Forty Sermons, Sermon 39
SERMON XXXIX.
PHIL. 1. 21.
1. Sermon Preacht at St. Maries, May 2. 1658.For to me to live is Chriſt, and to die is gain.
ACcording as our Nature is, ſo proportionably is our Life and Practice. It is ſo with us, as we are Men; and ſo it ſhould be with us, as we are Chriſtians. As ſuch, in my former Text lately handled, Peter told us that our Nature is Divine; and Paul telleth us here, that his Life is 2 Pet. 1. 4.ſuch: To me to live is Chriſt, and ſo to die is gain. When Chriſt firſt is our Life, then even Death at laſt proves our advantage. In the two following Verſes, the Apoſtle telleth us, he is in a ſtrait between two, and knew not which of them to chuſe. Happy ſtrait! Not ſuch an one as David was in, 2 Sam. 24. 14. when he was to chuſe which of three Evils, but of two Good things, and both ſo Good, that he knew not which to make choice of. Such a proffer whether to live or die to a condemned Malefactor would not be accounted a Strait, but an happy Enlargement, when all his hopes are in Life, and he hath no aſſurance of any Good after Death; Skin for Skin, and all he would give for his Life. Indeed ſuch an Option (whether of Life Job 2. 4. Eccleſ. 15. 17. Deut. 30. 15, 19. Jer. 21. 8.or Death) was once by God tendred to Adam, and by Moſes and Jeremiah afterward to Iſrael; and Death was by them unhappily made choice of, not as ſometimes *Jer. 8. 3.it is out of preſent anguiſh and wearineſs of Life, but from deſperate preferring of Luſt to Life, and a careleſs, if not wilful Ignorance or non-attendance of what Death and its conſequents come to. But Paul's both Caſe and Temper here was far better. Becauſe Death would have been his own gain, ſo he could willingly have made choice of it: But becauſe his Life would be Chriſt's and the Church's advantage (which he muſt prefer before himſelf, and therefore deny himſelf rather than them) ſo; as Chriſt, when Nature ſimply would have deſired Life, out of Obedience Mat. 26. 39, 42.to his Father, choſe Death; ſo, on the contrary (but from the ſame Spirit) the Apoſtle Mortem habet in deſiderio, vitam in patientiâ. When Self-intereſt would have made choice of Death, Chriſt's Intereſt makes him chuſe Life. And happy he, that he might ſo well do either, ſeeing to him to live was Chriſt, and to die was gain. Chriſt, (as other Interpreters and Tranſlators Calvin, Beza, C. a Lapide.render it) being to him both in Life and Death advantage. This latter reading Calvin preſerreth, as containing a leſs forced Senſe, and a more full Doctrine, and beſt agreeing with the words foregoing in the precedent Verſe, in which the Apoſtle expreſſed himſelf confident, that Chriſt ſhould be magnified in him, Indifferens ſibi aſſe & in aequo affirmat vivat ne an moriatur, quoniam Chriſtum habens utrumque lucro apponit. Calvin.and that he was indifferent whether by Life or Death, becauſe (as he addeth in this Verſe) both in Life and Death Chriſt would be gain to him. Which not only Beza, and Bullinger, and Hemmingius follow, but alſo ſome of the Popiſh Expoſitors, taking leave to forſake their own vulgar Interpreter. For my part with Zanchy, and Piſcator, and the joynt concurrence of Antiquity, I take leave in this to follow the old Interpreter, and our laſt Tranſlation; which I do not find clog'd with the fore-objected Inconveniencies.
The Doctrine contained in the words thus read being full, as we ſhall afterwards ſee in the handling of them, the Senſe nothing forced (as was Objected) but eaſie, and obvious, and exactly agreeable to the words as they are placed in the Greek, without the harſher Tranſpoſition of them, and Addition of ſome not expreſſed in the Original Text, which the other reading is incumbred with.
