Inference 1. If Jesus Christ did wholly set himself apart for be- lievers, how reasonable is it that believers should consecrate and set themselves apart wholly for Christ ? Is he all for us, and shall we be nothing for him ? What he was, he was for you ? Whatever he did, was done for you ; and all that he suffered, was suffered for you. O then, " I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, pre- " sent your bodies," i. e. your whole selves, (for so body is there* synecdochically put to signify the whole person) I say, present " your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which " is your reasonable service,'" Rom. xii. 1. As your good was Christ's end, so let his glory be your end. Let Christ be the " end of your conversation,'1 Heb. xiii. 7. As Christ could say, To me to live is you ; so do you say, " For us to live is Christ," Phil. L £1. O that all who profess faith in Christ, could subscribe cordially to that profession, Rom. xiv. 8. " None of us liveth tp " himself, and no man dieth to himself; but whether we live, we " live to the Lord ; and whether we die, we die to the Lord ; u so then whether we live or die, we are the Lord's." This is to be a Christian indeed. What is a Christian, but an holy dedi- cated thing to the Lord ? And what greater evidence can there be,
* Synedoche Hcbraka^ pr9 vos-met ipsos totos ; i, e. your whole persons. ,SYc P*- reus in loc.
102 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SERM. ttt.
that Christ set himself apart for you, than your setting yourselves apart for him ?
This is the marriage covenant, Hos. iii. 3. " Thou shalt be for u me, and not for another ; so will I be for thee.'" Ah, what a life is the life of a Christian ; Christ all for you, and you all for him. Blessed exchange ! Soul, (saith Christ) all I have is thine, Lord, (saith the soul) and all I have is thine. Soul, (saith Christ) my person is wonderful, but what I am, I am for thee : my life was spent in labour and travail, but lived for thee. And Lord, (saith the believer), my person is vile, and not worth thy accept- ing ; but such as it is, it is thine ; my soul, with all and every faculty ; my body, and every member of it, my gifts, time, and all my talents are thine.
And see that as Christ bequeathed and made over himself to *ou, so ye, in like manner, bestow and make over yourselves to im. He lived not, neither died (as you hear) for himself, but you. O that you, in like manner, would down with self, and exalt Christ in the room of it. * Wo, wo is me, (saith one) that ' the holy profession of Christ is made a shewy garment by many 4 to bring home a vain fame ; and Christ is made to serve men's
* ends. This is to stop an oven with a king's robes. Except men e martyr and slay the body of sin, in sanctified self-denial, they c shall never be Christ's martyrs and faithful witnesses. O if I 1 could be master of that house-idol, myself, mine own, mine
* own wit, will, credit, and ease, how blessed were I ! O but we 4 have need to be redeemed from ourselves, rather than from the c devil and the world. Learn to put out yourselves, and to put c in Christ for yourselves. I should make a sweet bargain, and
* give old for new, if I could shuffle out self, and substitute ' Christ my Lord in place of myself ; to say, not I, but Christ ;
* not my will, but Chrisfs ; not my ease, not my lusts, not my
* credit, but Christ, Christ. — O wretched idol, myself, when shall « I see thee wholly decourted, and Christ wholly put in thy room ? « O if Christ had the full place and room of myself, that all my
* aims, purposes, thoughts aod desires would coast and land upon c Christ, and not upon myself
He set himself apart for you believers, and no others ; no, not for angels, but for you : Will ye also set yourselves apart pecu- liarly for Christ ? be his, and no others ? Let not Christ and the world share and divide your hearts in two halves betwixt them ; let not the world step in and say, half mine. You will never do Christ right, nor answer this grace, till you can say, as it is, Psal. lxxiii. 9.O. " Whom have I in heaven but thee ? and on earth " there is none that I desire in comparison of thee." None but- Christ, none but Christ, is a proper motto for a Christian.
SERM. VII. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 10$
He left the highest and best enjoyments, even those in his Fa- ther's bosom, to set himself apart for death and suffering for you : Are you ready to leave the bosom of the best and sweetest enjoy- ments, you have in this world, to serve him ? If you stand not habitually ready to leave father, mother, wife, children, lands, yea, and life too, to serve him, you are not worthy of him, Matt, x. 37.
He was so wholly given up to your service, that he refused not the worst and hardest part of it, even bleeding, groaning, dying- work ; his love to you sweetened all this to him ; Can you say so too ; do you " account the reproaches of Christ greater riches " than the treasures of Egypt, as Moses did ?" Heb. xi. 26.
He had so entirely devoted himself to your work, that he could not be at rest till it was finished : he was so intent upon it, that he " forgot to eat bread," John iv. 31, 32. So it should be with you; his service should be meat and drink to you. To conclude :
He was so wholly given up to your work and service, that he would not suffer himself to be in the least diverted, or taken oft* from it : and if Peter himself counsel him to favour himself, he shall hear, " Get thee behind me, Satan." O happy were it if our hearts were but so engaged for Christ ! In Galen's time it was proverbial, when they would express the impossibility of a thing, You may as soon take off a Christian from Christ. Thus you see what use you should make of Christ's sanctifying himself for you.
Inf. 2. If Christ hath sanctified or consecrated himself for us ; learn hence, what a horrid evil it is, to use Christ or his blood, as a common and unsanctijied thing. Yet so some do, as the apostle speaks, Heb. x. 29. The apostate is said to tread upon the Son of God, as if he were no better than the dirt under his feet, and to count his blood an unholy (or common) thing. But wo to them that do so, they shall be counted worthy of something worse than dying without mercy, as the apostle there speaks.
And as this is the sin of the apostate, so it is also the sin of all those that without faith approach, and so profane the table of the Lord, unbelievingly and unworthily handling those awful things. Such " eat and drink judgment to themselves, not discerning the " Lord's body," 1 Cor. xi. 29. Whereas the body of Christ was a thing of the deepest sanctification that ever God created ; sancti- fied (as the text tells us) to a far more excellent and glorious pur- pose than ever any creature in heaven or earth was sanctified. It was therefore the great sin of those Corinthians, not to discern it, and not to behave themselves towards it, when they saw and handled the signs of it, as became so holy a thing.