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SERM. IX. is not the meaning, but of thofe doctrines which they have opportunity of opening, they do not out of fear, or to accommodate and fecure bafe low ends, withhold the mind of God, or fo corrupt and abufe his words, as to fubject truth to their own, or other mens lufts: "They preach not as pleafing men, but "God," 1 Theff. ii. 4. "For if we yet please men, we can"not be the fervants of Chrift," Gal. i. 10. Truth must be spoken, tho' the greatest on earth be offended.

2. Jefus Chrift was a tender-hearted minister, full of compaffion to fouls. He was fent to bind up the broken in heart, líą. Ixi. 1. He was full of bowels to poor finners." He grieved at the hardness of mens hearts," Mark iii. 5. He mourned over Jerufalem, and faid, "O Jerufalem, Jerufalem! how oft would I

have gathered thy children, as a hen gathers her brood under "her wings!" Matth. xxiii. 27. His bowels yerned when he faw the multitude, as fheep having no fhepherd, Matth. ix. 37. Thefe bowels of Chrift must be all in the under fhepherds. "God is my witnefs, (faith one of them) how greatly I long after you all, in [or after the pattern of] the bowels of Chrift "Jefus," Phil. i. 8. He that thews a hard heart, unaffected with the dangers and miferies of fouls, can never fhew a commifon from Chrift to authorize him for minifterial work.

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3. Jefus Chrift was a laborious painful minifter, he put a ne, ceffity on himself to finish his work in his day; a work infinitely great, in a very little time; John ix. 4. "I must work the "works of him that fent me, while it is day: the night com "eth, when no man can work." O how much work did Chrift do in a little time on earth!" He went about doing good," Acts x. 38. He was never idle. When he fits down at Jacob's well, to reft himself, being weary, prefently he falls into his work, preaching the gofpel, to the Samaritanefs. In this must his minifters refemble him; "ftriving according to his working, "that worketh in them mightily," Col. i, 28, 29. An idle minifter feems to be a contradiction in adjecto; as who should fay, a dark light.

4. Fefus Chrift delighted in nothing more than the fuccefs of his miniflry; to fee the work of the Lord profper in his hand, this was meat and drink to him. When the feventy returned, and reported the fuccefs of their firft embaffy, "Lord, even the "devils are fubject to us through thy name !" Why, faith Chrift, "I beheld Satan fall as lightning from heaven." As if he had

In here is put for inftar, as, like unto, after the manner or pattern of, &c.

faid, You tell me no news, I faw it when I fent you out at first : I knew the gospel would make work where it came. "And in "that hour Jefus rejoiced in fpirit," Luke x. 17, 18, 21. And is it not fo with those fent by him? do not they value the fuccefs of their ministry at a high rate? It is not (faith one) the expence, but the recoiling of our labours back again upon us, that kills us. Minifters would not die fo faft, nor be grey headed fo foon, could they but fee the travail of their fouls. 'My "little children, (faith Paul) of whom I travail again in birth, “awdiva, till Chrift be formed in you," Gal. iv. rò̟. As for those that have the name of thepherds only, who vifit the flock only once a year, about shearing time; who have," the inftru "ments of a foolish fhepherd," (forcipes et muletra) the fhears and pail, Zech. xi. 15.; woeful will be their condition at the appearing of this great Shepherd.

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5. Jefus Chrift was a minifter that lived up to his doctrine: his life and doctrine harmonized in all things. He preffed to holiness in his doctrine, and was the great pattern of holiness in his life, Matth. xi. 28. “Learn of me, I am meek and lowly.” And fuch his minifters defire to approve themfelves, Phil. iv. 9. "What ye have heard, and feen in me, that do." He preached to their eyes, as well as ears. His life was a comment on his doctrine. They might fee holinefs acted in his life, as well as founded by his lips. He preached the doctrine, and lived the application.

6. And lastly, Jefus Chrift was a minifter that minded and maintained fweet, fecret communion with God, for all his conftant public labours. If he had been preaching and healing all the day, yet he would redeem time from his very fleep to spend in fecret prayer; Matth. xiv. 23. "When he had fent the mul ❝titude away, he went up into a mountain apart to pray, and "was there alone." O bleffed pattern! Let the keepers of the vineyards remember they have a vineyard of their own to keep; a foul of their own that must be looked after as well as other mens. Those that, in thefe things, imitate Chrift, are surely sent to us from him, and are worthy of double honour: They are a choice bleffing to the people.

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Opens the second Branch of the Prophetical Office, confifting in the Illumination of the Understanding.

LUKE. xxiv. 45. Then opened he their understandings, &c.

KNOWLEDGE of spiritual things is well diftinguished

in to intellectual and practical: the firft hath its feat in the mind, the latter in the heart. This latter, divines call a knowledge peculiar to faints; and, in the apoftle's dialect, it is vsps χον της γνωσεως Χρισε Ιησε, Phil. iii. 8. The eminency, or ex"cellency of the knowledge of Chrift."

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And indeed, there is but little excellency in all thofe petty notions which furnish the lips with difcourfe, unlefs by a fweet and powerful influence they draw the confcience and will to the obedience of Chrift. Light in the mind is neceffarily antecedent to the sweet and heavenly motions and elevations of the affections: For the farther any man ftands from the light of truth, the farther he muft needs be from the heat of comfort, Heavenly quickenings are begotten in the heart, while the fun of righteoutnefs ipreads the beams of truth into the understanding, and the foul fits under thofe its wings; yet all the light of the gospel spreading and diffufing itself into the mind, can never favingly open and change the heart, without another act of Christ upon it; and what that is, the text informs you; Then opened he their understandings, that they might under fi and the fcriptures.

