not by the same natural person and if any Laws do lay any stress on the person of the Debtor so that it shall be judged as no payment except paid in person such are hard Laws and against natural equity so that though payment should justly according to such Munucipal Laws be refusable from another yet it is not fairly tefusable But it is quite otherwise in all Law and natural Equity in the case of obedience and punishment for here the Laws do justly and equitably determine the very person that shall obey or suffer and allow not any delegation as doing or suffering by another so that if another suffer it is not the same in Law if the penalty be suffered by another natural person it is suffered by another person in Law And here Dum alius solvit aliud solvitur therefore such suffering of another contrary to Law may be a satisfaction that the Rector may with honoâ—r not execute the Law but cannot possibly be an execution of the Law the idem the same threatned I will make all plain to you thus Suppose the Law-threat had run thus If any man sin he shall dye be damned or another for him he or another thus disjunctively either of these would have been the very thing threatned the same in Law as the Principal and Surety are and then all these after-mentioned inconveniences would have followed First In this case had God provided one to dye for us here would have been nothing of pardon Here indeed would have been grace and favour in thus procuring one but nothing of pardon remission of sin for it would not have been a refusable payment either of their deaths would have been the same in Law and so no act of Pardon or Grace to acquit upon it whereas God for Christ's sake forgiveth We have by Eph. 4. 32 his blood the remission of sins This would have been like proper solution and then the strictest Justice cannot deny an acquittance and justification to the party for whom it is paid and there need not be there cannot be in this case any such thing as pardon pardon and full satisfaction may stand together but not pardon and solution or payment e. g. If a Law be made that threatens That for such an offence the Delinquent shall sit in the Stocks or another for him thus disjunctively here would be grace and favour in the Prince to procure one to sit for the offender but nothing of pardon or remission for the utmost rigour of Justice could not refuse to acquit upon it here is no remitting any thing the Law requires no pardon at all for the Law never required the offender himself should suffer but he or another indifferently Secondly It would also in this case be injustice to inflict the least part of the penalty threatned upon the offender when the other hath suffered because it would be to inflict what was never threatned by the Law and so what is not due for the utmost Justice requires no more than the suffering of one of them Thirdly It would also in this case be non-sense or injustice to prescribe the Delinquent terms or conditions on which he should have justification the benefit of the other's death or of the other's sitting in the Stocks or else to have no benefit by them for the offender would have right without performing such conditions And therefore as a plain denying the offender the thing he hath right to would be injustice so to reduce back his absolute right to a conditional would be injustice in part To threaten damnation if men believe not repent not would be something of injustice being a partial denial Fourthly Also in this case the offender would be justified immediately by the other's death by the Law that threatned by the very Law of Works there would need no Covenant of Grace or Gospel-promise it would be injustice to prescribe terms of benefit by it as Faith Repentance as in the other case the Delinquent would have right to impunity for his offence by the other's sitting in the Stocks by the very Law that threatned it There needs no Law of Grace for requital for it is the idem in Law the very thing threatned and so not refusable by the strictest Justice to promise here would be to promise that which we have right to without promise and such promises would not be of Grace but meer Nullities But this death of Christ was a satisfaction much like a refusable payment for the threat was The soul that sinned should dye be damned not he or another The death of Christ was a satisfaction a refusable payment for God might have refused if Christ had interceded as Moses Blot me I pray thee out of the Book of Life for the people and save their souls their lives God might have answered Those that sin against me I have only threatned and those only I will punish but of thee will I require nothing and from thee will I accept nothing For the threat was not If a man sinned he should dye or some other for him for then either of them would have been the idem the same in Law and so not refusable but it was that the offender himself should dye so that whatsoever else than the offender's sufferings could be offered was refusable and so could be but a Satisfaction And then these things will suit and agree 1. Here is pardon and remission in accepting and acquitting for he might have refused to accept of Christ's death and to acquit us upon it It is plainly a not standing to his threat a dispensing with his Law notwithstanding Christ's death for him not to execute the Law upon us though an honourable dispensing with it 2. Being a Satisfaction a refusable payment God may take off what part of the penalty He and his Son agreed from the offender and leave on him what part they please and as long as they please and judg meet And indeed though they did agree and God hath promised for Christ's death-sake that they who perform the Gospel-condition shall not perish but shall have eternal life they shall not undergo eternal sorrows Hell-sorrows yet they never agreed and God never promised that Believers should not be afflicted for their sins in this life or that they should not dye temporally or that the ground as to them should be freed from that first curse or that believing Women should not undergo pain in Child-bearing for these things God doth inflict therefore the Son in paying the ransome and the Father in accepting never agreed they should be freed from them in this life though yet they did so to moderate and help in them and sanctifie by them that a Christian life in this World is worth living Phil. 1. 22. To live in the flesh is worth while 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 operae pretium And it is contrary to all Scripture to say Believers afflictions are not for sin and if they were not for sin they
imagine when the Apostle saith Gal. 2. 16. Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but by the faith of Christ we have believed that we might be justified c. That he means we did not repent that we might be justified did not obey turn from sin that we might be justified or not be condemned All that I will do here further shall be to speak so as to keep you from dangers on both sides if you will observe this distinction and it will be plain I hope to the meanest capacity There is in this Justification by Christ spoken of there being two Laws or Covenants one of Works and the other of Grace a lex remedians and both in force else if the old Law as a Law with its penalty was repealed it would be no sin not to obey perfectly and we might say Christ his death had not satisfied for our sins and the legal desert of them but prevented them from being sins and from legally deserving damnation there is in this Justification as it were a two-fold Righteousness or Justification and the distinction of these two is so necessary to any competent measure of understanding this Doctrine of Justification and would be so helpful to make us understand it and speak intelligibly of it that I desire you would never forget it Passive Justification the effect of active is our right constituted as I have shewed you But to speak of active Justification It is essentially from some Charge pleaded or possibly pleadable against us 1. Suppose the Accusation be We are sinners have offended God deserved wrath broken the first Covenant the Law of Works and under this are comprehended sins against the Gospel for they are sins against the Moral Law which Christ hath satisfied for all the breaches of that ever were or shall be For the Original Law of Nature is this Keep all my Commandments which I have or shall reveal to thee any way whatsoever whether by Nature or any other way of making my will known the eating of the forbidden fruit was against this Moral Law though immediately against a particular Revelation or thou shalt dye Now if this be the Accusation thou art a sinner hast deserved death transgressed the Law refused Christ and the Gospel a long time yea and hast notoriously sinned since conversion Here nothing will justifie nothing will answer this Accusation but this Christ hath dyed satisfied God hath set him forth to be a Propitiation It would be improper and vain here to plead We have repented believed for thou art a cursed Creature and there is no blood or satisfaction in these thou wilt rather be damned for thy failings in these they are imperfect at best and however cannot buy off thy former sins Here we must plead nothing in our selves to this Accusation nay we must confess we have nothing in our selves to justifie us against this Accusation of being sinners deserving wrath That that must answer this Accusation is altogether without us To plead to justifie from this Accusation something within us is to spit in Christ's face is damnable for whatever we plead must be a Righteousness or it is no way pleadable If we have a Righteousness to answer this Christ dyed in vain 2. But now suppose another Accusation which is possibly pleadable against us suppose the accusation be But thou hast no lot or portion in this Satisfaction for all have not interest in it but there was a second Covenant made wherein God made it over only upon Gospel-terms and conditions of repenting believing obeying sincerely upon sincerity and uprightness and truth in the inward parts for it was enacted that none should have the benefit of it to justifie them against the old Law but they that performed the condition Here now is no danger of pleading to answer this Accusation something in our selves nay it is duty and we wrong our selves if we have the condition and do not Ye must say Yea through grace I have repented believed endeavoured to obey God sincerely and have lamented when I have faln short I have received Christ for my Lord and Saviour endeavoured to serve him and do at this day And this will be your righteousness against this Accusation will justifie you against this Accusation It would be foolishly impertinent to plead here Christ hath dyed hath made satisfaction to the Law when the Charge the Accusation is Thou hast no interest in him and his death and the purchased benefits And it would be false and ridiculous to plead what they that falsly are called the only Preachers of Free-grace would have you plead viz. That Christ hath repented for thee performed the Gospel-conditions for thee Here you may and must plead something in your selves even the performance of the Gospel-condition You must not confess you have nothing to plead except you have not and then I would say Are you mad wilfully to refuse Christ I know men may think they have not and yet have this condition and then God knows there is this good thing in them toward God and Christ though they think not so and so they are justified and know not But if you say I have nothing in me to answer this Accusation and say true and continue in this estate you will be condemned upon this Accusation at the last day when judged according to the Gospel and are at present under condemnation in law But if you be sincere Christians and in some comfortable measure know it you may in this sense rejoyce in your selves you may say I have proved my own work and so have joy in my self and not in another This is our rejoycing the testimony of our Conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not with fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God we have had our conversation in this world You may say of a godly man he hath that within him that will bear him out and mean by it the sincerity of his heart but then you must not mean it to satisfie for his ill deeds or against the first accusation but against this only of having no part in Christ Here a man may glory Let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me Jer. 9. 24. We may say in the Apostle John's sense and words Our hearts our consciences acquit us and condemn us not 1 John 3. 20 21. If our hearts truly condemn us God is greater than our hearts and knoweth all things Beloved if our hearts condemn us not then have we confidence toward God and whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight So that you may now see that 1. God justifieth as the principal Efficient 2. The Promise or Covenant of God If thou believe thou shalt be saved as the instrument or less principal efficient for an Instrument is essentially an efficient and the act of the principal and instrument are
