justa As to the power of God all things are possible unto God but as to the justice of God nothing is possible but what is just Therefore God having decreed and that most justly to punish sin God could not but punish sin 6. The sixth Proposition is That God being merciful as well as just doth in his infinite Wisdom find out a way how his Justice may be salved and man not perish This is that which the Apostle declares to us Rom. 3.24 25 26. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood To declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus The scope of the Apostle is plainly this To shew that God hath a mind to forgive sin and yet he would be just too therefore that he might be merciful and just both at once God found out a way how he might forgive sin and yet his Justice not be prejudiced Hence was it that God appointed Christ to be a ransom for us that so Christ bearing the punishment that we deserved the Justice of God might be satisfied in what Christ suffered and yet his Mercy might be glorified in remitting the punishment to us Him hath God ordained to be a propitiation through faith in his blood saith the Apostle God remits sin freely as to us and so his mercy is glorified as to us and yet he receives full satisfaction from Christ and so his Justice is glorified in him Thus mercy and truth are met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other Psal 85.10 God having found full satisfaction to his Justice in the blood of Christ there is a sweet reconciliation between those two seeming contrary Attributes the Justice and Mercy of God This is elegantly set forth by one of the Ancients after this manner There is a controversie or a strife as it were between the Justice and the Mercy of God Altercatio est inter Dei justitiam misericordiam but this strife is ended in the death of Christ because in the death of our Saviour Divine Justice is satisfied in all that it did desire Divine Justice saith If Adam dye not I am lost and Mercy on the other hand saith If Adam doth not obtain mercy one way or other I am lost now Christ interposing by his death each of these Attributes have what they do desire Learn from what hath been said the Justice Vse 1 Equity and Righteousness of God in punishing of sin Psal 98.9 With righteousness shall he judge the world and the people with equity Ezek. 18.29 Art not my ways equal are not your ways unequal The ways of God are full of equity when God punisheth sin there is the greatest equity that he should do so there is that demerit in sin and there is that Holiness and Justice in the Nature of God that calls upon him to punish sin Sin is after a sort infinitely evil not that it is simply and in it self so but sin may be said to be infinitely evil with respect to the object as it is contrary to the glory of God who is Bonum infinitum an infinite good God also who is the Governor of the World seeing how much the Sinner had violated the Law of Right and Equity judges it a just and righteous thing that Sinners should undergo punishment therefore no man hath cause to quarrel with God and to think hardly of him for inflicting punishment upon him because of sin for This is the judgment of God that they which do such things are worthy of death Rom. 1.32 This is the judgment of God as much as if it had been said God hath determined this in his infinite Understanding It is the upright and just determination of the most wise God that the Sinner is worthy of death God is not too rigorous in his judgment in this case he judges according to the equity of the cause Rom. 2.2 The judgment of God is according to truth Isa 3.11 Wo unto the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him The reward of his hands shall be given him O this is certain every mans condemnation will be found just at last and it will appear to him that it is most just God condemns no man but for sin and there is that desert in sin for which God may justly condemn men and I conceive that a great part of the torments of the Damned consists in this That they shall have their eyes opened and their understandings inlarged which are now shut and closed up to see that turpitude baseness unworthiness monstrousness unreasonableness that was in sin and that they are justly punished for committing that which was so contrary to the Law of their Creation and to the Principles of their own Beings as they are reasonable creatures For what is more just equal and reasonable than that the creature should honour obey and serve his Creator and take notice of his Laws and yield conformity to them And what more unjust unreasonable and unequal than the creature should cast off Gods Authority and live in contempt of his Maker and defiance of his Laws Now when men shall have their understandings opened to take in this more fully then they will see that God is just in punishing sin and that their condemnation is most just Learn from hence Vse 2 that there is no way for a guilty Soul to appear before God but by flying to the Satisfaction of Christ God is so holy that he cannot but hate sin so just that he cannot but punish sin How then can a poor guilty creature appear before the presence of the Divine Majesty laden with all his sins O it is an easie thing for a secure Sinner that knows neither what the nature of sin is nor what the nature of God is to slight sin But he that once comes to see a little of the turpitude and deformity that is in sin and will summon himself into Gods presence and consider what the Holiness Purity and Justice of Gods Nature is will soon have other thoughts of sin and of his own condition by reason of sin God is of purer eyes than to behold the least iniquity and he will by no means clear the guilty therefore he that hath but a little sight of Gods Holiness and of his infinite Justice and Righteousness will soon cry out with the Prophet I am undone Isa 6.5 And nothing can ease or quiet a poor trembling Soul in this case but flying to the Satisfaction of Christ When a man compares his impurity with Gods infinite Purity and Holiness when he compares his own sinfulness and unworthiness with Gods