And laſtly for the Coherence, much more agreeable to the See Zanchy & Piſcator in locum.words foregoing, to which they relate, as appears by the cauſal foreign, for. And they are not thoſe, ver. 19. For I know that this ſhall turn to my Salvation: But thoſe immediately preceding (ver. 20.) Chriſt ſhall be magnified in my Body, whether it be by C. a Lapide.Life or by Death: For to me to live is Chriſt, and to die is gain. In which words he giveth an account, how Chriſt would be glorified both in his Life and Death, as Aquinas obſerveth, the Oſtendit quomode Glorificaetur Chriſtus per vitam vel mortem. Aquin. in loc. Et vita noſtra, & mors pertinet ad magnificentiam Chriſti. Hieron. in locum.two parts of the Text anſwering the two Expreſſions in the end of the two foregoing Verſes, To me to live is Chriſt; that is, if I live, the aim and buſineſs of my whole Life ſhall be to promote his Honour and Service, and ſo he ſhall be glorified by my life, this expreſly: The other Piſcator thinks more impliedly, I conceive expreſly enough: Thus; If I die a Martyr in his Cauſe, he will be as much if not more magnified by my Death, and ſo far he will be a Gainer, and my ſelf alſo to boot, for then I ſhall be with Chriſt, which is foreign, much more better, even beſt of all.
And ſo in the words of the Text (ſpoken by Paul, both as an Apoſtle, and as a Believer) we have theſe two Obſervables, 1. A good days Work. 2. A good evenings Wages and nights Reſt. The Work and Buſineſs of a true Chriſtian's Life, and the Happineſs of his Death, the one is Chriſt, the other is Gain: For to me to live is Chriſt, and to die is gain.
The firſt then is this, That Chriſt is a true Chriſtian's Life: Doct. 1 or rather in the words of the Text, To a true Believer to Live is Chriſt: For ſo Zanchy obſerves, that the Apoſtle doth not ſay, Chriſt is his Life, as the efficient cauſe of it, but Ipſum vivere, his very Life was Chriſt, as the Final cauſe of it, the whole that he did and aimed at in it. So that Chriſt is not the Subject of the Propoſition, as Calvin and Beza would have it, but the Predicate, ſo that whatever he either projected or acted, Chriſt might be predicated of it, it had the Signature of Chriſt, ſomething of Chriſt, as the Principle or Effect, End or Object of it was ſtamped and found upon it; But herein I liſt not to be over-curious. Take it (if you pleaſe) according to the former Expreſſion as more plain, Chriſt is a Chriſtian's Life. But that you may know in what Senſe it's here meant, Chriſt may be ſaid to be a Chriſtian's Life two ways:
1. On Chriſt's part, as he is the Efficiens, Procreans, and Conſervans, the Author and Preſerver of a Chriſtian's Life even Natural, John 1. 3, 4. but eſpecially Spiritual and Eternal, who Acts 17. 28.is both the Way, the Truth, and the Life, John 14. 6. But this is not here intended, though in the proſecution of this Point we ſhall have occaſion to make uſe of it.
2. But ſecondly, On the Chriſtian's part, Chriſt is his Life, in that he deſireth and endeavoureth to make him ſo, that although he live in the Fleſh, (as he ſpeaks in the following Verſe) yet he liveth not to the Fleſh, but to Chriſt. His Natural Life he looks at as a Mercy, as in which he hath opportunities and advantages to honour and ſerve God, and to do Good to himſelf and others: Otherwiſe to live, only to live, though it be with eaſe, content, and pleaſure, it's not worth the while, as that which Beaſts as much, it may be more than we, attain to; but if (as oftentimes it falls out with many) which we ſee (as we are wont to ſay) labouring for Life in Penury and Infamy with bodily Pains and Sickneſs, and inward Horror and Anguiſh, Death hath by many been deſired, rather than ſuch a Life: It is Vita minime vitalis: But foreign, the Life, that vital Jer. 8. 3. Job. 3. 11, 20, 21, 22. & 6. 11. & 7. 15. 1 Kings 19. 4. Jonah 4. 3.Life which a Chriſtian (as ſuch) deſires to live, without which a Man, though otherwiſe never ſo lively, is dead whilſt he liveth, is Chriſt only.
