all this is imported in the Queftion, What think ye of Chrift? (5.) What think ye of his Aromatical Savour? For this is his Name, Chrift the Anointed; his Ointment cafts a Perfume through Heaven and Earth. How favoury is he to God? Why his Sacrifice was of a sweetfmelling Savour unto his Father, Eph. v. 2. The tinking Smell of Sin is extinguifhed thereby, and the Perfons and Performances of Believers perfumed; and hence, how favoury alfo to Believers? Song i. 13. His Lips are like Lillies, dropping fweet-fmelling Myrrhe. What think ye of his favoury Name? Song i. 3, 5. Because of the favour of thy good Ointments, thy Name is as Ointment poured forth; Therefore do the Virgins love thee. Were it no more but the Name JESUS a SAVIOUR, may it not be fo delightful to Sinners, as to cause their Hearts leap within them when they hear it, as John leapt in his Mother's Womb for Joy, at the Voice of the Bleffed Virgin's Salutation, Luke i. 44. O what think ye of the Sweet Name JESUS! It should even pluck your Heart out of your Bofom, and tranfplant it into the Bofom of Christ. How delightful is the very Naming of a Temporal Saviour to them that are in Mifery, when they hear of his Ability and Readiness to deliver them? And may not your Heart even dance within you for Joy, when you hear us fpeak to you of fuch a Saviour as faves from Sin and Wrath? O fweet-fmelling Name! O have you no Senfe of Smelling! What think ye' of Christ? (6.) What think ye of his Beauty and Comlinefs? This is alfo imported in his Name CHRIST, and fo in the Question, What think ye of Chrifl, the Anoin ted? Ointment and Perfume rejoice the Heart, fays Solomon, Prov. xxvii. 9. Now, Chrift is anointed with the Oil of gladness, Pfal. xlv. 7. and a glad Heart makes a cheerful countenance; yea, Oil makes the Face to fhine, Pfal. civ. 15. A Saint, that hath but a Sprinkling of this Oil, how will his Face shine, and his Countenance, like Hanna's, be no more fad ; How did Mofes his Face hine when fome of this Oil ( 30 ) was upon him! But O what think ye of the fhining Glory and Comelinefs of Chrift, who is anointed from Head to Foot! Is he not altogether lovely? Is he not white and ruddy, the chief among Ten Thoufands? Is he not a perfect Beauty? All God's Fuinefs is in him, all God's Beauty is in him, all God's Glory is to be feen in the Face of Jefus, 2 Cor. iv. 6. O then, What think ye of Christ ? (7) What think ye of his Worth and Preciousness This it alfo imported in the Name CHRIST, and fo in the Queftion, What think ye of Chrift, the Anoin ted ? for it is precious Ointment, Pfal, cxxxiii. 2. Ointment was reckoned of great Worth and Esteem among the Jews; It was among the precious Prefents that were fent unto Kings, Ifa. lvii. 9. Hof. xii. i. O how great is the Precioufnefs and Worth of Chrift! It is the Delight and Recreation, the Study and Oc cupation of Elect Angels, to pry into the Precioufnefs of Christ, to look upon the Frame and Fabrick of Salvation to Mankind-finners by Chrift, that they may therein obferve the glorious Attributes of God, his Wisdom, Power, Holinefs, Juftice, Truth, Mercy, all shining and glittering in it, like bright Stars in the Firmament. Let a profane World think what they will of Chrift; let them flight him and his Gofpel; let them fcorn him, and caft him at their Heels; let them trample on his Blood and Paffion, as their Manner is, making it a common and worthlefs Thing; let them defpife his high and celeftial Myfteries: We need not care for their Thoughts; It is enough that God the Father hath honoured and exalted him, that the holy Angels do reverence and worship him, and that all the Saints do magnify him. To them that believe he is precious: O his Blood is precious Blood, his Promifes are precious Promifes, his Love is precious Love, and every Thing about him is precious; What think ye of Christ? (8.) Again, to add no more here, What think ye of his Vertue and Usefulness ? This, I fuppofe, is alfo imported in the Name CHRIST, and in the Que ftion objectively confidered, What think ye of Chrift the Anointed? For as Ointment was and is of manifold Usefulness, fo is Chrift: Efpecially Oil hath a twofold Vertue, f, A mollifying Vertue, and a softning Quality; fuch is the Vertue of Chrift: Were the Heart never fo hard, he can foften and molify it; a Drop of that Oil with which he is anointed, I mean the smallest faving Motion of his Spirit, can melt and diffolve the Heart, tho' it were harder than a Stone or Adamant, Ezek. xxxvi. 26. 