brought them out of their misery who were his elected and redeemed ones He hath pardoned their sinnes acquitted them of their guilt paid their debts set them cleare againe in Gods books and this he hath done for all those that are his Spouses for to them only he speaks saying I raised thee meritoriously when he dyed upon the Crosse for them he did it intentionally from all Eternity he gave his word to his Father for the debt that it should be paid upon demand but when he dyed he made paiment and discharged his word yet he doth not come and proclame the soule discharged till justification when the Lord actually and formally acquits the soule from all and accepts it as perfectly cleare of all accounts due upon any score whatsoever to God and therefore I say in the second place That some he hath raised Actually that is Actually and formally justified them pardoning all their sins and imputing his owne righteousnesse to them and accepting of them as Righteous for his owne sake even for his owne Names sake He hath done it meritoriously he said upon the Crosse All is finished he bore our griefes the chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes we were healed saith the Apostle Isa 53. And he hath done it for some Actually having justified them Rom. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God where the Apostle speaks of justification as of a past act of grace concerning the beleeving Romanes and so 1 Cor. 6 1. concerning the beleeving Coriathians And Christ is stil justifying every day all his time is spent either in reading pardons for his redeemed Saints or in presenting Petitions from them and pleading for them I raised thee I have done it and I will doe it That is my last Proposition Fifthly He will doe it I meane actually and formally he hath done it already 1. By the engaging of his word to his Father nay more than so by paying downe the price his father abated him not an ace he paid every groat yea and left a surplusage too only he hath not taken out their pardon yet the Actuall and formall discharging of some is behind but they need not feare it is to come out of course without a farthing more paid 1 John 1.9 If we confesse our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forgive us our sinnes There is not a farthing more due and it were in justice with God to deny justification to those that sue it out by confession of their sinnes and seeking of his face God speaks of it here therefore as done I raised thee I take the words to imply the whole reparation of mankind I meane that part of mankinde whom the Lord had from Eternity chosen to everlasting life and for whom Jesus Christ had paid the Ransome of his precious bloud Christ I say speakes of it here as done because of the certainty of it Take onely one place for this John 10.27 28 29. My sheep he are my voice and I know them and they follow me And I give unto them eternall life and they shall never perish neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand My Father which gave mee them is greater than all and no man is able to plucke them out of my Fathers hand I and my Father are one Observe the thing proposed to be confirmed that is that those that are Christs should never perish Now to root this in their mindes he tells them 1 That they were his sheep and hee knew them they could not bee lost then at unawares and he not misse them 2. They were his Fathers gifts to him therefore they should not be lost hee would have a care of his Fathers love-tokens 3 But may they not be taken away No for 1. He is resolved to give them eternall life 2. He hath given his sure word for it Neither shall any man plucke them out of my hand They cannot doe it whether hee will or no for saith hee my Father which gave them me is greater than all Yea and further I and my Father are one My owne power and my fathers power united are ingaged for their preservation Those therefore that are elected though for the present they may be out of Christ yet they shall be raised But what I have already said may be enough to prove the in of the Doctrine that it is Jesus Christ that raiseth his elected ones out of their naturall undone condition It is hee that was designed by the Father to doe it that can and that alone could doe it he therefore must or none else can that hee hath done it meritoriously for all his Elect and actually for some of them and that in his due time he will do it actually and formally for all Now for a little further explication and clearing of this truth let us examine how hee hath done or will doe it To that question I shall answer in these particulars and indeed the answer may be drawne out of what I have already said First he did it stipulatione by entring into a Covenant and engaging his word for us The Covenant of Grace from which flowes all salvation to poore Creatures was originally made