of God to man which is together with God eternal that is eternal as God is eternal Where can we place the beginning of this love The Scripture teacheth us expresly that it was before the foundation of the world and therefore consequently before all time and if before all time then it must needs be from Eternity Christ loved us before we had a being yea it was his love that first of all gave us a being and he therefore gave us a being that he might demonstrate and set forth the riches of that grace and love he had in his heart towards us Rom. 9.23 That he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had before prepared unto glory The Lord had prepared glory in his thoughts and purpose for the vessels of mercy from Eternity and he therefore gave them being that he might bestow that glory on them which he had prepared for them from Eternity Christs delights were with the sons of men from Eternity Prov. 8.31 Christs delight from Eternity was to think what he should do for us before ever we had a being even then when he was the object of the Fathers delight as it is in the verse immediately preceding I was daily his delight Even then when the eternal Son who lay in the bosom of the eternal Father was the Fathers delight yet if we may so speak he had another delight that took him up and that was to think what he should do for us It is the property of love not to be pleased in its own happiness only but have desires of the happiness of the person whom it loves Christ was infinitely happy in the Fathers bosom in being his delight but he loved us and therefore was not satisfied with his own happiness but pleased himself with the thoughts of making us happy 2. Christs love is a free love The freeness of Christs love appears in three respects 1. Christs love is free because it was not necessary Christ was not drawn from any necessity of nature to love us as if he could not chuse but love us he might have chosen whether he would have loved us God indeed loves himself necessarily he loves himself and cannot but love himself but God loves the creature freely and arbitrarily he might have chosen whether he would have set his love upon it yea or no Rom. 9.15 I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy Gods will is the reason of his own love to the creature God was under no constraint to shew mercy but he therefore shews mercy because mercy pleases him he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy Gods goodness and perfections were sufficient for himself and if he had needed any thing the creature could have given him nothing for the creature had nothing to give him but what God had first given to it and therefore Gods love was most free God was not necessitated to have made the creature or to have given it a being much less was he necessitated to have given it such a supernatural good as grace and glory was God might have made man and never ordained him to the glory of Heaven he was not necessitated to make man at all to give him so much as a natural being much less was he necessitated to give the happiness and glory of Heaven to him 2. Christs love is free for as much as there is no advantage or profit that comes to him by loving us Rom. 11.35 Who hath first given to him and it shall be given to him again God did not stand in need of any thing out of himself he had alsufficiency and perfection in himself within the compass of his own essence if we may so speak whatsoever is in the creature is first in God after an eminent manner before it is in the creature There is nothing in the effect but is first in the cause therefore the Ancients have this observation All created things are more perfectly in God than they are in themselves even as silver is more perfect in gold than in it self That virtue whereby the creatures were produced was first in God as the cause before it was drawn forth in the creature as the effect and therefore it is well observed by Austin God had a purpose from Eternity to make the creatures but he therefore made them in time that he might shew he did not stand in need of the creatures but had been perfect and happy without them from Eternity 3. Christs love is free for as much as it was without respect of merit in us Rom. 9.11 13. The children being yet unborn neither having done good or evil it was said Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated 2 Tim. 1.9 Who hath saved us and called us not according to our works c. Rom. 8.28 All things work together for good to them who love God to them who are the called according to his purpose It is true the Elect do love God yea but they are first called first loved of God It was not our love to God was the cause of Gods love to us but Gods love to us is the cause of our