satisfie God for us he must present himself before God as our surety in our stead as well as for our good else his obedience had signified nothing to us to this end he was made under the Law Gal. 4.4 comes under the same obligation with us and that as a surety For so he is called Heb. 7.22 Indeed his obedience and sufferings could be exacted from him upon no other account It was not for any thing he had done that he became a curse It was prophesied of him Dan. 9.26 the Messiah shall be cut off but not for himself and beeing dead the Scriptures plainly assert it was for our sins and upon our account So 1 Cor. 15.3 Christ dyed for our sins according to the Scriptures And it 's well observed by our Divines who assert the vicegerency and substitution of Christ in his sufferings that all those Greek particles which we translate for when applied to the sufferings of Christ do note the meritorious deserving procuring cause of those sufferings So you find Heb. 10.12 He offered one Sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for sins 1 Pet. 3.18 Christ once suffered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for sins Rom. 4.25 He was delivered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our offences Matth. 20.28 He gave his life a ransom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for many And there are that confidently affirm this last particle is never used in any other sense in the whole book of God As an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth i. e. one in lieu of another Just as those whom the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men that exchanged lives or gave life for life staking down their own to deliver anothers As Philumene did for Aristides And so the Poet Virgil speaks Si fratrem Pollux alterna morte redemit And indeed this very consideration is that which supports the doctrine of Imputation the imputation of our sins to Christ and the imputation of Christs righteousness unto us For how could our sins be laid on him but as he stood in our stead or his righteousness be imputed to us but as he was our surety performing it in our place So that to deny Christs sufferings in our stead is to loose the corner stone of our Justification and overthrow the very pillar which supports our faith comfort and salvation Indeed if this had not been he would have been the righteous Lord but not the Lord our righteousness as he is stiled Ier. 33.16 So that it is but a vain distinction to say it was for our good but not in our stead For had it not been in our stead we could not have had the good of it Thirdly The internal moving cause of Christs satisfaction for us was his obedience to God and love to us That it was an act of obedience is plain from Phil. 2.8 He became obedient unto death even the death of the cross Now obedience respects a command and such a command Christ received to dye for us as himself tells us Joh. 10.18 I lay down my life of my self I have power to lay it down and power to take it again this commandment have I received of my Father So that it was an act of obedience with respect to God and yet a most free and spontaneous act with respect to himself And that he was moved to it out of pity and love to us himself assures us Gal. 5.2 Christ loved us and gave himself for us an offering and a Sacrifice to God upon this Paul sweetly reflected Gal. 2.20 who loved me and gave himself for me As the external moving cause was our misery so the internal was his own love and pity for us Fourthly The matter of Christs satisfaction was his active and passive obedience to all that the Law of God required I know there are some that doubt whether Christs active obedience have any place here and so whether it be imputed as any part of our righteousness It is confâ—ssed the Scripture most frequently mentions his passive obedience as that which made the attonement and procures our redemption Matth. 26.28 Matth. 20.28 Rom. 3.24 25. alibi but his passive obedience is never mentioned exclusively as the sole cause or matter of satisfaction But in those places where it 's mentioned by it self it 's put for his whole obedience both active and passive by an usual Trope and in other Scriptures it is ascribed to both as Gal. 4.4 he is said to be made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law Now his being made under the Law to this end cannot be restrained to his subjâ—ction to the curse of the Law only but to the commands of it also So Rom. 5.19 As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous It were a manifest injury to this text also to restrain it to the passive obedience of Christ only To be short this twofold obedience of Christ stands opposed to a twofold obligation that fallen man is under the one to do what God requires the other to suffer what he hath threatned for disobedience We owe him active obedience as his creatures and passive obedience as his prisoners Suitably to this double Oblation Christ comes under the Commandment of the Law to fulfil it actively Matth. 3.15 and under the malediction of the Law to satisfie it passively And whereas it is objected by some if he fulfilled the whole Law for us by his active what need then of this passive obedience We reply great need because both these make up that one entire and compleat obedience by which God is satisfied and we justified It 's a good rule of Alsted obedientia Christi est una copulativa The whole obedience of Christ both active and passive make up one intire perfect obedience and therefore there is no reason why one particle either of the one or of the other should be excluded Fifthly the effect and fruit of this his satisfaction is our freedom ransom or deliverance from the wrath and curse due to us for our sins Such was the dignity value and compleatness of Christs satisfaction that in strict Justice it merited our redemption and full deliverence Not only a possibility that we might be redeemed and pardoned but a right whereby we ought to be so As the learned Dr. Twiss judiciously argues If he be made a curse for us we must then be redeemed from the curse according to justice so the Apostle argues Rom. 3.25 26. 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 God might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Iesus Mark the design and end of God in exacting satisfaction from Christ it was to declare his righteousness in
shall utterly Spoil that proud boast that the faith of Christians is out-done by the infidelity of Heathens O Christians yield not the day to Heathens Let all the world see the true greatness heavenliness and excellency of your represented pattern and by true mortification of your corrupt natures enforce an acknowledgement from the world that a greater than Socrates is here He that is really a meek humble patient heavenly Christian wins this glory to his Religion that it can do more than all other principles and rules in the world In nothing were the most accomplished Heathens more defective than in this forgiving of injuries It was a thing they could not understand or if they did could never bring their hearts to it witness that rule of their great Tully It is the first office of Iustice saith he to hurt no man except first provoked by an injury The addition of that exception spoiled his excellent rule But now Christianity teaches and some Christians have attained it to receive evil and return good 1 Cor. 4.12 13. Being reviled we bless being persecuted we suffer it being defamed we intreat This certainly is that meekness wrought in us by the wisdom that is from above Iam. 3.17 This makes a man sit sure in the Consciences of others who with Saul must acknowledge when they see themselves so out-done thou art more righteous than I 1 Sam. 24.16 17. had we been so injured and had such opportunities to revenge them we should never have passed them by as these men did This impresses and stamps the very image of God upon the Creature and makes us like our heavenly Father who doth good to his enemies and sends down showrs of outward blessings upon them that pour out floods of wickedness daily to provoke him Matth. 5.44 45. In a word this Christian temper of spirit gives a man the true possession and enjoyment of himself So that our breasts shall be as the pacifique Sea smooth and pleasant when others are as the raging Sea foaming and casting up mire and dirt Inference 1. Hence we clearly infer that Christian Religion exalted in its power is the greatest friend to the peace and tranquillity of States and Kingdoms Nothing is more opposite to the true Christian spirit than implacable fierceness strife revenge tumults and uproars It teaches men to do good and receive evil to receive evil and return good The wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie and the fruit of Righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace Jam. 3.17 18. The Church is a Dove for meekness Cant. 6.9 When the world grows full of strife Christians then grow weary of the world and sigh out the Psalmists request Oh that I had the wings of a Dove that I might flee away and be at rest Strigelius desired to die that he might be freed ab implacabilibus odiis theologorum from the implacable strifes of contending Divines The rule by which they are to walk is If it be possible as much us lyeth in you live peaceably with all men Dearly beloved avenge not your selves but rather give place unto wrath for it is written vengeance is mine I will repay it saith the Lord Rom. 12.18 19. It is not Religion but Lusts that make the world so unquiet Iam. 4.1 2. Not godliness but wickedness that makes men bite and devour one another One of the first effects of the