BOOK 7. THE RESURRECTION.
CHAPTER 2.
7.2.8. Of Calling on Jesus in that Respect.
Of Calling on Jesus in that Respect.
Let us call on Jesus; that is to say, --
1. Let us pray that Christ's resurrection may be ours, and that we may be more and more assured of it. Let us say with the apostle, "O that I may know him and the power of his resurrection," Phil, iii, 10. O that I may find the working of that power in my soul, which was showed in the resurrection of Christ from the dead! O that the Spirit of holiness which quickened Christ from the dead, would by the same glorious power, beget holiness, and faith, and love, and all other graces in my poor soul! O that Christ would by his resurrection, apply his active and passive obedience to me! O that he would be to me the Lord of the living, and Prince of life! that he would overcome in me the death of sin, and that he would regenerate, quicken, renew, and fashion me by the power of godliness to become like himself. O that all the virtue, power, privileges, and influences of Christ's resurrection might be conferred on me, and that I might feel them working in me every day more and more.
2. Let us praise God for Christ's resurrection, and for all the privileges flowing from Christ's resurrection into our souls, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead," 1 Pet. i. 3. Christ is risen, and by his resurrection he hath justified, sanctified, quickened, saved our souls, and therefore "blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ;" surely God requires a thousand, thousand hallelujahs, and that we should bless him upon a thousand-stringed instrument: here is fuel enough, the Lord kindle a great fire in every one of our hearts to burn out all our lusts, and to inflame all our hearts with a love to Jesus Christ. Can we ever too much praise him for all his actings in our behalf; are not all God's creatures called upon to rejoice with us, and to bless God for his redeeming of us? "Sing, O ye heavens for the Lord hath done it; shout ye lower parts of the earth, break forth into singing ye mountains, O forest and every tree therein, for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob, and glorified himself in Israel," Isa. xliv. 23. This is the duty we shall do in heaven, and I believe we are never more in heaven, while on earth, than when we are in this exercise of praising God, and blessing God for Jesus Christ. Come, let us praise God for Christ, and especially on this day called therefore the Lord's day, because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ: it is the design of God to glorify Christ redeeming us, as much, or more, than he glorified himself creating us; and therefore he purposely unhinged the Sabbath from the last day to the first day of the week, that it might be spent as a weekly day of praise and thanksgiving for the more glorious work of our redemption, that love might not only be equally admired with power, but even go before it. It is the advice of a godly divine, that we should "improve the happy opportunity of the Lord's day, wholly to devote ourselves to his work." (Baxter's method of peace and comfort.) And he adviseth ministers and others, "That they spend more of those days in praise and thanksgiving, and be briefer in their confessions and lamentations; -- that they would make it the main business of their solemn assemblies on those days, to sound forth the high praises of their Redeemer, and to begin here the praises of God and the Lamb, which they must perfect in heaven forever. -- That they would spend a greater part of those days in psalms, and solemn praises to their Redeemer; -- and that some hymns and psalms might be invented, as fit for the state of the gospel-church and worship, to laud the Redeemer, come in the flesh, as expressly as the work of grace is now expressed." O that these directions were put in practice! O that our churches and families would make our streets to resound with the echoes of our praises! Oh that this were the burden of each duty on these days! "Now blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."