in the New Testament 1 Rom. 30. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is Translated despiteful and denotes thus much When his power could not reach the Persons of Professours nor the worldly concerns of Professours yet he did his utmost to blast their names and blemish their reputation he was a reviler he forbore nothing that was injurious to them but what was beyond his power to inflict These were his sins 2. What mercy he did obtain notwithstanding such sins and that in three instances 1. Sparing mercy God had born with him Notwithstanding he was often guilty of those sins which might have brought wrath and destruction more quickly upon him he wondered at Gods patience towards him this is mentioned in this verse That he might shew forth all long suffering When he once came to understand what he had been and what he had done he stands amazed at the holy God that had so much patience with him God had it is true struck him to the ground he admired that God had not struck him as low as hell We are apt to think beholding the gross abominations that are more open and visible in our days what infinite patience there is in God that he doth not immediately break out upon such as are guilty but S. Paul like a poor humble sinner busies himself at home and spends his wondering chiefly on Gods patience towards himself who had been a blasphemer and persecutour and injurious and yet alive and on this side hell yet a pattern of the patience and long-suffering of God 2. He obtained pardoning and renewing mercy in respect of that double change that was wrought upon him there was an outward change in respect of his State and Condition and there was an inward change in respect of the frame and disposition of his heart These were the high and choice mercies which he obtained Mercy in respect of his state and condition Of a childe of wrath he became a childe of mercy and favour from a state of death he was brought into a state of life from a state of condemnation he was brought into a state of absolution and pardon as he himself speaks 2 Ephes 5. Even when we were deed in sins he hath quickned us together with Christ We were dead guilty of death under a state of condemnation but now 5. Rom. 1. being justified by faith we have peace with God Now justification is not only an act of mercy and consists not barely in the remission of sin but it is an act of justice also in regard of the account upon which sin is forgiven this is a Doctrine whereof many in these times speak very lightly therefore to give a right notion of Justification consider it doth not only consist in the bare remission of sin but this remission of sin is upon a valueable consideration Divine Justice having received a valueable satisfaction by the blood of Christ For nothing could expiate our sins but his blood Now S. Paul was sensible of the great mercy of God to him and by this mercy he means pardoning mercy Again he did partake of purging mercy in regard of the inward frame and disposition of his heart This he frequently mentions Thirdly That is not all but he obtained Commissionating grace grace to be employed to be made use of in the highest degree of service to God and his Church From the lowest degree of infamy he was raised to the highest place of trust 12. vers of this Chapter And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me for that be counted me faithful putting me into the Ministry Though the Ministry be never so much despised he accounted it a high honour to be put into it he that was a blasphemer a persecutour injurious that Christ should put this honour upon him here is mercy indeed for such an offender to be spared to be pardoned to be sanctified to be made use of as such a glorious chosen instrument of God among the Gentiles this was mercy indeed 3. What encouragement is there in this and such like famous instances which God hath left upon record as monuments of his mercy for broken hearted sinners who are ready to sink under the weight and burden of their own sins First These examples and standing monuments of Gods mercy to others are incouragements to humble broken hearted sinners because the same Fountain of mercy still stands open to us that was open to them and by these standing monuments God hath enabled his people to answer those puzzling objections that do stick most with them The bowels and compassion of a gracious God are open now which were open to Saint Paul This is the original of all kind of mercies and unless this be open every door of mercy is 〈◊〉 59. Isa 1. The Lords hand is not shortned that it cannot save He hath the same bowels now which he had he is the fame yesterday and to day and for ever his mercy is from one generation to another The mercy of the Lord endures for ever It is no less then twenty times mentioned in the 136. Psalm We have the same fountain opened to us that is the Bowelâ— of God Secondly There is the fame meritorioussâ—â—â— in the bloud of Christ now as was He is the Laâ—â— slain from the foundation of the world There is an everlasting efficacy in his blood The Papists speak of their Treasury of Indulgences that sinners may live upon if they will give a handsome rate for them this is a gross delusion