love to him God first elects and then calls us and then we love him God decrees to give to the Elect both faith and obedience Tit. 1.1.1 Pet. 1.2 therefore his love cannot possibly be grounded upon the foresight of our faith and obedience but is every way most free Sweet are the expressions which Bernard hath Amat Deus nec aliunde hoc habet sed ipse est unde amat ideò vehementiùs quia non amerem tam habet quà m hoc ipse est Bern. God saith he loves neither hath he his love from any thing out of himself but himself is the cause of his own love and therefore his love is most strong because he is not so properly said to have love as himself is love 1. It is a special peculiar love There is a common general love which God bears to all creatures but there is a special peculiar love which God bears to his people God loveth all his creatures with a general love but it is some only he loves with a special and peculiar love God Omnes quidem diligit sed non ad aequale honum Tolet as one observes loves all his creatures indeed but he doth not love them so as to will the same good or to bestow the same equal good upon them all God is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works He feeds the ravens cloaths the lilies gives life breath being to all creatures but then there is a special love which he bears to his people First he gives himself to them Heb. 8.10 This is the covenant I will make with them I will be their God Secondly he gives them his Son Having given us his Son Rom. 8.32 Joh. 3.16 Thirdly he gives Heaven Salvation and eternal life unto them Luk. 12.32 1
yet thus we ought to conceive of it God being love love being his very nature and essence God loves the creatures freely indeed but yet he loves according to the condecency or becomingness of his own goodness What so proper to Love as to love God is love Bonum est sui ipsius diffusivum and therefore he loveth us The more good any thing is the more diffusive it is of it self God is good by nature and essence there is no one good but God Mat. 19.17 Creatures are good by participation but they are not originally essentially good but the Essence of God is goodness therefore God being goodness it self it is most agreeable to his nature to impart and communicate good to the creature 3. The third Consideration The love that is in the Godhead or Divine nature in Christ is the cause of all the love that is to be found in his humane nature The humane nature indeed is the glass in which the perfections of the Divine nature do shine forth but the Godhead is the source and spring of all Gods love is most visible to us in the effects of it that God should be incarnate and become man that the Law should be fulfilled for us that the pains and torments of Hell should be suffered and undergone for us that our nature should be carried into Heaven and filled with glory there these are the effects of Divine love and these effects of love are made visible and conspicuous in the humane nature but the Divine nature is the principal Efficient in all these For mark it it is the Divine nature in the person of the Son which sanctifies the humanity and assumes it into unity of person that carries forth the humanity as to all actions and sufferings so that if these be demonstrations of the highest love for God to dwell in our nature to see the Law fulfilled for us to see the torments and pains of Hell undergone for us to see Divine Justice satisfied for us we ought to behold and contemplate the love of the Divine nature as the first root of these things for it is the Divine nature that is the principal efficient cause of all God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son c. 1 Joh. 3.16 There was the love of the humanity which did concur in Christs laying down his life for us That the world may know that I love the Father and as the Father gave me commandment even so I do Joh. 14.31 Christ as man loved the Father and having received a commandment from the Father he laid down his life for the sheep He was willing even as man out of love to the Father and to the sheep to lay down his life but notwithstanding this the love that was in his Divine nature was the principal therefore doth John say Hereby we perceive the love of God that he laid down his life for us 1 Joh. 3.16 Therefore we ought not to terminate our thoughts or to stick meerly in the consideration of the actions and sufferings of Christ-man but we ought to contemplate the love of the Divine nature in all these things for it was the Godhead was the primary and principal cause Habuit rationem causae minùs principalis ministrae and the humane nature is to be considered as the less principal cause and as the servant to the Divinity So that whatsoever is sweet or amiable in Christ as man consider all his actions and sufferings in the humane nature and whatsoever may make him amiable in that respect we ought to look to the Divine nature as the principal cause and to the humanity as acted by the Divinity the humanity is the Organ of the Divinity in all these things Thus have we passed over the second Consideration there are heights and lengths and depths and breadths in the love of Christ if we consider the love of Christ distinctly as it is to be found in both his natures in his Divine and humane nature 3. I proceed in the third place to speak something of the effects of Christs love As the love of Christ hath heights depths lengths and