CHAPTER III: The same continued...
respect. But Sion, considered here as the city of God, her glory spiritual, her children here spoken of born of the Spirit, and she a spiritual mother of them (as, Gal. 4:25–29, the apostle speaks), and so their birth answerable and suitable to the dignity of the mother, that she brought forth every day multitudes of saints and regenerate men, children and citizens of that Jerusalem and Sion that is above, the mother of us; her glory in God's account was ten thousand times greater than what the flower of all other nations could pretend to.
And therefore he adds that God, when he makes up his catalogue of those whom he accounts of, should pass by all theirs, and leave them out, and set them only that were regenerate and born in Sion, as the only excellent ones of the earth. As it follows, 'The Lord himself shall establish her' (as having such a royal generation for her race and progeny), 'the Lord shall write, when he counts up the people, that this man was born there.' All which the apostle alludes to, speaking of this heavenly city and her children: 'Ye are come to mount Sion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, the first-born which are written in heaven,' Heb. 12:22, 23. And this was Sion's glory and establishment then: Ps. 127, 'As arrows in the hand of a mighty man, such were the children of her youth' as these. O that such may be yours! And whilst former times have boasted they have sent forth out of such a college so many bishops, deans, &c., or famous writers, men of such and such learning and renown, the memory of whom you continue in your windows, let the glory which you affect be, that such and such a man was born again here; and blessed are the colleges that have their quiver full of them, as the psalmist there goes on. And these shall more speak for you, with your enemies in the gate, than all other arguments. 'Yea, God himself will establish you,' and these that cry, Down with her, down with her, shall not dare to attempt it, much less to effect it.
CHAPTER III
The eminent mercy of God in our regeneration appears, inasmuch as all three persons concur in it, though it be attributed, efficiently, more eminently to the Holy Ghost.
I shall farther demonstrate this truth from the solemnity that is in heaven at the effecting of this work of regeneration, in a set distinct concurrence and appearance of all three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost therein; which will yet further shew the greatness of divine mercy in this work.
This great and happy conjunction appears in Titus 3:4–6: 'But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour.' There is a distinct and conspicuous appearance of these three. The word used in the text is ἐπεφάνη, 'After that the love and kindness of God appeared.' When our Lord and Saviour was born, it is said his star appeared, Mat. 2:7.
The same word is used; and the remembrance thereof, the church called ἐπιφανία, the Epiphany unto this day. But here is a greater
Epiphany than that was, an appearance, not of one star, but of three, the three persons; not a constellation, but a great conjunction in the heaven of heavens.
1. There is the Father, who in the 4th verse is called 'God our Saviour,' as a distinct person from Christ, who is also called our
Saviour,' ver. 6. And of the Father it must be meant that it is said, that 'He hath saved us,' and that 'He hath shed on us the Holy Ghost, through Christ our Saviour:' the Father is spoken of as distinct from those two.
2. There is the Holy Ghost's appearance, who is said to be 'richly,' or 'abundantly shed,' which in those times often was visible: Peter and the rest having received the Holy Ghost, he doth appear to the senses of the standers by: Acts 2:33, 'He hath shed forth this' (namely, the Holy Ghost, mentioned and spoken of in the very words afore) 'which we see and hear.' Your senses may inform and convince you; it was so evident an appearance, both in the shapes of tongues, as also in the gifts and graces on a sudden poured forth upon illiterate and sinful men. The same appearance of the Holy Ghost you have in Cornelius, Acts 10:44, which was conspicuous to standers by; that it is said, ver. 45, 'They of the circumcision were astonished, because on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and glorify God,' ver. 46.
And 3. Here is Christ's concurrence also: 'which he shod on us through Christ,' says the text. For upon the preaching of Christ, and upon mentioning of his name, did the Holy Ghost fall upon men.
Peter preaching Christ, and peace by him (Acts 10, ver. 36 to ver. 44), when he had centred his discourse in ver. 43, 'That to this Christ all the prophets gave witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins,' the next words tell us, 'That whilst Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.' The Holy Ghost took that very cue
(as we say) to come in and enter upon the stage; that is, then to fall down on all that heard the word; thereby witnessing, that as remission of sins was through his name only, so that the Holy Ghost, to work faith in his name, was poured forth, through his name also.
As the same Peter had before in that Acts 2:33, informed his hearers, that 'Christ, being exalted at the right hand of God, having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, hath shed forth this.'