and multitudes have been deceived with it But this is true and real in Christ there is a treasury of all kinde of blessings laid up by his purchase by his once offering up himself be hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Thirdly There is the same efficaciousness in the Spirit of Grace We have the same operations of the Spâ—â—â— of grace to convince and to convert to sanctifie and renew us to prevent us from siâ—â—ing and to regenerate us to holiness to assist us and to enable us to every good way and work Fourthly If you regard the instrumental cause there is the same vertue in ordinances now which ever was because the strength and vertue of ordinances depend upon Gods presence and concurrence with them Now God hath promised his presence and concurrence to the end of the world 28. Matth. last Lo I am with you to the end of the world Not only with your Persons while your live but with your successours by whom the same ordinances are dispenced when you are dead and gone Again if you regard the final cause salvation and happiness God hath the same love for the salvation of lost and undone creatures now which he had of Old therefore says S. Paul 15. Rom. 8 9. Now I say that Jesus Christ was a Minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made unto your Fathers and that the Gentiles might glorifie God for his mercy There
Second thing was That he lives as Lord that is as God exercising his Dominion over all things both in Heaven and earth and this you find very frequently mentioned in Scripture Psal 97.1 It is spoken by way of comfort and of awakening to the wicked so Psal 97.1 and Dan. 4.3 The Mediatory Kingdom Christ received from his Father he had all power commus nicated to him as Mat. 28.18 God hath exalted him above all and made him the head of all Eph 1.21 22 23. This Kingdom of Christ is so established on him that he shall rule so long as there is one Enemy remaining to be subdued and conquered 1 Cor. 15.26 27. and as long as one Elect person is to be called in preserved and taken care of in this world Christ retains his Dominion and when these things are finished Christ resignes his Kingdom into his Fathers hands and God becomes all in all and he lives as Lord to make good all his Promises to his people and to fulfil his threatings against his Enemies Now consider how large a Treasure the Promises are such as we cannot desire any blessing beyond what the Promises do contain As to the Blessings of this life what can we desire more than God promises God promises we shall have so much of this world as is for our good and would you have that which is for your hurt this was a rash desire God hath promised to free us from so much evil in this world as our condition can be safe without afflictions shall be for a little time if need be no more and no longer shall our afflictions continue then what is needful and so long as we need them they shall 3. How is this for the support and comfort of Gods people that God lives I answer if we consider what God is there is enough in this to so speak it highly to the advantage of his People Look upon God in those excellencies by which he hath made known himself to his poor Creatures and this must needs be greatly to their support and comfort though all other comforts should be taken from from them God is the Fountain of all good and there is that infinite fulness in him that whatever our wants be yet there is enough in his fulness to supply us Though our wants are far more and greater than we are able to understand yet they are not too great for infinite fulness to supply We want all those mercies by which God hath commended his love to poor Creatures there is not one single mercy either pardoning or purging or sealing mercy which we need not But our comfort is we cannot need that mercy but there is enough in God for our relief according to our particular case because he is the Fountain of all blessings the God of all consolation the Giver of every good gift He is the Fountain of his own perfections and he is the Fountain of all the Excellencies that are amongst the Creatures the very Angels themselves do but shine with a borrowed light Rom. 11.36 For of him and through him and to him are all things Nay he is a full Fountain an Eternal Fountain that can never be exhausted or drawn dry Though God hath been thousands of years communicating good to his Creatures and that in divers ways yet he is as full as ever We have some Resemblances of this in Nature Though the Sun hath been priviledging the world with its light for some thousands of years yet the Sun is as full of light as ever And the Sea though it hath been so long supplying the streams yet is as full of water as ever yet all these Resemblances are but dark Representations and shadows of that infinite fulness and excellencie that is in God Alas these Creature helps are but like leaking vessels and broken Cisterns so Jeremiah compares them Jer. 2.13 For my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and howed them out Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no water they are but Cisterns and therefore cannot hold much and they are broken Cisterns and therefore cannot hold what they have long all