of me; yet ye will not come unto me, tho' the Scripture teftifies that eternal Life is only to be had in me. Chrift is the true God and eternal Life, 1 John v. 20. And this is the Record, that God hath given us eternal Life, and this Life is in his Son, V. II. Seeing then that the Scripture teftifies of Chrift, that eternal Life is in him; in vain do men think to have eternal Life, even in the Scripture, while they will not come to Chrift, that they may have Life. People may think respectfully of the Scripture, and yet perifh in their Ignorance, and die in a Delufion, while they do not think refpectfully of Chrift, in a Suitableness to the Teftimony that the Scripture gives of him; Therefore the great Queftion is ftill, What think ye of ?Chrift? 12 OBSERV. That the great Queftion of the Chriftian Cathechifm, by which People are to try themselves, is this, What think ye of Chrift? Here you fee, Chrift, who is the Catechift that puts the Queftion, is alfo the Cathechifm, the Matter of the Question. It is to this fame Purpose that Chrift demands an Anfwer, to this Queftion, both with refpect to the People in general, what they thought of Chrift; and alfo with refpect to the Difciples themselves, what they thought of him, Luke ix. 18, 19, 20. Whom fay the People that I am? What is the Sentiment and Opinion of the People about Chrift ? It is answered for the People, That fome took him for John the Baptift, fome for Elias, fome for one of the old Prophets They had an Efteem of Chrift, but not according to his Worth and Excellency, his Grandeur and Glory. Well, but fays Chrift to his Difciples, Whom fay ye that I am? What is your Thought and Judgment? Peter answers in the Name of the reft, faying, Thou art the Chrift of God. Believers only can answer this Queftion to. Purpose, what think ye of Chrift? : The The Method which I would here effay, as the Lord may affift, to profecute fhall be, 1. To premife fome general Remarks for clearing of this Doctrine. 2. To fhew what is the Import of this Queftion in the feveral Parts thereof. 3. Offer fome Reafons of the Doctrine, fhewing why this is the leading and trying Queftion in the Christian Catechifm. 4. Deduce fome Inferences, and fo make Application of the Point, for informing of our Minds, trying of our State, and directing of our Thoughts and Affections concerning Chrift. FIRST HEAD. The firft Head propofed is, To offer fome general Remarks for clearing of the Doctrine. 1ft Remark, That Man is a thoughtful or a thinking Creature. God created him with a thinking Faculty, capable of difcurfive Thought and Ratiocipation; capable of rational Cogitation concerning God, and spiritual Objects, and celeftial Things; which Beafts, that have fome Sort of Thoughts, yet are not capable of. I need not infift upon this; for fome of you know, that even Pagan Philofophers are acquaint with this, and that Heathen Poets have inferred it from the very Frame and Structure of the Humane Body; as Ovid.. Pronaque cum fpectent Animalia cætera terram, Man was endowed above Beafts with a Faculty capable of celestial Contemplation. It is peculiar to the Greatures called Men and Angels, to think of God, and to think of Chrift; other Creatures are not capable of fuck Thoughts: This is plainly fuppofed in this Question, What think ye of Chrift? zd Remark, That Man's Thoughts, together with all the Faculties and Powers of his Soul, have gotten fuch a Dafh by the Fall of Adam, that they were fet a wavering after other Objects befides God the chief Good: Good: Yea, the Fall in a Manner dafh'd out his Brains; and his Head being broken, God went out of his Head, and the Creature came in. Since that Time, he could never have a right Thought of God in his Head, yea, God is not in all his Thoughts; but innumerable other Things fill up the Room which God fhould have. He created Man upright, but they have found out many Inventions, infomuch that now every Imagination of the Thought of his Heart is only Evil continually, Gen. vi. 5. The World, and the Lufts thereof, do monopolize and ingrofs all the Thoughts of the Children of Men, and God is thruit out of them; there is no Room for God or the Son of God. This wrong Sett of the Thoughts is alfo here fuppofed in the Question, What think ye of Christ? 3d Remark, That whatever confufed Thoughts and dark Apprehenfions Men may naturally have, now in their fallen State, concerning God and his Law, like the confufed Chaos, Gen. 1. 