breadths and all manner of dimensions in it if we consider it in the properties of it and as it is to be found in both his natures so it hath the same dimensions in it if we consider the effects of his love The effects of Christs love are most admirable 1. The first effect of Christs love is his Incarnation O that God would give us an heart to listen to the great Mysteries of God that are contained herein as the weight of these things requires that the Word should be made flesh that God should assume a part of humane nature and become true man here are heights breadths lengths Opus mirabile opus singulare inter omnia super omnia opera sua and depths of love indeed Bernard calls the Incarnation of Christ a wonderful work a singular work among all the rest of Gods works yea above all the rest of his other works The work of Incarnation is the greatest of all the works of God it is a greater work than the creation of Heaven and Earth for God to make all creatures out of nothing this is a work suitable to the Majesty of God but for God to come into the nature of his own creature after he hath made it this is more wonderful Quid potentius quà m conjungere Creatorem creaturam Creator ac Dominus omnium unus voluit esse mortalium qui manens in forma Dei fecit hominem idem in formaservi factus est homo Leo. Non miror miracula mundi miror Deum in utero Virginis What greater Argument of power than to joyn the Creator and the creature in one Phil. 2.7 8. Made in the likeness of men and found in fashion as a man They are melting expressions to any one that weighs them and considers what the meaning of them is For the God of Heaven to be made in the likeness of men and to be found in fashion as a man this will overcome and swallow him up that understands a little what the meaning of that is Heb. 4.15 This work of Christs Incarnation is a stupendious work the greatest work that ever was done the greatest that ever shall be done The glorification of all the Saints in Heaven is not so much as this for the Godhead to dwell personally in our nature This was that made Cyprian to say I do not wonder at the other miracles that are in the world I wonder at this that God should be in the womb of a Virgin that God who is incorporeal should cover himself with the covering of our flesh that he who is invisible should after a sort make himself visible that he who is the immortal God should become a mortal man that he who is infinite and uncircumscribed should take to himself a finite nature these
is not subject to the Law of God neither indeed can be Herein doth the hostility or enmity of the carnal mind discover it self that it cannot be subject to the Law of God The carnal mind always crosses and thwarts the Will of God Let the Law of God forbid such a sin it will not be restrained from it Let the Law of God command such a Duty it will not be brought to the performance of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It is not subjected to the Law of God the carnal mind refuseth to be brought into order The Law of God would set bounds to mens thoughts wills and affections but they will not be kept within those bounds whatsoever the Law saith to the contrary they will think what they have a mind to think covet and desire what they have a mind to covet and desire will what they have a mind to will they will not be kept within those bounds the Law of God hath set for them Now this is that that shews the hostile disposition that is in corrupt nature against God in that the corrupt mind doth always thwart the Law of God The Law of God saith such and such sins are to be avoided such and such Duties are to be performed the carnal mind will take no notice either of the one or the other but thwarts and contradicts the mind and will of God this discovers the natural enmity that is in our hearts against God 2. The natural enmity that is in our hearts discovers it self in this In that naturally men do not only hate the Will of God but they hate God himself Mark the expression 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The carnal mind is enmity against God not only most repugnant to the Law of God it is not subject to the Law of God but it is enmity against God himself Hence it is said that natural men are haters of God Rem 1.30 and in this very Chapter where the Text lyes Joh. 15.24 They have both seen and hated me and my Father You will say Object This is a very severe charge Is it possible that ever any man should hate God God is good the chief good yea goodness it self how is it possible that any man should hate the chief good To this I answer Men do not hate God under that notion precisely as he is good and as he is the chief good but they hate him under another notion they hate him as he is a Law-giver and as he is a Judge they hate him as he is a holy and just God they hate him as his Nature and Will is most directly opposite to the lusts which they love above any thing in the world Hence is it said Peccatum est Deicidium that sin is a kind of God-murder Why so Because the sinner could even wish that God were not in Being that he were removed out of the way because his Will and his Law stand in opposition to his lust This is another thing wherein the enemity that is in the natural mind against God doth discover it self in that men by nature whilst they are unreconciled hate God himself Little do men think that there is this venom and poyson in their