thy Spirit is a good Spirit thy Spirit is a blessed Spirit by the vertue of that Spirit Lord teach me the way to thee and let it lead me into the land of uprightnesse We know a child that hath his hand to write if he will not be ruled by him that teacheth him but will take the pen into his owne hand and write after his owne scauching fashion he will never write well nor make a letter handsomly as he should do but let his hand write by the mans hand and that will guide him and that will teach him quickly to write well in a short time so wouldst thou have thy heart framed aright why then keep thy soule under the hand of the Spirit and thou shalt bee guided by the vertue of that Spirit of God and moved and inabled to accomplish the good pleasure of the Lord and receive what ever grace thou standest in need of I have observed it sometimes upon the Sea looke as it is with the mariner that is going downe the streame if the winde bee faire will any man pull downe his saile and set it up againe why no for he doth but trouble himselfe and turmoyle and wearieth himselfe and troubleth the boat too with keeping such a pudder and misseth the gale of winde and all therefore a wise mariner he will set up his saile and hold out his sail that it may take the gale of winde fully and so goe on speedily all that he hath to doe is to keep his sail spred and to catch the winde your only course is to set up the saile and attend the gale of the Spirit to comfort you attend the gale of the Spirit to assist you hold thy heart and spread to the Spirit that it may catch the gale of grace that it may blow upon thy soule and by the vertue and power thereof thou shalt bee transported comfortably and carried on cheerfully to walke in that way which God chalks out before thee as for examples sake Imagine thy heart begins to be pestered with vaine thoughts or with a proud haughtie spirit or some base lusts and privy haunts of heart how would you bee rid of these why you must not set up and pull downe and set up and pull downe quarrell and contend and bee discouraged no but eye the promise and hold fast thereupon and say Lord thou hast promised all grace unto thy servants why therefore take this heart and take this minde and take these affections and let thy Spirit frame them aright according to thine owne good will by that Spirit of wisedome Lord informe mee by that Spirit of sanctification Lord cleanse mee from all my corruptions by that Spirit of grace Lord quicken and enable me to the discharge of every holy service thus carry thy selfe and convey thy soule by the power of the Spirit of the Lord and thou shalt finde thy heart strengthned and succoured by the vertue thereof upon all occasions Rom. 8.26 the Text saith The Law of the Spirit of life hath freed mee from the law of sinne and death the meaning is this you must know that sinne is a tyrant now a tyrant when he wins a citie hee swears all to his lawes so sinne will swear thy soule to his lawes pride saith I will have thee proud I will have thy heart unchaste saith uncleannesse I will have thee intemperate saith drunkennesse now by the Law of the Spirit of life God will free us from the law of sinne the Spirit of Christ in the promise it takes away the power of the law of sinne the Law of the Spirit of meeknesse takes away the law of the spirit of pride the Law of the Spirit of puritie takes away the law of the spirit of uncleannesse the Law of the Spirit of holinesse takes away the law of the spirit of prophanenesse and so in all other distempers of this nature this onely shewes us how to run over all Gather up now and so conclude this passage Eye the promise daily yeeld thy soule to the Spirit of the Lord in the promise let that have his full sway resist not those good motions the holy Spirit puts into thee and that is the way to have all grace and help and assistance communicated unto thee and thus much may suffice to have beene spoken in the generall touching this conveiance of grace into the heart we come now to the scanning of the particulars This conveyance it is of two kindes both in the Text Christ conveyes his grace two wayes partly by imputing partly by imparting they are the termes of Divines and I know not how to expresse my selfe better but thus if you will partly by imputation partly by communication This is that I would have you to take notice of in the generall they are both reall but one is habituall both these both imputation and communication expresse a reall worke of God upon the soule but the last onely leaves a frame and a spirituall abilitie and qualitie in the soule the conveyance by imputation doth not it leaves a thing morall as we use to terme it These two imputation communication are both in the Text Christ is made righteousnesse or justice that is hee doth justifie a sinner by imputation and hee doth sanctifie and redeeme a sinner by communication hee conveyes and workes some Spirituall abilitie and leaves a Physicall change when the Apostle saith Christ is made Iustice that is hee doth justifie a sinner by imputation when hee saith Christ is made Sanctification and Redemption that is by way of communication hee delivers the soule from the pollution of sinne that is sanctification hee delivers the soule from the power and dominion of sinne that is redemption This communication it is a Spirituall habit or a spirituall power or a spirituall qualitie or abilitie take which you will left upon the soule We will begin with the former touching the imputation of Christs righteousnesse to a soule whereby the sinner comes to bee justified this is a point then which I take it none more necessary and yet none lesse understood none lesse studied none more mistaken than these two great workes of justification and sanctification I speake it by experience Christians aged and experienced yet here they faile in the very catecheticall points and it drives many of our best Divines to a stand we will open it a little this justification wee terme a conveyance of the merits of Christ by way of imputation but what is the meaning of this word by way of imputation Thus you must conceive it this is the main thing I would have you looke unto Imputation is this when that which another hath that which another doth is accounted mine is set upon my score as though I had it as though I had done it this is Imputation I have it not I doe it not another hath it another doth it and it is accounted mine and reckoned mine in course of justice Now in the point of communication