being as broad and as long as the Law and our transgressions of it Above the Mercy-seat on either side were the Cherubims and the Majesty of God appeared between the Ceerubims Christ interposeth between God and his Law to make him propitious to his People From above the Mercy-seat Ver. 22. between the two Cherubims will I meet thee and commune with thee So you see this Mercy-seat this Cover of Gold typified Christ the true Propitiatory or Mercy-seat covering out of God's sight all our Transgressions of the Law and God through him meeting with us and made propitious and reconciled to us And here now Christ is called by the name of his own type as often elsewhere when he is called the Lamb and Lamb slain and so called the Propitiatory or Propitiation God having made him really that to us which that did but typifie Christ was made an Expiation and Ransom and Propitiation for Sins for these things the Hebrew word signifies Here now under this Head I will make it my business irrefragably to prove to you what I have taken hitherto almost for granted 1. He died not for Himself He was the Lamb without spot as indeed he that was to wash away others spots was to be without spot Himself Messiah cut off but not for himself 2. He could not die but for some Sin Death befalleth not Men as Men but as Sinners The Apostle proveth all to be Sinners because all die else it was impossible in justice God Act. 2. 24 raised him up having loosed the pains of death for it was not possible he should be holden of it Death being but the Servant of God's Justice and Christ having satisfied Justice it could not but let go its hold He could not but be taken from prison and from judgment We may use the same argument it was impossible Death could not have taken hold of Him at all had it not been for Sin 3. It remains therefore that he died for our sins according to the Scripture for none else come in competition None will pretend He died for the Sins of Angels good or bad or of Brutes which are not capable of sin Was delivered to death for our sins Bore the sins of many Gave himself for us that he might redeem us The professed Adversaries of this Doctrine the Socinians will grant He died in some sense for our Sins Therefore How died he for our Sins 1. He died for our Sins so as to turn us from them this is truth but this is as they suppose all and they will grant no more But we must go further 2. He died for our Sins as a meritorious deserving cause of his Death For the transgression of my people was he smitten Wounded for our transgressions Isa 53. Rom. 4. 25. Delivered to death for our sins So that if it be asked What meaneth the heat of this great anger wherefore was he thus wounded We must answer He was wounded for our transgressions We have pierced him this hath been by our means we have ate sowre grapes and his teeth were set on edg the Children ate sowre grapes and the everlasting Father's teeth were set on edg 3. He died for our sins in our place and stead that we might not perish for them In our place and stead for expiation for satisfaction for compensation though not in such an unâ—ound irrational sense as some pretend and I shall have occasion to speak of hereafter in a more convenient place I shall prove this first from express Scriptures second from the peculiarity of his Death third from the Sacrifices that typified Him 1. From express Scriptures in three Instances 1. We often read of his Sufferings for our fins 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This man after he had â—ffered one sacrifice for sins Heb. 1. 12 Gal. 1. 4. Who gave â—imself for our sins Now this word translated for may signifie only the final cause as to turn us from them But words must be understood secundum subjectam materiam according to the subject matter and in such speeches the subject matter will not bear that sense We never read in Scripture or any where else of one dying and suffering for sins but it is for them as the meritorious cause of the sufferings as some compensation for the fault as when he saith I will punish you for your iniquities And Israel suffered for the sins of Jeroboam 2. We often read of his Suffering for persons I lay down my life for my sheep Redeemeth us from the curse Joh. 10. 17. Gal. 3. 17. of the Law being made a curse for us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the usual sense of this is instead of another As Paul could wish himself accursed for his brethren Yet I know this phrase for another may in some instances signifie only the final cause only for their good and not in their stead A man may be said to die for his Country only as the final cause for their good and to lay down his life for his brother only for his good to save his life But it is not capable of such a narrow sense when one dieth for another as a sinner as an offender Now we read of Christ's dying the just for the unjust there it must be meant in his stead And when sinners he died for us And Hs who knew no sin was made sin that is a Sin-offering for us * The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the words the Septuagint express a Sin-offering by called in Hebr. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So that place Rom. 8. 3. which as it is translated is scarce sence should have been translated God sending his own Son in the likeness of â—inful flesh and a Sin-offering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemned â—â—a in the flesh as the same words are well translated Heb. 10. 6. In Burnt-offering and Sacrifice for sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou hast no pleasure And so again vers 8. It is good sense to say such a one died for his Country as in the Warrs only to denote the final cause for the good of his Country But because Men go not into the Warrs because of their faults neither are they killed in the Warrs ordinarily for any fault Men die not in the Warrs as Malefactors but as Soldiers It would not be sense to use such speeches He died for his Country though an innocent man it would be a frigid sapless dilute manner of speaking for here would be no Opposition in it But you see He who knew no sin was made sin for us We esteemed him smitten of Isa 53. God But he was wounded for our sins 2 Cor. 5. 15. c. Because we thus judg if one dyed for all then were all dead and he dyed for all c. This place would not be true if one interpret dying for all only for the good of all not in their stead For it
would not be true arguing If Christ died for the good of all then were all dead But this way that I am speaking of is good and cogent If in the stead and room of all they all were judicially dead Again the word used in the Original for us is not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may when there is fit subject matter signifie only the final cause but it is also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which as Grotius well observes always imports either contrariety or commutation and it can by no means signifie contrariety therefore it signifies commutation compensation He gave himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransom for many like 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 20. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. vice So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And they were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who devoted themselves to death in the stead of others 3. He is said in many places to redeem us Gave himself for us that he 2 Tit. 2. 14. might redeem us from our iniquities To ransom us to be a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransom He gave himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransom for all 1 Tim. 2. 6. Now the proper import of redeem and such words is by way of price And what if as they object the word redeem sometime be used Metaphorically for our deliverance from any evil whether with price or without for redemption by power as when he saith I will redeem you with stretched-out arm and with great judgment Doth it therefore follow that it can possibly so signifie redemption by power when we are said to be redeemed with price and bought with a price and with a price of great value and when we are told with what price we are redeemed Not with corruptible things as silver and gold but 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. Act. 20. 28. with the precious blood of Christ And when we read it was done by bearing the punishment due unto us His own self bare our sins in his body on a tree 2. This is plainly proved by the peculiarity of his Death We will readily grant He died for us as none in the world else ever died for us therefore not only for our good Socinus and his Followers tell us that Christ having taught as a Prophet sent from God a Doctrine of holiness and piety and that they that imbrace it believe repent return shall be saved notwithstanding all their former sins He died only to confirm the truth of his Doctrine and to leave the world an example of patience and submission courage in suffering but not for expiation satisfaction Certainly Christ did some singular thing by his Death and if this be all we may ask What singular thing hath he done Have not all Martyrs done the same by their Death they taught true Doctrine and died to give Witness to the Truth and to encourage us in sufferings Did not the Apostles do the same the Apostle speaketh of his sufferings for their good in Col. 1. 24. this sense Who now rejoyce in my sufferings for you for the Church Therefore I endure all things for the Elects 2 Tim. 2. 10. sake that they also may obtain the Salvation by Jesus Christ And yet he speaketh it with abhorrence Was Paul crucified for you Do we suffer 1 Cor. â—1 13. for you in the sense that Christ suffered for you as a Satisfaction as an Expiation And if this be all the meaning of our Redemption by his blood and Justification by his blood then we may as well say We are redeemed and justified by the blood of Martyrs however as really though not fully his death and sufferings being at most but a greater attestation of the truth and encouragement of us in our suffering for it If Christ died only for the Confirmation of the Gospel which he preached and for our encouragement and imitation in suffering for the truth we may say Where is the Lamb for the Burnt-offering We are guilty and want atonement Captives and want a ransom If we should look on Christ's Death as one saith through Socinus his Spectacles we should look on it as neither satisfactory to God nor us we have yet no help meet for us there is no days-man between us he that was to come is not come And yet we look not for another 3. I shall prove it from the Sacrifices under the Old Testament which typified and shadowed out these things The Law had a shadow of good Heb. 10. 1 2. things to come not the very image implying Christ's Sacrifice was the very reality The blood of Bulls and Goats could not expiate moral guilt but only shadowed out that which could do it Every Priest standeth daily Heb. 10. 11 12. ministring and offering often times the same Sacrifices which can never take away sins But this Man after he had offered one Sacrifice for sins c. They were but dumb shews of this Tragedy to be acted Consider these three things 1. These Sacrifices did take away did expiate typical guilt in some sense took away the typical punishment of being excluded the congregation and society and such temporal punishment as was to be inflicted by God or Man for such faults as they were appointed Offerings for For the Apostle saith The blood of bulls and goats did sanctifie thus far to the purifying of the flesh Now by sanctifie he meaneth expiate which will appear by perusing how this Author useth this word in other places of that Epistle and not taking away the fault it self But these Sacrifices were Heb. 9. 14 Lev. 10. 14 but only typical of that which took away the eternal punishment and moral guilt and obligation Now since these typical Sacriâ—ices were expiatory satisfactory in respect of typical guilt What similitude can there be what relation of Types can they have if Christ's offering up Himself was no expiation for real moral guilt for Types were not ordained for their own sakes but for the sake of those things they did shadow out Why would God put them upon typical propitiatory Sacrifices if they did signifie nothing of real Propitiation 2. The Sacrifices were offered in Men's stead in the Sinners stead to make atonement for his Soul for his Life that he died not for such typical guilt He shall put his hand on the Lev. 1. 4. head of the Burnt-offering and it shall be accepted for him They were offered for Man's good indeed but how for his good why in his stead When a man was to die they died for him and he was kept alive And that which yet maketh it more plain is this because in capital offences where men were absolutely to die without remedy there were as is well observed by many no private Sacrifices instituted because the man himself was to die for his fault and so a beast could not die in his stead And if Sacrifices were only offered for the good of Men and not by way
explicite knowledg and belief of Christ's death and satisfaction though God did pardon them upon their returning unto him upon the account only of that to come Satisfaction And that which is like a Mathematical demonstration to me that it was not an essential condition of pardon and salvation is this viz. If it was an essentially necessary condition of Justification then then no man could be in a state of justification and salvation without an explicite knowledg of Christ's death and satisfaction to come But the Disciples of Christ at least some of them were truly regenerate men truly children of God and in a justified estate before Christ's Resurrection and believed it not That they were truly the people of God and in a justified estate before his resurrection is clear for saith Christ before that You are clean through the word I have spoken to you And it is said of Nathaniel A true Israelite in whom is no guile And else we must say God had no people in the world at that day for you will confess they were the best And again it is apparent they did not believe any such thing as his death and paying a price of blood Nay they were so far from believing he should so dye that they rather believed that he should not so dye When ever he spake any thing of his death it is said They understood Mat. 16. 23. Mark 9. 31 32 Luke 9. 44 45 Luke 18. 