the eternal spirit offered up himself without spot to God shall purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.14 Emphatica omnia totidem pene causae quot verba aeternae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per Christum partae saith the worthy Paraeus all things in the Text are Emphatical and there are almost as many causes as words of the eternal redemption obtained by Christ He offered not as the Gentiles to Devils but to God he offered not as the Priest under that Law a Sacrifice distinct from himself but he offered himself the thing offered and the Priest beyond all parallel were one and the same He offered not as the deceiver a corrupt thing Mal. 1.14 but his pure and innocent self in whom there was no spot or blemish He offered up himself not meerly through an human spirit but through a Divine Eternal one through his Divinity which aspired an eternal vigor and fragrancy into his Sacrifice so that it needed not as the legal ones any reiteration for as the Apostle hath it he hath by one offering perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 This is that great Sacrifice more than all other sacrifices which satisfied Justice expiated moral guilt averted the wrath of Heaven and procured an eternal redemption for us Further Christ was not only the substance of the sacrifices but of the High-Priests also He hath the true holy garments the graces of the Spirit the true Vrim and Thummim lights and perfections His girdle is Truth his golden bells pure Doctrine his anointing the Spirit and Power He entred not with the blood of Goats and Calves into the Holy of Holies here below but with his own blood into Heaven there to appear in the presence of God and bear the names of his people upon his heart He is an High-Priest above all high-priests not a meer man but God whose Deity poured out an infinite virtue upon his Sacrifice He was not made an High-Priest only but made such by an oath The Lord sware Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchizedeck Hebr. 7.21 The Aaronical Priesthood was temporary and of less moment but Christs was unchangeable and of far greater moment hence God pawned his Holiness Life Being it self to make it immutable for ever Other high-priests died as men but Christ though he died as a Sacrifice yet as an High-Priest he lives for ever hence the Apostle saith That he was a Priest after the power of an endless life Heb. 7.16 His Deity made him an everliving Priest and transfused an endless life of merit into his Sacrifice He is consecrated for evermore Heb. 7.28 He is a perfect Priest the efficacy of his Sacrifice is perpetual the holy Unction on his head is indeficient and ever running down upon believers This is the great High-Priest the substance of all those under the Law Lastly The truth of Gods Worship is set forth in and by Christ Though the truth and sincerity of Worship were required under the Law though external Worship as well as internal be due under the Gospel yet the truth of Worship was never so excellently set forth as it is in and by Christ This appears in three or four things 1. The matter of Worship is now more free and pure than it was the clog of Ceremonies and ritual observances is now removed Under the Law there was abundance of Corn Ordinances a great number of Sacrifices Circumcisions Washings Purifyings Fringes Festivals Travels to the Temple and distinctions of meats but in and by Christ the yoke is broken the carnal Ordinances cease and all is turned into spirituality Our Sacrifice is to present and consecrate our selves to God which is a service highly reasonable and indeed no other than the right posture of the soul towards him Our Circumcision is in the spirit and a cutting off the corrupt flesh of it Our Washing is that of Regeneration and Reformation Our Purifying is that of Faith which purifies the heart by the Blood and Spirit of Christ apprehended by it Our Fringes are no outward ones those being supplied by the Law in the heart Christ is our Passover the Holy Spirit poured out our Pentecost Our Feast is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to do our duty as one saith To delight in works of Virtue as another hath it There is now no tye to this or that place Omnis locus viro bono templum Every place is a Temple to a good man Every-where we may lift up holy hands to God Nor any distinctions of meat To the pure all things are pure The Levitical uncleanness in beasts did shadow out the moral uncleanness in men Quod Judaei vitabant in pecore id nos vitare oportet in more What the Jews avoided in the beast that we are to avoid in our conversation If there be no discretion of things in us the beast doth not part the hoof if no heavenly rumination it doth not chew the cud An idle person is a fish without fins or scales seldom in motion An earthly man is a creeping thing that goes upon his belly and feeds on dust Thus in and by Christ Religion is refined the load of carnal and ritual observations is cast off and Worship is brought forth in its pure and spiritual glory 2. The mode of Worship is excellently set forth in the Gospel God who is a Spirit must be served as becomes him in spirit and truth There must be a lowliness and humility of mind