proach of men, and defpifed of the people, Pfalm. xxii. 6. (4) His holy heart was never offended with an impure fuggeftion or temptation of the Devil; all the while he lay in that boom of peace and love, he never knew what it was to be affaulted with temptations, to be befieged and battered upon by unclean spirits, as he did afterwards, Mat. iv. 1. "Then was Jefus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil." It was for our fakes that he fubmitted to those exercises of spirit, 66 to be in all points tempted like as we are, that he might be unto us a merciful and faithful high priest," Heb. iv. 15. (5.) He was never fenfible of pains and tortures in foul or body, there were no fuch things in that blessed bofom where he lay, tho' afterwards he groaned and sweat under them, Ifa. liii. 5. The Lord embraced him from eternity, but never wounded him till he ftood in our place and room. (6.) There were no hidings or withdrawments of his Father from him; there was not a cloud from eternity upon the face of God, till Jefus Chrift had left that bofom: It was a new thing to Chrift to fee frowns in the face of his Father; a new thing for him to cry, "My God, my God, why haft thou forfaken me?" Matth. xxvii. 46. (7.) There were never any impreffions of his Father's wrath upon him, as there were afterwards: God never delivered fuch a bitter cup of wrath into his hands before, as that was Matth.. xxvi. 39. Laftly, There was no death, to which he was subject, in that bofom. All these things were new things to Chrift: he was above them all, till for our fakes he voluntarily fubjected himself unto them. Thus you fee what that state was not. : 2. Let us confider it pofitively, what it was, and guess by fome particular confiderations (for indeed we can but guess) at the glory of it as, (1.) We cannot but conceive it to be a ftate of matchlefs happiness, if we confider the perfons enjoying and delighting in each other: he was with God, John i. 1. God, you know, is the fountain, ocean and centre, of all delights and joys; Pfal. xvi. 11. "In thy prefence is fulness of joy." To be wrapt up in the foul and bofom of all delights, as Chrift was, muft needs be a ftate tranfcending apprehenfion; to have the fountain of love and delight letting out itself fo immediately, and fully, and everlastingly, upon this only begotten darling of his foul, fo as it never did communicate itfelf to any; judge what a ftate of tranfcendent felicity this must be. Great perfons have great delights. (2.) Or if we confider the intimacy, dearness, yea, oneness of those great perfous one with another: the nearer the union, the iweeter the communion. Now Jefus Chrift was not only near and dear to God, but one with him; "I and my Father are "one," John x. 30.: one in nature, will, love, and delight. There is indeed a moral union of fouls among men by love, but this was a natural oneness; no child is fo one with his father, no husband so one with the wife of his bofom, no friend so one with his friend, no foul fo one with its body, as Jefus Christ and his Father were one. O what matchleis delights must ne ceffarily flow from fuch a bleffed union! : (3.). Confider again the purity of that delight with which the bleffed Father and Son embraced each other; the best Creaturedelights one in another, are mixed, debafed, and allayed if there be fomething ravishing and engaging, there is alfo fomething cloying and distasting. The purer any delight is, the more excellent. Now, there are no chriftal ftreams flowing fo purely from the fountain, no beams of light fo unmixed from the fun, as the loves and delights of these holy and glorious perfons were: the holy, holy, holy Father embraced the thrice holy Son with a moft holy delight and love. (4.) Confider the conftancy of this delight: It was from everlasting, as in verfe 23. and from eternity; it never fuffered one moment's interruption: The ever-flowing fountain of God's delight and love never ftopt its course, never ebbed; but as he speaks in the text, "I was daily his delight, rejoicing al86 ways before him." Once more, confider the fulness of that delight, the perfection of that pleasure; I was delights: So the word is in its original; not only plural, delights, all delights, but also in the abstract, delight itself as afterwards from the abundance of his forrows, he was ftiled, a man of forrow's; fo here, from the fulness of his delights: as tho' you should say, even constituted and made up of pleasure and delight. 3. Once more, let us confider it comparatively, and this State will yet appear more glorious, comparing it with either the choiceft delights that one creature takes in another, or that God takes in the creature, or that the creatures takes in God: measure these immenfe delights betwixt the Father and his Son, by either of thefe lines, and you fhall find them infinitely fhort: For, (1.) Tho' the delights that creatures take in each other, be fometimes a great delight; fuch was Jacob's delight in Benjamin, whofe life is faid to be bound up in the lad's life, a dear and high expreffion, Gen. xliv. 30. Such was that of Jonathan in David, whofe foul was knit with his foul," and he "loved him as his own foul," 1 Sam. xiii. 1. and fuch is the de SERM. II. "man's own foul," Deut. xiii. 6. yet all this is but creature. delight, and can in no particular equal the delights betwixt the Father and Son; for this is but a finite delight, according to the measure and abilities of creatures, but that is infinite, fuitable to the infinite perfection of the divine being: this is always mixed, that perfectly pure. (2.) Or if you compare it with the delight that God takes in the creatures; it is confeffed that God takes great delight in fome creatures. "The Lord "takes pleasure in his faints, he rejoices over them with finging! "and refteth in his love," Zeph. iii. 17. Ifa. lxii. 5. But yet there is a great difference betwixt his delight in creatures, and his delights in Chrift; for all his delight in the faints is fecondary, and for Chrift's fake; but his delights in Chrift are primary, and for his own fake: we are accepted in the beloved, Eph. i. 6. he is beloved, and accepted for himself. (3.) To conclude, compare it once more with the delights that the best of crea tures take in God, and Christ, and it must be confeffed that is a choice delight, and a tranfcendent love, with which they love and delight in him; Pfal. xxiii. 