Gospel is to civilize those places where it comes and settle order and peace among men How great a mistake and evil then is it to cry out when Atheism and irreligion have broken the civil peace this is the fruit of Religion this is the effect of the Gospel Happy would it be if Religion did more obtain in all Nations It is the greatest friend in the world to their tranquillity and prosperity Inference 2. How dangerous a thing is it to abuse and wrong meek and forgiving Christians Their patience and easiness to forgive often invites injury and encourages vile spirits to insult and trample upon them but if men would seriously consider it there 's nothing in the world should more scare and afright them from such practices than this You may abuse and wrong them they must not avenge themselves nor repay evil for evil true but because they do not the Lord will even the Lord to whom they commit the matter and he will do it to purpose except ye repent Be patient therefore Brethren unto the coming of the Lord Jam. 5.7 will ye stand to that Issue Had you rather indeed have to do with God than with men When the Jews put Christ to death he committed himself to him that judgeth Righteously 1 Pet. 2.22 23. And did that people get any thing by that Did not the Lord severely avenge the blood of Christ on them and their Children Yea do not they and their Children groan under the doleful effects of it to this day If God undertakes as he alwaies doth the cause of his abused meek and peaceable people he will be sure to avenge it seven fold more than they could His little finger will be heavier than their loins You will get nothing by that Inference 3. Lastly Let us all imitate our pattern Christ and labour for meek forgiving spirits I shall only propose two inducements to it The honour of Christ and your own peace Two dear things indeed to a Christian. His glory is more than your life and all that you enjoy in this world O do not expose it to the scorn and derision of his enemies Let them not say how is Christ a Lamb when his followers are Lyons How is the Church a Dove that smites and scratches like a bird of prey Consult also the quiet of your own spirits What is life worth without the comfort of life What comfort can you have in all that you do possess in the world as long as you have not the possession of your own souls If your spirits be full of tumult and revenge the spirit of Christ will grow a stranger to you That Dove delights in clean and quiet breasts O then imitate Christ in this excellency also The THIRTY FIRST SERMON JOH XIX XXVII Then saith He to the Disciple Behold thy Mother WE now pass to the consideration of the second memorable and instructive Word of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the Cross contain'd in this Scripture Wherein he hath left us an excellent pattern for the discharge of our relative Dutys It may be well said the Gospel makes the best Husbands and Wives the best Parents and Children the best Masters and Servants in the world seeing it furnishes them with the most excellent precepts and proposes the best patterns Here we have the pattern of Jesus Christ presented to all gratious Children for their imitation teaching them how to acquit
O then exercise this when you have lost that Admonition 2. Secondly Take the right method to recover the sweet light which you have sinned away from your souls Do not go about from one to another complaining nor yet sit down desponding under your burden But First Search diligently after the cause of Gods withdrawment Urge him hard by prayer to tell thee wherefore he contends with thee Iob. 10.2 Say Lord what have I done that so offends thy spirit what evil is it which thou so rebukest I beseech thee shew me the cause of thine anger Have I grieved thy spirit in this thing or in that Was it my neglect of duty or my formality in duties Was I not thankful for the sense of thy love when it was shed abroad in my heart O Lord why is it thus with me Secondly Humble your souls before the Lord for every evil you shall be convinced of Tell him it pierces your hearts that you have so displeased him And that it shall be a caution to you whilst you live never to return again to folly Invite him again to your souls and mourn after the Lord till you have found him If you seek him he will be found of you 2 Chron. 15.2 It may be you shall have a thousand Comforters come about your sad souls in such a time to comfor them This will be to you instead of God and that will repair your loss of Christ. Despise them all and say I am resolved to sit as a Widow till Christ return he or none shall have my love Thirdly Wait on in the use of means till Christ return O be not discouraged Though he tarry wait you for him for Blessed are all they that wait for him The THIRTY FOURTH SERMON JOH XIX XXVIII After this Iesus knowing that all things were now accomplished that the Scriptures might be fulfilled saith I Thirst. IT is as truly as commonly said death is dry Christ found it so when he died When his spirits laboured in the agonies of death then he said I thirst This is the fifth word of Christ upon the Cross spoken a little before he bowed the head and yielded up the Ghost It is only recorded by this Evangelist and there are four things remarkable in this complaint of Christ viz. the person complaining The complaint he made The time when And the reason why he so complained First The person complaining Iesus said I thirst This is a clear evidence that it was no common suffering Great and resolute spirits will not complain for small matters The spirit of a common man will endure much before it utters any complaint Let us therefore see Secondly The affliction or suffering he complains of and that is Thirst. There are two sorts of thirst One natural and proper another spiritual and figurative Christ felt both at this time His soul thirsted in vehement desires and longings to accomplish and finish that great and difficult work he was now about And his body thirsted by reason of those unparalleled agonies it laboured under for the accomplishing hereof But it was the proper natural thirst he here intends when he said I thirst Now this natural thirst of which he complains is the raging of the appetite for humid nourishment arising from the scorching up of the parts of the body for want of moisture And amongst all the pains and afflictions of the body there can scarcely be named a greater and more intolerable one than extream thirst The most mighty and valiant have stooped under it Mighty Sampson after all his conquests and victories complains thus Judg. 15.18 And he was sore athirst and called on the Lord and said thou hast given this great deliverance into the hand of thy servant and now shall I die for thirst and fall into the hands of the uncircumcised Great Darius drank filthy water defiled wâ—th the bodies of the slain to relieve his thirst and protested never any drink was more pleasant to him Hence Isai. 41.17 Thirst is put to express the most afflicted state When the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will hear them i. e. when my people are in extream necessities under any extraordinary pressures and distresses I will be with them to supply and relieve them Thirst causes a most painful compression of the heart when the body like a sponge sucks and draws for moisture and there is none And this may be occasioned either by long abstinence from drink or by the labouring and expence of the spirits under grievous agonies and extream tortures which like a fire within soon scâ—rch up the very radical moisture Now though we find not that Christ tasted a drop of liquor since he sate with the Disciples at the Table after that no more refreshments for him in this world yet that was not the cause of this raging thirst but it is to be ascribed to the extream sufferings which he so long had conflicted with both in his soul and body These preyed upon him and drank up his very spirits Hence came this sad complaint I thirst Thirdly Let us consider the time when he thus complained When all things were now accomplished saith the Text i. e. when all things were even ready to be accomplished in his death A little a very little while before his expiration When the travailing throws of death began to be strong upon him And so it was both a sign of death at hand and of his love to us which was stronger than death that would not complain sooner because he would admit of no relief nor take the lest refreshment till he had done his work Fourthly and Lastly Take notice of the design and end of his complaint That the Scriptures might be fulfilled he saith I thirst i. e. that it might appear for the satisfaction of our faith that whatsoever had been predicted by the Prophets was exactly accâ—mplished even to a circumstance in him Now it was foretold of him Psal. 69.21 They gave me gall for my meat and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink and herein it was verified Hence the Note is DOCT. That such were the Agonies and extream sufferings of our Lord Iesus Christ upon the Cross as drank up his very spirits and made him cry I thirst If I said one should live a thousand years and every day die a thousand times the same death for Christ that he once died for me yet all this would be nothing to the sorrows Christ endured in his death At this time the Bridegroom Christ might have borrowed the word of his Spouse the Church Lam. 1.12 Is it nothing to you all ye that pass by See and behold if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger Here we are to enquire into and consider the extremities and agonies Christ laboured
