Since Christ is thus comfortably set out unto us, let us not believe Satan’s representations of him. When we are troubled in conscience for our sins, his manner is then to present him to the afflicted soul as a most severe judge, armed with justice against us. But then let us present him to our souls, as thus offered to our view by God himself, as holding out a sceptre of mercy, and spreading his arms to receive us. When we think of Joseph, Daniel, John the Evangelist, etc., we frame conceits of them with delight, as of mild and sweet persons; much more when we think of Christ, we should conceive of him as a mirror of all meekness. If the sweetness of all flowers were in one, how sweet must that flower needs be? In Christ all perfections of mercy and love meet; how great then must that mercy be that lodgeth in so gracious a heart? whatsoever tenderness is scattered in husband, father, brother, head, all is but a beam from him, it is in him in the most eminent manner. We are weak, but we are his; we are deformed, but yet carry his image upon us. A father looks not so much at the blemishes of his child, as at his own nature in him; so Christ finds matter of love from that which is his own in us. He sees his own nature in us: we are diseased, but yet his members. Who ever neglected his own members because they were sick or weak? none ever hated his own flesh. Can the head forget the members? can Christ forget himself? we are his fulness, as he is ours. He was love itself clothed with man’s nature, which he united so near to himself, that he might communicate his goodness the more freely unto us; and took not our nature when it was at the best, but when it was abased, with all natural and common infirmities it was subject unto. Let us therefore abhor all suspicious thoughts, as either cast in or cherished by that damned spirit, who as he laboured to divide between the Father and the Son by jealousies, “If thou be the Son of God,” etc., Matt. iv. 6, so his daily study is, to divide betwixt the Son and us, by breeding mispersuasions in us of Christ, as if there were not such tender love in him to such as we are. It was his art from the beginning to discredit God with man, by calling God’s love into question, with our first father Adam; his success then makes him ready at that weapon still,
Object. But for all this, I feel not Christ so to me, saith the smoking flax, but rather the clean contrary; he seemeth to be an enemy unto meI see and feel evidences of his just displeasure,
Ans. Christ may act the part of an enemy a little while, as Joseph did, but it is to make way for acting his own part of mercy in a more seasonable time; he cannot hold in his bowels long. He seemeth to wrestle with us, as with Jacob, but he supplies us with hidden strength, at length to get the better. Faith pulls off the vizard from his face, and sees a loving heart under contrary appearances. Fiddes Christo larvam detrakit. At first he answers the woman of Canaan crying after him not a word; 2, Then I gives her a denial; 3, Gives an answer tending to her reproach, calling her dog, as being without the covenant; yet she would not be so beaten off, for she considered the end of his coming. As his father was never nearer him in strength to support him, than when he was furthest off in sense of favour to comfort him; so Christ is never nearer us in power to uphold us, than when he seemeth most to hide his presence from us. The influence of the Sun of Righteousness pierceth deeper than his light: In such cases, whatsoever Christ’s present carriage is towards us, let us oppose his nature and office against it; he cannot deny himself, he cannot but discharge the office his Father hath laid upon him. We see here the Father hath undertaken that he shall not “quench the smoking flax;” and Christ again undertaking for us to the Father, appearing before him for us, until he presents us blameless before him, John xvii. 6, 11. The Father hath given us to Christ, and Christ giveth us back again to the Father.
Object. This were good comfort, if I were but as smoking flax.
despise the consolation of the Almighty, nor refuse thy own mercy. Cast thyself into the arms of Christ, and if thou perishest, perish there; if thou dost not, thou art sure to perish. If mercy be to be found anywhere, it is there, Herein appears Christ’s care to thee, that he hath given thee a heart in some degree sensible: he might have given thee up to hardness, security, and profaneness of heart, of all spiritual judgments the greatest. He that died for his enemies, will he refuse those, the desire of whose soul is towards him? He that by his messengers desires us to be reconciled, will he put us off when we earnestly seek it at his hand? No, doubtless, when he prevents us by kindling holy desires in us, he is ready to meet us in his own ways. When the prodigal set himself to return to his father, his father stays not for him, but meets him in the way. “When he prepares the heart to seek, he will cause his ear to hear,” Ps. x. 17. He cannot find in his heart to hide himself long from us. If God should bring us C into such a dark condition, as that we should see no light from himself, or the creature, then let us remember what he saith by the prophet Isaiah, “He that is in darkness, and seeth no light,” Isa. 1. 10, no light of comfort, no light of
God’s countenance, “yet let him trust in the name of the Lord” We can never be in such a condition, wherein there will be just cause of utter despair; therefore let us do as mariners do, cast anchor in the dark. Christ knows how to pity us in this case; look what comfort he felt from his Father in his breakings, Isa. liii. 5, the like we shall feel from himself in our bruising.
The sighs of a bruised heart carry in them some report, as of our affection to Christ, so of his care to us. The eyes of our souls cannot be towards him, but that he hath cast a gracious look upon us first. The least love we have to him is but a reflection of his love first shining upon us. As Christ did in his example whatsoever he gives us in charge to do, so he suffered in his own person whatsoever he calleth us to suffer, that he might the better learn to relieve and pity us in our sufferings. In his desertion in the garden, and upon the cross, he was content to want “that unspeakable solace in the presence of his Father, both to bear the wrath of the Lord for a time for us, and likewise to know the better how to comfort us in our greatest extremities. God seeth it fit we should taste of that cup of which his Son drank so deep, that we might feel a little what sin is, and what his Son’s love was; but our comfort is, that Christ drank the dregs of the cup for us, and will succour us, that our spirits utterly fail not under that little taste of his displeasure which we may feel. He became not only a man, but a curse, a man of sorrows for us. He was broken, that we should not be broken; he was troubled, that we should not be desperately troubled; he became a curse, that we should not be accursed. Whatsoever may be wished for in an all-sufficient Comforter is all to be found in Christ, 1. Authority from the Father, all power was given him, Matt. xxviii. 18. 2. Strength in himself, as having his name the mighty God, Isa. ix. 6. 3. Wisdom, and that from his own experience, how and when to help. 4. Willingness, as being flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone, Isa. ix. 6.