our Creature-comforts are but like Hagars bottle that will be soon empty and dry Gen. 21.15 But now though God hath bestowed millions of blessings upon his people yet he hath as many blessings in store for them as ever None shall have cause to say to him as Esan to Isaac with tears Hast thou but one blessing my Father bless me even me also O my Father The Name by which God made himself known to Abraham was this I am God All-sufficient Gen. 17.1 and what greater thing can be said than this All-sufficient Let our case be what it will suppose we are stript of all our comforts God hath taken away a most comfortable Child a most loving Husband a most faithful friend one that hath been in all respects very helpful both to our Souls and to the comforts of our lives heretofore yet what is all this to the All-sufficiencie of God if we look upon upon him as God All sufficient and consider this God still lives though the Cistern may be dry yet the Fountain is open though Creature comforts may be gone yet God is still where he was this must needs be a ground of Comfort to the people of God Again Look upon God not only as the Fountain of all good but as the Sum and Quintessense of all good and this must needs be comfortable to his people for whatever is of comfort in any Creature must needs be much more in God for God that makes any Creature comfortable to us can in the absence of that Creature communicate the same comfort to us from himself Observe it according to that old Rule That which makes any thing such must needs it self be more such The Schoolmen speak of three ways by which we may come to the knowledge of God The first is by way of Causality when we take notice of those various excellencies that are scattered up and down in the Creatures and all these meet in God yea and meet in him without the least mixture of those imperfections wherewith they are clogg'd in the Creature but that 's not all Secondly they are all in God by way of Infiniteness Is a friend comfortable God is a friend beyond all friends Is a faithful Counsellor a great help what help can you liken unto God in respect of his Being saith Isaiah 40.18 To whom will you liken me where is the person or that friend who can do that for you which I have done and am still ready to do Do you look upon ease as a great priviledge there 's no such ease as that which God gives he gives ease to troubled minds peace to wounded Consciences Nay is life it self desirable you read Psal 63.3 God is much more desirable in life and death God is desirable Thy loving kindness saith he is better than life he
from strength to strenth that is the same which in other places is called from graceto grace and from faith to faith that is from a less degree to a higher I might instance in the Church of Philadelphia Thou hast a little strength Rev. 3.8 that is there is the reality of Grace but it is Grace as it was in its infancie thou hast but a little strength Indeed where ever there is Grace there is a proportionableness of strength Inlightening Graces are the strength of the understanding a Soul that is spiritually anointed acts strongly in its apprehensive faculty self-denying Graces are the strength of the affections and sanctifying Graces are the strength of the whole inward man But more particularly there is a three fold strength in Grace First a strength of interest as it intitles us to Christ 2. Strength of improvement as Grace grows up to a higher stature 3. A strength of evidence 1 There is a strength of interest by Grace by which we can claim an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ and that is great strength to our Souls when we are going hence and shall be no more If you can say Christ is yours then all is yours life is yours and death is yours 1 Cor. 3. last All things are yours If once God hath given us his Son he will with him give us all things and he that hath given us this Grace will with hold no good thing from us God will think nothing too much for them upon whom he hath bestowed his Son and who are the persons that have an interest in Christ John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life that believeth on him there is the Grace of faith There is a time coming when we shall say to riches and to relations and all Creature-enjoyments there was a time when you were useful refreshing and comfortable but your time is now past it is not in you to comfort us to set open the door of Heaven for us it is not for you to appear before God on our behalves it is not in you to deliver us from the evils we now fear nor to confer upon us the good things which are to be desired Nothing can hide the Soul from the displeasure of God nothing can procure it those undeserved favours and make it compleatly happy but only Christ but if we have Christ we have all with him here is the strength of interest when the Soul is in want and to leave all its enjoyments in the world at once as friends estate relations yet if the Soul hath an interest in Christ death doth not separate it from Christ that you have Rom 8. last Nor heighth nor depth nor life nor death 2. These is the strength of improvement for though weak faith and weak Grace may hold its own in God and Christ yet this