But how and in what reſpects doth a Chriſtian thus make Chriſt his Life?
1. Firſt as the vital Principle from which he acteth: For that life is in every living Creature, and ſo Chriſt is to every living Chriſtian. Paul liveth, but not ſo much he as Chriſt in him, becauſe he in and from Chriſt; as Dionyſius Areop. makes it the top of the Souls perfection in Praying, Working, Suffering, Potius paſſive quam active ſe habere: The life which I now live, I live Lapid in Lam. 4. 20. Rom 1. 17. We live moſt in our Principles, as a Tree in its root.by the Faith of the Son of God, Gal. 2. 20. It's a Life of Faith, and Faith fetcheth all from Chriſt, foreign, I can do all things, Phil. 4. 13. Great words you will ſay, and may be ready to think ſpoken by ſome Thraſonical Bragadocio. What! All things? Can he both do and ſuffer all Things? (For that is his meaning) And that with an foreign, with full Strength and Ability? Yes, but in the very next words with the ſame Breath, he tells you, whence his Bow had ſuch a back of Steel: It's foreign, it was all in and from Chriſt that ſtrengthened or enabled him: In which Expreſſion, take notice of this multiplied Emphaſis. 1. It's not I, but Chriſt. 2. Quoad potentiam, for the Power, Faculty, and Ability of it. It's foreign. It's his foreign which is the cauſe of my foreign. It's his Power that works in me this Ability. 3. Quoad actum, for the Act, or my actual exerting and putting forth this Ability, it's again foreign, it's from his actual Influence, by which he actually ſtrengtheneth me. 4. Quoad continuationem, for the continuation of it, it's ſtill foreign, which Participle expreſſeth a continued Act, it's from Chriſt ſtill enabling me, for ſhould he leave off never ſo little, I ſhould preſently ſtand ſtill and do nothing. And laſtly, it's not foreign, but ſtill foreign, which ſignifieth not only a lighter outward touch, but an inward enacting and enabling, as from a Vital Principle, which David phraſeth by God's ſtrengthening him with ſtrength in his Soul, Pſal. 138. 3. And Paul by being ſtrengthned with Might by the Spirit in the inward Man, Epheſ. 3. 16. All this our Apoſtle feels and acknowledges that he hath need of from Chriſt in his living to him, and acting for him, as being very ſenſible of the truth of what he before had ſaid, Epheſ. 1. 19. that it's no leſs than the exceeding greatneſs of his Power, according to the working of his mighty Power, which is to us-ward who believe. The Expreſſion according to our Tranſlation is moſt full: But the Greek far more Emphatical, which runs thus: foreign, in which Piſcator obſerveth, and admireth a wonderful heaping up of very many moſt Significant and Emphatical words, and all too few to expreſs that unconceiveable Greatneſs of God's Power, which we need, and he puts forth in his People. It is, 1. The Power of God. 2. The foreign.Greatneſs of that Power, foreign. 3. The exceſs of that Greatneſs, foreign. And, 4. The Energie or effectual Working of all: And all this every faithful Soul finds and feels it hath need of from Chriſt to any ſpiritual vital operation, and therefore accounteth the Motto of the Spider (if applied hither) to have deadly Poyſon in it, Ego debeo nulli. No: It oweth all to Chriſt, and judgeth that a moſt profane and blaſphemous ſaying of Mezentius, Dextra mihi Deus, My Righthand Aenead. 10.is my God. Oh! no; but on the contrary, my God is my Right-hand, my Chriſt is my Strength, my Life, my All, I depend for all upon Him, I receive all from Him; my Head, Root, Life, *Col. 3. 4. 1 John 5. 12. John 6. 53. Deut. 30. 20.the Strength of my Life, Pſal. 27. 1. The Fountain of Life, Pſal. 36. 9. which if by my ſin obſtructed and intercepted from me, I can do nothing; am nothing, but dead, dry, empty, as ſome Allegorize that of the Pſalmiſt, Pſal. 74. 15. If thou divideſt the Fountain and the Floud, then thou drieſt up foreign even the fulleſt and mightieſt Rivers.As Jordan, Joſh. 3. 13. 16.
