hath no other purpose in his being and living but only to honour his Lord that 's to live to righteousness he doth not make a by-work of it a study for his spare houres no 't is his main busines his all In this law doth he meditate day and night This life as the other is in the heart and from thence diffuses to the whole Man he loves righteousness and receiveth the truth as the Apostle speaks in the love of it A natural Man may do many things that for their shell and outside are righteous But he lives not to righteousness because his heart is not possess'd and rul'd with the love of it but this life makes the godly Man delight to walk uprightly and to speak of righteousness his Language and wayes carry the resemblance of his heart Psa. 37. Ver. 30.31 I know 't is easiest to act that part of Religion that is in the Tongue but the Christian ought not for that to be Spiritually dumb Because some Birds are taught to speak Men do not for that give it over and leave off to speak the mouth of the righteous speaketh wisdom and his Tongue talketh of judgement and his feet strive to keep pace with his Tongue which gives evidence of its unfainedness None of his steps shall slide or he shall not stagger in his steps but that which is betwixt these is the common Spring the Law of God is in his heart of both and from thence as Salomon sayes are the issues of his life that Law in his heart is the principle of this living to righteousness 2 The Second thing here is the design or Intendment of this death and life in the sufferings and death of Christ he bare sin and died for it that we might dye to it Out of some conviction of the consequence of Sin many have a confus'd desire to be justified to have sin pardon'd and look no further think not on the importance and necessity of sanctification the nature whereof is express'd by this dying to sin and living to righteousness But here we see that sanctification is necessary as inseparably connexed with justification not only as its companion but as its end which in some kind raises it above the other that it was the thing which God ey'd and intended in taking away the guiltiness of sin that we might be renew'd and sanctified If we compare them in point of time either backward holiness was alwayes necessary unto happiness But satisfying for sin and the pardon of it was made necessary by sin or if we look forward the estate we are appointed to and for which we are delivered from wrath is an estate of perfect holiness When we reflect upon that great work of Redemption we see it aim'd at there Redeem'd to be holy Eph. 5.25 26. Tit. 2.14 And go yet higher to the very Spring the decree of Election And then it s said Chosen before that we should be Holy and in end it shall Suit the designe Nothing shall enter into the new Ierusalem that is defiled or unholy Nothing but all purity there not a spot of sinfull pollution not a wrinkle of the Old Man for this end was that great work undertaken by the Son of God that he might frame out of polluted Mankind a new holy generation to his Father that might compasse his throne in the Life of glory and give him pure praises and behold his face in that eternity Now for this end it was needfull according to the all-wise purpose of the Father that the guiltiness of sin and sentence of Death should be once removed and thus the burden of that lay upon Christs shoulders on the Crosse and that done it is further necessary that Souls so deliver'd be likewise purg'd and renew'd for they are design'd to perfection of holiness in end and it must begin here Yet is it not possible to perswade Men of this that Christ had this in his eye and purpose when he was lift up upon the crosse and look'd upon the whole company of those his Father had given him to save that he would redeem them to be a number of holy Persons We would be redeem'd who is there would not but he would have his redeemed ones holy and they that are not true to this his end but crosse and oppose him in it may hear of redemption long and often But litle to their comfort Are you resolv'd still to abuse and delude your selves Well whither you will believe it or no this is once more told you there is unspeakable comfort in the death of Chirst but it belongs only to those that are dead to sin and alive to righteousness This Circle shuâ—s out the impenitent world there it closes and cannot be broke through but all that are penitent are by their effectual caling lifted in to it translated from that accurs'd condition wherein they were So then if you will live in your sins you may but then resolve withal to bear them your selves for Christ in his bearing of sin meant of none but such as in due time are thus dead and thus alive with him 3. But then in the Third place Christs Sufferings and death effects all this 1. As the exemplary cause the lively contemplation of Christ crucified is the most powerful of all thoughts to separate the heart and sin But 2. besides this working as a Moral cause as that example Christ is the effective natural cause of this death and life For he is one with the Believer and there is a real influence of his death and life into their Souls This Mysterious Union of Christ and the believer is that whereon both their Justification and Sanctification and the whole frame of their Salvation and Happiness depends and in this particular the Apostle still insists on it speaking of Christ and Believers as one in his Death and Resurrection crucified with him dead with him buried with him and risen with him Rom. 6. Being arisen he applies his death to those he dyed for and by it kills the life of sin in them and so is aveng'd on it for its being the cause of his death according to that of the Psalm raise me up that I may requite them He infuses and then actuates and stirres up that faith and love in them by which they are united to him and these work powerfuly in this 3. Faith look's so stedfastly on its suffering Saviour that as they say intellectus fit illud quod intelligit it makes the Soul like him assimilates and conformes it to his Death as the Apostle speaks That which some fable of some of their Saints of receiving the impression of the wounds of Christ in their body is true in a Spiritual sense of the Soul of every one that is indeed a Saint and a believer it takes the very print of his Death by beholding him and dyes to sin and then takes that of his rising again and lives to righteousness as it applies it to justify so