with the Lord Jesus Christ as I before prooved from Gal. 3.15 16. Christ engaged himselfe to his Father for the fulfilling of the Law and satisfying his Fathers wrath for us and hence it is that the Prophet sayes speaking Prophetically concerning the Lord Jesus Christ He shall bear their iniquities Isaiah 53. verse 11. Isa 53.6 He hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all verse 5. Hee was bruised for our iniquities With what Justice could God our Father lay our iniquities upon the Lord Jesus Christ Christ was a guiltlesse person nor could wee engage him in our cause but it was a voluntary engagement that himselfe entred to his Father As it is with us A poore Debtor is ready to be arrested for a debt that he is not able to pay there is no way but one either pay or to prison Let him have never so rich and great friends the Creditor cannot charge a farthing of the Debt upon them it is no Justice But if this poore Debtor hath some rich friend that will step in and say Sir this is my friend I pray bee patient with him I will undertake for the debt I will engage my word and bond that the debt shall bee paid at such a time or when you will please to call for it c. The Creditor it may be will be so favourable as to say Sir I know you are able to do it if you will engage your word I shall spare your friend pay it at such a time or when you will set the time and I will acquit your friend The engagement is entred in the Creditors Book and from that day forward the Creditor looks upon this his Debtors friend as now by his own voluntary engagement become his Debtor and never
sweet and precious Doctrine and it might be applyed severall wayes But I shall onely apply the consideration of it as offering you ground and matter First of Humiliation Secondly of Instruction Thirdly of Examination Fourthly of Exhortation Fiftly of Consolation First of all for Humiliation Use 1 Harke Christians is it so that thou wert so lost and undone that none but Jesus Christ could raise thee and hee hath done it when none else could and wil raise thee higher yet and this hee could not have done without taking thy flesh dying upon the Crosse suffering the bitternesse of his Fathers wrath consider then what cause thou hast to be humbled for thy sins 1. Considering that these were they put Christ to death 2 that by these since that time thou hast crucified the Lord of life 1. Consider that thy sins were those that put Christ to death Rom. 4.25 He was delivered to death for our sinnes Me thinks every one when they heare of Christs Agony and bloudy Sweat of his Whippings Buffetings of his bitter Sufferings c. should be ready to cry out with Pilate Quid mali fecit What evill I pray hath he done Ah none Christian it was to raise thee thou wert dead lost undone he dyed to raise thee thou stolest the fruit he climbed the tree thou enjoyedst the sweetnesse of sinning and he for that was acquainted with the bitternesse of suffering He bore thy iniquity even thine and mine too if we be elected Certainly it was a great griefe of heart to David to remember that he had an hand in the bloud of Uriah that was surely the great transgression that hee complained of to be sure that heart-troubling sinne for which hee puts up that particular Petition Deliver mee from bloud-guiltinesse O God And questionlesse it was no small Trouble of Spirit to Paul afterwards to consider that he was one of them that were consenting to Stephens death Acts 7.59 60. Chap. 8. verse 1. he afterwards repeats it with shame I was a persecuter Christian here is one murdered by cruell hands not an Uriah not a Stephen but hee that is worth ten thousand of these not an Abell yet his bloud troubled Cain all his life time but one whose bloud cries for better things than the bloud of Abell did here 's the Lambe of God slaine slaine by thy hands he was bruised for thine iniquities and his soule was made an Offering for thy sinnes Is it nothing to thee O Christian when Pilate was but about to condemne him his wife came startled in and cries Have nothing to doe with that just man and when Stephen charged the Jewes Acts 7.52 for being the betrayers and murtherers of the Lord Jesus they apprehended it as a thing so hainous that they would not endure him beyond that word but were cut to the heart and gnashed upon him with their teeth verse 54. Christians there is none of you here but your sinnes were the betrayers and murtheres of the Lord Jesus that Christ that had such eternall sure and unchangeable thoughts of love to your soules Ah! how great were those sins which could not be remitted without the bloud of the immaculate Lamb of God Me thinks every one of you should sit downe and say Ah Lord that ever I should be such a wretch so farre to provoke the fire of thy wrath that nothing could quench it but the bloud of thy Sonne that I should throw my