and let your soules rest upon him with all your strength and unburthen thy selfe of all thy sinnes and the guilt of them and put them upon the Lord Christ commit thy soule to him and then for ever expect grace and mercy from him and resolve of this that the Lord Jesus Christ which was made guilty for thee will make thee guiltlesse and hee that was condemned in thy roome hee will acquit thee in his mercy and goodnesse But some may here object and say is not this a ground of comfort and a ground of loosenesse for drunkards and carnall libertines for they may say why should wee not live in our sinnes seeing Christ hath takeâ— the guilt of them upon him and will deliver us from them they thinke they may be carelesse of whatsoever they doe and sing care away never to be troubled for nor affected with the burthen of their sinnes and rebellions any more because Christ stands charged with their sinnes therefore they may throw away the care of them Thus as I may say with holy reverence they make Christ a stale for all their sinnes therefore let mee shew all such loose libertines of this last age of the world what fond conceits they have I meane the Anabaptists but specially the Familists who thinke it is unprofitable for a beleever to trouble himselfe for his sinnes and to goe up and downe with his heart full of griefe and his eyes full of teares and they thinke it unwarrantable and unlawfull and therefore they grow carelesse of sinne and fearlesse when they have committed sinne hath Christ undertaken for sin say they then why should a beleever take sinne to himselfe This is the cursed opinion of the Familists There is an unspeakable and an unmeasurable measure of comfort in this Doctrine for all the people of God and the other sucke as much poyson from it I have borne a secret grudge against this doctrine of theirs many a day but I could not tell how to meet with it neither doe I love to meddle with it till I meet at in my dish therefore to prevent the cavils of the wicked that a carnall heart may not presume of the mercy of God in Jesus Christ and also that the poore sinner may not burthen himselfe with needlesse â—eaâ—es nor with his sinne more than God requires suffer me to cleare the Doctrines by laying open two things Quest. 1 First how farre a sinner may and ought to charge himselfe with his sinne and how farre hoe may goe Quest. 2 Secondly how farre a sinner should not lay his sinne upon himselfe nor charge his folly upon himselfe and this will touch and discover the bounds and limits of the free grace of God and will open the way that wee may walke therein with comfort For the former Quest. 1 The question here growes how farre a beleever that hath an interest an Christ may charge himselfe with his sinne Answer I answer for the manner of it it shall appeare in these particular rules or conclusions First every beleever under heaven both the weakest and the strongest even hee that hath the strongest measure of grace is bound to this to the uttermost of his power to see and examine the sinfull carriages of his soule whether distempers inwardly or ungodly practices outwardly he is bound to consider of them and to judge of these his sinnes and every of them knowing that even the least of them is sufficient to make him guiltie of eternall death and to bring condemnation upon him as hee must see what his sinne is so he must judge that it hath the power to make him guiltie and also to condemne him should not the Lord by the power of his grace prevent it Every sinne in his owne nature and power doth and will procure guilt and condemnation to the soule by the sinne committed unlesse the Lord in mercy doe prevent it and Christ by the power of his merits stop the power and condemnation of sinne as the Apostle saith Rom. 1.31 which men though they knew the Law of God how that they which doe these things are worthy of death that is that in the least sinne which a man commits there is a fitnesse in it to make a man guiltie and it hath a power to condemne him unlesse the Lord did marvellous gratiously stop the power of corruption as the Text saith the repenting Church shall judge themselves worthy to be condemned every sinner may say of every sinne he commits that there is enough in it to damne him if God should deale with him after his owne deservings If I should be left to the power of my pride and malice hatred dead heartednes it were enough to condemne me for ever The wife Physitian that sees his Patient is in a plurifie will say here is enough in this man to kill him if I should neglect him but a few dayes it would kill him but now if the Physitian lets him blood hee stops the power of it that so the corrupted blood cannot bring death upon him so every sinne that a man commits both the distempers of the heart inwardly and the abuse of the means of grace and the practice of sinne outwardly there is enough in that plurisie of sinne to take away a mans comfort and happinesse unlesse the Lord be pleased to hinder the condemning power of them that they cannot hurt us therefore the summe of all is this as every beleever must examine his owne heart and life so hee must judge the nature of sinne and judge himselfe worthy to be condemned 1 Cor. 11.31 If we would judge our selves we should not be judged that is if wee condemne our selves and judge our selves worthy to be condemned for them I say not that a man should say that the Lord will condemne him but that he is worthy to be condemned for them and he deserves condemnation Every fiery Serpent in the wildernesse had a killing nature in it and