corroborated and strengthened the humane nature in suffering so that as the Apostle saith it was Christ that was offered There was a concourse of both natures in his Satisfaction If he were not man he could not have suffered and if he were not God he could not have satisfied Christ is a Priest in our nature and as the High-Priest under the Law bare all the names of the children of Israel upon his Breast-plate so Christ bears all the names of the Elect upon him Christ sustains the persons of all the Elect Because the children were made partakers of flesh and blood he also took part of the same Christ assuming the nature of man sustains the persons of all the Elect and in their room and in their stead in a part of their nature presents himself to God and taking their guilt upon him is willing to bear the punishment due to them therefore he suffers and dyes in their nature and remains under the power of death for a time 2. Christ by his Incarnation is fitted for the work of his Intercession As it was the work of the Priest to offer Sacrifice and make atonement so to intercede and pray for the people Now Christ by taking our nature is fit for this work also Christ as to his Divine nature is equal with the Father and so is the object of prayer together with the Father but Christ according to his humane nature is inferiour to the Father and so fit to intercede And therefore it is a common saying among Divines Christ intercedes and prays as he is man and Mediator 3. Christ by assuming our nature performs the Office of a King to the Church Christ hath a natural Kingdom and he hath a dispensatory Kingdom As he is God so he hath a natural Kingdom over all creatures Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and thy dominion is an everlasting dominion As he is God-man so he hath a Kingdom by way of donation and dispensation Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion Psal 2.6 The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son Joh. 5.22 that is to the Son incarnate Christ as Head and King of the Church dispenseth all grace to the Church rules and governs the Church in and by the humane nature assumed Eph. 1.21 22 23. Thus have we shewn how that Christ by the work of his Incarnation lays the foundation for the work of Mediatorship in general and for the executing of those three great Offices of Prophet Priest and King in particular 16. The love of Christ in his Incarnation is seen in this In that by means of Christs Incarnation our nature which was alienated from God deprived of communion with him lay under the curse was subject to all sorts of miseries and unto death it self is now restored to communion with God again delivered from the curse set above all misery and death cloathed with immortality and possessed of perfect happiness 1. The Son of God by his Incarnation hath restored our nature unto communion with God Adam by his Fall was turned out of Paradise banished from the presence of God lost his communion with God Now the Son of God taking a part of our nature into unity of person with himself hath brought our nature near to God again our nature in Christ is admitted to the sight of God and communion with him Christi humana natura semper usque à primordio incarnationis vidit Deum Divines observe That the humane nature in Christ had the sight of God from the beginning of his Conception and Incarnation and the reason of this assertion is this Christ was full of grace he had the Spirit of God given to him not by measure Aquinas observes That Christ from the beginning of his Incarnation had more grace given to him than the Saints in Heaven Now the Saints in Heaven are admitted to a clear sight and vision of God therefore if Christ had more grace given to him from the beginning than the Saints in Heaven we must suppose Christ had a clear sight and vision of God besides the great demonstration of Christs love in his sufferings was that he was content to be deprived of the sight and comfort of his Fathers love therefore he crys out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me This argues Christ had been used and accustomed to the sight of his Fathers face and countenance otherwise why did he cry out Why hast thou forsaken me But for our sakes he was content to have his Fathers face hid from him for a time that it might not be hid from us for ever Now then Christ in his humane nature being admitted to the sight of God all the Elect in their measure shall have a share in this priviledge Scientia visionis competit Christo ut capiti electis ut membris The knowledge of vision is first given to Christ as the Head to the Elect as Members and although all the Elect be not as yet admitted to the vision of God yet it is certain they shall be as Christ now is When he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.3 and in the mean time our life is hid with Christ in God Col. 3.3 hid as in the fountain root Tanquam in fonte radice principio and principle of that life Christ in his humane nature being admitted unto the sight of God and communion with him is an argument all the Elect also shall be brought to the same happiness 2. The Son of God by his Incarnation hath delivered our nature from the Curse set it above misery sorrow and death and cloathed it with immortality The sentence pronounced concerning man was That in case he sinned he should dye the death Gen. 2.17 Christ by taking our nature and dying in it hath born the substance of that curse The curse comprehended two things in it First natural death the separation of the soul from the body Secondly spiritual death the separation of the soul from God Here lay the sting of the curse Thou shalt dye the death or In dying thou shalt dye thou shalt not dye once only but dye twice as it were thy soul shall not only be separated from thy body but both body and soul shall be separated from me Now Christ under-went both parts of the curse if rightly understood First Christ in a right sense endured that part of the curse which consisted in a separation from God for although the personal Vnion was never dissolved neither was Christs humane soul ever separated in love or affection from his Father his soul clave in love and affection to his Father in the midst of all his sufferings Christ did not undergo separation from God in either of those respects yet his humane soul was separated for a time from the light and comfort of his Fathers love as was hinted before when he cryed out My God
my God why hast thou forsaken me He was deprived of the sense and comfort of his Fathers love Secondly Christ suffered natural death his humane soul was truly separated from his body Now Christ having satisfied that Law In the day that thou eatest thou shalt dye the death by suffering the penalty of that Law hath fully delivered his people from the curse Gal. 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us A Learned man observes Because according to the sentence of the Divine Judgment in that day Adam fell and sinned humane nature ought to have been punished with eternal perdition therefore the Son of God offered himself to assume humane nature and afterwards did assume it that so man might not dye the death And the same Learned man hath another expression to the same purpose Because humane nature was depraved and lost so that it became the body of sin and death therefore the Son of God in lieu thereof was pleased in the humane nature assumed to condemn sin and abolish death and in his own person restore humane nature to righteousness life and happiness Christ having dyed for sin once dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him Rom. 6.9 10. Our nature as it is in Christ it is above death and the fear of death O let us think of these things these things are the most solid grounds of comfort Our nature in Christ is above death and the fear of death it is possessed of life and immortality and brought to perfect happiness Hence is that expression 2 Tim. 1.10 Christ who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel Christ hath already brought life and immortality into our nature Christ doth already stand possessed of immortality in his own person And this is the singular comfort of Believers that they may see a part of their own nature set above sorrow misery and death and brought to the greatest happiness they can wish or long for and that they may be assured they shall be possessed of the same happiness in their measure which Christ their Head is possessed of This Christ assures them of Joh. 17.22 The glory which thou hast given me I have given them Christ had glory with the Father from Eternity as he was his natural and coessential Son this he speaks of vers 5. Glorifie me with thy self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was Now besides this there is a glory which is given to him the glory which thou gavest me I have given them Christ had a glory given to him as man and Mediator Now the glory which was given to Christ as man and Head of the Church is given to the Elect so that all the Elect do participate and share in it in their measure The glory which thou hast given me I have given them Calvin observes upon that Text The Samplar or pattern of perfect happiness is so exprest and set forth in Christ that nothing is confined to Christ only but Christ was therefore inriched that he might inrich Believers the glory which thou hast given me I have given them Christ and his Members share in glory in common only reserving the difference between Head and Members Christ hath the glory of the Head Believers have glory as Members Christs glorification is the surest pledge of our glorification for how is it possible that he who is our Head and is now in glory with the Father should leave us to those miseries we are now obnoxious to whenas we are so nearly related to him we being members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Eph. 5.30 and he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit The Church being so nearly related to Christ and Christ being in glory how is it possible Christ should leave them under those miseries they are now subject unto 17. The greatness of Christs love in his Incarnation appears in this In that by means of the Incarnation all the Elect shall have a standing Monument before their eyes wherein they may see and behold the infiniteness and transcendency of the love of God to all Eternity And the reason of this Proposition is this Because the Hypostatical or personal Union shall not be dissolved in Heaven the humane nature shall remain and abide united to the Divinity to all Eternity As in Heaven we shall be admitted to the sight of God we shall see the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity we shall see the Unity of the Essence and the three persons Father Son and Spirit subsisting in this one Essence of God so in Heaven we shall see the great Mystery of the personal Union the Mystery of the two Natures in the person of Christ more than now we can And this will be one part of the happiness of Heaven that we shall see our nature united to the Divinity in the person of the Son of God and by this means we shall come to understand the greatness of the love of God by seeing how near our nature is taken unto God in the person of our Head The Hypostatical or personal Union is the foundation of the mystical Union viz. of our union and communion with God God hath taken a part of our nature into personal union with himself and by means of this we have union and communion with him Now in Heaven we shall have a clear sight what that glory is which Christ our Head is advanced unto by the personal union And this I take to be carried in that great Text Joh. 17.24 Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me The happiness of Heaven will be to gaze upon the glory of Christ as a Learned Divine expresseth it That they may behold my glory as if so be this would be Heaven enough for the Elect to see the glory their Head is possessed of And what glory is this That they may behold my glory certainly the glory of his Divinity Christ had glory with the Father before the foundation of the world Joh. 17.5 He was in the form of God saith the Apostle now all the Elect shall see and behold his glory that is they shall see the glory of his Divinity and how so They shall see and behold the glory of his Divinity shining forth through his humanity The humane nature is united to the Divinity in the person of the Son now the Elect in Heaven shall see that person who hath assumed their nature to be true God and to have all the glory of the Divinity in him As the second person in Trinity is true God and hath all the glory of the Divinity in him so the Elect in Heaven shall see the humane nature united to the Divinity in the person of the Son Therefore is it added in the close of the verse For
weigh and ponder these things you may well cry out O the depths O the depths of Christs love 3. The third Particular is this The Heart of Christ was much in this work As Christ was ready and prepared to dye and what he did was free and voluntary of his own accord without any necessity compelling him thereunto but what he voluntarily brought himself under so the heart of Christ was much set upon this work of laying down his life for us Lo I come to do thy will O God Heb. 10.7 I have a Baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitned till it be accomplished Luk. 12.50 The Heart and Spirit of Christ as he was man was most intent upon this work yea there was the concourse of both his Wills his Divine and humane will in laying down his life for us Here I shall shew a little how there was the concourse of both Christs Wills his humane and Divine will in this work 1. Christ as man according to his humane will was willing to suffer and dye for us For though he prayed Father save me from this hour Joh. 12.27 and thereby shewed the verity and truth of our nature in him and the greatness of the sufferings he was to undergo yet presently he adds in the very next words Nevertheless for this end came I to this hour hereby plainly declaring that although the Verity of humane nature which was in him had a natural aversness in it from suffering yet such was his love to the Father and to our Salvation that that love overcame that inclination of nature if I may so call it or that natural aversness rather which was in humane nature from suffering Save me from this hour for this end came I to this hour Though Nature would have abhorred suffering and spared it self take it as to its natural inclination and tendency yet such was his love to his Father and us that it made him lay aside the inclinations of Nature and to break through that natural aversness that was in humane nature from suffering 2. Christ who was God as well as true man according to his Divine will was willing to dye and suffer even in that nature of ours which he had assumed The Divinity did not suffer could not suffer but the person who was God as well as man according to his Divine will as well as according to his humane will was willing to suffer and dye in that nature of ours which he assumed Joh. 17.19 For their sakes sanctifie I my self For what was it that Christ was sanctified he sanctified himself to be a Sacrifice for our sins he sanctified himself by his Death and Sufferings so is this Text generally expounded by Divines I sanctifie my self to suffer well but how did Christ sanctifie himself he sanctified himself in that nature in which he suffered and dyed he suffered in the humane name therefore it was in that nature that he sanctified himself O but who was the person sanctifying all this while It was I I sanctifie my self None but God can say I sanctifie my self no meer creature can say I sanctifie my self Christ therefore that was God could say I sanctifie my self Christ therefore as he was God or according to his Divine will sanctifies himself as man to be a Sacrifice for our sins Hence is it that we have that expression Heb. 10.10 By the which will we are sanctified even by the offering up the body of Jesus once for all By the which will we are sanctified The will here spoken of is the will of God the Father as is plain by the Context Now then this will of the Father and Christs will as he is God is one and the same for as the Father and the Son have but one Essence so they have but one Will. Now by the Divine will which is one and the same in the Father and the Son are we sanctified By the which will we are sanctified by the offering up of the body of Jesus once for all saith the Apostle It was the Divine will that the body of Jesus should be offered up and Christ according to his humane will was willing to offer himself up for the Son being in our nature speaks to the Father after this sort Lo I come to do thy will so that as I said there was the concourse of both wills in Christ the humane and Divine will in offering up himself in laying down his life for us And this I speak to shew how willing how infinitely willing Christ was in this work of offering himself and that his heart lay wholly in this work both his wills his will as God and his will as man was ingaged in this work of laying down his life for us 4. The fourth Particular is this As Christ was ready and willing to give up his life for us so he did actually lay down his life for us Eph. 5.24 Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that is he gave himself actually for the Church It was not only in the purpose and intention of his heart to do it but he gave himself actually for the Church Christ did actually offer up his life a Sacrifice for us Eph. 5.2 Christ hath loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour In every Sacrifice there is the thing sacrificed the Altar the Priest and the Oblation or the offering up of the Sacrifice Now Christ did actually offer up himself a Sacrifice for us It was not enough that the beast to be sacrificed was brought to the Altar but he must be slain there and offered up upon the Altar Thus Christ gave his body to be crucified and he actually offered himself to Divine Justice for us hence is it said that He was delivered up for our offences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 4.25 Who was delivered up that is delivered up to death delivered up to death and suffering by the Fathers will and pleasure and by his own voluntary offering up of himself Hence is it that we read of the offering up of the body of Jesus once for all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 10.10 By the oblation of the body of Jesus Christ made an offering or oblation of himself to the Father Heb. 9.26 Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself The meaning is Christ hath appeared in our nature to destroy and abolish sin by offering up himself a Sacrifice for sin 5. The fifth and last Particular is this That Christ in laying down his life for us intended it as a price and ransom to expiate and take away the guilt of our sins The Socinians the great Adversaries to Christian Religion cannot bear this They will not admit that Christ laid down his life as a price or ransom or by way of satisfaction to atone God for the sins we have committed They tell
is when he is speaking of this very judgment of his in inflicting death upon the sinner The judgment of God is according to truth that is God in determining to punish men for sin determines according to right and equity God is not too rigorous and severe in so doing but he doth determine according to the equity and righteousness of the cause Now that the Nature of God as he is a just and a holy God inclines him to punish sin will appear from three considerations 1. God hates sin infinitely Jer. 44.4 O do not that abominable thing which I hate Sin is that abominable thing which God hates and Gods hatred of sin ariseth from the Holiness of his Nature God is so holy that he cannot but hate sin It is not a matter of liberty to God for him to hate sin or not to hate it God hates sin necessarily he cannot but hate it as he is necessarily holy so he doth necessarily hate sin Now if God do hate sin if he hate it infinitely if he hate it necessarily then he cannot to speak after the manner of men but have an infinite aversation from it for what we hate we have a perfect aversation from and if God hath an infinite aversation from sin as we may suppose that he hath because he hates it how should he manifest and declare this aversation but by punishing of it This is sufficiently declared in the Text I mentioned before Rom. 1.18 The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men As much as if it had been said God hates sin infinitely and hath all along manifested this his hatred and indignation against sin by the judgments which he hath executed in all Ages of the World The drowning of the old World the burning of Sodom and Gomorrha by fire and brimstone from Heaven the swallowing up of Corah Dathan and Abiram and all those remarkable Judgments which we read of in the Word of God what are these but so many infallible proofs of Gods hatred of sin and his indignation against it His nature is set against it and he declares the Holiness and Righteousness of his Nature by the Judgments he inflicts upon men for the commission of it 2. That the Nature of God as he is a holy and just God inclines him to punish sin this also will evince it That it is a Principle that is inlaid in the minds of men that there is corrective or punitive Justice in God whereby he is inclined to punish men when they sin Hence was it that the Heathens spake of an avenging Eye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such an Eye as saw and beheld all mens evil actions and was ready to avenge them The Apostle speaks of the Gentiles in common who knowing the judgment of God in the Text I mentioned before Rom. 1. ult As there is such a thing as corrective or punitive Justice in God so all men by the light of Nature retain some sense of it in themselves It is one of those common notions that is impressed in the minds of men and I think we may say it is indelible that God is just most just and as he is just so he is inclined to render to all men according to their works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This the Apostle calls the righteous judgment of God and this righteous judgment of God consists in this that he will render to all men according to their works The Apostle speaks of this at large Rom. 2.5 c. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God The Apostle calls it the righteous judgment of God and wherein doth this righteous judgment of God consist he tells us in the next verse Who will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil but glory honour and peace to every one that worketh good This is the righteous judgment of God And if we compare this with the foregoing verses it will appear that men have some sense of this righteous judgment of God in themselves for in the first verse of the second Chapter it is said Thou art inexcusable O man whosoever thou art that judgest What is it that men judge They judge that which is spoken of in the last verse of the first Chapter Who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death Men have this judgment in themselves that when they sin they are worthy of death this is the judgment which they have in their own consciences 3. As this impression is left in the hearts of men that God is just so men are under some fear and expectation of punishment after they have sinned upon this account because God is just Hence is it that God tells Cain In case thou do evil sin lieth at the door Gen. 4.7 Sin lieth at the door that is the guilt of sin No sooner doth a man commit sin but conscience if it be awakened will tell him presently that punishment is due for that sin Now these three considerations shew that God is holy and just and as he is holy and just so his nature inclines him to punish sin 2. The second thing is this The Will of God as he is true and faithful to his word inclines him to punish sin God threatned that in the day that man sinned he should dye the death Now God must be true to his own word This is certain God decreed to punish sin and he could decree nothing but what was just God having therefore justly decreed to punish sin and manifested that Decree in his word of threatning God must be true to his own Decree and his Word in punishing man when he sinned Pertinent to this is that passage which I have met with in a Learned man God saith he cannot act or do any thing contrary to his own will now God wills that which is just and this was just that the punishment and all the punishment that was due by the Law should be suffered and undergone Hence he infers that this Proposition is always true That God could not have delivered mankind from misery but by a full satisfaction and that all that which the Law requires to be undergone should be undergone Dei posse velle est non posse nolle God could not because he would not he could not because he had determined that the punishment which the Law did denounce should be undergone and inflicted It is a good speech of one of the Ancients Quod ad potentiam Dei omnia ei possibilia funt quod adjustitiam possibilia sola quae