selfe so deep into Hell that nothing could raise mee but the bloud-shedding of the deare Sonne of Gods love You have had to doe with that just man Christians not to doe with condemning him but even with the vildest acts of Barbarisme were done unto him your hypocrisie was the kisse that betrayed him the sinnes of your hands and feet were the nailes that fastened his hands and feet to the Crosse the sinnes of your body were the Spears that pierced his sacred side the sinnes of your soules were they that made his soule heavy to the death that caused the with-drawings of his Fathers love from him and made him in the heavinesse of his panged soule to cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me O sit downe goe alone weep and weep bitterly for him whom you have pierced for those stripes by which you are healed 2. But secondly if any thing will move your soules to make your head a Fountaine of water and your eyes Rivers of teares Consider That this Christ you have crucified even since his death upon the Crosse for you When the Apostle St. Peter Acts â— had made a long Sermon of Christs love shewing the Auditors what Christ had done and what he was he summeth up all verse 36. God hath made that same Jesus whom yee have crucified both Lord and Christ Now saith the Text verse 37. When they heard this viz. that they had crucified this Christ they were pricked at the heart This Christ my beloved whom you have crucified by your youth sinnes and life sins this was he that was crucified for you O be pricked at the hearts at this saying Was it not enough that he once was pierced scoffed wounded crucified for you but must you againe crucifie him and which of you doe it not daily Causinus tels us a story of Clodoveyus one of the Kings of France that when he was converted from Paganisme to Christianity while Remigius the Bishop was reading in the Gospell concerning the Passion of our Saviour and the abuses he suffered from Judas and the rest of the Jewes he brake out into these words If I had been there with my Frenchmen I would have cut all their throats In the meane time not considering that by his daily sins he did as much as they had done Which of us is not condemning the crucifiers of Christ for their cruelty and in the meane time we condemne not our selves who by our daily sinnes make him to bleed againe afresh Ah let us judge our selves and sit downe and mourne we are they that have added to Christs bonds that have increased his wounds and the pangs of his grieved soule which is now glorified with our renewing lusts and corruptions I shall conclude this use with a prayer that God would fulfill to all our soules that gracious promise Zach. 12.10 That he would poure out the spirit of grace and of supplications upon us and make us to look upon him whom we have pierced and doe pierce daily and mourn as a man mournes for his only Son And be in bitternesse for him as one that is in bitternes for his first-borne I passe on to a second way of Application viz. by way of Instruction Hath Christ and Christ alone raised us 1. Let us hence be instructed Instruction How much the Lord Jesus Christ loved us And here let my soule be drowned in sweetnesse and in sinking cry out O the depth of unfadomable love What tongue what Saint what Angell can speake out this unspeakable love Pray
were Gods people and which he loved but would Moses have done it for a Philistine yet this hath Christ done O love ye the Lord all his Saints 4. Thee that never askt it He was found of them that sought it not Alas mankind lay as well without a tongue to aske as an hand to help themselves and behold Christ pitied them and amongst them thee his love declared from Eternity towards thee had not so much cause in thee as a poore prayer would have amounted to he was not moved by thy sighs and teares but by his owne infinite love 5. Lastly thee that hast still Rebellion in thee Christ said within himselfe when he dyed upon the Crosse Now is my heart-bloud powred out for as vile wretches as any are and for those that I know will requite my bleeding wounds my dying love with new speares and thornes thus he knew that thou wouldst doe in the time of thy unregeneracie yea and after thou shouldst be called too Who lives and sinnes not Now Christian lay these things to thy heart meditate of study out this love and see if thou hast not cause to say My soule and all that is within me my tongue and all that is without me praise the Lord. But O remember I Christian Remember Burnt offering and sacrifice he doth not require but this he requires that thou shouldst doe his will O say Loe I come I am ready to do it But more particularly let me point thee out some particular duties that the Lord requires of thee in a poor answer to his rich Acts of eternall love First hath not he thought his glory too deare to lay aside for a while for