2dly, It hath a medicinal Vertue; hence it is faid of the Samaritan, Luke x. 34. that he poured in Oil into the Wounds of the diftreffed Man. Chrift is the tender-hearted Samaritan, his Blood and Spirit is the Ointment for curing all the Wounds that we got by the Old Serpent. What. Wounds, what Plagues, what deadly Difeafes and defperate Maladies are among you? Behold, there is no Difeafe out of Hell that furmounts the medicinnl Vertue that is in Chrift! O then, What think ye of Christ? Is there none here to think highly of him? Now, thefe Particulars that I have mentioned are imported in the very Name CHRIST,and fo implied in the Question objectively confidered, or with respect to the Object. thereof, What think ye of Chrift? The Second Thing here propofed, was, To fhew the Import of this Question Actively confidered, or with respect to the Act of Thinking; What think ye of Chrift? Now the full Import of this Queftion, thus viewed, may comprehend more than People are ready to imagine. It is not a palling Thought, or fleeting Imagination; we ought not to explain the Words of Christ by the Motions and Notions of our own Spirits: We need the Spirit of Chrift to explain the Words of Christ according to the Mind of Christ, 1 Cor. ii. laft. We may be fure, as the Apoftle fays, 2 Cor. ii. 5. that e are not fufficient of ourselves to think any Thing as of ourselves, our Sufficiency must be of God: if we can think of nothing aright of ourselves, far less we can think of Chrift: And as none can speak duly of Chrift, no call Jefus Lord, without the Spi And rit a rit; fo neither can we think duly of Chrift, without the Spirit of Chrift. What then is the Meaning of this Queftion relating to its Act of Thinking, What think ye of Chrift? There are thefe following Particulars, which I fuppofe are implied therein, and which I fhall alfo propote by Way of Query, that you may ftill fearch yourselves and apply as we go along. (1.) What think ye of Chrift? That is, What know ye of Chrift? what understand ye of Chrift? Surely ye cannot have a right Thought of that which ye do not know or understand. Have ye got the Spirit of Wijdom and Revelation in the Knowledge of Chrift? Eph. i. 17. Hath the God, who commanded the Light to shine out of Darkness, fined into your Hearts, to give you the Light of the Knowledge of his Glory in the Face of Jefus Chrift? Son in you? Gal. i. 16. Hath God revealed his Have you feen the Son? He that fees the natural Sun in the Firmament, hath a Thought of it fuitable to the Sight he hath thereof: But a Man that hath been born blind, and never faw the Light, he cannot have a right Notion or Thought of the Sun, tho' you fhould peak never fo much of the Glory of it to him. I have heard of a Man born blind, on whom a great deal of Pains was taken to let him understand what a glorious Creature the Sun was, and what bright Beams and Rays it fends forth thro' all the World; but he was fo far from having any right Thoughts about it, that, after all the Pains taken on him that was poffible, he cries out, O now (fays he) I know what it is, it is just like the found of a Trun pet. Poor Man; there was the beft Notion he could frame about it, for he never had Eyes. So it is here, Sirs, we are all born blind, having no fpiritual Eyes, till God open the Eyes of the Understanding, and inlighten the Mind in the Knowledge of Chrift: We may speak of his Glory and Excellency; but the belt you make of him is, Ō he is like a very ftately and majeftick Perfon as ever ye faw or heard tell of; and fo you frame the Image of a great Man, fitting on a lofty lofty Throne, compaffed about with so many sparkling Attendants in fine Robes: And what you have heard with your natural Ears of any Perfon, or feẹn with your natural Eyes, or can conceive with your natural Understanding and Reafon, helps you to, or furnishes you with Materials for framing fuch a Notion of him. But what is all this? It is nothing but an Image of your own Brain, a carnal fantaftical Thought; the true Chrift is the Image of the invifible God, the Wisdom of God, and the Power of God, God-Man in one Perfon. Now, have you got a fpiritual Difcerning; for the natural Man receives not 'the Things of the Spirit of God; they are foolish'nefs to him, neither can he know them, because they are fpiritually difcerned.' The World cannot think of Chrift, far lefs think much of him, because they do not know him: Like fop's Cock, contenting himself with, and thinking more of a Barleycorn than of a Pearl, because he knew not the Worth of it; fo the World think more of the Barley-corn of temporal good things, than they think of the Pearl of great Price, because they know it not: Therefore the Queftion imports, What know ye of Chrift? (2.) What think ye of Chrift? That is, What believe ye of Chrift? Knowledge and Faith are like the two Eyes of the Soul; Knowledge is the difcerning and apprehending Eye, Faith is the applying and appropriating Eye. And as faving Knowledge is objective Faith, and faving Faith fiducial Knowledge; fo without Knowledge we cannot think duly of Christ, with refpect to what he is in himfelf; and without Faith we cannot duly think of Chrift, with respect to what he is to us, fo as to receive the Record of God, namely, That God hath given us eternal Life, and this Life is in his Son,' 1 John v. 11. Which Record 'whofoever believeth not, hath made God a Liar,' ver. 10. That the Queftion concerns this believing Thought of Chrift, is plain from the Context, wherein Chrift shows they had but unworthy Thoughts of him, if they did not fee him to be David's Lord, that is, the E True |