For explication of this. It is true there is a joint concurrence of all three persons in every action that is done; for opera Trinitatis ad extra sunt indivisa. But then of such lesser works and appearances of God, you read the mention of their concurrence but singly in several and scattered places of Scriptures. So it is scatteredly attributed to
the Father to create, and to the Word, and to the Spirit. But where and when in any work you find at once and together all three appear, all mentioned in a chapter, as here in the text for regeneration, that work is ever some eminent work, and hath a not only upon it, a solemnity in it. Yea and thereby is signified, that over and above their ordinary and common influence, they have a special, distinct, and extraordinary hand and operation. As God's presence was ordinarily in the pillar of fire, and the cloud in the wilderness; but if the glory of God at any time appeared over and above upon the tabernacle, then some great thing was in hand, either of judgment or mercy. Perhaps many other instances might be brought, wherein these three great persons are together brought in as met in the like near conjunction. I shall instance but in two, the greatest of all other, and but in these because they hold some parallel with the work of our regeneration, and are patterns of it. They both of them appertain to our Lord Christ our head, to whose image we are ordained to be conformed, and so will serve to illustrate the like done towards us in this regenerating of us.
1. What was the greatest work of wonder that ever God did in the world? It was the incarnation of the Son of God: Jer. 31:22, 'God hath created' (says the prophet, speaking of it) 'a new thing in the earth,' viz., that a woman should encompass in her womb that Gheber, that strong and giant-like man, Christ, God and man, without the help of man.
Now at the instant time and moment when this was to be done, there was a manifestation and declaration of all three persons in it. A record is extant how all, though invisibly, concurred in it, not darkly, with an us in general words, as at the creation, 'Let us make man,' but clearly and distinctly. And as at the transfiguration of Christ
(which Peter maketh the solemnest and most glorious manifestation of God that ever he had been an eye and ear-witness of, 2 Peter 1:16,
17) you find, to grace the solemnity of it, Moses, Christ, and Elias talking and conferring together; so here, there is the very conference recorded. A set and solemn conference it was in heaven, and the
words spoken set down at the instant of Christ's conception; the Father declaring his decree about it to the Son, and the Son speaking to the Father of his willingness to it. Paul hath recorded and set down the very words as a great secret, as it must be accounted: Heb.
10:5, 'When he comes into the world he says;' it is the Son of God he speaks of, as existing afore he took man's nature; and the words that follow, spoken by him, are expressly said to be at the time, instant, or moment of his coming into the world, and his being made flesh when he came into the world, as prophesied of by David; and Paul affirms he then did utter them. This his taking flesh was a going forth from his Father (as himself styles it in John), the setting out upon the greatest adventure and design that ever was. And therefore Christ, at the time of his first setting forth, thought fit to speak something about it, as a distinct person from his Father, as he that should be interested in it (for none was to be made a sacrifice but he), to let him know upon what ground it was he undertook it, merely in obedience to his will. The like he did when he suffered: 'Not my will, but thine be done,' which was his motto from first to last. 'Sacrifice and offering thou' (as speaking to his Father) 'wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me.'
Now as Christ is thus expressly introduced, so it is to be noticed that his Father had given the occasion, having first declared to him and revived the remembrance of his everlasting decrees and prophecies about it. For the speech of Christ, ver. 7, 'Then said I, Lo I come to do thy will,' is evidently in answer to another speech first uttered and declared to him by his Father, which he repeats, ver. 6, 'When in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sins, thou,' O Father, 'hadst had no pleasure, then or thereupon said I, Lo, I come;' reviewing* also the memory of God's decree, and an old record about it: 'In the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will, O God.' God the Father hath declared his will, both viva voce, et scriptis; and the Son his, and the Holy Ghost, the secretary of heaven, is brought in as a recorder of all this: ver. 15, 'Whereof the Holy Ghost is a witness.'
That word also bids us take in this allegation of Christ's speech, as that which is referred to, as well as to that quotation which followed.
And he was in a peculiar manner in this, for none else could have told it as uttered at that very time but he.
And for this Christ hath expressly told us, that as he and his Father do confer together about the great transactions of man's salvation, so that the Spirit hears all that passeth, John 16:13. Nor yet did he stand by as a bare witness to relate it and confirm it to us, but was sent down by both as a principal actor, that had the great and ultimate hand in effecting of it.
The Son of God speaks of a body prepared by the Father for him to take up: 'A body hast thou prepared me.' The Father had a hand in it then, but by whom? By the Holy Ghost; so expressly, Luke 1:35, 'The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore shall that holy thing that shall be born of thee be called the Son of God.' Here is, then, if not a visible
Θεοφανία, as our divines call that at his baptism, yet an evident record of an invisible and distinct conjunction of all three persons at the instant of Christ's conception, bearing their parts in it.