pleasures and enjoyments of the wicked which feed them for the day of slaughter How little stomach can a man have to those dainties that understands the end and meaning of them Give not sleep therefore to thine eyes Reader till thou have got good evidence that thou art of that number whom Iesus hath delivered from wrath to come Till thou canst say he is a Jesus to thee This may be made out to thy satisfaction three waies First If Iesus have delivered thee from sin the cause of wrath thou maist conclude he hath delivered thee from wrath the effect and fruit of sin Upon this account the sweet name of Iesus was imposed upon him Matth. 1.21 Thou shalt call his name Iesus for he shall save his people from their sins Whilst a man lies under the dominion and guilt of sin he lies exposed to wrath to come and when he is delivered from the guilt and power of sin he is certainly delivered from the danger of this coming wrath Where sin is not imputed wrath is not threatened Secondly If thy soul do set an inestimable value on Iesus Christ and be endeared to him upon the account of that inexpressible grace manifested in this deliverance it 's a good sign thy soul hath a share in it Mark what an Epithite the Saints give Christ upon this account Col. 1.12 13. Giving thanks to the Father who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the Kingdom of his Dear Son Christ is therefore Dear and dear beyond all compare to his saved ones I remember it 's storied of the poor enthralled Grecians that when Titus Flamminius had restored their ancient liberties and proclamation was to be made in the Market place by an Herald They so prest to hear it that the Herald was in great danger of being stifled and prest to death among the people but when the Proclamation was ended there were heard such shouts and joyful acclamations that the very birds of the air fell down astonished with the noise while they continued to cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Saviour a Saviour and all the following night they continued dancing and singing about his Pavilion If such a deliverance so indeared them to Titus How should the great deliverance from wrath to come endear all the Redeemed to love their dear Iesus This is the native effect of mercy on the soul that hath felt it Thirdly To conclude a disposition and readiness of mind to do or endure any thing for Christs sake upon the account of this deliverance from the wrath to come is a good evidence you are so delivered Col. 1.10 11. That we may walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing being fruitful in every good work There 's readiness to do for Christ. Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and long suffering with Ioyfulness There 's a chearful readiness to endure any thing for Christ. And how both these flow from the sence of this great deliverance from wrath the 12. vers will inform you which was but now cited Oh then be serious and assiduous in the resolution of this grand case Till this be resolved nothing can be pleasant to thy Soul End 2. As the Typical blood was shed and sprinkled to deliver from danger so it was shed to make attonement Levit. 4.20 He shall expiate We translate attone the sin The word imports both And the true meaning is that by the blood of the Bullock all whose efficacy stood in its relation to the blood of Christ signified and shadowed by it the people for whom it was shed should be reconciled to God by the expiation and remission of their sins And what was shadowed in this Typical blood was really designed and accomplisht by Jesus Christ in the shedding of his blood Reconciliation of the Elect to God is therefore another of those beautiful births which Christ travailed for So you find it expresly Rom. 5.10 If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son This if is not a word of doubting but argumentation The Apostle supposes it as a known truth or principle yielded by all Christians that the death of Christ was to reconcile the Elect to God And again he affirms it with like clearness Col. 1.20 And having made peace by the blood of his Cross by him to reconcile all things And that this was a main and principal end designed both by the Father and Son in the humiliation of Christ is plain from 2 Cor. 5.18 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself God filled the humanity with grace and authority The Spirit of God was in him to qualifie him The authority of God was in him by Commission to make all he did valid The grace and love of God to mankind was in him and one of the principal effects in which it was manifested was this design upon which he came viz. to reconcile the world to God Upon which ground Christ is called the propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 2.2 Now Reconciliation or attonement is nothing else but the making up of the ancient friendship betwixt God and men which sin had dissolved and so to reduce these enemies into a state of concord and sweet agreement And the means by which this blessed design was effectually compassed was by the death of Christ which made compleat satisfactâ—on to God for the wrong we had done him There was a breach made by sin betwixt God and Angels but that breach is never to be repaired or made up Since as Christ took not on him their nature so he never intended to be a mediator of reconciliation betwixt God and them That will be an Eternal breach But that which Christ designed as the end of his deaâ—h was to reconcile God and man Not the whole species but a certain number whose names were given to Christ. Here I must briefly open First how Christs death Reconciles Secondly why this Reconciliation is brought about by his death rather than any other way Thirdly what are the Articles according to which it 's made And Fourthly what manner of Reconciliation this is First How Christ Reconciles God and men by his death And it must needs be by the satisfaction his Death made to the Justice of God for our sins And so reparation being made the enmity ceases Hence it 's said Isa. 53.5 The chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes are we healed That is as our English Annotators well sense it He was chastized to procure our peace by removal of our sins that set God and us assunder the guilt thereof being discharged with the price of his blood Now this Reconciliation is made and continued betwixt God and us three waies namely by the oblation of Christ which was the price that procured it and so we were virtually or meritoriously reconciled By the application of Christ and his benefits to
say to you of this place You are a people that were born under and bred up with the Gospel It hath been your singular priviledge above many Towns and Parishes in England to enjoy more than 60 years together an able and fruitful Gospel Ministry among you The dews of Heaven lay upon you as it did upon Gideons Fleece when the ground was dry in other places about you You have been richly watered with Gospel showers You with Capernaum have been exalted to Heaven in the means of Grace And it must be owned to your praise that you testified more respect to the Gospel than many other places have done and treated Christs Ambassadors with more civility whilst they prophesied in Sackcloth than some other places did These things are praise worthy in you But all this and much more than this amounts not to that which Jesus Christ expects from you and which in his name I would now perswade you to and oh that I the least and unworthiest of all the Messengers of Christ to you might indeed prevail with all that are Christless among you 1. to answer the long continued calls of God to you by a through and sound Conversion that the long suffering of God may be your salvation and you may not receive all this grace of God in vain O that the damned might never be set a wondering to see a people of your advantages for Heaven sinking as much below many of themselves in misery as you now are above them in means and mercy Dear friends my hearts desire and prayer to God for you is that you may be saved Oh that I knew how to engage this whole Town to Jesus Christ and make fast the marriage knot betwixt him and you albeit after that I should presently go to the place of silence and see man no more with the Inhabitants of the World Ah sirs methinks I see the Lord Jesus laying the merciful hand of an holy violence upon you methinks he calls to you as the Angel to Lot saying arise lest ye be consumed and while he lingred the men laid hold upon his hand the Lord being merciful unto him And they brought him without the City and said escape for thy life stay not in all the plain escape to the Mountain lest thou be consumed Gen. 19.15 How often to allude to this hath Jesus Christ in like manner laid hold upon you in the Preaching of the Gospel and will you not fly for refuge to him Will you rather be consumed than endeavour an escape A beast will not be driven into the fire and will not you be kept out The merciful Lord Jesus by his admirable patience and bounty hath convinced you how loath he is to leave or loose you To this day his arms are stretched forth to gather you and will you not be gathered Alas for my poor neighbours Must so many of them perish at last what shall I do for the daughter of my people Lord by what Arguments shall they be perswaded to be happy what will win them effectually to thy Christ they have many of them escaped the pollutions of the World through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour They are a people that love thine Ordinances they take delight in approaching to God thou hast beautified many of them with lovely and obliging tempers and dispositions Thus far they are come