by the effusion of such blood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even his own 3. His Merit is founded in the greatness of his Sufferings not excluding the humility and necessities of his Life the poverty and contempt of his low estate That he indeed suffered the pains of the damned or that his descent into Hell imports any such thing is not to be believed by a Christian both because the state of desperation there fills up the meafure of their misery which would be impious to think of Christ as also that satisfaction doth not require that the pains of his Death should be equal to the Eternal punishment of all Men That would have been exact payment of Debt and God in Justice could not have punished any Sinner a second time in his own Person But that his Sufferings were of another nature than we are capable to endure or our Minds to conceive seems to follow from the greatness of that Passion and Symptoms of exquisite torture more than once observed in him which the Evangelists express by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 forcing him to sweat drops of blood to pray though with great submission that the Cup might depart from him and at last to cry out My God why hast thou forsaken me Had there not been some invisible tortures exceeding those inflicted on his Body Celsus his Question in Origen would not seem unreasonable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have we not heard of many Martyrs and even others who could receive no Courage from the cause for which they suffered whose Deaths were not only free from the least complaint but accompanied with rejoycings We must believe that the pains of our Saviour were more than we can give any account of or which is Blasphemy to affirm that he had not the fortitude of a Stoick or an ordinary Spartan when even the Thieves themselves who were Crucified with him and died by most of the same external circumstances of Cruelty showed not the signs of so severe a Passion 4. The Innocence of the Person advanced the Merit of his Death As in nature that medium which transmits Colours untainted to the Eye must have no Colour of its own so Christ who was the propitiation for our sins did no sin neither was guile found in him He is called the Lamb without spot As both the Jews and Gentiles were ever careful that the Beast devoted to Sacrifice should be notorious both for the clearness of its colour and beauty of it's bodily shape My righteous Servant shall justify many The rules laid down by the Jews are almost infinite whereby he who was to be accounted a fit High-Priest was to be examined The parts of his Body and qualities of his Mind were exactly surveyed no deformity in either could be excused when he made expiation for sin Such an High-Priest became us who is Holy harmless undefiled separate from Sinners free not only from the commission but inclinations to Vice who neither did nor thought harm The only Person who led a Life conformable to his Doctrine and vindicated simple innocence from the reproach of softness and want of wit He did perfectly fulfil that Christian Proverb 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A harmless Prudence aderned every action of his Life as an unparallell'd love was manifest in his Death He lived to teach us how we may be happy and died to expiate not his own but our sins And certainly there is not in the World a more moving Spectacle than to see an innocent Person sore afflicted So sad an effect without an immediate cause Death and Diseases are the undoubted consequents of sin But that our Saviour who with the truest Conscience and strongest assurance challenged his Murderers to accuse him of sin should with so much Patience and Charity subject himself to such exquisite torments this was the accomplishment of his Merit and such satisfaction as infinite Justice knew not how to refuse 3. Thirdly we preach the Universality the unbounded Virtue of his Crucifixion Not as some who making great pretensions to preach Christ preach nothing less or preach him out of envy to all the World but themselves making void his Death by confining the intent of his Sufferings to the little flock upon whom alone as on Gideon's Fleece this Heavenly Dew must fall whilst the rest of the World remains parched and dryed prepared matter for everlasting burnings raising a Monopoly of that blood intended to enliven whole dead Mankind It is a Jewish Principle and fully as opposite to Christianity as the rest of their Religion for any Party or Sect to believe themselves the Elect of God and to allow no hopes or possibility of Salvation to the infinity of Men only to the Inhabitants of a little piece of ground scarce above two hundred Miles in length But God is true He hath told us That Christ gave himself a ransom for all that he tasted death for every man And in the 1 John 2.2 to which place no distinction can give a colourable answer he was the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but for the sins of the whole World So that the death of Christ extends its