his purchase before Believing but when he comes to believe the obstruction is taken away that hindered his application and then he hath a new right not only to but in Christs purchase even as a Person that is Minor or mad may have a right to a great possession but by the law he is secluded from the use of it till he come to majority and have the use of reason and this distinction we have as one of the clauses of the Covenant John 6.39 40. where 1. in the 39. Verse Christ says This is the Fathers will that sent me that of all that he hath given me I should lose nothing but should raise it up again at the last day It 's the Fathers will that Eternal Life be given to as many as are given to Christ on his Satisfaction and Christ hath purchased it to them by his Satisfaction absolute as to the event and therefore they have an accessibleness to it a right to it and cannot but partake of it yet not simply but in the way that he hath laid down And therefore 2ly In the 40. Verse he saith This is the will of him that sent me that every one that seeth the Son and believeth on him may have eternal life by believing they come to the application of that to themselves which they had a legal right to before by Christs death 2. Respect must be had to the Covenant of Grace which is not quite an other thing then the Covenant of Redemption but the making offer of it and the benefits contained in it in the preached Gospel when Christ sends out his Ambassadours to woo and invite Sinners to Christ and to bring them to the application of his Purchase and it is by closing with and receiving of Christs offer that the actual Cure comes and that by Christs stripes our sores are healed Even as when a Child that was Minor becomes Major he comes to have a right to possess the same Lands or Sums of Money by the same Law that gave him a legal or simple right to them before or he comes to have a right in that which before he had a right to So elect Souls that have a right to Christs purchase before believing while they are mad in nature are under the curse and wrath threatned in the word of God for not believing but when they come to believe they come to get an extract from the same word of their right in Christs purchase because the Word says He that believes is past from death to life and shall not come into condemnation and so the same word that did condemn before believing doth now absolve upon a Sinners believing and we come at this absolution by receiving of Christs offer in the Covenant of Grace And if it be asked how comes it that the receiving of Christs free offer in the Covevant of Grace gives a right to Christs purchase we answer It is by vertue of the Covenant of Redemption wherein it is so transacted betwixt God and the Mediator so that there is the offer of the Covenant received and the Covenant it self that concur for making over and deriving a compleat Right to wretched Sinners in Christs purchase Let the 1. Use of this be for your instruction and information which is the end wherefore we have chosen in this way by this short view to give you in a very short sum the marrow of the Gospel And if ye remember these few Questions ye may be in a capacity not only to answer us but through grace to exercise Faith on Christ And we think ye will all readily grant that these who cannot at all answer them should not go to the Communion And therefore that ye may take them with you we shall shortly resume them 1. What condition is man in by nature Answer Under sin and misery and even under the curse of God Or thus every man is a sinner and hath a sinful nature or he is under transgressions and iniquities is naturally loathsome wants peace with God and hath need of healing Let this in the first place sink in your hearts 2. How is man freed from this sinfulness and misery Answer He cannot be free from it till there be a condign satisfaction made to Divine Justice wounding and bruising must be to procure pardon and stripes must be to procure healing and chastisement must be to bring about our peace That word Exod. 34. Who will by no means acquit the guilty would alwayes be remembred and Faith would look to a Saviour for satisfaction 3. Who can satisfie Answer Neither Man nor Angel can do it no penances no prayers nor performances of any meer creature will do it but He only that was wounded and bruised He who by Nature is the Son of God the express Image of the Fathers Person and who in respect of His Humane Nature was born of the Virgin Mary like to us in all things except sin It 's he that satisfies Justice and it 's by no other way that we get pardon and peace with God and Holiness 4. What way doth Christ satisfie Justice and make peace betwixt God and sinners Answer He entered himself in our room and as Cautioner undertook our debt suffered the condign punishmens that was due for our