us from it Filthiness needs sprinkling Guiltiness such as deserves death needs sprinkling of Blood and the death it deserves being Everlasting death The Blood must be the Blood of Christ. The Eternal Lord of life dying to free us from the sentence of death The Soul as the body hath its life its health its purity and the contrary of these its Death Diseases Deformities and Impurity which belong to it as to their first Subiect and to the body by participation The Soul and Body of all mankind is stained by the Pollution of sin The impure Leprosie of the Soul is not a spot outwardly but wholly inward hence as the corporal Leprosie was purified by the sprinkling of blood so is this Then by reflecting we see how all this that the Apostle St. Peter expresseth is necessary to Justification 1. Christ the Mediator betwixt God and man is God and man 2. A Mediator not only interceeding but also satisfying Eph. 2.16 3. This satisfaction doth not reconcile us unless it be applyed Therefore there is not only mention of blood but the sprinkling of it the spirit by faith sprinkleth the soul as with hysop wherewith the sprinkling was made this is it of which the Prophet speaks Isai. 52.15 So shall he sprinkle many Nations And which the Apostle to the Hebrewes prefers above all Legal sprinklings Chap. 9.12 13 14. both as to its duration and as to the excellency of its effects Men are not easily convinced and perswaded of the deep stain of sin and that no other Laâ—er can fetch it out but the sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ. Some that have moral Resolutions of amendment dislike at least gross sins and purpose to avoid them and 't is to them cleanness enough to reform in those things but they consider not what becomes of the guiltiness they have contracted already and how that shall be purged how their natural pollution shall be taken away be not deceived in this 't is not an evaâ—ishing sigh or a light word or a wish of God forgive me no nor the highest current of Repentance nor that which is the truest evidence of Repentance Amendment 'T is none of these that purifies in the sight of God and expiats wrath they are all imperfect and stained themselves cannot stand and answer for themselves much less be of value to counterpoise their former guilt of sin the very tears of the purest Repentance unless they be sprinkled with this Blood are impure all our washings without this are but washings of the Blackmore it is labour in vain Ier. 2.22 Iob. 9.30 31. There is none truly purged by the Blood of Christ that do not endeavour purity of heart and Conversation but yet it is the Blood of Christ by which they are all fair and there is no spot in them here 't is said Elect to obedience but because that obedience is not perfect there must be sprinkling of the Blood too There is nothing in Religion further out of natures reach and out of its likeing and believing then the doctrine of Redemption by a Saviour and a Crucified Saviour by Christ and by his blood first shed on the Cross in his suffering and then sprinkled on the soul by his Spirit 'T is easier to make men sensible of the necessity of Repentance and amendment of life though that is very difficult then of this purging by the sprinkling of this precious Blood Did we see how needful Christ is to us we would esteem and love him more 'T is not by the hearing of Christ and of his blood in the Doctrine of the Gospel 't is not by the sprinkling of water even that water that is the sign of this blood without the blood it self and the sprinkling of it Many are present where it is sprinkled and yet have no portion in it Look to this that this blood be sprinkled on your souls that the destroying Angel may pass by you There is a Generation not some few but a generation deceived in this they are their own Deceivers pure in their own eyes Prov. 30.12 How earnestly doth David pray wash me Purge me with hysop Though bathed in tears Psa. 6.6 that satisfied not wash thou me This is the honourable condition of the Saints That they are purified and consecrated unto God by this sprinkling yea have on loâ—g while Robes washt in the Blood of the Lamb There is mention indeed of great Tribulation but there is a double comfort Joyned with it 1. They come out of it that tribulation hath an end And 2 They pass from that to glory for they have on the Robe of Candidates long white Robes washt in the blood of the Lamb washt white in blood as for this blood 't is nothing but purity and spotlesness being stained with no sin and besides hath that vertue to take away the stain of sin where 't is sprinkled My Wellbeloved is white and ruddy saith the Spouse thus in his death ruddy by bloodshed white by Innocence and purity of that blood Shall they then that are purged by this blood return to live among the Swine and tumble with them in the pudle what gross injury is this to themselves and to that Blood by which they were cleansed They that