1. The Father declaring it as his will, both to the Son and the Spirit.
2. The Holy Ghost, as the person sent by the Father, to perform and fashion that body in Mary's womb; this tabernacle being of another building, which God pitched, and not man, Heb. 9:11 and 8:2.
And 3. The Son, as the person that owns and assumes that body so prepared for him to dwell in it, as in a tabernacle, as the author to the Hebrews terms it: 'Lo I come' into the world; which was only done by his taking that body to himself, into one person with him.
And this great and eminent concurrence of all three may perhaps more clearly be gathered from the story of the angel's coming to Mary, Luke 1:26, 27, &c.
1. God the Father sent his angel. 'The angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, to a virgin espoused to a
man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary.' God the Father gave his angel his commission, and a particular note of all the circumstances, as punctually as any one that sends a messenger of an errand. God sent him to a city of Galilee, and by name Nazareth, to a virgin espoused, and her husband's name is in the note; a man whose name is Joseph, and his lineage of the house of David. You see God the Father was deeply in it.
2. The Holy Ghost, he was sent, as was observed, ver. 35, 'The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee.'
3. God the Son must needs be supposed most in it of all three. For by virtue of his assuming unto one person that holy thing which was conceived in her, it was, that, ver. 32, 'He was called the Son of the Highest.' And if he had not actually assumed, married into one person with himself, that which was formed in her womb by the Holy
Ghost, it had not been called the Son of God, as ver. 35 it is. He it was who put on and wore, and married this flesh made of a woman, and therefore his consent was of all other most explicit.
And thus began the New Testament (as became it) with the discovery of the three persons in that great work, at which the era of the New
Testament itself began. And this so distinct a discovery of the three at the incarnation, being thus express and eminent, hath not been enough noticed by our divines, nor added, in handling this argument, unto those other at Christ's baptism and transfiguration. How this at Christ's conception, and that happy contract, and espousal, and union made between the human and divine nature, will conduce to illustrate the like at our regeneration, I shall shew when I have added another conjunction, more famous, because more visible, namely, at Christ's baptism, where usually our divines begin the discovery of the three out of the New Testament. And this I shall also speak (though more briefly) unto, because both these put together will have their joint virtual influence of tending to clear the point in hand.
The meeting of the three persons at his conception was invisible, for the formation and union of his human nature was, as ours, 'in the lower parts of the earth,' hidden and under ground, as the psalmist speaks. And unto which, speaking of Christ's formation in the womb of a virgin, the apostle alludes, Eph. 4:9. But what was as then uttered and transacted between the three persons in secret, was at his baptism to be proclaimed upon the house-top. It was the public owning, inauguration, and instalment of the Son of God. It was the solemnisation of that marriage between the two natures, human and divine, which had been carried more privately, yet by all the same three witnesses. And accordingly, God took a time for this, when all the people were baptized and standing by (so Luke 3:21, Mat. 3:5), who had come out of Jerusalem, and all Judea, and the region about Jordan, when they were all thus standing by. 'And Jesus was baptized, and praying,' ver. 21, 'heaven opened,' which is the greatest outward miracle in the heavens, as an earthquake, or opening of the earth, is on the earth. And heaven opened to let down the revelation of the greatest mystery, which only could be cœlitus, or from heaven revealed. A light comes down from the throne of God, and all three persons make an outward manifestation of themselves. Pater in voce,
Filius in homine, Spiritus Sanctus in columba.* And what is the business they appear about? But to own their former act and work.
To proclaim that Christ. They had met to make the Christ at his conception, now they meet openly to proclaim him to be the Messiah and Son of God; yea, and to seal up and give testimony to the human nature itself (who had lived thirty years without any such extraordinary revelation) that he was indeed the Son of God; that this holy thing born of that virgin was the Son of the most high God, as the angel told Mary. And unto both these testimonies and transactions of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, both at his conception and baptism, doth that triple testimony of the three in heaven refer, mentioned by John the apostle, 1 John 5:5, 7, even to this, that Christ is the Son of God.