sins and payed the price that we should have payed He in a manner left Heaven and became Man had a mean life in the World drank the Cup of his Fathers Wrath was wounded bruised chastised and died a cursed death whereof his hanging on the Cross was but a sign 5. What benefites come to us by his sufferings Answer Pardon of sin Peace with God and healing The Conscience by his blood is sprinkled from dead works the person absolved reconciled to God made whole and made at last to be without spot or wrinkle or any such thing And this is not as Papists blasphemously speak a putative effect but a most real one 6. Who are made partakers of this pardon peace and healing Answer The Elect have right to it and by believing they make the application therefore it 's said here our and we And we may look upon the Prophet speaking in the name of all the Elect or in name of the believing Elect who on believing are actually healed The Elect then are healed and the way how is by faith making application of Jesus Christ 7. How in Justice can he be condemned that was free of sin and how can we be absolved that were guilty Answer He in Justice was condemned because as our Cautioner he came in our room and undertook to pay our debt And on the same ground we wretched sinners may in his way make application of his purchase because it was on these terms that he undertook the debt that we might be set free And it 's on these terms that it is offered in the Gospel that seing he hath payed for elect sinners they may upon the hearing of the offer close with it But how
will do the turn and this wiil do it most infallibly and most fully as to the procuring of Pardon of Sin and the making of their Peace with God So that by the right making use of this Sacrifice a Sinner may most really expect â—emission of Sins and Peace with God and His Friendship as if Sin had never been For otherwayes Christ could not be called the Sin-offering or an offering for sin If He were not accepted in Room of the Sinner that comes to Him To clear it a little There are Four thingâ— in and about this Sacrifice to make out this and to prove That a Sinner that makes use of this Sacrifice may expect the Pardon of Sin and Peace with God The 1. Is the excellency of His Offering He offered himself As it is Heb. 7.27 and Heb. 10.10.12.14 The Offering up of Himself and of His Blessed Body on the Tree was another sort of Sacrifice then all these Bulls Rams and Goats Offered under the Law that were but Types of Him The 2. Is the excellency of the Person that Offered up this Offering which is in effect the excellency of the Priest As the Sacrifice was excellent beyond all other Sacrifices so also is the Priest above all other Priests Heb. 7.26 Such an high Priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled seperat from sinners A Priest who is the Son and is set over the House as the Heir and though the Humane Nature was the Sacrifice yet as was said before not as abstracted from the Divine Nature the Person being but One and so the Priest Offering commends the Sacrifice Offered and makes that it cannot but be accepted The 3d. is His Willing condescending to be the Sin-offering to Interpose Himself and to become this Sacrifice out of respect to the Honour of God that His Justice might be Vindicated and Satisfied And that thereby access might be made for shewing Mercy to the Heirs of Salvation which exceedingly commends this Sacrifice according to that of John 10.17 Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again No man taketh my life from me but I lay it down of my self and take it again It commends His Sacrifice that He was not constrained to it but did it most Willingly and with Delight It 's true if we look to Him as the Eternal Son of God and the second Person of the blessed Trinity He could not but be Loved of the Father as well before His Incarnation as after but that He sayes Therefore doth my Father love me It is to be understood an account of His Voluntary condescending as Mediator to do His Fathers will and out of respect to His Honour ingadging and according to His ingadgement satisfying His Justice for the Elect And this cannot but commend His Offering That such a glorious Person who was Holy Harmless and Undefiled should out of tenderness to the Honour of God and that the wrong done to it by Sinners might be repaired and out of love to the Elect should condescend to stoup so low as to make Himself a Sin-offering This regard for the Honour of God and Willing condescendencie to Suffer for the Repairing of it is abundantly Valuable and though it be a great Word above the disrespect that Sinners evidenced to the Honour of God by their sinning The 4th is the Covenant which is the ground of this Offering and that whereby it is regulated and the Terms of it It was not an undertaking as a piece of