vain conversation What fruit had ye sayes the Apostle in those things whereof ye are now asham'd Either count that shame that at the best growes out of them their fruit or confess they have none therefore they are called the unfruitful works of darkness Let the Voluptuous Person say it out upon his death-bed what pleasure or profit doth then abide with him of all his former sinful delights Let him tell if there remain any thing of them all but that that he would gladly not have to remain the sting of an accusing Conscience which is as lasting as the delight of sin was short and evanishing Let the covetous and ambitious declare freely even those of them that have prospered most in their pursuit of Riches and Honour what ease all their Possessions or titles do then help them to whether their pains are the less because their Chests are full or their Houses stately or multitude of friends and servants waiting on them with Hat and Knee and if all these things cannot ease the body how much less can they quiet the mind And therefore is it not true that all pains in these things and the uneven wayes into which they sometimes stept aside to serve those ends and generally that all the wayes of sin wherein they have wearied themselves were vain Rollings and tossings up and down not tending to acertain Haven of peace and happiness 't is a lamentable thing to be deluded all a Life time with a false dream Isa. 2.8 You that are going on in the common Road of sin although many and possibly your own Parents have trod it before you and the greatest part of these you now know are in it with you and keep you Company in it yet be perswaded to stop a little and ask your selves what it is you seek or expect in the end of it would it not grieve any labouring Man to work hard all the day and have no wages to look for at night 't is a greater loss to wear out our wholâ— life and in the evening of our dayes find nothing but anguish and vexation Let us then think this that so much of our life as is spent in the wayes of sin is all lost fruitless and vain Conversation And in so far as the Apostle saye here You are redeemed from this Conversation this Imports it a â—ervile slavish Condition as the other word expresses it to live fruitless And this is the Madness of a sinner that he fancies Liberty in that which is the basest thraldome as those poor frentique Persons that are lying ragged and bound in Chaines yet Imagine that they are Kings that their Irons are Chaines of gold their rags Robes and their filthy Lodge a Pallace As 't is misery to be liable to the sentence of death so 't is slavery to be subject to the dominion of sin and he that is delivered from the one is likewise set free from the other There is one Redemption from both He that is redeem'd from destruction by the blood of Christ is likewise redeem'd from that vain and unholy Conversation that leadâ— to it So Tit. 2.14 Our Redeemer was anointed for this purpose not to free the Captives from the sentence of death and yet leave them still in Prison but to proclaim liberty to them and the opening of the Prison to those that are bound Isa. 61.1 You easily perswade your selves that Christ hath died for you and Redeem'd you from Hell but you Consider not that if it be so he hath likewise Redeem'd you from your vain Conversation and both set you free from the service of sinâ— Certainly while you find not that you can have no assurance of the other if the Chaines of sin continue still upon you for any thing you can know these Chaines do bind you over to the other Chaines of darkness the Apostle speaks of Let us not delude our selves if we find the love of sin and of the World work stronger in our hearts than the love of Christ we are not as yet partakers of his Redemption But if we have indeed laid hold upon him as our Redeemer then are we Redeem'd from the service of sin not only from the grossest Profaness but even from all kind of fruitless and vain Conversation And therefore ought to stand fast in that Liberty and not entangle our selves again to any of our former vanities Not redeemed with Corruptible things From the high price of our Redemption the Apostle doth mainly inforce our Esteem of it and the preservation of that liberty so dearly bought and the avoiding all that unholiness and vain conversation from which we are freed by that Redemption 1. He expresseth it negatively not with corruptible things Oh foolish we that hunt them as if they were Incorruptible and Everlasting treasures no not the best of them these that are in highest account with Men not with Silver and Gold these are not of any value at all towards the Ransom of Souls they cannot buy off the death of the Body nor cannot purchase the continuance of temperal life much less can they reach to the worth of Spiritual and Eternal life The precious soul could not be redeem'd but by blood and by no blood but that of this spotless Lamb Jesus Christ who is God equal with the Father And therefore