if it did not kill it was not for want of power in it but because the vertue and power of the brasen Serpent which was a Type of Christ tooke away all the killing power of the fiery Serpents this is the practice of the soule whom the Lord hath truly brought home to himselfe as Ezekiel 16.36 after they were justified in Gods sight then shall they remember their evill wayes saith the Text and be ashamed and never open their mouths more when I am pacified towards thee for all that thou hast done Though God hath accepted of a poore beleever yet hee must see his sinnes and lay his mouth in the dust and never pranke up his heart more but walke humbly before the Lord and though hee is accepted and pardoned yet hee shall judge himselfe worthy to bee condemned This is the first conclusion Secondly every beleeving soule justified and having an interest in Christ ought thus farre to acknowledge his sinnes as that it were righteous with the Lord to execute his wrath
times as when a man cannot well drinke a great potion at one draught he drinkes and breathes and then drinks againe and breathes and then drinkes the third time so Christ was resolved to beare all the wrath of God and because it was too grievous for the humane nature to drinke it all at once therefore hee drinkes and breaths againe and then drinkes the second time and breaths againe and so drinkes the third time and so our Saviour was able to suffer all and not to bee driven to any distemper or weaknesse for all those distempers of affections they arise from these three grounds 1 Either affections prevent judgement 2 Or else it will not yeeld to judgement 3 Or thirdly it disturbs judgement Now our Saviour tooke one draught and then breathed and then tooke another draught and 〈◊〉 had againe and so thinke it at the third time so that none of all the sorrowes of the agonie that he undertooke troubled him because hee undertooke it when he would and yet bore all and so gave full satisfaction Thus you see what our Saviour suffered in the garden in his soule and it was such a kinde of sorrow that he tooke onely Peter and Iames and Iohn with him and no more Now in the next place I come to fasten upon the proofe of the point to wit that this sorrow must needs bee more than can come from the paines of death and I shall make it good by force of argument that this sorrow cannot come barely from the naturall death I shall give you grounds from Scripture and from reason and I reason thus All the sorrowes that came upon our Saviour they came by reason in this cup that is from these sorrowes and miseries that he was to beare both in the agonie in the garden and upon the crosse Now that cup which brought astonishment in upon his soule and fild it full of anguish and drove him to an amaze and not only to weep bitterly but to trickle downe drops of clodded blood that cup must needs bee more than the pains of a naturall death but that cup which caused all this was that which brought them in and made him thus to be astonished and fild his soule with anguish and wrested clodded blood from his body therefore this was more than naturall death the latter part of the argument is undeniable namely that the agonie came from this cup therefore the cup was the cause of his sorrowes and griefes and teares but to thinke that naturall death should drive our Saviour to this astonishment it is unreasonable to thinke it that the Souldier should beare that which the Commander cannot beare and that many a poore Christian that hath but a little grace should beare the paine of a naturall death for a good cause and that comfortably and shall not Christ the Fountain of all grace beare much more it is unreasonable for any man to thinke so therefore there must be more than the paines of a naturall death in the sufferings of our Saviour Hee that gave his Saints grace to beare these paines of the naturall death he hath much more grace in himselfe to beare them and to come forth from under them Vse 1 Is it so that the Lord Jesus Christ was driven to this astonishment and to all this misery then what use will you make of the point shake the â—ee and gather the fruit Let every soule learne from hence what will bee the fruit of sinne and what he may expect from sinne if he doe rightly conceive of it wee use to judge of physicke by the working of it especially if it be some strange kinde of physicke then the working of it will discover the nature of it And as it is with some great personages as the Popes and such like they have their tasters to taste their meat for them for certainly if the meat doe poyson him that tastes it then it will doe him no good that eats iâ— so see what sinne hath done in Christ and the same it will doe in thee what he hath received from it doe thou looke to partake of the same if thou continue in sin He onely tasted of it by way of imputation and he had only the shadowes of sin as I have formerly shewed hee had onely the taste of sin by way of account and charge and imputation therefore if it made him sicke even to death then know thou shalt bee sure to feele the same it will worke upon thee much more that hast sin not by way of imputation but thou hast it by way of commission and thou canst sit at thy base pleasures and loose company and sinfull occasions and drawest on iniquitie as it were with cart-ropes it will bee thy death if the Lord be not mercifull unto thee to save thee and the Lord Christ gracious to pardon thee therefore let us not judge of our sinnes according to our conceits it is that which cozens and deceives thousands of poore creatures therefore let us not value our sinnes according to the sweetnesse that our owne corrupt heart findes in them nor according to the pleasure that wee expect from them they goe downe merrily now but they kill as certainly It is the great weaknesse of poore soules that wee see sinne a great way off through many glasse windowes many mediums and covers there are many profits and pleasures and dalliances that are betweene sinne and us and we see sinne through all