is apparent from the Various denominations that are given to CHRIST he is stiled a King And it is the Office of a King to save his Subjects from the mischiefs and hostilities that their Enemies machinate and contrive against them He is called a Shepherd the Good Shepherd and it is the part of a Good Shepherd to save his Flock from spoil and violence and such piteous havock and dilaniations as ravenous Wolves and rapacious Vermin would make amongst them He is said to be the LIFE And therefore when he came it was most assuredly to save us from Death Or as himself expresses it That we might have life and that we might have it more abundantly But what need we go farther than the venerable Appellative mention'd in the Text JESUS In this we may read him the Author of our Salvation in great Letters To that sense was the name expounded when by the Angel it was first imposed Thou shalt call his name JESVS St. Matt. 1.21 for he shall SAVE his People from their sins Thirdly It is Evident from the manner or condition of his Life in the state of humiliation and the days of his flesh It was little else than a concatenation or producted series of miseries and sufferings all which must have a direct tendency and subservience to the Salvation of sinners For if this were not the drift of his Travels and Penances it will be hard to find the reason of their Infliction the nature of God being infinitely good and the Providence of Heaven accurately just and the person of our LORD not only immaculate but of perfect Sanctity For tho he was called a Samaritan and counted a Daemoniac and reckoned with Transgressors yet he knew no sin nor was there any guile found in his mouth No he was harmless and blameless and the SON of GOD without rebuke Whiter than the Snow and Purer than the Light and Brighter if possible than Holiness it self None could charge him with the shadow of a Trespass against GOD nor in judicial Process convict him of a crime or any thing like it against Men. He was the most glorious Practist of all Righteousness that ever lived And as he came to fulfill his Fathers will so he did it in exactest measures His life was clear from all miscarriages and his obedience commensurate to the whole Law in its fullest Latitude of injunctions He was so far from resisting the Heavenly mind and acting contrary to the Divine pleasure that he never violated any Political or Humane Sanctions provided they were just in their Constitution and in their Observance warrantable And hence it follows that when he was afflicted and strangely abused it was not for any personal faults or delinquencies because he had none And since he could not suffer and die as he did for any obliquities or misdemeanors of his own it remains he did so for nobler causes and to higher and more excellent ends and purposes To perform a work of amplest Charity and an office of Mercy for the World of sinners To reconcile them to the DEITY they had Rebelliously slighted and prevent the ruine of those precious Souls they had rashly forfeited by giving his Blood for the deletery of their Offences and his inestimable life for the price of their Redemption And to make it clear that the passive part of his life upon Earth ministred to the design of expiating our sins and redeeming us from the punishments and torturous severities due unto them he is said in Scripture to bear our sins to be wounded for our transgressions to be bruised for our iniquities and where there is mention made of his dismal Sufferings they are referred to us and put as it were upon our accompt And truly unless by his Sufferings he saves us from sin he is falsly stiled a SAVIOUR and DELIVERER by the Infallible Writers For as every one sees they that are CHRIST'S are liable to infelicities as well as others To as many fears and dangers and miseries and deaths as any in the World Yea for their being the Servants and Disciples of JESUS they are more liable to these than other Men. So that if his sufferings do not rescue them from their sins he is in no sense a SAVIOUR at all but rather a betrayer of his people By ingaging them in that Religion which exposeth them to those evils that otherwise would fall more seldom and less heavy upon them The Doctrine then is True CHRIST JESVS came into the World to save sinners But Why he rather than another The reason is easie and soon given because none besides him was able to do it To vanquish death and deprive it of its sting to conquer Hell and disarm it of its power to satisfie the Law and to bear away its curse to pacifie the wrath of an incensed GOD by doing right to his offended Justice and to redeem a number of captivated Spirits by expiating the guilt of their horrid impieties is a work of no less than insuperable difficulty to any but him with whom all things are possible If the weight and pressure of this ponderous burthen had been laid upon the shoulders of the strongest Angel it would have sunk him immediately into perdition and there have kept him for ever and ever And if the loftiest Angel could not save the World how much less able is any Man to do it