hold is not so firm and fast as when Grace is grown up to some stature and hath attained some degree of strength It is a notable passage of a Learned Writer They do but make a great noise in the world about Grace and Christ that make no improvement in Grace and are not every day making some farther prgress in their spiritual interest 'T is true where-ever there is the least degree of grace there is the mystical union to Jesus Christ and a communion with Christ in his Graces for light and heat always come and go together for when Christ comes into the Soul he brings along with him these blessings But yet though no Christian can be any farther in possession of Christ than he doth make use of him yet there are several degrees of strength which by out making use of Christ we may attain unto To instance in mortification of sins and the subduing of our corruptions A Soul that can appropriate Christ will be deriving Conquest from Christ over its inbred corruptions and power to get Authority over its continued temptations such a Soul will be crucified to the world and all the lusts of the flesh and so as to vivification and newness of life a Soul that can challenge a propriety in Christ will fetch dower not only from his death for the mortification of sin but also from his Resurrection for holiness and newness of life and conversation it will finde living desires and longings and lively stirrings of heart after God continually 3. There is the strength of evidence or assurance which results from Grace That I may recover may strength When the Soul by reflecting upon it self nnds that it hath made such improvement by the means of Grace and opportunities it doth enjoy and that really it hath got an interest in Christ and sees some Scripture-grounds to reckon it self among those beloved ones whose names are written in the Book of life this will fill the Soul with joy here and bear it up under all pressures and difficulties it may meet with in its passage this will animate it to look death in the face and that with comfort Now these three sorts of strength are so admirably advantageous will appear from the language of departing Souls when they come to lie upon their death-beds what is it that makes the poor Soul that is ready to take its flight into another world when it is just going hence and shall be no more to quake and tremble but the want of some of these strengths O says one If I had but an interest in Jesus Christ I could say with Simeon Luke 2.20 Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart Death should not then storm me no I would then make a quick and speedy surrender of my self to it then it should not lay siege to me Says a second had I more strength of improvement had I walked more circumspectly lived more self-denyingly had I approved my self more faithful in all my Relations I should then have been more able with the dying Swan to have sung my self asleep in my last bed as the Naturallist speaks Says a third had I an evidence and an assurance of my relation to Christ did I certainly know I have an interest in the love of God then I should welcome death and say welcome thou Prince of terrours for though thy face be grim yet thy message is comfortable so that it is only spiritual strength that will bestead the Soul at such a time and whatever mercy we may be found wanting of what a mercy will it be to us not to be found wanting of this mercy this spiritual strength It is no great matter in what way death comes to us if it find us with this spiritual strength in reference to our eterual condition 2. Part. This spiritual strength is subject to many failings and decays Our strength as to interest 't is true can not be lost for a Soul that is once united to Christ is never separated from him again My Father faith our Saviour is greater than
may be heretical in their lives as well as in their Opinions to these the Apostle gives advice here in the Text that he should charge every one that names the Name of Christ to depart from iniquity How many are there that rest satisfied with a form of Godliness but deny the power of it these are the persons whom St. Paul gives Timothy advice here that he should labour to redeem from those formalities in which they rested that they should not think it enough to name the Name of Christ but they should express their sincerity therein by departing from iniquity In the words you have these two particulars 1. The persons to whom this advice is given that is to such as name the Name of Christ I shall shew you how it is used briefly in the Scripture There is a naming of the Name of Christ by profession they that own the Truths and Principles of Religion they that profess the Doctrines which our Saviour hath revealed in the Gospel Micha 4.5 it is spoken there of two sorts of persons of those that worship false gods and of those that worship the true God For all the people every one will walk in the Name of his God that is they own those Rules and acknowledge those Principles and we will walk in the Name of the Lord our God for ever This is a naming of Christ by way of profession 2. There is a naming of Christ in all the duties of Religion as in our Prayers Whatever you ask in my Name of the