natures as to hate God the best and most excellent Being yet we are bound to believe the Word of God before what men think or say of themselves 3. The natural enmity that is in the heart against God is discovered in this In the constant bent and tendency that is in the heart unto evil Col. 1.21 Enemies in your minds by wicked works The mind of a natural man is always set upon evil sometimes it is set upon gross and hainous evils as Murder Adultery Fornication Theft Rapine and the like and when the mind of a natural man is not set upon these grosser evils it is always set upon other evils as Pride Self-love Vain-glory Covetousness and the like The enmity that is in every natural mans mind always discovers it self in one of these ways Either by having his affections let out to grosser sins or else to more spiritual sins Now faith the Apostle we are enemies in our minds by wicked words When the mind is violently set upon those things which are most directly opposite to the Nature and Will of God this is that which doth discover the hostility and enmity that is in us against God Now it concerns us all to be deeply sensible of this enmity that is in our hearts against God For first of all the more sensible we are of this enmity this may be one good means to humble us what cause of confusion should this be to us that we should not only have a will that doth still reluctate against Gods Will against the Divine Will and is most repugnant to it but that we should be enemies to God himself and that we should have a Principle in us that should fight against God and stand in direct opposition to him 2. The more sensible we are of this enmity the more need we shall have of medicinal and healing grace to heal the natural venom and malignity that is in our natures against God Certainly they are much to be pitied Nemini salus concedenda nisi cui divinitùs revelatus fuerit unus Mediator Dei hominum Jesus Christus Aug. who think that moral Vertue is sufficient to bring men to Heaven and that the Heathens by Philosophy and the help of moral Vertue may please God and attain to Salvation This was the Errour of some of the Ancients and some of late have fallen into it But much more true is that of Austin We may not suppose that Salvation is vouchsafed to any man but to him to whom that one Mediator between God and man Jesus Christ is divinely revealed There is no name given under heaven by which we can be saved but the Name of Jesus Christ Acts 4.12 And although some of the Heathens have pretended that they have loved God above all things and some of the corrupter School men have affirmed That men by the power of Nature may love God above all things yet if the matter be diligently inquired into we shall certainly find that which Peter Martyr observed to be most true Sub illa simulata dilectione under that feigned love to God which they pretended unto the greatest hatred did lye hid For those very Heathens who spoke so highly and so seraphically of loving God above all things yet they themselves were found guilty of Idolatry than which nothing can be more contrary to the true love of God But the Divine Oracles will be found to be most true and they tell us That the natural mind is enmity against God and that those that are in the flesh cannot please God therefore it concerns us all to look after medicinal Grace to heal and restore our natures otherwise that natural enmity that is in us will never be removed Vse 2 This should exhort us to
which was That he did not only feel the wonted presence of his Father withdrawn from him but he saw God alienated from him yea he saw his Justice armed against him to revenge upon him the sins of the Elect. O this was more than a thousand deaths Learn from what hath been opened Vse 1 how great a pain the pain of loss is Learn how great a misery it is to be separated from the sight of God This was so grievous to our Saviour that he could not contain himself from that bitter out-cry we heard of before he crys out in the bitterness of his soul My God my God why hast thou forsaken me O if Christ could not bear the want of the sight of God for so short a season and space foâ—â—â— was but for a short space of time this desertion continued with him how wilt thou bear to be separated from God for ever Mark what the sentence is that will be pronounced upon wicked men at the great Day Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire O in those words Depart from me is the very Hell of Hell there is not any thing worse in Hell than this Depart from me Consider also what the Apostle saith 2 Thess 1. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. How canst thou bear the thoughts of being separated from God for ever I often think of the expression I heard from a troubled Soul O said that person I have lost God and must be separated from him for ever O can you think what a misery it is to sustain the loss of God and be separated from him for ever It is true wicked men love not God and care not for his presence and therefore they think it will be no great loss for them to be separated from him whom they do not love But when wicked men shall come to understand that there is no happiness but in the injoyment of God and that the last perfection that their Being was capable of was to injoy him though they love not God yet they love themselves though they love not God yet they love happiness therefore though they think it a little thing