his Blood is called the blood of God Act. 20. So that the Apostle may well call it here precious exceeding the whole World and all things in it in value Therefore frustrate not the sufferings of Christ if he shed his blood to Redeem you from sin be not false to his End As of a Lamb without blemish He is that great and everlasting Sacrifice that gave value and vertue to all the Sacrifices under the Law their blood was of no worth to the purging away of sin but by Relation to his blood and the Laws concerning the choyce of the Pascall Lamb or other Lambs for Sacrifice were but obscure and imperfect shadowes of his purity and perfections who is the undefiled Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World A Lamb in meekness and silence he opened not his mouth Isa. 53.7 And in purity here without spot or blemish My well beloved sayes the Spouse is white and ruddy white in spotless Innocency and red in suffering a bloody death For as much as ye know 'T is that must make all this effectual the right Knowledge and due Consideration of it Ye do know it already but I would have you know it better more deeply and practically turn it often over be more in the study and meditation of it there is work enough in it still for the discerningest mind itâ— a mystery so deep that you shall never reach the bottom of it and withall so useful that you shall find alwayes new profit by it Our folly is we gape after new things and yet are in effect Ignorant of the things we think we know best that learned Apostle that knew
us from it Filthiness needs sprinkling Guiltiness such as deserves death needs sprinkling of Blood and the death it deserves being Everlasting death The Blood must be the Blood of Christ. The Eternal Lord of life dying to free us from the sentence of death The Soul as the body hath its life its health its purity and the contrary of these its Death Diseases Deformities and Impurity which belong to it as to their first Subiect and to the body by participation The Soul and Body of all mankind is stained by the Pollution of sin The impure Leprosie of the Soul is not a spot outwardly but wholly inward hence as the corporal Leprosie was purified by the sprinkling of blood so is this Then by reflecting we see how all this that the Apostle St. Peter expresseth is necessary to Justification 1. Christ the Mediator betwixt God and man is God and man 2. A Mediator not only interceeding but also satisfying Eph. 2.16 3. This satisfaction doth not reconcile us unless it be applyed Therefore there is not only mention of blood but the sprinkling of it the spirit by faith sprinkleth the soul as with hysop wherewith the sprinkling was made this is it of which the Prophet speaks Isai. 52.15 So shall he sprinkle many Nations And which the Apostle to the Hebrewes prefers above all Legal sprinklings Chap. 9.12 13 14. both as to its duration and as to the excellency of its effects Men are not easily convinced and perswaded of the deep stain of sin and that no other Laâ—er can fetch it out but the sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ. Some that have moral Resolutions of amendment dislike at least gross sins and purpose to avoid them and 't is to them cleanness enough to reform in those things but they consider not what becomes of the guiltiness they have contracted already and how that shall be purged how their natural pollution shall be taken away be not deceived in this 't is not an evaâ—ishing sigh or a light word or a wish of God forgive me no nor the highest current of Repentance nor that which is the truest evidence of Repentance Amendment 'T is none of these that purifies in the sight of God and expiats wrath they are all imperfect and stained themselves cannot stand and answer for themselves much less be of value to counterpoise their former guilt of sin the very tears of the purest Repentance unless they be sprinkled with this Blood are impure all our washings without this are but washings of the Blackmore it is labour in vain Ier. 2.22 Iob. 9.30 31. There is none truly purged by the Blood of Christ that do not endeavour purity of heart and Conversation but yet it is the Blood of Christ by which they are all fair and there is no spot in them here 't is said Elect to obedience but because that obedience is not perfect there must be sprinkling of the Blood too There is nothing in Religion further out of natures reach and out of its likeing and believing then the doctrine of Redemption by a Saviour and a Crucified Saviour by Christ and by his blood first shed on the Cross in his suffering and then sprinkled on the soul by his Spirit 'T is easier to make men sensible of the necessity of Repentance and amendment of life though that is very difficult then of this purging by the sprinkling of this precious Blood Did we see how needful Christ is to us we would esteem and love him more 'T is not by the hearing of Christ and of his blood in the Doctrine of the Gospel 't is not by the