2. Chriſt is a Chriſtian's Life, as the Cauſa exemplaris, as the Sampler and Pattern, which (as you uſe to ſay) to the very Life he deſires and endeavours in his Life to imitate and expreſs, ſo as it may both be like him, and beſeem him. Chriſt is my Life, when in my Life I am not a Counterfeit, but as it were a lively Picture of Chriſt, foreign, after Chriſt, or according to Chriſt is formed in him. Gal. 4. 19.Chriſt, as the Apoſtle's phraſe is, Col. 2. 8. As a dead Parent may be ſaid to live in his Child that is like him, and Chriſt in us, when we live after his Example.
1. When (as I ſaid) we imitate him, and follow his ſteps, as the Apoſtle ſpeaketh, 1 Pet. 2. 21. he ſpeaks there of like-patient Suffering, which Paul calls the filling up of the foreign, of what was behind of the Sufferings of Chriſt: Not of Chriſt perſonal for Satisfaction, but of Chriſt Myſtical for Edification, and ſo from our Union with him and Aſſimilation to Him our Afflictions are called Chriſt's; Chriſt is as it were ſeen ſuffering in us, and ſo in our Chriſtian Chriſt-like walking, Chriſt is ſeen walking, and working, and living in us; that when ſome ſay, Lo, here is Chriſt in this way, Mat. 24. 23.and others ſay, Loe, here it Chriſt in another, it may be truly ſaid of us, Lo, here is Chriſt indeed, where is to be ſeen ſo much of Chriſt, and when Chriſtians are foreign, Imitations and Tranſcripts of Chriſt's Holineſs and Humility, and Love, and Meekneſs, &c. when I ſay we thus imitate Him,
2. And thereby lively expreſs Him, ſhewing forth not our own When the Life of Chriſt is manifeſted in us, 2 Cor. 4. 11.weakneſs and corruptions, but his Virtues and Praiſes, 1 Pet. 2. 9.
And this eſpecially when our former Cuſtoms, or natural Tempers, are or have been more unlike and croſs, and contrary to Chriſt, proud, froward, malicious, revengeful, &c. If now ſuch a former ſinful ſelf diſappear, and in ſtead thereof on the quite contrary more of Chriſt look out, in our or rather his Humility, Meekneſs and Love, truly then Chriſt more eminenly is our Life; when He looks out ſo much in our Lives, and liveth more in us, than we in our ſelves, that the World may know what Chriſt is whom they do not ſee, by beholding what we are and do whom they do ſee, that He is Holy and Harmleſs, Heb. 7. 26.and ſeparate from Sinners by finding us ſo. Chriſt is then our Life, when in our life we thus imitate and expreſs Him. And,
3. Thereby thirdly, Take care ſo to live as may be worthy of Him, Phil. 1. 27. may become and beſeem Him, be a Praiſe and Honour to Him, and ſo what the Apoſtle, 1 Pet. 2. 9. ſaith of the Faithful (who are like to Chriſt, living Stones, ver. 5. as He is, ver. 4.) that they ſhew forth his Virtues: The Syriack (whom our Engliſh follow) renders it His Praiſes, the Son of Righteouſneſs ſhining out gloriouſly, as reflected on the lives and graces of his Servants. Whereas on the contrary, for profeſſed Chriſtians to live viciouſly and ſcandalouſly, whereby he is diſhonoured, and his Name blaſphemed, Rom. 2. 24. as the Apoſtle ſaid in another caſe, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper, 1 Cor. 11. 20.ſo truly, this is not to live the Life of Chriſt, or Chriſt to live in us; this is not that Chriſt which the Apoſtle meaneth, when he ſaith, to him to live is Chriſt. No, this is a falſe Chriſt, or rather an Antichriſt, when the true Chriſt is thus diſguiſed and diſhonoured by us; as when the Jews had muffled and ſpit upon Chriſt, then for Pilate to bring him forth, and ſay, Behold the John 19. 5.Man, was rather in way of Deriſion than any thing elſe, and no better do we yet deal with him, when whilſt we profeſs Him we thus diſhonour Him.
