their love encreased and the party for whom they suffered is thereby rendred the more deere unto them And as it is thus in these naturall relations so also in spirituall we may see it in holy men as in Moses who was a mediator for the Jewes as Christ is for us Moses therein being but Christs Type and shadow and therefore I the rather instance in him He under God had beene the deliverer of the people of Israel out of Egypt with the hazard of his own life had led them in the wildernesse and given them that good Law that was their wisdome in the sight of all the Nations and by his prayers kept off Gods wrath from them And who ever of all those Heroes we read of did so much for any Nation who yet were continually murmuring at him and had like once to have stoned him and yet what he had done for them did so mightily engage his heart and so immoveably point and fixe it unto their good that although God in his wrath against them offered to make of him alone a greater and mightier Nation then they were yet Moses refused that offer the greatest that ever any Sonne of Adam was tempted with and still went on to intercede for them and among other used this very argument to God even the consideration of what he had already done for them as with what great might and power he had brought them out of AEgypt c. thereby to move God to continue his goodnesse unto them so Exod. 32. 11. and elsewhere And this overcame God as you may read in the 14. ver of the fore-named Chap. Yea so set was Moses his heart upon them that he not only refused that former offer which God made him but he made an offer unto God of himselfe to sacrifice his portion in life for their good Rather sayes he blot me out of the book of life So ver 32. And we may observe the like zealous love in holy Paul towards all those converts of his whom in his Epistles he wrote unto towards whom that which so much endeared his affections was the paines the cost the travail the care and the sufferings that hee had had in bringing them unto Christ Thus towards the Galatians how solicitous was he how afraid to lose his labour on them I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain so hee expresseth himselfe Galat. 4. 11. and ver 19. he utters himselfe yet more deepely My little children sayes he of whom I again travaile in birth untill Christ be formed in you He professeth himselfe content to be in travail again for them rather then lose that about which he had beene in travail for them once before Now from both these examples whereof the one was Christs Type and the other the very copy and patern of Christs heart we may raise up our hearts to the perswasion of that love and affection which must needs be in the heart of Christ from that which he hath done and suffered for us First For Moses did Moses ever doe that for that people which Christ hath done and suffered for you He acknowledged that he had not borne that people in his wombe but Christ bare us all and we were the travaile of his soule and for us he endured the birth-throws of death as Peter calls them Acts 2. 24. And then for Paul was Paul crucified for you sayes Paul likewise of himselfe but Christ was and he speakes it the more to enhaunce the love of Christ Or if Paul had beene crucified would or could it have profited us no If therefore Paul was contented to have been in travail again for the Galatians when he feared their falling away then how doth Christs heart worke much more towards sinners he having put in so infinite a stock of sufferings for us already which he is loath to lose and hath so much love to us besides that if we could suppose that otherwise we could not be saved he could be content to be in travail again and to suffer for us afresh But he needed to doe this but once as the Apostle to the Hebrews speaks so perfect was his Priesthood Be assured then that his love was not spent or worne out at his death but encreased by it His love it was that caused him to die and to lay downe his life for his sheep and greater love then this hath no man said himselfe before he did it But now having dyed this must needs cause him from his soul to cleave the more unto them A cause or a person that a man hath suffered much for according to the proportion of his sufferings is ones love and zeale thereunto for these doe lay a strong engagement upon a man because otherwise he loseth the thanks and the honour of all that is already done and past by him Have you suffered so many things in vaine sayes the Apostle to the Galathians Chap. 3. 4. where he makes a motive and an incitement of it that seeing they had endured so much for Christ and the profession of him they would not now lose all for want of doing a little more And doth not the same disposition remaine in Christ especially seeing the hard work is over and dispatcht which he was to doe on earth and that which now remaines for him to doe in heaven is farre more sweet and full of glory and as the reaping in joy of what he had here sowne in teares If his love was so great as to hold out the enduring so much then now when that brunt is over and his love is become a tryed love will it not continue If when tryed in adversity and that is the surest and strongest love and in the greatest adversity that ever was if it then held will it not still doe so in his prosperity much more Did his heart stick to us and by us in the greatest temptation that ever was and will his glorious and prosperous estate take it off or abate his love unto us Certainly no Iesus the same to day yesterday and for ever Heb. 13. 8. When he was in the midst of his paines one for whom he was then a suffering said unto him Lord remember me when thou commest into thy Kingdome and could Christ mind him then as you know he did telling him This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise then surely when Christ came to Paradise he would doe it much more and remember him too by the surest token that ever was and which he can never forget namely the paines which he was then enduring for him He remembers both them and us still as the Prophet speaks of God And if he would have us remember his death till hee comes so to cause our hearts to love him then certainly himselfe doth it in heaven much more No question but he remembers us as he promised to doe that good thiefe now he is in his Kingdome And so much for this second
Justification First It serveth to a double use to support our faith as an evidence to our faith that God is fully satisfied by Christs death his Resurrection may give us full assurance of it Secondly it had and hath an influence into our Justification it selfe yea and as great an influence as his Death had In both these respects it deserves a rather to be put upon it and Paul had them both in his eye when he writ these words So as first if you ask an account of his faith and a reason of his so triumphant assurance hee alledgeth his Resurrection to confirme it Christ is risen Or Secondly if you would have a reason of the thing how it comes to passe that we who are Beleevers cannot be condemned Christ is risen sayes he He alledgeth it as a cause that hath such an influence into Justification it selfe as it makes all sure about it 1. 1. By way of Evidence By way of Evidence Although Christs obedience in his life and his death past do alone afford the whole matter of our Justification and make up the summe of that price paid for us as hath been shewn so as faith may see a fulnesse of worth and merit therein to discharge the debt yet faith hath a comfortable signe and evidence to confirme it selfe in the beliefe of this from Christs Resurrection after his death It may fully satisfie our faith Faith hath a visible signe of it that God is satisfied that God himselfe is satisfied and that he reckons the debt as paid So that our faith may boldly come to God and call for the Bond in as having Christs Resurrection to shew for it that the Debt is discharged And hence the Apostle cryes Victoria over Sin Hell and Death upon occasion of and as the Coronis and conclusion of that his large Discourse about Christs Resurrection 1 Cor. 15. 55 56 57. O death where is thy sting that is Sinne and the power of it for so it followes The sting of death is sinne and O grave where is thy victory Thanks be to God who hath given us victory through Iesus Christ our Lord namely as risen againe for of his Resurrection and of that chiefly had he spoken throughout that Chapter 2. 2. By way of Influence But surely this is not all that it should onely argue our Justification by way of Evidence This alone would not have deserved such a rather to be put upon it if Christs Resurrection had not had some farther reall causall influence into Justification it selfe and been more then simply an evidence of it to our apprehensions Therefore secondly in Justification although the materiale or matter of it be wholly the obedience and death of Christ Though the matter of our Justification be the price of Christs death yet the act of pronouncing us righteous depends on the Resurrection yet the act of pronouncing us righteous by that his obedience which is the formale of Justification doth depend upon Christs Resurrection Ordinarily there hath been no more expressed concerning this dependance then that the Resurrection of Christ justifies by working actuall faith to lay hold upon what Christ hath done in his life and death which is called the applying of it of which more anon But that speech of Paul 1 Cor. 15. 17. seems to import more If Christ be not risen again ye are yet in your sins and your faith is in vaine That is although you could suppose faith to be wrought in you upon the merit of Christs dying yet it would be in vain if Christ were not risen again for your title to Justification it self would be void You were yet in your sins Which is said because his Resurrection was it wherby sins though satisfied for in his death were taken off and they acquited from them Which I take to be the meaning also of that Rom. 4. ult He was delivered for our sins and rose again for our Iustification When the Apostle sayes for our sins he was delivered he means his laying down that which was the price for them a satisfaction for them which his death was And in that sense He dyed for our sins that is his death stands in stead of our death and so satisfies for sin But yet still that upon which the act of Gods justifying us his discharge given us from our sins and whereby he reckoneth us justified that depends upon his Resurrection He rose again for our justification Note that Justification there imports the act of imputation and reckoning us just which he had spoken of in the verses immediately fore-going ver 22 23 24. In a word to the full discharge of a Debt and freeing the Debtour two things are requisite 1. The payment of the debt 2. The tearing or cancelling the Bond or receiving an Acquitance for the freeing of the Debtor Now the Payment was wrought by Christs death and the Acquitance to free from the debt was at and by his Resurrection CHAP. II. For the explanation of both these is shewne how Christ sustained a double relation First of a Surety for us Secondly of a Common person in our stead The difference of these two and the usefulnesse of these two considerations for the explaining all the rest that follows in this whole Discourse NOw the better to explicate both these you must consider how that Christ in almost all that he did for us as the phrase is here and is to be annexed to each particular did stand in a double relation for us unto God 1. Of a Surety bound to pay the debt for us and to save our soules 2. Of a Common person or as an Attorney at Law in our stead And both these as they have a distinct and differing consideration in themselves so those severall considerations of them will conduce to the understanding of those two things fore-mentioned as wayes and arguments to shew how the Resurrection of Christ may support our faith both by way of evidence that the debt is paid and by way of influence that we are thereby acquited and cannot be condemned The notion of his being risen who is our Surety clears the first and that of his rising as a Common person illustrates the other And I shall here a little the largelyer insist upon the explication of these two relations because their consideration will be of use through all the rest that follows to illustrate thereby the influence that his Ascension and Sitting at Gods right hand c. have into our Justification and so I shall carry them along throughout this Discourse 1. 1. To be a Surety what A Surety is one that undertakes and is bound to doe a thing for another As to pay a debt for him or to bring him safe to such or such a place or the like so as when he hath discharged what he undertook and was bound for then the party for whom he undertook is discharged also 2. 2. A Common person what A
you know and ver 12. All are said to have sinned namely in his sinne Yea and according to those words in the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which are added there you may render that sentence and the Originall bears it and it is also varied in the Margent thus In whom all have sinned namely in Adam as in a publique person Their act was included in his because their persons were included in his And 2. 2. Adam a Common person in what beell him for what he did as in death and his condemnation threatned for what befell him for sin that befell them also by the same Law of his being a person representing them Hence ver 12. Death is said to passe upon all men namely for this that Adams sin was considered as theirs as it there follows It is said to passe even as a sentence of death passeth upon a condemned Malefactor And ver 18. Iudgment is said to come by that one mans offence upon all men to condemnation Now in Gen. 2. 17. the threatning was spoken only to Adam as but one man In the day that thou eatest therof thou shalt surely die And Gen. 3. 19. that sentence seems onely to passe upon him alone Vnto dust thou shalt return Yet in threatning Adam God threatned us all and in sentencing Adam to death he sentenced us also The curse reacheth us too Death passed upon all men then and therefore by a just Law Death raigns over all as ver 14. and 17. because Adam was in all this Rom. 5. a Common person representing us and so in our stead and so all this concerns us as truely and as neerly as it did him I say by a just Law for indeed the Scripture upon the equity of this Rule pronounceth a Statute out against all men that they should die Heb. 9. 27. Statutum st It is appointed by a Statute Law that all should die Now if you search for this Statute when and where enacted you will find that the Originall Record and Roll is that in Gen. 3. 9. spoken onely of Adam but holding true of us To dust thou shalt returne Just thus the matter stands in the point of our §. 2. justification and salvation Answerably Christ ordained a Common person both in what he did or was done to him betweene Christ and Elect Beleevers for Adam was herein his Type Christ was considered and appointed of God as a Common person both in what he did and in what was done to him So as by the same Law what he did for us is reckoned or imputed to us as if we our selves had done it and what was done to him tending to our justification and salvation is reckoned as done to us Thus when Christ dyed he dyed as a Common person and God reckoneth that we dyed also When Christ arose he rose as our Head and as a Common person and so then God accounts that we rose also with him And by vertue of that communion which we had with him in all those actions of his it is that now when we are born againe we do all rise both from the guilt of sin and from the power of it even as by vertue of the like communion we had with or being one in Adam we come to be made sinfull when we begin first to exist as men and to be first borne Thus in his death he was considered as a Common person Exemplified by one instance in his dying and God reckoned us dying then and would have us reckon so also So Rom. 6. 