34. none of these things and Far be it from thee and when dead they thought it unlikely that he should be a Redeemer We trusted this was he that should have redeemed Israel They looked on him as the promised Messiah but thought he was to be some great Temporal Deliverer and his Redemption should be with Power and not with Price How then could they be saved if they had then died I answer That they as others before them believed God would pardon sinners upon their repentance and returning from sin unto God but for whose sake or merit they knew not I do not here deny but some before them might and did know something of Christ's death and Propitiation and I do not deny it was their fault they knew no more and understood no more the Types and Prophesies of him but all that I contend for is this that it was not a necessary condition of salvation else the Disciples had not been in a justified estate And I may add this John Baptist was under a clearer dispensation than they before him and the least in the Kingdom of Heaven in a clearer than John and so the Disciples in a clearer than John Hence it is very probable If the Disciples knew not any thing of it very few before them did that lived under more obscure Dispensations and had not the helps they had Now such repentance sincere obedience and turning is still a part of the Gospel-condition for this is not taken away now under the Gospel it is as much a condition of the Covenant as ever That we take God for our God and turn from sin Will any man say That Ministers are not to preach from those Texts If the wicked turn from his wickedness he shall live And If you live after the flesh you shall dye but if you through the spirit do mortifie c. These things are as much a condition as ever But there is something added under the Gospel something required of us as necessary that was not so to them Now if you believe not I am He you shall dye in your sins It might be replied to continue the former Dialogue You have well said in propounding this to be a condition Nonnulla hic desiderari Habes confitentem reum sed quae mihi solutionem alienarum quaestionum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imponerent In quibus quidem aqua mihi non multum haeret At harum enodatio plusculum insumeret chartae paucis enim expedire non licet Et forsan invidiam mihi conciliaret quae tu hujus generis ad populum conatibus maximopere cavenda est Dumque necessitas rerum in confesso est unde oritur non adeo laborandum nec est tanti nobis clarâ— evangelii luce agentiâ—â—s nostra enim res non ageretur â—uare fereâ—at animus hâ—c ut vides aliquantulum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hâ—antia relinquere proculdubio praestat operasis de rebus explicatu difficilibus tacere quam pauca dicere but there is something more yet is fit to be required of those that live under the clear Dispensation of the Gospel viz. That we after Christ is thus come should explicitely know believe trust in and honour our Redeemer It is sit there should be faith in our Lord Jesus Christ as well as repentance toward God That he should save only those that come to God by him and ask in his Name That over and above being true Israelites in whom is no guile there should be a belief of Christ and his death and resurrection And so indeed there are new Articles essential to our Creed Except you believe I am he you shall dye in your sins To conclude This is the Gospel-condition God saith to us as Solomon to Adonijah when fled to the horns of the Altar He deserves to dye but if he will shew himself a worthy man not a hair of his head shall fall to the ground but if iniquity be found in him if he will be false and treacherous to me and my Government he shall dye It is seemingly too high an Allusion but the New Testament often useth the word worthy for carrying in our weak measure suitably I mean however no more but this Be but Christians in good earnest believe the truth of the Gospel stedfastly in such a degree as to venture all upon it and love God and Christ heartily and serve them according to your weak shattered ability faithfully so that it shall be the real grief of your soul when you fall short and this shall serve your turn So the terms are the whole of Christianity the whole duty of man so far as integrity and sincerity What doth Solomon mean when he saith Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man but the whole condition of happiness Doth he set us on any thing not required under the gospel These are the terms of the Covenant of Grace established in the Blood of Christ which you shall be judged justified or condemned by and they are just before God are justified in Law that do thus and shall be sententially pronounced just that do thus in sincerity though not perfectly and they that do not shall be condemned notwithstanding Christ's death Such only are of the Christian Faith I understand Faith thus largely and it is plain the Scripture doth when ever any promise of Justification is made to it Do but well consider these few things following to remove prejudice and to let you see into the nature
For this Holiness they have in a more glorious manner than our Christ within us our imperfect holiness can present to their view This was not that Christ crucified that the Apostle did so prize the knowledg of And this work of Grace could never have been within us had it not been for a Christ without us and had it been within us yet it would never have been available to Salvation or Justification but for the Christ without us There is no blood no satisfaction in this Christ within us nothing but what would have been esteemed by God and is in reality as menstruous rags in respect of attaining Justification without this work of Christ without us upon the Cross And yet these would make Grace should I say I rather say Morality and Civility yea to speak truly of some of them Incivility and Discourtesie their righteousness though it be a Gospel-command to be courteous These delight so little in our Christ without us that it is with much difficulty that they will confess Christ come and crucified in the flesh if indeed they will confess it for-some shrink at such a question and would fain put it off And I dare say That any of you that ever heard them talk can bear witness that they speak not as men delighting in or making any account of this Propitiation Ransom c. Cursed are they that love not our Lord Jesus These honour not God The honour that cometh to God by works of Creation and Providence is counted as no honour in comparison of the honour that comes to him by this Redemption therefore it is said He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father God accounteth all honour as no honour in comparison of this Hence we read Ephes 3. ult Vnto him be glory in the Church by Jesus Christ Phil. 1. 11. Being filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory and praise of God And Spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ And in Heaven the loudest and highest praises will be upon this account Worthy is the Lamb to receive honour c. These seeking to establish their own righteousness make void the righteousness of God through their ignorance of the righteousness of God Wonderful that ever the Devil should so bewitch people that ever the God of this world should so far blind men's eyes that ever he should so prevail with this device to work Christianity out of men's hearts so as to make them renounce the Christian Religion under pretence of high Christianity to look on Christ as a carnal Christ or the blood of Christ as a common or unholy thing on our Redeemer whom all Christians venerate and adore as a low nothing and to call his faithful Ministers Lyers and Deceivers But study you these things that you may admire Christ for he is and is to be admired in and of all his people Here is not such obscurity as to discourage your endeavoâ—rs nor such facility as to occasion your contempt You may easily see enough to admire all your days and yet still you are to learn It may be said to them of the highest form Go and learn what it means what Christ crucified means Here is a riddle of Mercy a riddle of Wisdom a riddle of Justice Christ is called Wonderful He is so in his Natures Offices Death Let these things be much in your mind It is like his complaint Diem perdidi I have lost a day to have cause to say I have lived another day and have not had a serious thought of Christ and his Death Do this in remembrance of me Look upon him whom we have pierced Study the reasons and ends of his sorrows and sufferings He dyed not as a fool dieth it was for some great End and this end must not be frustrated Wo to us if it be as to us This knowledg would be better to us than our daily bread this study is more necessary than our appointed food Is there but one Medicine in the World to heal us and will you not learn it study it and the use and virtue of it and how to apply it by Meditation that it may have its diversity of effects upon us St. Paul desired to know nothing but Christ and him crucified And Peter's last words of Exhortation in his last Epistle are Grow in grace and in the knowledg of our Lord Jesus And acting our faith and knowledg of these things by Meditation would be hugely influential to work and encrease Grace Come to other knowledg and he that encreaseth knowledg encreaseth grief and sorrow but he that encreaseth in this knowledg and is suitably affected with it layeth a foundation for perfect peace quietness and assurance for ever Let Ministers study this more and so preach this more I desire to know nothing among you that is to know so as to preach nothing among you save Christ and him crucified Preach not your selves but Christ Vse much plainness of speech Preach not like Moses with a vail on your face Let not people live and dye in ignorance of Christ if you can help it Discover all to sinners Let them see the Lord their Righteousness Now in studying and contemplating these things Admire 1. Admire the Justice of God Never was such Justice heard of since the world began Justice in a Mystery He spared not his Son that he might spare Sinners He hardned his heart against the cry of his Son that he might opeu his heart to the cry of Sinners Behold how he not only loved us but hated sin The dreadful instances of man cast out of Paradise the drowning of the World the destruction of Jerusalem the reservation of the faln Angels in horror and darkness are fearful Monuments of God's hatred of sin But here Justice and Holiness shine as the Sun in the Firmament When his beloved Son stood in the place and stead of Sinners he must dye such a shameful painful accursed death Surely had there been any respect of persons with God could Justice have been perverted and drawn aside with any considerations his only beloved Son should have escaped Here is inexorable Justice inflexible Justice This declared his Righteousness indeed that he would not spare Sin but punish it though on his innocent Son Here is infinite Justice fear it dread it Make this God thy fear and thy dread 2. Admire the love of the Father and the Son The Father Bless God for this Propitiation How dreadful was our condition How if Justice had taken thee by the throat and said Pay me what thou owest thou couldst not have reply'd Have patience with me and I will pay thee all God lays great engagements upon us in causing his Sun to shine in giving rain and fruitful seasons in making provision for our bodies but that which should endear him most to the world and should occasion our highest praises should be the providing a Righteousness for our souls Oh that
roaring Lion of Hell and found out a way to do the creature good and himself and his Law no dishonour I have found a ransom not by advice or consultation with others He alone contrived it invented it it was God himself that provided this Lamb for a Burnt-offering it was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ crucified was such wisdom as none of the Princes of this World knew The Angels desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with stooping 1 Pet. 1â— 12 down to look into these things He alludes to that that the Cherubims Exod. 25. 10. were pictured with their faces looking down upon the Propitiatory The Angels knew not these things naturally they were hid in God and made known to them and not made known to them immediately or primarily but by the Church but by the Revelation made to the Church The Apostle speaking or preaching of Eph. 3. 9. 10 the unspeakable riches of Christ he addeth To the intent that now unto principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of God How we admire them that find out Inventions rare Inventions especially if beneficial ones to the world how should we adore that Wisdom that found out this Expedient for the salvation of the guilty Rebel-world Here is heighth and depth length and breadth of Wisdom to pardon and punish both together to display riches of Mercy and Grace without derogation from his Justice This was that abyss the mind of man could not fathom for things so far asunder so distant in their own nature as greatest Mercy and greatest Justice to be made to meet and concentre was a wonderful plot and contrivance of Divine Wisdom ever to be adored and being now revealed appears Wisdom to men that are perfect yea to all men sober and sound in their Intellectuals that hear of it Again If God thus fore-ordained him a Propitiation How weak and wicked is Socinus his arguing who argues just contrary That he cannot be a Propitiation a Satisfaction because we grant God fore-ordained him set him forth to be so He argueth thus God was not at odds with men not angry with men because he found out this way therefore God was appeased his Justice satisfied before he was reconciled before and so needed no Propitiation to make him reconciled to the World else he would not have ordained or given Christ thus All that this Argument of his proves is this That God though he was as things stood necessarily an Enemy by virtue of his strict Justice yet he was such an Enemy as desired to be atoned or appeased Like that we read of his command to Job's three friends My wrath is kindled against Job 42 7 thee and thy two friends saith God to Eliphas therefore take seven bullocks and seven rams and go to Job and offer c. One may as well argue God's wrath was not kindled against them though he saith it was because he directeth to means how to appease his wrath whereas it sheweth he was angry but willing and desirous of atonement in that he sheweth means how to come into his favour The love of God that set Wisdom on work to find out this of Christ was not the love of one that was bound in Honour and Justice to be an Enemy that is to execute the curse upon us as things stood but of one desirous of finding out a way that he might with safety to his Honour and Justice be a Friend as a Rector 2. The word signifies as it is translated set him forth The death of Christ the making Christ a Propitiation was of Gods ordering and disposing God set him forth to dye Not a Sparrow falleth to the ground without Gods Providence much less the Son of God They did no more nor otherwise in crucifying Christ than what Gods determinate Councel had appointed The sufferings of Christ were Heavens Counsel and Hells Suggestion and Earths Execution the effect of Gods goodness the Devil's malice and the Jews hatred When they had fulfilled all things that Acts 13. 29 were written of him they took him from the tree and put him in a Sepulcher Ought not Christ to have suffered these things and afterward enter into glory It pleased the Lord to bruise Isa 53. him God was never so pleased with any thing in the world as with the Sufferings of Christ they were a sweet-smelling Sacrifice and yet never so displeased with any wicked act as with the betraying accusing and condemning of Christ He decreed and ordered the death of Christ delighted in the thing alone in some sense but had the greatest hatred against the wicked cruel actors of it Whom you slew with wicked hands and so with wicked hearts God decreed Christ should dye a cursed death that we might live but their hearts thought not so it was in them to destroy You intended it for evil but the Lord turned it for good saith Joseph Gen. 50. 20. to his Brethren We see God hath an ordering hand about sins an active providence about sins Ye sent me not hither but God God hath his good will and pleasure by mens evil will The Jews did what they did to satisfie their rage and lusts but God ordered it to save our souls God could have hindered the death of Christ but then he had hindered his own counsel and promise Yet take heed of the other extream God stirreth up no man to sin gataker Gataker's Gods eye upon Israek tells us that that difficult place 2 Sam. 24. 1. should be read passively he was stirred up incitatus est viz. from his own heart as the Jewish Expositors commonly or by Satan as 1 Chron. 21. 1. and brings many instances of it But however we must understand that and such places by leaving them to temptation and their own hearts as when it is said God hath bidden Shimei curse And to speak of the thing in hand God in his Providence ordered all to such a concurrence of circumstances that the death of Christ was brought about without any violence or force offered to mens wills only God actively sendeth Christ whom the wicked hated because of the light of his Life and Doctrine to Jerusalem to the Passover and actively taketh off restraints from them so that their is no man or thing to binder them from doing what they would and then God leaveth them to their own hearts and wills and they wickedly crucifie him So that we are not to thank the Devil nor the Jews for what their wickedness was instrumental to bring about for as God is no way accessary to their malice cruelty and wickedness so neither do they partake of Gods righteousness in such acts wherein he declareth his righteousness Therefore God useth after to burn the rods of his anger and this cursed act brought ruin on this Nation and a curse on their Children and Posterity to this day they noâ— repenting of their sin If God had noâ—
