iv 1◠was in all points tempted like unto us yet without Sin He could derive no stain from Adam because he was Miraculously conceived of a Virgin by the overshadowing of the Holy Luk. 1. 〈◊〉 Ghost And therefore the Angel Gabriel to signifie the immaculate Purity of his Humane Nature calls him That Holy thing by way of eminency Nor was he only exempt from that Pollution which necessarily descends to all other men by Natural Generation but he never contracted any himself Whereas there is nothing in which Persons are more apt to sin than in speech and therefore St. James tells us That if any man offend not Jam. iii. ◠in Word the same is a perfect Man he never offended this way for there was no guile found in his Mouth Which the Apostle mentions 1 Pet. ii 22. in particular to vindicate his Innocency from the malicious Calumnies of the Jews who accused and condemned him as a false Prophet and a Blasphemer And no wonder that no sin ever proceeded out of his Mouth since none ever enter'd into his Heart For when the Prince Joh. xiv 30. of this World came to him he found nothing in him Not so much as an evil Thought to take part with any of his Temptations This his unspotted Purity was foretold by the Prophets long before and represented by those Sacrifices that were Types of him And great Reason there was in the second place That he should be absolutely free from sin For had he not been a Lamb without Blemish he had not been fit for a Sacrifice Had he had sin Himself he had not been in a capacity of making satisfaction for the sins of others And therefore the Apostle tells us that it became us 't was not only meet but necessary that we should have Heb. vii 26 27. an High Priest who needed not to offer Sacrifices first for his own sins for had he needed that he could not have offered a meritorious Sacrifice for Ours That therefore he might be qualified to make such a Sacrifice for us that might be a sweet smelling savour 't was needful that he Himself should be Holy and without Blemish And yet there was great Reason why though perfectly pure from sin he should be sent into the World in the Likeness of a Sinner And that 1. That he might by his own Example more powerfully teach us to deny our Credit when it stands in Competition with our Duty to be content to be reputed vile persons rather than make our selves really such This is a piece of self-denyal in which Good men do commonly meet with the greatest Difficulty For the more ingenuous any Persons are at so much the higher rate do they value their good Name and therefore are never in greater danger of being drawn to the Commission of sin than when they shall be looked upon as Sinners for not committing it That therefore we might be the better fortified against this dangerous Temptation God was pleased to send his own Son into the World to be treated as a sinner that looking to Him the Captain of our Salvation we may follow him with an Undaunted Courage and Resolution through Honour and Dishonour through Evil Report and good Report That we may be willing to Sacrifice not only our Lives but which is more our Reputation too rather than do any thing misbecoming our Holy Profession This is that to which St. Peter tells us we are called by God and that upon this very Account because Christ also hath suffered for us 1 Pet. ii 19 20 21 22. leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps And this is no more than what the Primitive Christians had daily Trials of and which animated by so great an Example they most cheerfully endur'd 2. That he might the more Effectually recommend to our Affection and Practise all other the most excellent Christian Graces such as Charity Humility Meekness Obedience to our Governours intire submission to the Divine Will in suffering as well as doing All which were most lively expressed and most powerfully recommended to our Imitation by his coming into the World and Living and Dying in the likeness of sinful flesh And what can be of greater force for the begetting and promoting the same in our selves How can he be Proud who sets before his Eyes the Unparallel Humility of the Lord of Glory How can he fret and fume at every little neglect who considers his immoveable Patience under the most Contumelious and Despightful usage How can he despise Dominions and speak evil of Dignities who remembers that he was Dumb and opened not his Mouth when the most unjust sentence was pronounced against him But 3. And especially God sent him into the World in the likeness of sinful flesh because he sent him to be put into the place and room of sinners to make full satisfaction for their Offences by suffering the shame as well as the Pain that was due to them which leads to the fourth Proposition IV. That God sent his own Son into the World in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a Sacrifice for Sin Tho' this was not the only yet it was one prime end for which he sent him and therefore it was is no more than what was expedient that he should be represented to the World in the quality of a Sinner That his Father gave it him in charge to lay down his Life for us we learn from his own Mouth for therefore saith he doth my John x. 17 18. Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again this Commandment have I received from my Father So much was this in the Fathers design that long before he sent him he plainly signified by his Holy Prophets that he should not only suffer and die but that in his Death his Soul should be made an Offering for sin Yea no sooner was Isa liii 10. man become a Sinner but he gave intimation of it in the Promise to Adam and in those bloody Sacrifices which by his own Institution were offered by Sinners and accepted by Himself in their room In humble Obedience to this Command which his Father gave him and in correspondence to these Predictions he voluntarily offered himself to a violent and cruel death For knowing all things that should come John xviii 4. upon him he went to the place whither a band of Souldiers and Officers were sent to apprehend him and after he had given them to understand how easily he could baffle all their attempts in case he had a mind to resist them by striking them down to the ground with a word of his mouth he gave himself up into their hands who forthwith led him away bound to those whose Malice he knew was so implacable that it would be satisfyed with nothing less than his Blood and by their instigation he was condemn'd to Death after the Judge had again and again acquitted him
of Judgment and fiery Indignation to devour them For if the word spoken by Angels Heb. ii 2 3. was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience receiv'd a just recompence of reward how shall we escape if we despise so great Salvation There is no possibility of their escape from the Damnation of Hell in the other World who refuse to be delivered from their sins in this World And who can dwell with devouring Fire Who can dwell with Everlasting burnings 'T is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a Revenging God whose Power is equal to his Justice and who lives for ever to take Vengeance 'T was ever a fearful thing but 't will be now more especially so to those who cleave to their sins after God hath so fully discovered how intolerably odious they are to him This will be their Condemnation their Condemnation with a Witness that they still persist in their sins notwithstanding God hath so plainly made known how infinitely dear they shall pay for them Nor is the Consideration of Christ's Death as a Sacrifice for sin more powerful to drive and affright us from it as 't is the most evident Demonstration of God's unappeasable Wrath against sin than 't is to attract and allure us to Holiness As 't is 2. An unparallel Expression of his Love and kindness to sinners of his exceeding readiness to pardon them upon their sincere Repentance and to make them everlastingly happy It would have argu'd great Clemency in the Sovereign Lord of Heaven and Earth had he but given us leave to have petition'd him for Mercy But though he resolv'd to prevent us by his Grace and while we were yet sinners and obnoxious to his Vengeance to make offers of Reconciliation to us had it not been enough to have sent them by one of the meanest of those ministring Spirits that continually attend upon him But if he would love us so much who so much deserv'd his Hatred as to send his only Son out of his own bosom to us Who could have imagin'd but he would have sent him aray'd with Light shining with such amazing Glory and Majesty as might have given the World to understand the supereminent Dignity of his Person But to send him in Flesh and which is yet more vile in the likeness of sinful flesh that in that odious disguise he might deliver him up to the most accursed Death to purchase a pardon for us Miscreants with his own most precious Blood What manner of Love was this Well might St. John say Herein is 1 Joh. ix 1 Love You will say perhaps and in what not Since the love of God is plainly legible in all his works True but herein is love so transcendent that all the love shew'd to Mankind in the works of Creation and common Providence deserves not to be named when compared with it Even our Blessed Saviour himself as if unable to express it speaks of it with admiration So John iii. 16. God loved the World So inexpressibly so inconceivably And is it possible after such a stupendous Testimony of God's love to sinners that the greatest sinner in the VVorld should so much as question his readiness to pardon him upon his sincere Repentance Has God given his only Son to die for us to the end that he may be just and yet the justifyer of him that believeth in Jesus And now Rom. iii. 26. that all the demands of his Justice are fully satisfyed shall he not much more give us a Pardon What can hinder When even Justice it self is now become an Advocate for sinners and pleads for Mercy And therefore St. John saith if we