are chosen to this sprinkling are likewise chosen to Obedience this blood purifieth the heart yea This blood purgeth our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.14 Vnto Obedience 'T is easily understood to whom when obedience to God is expressed by the simple absolute name of Obedience it teacheth us that to him alone belongs Absolute and Unlimited Obedience all obedience by all creatures And 't is the shame and misery of man that he hath departed from this Obedience that we are become Sons of disobedience But Grace renewing the hearts of believers changeth their natures and so their names and makes them Children of obedience As afterwards in this Chapter This Obedience consists as in the receiving Christ as our Redeemer so also at the same time as our Lord or King an intire rendring up of the whole man to his obedience This Obedience then of the only begotten Jesus Christ may well be understood not as his Actively as Beza but Objectivly as 2 Cor. 10.5 I think here 't is contain'd yea chiefly understood To signifie that Obedience which the Aposte to the Romans calls the Obedience of faith by which the Doctrine of Christ is received and so Christ himself which uniteth the believing soul to Christ he sprinkles it with his blood to the remission of sin and is the root and spring of all future obedience in the Christian life By Obedience Sanctification is here intimated it signifies then both habitual and active obedience Renovation of heart and conformity to the Divine will the mind is illuminated by the Holy Ghost to know and believe the divine will yea this Faith is the great and chief part of Obedience Rom. 1.8 the truth of the Doctrine
know this Stone is laid but see whether you are built on it by faith The multitude of imaginary believers ly round about it but they are never the better nor the surer for that no more than stones that ly loose in heaps near unto a foundation but are not joyned to 't there is no benefit to us by Christ without union with him No comfort in his riches without interest in them and title to them by that union then is the soul right when it can say He is altogether lovely and as the spouse there He is mine my welbeloved And this union is the spring of all Spiritual consolations and faith by which we are thus united is a divine work he that laid this foundation in Sion with his own hand works likewise with the same hand faith in the heart by which it is knit to this corner stone ' its not so easy a thing as we imagine to believe Eph. 1.19 Many that think they believe are amongst the others quite contrary that the Prophet there speaks of hardened in sin and carnally secure which he calls to be in covenant with hell and death walking in sin and yet promising themselves impunity 4. There is the firmness of this building Namely He that believeth on him shall not be Confounded This firmness is answerable to the nature of the foundation Not only the whole frame but every stone of it abideth sure 'T is a simple mistake to judge the perswasion of perseverance to be self-presumption they that have it are far from building it on themselves but their foundation is that which makes them sure because it doth not only remain firm it self but indissolubly supports all that are once built on it In the Prophet whence this is cited 't is shall not make hast but the sense is one they that are disappointed and ashamed in their hopes run to and fro and seek after some new recourse This they shall not need to do that come to Christ. The believing soul makes hast to Christ but it never finds cause to hasten from him and though the comfort it expects and longs for be for a time deferr'd yet it gives not over knowing that in due time it shall rejoyce and shall not have cause to blush and think shame of its confidence in him David expresseth this distrust by making haste Psal. 31.22 and 116.11 I was too hasty when I said so Hopes frustrated especially where they have been rais'd high and continued long do reproach Men with folly and so shame them And thus do all earthly hopes serve us when we lean much upon them We find these things usually that have promis'd us most content pay us with vexation not only prove broken reeds deceiving our trust but hurtful running their broken spinters into our hand that lean'd on them This sure Foundation is laid for us that our souls may be establish'd on it and be as Mount Sion that cannot be removed Such times may come as will shake all other supports but this holds out against all Psal. 46.2 Though the earth be removed yet will not we fear Though the frame of the World were cracking about a Mans ears he may hear it unaffrighted that is built on this Foundation Why then do we chuse to build upon the sand Believe it wheresoever we lay our confidence and affection besides Christ it shall once repent us and ashame us either hapily in time while we may change them for him and have recourse to him or miserably when 't is too late Remember that we must die and must appear before the Judgment Sent of God and that the things we dote on here have neither Power to stay us here nor have we power to take them along with us nor if we could would they at all profit us there and therefore when we look back upon them all at parting we shall wonder what fools we were to make so poor a Choyce and then in that great day wherein all faces shall gather blackness and be fill'd with confusion that have neglected to make Christ their stay when he was offer'd them then it shall appear how happy they are that have trusted in him they shall not be confounded but shall lift up their faces and be acquitted in him In their present estate they may be founded and exercis'd but they