to be separated from God now they will not think it a little thing to be separated from happiness at last With thee saith the Psalmist is the fountain of life and in thy light we shall see light Psal 36.9 Being separated from God they are separated from light separated from joy separated from happiness separated from every thing that is good God that is the chief good makes every thing good that is so and what can be good where the chief good is absent therefore this will be matter of eternal torment to lost souls that they are destitute and come short of that happiness which their Beings were capable of Here is comfort to deserted Souls Vse 2 Christ himself was deserted therefore if thou be deserted God dealeth no otherwise with thee than he did with Christ thou mayst be beloved of God and not feel it Christ was so he was beloved of the Father and yet had no present sense and feeling of his love This may be a great comfort and support to holy Souls under the suspension of those comforts and manifestations which sometimes they have felt Christ himself underwent such a suspension therefore such a suspension of Divine comfort may consist with Gods love Thou mayst conclude possibly I am a Hypocrite and therefore God hath forsaken me this is the complaint of some doubting Christians I am a Hypcorite and therefore God hath forsaken me but thou hast no reason so to conclude there was no failure in Christs obedience and yet Christ was forsaken in point of comfort therefore desertion in point of comfort may consist with truth of grace yea with the highest measure of grace so it did in our Saviour It is true there is a root in us of this desertion some sin of ours that oftentimes occasions this desertion It was not so with Christ Christ had no sin of his own for which he was deserted he only bare the guilt of our sins and he was deserted for a time that we might not be deserted for ever But though there be that in us that may occasion desertion yet this is some relief to us that Christ hath undergone desertion though not for any sin of his own as we do and the greatest relief of all is that Christ was deserted that we might not be deserted the face of God was hid from him for a time that so it might not be hid from us for ever Wherefore to conclude this point If thou be one that hast fled for refuge to the hope that is set before us if thou hast come to Christ and believed on him in truth thou needst not fear that thou shalt be deserted of God for ever because Christ hath born desertion for us the Lord may hide his face from thee for a time but he will not hide it for ever because Christ hath suffered this part of the punishment due to us he hath born that absence of Divine comfort which thou deservest to lye under for ever Christ hath suffered dereliction for us The end of the eighth Sermon SERMON IX Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends HAving shewed already how our Saviour underwent the Pain of loss in his spiritual dereliction or desertion it remains that I should shew how it was that he suffered the pain of sense in being made a Curse for us That which Divines call the Pain of sense is a most perfect sense of the wrath of God and all the miseries that do attend it it doth I say In vivo efficaci sensuâ—irae Divinae consist in a quick and lively sense of the wrath of God Now our Saviour in being made a curse for us had this perfect sense of Gods wrath and felt those miseries that do attend it as we shall shew more by and by That Christ was made a curse for us the Scripture is clear the Apostle tells us expresly in that known Text Gal. 3.10 That Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Sin was the inlet of the Curse and the Curse was the punishment of sin When Adam had sinned the Lord saith to him Cursed is the ground for thy sake Gen. 3.17 Now if the ground be accursed for Adams sake Adam himself must needs be much more accursed Quod efficit tale est magis tale for that which makes any other thing to be what it is is much more so in it self If therefore Adam be the cause why the ground is cursed Adam himself must needs be much more accursed This is more fully explained in that sentence of the Law Deut. 27.26 Carsed be he that confirmeth not all the words of the Law to do them Every transgressor of the Law is
the Law hath no more to demand When there is a full payment made there is no more debt can be exacted Christs obedience was full and compleat there remained nothing more for him to suffer Therefore is it said That he hath brought in everlasting righteousness Dan. 9.24 By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 Who was delivered up for our offences and raised again for our justification Rom. 5. ult Christ was delivered up for our offences that is delivered up to death Christ in dying bare the guilt and punishment of our sins but he was raised again for our justification Now if Christ had not satisfied and discharged the debt to the utmost he could not have been raised for our justification for if there had been any part of the punishment not suffered the Law might have exacted part of us but saith the Text Christ was raised again for our justification Therefore it is plain and evident that Christ in dying bare the whole punishment that the Law would have inflicted upon us When the debt is paid the prisoner is let out of prison Christ being our Surety was under an arrest by the Law and by Divine