10. the Apostle speaking of Christ saith In that he dyed he dyed unto sinne once but in that he liveth he liveth unto God Then ver 11. speaking of us he sayes Likewise reckon you your selves to be dead unto sinne but alive unto God through Iesus Christ our Lord. The meaning whereof is plainly this that whereas regenerate men are for the present in the reality but imperfectly mortified and dead to sinne as considered in themselves and in respect of the work of it as wrought in them yet that being considered in Christ as their Head and a Common person representing them they may 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they may truly by a way of faith reason or reckon themselves wholly dead in and through Jesus Christ our Lord in that he once dyed perfectly unto sin as a Common person representing them So as what yet is wanting in the work of Mortification in their sense and experience of it they may supply by faith from the consideration of Christ their Head even themselves to have dyed when he dyed The Apostle I say would have them by reason conclude or inferre for so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies as Chap. 3. 28. therefore we conclude c. it is the same word from Christs death that they are dead which Conclusion cannot be made unlesse this be one of the Propositions in this Argument That we dyed in Christ when hee dyed and so though in our selves we are not yet wholly dead to sin nor perfectly alive to God yet through Iesus Christ your Lord and Head sayes he reckon your selves so in that as ver 10. he dyed and now lives and you were included in him And indeed this Consideration the Apostle suggests unto our faith both as the greatest encouragement against imperfect mortification begun that yet we may comfort our selves by faith as reckoning our selves wholly dead in Christs death and so may assure our selves we shall one day be perfectly dead in our selves by vertue of it and withall as the strongest argument also motive unto Mortification to endeavour to attain to the highest degree of it which therefore he carryes along in his Discourse throughout that whole Chapter He would have them by faith or spirituall reasoning take in and apprehend themselves long since dead to sin in Christ when he dyed and so should think it the greatest absurdity in the world to sin even the least sinne we being dead long since and that wholly when Christ our Head dyed And how shall we that are dead to sinne live any longer therein And ver 7. He that is dead is free from sinne and how then shall we doe the least service to it Now all this he puts upon Christs dying and our dying then with him ver 6. Knowing this that our old man is crucified with him even when he was crucified that it might be destroyed one day in us fully and perfectly Christs Body representing therein as a publique person the Elect and their body of sin conjunct with them So as thus by faith they are to reason themselves wholly dead to sin in Christ and to use it as a reason and motive to stir up themselves not to yeeld to the least sin I use this expression of being wholly dead because if he had spoken meerly of that imperfect mortification begun in us the argument would not have been a perfect motive against the least sinnes
shew that this his justification and pronouncing him without sin thus done at his Resurrection was done to him as the First-fruits and as to a Common person bearing our persons so in our names From whence wil necessarily follow as the Conclusion of all That the persons of all the elect Beleevers have beene justified before God in Christ as their Head at or from the time of his Resurrection and so that Act of Justification to have beene so firmly past as it cannot be revoked for ever Now this is proved Proved 1. 〈◊〉 the common analogie of the former instances first by the very same reason or respect that he was said to be the first-fruits of them that sleep as representing the rest in his Resurrection which I shewed at large in the former Chap. upon the same ground he is to be so lookt at also in this his Justification pronounced upon him at his Resurrection even as the first-fruits also of them that are justified And so in the same sense by the same reason that we are said to be risen with Christ in his Resurrection we must also be said to be justified with him in this his justification at his Resurrection And indeed In all things which God doth unto us Christ is the first-fruits and God doth them first upon him to enlarge this a little as there is the same reason ground for the one that there is for the other he being a publike person in both so the rule will hold in all other things which God ever doth to us or for us which are common with Christ and were done to him that in them all Christ was the first-fruits and they may be said to have beene done in us or to us yea by us in him and with him Yea what ever God meant to doe for us and in us what ever priviledge or benefit he meant to bestow upon us he did that thing first to Christ and some way bestowed the like on him as a Common person that so it might be by a solemne formall Act ratified and be made sure to be done to us in our persons in due time having first been done to him representing our persons and that by this course taken it might when done to us be effected by vertue of what was first done to him Thus God meaning to sanctifie us Thus in Sanctification Christ first sanctified then we in him he sanctifies Christ first in him as a Common person sanctifying us all For their sakes I sanctifie my selfe that they also may be sanctified through thy truth Iohn 17. 19. He sanctifies the humane nature of Christ personall that he may sanctifie Christ mysticall that is his body and him first as a Common person representing us that so we being virtually and representatively sanctified in him may be sure to be sanctified afterwards in our own persons by means of his sanctification And so in like manner for our sakes he was justified in the Spirit because we were to be justified and so to be justified first in him So in all blessings else and with him as a Common person Now this rule holds in all blessings else bestowed for Paul pronounceth of them all that God hath blessed us with all spirituall blessings in Christ Iesus Ephes 1. 3. which God did so order that as he speaks of ordaining salvation to be by faith Rom. 4. 16. that all those blessings might be sure to all the seed For this formall investiture of estating us into all blessings by such solemne acts done to Christ as our Head and Representer of us makes what he intends to bestow sure before-hand by an irrepealable act and sentence which hath its warrant in all Laws of men as I have shewne and shall anon again urge And secondly 2. Proved by the equity of that in Adams condemnation we were all condemned by the equity of the same Law that in Adam we were all condemned Adam being a Type of him in this by the same Law I say we were all justified in Christ when he was justified else the Type were not therein fulfilled Now the sentence of condemnation was first passed upon Adam alone yet considered as a Common person for us therefore also this Acquitance and Justification was then passed towards Christ alone as a publique person for us Yea in this his being justified Christ much rather a Common person in his being justified then Adam was in his condemnation Christ must much rather be considered as a Common person representing us then Adam was in his condemnation For Christ in his owne person as he had no sinne so he had no need of any justification from sinne nor should ever have been condemned And therefore this must be onely in a respect unto our sins imputed to him and if so then in our stead And so herein he was more purely to be considered as a Common person for us then ever Adam was in his being condemned For Adam besides his standing as a Common person for us was furthermore condemned in his own person but Christ in being justified from sinne could onely be considered as standing for others Thus Rom. 5. 18. Therefore as by the offence of one judgement came upon all men to condemnation even so or in like manner by the righteousnesse of that one man Christ the free gift came upon all men namely in Christ unto justification of life He parallels both with a So only with this difference betweene Adams being a Common person for us and so betweene the ground of our being condemned in him and Christ his being a Common person for us and our Acquitance in him that the condemnation came upon all by a necessary naturall covenant for by such a covenant was Adam appointed a Common person for us but Christ his being appointed thus a Common person for us it was by a free gift of grace and therefore in like manner by a free gift of grace it is that the imputation of that which he did or was done to him is reckoned ours As then in Adam all dyed when he sinned as the Apostle speaks so in Christ were all justified when he was justified For as in his death Christ was a publique person for us and in all that befell him so in his Resurrection and in all that was then done to him and so in this his being then justified And as when he dyed the Iust was put to death for the unjust as Peter speaks so when he rose and was justified the Just that needed no justification was justified for the unjust who else had been condemned and so we were then justified with him CAP. VI. How our faith may raise from hence just matter of Triumph about our Justification An explication how we are justified by faith although justified in Christ at his Resurrection ANd hereupon is grounded this Triumph of Faith here from Christs Resurrection Who shall condemne It is Christ that is risen The
the present but imperfectly mortified in our selves yet when corruptions arise the Apostle bids us help our selves against them by faith reasoning our selves to stand wholly dead to sin when Christ dyed and so to conclude from thence that we shall one day be fully dead to sin because we then did perfectly dye in Christ unto it which kinde of reasoning also God would have us use as a motive and of all motives that are in the Gospell it is the strongest against any corruption when as it ariseth Shall I that am dead to sin in Christ and so am freed from it shall I live any longer therein Ver. 2. Now as God would have our faith make this use of our Communion with Christ in his death in point of sanctification just so when guilt of sin ariseth in thy conscience to accuse or threaten condemnation reason thou thy selfe as the Apostles word is in that other case or reckon thy selfe as our translation hath it justified in Christ in his Justification which was done at his Resurrection Yea and seeing God would have thee use thy Communion with Christ in his Death as an argument to move thee to mortifie sin bidding thee to reckon thy self dead to sin in Christ doe thou desire him in like manner to reckon thee as justified at Christs Resurrection for the ground of both is the same and return that as an argument to him to move him to justifie thee And this is that answer of a good conscience which Peter speaks of this is the meaning of Pauls challenge Who shall condemne Christ is risen And should thy heart object and say But I know not whether I was one of those that God reckoned justified with Christ when he arose Then go thou to God and aske him boldly whether he did not doe this for thee and whether thou wert not one of them intended by him put God to it and God will by vertue of Christs Resurrection for thee even himselfe Answer thy faith this question ere thou art aware He will not deny it And to secure thee the more know that however Christ will bee sure to look to that for thee so as that thou having been then intended as if thy heart be drawne to give it self up to Christ thou wert shalt never be condmned SECT IV. FAITH supported by Christs ASCENSION AND Sitting at Gods right hand ROM 8. 34. Who is he that condemneth It is Christ who is even at the right hand of God CHAP. I. A Connexion of this third Head with the two former Shewing how it affords a farther degree of Triumph Two things involved in it 1. Christs Ascension 2. Christs power and authority in heaven I Come next to this third great Pillar and support of Faith Christs Being at Gods right hand and to shew how the view and consideration hereof may strengthen faith seeking justification and pardon of sinne Who is he that condemneth Christ is even at Gods right hand In the opening of which I shall keep to the begun method both by shewing how Iustification it selfe depends upon this and the evidence thereof to us both which the Apostle had here in his eye and from both which our faith may derive comfort and assurance And I meane to keep punctually to the matter of Iustification onely as in the former These two latter that remain here in the Text Christs sitting at Gods right hand and his interceding for us are brought in here by the Apostle as those which have a redundant force and prevalencie in them for the non-condemnation of the Elect that although the two former abundantly served to secure it yet these two added to the former do make the triumph of faith more compleat and full and us more then Conquerours as it after follows Nor doth this place alone make mention of Christs sitting at Gods right hand which I now am first to handle in this its relation and influence into our Iustification the assurance of faith about it but you have it to the same end use and purpose alleadged by that other great Apostle 1. Pet. 3. from the 18. to the 22. And if the scopes of these two Apostles in both places be compared they are the same Here the Resurrection of Christ and his sitting at Gods right hand are brought in as the ground of this bold challenge triumph of faith and there is Peter is mentioned the Answer or Plea of a good conscience in a beleever justified which it puts into the Court and opposeth against all condemning guilts so it is called ver 21. The Apostle alleadging the Resurrection of Iesus Christ as one ground of it the answer of a good conscience by the Resurrection of Iesus Christ And then further to back and strengthen this Plea or Answer of a good conscience the Apostle puts his Ascension and sitting at Gods right hand into the Bill as further grounds confirming it so it follows who is gone into Heaven and is at the right hand of God Angells and Authorities and Powers being made subject to him All which the Apostle here expresseth in one word as enough to carrie it that Christ is even at Gods right hand The soule hath a sufficient answer against condemnation in Christs death and Resurrection full enough though it should stop there yea therein can faith triumph though it went no further for it can shew a full satisfaction given in his death and that accepted by God for us and Christ acquited and we in him Therefore faith you see comes to a rather there But then let it go on to consider Jesus sitting at Gods right hand and making intercession for us and then faith will triumph and insult over all accusers be more then a Conqueror then it comes not to a rather onely as here but to a much more shall we be saved by his life thus Rom. 5. 10. And the meaning thereof is that if his death had power to pay all our debts and justifie us at first then much more hath his life this power So that his death is but the ground and foundation of our faith herein and the lowest step of this ladder but these other are the top full triumph of faith therein And our spirits should rise as the Apostle herein riseth Faith upon these wings may not onely fly above the Gun-shot of all accusations and condemners but even cleane out of their sight and so far above all such thoughts fears as it may reach to a security that sins are forgotten and shall be remembred no more What joy was there in the Disciples when they saw Christ risen Ioh. 20. Therefore in the Primitive times it was used as a voice of joy and to this day the Grecian Christians s entertain each other at that time of the year with these words The Lord is risen your Surety is out of Prison fear not But as Christ said in another case so say I what will you say if you see your Surety ascended