shall not be confounded nor ashamed a double negation in the Original by no means they shall in all be more than Conquerours through him that hath loved them Behold The last thing Obs. is in that first word importing this work to be great and remarkable and caullng the eyes to behold it The Lord is marvellous in the least of his works but in this he hath manifested more of his wisdom and power and let out more of his love to Mankind than in all the rest but we are foolish and childishly gaze about us upon trifles and let this great work pass unregarded scarce afford it half an Eye Turn your wandring Eyes this way Look upon this precious Stone and behold him not in mere speculation but so behold him as to lay hold on him For we see he is therefore here set forth that we may believe on him and so not be confounded that we may attain this blessed union that cannot be dissolv'd all other unions are dissoluble A Man may be pluckt from his dwelling House and Lands or they from him though he have never so good title to them may be removed from his dearest friends the Husband from the Wife if not by other accidents in their lifetime yet sure by death the great dissolver of all those unions and of that straitest of the Soul with the Body but it can do nothing against this union but perfects it for I am perswaded sayes St. Paul that neither death nor life nor Angels nor Principallities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to sâ—perate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Iesus our Lord. There is a twofold mistake concerning faith 1st They that are altogether void of it abusing and flattering themselves in a vain opinion that they have it and on the other side they that have it mis-judging their own Condition and so prejudging themselves of much comfort and sweetness that they might find in their believing The former is the worse and yet the far commoner evil and as one sayes of Wisdom 't is true of Faith Many would seek after it and attain it if they did not falsly imagine that they have attained it already There is nothing more contrary to the lively nature of Faith than for the soul not to be at all busied with the thoughts of its own Spiritual condition and yet this very character of unbelief passes with a great many for believing they doubt not that is indeed they consider not what they are their minds are not all in these things are not
whole Epistle Here he is representing to them the great fruit of that Love that happy and high Estate to which they are called in Christ that the chusing of Christ and Believers is as one act and they as one entire Object of it one glorious Temple He the Foundation and head corner Stone and they the Edifice one honourable Fraternity He the King of Kings and great high Priest and they likewise through him made Kings and Priests unto God the Father a Royal Priesthood c. He the Light of the World and they through him Children of Light Now that this their Dignity which shines so bright in its own innate worth may yet appear the more he sets it off by a double opposition 1. Of the misery under which others are 2 dly That Misery under which they themselves were before their calling And this being set on both sides is as a dark shadowing round about their happiness here describ'd setting off the lustre of it Their former misery express'd in the former Verse by Darkness is here more fully and plainly set before their view in these words They are borrowed from the Prophet Hosea 2.23 Where as is usual with the Prophets he is raised up by the Spirit of God from the temporal troubles and deliverances of the Israelites to consider and foretel that great restorement wrought by Jesus Christ purchasing a New People to himself made up both of Jews and Gentiles that believe and therefore the Prophecy is fit and applicable to both so that the debate is altogether needless whether it concerns the Jews or Gentiles For in its Spiritual sense as relating to the Kingdom of Christ it foretels the making up to the Gentiles that were not before the People of God and of the Jews likewise that by their Apostacies and the Captivities and Dispersions come upon them as just punishments of those Apostacies were degraded from the outward Dignities they had as the People of God and withal were Spiritually miserable and Captives by Nature and so in both respects laid equal with the Gentiles and stood in need of this Restiâ—ution as they St. Paul â—iseth it concerning the calling of the Gentiles Rom. 9. And â—ere St. Peter Writing as is most Probable particularly to the Dispersâ—d Jews applies it to them as being in the very reference it bears to the Jews truly fulfill'd in those alone that were Believers Faith making them a part of the true Israel of God to which the Promises do peculiarly belong as the Apostle St. Paul argue at large Rom. 9. Their former Misery and so their present Happiness we have here under a double expression they were not a People destitute of mercy not the People of God sayes the Prophet Not a People sayes our Apostle being not Gods People so base and miserable as not worthy the Name of a People at all as 't is taken Deut. 32.21 There is a kind of being a life that the Soul hath by a peculiar union with God and therefore in that sense the Soul without God is dead as the Body is without the Soul Eph. 2.1 Yea as the Body seperated from the Soul is not only a liveless lump but putrifies and becomes noysome and abominable thus the Soul seperated from God is subject to a more loathsome and vile putrefaction Psal. 14.3 So that Men that are yet Unbelievers are Not as the Hebrewes express'd death multitudes of them are not a People but a heap of filthy Carcases