But have I told this long story merely to this general purpose, to shew that in God's greatest works of wonder there is a distinct appearance
of the three? or withal, to add a new instance of the Θεοφανία of the three, and indeed the first mentioned in the New Testament, and upon the greatest occasion? No; not to these ends only or chiefly have I told this story, as singly to be considered; but further, as more particularly conjunct with the thing in hand, as parallel withal, though transcending this of our new birth, and first conception of the new creature in us, or that other work, the manifestation of it at the sealing of salvation, or the revealing of Christ in us (as it is called,
Gal. 1:16), the forming the new creature for Christ and the three persons to dwell therein.
There is nothing in Christ, or of Christ, but it is set up as an image or pattern of the like to be done to us in our measure, 'being predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son,' Rom. 8. As he was circumcised, so we have a circumcision ordained for us, Col.
2. We have a crucifying, burial, resurrection, as he had; we have a conception, a forming Christ in us, an uniting us to Christ. As in him there was the union of two natures, there is a time wherein we are made adopted sons, as well as there was a time in which he was born the natural Son. I might quote scriptures for all these, but you know them. In the 4th of the Galatians, the 4th and 6th verses compared, the apostle seems to institute a parallel between God 'sending forth his Son, made of a woman,' and his sending forth (for he useth that word of both in common) 'the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father;' 'But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law. And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father;' thus clearly paralleling the conception of the human nature and union with the natural Son of God, and our being made adopted sons by the coming of the Holy
Ghost into our hearts. Observe the parallel in this respect by comparing scriptures.
1. As there was a fulness of time, an instant of time, when the Son of God was to be made flesh, and so be admitted a member of this world, so there is a fulness of time, a set time to send down his Spirit
into the heart to regenerate it. Gal. 1:15, 16, 'But when it pleased God to reveal his Son in me '(says Paul). God let me run on much of my time, of which he speaks ver. 13, 14; but having chosen me before, and separated me from the womb, he had a set time when to reveal his Son in me.
2. When that set time is come, set by the Father, of whom Paul there speaks, the Father begins and sets all a-work in the conversion of that soul. This Christ expresseth in the 6th of John, where Christ, giving the reason why some souls come to him and not others, he resolves it into his Father's act and will, as the main (verses 64, 65, which is the conclusion of his discourse about it), 'But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray him. And he said,
Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.' Now he attributes to his Father a double hand or stroke in it, one towards the soul itself, the other unto Christ himself, that is to be married now to it.
(1.) There is God the Father's actual drawing the soul to Christ, a whispering to the heart to persuade it to take his Son; himself secretly woos the heart for him, ver. 44, 45, 'No man can come unto me, except the Father, which hath sent me, draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me.' Of this you read, Psa. 45, what kind of words he speaks, and what counsel he gives a soul that is brought to Christ; as ver. 14, 'Hearken, O daughter, and give ear,' even as he had spoken to his Son to make himself a sacrifice.
(2.) As he thus actually draws the soul to Christ (and the Father is at that work, and at the cord's end), so he actually gives the soul unto
Christ, that Christ would both take the soul and own it when it cometh to him. Thus, ver. 37, 'All my Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.' And he speaks this as the reason why some believe and some not, though
they hear the same sermon, and have the same means. So ver. 36, 'But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not.'
Now, Christ giving these as reasons why some came and some not, and why he receives those that come because the Father draws, and the Father gives, speaks of both as of two like acts of the Father done by him at conversion; then it is the Father thus gives, and the Father thus draws. And though God had given them to the Son of God from everlasting (as John 17, 'Thine they were, and thou gavest them me'), yet now he renews that act of giving them to Christ. Therefore, de præsenti, Christ useth the present tense: 'All that the Father gives me;' it is a giving de præsenti, as a drawing de præsenti, to distinguish it from that from everlasting. And so as Christ resolved it into his Father's will, Heb. 10 (as you heard), why he came into the world at all, so, ver. 38, he resolves the reason why he owns and receives them that come to him unto his Father's will in like manner.
'For I came down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me' And this gift or donation is as if then and at that time the Father should rise up in heaven and say to his Son, 'Yonder is a soul which I gave thee from everlasting, whom thou diedst for upon the cross; and now is the fulness of time written in my book, the set time appointed by me to have mercy on him, for him to come unto thee; now take him for thine, take hold of him, and draw him to thyself,' and so joins with Christ in drawing him. This is the Father's work in regenerating us.
2. The Son's work is as follows:— (1.) Of himself he says, John 10:14, 15, 'I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.' He knows them particularly and personally, as they know him, even by name. And as he loves us, ere we love him, so he knows us ere we can know him; yea, look, as distinctly as the Father knows him, and he knows the Father, even so distinctly doth he know and take notice of all his sheep, and this when he is to bring them to himself, as ver. 16.