that latter namely the use of such a skill is not so directly the drift of this Treatise I having reserved that part if God assist me and give leisure and this find acceptance unto another about the acts of justifying Faith wherein this art now mentioned is to be the maine scope That which I have here endeavoured is to set forth to all sorts of beleevers whether they have assurance or not Christ as he is the Object of our faith as justifying and as the cause of justification to us and so I send forth this as a premise and preparatory to that other And to that purpose I have run over some few Articles of our Faith or Creede as I found them put together in one bundle by the great Apostle namely Christ in his Death Resurrection Ascension Sitting at Gods right hand and Intercession and have handled these no further then as in all these he is made Justification unto us therin having punctually kept unto the Apostles scope By all which you may in the mean time see what abundant provision God hath laid up in Christ in the point of Justification for all sorts of beleevers to live upon Every thing in Christ whatsoever he was or whatsoever he did with a joynt voice speaking justification unto us You may see also that God hath in Christ justified us over and over and thereby come to discerne what little reason you have to suffer your hearts to be carried aside to other comforters and so be spoiled and bereft of these more immediately prepared and laid up for us in Christ himselfe To have handled all those considerations which his obedience unto death affords unto the justification of a beleever and his comfort therein in this small tractate would have made that part too disproportioned to the rest it alone deserves will require a distinct Tract which therefore I have cast into another method and so in this Treatise have toucht only upon what may for the present be sufficient to furnish that part to keep company with its fellows Onely when I had thus presented Christ along from his Death Resurrection and Ascension unto his Sitting in Heaven and there performing that great part of his Priesthood the worke of Intercession I judged it both homogeneall to all these and conducing to the greater encouragement of beleevers in the exercise of their faith to subjoyne that other Treatise How Christs Heart now he is in Heaven stands affected to us sinners here below And a better token take the Arument it selfe if I could have fully represented it how to present unto his Spouse I know not then a true character of her Husbands heart now he is in glory And but for methods sake I would have placed it first it being more suited to vulgar capacities whose benefit I aime at Now in that discourse I confesse I have not aimed to keepe so strictly unto the matter of justification only as in the other I have done But have more generally discussed it and shewne how his heart stands towards us under all sorts of infirmities whatsoever either of Sin or misery yet so as it wil serve for the matter of justification also The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ grant us according to the riches of his glory that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith and that we may know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge Amen THO. GOODVVIN THE TABLE OR Series of all the Materials in this TREATISE SECT I. A generall Introduction to the whole Christ the Object of Justifying Faith CHAP. I. The scope of the words of the Text That they were Christs originally Christ the highest example of beleeving Encouragements to our faith from thence Pag. 1 Christ an example of Faith explained by two things 2 1. He had a faith for the justification of himselfe 3 2. A faith for the justifying of us 4 Use To draw us on to faith and encourage us therein 5 Especially against the greatnesse of sins 6 CHAP. II. The scope and argument of this whole Discourse 1. A Direction unto Christ as the Object of faith 2. Encouragements to Beleevers in their faith from these particulars in the Text. 9 Christs 1. Death 2. Resurrection 3. Being at Gods right hand 4. Intercession CHAP. III. DIRECTIONS to Christ as the object of Faith How in a three-fold consideration Christ is the Object of Justifying faith 12 1. As in joynt commission with God the Father Faith is to eye both God and Christ in seeking Iustification 12 Yet God the ultimate object of it ibid. Yet Christ under the New Testament the more immediate Object 13 2. Christ the object of faith in opposition to all things in our selves 15 As 1. To Humiliation Wee are not to rest therein ibid. 2. To Dutyes and Graces We are not to rest in them 16 3. Christs Person is the object of Faith in distinction from the Promises ibid. How the Promises are the Object of Faith and how Christ in the Promises 18 Three sorts of promises and how Christs person is the object of faith in applying them all 20 SECT II. Christ in his DEATH the Object and support of Faith for Justification Chap. I. How not Christs Person simply but Christ as Dying is the object of faith as Iustifying 22 Explained 1. By two Directions 1. That in seeking forgivenesse Christ as dying Christ as crucifyed is to be eyed by faith 23 How not Christs Person singly considered in the excellencies thereof but as dying is the object of justifying faith as such 24 Chap. II 2. Direct That faith is principally to look unto the end and intent of God and Christ in his sufferings namely that sinners might have forgivenesse 28 Without this the meditation of the story of Christs Passion is unprofitable ibid. Cap. III 2. By shewing the ENCOURAGEMENTS or matter of triumph that Christs death affordeth unto faith in point of justification 34 The fulnesse of Christs satisfaction in his DEATH 35 How Christs satisfaction may be opposed to the guilt of any sins whatever 36 1. Against the hainousnesse of sin in the generall 37 2. Against any aggravation of particular sins As ibid. 1. Against the greatnesse of the act of any particular sinne 38 2. Against the corruption or of the heart in sinning ibid. 3. Against delight and greedinesse in sinning ibid. 4. Against deliberatenesse in sinning 39 5. Against presumption in sinning ibid. 6. Against the aggravating circumstances of Time Place Persons c. ibid. The conclusion of this Section 40 SECT III. Christ in his RESURRECTION the object and support of faith in point of Justification CHAP. I. Two generall Heads propounded That Christs Is an EVIDENCE of Hath an INFLUENCE into Iustification Resurrection 42 1. An Evidence Christs Resurrection a a visible signe that God is satisfied by his death 44 2. Hath an Influence Though the matter of our justification be the price of Christs Death yet the act of pronouncing us righteous depends on Christs
Intercession ibid. 2. More particularly Our justification depends upon it as 1. The first Act of our conversion and justification depends on it 133 2. The continuance of our justification depends on it 134 3. A full security thereby given that we shall be justified for ever And this 1. Against sins past 135 2. Against our being condemned by new sins 137 Intercession principally intended for sins after conversion 138 3. Respecting Christ Intercession ordained 1. That none of Christs offices should lye vacant 139 2. That Christ might have a continuall hand in every work of our salvation unto the last 140 Chap. 4. The second Head The great security that our faith may have for our Justification from Christs interceding for us Shewed 1. By way of EVIDENCE And this by two things 142 1. The end of Intercession is actually and compleatly to save so as if Christ did not actually and compleatly save those that beleeve in him through his Intercession he were not a perfect Priest 143 2. Christs honour as a Surety is deeply engaged by his Intercession to save us 147 Christ a Surety in his Intercession as well as in his death ibid. 2. The difference betweene these two Surety-ships 148 Chap. 5. By that powerfull INFLVENCE into our Salvation and prevalencie which Christs Intercession hath with God for us Demonstrated 1. From the greatnesse of the person who Intercedes and his greatnesse with God 151 And this shewne by two things 1. His neerenesse of Alliance hee being Gods naturall Sonne 153 2. His filiall obedience he being Gods Obedient Son 159 Two things in Christs Obedience which make his Intercession prevalent 161 Chap. 6. 2. From the righteousnesse of the cause he pleades and that in justice And how forcible the cry of his blood is especially himselfe appearing to intercede with it 163 Explicated by two things 1. How an Intercession and appeale to justice is attributed to Christs blood 164 Illustrated by the cry of Abels blood and how far this exceeds that 166 In what sense Christs blood is said to cry 168 2. Christ himselfe being alive and following the cry of his blood how prevalent this must needes bee ibid. Chap. 7. 3. From the absolutenesse of his power he being able to doe what ever hee askes of his Father 172 Though Christ as he is a King can command all things yet to honour his Father he intercedes for what himselfe commands 173 An Inference from the prevalencie of our Prayers how forcible Christs Prayers much more must needes be 176 Chap. 8. 4. From the graciousnesse of the Person with whom Christ Intercedes For 1. Christ Intercedes with his Father 181 Chap. 9. 2. He intercedes with him who is Our Father also 186 Gods heart is as much enclined to heare Christ for us as Christs heart is tointercede ibid. The summing up of all 192 Chap. 10 The Vse containing some encouragements unto weake beleevers from Christs Intercession out of Heb. 7. 25. ERRATA PAge 37. line 30. for there reade thee p. 47. l. 1. for who is read As. line 7. for thereby the Influence reade thereby both the Evidence and the Influence p. 61. l. 8 shooke hands adde with the Testatour p. 59. l. 6. Adam who came after read Adam who came afore p. 62. l. 19. we conclude adde or argue by reason p. 69. l. 20. for that this God-man was justified reade that God being thus made man is said to have been justified p. 73. l. 3. blot out in us or p. 77. l. 31. unto which he hath read unto which faith or upon which beleeving he hath p. 94. l. 11. for whereof this was the intended type reade which was the intended type of Christs triumph at his Ascension p. 120. l. 14. for should share reade should yet share p. 122. l. 24. for before then Aaron reade by far then Aaron p. 125. l. 8. for all the owed reade we owed p. 147. l. 5. read perfect worke ibid. l. 20. reade the reason is because that p. 149. l. 2. each reade either p. 158. as for which read as that which p. 167. l. 20. besprinkled reade sprinkled p. 196. l. 6. of reade to p. 200. l. 25. competitours reade competitioners SECT I. SHEVVING BY VVAY of INTRODUCTION that CHRIST is the EXAMPLE and OBIECT of Iustifying Faith ROM 8. 34. Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that dyed yea rather that is risen againe who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us CHAP. I. The scope of these words That they were Christs originally Christ the highest example of Beleeving Encouragements to our faith from thence THese words are a triumphing challenge uttered by the Apostle in the name of all the Elect for so he begins it in the 33. ver foregoing Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifies And then follow these words Who shall condemne namely Gods elect It is Christ that dyed c. This challenge we finde first published by Jesus Christ himselfe our onely Champion Esay 50. a Chapter made of and for Christ ver 8. He is neere that justifies me who will contend with me They were Christs words there and spoken of Gods justifying him and these are every Beleevers words here intended of Gods justifying them Christ is brought in there uttering them as standing at the High Priests Tribunall when they spat upon him and buffeted him as ver 4 5. when he was condemned by Pilate then he exercised this faith on God his Father He is neere that justifies me And as in that his condemnation he stood in our stead so in this his hope of his Iustification he speaks in our stead also as representing us in both And upon this the Apostle here pronounces in like words of all the Elect It is God that justifies who shall accuse Christ was condemned yea hath dyed who therefore shall condemne Loe here the communion we have with Christ in his death and condemnation yea in his very faith if he trusted in God so may we and shall as certainly be delivered Observe we first from hence by way of premise to all that follows That Christ lived by faith as well as we doe Obser In the first of Iohn ver 16. Christ an example of beleeving we are said to receive of his fulnesse grace for grace that is Grace answerable and like unto his and so among others Faith For Explication hereof Exlplained First 1. He had a faith for the justification of himselfe in some sense he had a faith for Iustification like unto ours though not a Iustification through faith as we have He went not indeed out of himselfe to rely to another for righteousnesse for he had enough of his owne he being The Lord our righteousnesse yet he beleeves on God to justifie him and had recourse to God for justification He is neer sayes he that justifies me If he had stood in his own