a 〈…〉 g ordering Providence about 〈…〉 could not be said to punish or 〈…〉 n his people for their corrections are for the most part by their hatred and malice the sins of wicked men Suppose Gods ways above our ways above our reach as in some things they are shall we say They are unrighteous unjust when he sets Him forth a Propitiation that he might be just 2. Jesus Christ Set forth Jesus Christ God-Man God and Man in one Person Emanuel a Mediator a Middle-person not only in Office but in Nature partook of both Parties not like the medium negationis but participationis utriusque extremi So that we need not take up Job's dark complaint There is not a days-man between us to lay his hand upon us both i. e. Is not an Umpire to day our differences There is indeed a great distance yea a contrariety between God and us but though far asunder he can reach both parties he is both can lay his hand upon us both He is truly God Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is Rom. 9. 5. 1 John 5. 20. Tit. 2. 13. God over all blessed for ever Called the true God and everlasting life God manifest in the flesh He is truly man the Word was made flesh not only appeared in flesh as formerly but now made flesh 1. He must needs be Man that he might be near a kin to us our Goel that as man sinned man might suffer dye and satisfie that there might be as little alteration as might be in the execution of the threatning that as by the offence of one man one a-kin one near to us death came on all so by the righteousness of one man one near a-kin righteousness and life might come on all that as man was to be redeemed man might pay the price He came as near us as could be in a close union so that the Members in some sense may be said to have suffered in their Head For both he which sanctifieth that is by way of Heb. 2. 11 expiation for so the Author to the Hebrews often useth the word and they which are sanctified are all of one of one mass lump of one and the same nature for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren Forasmuch then as the children that Verse 14. is they to be redeemed are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself took part of the same that through death c. Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his Verse 17. brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest to make reconciliation for the sins of the people for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted 2. He must needs be God that suffered not only to support the humane nature in bearing wrath due to sinners that it might overcome death that it sink not under the weight as the Altar of Wood was to be covered Exo. 27. 2 with brass that it might not be consumed with the fire but to give worth to the sufferings to make them satisfactory that the dignity of the person might add virtue and value to the sufferings And Socinus his Objection here is contrary to all Reason viz. That because the Divine Nature did not suffer it cannot be considered in the sufferings One may with as much reason say It is all one whether you strike a private man or your Prince because the stroak lighteth on the body immediately and not on the dignity it is all one whether you strike a stranger or your Father because the stroak hits the body immediately and not the relation of the person The Scripture placeth the emphasis the value of the sufferings in the worthiness of the person in being God God redeemed the Church with his own blood If the blood of Bulls and Acts 20. 28. Heb. 9. 14 Goats sanctifie to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit that is his Divinity offered himself purge your Conscience c. Being in the form of God and thought it no Phil. 2. 6. robbery to be equal with God made himself of no reputation and took on him the form of a servant humbled himself and became obedient to the death of the Cross Hence called the 1 Pet. 1. 19. 1 John 1. 17 precious blood of Jesus Christ The blood of Jesus Christ his Son that cleanseth us from all sins So that if any should ask What Justice what Equality is there in this commutation one suffering for many It may be answered He was but one but he was One worth Ten thousand of us the Prince of Life was killed the Lord of Glory crucified The blood of a man is of more value than the blood of a beast the blood of a King of more value than the blood of a common man but the blood of God of more value than Ten thousand millions of Kings Here then is a high price indeed the King of Kings and Lord of Lords the King of Heaven and Earth's Son for Traitors and Traitors Sons The Man that was Gods fellow was smitten Thousands of Rams and Ten Zac. 13. 7. thousands of Rivers of Oyl could not have bore proportion to such a suffering for satisfaction This is more than if all the men in the world had eternally perished and doth more keep up the repute of the Law before Angels and considerate men Set forth Jesus Christ to declare his righteousness It declared it indeed 3. To dye To dye this we have in those words in the Text Faith in his blood Object Could not God have declar'd his righteousness and his hatred of sin and have kept up the repute of his Law and have made that honourable in dispensing with it upon a less consideration Would it not have been penalty enough satisfaction enough for Christ only to have taken upon him our nature though he had lived as King of kings attended with Princes Kings and Emperors Or however to have taken on him the form of a Servant though he had not dyed Or yet would it not have been enough if he had undergone some little part of his suffering Would not some one or few drops of his blood have sufficed as those shed in his Circumcision Some of the Ancients have spoken strangely concerning these things but Pope Clement the sixth most strangely for by his Decretal-Epistle he hath determined this difficulty so rationally in the account of Canonists that it is inserted into the body of the Canon-Law Extrav tit Vnigenitus viz. thus One drop of Christs blood was enough to save the world and therefore the over-plus of it is laid up in the Treasury of the Church to be given out by the Popes in Pardons and Indulgences But we are sure God thought it not sufficient By his blood is meant death But yet there remains a seeming difficulty
which I never saw or heard endeavoured to be answered except by the Pope as I said and therefore I shall be the more large in answering of it and thus it lies We are sure that God's becoming man was more than if all the men in the world had ceased to be and then on the other hand God was not so prodigal of his Sons blood as to have poured it all out if one drop would have served the turn and answered the ends of Satisfaction for which it was shed Ans I shall answer it plainly in these few Propositions 1. Christ's Sufferings were not proper solution a payment of the same but a satisfaction a refusable though valuable consideration His Sufferings were not an execution of the Law or Threat but a Satisfaction that it might not be executed See this more fully explained afterward 2. Satisfaction consists not in indivisibili in a Mathematical point that we can say Just so much is just and no more 3. Satisfactions being refusable payments one may require more than a valuable consideration without any injustice yea as much more as wisdom seems meet If some useful member in a Commonwealth as a man fit for a General should commit some crime which he is to be banished for by the Laws of the Land and some Noble-man should intercede to the Rector the King and offer himself to be whipped through the City to save this mans banishment here though the whipping of a Nobleman be a greater matter intrinsically and of greater value yet if he to keep up Law and Justice should refuse to accept of this offer here is nothing of injustice yea suppose five Nobles should then offer themselves to be used in like manner there is no injustice if he should say I will not pardon him except ten Nobles will be thus treated to save his banishment Here is nothing of injustice because it is only a Satisfaction it is refusable and he may refuse in infinitum though a thousand should thus offer themselves 4. Those are more honourable Satisfactions and do more answer the ends of Satisfactions that are of greater value than the penalty it self the greater the Satisfaction is it doth by so much the more speak inexorable Justice and shew how little ground offenders have for the future to expect pardon and impunity 5. Those are more honourable Satisfactions caeteris paribus that keep as near as may be to the penalty threatned by the Law because they represent the penalty more lively and call it to mind more effectually As if the Noble-man himself should be banished to save the others banishment rather than be scourged or pay money The known story of Zaleucus is worth relating here This Zaleucus was King of the Locrians and he designing the welfare and reformation of his people makes many good Laws amongst which this was one That whosoever should commit Adultery should lose both his eyes The Prince and Heir apparent was found guilty the King resolves to execute the Law on his Son the people intercede in his behalf and no doubt would shew him a great necessity of dispensing with the Law it would damage the Commonwealth to have his Successor blind At last overcome with their importunities he finds out this expedient to keep up Law and Government he put out one of his own and one of his Son's eyes Suppose Zaleucus had cut off both his own arms or had put out out one of his Son's eyes and cut off his own right hand it would wonderfully have declared inexorable Justice and they would have had little ground to have upbraided him with partiality for there was some necessity to dispense with the Law and it was done upon a dreadfully awing consideration and his Subjects would have had very little encouragement to transgress in hope of relaxation of his Law for the future But yet it more kept up the repute of the Law when he did keep so near the very penalty of it self Here were exacted two eyes his own and Son 's This is Answer enough to this Question God though he could for the reasons formerly mentioned admit of change of persons yet he thought it not good in wisdom to admit change of penalties or however as little a change as was necessary for the main ends that we might be saved and Christ overcome death and be compleatly a Redeemer Death was threatned and Death shall be inflicted and without blood there shall be no remission Yea Soul-death was threatned and shall for some time be inflicted and if man could not see Soul-suffering yet Angels might yea and men might in some measure by his crying out by his sweating of clods of blood and by his telling us of it and God atâ—esting whatever he testified by Miracles So that whatever intrinsecal value a little penalty inflicted on Christ might be of which I have you see freely granted yet God made account that a little penalty inflicted on Christ would not be enough to declare his righteousness but would have some great and wonderful sufferings to awe the World Men and Angels to declare his hatred of sin and how difficulty he obtained of himself to dispense with his Law and how little hope transgressors may have of impunity that shall make their condition hopeless the second time by refusing Christ and Mercy God would have satisfaction to the purpose plenteous redemption a plenteous price of redemption good measure pressed down shaken together and running over You see there is no inconveniency in saying He hath received at the Lord Christ's hand double for all our sins God will magnifie his Law and make it honourable for his righteousness sake saith the Prophet He means I suppose Isa 42 2â— in the punishing of transgressors and indeed God hath magnified his Law and made it honourable in this way of pardoning transgressors All the Earth should be filled and resound with the glory of this Justice Thus you see this part He set him forth to dye And under this head I will set before you these six Qualifications or Modifications of his death 1. He dyed a grievous painful death that God might be just c. His whole life was indeed a continued suffering of God a continued abasement It is observed we read of his weeping but never of his laughing This I know doth not prove he never did laugh and suppose it did it would not prove it unlawful for us for what was the power and faculty given for If for use we are sure it was not to laugh at spiritual things It may be he never did laugh it is possible that never 〈◊〉 was seen on that face that was tâ— be the cause of our joy laughter and cheerfulness He was ever and anon thinking of the bitter Cup he was to drink for our health One of the bravest days that ever he saw in the days of his servitude was the Transfiguration day when Moses and Elias appeared with him in Glory yet then
