Christ; and if I have known Christ himself after the flesh, yet I He had his friends, his kindred, and his had; but since he is exalted above the

know him no more so. country, as other men

heavens, I will know him no more so." I will compare Mary with Paul, a godly man with a godly woman. She is like him in this, that she loved the Lord exceeding well. He died to redeem Paul, and, therefore, he loved him exceeding well; she loved him be cause he died for her, but when it comes to the service, Mary is not well learned. Paul touches him by faith in the heavens ; Mary looks not to the heavens, but she goes to embrace him in her bodily arms. In this she is behind, but she got better instruction hereafter.

Mark this lesson. There are some men that will love the Lord entirely, and yet when they come to his service they will fail; for such is the grossness of our nature, that we cannot incline to that spiritual service which he chiefly requires. Papistry is full of this grossness, they can do nothing if they want his carnal presence, either in himself, or in a stock, or a stone, or in a piece of bread; and, therefore, they dream a bodily presence of him in the sacrament. All their religion is earthly, no spirit, no grace in it. But accepted the Lord of that gross service of Mary that she offered? I am certain he loved Mary better than the Pope, and all his shavelings; yet for as well as he liked Mary, he likes not this her service. He says to her, "Touch me not ;" then how will he like of that person that he loves not so well, that delights in gross and wilful ignorance? The Lord keep us from such gross service, and make us to touch him by faith !

Another thing here. He will not suffer her to touch him before that she had gotten commission to her brethren. This lets us see, if the Lord have given us a commission he will have us doing it with speed, not being entangled with any thing. Paul says, in the Second Epistle to Timothy, the second chapter, and the fourth verse, "No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, because he would please him that hath chosen him to

says,

be a soldier." If the embracing of a person may hinder thee, do it not, and if the saluting of a person in the journey hinder thee, do it not. Ye read in 2 Kings, chapter iv. verse 29, where the prophet Elisha sends his servant Gehazi to the Shunammite, he "Make haste, salute no man by the way, and if any salute thee, answer him not ;" and when Christ sends out his disciples, he bids them make haste," and salute no man by the way,” Luke, chapter x. verse 4. The Lord will not have us to decline neither to the right hand nor to the left; if it were but a look, if it may hinder thee in the Lord's work, do it not. Paul received a commission; as ye may read, Philippians, chapter iii. verse 13, he ran so that he never looked over his shoulder, but that "he forgot that which was behind, and endeavoured to that which was before, till he had ended his course." Ye remember of the wife of Lot, how she was forbidden by the Lord to look back to Sodom; she would not go forward in her journey, but she would look back again, and, therefore, the Lord turned her in a pillar of salt. He would have them speedy in his work, and, "woe is them that do the work of the Lord negligently," Jerem. xlviii. 10.

He says to her,

Now, let us come to the commission. "Mary, go and tell my brethren." Well, gets a woman the commission? where are Peter, and John, and Matthew, and the rest of the apostles? Always in the beginning, it is a woman that gets the commission. The last day, ye remember, I spake of sundry preferments of women that they got before all men; they got the revelation of his resurrection before all men in the world, and not by men, but by glorious angels. But Mary is preferred to all men and women in this, that she first sees the Lord, and then she gets a revelation of the Lord that the women got not, she gets revelation of his ascension; and yet there is more; she got it not to herself alone, but he says, "Tell the apostles, tell them," says Christ, "I go to my Father." So this is a special grace that women got, and especially Mary, that was furthest casten down, possessed with seven devils. What should I

say? The further thou be casten down, the higher shalt thou be exalted. But, mark the words, he says, "Tell my brethren.” Notwithstanding all their sluggishness,-notwithstanding they were offended in him, yet he says, "Tell my brethren." In the xxii. Psalm, verse 23,' David says, "I will preach to my brethren." The Lord accomplished here that prophecy; here he preaches to his brethren. Ye read in Hebrews ii. 11, 12, "He that sanctifies, and we which are sanctified, are all of one," that is, "we are of one common nature, and, therefore, he is not ashamed to call us brethren ;" and, therefore, he brings in this place of the xxii. Psalm, saying, "I will declare thy name unto my brethren." The reason' is this: he hath a common nature with us, and therefore he is not ashamed of us. Mark it well; now, when he is risen he calls them brethren; and now, when he is in that passing glory, the Lord is not ashamed to call us brethren. If a man of small lineage be exalted in this world, he will not know his father or his mother; but the Lord that is exalted above all the angels is not the prouder. He is also humble to his brethren, as ever he was in the earth. He is not ashamed to call us, poor wretches, his brethren and sisters, that are here in the earth. No, if thou be not ashamed of him first, he will never be ashamed of thee.