stories use to stir up a principle of humanity in men unto a compassionate love which Christ himselfe at his suffering found fault with as being not spirituall nor raised enough in those women who went weeping to see the Messiah so handled Weep not for me sayes he that is weep not so much for this thus to see me unworthily handled by those for whom I dye And therefore accordingly as these stirrings are but fruits of the flesh so humane inventions as Crucifixes and lively representations of the story of Christs Passion unto the sight of fancy doe exceedingly provoke men to such devotionall meditations and affections but they work a bare historicall faith only a historicall remembrance and an historicall love as I may so call them And no other then such doth the reading of the story of it in the Word work in many who yet are against such Crucifixes But saving justifying faith chiefly minds and is most taken up with the maine scope and drift of all Christs sufferings for it is that in them which answers to its owne aime and purpose which is to obtaine forgivenesse of sins in Christ crucified As God looks principally at the meaning of the Spirit in prayer Rom. 8. so doth faith look principally to the meaning of Christ in his sufferings As in all other Truths a Beleever is said to have the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 2. ult so especially he minds what was the mind and heart of Christ in all his sufferings And therefore you may observe that the drift of all the Apostles Epistles is to shew the intent of Christs sufferings how he was therein set forth to be a prepitiation for sinne to beare our sinnes upon the tree to make our peace c. He was made sinne that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him As in like manner the scope of the Euangelists is to set forth the story of them for that is necessary to be known also And thus did that Euangelicall Prophet Isaiah chiefly set forth the intent of Christs sufferings for justification Esay 53. throughout the Chap. as David before had done the story of his Passion Psal 22. And thus to shew the use and purpose of his sufferings was the scope of all the Apostles Sermons holding forth the intent of Christs passion to be the justification and salvation of sinners This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ came into the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 1. 15. and they still set forth what the plot was at which God by an ancient designment aimed at in the sufferings of Christ which was an end higher then men or Angels thought on when hee was put to death And thus faith takes it up and looks at it And upon this doth Peter in his Sermon Acts 2. pitch their faith where having first set forth the hainousnesse of their sin in murdering the Lord of life then to raise up their hearts againe that so seeing Gods end in it they might be drawne to beleeve he tellls them that All this was done by the determinate counsell of God ver 23. and that for a farther end then they imagined even for the remission of sins through his Name as in the closure of that Sermon he shews It was not the malice of the Jews the falsenesse of Iudas the fearfulnesse of Pilate or the iniquity of the times he fell into that wrought his death so much as God his Father complotting with Christ himselfe and aiming at a higher end then they did there was a farther matter in it it was the execution of an ancient contrivement and agreement whereby God made Christ Sinne and laid our sins upon him God was in Christ not imputing our sinnes to us but making him sinne 2 Cor. 5. 20. Which Covenant Christ came at his time into the world to fulfill Sacrifice and burnt offering thou wouldst not have Heb. 10. 5. Loe I come to doe thy will and that will was to take away sinnes ver 4 10 12 14 15 16. These words Christ spake when he took our nature and when he came into the world clothed with infirmities like unto us sinners Rom. 8. 3. God sent his Son in the likenes of sinfull flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh Mark that phrase for sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is there put for propter as Iohn 10. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not for a good work That is not because of a good work or for a good works sake So here For sinne that is because of sin sin was the occasion of his taking the likenesse of sinfull flesh what to encrease it no but to condemne it as it follows that is to cast and overthrow it in its power and plea against us that instead of sins condemning us he might condemne sin and that we might have the righteousnesse of the Law ver 5. This phrase for sinne is like unto that in Rom. 6. 10. He dyed unto sinne that is for sins cause for so the opposition that follows evinceth In that he liveth he liveth unto God that is for God and his glory So he dyed meerly for sin that sin might have its course in Justice and for its sake suffered death so putting to silence the clamour of it The death of Christ was the greatest and strangest design that ever God undertook and acted and therefore surely had an end proportionable unto it God that willeth not the death of a sinner would not for any inferiour end will the death of his Sonne whom he loved more then all creatures besides It must needs be some great matter for which God should contrive the death of his Sonne so holy so innocent and separate from sinners neither could it be any other matter then to destroy that which he most hated and that was Sin and to set forth that which he most delighted in and that was Mercy So Rom. 3. 25 26. And accordingly Christ demeaned himselfe in it not at all looking at the Jews or their malice but at his Fathers command and intent in it And therefore when he was to arise to goe unto that place where he should be taken As the Father gave me commandement sayes he so doe I Arise let us goe hence Iohn 14. 31. And when Iudas went out at Christs owne provocation of him What thou doest doe quickly sayes he the Sonne of man goeth as it was determined he lookt to his Fathers purpose in it When he went out to be taken it is said Iohn 18. 4. Iesus knowing all things that should befall him went forth And when he was in his Agony in the Garden whom doth he deale with but his Father Father sayes he if it be possible let this cup passe and God made his Passion of so great necessity that it was even impossible that that cup should passe Indeed had Christ stood in his owne stead it had been an easie request and justice to grant it yea so he tells
lewdnesse in thy wickednesse as the Prophet speaks Consider what guilt of how hainous crimes God suffered to be laid to Christs charge by profane men when he was made an offering for sinne He dyed as a Traitor to his Prince and a blasphemer of God in the highest kind of blasphemy as making himself equall with God an Impostor a Seducer yea a Devill yea a Prince of Devils then whom a murderer was esteemed more worthy to live Which imputations though by men unjustly charged on him yet by God were so ordered as just in respect of his bearing our sins For him who was holines it self to be made the greatest of sinners yea to be made sin and the worst of sins and accordingly to suffer frō God men what greater satisfaction for the taking of sins away can be desired or imagined Or secondly 2. Against the badnesse of the heart in sinning dost thou aggravate thy sins by the naughtinesse of thy heart in sinning and sayst that the inward carriage thereof hath been much worse then the outward Look thou into the heart of Jesus Christ dying and behold him struggling with his Fathers wrath thou wilt find the sufferings of his soule more then those of his body and in them to lie the soul of his sufferings Thirdly 3. Against the delight and greedinesse in sinning may thy sin be aggravated in that thou didst commit it with so great delight and greedinesse and pouredst out thy heart unto it Consider that Christ offered himselfe more willingly then ever thou didst sin Loe I come sayes he Psal 40. I delight to do thy will and how am I straintned till it be accomplisht Luk. 12. 56. And though to shew how great an evill and misery it was in it selfe he shewed an aversenesse to it yet as it was his Fathers will for our salvation hee heartily embraced and drank off that cup unto the bottome Fourthly 4. Against deliberatenesse in sinning didst thou sin with much deliberation when thou mightst have avoided it There was this circumstance in Christs sufferings to answer that that he knew all he was to suffer and yet yeelded up himselfe as Iohn 18. 4. Fiftly 5. Against presumption in sinning Hast thou sinned presumptuously and made a covenant with death and hell Christ in like manner offered up himselfe by a covenant and complot with his Father so to doe Sixtly 6. Against aggravating circumstances of person time place c. Are there any especiall circumstances of time and place c. that aggravate thy sins As first that so great a person in the Church should scandalize the Name of God in sinning Why how great a Person was Christ even equall with God the Father and yet how greatly humbled even to the death his offices of King Priest and Prophet being debased with him how great a name had he as Heb. 1. 4. which notwithstanding was dishonoured more then ever any mans Or 2. that thou sinnedst at such a time or in such a company which sometimes serve to make a sin the more hainous Consider how God contrived to have the shame and affliction of his Sons death aggravated by all these circumstances It was of deaths the most accursed At a time most solemne In a place most infamous With company most wretched Thus might we find out that in Christs sufferings and satisfaction made that would fitly answer to any thing in our sins and so thereby we should be the more relieved And though the whole body of his sufferings doe stand and answer for the whole bulk of our sinnings yet the consideration of such particulars will much conduce to the satisfying of an humbled and dejected soule about the particulars of its sinnings Therefore to conclude get your hearts and consciences distinctly and particularly satisfied in the all-sufficiencie of worth and merit which is in the satisfaction that Christ hath made As it is a fault and defect in humiliation that men content themselves with a generall apprehension and notion that they are sinners and so never become throughly humbled so is it a defect in their faith that they content themselves with a superficiall and generall conceit that Christ dyed for sinners their hearts not being particularly satisfied about the transcendent all-sufficiencie of his death And thence it is that in time of tentation when their abounding sinfulnesse comes distinctly to be discovered to them and charged upon them they are then amazed and their faith non-plust as not seeing that in Christ which might answer to all that sinfulnesse But as God saw that in Christs death which satisfied him so you should endeavour by faith to see that worth in it which may satisfie God and then your faith will sit down as satisfied also If a man were to dispute for his life some hard and difficult controversie wherein are many great and strong objections to be taken away he would be sure to view and study and ponder all that might be said on that other part which he were to hold in way of answer to them and to get such a clear and convincing light as might make the truth of his Position apparent and manifest through those clouds of objections that hang in the way Now you will all be thus called one day to dispute for your soules sooner or later and therefore such skill you should endeavour to get in Christs righteousnesse how in its fulnesse and perfection it answereth to all your sinfulnesse that your hearts may be able to oppose it against all that may be said of any particular in or about your sins that in all the conflicts of your spirits you may see that in it which could cleare your whole score and that if God would but be pleased to impute it to you you might say I durst presently come to an account with him and cut scores with his Law and Justice Thus much of the first thing made the object of faith namely Christ as dying SECT III. FAITH supported by Christs RESURRECTION ROM 8. 34. Yea rather that is risen againe CHAP. I. Christs Resurrection supporteth faith two wayes 1. By being an evidence of 2. By having an influence into our Iustification The necessity of Christs Resurrection for the procuring our Iustification THe next thing to be lookt at in Christ as he is the object of justifying faith and from whence our faith may seek and fetch support and comfort in the matter of Justification is Christs Resurrection upon which we see here the Apostle putteth a rather Yea rather that is risen againe Some speciall thing in Christs Resurrection for our Justification There must therefore be some speciall thing in the Resurrection of Christ which it contributes to our faith and justification for which it should have a rather put upon it and that comparatively to his death Now to shew wherein this should lie consider how the Resurrection of Christ serveth to a double use and end in the matter of
Common person with or for another hee goes for is one who represents personates and acts the part of another by the allowance and warrant of the Law so as what he doth as such a common person and in the name of the other that other whom he personates is by the Law reckoned to doe and in like manner what is done to him as being in the others stead and roome is reckoned as done to the other Thus by our Law an Attorney appears for another money received by him is reckoned as received by him whom it is due unto Thus the giving possession of an estate a re-entry made and possession taken of land c. if done by and to a man who is his lawfull Attorney it stands as good in Law unto a man as if in his owne person it had been done So Embassadours for Princes represent their Masters what is done to them is reckoned as done to the Prince and what they do according to their Commission is all one as if the Prince whose Person they represent had done it himselfe In like manner also the marriages of Princes are transacted solemnized by Proxie as a Common person representing his Lord and in his name is married to a Princesse in her Fathers Court and the Lawes of men authorize it and the marriage is as good as if both Princes themselves had been present and had performed all the Rites of it The difference betweene these two And thus to be a Common person is more then simply to be a Surety for another it is a farther thing and therefore these two relations are to be distinctly considered though they seem to be somewhat of a like nature Thus an Attorney is a different thing from a Surety A Surety undertakes to pay a debt for another or the like but a Cōmon person serves to perform any common act which by the Law is reckoned and virtually imputed to the other and is to stand as the others act is as valid as is he had done it So as the good and benefit which is the consequent of such an act shall accrew to him whom he personated and for whom he stood as a Common person Adam was not a Surety for all Man-kind Adam a Common person but not a Surety he undertook not for them in the sense fore-mentioned but he was a Common person representing all Man-kind So as what he should do was to be accounted as if they had done it Now the better to expresse and make sure our Justification in and by Christ according to all sorts of Laws the equity of all which God usually draws up into his dispensations God did ordain Christ both to be a Surety for us Christ ordained to be both and the reason why and also a Common person representing us and in our stead That as Christ tooke all other relations for us as of an Husband Head Father Brother King Priest Captain c. that so the fulnesse of his love might be set forth to us in that what is defective in any one of these relations is supplyed and expressed by the other Even thus did God ordaine Christ to take and sustaine both these relations of a Surety and a Common Person in all he did for us thereby to make our justification by him the more full and legall and justifie as I may so speake our Justification it selfe or his justifying of us by all sorts of legall considerations what ever that hold commonly among men in like case and that which the one of these relations or considerations might not reach to make good the other might supply what fel short in the one the other might make up and so we might be most legally and formally justified and made sure never to be condemned CHAP. III. The first Head The EVIDENCE of Iustification which Christs Resurrection affords to faith explained by two things 1. By shewing how Christ was made a Surety for us 2. How his Resurrection as a Surety holds forth this evidence COncerning the first of those two Heads at first propounded namely the Evidence which Christs Resurrection affords unto our faith in point of non-condemnation I have two things to handle in this Chap. to make this out First how Christ was made a Surety for us and what manner a Surety he did become secondly what the consideration hereof will contribute to that evidence which faith hath from Christs Resurrection For the first §. 