Father he will give it in our duties all must be offered up in his Name God hath given him a Name above every Name above all things in heaven and earth that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow that is in prayer Now in the former sense the naming the Name of Christ by profession is to be taken in opposition to Heathens who name the Name of other gods Pour out thy wrath upon the Heathen that know thee not and upon the families that call not upon thy Name Psal 79.6 3. There is a naming the Name of Christ in our Vows and Covenants and thus in our Baptism we vow to become his and hence it is that we are said to baptized in the Name of Christ which doth not only imply a desire to partake of those priviledges which Christ hath purchased but an obligation which we lay upon our selves to own him as our Lord and to submit to all his Commands and to be guided by his Will and Laws Acts 19.5 They were baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus 4. There is a naming the Name of Christ in our expectations and hopes when we build all our confidence upon him alone The desires of our Souls are to thee and to the Remembrance of thy Name We look for no other mercy but what the Lord gives and no other help but what he vouchsafes these are the persons to whom St. Paul gives this advice Secondly Here is the advice and counsel it self Let all such persons depart from iniquity the Word in the Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 let him be an Apostate from sin and Satan When Luther was challenged by the Jesuites for being an Apostate because he had renounced his old Principles says he I confess I am but it is from the Devil Such an Apostacie is no reproach to a person nay such is of absolute necessity for we are all by nature servants to sin and in subjection to Satan Now let him depart from iniquity depart from the practice of it and from the love of it and as much as he can from any inclination to it you can never reconcile the profession of Christ and the practice of sin together that is the meaning of the Apostle doest thou name the Name of Christ and go on in sin Your lives are a contradiction to your profession Let every one that names c. depart from iniquity But then observe the extent here let every one not only those that so name the Name of Christ as having the Doctrine of Christ committed especially to them to communicate to other thus we read of naming the Name of Christ they taught in his Name but it is meant of all that profess the Name of Christ let every one in any way though he be but in a way of outward profession only let him make it his designe to depart from inquity The Observation is this Doct. There are special obligations upon all to depart from iniquity who name the Name of Christ I shall spak to these two heads in opening the Doctrinal part 1. That here are great ingagements upon all men to depart from iniquity this I shall prove from these Arguments 1. The first may from the nature of sin what is sin but our disease our burden and that which endangers our utter ruine should men be in love with poyson Should men hug that viper that will sting them to death the right knowledge of sin doth sufficiently evidence this now what is sin It is a transgression of Gods Law it is a trampling upon Gods Authority it is a refusing him to rule over us it is a making God our enemy it is a daring of him in the open field Do you provoke the Lord to anger are you stronger than he dare you enter the lists with the great God you will pity those distracted persons that labour for their own ruine and would hasten their own death by some kind of violence or other this is the practice of every sinner 2. In respect of God that obligation that lies upon all sorts of persons to have more reverend and high thoughts of God then to slight his Laws we are all his Creatures we owe our very beings to him it is God that made us we are his Creatures and the workmanship of his hands God may very well expect those beings which he hath given us should be imployed for him Shall a man plant a Vineyard and not eat of the fruit thereof If God hath made us men and bestowed natural endowments upon us and hath put us into a capacity for his service may not God reasonably expect that he should receive the fruit of all his charges and pains upon his account it was that God was so 〈…〉 with his antient people for all the 〈…〉 he had shewed to them says he When I looked for grapes behold they brought forth with grapes I have made you capable of my service will you imploy your selves in the service of other Masters your beings you have received from me is it not reasonable they should be imployed to his Glory since they have been received from his bounty Again in respect of Gods continuance and preservation of our beings this is from him Alas should not God support us every moment we should sink into our first nothing Heb. 1. Vpholding all things by things by the Word of his power it was God that first breathed life into us