Virtue 1. To all persons Every Man is bound under the obligation of eternal Death to believe that Christ died for him in particular therefore Christ did die for every Man God obligeth no Man to believe a lye which according to them who confine Christ's Death only to the Elect the far greatest part of Mankind must necessarily do What solid ground of comfort can any sincere Christian find in believing that almost whole Mankind are excluded from the benefits of his Death Will it not breed despair and make Men cast off all Religion or if any one be so hardy as to believe himself is one of those very few whom Christ so loved as to dy for it is indeed like the confidence of those who call themselves Saints But God hath no where made Pride ill Nature and high Presumption to be qualifications for his Salvation 2. It extends to all Ages of the World Hence he is called the Lamb slain from the foundation of the World and a ransom testified in due time That though he dyed not till the fullness of time yet whoever were saved before his appearance were saved by his Merits and by the efficacy of that blood which was figured by all the Sacrifices of the Jews and also of the Gentiles who without question received the rite of Sacrificing by tradition from the first Fathers of the World Moses counted the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt Jesus Christ is the same propitiation in all parts of time yesterday to day and for ever This is one excellency of the Christian Sacrifice above the Levitical that its Virtue diffuses it self throughout all Ages of the World and therefore needed but once to be offered as the Apostle argues Hebr. 9. 25. had not the Gentiles the explicite knowledge of our Saviour neither
Imprimatur Nov. 2. 1691. Geo. Royse R. Rmo in Christo Patri ac D no D no Johanni Archiep. Cantuar. à sacris Domest Christ Crucified A SERMON PREACHED AT SALISBURY August 23. 1691. By JOSEPH KELSEY B. D. Prebendary of SARUM LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishop's Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1691. TO THE Right Honourable THOMAS EARL of PEMBROKE c. One of Their Majesties Most Honourable Privy-Council My LORD HAD this Sermon been designed to be publick I would have endeavoured that it should better have answered both the Dignity of the Subject and the Nobleness of the Name prefixed to it But since your Lordship was pleased to encourage the Printing it as it was Preached I esteem that Favour solely to proceed from your Great Piety to Catholick Verities particularly the Honour of our Saviour at this time so injuriously assaulted and your Love to the Church of England which ever was and continues to be the best Defender and Conserver of them That God will confirm to your Lordship these and all other Virtues which make true Greatness and reward them with spiritual and temporal Blessings is the Prayer of My Lord Your Lordship 's in all Duty most obliged and most humble Servant Joseph Kelsey Christ Crucified 1 COR. I. 23 24. But we preach Christ Crucified unto the Jews a stumbling-block and unto the Greeks foolishness But unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the Wisdom of God CHRIST in this Text seems to represent the future fate of his Religion to the end of all things that it should be always militant on Earth till triumphant in Heaven like an Isthmus or narrow neck of Land it is opposed to the fury of two rageing Enemies Jew and Gentile yet stands the Emblem of invincible Fortitude an eternal exception to all the powers of fleshly Wisdom wounds no less the acuteness of the Grecian Sophister than the dullness of the illogical Jew and puzzles as well the brisker genius of Athens as the more phlegmatick Rabbies at Jerusalem A Problem baited both by ignorance and learning by prejudice and ingenuity by malicious interest and a better generosity The most excellent things still fight with the greatest difficulties God himself hath the most Enemies and Virtue is ever placed betwixt opposite Vices Christ Crucified sounds a contradiction to the Philosophy of a Greek implicates in the very terms To the Hebrew Superstition it is more terrible and confounding than the shakings of Mount Sinai Stupid and heavy Jew whom nothing less than Thunder will confute Captious Greek who seekest Wisdom in Mode and Figure rejecting all as folly which hath not its appearance in Logical Syllogisms or Sophistical Elenchs Quid quaeris Judaee Signa hic est Dei Virtus Quid tu Graece Sapientiam hic est sapientia Aeterni Patris We preach Christ Crucified The power of God and the Wisdom of God In which words we will consider I. The great subject of Christian Doctrine We preach Christ Crucified II. The Vindication of it from the Oppositions of Jew and Gentile The power of God and the Wisdom of God I. We preach Christ Crucified That is 1. The Satisfaction which he made 2. The Merit of his Death 3. The unbounded Virtue of it 4. The effect which so great an Example of Virtue ought to have upon our selves 1. We preach the Satisfaction which by his Death