The Soul plung'd into Hell Five Thousand Years ago is as far from satisfying for her own improbities by what she hath indured as if she were thrown in but yesterday And when she has there been excruciated Five Thousand times as long her satisfactions will still be as short and imperfect as they were the first moment she began to flame And if a man by suffering the infernal plagues cannot make amends for his own enormities then how much less for the superabounding wickedness of all the World That no Creatures are able to satisfie for our sins and so to save our Souls is demonstrated thus This Satisfaction they must effect either by duties or sufferings But by neither of these ways can they do it and therefore not at all 1st Not by Duties For the best obedience performable by them is due to GOD as the Author of their beings And if all their obedience must go to HIM as payment of a debt which they owe themselves how can any of it be imploy'd towards Satisfaction for others Yea God is not only the Author of their beings but moreover the Donor of that very power whereby they yield obedience to himself And so they are the more oblig'd to Him still but have the less ability to satisfie either for their own or others immoralities Nor 2ly Can they do it in way of punishment For our sins being perpetrated against an Infinite Majesty do so become of an Infinite malignity and are not to be expiated but by an Infinite penalty But creatures being finite are utterly incapable of punishments that are infinite
glorious Martyr S. Ignatius S. Johns Disciple and Arch-Bishop of Antioch He professes of himself in his Epistle to the Romans I desire nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Either of things visible or invisible so I may injoy JESUS CHRIST 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Let fire and the Cross and troops of wild Beasts let cuttings and lancings and rackings of my bones let tearing of my members and the dissolution of my Body and the chastisement of the Devil come upon me so I may possess JESUS CHRIST 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is good for me to die for JESUS CHRIST 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rather than to reign over the Ends of the Earth And a little after he cries out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the LORD I desire 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 him I seek Thus the holy man breathed and thus his holy Soul panted after JESUS O that our desires would rise and run and at such rate as they have greatest reason to do continually 4. How studious officious and laborious should we be for the good of Men though in what we do we debase our selves and stoop to the most inferior imployments The SON of GOD came into the World And to what end To be sole and absolute Monarch of the Earth And to act pompous state or splendid greatness in or over it Did he come to wear a Robe and to sway a Sceptre To live in Honour and to rule in Glory To have Princes for his servants and Kings for his attendants Puissant Emperours for his companions Or did he come to erect his Pavilion in the Clouds and to make the Skies his spatious territories Did he come to be crowned with the Stars and to be clothed with the Sun To have Cherubim for his Guard and Seraphim for his train To threaten with accents as piercing as lightening and to command with a voice as dreadful as Thunder and to receive the homage and prostrate adorations of all the Inhabitants of the Universe This I confess and a great deal more would have been but highly befitting his MAJESTY But widely different from all this was the end of JESUS his coming in the Flesh It was to save Sinners Despicable dust and sorry worms Then which he could have made a thousand times more and a thousand times better creatures with a word And this was a mean work for him especially considering how it was to be done For he was to save them by satisfying for them And to satisfie by Suffering By Suffering shame by Suffering pain by Suffering death and all that innocence could indure BUT less then we cannot learn from hence than to serve Mankind with a pious industry and never to stick at our own diminution so we may contribute to their Salvation An example of this is the great S. Paul I will very gladly spend and be spent for you 2. Cor. 12.15 5. ' How confident may we be of our Souls Immortality For were not their Existence lasting and their Life extended beyond the term of this transitory state our blessed LORD need not have come to purchase their Salvation But since he was born to ransom them from Hell and to put them in a capacity of future happiness this fully evinceth that they shall have being when this World has none and live through the longest tracts of Eternity ' This Heathens saw by their glimmering light For as the Ingenious Poet sang Morte carent animae And another Sunt aliquid manes lethum non omnia fiunt Ghosts are somewhat upon which the fangs of Death don't fasten Our Spirits are not of so mean a make as at Death to perish with their concrete bodies They are privileg'd