punishment because he was able to satisfie the Justice of God by his sufferings without suffering to Eternity 2. As for that which we call the Worm of Conscience which is one thing in the punishment of the Damned Christ could not undergo that and the reason is because that which is called the worm of conscience is an inseparable adjunct of sin inhering in the person in whom it is now Christ was most free from sin in his own person it is true he had sin imputed to him the guilt of our sins was imputed to him but he had no guilt of his own and therefore he could not have this worm of conscience for that which we call the worm of conscience is nothing else but conscience reflecting upon a mans actions and tormenting him upon the account of the obliquity and deformity that hath appeared in them Now Christ having done nothing that was contrary to the Law He had done no violence neither was guile found in his mouth as the Prophet speaks Isa 53. it was not possible he should undergo the worm of conscience because this supposeth sin in the person that underwent it which Christ was most free from 3. As for that of Despair some Divines are of opinion that despair is not properly in the Damned and the reason they give is this As hope in the godly after the last Judgment shall cease because hope shall then be swallowed up in fruition so they suppose that despair shall cease in the wicked because that perdition and destruction is then actually come upon them which before they feared But it may be said Do not the Damned see that they are miserable and that they shall be miserable for ever and doth not this cause them to despair To this they answer It is true the Damned see themselves in that misery from which they shall never be delivered but yet it may still be doubted whether this may be called Despair yea or no and the reason is say they because despair supposeth a sense of some future time but now in Eternity there is no time The Damned have a certain knowledge of misery that they are under they feel it at the present and therefore say they that which they do already feel they need not fear Hence is that speech of one of the Ancients Grief hath no fear in it because fear doth no longer torment the mind when a man begins already to suffer what he did fear But I know not whether it be worth the while to dispute whether despair be properly in the Damned yea or no. This I am sure of that the Damned know that they are miserable and they know that this misery shall continue always they know that it shall not be otherwise with them than now it is and this is equivalent unto despair but this is rather an adjunct of their torment and punishment than the substance of it therefore it was not necessary Christ should undergo it 2. We say That despair as it is opposite to the grace of hope so it could not be in Christ because despair at it is opposite to hope speaks a deordination and it would suppose some sin which Christ was most free from and therefore Christ when he was in the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and height of all his sufferings when he had lost the sense and feeling of Gods love yet he manifested the highest faith when he saith My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Though he had not the sense and feeling of Gods love but complains that he was forsaken yet he calls God his God and that manifested his faith and where there is faith there will be hope for hope is the daughter of faith therefore despair was not in Christ But though Christ did not suffer some circumstances and adjuncts of punishment that the Damned suffer yet Christ suffered the substance of what we were to suffer and this is that which I must now begin to speak unto And here I am to shew how it was that Christ suffered the substance of what we ought to have suffered 1. Christ made himself passible and mortal for our sakes that is he made himself subject to suffering and death for our sakes Sin is the inlet of suffering and death had there been no sin there had been no suffering or death It was sin that brought in both suffering and death when man had sinned God first said to the woman I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children Gen. 3.16 To the man he saith Cursed be the ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life Gen. 3.17 Here we see sin brought in sorrow and suffering so also sin brought in death Gen. 2. In the day thou eatest thou shalt surely dye Rom. 5.12 Wherefore as by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin Now Christ our Surety that he might bear the punishment that was due to us he put himself into a state of suffering and death for us sin having brought in suffering and death into the world as the just demerit of it and the curse that was due to it Christ I say being our Surety put himself into a state of suffering and death for us To understand this we must know that although the Son of God had assumed our nature yet he needed not unless he had pleased to have subjected himself unto suffering and unto death For Christ assuming our nature without sin was in respect of the innocency of his Humanity and also in respect of the personal Union exempted both from the Law of suffering and of death but Christ becoming our Surety and being to bear the whole punishment that was due to us by reason of sin and it being the nature of the Curse 1. That we should be liable to suffering and death And 2. That we should actually undergo suffering and death therefore Christ did voluntarily undergo both these 1. He did subject himself to a passible and mortal state And 2. He did actually undergo suffering and death for us 1. Christ did subject himself to a passible estate he that was above all suffering made himself subject to suffering for our sake Hence is it said that he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Isa 53.3 Hence also is it said He was tempted in all points like unto us sin only excepted Heb. 4.15 Christ was exposed to all manner of sufferings and temptations whatsoever excepting sin 2. Christ did subject himself to a mortal estate for our sakes The flesh of Christ as it was united to the second Person in Trinity who was God had been immortal had he not voluntarily subjected himself to death for our sakes but that being part of the Curse that man should become mortal and subject to death by reason of sin Christ was willing to subject himself to that part of the Curse Dust thou art and to dust
shalt thou return Gen. 3.19 was the Curse pronounced upon man for sin Terra es in terram reverteris Earth thou art and unto earth shalt thou return By this expression Divines both ancient and modern understand a state of mortality that should come upon man by reason of sin Earth thou art and to earth shalt thou return that is thou shalt become mortal Terra es ostendit hominem in deterius commutatum Aug. Austin observes that expression Thou art earth it shews that the whole man was changed for the worse Man that had been immortal had it not been for sin is now become mortal by means of sin there is nothing that men fear more than death The Apostle tells us That men through fear of death are all their life-time subject to bondage Heb. 2. When man by sin was brought into a mortal state he was always in fear and expectation of death A man that is condemned doth not dye presently but he is in a dying condition and he is always in expectation of death and a man that is infected with the plague doth not it may be dye presently but he carries his deaths wound about him so man having sinned he had the matter of death in him he had that in him which would certainly and infallibly bring him unto death man having sinned brought himself into a mortal state therefore the Lord Jesus Christ our Surety that he might deliver us from this part of the Curse put himself into a state of mortality makes himself liable to death Hence is that of the Apostle Phil. 2. He took upon him the form of a servant and became obedient to the death even the death of the cross that is he took our nature and made himself mortal in it Had the Divinity in Christ exerted it self in its full power and strength it could have prevented suffering and death in Christ but it being a part of the Curse that we sâ—â—uld be subject to suffering and death the Divinity did so far suspend it self that Christ might become passible and mortal therefore Christ who was immortal in himself made himself mortal for our sakes In Rom. 8.2 we read of the Law of sin and of death The Law of sin is as Austin observes that whosoever sins shall dye Lex peccati ut quicunque peccârit moriatur August the soul that sins shall dye The Law of death is Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Therefore man being subjected to a state of mortality by the Curse Christ underwent this Curse for us Heb. 2.14 That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil That through death he might destroy him c. The end why the Son of God assumed our nature was that he might suffer and dye in it he so assumed our nature as that being in our nature he might become passible and mortal in it Ought not Christ to have suffered these things Luk. 24. He that would be our Surety and pay our debt must suffer and dye for us and therefore that Christ might fully discharge our debt he was pleased to put himself into a state of suffering and death Learn from hence Vse 1 in the first place the infinite love of Christ that Christ who was free would become our Surety and bring himself under bonds for us and make himself liable to the Law and to the penalty of it for our sakes yea not only so that Christ who was most free would take upon him the payment of our debt but that he who in some respect was the Creditor and had the debt owing to him should yet in another respect and in a wonderful way of dispensation become the Surety and pay the debt for us Consider Christ as God sin was an offence against him as well as against the other Persons of the Trinity and Christ might have demanded and exacted punishment from men but yet Christ in a wonderful way of dispensation by assuming our nature and bearing the punishment due to us in it would become our Surety and pay the debt that was owing to himself Have we not reason here with the Apostle to cry out O the depth O the heights and depths and lengths and breadths of the love of Christ that when Christ might have demanded satisfaction from us he was pleased to take our nature and make satisfaction for us This shews us the great happiness and the singular priviledge of Believers Vse 2 who have an interest in Christ The priviledge of Believers lies in this That Christ who is their Surety hath undertaken to satisfie and discharge their debt for them Now if the debt of punishment which we owe to Divine Justice be already satisfied if the punishment which we owe to Gods Justice be already undergone Divine Justice can demand no more this consideration may be of unspeakable use and comfort to us when we come to be under agonies and terrors of conscience Those that truly belong to God may sometimes have such thoughts as these are What if I should be put to lye under the wrath of God What if the torments of the Damned should be inflicted upon me Holy Souls themselves have had some sips and tastes of Divine wrath Now that which may be of unspeakable comfort in such a case is this If thou be a true Believer if thou hast closed with Christ by faith thou hast already suffered punishment in Christ thy Head thou hast after a sort satisfied Divine Justice and born the torments of Hell in Christ thy Head Paul said I am crucified with Christ Gal. 2.20 I am crucified together with Christ concrucified When Christ was crucified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we were crucified together with him Christ suffering the punishment in our nature which was due to us it is in Gods account as if we had suffered Hence it is said He was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 and we are made the righteousness of God in him Now thou that art a true sincere Believer who lovest Christ and prizest him above all the world if thou hast already suffered the wrath of God and the torments of Hell in Christ thy Head it is to be hoped thou shalt not be put to suffer it in thy own person Who shall condemn saith the Apostle it is Christ that hath dyed Rom. 8.33 If Christ hath dyed thou shalt not dye and if Christ hath been condemned thou shalt not be condemned This shews the unspeakable misery of such who have no interest in Christ Vse 3 and no part in his Satisfaction Their misery appears in this That they are liable to bear the punishment of their own sins As this is the singular priviledge of Believers that they are exempted from punishment because Christ their Head and Surety hath born it for them so this is the unspeakable misery of all Unbelievers of all such as lye out of Christ that they are liable to bear
the punishment of their own sins because they have no interest in that person that should take off this punishment from them The misery of all Unbelievers and such as lye out of Christ appears from these two considerations 1. Because the Sentence of the Law stands in full force against them that Law that says The soul that sins shall dye The wages of sin is death That Law is still in force against them and if they have not a Surety to bear this penalty of the Law for them they are liable to it themselves The Law exacts death from the sinner therefore thou must either dye in thy own person or in a Surety for the sentence of the Law cannot be reverst that saith The soul that sins shall dye 2. Divine Justice calls for punishment The Nature of God as he is a holy and just God inclines and obligeth him to punish sinners therefore if Divine Justice do not find out some other way to be satisfied in it will satisfie it self upon the Sinner himself In how sad a case is every person that is found out of Christ he is already condemned by the Law and is in danger of being arrested and seized upon by Divine Justice every moment O how doth it concern us all to secure our interest in Christ to get a part in his Satisfaction for as much as unless we can obtain an interest in Christ as our Surety to satisfie the Law and Divine Justice for us we are liable to bear the punishment which our sins deserve and to make satisfaction in our own persons The end of the fifth Sermon SERMON VI. Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends I Now proceed to that which remains The second Particular therefore is this That Christ did not only make himself passible and mortal for us but Christ did actually undergo suffering and death for us This I shall open in several Particulars 1. Our Lord Jesus Christ that he might bear the punishment of our sins underwent all manner of sufferings in his body for us he suffered hunger thirst weariness pain grief and the like Isa 53.4 He hath born our grief and carried our sorrows and vers 7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted Whatever pressures and loads of afflictions we may feel Christ felt the same yea he hath felt them in a far greater measure than we do It was part of the Curse pronounced upon â—lam after his Fall Cursed is the ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee Gen. 3.17 18. By these expressions Learned men observe That all the miseries and calamities of this life are set forth this was part of the Curse that man should be subject to all the miseries of this life the miseries that we all feel and experiment such as hunger weariness pain and the like Now that being part of the Curse that we should be subject to all these miseries Christ underwent the miseries that we are subject unto 2. Christ was exposed unto and suffered shame ignominy contempt and reproach for our sakes Hence was it that he was arraigned and condemned as a Malefactor by an earthly Judge hence it came to pass that he was buffeted reviled spit upon crowned with thorns mocked derided crucified between two thieves all which circumstances were matter of great reproach and contempt and all this our Saviour bare as the punishment of our sins and we cannot have a just and due contemplation of the sufferings of Christ what they are in themselves nor make the right use of them as to our selves unless we apprehend that whatever Christ suffered he suffered it as the punishment for our sins We read in the History of the Gospel what shame and contempt was poured on our Saviour in his being buffeted spit upon derided mocked and crowned with thorns but I fear there are too few that consider that he bare these things as the just punishment of our sins We read this as a History and that is all but if we look upon this with a spiritual eye we ought to consider that our Saviour bare all this as the just punishment of our sins for shame and contempt is one part of the punishment due to sin Hence is it that when the punishment of the wicked is described at the last Day it is described by this Some shall rise to shame and everlasting contempt Dan. 12.2 so that shame and everlasting contempt is part of the punishment that is due to sin Now then our Saviour bearing the whole punishment of our sins hath born that shame and contempt that we deserve Hence are those expressions Isa 50.6 That he gave his back to the smiters and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair he hid not his face from shame and spitting 3. Christ suffered in his Soul as well as in his body for us yea our Saviours sufferings in his Soul were his greatest sufferings Though the sufferings of his body were great yet the sufferings of his Soul were by far the greatest sufferings Joh. 12.27 Now is my soul troubled Mat. 26.28 My soul is exceeding sorrowful The Papists and some others will not admit these sufferings of our Saviour in his Soul they make the main of Christs sufferings to be in his body But the Scripture is clear in this That Christ suffered in his Soul as well as in his body and it was most necessary that Christ who was our Surety should suffer in his Soul as well as in his body and the reason is because Adam did primarily and principally sin in his soul sin first began in the soul and therefore it was meet that Christ should primarily and principally suffer in his Soul that punishment that was due to us for our sins It is the observation of a Learned man Christ saith he is to be considered under the notion of a Surety or Vndertaker for us Thence saith he it follows that his body was constituted and appointed as a Surety for our body his Soul was constituted a Surety for our souls so that Christ was to suffer that punishment in his Soul that we were to suffer in our souls and Christ was to undergo that punishment in his body that we were to suffer in our bodies and if we should suppose that our Saviour had not suffered that in his Soul which we should have suffered but only hath suffered such grief as belongs to the sensitive part then it would follow that the Soul or Spirit that is in us is not yet redeemed for what Christ hath not born for us doth remain still for us to suffer and to be undergone If therefore Christ suffered nothing in his Soul of what the Law of God and Divine Justice would inflict upon our spirits and souls as the punishment of sin it remains still to be undergone by us But much
more sweet and comfortable is that speech of Ambrose My mind or spirit is crucified in Christ Mens mea in Christo crucifixa est Ambr. the meaning of which I take to be That the punishment which was due to my mind or spirit is laid upon Christ and I having suffered that in my mind or spirit in Christ my Head which I deserved to suffer I hope hereby to be set free from that punishment Christ I say suffered in his Soul hence is it said that Christ was smitten of God Isa 53.4 We did esteem him stricken smitten of God and it pleased the Lord to bruise him and to put him to grief vers 10. Christ was stricken of God immediately stricken in his Soul Psal 69.26 They persecute him whom thou hast smitten Mat. 26.31 I will smite the shepherd If Christ was smitten of God how should that be but immediately in his Soul Hence is that of one of the Ancients God saith he was justly angry with us for our sins and Christ interposing himself as the middle person took off the stroke and bare the punishment that hung over us Neither may it seem strange to us that our Saviour should suffer in his Soul for as much as he was pleased to take upon him the guilt of all our sins It is a memorable passage of a late modern Divine The guilt Dickson Therapeut Sacr. saith he of all our sins wickednesses and most hainous offences which from the beginning of the world to the end of it have been committed by any of the Elect all these were imputed to one Christ altogether and all at once and although Christ by taking the guilt of all these sins upon him did not pollute or defile that holy Soul of his yet nevertheless he did burthen his Soul with them by obliging himself to suffer the punishment that was due to the sins of the Elect as if so be those very sins had in some sort been his own sins Now saith he whenas we see the most profligate and impure sinners lyars thieves adulterers and the like when we see these they cannot patiently hear themselves to be called lyars or thieves or adulterers though guilty of such enormous crimes although it is manifest that they are guilty of them neither can they bear the shame and disgrace of their own guilt that yet doth manifestly lye upon them with how great a grief and passion of mind with how great a darkening of that sanctity and glory that was in our Saviour must we suppose that Christ did take upon his shoulders this most noisom dunghil of all our sins than which nothing could be more abhorring from the purity and sanctity of nature 4. Christ suffered death it self for us hence is it said That he tasted death for everyman Heb. 2.9 Nothing less than death could satisfie the Law the sentence of the Law was That the soul that sins shall dye therefore he that will be our surety and bear the punishment due to us must undergo death it self for us Some of the Papists tell us That such was the dignity of Christs person that the least drop of his Blood the least tear the least sigh of his heart would have been sufficient to redeem us But our Divines do well answer To what purpose then were all the rest of Christs sufferings his temptations his grief his reproaches and all that which he underwent both in his life and death If one drop of Christs blood had been sufficient to redeem us then all the rest that Christ suffered must needs be supposed to be superfluous and unnecessary But we must know that notwithstanding the dignity of Christs person the Law requires death In the day that thou eatest thou shalt dye the death therefore Divine Justice demanded the same punishment to be undergone which was threatned by the Law therefore death being threatned by the Law nothing less than death would satisfie Divine Justice The Apostle tells us in the Epistle to the Hebrews That under the Law without shedding of blood there was no remission the sacrifice must be killed and slain before there could be remission of sins Christ therefore being the true Sacrifice for our sins he was to be slain and put to death before remission of sins could be obtained for us It is true there were many advantages that did accrue by the dignity of Christs person some of which are such as these which Divines mention 1. That the death of one should be sufficient for the Redemption of so many If Christs person had not been of that dignity and worth it could not have been supposed that the death and suffering of one person would have sufficed for the Redemption of so many It is well observed by one of the Ancients If Christ had not been God how could he alone have been sufficient to have been a price for our Redemption Therefore there is that advantage which ariseth from the dignity of Christs person that the excellency of his person is such he being an infinite person that he is able to make satisfaction for all 2. The dignity of Christs person made the death of Christ to be meritorious for what may we not suppose that so great a Person who was of equal Majesty and Glory with the Father should not merit at the hand of his Father 3. The dignity of Christs person was available as to this That some circumstances of punishment which were not fit for him to undergo Christ undergoing that which was equivalent might be omitted as one circumstance which Divines mention is this namely That the torments of Hell which were to be suffered and undergone by us in the next life were suffered and undergone by Christ in this life These advantages did accrue from the dignity of Christs person yet notwithstanding this dignity of Christs person he that was to be our Surety was to undergo the substance of that punishment that we were to undergo Now death being the punishment that was to be suffered by the transgressors of the Law as being threatned by the Law Christ being our Surety was to undergo and suffer death for us 5. Christ did not only undergo natural death but he also tasted of supernatural death and so by consequence suffered the pains and torments of Hell for us Christ suffered the whole curse of the Law as to the substance of it Hence is that of the Apostle Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Gal. 3.13 Now the Curse of the Law was In the day that thou eatest thou shalt dye the death or as it may be rendred In dying thou shalt dye that is thou shalt dye doubly thou shalt dye a twofold death thou shalt dye naturally and thou shalt dye spiritually thou shalt dye a natural death in having thy soul separated from thy body and thou shalt dye a spiritual death in having thy soul separated from me Therefore it is well observed by one