a reverence and godly fear an elevation and devotional ascension of the soul to God a filial love and obedience to his command a single eye a pure intention at his glory a divine fervour and freedom of spirit in the work a faith in the great Mediator for acceptance a waiting and holy expectancy upon God that he would bless his own Ordinance and irradiate the duty with the light of his countenance It 's true this mode of Worship was known under the Old Testament but it was never so illustriously set forth as by our Saviour Jesus Christ As a Painter saith Theophylact doth not destroy the old lineaments but only make them more glorious and beautiful so did Christ about the Law by his pure discoveries he put a gloss and glory upon the Divine Worship 3. The help to Worship is communicated in and by Jesus Christ The Holy Spirit which first new-frames the heart for pure spiritual Worship and then stirs up and actuates the holy Graces in it is more largely afforded under the Gospel than ever it was before Under the Law there were some dews and droppings of it in the Jewish Church but under the Gospel it is poured out upon all flesh It was a Judaical axiom The Divine Majesty dwells in none without the Land of Israel But after Jesus Christ had by his sweet-smelling Sacrifice purchased the Spirit and in the glory of his Merits had ascended into Heaven he shed forth the Spirit in a
God not to punish them Now here two things may be observed The one is this Obstinacy is not punished for it self for in good it is Constancy and worthy of praise but it is punished because it is in evil Sin is punished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for it self but Obstinacy for the sin only and if sin be punished for it self then every sin must be punished The other is this If Jesus Christ had not come and satisfied for us all sinners would have been impenitent and contumacious the grace of Repentance would never have been given by an unatoned God neither is it now derived to us but through a Mediator Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance Acts 5.31 Hence it appears that without Christ all sin would have been in conjunction with impenitency and consequently necessarily punished But a little more to clear this Necessity I shall lay down some Particulars 1. Man a rational Creature could not be created but he would immediately by the very frame of his Soul be under a Law His Reason by the innate notion of a Deity could not but be bound to know the Supreme Truth His Will by its propension to its proper Object could not but be bound to love the Supreme Goodness The Respects which are in the rational Powers towards their Creator are a Law never to be altered God will no more dissolve them than he will contradict his own work Man cannot loose himself from them which are interwoven with his immortal Faculties As long as God is God the Supreme Truth and Goodness and Man Man an Intellective and Elective Creature It must needs be indispensably just for us to know and love our Creator The differences of Good and Evil are founded in Nature The Image of Righteousness is not a movable thing for then the love of God might be it to day and by a Counter-motion the hatred of him might be such to morrow which is utterly impossible 2. Man by his very Creation being under a Law it could not be otherwise but God must be a Rector and Judg over him He that made must rule him He that put a Law into his Faculties must be his Judg His Rectitude and Justice made him fit to be so Hence that of the Apostle Is God unrighteous who taketh vengeance I speak as a man God forbid for then how shrll God judg the world Rom. 3.5 and 6 As if he had said Unless God cease to be Himself unless his Righteousness and Justice fail He must needs be Judg. 3. God being Rector and Judg He must needs carry himself as becomes one of infinite Rectitude and Justice It is right that sin should be punished And shall not the Judg of all the Earth do right After Man nay all the Race of mankind had for many Ages turned Rebels against God and violated and as much as in them lieth made void his Sacred Laws After they had by the contempt of their sins despised his Majesty and Soveraignty and by the turpitude of them offended his Purity and Holiness should all this pass unpunish'd how black would the Consequence be Would it not be a blot to his Government to nod and let fall the reins of Discipline a slight to his Law to neglect it as a thing ill-contrived or unworthy of a Vindication Would not the great things of the Law appear very small and the horrible Ataxy of sin a minute inconsiderable nothing Must not the divine Attributes of Rectitude and Justice be co-sufferers with that Law upon whose Commands and Comminations their very Image is engraven Would not the face of things look as if the moral Foundations the Differences of good and evil were shaken and destroyed as if all things were indifferent and sin or no sin were all one to the Holy One Which way should his infinite hatred and abhorrence of sin be manifested no more displeasure outwardly appearing at a world of sin than there would at none at all The total managery of things no way demonstrating Sin to be odious or Holiness grateful Obedience