these and therefore sin is welcomed and received because it seemes pleasant but now I would have you see sinne in the nature of it and therefore looke upon sinne in the Lord Jesus Christ and there see it in its colours and see what vexation it brought on our Saviour the same it will bring upon thee unlesse the Lord be the more mercifull Is is with sinners as it is with children little children that know not the nature of a Beare or a Lion if they lie sleeping they will bee ready to play with them but if the Beare begin to shake himselfe and the Lion begin to rore it makes not onely children afraid but even the stoutest to flie wee dally with the hole of the Aspe sinne hath devoured thousands at this day and children that wee are we play with sin and with the pride of our owne cursed hearts and our lusts and our ambition and uncleannesse and with the neglect of Gods ordinances and every other corruption The drunkard playes with his drunkennesse and the adulterer with his dalliances and the proud man with his ambitious thoughts and so every wretch with his wicked practices and this ambition is now asleep but if you could see these roring upon you and ready to devoure you then certainly you that now take delight in them would flie from them Proverbs 7.27 It is observable what sinne will doe the adulterous woman meets the poore deluded creature and she inticeth him with her base lusts and he dreams of nothing but Downe
marke thou feest then the sonne concludes with the father and they enter into agreement and the son saith I will feed and keep those sheep so it is with God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ God the Father gives all the names of all the faithfull from the beginning of the world to the end of it and saith all these are my children there is a poor creature in such a blinde corner of the countrie which I must have saved and in another place there is another base drunkard which I must have saved that I may make the world to wonder at it the foundation of the Lord standeth sure and hath this seale the Lord knoweth who are his the Lord hath elected and called them that 's his marke and therefore our Saviour Christ undertakes the care of them and God the Father looks that all those that are committed to the care of Christ should bee saved as in Iohn 17.12 Of all that thou hast given me have I lost none but the childe of perdition that is he was a wolfe and no sheep and a lion and a cunning fox and none of my charge but of all that thou hast given mee hove I lost none all you poore ignorant and weake Christians little lambes that cannot helpe your selves Christ will not lose one of you but though you are never so mean and poore the Lord will carry you in his armes and bring you to everlasting life 1 Cor. 15.24 Then shall the end be when the Lord Iesus hath delivered up the Kingdome to the Father and shal say Father thou hast given me the charge of so many in England so many in Spain so many in Asia so many in the Palatinate the Lord Jesus Christ shall deliver up the whole number to God the Father Secondly our Saviour having undertaken to keepe these he addresseth himselfe to the worke to use those means by which hee may keepe and save them and that he doth thus he puts himselfe into the roome and place of all those poore lost sheepe of his and this is the difficultie to open this to you that are weake Now what is it to be put in the roome and place of another Christ doth willingly submit himselfe to the power of the revenging justice of the Father that whatsoever the Law and Justice of God required at the hands of the faithfull that doth Christ stand unto and will answer it all as thus the debter is taken and imprisoned and they that are his friends desire some releasment for him how upon consultation and conference with the creditor it is agreed that such a man shall undertake to help him and to free him from all the extremitie that he lies in for the debt and hee must doe it by one of these two wayes either hee must breake the prison and so rescue him by strong hand or else he must yeeld and submit to what the Law requires and is due to the creditor and the creditor saith if you will bee content to become debtor and acquit him of the debt if you will enter bond with me to become a pay-master of the whole debt due to me then I am content to free him Now the man that thus yeelds himselfe to what the power of Law and Justice can do against the debtor that man becomes a suretie for him he will bee as one that owes the money and that must pay and the Law proceeds as fully against him as against the debtor the debtor did personally owe the money and lay in prison for it but the suretie is as one that hath forfeited and must pay hee submits himselfe to the power of Law and Justice that looke what the Law requires of a man forfeiting and owing hee is content that the Law require it of him Just so it is here the sinner is this debtor and Christ undertakes for him by a mutuall consent betweene the Father and him and hee yeelds and submits himselfe to all the power of Justice that looke how the Law accounts of a sinner it should account of him Now the Law of God accounts of this man as one that hath broken the Law and deserved eternall death and Christ submits himselfe to these the Law requires doing and suffering and Christ is contented to undergoe all these for all that shall beleeve as Gal. 4.4 5. When the fulnesse of time was come God sent forth his onely Sonne made of a woman and made under the Law that he might redeeme them which were under the Law the meaning is this looke how we were under the Law so was Christ under the Law for us that so he might redeeme those that were under the Law the Law laid guilt to our charge and the Law did condemne us and the Lord Christ was content to be under all that commanding revenging authority which the Law had over us so that now Christ is come into the roome of all the faithfull hence is that speech of Luther which the Papists so much cavill at hee saith our Saviour was the