there they stick and beyond this no power but thine can move them O thou to whose hand this work is and must be left put forth thy saving power and reveal thine arm for their salvation thou hast glorified thy name in many among them Lord glorifie it again 2. My next request is that you will all be perswaded whether converted or unconverted to set up all the duties of Religion in your families and govern your Children and Servants as men that must give an account to God for them in the great day O that there were not a prayerless Family in this Town How little will your Tables differ from a manger where beasts feed together if God be not owned and acknowledged there in your eating and drinking And how can you expect blessings should dwell in your Tabernacles if God be not called upon there Say not you want time for it or that your necessities will not allow it for had you been more careful of those duties it 's like you had not been exposed to such necessities besides you can find time to be idle you can waste a part of every day vainly Why could not that time be redeemed for God Moreover you will not deny but the success of all your affairs at home and abroad depends upon the blessing of God and if so think you it is not the right way even to temporal prosperity to engage his presence and blessing with you in whose hand your all is Say not your Children and servants are ignorant of God and therefore you cannot comfortably joyn with them in those duties For the neglect of these duties is the cause of their ignorance and it is not like they will be better till you use Gods means to make them so Besides prayer is a part of natural worship and the vilest among men are bound to pray else the neglect of it were none of their sin O let not a duty upon which so many and great blessings hang fall to the ground upon such silly not to say wicked pretences to shift it off Remember death will shortly break up all your families and disband them and who then think you will have most comfort in beholding their dead The day of account also hastens and then who will have the most comfortable appearing before the just and holy God Set up I beseech you the ancient and comfortable duties of reading the Scriptures singing of Psalms and Prayer in all your dwelling places and do all these conscientiously as men that have to do with God and try the Lord herewith if he will not return in a way of mercy to you and restore even your outward prosperity to you again How ever to be sure far greater encouragements than that lye before you to oblige you to your duties 3. More especially I have a few things to say to you that have attended on the Ministry or are under my oversight in a more particular manner and then I have done And First I cannot but with deep resentments observe to you the goodness of our God yea the riches of his goodness Who freely gave Jesus Christ out of his own bosom for us and hath not withheld his spirit Ordinances and Ministers to reveal and apply him to us Here 's love that wants an Epithete to match it Who engaged my heart upon this transcendent subject in the course of my Ministry among you A subject which Angels study and admire as well as we Who so signally protected and overshadowed our Assembly in those dayes of trouble wherein these truths were delivered to you You then sate down under
Sacrifice he must be such as the Law required pure and spotless Fifthly His sanctifying himself for our sakes speaks the strength of his Love and largeness of his heart to poor sinners thus to set himself wholly and entirely apart for us So that what he did and suffered must all of it have a respect and relation to us He did not when consecrated for us live a moment do an act or speak a word but it had some tendency to promote the great design of our Salvation He was only and wholly and always doing your work when consecrated for your sakes His Incarnation respects you Esa. 9.6 For us a Child is born to us a Son is given And he would never have been the Son of man but to make you the Sons and Daughters of God God would not have come down in the likeness of sinful flesh in the habit of a man but to raise up sinful man into the likeness of God All the miracles he wrought were for you to confirm your Faith When he raised up Lazarus Joh. 11.42 Because of the people which stand by I said it that they might believe that thou hast sent me While he lived on earth he lived as one wholly set apart for us And when he dyed he dyed for us Gal. 3.13 He was made a curse for us When he hanged on that cursed tree he hang'd there in our room and did but fill our place When he was buried he was buried for us For the end of it was to perfume our Graves against we come to lie down in them And when he rose again it was as the Apostle saith for our Iustification Rom. 4.25 When he ascended into glory he protested it was about our business That he went to prepare places for us And if it had not been so he would have told us Ioh. 14.2 And now he is there it is for us that he there lives For he ever lives to make intercession for us Heb. 7.25 And when he shall return again to Judge the world he will come for us too He comes when ever it be to be glorified in his Saints and admired in them that believe 2 Thes. 1.10 He comes to gather his Saints home to himself that where he is there they all may be in Soul and Body with him for ever Thus you see how as his Consecration for us doth speak him set a part for our use so he did wholly bestow himself time life death and all upon us Living and Dying for no other end but to accomplish this great work of Salvation for us Sixthly His sanctifying himself for us plainly speaks the Vicegerency of his death that it was in our room or stead When the Priest Consecrated the Sacrifice it was set apart for the people So it 's said of the scape Goat And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live Goat and confess over him all the iniquities of the Children of Israel and all their transgressions in all their sins puting them upon the head of the Goat And shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the Wilderness Levit. 16.21 Thus Isa. 53.6.7 He stood in our room to bear our burden And as Aaron laid the iniquities of the people upon the Goat so were ours laid on Christ. It was said to him in that day on thee be their Pride their Unbelief their hardness of heart their vain thoughts their earthly mindedness c. Thou art Consecrated for them to be the Sacrifice in their room His death was in our stead as well as for our good And so much his sanctifying himself for us imports Seventhly His sanctifying himself imports the extraordinariness of his Person For it speaks him to be both Priest Sacrifice and Altar all in one A thing unheard of in the world before So that his name might well be called wonderful I sanctifie my self I sanctifie according to both natures My self that is my humane nature which was the Sacrifice upon the Altar of my Divine nature For 't is the Altar that sanctifies the gift As the three offices never met in one Person before so these three things never met in one Priest before The Priests indeed Consecrated the bodies of Beasts for Sacrifice but never offered up their own Souls and Bodies as a whole burnt offering as Christ did And thus you have the import of this phrase I sanctifie my self for their sake Secondly I shall shew you briefly the habitude and respect that all this hath to us For unto us the Scriptures every where refer it So in 1 Cor. 5.7 Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us Eph. 5.2 He loved the Church and gave himself for it See Tit. 2.14 This will be made out by a three fold consideration of Christs Death And First Let it he considered that he was not offered up to God for his own Sins For he was most holy Isa 53.9 No iniquity was found in him Indeed the Priests under the Law offered for themselves as well as the people But Christ did not do so Heb. 7.27 He need not daily as those High-Priests to offer up Sacrifice first for his own Sins and then for the peoples And indeed had he been a sinner what value or efficacy could have been in his Sacrifice He could not have been the Sacrifice but would have needed one Now if Christ were most holy and yet put to death and cruel sufferings either his Death and sufferings must be an act of injustice and cruelty or it must respect others whose persons and cause he sustained in that suffering capacity He could never have suffered or dyed by the Fathers hand had he not been a sinner by imputation And in that respect as Luther speaks he was the greatest of sinners Or as the Prophet Isaiah speaketh all our sins were made to meet upon him Not that he was so intrinsecally but was made so sc. by imputation As is clear from 2 Cor. 5.21 He was made sin for us that had no sin So that hence it 's evident that Christs Death or Sacrifice is wholly a respective or relative thing Secondly It is not to be forgotten here that the Scriptures frequently call the death of Christ a price 1 Cor. 6.20 And a ransom Matth. 20.28 Or counterprice To whom then doth it relate but to them that were and are in bondage and captivity If it were to redeem any it must be captives but Christ himself was never in Captivity He was always in his Fathers bosom as you have heard but we were in cruel bondage and thraldom under the Tyranny of sin and Satan And it 's we only that have the benefit of this ransom Thirdly Either the death of Christ must relate to believers or else he must die in vain As for the Angels those that stood in their integrity needed no Sacrifice and those that fell are totally excluded from any benefit by it He is not a Mediator for them And among men