1. Christ was appointed by God and himselfe also undertook to be our Surety 1. How Christ was made and became a Surety for us This you have Heb. 7. 22. He was made Surety of a better Testament or Covenant namely of the New The Hebrew word for Covenant the Septuagint stil translated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Testament the word in the Hebrew being of a large signification comprehending both a Covenant and Testament and so in the New Testament it is used promiscuously for either And indeed this new Covenant of Grace is both Of this Covenant Christ is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the plighter of his troth for it the Surety the Promiser the Undertaker The Verb this comes of is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 promittere which comes form 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in manibus striking hands or giving ones hand as a signe of a covenant and so to bargaine with or make up a covenant Prov. 22. 26. Be not thou one of them that strike hands or of them that are sureties for debts Which whole verse the Septuagint reads Give not thy selfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Suretyship The same word that is here used by the Apostle It was the manner both of the Jews and Romanes also to make Covenants by striking of hands And in Testaments the Heire and Executor shook hands or the Executor gave his hand to fulfill it Suretiship not onely used in matters of debt but in criminall causes punished with death and is put for being a pledge for another And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used not onely in promising to pay a debt for another but also in becomming a pledge for another for to undergoe death or a capitall punishment in anothers roome as in that famous story of friends namely Euephenus and Eucritus Eucritus did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 willingly become a surety for Euephenus when condemned to dye by Dionysius the tyrant This very word is used by Polyenus the Historian of that fact Now such a Surety every way did Christ become unto God for us Christ undertook as a Surety for both to satisfie God to work all in us also both to pay the debt by undergoing death in our stead and so to satisfie God and then as the Heire to execute his Will and Testament He became a Surety of the whole Covenant and every condition in it take it in the largest sense and this of all both on Gods part and on ours For us he undertook to
God to work all our works and undergoe all our punishments to pay our debts for us and to work in us all that God required should be done by us in the Covenant of Grace And thus to be a Surety is much more then simply to be an Intercessour or Mediatour as Pareus well observes God did as it were say to Christ What they owe me I require it all at your hands and Christ assented and from everlasting struck hands with God to doe all for us that God could require and undertook it under the penalty that lay upon us to have undergone Yea Christ became such a Surety in this for us as is not to be found among men A strange difference between Christs Suretiship and that of men for others on earth On earth Sureties are wont to enter into one and the same Bond with the Creditors so as the Creditour may seize on which of the two he will whether on the Debtour or on the Surety and so as usually on the Debtor first for him we call the Principal but in this covenant God would have Christs single Bond and hence Christ is not onely called the Surety of the Covenant for us but The Covenant God makes the Covenant of Grace principally with Christ for us Esay 49. 8. and elsewhere God making the Covenant of Grace primarily with him and with him as for us thereby his single Bond alone was taken for all that so God might be sure of satisfaction therefore he laid all upon Christ protesting that he would not deale with us nor so much as expect any payment from us such was his grace So Psal 89. 19. where the mercies of the Covenant made betweene Christ and God under the Type of Gods Covenant with David are set forth God requires payment of our debt from Christ first Thou spakest in vision to thy holy One and saidst I have laid help on one who is mighty As if God had said I know that these will faile me and break and never be able to satisfie me but you are a mighty and substantiall person able to pay me and I will look for my debt of you And to confirme this then which nothing can give stronger consolation or more advanceth Gods free grace when God went about the reconciling the world in and by Christ and dealt with Christ about it the manner of it is expressed to have been that God took off our sins from us and discharged us as it were meaning never to call us to an account for them unlesse Christ should not satisfie him and laid them all on Christ so as he would require an account of them all from him first and let him look to it and this he did to make the Covenant sure Thus 2 Cor. 5. 19. it is said the Apostle speaking of Gods transaction of this businesse with Christ that God was in Christ namely from everlasting reconciling the world of Elect Beleevers to himselfe not imputing their trespasses to them and made him sin who knew no sinne Observe that as he laid our sinnes on Christ so withall he discharged us in his compact betweene Christ and himselfe not imputing their trespasses to them So then all laid upon Christ and he was to look to it or else his soule was to have gone for it This is not the manner of other Creditours they use to charge the Debt on both the Surety and the Debtour but in this Covenant of Grace namely Christs single Bond is entred he alone is The Covenant so as God will have nought to say to us till Christ failes him He hath engaged himselfe first to require satisfactions at Christs hands who is our Surety Now then 2. 2. How the consideration of this is a strong evidence to faith of justification from Christs Resurrection for to make use of this notion for the clearing of the point in hand It might afford us matter of unspeakable cōfort onely to hear of Christs having been arrested by God for our debt cast into prison and his Bond sued and an Execution or Iudgement served on him as the phrases are Esay 53. 8. For thereby we should have seen how God had begun with our Surety as minded to let us alone and that it lay on him to discharge the debt who was so able to doe it And thereby we might also see how he was made sin for us and therefore we might very well have quieted our hearts from fearing any arrests or for Gods comming upon us till we should heare that our Surety were not sufficiently able to pay the debt as you have heard he is But yet our hearts would stil be inquisitive for all that to hear whether indeed he hath perfectly satisfied God or no and would be extreamly solicitous to know whether he hath satisfactorily performed what he undertook and how he got cleare of that engagement and of being made sinne for us And therefore the Apostle comforts Beleevers with this that Christ shall the next time appeare without sin * Heb. 9. 28. Vnto them that look for him he shall appeare the second time without sinne It declaring unto faith that Christ that was in this death nale sin for us hath now discharged all and is without sin unto salvation One would think it no great matter of comfort to us to hear that Christ should appeare without sinne for who would imagine that it could be otherwise with The holy One The Lord of Glory there is no wonder in that Ay but sayes the Apostle your very salvation is interested in this as neerly as is possible It is well for you that Christ is now without sinne for he having as your Surety undertooke to satisfie for sinne and having accordingly beene once made sinne when on earth and arrested for it by God at his death in that now he is got cleare of that engagement which could be no way but by satisfaction which he undertooke this doth plainly evince it and ascertain you that you shall never be condemned for it for by the Law if the Surety hath discharged the debt the Debtour is then free And therefore no news would or could be more welcome to sinners And so that God will never come upon the sinner then to have a certaine and infallible evidence given that their Surety were well come off and had quitted all to satisfaction Now then to evidence this serveth his Resurrection Christ is risen How strong an evidence Christs Resurrection is that the debt is paid and God satisfied Nothing so sure Therefore certainly the debt is discharged and he hath paid it to the full and so is now without our sinne and fully got cleare of it For God having once arrested Christ and cast him into prison and begun a tryall against him and had him to judgement he could not come forth till he had paid the very utmost farthing And there is the greatest reason for it to ascertaine us that
can be For he was under those bonds and bolts which if it had been possible would have detained him in the grave as Act. 2. 24. The strength of sin and Gods wrath and the curse against sin Thou shalt die the death did as cords hold him as the Psalmists phrase is Other debtours may possibly breake their prisons but Christ could not have broke through this for the wrath of the All-powerfull God was this prison from which there was no escaping no baile nothing would be taken to let him goe out but full satisfaction And therefore to hear that Christ is risen so is come out of prison is an evidence that God is satisfied and that Christ is discharged by God himself and so is now without sin he walking abroad again at liberty And therefore the Apostle proclaimes a mighty victory obtained by Christs Resurrection over Death the Grave the strength of sinne the Law 1 Cor. 15. 55 56. and cryes out Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through Iesus Christ our Lord ver 57. You may now rest secure indeede Christ is risen who therefore shall condemne CHAP. IV. The second Head propounded the INFLUENCE CHRISTS Resurrection hath into Iustification Two Branches of the Demonstration of this First that Christ was a Common person representing us in all he was or did or suffered handled at large More especially a Common person in his Resurrection NOw secondly to come to that other Head propounded the Influence Christs resurrection hath into our justification The demonstration or making out of which depends on two things put together The first how Christ was appointed by God and himselfe acted the part of a Common person representing us in what he did more particularly in his Resurrection Of this in this Chapter The second is how from that consideration ariseth not onely an evidence to our faith but a reall influence into our justification and non-condemnation So as Who shall condemne because CHRIST is risen againe as a Common person representing us therein For the first of these §. I. to illustrate and prove it in the generall That Christ was a Common person proved that instance of Adam serves most fitly and is indeed made use of in the Scripture to that end Adam as you all know was reckoned as a common publique person 1. In generall by a parallel with Adam not standing singly or alone for himselfe but as representing all Man-kind to come of him So as by a just Law what he did was reckoned to his posterity whom he represented And what was by that Law threatned or done to him for what he did is threatned against his posterity also Now this man was herein a lively type of our Lord Christ the Type of Christ herein as you have it Rom. 5. 14. Who was the type of him who was to come Unto which purpose the titles which the Apostle gives these two Christ and Adam 1 Cor. 15. 47. are exceeding observable he calls Adam The first man and Christ our Lord The second man and both for that very purpose and respect which we have in hand For first he speaks of them as if there had never been any more men in the world nor were ever to be for time to come except these two and why but because these two betweene them had all the rest of the sons of men hanging at their girdle because they were both Common persons that had the rest in like though opposite considerations included and involved in them Adam had all the sons of Men borne into this world included in himself who are therefore called earthly men ver 48. in a conformity to him the earthly man ver 47. and Christ the second man had all his Elect who are the first-borne and whose names are written in heaven and therefore in the same ver are oppositely called heavenly men included in him You see how he summes up the number of all men in two and reckons but two men in all these two in Gods account standing for all the rest And farther observe that because Adam was in this his being a common person unto his the shadow and the lively Type of Christ who was to come after him that therefore he is called The first man of these two and Christ The second man as typified out by him Now if you aske Particularly In what things Christ was a Common person wherein Christ was a Common person representing us and standing in our stead I answer If in anything then in all those conditions and states wherein he was in what he did Especially in what he was or did upon earth or befell him whilst here on earth especially For he had no other end to come downe into this world but to sustaine our persons and to act our parts and to have what was to have been done to us acted upon him Thus first §. 2. in their two severall conditions qualifications 1. Adam and Christ Common persons in their conditions and qualifications and states and states they both were Common persons That is look what state or condition the one or the other was made in is by a just Law to be put upon those whom they represented So the Apostle reasons from it ver 48. As is the earthly man namely the first man Adam such are the earthly namely to be earthly men as well as he because he who was a Common person representing them was in his condition but an earthly man And oppositely by the same Law it follows As is the heavenly man namely the second man Christ such are and must be the heavenly who pertaine to him because he also is a Common person ordained to personate them and Adam who came after him was therein but his Type And as thus in this place to the Corinths the Apostle argues Christ to be a Common person in respect of his condition and state by an argument of parallels taken from his Type Adam So secondly in that 5. to the Romanes he argues Christ to have been a Common person 2. Christ a Common person in respect of what he did or what he suffered illustrated by the parallel of Adam in his actions which he did on earth and this also from the similitude of Adam whom ver 14. he therein makes to have been Christs Type And he speaks of Adam there as a Common person both in respect of what he did namely his Sinne and also in respect of what befell him for his sin namely Death and condemnation And because he was in all these not to be considered as a single Man but as one that was All men by way of representation Hence both what he did they are said to doe in him and what condemnation or death was deserved by his sin fell upon them all by this Law of his being a publique person for them 1. For what he did He sinned 1. Adam a Common person in what he did