failing and there being nothing vicarious no Punishment to supply the room of it How could the order between the Creator and the Creature be preserved or what would become of that moral dependance and subjection which we owe to our Maker Doubtless no defect no jeofail can be in his Sacred Government His just Anger requires that Discipline should be kept Manners corrected and Licentiousness suppressed As an Ancient speaks Man being under a Law Surgimus ad vindictam non quia lasi sumus sed ut disciplina servetur mores corrigantur licentia comprimatur haec est justa ira quae sicut in homine necessaria est ita in Dto à qno ad hominem pervenit exemplum Lact. de Ira Dei. God must needs be Rector and being such He cannot chuse but act like himself in a just decorum to his holy Attributes and Law No blot or irregularity can light upon his Government Sin which makes a breach upon the sacred Order must be reduced in such a punitive way as may bear witness to his Rectitude and Justice There are two things in Sin a Macula a corrupting Spot and a Reatus an obliging Guilt The Spot is such a Turpitude and ill-temper of mind that the Soul in which it is resident and regnant cannot have Happiness the Guilt is such a Chain and strong binder unto Wrath that the Soul to which it adheres cannot have Impunity The Wisdom of God secures and ascertains the first Why should not his Justice secure and ascertain the second seeing God by the Law of his Essence is as much bound to act in congruity to his Justice as to his Wisdom 4. Upon supposal that a Punishment or Satisfaction were not necessary What should those millions of Sacrifices and slain Beasts under the Law mean If the substance the Sacrifice of Christ might have been spared what should the types and shadows do Nay why should the Son of God come and sweat and bleed and dye upon a Cross under Divine Wrath if all this might have been spared God doth not multiply things without cause much less did he make his dear Son the Curse causeless The Apostle tells us That it was not possible that the blood of Bulls and Goats should take away sin Heb. 10.4 But why so if a meer nothing a no-sacrifice might do it He signally distinguishes the blood of Beasts purifies the flesh and takes away Ceremonial Guilt But which is infinitely more the blood of Christ purges the Conscience and takes away real Guilt Heb. 9.13 14. But will not this distinction be altogether vain if no blood at all were requisite to take away guilt Also the Apostle asserts That we are justified by Christs blood Rom. 5.9 But why not without it if a Satisfaction were unnecessary It is very hardly imaginable that the All-wise God should fetch a compass and
require it than ceremonial and if they knew nothing of an Expiating Messiah they sought no further for the expiation of moral guilt than the blood of bulls and goats Now touching the Sacrifices two things are to be noted The one is this there is somewhat in Christ which answers to the Expiatory Sacrifices The sacrifice was to be perfect and without blemish that it might be accepted the blind or broken or maimed or corrupted thing was not to be offered up to God answerably the human nature of Christ which was the great Sacrifice was without spot or guile it was formed by the Holy Spirit and breathed out nothing but sanctity that it might be a pure offering unto God Had there been any blemish in it it could not have been united to the Person of the Word nor offered up as a sacrifice to God for us The Sacrifice pure in it self was substituted in the room of sinful defective men there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the life of a Beast instead of that of a Man Sutably Christ the meek patient immaculate Lamb of God stood in our room he died for us he gave his life a ransom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 instead of many Mat. 20.28 His Person was put in the room of ours and his sufferings too in the room of ours Had he not stood in our stead he could not have been capable either to bear the stroke of penal sufferings or to free us from the same not to bear penal sufferings he being nothing but meer innocency in himself nor to free us from them he being in no conjunction with us The sacrifice being put in the sinners room had sin imputed to it they were to lay their hands upon the head of it Lev. 1.4 a confession of sins was made over the Scape-goat Lev. 16.21 their sins were in a sort transferred upon the sacrifice that it might bear them away Thus it was with Christ he was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 The Lord laid on him the iniquities of us all Isa 53.6 Our guilt as it was fundamentum poenae was imputed to him so far as to render his sufferings penal and as an Ancient hath it he was delictorum susceptor non commissor having no guilt of his own he stood under ours in order to a glorious expiation and abolition of it in his death and satisfaction Sin being charged upon the sacrifice there was destructio rei oblatae a destroying of the thing offered so it was with Christ when our sins were laid upon him with the Corn he was bruised with the Wine and Oyl poured out with the Lamb slain and roasted in the fire of Gods wrath and with the Scape-goat