Justice but now Christ our Surety having fully paid the debt Christ is released out of prison having paid the debt which he owed in his sufferings he is raised again for our justification Christs Resurrection was an evidence that our debt was fully paid and discharged by our Surety Hence also is that of our Saviour himself Joh. 16.8 9. The Spirit shall convince the world of sin of righteousness and of judgment Why of righteousness Because I go to the Father Christs Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven was a certain evidence that Christ was a righteous person For if Christ had not fully answered the Law he had never been raised up from the dead and taken up into glory he had been detained and kept in prison still and the reason is plainly that which was intimated before that Christ was not born for himself nor dyed for himself but he was born a common person he was born for us and dyed for us therefore Christ being a common person and our Surety and so transacting our cause the Law would not have been satisfied neither would Divine Justice have been quieted till all that had been undergone that we deserved Therefore when it is said that Christ went to his Father after his suffering and when it is said He was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification it is plain and evident that the Law and Justice had taken their fill of Christ and had nothing more to demand of him The fourteenth Proposition is That Divine Justice being satisfied in what Christ hath suffered God acquits and discharges Believers from the guilt and punishment of their sins Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it is God that justifieth who is he that condemns it is Christ that dyed It is as much as if the Apostle should say A Believer is acquitted and discharged from the guilt of his sins no one can lay any thing to his charge because God hath justified him no one can condemn him because Christ hath born the punishment that he should have born who is he that condemns it is Christ that dyed A Believer is not liable to condemnation because Christ hath been condemned for him and the Law hath sate in Judgment upon Christ and hath arraigned and condemned him now the Law is not wont to punish the same crime twice The Justice of God having punished sin in Christ the Head and Surety of the Elect will not punish sin the second time in Believers themselves It is a good expression of one of the Ancients Caput corpus unus est Christus satisfecit ergo caput pro membris Christus pro visceribus suis Ambros The head and body are but one Christ Christ therefore being the head hath satisfied for his members Christ hath satisfied for Believers who are his own bowels The last Proposition is this That Christs Satisfaction hath merit in it though merit and satisfaction are near akin yet they are distinct notions Satisfaction doth properly signifie the turning away of some evil that is impending and Merit properly respects some good to be procured Now Christ by his Satisfaction doth not only turn away that evil from us that we deserve but he also merits and procures good for us 1. Christ by his Satisfaction turns away evil from us He turns away the wrath of God from us he turns away the curses of the Law and all the effects of Divine wrath Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Hence also is that expression Rom. 11.26 The Redeemer shall come from Zion and turn away ungodliness from Jacob that is he shall turn away the guilt and punishment of sin from Believers he shall turn away all the evils and miseries that sin would bring upon us His name shall be called Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins Mat. 1. But this is not all Christ by his Satisfaction doth not only turn away evil but 2. He procures good for us he procures righteousness and the favour of God the Spirit the grace of the Spirit and eternal life for us The Sufferings of Christ have merit in them to purchase good things for us Hence is that expression of our Saviour in the Ordinance of the Supper This cup is the new Testament in my blood The meaning is that all the good things in the new Covenant all the blessings comprehended in the Covenant of Grace are purchased by the blood of Christ The Covenant of Grace is the Charter in which all good things are contained and all these things are the purchase of the blood of Christ The end of the eleventh Sermon SERMON XII Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends IT remains now that I should come to make some general Application of this great Doctrine of Christs Satisfaction Although there have been some particular Uses of this Doctrine all along in the several branches of it yet it may be meet in the close to annex some general Application as to the whole Doctrine about Christs Satisfaction The first Use shall be an Use of Confutation to confute the Adversaries of this Truth There are two great Adversaries to this Doctrine of Christs Satisfaction 1. The Socinians who deny the Satisfaction of Christ altogether 2. The Papists who bring in other Satisfactions besides that of Christ's 1. The Socinians they are the most professed Adversaries to the Doctrine of Christs Satisfaction they tell us that the sufferings of Christ were only a kind of Martyrdom that Christ dyed to confirm the truth that he had preached also that his sufferings were for an example but they wholly deny that what Christ suffered