greatest sinner of all the faithfull that ever was upon the face of the earth not that he had any sin of his owne inherent in him or committed by him but because all the sins of all the world were charged upon him and Christ put himselfe into the roome of all the world that looke whatsoever the Law required of any the same it required of him and what the Law accounted of any it accounted the same of him Thirdly our Saviour having put himselfe into the roome of a sinner the Law now proceeds with full scope against him and God the Father may justly proceed according to rule and may justly expresse the power of his revenging Justice upon him and hence it is that God the Father accounts of Jesus Christ as a sinner and proceeds against him and condemnes him as a sinner and doth require of him whatsoever hee requires of a sinner a sinner must doe or die and so must the Lord Christ because hee hath put himselfe into the roome of a sinner As it is with a creditor haply the debtor growes a bankrupt and flies his countrie the creditor cares not for saith hee I will lay the debt upon the sureries backe such a man was bound for him I have him still in my chest and it is as good to mee as if the debtor himselfe were able to pay me so it is here when poore sinners wrong God and wound his Spirit and dishonour his Name and transgresse his Lawes and they are not able to answer him one of a thousand though they should goe to bell for it now God the Father saith I must be righteous I will lay all their sinnes upon the Lord Jesus Christ he became a debtor and undertook for them and therefore I will require it of him as well as of them Thus much of the first part of the discovery of this point that God the Father charged our sinnes upon our Saviour and
so Secondly some againe are maliciously massacred with dishonourable cruelties they are puld the flesh from the bones and burnt to ashes c. None of all these did fall to our Saviour these are personall things they belong not to the nature of man and therefore it was no way requisite that Christ should undergoe those kinds of death marke these two passages to open it a little Acts 2.27 quoted out of Psalme 16.10 Thou wilt not leave my soule in hell neither wilt thou suffer thine holy one to see corruption Now the Saints of God doe see corruption but this was a dishonourable infirmitie for Christ though he suffered for us yet hee raised up himselfe from the vildnesse of the grave and saw no corruption and therefore it was no dishonour to him Iohn 19.33 36. When the souldiers found our Saviour dead they brake not his legs that the Scripture might be fulfilled which saith not a bone of him shall bee broken Whatsoever dishonour our Saviour Christ did submit himselfe unto he was willing to suffer but what was not by Law required and what was not fit for him to suffer that Christ would not suffer the Jewes to doe unto him for the Law did not require this in the curse that his legs should bee broken and therefore Christ would not undergoe it this is the third conclusion Vse 1 From the former truth that our Saviour Christ did die this naturall death I gather thus much it is a marvellous sweet cordiall to all the Saints of God upon their sicke beds it is a ground of strong consolation as the Apostle saith to beare up the hearts of Gods people in the day of death that they may lift up their heads with comfort and looke grizzeld death in the face with courage and boldnesse for the death of Christ hath taken away the evill of thy death therefore be not thou troubled with it nor dismaid by it there is no bitternesse in that pill nor no venome in that cup to thee for the poyson is gone therefore bee not you troubled with it whensoever God sends it upon you for the sharpest death of a Saint of God is like a humble Bee that hath no sting in it which a childe may play withall and not be hurt and thus Saint Paul plaid with death 1 Cor. 15.55 Oh death where is thy sting as if he should say the wicked feare death because the sting is in it to them but that sting is taken away from mee by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ when Christ went downe into the grave he sugered it and made it sweet and easie as a bed of Downe for beleevers to rest upon There are three privileges which every beleever may challenge upon his deathbed the first is this First every beleever may and should under the authoritie of mercy challenge mercy and in the vertue of the death of Christ he should boldly lay downe his life 1 Thes 4.16 The dead in Christ shall rise first that is the value of the phrase in the vertue of the death of Christ wee die also that as he died by his owne power rose againe so also wee die that wee may rise againe The Saints of God die that they may bee like to Christ and be raised againe and so bee for ever happy with Christ this is the particular good that the death of Christ communicates to the faithfull ones 1 Cor. 15.36 Thou foole that which thou somest it is not quickned unlesse it die it must first be corrupted that it may grow againe into an eare of corne the meaning is a man therefore dies that he may rise againe the body must lie downe in the dust 1 Cor. 15.53 This corruption must put on incorruption and this mortalitie must put on immortalitie Now corruption cannot put on incorruption nor mortalitie cannot put on immortalitie so long as wee are here the body of Adam could not be made immortall of it selfe the frame of it would not affoord so much for Adams body needed meat and had it but immortall bodies need no food but live by the power of Gods Spirit therefore Christ tooke downe the frame of this nature that hee might make it a more excellent frame It is therefore said that a Christian dies rather in the authoritie of mercy than justice that as Christ died and rose again so Christ will have all his servants die that hee may of a corrupt nature and a mortall body make an immortall body he will make it immortall which nature it selfe no not in its perfection could not doe this is the first privilege A