confess our sins 1 John i. 9. not that he is merciful but he is just to forgive us our sins Let therefore the Wicked forsake Isa lv 7. his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Tho' his sins be as scarlet they Isa i. 18. shall be as white as snow tho' they be red like crimson they shall be as wool And can there be a more potent Motive to Repentance Unless it be that God will not barely pardon but for the redundant Merit of this all-sufficient Sacrifice will also advance us to a more glorious and happy state than that which by sin we lost What Rebel would not relent and return to Loyalty were he unquestionably assur'd that his Prince would be so far from punishing him that he would on the contrary promote him to the highest Honours Such an assurance has God given to all truly penitent Sinners that he will not only be merciful to their unrighteousness and remember their sins and iniquities no more but will take them into his bosom treat them as his Favourites Yea make them Co-heirs together with his Son of his own everlasting Kingdom and Glory And can the most resolute sinner in the World be so obstinate as not to be overcome and yield himself a Captive to such Love And if we are once brought under the Power of Divine Love this alone will raise and unite all the Forces of our Souls against our sins and make us cry out with as much vehemency against them as the Jews did against our Saviour Crucifie them Crucifie them Let not one of them escape alive and let those above all the rest be put to a reproachful Death that we have formerly been most enchanted and led Captive by If besides these mighty Motives which one would think were sufficient to give strength to the weakest and to raise them to the Life of God who are quite dead in Sins and Trespasses any thing further can be needful to this purpose Consider 3. That God as the Purchase of this meritorious Sacrifice hath also sent his Holy Spirit to assist our Endeavours to raise and renew our Faculties and to strengthen us with that might in the inner man by which we may be enabled to get the Victory over our strongest and most imperious inordinate Lusts For certainly the most domineering and prevailing sin hath not gotten such absolute Dominion over us but by the assistance of this Almighty Spirit we may be set free from the Bondage of it We can scarce imagine any persons more under the Power of vile Affections than those spoken of 1 Corinth vi 9 10. And yet how deeply soever they were sunk into the Mire the Apostle tells us v. 11. that they were washed that they were sanctifyed that they were justifyed in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God In the early ages of the Gospel so common and so apparent were the Effects of the Divine Graces in reforming the most outrageously vicious persons that they were matter of great Boasting and Triumph to the Primitive Christians And God be thanked our own Age is not destitute of some famous Instances of this Nature And that we meet not with many more 't is not to be imputed to Gods backwardness to give but to our unwillingness to receive his Holy Spirit and to that Rude and Churlish entertainment we give him when he makes his visits to us Did we but readily comply with his Motions and yield our selves up to be led by them we should soon find it not only possible but easie Yea the most pleasant and delightful thing in the World to deny all Ungodliness and Worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present World Looking for the blessed Hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works FINIS
A SERMON Preached before the KING AT WHITE-HALL ON Christmas-Day 1682. By N. STRATFORD D. D. and Dean of St. ASAPH Published by His MAJESTIES special Command LONDON Printed by I. R. for Joseph Lawson Bookseller in Lincoln and sold by Richard Chiswel at the Rose and Crown in St. Pauls Church-yard and Tho. Guy at the Oxford-Arms on the West side of the Royal Exchange 1683. A SERMON ON ROMANS viii 3. God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh SInce the Design of this Solemn Assembly is with all Thankfulness to commemorate the Incarnation of our Blessed Lord What can be more proper to entertain our Devotion than the contemplation of the great end for which he was Incarnate Which however grosly mistaken by those who are resolved not to understand it is plainly enough expressed in the words now read To be the setting us free from the Bondage of Sin and the making us partakers of his Holiness A matter of such Grand Importance in the Judgment of the only wise God that he thought it worth the sending his own Son into the world after he had attempted it by other means without success For what the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh When mens fleshly Lusts were so strong and impetuous that the Law of it self was unable to subdue them and to advance Mankind to that real inward Purity of which all the outward Purifications prescribed by the Law were but shadows