sprinkling of water even that water that is the sign of this blood without the blood it self and the sprinkling of it Many are present where it is sprinkled and yet have no portion in it Look to this that this blood be sprinkled on your souls that the destroying Angel may pass by you There is a Generation not some few but a generation deceived in this they are their own Deceivers pure in their own eyes Prov. 30.12 How earnestly doth David pray wash me Purge me with hysop Though bathed in tears Psa. 6.6 that satisfied not wash thou me This is the honourable condition of the Saints That they are purified and consecrated unto God by this sprinkling yea have on loâ—g while Robes washt in the Blood of the Lamb There is mention indeed of great Tribulation but there is a double comfort Joyned with it 1. They come out of it that tribulation hath an end And 2 They pass from that to glory for they have on the Robe of Candidates long white Robes washt in the blood of the Lamb washt white in blood as for this blood 't is nothing but purity and spotlesness being stained with no sin and besides hath that vertue to take away the stain of sin where 't is sprinkled My Wellbeloved is white and ruddy saith the Spouse thus in his death ruddy by bloodshed white by Innocence and purity of that blood Shall they then that are purged by this blood return to live among the Swine and tumble with them in the pudle what gross injury is this to themselves and to that Blood by which they were cleansed They that are chosen to this sprinkling are likewise chosen to Obedience this blood purifieth the heart yea This blood purgeth our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.14 Vnto Obedience 'T is easily understood to whom when obedience to God is expressed by the simple absolute name of Obedience it teacheth us that to him alone belongs Absolute and Unlimited Obedience all obedience by all creatures And 't is the shame and misery of man that he hath departed from this Obedience that we are become Sons of disobedience But Grace renewing the hearts of believers changeth their natures and so their names and makes them Children of obedience As afterwards in this Chapter This Obedience consists as in the receiving Christ as our Redeemer so also at the same time as our Lord or King an intire rendring up of the whole man to his obedience This Obedience then of the only begotten Jesus Christ may well be understood not as his Actively as Beza but Objectivly as 2 Cor. 10.5 I think here 't is contain'd yea chiefly understood To signifie that Obedience which the Aposte to the Romans calls the Obedience of faith by which the Doctrine of Christ is received and so Christ himself which uniteth the believing soul to Christ he sprinkles it with his blood to the remission of sin and is the root and spring of all future obedience in the Christian life By Obedience Sanctification is here intimated it signifies then both habitual and active obedience Renovation of heart and conformity to the Divine will the mind is illuminated by the Holy Ghost to know and believe the divine will yea this Faith is the great and chief part of Obedience Rom. 1.8 the truth of the Doctrine
A Practical COMMENTARY VPON THE Two first Chapters of the first Epistle General of St. Peter By the Most Reverend Dr. ROBERT LEIGHTON Some-time Arch-Bishop of Glasgow Published after His Death at the Request of his Friends YORK Printed by I. White Their Majesties Printer for the City of York and the five Northerne Counties And are to be Sold at London by Sam. Keble at the Turks-head in Fleet-street 1693 To the Pious Reader THou mayest Remember in publishing some of this Authors Discourses about two Yeares ago A Promise was made That if they happend to be well received more of them should see the Light The general acceptance they have met with especially from those for whom they were chiefly design'd And the necessity the Book-seller found to make a second Edition tho by the Printers ovresight very incorrect are sufficient grounds to oblige me to the making good that Promise And here it is in part perform'd by offering to thee the following Meditations of this Primitively Devout Author upon the two first Chapters of the first Epistle General of St Peter His Latin Discourses which he had to the Students when he was Principall of the College of Edenburgh are now in the Press Matters of Controversie in Religion among Protestant Divines this good Man upon all occasions in his Life time either absolutely shunned or endeavoured to soften and where he could not Conciliat the Termes and Points themselves in dispute yet he endeavoured to reconcile the Persons Disputing For out of his great Charity he had much better thoughts of each of them than they ordinarly have one of another And even when he gives in these Papers his own Opinion in some few of those Points he does it with that Moderation and discretion that can give no offence to any of the Parties Except to such of them