direct opposition to his having born our sins and appearing then with all our sins laid to his charge He appeared charged with them then but now he shall appeare as apparently and as manifestly to be without those sins for of our sins it must needs be meant and so to be discharged of them as fully as ever he appeared charged with them For it is said He shall appeare without sin and therefore to the judgements of all it shall be made manifest that that God that once charged him with them hath now fully discharged him of them The Apostle speaks of it as of a great alteration made in this respect betweene Christ as he was whilst on earth and Christ as he is to appeare the second time and is now in heaven And this alteration or discharge must necessarily be made by God for he is the Creditour vvho followed the Suit and therefore he alone can give the Acquitance Now secondly 2. There must be some season of time when this discharge from our sins was first made unto Christ from hence it will follow that there must be some time when this alteration was first made and discharge given when Christ from being sin as he was made should become without sinne through Gods acquiting of him and this say I was at his Resurrection It is not deferred as then to be first done when he is to appeare the second time though then it appeares indeed but it is really done before for hee comes then to judge others for sinne Now in reason when should this Acquitance or Justification from our sins be first given to Christ and legally pronounced on him but when he had paid the last farthing of the debt and made his satisfaction compleat which was then done when he began to rise for his lying in the grave was a part of his Humiliation and so of his Satisfaction as generally Orthodoxe Divines hold Now therefore when he began to rise then ended his Humiliation and that was the first moment of his Exaltation His Acquitance therefore bears Date from thence even from that very houre Hence thirdly 3. That this must needs be and was first made to him at his Resurrection we read as that Christ was condemned so that he was justified Thus 1 Tim. 3. 16. God is said to be manifest in the flesh and then that this God-man was justified in the spirit That is whereas God was manifest or appeared in flesh to condemne sinne in the flesh as Rom. 8. that same God-man was also justified in the spirit from all those sins and so received up to glory as it follows there And not to goe far the very words of this my Text It is God that justifies are taken out of Esay 50. 8 9. and as there they are first spoken by Christ of himselfe then when he gave his back to the smiters in his death as in the verses before and vvas put to death as a condemned man he comforts himselfe vvith this He is neere that justifies me who shall condemne And when was that done or to be done but at his Resurrection So the phrase in Timothy imports if you compare it with another in Peter 1 Pet. 3. 18. Being put to death in the flesh and quickned in or by the spirit Paul he sayes Iustified in the spirit Peter he sayes Quickned in the spirit both meane one and the same thing By Spirit is meant the power of his God-head and Divine nature whereby he was at once both raised from the grave and from under the guilt of sin together He was at once both quickned or raised and justified also And that by Spirit they mean his Divine nature the opposition in both places evidently implyes for it is opposed to his Flesh or humane nature Now because he was quickned or raised by the power of the God-head and at that raising him he was justifyed also by God and declared justifyed by that Resurrection as he had been declared condemned by his death Hence to be justified is put for his Resurrection for that was his justification or declaration to all the world that he was justified from all the sins laid to his charge And that other place I cited out of Isaiah hath the same meaning also for Christ there comforts himselfe against the Jews condemning him and putting him to death with the hopes of Gods justifying of him when he should have gone through that work And Christs meaning there is this God will raise me up and acquit me though you condemne and kill me In the other Prophets you shall find Christ still comforting himself against his condemnation at his death with the thoughts of his Resurrection which he fore-saw as shortly to follow after it as here in Esay he comforts himselfe with these hopes of his being justified after their condemnation of him For instance Psa 16. 9. My flesh shall rest in hope thou wilt not leave my soule in hell nor suffer thy holy One to see corruption Which words you know Peter in the Acts doth twice interpret of Christs Resurrection In like manner here in Esay against his death and condemnation he comforts himself with the hopes of Gods justification of him at his Resurrection He is neere who justifies me and he shall help me who shall condemne And further His Resurrection therefore called his first begetting to confirm strengthen this notion because his Resurrection was the first moment of this his justification from our sins therefore it is that God cals it his first begetting of Christ This day have I begotten thee speaking manifestly of his Resurrection Acts 13. 35. And the reason of his so calling it is because all the while before he was covered with sin and the likenesse of sinfull flesh But now having flung it off he appears like Gods Son indeed as if newly begotten And thus also there commeth to be the fuller conformity betweene Christ justification ours For as our justification is at our first being born again And therein a conformity between our Regeneration and his Resurrection so was Christ also at this his first glorious begetting He was under an Attainder before here was the Act of Restitution first passed And as at our Conversion which is to us a Resurrection wee passe from death to life that is from an estate of death and condemnation unto justification of life so did Christ also at his Resurrection which to him was are begetting passe from an estate of death and guilt laid on him to an estate of Life Glory and justification from guilt and so shall appear as the word is Heb. 9. ult as he doth now in heaven without sin for he became to be without sin frō that very moment Thus I have shewn how Christ was justified at his Resurrection Now then in the 2. §. 2. place 2. That Beleevers were all justified in Christ his justification as a Common person representing them I am to
up to Heaven and that as far above Angels and Principalities as the Apostle speaks Eph. 1. as the Heavens are above the Earth will you not in your faiths hopes proportionably ascend and climb up also have thoughts of pardon as far exceeding your ordinary thoughts as the heavens are above the earth Therefore first view him as ascending into Heaven ere ever hee comes to be at Gods right hand and see what matter of triumph that will afford you for that you must first suppose ere you can see him at Gods right hand and so is necessarily included thought not expressed here But that place fore-quoted out of Peter 1 Pet. 3. gives us both these two particulars included in it 1. His Ascension Who is gone into Heaven And 2. his power and authority there Is at Gods right hand and hath all power and authority subject to him and prompts both these as fit matter to be put into a good conscience its Answer and Apologie why it should not be condemned therfore both may here as well come in into faiths triumph and that as being intended also by the Apostle and included in this one expression He speaks with the least to shew what cause faith had to triumph for the least expression of it his purpose being but to give a hint to faith of that which cōprehensively contains many things in it which he would have us distinctly to consider for our comfort CHAP. II. Shewing first what evidence for our justification Christs Ascension into Heaven affords unto our Faith upon that first forementioned consideration of his being a Surety for us FIrst then to see what triumph his ascending into Heaven will add unto our faith in matter of non-condemnation And herein 1. By considering what was the last action he did when he was to Ascend Blessing his Disciples first there is not nothing in it to consider what he then did and what was his last Act when he was to take his rise to fly up to Heaven He blessed his Disciples and thereby left a blessing upon earth with them for all his elect to the end of the World The true reason and minde of which blessing them was that he being now to go to execute the eternall office of his Priest-hood in Heaven of which God had sworn Thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec As Melehisedec in the Type blessed Abraham and in him all the faithfull as in his loins therefore the Apostle said that Levi paid tithes unto Melchisedec in Abrahams loines therefore he was blessed in his loines so did Christ begin this new and second part of his Priest-hood with blessing the Apostles and in them all the elect to the end of the World This was the last thing that Christ did on earth yea this he did whilst ascending he was taken up whilst he did it So Luke 24. 50. 51. And thus solemnly he now did this to shew that the curse was gone and that sin was gone and that action speakes thus much as if Christ himselfe had said To shew the curse was removed and their sins pardoned O my brethren for so he styled his Disciples after his Resurrection I have been dead and in dying made a curse for you now that curse I have fully removed and my Father hath aquited me and you for it and now I can be bold to blesse you and pronounce all your sins forgiven and your persons justified For that is the intendment and foundation of blessing Blessed is the man whose sins are forgiven him and therefore that was the true meaning of his blessing them which he reserved thus as his last Act to shew how by his death he had redeemed them from the curse of the Law now going to Heaven was able to blesse them with all the spirituall blessings that are there and which Heaven can afford for Heavenly they are called in that respect And in blessing his Apostles thus he blessed all that should believe in him Ephes 1. 4. And as in Abraham blessed by Melchisedec all the faithfull were blessed so in these Apostles all the elect to come are blessed As when God individually blessed Adam and Eve at the first Creation yet he in them blessed all that were for ever to come of them so Christ in blessing them blessed us and all that shall beleeve through their word to the end of the World And that they were thus then to be considered as common persons receiving this blessing for us all appeareth by Christs words then uttered I am with you to the end of the World i. e. with you and all your successors both Ministers other believers Mat. 28. ult And Christ herein did as God did before him When God had done his worke of creation He looked upon all he had done and saw that it was good and he blessed it Thus did Jesus Christ now that he had by that one offering perfected for ever all the elect he comfortably vieweth and pronounceth it perfect and them blessed and so goes to Heaven to keepe and enjoy the Sabbath of all there Now Secondly let us see him Ascending A second support from the very Act of Ascending and see what comfort that will also afford our faith towards the perswasion of Iustification The Apostles stood gazing on him and so doe you lift up your hearts to gaze on him by faith and view him in that act as he is passing along into Heaven as leading sin hell death and devill in triumph at his Chariot wheeles And therewith let your faith triumph in a further evidence of justification Thus Ephesians 4. 8. out of the 68. Psalme ver 18. the Apostle saith How it was an act of Triumph over death hel sin c. When he ascended up on high he led captivity captive to which Hebraisme the Latine phrase vincere victoriam to win a victory doth answer then He led captive all our spirituall enemies that would have captived us they being now captived Now leading of captives is alwaies after a perfect victory And therefore whereas at his Death he had conquered them at his Rising scattered them now at his Ascension he leades them captive And so that Psal in the Type begins ver 1. Let God arise and let his enemies be scattered let them flee before him so at his Resurrection they did And then he ascends in triumph ashere in token of victory he is ascended up on high ver 18. he ascends as David after his victory up to Mount Sion for the celebrating of which that Psal seemes to have beene made by David whereof this was the intended Type Two Acts of Triumph in it And two Actus triumphales triumphing Acts there were here mentioned 1. Leading the captives bound to his Chariot wheeles as the manner of the Roman triumphs was when the Conqueror went up to the Capitol and other Heathens in Davids time As Achilles led Hector captive who