Again take our Natural Misery in the notion of a Captivity which was the judgement threatned against the Jews to make them not a People therefore their Captivity is often spoke of as a Death by the Prophets and their reduction as their resurrection Ezek. 37. And as a Captive People is civilly dead as they speak so are Souls captive to Sin and the and the Prince of darknes Spiritually dead wanting happiness and well being which if it never attain it had better for it self not be at all Nothing but disorder and confusion in the Soul without God the affections hurrying it tumultuously Thus Captive sinners are not are dead they both want that happy being that flowes from God to the Souls that are united to himself and consequently must want that Society and union one with another which results from the former from the same union that Believers have with God and the same being in Him which makes them truly worthy to be called a People and particularly the People of God His People are the only People in the World worthy to be call'd a People the rest are but refuse and dross although in the Worlds esteem that judges by its own rules and favour of it self the People of God be as no body no People a company of silly creatures yea we are made sayes the great Apostle as the filth of the World and the offscouring of all things yet in his account who hath chosen them who alone knowes the true value of things His People are the only People and all the rest of the World as nothing in his eyes He Dignifies and beautifies them and loves in them that Beauty which He hath given them But under that term is not only compriz'd that new being of Believers in each one of them apart but that tie and union that is amongst them as one People being incorporated together and living under the same Government and Laws without which a People are but as the Beasts of the Field or the Fishes of the Sea and the Creeping things that have no ruler over them as the Prophet Habak speaks That regular living in Society and Union in Laws and Polity makes many Men to be One People but the civil Union of Men in States and Kingdoms is nothing comparable to the Mysterious Union of the People of God with him and one with another That Commonwealth hath a firmer Union then all others Believers are knit together in Christ as their Head not merely a Civil or Political Head ruling them but as a Natural Head enlivening them giving them all one Life Men in other Societies though well ordered yet are but as a Multitude of trees regularly planted indeed but each upon his own Root But the Faithful are all Branches of one Root their Vnion is so Mysterious that it is resembled to the very union of Christ with his Father as indeed the product of it Ioh. 17. People of God I will say to them thou art my People and they shall say thou art my God Hos. 2.23 That Mutual Interest and possession is the very foundation of all our Comfort He is the first Chuser He first sayes My People calls them so and makes them to be so and then they say My God therefore a Relation that shall hold and shall not break because it is founded upon His choyce who changes not The tenor of an external Covenant with a People as the Jewes particularly found is such as may be broken by Mans unfaithfulness
our miserable natural estate there is as close an union betwixt us and sin as betwixt our Souls and Bodies it lives in us and we in it and the longer we live in that condition the more the union growes and the harder it is to dissolve it and it is as old as the union of Soul and Body begun with it so that nothing but that death here spoke of can part them And this death in this relative sense is mutual in the work of conversion sin dyes and the soul dyes to sin and these two are really one and the same the spirit of God kills both at one blow Sin in the Soul and the soul to sin as the Apostle sayes of the World both are kill'd the one to the other And there are in it chiefly these two things that make the difference 1. The Solidness And 2. The universallity of this change under this notion of Death Many things may ly in a Man's way betwixt him and the acting of divers sins which possibly he affects most some restraints outward or inward may be upon him the authority of others or the fear of shame or punishment or the check of an enlightned conscience and though by reason of these he commit not the sin he would yet he lives in it because he loves it because he would commit it as we say the soul lives not so much where it animats as where it Loves And generally that kind of Metaphorical life by which a Man is said to live in any thing hath its principal Seat in the affection that 's the immediate link of the union in such a life and the untying and death consists chiefly in the disengagement of the heart breaking off the affection from it Ye that love the Lord hate evil An unrenewed mind may have some temporary dislikes even of its beloved sins in cold blood but it returnes to like them within a while A Man may not only have times of cessation from his wonted way of sinning but by reason of the Society wherein he is and withdrawing of occasions to sin and divers other causes his very desire after it may seem to him to be abated and yet he not dead to sin but only asleep to it and therefore when a temptation back'd with opportunity and other inducing circumstances comes and joggs him he awakes and arises and followes it A Man may for a while distaste some meat that he loves possibly upon a surfet but he regains quickly his likeing of it Every quarrel with sin and fit of dislike of it is not this hatred Upon the lively representing the deformity of his sin to his mind Certainly a Natural Man may