2. Without Form and void, and Darkness upon the Face of the Deep; yet Thoughts of Chrift, or of God in Chrift, are what no Man could ever have had in the leaft glimmering Idea by Nature, without Divine Gofpel-revelation. Adam fallen retained fome awful and terrible Thoughts of God; but no Thought could he ever had of Chrift, unless God had revealed him as the Seed of the Woman that was to bruise the Head of the Serpent. This is the Myftery that was hid from Ages and Generations. The great Mylery of Godliness, God manifefted in the Flesh, God in Chrift reconciling the World to himself, could not enter into our Thoughts. Some natural Impreffions Men have of God as a Lawgiver ftanding upon Terms of Obedience with them, according to the firft Covenant, namely of Works made with the firft Adam; but God in Chrift as the End of the Law for Righteousness, and fulfilling the Righteoufnefs of the Law in the Sinner's Room, is fuch a hidden Myftery, fo far above the natural Thoughts of Man, that even where the objective Revelation of this Mystery is made, without the fubjec B 2 tive tive, internal, faving Illumination in the Knowledge thereof, Men cannot have or entertain any due Apprehenfions of it, but remain doting upon their legal Dreams and Imaginations concerning God, as in the old Covenant-relation to them. This was evident in the Pharifees here, notwithstanding of the Gofpel-light they had both from the Old Testament Prophecies and Promises of Chrift, and from the Rays of the Sun of Righteousness himself now arifen among them ftill they were doting upon the Law, and had fome dark Thoughts of God with relation thereto; therefore Chrift, to direct their Thoughts in the only way to God, he leads them to himself. And as the Difciples themselves, being but partly inlightned herein, need to be directed in their Faith and spiritual Thoughts of God, that they be not legal, terminating upon God abfolutely, but evangelical upon Chrift, or God in him, John xiv. 1. Ye believe in God, believe also in me; fo much more do blind Pharifees need to be directed to the right Road, as here our Lord does. Ye think of God, but what think ye of Chrift? 4th Remark, When Chrift is revealed, People may think of him, and yet think amifs, unlefs their Thoughts be fpiritualized by a fupernatural Change of the Mind, and a faving Illumination of their Understanding in the Knowledge of Chrift. Thoughts may be confidered as either rational and fpeculative, which is juft the Work of the Brain, and lies only in a bare Theory of Divine Things; or as practical and spiritually operative, which does not reft in the Head, but affects the Heart, and fets the Affections in Motion towards Divine Things, and raises the fpiritual Eftimation thereof. Now, whatever Thoughts of Chrift the natural Man may have in the former Senfe, yet no fuitable Thoughts of Chrift can he have in the latter Senfe, till a fupernatural Change be wrought by faving Illumination. It is as impoffible for a Man in the black State of Nature to think upon Chrift or fpiritual Things in a fpiritual Manner, as it is for a Man that was born blind to judge of Colours Colours, or to be taken up with their Beauty and Luftre, 1 Cor. ii. 14. The natural Man receives not the Things of God, they are Foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, for they are spiritually difcerned. This Difcerning he cannot have, till he be tranflated out of Darkness to God's marvellous Light, and till the God, who commanded Light to fhine out of Darkness, fhine into his Heart, &c. 2 Cor. iv. 6. People then may think of Christ, and yet think amifs, without this faving Illumination. This is alfo fuppofed here in the Question; for the Pharifees did not want fome Thoughts of Chrift the Meffias, and partly right Thoughts too upon the Matter, while they thought he was the Son of David; yet they were fo far from being right Thoughts of Chrift, as God-Man, and as to the Manner of their thinking of him, that they had no due Efteem of the true Chrift; nay, he was defpifed and rejected of them, as a Root out of a dry Ground, and as having no Form or Comeliness, a. liii. 2, 3. And thus he is ftill undervalued of Multitudes, who yet judge they have right enough Thoughts of Chrift; they think of him, but think amifs: And therefore the Queftion is not merely concerning the A&t of Thinking, but the Quality thereof; it is not, Have you any Thoughts of Chrift; do you ever think of him? but it is, What think you of him? 5th Remark, That Man's Thoughts are within God's Jurifdiction, and under his Authority. The Commands of God extend not only to the outward, but the inward Man of the Heart, and confequently further than ever any earthly Command could go: Where was there ever a Monarch that could give out fuch Laws, as would bind the Heart and Thoughts of Men? If any Mortal fhould make a Law, that his Subjects should not dare, upon their Peril, to welcome a traiterous Thought against his Royal Perfon, otherwise he would be avenged upon them; really fuch an one would deferve to be laughed at for his Pride, and Folly more than Calligula, who threatned the Air, if it durft rain when he was at his Paftime, who yet durft not look u pon |