spends all his time and strength to no other purpose, than only to heap up coals of juniper against his own soul, and to gather together a treasure of sins and wrath, like an infinite pile of wood to burn himself in.

m

Again, This power of Christ's resurrection is a ground of solid and invincible comfort to the faithful in any pressures or calamities, though never so desperate, because God hath. power and promises to raise them up again. This is a sufficient supportance, First, against any, either public or private afflictions. However the church may seem to be reduced to as low and uncurable an estate as dried bones in a graves, or the brands of wood in a fire; yet it shall be but like the darkness of a night, after two days he will revive again; his goings' forth in the defence of his church, are prepared as the morning. When Job was upon a dunghill, and his reins were consumed within him; when Jonah" was at the bottom of the mountains, and the weeds wrapped about his head, and the great billows and waves went over him, so that he seemed as cast out of God's sight; when David was in the midst of troubles, and Hezekiah P in great bitterness, this power of God to raise unto life again, was the only refuge and comfort they had. Secondly, Against all temptations and discomforts: Satan's trains and policies come too late, after once Christ is risen from the dead; for in his resurrection the church is discharged and set at large. Thirdly, Against death itself; because we shall come out of our graves as gold out of the fire, or miners out of their pits, laden with gold and glory at the last.

c Heb. iii. 12, 13. Deut. xxxii. 34, 35.

i Hos. vi. 2, 3. • Psal. cxxxviii. 7.

d Heb.

f Isai. xxx. 33. 1 Zach. iii. 2. p Isai. xxxviii. 7

Lastly, We must from hence learn to seek those things that are above, whither Christ is gone. Christ's kingdom s is not here, and therefore our hearts should not be here. "He is ascended on high, and hath given gifts unto ment;" as absent lovers send tokens to each other, to attract the affections, and call thither the thoughts. If Christ would have had our hearts rest on the earth, he would have continued with us here, but it is his will that we be where he is"; and therefore we must make it the main business of our life to move towards him. Things of a nature incline to one another, even to their prejudice. A stone will fall to his centre, though there be so many rubs in the way, that it is sure to be broken all into pieces in the motion. The same should be a Christian's resolution. Christ is his centre, Heaven is his country; and therefore thither he must conclude to go, notwithstanding he must be broken in the way with manifold temptations and afflictions. St. Paul desired, if it had been possible, to be clothed upon, and to have his mortality swallowed up of life, and to get whole to Heaven. But if he may not have it upon so good terms, he will not only confidently endure, but desire to be dissolved and broken to pieces, that by any means he may come to Christ; because that, being best of all, will be an abundant recompense for any intercurrent damage. It is not a loss, but a marriage and honour for a woman to forsake her own kindred and house, to go to a husband: neither is it a loss, but a preferment for the soul to relinquish for a time the body, that it may go to Christ, who hath married it unto himself for ever.

"And the fellowship of his sufferings."] This fellowship notes two things: First, a participation in the benefit of his sufferings: Secondly, a conformity of ours to his. First, his sufferings are ours; we were buried and crucified with him; and that again notes two things: First, we communicate in the price of Christ's death, covering the guilt of sin, satisfying the wrath of God, and being an expiation and propitiation for us. Secondly, in the power of his death,

cleansing our consciences from dead works, mortifying our earthly members, crucifying our old man, subduing our iniquities and corruptions, pulling down the throne of Satan", spoiling him of all his armour, and destroying the works of the Devils. And this power worketh, first, by the prophetical office of Christ, revealing; secondly, by his regal office, applying and reaching forth the power of his blood to subdue sin, as it had before triumphed over death and Satan.

But here the main point and question will be, What this mighty power of the death of Christ is thus to kill sin in us, and wherein the causality thereof consisteth? To this I answer, That Christ's death is a threefold cause of the death of sin in his members.

First, It is causa meritoria,' a meritorious cause. For Christ's death was so great a price, that it did deserve at God's hand to have our sins subdued. All power and judg ment was given unto him by his Father; and that power was given him to purchase his church withal". And this was amongst other of the covenants, that their sins should be crucified. He gave himself unto God's justice for his church; and that which by that gift he purchased, was the sanctification and cleansing of it. Now as a price is said to do that, which a man doth by the power, which that price purchased; so the blood of Christ is said to cleanse us, because the office or power, whereby he purifieth us, was referred unto him 'sub intuitu pretii,' under the condition of suffering. For it was necessary, that remission and purification should be by blood.

Secondly, It is causa exemplaris,' the death of Christ was the exemplar, pattern, and idea of our death to sin. He did bear our sins in his body on the tree, to shew, that as his body did naturally, so sin did by analogy and legally, die. Therefore the apostle saith, that "He was made sin for us 1;" to note, that not only our persons were, in God's account, crucified with him unto justification; but that sin itself did hang upon his cross with him unto mortification and holiness. In which respect St. Paul saith, that "he condemned sin in the flesh "," because he died as sin in abstracto.'

And in

f Luke xi. 22. k1 Pet. ii. 24.

this regard of mortification, we are said to be planted in the likeness of Christ's death: because as when an ambassador doth solemnize the marriage of a king with a foreign princess, that is truly effected between the parties themselves, which is transacted by the agent, and representative person to that purpose and service authorized; so Christ, being made sin for us as the sacrifice, had the sins of the people emptied upon him; and in that relation, dying, sin in itself likewise dieth in us. And there is a proportion between the death of the cross when Christ died, and the dying of sin in us. Christ died as a servant,-to note that sin should not rule, but be brought into slavery and bondage: he died a curse, to note that we should look upon sin as an accursed and devoted thing, and therefore should not with Achan hide, or reserve any he drank vinegar on his cross, to note that we should make sin feel the sharpness of God's displeasure against it: he was fast nailed unto the cross, to note that we should put sin out of ease, and leave no lust or corruption at large, but crucify the whole body thereof. Lastly, though he did not presently die, yet there he did hang till he died; to note, that we should never give over subduing sin while it hath any life or walking in us. Thus the death of Christ is the pattern of the death of sin.

Thirdly, It is causa objectiva,' an impelling or moving cause as objects are. For objects have an attractive power. Achan" saw the wedge of gold, and then coveted it. David saw Bathsheba, and then desired her°. Therefore the apostle P mentions lusts of the eye, which are kindled by the things of the world. As the strength of imagination, fixing upon a blackamoor on the wall, made the woman bring forth a black child; so there is a kind of spiritual imaginative power in faith, to crucify sin by looking upon Christ crucified. As the brazen serpent did heal those that had been bitten by the fiery serpents, tanquam objectum fidei,' merely by being looked upon; so Christ crucified doth heal sin by being looked upon with the eye of faith. Now faith looks upon Christ crucified, and bleeding; First, as the gift of his Father's love, as a token and spectacle of more unsearchable and transcendent mercy than the comprehension of the whole

n Joshua vii. 21. • 2 Sam. xi. 2, 3. P 1 John ii. 15, 16. 9 Num. xxi. 9. r Rom. v. 8.