fall out with it but these are but as the litle jarres of Husband and Wife that are far from dissolving the Marriage 't is not a fixed hatred such as amongst the Jews inferr'd a divorce if thou hate her put her away and that is to die to it as by a Legal Divorce the Husband and Wife are civilly dead one to another in regard of the ty and use of Marriage Again some Mens Education and Custome and morall principles may free them from the grossest kind of Sins yea a Man's temper may be averse from them but they are alive to their own kind of sins such as possibly are not so deform'd in the common account Coveteousness or Pride or hardness of heart and either a hatred or disdain of the wayes of Holiness that are too strict for them and exceed their size Beside for the good of humane Society and for the Interest of his own Church and People God restrains many Natural Men from the height of wickedness and gives them moral Vertues There be very many and very common sins that more refined Natures it may be are scarce tempted to but as in their Diet and Apparel and other things in their Natural Life they have the same kind of being with other Persons though more neat and pleasant so in this living to sin They live the same life with other ungodly Men though in a litle more deicate way They consider not that the Devils are not in themselves subject to nor capable of many of those sins that are accounted grossest amonst Men and yet are greater Rebels and Enemies to God than Men are But to be dead to sin goes deeper and extends further than all these Namely a most inward alienation of heart from sin and most universal from all sin an antipathy to the most beloved sin Not only he must forbear sin but hate it I hate vain thoughts and not only hate some but all I hate every false way A stroke at the heart does it which is the certainest and quickest Death of any wound For in this dying to sin all the whole Man of necessity dyes to it the mind dyes to the Device and study of Sin that vein and invention becomes dead the hand dies to the acting of it the ear to the delightful hearing of things profane and sinful the Tongue to the Worlds dialect of Oaths and rotten-speaking and calumny and evil speaking this is the commonest piece of the Tongues life in sin the very natural heat of sin that acts and vents most that way the Eye dead to that intemperate look that Solomon speaks of eyeing the Wine when it is red and well colour'd in the cup. Prov. 23. That is is taken with looking on the glittering skin of that Serpent till it bite and sting as there he addes Dead to that unchaste look that sets fire in the heart to which Iob blind folded and deaded his eyes by an express compact and agreement with them I have made a Covenant with mine eyes The Eye of a Godly Man is not on the false sparkling of the Worlds Pomp and Honour and Wealth 't is dead to them quite dazled with a greater beauty the grass look's fine in the morning when 't is set with those liquid Pearles the drops of dew that shine upon it but if you can look but a little while on the body of the Sun and then look down again the Eye is as it were dead sees not that faint shining on the earth that it thought so gay before and as the Eye is blinded and dies to it so within a few hours it quite evanishes and dyes it self Men think it strange that the Godly are not of their Dyet that their Appetite is not stirr'd with the delights of dainties they know not that such as be Christians indeed are dead to those things and the best dishes that are set before a dead Man give him not a stomach The Godly Mans throat is cut to those meats as Solomon advises in another subject But why may not you be a litle more sociable to follow the fashion of the World and and take a share with your Neighbours may some say without so precise and narrow examining every thing 'T is true sayes the Christian that the time was I advis'd as litle with
to Mortify drawes vertue from it Thus sayd one Christ aim'd at this in all those Sufferings that with so much love he went through and shall I disappoint him and not serve his end 4. That other powerfull grace of Love is joynt in this work with faith for Love desires nothing more than likeness and conformity though it be a painfull resemblance so much the better and fitter to testify love therefore 't will have the Soul dye with him that dy'd for it and the very same kind of death I am crucified with Christ sayes the great Apostle The Love of Christ in the Soul takes the very Nails that fastned him to the Crosse and crucifies the Soul to the World and to Sin Love is strong as Death particularly in this the strongest and liveliest Body when Death siezes it must yield and so becomes motionless that was so vigorous before And the Soul that is most active and unwearied in Sin when this Love siezes it it is kill'd to Sin and as Death seperates a Man from his dearest Friends and Society this Love breaks all the tyes and friendship with Sin Generally as Plato hath it Love takes away ones living in them selves and transfers into the party loved but the divine Love of Christ doth it in the truest and highest manner By whose stripes ye were healed The misery of fallen Man and the mercy of his deliverance are both of them such a deep as no one expression yea no variety added one to another can reach their bottom Here we have divers very significative ones 1. The guiltiness of sin as an intollerable burden pressing the Soul and sinking it and that transfer'd and layed on a stronger Back He bare Then 2. The same wretchedness under the same notion of a strange disease by all other means incurable healed by his stripe's And 3. again represented by the forlorn condition