as a more powerful efficacious means in order to this great end God out of his infinite Compassion to lost man sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh c. As preparatory to the ensuing Discourse 't is needful only to acquaint you That by the words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated for sin is meant a Sacrifice for sin That being the Notion most agreeable to the Scope of the Text and that in which they are frequently used both by the Septuagint and our Apostle That to condemn sin is not barely to pass Sentence against it but to punish and to destroy it That God is said to condemn sin in the flesh by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sacrifice for it Because he most dreadfully punished it in the flesh of his Son and hath thereby taken the most effectual course to destroy it in our flesh as he is said in Holy Scripture to do those things for the effecting of which he contributes sufficient means so that nothing is wanting on his part for the doing of them Which being Premised the words are naturally resolved into these five Propositions I. That God sent his own Son into the world II. That God sent his own Son into the world in flesh III. That he sent him into the World in the likeness of sinful flesh IV. That he sent him in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sacrifice for Sin V. That God by sending his own Son into the World in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a Sacrifice for Sin hath taken the most effectual course for the Destroying of Sin in us I. God sent his Son Not his Son by Creation as Adam nor by Adoption as all good men are Not his Son only as invested with some art of his Authority and commissionated by him to some eminent Office as all Princes are But his Own Son as he is here emphatically call'd the Son of his own Nature begotten by him before all Worlds who is very God of very God of one substance with the Father himself And therefore his only begotten Son too such as no other person in the World is ever was or shall be And in proportion to the peculiar and transcendent Excellency of his Sonship was his Father's Love towards him for being his only begotten he was above all others his beloved Son as he himself testified by an express voice from Heaven saying this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Matt. iii. 17. And the greater God's Love was to Him so much the more was it expressed to Us to whom alone he sent him For he sent him not to the Apostate Angels to expiate their sins and to avert the stroak of his vengeance from them but leaving them under an irreversible Doom to be reserv'd to Chains of Darkness at the judgment of Jude v. 6. the Great Day He sent him to us Men who are by Nature inferiour to the Angels and were become confederate with them in their Rebellion against him who were not only without Strength to resist his Justice but too obstinate to implore his Mercy This is intimated in the Text For in that God sent him in the likeness of sinful flesh 't is also implyed that he sent him to sinful flesh To the Sons of Men who had all sinned Rom. iii. 23. and were fallen short of the Glory of God And is plainly expressed in other Scriptures in which we are told That God sent his 1 John iii. 9. 10. Son to be a propitiation for our sins That in this was manifest the Love of God toward Us that God sent his only begotten Son that We might live through him His Love was indeed manifest toward Us his Severity toward the Angels in that while he left them to fall a Sacrifice to his Justice he sent his beloved Son to be Himself a Sacrifice in Our room II. But because the only Son of God as he is born of God is infinitely exalted above the reach of Suffering and by consequence of Dying That therefore he might be qualified to become a Sacrifice for us God sent him into the World in flesh which is the second Proposition Not in the Likeness as some ancient Hereticks phancied but in the Truth and Reality of flesh The Word was made flesh says St. John John 1. 14. Tho' begotten of the Father and not made that he might become Sin for us he was made flesh He that from the Beginning was in the World in the Form of God in the Fulness of time was sent into the World in the Nature of Man that as the Son of Man he might suffer and die as the Son of God might conquer Death and give that Value to his sufferings which might make them a Compleat satisfaction to Divine Justice And that he took upon him the Humane Nature and in the Nature he assumed remaining still the same Person came into the World a True Man which is the common Notion of the Word flesh in the Language of the Hebrews and that in which it is alwaies used when applyed to the Son of God we need no other proof than his Own words to the Jews Now saith he Ye seek to kill me a man that hath told you the John viii 40. Truth Nor doth he only entitle Himself Man but more frequently the Son of Man which shews him to have been of Humane Extraction