So that no man can be his own Priest to reconcile himself to God by what he can do or suffer And therefore one that is able by doing and suffering to reconcile him must undertake it or we perish Thus you see plainly and briefly the general nature and necessity of Christs Priesthood From both these several useful Corollarys or practical deductions offer themselves Corollary 1. This shews in the first place the incomparable excellency of the reformed Christian Religion above all other Religions known to or professed in the world What other Religions seek the Christian Religion only finds even a solid foundation for true peace and settlement of conscience While the Iews seek it in vain in the Law the Mahumetan in his external and ridiculous observances the Papist in his own merits the Believer only finds it in the blood of this great sacrifice this and nothing less than this can pacifie a disâ—â—â—â—sed conscience labouring under the weight of its own guilt Conscience demands no less to satisfie it than God demands to satisfie him The grand inquest of conscience is Is God satisfied If he be satisfied I am satisfied Woful is the state of that man that feels the worm of conscience nibling on the most tender part of the soul and hath no relief against it That feels the intollerable scalding wrath of God burning within and hath nothing to cool it Hear me you that slight troubles of conscience that call them fancies and melancholly whimsies if you ever had had but one sick night for sin if you had ever felt that shame fear horror and despair which are the dismal effects of an accusing and condemning conscience you would account it an unspeakable mercy to hear of a way for the discharge of a poor sinner from that guilt You would kiss the feet of that messenger that could bring you tydings of peace You would call him blessed that should direct you to an effectual remedy Now whoever thou art that pinest away in thine iniquities that droopest from day to day under the present wounds and dismal presages of conscience know that thy soul and peace can never meet till thou art perswaded to come to this blood of sprinkling The blood of this sacrifice speaks better things than the blood of Abel The blood of this sacrifice is the blood of God Act. 20.28 invaluably pretious blood 1 Pet. 1.18 one drop of it infinitely excels the blood of all other creatures Heb. 10.4 5 6. Such is the blood that must do thee good Lord I must have such blood saith conscience as is capable of giving thee full satisfaction or it can give me no peace The blood of all the Cattle upon a thousand Hills cannot do this What is the blood of beasts to God The blood of all the men in the world can do nothing in this case What is our polluted blood worth No no it 's the blood of God that must satisfie both thee and me Yea Christs blood is not only the blood of God but it 's blood shed in thy stead and in thy place and room Gal. 3.13 He was made a curse for us And so it becomes sin pardoning blood Heb. 9.22 Eph. 1.7 Col. 1.14 Rom. 3.26 And consequently conscience pacifying and soul quieting blood Col. 1.20 Eph. 2.13 14. Rom. 3.26 O bless God that ever the news of this blood came to thine ears With hands and eyes lifted up to Heaven admire that grace that cast thy lot in a place where this joyful sound rings in the ears of poor sinners What had thy case been if thy mother had brought thee forth in the desarts of Arabia or in the wastes of America or what if thou hadst been nursed up by a Popish father who could have told thee no other remedy when in distress for sin but to go such a pilgrimage to whip and lash thy self to satisfie an angry God! Surely the pure light of the Gospel shining upon this generation is a mercy never to be duly valued never to be enough prized Corollary 2. Hence also be informed of the necessity of faith in order to a state and sense of peace with God For to what purpose is the blood of Christ our sacrifice shed unless it be actually and personally applyed and appropriated by faith You know when the sacrifices under the Law were brought to be slain he that brought it was to put his hand upon the head of his sacrifice and so it was accepted from him to make an attonement Lev. 1.4 Not only to signifie that now it was no more his but Gods the propriety being transferred by a kind of manumission nor yet that he voluntarily gave it to the Lord as his own free act but principally it noted the putting off his sins and the penalty due to him for them upon the head of the sacrifice and so it implyed in it an execration as if he had said upon thy head be the evil So the Learned observe the Ancient Aegyptians were wont expresly to imprecate when they sacrificed If any evil be coming upon us or upon Aegypt let it turn and rest upon this head laying their hand at these words on the sacrifices head And upon that ground saith the Historian none of them would eat of the head of any living creature You must also lay the hand of faith upon Christ your sacrifice not to imprecate but apply and appropriate him to your own souls he having been made a curse for you To this the whole Gospel tends even to perswade sinners to apply Christ and his blood to their own souls To this he invited us Matth. 11.28 Come unto me ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest For this end our sacrifice was lifted up upon the Altar Joh. 3.14 15. As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life The Effects of the Law not only upon the conscience filling it with torments but upon the whole person bringing death upon it are here shadowed out by the stingings of fiery Serpents and Christ by the brazen Serpent which Moses exalted for the Israelites that were stunâ— to look unto And as by looking to it they were healed so by believing or looking to Christ in faith our souls are healed Those that looked not to the Brazen Serpent died infallibly so must all that look not to Jesus our sacrifice by faith It 's true the death of Christ is the meritorious cause of remission but faith is the instrumental applying cause and as Christs blood is necessary in its place so is our faith in its place also For to the actual remission of sin and peace of conscience there must be a co-operation of all the causes of remission and peace As there is the grace and love of God for an efficient and impulsive cause and the death of Christ our
so with me I feel my heart really melted many times when I read the sufferings of Christ. I feel my heart raised and ravished with strange Joys and comforts when I hear the glory of Heaven opened in the Gospel Indeed if it were not so with me I might doubt the root of the matter is wanting But if to my knowledge affection be added A melting heart matched with a knowing head now I may be confident all is well I have often heard Ministers cautioning and warning their people not to rest satisfied with idle and unpractical notions in their understandings but to labour for impressions upon their hearts this I have attained and therefore what danger of me I have often heard it given as the mark of an Hypocrite that he hath light in his head but it sheds not down its influences upon the heart Whereas in those that are sincere it works on their hearts and affections So I find it with me therfore I am in a most safe estate O Soul of all the false signs of grace none more dangerous than those that most resemble true ones And never doth the Devil more surely and incurably destroy than when transformed into an Angel of light What if these meltings of thy heart be but a flower of nature What if thou art more beholding to a good temper of body than a gratious change of spirit for these things Well so it may be Therefore be not secure but fear and watch Possibly if thou wouldst but search thine own heart in this matter thou maist find that any other pathetical moving story will have the like effects upon thee Possibly too thou maist find that notwithstanding all thy raptures and joys at the hearing of Heaven and its glory yet after that pang is over thy heart is habitually earthly and thy conversation is not there For all thou canst mourn at the relations of Christs Sufferings thou art not so affected with sin that was the meritorious cause of the sufferings of Christ as to crucifie one corruption or deny the next temptation or part with any way of sin that is gainful or pleasurable to thee for his sake Why now Reader if it be so with thee what art thou the better fâ—r the fluency of thy affections Dost think in earnest that Christ hath the better thoughts of thee because thou canst shed tears for him when notwithstanding thou every day piercest and woundest him O be not deceived Nay for ought I know thou maist find upon a narrow search that thou puttest thy tears in the room of Christs blood and givest the confidence and dependance of thy soul to them and if so they shall never do thee any good Oh therefore search thy heart Reader be not too confident take not up too easily upon such poor weak grounds as these a soul undoing confidence Always remember the Wheat and Tares râ—semble each other in their first springing up That an Egg is not liker to an Egg than Hypocrisie in some shapes and forms into which it can cast it self is like a genuine work of grace O remember that among the Ten Virgins that is the reformed professors of Religion that have cast off and separated themselves from the worship and defilements of Anti-christ five of them were foolish There be first that shall be last and last that shall be first Matth. 