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1 Cor. xv. 27.

that every tongue shall confess, that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father." And that article of our creed, concerning Christ's sitting at God's right hand in heaven, signifies thus much unto us; that Christ, after his resurrection and ascension into heaven, hath all power given him both in heaven and in earth, all things being made subject to him, "excepting him only that hath put all things under him." He being, for the comfort of his church and members here upon earth, according to his humanity, made God's vicegerent, and seated in his Father's throne; and having a mediatorious kingdom bestowed upon him, that shall continue, "till he hath put down all authority and power, and hath subdued all enemies under his feet;" and then hath delivered up this economical kingdom to God the Father, "that God may be all in all,"

Verse 24.

Verse 28.

And this is an unspeakable consolation, that Christian religion affords to us, and a most gra cious condescension of the all-wise God; that for asmuch as we, who dwell in these houses of clay, are so far removed from the pure and abstracted Deity, and so infinitely disproportioned unto it, that there should be such a contrivance as this set on foot, that we should have one of our own flesh and blood, that was in all things tempted like unto us, and had experience of all our difficulties and calamities; who demonstrated his infinite love to us in laying down his life for us, and therefore we cannot doubt, but hath a most tender sympathy and fellow-feeling with us in all our infirmities; I say, that we should have such a one exalted to God's right hand, and invested

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with all authority and power both in heaven and earth, that he might administer all things for the good of his church and members, and supply them in all their wants and necessities. Which consideration must needs be far more comfortable, cheering, and reviving, to every true Christian, than it was to the sons of Jacob, when they went down to Egypt to buy corn and provision for their necessities, to think, that Joseph their brother was made lord of all the land.

And yet, notwithstanding, this is wholly eluded and evacuated by those high-flown spiritualists of these latter times, that slight and reject the letter of the New Testament, as a mean and carnal thing, and will acknowledge no other death and resurrection of Christ, no other ascension and sitting at God's right hand; nay, no other day of judgment, nor resurrection of the body, but what is mystical and allegorical; whereby they do not only impudently slur the gospel, according to the history and the letter, in making it no better than a romantical legend, or a mere Æsopic fable, that contains a good riuúlov, or moral under it; but also plainly defeat the counsel of God against themselves and mankind, by antiquating Christianity, and bringing in instead thereof old Paganism again, disguised under a few canting phrases of Scripture language. For though Moses had a veil over his face, though there were many obscure umbrages and allegories in the law (the children of Israel being then not able to bear the brightness of that evangelical truth that shined under them); yet now, under the gos2 Cor. iii. pel," we do all with open face behold, as in a glass, the glory of the Lord" nakedly re

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presented to us, being changed into the same image from glory to glory."

But to let these pass, and still to improve our former meditation farther; let us in the next place consider, that Christ, who received all this power after his resurrection and ascension, did not receive it in vain and to no purpose, either taking no notice of our human transactions here below, as having removed his pavilion too far into those regions of light and glory from us; or else remaining, notwithstanding, an idle spectator, and no way concerning or interesting himself in the issues of our human affairs. Which will be so much the more improbable, if we consider what the Scripture and experience tell us, that the devil and apostate spirits are perpetually active and busy in promoting the concernments of the kingdom of darkness. And therefore doubtless he, whom God hath made the shepherd and bishop of our souls, can never be so regardless of his office, nor so careless of his flock and tender lambs committed to his charge, as to suffer those cruel wolves to prey upon them at pleasure; and to have no pity at all for them, nor to extend his watchful providence over them, whom once he vouchsafed to redeem with his own precious blood. No certainly; he, that waded through so many difficulties and agonies for us in the days of his flesh; he, that "bore our griefs and carried our sorrows;" he, that was "wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities;" that sweat drops of blood in the garden, and was nailed to the cross for us in Golgotha; he cannot so easily forget those whom he hath so dearly bought, nor suffer all that power which God hath

invested him with for the good of his church, to lie by him idle and unemployed.

But to the end that there might not be the least ground of suspicion or distrust left in the minds of men concerning this particular, Christ, after his ascension into heaven, thought good to give us a sensible demonstration both of his kingly power, and of his watchful care and providence over his church, that he would not leave them orphans, and destitute of all assistance, by sending down his Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, in a visible and miraculous manner, upon his disciples. (Acts ii. 32.) "This Jesus hath God raised up, of which we are all witnesses: therefore, being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which you now see and hear." And verily, if there had been no news heard of our Lord and Saviour Christ, after he ascended above the clouds out of his disciples' sight, no real and visible demonstration of his existence, power, and providence over his church; the distrustful hearts of men would have been too prone to suspect, that the pretence of an invisible kingdom at God's right hand above had been no better than a mere dream, an airy and fantastic notion; and they would have been too ready to have called in question the truth of all his other miracles, his resurrection and ascension, witnessed only by his own disciples, and to have surmised those several apparitions of his, that we read of after his death, had been nothing else but spectres, or phantasms, like the vulgarly-believed apparitions of the ghosts of men in airy bodies. But the sensible and miraculous pouring out of the

Holy Ghost upon his disciples, after his ascension into heaven, was a palpable confirmation of all Christ's other miracles, of the validity of his meritorious death and passion, of the truth of his resurrection and ascension; and gives most comfortable assurance to all believers to the world's end, that though his bodily presence be withdrawn from them, yet he hath not left his church utterly forlorn, and destitute of all assistance; but that his Spirit, the holy Comforter, continueth to be present amongst them, as his vicegerent, and to assist them for all the holy purposes of the gaspel, to the world's end. Now the principal effects of Christ's Holy Spirit, which are to be hoped for and expected by every true believer and private Christian, are comprised by the apostle under three heads here in the text, as consisting in a threefold victory over a threefold enemy. "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law but thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

1. A victory over sin, as that which is the cause of death.

2. A victory over the law, as that which aggravates the guilt, and exasperates the power of sin. 3. Lastly, A victory over death, the fruit and consequent of sin.

First, therefore, There is a victory over sin to be obtained in and through Christ.

Some there are, that will acknowledge no other victory over sin but an external one; that whereby it was conquered for us by Christ upon the cross, sixteen hundred years since, where he "spoiled principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it." (Col. ii. 15.)

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