second privilege which beleevers receive is this the death of the beleever puts an end to all his sinnes and miseries and sorrowes that when the soule and body shall part in sunder then sin shall depart from both and when they goe out of this life they shall goe from all the miseries of this life we shall never bee more pestered with lusts and corruptions we shall never bee drawne from the Lord more Satan is now busie but when the Saints of God die there is a separation from all sinnes from all sorrowes from all temptations never to be assaulted more this is the meaning of that place 2 Cor. 4.10 Everywhere we beare about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Iesus that the life also of Iesus may be made manifest in our mortall bodies the meaning is this Christ by his death did subdue sinne and now by the sorrowes and troubles he suffered and by the power of his death there is a totall separation made from sin in soule and body therefore when as in the power of Christs death we can lay downe these bodies then are we separated from sinne this is to beare about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus this is quite contrarie in every unbeleever for death naturall in an unbeleever is but the very beginning of all their other plagues they sip of Gods vengeance now but they shall have the full cup then sinne in them now is restrained but then their sinnes shall take full possession of them Satan now doth but tempt them but then â—e shall take possession of them as it is said of the rich foole in the Gospell This night shall they fetch away thy soule and then as they shall bee for ever plagued so they shall be for ever sinfull nothing but sinne shall be in them they shall be altogether proud and for ever proud they shall be altogether malicious and for ever malicious and the devils shall drag the soule of the wicked out of the body downe to hell for evermore and there shall tyranize over it for ever but on the contrary it is not so with the Saints the end of their life is but the beginning of another they goe from a vale of teares to a haven of happinesse Thirdly the death of the beleever is a mean to bring and estate them into the full possession of all
he had so deeply drunke of the cup of affliction he said now it is finished that is now the fierce indignation of the Lord is over Take a little childe or infant new borne and lay it in a little streame if no man come to succour it there can be no hope that it will live not properly because of the water but because the childe is weake and not able to keepe it selfe from being overpowred by the water and therefore there is no hope to have reliefe for it but let a strong man come and he will not be drowned by the streame for hee is of height and strength either to wade thorow it or else to save himselfe by swimming so there is the streame of the indignation of the Lord Now God will not help a poore sinfull creature and he cannot help himselfe therefore the streame will destroy him and there is no hope for he is never able to free himselfe because God will not and he himselfe cannot but the Lord Jesus Christ that hath skill and power because he is God as well as man therefore though he beare the wrath of God yet because hee is able to wade thorow it and to beare it therefore it is that he will deliver himselfe and all us with him Thus ye see that desperation is a consequent that followes from the sinfulnesse and weaknes of the creature and that it is no part of the second death The second part of this conclusion followes and I desire it may bee attended to by all you that are weake ones for this objection doth put many Divines themselves to a stand and yet the case is very cleere so farre as my light and line serves me Secondly the eternitie of the punishments say they for if Christ suffered the pains of the second death then hee must be in hell for ever It is a weake and a sinfull plea I say our Saviour might and did suffer the second death and yet not the eternitie of it I beseech you to take notice of two things herein First you must take notice of the difference betweene the death threatned and the death denounced and betweene the torments of hell also betweene the eternitie of time and the circumstances of time that may bee altered and changed as the debt or punishment is fully suffered or not suffered As for example the time of a mans lying in prison is no part of the payment but he doth lie in prison because hee cannot pay the debt as thus A man is in prison for a thousand pound he must lie in prison ten years because he can pay but a hundreth pound a year but now let a rich man come that can discharge the payment within ten moneths or ten dayes or ten houres it is as well if he doe it in ten houres as if he did it in ten years nay it is better done Just so it is here the debt is this In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt die the death the punishment is death and every poore creature must die the first and second death Now because a poore creature cannot satisfie Gods justice 〈◊〉 this life for if God should but let in the power of his wrath in this life into the soule and fill the soule with his fierce indignation it would kill a man even in this life therefore the Lord by death takes away a poore creature and drags him downe to hell he doth arrest him by conscience here and saith Thou hast sinned and deserved wrath and thou canst not beare my wrath here therefore thou shalt die and be made immortall that thou maist beare it for evermore because a man cannot pay it now therefore he is paying of it to all eternitie for hee is never able to pay and satisfie for the whole summe but now the Lord Jesus Christ hath cash ready at hand and is able to lay downe the payment for all the faithfull to the full hee layes downe the life naturall and hee also suffers the paines of the second death therefore hee is able to deliver himselfe and all those that are his First of all Vse 1. hath our Saviour thus suffered and hath he stepped in betweene the wrath