he gave to Divine Justice for the sins of the World rendring the offended Majesty of his Father gracious by the oblation of himself They are low and unworthy designs which terminate the Virtue of our Saviours Death in any thing less than those high and noble effects which Scripture and the Faith of Gods Church have attributed unto it That he should dy chiefly to give Testimony to the Doctrine of Remission of sins which he preached is to make him a meer Martyr to his own Religion to put no distinction betwixt the Death of the Son of God and of a mortal Man to allow more real Virtue to the blood of Bulls and Goats as to the taking away of sin than of the immaculate Lamb of God The Apostles and all holy Martyrs who died for the Doctrine which they preached might on this account compare with him in the efficacy of their Deaths and challenge the incommunicable Title of Saviours and Redeemers of Mankind Nay Socrates himself supposing the Morality of his Philosophy such as might make those who should practise it acceptable unto God would justly be said by his Death to have purchased remission of sins and to have been the Author of Eternal Salvation to his Athenian Proselytes The Miracles which our Saviour did were more convincing Arguments of the truth of his Doctrine than was his Death it being no unheard of thing for Men with the loss of their Lives to defend the most impious and heretical Opinions Nor is that Faith and Hope of Eternal Life so much magnified as the great effect of his Death with any reason applyed unto it since the cruel torments of a most innocent Person at first sight appears the most preposterous means to induce a belief of immortal bliss And the Scriptures every where lay the foundation of a firm Faith in our Saviours Resurrection Moreover had the Death of Christ been only intended for a Testimony to his Doctrine it might very well have been spared and others and no less convincing methods used After having lead a Life of perfection upon Earth he might have ascended after the manner that Enoch and Elias were translated into Heaven and from thence have showed his Majestie to the confusion of his Enemies He might have taken his Murderers at their word have descended from the Cross and so confuted all their pretences But this Sacrifice was intended for greater ends To have its effect not only upon Men but to move even God himself And this it did to two things which seem to make up the Nature of Satisfaction 1. It moved God to a relaxation of his Law or a receding from his right 2. To a translation of the punishment 1. Upon the account of Christ's Sufferings God was moved to a dispensation of his law This Law is set down Gen. 2.17 In the day thou eatest the forbidden fruit thou shalt surely die thou shalt be punished with eternal death If this Law had exactly been executed none could be saved but we are taught that those who believe in Christ are redeemed from the Curse of the Law Gal. 3.13 And by the conditional Promises of the Gospel God doth plainly recede from that right of punishing which that Law gave him Many are the instances in Scripture that God hath done this and to dispute that he cannot is to transform the God of Christians into a stoical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to bind him in Chains of fatality as invincible as a Heathen Jupiter Promises do give a right to him to whom they are made which
will be injury against his consent to take away but threatnings are revocable without any injury because it is supposed the party threatned will not challenge the performance of the threatening Nor in this case is it necessary to dispute the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 under what notion God is to be considered whether this action of relaxing his Law proceeded from him as a Judge as the party offended or as the Governour of the World since all these agree in him It is sufficient that he is God a Being wise just and good and was pleased for satisfacere in the Law is alterius voluntatem implere upon the account of Christ's Death to dispense with the execution of that Law whereby all Sinners that is whole Mankind were condemned to Eternal Torments Which dispensation if it had not intervened two most excellent things had quite perished out of the World Religion from Man to God and Divine goodness towards Man 2. The second part of this Satisfaction is the translation of the punishment God's accepting the Sufferings of Christ for the punishment due to Sinners This is according to another expression of the Civil Law Satisfactio est pro solutione It is not the payment it self but in lieu of it the Sufferings of Christ were not the same which we deserved yet such as served all the ends of Justice and Mercy That he suffered very grievous Tortures appears from the History of his Passion That he suffered for our sins is clear from the ancient Prophecies Isaiah 53. God laid on him the iniquities of us all and from infinite places in the Epistles He was made sin for us a Curse for us which places can signify nothing