besides all this there is a personall or an actuall Iustification to be bestowed upon us that is an accounting and bestowing it upon us in our own persons which is done whē we beleeve and it is called Rom. 5. 1. a being justifyed by faith and ver 10. receiving the atonement now this depends upon Christs Intercession and it was typified out by Moses his sprinkling the people with blood mentioned Heb. 9. 19. which thing Jesus Christ as a Mediator and Priest doth now from Heaven For Heb. 12. 24. it is said You are come to Heaven and to Iesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and as it is next subjoyned to the blood of sprinkling he shed his blood on the Crosse on earth but he sprinkleth it now as a Priest from Heaven For it is upon Mount Sion to which he had said first in the former verse ye are come and so to Christ as a Mediator standing on that mount and sprinkling from thence his blood and so therein there is an allusion unto Moses Christs Type who sprinkled the people with the blood of that ceremoniall covenant the type of the covenant of grace Now in the 1 Pet. 1. 2. The sprinkling of Christ his blood as it is there made the more proper work of Christ himselfe in distinction from the other persons and therefore was done by Moses who was his type so is it also put for our first justification And this sprinkling as it is there mentioned is from the vertue of his intercession And therefore in that place of the Heb. forecited he attributes an intercession unto it as the phrase that follows which speaks better things c. doth imply of which more hereafter Yet concerning this first Head let me adde this by way of caution which I shall presently have occasion to observe that though this our first justification is to be ascribed to his Intercession yet more eminently Intercession is ordained for the accōplishing our salvation this other more rarely in the Scripture attributed thereunto Secondly 2. The continuance of our justification depends upon it The continuation of our Iustification depends upon it And as his Intercession is the virtuall continuation of his Sacrifice so is it the continuing cause of our justification which though it be an act done once as fully as ever yet is it done over every moment for it is continued by acts of free Grace so renewed actually every moment There is a standing in Grace by Christ spoken of Rom. 5. 2. as well as a first accesse by Christ and that standing in grace and continuing in it is afterwards ver 11. attributed to his life that is as it is interpreted Heb. 7. 25. his living ever to intercede We owe our standing in grace every moment to his sitting in Heaven and interceding every moment There is no fresh act of justification goes forth but there is a fresh act of intercession And as though God created the World once for all yet every moment he is said to create every new act of providence beeing a new creation so likewise to justifie continually through his continuing out free grace to justifie as at first and this Christ doth by continuing his Intercession he continues a Priest for ever and so we continue to be justifyed for ever 3. A full security of our justification given thereby forever There is hereby a full security given us of justification to be continued for ever The danger either must lie in old sins comming into remembrance or else from sins newly to be committed Now first God hereby takes order 1. Against the remembrance of sins past that no old sins shall come up into remembrance to trouble his thoughts as in the old Law after the Priests going into the Holy of holies their sins are said yet to have done Heb. 10. 3. and to that end it was that he placed Christ as his Remembrancer for us so neere him to take up his thoughts so with his obedience that our sinnes might not come into mind not that God needed this help to put himself in mind but onely for a formality sake that things being thus really carryed between God and Christ for us according to a way suiting with our apprehensions our faith might be strengthened against all suppositions and feares of after reviving our guilts Look therefore as God ordained the Rain-bow in the heavens that when he lookt on it he might remember his Covenant never to destroy the world againe by water so he hath set Christ as the Rain-bow about his Throne And look as the Bread and Wine in the Lords Supper are appointed on earth to shew forth Christs death as a Remembrancer to us so is Christ himselfe appointed in heaven to shew forth his death really as a Remembrancer thereof to his Father and indeed the one is correspondent to the other Onely the Papists have perverted the use of the Lords Supper by making it on earth a commemorative sacrifice to God when as it is but a Remembrancer thereof to men and besides their Priests therein do take upon themselves this very office of presenting this sacrifice to God which is proper onely to Christ in Heaven But God when he would make sure not to be tempted to remember our sins any more nor trouble himselfe with them hath set his Christ by him to put him in minde of his so pleasing an offering So the High-Priests going into the Holy of holies was for a memoriall and therein the Type of Christ And this is plainly expresly made the use of this execution of his Priestly office in Heaven Heb. 8. where the Apostle having discoursed of that part of his office as the chiefe thing he aimed at in this Epistle ver 1. and of the necessity of it ver 3 4 and 5. and excellencie of it in this respect ver 6. he then shews how from thence the new Covenant of pardon came to be sure and stedfast that God will remember our sins no more ver 12. which he there brings in as the proper use of this Doctrine and of this part of his Priesthood 2. 2. To prevent the accusing condemning us by new sinne for times to come As by reason of intercession God remembers not old sins so likewise he is not provoked by new For though God when he justifies us should forgive all old sins past for ever so as never to remember them more yet new ones would break forth and he could not but take notice of them and so so long as sinne continues there is need of a continuing intercession Therefore for the securing us in this it is said Rom. 5. 10. That if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Sonne much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life Where we see that his Death is in some more speciall manner said to procure reconciliation at first for sinnes of unregeneracie and to bring us to
Christ but then his life and Intercession or living to intercede is said to keep God and us friends that we may never fall out more What Christ did on earth doth more especially procure reconciliation for sinnes which we doe in the state of nature so as notwithstanding them God resolves to turne us from that state Intercession principally intended for sins after conversion and draw us to Christ But sins which we commit after conversion though pardoned also by his death yet the pardon of them is more especially attributed to his life and intercession as a daily preservative a continuall plaister as some call it to heale such sinnes So that it would seeme that God out of his eternall love doth bring us to Christ and draws us to him through the beholding the reconciliation wrought by his death and so gives us at first conversion unto Christ and we being brought to him he sprinkles us with his bloud and then God sayes to him Now doe you look to them that they and I fall out no more And to that end Christ takes our cause in hand by that eternall Priesthood of his and from that time begins more especially to intercede for us And thus sinnes after the state of grace may be said more eminently to be taken away by that part of his Priesthood which he now in heaven performes That place also 1 Ioh. 2. 1 2. seems to make this the great end of Intercession If any man sinne that is if any of the company of Beleevers to whom alone he wrote we have an Advocate wich the Father so as Intercession principally serves for sins to come or committed after grace received Thus also in his prayer Ioh. 17. which was left as a patterne of his Intercession in heaven he prayes for his Elect as Beleevers I pray for them that shall beleeve through their word Not but that sinnes after conversion are taken away by his death In what sense his Death doth more eminently prevaile for the pardon of sins afore conversion and his Intercession for sins after and sinnes before it by his Intercession also for Christ interceded for those who crucified him and by vertue of that Intercession those three thousand were converted as was observed But the meaning only is that yet more eminently the work of reconciliation for sins before conversion is attributed to his death for sins after conversion to his Intercession Even as the Persons of the Trinity though they have all a like hand in all the works of our salvation yet we see that one part is attributed more to one Person and another to another A third sort of reasons why God ordained this work of Intercession to accomplish our salvation by 3. Sort of Reasons from Christ doe respect Christ himselfe whose honour and glory and the perpetuation of it in our hearts God had as well in his eye in the ordering all the workings of our salvation as much as his owne That all might honour the Sonne as well as the Father as Christ himselfe speaks Now therefore for the maintaining and upholding his glory and the commings in thereof did God ordaine after all that he had done for us here below this work of Intercession in heaven to be added to all the rest for the perfecting of our salvation As First 1. That none of Christs offices should lye vacant it became him and was for his honour that none of his offices should be vacant or lye idle and he want employment in them All offices have work to accompanie them and all work hath honour as its reward to arise out of it And therefore when he had done all that was to be done on earth as appertaining unto the merit of our salvation he appoints this full and perpetuall work in heaven for the applying and possessing us of salvation and that as a Priest by praying and interceding in the merit of that one oblation of himselfe God would have Christ never to be out of office nor out of work And this very reason is more then intimated Heb. 7. 24 25. This man because he continueth ever hath an unchangeable Priest-hood or as ver 21. expounds it for ever And the work of his Priesthood is interpreted ver 25. to be ever to make intercession The meaning is that God would not have him continue to be a Priest in title onely or in respect onely of a service past and so to have onely the honour of Priesthood perpetuated to him out of the remembrance of what he once had done as great Generals have even in time of peace the glory of some great battail fought continued to them in their titles or rewards for ever But God would have him have as the renowne of the old so a perpetuall spring of honour by new work and employment in that office which he is continually a doing so to preserve the verdure of his glory ever fresh and greene and therefore ordained a continuall work for him And the summe of the Apostles reasoning is this That seeing himselfe was to be for ever so should his work and Priesthood be that so his honour might be for ever So ver 28. concludes it Consecrated or perfected for evermore Secondly 2. That Christ might have a continual hand in each and every work of our salvation to the last for the same reason also it became him that the whole worke of our salvation first and last and every part of it every step and degree of accomplishment of it should be so ordered as he should continue still to have as great and continuall a hand in every part even to the laying of the top stone thereof as he had in laying the first foundation and corner stone thereof And this you have expressed Heb. 12. 2. Looking to Iesus the beginner and perfecter of our faith Two things had been said of him as two causes of two effects and we must looke to him in both 1. He is to be looked at as Dying enduring the Crosse as there he is set forth 2. As sitting at Gods right hand and interceding as that whole Epistle had represented him We are to look at these two as causes of a double effect to looke at his dying as that which is the beginning of our faith so according to the Greeke and the margent of our translation and at his sitting at Gods right hand as an intercessor for the finishing of our faith thereby and so of our finall salvation For as Christs worke began in his life and death which is put for all his obedience here below so our first believing as was said begins by vertue of his death at first and as his worke ends in his intercession and sitting at God his right hand so answerably is our faith and salvation perfected by it that thus he might be left out in nothing but be the Alpha and Omega the Beginning and the Ending to whom be glory for ever So that wee
are to looke upon our Mediator CHRIST as doing as much worke for us in Heaven at this instant as ever hee did on Earth here suffering but there praying and presenting his sufferings All his worke was not done when he had done here that worke here was indeede the harder piece of the two yet soone dispatched but his work in heaven though sweeter far yet lyes on his hands for ever therefore let us leave out none of these in our believing on him CHAP. IV. The second Head The great security the consideration of Christs Intercession affords to faith for our Justification shewed 1. By way of evidence By two things ANd so I come as in the former I have done to shew what strong grounds of security and triumph our faith may raise frō this last act namely Christs Intercession for us in the point of justification Who shall condemne it is Christ that intercedes And this was the second generall propounded and therein to proceed also according to the Method taken up in the former 1. What assurance by way of evidence this doth afford unto faith of non-condemnation 2. What powerfull efficacy and influence this must be of that Christ intercedes First §. 1. to handle it by way of evidence That Christ intercedes To evidence these two demonstrations is a strong evidence to our faith by two demonstrations 1. From the very intent and scope of the worke of intercession it selfe and what it is ordained by God to effect 2. From the end of Jesus Christ himself who lives in Heaven on purpose to intercede for us Our salvation it is both Finis operis the end of the work and finis ipsius operantis in some respect the end of Christ himselfe the interceder and both these doe lay the greatest engagement that can be upon Christ to accomplish our salvation through his intercession 1. For the work it self Intercession you have seen is a part of the office of Christs Priesthood as well as his dying and offering himselfe now all the works of Christ are must be perfect in their kind even as Gods are of which sayes Moses Deut. 32. 4. His work is perfect for otherwise he should not be a perfect Priest Now the perfection of every work lies in order to its end for which it is ordained so as that work is perfect that attains to such an end as it is ordained for and that imperfect which doth not Now the immediate direct end of Christs Intercession is the actuall salvation of Beleevers Elect and persons whom he dyed for The end of his death is Adoptio juris purchasing a right unto salvation but of Intercession procuratio ipsius salutis the very saving us actually and putting us in possession of Heaven To this purpose observe how the Scripture speaks concerning Christs death Heb. 9. 12. He entred into heaven having obtained Redemption or found redemption that is by way of right by procuring full title to it But of his Intercession it sayes Heb. 7. 25. that by it Christ is able to save to the utmost them that come unto God by him that is actually to save and put them in possession of happinesse that is made the end and scope of Intercession there and that phrase 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the utmost notes out a saving indeed a doing it not by halves but wholly and throughly and compleatly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is to save altogether to give our salvation its last act and complement that is the true force of the phrase even to effect it to the last of it all that is to be done about it Thus also Rom. 5. 