of a Sheep wandring and our Salvation to be found only in the love and wisdom of our great Shepherd And all these are borrow'd from that sweet and clear prophecy Isa. 53. The polluted nature of Man is no other but a bundle of desperate diseases he is spiritually dead as the Scriptures often teach Now this contradicts not nor at all Lessen's the matter But only because this misery justly called death is in a Subject animated with a natural life therefore so it may bear the Name and sense of sickness or wound and therefore 't is gross misprision they are as much out in their Argument as in their conclusion that would extract out of these expressions any evidence of remains of Spiritual life or good in our corrupted Nature But they are not worthy the contest tho vain heads think to argue themselves into life and are seeking that life by Logick in Miserable Nature that they should seek by faith in Jesus Christ Namely in these his stripes by which we are healed It were a large task to name our Spiritual Maladies how much more severally to unfold their Natures such a multitude of corrupt false Principles in the mind that as Gangrens do spread themselves through the Soul and defile the whole Man and total gross blindness and unbelief in Spiritual things and that stone of the heart hardness and impenitency Lethargies of senslesness and security and then for there be such complications of Spiritual diseases in us as in Naturals are altogether impossible such burning fevers of inordinate affections desires of lust and Malice and envy such racking and tormenting cares of Covetousness and feeding on Earth and Ashes as the Prophet speaks in another case according to the deprav'd appetite that accompanies some Diseases Such tumours of Pride and self-conceit that break forth as filthy botches in Mens words and carriage one with another And in a word what a wonderful disorder must needs be in the Natural Soul by the frequent interchanges and fight of contrary passions within it and to these from without how many deadly wounds we receive from the tentations of Satan and the World We receive them and by the weapons they furnish us we willingly wound our selves as the Apostle sayes of them who will be rich they fall into divers snares and noysome lusts and pierce them selves through with many sorrowes Did we see it no Infirmery nor Hospital ever so full of loathsome and miserable Spectacles as Spiritually our wretched Nature is in any one of us apart How much more when multitudes of us are met together But our evils are hid from us and we perish miserably in a Dream of happiness That makes up and compleats our wretchedness that we feel it not with our other diseases And this makes it worse still This was the Churches disease Rev. 3. Thou sayest I am rich and knowest not that thou art Poor c. We are usually full of complaints of triffling griefs that are of small moment and think not on nor feel not our Dangerous Maladies as he who shewed a Physician his fore finger but the Physician told him he had more need to think on the cure of a dangerous Impostume within him which he perceiv'd by looking to him though himself did not feel it In dangerous Maladies or wounds there be these evils a tendency to death and with that the apprehension of the terrour and fear of it and the present distemper of the Body by them and this is in sin 1. There is the guiltiness of sin binding over the Soul to death the most frightful eternal Death 2. The terrour of conscience in the apprehension of that death or wrath that is the consequent and end of sin 3. The raging and prevailing power of sin which is the ill habitude and distemper of the soul But these stripes and that blood that issued from them are a sound cure applied unto the soul they take away the guiltiness of sin and death deserved and free us from our engagement to those everlasting scourgings and lashes of the wrath of God and likewise they are the only cure of those present terrours and pangs of Conscience arising from the sense of that wrath and sentence of death upon the Soul Our Iniquities that met on his back laid open to the rod which in it self was free those hands that never wrought iniquity and those feet that never declined from the way of righteousness yet for our workes and wandrings were pierced and that Tongue dropping with Vinegar and Gall on the Cross that never spoke a guileful nor sinful word The Blood of those stripes are that Balm issuing from that tree of Life so pierced that can only give ease to the Conscience and heal the wounds of it and they deliver from the power of sin working by their influence and loathing of sin that was the cause of them they cleanse out the vitious humours of our corrupt nature by opening up that issue of Repentance they shall look on him and mourn over him whom they have pierced Now to the end it may