is worse Will he slay the righteous for the wicked by punishing the just for the unjust Now that he underwent it willingly answers all this God hath made a Law that the Son shall not be put to death for the Father much less one Stranger for another Therefore this maketh it ordinarily sinful among men to give such or for the Magistrate to accept such commutations because God hath deprived them of this power But shall we say His ways are unequal because not like or above our ways or that that is necessarily unlawful to God which he hath made so to us Say they this would declare Gods unrighteousness to set forth an Innocent Propitiation for the Nocent It would do so indeed to punish the Innocent for the Nocent except he chuse it All see it is not injustice to demand debts of a bonds-man a surety for God hath given men power over their estates and he willingly undertook it I grant it is ordinarily unlawful to offer to be or to except sureties and undertakers for others with lives or members but the reason is because God hath not given men this power otherwise it would be all one Therefore there is no injustice in his life going for ours He had right and authority so to dispose of his life as we have not and he willingly undertook it If God was wroth with his beloved Son it was from his own Choice and undertaking through his love to us Father lay not the punishment on these my enemies and thine I will bear it If thou wilt be paid it have Satisfaction pour out thy wrath on me that can satisfie not on them that cannot but by their eternal and utter sinking under it 6. A Death of infinite Value If Gods justice do require a Satisfaction it will not be put off with a meer shew or colour of one or with a partial lame defective one but it must be commensurate and proportionable to the infinitely hainous and numberless sins and provocations of Men and to the justice of God and so it must be of infinite dignity and value Now the death of Christ was of infinite value Infinite in satisfaction but not in duration for if in duration then the expiation would never have been made and perfected and so we should never have been redeemed He should then and so we have ever remained under the power of death and condemnation for the utmost farthing would never have been paid It would have been unworthy of Christ it would have been unprofitable for us and it was not necessary for satisfaction for Christ to have undergone pains infinite in duration But his sufferings being actually infinite in merit do more than equal a suffering only infinite in duration for that would never have been actually infinite Sins against God naturally deserve and therefore God threatens infinite punishment for Sins are increased according to the greatness of the person against whom the offence is committed They have not only rejected thee bâ—t rejected me saith God as a greater matter and it is brought in as a great aggravation to speak evil of Dignities and in our Law a Scandalum magnatum is a greater matter than the scandalizing of our Equals Therefore Sin is of infinite demerit being against an infinite God And hence it follows that the punishment of Sin must either be infinite in the extremity and greatness or in the duration Now to speak naturally Reason and Justice considering the ends of punishment in Moral Government would immediately urge Let it if it can be infinite in the greatness weight and gravity that the offender having satisfied in suffering might work again But human nature being finite is not capable of such infinite punishment and upon this account it was necessary that it should be infinite in the extensiveness and duration because a finite Creature is not capable of punishment infinite in intensiveness and greatness But now when Christ suffered for us he underwent punishment infinite in magnitude and greatness But still this infinity is to be estimated not from the intensiveness and greatness of the punishments themselves which human Nature and so Christ's human Nature was not capable of but from the dignity of the person that suffered them Just as sin that is finite in its own nature coming from a finite creature becomes infinite by being committed against an infinite Majesty So the punishments of Christ being in their own nature finite became infinite in their value and satisfaction by the infinite dignity of the person suffering And the stress as I have told you before is still laid on this in Scripture the dignity of the person that he was God that suffered And this very consideration of his death being infinite in value and recompence and not in duration doth prevent such a difficulty as could not be answered For had our Redeemer been to continue for ever under this condemnation of those he suffered for this might have made the Christian Religion less rational and credible it would have been such an unaccountable excess of charity to destroy himself eternally to save others But God knew and Christ knew he could so wrestle with death and condemnation as to overcome and that it would not be an utter losing one worth ten thousand of the guilty in saving them which would have been a thing unaccountable to be either done or permitted to be done by the King and Governour of the World but his Sufferings were to be to him an entrance into Glory and the obtaining a Name above every Nature Thus of this Third Head to die and manner of this Death 4. A Propitiation Died a Propitiation for Sin and Sinners that is implied yea signified in the very word Propitiation that it was for Sin and Sinners Propitiation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is the word the Septuagint use to express the Mercy-seat by The word we translate Mercy-seat is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which coming from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth to hide and in Piel to expiate and propitiate this word coming from it doth so too It signifieth Opercuium tegumentum and placamentum piamentum a cover or hiding and an Expiation or Propitiation to make God propitious reconciled and favourable Now this Mercy-seat this Operculum Propitiatorium was a cover of pure Gold laid over the Ark of the Covenant just the dimensions of the Ark the length and breadth of it Two cubits and a half the length and one cubit and a half the Exod 35. 10 17. breadth of either of them as you maâ— see We read nothing of the thickness of this Propitiatory Cover but some Râ—bbins say it was of one Palm And this Ark which this covered ver 16. had in it the Law and so this Mercy-seat or Propitiatory that covered the Ark wherein was the Law typified and signified Jesus Christ fully covering our sins being transgressions of the Law out of Gods sight the Righteousness and Satisfaction of Christ
would not be chastisements or corrections for it is of the essence of chastisement that it be a punishment for punishment is the genus and the whole nature of it is in every species in every chastisement Punishment is truly defined the infliction of a natural evil for a moral evil and this is in every chastisement If a Father should whip his Child not for any fault but only to do him good we might possibly call it blood-letting but not chasâ—isement because it is not pe 〈…〉 If â—e tye up his Child not for any 〈◊〉 but left he run into dangers in his absence you cannot call this correction or chastisement though grievous to the Child because it is not for a fault And if God do punish his people with temporal chastisements then they are so far and as to those temporal chastisements unpardoned so far as they are punished so far they are unpardoned If a Traytor be pardoned but must lose some part of his Goods he is then pardoned as to his Life and Lands but not as to that part of his Goods It is not less absurd to speak of chastening for a fault never committed than for a fault perfectly and every way pardoned You may see how this answers these difficulties If it be a Satisfaction he may pardon the offenders as to their ruin and destruction by their sins and yet leave some part of the penalty on them that may make their hearts ake and eyes weep though they be as brands plucked out of the fire yet he may chuse not to make them immediately in this life be like those whose garments smelled not of it without any shew of injustice 3. If the Sufferings of Christ were a Satisfaction a refusable payment then As God is bound no further to acquit the parties for whom it is paid than he accepting it and Christ paying it agreed so which is the main thing I have spoken all this to answer He is bound only in such a way and on such terms and conditions to acquit the Offender as the party paying the price and the party accepting of it agreed on Now God did not set forth Christ a Propitiation and Christ did not give himself a Pr 〈…〉 ion that sinners should immediately be acquitted without any more ado only be sinners for the Father and Son had a care not only of the offender's good but also of their own honourâ— for if we shall suppose that through this Satisfaction it might now well have consisted with God's Justice yet it is certain it was not consistent with his wisdom and prudence in Government to pardon and deliver those that should slight deliverance so to reâ—eem Creatures as to have them lawless to lose his Rule and Government over them that they may say We are delivered to commit all these abominations to be like School-boys that have their orders that they may do well if they will but if they will not the Master cannot justly according to those Temporary Laws punish them Christ was not properly a Surety though Metaphorically once so called who hath only a care of one party to get deliverance for the Debtor and careth not for the Creditor but he was a Mediator a middle person and had care of both would have their redemption and deliverance only in such a way as should no way dishonour God He had a care of the Worship Service and Honour of God as well as of man's impunity and deliverance and he would also have a care that he should not be reproached as an unholy Saviour to have redeemed one to live as if the Blood of the Covenant was an unholy thing and would allow them impunity in all sin He would not for his part have his unspotted Righteousness to serve as a covering to wrap and cover wilfully continuing running sores Nay Christ was so far from meerly designing and bargaining for the salvation of them that should continue wilful contemners of God and his Laws from intending his death for a Sanctuary where wilful continuing enemies might find refuge and safety that his design was to bring Religion into the World and to fetch it back from that swoon wherein it must needs have lain had not Christ dyed had there been no hope for repenting returning sinners He was so far from meerly purchasing the pardon of any live they as they list that one of the great ends of his death was That purchasing such hope for them that returned they might purifie themselves purchasing such Promises they might cleanse themselves from all pollutions of flesh and spirit Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself Tit. 2. 14. a peculiar people zealous of good works He bare our sins that is the 〈◊〉 Pet. 2. 24 punishment of our sins in his own body on a tree that we being dead unto sin might live unto righteousness That whereas God would have had no service no obedience there being no forgiveness with him that he might be feared but Earth would have been like Hell now God might have such poor shattered service as our degenerate estate is capable of Therefore be sure He would not use such an unlikely means as this to bargain for and purchase of his Father pardon of sinners so absolutely that should they wilfully slight their Redeemer they should yet have the benefit of his death and he should be unjust in denying them pardon and therefore wish them only to repent believe reform out of good nature and ingenuity and by way of thankfulness but if they should refuse he should be unjust according to such an Oeconomy if he deny to them the pardon and justification procured by Christ Nay let any man that is not forsaken of Reason as well as Religion that is not giddy and drunk with error and is not ignorant of the wickedness of man's nature judg Whether this would be as likely a means for Christ to bring Religion into the World to obtain that they should have the fruit and benefit of his death to justification and salvation whether they repent return or noâ— you shall have these things live as you list only I beseech you by way â—f gratitude repent reform Or for God to give his Son and Christ give himself that whosoever should believe repent return should have 〈◊〉 benefit of it and otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 short Whether of these are 〈…〉 lier way to lay such a sound 〈…〉 the world judg 〈◊〉 Would 〈…〉 pardoning sins against the first 〈…〉 nant shew so dreadfully by the death of his Son how hardly and difficultly he dispensed with his Law that men might after go on in sin without danger Surely one of the ends of Christ's dying was to shew that if he would not pardon sinners against the first Covenant without such a stupendious Satisfaction how hopeless will their condition be that perform not the terms of this second Covenant founded in the blood of Christ
