The Fountain of Life Opened

Secondly, As we shall carry the Cross of Christ but a little way, so Christ himself bears the heaviest end of it. There is a fellowship in sufferings, betwixt Christ and his saints. And as one happily expresses, he saith of their crosses half mine. He divideth sufferings with them and takes the largest share to himself. O how sweet a sight (saith one sweetly) is it to see a cross betwixt Christ and us. To hear our Redeemer say, at every sigh, at every blow, and every loss of a Believer half mine. For they are called the sufferings of Christ, and the reproach of Christ. Col. 2.24. Heb. 11.26. As when two are partners and owners of a Ship, half of the gain and half of the loss belongeth to either of the two. So Christ in our sufferings, is half gainer and half loser with us: yea, the heaviest end of the black tree ⟨p. 353⟩lieth on your Lord. It falleth first upon him, and but rebounds from him upon you: the reproaches of them that reproached thee, are fallen upon me. Psal. 69.9. Nay to speak as the thing is, Christ doth not only bear half, or the better part; but the whole of our cross and burden. Yea, he bears all, and more than all; for he bears us, and our burden too; or else we should quickly sink, and faint under it.

Secondly, As we shall carry the Cross of Christ but a little way, so Christ himself bears the heaviest end of it. There is a fellowship in sufferings, betwixt Christ and his saints. And as one happily expresses, he saith of their crosses half mine. He divideth sufferings with them and takes the largest share to himself. O how sweet a sight (saith one sweetly) is it to see a cross betwixt Christ and us. To hear our Redeemer say, at every sigh, at every blow, and every loss of a Believer half mine. For they are called the sufferings of Christ, and the reproach of Christ. Col. 2.24. Heb. 11.26. As when two are partners and owners of a Ship, half of the gain and half of the loss belongeth to either of the two. So Christ in our sufferings, is half gainer and half loser with us: yea, the heaviest end of the black tree ⟨p. 353⟩