SECTION I. Of Christ's indictment, and Judas's fearful end.......... 66 II. Of Christ's mission to Herod, and the transactions there..... 354 III. Of Christ and Barabbas compared, and of the question de- IV. Of Christ stripped, whipped, clothed in purple, and crowned SECTION I. Of the time of Christ's resurrection..... II. Of the reasons of Christ's resurrection. II. Of considering Jesus in that respect III. Of desiring Jesus in that respect. IV. Of hoping in Jesus in that respect.. V. Of believing in Jesus in that respect.. VI. Of loving Jesus in that respect... VII. Of joying in Jesus in that respect 66 .... V. Of the two natures wherein Christ sits at God's right hand.. 501 VI. Of the reasons why Christ doth sit on God's right hand...... SECTION I. Of knowing Jesus as carrying on the great work of our salva- tion in his ascension, session, and mission of the Spirit .. 522 V. What an agreement there is betwixt Christ's intercession and the intercessions of the high priests of old ............. 560 VI. What the difference is betwixt Christ's intercessions and the ΠΙ Page VI. Of Christ and the saints judging the rest of the world..... 626 VII. Of Christ and his saints going up into heaven, and of the end IX. Of Christ's subjection to the Father, that God may be all in all 647 X. Of Christ, notwithstanding this, being all in all to the blessed, CHAPTER II. SECTION I. Of knowing Jesus, as carrying on the great work of our sal- LOOKING UNTO JESUS. THE FIRST BOOK. CHAPTER I. Looking unto Jesus, the beginner and finisher of our faith. - Heb. 12: 2. THE PROEM, DIVISION, AND OPENING OF THE WORDS. THE most excellent subject to discourse or write of, is JESUS CHRIST. Augustine, having read Cicero's works, commended them for their eloquence; but he passed this sentence upon them, "They are not sweet, because the name of Jesus is not in them." And Bernard's saying is near the same, "If thou writest, it doth not relish with me, unless I read Jesus there; if thou disputest or conferrest, it doth not relish well with me, unless Jesus sound there." Indeed all we say is but unsavory, if it be not seasoned with this salt, "I determined not to know any thing among you, (saith Paul,) save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." He resolved with himself, before he preached among the Corinthians, that this should be the only point of knowledge that he would profess himself to have skill in; and that, in the course of his ministry he would labor to bring them to this he made "the breadth, and length, and depth, and height of his knowledge;" "yea, doubtless, (saith he,) and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord." Eph. 3: 18. Phil. 3: 8. In this knowledge of Christ, there is an excellency above all other knowledge in the world; there is nothing more pleasing and comfortable, more animating and enlivening, more ravishing and soul contenting; only Christ is the sun and centre of all divine revealed truths, we can preach nothing else as the object of our faith, as the necessary element of your soul's salvation, which doth not some way or other, either meet in Christ, or refer to Christ; only Christ is the whole of man's happiness, the Sun to enlighten him, the Physician to heal him, the Wall of fire to defend him, the Friend to comfort him, the Pearl to enrich him, the Ark to support him, the Rock to sustain him under the heaviest pressures, "As an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest, as rivers of waters in a dry place, and as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land." Isa. 32:2. Only Christ is that ladder between earth and heaven, the Mediator between God and man, a mystery, which the angels of heaven desire to pry, and peep, and look into. 1 Pet. 1:12. Here is a blessed subject indeed; who would not be glad to pry into it, to be acquainted with it? "This is life eternal, to know God, and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent." John 17:3. Come then, let us look on this Sun of righteousness: we cannot receive harm but good by such a look; indeed by looking long on the natural sun, we may have our eyes dazzled, and our faces blackened; but by looking unto Jesus Christ, we shall have our eyes clearer, and our faces fairer; if "the light of the eye rejoice the heart," Prov. 15:30, how much more, when we have such a blessed object to look upon? As Christ is more excellent than all the world, so this sight transcends all other sights; it is the epitome of a Christian's happiness, the quintessence of evangelical duties, Looking unto JESUS. 1 In the text we have the act and object. The act in the original is very emphatical, aphorontes eis, the English doth not fully express it; it signifies an averting, or drawing off the eye from one object to another; there are two expressions, apo and eis; the one signifies a turning off the eye from all other objects; the other a fast fixing of the eye upon such an object, and only upon such. So it is both a looking off and a looking on. On what? that is the object, a looking unto Jesus; a title that denotes his merey and bounty, as Christ denotes his office and function. I shall not be so curious as to inquire why Jesus, and not Christ is nominated; I suppose the person is aimed at, which implies them both; only this may be observed, that Jesus is the purest gospel-name of all other names: Jesus was not the dialect of the Old Testament; the first place that ever we read of this title as given to Christ, it is in Matth. 1:21. "Thou shalt call his name JESUS, for he shall save his people from their sins." Some observe that this name JESUS was given him twice; once till death, Matth. 1:21, and afterwards for ever. Phil. 2:10. The first was a note of his entering into covenant with God, to fulfil the law for us, and to die for our sins; the second was a note of so meritorious a person, who for his humility was more exalted than any person ever hath been, or shall be. First, Jesus was the humble name of his deserving grace; now Jesus is the exalted name of his transcendent glory at first the Jews did crucify Jesus and his name; and the Apostle did then distrust, whether Jesus was the true Jesus: but now God hath raised him from the dead, and "hath highly exalted him, and given him a name above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth." Phil. 29, 10. My meaning is not to insist on this name, in contradiction to other names of Christ; he is often called Christ, and Lord, and Mediator, and Son of God, and Emmanuel; why? Jesus is all these, Jesus is Christ, as he is the anointed of God; and Jesus is the Lord, as he hath dominion over all the world; and Jesus is Mediator, as he is the reconciler of God and man; and Jesus is the Son of God, as he was eternally begotten before all worlds; and Jesus is Emmanuel, as he was incarnate, and so God with us. Only because Jesus signifies Saviour, and this name was given him upon that very account, "for he shall save his people from their sins," I shall make this my design to look at Jesus more especially as carrying on the great work of our salvation from first to last. This, indeed, is the glad tidings, the gospel, the gospel privilege, and our gospel-duty, Looking unto Jesus. |