with perpetuity a parte post as the Schools speak Tho' not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 simply absolutely essentialy and independenly yet per gratiam creationis by singular favour bestowed on them in their creation Those noble Essences whatever darker minds may wildly imagin were not design'd for a temporary continuance Their nature is Immortal and runs paralel with the longest line of endless duration Their origin is derived from GOD himself and when his All-powerful goodness formed them he never meant that such Glorious lights should only twinkle a little and then go out Glitter a while upon the stage of being and so be thrust down into the black abyss of non-existence Indeed at Death he Suffers them to set in a Cloud and lets them go down in the Horizon of time But then it is that they may rise in the Hemisphaere of Eternity and shine in the vertical of a future life without declension Death is so far from extinguishing the life of Souls that it excites it and makes it more energetical raising them to an higher degree of vivacity than any here possessed It only cuts the cord of vital union which ties them up in these rags of Flesh and strips them of those sordid clothes of dust which dress them for Mortality It only pricks the bladder of the Body and refunds that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Nazianzen calls the Soul breath of the Immense mind GOD back unto Himself O let us live like those that have Souls that have such Immortal Souls to be sowed 6. What a vindication of Providence is here as to the Eternal perdition of the Vngodly Dismal things occur in Scripture touching the final state of Souls We read there that CHRIST's Church is a litle Flock That the Gate of Life is straight and narrow And that there are few that shall be Saved And many Father the event upon GOD his Sovereign Power and irrespective Decree And talk reflectingly against his MAJESTY as if he had arbitrarily condemned the greatest part of Men by irrevocable Sentence to the most extreme and interminable Miseries But is this likely Or can this be When his own SON his only Son came into the World to save Sinners all Sâ—nners that will be saved Much might be said against this rigid sour ill-natur'd Opinion which strikes so directly at the GOODNESS of GOD that central and radical perfection of his and derogates from his kind and gracious Philanthropy with mighty disparagement and defamation But it will not do well in confuting an Error to confront Authority Yet this I will add and I wish the whole World could hear it at once and glad I am that I speak it this day in so celebrious an Assembly because it does right to the GOD of Heaven There is nothing less grateful nothing more grievous to his Sacred MAIESTY than the ruine of those Souls which his hands have made And O that none of Mankind might Perish But they that do so by absolute Decree Then all the Posterity of fallen Adam would be sure to be Children of the Living GOD and to triumph together in the Peace and Joys and Glories of his presence for evermore 7. ' Let no Persons that repent truly of Sin ever despair of their Salvation I know it is the commune fault
unless they be so in way of duration And should any undertake to suffer punishments always to endure thereby to satisfie for the sins of Men when would this satisfaction so making be finisht How would our Salvation ever be accomplisht And because none could do this mighty Work besides that adorable one in the Text therefore he was pleased to set his hand to it CHRIST JESVS came into the World to save sinners But by what means is it done Why by entire satisfaction he made for our trespasses Which satisfaction lyes chiefly if not only in his ruful sufferings For being made under the Law by virtue of his condition he was strictly oblig'd to yield an Adequate obedience thereunto on his own accompt Nor does his active Obedience seem to be an ingredient into his satisfaction but only as it may be reckoned a piece of his passion in his free and voluntary submission to and meek and lowly susception of the Obediential state And therefore I say His sufferings are the Matter of his satisfaction And these are either corporeal in regard of which he is said to bear our sins in his body Or else Spiritual in reference to which his Soul is said to be made an offering for sin The Efficacy of his Satisfaction results from his transcendent merit That merit from the superlative dignity of his Person That dignity from the peerless excellence of his Nature that is his Divinity Which in his miraculous conception was complicated or connected to our despicable Flesh and stooped to an intimate conjunction with humanity And tho the way of its union and humble copulation was ever so mysterious as to be unintelligible yet in reproof and condemnation of daring Haeresiarchs it is fairly elucidated by the Council of Calcedon For there the Fathers adhering to Decrees of Antecedent Synods Orthodoxly defined that CHRIST is perfect GOD and real Man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unconfusedly