3. But thirdly, Chriſt is a Chriſtian's Life, when He is Cauſa Finalis, when He, his Honour and Service is the main End and Scope, at which in the courſe of his Life he chiefly aimeth and labours to promote, as knowing or deſigning no end of his Life than to live to God, according to that, Pſal. 119. 17. Deal bountifully with thy Servant, that I may live and keep thy Word. This is that, which Interpreters generally agree in to be the principal thing intended by the Apoſtle in this Expreſſion, which divers of them diverſly paraphraſe, but to the ſame purpoſe. If I live it is to Chriſt, ſo the Aethiopick reads it. Non alia cauſa Si vivo, Chriſti cauſâ vivo; ſi morior, meo commodo morior. Sasbout. in promovenda gloria Chriſti. Piſcator.volui vivere, niſi Chriſti, I would not live for any cauſe elſe, but Chriſt's. So Hierom, I have conſecrated my life to Chriſt and his Goſpel. So Eſtius, He is the ſcope of my life. So Piſcator, Si vixero, nihil aliud mihi propoſui, non alia mercede vivo, &c. I propound nothing elſe in my whole Life, I deſire no other Stipend or Wages for all my Work and Warfare, but only to honour and ſerve Chriſt in the Goſpel. So Calvin. Aquinas (methinks) well reſolveth it. Life importeth Motion, and is the active Principle In locum.of it; and therefore as in other Caſes, the end that moves the Agent to act he properly calls his Life (Ʋt venatores venationem, amici amicum): So Chriſt and his Glory (as being that, which as his main end, ſetteth the Chriſtian on working) may well be called his Life, in which he liveth, and in the Deſign and Proſecution whereof the ſtrength of his Life is ſpent and exerciſed. Chriſt is his A and Ω, All he hath or is, he hath Rev. 1. 8.from Him, and all he is, hath, or can do, is all for him. All manner of pleaſant Fruits, new and old, I have laid up for thee, O my Beloved, ſaith the Spouſe, Cant. 7. 13. The Beſt, the All of a Chriſtians Abilities, Gifts, Graces whatſoever, and how precious ſoever they be, they are all for Chriſt, ready preſt to ſerve Him, paid in as a Tribute to Him. As of Him, ſo to Him are all things, Rom. 11. 36. As there is one God the Father, of whom are all things, and we foreign for Him, ſo one Lord Jeſus Chriſt, by whom are all things, and we by Him, 1 Cor. 8. 6. yea, and to Him and for Him: for of Him it's elſe-where ſaid, Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; or whether we die, we die unto the Lord; and ſo whether we live or die, we are the Lords, Rom. 14. 8. And theſe laſt words give a ſufficient Reaſon of the former: if we are the Lords, then we ſhould live to the Lord; if we be not our own Men, but Chriſt's ranſomed Servants, then, as the Maſter's Service, Honour, and Advantage, is or ought to be the Servant's aim and ſcope in his whole Employment, ſo Chriſt's ſhould be ours, and ſo He becomes our Life. For we live much in our Ends and Deſigns which we project and endeavour to promote, and according to them, though not only yet eſpecially, our Lives are to be judged of; as in other Caſes, ſo in this Particular, if the conſtant Tendencies and real Intentions of our Souls be ſeriouſly for Chriſt, to pleaſe, honour, and ſerve Him, this