of God the Father and the faithfull Justice saith that foule hath sinned and must be damned and anger saith I must breake out against that poore soule then the Lord Jesus Christ steps in and saith I will beare all and undertake the satisfiing of all I will beare all those punishments due unto them you that are beleevers and have a share in Christ unto you I speake labour thou from hence to see the hainousnesse of sinne and to hate it because it hath brought all this evill upon thy Saviour and would have brought the same upon thee had not the Lord Jesus Christ stepped in betweene thee and the wrath of the Father Oh looke what thy sin hath done unto the Lord Jesus Christ and see if you can love it take contentment in the cōmission of it Let me teach you how to do it send your thoughts afar off and see our Saviour in the garden crying out and saying My soule is exceeding heavie unto the death my soule is even beset with sorrowes oh watch and pray And also when he was in that bitter agonie in the garden And he prayed yet more earnestly and hee stretched out his prayers that it broke his heart almost behold the teares in his eyes and the clodded blood that came from him and his soule was almost broken within him under the fierce indignation of the Lord and he fell upon the ground and yet all this would not doe the deed follow him to the crosse and seeing him attended with the souldiers and pierced thorow with a speare see then if thou canst love thy sinnes that have done all this and further when you have seene him thus nailed to the crosse and pierced thorow with a speare then if you have any hearts of men I doe not say of Christians listen a while and here those hideous cries My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Oh brethren it went very heavy with our Saviour Now imagine that you heard those heart breaking sighes which broke the heavens and let them breake thy heart too Oh goe your wayes home I charge you in the Name of Jesus Christ and answer your owne hearts or rather answer the petitions of our Saviour and say Lord why hast thou forsaken Oh Lord it was for my pride and my contempt of thy word and my despising of holy duties and for the rest of my sinnes I should have beene forsaken and thou wast contented to bee forsaken for me Oh can you consider of this and love your sinnes still which have brought all this misery upon a Saviour if you can love your sins now doe and if you can harbour that pride and stubbornnesse in your hearts which would have pluckt the heart out of Christs body and his soule from
his body then doe can it bee possible that men should harbour sinne in them if they did but know what it hath done to them can you see it and not haâ—e it Oh behold that sinne which hath caused God the Father to be angry with thy Saviour and doe thou hate it and let thy soule for ever loath thy sinne which hath caused Christ thus to doe to come downe from heaven and to bee tortured by wicked miscreants and to cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and as sin hath caused God the Father to punish thy Saviour so goe thou and be revenged upon thy sin and say Oh my pride and my stubbornnesse and my loosenesse and uncleannesse and base drunkennesse these were the nailes that pierced his hands aâ—â— his feet they pierced his sacred body and 〈◊〉 the wrath of God the Father upon his soule therefore let mee bee for ever revenged of this proud stubborne and rebellious heart of mine and let mee for ever loath my sinne because it brought all this sorrow upon my Saviour To presse this use a little more I charge you brethren as ever you had any tender love unto Jesus Christ or any regard of your owne comfort goe your wayes and bee for ever cast downe and humbled for those evill waies of yours which have brought our Saviour to such a gulfe of misery and to be angry with those sinnes that have made God the Father angry with the Lord Jesus Christ and take thou revenge upon that proud stubborne heart that brought all this misery upon thy Saviour This is the course of humanitie amongst men if a man knew of any one which had murthered his father or his friend whom he highly regarded and honoured nature shewes us thus much that our hearts would rise against the man and you would not bee able to brooke the sight of him and you cannot endure to see him in your companies and if law and conscience did not forbid it you could be contented to give him his deaths wound and to bee his bane and you would cry out against him Oh he hath murthered my father or my deere friend and though you would not run upon him and kil him yet this every one would doe he would follow the Law to the uttermost and if all the law in the land will do it he will have him hanged and if he might have it put to his choyce what death hee should die hee would chuse him a death as bad as hee could devise and if he might be his Executioner how would he mangle him and say thou wast the death of my father and then hee would give him one blow for this and another blow for that and say thou wretch thou hast taken away the life of my father and I will have thy life Now is a man thus inraged and is the heart of a man carried with such violence unto him that hath murthered his father or his friend and that for the losse of the naturall life Oh then how should your hearts bee transported with infinite indignation not against the man but even against the sinne which is the cause of all this and which is wholly opposite against God and not onely because it hath taken away the life of the body of our Saviour but also made him undergoe the wrath of an everlasting father your sinnes are they that have thus slaine the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord of life Therefore follow thou the law against these sins and raise hue and crie after them and bring them to the Sessions and set them before the tribunall of God and crie justice Lord justice against these sins of mine these slew my Saviour Lord slay them they have crucified my Saviour Lord crucifie them