who will needs be contentious He was a singular Instance how far good Men may differ in Iudgment about some Abstruse points in Religion Yet without Diminution of Affection either to Truth or to one-Another If his way of Expression or Method of handling the Passages of Scripture here treated of are not according to the Modern Critical exactness or if his Stile is not after the Mode and dress of those times And hence perhaps may be less gratifying to some such are humbly desired that they would be pleased to enjoy those other Writings they so deservedly value and whereof they have so great store in this Age Yet at the same time it s hoped from their good Nature that they will bear with such who do and must own to their great Comfort that they find a sweetness in this Divine Authors thoughts and way of writeing peculiar to him which make those Scriptures thus treated by him drop sweeter to their souls than Honey and the Honey-comb While they Enlighten their understandings at the same time they purify and rejoyce their hearts While they make wise the Simple they convert their Soul This was his design in Preaching those Discourses above thirty Years ago And this is the Design in Publishing them now God grant that the success in perusing them may answer the good intention of both Paul may plant and Apollos may water but God giveth the increase which that it may be in that abundance which shall make both Planters and Waterers rejoyce in that Great and last Harvest is and shall be the fervent Prayer of the Publisher J. F. I. Ep. St. Peter Chap. 1. verse 1. Peter an Apostle of Iesus Christ to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia THe grace of God in the heart of man is a tender Plant in a strange unkindly soyle and therefore cannot well prosper and grow without much care and pains and that of a skilful hand and that hath the art of cherishing it for this end hath God given the constant Ministry of the Word to his Church not only for the first work of conversion but also for confirming and increasing of his grace in the hearts of his Children And though the extraordinary Ministers of the Gospel the Apostles had principally the former for their charge the converting of unbelievers Jews and Gentiles and so the planting of Churches to be after kept and watered by others as the Apostle intimates 1 Cor. 3.6 Yet did they not neglect the other work of strengthening the begun grace of God in the new Converts of those times both by revisiting them and exhorting them in person as they could and by the supply of their writing to them when absent And the benefit of this extends not by accident but by the purpose and good Providence of God to the Church of God in all succeeding Ages This excellent Epistle full of Evangelical Doctrine and Apostolical authority is a brief and yet very clear summary both of the consolations and Instructions needful for the incouragement and direction of a Christian in his Journey to Heaven Elevating his thoughts and desires to that happiness and strengthning him against all opposition in the way both that of Corruption within and Tentations and Afflictions from without The heads of Doctrine contain'd in it are many but the maine that are most insisted on are these Three Faith Obedience and Patience To establish the believing to direct them in doing and comfort them in suffering And because the first is the ground-work and support of the other two this first Chapt. is much in that perswading them of the truth of that Mistery they had received and did believe viz. their Redemption and Salvation by Christ Jesus that Inheritance of immortality bought by his blood for them and the evidence and stability of their Right and title to it And then he uses this belief this assurance of the glory to come as the great perswasive to the other two both to holy Obedience and constant Patience since nothing can be too much either to forgo or undergo either to do or to suffer for the attainment of that blessed State And as from the consideration of that Object and matter of the Hope of Believers he encourages to Patience and exhorteth to Holiness in this Chapter in general so in the following Chapters he expresses more particularly both the universal and special Duties of Christians both in doing and suffering often setting before them to whom he wrote the matchless example of the Lord Jesus and the greatness of their engagement to follow him In the two first verses we have the Inscription and Salutation the usual stile of Apostolick Epistles The Inscription hath the Author and the Addresse from whom and to whom The Author of this Epistle is design'd by his Name Peter and his Calling an Apostle We shall not insist upon his Name that it was imposed by Christ and what is its signification this the Evangelists teach us S. Ioh. 1.42 S· Mat. 16.18 c. By that which is spoken of him in divers passages of the Gospel he is very remarkable amongst the
equally from every Minister alike yet it must be acknowledged that there is something we know not what to call it more acceptable reception of those who at first were the means of bringing men to God then others like the opinion some have of Physitians whom they love The Apostle comforts these strangers of this dispersion by the spiritual union which they obtained by Effectual calling and so calls off their eyes from their outward dispersed and dispised condition to look above that as high as the spring of their happiness the free love and Election of God Scattered in the Countries and yet gathered in Gods Election chosen or pickt out Stangers to men amongst whom they dwelt but known and foreknown to God removed from their own Country to which men have naturally an unalterable affection but made heirs of a better as followes verse 3.4 And having within them the evidence both of Eternal Election and that expected salvaâ—ion the Spirit of holiness verse 2. At the best a Christian is bâ—t a Stranger here set him where you will as our Apostle teacheth after and 't is his priviledge that he is so and when he thinks not so he forgets and disparages himself and descends far below his quallity when he is much taken with any thing in this place of his Exile But this is the wisdom of a Christian when he can solace himself against the meaness and any kind of discomfort of his outward condition with the comfortable assurance of the love of God that he hath called him to holiness given him some measure of it and an endeavour after more and by this may he conclude that he hath ordained him unto salvation if either he is a Stranger where he lives or as a stranger deserted of his friends and very near stript of all outward comforts yet may he rejoyce in this that the Eternal unchangable Love of God that is from Everlasting to Everlasting is sealed to his soul O what will it avail a man to be compassed about with the favour of the world to sit unmolested in his own home and possessions and to have them very great and pleasant well moneyed and landed and befriended and yet estranged and sever'd from God not having any token of his special Love To the Elect The Apostle here denominates all the Christians to whom he writes by the condition of true Believers calling them Elect and sanctified c. And the Apostle St. Paul writes in the same stile in his Epistles to the Churches not that all in these Churches were such indeed but because they professed to be such and by that their profession and Calling as Christians they were obliged to be such and as many of them as were in any measure true to that their Calling and profession were really such Besides it would seem not unworthy of Consideration that in all probability there would be fewer false Christians and the number of true believers usually greater in the Churches in those Primitive times then now in the best reformed Churches because there could not then be many of them that were from their Infancy bred in the Christian Faith but for the greatest part were such as being of years of discretion were by the hearing of the Gospel converted from Paganisme and Iuduisme to the Christian Religion first and made a deliberate choise of it to which there were at that time no great outward Encouragements and therefore the lesse danger of multitudes of hypocrites which as Vermine in Summer breed most in the time of the Churches Prosperity Tho no Nation or Kingdom had then universally received the faith but rather hated and persecuted it yet were there even then amongst them as the writings of the Apostles testifie false Brethren and inordinate walkers and men of corrupt minds earthly minded and led with a spirit of envy and contention and vainglory Howsoever the question that is moved concerning the necessary qualifications of all the members of a true visible Church can no way as I conceive be decided from the Inscriptions of the Epistle but eertainly they are useful to teach Christians and Christian Churches what they ought to be and what their holy profession requires of them and sharply to reprove the gross unlikeness and inconformity that is in the most part of man to the description of Christians As there be some that are too strait in their Judgement concerning the being and nature of the visible Church so certainly the greatest part of Churches are too loose in their practice From the dissimilitude betwixt our Churches and those we may make this use of reproof That if aâ— Apostolical Epistle were to be directed to us it behoved to be Inscribed to the Ignorant prophane maliâ—ious c. As he who at the hearing of the Gospel read said Either this is not the Gospel or we are not Christians So either these Charâ—cters given in the Inscription of these Epistles are not true Characters or we are not true Christians Verse 2. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through Sanctification of the Spirit unto Obedience and sprinckling of the blood of Iesus Christ. IN this verse we have their Condition and Causes of it Their Condition Sanctified and Iustified the former expressed by Obedience the latter by sprinkling of the blood of Christ. The Causes 1 Eternal Election 2. The Execution of that Decree Their Effectual Calling which I conceive is meant by Election here the selecting them out of the World and joyning them to the fellowship of the Children of God so Ioh. 15.19 The former Election particularly ascribed to God the Father the latter to the Holy Spirit And the blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God is here the cause of their Justification and so the whole Trinity concurring dignifie them with this their Spiritual and happy estate First I shall discourse of these seperately and then of their Connection 1. Of the state it selfe and first of Iustification tho named last This sprinkling has respect to the Rite of the Legal Purification by the sprinkling of Blood and that appositely for these Rites of sprinkling and Blood did all point out this Blood and this Sprinkling and exhibited this true ransome of souls which was only shadowed by them As the use and end of Sprinkling was Purification and Expiation because sin merited death and that the pollutions and staines of human nature was by sin Such is the pollution that it can be no manner of way washt off but by Blood Heb. 9. â—2 Neither is there any Blood able to purge from sin except the most precious Blood of Jesus Christ which is called the blood of God Act. 20.28 That the stain of sin can only be washt off by Blood inâ—imates that it merits Death And that no Blood but that of the Son of God can do it intimates that this stain merits Eternal Death and it had been our portion except the death of the Eternal Lord of life had freed
that we being dead to sin should live unto Righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed THat which is deepest in the heart is readily most in the mouth That which abounds within runs over most by the Tongue or Pen when Men light upon the speaking of that Subject that possesses the affection they can hardly be taken off or drawn from it again Thus the Apostles in their writings when they make mention any way of Christ suffering for us they love to dwell on it as that which they take most delight to speak of Such delicacy and sweetness is in it to a Spiritual taste that they like to keep it in their mouth and are never out of their theam when they insist on Jesus Christ though they have but nam'd him by occasion of some other Doctrine for he is the great subject of all they have to say Thus here the Apostle had spoke of Christ in the foregoing words very fitly to this present Subject setting him before Christian Servants and all suffering Christians as their compleat example both in point of much suffering and of perfect Innocency and Patience in suffering And express'd their engagement to study and follow that example yet he cannot leave it so but having said that all those his sufferings wherein he was so exemplary were for us as a chief consideration for which we should study to be like him he returns to that again and enlarges himself in it in words partly the same partly very near those of that Evangelist among the Prophets Esay Chap. 53. And it suits very well with his main scope to press this point as giving both very much strength and sweetness to the Exhortation as being most reasonable that we willingly conform to him in suffering that had never been an Example of suffering nor subject at all to sufferings nor capable of them but for us and most comfortable in the light sufferings of this Moment to consider that he hath freed us from the sufferings of Eternity by suffering himself in our stead in the fulness of time That Jesus Christ is in doing and suffering our Supream and Matchless Example and that he came to be so is a truth but that he is nothing further and came for no other end is you see a high point of falshood for how should Man be enabled to learn and follow that example of obedience unless there were more in Christ and what would become of that great reckoning of disobedience that Man stands guilty of No these are too narrow he came to bear our sins on his own Body on the tree and for this purpose had a Body fitted for him and given him to bear this burden to do this as the will of his Father to stand for us in stead of all Offerings and Sacrifices and by that will sayes the Apostle we are Sanctified through the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once for all This was his business not only to rectifie sinful Mankind by his example but to redeem him by his Blood he was a teacher come from God As a Prophet he teaches us the way of Life and as the best and greatest of Prophets is perfectly like his Doctrine and his actions that in all Teachers is the livelyest part of Doctrine his carriage in Life and death is our great Pattern and instruction But what is said of his forerunner is more eminently true of Christ he is a Prophet and more then a Prophet a Priest satisfying justice for us and a King conquering sin and death for us an Example in deed but more than an Example our Sacrifice and our Life and all in all 't is our Duty to walk as he walked to make him the pattern of our steps 1 Ioh. 2.6 But our comfort and salvation lyeth in this that he is the propitiation for our sins Verse 2. So in the first Chapter of that Epistle Verse 7. We are to walk in the Light as he is in the Light For all our walking we have need of that which followes that bears the great weight the Blood of Iesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin and so still that glory which he possesseth in his own Person is the pledge of ours he is there for Vs. he lives to make intercession for us sayes the Apostle and I go to prepare a place for you sayes he himself We have in the words these two great points and in the same order as the words ly 1. The nature and quality of the sufferings of Jesus Christ And 2. The end of them In the expression of his suffering we are to consider 1. The commutation of the Persons he himself for us 2. The work undertaken and performed he bare our sins in his own body on the tree 1. The Act or sentence of the Law against the breach of it standing in force and Divine justice expecting satisfaction death was the necessary and inseperable consequent of sin If you say the Supream Majesty of God being accountable to none might have forgiven all without satisfaction We are not to contest that nor foolishly to offer to sound the bottomless deep of his absolute prerogative Christ implies in his Prayer that it was impossible that he could escape that cup But the impossibility is resolv'd into his Fathers will as the cause of it But this we may clearly see following the tract of the holy Scriptures our only safe way that this way wherein our salvation is contriv'd is most excellent and suitable to the greatness and goodness of God so full of wonders of wisdom and love that the Angels as our Apostle tells us before cannot forbear looking on it and admiring it for all their exact knowledge yet they still find it infinitly beyond their knowledge still in astonishment and admiration of what they see and still in search looking in to see more Those Cherubims still haveing their eyes fixed on this Mercy Seat Justice might indeed have siez'd on rebellious Man and laid the pronounc'd punishment on him mercy might have freely acquit him and pardon'd all But can we name any place where mercy and justice as relating to condemned Man could have met and shined joyntly in full aspect save only in Jesus Christ in whom indeed Mercy and truth met and righteousness and peace kissed each other Yea in whose Person the Parties concern'd that were at so great a distance met so near as nearer can not be imagin'd And not only was this the only way for the consistence of these two Justice and Mercy but take each of them severally and they could not have been in so full lustre as in this Gods just hatred of sin did out of doubt appear more in punishing his own only begotten Son for it than if the whole race of Mankind had suffer'd for it Eternally Again it raises the notion of Mercy to the highest that sin is not only forgiven us but for this end God's own coeâ—ernal Son is given to us and for us Consider
to Mortify drawes vertue from it Thus sayd one Christ aim'd at this in all those Sufferings that with so much love he went through and shall I disappoint him and not serve his end 4. That other powerfull grace of Love is joynt in this work with faith for Love desires nothing more than likeness and conformity though it be a painfull resemblance so much the better and fitter to testify love therefore 't will have the Soul dye with him that dy'd for it and the very same kind of death I am crucified with Christ sayes the great Apostle The Love of Christ in the Soul takes the very Nails that fastned him to the Crosse and crucifies the Soul to the World and to Sin Love is strong as Death particularly in this the strongest and liveliest Body when Death siezes it must yield and so becomes motionless that was so vigorous before And the Soul that is most active and unwearied in Sin when this Love siezes it it is kill'd to Sin and as Death seperates a Man from his dearest Friends and Society this Love breaks all the tyes and friendship with Sin Generally as Plato hath it Love takes away ones living in them selves and transfers into the party loved but the divine Love of Christ doth it in the truest and highest manner By whose stripes ye were healed The misery of fallen Man and the mercy of his deliverance are both of them such a deep as no one expression yea no variety added one to another can reach their bottom Here we have divers very significative ones 1. The guiltiness of sin as an intollerable burden pressing the Soul and sinking it and that transfer'd and layed on a stronger Back He bare Then 2. The same wretchedness under the same notion of a