Moses his choice with his eye fixed upon Heaven, discovering the happy condition of…

CHAP. XXXVII. Seeing Christ makes our sufferings his, we should make his sufferings ours.

Fifthly, if Christ will take our sufferings and our reproaches, and make them his; then we are ¹to take Christs sufferings, and Christ reproaches, and make them ours. It was the burning love of Christ, and his zeal to his people, that made him take the reproaches of his people to himself; and so our burning love to him, and zeal for him, should make us take his reproaches upon our selves. Christ is many ways reproached in the world, not only in his person, when he lived upon the earth, and in his people; and so we are not only to take the reproaches of Christ upon us in these regards, but in any particular, whatsoever reproach falls upon Christ any way, let us account of it as our own: When ⟨p. 432⟩the Doctrine of the Gospel is reproached, then he is reproached; when the ways and light that God hath discovered to his people is reproached, he is reproached; when the Ordinances are slighted, when as the blood of Christ is counted a common thing, and every base lust is preferred before it; when as the blessed authority of Christ is vilified and slighted, either when it is slighted openly or secretly, if the authority of Christ be cast off, then he is reproached, Numb. 15. 6, 30. When you put a reed into the hand of Christ, and bow to him, and say, Hail King of the Jews: when you shall profess obedience and subjection unto Christ, and in stead of a Sceptre, put a reed into his hand, then he is reproached. Again, when Gods people walk unworthy of Christ, then Christ is reproached. And when Christ is reproached in any of these, let us take them to heart, as throughly, as if we were reproached; yea, take them more to heart, because the reproaches of Christ are far worse then our reproaches: Those that are first upon Christ, and then upon us, are worser then those that are first upon us, and then upon Christ: To spit upon the face of a man, is more reproach to the body, then to spit upon some other member of the body is a reproach to the face; and so the reproach of Christ that is the face of the Church, is more then the reproach of any other member: And therefore consider, whether your hearts be more broken when Christ is reproached, then when you your selves are reproached, this is a good sign of grace. And if you demand what should be the behaviour of a gracious heart, when he is in any company that he hears Christ reproached in;