is to have Chriſt for our life, and thus to live (in the Apoſtle's Phraſe here) is Chriſt, when (as he ſpake in the Verſe foregoing) our foreign, the earneſteſt out-lookings of our Souls are, that Chriſt may be glorified by us, whether by Life or by Death. And this is beſt, when it is in our more frequent actual Thoughts and Intentions of it; however it muſt be in our inward general and habitual Diſpoſition, Frame, and Purpoſe of Heart, and conſtant courſe of Life, as a Traveller's reſolved intention of his Journies end at his firſt ſetting out, and after progreſs in the way to it, though at every ſtep he maketh he do not actually think of it. In a word, when we own no other Intereſts but Chriſt's, or at leaſt none that are contrary, but only ſuch as are reducible and ſubordinate to it, when we neither ſtart nor purſue any other falſe Games, which (adverſâ fronte) broadly look and run counter contrary to him, no nor with a ſquint Eye look aſide to theſe golden Apples of Pleaſure, Profit, or other Self-advantage caſt in our way, when we ſeem to take never ſo ſpeedy and ſtraight courſe to him: but when our Eyes look right on, and our Eye-lids look ſtreight before Prov. 4. 25.us, as Solomon ſpeaketh, as they Jer. 50. 5. who asked the way to Zion with their Faces thitherward, and as it's ſaid of our Saviour, foreign, that his Face was going, or, as though he would go to Jeruſalem, Luke 9. 53. ſo when with a ſingle Eye and Heart we directly and indeclinably eye and look at Chriſt and his Glory, ſo that all that obſerve us may well take notice which way our Eye and Heart look, this is to have Chriſt indeed fully both in our Eye and Heart; and ſo Chriſt is our Life, when thus in our Heart the ſeat of Life.
Otherwiſe to drive a Trade for our ſelves, whilſt we profeſs our ſelves only Factors for Chriſt, to ſeek our own advantage (as Paul, Phil. 2 21. ſaith moſt do) and not the things of Jeſus Chriſt, or if at all, yet only in ſubordination to our own Ends and Intereſts, this is Self, not Chriſt; to ſeek and find the Life of our own hand (as the Prophet's phraſe is, Iſa. 57. 10.) not to expreſs Chriſt living in us, as its ſaid of Gad, Deut. 33. 21. that he provided the firſt part for himſelf, and as Pharaoh ſaid, my River is foreignmine own, and I have made it for my ſelf, or I have made my ſelf, Ezek. 29. 3. as the vulgar Interpreter reads it, and both the words and the ſenſe of the place will bear it, and ſo proved his own both Creature and Creator together. But the Creature, whoſe Life Chriſt is, knoweth that God hath created all for Prov. 16. 4.himſelf: and therefore in the Apoſtle's ſenſe here in the Text, makes his Life to be Chriſt. Si quidem vita mea, mea (inquam) Chriſtus eſt, as the Syriack renders it, Chriſt is all the Life, which is any way mine: becauſe nothing I own as mine, which is not Chriſt's, and which I do not enjoy or purſue in a tendency and ſubordination to Chriſt. For none of us liveth to himſelf, and no Man dyeth to himſelf: but whether we live, we live unto the Rom. 14. 7, 8.Lord, or whether we dy, we dy unto the Lord; whether we live or dy, we are the Lord's, as the Apoſtle ſpeaks in the place before cited.