Will-worship but according to the deliberat Counsel and Fore-knowledge of God wherein it was Determined that the Son should become Cautioner and be made lyable for the Debt of the Elect and be an Offering for their Sin by which Freedom from Sin and Wrath should accresce to Elect Sinners and all this being concluded in the Covenant of Redemption His Offering could not but be accepted for us The Lord having condescended on the Articles of that Covenant for this very end This Doctrine is of mighty great and notable concernment to Sinners and were there any such Wakening and Rouring amongst us that Souls were put to say and cry What shal we do to be saved The opening up of the Truth to wit That Christ is a Sin-offering for Sinners and that by His Offering the Atonement is made would be much more acceptable and refreshfull And therefore let this be the 1. Use That though there be nothing imaginable that can be brought before God which will be acceptable to Him as a satisfaction to His Justice yet here there is a Ransome found by the Offering whereof to God a Soul that is lying under challenges for Sin and apprehensions of Wrath may expect absolution This is in effect that which Elihu sayes Job 33. If there be an interpreter one of a thousand to shew unto man his righteousnesse then he is gracious unto him and saith deliver him from going down to the pit I have found a ransome here is the Ransome our Lord Jesus Christ stepping in in Sinners Room and Offering Himself up a Sacrifice to satisfie the Justice of God So that a Sinner in making use of that may come to be in good terms with God and are not these glad Tydings of great joy that an Offering is provided a Ransome payed and a way found out how Sinners lyable to the Curse may expect Freedome It 's no small matter that God hath given this Subject to us to speak of and to you to hear of that the Torturing Anxiety of a Soul driven almost to Dispair may have this for an answer even the Blood of Jesus that blood of sprinkling that purges the conscience from dead works which as it satisfies Justice so it quiets the Conscience of the Sinner that flies unto it and makes right use of it It would become Sinners well to think more of these Glad Tydings and to study to have them alwayes Fresh There are many Parts of the World wherein Men are Sacrificing Beasts some Lambs some Rams some other Beasts And some it may be the First-born of their Bodies for the Sin of their Souls and which is lamentable Sacrificing these things to the Devil on the matter at least and not to God and yet all that does not their turn And not having hard of this Offering they cannot make use of it neither can their Conscienee ever be quiet But our Lord Jesus hath sent these blessed News to us and hath shewed us what is the Sin-offering the Atonement and Propitiatory Sacrifice We need not send our Children through the fire nor bring any other Offering to God to appease His Wrath He hath given us His Son and hath accepted Him for a Sin-offering and hath told us that this shall be as sufficient and satisfying as if we had made the satisfaction our selves here O! here is the wonder even a wonder of wonders Use 2. See here the way how we come to Life by Christ It's imported
the sin offering is appointed it is the same Word that 's here intimating that that Sin-offering was designed to bear their sin They shall lay their hands on the Sin or Sin-offering because the Sacrificed Beast was Typically to have the Peoples sins imputed to it though properly no mans fin is imputed to any but to Christ This is also clear if we compare Psal 40.6 with Heb. 10.5 6. That which in the Psalm is rendered Sin-offering in the Original is Sin but the Apostle Heb. 10. hath it sacrifice for sin and it is the same Word which he hath 2 Cor. 5. ult He was made sin for us that is an offering for sin by which we may see the unwarrantableness of some Mens accounting Christ to be formally a Sinner because He is called Sin and because our Sin is said to be laid on Him which in Scripture Phrase is as much as His being a Sacrifice for sin in the room of Sinners 3. His soul may be taken either simply for He shall be an offering for sin the Soul being often taken for the whole Person or it may be taken more properly to relate to His Sufferings called the travel of his soul Vers 11. however it is the Person the Man Christ Soul and Bodie that is the Sacrifice and more especially His Soul as the Wrath of God was on it and when He suffered His Soul did undergo that Wrath as well as His Back was given to the Smiter and His Cheecks to them that plucked off the Hair 4. There are two Words furder which we would hint at in the Exposition for clearing of Christ's being called an offering for sin 1. We would put a difference between the Offerings and Sacrifices which were for Sin under the Law