(2.) At that time he first takes and apprehends that soul as his, and to be his for ever, in answer to that gift of his Father then made, Philip.
3:12, 'I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.' He speaks of that act put forth by Christ in apprehending him first, ere he did him, which is the fundamental act of union. As Christ loves first, so he apprehends first. And as he had compared before his Christian life to a race which he was to run, so here he tells us how Christ took him first by the hand, and held him when he first entered into that race.
However, he means it of that act of Christ's at his first conversion, which is the foundation of all that we afterward pursue after. And herein you see the parallel runs on as at Christ's conception; as then the Son of God his work was to take to that body fitted for him (Heb.
2:16, 'He took not to,' or 'he took not hold of angels, but the seed of Abraham'), so us at our conversion, and thus works the union.
3. The Spirit's work hath been discoursed of before. I shall now only mention that text in Gal. 4:6, 'Because ye are sons' (namely, by election), 'God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father.' And this Spirit works faith in us, which is hands, and feet, and all. It is seminally the whole new creature; hands to lay hold on Christ again, and we embrace him, Heb. 11, and embrace him gladly, Acts 2:41.
4. As all three persons thus between and among themselves deal secretly, and treat with each other for us, the Father giving and recommending, the Son apprehending, both sending the Holy Ghost into the heart; so in our coming to God, both first and last, we have our pass from one person to the other, and have distinctly to deal with them all; which is contained in one verse, Eph. 2:18, 'For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.' And this is more open and more sensible to us, as the other more secret.
The word in the original is προσαγωγὴν. The Spirit, being come into the heart, leads us by the hand back again to Christ; and Christ leads us to the Father.
I will give you but one instance of one conversion, which I have had recourse to hitherto all along, and which is Paul's, who professeth himself converted, as for the substance of it, ἔις τύπον, for a pattern,
1 Tim. 1:16. And though his story hath this extraordinary in it, that Christ visibly apprehended him, and the Holy Ghost fell on him in laying on of hands upon him, yet for substance the same things are done in heaven for us by the three, who love us as they loved him.
Even as at Christ's baptism all three appeared, but at ours not, yet we are baptized in the name of all the three. In the substance of salvation, conversion, faith, &c., the apostles had not any privilege that we have not.
1. The Father's good pleasure appeared in Paul's conversion, as you have it expressed, Gal. 1:15, 16, 'When it pleased God, who separated me from the womb, to reveal his Son in me.'
2. Of Jesus Christ you may read twice in the Acts, chapter 9, from the 6th verse, and chapter 26, how Christ bestirred himself at his conversion. He meets him in the way, at the place and time appointed. And himself speaks to him, ver. 5, 6, 'And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou shalt do.' And Christ directed him what to do.
And not only so, but speaks himself to Ananias: ver. 11, 'And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth.' You see he gives as particular directions as God the Father did to the angel, when he sent him about the conception of his Son. It is to shew what notice he takes of all the circumstances of a soul's conversion. No kind husband could more bestir himself at his wife's labour, than Christ did at Paul's travail in the new birth. He calls up Ananias at midnight, as it wore, bids him go in all haste to help him: 'Behold' (says he), 'he prays,' ver. 11; he is in his throes.
3. The Holy Ghost (ver. 17, 18) wholly falls upon him, and this at his laying on of hands, and his being baptized.
Use. You that are regenerate, and born again, the saints and children of God, shall I affect your hearts a little? Whom would not this love move? There was a time, though perhaps thou knowest it not, when all this ado was in heaven about thee, unknown to thee, when thou wert first married unto Christ, the greatest espousal that ever was transacted, one alone excepted, and that was when the human nature and divine were espoused together in Christ. And the same kind of stir that was for Paul was also for thee; what was done extraordinarily and visibly by him, was as effectually and strongly carried on and done for thee. He was directed by Christ what to do, and Ananias directed to go to him, and his condition made known to him, that he might know what to speak unto him. Now the same hand did secretly guide and direct thee; perhaps to go to such a congregation which thou hadst no mind unto, or for fashion-sake frequentedest; or thou fellest into such or such a company, of such or such persons, who spake so or so unto thee; or such and such an accident befell thee as thou wert going such or such a journey; as Saul, in seeking his father's asses, was met by Samuel in the way, and he is anointed unto a kingdom; and so wert thou taken in the heat of the pursuit of vanities. And as his secret providence directed thee, so perhaps the minister or person that spake unto thee when thou wert first drawn to believe or close with Christ, had such a word put by God into his mouth, as if he had known thy very heart and condition, such promises as most nearly concerned and suited thy spirit, and condition, and temptations; even as he directed Ananias to speak to Paul what most concerned him. And when by this invisible conduct he had brought thy heart and his word together, he then shed forth his Spirit upon thee, who made that good word effectual to thee; and it returned not empty to him that sent it, but had that blessed effect that he intended. Or perhaps when thou wert first humbled and stricken for sin, God took a keen arrow out of the quiver of his word, and put it into the hand of an able minister or friend, which shot by him at random (as when Ahab was stuck), was carried home by the
wind of the Spirit, that went with it into the heart and wounded it.