4. Fourthly, Chriſt is a true Chriſtian's life, as he is the ſubject or Object of his Life, for ſo we are ſaid to live, not ſo much in our ſelves, as in thoſe things which our Hearts and Lives are either wholly or chiefly taken up with. And ſo the Chriſtian if true to his rule, lives not in himſelf, but Chriſt in him, and he in Chriſt. When the whole Man is fully taken up with Chriſt, as to fear God, and keep his Commandments is foreign the whole Man, Eccleſ. 12. 13. So Chriſt, who is foreign, Col. 3. 11.all in all in himſelf and to all his, is the whole of a Chriſtian, whilſt he dwells in his Heart by Faith, Epheſ. 3. 17. and ſo as to take up all the room there, that the whole Soul is full of Chriſt, as that which it liveth upon, and the Object which he is poſſeſſed, entertained and taken up with,
1. In his Thoughts and Meditations, and we live much in our Thoughts, as being the firſt out-goings of the foreign or emanations and Iſſues of a rational Life, which Solomon ſpeaketh of Prov. 4. 23. and thoſe, foreign thoſe Poſſeſſions of the Heart, Job. 17. 11. which the Soul of a Man is poſſeſſed with. Job there ſpeaks of the thoughts of other things: but to a true Chriſtian as ſuch, Chriſt is that which his thoughts are chiefly poſſeſſed with, and which the firſt natural Iſſues of his Spiritual Life go out to, the Goſpel (not a Crucifix 2 Cor. 3. 18.) being that Glaſs which he is ever looking into, to behold in it the Glory of God in the Face of Jeſus Chriſt. It's made the black Mark of an ungodly Man, that God is not in all his thoughts, Pſal. 10. 4. but it's the lively Character of a true Chriſtian, that Rom. 3. 25.Chriſt is ever in his, whom as God foreign, hath ſet or held forth as a propitiation, as a Braſen Serpent for him that is ſtung to look upon and be healed, ſo a long-looking wiſt Eye of Faith is intently fixed upon him in ſaddeſt and ſweeteſt, moſt conſtant and ſerious Meditations: amidſt all other moſt beautiful Objects chuſeth out Chriſt to pitch his Eye on, as they, John 12. 21. to Philip, Sir, we would ſee Jeſus, and as Statius of Domitian, Ipſum Ipſum cupido tantum ſpectare vacavit. Then, then Chriſt is Sylv. l. 4. p. 406.our Life, we live very much in Chriſt, and Chriſt in us, when our moſt ſerious and leaſt interrupted thoughts are pitched, faſtned on him, as the Eyes of his Hearers were ſometimes on him, when he Preached, Luke 4. 20. and his Diſciples, when he aſcended, Act. 1. 10. where the word foreign is uſed, which ſignifieth a ſtedfaſt and earneſt beholding, ſuch a ſteady contemplating of Chriſt is the Life of the Life of a Chriſtian. We live (ſaid Paul to his Theſſalonians) if ye ſtand faſt in the Lord: and how happily 1 Theſ. 3. 8.ſhould we live, if our Thoughts and Hearts were more faſt fixed on Chriſt? If the Philoſopher was born to look on the Sun, truly the Chriſtian's Life may well be in a ſteady eying and contemplating the Sun of Righteouſneſs. It is the happineſs of the glorious Angels in Heaven always to be beholding the Face of his Father, Matth. 18. 10. and it will be ours in that beatifical Viſion at laſt, conſtantly to behold Chriſt's Glory, John 17. 24. But alas! It's here too often hid, vailed, and overclouded, and more often ſuch Fools are we, that our Eyes are in the ends of the Earth, wandring here and there: our thoughts of Chriſt broken off, and ſhamefully interrupted by others ſinful and Praefat. in Comment. in Lament.impertinent crowding in. In contemplationis altitudine libere volant angeli, ſed ſaltant tantum homines miſeri, as Bonaventure ſpeaks. Angels and glorified Saints are upon the Wing, and make an even and ſteady flight: but alas! we poor Graſhoppers here on Earth do but hop and leap, bolt up ſometimes, it may be, in a holy Meditation or Ejaculation, but are preſently down Pſal. 94 19.again, and then ſo intangled and inſnared with other multitudes of thoughts (as the Pſalmiſt calls them) that the Rabbins account may be too true, who ſo caſt it up, that they ſay that all the time of Methuſelah's idle thoughts being defalked and taken away, of the 969 years of his Life, he lived but 10 years. And truly a great deal of precious Time, and of our Life, is often ſpent, and little or nothing done through the intercurrence of vain thoughts of other things, which if pitched upon Chriſt, would help to make up the beſt part of our Life, whilſt Chriſt thus more fixedly looked and thought on, would animate and enliven it. This the Apoſtle in the narrow compaſs of four Verſes expreſſeth and urgeth with great variety of words very Emphatical, foreign, neglect not, take heed, give attendance, meditate on theſe things, give thy ſelf wholly to them, be wholly in them, 1 Tim. 4. 13, 14, 15, 16. Were Chriſt and the things of Chriſt thus heeded and ſtudied; ſo to live, and think, and live thinking, were to live Chriſt, Chriſt would ſo be our Life, when our thoughts (which take up ſo great a ſhare of our Lives) are conſtantly buſied about him.