lived unproffitably under these Instructions I do wish that we all may take warning by their woe But the Pledges of Gods peculiar love are cheifly the Operations of his Spirit upon our hearts Now what convincing Operations have you found upon your hearts in the first workings of the Spirit of God though his work be to comfort yet it begins in Convictions I will send another Comforter and he shall convince the world of sin Joh. 16.8 Are you so convinct of sin as to be brought off from it to have your hearts set against it though you cannot be free from sin yet this is your burthen and your lamentation and you groan under it It is with you as it was with Saint Paul when he cryed out Oh wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from the body of this death that is of sin that I carry about with me Do you partake of the graces of Gods Spirit the inlightning the quickening the renewing the sanctifying graces thereof Do you find your hearts to be warmly affected with the things of God of Heaven you cannot lightly pass by these things if you are his Are you acquainted with the Supports of Gods Spirit in the midest of your distresses there are none of you but may be in troubles and yet may have many false Supports I grant as natural stourness and common Principles may carry men far But are you acquainted with the comforts of Gods Spirit have they been your support Again hath God not only vouchsafed you the means of grace but hath he taught you to profit by those means and to entertain them in their efficacy plainness and power Does God please not to let you alone in your sins For God to leave us to be peaceable quiet in our sins is a very sore Judgement Lastly do you still find upon every relapse and failing your hearts deeply sensible thereof and affected therewith then may you comfortably say these are the distinguishing Mercies indeed and conclude they are accompanied with his peculiar love 3. What are the secret workings of your hearts towards God what are your designs your thoughts your endeavours ingaged upon is it to pursue the World is it to stop every Door at which danger and trouble may enter or is it to approve your hearts to God and to mind your duty and in a way of well doing to commit your selves to him is this your care this you may know by the secret workings of your Hearts and by a serious Reflection upon all the passages of your Lives 4. What is the measure by which you measure and pass a Judgement upon all kinds of Objects Do those things seem most hateful to you that are loathsome to God and you most careful to shun that which may hinder you from attaining this love of God or a clear sense of this love therefore do you hate sin and vanity and all those things that stand in opposition to this Priviledge do you make this your Rule to value Ordinances at a high rate by because these are of great advantage to you in respect of your Communion with God and the enjoying of his love and favour and do you mourn and lament the removal of these or your being straitened as to these kind of advantages upon the account in reference to the love of God because you cannot have these opportutunities of Communion with him Consider and seriously bring home these things to your own hearts Appl. In the next place I shall only speak to one use more that is by way of Exhortation If it be so then if you find it is thus with you upon your examination that you have indeed warrantable hopes of claiming an interest in the peculiar love of God Then labour to answer this love of God with love to God love in any is engaging love in Superiours is more engaging but love in God is infinitely more who is able to return love for his love There are these five hints I shall leave with you by way of direction 1. Let this love of God be a powerful constraint upon your hearts to do all the duty that God requires Let Gods love thaw your Icy hearts and cause them to melt and flow into every duty Joh. 15.14 Ye are my Friends if ye do whatsoever I command you The love of God is constraining not only to do all but to do all out of love and not to think his Commandments greivous or his Yoke heavy but to serve him with the chearful compliance to his will in all things 1 Joh. 5.3 For this is the love of God that we keep his Commandments and his Commandmenes are not grievous And this is when we account every thing of duty our reward when we look on our work as our ways David saith In keeping of thy Commandments there is great reward Psal 19.7 Mark he doth not say there shall be but there is in it great reward Indeed there is nothing that God commands us if we did but rightly understand our selves but it would be upon its own account excellent and desireable however we may take offence at several duties that God requires because they cross our corrupt nature as mortification self denial and the like yet all these duties are of so high an advantage that an intelligent person if there was nothing of command in them yet would think there is enough in their own excellency to engage us in the performance of them That 's the first hint if we have any ground to hope that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts 2. Manifest your love to God by a through detestation and a careful avoiding of what ever might offend him You that love the Lord hate evil Psal 97.10 The love of God the Apostle saith constrains us 2 Cor. 5. The love of God to us and the love we