say if you think or desire rationally Should God say O ye guilty Rebels I have found a Ransome I have found out a way that I can now pardon you with safety to my Honour and Justice Now as ingenuous men speak and tell me what I shall do for you Should I pardon you and give you Heaven and Happiness though you should continue to live in all Villany hating me and my holy ways slighting my Law and Government We would answer No. This would not become the holy and universal Magistrate and King of the World this would be unworthy of God For then we might say We are delivered to commit all these abominations this we have begun to do an nothing will be restrained from us which we can imagine to do and there will be none to put us to shame Speak then like honest men that have some sparks of ingenuity We should say Make not the terms perfect obedience for we brake that old Covenant that had these terms when we had our perfect strength and now we are weakned wonderfully shattered wonderfully by our fall Ans Make the condition the terms this That if we humbly acknowledging our desert of damnation repenting us of our iniquities and seeking to thee for forgiveness shall sincerely desire and endeavor to please thee and keep thy Commandments and shall bewail it with grief when we fall short and fail in this our duty that then we shall have the benefit of this Propitiation So that only our wilful chosen casting off thee and thy Government shall undo us And make it that though we should have long refused thee yet if at length we thus repent and return we shall find this mercy This is well said thus far And though this be not now enough for us yet this seemeth to comprehend all the condition required of men to justification and salvation before the appearance of Christ in the flesh There were Promises of Forgiveness Justification and right to Heaven made known to the World by Noah the Preacher of Righteousness and others upon the condition of repentance and returning to God If thou dost well shalt thou not be accepted was said to a great sinner This was Gospel not Law for that requires that a man never have been a sinner The Book of Job is generally with reason held to be written before the Law of Moses and his Friends knew and taught this Doctrine and name it as coming from the Ancients by Tradition If any Job 8. 5 6 7 8. Chap. 33. 27 28. Chap. 22. 21 22 23 man shall say I have sinned and perverted that which is right and it profits me not he will deliver his soul from going down into the pit And these Promises were made by virtue of this death of Christ Moses entereth the people into this Covenant To be the Lord's people and promiseth on that God will be their God and he sprinkleth blood and saith Behold the blood of the Covenant which the Lord hath made with you this day upon their engaging to be the Lord's people and to obey his voice to signifie it was made in the blood of Christ And he saith I have set before you life and death in that I command you to walk in his ways And that which he commanded was not the old conditions which were impossible viz. Never to have been sinners It is not in the Heavens or beyond the Sea but is nigh thee in thy heart and in thy mouth It was to love God in sincerity and walk in his ways And the Apostle cites this and saith it is Gospel even the word of faith which they preached Rom. 10. 6. Yea and the sons of strangers that joyn themselves to the Lord to love the name of the Lord and take hold of this Covenant to them â—e would give c. And so the Prophets If the wicked turn from his wickedness he shall live he shall not dye This was the Gospel this promise was made in the blood of Christ for the Law admits of no pardon upon repentance And any that were justified and saved upon the performance of these conditions were saved only by the death of Christ promised and undertaken and this obedience and turning to God is a great part of the Gospel-condition So that obedience is called Faith and disobedience Infidelity He that believeth Joh. 3. 16 on the Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath everlasting life but he that believeth not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he that believeth not or obeyeth not the Son or is not perswaded by him So To day if ye will hear that is obey his voice Heb. 3 7 12 harden not your hearts as in the provocation Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God To whom sware he they should not enter into his rest But to them that believed not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or to them that were disobedient So we see they could not enter in because of unbelief We see how disobedience and unbelief are promiscuously used Heb. 4. 1. Let us therefore fear lest a promise being left us of entering into rest any of you should seem to come short of it For unto us was the Gospel preached as well as unto them but the word did not profit them not being mixed with faith or obedience used promiscuously in them that heard it You may observe hence that they had the Gospel preached to them in the Wilderness and you may here see what the Gospel is A promise of rest and happiness to sinners to faln man and we see Heaven was promised under the type of Canaan and we see the Gospel is a conditional promise for if absolute the missing of Heaven and rest would have been ascribed to God's unfaithfulness and not to man's disobedience or unbelief and you see what the condition of the Gospel is by seeing faith and obedience counted as one Seeing therefore it remaineth Heb. 4 6. that some must enter in and they to whom it was first preached entered not in because of unbelief 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because of disobedience and so the Margent of your Bibles have it also ver 11. And the Apostle tells us what Faith was necessary in those days Heb. 11. 5 6. Enoch had this testimony that he pleased God but without faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him It is essential to Religion to believe there is forgiveness with God that he may be feared The Gospel-condition is rather the diligent seeking of Him if you will place it in one of these acts only than the believing he is and is a rewarder of them that come to him for this may be without that seeking but not that seeking without this I think it was not an essential condition to Justification and Salvation in those days to have an
hearts lest we should draw back and his soul have no pleasure in us Do not say This is not to be supposed for you ought to put such suppositions to your selves viz. If I should now leave off to be wise and to do good I should perish For what else doth God threaten for If the righteous forsake his righteousness he shall dye As a man that never maketh this Supposition If Christ had not died I had perished or if God had not converted me cannot but be very unthankful which Suppositions are at least as equally impossible as the Supposition of your total Apostacy So a man that never maketh these Suppositions If I should fall away I should lose all cannot but be very unwary and remiss in care and watchfulness Concerning those several Names the Gospel-condition is called by let me add this Observation I know sometime these words may be and are used in Scripture in their proper sense for one act and no more And it may be sometimes by confess may be meant no more than confess And sometime Faith is used only for Faith as when he saith He that cometh to God must believe that God is There by believing is meant only assent And so when we read of Faith's operativeness it means only the belief of the Truth and so would I be understood when I at any time speak of Faith's operativeness as purifying their hearts by Faith yet whenever any Promise is made to any Grace or Act whatsoever of Justification Salvation Pardon there it implieth the whole Gospel-condition and all Graces essential to Christianity It must be understood caeteris paribus if other things answer thereto And this I can prove evidently to you by this argument else a man would have right by the Promise upon his Confessing though he did not forsake and by believing that Christ is risen from the dead though he should refuse to obey the Gospel and God would be unfaithful in denying him the things promised If you promise a Vintner so much money to send you such a Butt that stands in his Cellar and he sends you the empty Vessel if you can assure me that you are not by truth and promise bound to pay him then I am equally sure that you meant the Vessel and the Wine also you spake Synecdochically Methinks I may say as the Town-Clark of Ephesus once did with greater reason than he These things are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things that cannot be spoken against Object Is not this working for Justification or Righteousness Is there no danger in seeking to be justified and saved by works Ans No danger at all in this sense and yet great danger in another sense but it is so far from being dangerous in this sense that it is indispensably necessary to salvation They only shall be blessed that keep his Commandments in Gospel-sincerity that they may have right to the tree of life that is that they may be justified And I dare confidently say that never any did sincerely obey God whatever confused notions some good men have had in their brains that they held only speculatively but for this end among others that they might have right to Heaven which is Justification for as humane nature now is and I think I may say the same concerning the state of Innocency it is not capable of undergoing the difficulties of obedience but for such ends To escape the curse and attain the blessing which is to attain Justification and escape Condemnation And to say otherwise is to say God hath indeed made promises of remission of sins and Heaven to those that repent turn from sin and obey the Gospel but I will not regard these promises I will not be moved by them I will do none of these things for these ends but I will only act out of love Which yet I could shew you would be impossible For how can I love him who I think hath done me no good and how can I think he hath done me any good when I think my own salvation is no good as I certainly do if I do not desire and endeavour it And God hath threatned those that go on in sin with a Curse and Hell But I will not refrain sin for these ends that I may escape Hell I will only act out of Love I will be above Scripture I will neither be moved with promises nor threats But there is another sense which the Apostle speaketh of as damnable The Pharisaical Jews would have Justification and Righteousness without pardon would purely and meerly be justified so as not to be pardoned that it should be no favour to justifie them but their due without grace and pardon and that maketh him prove out of David the necessity of pardon Rom. 4. and that would be in effect to say without the Satisfaction and Righteousness of Christ and if so Christ died in vain this would make void his death they would have their obedience to the Moral Law which they commonly interpreted as reaching only to the outward act either to be perfect or so little defective that the great meritoriousness of being Abraham's Seed and circumcised and their strict observance of the Ceremonial Law and other Traditions never commanded would make up what wanted And their Righteousness being compleat of it self their Justification would be of due debt from the old Law through Justice and not of Pardon and Grace through a Propitiation And so too many among us look upon their good works as meritorious though they be sinners and know it yet they think the good works of Alms and other things which they look upon as no duties will satisfie for those sins and think God would do them wrong if he do not for their good deeds pardon their evil deeds think their good works are very good and deserving much from God and their evil not very evil and so God would be very hard yea unjust if he should condemn them If this was true then no need of Christ he then dyed in vain then salvation would be of debt from natural Justice from the old Law and not of Grace and Mercy and Pardon through Christ Will any dare to say If what I have spoken be true that he will pardon none but repenting returning believing sinners that it is not of Pardon Mercy Grace but of debt from the old Covenant which allows no Pardon I confess Paul's Epistles about Justification are hard to be understood and I am confident many Expositors are and have been notoriously mistaken about these things and that by Faith he meaneth as I do Faith and Obedience to the Gospel I have written something to shew to my Acquaintants the meaning of these places which I think make them appear rational and plain to this sense and absit verbo invidia will do so to rational men But it is not fit to speak so largely here I wish you to read considerately Cap. 3. v. 5. of his Epistle to Titus Can you
and tends to the honour of your kindness Oh that I had hearkened to my Friend How have I hated instruction and would not incline mine ear to him that instructed me They in Hell if they would and could do as befits them or as Christ hath deserved from them would spend time as well in admiring the love of God and the Redeemer in this wonderful once offered and urged Kindness as in ruing that they lost it through their own chosen wilful madness Some go on such grounds in speaking of these things that holding to their way they must necessarily deny that sinners in Hell will ever rue and befool themselves for their loss of salvation by Christ But if any will hold so much power in man to receive Christ as that they will rue it as their madness and folly and sin to reject him and perish by so doing I can from that demonstrate as clearly as I can do any thing that this I now speak in this digression inevitably follows Let me but ask you this Was there no cause for Adam when faln from the benefit to thank God for making that promise Obey and Live when as God might have annihilated him notwithstanding his obedience had it not been for that promise And do you never thank God for it though God knew he would fall But to return As Christ's sufferings did not as an expiation or satisfaction but as a highly meritorious act deserve or obtain that God should give greater things to those that believe than Adam lost for the honour of the Redeemer and of this great work of Redemption so he did deserve that God should cause some to believe and so from eternity his death foreseen or undertaken was a cause a meritorious cause or motive why God would that is decreed to make some and so though more remotely such particular persons the Elect to accept offered mercy and Christ which they would otherwise as others have rejected Some call this the Covenant of Redemption but it is an immanent act and from eternity and an elicite act of the will and therefore is properly a Decree and belongeth to the Will of Purpose and not to his Legislative Will his Rectoral Will Methinks you may see hence how it cometh to pass that we sometimes read of Christ's dying for the world and in other places that he laid down his life for his sheep sometime tasted death for every man dyed for all sometime again gave himself for the Church in one place a Saviour of the Body in another a Saviour of the world He dyed for the Elect and World both so far that whosoever should believe on him should not perish but for the Elect as they which were much in his eye being those who certainly should believe and so be actually saved Though God and Christ did as one saith aequè intend this satisfaction a propitiation conditionally applicable to every one yet he did not ex aequo as fully intend it for to be actually applied to every man There is much of truth in that frequently cited passage of Ambrose Christus passus est pro omnibus pro nobis tamen specialiter passus est Like that a Saviour of all men especially of them that believe Will any dare to say Here is nothing of grace or kindness to the World Joh. 3. 