19.30 Great is the deceitfulness of our hearts Ier. 17.9 And many are the subtilties and devices of Satan 2 Cor. 11.3 Many also are the astonishing examples of self deceiving souls recorded in the Word Remember what you lately read of Iudas Great also will be the exactness of the Last Judgement And how confident soever you be that you shall speed well in that day yet still remember that Trial is not yet past Your final Sentence is not yet come from the mouth of your Judge This I speak not to affright and trouble but to excite and warn you The loss of a soul is no small loss and upon such grounds as these they are every day cast away This may suffice to be spoken to the first observation built upon this supposition that it was but a pang of meer natural affection in them But if it were the effect of a better principle the fruit of their Faith as some Judge then I told you the observation from it would be this DOCT. 2. That the believing meditation of what Christ Suffered for us is of great force and efficacy to melt and break the heart It is the Promise Zach. 12.10 They shall look upon me whom they have pierced and mourn for him as one mourneth for his only Son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first born Ponder seriously here the Spring and Motive They shall look upon me It 's the eye of Faith that melts and breaks the heart The effect of such a sight of Christ they shall look and mourn Be in bitterness and sorrow True Repentance is a drop out of the eye of Faith And the measure or degree of that sorrow caused by a believing view of Christ. To express which two of the fullest instances of grief we read of are borrowed That of a tender Father mourning over a dear and only Son That of the people of Israel mourning over Iosiah that peerless Prince in the valley of Megiddo Now to shew you how the believing meditation of Christ and his suffering comes kindly and savingly to break and melt down the gracious heart I shall propound these four considerations of the heart breaking efficacy of Faith eyeing a Crucified Jesus First The very reallizing of Christ and his sufferings by Faith is a most affecting and melting thing Faith is a true Glass that represents all those his sufferings and agonies to the Life It presents them not as a fiction or idle tale but as a true and faithful Narative This saith Faith is a true and faithful saying that Christ was not only cloathed in our flesh He that is over all God blessed for ever the only Lord the Prince of the Kings of the Earth become a man but it is also most certain that in this body of his flesh he grappled with the infinite wrath of God Which fill'd his soul with horror and amazement That the Lord of Life did hang dead upon the Tree That he went as a Lamb to the slaughter And was as a Sheep dumb before the Shearer That he endured all this and more than any finite understanding can comprehend in my room and stead For my sake he there groaned and bled For my Pride Earthliness Lust Unbelief hardness of Heart he endured all this I say to reallize the sufferings of Christ thus is of great power to affect the coldest dullest heart You cannot imagine the difference there is in presenting things as realities with convincing and satisfying evidences and our looking on them as a fiction or uncertainty Secondly But Faith can apply as well as
much more pretious than of Gold that perishes 1 Pet. 1.7 O look inward and you will be quiet Fourthly Look outward and see who stands by and observes your carriage under trouble Are there not many eyes upon you Yea many envious observers round about you It was Davids request Psal. 5.8 Lead me O Lord in thy righteousness because of mine Enemies or as the Hebrew word there might be rendred because of mine observers or watchers There 's many an envious eye upon you To the wicked there can scarcely be an higher gratification and pleasure than to see your carriage under trouble so like their own For hereby they are confirmed in their prejudices against Religion and in their good opinion of themselves These may talk and profess more than we but when they are tryed and put to it it appears plainly enough their Religion enables them to do no more than we do They talk of Heavens glory and their future expectancies but it is but talk for it 's apparent enough their hopes cannot ballance a small affliction with all the happiness they talk of Oh how do you dishonour Christ before his enemies when you make them think all your Religion lies in talking of it Consider who looks on Fifthly Look backward and see if there be nothing behind you that may hush and quiet your impatient Spirits Consult the multitude of experiences past and gone Both your own and others Is this the first straight that ever you were in if so you have reason to be quiet yea to bless God that hath spared you so long when others have had their days fill'd up with sorrow But if you have been in troubles formerly and the Lord hath helped you if you have past through the fire and not been burnt Through the waters and not drowned If God hath stood by you and hitherto helped you O what cause have you to be quiet now and patiently wait for the salvation of God Did he help you then and cannot he do so now Did he give waters and cannot he give bread also Is he the God of the Hills only and not the God of the Vallies also O call to mind the days of old the years of the right hand of the most high These things I recall to my mind therefore have I hope Lam. 3.21 Have you kept no records of past expâ—riences â— How ungrateful then have you been to your God and how injurious to your selves if you have read them over in such a day as this for to that end they were given you O when you shall consider what a God he hath been to you at a pinch How faithfully Iehovah ereth hath stood by you That this is not the first time your hearts and hopes have been Low as well as your condition and yet God hath raised you again surely you will find your present troubles made lighâ— by a glance back upon your past experiences Sixthly Look forward to the end of your troubles yea look to a double end of them the end of their duration and the end of their operation Look ye to the end of their duration and that 's fast by you They shall not be everlasting troubles if you be such as fear the Lord. The God of all Grace who hath call'd us into his eternal glory by Iesus Christ after that ye have suffered a while make you perfect 1 Pet. 5.10 These light afflictions are but for a moment 2 Cor. 4.18 It is no more comparatively with that vast eternity that is before you Alas what are a few days and nights of sorrows when they are past Are they not swallow'd up as a spoonful of water in the vast Ocean But more especially look to the end of their operation What do all these afflictions tend to and effect Do they not work out an exceeding weight of Glory Are you not by them made partakers of his holiness Heb. 12. Is not this all the fruit to take away your sins What and be impatient at this Fret and repine because God is this way perfecting your happiness O ungrateful soul Is this a due requital of that love that disdains not to stoop to so Low an imployment as to scoure and clense your souls that they might be shining vessels of honour to all Eternity O look forward to the end of your troubles The end of their duration and operation Seventhly Look to the right hand and see how you are shamed convinced and silenced by other Christians and it may be such too as never made that profession you have done and yet can not only patiently bear the afflicting hand of God but are blessing praising and admiring God under their troubles whilst you are sinning against and dishonouring him under smaller ones It may be you will find some poor Christians that know not where to have their next bread and yet are speaking of the bounty of their God while you are repining in the midst of plenty Ah if there be any ingenuity in you let this shame you If this will not then Eighthly Look to your left hand and there you shall see a sad sight and what one would think should quiet you There you may see a company of wicked graceless wretches carrying themselves under their troubles but too like your selves What do they more than fret and murmur despond and sink mix sin with their afflictions when the Rod of God is upon them It 's time for thee to leave off when thou seest how near thou art come to them whom thou hopest thou shalt never be ranked and numbred with Reader such considerations as these I am perswaded would be of singular use to thy soul at such a time but above all thine eyeing the great pattern of patience Iesus Christ whose Lamb-like carriage under a trial with which thine is not to be named the same day is here recommended to thee Oh how should this transform thee into a Lamb for meekness also The THIRTIETH SERMON LUK. XXIII XXXIIII Then said Iesus Father forgive them for they know not what they do THE manner in which Christ dyed hath already been opened in the Solitude and Patience in which he dyed The third to wit the Instructiveness of his Death now follows in these seven excellent and weighty sayings which dropt from his blessed Lips upon the Tree whilst his sacred blood dropt on the earth from his wounded hands and feet so that on the Cross he exercised both his Priestly and Prophetical Office together redeeming us by his blood and instructing us by his words These seven words of Christ upon the Cross are his last words with which he breathed out his Soul The last words of a dying man are remarkable the Scripture puts a remark upon them 2 Sam. 23.1 Now these be the last words of David How remarkable then are the last words of Christ These words are seven in number three directed to his Father and four more to those about him Of the former