Now, to come to the commission. He says, "Tell them, I go to my Father, and to your Father; and to my God, and to your God. Tell them this." The commission that is given before by the angels tells that he was risen, but the commission that the Lord himself gives to Mary is of a higher degree of glorification; it is of his ascension; for, "Tell them," says he, "I go to my Father, and to your Father; and to my God, and to your God." The Lord, when he comes in proper person, brings ever a greater revelation than was of before. All the light that the angels, prophets, or John the Baptist, revealed of him, was but darkness in respect of that light that himself brought. Likewise, after his going to heaven, the apostles, the disciples, and ministers, minister

IV. 22 of our version.

2 i. e.

Reasoning.

light to the end of the world; but, in that great day, when the Lord shall come, thou shalt see a greater light; thou sawest never light comparable to that light. It is hard for thee now to believe but sober things, but then thou shalt see great things, (thou shalt have no stop,) even things" that the eye hath not seen, neither hath entered into the heart of man."1

Yet let us weigh the words better: "I go up to my Father. I go not down, let them not seek me in the earth. I have been in it :”—(as Paul says to the Ephesians, the fourth chapter, and the ninth verse," He descended into the lowest parts of the earth :")"I go to the heaven." The word imports, that he was to leave them, and that word was sad to them, and to Mary, and they took it heavy. "I go," says he, "to my Father, and to my God." He went not for his own well to the Father, that the Father might communicate his glory to him. "I go," says he, "to my Father, and to your Father; and to my God, and to your God." This imports, that as he went to his Father, for his own glory and well, so he went for their glory and well, and as soon as he should get that glory he should communicate it to them; and, no doubt, this word, "Your Father and your God," raised their hearts to follow him. Suppose our bodies be here, our hearts are in the heaven, and we are citizens there. Albeit thy body were burned, if thine heart be in the heaven, thou art well; and if he had not gone to heaven, neither had he gotten glory, neither had any glory been communicated unto us. But he going to that Father of glory, as the apostle calls him, and so, as the first begotten of God, being filled with glory, we are made partakers of his glory, as ye read in the first chapter of this Gospel of John. The oil that was poured down upon the head of Aaron staid not there, but ran down to his beard, his breast, his girdle, and the lowest parts of his garment. So the graces that were in Jesus Christ, our Head, staid not there, but flowed from him even to the meanest of all his members. The Lord, who is full of grace, gives every one of us a part here, and one day

11 Cor. ii. 9.

2 Eph. i. 17.

we shall be all filled with grace and glory for ever and ever. Mark the words well. He calls him, first, "Father," and then he calls him "God," which imports two natures in one person. The Father imports his Godhead; and that he calls him his God, it imports that he is man; so that these two words import that Christ is both God and man, blessed for ever. But mark the order. He says not, "I go to your Father and mine." No, but "to my Father and your Father." Ere ever he be our Father, he must be his Father; ere ever he be our God, he must be the God of Christ, the man; for if it had not been for the blood of Christ, he had never been thy God; thou hast that bought unto thee with the blood of Christ. We come in under Christ our elder brother. Now, when Mary hath received the commission, she tarries no longer; howbeit she was loath to depart from him, yet, because she saw that it was his will, she obeys. The godly would fain go and dwell with the Lord. Paul says, "I have confidence in God, and I choose rather to remove out of this body, and to dwell with God," 2 Corinth. chap. v. 8. Fain would the godly soul be with God; and suppose it be pressed down with sin, yet it breaks ay upward toward the heavens to be with the Lord, "that this mortality may be swallowed up of life."1 For, as long as we lie here, we live under the burden of sin; so, fain would the godly be with him; yet seeing it is his will that we be pilgrims here a while, that our joy may be the greater when we meet with the Lord, whom we have longed for, we are contented for a time.

Now, when Mary departs, what does she? "She told the disciples that she had seen the Lord." She is preaching, and telling, "The Lord is going to heaven, to your Father and your God.” Now, brethren, seeing we are pilgrims, let us take heed we be well occupied, and look we discharge our commission; for there is no man nor woman but they have a commission. Thou that art a preacher, preach both in time and out of time to his glory; and if thou discharge thy commission faithfully in thy calling, then even

11 Cor. xv. 54.