driven into the wilderness of desertion crying out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me His sufferings were very many and great for us The sacrifice being slain its blood did expiate sin an atonement was made remission ensued upon it Thus Christ dying on the cross his blood was expiatory our fault was compensated Justice was satisfied wrath was averted and God appeased and reconciled towards us In these things appears a fair analogy between those ancient sacrifices and Christ the grea Sacrifice The other is this There is that in Christ which infinitely transcends all the legal sacrifices In the sacrifice there was only a brute in perfection but in Christ there was an human nature in perfection an human nature which had the Spirit above measure and was as full of grace as the capacity of a creature could hold there was in his humanity such a beauty and unmatchable perfection of grace as far surpassed the united and accumulated excellencies of all the Angels in Heaven The sacrifice stood and suffered in the room of offenders by constraint and compulsion it was bound with cords to the horns of the Altar but Christ stood and suffered in our room by choice and voluntary sponsion his soul was not snatched away but poured out his life was not meerly taken away but laid down he was under no constraint but that of his own compassion he was tied with no cords but those of his own love In the private sacrifice some particular sin was charged upon it in the publick one the sins of the Jewish Nation were charged upon it But upon Christ were laid the sins of a World sins of vast distances as far remote in place as the quarters of the earth and in time as the morning and evening of the world met all together upon him In the sacrifice there was a meer simple death and the blood was but the blood of a brute but Christs death was not a meer simple one but a death with a sting and a curse in it a death with as much wrath in it as was due to the sin of a world nor was his blood the blood of a brute but the blood of a man nay of God himself and what manner of Sacrifice was this how compensative for sin how satisfactory to Justice how aversive of wrath how impetrative of all good In every respect it was infinitely valuable and sufficient The Sacrifice suo modo did expiate sin it took away civil guilt by freeing the offender from that temporal death which in the strict sanction of the Law was due to him It took away ceremonial guilt by freeing him from those legal impurities which excluded him from the publick Worship hence the Apostle saith That the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean did sanctifie to the purifying of the flesh Heb. 9.13 Thus far went the sacrifice but it could go no further the moral guilt was still unremoved Justice was still unsatisfied the wrath to come was still unaverted God as yet was unreconciled there was somewhat done to the flesh nothing to the conscience somewhat in foro soli in the Jewish Judicature nothing in foro poli in the Court of Heaven to give a full satisfaction to Divine Justice Hence the Apostle saith that those sacrifices though often repeated could not make the comers thereunto perfect Hebr. 10.1 The blood of bulls and goats could not take away sin v. 4. Still there was a conscience of sin and a remembrance of it every year v. 2 3. Hence God reprobated all those sacrifices and would have none of them they were not rejected for the hypocrisie of the offerer as they were Isa 1.12 13 nor comparatively as being in the outward work less than mercy Hos 6.6 But they were rejected as not able to do the great work to expiate sin they were to vanish as Clouds before the Sun as Types before the substance But when Christ gave himself an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour Ephes 5.2 there was a penal total expiation of sin not the flesh but the Conscience was purged not ceremonial but Moral guilt was done away Thus the Apostle comparing his Sacrifice with the legal ones saith The blood of Christ who through
like manner is it with his daily Infirmities these are not indulged but they lie as an heavy burden upon him he wishes for he breaths after Perfection Oh! that there were no remaining Sin no moats of Infirmity But alas it will not be here Aust de Temp. Serm. 45. Concupiscere nolo concupisco saith the Father Innate corruption will be stirring and bubling up in us all that can be done on Earth is to war and fight against it the Triumph the Crown of sinless Perfection can be found no where but in Heaven But to clear this Particular I shall set down two things The one is this A Man who indulges or allows sin in himself cannot while he doth so lead an holy Life he hath no Principles for it no Principle of Repentance he cannot mourn over sin while he joys in it he cannot hate sin while he loves it he cannot forsake sin while he follows after it No Principle of Faith he cannot trust in God's Mercy when he rebels and is in Arms against him he cannot receive the Lord Christ when he hath another Master to rule over him he cannot close in with the precious Promises of the Gospel when he embraces the lying Promises of Sin No Principle of Holy Love he cannot truly love God with an Idol in his