9 and 10. We are justified by his death but saved namely compleatly by his life that is his living to intercede So that the very salvation of Beleevers is it that is the work the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Christs Intercession Now what security doth this afford What security this affords for to be saved is more then to be justified for it is the actual possessing us of heaven So then do but grant that Christs Intercession is as perfect a work in its kind as Christs death is in its kind and you must needs be saved The perfection of Christs death and the work thereof wherein lay it as on Christs part to be performed but in this that he should lay downe a Ransome sufficient to purchase salvation for such and such persons as God would save and so the perfection of it lies in the worth and sufficiencie of it to that end it was ordained for it being a perfect sacrifice in it self able to purchase eternall redemption for us and to make us salvable against all sins and the demerits of them and to give us right to Heaven and had it wanted a graine of this it had then been imperfect Now then answerably for intercession the comfort of our souls is that the proper work that lies upon Christ therein is the compleat saving those very persons and the possessing them of Heaven this is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the proper worke thereof To out-vie the demerits of our sins was the perfection of his death but to save our soules is the end and perfection of his Intercession Our sins are the object of the one and our soules of the other To that end was intercession added to his death that we might not have a right to Heaven in vaine of which we might be dispossessed Now therefore upon this ground if Christ should faile of our souls salvation yea but of any one degree of glory purchased by his death to any soule which that soule should want this work of his would then want and fal short so much of its perfection That place in Heb. 7. sayes not only that Christ will doe his utmost to save but save to the utmost You may say Object My infidelitie and obstinacy may hinder it though Christ doth what in him lies Well Resp but intercession undertakes the worke absolutely For Christ prays not conditionally in Heaven If men shall believe c. as we doe here on earth nor for propositions only but for persons and therefore he prays to cure that very infidelity Now as if a Physitian undertakes to cure a mad man if he knowes what he doth he considers the madnesse of his Patient and how he will teare off what is applyed and refuse all Physick hee therefore resolves to deal with him accordingly and so to order him as he shall not hinder that help which he is about to afford him and so upon those tearms he undertakes the cure even so doth Christ when by intercession hee undertakes to save us sinners he considers us what we are and how it is with us For Christ otherwise should not be as perfect a Priest in interceding as he was in dying what unbeliefe is in us yet undertakes the matter and so to save us is the scope and end of this his work which if he
Sermon after Acts 2. 33. he then received it and visibly powred him out So Ephes 4. 8. it is said He ascended up on high and gave gifts unto men for the work of the Ministery ver 15 and for the joynting in of the Saints to the encrease of the body of Christ ver 16. that is for the converting of elect sinners and making them Saints And the gifts there mentioned some of them remain unto this day in Pastors and Teachers c. And this spirit is still in our preaching and in your hearts in hearing in praying c and perswades you of Christs love to this very day and is in all these the pledge of the continuance of Christs love still in Heaven unto sinners All our Sermons and your Prayers are evidences to you that Christs heart is still the same towards sinners that ever it was for the Spirit that assists in all these comes in his name and in his stead and works all by commission from him And doe none of you feele your hearts moved in the preaching of these things at this and other times and who is it that moves you it is the Spirit who speakes in Christs name from heaven even as himselfe is said to speake from heaven Heb. 12. 25. And when you pray it is the Spirit that endites your prayers and that makes intercession for you in your own hearts Rom. 8. 26. which Intercession of his is but the evidence and eccho of Christs Intercession in heaven The Spirit prayes in you because Christ prays for you he is an Intercessor on earth because Christ is an Intercessor in Heaven As he did take off Christs words and used the same that he before had uttered vvhen he spake in and to the Disciples the vvords of life so he takes off Christs prayers also when he prayes in us hee takes but the vvords as it were out of Christs mouth or heart rather and directs our hearts to offer them up to God He also follovvs us to the Sacrament and in that Glasse shews us Christs face smiling on us and through his face his heart and thus helping of us to a sight of him vve goe away rejoycing that we savv our Saviour that day Then secondly all those vvorks both of miracles and conversion of sinners in answer to the Apostles prayers are a demonstration of this What a handsell had Peters first Sermon after Christs Ascension when three thousand soules were converted by it The Apostles you know went on to preach forgivenesse through Christ and in his Name and to invite men to him and what signes and wonders did accompany them to confirme that their preaching and all were the fruits of Christs Intercession in heaven So that what he promised Iohn 14. 12. as an evidence of his minding them in heaven was abundantly fulfilled They upon their asking did greater works then he so Acts 4. 29 30. at the prayers of Peter And Heb. 2. 3 4. the Apostle makes an argument of it How shall we escape sayes he if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him God also bearing them witnesse both with signes and wonders and with divers miracles c. Yea let me adde this that take all the New Testament and all the Promises in it and expressions of Christs love it was written all since Christs being in heaven by his Spirit and that by commission from Christ and therefore all that you find therein you may build on as his very heart and therein see that what he once said on earth he repealeth not a word now he is in heaven his mind continues the same And the consideration hereof may adde a great confirmation to our faith herein Thirdly some of the Apostles spake with him since even many yeeres after his Ascension Thus Iohn and Paul of which the last was in heaven with him and they both doe give out the same thing of him Paul heard not one Sermon of Christs that we know of whilst on earth and received the Gospel from no man Apostle or other but by the immediate Revelation of Jesus Christ from heaven as he speaks Gal. 1. 11 12. But he was converted by Christ himselfe from heaven by immediate speech and conference of Christ himselfe with him and this long after his Ascension And in that one instance Christ abundantly shewed his heart and purpose to continue to all sorts of sinners to the end of the world Thus in two places that great Apostle telleth us the first is 1 Timoth. 1. 13. I was a persecuter a blasphemer sayes he but I obtained mercie and the grace of our Lord namely Jesus Christ was exceeding abundant and upon this he declares with open mouth as it were from Christs own selfe who spake to him from Heaven that this is the faithfullest saying that ever was uttered that Christ came into the World to save sinners whereof I am chiefe sayes he ver 15. And to testifie that this was the very scope of Christ in thus converting of Paul himselfe and Pauls scope also in that place to Timothy to shew so much appears by what follows v. 16. For this cause I obtained this mercie that in me first Iesus Christ might shew forth all long-suffering for a pattern to all them that should hereafter beleeve on him unto life everlasting It is expresse you see to assure all sinners unto the end of the world of Christ heart towards them this was his drift For this very cause sayes Paul The second place I alledge in proofe of this is the story of Pauls conversion where he diligently inserts the very words that Christ spake to him from heaven Acts 26. 16. which were these I have appeared unto thee for this purpose to make thee a Minister and a witnesse to send thee to the Gentiles to open their eyes and to turne them from darknesse to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgivenesse of sinnes and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me Brethren these are Christs words since he went to Heaven and he tels Paul hee appeared unto him to testifie thus much This for Pauls conference with him Then againe sixty yeares after his Ascension did the Apostle Iohn receive a Revelation from him even when all the Apostles were dead for after all their deaths was that book written and that Revelation is said to be in a more immediate manner the Revelation of Iesus Christ so Chap. 1. 1. then any other of the Apostles writings and you read that Christ made an Apparition of himselfe to him and said I am he that was dead and am alive and live for evermore Chap. 1. 18. Now let us but consider Christs last words in that his last book the last that Christ hath spoken since he went to Heaven or that hee is to utter till the day of Judgement
all I know thy workes thy labour and thy patience c. Rev. 22. He therewithall hath an act of memory and recalls how himself was once affected and how distressed whilst on earth under the same or the like miseries For the memory of things here below remaines still with him as with all spirits in either of those two other worlds heaven or hell Son remember thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things and Lazarus evill c. sayes Abraham to the soule of Dives in hell Luke 16. 25. Remember me when thou commest into thy Kingdome said the good theefe to Christ And Revel 1. I am hee sayes Christ that was dead and am alive Hee remembers his death still and the sufferings of it and as he remembers it to put his Father in mind thereof so he remembers it also to affect his owne heart with what we feele And his memory presenting the impression of the like now afresh unto him how it was once with him hence he comes feelingly and experimentally to know how it is now with us and so affects himselfe therewith as Dido in Virgil Haud ignara mali miseris succurrere disco Having experience of the like miseries though a Queene now I know how to succour those that are therein As God said to the Israelites when they should be possessed of Canaan their own land Exo. 23. 9. Ye know the hearts of strangers seeing ye were strangers c. and therefore doth command them to pitty strangers and to use them well upon that motive So may it be said of CHRIST that he doth know the hearts of his children in misery seeing himselfe was once under the like Or as the Apostle exhorts the Hebrews Heb. 13. 3. Remember them that are in bonds as bound with them and them that suffer adversity as being your selves in the body and so ere you die may come to suffer the like So Christ the Head of the body which is the fountaine of all sense and feeling in the body doth remember them that are bound and in adversity having himselfe beene once in the body and so he experimentally compassionates them And this is a further thing then the former We have gained this further That Christ hath not onely such affections as are reall and proper to an humane nature but such affections as are stirred up in him from experience of the like by himselfe once tasted in a fraile nature like unto ours And thus much for the way of letting in all our miseries into Christs heart now so as to strike and affect it with them §. II. A more particular disquisition What manner of affection this is The Seat thereof whether in his spirit or soule onely or the whole humane nature Some Cautions added BUt concerning this Affection it selfe of pity and compassion fellow-feeling and sympathie or suffering with as the Text calls it which is the product result or thing produced in his heart by these there still remaines another thing more particularly to be inquired into namely What manner of affection this is For that such an affection is stirred up in him besides and beyond a bare act of knowledge or remembrance how once it was with himselfe is evident by what we find in the Text. The Apostle sayes not onely that he remembers how himselfe was tempted with the like infirmities that we are though that be necessarily supposed but that he is struck and toucht with the feeling of our infirmities to the producing of which this act of remembrance doth but subserve And he tels us Christ is able and his heart is capable of thus being toucht And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a deep word signifying to suffer with us untill we are relieved And this affection thus stirred up is it which moveth him so cordially to helpe us Now concerning this affection as here thus expressed how far it extends and how deep it may reach I think no man in this life can fathome If Cor Regis the heart of a King be inscrutable as Solomon speaks the heart of the King of Kings now in glory is much more I will not take upon me to intrude into things which I have not seen but shall endeavour to speak safely and therefore warily so far as the light of Scripture and right reason shall warrant my way I shall set it forth three wayes 1. Negatively 2. Positively 3. Privatively 1. Negatively It is certaine that this affection of sympathie or fellow-feeling in Christ is not in all things such a kind of affection as was in him in the dayes of his flesh Which is cleare by what the Apostle speaks of him and of his affections then Heb. 5. 7. Who in the dayes of his flesh when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong cryings and teares was heard in that which he feared Where we see his converse and state of life here below to be called by way of difference and distinction from what it is now in heaven The dayes of his flesh By flesh meaning not the substance of the humane nature for he retaines that still but the fraile quality of subjection to mortality or passibility So Flesh is usually taken as when all flesh is said to be grasse It is spoken of mans nature in respect to its being subject to a fading wearing and decay by outward casualties or inward passions So in this Epistle Chap. 2. 14. For as much as the children we his brethren did partake of flesh and bloud that is the frailties of mans nature he himselfe also took part of the same And accordingly the Apostle instanceth in the following words of that 14. verse as in death which in the dayes of his flesh Christ was subject to so also in such fraile passions and affections as did work a suffering in him and a wearing and wasting of his spirits such as passionate sorrow joyned with strong cryes and teares both which he mentioneth and also feare in those words He was heard in that which he feared Now these dayes of his flesh being over and past for this was onely as sayes the Apostle in the dayes of his flesh hence therefore all such concomitant passionate overflowings of sorrow feare c. are ceased therewith and he is now no way capable of them or subjected to them Yet 2. Positively why may it not be affirmed that for substance the same kinde of affection of pittie and compassion that wrought in his whole man both body and soule when he was here workes still in him now he is in heaven If this Position be allayed with those due cautions and considerations which presently I shall annexe For if for substance the same flesh and blood and animall spirits remaine and have their use for though Christ in Luke 24. 29. mentioned only his having flesh and bones after his resurrection unto Thomas and the other Disciples because these two alone were to be the object of his Touch and Feeling yet Blood