In which words we have both an act of Chrift upon the disciples understandings, and the immediate end and scope of that act.

1. Chrift's act upon their understandings: He opened their understandings. By understanding is not here meant the mind only, in oppofition to the heart, will, and affections, but these were opened by and with the mind. The mind is to the heart, as the door to the house: what comes into the heart, çomes in at the understanding, which is introductive to it; and altho' truths fometimes go no farther than the entry, never penetrate the hearts, yet, here, this effect is undoubtedly included.

Expofitors make this expreffion parallel to that in Acts xvi. 14." The Lord opened the heart of Lydia." And it is well obferved, that it is one thing to open the fcriptures, that is, to

expound them, and give the meaning of them, as Paul is faid to do in Acts xviii. 3. and another thing to open the mind or heart, as it is here. There are, as a learned man truly obferves, two doors of the foul barred against Christ; the underflanding by ignorance; and the heart by hardness: both these are opened by Chrift*. The former is opened by the preaching of the gospel, the other by the internal operation of the Spirit. The former belongs to the first part of Chrift's prophetical office, opened in the foregoing fermon; the latter, to that fpecial internal part of his prophetical office, to be opened in this.

And that it was not a naked act upon their minds only, but that their hearts and minds did work in fellowship, being both touched by this act of Christ, is evident enough by the effects mentioned, verfe 52, 53. "They returned to Jerufalem with "great joy, and were continually in the temple, praifing and "bleffing God." It is confeffed, that before this time Chrift had opened their hearts by converfion; and this opening is not to be understood fimply, but fecundum quid, in reference to those particular truths, in which, till now, they were not fufficiently informed, and fo their hearts could not be duly affected with them. They were very dark in their apprehenfions of the death and refurrection of Chrift; and confequently their hearts were fad and dejected about that which had befallen him, verse 17. But when he opened the fcriptures and their understandings and hearts together, then things appeared with another face, and they return, bleffing and praifing God.

2. Here is farther to be confidered, the defign and end of this act upon their understandings; That they might understand the fcriptures. Where let it be marked, reader, that the teachings of Chrift, and his Spirit, were never defigned to take inen off from reading, and ftudying, and feaching the fcriptures, as fome vain notionists, have pretended, oppofing thofe things which are fubordinated, but to make their ftudies and duties the more fruitful, beneficial, and effectual to their fouls; or that they might this way receive the end or bleffing of all their duties. God never intended to abolish his Word, by giving

*It is he who opens our hearts by his law. Capel. Specil, p. 57. + God does not give the Spirit to his people, on purpose to aboJifh his Word, but rather to render the word effectual and profitable to them; and therefore, the fanatics falfely, under pretext of revelation, take a liberty to flight the fcriptures. Calvin on this place.

ŠERM. X. his Spirit; and they are true fanatics (as Calvin upon this place calls them) that think, or pretend fo: By this means he would at once impart more light, and make that they had before more operative and useful to them, especially in fuck a time of need as this was. Hence we observe,

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Doct. That the opening of the mind and heart, effectually to receive the truths of God, is the peculiar prerogative and office of Fefus Chrift.

One of the great miferies under which lapfed nature labours, is fpiritual blindness f. Jefus Chrift brings that eye-salve which only can cure it. Rev. iii. 18. "I counfel thee, to buy of me eye-falve, that thou mayft fee." Thofe to whom the Spirit hath applied it, can fay, as it is 1 John v. 28., "We know "that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an underftanding, that we may know him that is true; and we are in "him, that is true, even his Son Jefus Chrift: this is the true "God, and eternal life.

"To the fpiritual illumination of a foul, it fuffices not that "the object be revealed, nor yet that man, the subject of that "knowledge, have a due ufe of his own reafon; but it is further

neceffary that the grace and fpecial affiftance of the holy Spirit "be fuperadded, to open and mollify the heart, and fo give it a

dae taffe and relifh of the fweetnefs of fpiritual truth." By opening the gofpel, he reveals truth to us, and by opening the heart, in us. Now, though this cannot be without that, yet it is much more excellent to have truth revealed in us, than to us. This divines call praecipuum illud adexerua muneris prophetici; "the principal perfective effect of the prophetical office," the fpecial bleffing promised in the new covenant, Heb. viii. 10. "I will put my laws in their mind, and write them in their "* hearts."

For explication of this part of Chrift's prophetical office, I

The eyes of the blind muft be anointed with eye-falve, by which man, being cured of his blindness, is restored to fpiritual fight. Glaf. Phil. 2 part, p. 340.

Ad perfectam et propriam rerum fupernaturalium cognitio nem, non fufficere ex parte objecti revelationem, nec ex parte fubjecti debitum ufum rationis, fed infuper requiri gratiam Chrifti, et fpeciale adjutorium Spiritus Sancti quo cor aperiatur, emolliatur, et fupernaturalis veritatis dulcedinis recta habeat proportionatam et guftum fpiritualis judicii. Reynold. Animal. Homo,

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