absolutely and properly forgive sin but God only Mark 2.7 the primary and principal wrong is done to him Psalm 51.4 Against thee thee only i. e. thee mainly or especially I have sinned Hence sins are metonymically called debts debts to God Matth. 6.12 not that we owe them to God or ought to sin against him but as a pecuniary debt obliges him that owes it to the penalty if he satisfie not for it so do our sins And who can discharge the Debtor but the Creditor It 's a gratious act or discharge 1 even I am he that blotteth out thy transgression for mine own name sake Isai. 43.25 And yet sin is not so forgiven as that God expects no satisfaction at all but as expecting none from us because God hath provided a surety for us from whom he is satisfied Eph. 1.7 In whom we have Redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace It 's a gratious discharge from the guilt of sin Guilt is that which pardon properly deals with Guilt is an obligation to punishment Pardon is the dissolving of that obligation Guilt is a chain with which sinners are bound and fettered by the Law pardon is that aqua-fortis that eats it asunder and makes the prisoner a free-man The pardoned soul is a discharged soul. Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay anything to the charge of Gods Elect It 's God that justifieth who shall condemn It 's Christ that died It 's Gods discharge of a believing penitent sinner Infidelity and impenitency are not only sins in themselves but such sins as bind fast all other sins upon the soul. By him all that believe are justified from all things Act. 10.43 So Act. 3.19 Repent therefore that your sins may be blotted out This is the method in which God dispenseth pardon to sinners Lastly It is for Christs sake we are discharged he is the meritorious cause of our remission As God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Eph. 4.32 It 's his blood alone that meritoriously procures our discharge This is a brief and true account of the nature of forgiveness Secondly Now to evince the possibility of forgiveness for such as ignorantly oppose Christ. Let these things be weighed First Why should any poor soul that is now humbled for its enmity to Christ in the daies of ignorance question the possibility of forgiveness when this effect doth not exceed the power of the cause nay when there is more efficacy in the blood of Christ the meritorious cause than is in the effect of it There 's power enough in that blood not only to pardon thy sins but the sins of the whole world were it actually applied 1 Iohn 2.2 There is not only a sufficiency but also a redundancy of merit in that pretious blood Surely then thy enmity to Christ especially before thou knewest him may not look like an unpardonable iniquity in thine eyes Secondly And as this sin exceeds not the power of the meritorious cause of forgiveness so neither is it any where excluded from pardon by any word of God Nay such is the extensiveness of the promise to believing penitents that this case is manifestly included and forgiveness tendered to thee in the promises Isai. 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Many such extensive promises there are in the Scriptures And there is not one parenthesis in all those blessed pages in which this case is excepted Thirdly And it is yet more satisfactory that God hath already actually forgiven such sinners and that which he hath done he may again do Yea therefore he hath done it to some and those eminent for their enmity to Christ that others may be incouraged to hope for the same mercy when they also shall be in the same manner humbled for it Take one famous instance of many it 's that of Paul in 1 Tim. 1.13 16. Who was before a blasphemer a persecutor and injurious but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Iesus Christ might shew forth all long suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to everlasting life It 's no small incouragement to a sick man to hear of some that have been recovered out of the same disease and that prevailing in an higher degree than in himself Fourthly Moreover It is encouraging to consider that when God hath cut off others in the way of their sin he hath hitherto spared thee What speaks this but a purpose of mercy to thy soul Thou shouldst account the long suffering of God thy Salvation 2 Pet. 3.15 Had he smitten thee in the way of thy sin and enmity to Christ what hope had remained But in that he hath not only spared thee but also given thee a heart ingenuously ashamed and humbled for thy evils doth not this speak mercy for thee Surely it looks like a gratious design of love to thy soul. Inference 1. And is there forgivenss with God for such as have been enemies to Christ his truths and people Then certainly there is pardon and mercy for the friends of God who involuntarily fall into sin by the surprisals of temptation and are broken for it as ingenious children for offending a good Father Can any doubt if God have pardon for enemies he hath none for children If he have forgiveness for such as shed the blood of Christ with wicked hands he hath not much more mercy and forgiveness for such as love Christ and are more afflicted for their sin against him than all the other troubles they have in the world Doubt it not but he that receives enemies into his bosom will much more receive and embrace children though offending ones How pensive do the dear children of God sometimes sit after their lapses into sin Will God ever pardon this Will he be reconciled again May I hope his face shall be to me as in former times Pensive soul if thou didst but know the largeness tenderness freeness of that grace which yearns over enemies and hath given forth thousands and ten thousands of pardons to the worst of sinners thou wouldst not sink at that rate Inference 2. Is there pardon with God for enemies how inexcusable then are all they that persist and perish in their enmity to Christ Sure their destruction is of themselves Mercy is offered to them if they will receive it Proclamation is made in the Gospel That if there be any among the enemies of Christ who repent of what they have been and done against him and are now unfeignedly willing to be reconciled upon the word of a King he shall find mercy But God shall wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such a one as goâ—th on still in his trespasses Psal. 68.21 If
been long preparing for it but the suddenness and greatness of the change is amazing to our thoughts For a soul to be now here in the body conversing with men living among sensible objects and within a few moments to be with the Lord. This hour on earth the next in the third heavens Now viewing this world and anon standing among an innumerable company of Angels and the Spirits of the Just made perfect O what a change is this What! but wink and see God! Commend thy soul to Christ and be transferred in the arms of Angels into the invisible world the world of Spirits To live as the Angels of God! To live without eating drinking sleeping To be lifted up from a bed of sickness to a Throne of Glory To leave a sinful troublesom world a sick and pained body and be in a moment perfectly cured and feel thy self perfectly well and free from all troubles and distempers You cannot think what this will be Who can tell what sights what apprehensions what thoughts what frames believing souls have before the bodies they left are removed from the eyes of their dear surviving friends Inference 2. Are believers immediatly with God after their dissolution Where then shall unbelievers be and in what state will they find themselves immediatly after death hath closed their eyes Ah what will the case of them be that go the other way To be pluckt out of house and body from among friends and comforts and thrust into endless miseries into the dark vault of Hell never to see the light of this world any more Never to see a comfortable sight Never to hear a joyful sound Never to know the meaning of rest peace or delight any more O what a change is here To exchange the smiles and honours of men for the frowns and fury of God To be cloathed with flames and drink the pure unmixed wrath of God who was but a few days since cloathed in silks and fill'd with the sweet of the creature how is the state of things altered with thee It was the lamentable cry of poor Adrian when he felt death approaching Oh my poor wandring soul alas whither art thou now going Where must thou lodge this night Thou shalt never jest more never be merry more Your term in your houses and bodies is out and there is another habitation provided for you but 't is a dismal one When a Saint dyes heaven above is as it were moved to receive and entertain him at his coming he is received into everlasting habitations Into the inheritance of the Saints in light When an unbeliever dies we may say of him alluding to Isa. 14.9 Hell from beneath is moved for him to meet him at his coming it stirreth up the dead for him No more sports nor plays no cups of wine nor beds of pleasure The more of these you enjoyed here the more intolerable will this change be to you If Saints are immediately with God others must be immediatly with Satan Inference 3. How little cause have they to fear death who shall be with God so soon after their death Some there are that tremble at the thoughts of death That cannot endure to hear its name mentioned That would rather stoop to any misery here yea to any sin than die because they are afraid of the exchange but you that are interessed in Christ need not do so You can lose nothing by the exchange The words Death Grave and Eternity should have another kind of sound in your ears And make contrary impressions upon your hearts If your earthly Tabernacles cast you out you shall not be found naked You have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens And it is but a step out of this into that O what fair sweet and lovely thoughts should you have of that great and last change But what speak I of your fearlesness of death Your Duty lies much higher than that far Inference 4. If Believers are immediatly with God after their dissolution then it 's their Duty to long for their dissolution And cast many a longing look towards their Graves So did Paul I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ which is far better The advantages of this exchange are unspeakable You have Gold for Brass Wine for Water Substance for shadows solid Glory for very Vanity O if the dust of this earth were but once blown out of your eyes that you might see the divine glory how weary would you be to live How willing to die But then be sure your title to heaven be sound and good Leave not so great a concernment to the last For though it is confessed God may do that in an hour that never was done all your days yet it is not common Which brings us to our Third and Last observation DOCT. 3. That God may though he seldom doth prepare men for glory immediately before their dissolution by death There is one parable and no more that speaks of some that were called at the last hour Matth. 