16. He so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life V. 17. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved Cannot you see plainly here what is meant by the World and that his first coming was to save it though his second will be to take a severe account V. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he believeth not Can you say a sick man dyed because he took not such a Medicine when if he had taken it it would not have cured him You cannot say the Devils continue to be condemned because they reject Christ because if they should accept him they would still perish for there was no satisfaction made for them And may not the same be said of them that perish if no satisfaction be made for them So John 12. 47. If any man hear my words and believe not surely you will say this is meant of a non-elect man I judg him not for I came not into the world to condemn the world but to save the world Which reason would have no shew of reason except Christ came to save that man except he be one of that World he came to save If Election and Redemption were of the same latitude and strictness you might as well say to sinners Repent for you are elected for you are foreknown in the Scripture-sense for you are given to Christ by the Father in that special sense as Repent for you are redeemed Christ dyed for you you are bought with a price therefore glorifie God with your bodies and spirits which are his But the Apostle would not venture to speak thus You are elected therefore repent glorifie God for he should have spoken what he knew not to to be true I will say no more but this here Whether is it a more likely way to lay a foundation for Religion in the World to encourage and draw mens hearts to repent return to tell them Christ hath dyed for you and hath obtained this of the Father for you That if you return you shall live notwithstanding all your former sins or to say Repent return for for any thing you know Christ hath dyed for you for any thing you know he hath obtained this from God That if you turn you shall live though it is ten to one he hath not or however we cannot tell whether he hath or no. And if he hath not then as this is true that if the Devils should repent and return they should yet perish because no Satisfaction was made for them so if you should repent and believe you should yet perish because no Satisfaction made for you Application FRom all that hath been spoken we may learn these things Vse 1. This informeth us That God could not in Justice without a Satisfaction pardon our sins I know such moral things consist not in a point I dare not therefore say He could not pardon the least offence without a Satisfaction or such a great Satisfaction It is enough to say He could not pardon such and so great sins as ours and the worlds upon repentance without Satisfaction Many men of renown of late days have in this too much symbolized with Socinus and have maintained that God could if he had so pleased have pardoned the world and received them on the Gospel-terms into favour without a Satisfaction and that the death of Christ was from the Will of God and not from his Justice and some of the Ancients have thus
Abraham's time Abraham thought it probable there might be fifty righteous persons in Sodom though it proved indeed otherwise and he was better acquainted with the state of those times than we are at this distance And to come to the Jews before Christ's time that had the Oracles of God and to whom the Lord sent Messengers rising up betime and sending them because he had compassion on them saying Turn and live And If the wicked turn from his wickedness and keep all my Commandments be shall live Yet it is next to an impossibility but that those amongst them that knew little or nothing of this great price or Satisfaction that scarce understood any thing of their Prophesies Types and Sacrfices but that those should have muddied and fluctuating thoughts about this pardon of sin when deeply convinced of God's Holiness and hatred of sin and of the hainousness of their sins how it could stand with his Justice and Honour to give eternal life to such unworthy wretches upon their repentance and poor broken obedience Good hearts sensible of God's Holiness and the hainousness of sin would be apt to say Though he will pardon sin yet it may be not such great sins as ours What unanswerable Arguments taken from God's Justice and Holiness might they seem to have against it No wonder if they that knew so little of this great Transaction though sincere ones were all their lives subject to bondage through fear of death No wonder if they were as Servants and our condition the state of Sons in comparison of theirs though the almost visibly convincing knowledg they had of God and his placableness and mercy did prevail with them to perform the Gospel-condition to be true Israelites sincere servants of God Blessed be God that hath revealed those things to us that were hid comparatively from many wise prudent yea and holy men What helps have we which they wanted to turn to God! What helps to the love of God and to all cheerful obedience He so wonderfully loving us first even while ungodly as we may clearly and with open face comparatively to them now see Rom. 5. 8. God commendeth his love to us in that while we were sinners and enemies and ungodly Christ died for us And if so much more now when we are converted and so justified by his blood we may easily believe We shall be saved from wrath through him for then we have a Right by Promise ver 10. For if when we were enemies living in opposition to Heaven and so he as Rector an Enemy to us if then he found a ransome and we were then reconciled to God in the death of his Son quoad meritum so far as concerns the price and the conditional pardon made out thereupon much more being actually reconciled as we are upon the performing the Gospel-condition we shall be saved by his living to intercede for us and to see we have the fruit of his Death and our Faith the salvation of our souls v. 11. And not only so but when thus converted we joy in God as having now received the atonement There was an atonement in his death before but now we have interest in it having performed the Gospel-condition we are actually and not only quoad meritum justified by it What madness is in our hearts if we refuse to hear Him that hath thus convincingly spoken to us from Heaven O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that you should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ was evidently held out crucified amongst you He means by the Ministry of the Gospel for Christ was crucified at Jerusalem and not at Galatia And the same may by the same reason be urged on us O foolish yea more than foolish even bewitched Creatures we to do such an unreasonable thing as to refuse to obey the Gospel even we before whose eyes Christ is evidently held forth crucified If we perish we may every one of us say with him in Terence Et prudens sciens vivus vidensque pereo I perish knowingly and with my eyes open We may say with the Apostle God in times past suffered yet not altogether but comparatively as the following words shew all Nations to walk in their own ways Acts 14. 16. yea and the Jewish Nation in comparison of us And God Acts 17. 30. neglected those times of ignorance as the words should be translated but now commands even with almost compelling-evidence and power all men every where where Christianity comes to repent 3. This informs us That fallen man could never have fulfilled the Law or satisfied Justice for the breach of it else Christ needed not to have died for this end That God might be just for God might then have been just and the justifier of faln man after their good deeds and sufferings or satisfactions without Christ's death whereas the Apostle tells All are concluded under sin and that therefore all that were or are justified were are and shall be justified were are and shall be justified only this way by the pardon of sin through this Propitiation upon their Faith Repentance and new Obedience To account our Reformations Humiliations Faith Obedience in the place of a Satisfaction Expiation for our evil deeds is to pervert the design of the whole Gospel Christ is become of Gal. 5. 4. none effect to you whosoever of you seek to be justified by the Law How contradictory to this whole Doctrine is the avowed Popish Tenent of Merits Though some of their deluded ones amongst us are kept so ignorant of their own Religion as to tell us Their Church holdeth no such thing as the meriting eternal life by their works I know they are all to pieces about this as well as about other things they hold it Heresie to deny But did these never hear or read them discoursing of their works of Super-erogation that they can not only merit but so over-merit as to supererogate and have much to spare for those that need Merits Many of them as Bellarmine confesseth speak at a higher rate for Merit than he himself and yet this moderate man is too high of all conscience Jam verò opera bona justorum Bellar. de Justif lib. 5. cap. 17. meritoria esse vitae aeternae ex condigno non solum ratione pacti acceptationis sed etiam ratione operis probatur his Argumentis c. He maintains here The good works of pious men are meritorious of eternal life ex condigno and that not only upon the account of God's Covenant and Acceptation which is a contradiction in the very words but upon the account of the very works themselves And he tells us Cap. 12 One drop of Christ's blood was of merit enough to have saved the whole World for the infinite Dignity of the Person and cites the Decretal Epistle of Clement the sixth to prove it and then adds At non dissimilis debet esse ratio meriti in Capite membris Igitur
thing that hath no sting no great hurt in it Let not my soul come into your secrets You do in your hearts blaspheme this great and stupendious transaction of Heaven and that worthy name of Christ wherewith you are called You despise God in your hearts and say as David to Saul After whom doth the King of Israel pursue after a dead dog after a flea As if he should say Methinks the great King of Israel should never be so vain as to trouble himself about such an inconsiderable fellow as I am A dead dog cannot bite a flea can bite but a flea-biting is a small matter you that think sin but like a flea and its hurt like a flea-biting you do charge the God of Israel in your hearts foolishly as if he made all this ado in Christ's death about nothing you in effect maintain as if God did magno conatu magnas nugas agere as if these things were but Childrens play as if Christ dyed as a fool dyeth to no purpose for if sin be such a slight matter then Christ died in vain How far are your thoughts from God's thoughts You shall see it an evil and bitter thing and of dreadful desert and admire at instead of contemning this Justice of God manifested in this wise plot of the Trinity for man's salvation before ever you come to have this great benefit of it 6. This speaks dreadfully to all unbelieving impenitent Christ-refusing sinners What will become of them that slight their Redeemer that shall have no part in his blood because they tread it under foot If Christ died for this end because else God could not with safety to his Justice pardon believing repenting returning sinners what will become of them that believe not repent not return not The death of Christ is to incorrigible sinners the dreadfullest story they can read it setteth convincingly forth before their eyes and thundereth out to their ears the inexorable Justice of God and what a fearful thing it is to fall into the offended hands of the living God It may make a man sweat may put a man into an agony to tell of those things that are by the sufferings of Christ proclaimed aloud to the World to befall wilful contemners of this offer of Christ and Grace If these things were done to the green tree what shall be done to the dry If he whose judgment was not to have drunk this Cup hath drunk so deeply of it Art thou he that shalt go unpunished Jer. 49. 12. How shall they escape that neglect so great salvation You that say you cannot believe God will be so severe to impenitent sinners as the Scripture and your Ministers tell you See here dreadful Justice and believe see here how severely God dealt with his only beloved Son when he had undertaken to satisfie for our sins to be as it were our Substitute If any should now escape surely he should he was but as a Surety How little encouragement hast thou to think he will dispence again with his threat that hast seen how hardly he hath dispensed with it before God hath once indeed accepted of a great Sacrifice for sin but if men now once finally refuse him that thus speaketh from Heaven There remains no more sacrifice for sin If any man when he hears the words of this curse that fell on Christ being made a Curse for us shall bless himself in his heart saying I shall have peace though I walk in the way of my own heart and not after the appointment of my Lord-Redeemer surely the wrath of God shall smoak against that man and God shall blot out his name from under heaven and he shall bear his iniquity himself for ever and ever What remaineth for such but a fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation that shall devour such adversaries such enemies that would not have this man the Lord Jesus to rule over them 7. This speaks comfort to true Believers to repenting returning sinners notwithstanding their great sins they have been guilty of before conversion and since conversion God hath you see set forth Christ a Propitiation You need not fear that you should feel what he felt such expiatory Hell-sorrows or eternal and destructive punishments Yours shall be common to men common to Christians leight afflictions and for a moment and sanctified and well rewarded When your hearts ake and consciences accuse and the Law and Justice and Holiness of God seem to urge for Satisfaction look here at Christ made a Propitiation Do not say It is we that have sinned and we must suffer the sins were committed by us and must lye on us for ever What did God lay the punishment of our sins on Christ for It would have been thus if Christ had not dyed if it must yet be thus Christ dyed in vain Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth it is Christ that dyed yea rather is risen again who is at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us who will make it his business to see you have the fruit of his death God is well-pleased with you through him that loved us and gave himself an offering and satisfaction to God for a sweet-smelling savour Thou art often it may be saying within thy self I want Righteousness The righteous Lord loveth righteousness Heaven is a place only of righteous ones How can such an unworthy Creature stand before him without righteousness If I had not sinned or not so hainously sinned how well it would have been with me O happy Angels and Saints in glory they have righteousness Why notwithstanding our unrighteousness yet in the Lord Christ we have righteousness whereby we are made acceptable in the Beloved So that now Justice it self is become your friend Now because God is just the penitent true Believer is and must be justified Now God is faithful and just to forgive you your sins it would not be justice and faithfulness to do otherwise when he hath made this Righteousness over to the World by this Law of Grace this second Covenant and you have the condition of the Covenant You that are sensible of the great wrong you have done the Lord here you may comfortably see it made up and satisfied for Lord thou art well paid thou hast greater Satisfaction in saving than in damning me in damning me thou hast only my blood for Satisfaction but in saving me the blood of Christ God hath been dishonoured by you but look here and see Christ giving him as much honour as you deprived him of The price is paid yea and accepted by God and he hath declared his Satisfaction therewith and made a Law of Grace upon it and cannot go back and now saith Fury is not in me This should be health to our bones and wine to our hearts And that which hath satisfied God for the sins of Thousands now in Heaven may well
