Looking unto Jesus a view of the everlasting gospel, or, the souls eying of…

Yes, such a reluctancy we find in the humane nature of Christ concerning the Cup,¹ that it might pass from him, and yet his death was a true voluntary death. An action is said to be voluntary, or involuntary according to the superior faculties of the Soul, and not according to the inferior; if the reasonable part be consenting, the action may be called voluntary, though there be some reluctancy in the sensitive appetite. Thus in the Christian, in whom there is nature and grace, flesh and spirit, an unregenerate, and a regenerate part, if the superior and better part be willing (I mean advisedly and deliberately willing, with full consent of the inward man) though perhaps there may be some reluctancy in the flesh, in the unregenerate part, yet this is said to be a true voluntary act. So then with the mind, I my self serve the Law of God, ²but with my flesh the Law of sin.—I delight in the Law of God after the inward man; but I see another Law in my members, warring against the Law of my mind. Paul was dead to sin according to the inward man, the regenerate part, though he found a reluctancy in his outwards members; and therefore his death to sin carried with it the resemblance of the death of Christ, it was a voluntary death.

1. 1Answ. Mat. 26.39.
2. 2Rom. 7.25, 22, 23.

2. Christ's death was a violent death; he died not naturally, but violently;¹ he was put to death in the flesh, he was brought as a Lamb to the slaughter. So is our mortification, it is voluntary in respect of us, but violent in respect of sin; and herein is the life (as I may say) of this death: Oh when a man lays violent hands on his sins; when he cuts them off, being yet in their flower, and strength, and power, and vigour; when he pulls up those weeds before they whither in themselves, this is true mortification: many have left their sins, who never mortified them; so the aged Adulterer hath left his Lust, because his body is dead: and hence it is that late repentance in an aged sinner is seldom found true: alas, he dies not to sin, but his sin dies to him: I will not say but God may call at the eleventh hour, though it be very seldom; but in that case you had need to be jealous over your selves with a godly jealousy: what, do you find some sins within you to be dead, that were sometimes alive? O be inquisitive, impanel a Jury, call a Coroners Inquest upon your own souls, enquire how they came by their deaths; whether they died a violent or natural death? search what wounds they have received, and whether they were deadly wounds, yea, or no? enquire what weapon it was that slew them, whether the Sword of the Spirit, that two-edged Sword, the Word of God? what purposes, what resolutions have been taken up, and levelled against them? what prayers and tears have been spent upon them? If you find not these signs, you may ge in your Verdict, that they died not a violent, but a natural death. And here's a good Caveat for others; Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth,