is to be applied in the other Deliverances The second consideration then of sinne was the Guilt of it which is the binding over unto some punishment prescribed in the Law so we have here a double Deliverance from the Guilt of sinne and from the Bondage of the Law First for sinne though it leave still a staine in the soule yet the sting of it is quite removed though wee are not perfectly cleansed from the soile yet are wee soundly healed from the mortalnesse and bruises of it Then for the Law wee are first freed from the Curse of the Law It is not unto us a killing letter nor a word of Death in as much as it is not that rule according unto which wee expect Life Secondly wee are freed from the Exaction of the Law wee are not necessarily bound to the rigorous performance of each jot and title of it a performance unto which is ever annexed Legall Justification but our endeavours though imperfect are accepted our infirmities though sundry are forgiven for his sake who was under both these Bondages of Law for our sakes And as wee are thus delivered from the Guilt of sinne so are wee farther endued with positive Dignities interest and propriety to all the Righteousness of Christ with which wee are clothed as with a garment claime unto all the blessings which the Law inferres upon due obedience performed to it and the comforts which from either of these Title and Prerogatives may ensue And this is the second branch of Deliverance conveyed by the act of Iustification but merited as the rest by the Death of JESUS CHRIST The third consideration of sinne was the Corruption of it from the which likewise wee are by Christ delivered sinne doth not any more rule nor raigne nor lead captive those who are ingrafted into Christ though for their patience triall and exercise sake and that they may still learne to live by faith and to prize mercy the remnants of it doe cleave fast unto our Nature like the sprigges and rootes of Ivie to a Wall which will never out till the Wall bee broken downe and new built againe Sinne is not like the people of Ierico utterly destroied but rather like the Gibeonites it liveth still but in an estate of bondage servitude and decay and besides this wee are inabled to love the Law in our inner man to delight in it to performe a ready and sincere though not an exact and perfect obedience to it we are made partakers of the divine Nature the Graces with which Christ was anointed doe from him streame downe unto his lowest members which of his fulnesse doe all receive and are all renewed after Gods Image in righteousnesse and true holinesse The next part of our Redemption was from the Bondage of Corruption unto the Liberty of Glory which likewise is by Christ performed for us which is a Deliverance from the Consequents of sinne for sinne doth binde over unto punishment even as the perfect obedience of the Law would bring a man unto Glory Now the Punishments due unto sinne are either Temporary or Eternall consisting principally in the oppressions and distresses of Nature for as Sinne is the evill of our working so Punishment is the evill of our being and it includes not onely bodily and spirituall death but all the inchoations and preparatory dispositions thereunto as in the soule doubtings distractions tremblings and terrours of Conscience hardnesse of heart fearefull expectation of the wrath that shall be revealed in the body sicknesse poverty shame infamy which are so many earnests and petty payments of that full debt which will at last bee measured out to all the wicked of the World Even as amongst the Romans their Prelusory fight with dull and blunt weapons were but introductions to their mortall and bloudy games And besides this Deliverance there is in the soule peace and serenity in the body a patient waiting for Redemption and in the whole man the pledges of that eternall glory which shall be reveled of all which the onely meritorious cause is the Death of Christ. This alone is it which hath overcome our death even as one heate cureth one Flux of blood stoppeth another and hath caught Satan as it were by deceit with a baite and a hooke this is it which hath taken away the enmity betweene God and man reconciling us to the Father and by the prayer of that precious Blood hath obtained for us the right of Children this is it which tooke away the guilt of sinne and cancelled the Bond that was in force against us swallowing up the Curse of the Law and humbling Christ unto the forme of a servant that thereby wee might be made free this is it which removeth all both temporall and eternall punishment from the faithfull it having beene a perfect payment of our whole debt for in as much as Christ himselfe said on the Crosse It is finished wee are to conclude that the other worke of Resurrection was not properly an essentiall part of Christs merit but onely a necessary consequent required to make the Passion applicable and valuable to the Church As in coined metals it is the substance of the coine the Gold or Silver onely that buyeth the ware but the Impression of the Kings Image is that which makes that Coine to bee currant and passable it doth not give the value or worth to the Gold but onely the application of that value unto other things even so the Resurrection and Intercession of Christ doe serve to make actuall applications of those merits of his to his Church which yet had their consummation on the Crosse. And if it be heere demanded how it comes to passe if all these consequents of sinne be removed that the faithfull are still subject to all those temporall evils both in life and death which even in the state of Nature they should have undergone wee answere in generall that the faithfull dye in regard of the state but not in regard of the sting of Death they are subject to a dissolution but it is to obtaine a more blessed union even to bee with Christ and though a man may not take the whole World in exchange for his Soule yet he may well take Christ in exchange for his life It is not a losse of our money but traffique and merchandise to part from it for the procuring of such commodities as are more valuable and Saint Paul telles us that to dye is gaine The sting wee know of Death is sinne for sinne is the cause of all inward discomforts for which cause the wicked are often compared to the foaming Sea which is still tossed and unquiet with every winde and the strength of sinne is the Law with the malediction and bondage thereof from the which wee being perfectly delivered by him who was himselfe made under the Law and
by that meanes became a perfect and sufficient Saviour wee are in like manner delivered from the penalty of Death for weaken sinne by destroying the Law which is the strength of it and Death cannot possibly sting To examine this point though by way of digression something farther will not bee altogether impertinent because it serves to magnifie the power of Christs Passion The evils which wee speake of are the violations of the nature and person of a man and that evill may bee considered two waies either physically as it oppresseth and burdeneth Nature working some violence on the primitive integrity thereof and by consequence imprinting an affection of sorrow in the minde and so it may bee called paine or else morally and legally with respect unto the motive cause in the Patient Sinne or to the originall efficient cause in the Agent Iustice and so it may be called punishment Punishment being some evill inflicted on a subject for transgressing some Law commanded him by his Law-maker there is ther unto requisite something on the part of the Commander something on the part of the Subject and something on the part of the Evill inflicted In the Commander there must bee first a will unto which the actions of the Subject must conforme and that signified in the nature of a Law Secondly there must bee a Iustice which will And thirdly a Power which can punish the transgressours of that Law In the Subject there must be first Reason and Free-will I meane originally for a Law proceeding from Justice presupposeth a power of obedience to command impossibilites is both absurd and tyrannous befitting Pharaoh and not God Secondly there must bee a Debt and Obligation whereby hee is bound unto the fulfilling of that Law And lastly the Conditions of this Obligation being broken there must be a Forfeiture Guilt and Demerit following the violation of that Law Lastly in the Evill it selfe inflicted there is required first something absolute namely a destructive Power some way or other oppressing and disquieting Nature for as sinne is a violation offered from man to the Law so punishment must bee a violation retorted from the Law to man Secondly there must bee something Relative which may respect first the authour of the evill whose Justice being by mans sinne provoked is by his owne power and according to the sentence of his owne Law to bee executed Secondly it may respect the end for which it is inflicted it is not the torment of the Creature whom as a Creature God loveth neither is it the pleasing of the Devill whom as a Devill God hateth but onely the Satisfaction of Gods Justice and the Manifestation of his Wrath. These things being thus premised wee will againe make a double Consideration of Punishment either it may be taken improperly and incompletely for whatsoever oppressive evill doth so draw its originall in a Reasonable Creature from Sinne as that if there were not an habitation of sinne there should be no roome for such an evill as in the man that was borne blinde though sinne were not the cause of the blindenesse yet it was that which made roome for the blindenesse or it may bee taken properly and perfectly and then I take it to admit of some such Description as this Punishment is an evill or pressure of Nature proceeding from a Law-giver just and powerfull and inflicted on a Reasonable Creature for the disobedience and breach of that Law unto the performance whereof it was originally by the naturall faculty of free-will enabled whereby there is intended a Declaration of Wrath and Satisfaction of Justice Now then I take it wee may with conformity unto the Scriptures and with the Analogy of Faith set downe these Conclusions First consider Punishments as they are dolours and paines and as they are impressions contrary to the integrity of Nature so the temporall evils of the godly are punishments because they worke the very same manner of naturall effects in them which they doe in other men Secondly take Punishments improperly for those evils of Nature which doe occasionally follow sinne and unto which sinne hath originally opened an entrance which declare how God stands affected towards sinne with a minde purposing the rooting out and destroying of it in this sense likewise may the afflictions of the godly bee called Punishments as God is said to have beene exceeding angry with Aaron But now these evils though inflicted on the godly because of their sinnes as were the death of the child to David the tempest to Ionah and the like yet are they not evils inflicted for the Revenge of sin which is yet the right Nature of a proper Punishment so saith the Lord Vengeance is mine I will repay it but they are evils by the Wisedome of God and love towards his Saints inflicted for the overthrow of sinne for weakening the violence and abating the outrageousnesse of our naturall corruptions As then in the godly sinne may be said to be and not to bee in a diverse sense so saith Saint Iohn in one place If wee say wee have no sinne wee deceive our selves and yet in another Hee that is borne of God sinneth not It is not in them in regard of its Condemnation although it bee in them in regard of its inhabitation though even that also as daily dying and crucified even so punishments or consequents of sinne may be said to be in the godly or not to be in them in a different sense They are not in them in regard of their sting and curse as they are proper Revenges for sinne although they be in them in regard of their state substance and painefulnesse untill such time as they shall put on an eternall Triumph over Death the last enemy that must be overcome Lastly I conclude that the temporall evils which doe befall the godly are not formally or properly punishments nor effects of divine malediction or vengeance towards the persons of the godly who having obtained in Christ a plenary reconciliation with the Father can be by him respected with no other affection however in manner of appearance it may seeme otherwise than with an affection of love and free grace The reasons for this position are these first Punishment with what mitigation soever qualified is in suo formali in the nature of it a thing Legall namely the execution of the Law for divine Law is ever the square and rule of that Justice of which punishment is the effect and work Now all those on whom the execution of the Law doth take any effect may truly bee said to be so farre under the Law in regard of the sting and curse thereof for the curse of the Law is nothing else but the evill which the Law pronounceth to bee inflicted so that every branch and sprigge of that evill must needes beare in it some part of the nature of a Curse even as every part of water hath in it the nature of water but all the godly
proportion betweene the holy Actions used by Christ in this Sacrament and Christ himselfe who is the substance of it IT followes now that we enquire farther into the nature of this holy Sacrament which will be explained by considering the Analogie fitnesse and similitude betweene the signes and the things signified by them and conferred or exhibited together with them which is Christ the Lord. Now this Analogie or fitnesse as it hath been in some generall manner expres'd in the nature or quality of the elements substantially or physically taken so more expressely and punctually is it propos'd unto us in those holy actions which doe alter in the use and make it a Sacrament And first we finde that Christ tooke the Bread and Wine and blessed it and gave thanks and so consecrated it or set a part unto a holy or solemne use which is the reason why Saint Paul calls it a Cup of blessing so that unto the Church it ceaseth to be that which nature had made it and beginnes to be that unto which the blessing had consecrated it In like manner did the eternall Sonne of God assume into the subsistance of his owne infinite person the whole nature of man the body and the soule by the vertue of which wonderfull union notwithstanding the properties of the divine nature remaine absolutely intransient and uncommunicable unto the humane yet are there shed from that inexhaustible fountaine many high and glorious endowments by which the humanity under this manner of subsistence is annoynted consecrated sealed and set apart for that work of incomprehensible love and power the redemption of the world and secondly as the Bread is taken by us from Christ in the nature of a gift he brake it and gave it to his Disciples so is the humane nature taken by Christ from the Father as a gift from the good pleasure of God Thirdly as the taking of the Bread by Christ did alter only the manner of its being the operation and efficacy the dignity and use but no way at all the element or nature of the Bread Even so the taking of the humane body by Christ did conferre indeed upon it many glorious effects and advance it to an estate farre above its common and ordinary capacity alwayes yet reserving those defects and weaknesses which were required in the aeconomie and dispensation of that great work for which he assumed it but yet he never alterd the essentiall and naturall qualities of the body but kept it still within the measure and limits of the created perfection which the wisdome of God did at first share out unto it Lastly to come neerer unto the Crosse of Christ as hee did by prayer and thanksgiving consecrate their elements unto a holy use so did he immediately before his passion of which this is the Sacrament make that consecratory prayer and thanksgiving which is registred for the perpetuall comfort of his Church The second Action is the breaking of the Bread and powering the Wine into the Cup which doth neerly expresse his crucified Body where the joynts were loosed the sinewes torne the flesh bruized and peirced the skin rent the whole frame violated by that straining and razeing and cutting and stretching and wrentching which was used in the crucifying of it and by the shedding of that pretious blood which stop'd the issue and flux of ours It were infinite and intricare to spin a meditation into a controversie about the extent and nature of Christs passion but certainly whatsoever either Ignominie or Agony his body suffered which two â— conceive to comprize all the generalls of Christ crucified are if not particularly expressed yet typically and sacramentally shaddowed and exhibited in the Bread broken and the Wine powred out The third Action was the giving or delivering of the Bread and Wine which first evidently expresseth the nature and quality of Christ crucified with these benefits which flow from him that they are freely bestowed upon the Church which of it selfe had no interest or claime unto any thing save death Secondly we see the nature of Christs passion that it was a free voluntary and unconstrained passion for though it be true that Iudas did betray him and Pilate deliver him to bee crucified yet none of this was the giving of Christ but the selling of him It was not for us but for mony that Iudas deliver'd him it was not for us but for feare that Pilate deliver'd him but God deliver'd the Sonne and the Sonne deliver'd himselfe with a most mercifull and gracious will to bestow his death upon sinners and not to get but to be himselfe a price The Passion then of Christ was most freely undertaken without which free-will of his own they could never have laid hold on him and his death was a most free and voluntary explication his life was not wrentched nor wrung from him nor snatch'd or torne from him by the bare violence of any forraine Impression but was with a loud voice arguing nature not brought to utter decay most freely surrendred and laid downe by that power which did after reassume it But how then comes it to passe that there lay a necessicie upon Christ of suffring which necessicie may seeme to have enforc'd and constrain'd him to Golgatha in as much as hee himselfe did not only shrinke but even testifie his dislike of what he was to suffer by a redoubled prayer unto his Father that that Cup might passe from him doth not feare make Actions involuntary or at least derogate and detract from the fulnesse of their liberty and Christ did feare how then is it that Christs Passion was most voluntary though attended with necessitie feare and reluctance surely it was most voluntary still and first therefore necessary because voluntary the maine and primitive reason of the necessitie being nothing else but that immutable will which had fore-decreed it Christs death then was necessary by a necessitie of the event which musts needs come to passe after it had once been fore-determined by that most wise will of God which never useth to repent him of his counsells but not by a necessitie of the cause which was most free and voluntary Againe necessary it was in regard of the Scriptures whose truth could not miscarry in regard of the promises made of him which were to be performed in regard of propheticall predictions which were to be fulfilled in regard of typicall prefigurations which were to bee abrogated and seconded with that substance which they did fore-shaddow but no way necessary in opposition to Christs will which was the first mover into which both this necessitie and all the causes of it are to be finally resolv'd And then for the fear and reluctance of Christ noe marvell if he who was in all things like unto us had his share in the same passions and affections like wise though without sin But neither of
solemnization is but a blinde observance And for this cause when God commands reverence to places and sanctification of daies hee annexeth the ground of both and leades us to a sight of those workes from which they receive both their dignity and institution so likewise in Sacraments to eate Bread and drinke Wine are naked common simple actions and in themselves alwaies alike but when Christ shall by that great worke of his Death set them apart unto a holy use and make them representations of his owne sacred Body as they are by this divine relation hallowed so to partake of them without commemotating that great worke which hath so sanctified them is not onely impious in that it perverteth the divine institution but absurd likewise it being all one as if a man should with much ceremony and solemnity receive parchment and waxe never so much as thinking on the land it conveyes or looke on a picture without any reflexion on the patterne and originall which it resembleth which is indeed to looke on the wood and not on the picture it being naturally impossible to separate things in notion whose being doe consist in relation to each other So then the Sacrament being a Typicall service is not nor can bee celebrated without a remembrance of the substance which it resembleth which thing according as is the pretiousnesse