have to him it lays a holy necessity upon us it not only constrains us to mind our duty more seriously but it wrests sin out of our hearts and hands and engages to oppose every thing that is offensive to God who shews so much of favour and loving kindness to us I charge you saith the Spouse that you wake not my Love till he please Cant. 2.7 She was careful that he should not be dishonoured by others how much more not to be so by her self 3. Manifest your love by a good construction and interpretation of all Gods providences Love thinks no evil Harbour therefore no hard thoughts of God Do not charge him foolishly as it is said of Job in all his sufferings he did not charge God foolishly This is a high expression of a grateful sense of Gods love to us c. Our love of God if we think well of God what ever he doth with us Providence is an uncertain Rule by which to walk in judging of Gods love Gods ways are in the Sanctuary his Paths are in the deep Waters Clouds and thick darkness are round
between God and Believers through Christ the Covenant of Redemption is made between God and Christ that if Christ will condescend to become man and undertake for the sin of all his and make satisfaction for those sins the Lord was well pleased with these Conditions it pleased the Lord to bruise him he made his Soul an offering for sin now all the recompence and compensation that Christ expects looks and did agree for is to see of the travel of his Soul and then he should be satisfied Oh how tender hath Christ been of your good you would be happy if you were as tender of your selves he was willing to leave all and to undergo all upon no other account but this not that he should be a gainer by you when he had finished his course in John 17.5 I have glorified thee on Earth c. One would think it was some greater glory that Christ expected but all that he begs is this with the glory I had with thee before the World was he desired no more nor could have any more because that was so great it could be no greater now that Christ should thus far ingage on the behalf of poor Creatures this is a great ingagement to us and in respect of the Covenant of Redemption was a great ingagement upon the Father and this was that which past between them now that God that can do all things who cannot lye nor do any thing unbecoming his own Excellency is a sure evidence of the stability of his love to Believers this being his condition with Christ in the Covenant of Redemption 4. Because of the fulness of Christs satisfaction the meritoriousness of what he hath done and suffered There is not onely a suffiency in the undertakings of Christ to satisfie for all our Debts to cancel all Scores and acquit his People from all their guilt as Heb. 10.14 By once offering he hath perfected for ever them that be be sanctified By once offering the legal Sacrifices were often repeated time after time yes their most solemn Sacrifices had their Repetitions these could not make the concerns thereunto perfect but Christ by once offering himself hath paid all our Debts and discharged us from the penalty our guilt exposed us to Again as there is a sufficiency in point of satisfaction so there is a Redundancy in point of purchase not onely a sufficiency to acquit them from all their guilt but a Redundancy to intitle them to all the glory and happiness that they are capable of Fithly Because of the constancy of Christs Intercession he did not onely purchase all blessings when he was upon Earth but by his Intercession he is pleading that purchase by spreading that Blood that he hath shed before his Father and thereby procuring all the blessed effects of it to the benefit of his People Heb. 7.25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make Intercession for them He ever lives and he ever lives to make intercession This was an ordinary salutation as Justin Martyr observes amongst the Primitive Christi-when they met one another The Lord is risen â—he is not dead who is the life of our hopes he yet lives to make Intercession Rom. 8.34 Who shall condemn it is Christ that died That alone answers all kind of Objections we have sinned and offended but Christ hath died to make satisfaction for our sins Yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God he is risen that speaks his personal advancement who ever lives to make Intercession that speaks the comfortable Fruit and benefit of it to us The Intercession of Christ must needs be of great force with God our Saviour tells Peter after he had told him his failings Nevertheless I have prayed for thee that thy Faith fail not and if I pray for thee thou needest not question but to find the benefit of my Prayers that God that hears the cries of his poor weak People hath promised that his Ear shall be open to the Prayers of the destitute and therefore he will hear their cries Cau any imagine but that this God who hears the cries of the Ravens must needs have a high regard to the Prayers of his Son this is the great advantage of all that are sincere Believers that they an Advocate continually praying and interceding for them at the Throne of grace Sixthly Because Christ by his intercession is continually making up those fresh breaches that