And such circumstances as these may move thee to acknowledge that good hand that was the mover and orderer of them in heaven, in analogy to his dealings with Paul. But above all, the three persons affect thy heart with the love of God the Father unto thee. At such a time when thou wert in the church, in the midst of the crowd, first the Father he spied thee out there, and remembers it was the time, the full time to have mercy on thee, which he had written in his book; and thereupon riseth up (as it were) in heaven, and saith unto his
Son (as Christ upon the cross did to his mother, 'Woman, behold thy Son') 'See, Son,' says he, 'behold thy spouse, designed unto thee from everlasting. Take him and apprehend him for thine at my hand: I will see you married, and the indissoluble knot tied ere he stir from hence.' Which is more than as if the greatest king on earth should espy, in the midst of multitudes, a beggar standing in rags, and say to the prince, his eldest son, Go, marry her here afore me. And then when he had bespoke Christ's heart, he also bespake thine. He let down a cord of love into it, which took hold thereof, and drew thee by it to his Son and to himself.
And when Jesus Christ had thy soul actually anew commended to him by his Father, he, looking on thee, said with himself, That soul! surely I should know it. This is the very same that my Father presented unto me from everlasting, says the second person, in all that glorious array which I am to be the endower of her with, which made her appear so lovely, as it then took my heart; but it is so much altered since, I scarce can know it, being defiled with so many sins.
And yet again, saith the man Christ Jesus, it is the same was presented unto me by name, with all these very sins, when I was to suffer. I know her sure enough by a good token; for she was brought and presented to me in the garden, and hanging on the cross, with those very sins she is now guilty of; and I have the remembrance in scars upon my soul, which these sins made, when my soul was made an offering for sin. And so he takes her for his. And then he sends his
Spirit into thy heart; and what the Spirit wrought upon thee when he
drew thee unto Christ, I leave that to thine own experience to bring to mind.
Now the joy that was thereupon in the breast and bosom of God the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, was not contained alone in this transaction, but to make the solemnity the greater, it was diffused throughout the heavens. Not one, but two parables are made on purpose by our Lord Christ to express this jubilee unto us, in Luke
15. First, there is a man that sought his lost sheep; then a poor woman that sought her lost groat. The stir and zeal each shewed about it is sufficiently expressed, as deciphering the heart of God and Christ therein to such a soul, in that he leaves ninety-nine to seek such a soul, long before it thinks of seeking him, which it doth not, but is prevented by him. And he goes out with that resolution, not to give over seeking until he hath found it, come what will. And this eager resolution is expressed, ver. 4, 'He leaves the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and goes after that which is lost, until he find it. And then, when he hath found it, he lays it on his shoulders rejoicing.'
What doth this signify, hut his own abundant gladness? He hath at last found it, with care to keep it. And this action of laying it on his shoulders speaks his heart, as saying within himself, Have I now got you with all this trouble and pursuit? I will now make sure work of letting you run away again, or giving me any more the slip. So doth he rejoice; and so careful is he, that he lays it on his shoulders; he doth not venture to drive it afore him. No, he will not trust it so loosely. He doth not only hold it in his hands, though therein (as Christ says) it is safe enough, for 'my sheep none shall pull out of my hands;' but puts himself to some trouble and care about it, lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. Oh, how full of joy is God's heart and Christ's heart, that he cannot contain it in his own breast, but makes a solemnity of it! calls together a parliament of 'his neighbours and of his friends,' ver. 6, and makes such a matter and story of it, saying unto them, 'Rejoice with me; for I have found my sheep that was lost.' So then, its having been lost is that which increaseth his joy.
And yet, when all is done, it is but a ragged, scabby sheep all this ado is about. Oh, but God loves it; Christ hath laid down his life for it. For