strange disease by all other means incurable healed by his stripe's And 3. again represented by the forlorn condition of a Sheep wandring and our Salvation to be found only in the love and wisdom of our great Shepherd And all these are borrow'd from that sweet and clear prophecy Isa. 53. The polluted nature of Man is no other but a bundle of desperate diseases he is spiritually dead as the Scriptures often teach Now this contradicts not nor at all Lessen's the matter But only because this misery justly called death is in a Subject animated with a natural life therefore so it may bear the Name and sense of sickness or wound and therefore 't is gross misprision they are as much out in their Argument as in their conclusion that would extract out of these expressions any evidence of remains of Spiritual life or good in our corrupted Nature But they are not worthy the contest tho vain heads think to argue themselves into life and are seeking that life by Logick in Miserable Nature that they should seek by faith in Jesus Christ Namely in these his stripes by which we are healed It were a large task to name our Spiritual Maladies how much more severally to unfold their Natures such a multitude of corrupt false Principles in the mind that as Gangrens do spread themselves through the Soul and defile the whole Man and total gross blindness and unbelief in Spiritual things and that stone of the heart hardness and impenitency Lethargies of senslesness and security and then for there be such complications of Spiritual diseases in us as in Naturals are altogether impossible such burning fevers of inordinate affections desires of lust and Malice and envy such racking and tormenting cares of Covetousness and feeding on Earth and Ashes as the Prophet speaks in another case according to the deprav'd appetite that accompanies some Diseases Such tumours of Pride and self-conceit that break forth as filthy botches in Mens words and carriage one with another And in a word what a wonderful disorder must needs be in the Natural Soul by the frequent interchanges and fight of contrary passions within it and to these from without how many deadly wounds we receive from the tentations of Satan and the World We receive them and by the weapons they furnish us we willingly wound our selves as the Apostle sayes of them who will be rich they fall into divers snares and noysome lusts and pierce them selves through with many sorrowes Did we see it no Infirmery nor Hospital ever so full of loathsome and miserable Spectacles as Spiritually our wretched Nature is in any one of us apart How much more when multitudes of us are met together But our evils are hid from us and we perish miserably in a Dream of happiness That makes up and compleats our wretchedness that we feel it not with our other diseases And this makes it worse still This was the Churches disease Rev. 3. Thou sayest I am rich and knowest not that thou art Poor c. We are usually full of complaints of triffling griefs that are of small moment and think not on nor feel not our Dangerous Maladies as he who shewed a Physician his fore finger but the Physician told him he had more need to think on the cure of a dangerous Impostume within him which he perceiv'd by looking to him though himself did not feel it In dangerous Maladies or wounds there be these evils a tendency to death and with that the apprehension of the terrour and fear of it and the present distemper of the Body by them and this is in sin 1. There is the guiltiness of sin binding over the Soul to death the most frightful eternal Death 2. The terrour of conscience in the apprehension of that death or wrath that is the consequent and end of sin 3. The raging and prevailing power of sin which is the ill habitude and distemper of the soul But these stripes and that blood that issued from them are a sound cure applied unto the soul they take away the guiltiness of sin and death deserved and free us from our engagement to those everlasting scourgings and lashes of the wrath of God and likewise they are the only cure of those present terrours and pangs of Conscience arising from the sense of that wrath and sentence of death upon the Soul Our Iniquities that met on his back laid open to the rod which in it self was free those hands that never wrought iniquity and those feet that never declined from the way of righteousness yet for our workes and wandrings were pierced and that Tongue dropping with Vinegar and Gall on the Cross that never spoke a guileful nor sinful word The Blood of those stripes are that Balm issuing from that tree of Life so pierced that can only give ease to the Conscience and heal the wounds of it and they deliver from the power of sin working by their influence and loathing of sin that was the cause of them they cleanse out the vitious humours of our corrupt nature by opening up that issue of Repentance they shall look on him and mourn over him whom they have pierced Now to the end it may