else but that Christ did undergo those Sufferings upon the account of our sins and his Death was accepted instead of ours It is objected That no body can be justly punished for anothers sin because obligation to punishment ariseth from Merit but Merit is personal proceeding from the will than which nothing is more our own But. 1. First It is to be considered That though all the instances brought to declare the translation of punishment from the guilty to the innocent in the Athenian and Roman Commonwealths of two Friends ready to die one for the other of Zaleucus who redeemed his Sons Eye with the loss of his own do suppose a Principle which Christianity will not allow That every Man is perfect Master and hath the disposal of his own Life as appears by that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self-murder which was not only not esteemed blameable but gained the repute of manly and heroic amongst the most refined Heathens yet it was not so with Christ He had both power from his Father and as himself tells us John 10.18 No man taketh my life from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down That which made their actions unjust hath no place in his sufferings 2. Although when God visits the sins of the Fathers upon the Children he may be said to make use of his Soveraign right in taking away that Life which he gave in which there can be no injustice so long as the punishment exceeds not the benefit of Creation upon which his right is founded Yet is it clear from Scripture That the People of Israel and the Posterity of Jeroboam however they had sins of their own yet were they innocent as to that for which they suffered David's numbring of the People and Jeroboam's many iniquities 3. Lastly it is evident that exquisite sufferings are inflicted by Providence where there is no sin to be punished or prevented but perfect innocence For brute Beasts and infant Children who having no free will cannot by sin abuse it do ly under and dy by the same tormenting Diseases with rational sinful men So that the distinction betwixt punishment and affliction will not bear that weight either in the common use of words or reasoning which in this dispute is laid upon it God will ever be just what names soever Men put upon his proceedings It was not therefore unjust either according to Scripture or reason that our most innocent Saviour should be punished for our offences that we by his stripes might be healed and the wrath of God receive that satisfaction which his mercy truth and justice did require 2. We preach the Merit of his Death which is founded in these particulars 1. In the free and willing obedience of Christ This the Scriptures take great notice of Thus Christ himself bespeaks his Father Lo I come to do thy will O God And God at the first appearance in his Office by a Voice from Heaven declared the great complacency he had in the Obedience of his Son This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And St. Paul tells us that as by the disobedience of one many were made Sinners so by the obedience of one many should be made righteous Amongst the Heathens it was accounted a bad Omen if the Beast to be Sacrificed came with any reluctancy to the Altar The prompt and ready submission of Christ to so great sufferings on behalf of the World was of mighty power to encline his Father to recede from the rigour of his Justice 2. The Merit of Christ's Death is founded in the dignity of his Person We were not redeemed with corruptible riches but with the precious blood of the Son of God It was the Lord of Life and Glory who was Crucified God did purchase to himself a Church by his own blood Although the Divinity was impatible and remained untouched amidst all the fury of its Enemies yet was the value of his Sufferings advanced by its union with his Godnead as it is a greater aggravation to strike a King than a Slave though in both only the body receive the stroke The Stoicks do but play with words whilst they maintain an equality of sins yet grant that the Murderer of his Father deserves greater punishment because there is a complication of many sins he not only killed a Man but took life from him who gave him his who nourished him and was the Authour of all his contentment If the Catholick Fathers in their disputations with Arius and others the Opposers of Christ's Divinity did not insist much upon the undervaluing the merit of his Death nor urged the detriment to his satisfaction by making him meer Man it was rather because his Divinity being secured his satisfaction likewise would remain entire than that they did not see the consequence He must have low thoughts of his Sufferings who believes them only to be the Sufferings of a Mortal Man as he who can allow all that to the Sufferings of a Man which the Scriptures give to Christ's will easily be brought to think there is no need of a Mediator And therefore Socinus from the denial of Christ's satisfaction proceeded to bereave him of his Godhead A meer Man destroyed the World but only God could recover it