that we being dead to sin should live unto Righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed THat which is deepest in the heart is readily most in the mouth That which abounds within runs over most by the Tongue or Pen when Men light upon the speaking of that Subject that possesses the affection they can hardly be taken off or drawn from it again Thus the Apostles in their writings when they make mention any way of Christ suffering for us they love to dwell on it as that which they take most delight to speak of Such delicacy and sweetness is in it to a Spiritual taste that they like to keep it in their mouth and are never out of their theam when they insist on Jesus Christ though they have but nam'd him by occasion of some other Doctrine for he is the great subject of all they have to say Thus here the Apostle had spoke of Christ in the foregoing words very fitly to this present Subject setting him before Christian Servants and all suffering Christians as their compleat example both in point of much suffering and of perfect Innocency and Patience in suffering And express'd their engagement to study and follow that example yet he cannot leave it so but having said that all those his sufferings wherein he was so exemplary were for us as a chief consideration for which we should study to be like him he returns to that again and enlarges himself in it in words partly the same partly very near those of that Evangelist among the Prophets Esay Chap. 53. And it suits very well with his main scope to press this point as giving both very much strength and sweetness to the Exhortation as being most reasonable that we willingly conform to him in suffering that had never been an Example of suffering nor subject at all to sufferings nor capable of them but for us and most comfortable in the light sufferings of this Moment to consider that he hath freed us from the sufferings of Eternity by suffering himself in our stead in the fulness of time That Jesus Christ is in doing and suffering our Supream and Matchless Example and that he came to be so is a truth but that he is nothing further and came for no other end is you see a high point of falshood for how should Man be enabled to learn and follow that example of obedience unless there were more in Christ and what would become of that great reckoning of disobedience that Man stands guilty of No these are too narrow he came to bear our sins on his own Body on the tree and for this purpose had a Body fitted for him and given him to bear this burden to do this as the will of his Father to stand for us in stead of all Offerings and Sacrifices and by that will sayes the Apostle we are Sanctified through the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once for all This was his business not only to rectifie sinful Mankind by his example but to redeem him by his Blood he was a teacher come from God As a Prophet he teaches us the way of Life and as the best and greatest of Prophets is perfectly like his Doctrine and his actions that in all Teachers is the livelyest part of Doctrine his carriage in Life and death is our great Pattern and instruction But what is said of his forerunner is more eminently true of Christ he is a Prophet and more then a Prophet a Priest satisfying justice for us and a King conquering sin and death for us an Example in deed but more than an Example our Sacrifice and our Life and all in all 't is our Duty to walk as he walked to make him the pattern of our steps 1 Ioh. 2.6 But our comfort and salvation lyeth in this that he is the propitiation for our sins Verse 2. So in the first Chapter of that Epistle Verse 7. We are to walk in the Light as he is in the Light For all our walking we have need of that which followes that bears the great weight the Blood of Iesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin and so still that glory which he possesseth in his own Person is the pledge of ours he is there for Vs. he lives to make intercession for us sayes the Apostle and I go to prepare a place for you sayes he himself We have in the words these two great points and in the same order as the words ly 1. The nature and quality of the sufferings of Jesus Christ And 2. The end of them In the expression of his suffering we are to consider 1. The commutation of the Persons he himself for us 2. The work undertaken and performed he bare our sins in his own body on the tree 1. The Act or sentence of the Law against the breach of it standing in force and Divine justice expecting satisfaction death was the necessary and inseperable consequent of sin If you say the Supream Majesty of God being accountable to none might have forgiven all without satisfaction We are not to contest that nor foolishly to offer to sound the bottomless deep of his absolute prerogative Christ implies in his Prayer that it was impossible that he could escape that cup But the impossibility is resolv'd into his Fathers will as the cause of it But this we may clearly see following the tract of the holy Scriptures our only safe way that this way wherein our salvation is contriv'd is most excellent and suitable to the greatness and goodness of God so full of wonders of wisdom and love that the Angels as our Apostle tells us before cannot forbear looking on it and admiring it for all their exact knowledge yet they still find it infinitly beyond their knowledge still in astonishment and admiration of what they see and still in search looking in to see more Those Cherubims still haveing their eyes fixed on this Mercy Seat Justice might indeed have siez'd on rebellious Man and laid the pronounc'd punishment on him mercy might have freely acquit him and pardon'd all But can we name any place where mercy and justice as relating to condemned Man could have met and shined joyntly in full aspect save only in Jesus Christ in whom indeed Mercy and truth met and righteousness and peace kissed each other Yea in whose Person the Parties concern'd that were at so great a distance met so near as nearer can not be imagin'd And not only was this the only way for the consistence of these two Justice and Mercy but take each of them severally and they could not have been in so full lustre as in this Gods just hatred of sin did out of doubt appear more in punishing his own only begotten Son for it than if the whole race of Mankind had suffer'd for it Eternally Again it raises the notion of Mercy to the highest that sin is not only forgiven us but for this end God's own coeâ—ernal Son is given to us and for us Consider