consummate and compleat sorrows and pains which our Saviour did suffer and undergo for our sake In Psal 22. which is certainly a Prophecy of Christ and a description of his sufferings we have these sufferings notably set forth in vers 1. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and vers 14. I am poured out like water all my bones are out of joynt my heart is like wax it is melted in the midst of my bowels my strength is dryed up like a potsherd and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws and thou hast brought me into the dust of death He that thinks this is spoken of some ordinary sufferings which are common to other men must needs have a very slender consideration of these things certainly they are more than common ordinary sorrows that drew such expressions from our Saviour in whose person here the Psalmist speaks our Saviour then tasted of supernatural death he did undergo the pains of Hell for us Now that I may unfold a little more particularly and distinctly how it was that Christ suffered the pains and torments of Hell for us I must do it in some particular Propositions and I would speak of this a little for these two ends 1. That we might more fully understand what it was that we deserved by our sins 2. That we might admire the love of Christ so much the more that he should suffer such pains and torments for us that we might be delivered from them 1. Our Saviour suffered the greatest and most inexpressible dolors anxieties and perplexities in his mind for us and yet without sin no sorrows were ever like to his sorrows Hence is that expression Mark 14.33 He began to be sore amazed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to be very heavy or He began to be afraid and grievously troubled The first word properly signifies to be struck with fear or to be astonished with fear our Saviour was as a person astonished this is the proper import of the word This amazement as we express it was such a passion as was stirred up in our Saviour by which from the sudden commotion of all the faculties of his Soul he was as a person astonished all over in a fear astonished at the greatness of the things he had to suffer neither dâ—d this astonishment speak any imperfection of Holiness in the humane nature of our Saviour but only demonstrated the greatness of his sufferings for it is possible that the mind by some sudden and vehement commotion from some terrible object may be so occupied and taken up that there may not be the free exercise of the thoughts for the present and yet this without sin this was the case of our Saviour he was like a person astonished at the greatness of the sufferings that he was to undergo and that he saw coming upon him all the faculties of his Soul were moved and stirred in him at the torrent of Divine wrath that he saw ready to break in upon him 2. The second word used by the Evangelist is He began to be amazed and very heavy This word is well rendred by our Translators very heavy for I find that Phavorinus renders the Substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phavorinus sadness of soul He began to be amazed and very sad Now concerning this fear and this grief that our Saviour underwent I shall speak more particularly hereafter but before we proceed to that I shall make some use of what hath been already opened Learn from hence in the first place Vse 1 how great an evil sin is nothing shews more clearly what an evil sin is than those great sorrows and sufferings of our Saviour that God should cast so innocent a person as Christ was in himself meerly because he was our Surety and took upon him the guilt of our sins into such great sorrows and inexpressible dolors both in soul and body this shews what an infinite evil sin is and how much God hates it and what it is that we deserve by it We may slight sin and think it a light and trivial thing but O let us stand by the Cross of Christ a while and see what it was that the Son of God and God suffered in our nature consider what grief what anguish what trouble and perplexity of soul he underwent and then we shall see that God doth not look upon sin as such a slight and trivial thing whatever we may do Would God have exposed his own innocent Son who was so near to him who was so tenderly beloved by him who always pleased him and who never offended him to so much ignominy to so much contempt and shame to so much pain grief and sorrow had he not hated sin infinitely had not his soul been infinitely set against it O when we find our hearts begin to play and dally with sin it is good for us to soak our hearts in the meditation of Christs sufferings to take a turn at the Cross of Christ and behold the Son of God incarnate made a spectacle to men and Angels and bearing the wrath of God to expiate the guilt of our sins Learn from hence what remains still to be suffered by Vnbelievers those dolors those sorrows Vse 2 those torments of soul and body that death which Christ hath not suffered for them remains still to be suffered by them in their own persons for the sentence of the Law must take place therefore unless thou have suffered in a surety thou art liable to suffer in thy own person the sentence of the Law is In dying thou shalt dye dye nuturally and dye spiritually taste of natural and supernatural death therefore unless thou have suffered this in a surety thou art liable to suffer this in thy own person Now all Unbelievers who are guilty either of positive or negative unbelief have no part in Christ or his sufferings 1. They who are guilty of positive unbelief such as reject Christ and will have nothing to do with him as they said We will not have this man to reign over us these have nothing to do with Christ and his sufferings 2. Such as are guilty of negative unbelief such who do not believe on Christ who do not close with him who do not embrace him by a lively faith all such have no part in Christ and in his sufferings therefore it necessarily follows that that which Christ hath not suffered for them remains still to be suffered by them in their own persons Joh. 3. ult He that believeth not on the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him O how should this make every soul of us to tremble lest we should be found out of Christ Canst thou bear the terrour of the first death when the sting of it is not taken away Or canst thou bear the fear of supernatural death to have thy soul separated from God for ever If thou hast not a part in Christ and in his death thou art liable to both
it to his cross Col. 2.14 and he is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world Joh. 1.29 that is he hath perfectly taken away sin as to the guilt and condemnation of it Now this could not have been if Christ had not suffered all that was to be suffered he could not have made an end of sin he could not have taken away the condemning power of it if all the punishment that was to be inflicted upon the sinner had not been inflicted upon him but now Christ by offering himself a Sacrifice for our sins hath born the whole punishment so that nothing more remains to be suffered that Divine Justice can demand This is implied in his being made a curse namely that the wrath of God was spent upon Christ to the utmost and that Divine Justice could desire no more than what was laid upon him The last Particular to clear this how Christ was made a curse is this The curse took hold on Christ so far as that Christ was exterminated and cut off by it The utmost punishment that can be inflicted upon a Malefactor amongst men is death the extermination of him from mankind cutting him off from the land of the living separating him from the society of mankind Now the curse proceeded upon Christ so far as that Christ was cut off by it Hence are those expressions of the Prophet He was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people was he smitten or stricken Isa 53.8 So likewise we have the same expression in the Book of Daniel Dan. 9.26 After sixty two weeks shall Messias be cut off but not for himself Christ the true Messias was to be cut off but not for himself that is not for any sin of his own but he was cut off for us because he bare the guilt of our sins To understand this we must know that nothing satisfies the Law but the death of the sinner We know what the sentence was that God pronounced upon our first Parents In the day that thou eatest thou shalt dye the death and this is the general sentence of the Law The soul that sins shall dye and The wages of sin is death Death is part of the curse yea death is as it were the consummation of the curse Death as it is the inlet unto eternal death so it is the consummation of the curse The curse aims at the extermination and utter destruction of the sinner A man that is taken away by a corporal death he is for ever destroyed as to men though his soul survive yet he is taken from amongst men he hath no communion with mankind Death is the destruction of a person as to any fellowship and communion that he is to have with mankind any longer in this world and therefore death is the utmost consummation of punishment amongst men Thus the curse cuts off Christ and Christ dyes as bearing the curse yea the curse is consummated in the death of Christ Christ was accursed even as Adam was It is a good expression of one of the Ancients Christ descended as low as Adam did and so dissolved the curse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ by descending where Adam had brought himself by his Fall dissolves the curse that Adam had brought upon himself and his posterity the curse that was upon Adam brought him to death Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return The curse lying upon Adam subjected him to a state of mortality and brought him under the power of death Christ therefore being made a curse for us the curse subjects him to death and takes away his life Hence is that expression Heb. 2.9 That Christ tasted death for every man Death is the completion of the curse because the death of the body is the inlet to eternal death to those who are still under the power of the curse It is true Christ did not taste the pains of eternal death after his natural life was ended but Christ tasted the pains of supernatural death before the taking away of his natural life as I have shewed heretofore and here we may observe this difference in Christs sufferings and the damned's sufferings The damned suffer the pains of Hell after this life Christ suffered the pains of Hell here in this life corporal death is but the beginning of the damned's punishment but Christ at his death finished his sufferings So that in the order of suffering there is some difference between what Christ suffered and what the damned suffer The damned suffer the pains of Hell after this life Christ suffered them in this life yet Christ underwent death as a part of the curse and death as it is a part of the curse and a fruit of Gods wrath is a terrible thing yea most terrible and yet Christ that he might make satisfaction for us conflicted with this King of Terrors Christ as he was man had a natural fear of death as we have yet without sin and the reason is because Christ taking on him our nature took also upon him the infirmities of our nature Now there may be a natural fear of death without sin nature abhorring that which is contrary to it self and this was in our Saviour Christ being our Surety and seeing death coming upon him as part of the curse and as a part of the punishment due to us for our sins this made him to fear death Hence is that expression Heb. 5.7 He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save him from death and was heard in what he feared Christ feared death as he was man especially he feared it as he saw it a part of the curse that was due to us and yet though he feared it the thing that he feared came upon him It is true the Apostle saith He was heard in what he feared How was he heard Was Christ heard so as to his fear of death as to be delivered from death No certainly if Christ had not dyed we must have dyed in our sins If Christ had not dyed we must have undergone death as a part of the curse How then is it said He was heard in what he feared He was heard so as that he was supported when he dyed and he was heard in being raised from the dead the third day so that he was heard in what he feared in his supportation under his sufferings and in his Resurrection but dye he must death was part of the curse yea the completion of the curse therefore Christ our Surety cannot escape death Christus sponsor noster communi maledictione nobis debitâ feriendus erat Christ says one being our Surety was to be struck with that common curse that was due to us death was due to us the great thing threatned upon sin therefore Christ being our Surety must of necessity undergo it Hence is that of Austin Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree Why
God by a strict life they renounce the world spend their time in retirement abridge themselves of their delights and pleasures and live by such and such rules These and many more ways have men invented to satisfie God withal But it is a true speech of a moderate Papist Whatsoever was not God Quicquid Deus non est non potuerit sufficere was not sufficient to satisfie God All those ways that have been devised by men are too short to make satisfaction to the great God and if we summon our selves to God Tribunal and think with our selves how just and holy he is we shall soon apprehend his Justice will not be put off with such poor things as men bring to him to satisfie him withal nothing less than God can satisfie God The satisfaction of Christ is the satisfaction of that person who is God as well as man otherwise it had not been available and herein did the excellency of Christs Satisfaction appear that it was abundantly sufficient The dignity and excellency of Christs Satisfaction may yet farther appear from these considerations 1. That Christs Satisfaction was once made and but once the Sacrifice was but one and the Satisfaction made by it but one The Sacrifices under the Law were many The Sacrifices offered by the Heathen were many but Christs Sacrifice was but one and offered once for all Heb. 10.14 By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified 1 Pet. 3.18 Christ also hath once suffered for sin the just for the unjust Heb. 10.10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering up the body of Christ once for all once only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Greek word hath a great force in it as Learned men observe It signifies that what was once done was so perfect and compleat that it was not necessary it should be done again nay that it was impious to repeat it Christs one Sacrifice comprehended the virtue of all other Sacrifices in it All the Sacrifices that were offered by men in all Ages both by Jews and Gentiles were a plain intimation that there was some Sacrifice by which God must be pacified and that men had an apprehension that God could be pacified no other way Now Christs Sacrifice was the true Sacrifice that which the world aimed at but could never attain was attained only by the Sacrifice of Christ that which the world would fain have been at and attained was to pacifie God now this could never be accomplished any other way but by the Sacrifice of the Son of God Christs Sacrifice was but one and yet by that one Sacrifice he hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified 2. The Satisfaction of Christ was perfect and compleat there was nothing wanting in it of what was necessary to make it compleat 1. The person who offers it was most holy and without sin Such an high Priest became us who was holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners Heb. 7.26 The Priests under the Law were to offer Sacrifices first for their own sins then for the sins of the people but Christ needed none of this for Christ had no sin therefore he that was without all sin in himself was most fit to make atonement for the sins of others 2. As the person himself that offered the Sacrifice was most perfect and compleat so the Sacrifice it self was most perfect and compleat and that appears by the effect of it Heb. 10.14 By one offering hath he perfected for ever them that are sanctified If the Offering and Sacrifice of Christ had not been most perfect in it self it could never have perfected others For this is a sure rule That the effect cannot rise higher than the cause therefore if Christs Offering had not been perfect in it self it could not have perfected others But now saith the Apostle he hath perfected and for ever perfected them that are sanctified that is Christ by his Sacrifice hath perfectly reconciled us to God There need be no more done to reconcile a person to God than what Christ hath done Now if the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ hath that virtue and efficacy in it as to bring us into perfect reconciliation with God so as that there is no danger of losing it nor falling from it then it is a perfect and compleat satisfaction This shews us the dignity and excellency of Christs Satisfaction therefore we ought to have an high esteem of it and be so much the more incouraged to make use of it The end of the fourteenth Sermon SERMON XV. Joh. 15 1◠Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends TO proceed a little farther to shew the dignity of Christs Satisfaction 3. Consid 3 The Satisfaction of Christ was adequate and commensurate to what the Law and Divine Justice did require All that the Law could require was the death of the sinner In the day that thou eatest thou shalt dye the death thou shalt undergo a double death death natural and death supernatural Now Christ in the work of his Satisfaction hath undergone both these deaths he hath undergone natural death and supernatural death All that Divine Justice could require was that the sinner should undergo the utmost punishment that the nature of man was capable of now the sufferings of Christ were consummate sufferings in the highest measure and degree whatever the humane nature supported by the Deity could suffer that our Saviour did undergo therefore his satisfaction was adequate and commensurate to the Law and Divine Justice 4. We may see the dignity and excellency of Christs Satisfaction in this That the Satisfaction of Christ in some respect was more than sufficient Christ in respect of some circumstances attending his satisfaction hath paid and given more than the Law required for it is well observed by a Learned man The Law did not require that God should dye the Law required that man sinning man should dye but now the person dying and satisfying for us was God as well as man God hath redeemed the Church with his own blood Act. 20.28 Neither 1 did the Law require that any person should dye but for his own proper sin The language of the Law is The soul that sins shall dye Now every soul was to bear his own iniquity Neither 2 did the Law require such a death that should be of so great efficacy that it should not be only able to abolish death but also be able to introduce life and that a life far more excellent than that terrene and earthly life which Adam lost In these respects the Satisfaction of Christ was more than sufficient and therefore one of the Ancients hath this expression Christ hath paid for us much more than we owed and so much the more was that which Christ paid by how much the vast and immense Ocean excels the least drop Let us learn then to have high thoughts of the dignity and excellency
him giving himself to us for these are no vain words This is my body which was broken for you setting aside those gross conceits of the Papists That the bread is transubstantiated into the body of Christ and that Christ is corporally present under the outward form of the Elements I say setting aside their gross conceits there is certainly a real though spiritual presence of Christ to every believing soul in the Sacrament The humane nature of Christ indeed is really present in Heaven therefore is it said Whom the heavens must contain till the time of the restitution of all things Act. 3. Yet the virtue of Christs body and blood is still really communicated to every believing soul Corpus ipsum in quo passus est resurrexit yea not only so saith Calvin Not only the virtue of his Death and Resurrection but that very body that dyed and rose again this is offered to us in the Sacrament these are great Mysteries indeed Now not to have a due reverence to such great and sublime Mysteries as these are to come to these as if they were common and ordinary things or to come to them with a common and slight spirit this is to come unworthily 2. Then do we come unworthily to the Sacrament when we live in the practice of any gross sin or retain the love of any sin We profess by our coming to the Sacrament that we believe that Christ dyed for such and such sins and yet we love these sins or continue in the practice of those sins that cost Christ his life this is to offer the greatest indignity to the Son of God This is as if a Traitor should come to sit at Table with the King to dine or sup with him and yet never repent of his treason but retain a traiterous mind and intention in his heart all the while When a man sits at the same table to eat and drink with another it is a sign of friendship no one would willingly admit another to his table but whom he accounts to be his friend When we come to the Lords Table we profess the highest friendship to Christ now when we profess the highest friendship to Christ and yet retain that in our love and practice that is most directly contrary to the honour and glory of Christ this is the greatest indignity that can be This is that the Apostle calls the crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting him to an open shame Heb. 6.6 What is this but crucifying Christ afresh and making Christ as contemptuous as possibly we can whenas we profess to expect salvation by the death and sufferings of Christ and yet in the mean time love harbour entertain and practise those very things we say we believe Christ dyed for Certainly every loose Christian that makes a profession of Christ and yet lives in gross open sins makes a plain mock of Christ and his sufferings for he professeth that he believes he shall be pardoned by the sufferings and death of Christ and yet he continues in the love and practice of those sins as if so be the end of Christs death were that men might continue in their sins and not be delivered from them 3. Then do men come unworthily to the Sacrament when they come without examining themselves Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup 1 Cor. 11.28 It is observable the Apostle opposeth this examining a mans self to his eating unworthily In the former verse he had said He that eats this bread and drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord now he adds But let a man examine himself so then if a man do not examine himself then he eats unworthily But it may be said Object What ought a man to examine himself about Concerning two things Answ 1. Concerning his state 2. Concerning the present frame and dispostion of his heart 1. A man ought to examine himself concerning his state whether he be in Christ whether he have a right to such an Ordinance 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobate We must examine our selves concerning our fundamental estate whether that be good yea or no to examine what standing we have in Christ 2. We ought to examine our selves concerning the frame and disposition of our souls whether we be in a fit frame to partake of such an Ordinance We ought to examine our selves whether our hearts be strongly bent and inclined to any sin whether we be under the power of any sin this is the examination of our repentance We ought to examine what the frame of our hearts is God-ward whether the bent of our hearts be towards God and the ways of God this is the examining of our other graces Now when we rush upon the Sacrament without reflexion and examination of our spiritual state this is unworthy coming And here let us observe That the children of God themselves may in a degree come in an unworthy manner for there are several degrees of unworthy receiving They that have slight and contemptuous thoughts of this Ordinance they that live in gross and scandalous sins they are guilty of unworthy receiving in the highest degree But then they that have true grace and do not retain in their hearts the love of any sin yet if they are remiss in searching into their hearts to find out their secret corruptions and to judge themselves for them they come unworthily in a lesser degree and God may correct his own children for their spiritual remisness in this kind The Apostle tells us For this cause many were sickly and weak and many were fallen asleep 1 Cor. 11.30 that is for coming to the Sacrament without due preparation Others who grosly profane this Ordinance that come to this Ordinance and live in gross sins and continue to live and dye in them God punisheth them otherwise he punisheth them with eternal condemnation He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself or judgment to himself as the word may be rendred The godly themselves coming in a rude and careless manner to this Ordinance may and oftentimes do bring the judgment of temporal chastisement upon themselves for not coming in a right manner to so great an Ordinance But such as are profane who come to this Ordinance and yet live in sin they eat to themselves the judgment of eternal condemnation Now to return unto what we first propounded to come unworthily to the Sacrament is one way of contemning Christs sufferings And if it be asked What is the reason of it why is the unworthy receiving of the Sacrament a contemning of Christs sufferings I answer 1. Because the Sacrament is a plain revelation and exhibition of Christ crucified This is my body which was broken