75. "Whom have I in hea << ven but thee? and on earth there is none that I defire befides thee." What pangs of love, what raptures of delight did the fpoufe exprefs to Christ? "O thou whom my foul loveth !" But furely our delight in God is no perfect rule to measure his delight in Chrift by: for our love to God'(at the beft) is ftill imperfect; that's the burden and conftant complaint of faints, but this is perfect: ours is inconftant, up and down, ebbing and flowing, but this is conftant. So then, to conclude; the conditi on and state of Jefus Chrift before his incarnation, was a state of higheft and matchless delight, in the enjoyment of his Father. The ufes follow. * Ufe of Information. Inference 1. What an astonishing act of love was this then, for the Father to give the delight, the darling of his foul, out of his very bofom, for poor finners! all tongues muft needs pause and falter, that attempt the expreffion of his grace; expreffions being here swallowed up: "God to loved the world, that he "gave his only begotten Son," John iii. 16. Here is a fic with *Amo te, Domine, plufquam meos, plufquam mea, plufquam me, i. e. O Lord, I love thee above all my relations, above all that is mine, above myself. Bern. Suppofe (faith one) there were a hell betwixt me and Chrift, and Chrift fhould fay, put in thy foot and come through, or thou shalt have none of me, would I not do it? out a ficut.; so loved them: how did he love them? nay, here you must excufe the tongues of angels; which of us would deliver a child, the child of our delights, an only child, to death for the greatest inheritance in the world? what tender parent can endure a parting pull with fuch a child? when Hagar was taking her laft leave (as fhe thought) of her Ishmael, Gen. xxi. 16. the text faith," she went and fat her down over 66 against him, a good way off: for fhe faid, Let me not fee the "death of the Child. And the fat over-againft him, and lift up "her voice, and wept:" though she were none of the best mothers, nor he the best of children, yet fhe could not give up the child. O it was hard to part! what an outcry did David make, even for an Abfalom! wifhing he had died for him. What a hole (as I may fay) hath the death of fome children made in the hearts of fome parents, which will never be closed up in this world?. yet furely, never did any child lie fo close to a parent's heart, as Chrift did to his Father's; and yet he willingly parts with him, though his only one, the Son of his delights, and that to death, a curfed death, for finners, for the worst of finners. O miranda Dei philanthropia! matchlefs love! a love paft finding out! Let all men therefore, in the bufinefs of their redemption, give equal glory to the Father with the Son, John v. 23. if the Father had not loved thee, he had never parted with fuch a Son for thee. Infer. 2. From one wonder let your fouls turn to another, for they are now in the midst of wonders: adore, and be for ever astonished at the love of Jefus Chrift to poor finners; that ever he should confent to leave fuch a bosom, and the ineffable delights that were there, for fuch poor worms as we are. Oh heights, depths, lengths, and breadths of unmeasurable love! O fee, Rom. v. 6, 7, 8. read, and wonder; how is the love of Chrift commended in ravishing circumftances to poor finners *! You would be loth to leave a creature's bofom, a comfortable dwelling, a fair cftate for the best friend in the world; your fouls are loth to leave their bodies, though they have no fuch great content there; but which of you, if ever you found by experience what G 2 * It is admirable that Christ should not only put himself out of comfort, but also from the enjoyment of that manifested glory and honour he might have retained to himself; for he prayeth here for that glory which he had with the Father from the beginning of the world he had it in right, but not in poffeffion: he voluntarily divefted himself of that to accomplish our redemption. Burgess on John xvii, 19. SERM. II, it is to be in the bofom of God by divine communion, would be perfuaded to leave fuch a bofom for all the good that is in the world? and yet Jelus Chrift, who was embraced in that bofom after another manner than ever you were acquainted with, freely left it, and laid down the glory and riches he enjoyed there, for your fakes; and as the Father loved him; even fo (believers) hath he loved you, John xvii. 22. What manner of love is this! Who ever loved as Christ loves? Who ever denied himself for Chrift, as Chrift denied himself for us? Infer. 3. Hence we are informed, That intereft in Jefus Christ is the true way to all spiritual preferment in heaven. Do you covet to be in the heart, in the favour and delight of God? Get intereft in Jefus Chrift, and you fhall prefently be there. What old Ifrael faid of the children of his beloved Jofeph, Thy children are my children; the fame God faith of all the dear children of Christ, Gen. xlviii. 5, 9. You fee among men, all things are carried by intereft: perfons rife in this world as they are befriended; preferment goes by favour: So 'tis in heaven, perfons are preferred according to their intereft in the beloved, Eph. i. 9. Chrift is the great favourite in heaven: his image upon your fouls, and his name in your prayers, makes both accepted with God. Infer. 4. How worthy is Jefus Chrift of all our love and delights? You fee how infinitely the Father delighteth in him, how he ravishes the heart of God; and fhall he not ravish our hearts ? I prefent you a Chrift this day, able to ravish any foul that will but view and confider him. O that you did but fee this lovely Lord Jefus Chrift! Then would you go home sick of love furely he is a drawing Saviour, John xii. 32. Why do ye lavish away your precious affections upon vanity? None but Christ is worthy of them when you spend your precious affections upon other objects, what is it but to dig for drofs with golden mattocks? The Lord direct our hearts into the love of Chrift. O that our hearts, loves and delights did meet and concentre with the heart of God in this most blessed object! O let him that left God's bofom for you, be embofomed by you, though yours be nothing to God's; he that left God's bofom for you, deferves yours. Infer. 5. If Chrift be the beloved darling of the Father's foul, think what a grievous and unfufferable thing it is to the heart of God, to fee his dear Son defpifed, flighted, and rejected by finners verily, there is no fuch cut to the heart of God in the whole world. Unbelievers trample upon God's darling, tread under foot him that eternally lay in his bofom, Heb. x. 29. Smite : |