Heart he cannot love him and close in with sin his great Enemy he cannot love him and habitually willingly violate his Commands Such an one can have no pure Intention towards God's Will or Glory not towards God's Will he obeys with a salvo or exception he picks and chuses among the Divine Commands he complies only with those Commands which cross not his darling Lust The Jewish Rabbins say He that saith I receive the whole Law except one word only despises the Command of God The same Divine Authority is upon all the Commands and that Obedience which is with the exception of one Command which crosses the indulged Lust is as none at all Nor yet towards God's Glory How can he glorify God who by willful sinning dishonours him or how can he aim at that Glory who aims at the satisfaction of his own Lust or which way can one promote two such contrary ends as that Glory and his own Satisfaction Heaven and Hell Light and Darkness Holiness and Impurity may as soon be reconciled as two such contrary ends can meet together Every indulged Lust is one Idol or other either it is Baal Pride and Lorliness or Ashtaroth Wealth and Riches or Venus carnal and sensual pleasure or Mauzzim Force and earthly Power unless the Idol be put away we cannot serve God in in an holy Life The other thing is this It is of high concern to an holy Life to mortify Sin An holy Man is one in Covenant with God therefore he must maintain war against Sin the Enemy of God Sin is an opposite to God a rebellion against his Sovereignty a contradiction to his Holiness an abuse to his Grace a provocation to his Justice a disparagement to his Glory and how can an holy Man a Friend of God do less than set himself against it that he may kill and utterly destroy it Ye that love the Lord hate evil saith the Psalmist Psal 97.10 The Exhortation is pregnant with excellent Reason If you do indeed love God who is Purity Power Wisdom Excellency it self ye can do no less than hate Sin which is Pollution Weakness Folly and Vileness and if you do hate it you will seek the utter ruine and extirpation of it an holy Man is one in union with Christ and upon that account he must mortify Sin in Christ crucified he hath a pattern of Mortification what was done to his pure Flesh in a way of Expiation must be done to our corrupt Flesh in a way of Mortification The Nails which fastned him to the Cross tell us that our corruption must have such a restraint upon it that it may like one on a Cross be disabled to go forth into those acts of sin which it is propense unto the piercing and letting out his Heart-blood shews us that the Old Man must not only be restrained but pierced that the vital Blood the internal love of sin may be let out of the Heart he was active in his Passion he freely laid down his Life yet violence was done to him in like manner we must freely sacrifice our Lusts we must willingly die to sin yet sin must not die a Natural Death but a violent one it must be stabb'd at the heart and die of its wounds And because it will not die all at once it must by little and little languish away till it give up the Ghost there must be Mortification upon Mortification because sin is long a dying But further we have from Christ not an Examplar of mortification only but a Spirit and Divine Power for the Work while by Faith we converse about the wounds of Christ We have that Spirit from him which mortifies the deeds of the Body Rom. 8.13 That mind of Christ which makes us suffer in the Flesh ceasing from sin That we may no longer live to the Lusts of Men but to the Will of God 1 Pet. 4.1 2. If then the holy Man will live like himself and as becomes a Member of Christ he must by that Vertue and Spirit which he hath from him crucify his Lusts and Corruptions Thus the Apostle They that are Christ's have crucified the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts Gal. 5.24 They ought to crucify them they do crucify them so far that sin can reign no longer they go on crucifying every day more and more that the body of sin may be destroyed Moreover An holy Man hath such a Divine Faith as blasts all the World in comparison of Heavenly things in the Eyes of Faith Earthly Riches are not the true ones those Treasures which glitter so much to Sense are but poor moth-eaten things the World's substance is but a shadow an apparition a thing that is not too low for an immortal Soul to aim at too mean to enrich the inward Man the sensual pleasures which ravish Flesh and Blood are but the vain titillations of the outward Man Momentary things such as perish in the using and die in the embraces leaving nothing behind them but a sting and worm in the Conscience of the poor voluptuary Mundane Glories which take carnal Men so much appear to be but a blast a little popular Air to a Man up among the Stars the whole Earth would be but a small thing and to a Man who by Faith converses in Heaven Earthly Crowns and Scepters are no better Now when Sin which uses to wrap up it self in one piece of the World or other is blasted in its Covers and Dresses of apparent Good when those Pomps and Fancies of the World which usually paint and cover Sin to render it eligible unto Men are discovered by Faith to be but vanities and empty Nothings Sin