Elders and chief Priests and Scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day Our Saviour was not ignorant of his own sufferings but had a perfect contemplation of them in his mind before-hand he knew how great and bitter and sore they would be and yet he was content to undergo them for our sakes Consid 8 The love of Christ in his sufferings appears in this That so great a person should give himself to suffer such things to expiate so vile a thing as sin which yet he hated so much and had power to punish that the life of the best person should go to expiate the worst thing this is admirable Sin is the worst of evils the vilest thing in the world Now that the life of the most excellent person the life of the Son of God should be given to expiate so vile a thing as sin this is admirable indeed The Lord hath caused to meet on him the iniquity or perversness of us all Isa 53. Sin is the perversness of the creature it is the crookedness or depravation of a mans actions sin is a defection or turning aside from a right path and yet the Son of God gave himself to expiate so vile a thing as sin is Dedit tam inaestimabile pretium pro tam despecta odioque dignissima re Luther It is a speech of Luther He gave so inestimable a price for our sins for a thing so vile so despicable so worthy to be hated What more abominable what more odious in the sight of God than sin and yet the Son of God gave himself to expiate our sins Sin is most hareful to Christ Heb. 1.9 Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity it is spoken of Christ and yet though Christ hated sin so much he gave himself for our sins Gal. 1.4 Who gave himself for our sins and as Christ hated sin so had he power to punish and to be avenged for it and yet rather than we should undergo the punishment that was due to us he himself who had power to inflict the punishment and might justly have done it was content to suffer the punishment for us Well may we cry out with Luther O the condescension and love of God to wards man God was the person offended and yet God came to suffer the punishment that man deserved Consid 9 The love of Christ in his sufferings appears in this That Christ had all the Elect before him at once and suffered for all the Elect. It was not for one or a few of the Elect only that he suffered or for some or a few of their sins that he suffered but it was for all the sins of all the Elect Eph. 5.25 Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it It was the Church that Christ gave himself for Christ knew all his sheep by name and he laid down his life for his sheep Paul could say He hath loved me and given himself for me and every true Believer may say He hath loved me and given himself for me Why now what an insinite Sea and Ocean of love must there needs be in the heart of Christ when as Christ out of the greatness of his love gave himself as a Sacrifice to expiate the guilt of all the sins of all the Elect that ever had been committed or should be committed to the end of the world This is set forth by the Apostle 1 Joh. 2.2 He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world that is Christ is not only the propitiation for ours sins who do now live and believe on him but he is also the propitiation for the sins of all others who shall live after us and believe on him even to the end of the world The virtue of Christs death and the efficacy of his sufferings to the Elect of all Ages Consid 10 The love of Christ in his sufferings appears in this That Christ by his death and sufferings hath delivered us from that which was the greatest matter of fear to us The great thing which all the sons of men have feared hath been death and the consequence of death The great thing threatned for sin was death In the day that thou eatest thou shalt dye the death Death was the great punishment threatned for sin hence it comes to pass that all mankind ever since the Fall have been under a slavish fear of death and the consequence of death The great things which we do naturally dread are death and what follows death Hell and the wrath of God Now Christ by laying down his life hath taken away the fear of death and the consequences of death This is fully expressed by the Apostle Heb. 2.14 That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage There are two things which the Apostle intimates are the great things that do keep men in bondage all their days the one is the fear of death and the other is the power that the Devil had over men That he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil The Devil hath not the power of death simply and absolutely but he is said to have the power of death as he is the Executioner of Gods wrath and drags men to the torments of Hell Now Christ by his death delivers us from both these he delivers us from the fear of death and from the power of the Devil 1. Christ by death delivers us from death the strength and venom of death is spent in the death of Christ Christ underwent death as it was the Curse that was denounced upon us for sin Now death is no more a part of the Curse to a Believer because Christ hath undergone it as a curse for us 2. Christ hath also undergone the pains and torments of Hell as formerly hath been shewed and therefore he hath enervated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made void or frustrated the power of the Devil as the word signifies Christ by his death hath taken away Satans power The Devil after a sort as he was the Executioner of Gods wrath might be said to have the power of death that is of eternal death after a sort and in a sense he hath power over those torments which the damned feel But now Christ having born those pains and torments for his people the Devil hath nothing to do with them he hath no power over them Could we contemplate death as we ought to do in the death of Christ we might see death to have lost all its strength all its venom in the death of Christ It is the observation of Luther Could we believe so firmly as we ought to do that Christ dyed for our sins and rose again for our justification there would remain nothing of fear or terrour in us for saith he the
ready to lay down my life for you this is the minor Proposition that is necessarily implied for otherwise the Argument of our Saviour here in the Text would have no force in it The scope of our Saviour in the Text is to perswade his Disciples to love one another upon the account of his love to them and he lays down this as the main Proposition That it is the highest love for any man to lay down his life for his friend Now unless the Assumption be supposed That Christ hath laid down his life for us the Argument would fall to the ground and come to nothing therefore this is supposed and this is the minor Proposition necessarily to be understood That Christ hath laid down his life for his friends Greater love than this hath no man that he lay down his life for his friends But this is my love to you I have thus laid down my life for you I am just now about to do it and therefore 't is as certain as if it were already done this must necessarily be supposed 2. The second Assertion is That Christs laying down his life for his friends is the highest demonstration of love Greater love than this hath no man that he lay down his life for his friends Our Saviour speaks here after the manner of men he speaks of that which is the highest love among men The highest love among men is when one man is ready to lay down his life for another Now saith our Saviour I am ready to lay down my life for you it is the work I am now going about I am now going to lay down my life for you and therefore my love to you is the highest and greatest love From these two Assertions there are these two Propositions that do naturally arise The first is Doct. 1 That our Lord Jesus Christ hath laid down his life for his people The second is Doct. 2 That the love of Christ in laying down his life for us was the highest demonstration of love Greater love than this hath no man that he lay down his life for his friends To begin with the first of these The first Proposition then is this Doct. 1 That our Lord Jesus Christ hath laid down his life for his people This my Beloved is a point of great weight and moment and there are many things of great weight and moment that will necessarily fall in in speaking to it In the Explication of this Point I shall proceed in this Method 1. I shall shew what the import of this Phrase is what it is for a man to lay down his life for another 2. I shall shew how it was that Christ laid down his life for us 3. I shall shew how it is said that Christ laid down his life for his friends whenas elsewhere it is said that Christ dyed for us whilst we were enemies 4. I shall take occasion from this Text to speak something concerning the Doctrine of Christs Satisfaction I have already treated of the Love of Christ 1 In his Incarnation 2 Of the Love of Christ in his being made under the Law for us And when I first undertook to speak to those Heads there were two more I had in my thoughts to speak to the one was to speak of the Love of Christ in his Satisfaction and the other was to speak of the Love of Christ in his Intercession and now I shall take occasion from this Text to treat of that Argument viz. of the Love of Christ in his Satisfaction Greater love than this hath no man that he lay down his life for his friends It is one main demonstration of Christs love to us That he hath laid down his life for us But first I shall begin to open this Phrase what the import of this Phrase is what it is to lay down a mans life for another and then I shall shew how it was that Christ laid down his life for us 1. What is the import of this Phrase what doth it signifie for a man to lay down his life for another Greater love than this hath no man that he lay down his life If we would go about to translate it exactly according to the letter we might render it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ut quispiam animam suam ponat sive deponat That a man lay down his soul for his friends It is an Hebrew Phrase the Soul is put for the life which is the effect of the Souls presence or being in the body It is the presence of the Soul that causeth life take away the Soul and life ceaseth and therefore it is that the Soul is put for life so that to lay down a mans soul which is the Phrase here used it is to lay down a mans life for another The import of this Phrase is no more than we in our ordinary way of speaking are wont to express thus it is for a man to be willing and ready to dye for another Thus Peter saith Joh. 13.37 I will lay down my life for thy sake It is the same Phrase as in the Text I will lay down my life for thy sake that is I am ready to dye for thee So 1 Joh. 3.16 We ought to lay down our lives for the brethren that is we ought to be ready to dye for them if the case so requires So that Christs laying down his life for us is no more than his voluntary undergoing of death for us his giving up himself to dye for us But here we must inquire a little before we go any farther what was that life which our Saviour was willing to lay down for us Greater love than this hath no man that he lay down his life for his friends I answer It was his corporal life the life of his humanity or his life as he was man for as for the life of his Divinity that was not possible for him to lay down As he was God so he lives always and could not dye as he was God he was above the power of death It is true that person who was God assumed our nature and according to that nature he dyed he laid down the life of his Humanity but still he retained the life of his Divinity This our Saviour himself explains and it is a great Text Joh. 10.17 18. Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I may take it again No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self and then it follows I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again Christ had power to lay down his life this he had not had if he had been a meer man no meer man hath power to lay down his own life every mans life that is but a meer man is under the power of God it is at Gods dispose and not at his own and no man may dispose of his own life till God who gave him his life give him
a command and call him to lay it down and therefore they who are self-murderers and would take away their own lives do violate the Law of their Creation they put that in their own power which God alone hath a power over they take upon them to dispose of their own lives which God alone who is their Creator and Soveraign Lord hath power to dispose of for none but he that gave us our lives hath a power and right to dispose of them But now Christ was God as well as Man and therefore Christ had a right to dispose of his own life I have power saith he to lay it down and I have power to take it again Christ as he was God being the Author Conserver and Maintainer of his own life as he was Man had power to dispose of that life and this was his love to us that he laid down his life for us which he had power to dispose of We come now to the second thing and that is to shew you how it was that Christ laid down his life for us This I shall open to you in several Particulars 1. Christ is said to lay down his life for us in that he was ready to do it He did not refuse to part with his life for us but was most ready to give it up for our sakes Greater love than this hath no man that he lay down his life for his friends that is greater love than this hath no man that he is ready to lay down his life for his friends he is certainly the best friend who is ready to venture and hazard his life for his friend Such a friend was Christ he was ready to offer and give up his life for our sakes As Paul said He counted not his life dear to him so he might finish his course with joy and the ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus Act. 20.24 And in another place he saith He was ready not to be bound only but also to dye at Jerusalem for the Name of our Lord Jesus Act. 21.13 So this was much more true of Christ he counted not his life dear to him but was ready to offer it up for our sakes I am the good shepherd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep Joh. 10.11 Here is the same Phrase as in the Text. Grotius observes upon the former Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mortem non defugere that the Phrase to lay down a mans life signifies not to decline death not to shun death Christ is the good Shepherd he doth not refuse to dye for the preservation of his sheep It is said of Paul and Barnabas that they were men that had hazarded their lives for the Name of the Lord Jesus Act. 15.25 They had hazarded their lives The words in the Original are They had delivered up their souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is their lives their lives were not actually taken from them but the meaning is they carried their lives in their hands they were ready to give them up they often put their lives in hazard they were ready to have parted with them so Christ was ready to expose and give up his life for the good of his people This is one thing but the least thing 2. The second Particular for clearing of it is this Christ did freely and of his own accord give up his life and subject himself to death when there was no necessity of nature nor violence from men that could have compelled him thereunto To understand this we must know That all other men besides Christ being found sinners were under a Law of death by reason of sin For by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin Rom. 5.12 And the wages of sin is death Rom. 6. ult But now it was otherwise with Christ Christ being not a Sinner and his Humanity being united to the second Person in Trinity he was exempt from the power of death and all manner of sufferings any further than he in a way of voluntary condescension was pleased to subject himself to death and sufferings This our Saviour plainly declares to us Joh. 10.15 I lay down my life for my sheep and more fully vers 18. No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self The Divinity in Christ could if it had pleased have preserved the humane nature from death and all manner of suffering but saith our Saviour I lay it down of my self when no man could have taken away my life without my permission yet I did freely and of my own accord give up my life It is possible that one man may venture his life and expose himself to death for another but then he that doth so venture his life for another must otherwise first or last have dyed according to the course of Nature But now it was not thus with Christ there was no necessity of Nature compelling Christ to dye but only upon supposition of his own free condescension It is true Christ was born a mortal man subject to suffering and death as we are but that was only his own voluntary submission and condescension Voluntar submissio Calvin For look upon the flesh of Christ as it was personally united to the Word the second Person in Trinity so that flesh of his setting aside the consideration of his own voluntary subjecting of it to death and suffering I say that flesh of his by means of its union with the Word the second Person in Trinity had been immortal and impassible and by reason of that union immortality was due to it but it was for our sakes and the sheeps sake which he dyed for that he made himself passible and mortal I say it was for the sheeps sake that he that was impassible and immortal made himself passible and mortal Hence is that expression of one of the Ancients Impassibilis Deus non dedignatus est esse homo passibilis immortalis mortis legibus subjacere Leo. The impassible God did not disdain to become a passible man and he that was immortal to subject himself to the Laws of death Christ in the time of his death and suffering did so far suspend the virtue of his Divinity as that the glory and virtue of his Divinity did not extend it self so far to his flesh as to keep him from suffering and dying It is true the power of the Divinity supported Christ in dying therefore is it said that By the power of the Eternal Spirit he offered himself without spot to God Heb. 9.14 but it did not hinder him from dying If the glory and virtue of the Divinity had exerted it self fully in Christ it would have kept him from death and all manner of suffering But such was the love of Christ to us that the Divinity in Christ suspended its virtue so far that Christ might be in a capacity to suffer and dye for us And if you
