We are generally full of complaints, how hard, how dead and stupid our hearts are ; we are often putting such cases as these, how- shall I get a heart broken for sin.? How shall I raise my dead heart in duty ? Why this is the way, no expedient in all the world like this ; look upon him whom thou hast pierced ; it is the melting argument.
S. Use, of examination.
But that which I especially aim at in this point, is for the trial and examination of thy heart, reader, in the point of true evangehcal repentance, which is thy proper business at this time ; and I mil go no further tlian the text for rules to examine and try it by.
Rule 1. All evangelical repentance hath a supernatural spring, ' I will pour out the Spirit of grace, and they shall mourn.' Till the Spirit be poured out upon us, it is as easy to press water out of a rock, a$ to make our hearts relent and mourn. There are indeed
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natural meltings, the effects of an ingenuous temper, but these difTer in kind and nature from godly sorrow.
Rule 2. Godly sorrows are real, sincere, and undissembled; they * shall mourn, as for an only son.'
Parents need not any natural helps to draw tears on such accounts ; O ! their very hearts are pierced, they could even die with them ; sighs, groans, and tears, are not hanged out as false signs of what is not to be found in their hearts.
Rule 3. Evangelical sorrow is very deep ; so much the mourning for an only son, a first-born, must import. These waters, how still soever they be, run deep, very deep, in the bottom channel of the soul. See Acts ii. 37. Thei/ were ait to the heart.
Rule 4. Faith is the instrument employed in breaking the heart ; ' they shall look, and mourn.' This is the burning-glass that con- tracts the beams, and fires the aff*ections.
Rtde 5. Lastly, The wrong sin hath done to God, and the suffer- ings it hath brought Christ under, are the piercing and heart- wound- ing considerations : ' They shall look upon me, whom they have pierced, and mourn.' The piercing of Christ by our sin, is that which must pierce thy soul with sorrow.
Upon John vi. 5-5. For myjlesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drhik indeed.
XN the context our Lord Jesus Christ makes a most spiritual and excellent discourse to the Jews, about the nature and necessity of faith in him ; taking the occasion thereof from the bread, which a little before he had so miraculously multiplied and fed them with; raising up their minds to more sublime and spiritual things, and let- ting them know that bread, how sweet soever it was, was but a sha- dow of himself, infinitely more sweet and necessary.
These words are a proposition, in which are these three things observable :
First, The subject ; my flesh and my blood.
Secondly, The predicate ; it is meat and drink.
Thirdly^ The manner of predication ; it is meat indeed, and drink indeed.
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First, The subject ; my flesh and blood, i. e. my humanity : this is meat and drink, true spiritual food. If it be demanded, why he had not said, I am meat and drink indeed; but rather chuses to say, my flesh and blood is so ? The reason is evident, saith learned Ca- mero ; because if you take away flesh and blood from Christ, he can- not be food or life to us : for, in order to his being so, he must satisfy God for us, and obtain the remission of our sins ; but without shed- ding of blood there is no remission. Now, forasmuch as by the of- fering up of his body, and shedding of his blood, he hath obtained pardon and life for us ; therefore his flesh and his blood, is called our meat and our drink, that by which our souls live. Which brings us to the second thing :
Secondly^ The predicate ; it is meat and drink : i. e. It is to our souls of the same use and necessity, that meat and drink are to our natural life, which cannot be sustained, or continued without them. The life of our souls as necessarily depends upon the flesh and blood of Christ, as our natural life doth upon meat and drink. Yet beware of a mistake here : the flesh and blood, or the humanity of Christ, is not the fountain of our spiritual life, but the channel rather through which it flows to us from his divinity. By reason of his incarnation and death, righteousness and life came to us.
Thirdly, The manner of predication is very emphatical ; it is ' meat indeed, and drhik indeed.' Which notes two things :
First, Reality, in opposition to all legal shadows and types. Secondly, Transcendent excellency, far surpassing all other food, even manna itself, which, for its excellency, is stiled angels food. ' My flesh is meat indeed,' i. e. true, substantial, and real food to souls, and choice, excellent, and incomparable food. Hence observe, Doct. That what meat and drink is to our bodies, that, and much more than that, the Jiesh and blood of Christ is to believing souU. Two things require explication on this point. First, Wherein the resemblance, or agreement lies, betwixt the flesh and blood of Christ, and meat and drink ? Secondly, Wherein the former trar- scends and excels the latter ?
1. Query. Wherein lies the resemblance and agreement between the flesh and blood of Christ, and material meat and drink ? Sol. The agreement is manifest in the following particulars. First, Meat and drink is necessary to support natural life ; we can- not live without it. Upon this account, bread is called the staff* and stay ; i. e. the support of the natural spirits, which do as much lean and depend upon it, as a feeble man doth upon his staff*; Isa. iii. 1. But yet how necessary soever it be, the flesh and blood of Christ is more indispensibly necessary for the life of our souls ; John vi. 53. ' Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.' Our souls have more absolute need of peace and
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pardon by Christ, than our bodies have of meat and drink. Better our bodies were starved and famished, than our souls damned and lost for ever.
Secondly^ Meat and drink are ever most sweet and desirable, to those that are hungry and thirsty. It is hunger and thirst, that gives value and estimation to meat and drink ; Prov. xxvii. 7. * To the hungry soul, every bitter thing is sweet ;' and so it is in our esteem of Christ ; John vii. 37. ' If any man thirst, let him come to me, and drink. When God, by illumination and conviction, makes men deeply sen- sible of their miserable, lost, and perishing condition; then ten thousand worlds for Christ. All is but dung and dross, in compa- rison of the excellency of Christ Jesus.