20.9 10. And there is this one instance in the text and no more that gives us an account of a person so called We acknowledge God may do it his grace is his own He may dispense it how and where he pleaseth We must always salve divine prerogative Who shall fix bonds or put limits to free grace but God himself whose it is If he do not ordinarily shew such mercies to dying sinners as indeed it doth not yet it is not because he cannot but because he will not Not because their hearts are so hardned by long custom in sin that his grace cannot break them but because he most justly withholds that grace from them When blessed Mr. Bilney the martyr heard a Minister preaching thus O thou old sinner that hast lain these fifty years rotting in thy sin dost thou think now to be saved That the blood of Christ shall save thee O said Mr. Bilney what preaching of Christ is this If I had heard no other preaching than this what had become of me No no old sinners or young sinners great or small sinners are not to be beaten off from Christ but encouraged to repentance and faith For who knows but the bowels of mercy may yearn at last upon one that hath all along rejected it This thief was as unlikely ever to have received mercy but a few hours before he died as any person in the world could be But surely this is no encouragement to neglect the present seasons of mercy because God may shew mercy hereafter To neglect the ordinary because God sometimes manifests his grace in ways extraordinary Many I know have hardened themselves in ways of sin by this example of mercy But what God did at this time for this man cannot be expected to be done ordinarily for us And the reasons thereof are Reason 1. First Because God hath vouchsafed us the ordinary and standing means of
grace which he had not and therefore we cannot expect such extraordinary and unusual conversions as he had This poor creature never heard in all likelihood one Sermon preached by Christ or any of the Apostles He lived the life of a Highway man and concerned not himself about Religion but we have Christ preached freely and constantly in our Assemblies We have line upon line and precept upon precept And when God affords the ordinary preaching of the Gospel he doth not use to work wonders When Israel was in the Wilderness then God baked their bread in Heaven and clave the Rocks to give them drink but when they came to Canaan where they had the ordinary means of subsistance the manna ceased Reason 2. Secondly Such a conversion as this may not be ordinarily expected by any man because such a time as that will never come again It 's possible if Christ were to die again and thou to be crucified with him thou mightest receive thy conversion in such a miraculous and extraordinary way but Christ dies no more Such a day as that will never come again Mr. Fenner in his excellent discourse upon this point tells us that as this was an extraordinary time Christ being now to be installed in his Kingdom and Crowned with glory and honour so extraordinary things were now done as when Kings are Crowned the Streets are richly hanged the Conduits run with wine great Malefactors are then pardoned for then they shew their munificence and bounty it is the day of the gladness of their hearts But let a man come at another time to the Conduits he shall find no wine but ordinary water there Let a man be in the Goal at another time and he may be hanged yea and hath no reason but to expect and prepare for it What Christ did now for this man was at an extraordinary time Reason 3. Thirdly Such a conversion as this may not ordinarily be expected for as such a time will never come again so there will never be the like reason for such a conversion any more Christ converted him upon the Cross to give an instance of his divine power at that time when it was almost wholy clouded Look as in that day the divinity of Christ brake forth in several miracles as the preternatural eclipse of the Sun The great earthquake the rending of the Rocks and vail of the Temple So in the conversion of this man in such an extraordinary way and all to give evidence of the divinity of Christ and prove him to be the Son of God whom they crucified But that is now sufficiently confirmed and there will be no more occasion for miracles to evidence it Reason 4. Fourthly None hath reason to expect the like conversion that enjoys the ordinary means because though in this convert we have a pattern of what free grace can do yet as Divines pertinently observe it 's a pattern without a promise God hath not added any promise to it that ever he will do so for any other And where we have not a promise to encourage our hope our hope can signifie but little to us Inference 1. Let those that have found mercy in the evening of their life admire the extraordinary grace that therein hath appeared to them O that ever God accept the Bran when Satan hath had the Flour of thy days The forementioned reverend Author tells us of one Marcus Cajus Victorius a very aged man in the primitive times who was converted from Heathenism to Christianity in his old age This man came to Simplicianus a Minister and told him he heartily owned and embraced the Christian faith But neither he nor the Church would trust him for a long time And the reason was the unusualness and strangeness of a conversion at such an age But after he had given them good evidence of the reallity thereof there were acclamations and singing of Psalms the people every where crying Marcus Caâ—us Victorius is become a Christian. This was written for a wonder Oh if God have wrought such wondrous salvations for any of you what cause have you to do more for him than others What to pluck you out of Hell when one foot was in To appear to you at last when so hardned by long custom in sin that one might say can the Ethiopian change his hue or the Leopard his spots O what riches of mercy have appeared to you Inference 2. Let this convince and startle such as even to their gray hairs remain in an unconverted state who are where they were when they first came into the world yea rather farther off by much Bethink your selves ye that are full of days and full of sin whose time is almost done and your great work not yet begun Who have but a few sands more in the upper part of the glass to run down and then your conversion will be impossible Your sun is setting your night is coming the shadows of the evening are stretched out upon you you have one foot in the grave and the other in Hell O think if all sense and tenderness be not withered up as well as natural verdure think with your selves how sad a case you are in God may do wonders but they are not seen every day then they would cease to be wondred at O strive strive while you have a little time and a few helps and means more Strive to get that work accomplished now that was never done yet Defer it no longer you have done so too much already It may be to use Seneca's expression you have been these sixty seventy or eighty years beginning to live about to change your practice but hitherto you still continue the same Do not you see how Satan hath gulled and cheated you with vain purposes till he hath brought you to the very brinks of the grave and Hell O 't is time now to make a stand and pause a little where you are and to what he hath brought you The Lord at last give you an eye to see and an heart to consider Inference 3. Lastly Let this be a call and caution to all young ones to begin with God betime and take heed of delays till the last as so many thousands have done before them to their eternal ruine Now is your time if you desire to be in Christ if you have any sense of the weight and worth of eternal things upon your hearts I know your age is voluptuous and delights not in the serious thoughts of death and eternity You are more inclined to mind your pleasures and leave these grave and serious matters to old age But let me perswade you against that by these considerations First Oh set to the business of Religion now because this is the moulding age Now your hearts are tender and your affections flowing Now is the time when you are most likely to be wrought upon Secondly Now because this is the freest part of your time It is in the morning