us indeed that Christ dyed to confirm the Truth which he had preached and also that his dying and rising again and taking possession of eternal life was to give us an assurance of eternal life and that we shall come thither in due time also they tell us that he dyed for an example but they will not admit that Christ dyed by way of satisfaction or that his death was by way of price and ransom but the Scripture is most express and full as to this and I shall have occasion to speak more fully to it hereafter only at present I shall hint a few Scriptures Mat. 20.28 The Son of man came not to be ministred unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many So likewise 1 Tim. 2.6 Who gave himself a ransom for all Here we have two words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Criticks in the Greek Tongue tell us that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were gifts that were given for the ransom of Prisoners such gifts as were given for the setting free and releasing of persons taken Captive in War We were held captive by Sin and Satan we were Prisoners in the hands of Divine Justice Now Christ gave his life as a price to set us free that is the proper signification of the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifies the price of redemption but the compound word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is more full and pregnant that signifies a price or ransom laid down for or instead of another Christ gave his life for our lives as the life of the beast sacrificed went for the life of the man so Christ gave his life for our lives Hence is it said that we are redeemed by Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from our fathers but with the precious blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ye were redeemed by price or ransom so the word signifies the Blood of Christ was the Price that was laid down for our Redemption What can be more full and express to this purpose than what our Saviour declareth to us when he saith that he gives his flesh for the life of the world Joh. 6.51 The bread which I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world The Son of God assumed our nature and offered it up this he calls his flesh and this he gives for the life of the world that is to purchase and procure life for the world The world lay dead before dead in sin dead in respect of condemnation the world was obnoxious to Divine wrath Now Christ gives his flesh for the life of the world that is he gives his flesh to deliver the world from that state of condemnation in which it was and to bring it into reconciliation with God Joh. 3.17 God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved A word for Application Hath Christ laid down his life for his sheep Behold here as in a Mirroir the greatness of Christs Love Vse 1 The Son of God would not only take our nature but being in our nature he would lay down his life for us 1 Joh. 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us That person who was God and man both laid down his life as man for us he laid down the life of his humanity for us But this I may have occasion to speak to more hereafter This is matter of infinite comfort and support to poor doubting Christians Vse 2 unto such who have fled for refuge to the hope that is set before them and yet have many remaining doubts within them concerning their Salvation whether they shall be saved in the conclusion yea or no. That which is matter of comfort to them is this 1. That Christ hath laid down his life for them Now this is certain Christ hath not dyed in vain Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth it is Christ that dyed If thou shouldst be condemned for thy sins the guilt of which thou fearest whenas thou art a poor Believer and hast fled to Christ for refuge then hath Christ dyed in vain because the end of Christs dying was that those who believe on him might not perish So our Saviour himself tells us Joh. 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish If therefore thou who hast fled to Christ for refuge to save thee from the stroke of Divine wrath and from the condemning power of the Law if thou shouldst perish Christ hath dyed in vain If Christ hath laid down his life to purchase eternal life and Salvation for thee and thou shouldst go without it who art a poor Believer and runnest to him for Salvation then Christ hath dyed in vain Consider what the Apostle saith Gal. 2.20 If righteousness come by the Law then is Christ dead in vain If God should put thee to work out a righteousness for thy self and there were no possibility of Salvation but by perfect keeping the Law then there had been no necessity of Christs death but Christs death was not in vain Christ dyed to satisfie Gods Justice for them who could not fulfil the Law for themselves and therefore there is ground of hope that such who have fled to Christ for refuge shall not be disappointed of Salvation 2. A second thing to comfort doubting Christians is that Christ who hath the power to dispose of eternal life to whom he pleases hath invested poor Believers with a Right and Title to eternal life 1. Christ as he is Man and Mediator hath a power given to him to give eternal life to whom he pleaseth Joh. 17.2 As thou hast given him power over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him 2. Christ having this power given to him hath invested Believers with a Right and Title to eternal life It is a great Text to comfort such who are concerned about their Salvation more than any thing else Joh. 10.29 Christ speaking of his sheep saith I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish If Christ hath given them eternal life how shall they be deprived of it If Christ hath given them eternal life who shall take it from them What Christ hath once given he never takes back again For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance Christ therefore having made over a Right and Title to eternal life unto those that are his sheep to all that obey and follow him they must of necessity have it These things may be of use to support poor
doubting Christians who are concerned about their Salvation other men are concerned about their temporal interests in this world but the great concernment of serious Souls is to secure their Salvation Now these considerations may be of great use unto such The end of the first Sermon SERMON II. Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends IN the former Discourse I dispatched the two first Particulars 1. I opened the import of the Phrase what this Phrase did import for a man to lay down his life for his friend 2. I shewed you how it was that Christ laid down his life for us It remains now that I proceed to speak something to the third thing and that is this How is it said that Christ laid down his life for his friends whereas elsewhere it is said that we were enemies when Christ dyed for us Rom. 5.10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Here it is said that we were enemies when Christ dyed for us and yet in the Text it is said that Christ did lay down his life for his friends How are these two to be reconciled I shall lay down several Particulars for the clearing of this which also are necessary to be laid down for the understanding of the Text it self 1. It is certain that by Nature we are all enemies unto God and Christ when he dyed for us when he laid down his life for us found us in a state of enmity Although some of the Elect who then lived when Christ suffered were already reconciled to God yet consider them and us all by nature we are enemies unto God and Christ dyed for us when we were enemies so in the Text before If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. 5.10 Also it appeareth from another Text Col. 1.21 You that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death Sin is a plain rebellion against God sin is a fighting against him a perfect opposition to the will of God so opposite is the sinner to Gods will and so much bent upon his own will that he is angry with God and hates God because Gods will crosses his will Now when we were sinners and enemies when we stood in this direct opposition and desiance to God even then Christ dyed for us Rom. 5.8 God commended his love to us that whilst we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Those who are called Sinners in this verse are called Enemies in the 10. verse If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Every sinner is an enemy to God Christ therefore dyed for us when we were enemies that is the first thing 2. The second Particular to clear the Point in hand is this Though we were truly and properly enemies unto God yet in some sense God accounted us and looked upon us as friends how so not as being friends to him but as he being a friend to us not that we had any love or affection for God but that God had good will and kindness for us It is a great Text to clear this 1 Joh. 4.10 Herein is love not that we loved God but that God loved us and gave his Son to be the propitiation for our sins Hence is it that one of the Ancients hath this expression Etsi nondum quidem amantibus sed tamen jam amatis Christ saith he dyed for his friends although not for such friends as did already love him yet for such friends as were in some sort beloved by him For it was out of his love that he dyed for us 3. The third Particular to clear it is this Christs Death was the means to make us friends and to reconcile us to God Col. 1.22 You hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death It is a Speech of one of the Ancients Christus non aliter pro amicis mortuus est nisi pro acquirendis scil ut amicos faceret ex inimicis Christ did no otherwise dye for his friends than that he might make them friends that is that he might make them friends who were enemies before and Christs death was influential to make us the friends of God or to reconcile us to him these two ways 2. Christ by his death hath abolished and taken away the enmity that was between God and us Hence is it said expresly that Christ hath slain the enmity by his Cross Eph. 2.16 That he might reconcile both in one body by the Cross having slain the enmity thereby That he might reconcile both that is that he might reconcile both Jews and Gentiles in one body by the Cross that is by the Sacrifice of himself upon the Cross Having slain the enmity thereby that is having taken away the enemity that was between God and us by the Sacrifice of himself upon the Cross God was infinitely offended with us by reason of sin now Christ offering himself as a Sacrifice upon the Cross for our sins hereupon God is pacified and appeased the enmity that God had against us is now slain and taken quite away God hath now no more against us There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 Now the enmity that was between God and us being slain and removed there is a foundation laid for friendship between God and us whilst two persons remain unreconciled they cannot cordially love one another whilst the difference remains there are heats and animosities heart burnings one against another but when the difference is taken up then there is a foundation laid for love and friendship So in this case so long as we apprehend that God hath a controversie with us that he is angry with us for our sins that he is ready to condemn us for them this drives us farther from God we cannot love him whilst we are under such apprehensions but when we know that God is reconciled by the death of Christ that his Justice is satisfied that he will not condemn us for our sins this lays the foundation for friendship then are we ingaged to draw near to God and to give up our selves in ways of obedience to him Now Christ by his death hath satisfied Gods Justice and thereby slain the enmity that was between God and us and so laid the foundation of friendship between God and us 2. Christ by his death hath purchased the spirit of regeneration which doth renovate and change our hearts and take away the natural enmity that is in them against God and inclines our hearts unto God Tit. 3.5 According to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour The Holy Ghost is shed on us through Jesus
will for the most part depend one upon another and the former Proposition will be introductory and leading to them that do succeed Before I come to lay down those Propositions that do immediately concern the Doctrine of Christs Satisfaction it self there are some Propositions to be laid down that are preliminary and necessary to make way thereupon 1. The first Proposition then is this Man was created under a Law of service and obedience to his Maker Man when first he came out of the hands of God must needs see himself in a state of inferiority unto God he saw that God was above him and that he had received his being from God and that receiving his Being from God he must necessarily be in a state of inferiority and subjection to him Man also saw that having received his Being from God he was under a vast obligation of gratitude love and service into God who had given him Being and such an excellent Being man also saw that receiving his Being from another and not having it from himself it was most just and reasonable that he should be under the will of him who gave him his Being and not under the conduct and government of his own will These deductions do naturally flow from the principles of right reason which we must suppose to be in man in his primitive estate 2. The second Proposition is this That man was every way fitted and qualified to give obedience to the Law of his Creation Man we know at first was created after the image of God in Righteousness and true Holiness and man being cloathed with the image of God was every way fitted to give to God that obedience which the Law of his Creation required from him Mans mind or understanding was filled with light and knowledge whereby he clearly understood what the will of God and what his own duty was Mans will also as it was first created had no obliquity in it but was inclined to good his affections were all regular God made man upright as the Scripture speaks Eccles 7.29 Every thing was upright most upright in man in his first Creation there was nothing out of order in him the will of man was then upright It is true although the will of man was made upright and good at first yet it was not made immutably good but that it was possible for man to decline from good to evil otherwise it had not been possible for man to have fallen and sinned but sin and fall he did and that we know by our own sad experience But yet though man was not created at first in an impeccable estate but that it was possible for him to sin yet he was created in so perfect a state that it was possible for him not to have sinned Tale erat adjuâ—orium quod desereret cùm vellet in quo permaneret si vellet non quo fieret ut vellet Aug. Hence is that of Austin Adam had that help and assistance given to him at first which he might desert when he would and in which he might have abode and continued in case he would but he had not that help and assistance whereby he should so will 3. The third Proposition is this God to lay a further ingagement upon man to persevere in the course of his obedience entred into a Covenant or stipulation with man promising him life in case of obedience and threatning him with death in case of disobedience This we have expressed in that known Text Gen. 2.16 17. And the Lord God commanded the man saying Of every tree of the garden thou mayst freely eat But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death Here we have a positive Law supperadded unto the natural Law the Law of mans creation and there is a threatning annexed to deter man from breaking this Law in which threatning also there is a promise supposed to be included in case man did not break it for if God threatned man in case he did eat that he shall dye this is to be supposed if he did not eat nor transgress this command he should not dye else the threatning had been in vain Now we must know that man by virtue of the natural Law the Law of his creation was bound to observe this positive Law of God And the reason is because man being a creature must necessarily be under the will and at the dispose of him that makes him and therefore must necessarily be obliged to observe his Creators will in all things that he shall declare to be his will therefore it pleasing God to give out this positive Law concerning the not eating of the Tree of knowledge of good and evil as a tryal of mans obedience man by virtue of the natural Law the Law of his creation is bound to give obedience to God in this positive Law of his For man as he is a creature is bound to give obedience to the Law and Will of his Creator in that way God requires and expects it of him and God having manifested this to be his Will the Law of his creation obligeth him to testifie his respect and obedience to God according as he hath discovered his mind to him 4. The fourth Proposition is this That man sinning God is highly offended with him by reason of sin Sin is most displeasing to God upon several accounts 1. Because sin is most contrary to the Nature and Will of God 1. Sin is contrary to the Nature of God Psal 5.4 Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee Hab. 1.13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil and canst not look on iniquity 1 Joh. 1.5 God is light and in him is no darkness at all God is perfection and sin is imperfection God is purity and Holiness it self and sin is a defect of that purity therefore the nature of God is most diametrically opposite to sin 2. Sin is contrary to the Will of God The Will of God is expressed and declared in his Law Now the Law of God commands rectitude nothing but rectitude The commandment is holy just and good Rom. 7.12 Thy righteousness is an everlasting righteousness and thy law is truth Psal 119.142 Now sin is a deviation from that rectitude which the Law requires sin is a perfect contradiction to the will of God revealed in his Law 2. Sin is most displeasing unto God because it is a casting off of Gods Authority This we must necessarily suppose that God being infinitely superiour unto man and the Author of mans Being must needs have the most perfect and absolute authority over man Now man when he sins when he takes upon him to sin acts according to his own will and takes no notice of the Divine Law and so consequently casts off Gods Authority Man when he sins acts after that manner as if so
justa As to the power of God all things are possible unto God but as to the justice of God nothing is possible but what is just Therefore God having decreed and that most justly to punish sin God could not but punish sin 6. The sixth Proposition is That God being merciful as well as just doth in his infinite Wisdom find out a way how his Justice may be salved and man not perish This is that which the Apostle declares to us Rom. 3.24 25 26. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood To declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus The scope of the Apostle is plainly this To shew that God hath a mind to forgive sin and yet he would be just too therefore that he might be merciful and just both at once God found out a way how he might forgive sin and yet his Justice not be prejudiced Hence was it that God appointed Christ to be a ransom for us that so Christ bearing the punishment that we deserved the Justice of God might be satisfied in what Christ suffered and yet his Mercy might be glorified in remitting the punishment to us Him hath God ordained to be a propitiation through faith in his blood saith the Apostle God remits sin freely as to us and so his mercy is glorified as to us and yet he receives full satisfaction from Christ and so his Justice is glorified in him Thus mercy and truth are met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other Psal 85.10 God having found full satisfaction to his Justice in the blood of Christ there is a sweet reconciliation between those two seeming contrary Attributes the Justice and Mercy of God This is elegantly set forth by one of the Ancients after this manner There is a controversie or a strife as it were between the Justice and the Mercy of God Altercatio est inter Dei justitiam misericordiam but this strife is ended in the death of Christ because in the death of our Saviour Divine Justice is satisfied in all that it did desire Divine Justice saith If Adam dye not I am lost and Mercy on the other hand saith If Adam doth not obtain mercy one way or other I am lost now Christ interposing by his death each of these Attributes have what they do desire Learn from what hath been said the Justice Vse 1 Equity and Righteousness of God in punishing of sin Psal 98.9 With righteousness shall he judge the world and the people with equity Ezek. 18.29 Art not my ways equal are not your ways unequal The ways of God are full of equity when God punisheth sin there is the greatest equity that he should do so there is that demerit in sin and there is that Holiness and Justice in the Nature of God that calls upon him to punish sin Sin is after a sort infinitely evil not that it is simply and in it self so but sin may be said to be infinitely evil with respect to the object as it is contrary to the glory of God who is Bonum infinitum an infinite good God also who is the Governor of the World seeing how much the Sinner had violated the Law of Right and Equity judges it a just and righteous thing that Sinners should undergo punishment therefore no man hath cause to quarrel with God and to think hardly of him for inflicting punishment upon him because of sin for This is the judgment of God that they which do such things are worthy of death Rom. 1.32 This is the judgment of God as much as if it had been said God hath determined this in his infinite Understanding It is the upright and just determination of the most wise God that the Sinner is worthy of death God is not too rigorous in his judgment in this case he judges according to the equity of the cause Rom. 2.2 The judgment of God is according to truth Isa 3.11 Wo unto the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him The reward of his hands shall be given him O this is certain every mans condemnation will be found just at last and it will appear to him that it is most just God condemns no man but for sin and there is that desert in sin for which God may justly condemn men and I conceive that a great part of the torments of the Damned consists in this That they shall have their eyes opened and their understandings inlarged which are now shut and closed up to see that turpitude baseness unworthiness monstrousness unreasonableness that was in sin and that they are justly punished for committing that which was so contrary to the Law of their Creation and to the Principles of their own Beings as they are reasonable creatures For what is more just equal and reasonable than that the creature should honour obey and serve his Creator and take notice of his Laws and yield conformity to them And what more unjust unreasonable and unequal than the creature should cast off Gods Authority and live in contempt of his Maker and defiance of his Laws Now when men shall have their understandings opened to take in this more fully then they will see that God is just in punishing sin and that their condemnation is most just Learn from hence Vse 2 that there is no way for a guilty Soul to appear before God but by flying to the Satisfaction of Christ God is so holy that he cannot but hate sin so just that he cannot but punish sin How then can a poor guilty creature appear before the presence of the Divine Majesty laden with all his sins O it is an easie thing for a secure Sinner that knows neither what the nature of sin is nor what the nature of God is to slight sin But he that once comes to see a little of the turpitude and deformity that is in sin and will summon himself into Gods presence and consider what the Holiness Purity and Justice of Gods Nature is will soon have other thoughts of sin and of his own condition by reason of sin God is of purer eyes than to behold the least iniquity and he will by no means clear the guilty therefore he that hath but a little sight of Gods Holiness and of his infinite Justice and Righteousness will soon cry out with the Prophet I am undone Isa 6.5 And nothing can ease or quiet a poor trembling Soul in this case but flying to the Satisfaction of Christ When a man compares his impurity with Gods infinite Purity and Holiness when he compares his own sinfulness and unworthiness with Gods