serve to satisfie the Conscience of any yielding submitting turning sinner upon earth Here is a Pillow to lay heads and hearts on here is stability and certainty here is something for the sole of the foot of our souls to rest on You may come boldly to the Throne of Grace having such a High-Priest You may sit under Christ's shadow with great delight shaded from the heat of God's displeasure He was scorched with God's wrath that we might be cooled shaded comforted by that shadow that he hath made for wearied souls by being hanged on a Tree All other shadows are shadows fleeing away Worldly comforts and shadows are like Burning-glasses the more they shadow us the more they scorch us for the most part There is a Worm in all other Gourds they dye but our Redeemer liveth and because I live you shall live also 8. This speaketh comfort may I call it that seems too high a word and therefore I will rather say It speaks encouragement to sinners thinking upon a return and to sinners to return Here is a great encouragement to come Return and live There is no greater hinderance to motion than want of hope no man hath hired us we have no wages offered us Judah was called upon to return but she answered No for there is no hope for I have loved strangers and after them I will go Jer. 2. 25. It is as good we use to say to sit idle as work idle How little encouragement would there have been for Prayers Tears Repentance Reformation if Christ had not dyed Esau we read Heb. 12. 17. found no place of repentance though he sought it carefully with tears The meaning is as you may plainly see by perusing the places though he sought it with tears that his Father Isaac would repent and change his mind and call back the blessing from Jacob and give it to him yet he found no place for his Father's repentance for change of his Father's mind though he wept and said Bless me O my Father So if Christ had not dyed you would have found no place for God's repentance for altering his sentence Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written c. Though you had sought it carefully with tears He would have said What I have written I have written It would have been uncomfortable praying when we must in effect say Lord dishonour thy self for our sakes Uncomfortable asking to ask for that which God in Justice and Honour cannot grant when God may answer Even ask the Kingdom also Ask as well that I be not God as that I be not just But now though God may have glory in my destruction the glory of his Justice yet he may have greater glory in my salvation even the glory of this stupendious Justice and Mercy Now there may be glory to God on high and yet peace on earth and good-will towards sinful man Here is yet hope for the greatest sinners It is now no blemish to God's Honour to save the greatest Offenders He designed great things in giving Christ there is plenteous redemption He is able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by him The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin No spot or stain is of so deep a dye that the blood of Christ cannot wash it out No Disease so desperate that he cannot cure it No Debt so great as to be unsatisfied for Aggravate thy sin to the highest and spare not this Red Sea of Christ's blood is large enough deep enough to drown the tall Egyptian Host of thy sins If one man by his sin was able to destroy a World surely God by his Sufferings is able to save the World would the whole World run after him as the Jews once enviously spake So long as thou art one of the World and thy particular sins are not so great as the sins of the whole World thou hast encouragement to come They that come to him he will in no wise cast off as if above his power to cure and heal Come unto me all you that labour and are heavy-laden take up my yoke and I will ease you He saith not I will do it if I can it is a provocation to make such a supposition to despair here is to make Christ as no Christ Whosoever will let him come None shall ever be able to lift up their heads so high against God hereafter as to say Lord I would and thou wouldst not I would have had thee on thy own terms at last though I long rejected thee and thou wouldst not help me or receive and accept me upon this my hearty willingness No God will be able to say of those that perish I would and you would not Nothing but final wilful refusal of Christ and his Government shall undo you It was a convincing sign of recovery from sickness to Hezekiah that the Sun went back Are we sick sin-sick even to death Let this be a convincing sign of hope to us Our Sun the Sun of Righteousness hath gone back many degrees Let this perswade thee he will not deceive thee if he would he could have done it at an easier rate than the blood of his Son God is willing wast thou but willing all is done It is certain there cannot be any other hinderance How willing was God to save thee that sent Christ to dye for thee and sure Christ valued thy Soul much or he would not have given such a Price EXHORTATION 1. STudy this Truth this Mystery of Christ's death more The Angels themselves desire to look into it they are Students in this piece of Divinity though it little concern them in comparison of us Socrates said of Philosophy That it was nothing else but a meditating on death We may with more shew say of Christianity Christian Divinity It is nothing else but meditatio mortis Christi the Meditation on Christ's death How unworthy are they of the name of Christians that neglect this study that had rather hear or read any Moral Discourse of commendable Heathens than the Gospel of Christ When Austin could take little delight in Tully's Works though worthy ones in their kind because the Name Jesus was not found there Yet some look on Christianity and the study of Christ as below them How unworthy of that worthy Name wherewith yet they would be called are that sort of people risen up in our days that call our Christ a carnal Christ that call this Christ without us that dyed at Jerusalem rose again and sits in Heaven A carnal Christ They are all for a Christ within us a Spiritual Christ as they speak and that in opposition to a Christ without us What do they mean by a Christ within us a work of Grace on the heart Let us grant they take it in such a sober sense This is indeed the condition of our interest in Christ without us but this is not the Atonement the Propitiation that the Angels desire to look into
the Lord should look upon such dead dogs as we are What is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou shouldst visit him That thou shouldst give him such a Physician as thy Son to cure him with his blood What is man that thou shouldst magnifie and set thy heart upon him Admire and wonder at the love of the Son that Christ the Lion of the Tribe of Judah should be willing to dye for such dead dogs That God's fellow should be willing to be smitten and wounded that by his stripes we might be healed that he should give Himself his Blood and Soul a Ransome for Traytors for Enemies That he should intercede as Moses Blot me I pray thee out of the book of life and say as Paul Let me rather be accursed That he should say to his Father If they have wronged thee put it on mine account I will pay it written not with my hand but with my blood That he should say with Rebeccah On me be thy curse my Son That Christ should go into the fire that we may be as brands pluckt out of the fire That the most blessed should be willing to be cursed that we cursed ones might be blessed That such a Tree of life such a fruit-bearing Tree should be willing to be cut down and dye to save Trees of death dead dry and barren Trees cumbring the ground It is commonly said of men undone by Suretiship Their own kind hearts undid them We may say of our Redeemer His own kind heart laid him thus low brought these calamities upon him How dear should he be to us Quanto pro me vilior tanto mihi charior Labour to know the love of God and Christ which passeth knowledg that you may be able to comprehend with all Saints the heighth length depth and breadth of it Eph. 3. 18 19. Had we hearts as full of love as they could hold yea as full as all the hearts of Men and Angels could hold we could not love him as he deserves from us We had need with the Widow to beg and borrow Vessels to fill our hearts cannot hold enough Were we not cold frozen pieces of earth the fire would burn while we are musing This love of God and Christ would set our hearts on fire 3. Admire the Wisdom of God in this great Transaction This was matter of reproach amongst the Heathen their grand Objection against Christianity Deus vester Patibulo affixus est Your God was crucified and Christ crucified was to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness But it is wisdom to them that are perfect and to them that are saved by Christ Christ is the wisdom of God and the power of God 1 Cor. 1. 8 24 25. Never was such a strain of Wisdom heard of as this since the World began O the wise plot and contrivance of the Trinity for the salvation of lost man here are Treasures of Wisdom unsearchable riches of Wisdom Wisdom in a mystery to find out a way for the greatest Justice and Mercy to meet Wisdom bringing light to us out of Christ's darkness life out of his death making the fall of Christ the rising of the World Such Wisdom as the Princes of this World knew not such Wisdom as the subtil Devils could not fathom Wisdom confounding the Devils and making them to help forward our salvation by endeavouring our ruin in destroying Christ He destroyed his own Kingdom in seeking to destroy Christ's Kingdom 2. Exhort Keep humble and low thoughts of your selves yea be ashamed and confounded in your selves because of his kindness in being thus pacified toward you Look to the hole of the pit whence you were digged and see what you were by nature and what your lot and portion was Look at your selves at the best but as Beggars in the elder Brother's Clothes Say of your Righteousness Alas it was but borrowed Some are admiring their own virtuous lives the innocent lives they have lived these cannot but sleight the Death and Satisfaction of Christ This is a direct opposition to the Grace of the Gospel and Publicans and Harlots will have benefit by this before them that justifie themselves What needed Christ to dye for thee if thou be so good as thou wouldst make thy self The design of the Gospel is That every mouth might be stopped in boasting and all flesh be guilty in their own sight before God And this is one part of the condition of life and righteousness through Christ To be deeply sensible how just it would have been with God to have damned us And the full soul in this sense cannot but loathe this honey-comb And these Truths would be sweet unto us were we pinched with want and hunger 3. Prize your Souls set a high value on them since God did so Christ did so They were ransom'd at a high rate You have heard sometime of the ransome of a King as a huge matter it is nothing to the ransome of a Soul this is precious indeed Christ that well knew the worth of Souls paying so dear for them Our souls were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold do not sell them away for silver and gold for that which could not purchase them We were not free-born with a great sum was this freedom this reprieve and hopeful time of trial obtained sell them not away for trifles Thirty and two years and upwards was this Temple in building this Soul in redeeming by Jesus Christ the Son of God lose it not sell it not for the sinful fading pleasures of a few days destroy it not in three days 4. Look too that this Blood be not lost this great Counsel of Heaven lost as to us Look to your selves that we lose not the things which we have wrought but that we receive a full reward 2 Joh. v. 8. It is sad thing for a man to complain I have beaten the air and spent my strength in vain Have you done and suffered so many things in vain if it be yet in vain But much more should this prevail with us Take heed that you lose not the things that Christ hath wrought A sad thing for Ministers to complain We have spent our strength in vain but much more for Christ to say I have lost my labours tears wounds death as to these men The Righteousness and Pardon and Life which he hath purchased were not for Himself he hath no more need of them than the Heavens have need of rain or the Sun of light Cut off but not for himself therefore if you refuse this offer you endeavour interpretatively that it may be said of Christ He died as a fool dieth You say to Christ's face virtually You might have been wiser than to work and take pains for one that gives you so little thanks Is this thy kindness to thy Friend Is this thy thanks to thy Redeemer Hath not Christ deserved thee If the Devil and Sin have and