thee nor his Word and Truth too dear to pawne for thee not his bloud too deare to spill for thee hath he valued nothing in comparison of thee O doe thou value nothing in an equall ballance with him be willing to deny thy selfe for him who in every thing hath denyed himselfe for thee Thy Lusts cannot be so pleasing to thee as Christs glory was to him Be content to leave them Thy Honour cannot be so great as his was which he left for thee and became ignoble in our eyes Surely when wee saw him we esteemed him despised smitten of God and afflicted Isa 53.4 But it was when hee was wounded for our Transgressions and bruised for our Iniquities when the chastisement of our peace was upon him and that by his stripes we might be healed Thy Riches cannot be greater than his yet remember him O remember the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ who though he was rich yet for your sake became poore that you through his Povertie might be made rich 2 Cor. 7. Thy life cannot be more deare than his yet he valued not his life for thee but powred out his bloud his precious bloud upon the Crosse that through his bloud thou mightest have remission purchased Learne hence Christian a lesson of self-deniall Be content to suffer for him who was content to suffer that he might raise thee value nothing in comparison of him This Lesson had Saint Paul learned Phil. 3. v. 7 8. What things were gaine to me I counted losse for Christ yea doubtlesse and I count all things but losse for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the losse of all things and doe count them but dung that I may win Christ c. ver 10. That I may know him and the power of his Resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death Looke upon nothing in an equall ballance with him 1 Cor. 2.2 I determined not to know any thing amongst you save Jesus Christ and him crucified Secondly hath Christ entred into a Covenant and given his word to his Father and kept his word with his Father for you O then learne of him Vow your selves to him and keep the vowes of your lips Say with David Psal 116. ver 16. Ah Lord truly we are thy servants we are thy servants and the sons of thy handmaids for thou hast loosed our bonds Say with David Psal 40. Mine eares hast thou opened and bored them Say Ah Lord we come to doe thy will Christ kept his word with his Father for you Ah keep your word with him pay him the vowes which you have made Thirdly Hath Christ to raise you taken upon him your flesh O then Take ye upon your selves his spirit He hath become for you the childe of man doe you become for him the children of God Be made partakers of the divine Nature having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust 2 Pet. 1.4 Your Nature was full of imperfection and weaknesse the divine Nature is full of perfection and glory He hath raised you be raised put off your filthy rags and put on change of Raiment Fourthly Hath Christ died that he might raise you from the death of Sinne and from the power of the Second death O then dye to sinne Col. 3.5 Mortifie therefore your members which are upon the earth fornication uncleannesse inordinate affection evill concupiscence and covetousnesse which is idolatry for which things c. The Apostle Saint Paul presseth the great duty of mortification from this very principle Likewise reckon yee also your selves to be dead to sinne but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 6.11 and so on ver 12 13. Let not sinne therefore reigne in your mortall bodies c. Ah throw away the nailes that pierced your Christ Fifthly Did Christ rise from the dead that he might raise you from the death of sinne O then rise to newnesse of life The Apostle Saint Paul presseth this worke of Vivification also from Christs Resurrection Rom. 6. ver 4. We are buried with him by Baptisme into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father euen so we also should walke in newnesse of life and so all along that Chapter Sixthly Hath he ascended that he might raise us O then let us likewise ascend after him setting our affections upon things which are above not upon things which are below Christ who is our treasure is ascended Let our hearts also be where our treasure is Col. 3. ver 1. If then ye be risen with Christ secke those things which are above where Christ sitteth at the right hand of God 7. Lastly Will he yet once againe come and raise you by glorification O then Let Christ in you be the hopes of glory Looke for him he is making ready his chariot He is bowing the Heavens and comming downe He hath prepared a place for his redeemed ones and he is comming Loe he is comming to take them up into the chambers of glory that where he is there they may be also But to summe up all let me only adde 5. A fifth and last use of Consolation To all the Saints and servants of God both touching themselves