of the Ancients I think it is Ambrose's observation Therefore saith he it was said to Adam In dying thou shalt dye or as it is rendred Thou shalt dye the death and not simply Thou shalt dye because the death here spoken of concerns both soul and body Now then as Adam and we in him became subject to a double death one of the body the other of the soul So our Saviour being pleased to be our Surety subjected himself to a double death for our sakes to a natural death and to a supernatural death 1. To a natural death the separation of his humane soul from his body 2. To a supernatural and spiritual death the separation of his soul for a time from the comfort of Gods presence Hence is it that we read that our Saviour did not only suffer death in the Singular number but he underwent deaths in the Plural number as if it were intimated that there was a double death that he suffered Isa 53.9 He made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death in the Hebrew it is in his deaths in the Plural number and this was not without some special Mystery in it as some Learned men conceive yea there is a judicious Divine that saith expresly he is perswaded that both kind of deaths natural and supernatural are intimated by that expression when it is said He made his grave with the rich in his deaths Our Saviour underwent therefore a double death a natural death and a supernatural death That our Saviour suffered the first death a natural death a separation of his humane soul from his body that we do all know and believe Now that he tasted of the second death or supernatural death the separation of his soul from God taken in a right sense that I must speak unto To understand this we must know that the soul may be said to be separated from God two ways 1. By a voluntary aversion from God by sin this was not in our Saviour and could not be in him his will did always firmly and inseparably adhere to God even in the midst of his greatest sufferings It is true this is part of the punishment of sin in us namely that our wills are turned aside from God Adam voluntarily deserting of God this is now part of the punishment that is come upon him that he is now left to himself and thereupon there is an aversion of his will from God and this is that which we call spiritual Death when the will declines and turns from God the chief Good But this kind of death could not be in our Saviour and the reason is because he that was to bear the punishment of all other mens sins must necessarily be supposed to be without all sin himself Christ could not have been a Surety for our sins born the punishment of them if he had not been without all sin himself This aversion of the soul from God as it is the punishment of sin so it is in it self a sin Now Christ so bears the punishment of our sins as that he himself is still without all sin in a way of inhesion Christ hath the guilt of our sins laid upon him by way of imputation but he hath no sin in him by way of inhesion 2. The soul may be said to be separated from God in a way of deprivation namely when the soul is deprived of the comfort of Gods love and presence Now this our Saviour did undergo he was deprived of the comfort of his Fathers love and presence for a time as we shall shew more hereafter Psal 88.14 Lord why castest thou off my soul why hidest thou thy face from me This is spoken in the letter in the person of Heman but Learned men conceive that Christs sufferings are here represented to us under these expressions Lord why hidest thou thy face from me Gods face was hid from Christ for a time that so it might not be hid from us for ever And this was the spiritual death that our Saviour underwent not a death in sin which we are all subject to not any aversion of his will from God but desertion of God in point of comfort to be deserted and forsaken of God as our Saviour was is in some sense the spiritual death of the soul It is a good speech of one of the Ancients That is not death so properly that separates the soul from the body but that is most properly death which separates the soul from God God is life life it self he therefore that is separated from God must needs be dead as the body lives from the soul so the soul ut beatè vivat that it may live happily must live from God Hence are those expressions of Austin The life of the body is the soul but the life of the soul is God the body dyes when the soul recedes from it and the soul dyes when God recedes from it Therefore when our Saviour was so far forsaken and deserted of God for our sakes as to have no sensible taste of his love and favour for a time in this sense he underwent spiritual and supernatural death for us 6. The sixth Particular which follows upon this is That our Saviour tasting of supernatural death for us he did in so doing undergo the very pains of Hell for us Hence are those expressions Psal 116.3 The sorrows of death compassed me the pains of hell got hold of me I found trouble and sorrow So likewise My soul is heavy to the death Mat. 26.38 It is a great expression which we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 2.24 Having loosed the pains of death or the sorrows of death The Greek word properly signifies the sorrows of a travailing woman and what were these sorrows Those which he had in the Garden when he was in his Agony and when he sweat drops of blood and those which he had upon the Cross when he cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me These are called the sorrows or pains of death but indeed they were the sorrows or pains of Hell and therefore the vulgar Latin renders it the pains of hell because in these sorrows our Saviour did not only taste of the sorrows of natural death but he also tasted of the sorrows of supernatural death that is of the pains of Hell Hence is it as Learned men have observed That the sufferings of Christ and those great sorrows that he underwent are set forth in such a variety and multitude of expressions in the Scripture that sometimes they are set forth by the grave by darkness sometimes by the land of oblivion sometimes they are called wounding killing sometimes they are set forth by his being forsaken forsaken of his friends of his kindred yea of God himself sometimes they are called debts afflictions tempests solitude prison cuting off abjection treading under foot all which and many more which the Scripture is full of sets forth those most perfect
saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 undequaque tristis est anima mea My soul is exceeding sorrowful My soul is sorrowful on every side so the word properly signifies my soul is environed or compassed about with sorrow sorrow and grief possess me all over Yet that is not all but he adds farther My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death So great was his grief and sorrow before he came to the Cross and the sufferings that he underwent there that the greatness of his grief and sorrow had almost brought him to death before-hand yea we may well suppose that had not our Saviour had the power of the Divinity to support him the strength of his sorrows in the Garden before he came to the Cross might have taken away his natural life He saith his soul was heavy to the very death We see how many are killed with grief when grief and sorrow rises to a great height many have had their natural spirits suppressed and dyed away under it Now our Saviours sorrows did far exceed the sorrows of all other men yea if all mens sorrows were put together our Saviours sorrows exceeded them all and the reason is because he sustained the person of all the Elect and he bare the punishment not only of a few sins but of all the sins of all his people at once Therefore if he had not had the power of the Divinity to have supported him the greatness of his sorrows might have sunk him and brought him down to death but having other things to suffer upon the Cross besides those things he suffered in the Garden he was not sorrowful unto death absolutely that is not sorrowful so as to dye in and by those sorrows but yet he was sorrowful next to death setting aside death it self his sorrow and grief in the Garden was so great as it could not have been greater even in death it self My soul is sorrowful unto death Thus I have shewed how our Saviour suffered a great deal of anxiety and perplexity in his mind in respect of fear in respect of grief but this is only in general But to come a little nearer the matter and the thing it self 2. Our Saviour conflicted with the sense of Gods wrath in his soul I have shewed how he suffered the greatest anxiety perplexity and grief in his mind Now I shall shew how the great sorrows our Saviour underwent did arise from the conflict he had with Gods wrath in his soul Mat. 26. Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me What cup was this Truly the cup of Divine wrath The cup of God is the wrath of God Calix Dei ira Dei est ira Dei justa est vindicta quae imponitur à justo Judice the wrath of God is the just revenge which is inflicted by a just Judge for our sins and this is the cup our Saviour drank of our Saviour that he might bear the punishment that was due to us for our sins tasted of the wrath of God conflicted with the sense of Gods wrath The better to take in this we must consider that the sense of Divine wrath is part of the punishment that is due to us for our sins yea it is a principal part of the punishment and a great part of the pains and torments of Hell consists in it It is a speech of Luther The greatest temptation of all others is that temptation by which God is set in direct opposition to a man and appears contrary to him Quâ Deus contrarius homini ponitur This temptation saith he is an unsupportable temptation and is properly Hell it self and no man can tell how great this temptation is but he that hath felt it Now when a man is under the sense of Gods wrath he apprehends God to be contrary to him and to be set in direct opposition against him and as was said this is part of the punishment that is due to us for sin Observe what is spoken to this purpose Rom. 2.8 9. But to hem that are contentious and obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil The Apostle is here speaking what is the punishment that shall come upon men for sin now he describes it by this Indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish Now by these expressions indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish I conceive the Apostle doth not only intend the effects of Divine wrath all the miseries that shall be laid upon the damned as the effects of Divine wrath but he also intends the impression of Divine wrath upon the conscience of the sinner and therefore he expresseth it by so many words that intimate so much indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish these words plainly intimate the horror and anguish that shall be upon the spirit of the damned and whence doth this tribulation and anguish arise certainly from the fense of Gods wrath When our first Parents had sinned God appeared to them as an angry God in an angry manner to Adam he saith Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I said thou shalt not eat and to the Woman he said What is this that thou hast done Both these are expressions of anger When therefore man had sinned God appears to him as an angry God Now our Saviour being to take upon him the guilt of our sins he was to conflict with the sense of Gods wrath and therefore he had great and deep apprehensions fastned upon his soul concerning the displeasure that was due from God to us by reason of sin Christ when he came to suffer for our sins saw the Justice of God armed with revenge against us for our sins he saw the Justice of God ready to take hold on him as our Surety who had taken upon him the guilt of our sins There is a Learned man who is no friend to the Soul sufferings of Christ but makes it his business to oppose them that yet in discussing that argument is at last brought to this confession Christ saith he in his sufferings had a present sight of the Divine Majesty sitting as it were in Judgment and armed with the infinite power of Divine Justice to avenge the sins of men This is the confession of an Adversary that opposes the Soul-sufferings of Christ Now they which do assert the Soul-sufferings of Christ do only add thus much more That Christ did not only see Gods wrath that was due to us for our sins but he tasted of it and felt it and conflicted with the sense of it for to what purpose should he see it and not feel it Or how could Christs seeing the weight of Divine wrath that was due to us and not bearing it have expiated and taken away the guilt of our sins The sense of Divine wrath was that which was due to us as the punishment of sin for the Law saith Cursed is he that continueth not in all
a plain sign and token that he was looked upon and dealt with as a person accursed of God Maledicti symbolum crux Crux signum maledictae mortu The Cross was a Symbol of the Curse the Cross was a sign of an accursed death Now it is well observed by a Learned man The death of the Cross simply and in it self considered was no more accursed than any other kind of death but therefore was the death of the Cross an accursed death because the person that was to undergo it was an accursed person Transgressio pendentis maledictionem contrabit The transgression of him that was hanged upon the tree was that which did contract the curse If a person had committed a sin worthy of that death he was an accursed person If Christ had not taken upon him the guilt of our sins the death of the Cross could not have rendred him accursed Maledictum cones peccati The Curse is that which accompanies sin and follows upon it therefore it is an elegant passage of one of the Ancients Non ideo maledictus quia pendet sed ideo pendet quia maledictus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maledictio Dei upensus A person is not therefore accursed because he hangs upon the tree but he is therefore hanged upon the tree because he is accursed The Text from whence the Apostle takes this is Deut. 21.23 He that is hanged is cursed of God so we render it and so the Septuagint renders it Cursed of God Arius Montanus renders it A person that is hanged is the curse of God He is the curse of God that is the curse of God is upon such a person and because the curse of God is upon him therefore doth he suffer that punishment The Chaldee Paraphrase therefore renders it well For as much as he hath sinned against the Lord therefore he is hanged upon the tree Sin preceding brings the curse and the curse of God being upon such a person that kind of punishment was to be inflicted Our Saviour therefore being carried to the Cross and crucified saw plainly that the punishment of our sins was laid upon him our sins were imputed to him as our Surety and he being by this means led to the Cross saw plainly that he suffered the punishment that was due to us The Cross was a sign and Symbol of Christs being made a curse for us And Learned men have this apprehension that in this place in Deuteronomy the Lord did before-hand in his infinite Wisdom point out that kind of death hanging upon the tree as an accursed death because he intended that the death and sufferings of Christ should be signified thereby and that Christ dying in this manner his death should be the expiatory Sacrifice to expiate and take away the Curse that lay upon the whole world By way of admonition Vse 1 Let us be admonished to take heed of being offended at the Cross of Christ Flesh and blood carnal reason are apt to be offended at the Cross of Christ the wisdom of this world is apt to be offended at Christs sufferings carnal reason cannot bear that he that is the Saviour of the world should be exposed to so much shame and contempt Christ crucified saith the Apostle was to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness 1 Cor. 1. The Jews in derision call Christ He that was hanged up Talui suspensus But we may say with the Apostle God forbid that we should glory in any thing save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ He that is ashamed of the cross and sufferings of Christ let him be ashamed of his own Salvation Christ suffering what he did was the cause of our Salvation if ever we saved We may speak to such as are offended at Christs cross and at the shamefulness of his sufferings in the words of Tertullian Parce unicae spei totius orbis quodcunque Deo indignum est mihi expedits Tertul. Be contented to spare the only hope of the whole world thou that destroyest so necessary a pillar of faith whatsoever it is that may seem unworthy of God that was most necessary and expedient for man This is plain and evident if Christ had not been crucified and born the curse of the Law the curse of the Law had still lain upon us and remained to be born by us The Law saith expresly Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written therein to do them and as many as are of the works of the Law are under the curse Therefore if we are under the curse as certainly we are if Christ hath not born the curse for us we must have been still left to bear it Therefore we have reason to be so far from being offended at the sufferings of Christ and at the ignominiousness of his death that we have infinite reason to be so much the more thankful Quantò major est injuria tantò major debetur gratia by how much the greater injury and indignity Christ underwent for us by so much the more thanks we owe to him for suffering so much for us for what relief or comfort could we have had against the pains of Hell and that curse which we deserved if Christ had not suffered the pains of Hell and been made a curse for us Therefore take heed of being offended at the Cross of Christ Vse 2 This shews us how sad and deplorable our condition by nature is Hath Christ been made a curse for us then we by nature are all under the curse Christ that was most blessed in himself was made a curse for us Christ was not born for himself nor lived for himself nor suffered nor dyed for himself but all that Christ did and suffered was for us If therefore Christ was made a curse for us it is a certain sign we are all by nature under the curse and O what a sad and deplorable thing is it to be under the curse of God! The curse is the comprehension of all evil it is the Epitome of all misery the curse comprehends in it all the miseries in this life and eternal damnation in the next The Apostle opens the nature of the Curse to us at large when he saith Rom. 2.8 9. Indignatin and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil This is but a Paraphrase on the Curse and this is the curse that all of us by nature are subject to Indignation wrath tribulation anguish who can bear the thoughts of these things Who of us can think of remaining and abiding under the wrath of God at present and of suffering eternal damnation hereafter Of how much concernment then is it to every one to see that he come out from being under the curse For this is certain we are all by nature under the curse and what will it be to lye under the power of the curse and under the power of the
is it said Every one That so Christ himself saith he might not be excluded Christ who was blessed in his own Righteousness was yet accursed for our sins The curse prevailed so far as to take away Christs life to separate his soul from his body It is true the curse could not prevail so far as to separate either from his person to separate his soul or his body from his person the Person of the Son of God the second Person in Trinity remained united to the soul and body of Christ even when his body and soul were separated each from other and it is our greatest happiness that it was so viz. that the curse could not reach the Person of Christ if I may so express it that is reach his Person so as to dissolve the Union of the two Natures for if the curse could have reached the Person of Christ in the sense I am now speaking of that is if the curse could have extended it self to the Person of Christ so as to dissolve the Union of the two Natures this would have made the death of Christ ineffectual if death could have dissolved the personal Vnion Christs death would have been no more than the death of a meer man of a just man and so his death could not have been meritorious and have satisfied for the sins of the world But though the curse could not take hold of Christs Person so as to dissolve the union between his Person and our nature yet the curse took hold of our nature united to Christs Person The curse did prevail so far as to separate his humane soul from his body To understand this a little more clearly let us consider the Divine nature in Christ was above the Law and above the curse the curse could not reach his Divine nature it could not possibly hurt that but now Christ having assumed our nature and voluntarily made himself subject to the Law and to the curse in our nature the Law hath to do with our nature in Christ We being under sin and under the curse the curse had dominion over us therefore the Apostle tells us That sin reigned unto death Rom. 5.21 Now Christ being our Surety and the Law finding our nature in Christ and that Christ had transferred the guilt of our sins upon himself the Law armed with the curse deals with Christ as a sinner and it proceeds so far as to make the utmost breach upon our nature that it can it rends his holy soul from his pure body And thus for a time the curse seems to triumph over our nature as it stood in Christ Hence is that of the Apostle Rom. 6.9 Christ being dead dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him This plainly intimates that death and the curse had dominion over Christ for a time and the curse proceeded so far as to the extinction of his natural life his soul was separated from his body though the union between the two natures was not dissolved I come to the third and last Particular and that is this How it was possible for this to be Christ was most blessed in himself how then was it possible for him thus to be made a curse The curse implies anger wrath displeasure in him that pronounceth and inflicts it as hath been shewn how then was it possible for Christ to suffer the wrath of God that was always beloved of God To this several things are to be answered 1. Consider Christ in himself and so he was always beloved of God Mat. 3.17 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Isa 42.1 Behold mine Elect in whom my soul delighteth And Christ as he was man had more titles than one to his Fathers love 1. Christ had a title to his Fathers love as his Humanity is taken into so near a relation to the natural Son of God The humane nature in Christ is made one in person with the natural Son of God so that there is not another subsistence of the second Person in Trinity and the humane nature but there is one subsistence to the second Person in Trinity and to the humane nature therefore the humane nature being taken in as it were to have its subsistence in the person of the natural Son of God being taken into the unity of the same person must needs be beloved of the Father upon that account above all creatures 2. Christ is beloved of the Father as he is a just and an innocent person and he must needs be beloved of the Father upon that account Isa 46.8 The Lord loveth the righteous Christ being a just and a righteous pâ—â—son the Father could not but love him as considered in himself 3. The Father loved Christ upon the account of his obedience Joh. 10.17 Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life for my sheep and in the next verse This commandment have I received of my Father Christ obeying his Father in laying down his life for his sheep is one title he hath to his Fathers love therefore consider Christ in himself so he was always beloved of the Father 2. Christ suffered the wrath of God as he was our Surety and as he stood in our stead 1 Pet. 4.1 Christ hath suffered for us 1 Pet. 3.18 Christ hath once suffered for sin the just for the unjust This is a clear Text Christ was a just person in himself and as he was a just person so he was always beloved of God and could not but be beloved of him But now as he that was a just person in himself gave himself to suffer for the unjust so it was that he bare the wrath of God The wrath of God was due to the unjust Tribulation and anguish indignation and wrath upon every soul of man that doth evil Rom 2. Therefore if the just will suffer for the unjust in their room and stead he must then suffer what they must have suffered It is a true speech of Austin Mors Christi fuit conditionis non criminis Aug. The death which Christ underwent was not in respect of any crime or offence that he himself had committed but it was in respect of the condition that he brought himself into that is Christ suffered the wrath of God not for any crime or offence of his own but in the condition of a Mediator because of our sins Hence is it said That he was delivered up for our offences Rom. 6. ult So in that of the Prophet Isa 53.5 He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him Christ took upon him the discharge and payment of our debt therefore though he was always beloved of God in himself yet as personating and representing us who were sinners so it was that he sustained the wrath of God All we like sheep have gone astray saith the Prophet and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all Isa 53.6 We
