him. As Paul says, "I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ:" he had such a thirst to see Christ, that he would not care for death, nor for the grave, to see him. Howbeit they cannot believe, yet they have joy, and their souls are ravished with admiration. Faith is not so much in a ravished and carried heart as in a settled soul. A faithful heart is the most settled heart in the world. If there be vanity in the heart, faith is so solid that it will press out vanity. Faith is a solid thing in a settled heart. A faithful man is a settled man, and a man without faith is as an empty vessel, and as a bag of wind: his joy is light, and proceeds only from the swarfe of the soul. But after once faith be settled, there will be solid joy that comes in with pleasure, and searches the least corner of the heart; a joy unspeakable and glorious begun here, which will have no end till we see Christ. So this their joy goes not far enough down in their hearts; for they are ravished with joy, but had not solid faith.

When I mark this place, I see in it what shall be the estate of the godly when they shall meet with their Lord. The first sight shall ravish them so, that they shall wonder that ever there could have been such a glory. Wilt thou but suspend thy judgment for a while, thou shalt see that which thou never sawest, and that which thou never heardst tell of, and that which never could enter into thine heart. When thou shalt see this thou shalt fall into an admiration. Then, after once thou knowest him, then after the admiration shall follow a solid faith, a solid joy, and a settled apprehension of things spiritual, and that not for a time, but for evermore. Now it lasts not; scarcely is it present when it evanishes. But after the full sight shall follow the solid joy that never shall have end. As by the contrary, this shall be the estate of the reprobate, the first sight and sense of that wrath that shall seize upon them so fiercely, as never before they could have suspected, shall astonish, confound, and dammish3 them. Thou knewest never what

1 Philip. i. 23.

2 i. e. The surface.

3 i. e. Dr Jamieson refers to this as an example of this word, which he explains, "To stun, to stupify."

measure of wrath is hidden up in the treasure of God. Thou who art a reprobate, till thou feelest it, there shall come such a terror upon thee, that it shall cause all the hairs of thine head stand over end; and it is called ixaμ15,-such an astonishment as Christ suffered in the garden, a little before he was taken. Then shall follow on them that anguish and fearful dreadfulness, pressing them, when they have been astonished at the sight and sense of wrath, which is called aònovia, which was the Lord's second perturbation;1 which is a more settled feeling of wrath, and more constant apprehension of dolour, sorrow, and anguish for evermore in the hells. And it shall be so weighty when they are shot into hell, that it shall press the sap out of them. The Lord save us from it, and give us grace to be found in Christ, that we may be saved from that wrath which is to come, in him! To whom, with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, be all praise, honour, and glory, for evermore. Amen.

1 See remarks on this in the 19th and 20th Lectures.

THE FORTY-SECOND LECTURE.

OF THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST.

LUKE, CHAP. XXIV.

41. He said unto them, Have ye here any meat?

42. And they gave him a piece of a broiled fish, and of an honeycomb. 43. And he took it, and did eat before them.

44. And he said unto them, These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all must be fulfilled which are

written of me in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms.

45. Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures,

46. And said umto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise again from the dead the third day.

WE continue, as yet, beloved brethren, in the history of the appearing of Christ after his glorious resurrection. His fifth appearing was to the eleven, (who were so called after the defection of Judas,) and the others, the common rank of his disciples, convened together in the night in a secret place of Hierusalem; and while they are sitting together, having their conferences one with another, and each one persuading and certifying another of the resurrection of the Lord, in the meantime the door being shut, the Lord on a suddenty comes in ere they wist, and he stands in the midst of them, and standing in the midst of them, he wishes his peace to them, and he says, "Peace be unto you." They seeing him, and supposing he had been a spirit or an angel in the likeness of a man,

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they were abashed and astonished. The Lord afterwards settles them with a little sharp rebuke; he begins to show unto them that he was no spirit, but a very body, and that same very man called Jesus, who before his passion was conversant with them, that same man that suffered; and therefore he holds out his hands and his feet, which were both marked with the print of his wounds on the cross. "See," says he, "feel," says he, "look, if I be not that same man which suffered; a spirit hath not flesh and blood as I have; ergo, I am no spirit." When he had, in this manner, led them by the very sense to know him, by the eye to behold him, by the ear to hear his familiar voice and salutation, by the hand to handle him, what effect followed? "Yet," says the Scripture, they believed not," and they could not believe for exceeding joy wherewith they were ravished for admiration, and, wondering, they could not believe for a piece of time. Faith dwells in a settled heart; and if there be any vanity and any emptiness in the heart, faith will press out the vanity, and will fill up that emptiness in the heart, and the faithful man is the most solid and settled thing in the world; and he who is the unfaithful man is a vain-hearted man, his heart is blown up with vanity, albeit he had all the natural wit in the world. Now, the joy that faith brings with it is not an admiration and ravishing of the heart, but it is a solid joy, a solid apprehension of spiritual things in the heart; so the hearts of the disciples, at the first sight, became ravished in admiration, the veil of their hearts was not touched with joy, they had not that settled joy that they had afterward.

Now, to come to the text that we have read. In it, first, the Lord yet continues in assuring them that it was he; he striveth on with their infidelity. Then, when he hath showed them visibly the action of a body in eating in their sight, then he comes to a sweet sermon, wherein he instructs them in two points; first, that all things that befell to him, as his passion and resurrection, behoved to have befallen to him; secondly, again, that as those things befell to him of necessity, so of necessity those things behoved to be preached to the world. So, he instructs them in these

two necessities. Then he comes on in the second part of his preaching, and gives direction to them to be preachers and witnesses to the world of all these things, promising again to them that Spirit which he had promised them before his passion; and that they should have the greater security, he gives them commandment not to depart out of Jerusalem, until they were endued with virtue out of heaven. This is the effect.

To come to the first part. When they heard him speak with a voice familiar wherewith they had been acquainted, and that homely salutation, "Peace be unto you," yet they would not know him; when they had seen his hands and feet, yet they believed not that it was he; when they had handled him and felt him, yet they believed him not for all this; they were ravished with joy, yet they believed not. The Lord will not leave them in this unbelief, but he will let them understand that it was he; he teaches them by the sight of a bodily action. "He asks if they had any meat?" they present to him "a piece of roasted fish," and that was all the delicate they gave him, and with it " a piece of honeycomb; he takes and eats in their sight," he eats the piece of the roasted fish and the honeycomb. Not that the Lord, after his resurrection, had any need to eat any of their meat: he who now was immortal after his resurrection, that was glorious, and that was full of God, and had all the powers of his soul filled with God,-what needed he their piece of fish or their honeycomb to eat? So it was not for any need he had that he eated, but that he eated in their sight, that they should believe that the Lord was a body. A spirit eats not, neither drinks; the Lord therefore shows them that he was no spirit. In doing this, brethren, no question he humbled himself, being now immortal and glorious, and full of God. Was not this an humbling of him, an immortal body to take that mortal bread? It is a wonderful thing to see how Jesus Christ humbled himself; ay, whilst he was yet still in this world: "Being," says Paul, Philippians ii. 6, 7, “ in the form of God, and thought it no robbery to be equal with God, he made himself of no reputation, taking on him the shape of a servant, that is, the nature