Inf. 2. How transcendently glorious is the advancement of be- lievers, by their union with the Lord of glory f This also is an ad- mirable and astonishing mystery ; it is the highest dignity of which our nature is capable, to be hypostatically united ; and the greatest glory of which our persons are capable is to be mystically united to this Lord of glory ; to be bone of his bone, and flesh of his flesh. O what is this ! Christian, dost thou know and believe all this, and thy heart not burn within thee in love to Christ ? O ! then, what a heart hast thou ? What art thou, by nature, but sinful dust, a loathsome sinner, viler than the vilest creature, cast out to the loath- ing of thy person in the day of thy nativity ! O that ever the Lord of glory should unite himself to such a lump of vileness ! take such a wretch into his very bosom ! Be astonished, O heavens and earth, at this ! this is the great mystery which the angels stooped down to look into : Such an honour as this could never have entered into the heart of man. It would have seemed a rude blasphemy in us, once to have thought or spoken of such a thing, had not Christ made first the motion thereof; yet how long didst thou make this Lord of glory wait upon thy undetermined will, before he gained thy consent ? Might he not justly have spurned thee into hell, upon thy first refusal, and never have made thee such another offer ? Wilt thou not say, Lord, what am I, and what is my fa- ther's house, that so great a King should stoop so far beneath him- self, to such a worm as I am ! That strength should unite itself to weakness, infinite glory to such baseness ! O grace, grace, for ever to be admired !
Inf. 3. Is Jesus Christ the Lord of glory ? Then let no man count himself dishonoured by suffering the vilest indignities for his sake : The Lord of glory puts glory upon the very suffering you under- go in this world for him. " Moses esteemed the reproaches of " Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt," Heb. xi. 26. he cast a kingdom at his heels, to be crowned with reproaches, for the name of Christ. The diadem of Egypt was not half so glorious as self-denial for Christ. This Lord of glory freely degraded him- self for thee; wilt thou stand hesitating with him upon terms? It is certainly your honour to be dishonoured for Christ, Acts v. 41. to you it is given, in behalf of Christ, not only to believe, but also to suffer for his sake, Phil. i. 29. The gift of suffering is there
240 THE METHOD OF GRACE. SERM. XIV.
matched with the gift of faith ; it is given as an honorarium, a badge of honour to suffer for the Lord of glory. As all have not the honour to wear the crown of glory in heaven, so few have the ho- nour to wear the chain of Christ upon earth. * Thanus reports of Ludovicus Marsacus, a knight of France, that being led to suffer with other martyrs, who were bound, and he unbound, be- cause a person of honour ; he cried out, " Why don't you honour " me with a chain too, and create me a knight of that noble " order P"1 My brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations, James i. 2. i. e. trials by sufferings. David thought it an honour to be vile for God, and that is a true observation that disgrace itself is glorious when endured for the Lord of glory.
I?if. 4. Is Christ the Lord of glory ? How glorious then shall the saints one day be, when they shall be made like this glorious Lord, and partake of his glory in heaven f John xvii. 22. " The glory " which thou gavest me, I have given them :" Yea, the vile bodies of believers shall be made like to the glorious body of Christ, Phil, iii. 21. What glory then will be communicated to their souls ? True, his essential glory is incommunicable ; but there is a glory which Christ will communicate to his people. " When he comes <f to judge the world, he will come to be glorified in his saints, and " to be admired in all them that believe,,, 2 Thes. i. 10. Thus he seemeth to account his social glory, which shall result from his saints, a great part of his own glory : As we have now fellowship with him in his sufferings, so we shall have a fellowship or com- munion with him in his glory : When he shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory ; then the poorest believer shall be more glorious than Solomon in all his royalty. It was a pious saying of Luther, that he had rather be Christianus rusticus, quarri Ethnicus Alexander ; a Christian clown, than a Pagan emperor. The righteous is more excellent than his neighbour, though he live next door to a graceless nobleman : But it doth not yet appear what they shall be. The day will come, it certainly will come, for the Lord hath spoken it, when they shall shine forth as the sun in the king- dom of their Father.
Inf. 5. How hath the devil blindfolded, and deluded them that are frighted off from Christ, by the fears of being dishonoured by him? Many persons have half a mind to religion, but when they consider the generality of its professors to be persons of the lowest and mean- est rank in the world, and that reproaches and sufferings attend that way ; they shrink back as men ashamed, and as Salvian saith, Mali esse coguntur, ne viles habeantur ; they chuse rather to remain wicked, than to be esteemed vile : But to them that believe, Christ is
* Cur me non qaoqite donas, et insignis hvjus ordinis militem creas ? Thuanus,
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an honour; as the word whicli we translate precious might be ren- dered, 1 Pet. ii. 7. Till God open men's eyes thus, they will put evil for good, and good for evil. But O dear bought honours, for which men stake their souls and everlasting happiness ! Paul was not of your mind: for birth he was an Hebrew of the Hebrews ; for dignity and esteem, a Pharisee ; for moral accom- plishments, touching the law, blameless : Yet all this he trampled under his feet, counting it all but dross and dung in comparison of Jesus Christ. Moses had more honour to lay down for Christ than you ; yet it was no temptation to him to conceal or deny the faith of Christ. Noble Galeacius would not be withheld from Christ by the splendor and glory of Italy ; but O, how doth the glory of this world dazzle and blind the eyes of many : " How can ye be- " lieve (saith Christ) who receive honour one of another P" John v. 44. Saints and sinners, upon this account, are wonders one to the other. It is the wonder of the world to see Christians glo- rying in reproaches ; they wonder that the saints run not with them into the same excess of riot ; and it is a wonder to believers, how such poor toys and empty titles (rather than titles of honour) should keep the world as it doth from Jesus Christ, and their everlasting happiness in him.