were the offenders and yet the punishment was laid upon Christ who was an innocent person Therefore it is a good expression of one of the Ancients Non ille maledictus sed in te maledictus Christ was not accursed in himself but he was accursed in thee It was we that deserved the curse the curse was due to us but the curse lighted upon Christ that so it might not fall upon us Therefore it is wisely observed by another of the Ancients That no one ought to be offended at this that Christ is said to be made a curse who himself was without sin Because saith he Christ was made a curse Factus est ille maledictus non natus he was not born a curse Christ was most free from the curse in himself but he most voluntarily took the curse upon him Therefore another of the Ancients observes Christ was made a curse Non per necessitatem sed per obedientiam not out of necessity but in a way of obedience He was made under the Law and therefore he subjected himself to the curse of the Law he that would be made under the Law must undergo all that the Law required of him now the Law required obedience and the Law requires suffering therefore Christ being made under the Law must not only do but suffer what the Law requires Divines observe That Christ was born and dyed after a special Law different from other men Christ was born not for himself but for others and he dyed not for himself but for others Manifestum est Christum potuisse non mori sed voluisse ut mors sua nobis prodesset Ambros Christ is to be considered as a common person Hence it follows Christs bearing the curse was not for himself but for others Christ suffered and underwent the wrath of God which we should have born Hence is that of one of the Ancients It is manifest that Christ might have chosen whether he would have dyed but he therefore chose to dye that his death might become profitable Learn from what hath been opened Vse 1 what an infinite evil sin is that he who was most blessed in himself should yet be made a curse for us that the fountain of blessing should become a curse O how great a venom is there in sin that Christ having no sin of his own but being a sinner only by imputation should be made a curse that sin should cause him that was the Author of all blessing to become a curse Learn from hence the severity of Gods Justice Vse 2 that when Christ had no sin of his own but only took upon him the guilt of our sins that yet Divine Justice should fall so foul upon so innocent a person He spared not saith the Apostle his own Son Rom. 8. Christ taking upon him the guilt and punishment of our sins God did not spare him but executed upon him the severity of his Justice Now if Divine Justice did not spare him who was but a Surety how shall it spare us if we be found under the guilt of our sins Certainly every impenitent sinner may read his own destiny in the sufferings of Christ If Christ suffered such things who was meerly a Surety and bare the guilt of other mens sins not his own what is like to become of us that must bear the guilt and punishment of our own sins as certainly we must if we continue in unbelief and impenitency He that believes not on the Son the wrath of God abides upon him Joh. 3. ult O it is of infinite concernment to us all to secure our part and interest in the sufferings and satisfaction of the Lord Jesus for if the Justice of God arrested Christ seized upon him and proceeded so severely against him as we have heard if the curse did cut off him we cannot expect but Divine Justice will seize on us and cut us off unless we be hid in the clefts of this Rock Oh let us endeavour to get a part in him that was made a curse that we may be delivered from the curse The end of the tenth Sermon SERMON XI Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends THere is one thing more to be answered to that inquiry to make the answer full and compleat over and above what was said in the last Discourse How was it possible for Christ to suffer the wrath of God that was always beloved of him The third thing therefore that is to be said is this It was possible for Christ by faith to know that he was beloved of God and he did know that he was beloved of God when yet as to sense and feeling he tasted of Gods wrath Faith and the want of sense are not inconsistent there may be no present sense of Gods love nay there may be a present sense of his wrath and yet there may be faith at the same time This is manifest from that description of faith which the Apostle gives Heb. 11.1 Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen Faith makes those things evident which are not evident and apparent unto sense This also is manifest from the experience of several of the Saints It is said of Abraham That he believed in hope against hope Rom. 4.18 Abraham had the hope of faith against the dictates of sense his faith prevailed against sense he believed when all things in sense made against him Thus was it with Job in one place he saith That God hunted him as a fierce lyon and that he shewed himself amrvellous upon him And yet in another place he saith Though he kill me yet will I trust in him Here was faith against sense In like manner in another place he saith That God counted him for his enemy in his sense and feeling God seemed as an enemy to him And yet in another place he saith I know that my Redeemer liveth Here was an opposition to sense Thus was it with Heman he complains Psal 88.7 That Gods wrath lay hard upon him that God had afflicted him with all his waves and in the sixteenth verse of that Psalm he saith Thy fierce wrath goeth over me and yet in the beginning of the Psalm he calls God the God of his salvation O Lord God of my salvation vers 1. here was faith contradicting sense Thus was it with our Saviour Christus licèt se in anima derelictum sentiret ut in nobis fuit tamen in anima intellexit in sese semper deamatum fuisse our Saviour had a present sense and feeling of Gods wrath and yet by faith he might know he was beloved of God Hence is that of a Learned man Christ although he felt himself forsaken as he was in us yet he understood that he was always beloved considered as in himself Thus have I spoken that which I think may be sufficient for the clearing of that objection
How Christ that was a person always beloved of God could yet bear the sense of his wrath And now I would make a little farther use of what hath been opened as to Christs being made a curse and then I shall proceed to the other Propositions that remain for the clearing the Doctrine of Christs Satisfaction Christ as we have heard hath been made a curse the wrath and displeasure of God hath been poured forth upon him whatever he underwent upon the Cross all that shame and pain all that grief and sorrow which he felt in soul and body was the effect of Gods wrath the punishment due to us for our sins the wrath of God was consummated upon him and he was cut off by the curse he underwent death as part of the curse Let us see what use may be made of this This may serve by way of direction to us Vse 1 to teach us what course to take when we are in distress and agony of conscience under the fear and terror of Gods wrath due to us for sin Who is there among us that some time or other may not lye under the fear of Gods wrath that may not be terrified with the apprehension of Gods wrath due to him for sin Now the proper relief in this case is to consider that Christ was made a curse If Christ hath felt what we fear if he hath suffered and undergone what we deserved what so proper a ground to relieve us as this We fear the wrath of God and Christ hath suffered that wrath This is the case of many of the children of God they do many times lye under dreadful apprehensions of Gods wrath and displeasure David in the trouble and anguish of his soul crys out Cast me not away from thy presence Psal 51.11 And that Saint we mentioned even now in Psal 88.14 Lord why castest thou off my soul Now when we begin to apprehend that God hath cast us off in displeasure when we are under trouble and anguish of soul and apprehend that God is highly incensed and his wrath is waxed hot against us what can give us relief in this case but to consider that Gods wrath was poured out to the utmost upon Christ our Head and Surety that the wrath of God spent it self and had a full vent upon him This therefore is the only course we can take when we are under the fear and apprehension of Gods wrath to lift up Christ in the arms of our faith and to interpose him between us and the wrath of an angry God If his wrath be kindled but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in Christ Psal 2.12 This Doctrine of Christ being made a curse is of marvellous and unspeakable use in the serious exercises of faith when the soul is under sore conflicts from the fear of Gods wrath If thou art burdened with the guilt of sin and the fear of Gods wrath thou mayst go to God and tell him that Christ hath suffered as much as ever thou hast deserved to suffer that there is nothing that he may justly inflict upon thee but it hath already been executed and inflicted upon Christ to the uttermost and will he punish sin twice Will he punish sin in thee and will he punish it in the person of his innocent Son who had no sin of his own but only took upon him their cause that were not able to deliver themselves from wrath From this Doctrine of Christs being made a curse Vse 2 we may learn what the true and proper Antidote is against the fear of death The proper Antidote against the fear of death is this That Christ hath suffered death as part of the curse therefore Christ having undergone death for us as a part of the curse if we be in Christ the curse of death is taken away from us It is true Believers undergo death still but here lyes the comfort to a Believer that death is no longer a curse to him Christ by undergoing death as a part of the curse yea as the completion of the curse hath taken away death as it is a curse Death is now no more a curse unto Believers but a passage unto life It is a sweet Text Hos 13.14 O death I will be thy plague O grave I will be thy destruction Christ by dying hath destroyed and overcome death and Believers are freed from death as a curse therefore is it that our Saviour saith He that believes on him shall never dye Joh. 11.26 What better news to any of the sons and daughters of men than to tell them they shall never dye Our Saviour assures us of this He that believes on him shall never dye Joh. 11.26 O but do not Believers dye as well as other men Object Yes they do Answ but they do not dye under the curse they dye not as malefactors as condemned persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanas Death is now as no death to a Believer it is only a passage unto eternal life a Believers true life is not interrupted by death Joh. 10.28 I give to them eternal life and they shall never perish If death did interrupt or take away a Believers true life then there might be a time when he might be said to perish but our Saviour speaks it with the strongest asseveration and with the greatest solemnity They shall never perish I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish therefore there is such a life given to a Believer by Christ that shall never perish though this natural life be taken away from him yet that which is the true life eternal life shall never be taken from him his natural life may be taken from him but instead of it he shall have eternal life I give unto them eternal life I proceed now to some other Propositions for the clearing the Doctrine of Christs Satisfaction The next Proposition therefore is this The eleventh Proposition God hath charged upon Christ the guilt and punishment of the sins of his people There is an act of God in this Christ did not only suffer such things as we have heard but he hath suffered them from the hand of God laying these things upon him as our Mediator and Surety Hence is it said That God hath made him to be sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 God hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all Isa 53.6 God hath laid upon him there is the act of God the act of Divine Justice put forth in laying upon Christ all the punishment that he underwent Hence are those expressions that are so frequent in Scripture that Christ was made sin made under the Law that he was made a curse that he was made of God to us Redemption all which expressions plainly shew that there was an act of God put forth whereby Christ is made or appointed of God to be our Surety and that God did exact that debt of obedience and punishment from Christ which we should have
That Christ hath given himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 Observe that expression That he might purifie unto himself Christ did not give himself that he might purifie to the Father only a peculiar people but also that he might purifie to himself a peculiar people So Eph. 5.25 Christ gave himself for his Church that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church Here it is said That he might present it to himself a glorious Church As Christ by his death and sufferings reconciled us to God the Father so he reconciled us to himself also It is true the Scripture when it speaks of the work of reconciliation doth in a peculiar manner attribute it to the Father as the Person to whom we are reconciled and it speaks of our reconciliation to God by Christ 2 Cor. 5.18 All things are of Godâ— who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ Col. 1.20 By him to reconcile all things to himself By him that is by Christ To reconcile all things to himself that is to the Father by Christ then we are reconciled to the Father But we must understand this aright When it is said We are reconciled to the Father by Christ we must not suppose that the other Persons are excluded We are not only reconciled to the Father but we are reconciled to the whole Trinity and Christ considered as Mediator as God-man reconciles us to himself considered as God simply And here lies the Mystery of Divine wisdom and goodness that God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself God is the person offended and yet in and by his Son it is he that offers reconciliation to the world 3. The greatness of Christs love in laying down his life for us appears in this That there was no merit in us to move Christ to lay down his life for us It is well observed by Austin It was our sins not our merits that drew Christ from Heaven to earth As we could not merit Christs Incarnation so neither could we merit his death and sufferings for us For what is it that we can suppose that should merit Christs death and sufferings for us Was it our fore-seen faith or our fore-seen obedience This is all that can be supposed Now these were the effects of Christs death and sufferings therefore they could not be the cause of them It is observed by Alvarez That Christs fore-seen Merits were the cause of all that grace that was bestowed upon man in the state of lapsed nature Joh. 1.17 Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ All the grace that we receive in lapsed nature is by Jesus Christ Eph. 1.4 God hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Christs Merits are the foundation of our faith and obedience Whatever faith and obedience is found in us is wrought by the Spirit of Christ in us Now the Spirit it self that works all grace in us is the purchase and fruit of the death of Christ Tit. 3.4 After that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour The Holy Ghost is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour that is through the Merit of Jesus Christ our Saviour Now it is by this Spirit that faith it self and all other effects of grace are wrought in us therefore it is said By grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2.8 4. We were so far from having any merit to oblige Christ to suffer and dye for us that we were full of demerit full of evil merits We were sinners enemies rebels against God and herein God commended his love to us that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Rom. 5.8 The greatest love amongst men is when one friend will dye for another Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friend But where was it known that ever any man laid down his life for his enemy Yet Christ hath commended his love to us in that while we were enemies he dyed for us Col. 1.21 You that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death It is commonly said That sin is a kind of God-murther Peccatum est Deicidium the sinner would dethrone God and take away the life and Being of God if it lay in his power Now herein the admirable and transcendent love of God to man appeared That when man by sin would dethrone God and take away the life and Being of God if it were in his power that God would lay down his life for them that would take away his life and Being God redeemed the Church with his own blood and Hereby perceive we the love of God that he laid down his life for us Learn to study much the greatness of Christs love in his sufferings Vse 1 and in the work of his Satisfaction Let us often have recourse to the Cross of Christ and by the eye of faith behold the Son of God in our nature giving himself a Sacrifice for our sins The more we study the love of Christ in his sufferings and in the work of his Satisfaction we shall find two notable effects of it 1. Hereby we shall be strengthened and confirmed in our belief of Christs love to us 2. This will be a means to beget greater measures of love in our hearts to Christ 1. The more we contemplate the love of Christ to us in his sufferings and satisfaction the more shall we be strengthened and confirmed in our belief of Christs love to us 1 Joh. 4.16 We have known and believed the love that God hath towards us for God is love How come we to know and believe the love that God hath towards us Compare this with the former verses and they will shew us vers 8 9 10. God is love In this was manifested the love of God to us that he sent his only begotten Son that we might live through him Herein was love not that we loved God but that God loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins When by faith we can apprehend and believe that God hath sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins this will confirm us in the certain belief and perswasion of the love of God to us Who hath reason to doubt of Gods love when he is certainly perswaded and doth firmly believe that God hath sent his Son from Heaven to earth to take our nature and being in our
nature to lay down his life and dye for our sins Certainly he that believes this will find no reason to doubt of the love of God If God sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins if he had no other end in sending of him and if the Son of God did freely lay down his life for us then there is no reason that we should retain suspicious and jealous thoughts of the Father or the Son We know and believe the love that God hath to us How so Because God hath sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins If we can realize the sufferings of Christ to our minds by the eye of faith this will confirm our souls in the love of God towards us 2. Another effect of our studying the love of Christ in his sufferings for us is This will be a means to beget much love in us to Christ What more powerful argument to inflame our love to Christ than to consider what Christ hath done and suffered for us Can we behold the Son of God the second Person in Trinity God equal with the Father Emmanuel God with us God come down into our nature can we behold this great and excellent Person giving himself to suffer and dye for us taking the whole curse and punishment upon himself that we deserve and not love this person who hath so loved us and hath done and suffered such things for us The Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 5.14 The love of Christ constrains us The love of Christ that is Christs love to us the apprehension of Christs love to us constrains us why so Because saith the Apostle we thus judge That if one dyed for all then were all dead If Christ had not dyed we must all have dyed If Christ had not suffered the wrath of God we must have suffered it to Eternity If Christ had not been deserted we must have been deserted If he had not undergone dereliction and the hiding of Gods face the face of God must have been turned away from us for ever If Christ had not conflicted with the Divine displeasure we must have conflicted with the wrath of God for ever If Christ had not been cast into that Agony wherein he sweat drops of blood we must have been cast into those inexpressible horrours and torments of soul and body which would have pressed us down to all Eternity The deep and serious consideration of these things cannot but constrain us to love Christ The love of Christ constrains us saith the Apostle because we thus judge That if one dyed for all then were all dead The consideration of this That Christ hath freed us from that by his death which otherwise we must necessarily have undergone must needs be a strong ingagement upon us to love Christ We love him because he first loved us Learn how great the sin and ingratitude of the world is in slighting and abusing all this love Vse 2 and also how just that revenge is which God takes upon the world for slighting and abusing all this love If the love of Christ be so eminently seen in his suffering and dying for sinful men for the sinful world then how great is the sin and ingratitude of the world in slighting and abusing all this love God hath sent his Son from Heaven to save the world he hath sent his Son from Heaven to dye for the world but all this love is little thought of little regarded or esteemed by the generality of men this is the cause of the Lords great indignation against the world The world is guilty of many other sins it is guilty of great immoralities and many abominations in point of practice and these may have their influence and no doubt have as to the bringing down Gods displeasure upon the sinful world but that which is the fundamental sin the root sin of all it is the contempt of Christ and the Gospel the slighting and rejecting Gospel-love Gospel-grace This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light And we may say This is the condemnation that love is come into the world that the Son of God who is love it self the Son of God who hath all the love of the Father in him and God is love that he is come into the nature of man and hath dyed for men that they might be saved and this is not at all regarded by them When all this love of his hath been published and made known to men the generality of men have taken no notice of Christ and his love so they may have their honours pleasures and profits take Christ and his grace who will for them for this so great contempt of Christ and his grace when God hath offered his love and the grace of his Gospel to the world and men have slighted it taken no notice of it hath God come to revenge himself upon the ingrateful world and I speak it with a bleeding heart I fear will yet revenge it more sorely The end of the sixteenth Sermon SERMON XVII Job 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends I Come now to other Particulars that set forth the greatness of Christs suffering for us 5. The greatness of Christs love in laying down his life for us appears in this That there was no one else that could have satisfied for us If men or Angels had attempted this work their sufferings had been but the sufferings of finite creatures there would not have been infinite worth and value in them to have satisfied for the sins of the whole world The expiation of sin requires a price of infinite value and the reason is because every sin is committed against an infinite Majesty an infinite Majesty being offended there must be a price of infinite value to expiate the offence Now whoever had been but a meer man could not have offered a price of infinite value but Christs sufferings were of infinite value because he was God as well as man and this is that which enhanceth the price of Christs love that none else could have suffered for us but Christ so as to have satisfied Gods Justice this Christ himself sets before us Isa 63.3 I have trod the wine-press alone and of the people there was none with me So vers 5. I looked and there was none to help and I wondered there was none to uphold therefore mine own arm brought salvation This commends the greatness of Christs love in his sufferings That when none was able to suffer for us so as to satisfie Gods Justice Christ undertook the work The sixth Consideration is The greatness of Christs love in his sufferings appears in this That so great and excellent a person should come to suffer for us 1 Joh. 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of God that he laid down his life for us that is that he who was the Son of God and God that