unchangedly individedly inseparately Thereby rightly defending the unity of his Person Truly maintaining the duplicity of his Nature and plainly asserting and piously indicating the respective proprieties of each Nature to be still retained in their genuine distinctness and integrity But not to digress This Satisfaction Socinus denies affirming positively Divinae Justitiae neque satisfecisse Disp par 1. cap. neque ut satisfieret opus fuisse That CHRIST neither hath satisfied the Divine Justice nor was it necessary that it should be satisfied Yea which is worse he ranks this Doctrine amongst planè nugatoria meer trifles And which is grossest of all he calls the opinion Frigidum Lib. 3. de Servat cap. 10. falsum absurdum faedè summéque injustum horribiliter blasphemum Cold false absurd vilely and extremely injust and horribly blasphemous But in confutation of this black and wild and pernicious figment we are taught from above that CHRIST died 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For us And that not only as an Example but as a REDEEMER And therefore he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a price and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a ransom And we are farther instructed that he died 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our sins and was delivered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our offences and suffered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our iniquities All which phrases to them that understand the Greek Idiom and the sense of the expressions as commonly used by Masters of that language and Writers in it do clearly signifie that our sins are not only the final but impulsive and meritorious cause of CHRIST'S death And therefore we are told farther still that he was a sacrifice for us Not only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an offering but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a propitiation Yea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a curse Which implies again and irrefragably proves that he did not only die nostro bono for our Good but nostro loco in our stead And that his death was really satisfactory in that sense which our Church emphatically teaches in her common Office He suffered death upon the Cross for our Redemption and made there a full perfect and sufficient sacrifice oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole World And by means of this satisfaction the displeasure of ALMIGHTY GOD who was provoked is appeased The Equity of his inexorable Justice which was injured is vindicated The Authority of his indispensable Law which was prevaricated is fenced and secured The guilt of the Criminous wherewith they were corrupted is exterminated and abolished And the guilty most guilty sinners which must have been condemned may now be certainly and eternally saved But there is one Query still behind Vpon what conditions may we through CHRIST obtain Salvation They are these two Faith and Righteousness And therefore it is said He that believeth shall be saved and The Righteous shall go into life Eternal But if in this faith there happens a failure or an intercision salls out in our Righteousness then Repentance comes in as an useful Supplement and where it is unfeigned makes amends for all deficiencies Upon this Question another may be grafted Namely Whether we are to be saved by CHRIST'S imputed Righteousness The judgments of most have leaned to the affirmative And tho I must not undertake to determine the Problem yet I may venture to assert of this prevailing opinion that notwithstanding its great reputation and Authority it is liable at least to one notable exception and meet to be received with one prudent caution The Exception is this It is not so perspicuously laid down in Scripture as the Patrons and Propugners of it do pretend It is said indeed in the 4th of Rom. That Abraham believed GOD and it was IMPVTED to him for Righteousness But the sense of that Text can only be this GOD gave Abraham a Promise and Abraham gave credit to the Promise he made as it was fit he should upon the accompt of his veracity And in so doing he did a righteous act and for so doing GOD reckoned him in that instance a righteous person But what 's this to the imputing of CHRIST'S righteousness In the same Chapter it is remembred that David describeth the Blessedness of that man unto whom GOD imputeth righteousness And his words are these Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man unto whom the LORD will not impute sin So that all the imputing of Righteousness here amounts to no more than a non-imputation of sin And therefore this place does planely subvert rather than support the controverted Article It is said also 1 Cor. 1.30 That CHRIST is made unto us Righteousness But how should this be done say the favourers of the opinion unless by imputation Yet the whole verse runs thus But of him are ye in CHRIST JESVS who of GOD is made unto us Wisdom and Righteousness and Sanctification and Redemption Now durst any maintain that CHRIST is our Redemption by imputing it to