2. When our Hearts and Affections, Deſire and Love, Content, Comfort, Joy and Delight, do as fully and conſtantly cloſe with him, and act towards him and upon him, and reſt in him. Such warm breathings argue Life: And as the Party loving lives in the Beloved, and the Beloved back again (yea though dead) may be ſaid to live in him: So here, a Chriſtian Ʋbi amat, non ubi animat. See what in our whole life we moſt love and prize and cannot live without, that we uſe to call our Life, and ſo Jacob's Life, is bound up in Benjamins, Gen. 44. 30. See Corn. a Lap. in locum Chriſtus eſt meus ſpiritus, meus anhelitus mea, anima, mea Vita, Chriſtus eſt quem ſpero ſpiro, in quo reſpiro, quem in ſpiro, expiro &c. as he goeth on in his devout raptures.even lives to love, and lives in loving. Chriſt is his very Life, when he is the conſtant Object of his Deſire and Love, Delight and Comfort. The lamenting Church called Joſiah the Breath of her Noſtrils, Lam. 4. 20. typifying out (as Interpreters obſerve) what Chriſt is to a Chriſtian, foreign, as Theophylact upon my Text, Light, and Life and Breath, and all things, whilſt he breaths in from Chriſt Comfort and Joy, and breaths out Love and Praiſe. O Lord by theſe things Men live, ſaith Hezekiah, Iſa. 38. 16. and in theſe things is the Life of my Spirit, ſaith a true Chriſtian, I cannot live without them, without Chriſt, and Intereſt and Comfort in him; I am weary of my Life, as Rebekah ſaid, and what good will my Life do me? Gen. 27. 46. Sine Chriſto enim vanum eſt omne quod vivimus. (Hierom) It's vain and to no purpoſe, not worth the while, not worth all the vanity and vexation we here meet with to live, if we live out of Chriſt, or not to him, or not in communion with him. Indeed our Riches and Poſſeſſions and outward Enjoyments are uſually called our Livelihood or Living in the World's Dialect, and according to it the Scripture ſometimes ſo ſtiles them, Luke 15. 12, 30. and 21. 4. but withal, it elſewhere tells us that which our Experience finds to be moſt true, that a Man's Life confiſts not in the abundance of ſuch Poſſeſſions, Luke 12. 15. I am ſure a Believer's doth not, notwithſtanding the greateſt affluence of ſuch Livelihoods, if he want Chriſt, his is foreign, a lifeleſs Life. As the Spouſe in Chriſt's abſence Cant. 5. 8.is ſick of Love: ſo the faithful Spouſe dyeth away, and cannot live without him. The whole World is not a Paradiſe, but a Wilderneſs without this Tree of Life in it. And although they told Naomi, that Obed her Grandchild would be the Reſtorer of her Life, Ruth 4. 15. yet it is neither Child, nor Father, nor Friend that is either Giver, or Reſtorer, or Preſerver of a Chriſtian's, but Chriſt only, and he alone alſufficiently. Quamdiu Chriſti gloria incolumis perſtat, &c. (as he ſaith) as long as Chriſt's Hyperius.Glory and my Intereſt in him is intire and whole, I am well, I live, and am lively, amidſt all other cool fainting Qualms and Swoons. This is the Life-Bloud of my Heart, which keeps it warm, and alive, whilſt my Deſires, Loves, Joys, cloſe with him, and are animated by him.