flow from persons It was therefore the person of the Word that made satisfaction for our sins Now that a person of that infinite worth and excellency as the Son of God the second Person in Trinity should come to subsist in our nature and being in our nature should be the person satisfying for our sins this was great condescension and abasement Thus the Son who was yet equal with the Father in respect of his Divine nature by his Incarnation and sufferings doth not only make himself inferiour to the Father but to himself also The Son though he was one of the persons offended yet he comes to make the satisfaction and considered as Mediator as God-man doth not only make satisfaction to the Father but to himself considered as God simply The fourth Consideration is this That whole Christ or the whole person of the Mediator was the price of our Redemption 1 Joh. 2.1 If any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous and he is the propitiation for our sins It is Christ then that is the propitiation for our sins Now Christ is the name of the person subsisting in both natures When we speak of Christ Christus est nomen personae in duabus subsistentis naturis we understand that person who subsists in both natures in the nature of God and in the nature of man Christ doth not signifie one of the natures simply but Christ is the name of the person subsisting in both natures Now this is he who is the propitiation for our sins that person who is God and man he is the propitiation for our sins Persona Christi sive Christus satisfecit pro peccatis tanquamquod It was the person of Christ or Christ that did satisfie for our sins as the Principle making satisfaction To understand this we must consider that which was before hinted That Christ is our Mediator according to both natures he is not our Mediator as to one of his natures only but according to both natures and as he is Mediator according to both natures so he gives himself for us according to both his natures For though it were the humane nature only that suffered yet it was the Divine nature that sanctified the sufferings of the humane nature and gave virtue to them therefore is it said Himself bare our sins in his own body on the tree and that by himself he hath purged our sins Heb. 1.3 It is not said By his humane nature meerly though it is true it was the humane nature only that was capable of suffering but it is not so expressed but by himself Christ himself is the Sacrifice for our sins Gal. 2. He loved me and gave himself for me and Christ was once offered up Heb. 9. And that expression of the Apostle Peter is very emphatical 2 Pet. 2.24 Who his own self bare our sins in his body on the tree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ himself who was God-man made satisfaction for sins and laid down the price of our Redemption yea he himself was the price of our Redemption God hath redeemed the Church with his own blood To understand this two things are to be considered in the Satisfaction of Christ as Alvarez hath observed 1. One is that species or kind of humane actions by which Christ did satisfie and this proceeded from the humane nature as the formal principle of them Thus the Son of God obeyed suffered dyed in the humane nature 2. There is another thing to be considered in Christs Satisfaction and that is the infinite value and worth that was found in it Now the infinite value and worth that was in the Satisfaction of Christ proceeded from the person satisfying that is from the Divine Word or the person of the Son of God subsisting in the humane nature the actions and sufferings of the humane nature are the matter of his Satisfaction but that which gives the virtue and value to them is the Divinity Hence are those expressions of the Ancients If he had not been true God he had not brought a remedy for us Si non esset verus Deus non afferret remedium Quia ille qui moriebatur erat Deus Another observes That therefore did the death of Christ bring salvation to the world because the person who dyed was God And another hath a passage to this purpose Death saith he becoming as it were the death of God hath demolished death for the person that dyed was God and man both the sufferings of Christ being made the sufferings of that person who was God received their virtue from the Divinity As much as if he had said By virtue of the Divine person which suffered in the humane nature those sufferings received their virtue to save us and to make satisfaction for our sins This is another thing that discovers the humiliation of Christs person That he who was God and in his Divine nature simply considered was the person offended yet as God man was pleased to become a ransom for us 1 Tim. 2.6 He gave himself a ransom for all That person who gave himself a ransom for all is the Mediator and who is the Mediator but God-man 1 Joh. 1.7 The blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin There is a great Emphasis upon those words Jesus Christ his Son It is the blood of that person who was no other than the Son of God and God which cleanseth us from all sin It is a memorable speech of Luther He gave saith he not silver not gold neither was it a meer man that he gave neither did he give all the Angels but it was himself that he gave as the price of our Redemption than which nothing was greater neither had he any thing greater to give Consider this price aright and we shall find it infinitely greater than the whole Creation 5. In the sufferings of Christ we may see the humiliation of his person from hence namely that in the death of Christ the glory of his Divinity seemed to be most obscured and darkened and suffered the greatest Eclipse What more unworthy of God than suffering and death What more absurd and incongruous in the eye of carnal reason than a crucified God Now herein did Christ commend the greatness of his love to us That he permitted the glory of his Divinity by means of his death and suffering to be eclipsed for our sakes That he who was the immortal God should expose himself to suffering and death for our sakes as if he had been no more than a passible and mortal man for though he were really and indeed the Son of God and God the Lord of Glory yet by reason of his death and sufferings he was by the generality of men thought to be but as an ordinary man This is that which the Apostle intimates 1 Cor. 2.8 Whom none of the Princes of this world knew for had they known it they would not
sufferings without this we have no life in us Let us therefore take heed how we have slight thoughts of the sufferings of Christ this is to slight them when we do not study the virtue of these sufferings when we do not see our need of them and do not apply our selves to them that we may be saved by them 4. Then are the sufferings of Christ contemned when we come unworthily to the Lords Table The Sacrament of the Supper it is the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ when therefore we rush upon the Sacrament in a rude manner we do in an eminent way contemn the sufferings of Christ The Supper of the Lord is called a shewing forth the Lords death 1 Cor. 11.26 As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come This phrase of shewing forth the Lords death implies three things in it 1. It implies the inward assent of the mind that we do indeed with our hearts and minds believe that Christ did dye and suffer such things for us as we read of in the Gospel 2. This phrase of shewing forth the Lords death implies the profession and confession of our faith before the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we owne it and profess it before the world that we believe such and such things concerning Christ 3. It implies our faith in our our reliance upon the death and sufferings of Christ for salvation that is our expectation of salvation by the death of Christ and by that means only All this I take to be implied in this phrase of shewing forth the death of Christ the Sacrament therefore being a shewing forth of Christs death when we come to the Sacrament we have to do with the death and sufferings of Christ in a peculiar manner if therefore we rush upon that Ordinance in a rude or unworthy manner we must of necessity contemn the sufferings of Christ because the Sacrament is the special and peculiar Ordinance that is appointed to represent to us the death and sufferings of the Lord Jesus and that this is one way of contemning Christs sufferings the Apostle is exceeding clear and plain 1 Cor. 11.27 Whosoever shall eat and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. As much as if he should say Every unworthy Communicant every unworthy receiver at the Lords Table is guilty of no small sin he is guilty of the very body and blood of Christ that is he is as one that hath imbrued his hands in Christs blood he is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. The Ancients expound it to this sense Every unworthy receiver and Communicant that comes in a rude manner to the Lords Supper is like Judas that betrayed Christ like the Jews that buffeted and spit upon him like to Pilate that condemned him and like the Souldiers that crucified him these dealt unworthily with the body of Christ and so doth every unworthy Communicant deal unworthily with the body of Christ The others indeed abused and dealt unworthily with his natural body but every unworthy Communicant deals unworthily with his sacramental body and the sin of the one is so much the greater than the sin of the other because many of them that had a hand in the crucifixion of the body of our Saviour looked upon him as an ordinary man they did not look upon him as the Son of God Hence doth the Apostle say If they had known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory 1 Cor. 2.8 But now rude Christians who rush irreverently upon this Ordinance do profess they believe him to be the Son of God the Saviour of the world and yet offer indignity to him They therefore that come unworthily to the Lords Table do in an eminent manner contemn the sufferings of Christ But here it may be useful for us to inquire What is it to come unworthily Who are they that come unworthily Whosoever shall eat this bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily 1 Cor. 11.29 The Greek word as Peter Martyr observes Indecenter parùm congruè minùs apposité signifies in this place as much as indecently not congruously not in that fit manner as he ought to do he eats and drinks unworthily that comes in an indecent manner without due preparation to this Ordinance I shall more particularly shew what this unworthy receiving is in two or three things 1. Then do we come unworthily to the Sacrament when we have not a due reverence of those great and sublime Mysteries that are set before us in the Sacrament Whoever shall drink this cup of the Lord saith the Apostle this Cup of the Lord here is an accent that it is the Lords bread the Lords cup the bread that we partake of in the Sacrament is the Lords bread and the cup that we drink of in the Sacrament is the Lords cup. Some may say so is all our bread the bread that we live upon daily is the Lords bread and the cup we drink of daily is the Lords cup it is he that spreads our tables for us and causeth our cups to run over But we must consider that the bread here spoken of the sacramental Bread and the sacramental Cup are called the Lords bread and the Lords cup in a peculiar manner it is that bread that is instituted to signifie and represent the Lords body and it is that cup that is instituted to represent the Lords blood therefore when we look upon the sacramental bread as common ordinary bread when we drink of the sacramental wine as common ordinary wine this is a prophanation of this Ordinance We ought to be sensible of the Mystery that is in this Ordinance namely that the Lords body and his blood are represented to us by the outward signs The ancient Church were wont to call the Mysteries represented to us in the Sacrament tremendous Mysteries O here are tremendous Mysteries indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if we rightly consider what they are that are set before us in the Sacrament to see the incorporeal God assuming a humane body to see God personally inhabit in that flesh that suffered and offering that very body of his in which he was crucified dyed rose again and ascended into Heaven to be the food of our souls these are wonderful Mysteries indeed and yet these are the Mysteries that are represented to us in the Sacrament in the Sacrament we see the Son of God and God to have assumed a part of our flesh and then offering himself up in that flesh a Sacrifice for our sins and as we see the Son of God first giving himself for us upon the Cross so in the Sacrament we see him giving himself to us Here lyes the mystery of the Sacrament In the Sacrament we do not only see Christ giving himself for us but we also see
death of Christ is a certain Sacrament or pledge which certifies us that our death is nothing at all For if death hath executed all its power and strength upon Christ if death hath poured out all its venom and malignity upon Christ then there is nothing that remains in death to hurt us Death had nothing at all to do with Christ but only as he put himself under the power of death for our sakes Now the Son of God who was above death freely subjecting himself to death for our sakes and death having done all that it could against Christ it hath nothing more to do against a poor Believer It is true Believers dye still but yet their death is not part of the Curse the death of the Saints is only a passage unto life and it is that which prepares the way for a more blessed Resurrection Whatever was truly formidable or terrible in death is taken away by the death of Christ That which was most formidable in death was this that it was a part of the Curse that it was the effect of Divine wrath Now Christ having suffered the whole of Gods wrath for us death is not inflicted upon Believers as the effect of Gods wrath nay it is so far from being sent to a Believer in wrath that it is sent in mercy to him and death is an introduction unto a Believers happiness All things are yours things present things to come life is yours and death is yours 1 Cor. 3.21 22. Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord Rev. 14. Death is an introduction to the Saints unto their perfect and compleat happiness the Saints happiness is inchoate and begun in this life when they are first brought into the Kingdom of Grace and their happiness is compleat and consummate in the next life when they are by death ushered into the Kingdom of Glory Consid 11 The love of Christ in his sufferings appears in this That he came into our nature and became man on purpose that he might suffer for us One of the principal ends of the Incarnation of the Son of God was that he might suffer and dye for men This is intimated by the Apostle Heb. 2.14 For as much as the children are made partakers of flesh and blood he also himself took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil It is as much as if he had said Had he not partaken of our nature he could not have suffered for us as he was the Son of God and possessed of the Divine nature so he was not capable of suffering but therefore did he take on him our nature and became the Son of man that he might be in a capacity to suffer for men O what overcoming love was this that the Son of God did therefore take upon him our nature that he might be in a capacity to suffer for men had he always abode in the form of God only it had not been possible for him to suffer but therefore would he take upon him part of our passible and mortal flesh that so he might be in a capacity to suffer and dye for us Consid 12 The love of Christ in his suffering may be seen in this Because so great benefits accrue and come to us by the sufferings of Christ Christ by the merit of his sufferings hath purchased and procured the greatest blessings for us To instance in a few briefly 1. Christ by his sufferings hath purchased for us the forgiveness of sins Eph. 1.14 In whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins 2. Christ by his sufferings hath purchased for us peace and reconciliation with God Eph. 2.16 That he might reconcile us to God by the cross Col. 1.21 You that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death 3. Eternal life it self is the purchase of Christs sufferings Rom. 6. ult The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord that is through the merit of Jesus Christ our Lord so that eternal life is the merit of Christs death We have another clear Text to confirm this Heb. 9.15 For this cause he is the Mediator of the new Testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance The eternal inheritance the inheritance which all the Elect are brought unto in Heaven is purchased by the death of Christ for so the Apostle expresseth it That by means of death those that are called might have the promise of eternal inheritance Hence is it that Heaven is called a purchased possession Eph. 1.14 Vntil the redemption of the purchased possession the Glory of Heaven is called a purchased possession Now in every purchase there must be a price there can be no purchase without a price the price therefore that was laid down for us that we might obtain eternal life was the price of Christs blood the death of Christ as appears from the former Scriptures 4. The Spirit of God and all that grace whereby we are inabled to believe and obey and in general whatever blessings are comprehended in the Covenant of Grace these are all the purchase of the death of Christ This is apparent from those words of our Saviour in the institution of the Supper This cup is the new Testament in my blood as much as if he should say All the mercies all the blessings of the new Covenant are the purchase of my blood and the Covenant it self is ratified and confirmed by my blood Now in the Covenant of Grace there are many great things promised in it the Lord promiseth to forgive the sins of his people he promiseth that he will put his Law in their minds and write it in their hearts he promiseth that he will give his Spirit to them and the like all these blessings are purchased and procured by the death of Christ great therefore must the love of Christ be in giving himself to suffer and dye for his people since by the death of Christ such great and admirable priviledges are purchased for them The Covenant of Grace is the greatest Charter of all our spiritual Priviledges whatever Priviledges belong to a Believer they are contained within the compass of the Covenant Now the Covenant it self is founded in the blood of the Mediator of the Covenant How precious then is that blood that purchased such great things for us And how great was the love of Christ that shed his blood to obtain such things for us Vse If the love of Christ be so great in his sufferings let us be exhorted from hence to meditate much on the sufferings of Christ O it were well for us if we could take many a turn at the Cross of Christ and
by the eye of faith see and behold what it was that the Son of God suffered in our nature for us There may we see him suffering dereliction undergoing the deprivation of the sense and comfort of Gods love there may we see him bear the whole Curse suffering the wrath of God yea the very pains and torments of Hell for us We ought to contemplate these things and by faith to realize the sufferings of Christ and the greatness of his love to us in his sufferings We ought not to look upon the sufferings of Christ as a story but to see what he suffered was for our sakes and out of love to us and the desire of our salvation Now the more we meditate upon the sufferings of Christ there are two things that will follow thereupon 1. The more we meditate upon the sufferings of Christ the more shall we understand what those heights and depths and lengths and breadths of the love of Christ are which the Apostle speaks of The Apostle speaks of infinite dimensions in the love of Christ and the more we study the sufferings of Christ the more shall we see what those heights and depths and lengths and breadths of Christs love are O what immense love was this that the Son of God should come from Heaven to Earth to suffer and dye for men God might have glorified himself although man had never been saved A manifest proof of this we have in the Angels the Angels that fell were never recovered out of their sin and misery and yet God is glorified upon them and if fallen man had never been recovered God might have glorified himself upon men in their condemnation and destruction as he is now glorifying himself upon the fallen Angels Now this was the abundant love of God to man that God did not only will mans salvation but that so great a person as the Son of God and God should come from Heaven to Earth to save and dye for man O let us stand and wonder at this love the more we soak our hearts in the meditation of these things that the Son of God and God should come into the nature of man for this very end to suffer such things for man that man might be saved the more shall we be taken up in the admiration of this love 2. The more we meditate on Christs sufferings and of the end which Christ had in his sufferings that he suffered such and such things for us the more shall we be confirmed in the belief and assurance of our own salvation Christ did not suffer in vain he did not shed his blood in vain If Christ did indeed suffer the pains of Hell that is a certain sign that God hath no mind that such as believe in Christ shall suffer those pains The sufferings of Christ are a clear miroir to shew us what we are delivered from What Christ hath suffered we shall not suffer for God will not punish sin twice If God hath inflicted the full punishment of our sins upon the person of our Head he will not lay the punishment of sin upon us too God indeed may correct his children in a way of fatherly discipline but he will not lay the punishment of sin upon them in a way of vindictive Justice and the reason is because God hath already punished their sins in the person of their Head Christ their Head and Surety hath born the full punishment of their sins for them This is the force of the Apostles argument Rom. 8.33 34. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that dyed As much as if he had said If Christ hath dyed we shall not dey if we be Believers who shall condemn It is Christ that dyed that is if Christ hath dyed we shall not dye eternally if the Law hath had its full power and strength upon Christ if the Law hath put Christ to death if it hath executed the Curse upon Christ to the uttermost then it hath no more to execute upon a Believer as a part of the Curse for Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Gal. 3.13 Therefore the consideration of what Christ hath suffered for us may be as food to our faith Hath Christ indeed suffered such things as we have heard of in the Doctrine of Satisfaction then we shall never suffer them Hath Christ suffered dereliction hath he been forsaken of God and that as our Surety then will God never forsake us for ever God may hide his face from us for a moment but he will not forsake us for ever Hath Christ born the wrath of God then shall we never bear it O when-ever the sense of guilt and the fear of Gods wrath oppress our consciences and lye heavy upon us the best course we can take is to dip our consciences in the wounds and blood of Christ as Luther's expression is and the realizing by faith what Christ hath suffered will be the best balm to cure a wounded conscience for if the sufferings of Christ were real then first there is real satisfaction made and if there was real satisfaction made then is God really pacified and really atoned and if God be really satisfied why then should we doubt and call in question his love any more Only our great concernment is to secure our part in Christ and to secure our interest in his sufferings till Christ himself be ours we can lay no claim to the benefits of his sufferings 1 Joh. 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life We must first have the Son himself before we can have life by the Son Our first work therefore is to make sure our interest in the Son himself Let me now in a few words close up the whole Doctrine concerning the Sufferings of Christ and the work of his Satisfaction We have heard much concerning the preciousness of Christs sufferings and that ample and full satisfaction that he hath made by his sufferings All that we have heard concerning the sufferings of Christ and the work of his satisfaction will signifie nothing to us will nothing at all avail us as to our salvation unless we get an interest in that great and blessed Person who hath done and suffered all these things That which must make the sufferings of Christ and his satisfaction available unto us is to know that Christ hath suffered as our Head that he hath suffered in our room and in our stead Now we cannot know that Christ hath suffered as our Head and as our Representative unless we first chuse him for our Head and pitch our faith upon his Person It is the Person of the Son of God who hath done and suffered all that in our nature which is necessary to be done and suffered for our salvation therefore as ever we expect benefit by what Christ hath done and suffered in our nature we must first direct the eye of our faith to that great person who hath taken up our nature and done and suffered such things in it Joh. 6.40 This is the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life We must first by the eye of faith see that great Person the Son of God come down into our nature and doing and suffering such things in it for the accomplishment of our salvation and then we must close with this Person and embrace him with both the arms of our faith It is the Election of Christs Person that gives us union with him Now we having chosen Christ to be our Head we ought to contemplate what was done by him in our nature and to have all our expectation of salvation from what was wrought by him in it thus shall we have communion in the obedience death sufferings and satisfaction of Christ and what Christ our Head hath done and suffered in our nature he dwelling in our hearts by faith shall be accounted as if we had done it The end of the twentieth Sermon FINIS