value and importance of it doth proportionably impose on us a greater necessity of this Duty which is then rightly perform'd when there is a deep impression of Christ crucifi'd made on the Soule by these Seales of his Death than which there is not any thing in the world more fit to fasten a stampe of it selfe in the minds of men Permanent and firme impressions doe use to bee made in the mindes of men by such causes as those First if the Object be wonderfull and beyond the common course of things it doth then strangely affect the thoughts whereas obvious and ordinary things passe through the soule as common people doe through the streets without any notice at all And this is the reason why naturally men remember those things best w ch either they did in their childehood because then every thing brings with it the shape of novelty and novelty is the mother of admiration or those things which doe very rarely fall out which howsoever they may be in their causes naturally yet with the greater part of men who use to make their observations rather on the events than on the originals of things they passe for wonders Now what greater wonder hath ever entred into the thoughts of men even of those who have spent their time and conceits in amplifying Nature with Creatures of their owne fancying than this that the God of all the World without derivation from whose life all the Creatures must moulder into their first nothing should himselfe dye and expire the frame of Nature still subsisting that he who filleth all things with his Presence should bee stretched out upon a piece of wood and confined within a narrow stone hee who upholdeth all things by his power should bee himselfe kept under by that which is nothing by death Certainely that at which the World stood amazed that which against the course of Nature brought darkenesse on the Fountaine of Light which could no longer shine when his Glory who derived lustre on it was it selfe ecclipsed that which made the earth to tremble under the burden of so bloudy a sinne that which the Angels stoope and looke into with humble astonishment and adoration that which consisteth of so great a combination and confluence of wonders must needs make a deepe impression on the Soule though hard as Marble at which the stones themselves of the Temple did rend asunder Secondly those things use to make impressions on the understanding which doe moove and excite any strong Passion of the minde there being ever a most neare activity and intimate reference betweene Passion and Reason by meanes of that naturall affinity and subordination which is betweene them Observe it in one passion of Love how it removes the mind from all other objects firmely fixing it on one thing which it most respecteth for as knowledge makes the object to bee loved so love makes us desire to know more of the object the reason whereof is that inseparable union which Nature hath fixed in all things betweene the trueth and the good of them either of which working on the proper faculty to which it belongeth provokes it to set the other faculty on worke either by distinction as from the understanding to the passion or by insinuation as from the passion to the understanding even as fire doth not heate without light nor enlighten without heate Where the treasure is the heart cannot bee absent where the body is the Eagles must resort If I know a thing bee good I must love it and where I love the goodnesse of it I cannot but desire to know it all divine objects being as essentially good as they are true and the knowledge and love of them being as naturally linked as the nerve is to the part which it moveth or as the beame is to the heate and influence by which it worketh now what object is there can more deserve our love than the Death of Christ Certainely if it bee naturall for men to love where they have beene loved before and if in that case it bee fit that the quantity of the former love should bee the rule and measure of the latter how can it bee that our love to him should not exceed all other love even as hee justly requireth since greater love than his hath not beene seene that a man should neglect the love of himselfe and lay downe his life for his enemies And if we love Christ that will naturally lead us to remember him too who as he is the Life and so the object of our love so is he the Truth likewise and so the object of our knowledge and therefore the same Apostle who did rejoyce in nothing but Christ crucified and joy is nothing else but love perfected for they differ onely as the same water in the pipe and in the fountaine did likewise notwithstanding his eminency in all Pharisaicall learning Desire to know nothing but Iesus Christ and him crucified Such a dominion hath love on the minde to make permanent and firme impressions Lastly those things worke strongly upon the memory which doe mainly concerne and are beneficiall to man there is no man not dispossessed of reason who in sicknesse doth forget the Physician neither did ever man heare of any one straved because he did not remember to eate his meate Beasts indeed I have heard of but those very strange ones too which upon turning aside from their meate have forgotten the presence of it but never were any so forsaken by Nature as to forget the desire and inquiry after what they wanted and the