our sins are a new occasioning between God and us there is nothing in all the World can separate us from God but onely sin Isaiah 59.2 Your Iniquities have separated between you and your God c. Therefore all these instances that the Apostle gives here of death and Principalities and Powers c. can onely hurt us so far as they may be occasions of sin for nothing but this can do it and there is none of the most eminent Believers but they have their various sinful failings which occasion new breaches But the love of God in Christ answerâ— all this too if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ If we are offending he is satisfying If we are making God our Enemy he is reconciling and making God our Friend 1. Use by way Information First It may inform us what cause we have to bless God for Jesus Christ you see all depends upon his undertaking all our comforts here and all safety hereafter nay all our happiness for ever all depends upon Christ Oh what cause have we then to bless God for him he is the gift of God that is the summe of all gifts and the Fountain of all gifts for what ever of kindness God hath for us it is upon his account now if God hath given us his Son how shall he not with him give us all things Secondly This may inform us of the dismal estate of all those persons that are out of Christ if God hath nothing of love to poor Creatures but what he hath in and through him then certainly he must have nothing but hatred and indignation against those persons that are out of him John 3.36 He that believes on his Son hath everlasting life Everlasting Life is begun in his Soul he hath the first Fruits of it But he that believer not is condemned already c. That is the wrath of God is upon him before and while he continues in his unbelief and it is like to abide on him still O what a wretched Estate is every Unbeliever in that place that was mentioned before Eph. 2.12 Without Christ without Hope If we are without Christ we are without every thing of comfort Labour to see what you are in your selves where you are while Prayers and endeavours may do you good and while the Door of Mercy is open Consider what you are in your selves and what you may be in him There is love and mercy and all kinds of blessings to be had for you if God accept of you in and through Christ but you can have nothing of love from God but onely in his beloved Son Thirdly It informs us what cause we have to be thankful to God that yet we have means and helps for the getting of an interest in Christ Though our interest in Christ be doubtful and it is good to doubt that we may labour to be more sure yet what cause have we to be thankful that yet we enjoy the means of getting an interest in him this is an incomparable mercy all your hopes depend upon him though it is not clear to you that you can call him yours yet it is Mercy that you enjoy those means by which he may become yours Oh seriously improve these means you know not how soon they may be taken from you or you from them be careful therefore to do the work of the day while the day lasts before the the night comes wherein no man can work 2. Use Is by way of caution take heed of slighting Christ either in his Messengers or Ordinances or Members or in his truth or wayes you see if ever you do obtain any thing of favour from God it must be only upon the account of Christ and will you slight or despise him which you do if you despise his Messengers He that despiseth you despiseth me and he that dispiseth me despiseth him that sent me or if you despise his Ordinances and will not make use of them you despise Christ Make use of them you will say you do make use of them But you may despise them in the slight use of them when every thing of the ordinance is over as well as when the ordinance it self is over when you mind only the bare duty and regard not the consequence and Fruit of the duty 3. Use of Exhort never rest satisfied till you can clear up your interest in Christ there was a strange kind of diligence in David and a high kind of Zeal he expressed for God when he would not recieve comfort nor go up into his Bed until he had provided a place for the Lord. Let the same Zeal appear in you in the getting and obtaining an interest in Christ Oh never give your selves rest until you have some comfortable hope through grace that it is well with you and when you have obtained this interest Labour to walk worthy of Christ Oh be not you a reproach to that blessed name which you profess 2 Tim. 2.19 Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from Iniquity Oh! have nothing to do with sin for these can be coupled together to profess Christ and yet to go on in a course of sin is a contradiction 4. Use Lastly This may be matter of unspeakeable comfort to the People of God that are clear in this great Priviledge that they have a right and title to it it is so sure and certain because it is in and through Christ that God loves them though they may have failings and weaknesses yet still God loves them in Christ as they are offending so he is making up of breaches therefore build all your hopes and expectations upon Christ and labour to walk worthy of that encouragement which he vouchsafes 〈◊〉 you FINIS