and this Offering which is applyed to Christ The Apostle sayes Heb. 10. That it was impossible that the blood of bullocks and of goats could take away sin They were not properly Sin-offerings but as they were Types of that Offering which was to come and so when Christ is called an Offering He is differenced from all the Offerings that were offered before Him by Priests on Earth In this That His Offering oâ— Sacrifice takes away Sin by vertue of it self according to the Covenant But these Offerings of of those Priests that were under the Law as is clear Heb. 9.13 Took not away sin by themselves but only in so far as Christ who was Typifyed by them was made use of and from this we may see it clear 1. That it was by the Blood of Christ that the Fathers under the Law had their sin pardoned and that the Pardon of sin was to them an effect of this Offering as well as unto us 2. That all these Sacrifices and Offerings under the Law were Types of this one Offering and not that one Anniversarie Sacrifice only which was offered once a Year by the High Priest which we the rather hint at because both these are by Socinus that enemie of Christ's Satisfaction controverted he aiming thereby to draw Souls from leaâ—ning to this Offering 2. What we speak of Christ's Sacrifice relates to that which He performed on Earth though He be yet a Priest and lives for ever to make intercession for us yet this Offering respects that which He offered while He was here in the World and especially that which He offered on the Cross as it is said Eph. 5.2 He hath loved us and given himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour and Heb. 10.12 This man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sat down on the right hand of God and by His Sacrifice once offered up before He went into the most Holy He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified which is also a Truth controverted by that same enemy Soncinus the clearing of it serves not only to open up the meaning of this place but to let us see the effecacy of Christs Sufferings and the nature of them that in them especially His Offering as it brings Pardon of sin and Peace with God does consist so then the meaning of the place is in short That though our Lord Jesus had no sin yet it pleased God in His Counsell to appoint Him to Suffer and that His Sufferingt should be an Offering for the sin of others More particularly If it be asked what is meaned by this an offering for sin we shall clear it from the Type and 1. It is here supponed that there is sin on the Person and that wrath due for sin is to be removed 2. It is supposed that there is an inability in the Person to remove the sin and yet a necessity to have it removed or else he must suffer 3. There is supposed the interveening or coming of something in the place of that Person that is guilty of sin and lyable to wrath 4. There is supposed the acceptation of that which interveeneth by God the Partie offended and so it presupposeth a Covenant whereby the Lord hath condescended to accept of that offering Take it in the Sin-offering goat the Scape-goat Levit. 16. A vive Type of Christ when He is brought into the Congregation 1. The Priest must put his hands upon him and confess the sins and transgressions of the People over him which signified their acknowledgement of their sins and a lyableness to suffering because of them 2. It supposed their proposing of that Goâ—t as a Sacrifice to bear their sins and to take them on him Therefore it was said The Priest shall put the iniquities of the People upon him 3. The one of these Goats was to be sent away into the Wilderness and the other was to be killed and generally all the Sin-offerings were to be killed So that no Remission of sins was without Blood and they came in the room of the Sinners bearing as it were their sin and their punishment And 4. It is to be an atonement to wit a Typical Atonement by this means the People were to have access to Ecclesiastical Priviledges but they could not purifie the Conscience except Christ were made use of who was the true atonement then as He is now still for sin and by vertue of His Sacrifice according to the Covenant they were to deall for the pardon of the sins born by Him We come now to Observe somethings from the Words and 1. It is supponed here that even the Elect and consequently all others are by their sin lyable to God's Judgement and obnoxious to His wrath there were no need of a Sin-offering if this were not The name that Christ gets here supposes that there was Sin and that there was wrath for Sin lying at the door of all Men since Man fell and brake God's Command all Men are before God like Isaac lying before his Father ready to be killed his Father having his hand stretched out with the knif ready to take away his Life And our Lord Jesus is as the Ram