let me have life for life body for body and soule for soule these are the sins that have taken away the life from the body of our Saviour and tooke away all comfort from his soule Lord take away their life thus pursue thy sins and never leave them untill thou seest them bleed their last never thinke that thou hast power enough against corruption nor never thinke that thou dost enough against them but give thy corruptions one hacke more and confesse thy sinnes once more and say Lord his pride and this stubbornnesse Lord and this loosenesse of heart Lord these are they that kild my Saviour and I will be revenged of them and herein consider this when your hearts are inclining to any corruption or to any temptation of Satan and when thou findest thy soule drawne aside to any sin and when thou findest some temptings unto corruptions and stirrings of cursed lusts it is good then to have an actuall consideration of what sin hath done to the Lord Jesus Christ and reason thus with thy selfe and say these sins were the death of my Saviour and shall they be my delight these sins did pierce his hands and wounded his soule and shall they give contentment to my soule the Lord forbid did these sinnes plucke teares from his eyes and blood from his heart and shall I make them the delight of my heart the good Lord in mercy forbid it were it so that our hearts were fully and throughly perswaded that all the vanities of our mindes and all the lusts of our hearts and all the distempers of our affections were those that stabd the Lord Jesus Christ and wounded him to the heart it could not be that we should so delight in them and lavish out our soules and affections thereupon nay not onely Christianitie will doe it but nature and reason will even compell a man to doe the contrary could hee but reason thus with himselfe when corruptions tempt him and occasions call him and say thus with himselfe was it not enough and more than enough that the Son of God came downe from Heaven and suffered such grievous pains but shall I againe crucifie the Lord of life and shall I againe pierce those blessed hands of his and pierce that blessed side of his and all goare his sacred body with my uncleane sins and force him to crie out againe by reason of my sinnes which I have committed this is more than brutish and more than savage I beseech you in the bowels of the Lord to consider well of it you know what Christ said when Saul persecuted the poore Saints at Damascus Saul Saul why persecurest thou mee It pierced the Lord Christ when any of his members were pierced Acts 9.4 but now for such as beleeve in Christ and looke for mercy from Christ consider how neerly it will touch him and trouble him not onely to have his members pierced and persecuted but also to have his good Spirit grieved and himselfe to be wounded Imagine you heard the Lord speaking as the Church did in Lamentations 1.12 Is it nothing to you all oh yee that passe by is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow have you no compassion at all upon a Saviour
Saviour might abate of the punishment by the same right the dignitie of his person might as well take it quite away if one drop of the blood of Christ would save all the world then what needed Christ to have suffered the pains of death for if the dignitie of the person might free him from the one it might free him from the other also but the Law and Justice of God required whatsoever Christ did in his wisedome suffer and the death of Christ was not superfluous and besides the dignitie of the person is to farre from freeing him from the punishment that it fits him to beare the punishment it exempts him not from the punishment but it furnisheth him with abilities to beare it as he must be man that hee may suffer finitely so he must be God that must satisfie infinitely the justice of God requires two things First such a kinde of punishment as may bee sutable to the wrong of the Law by the sinne of Adam that is an infinite punishment Secondly the person must bee such a one as may bee regarded therefore he must bee such a person as must be able to beare the punishment and to satisfie infinitely and to come forth from under it therefore the excellency of Christ as he was God doth not dispence with the punishment but enables him to suffer it as the infinite wrath of God was express and shewed upon man by reason of sinne in laying on this punishment both in body and soule so the infinite sufferings of Christ underwent them both therefore that which divine justice required and without which it is not satisfied that he must suffer but the justice of God did require it and without it the justice of God was not satisfied and therefore Christ did suffer both Object To this argument the Jesuites reply it needed not say they that that curse which Adam did deserve should bee suffered by the second Adam which is Christ for say they God might have pardoned all the sinne of Adam without any satisfaction or else by his infinite wisedome and power he could have provided another way and therfore if Christ suffer but in part it may suffices Answer To which I answer it is a foolish nice and silly curiositie to inquire of Gods absolute power what he might have done and what he had power to doe when we see what he hath done For as hee will save the humble mercifully so hee will preserve his justice in the salvation of man Esay 53.10 The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand and Psalme 40.8 I desire to doe thy will oh my God It is the will of God that Christ should come and should suffer for our sinnes he hath revealed what his will is and it is folly to inquire what God might doe when we see what he hath done and besides this I take to bee an everlasting truth that none of all the attributes of God can ever enterfeere or crosse one another it cannot be for then God should not procure nor maintaine his owne glory for when hee should procure the glory of his justice hee should wrong the glory of his mercy and when he should procure the glory of his mercy hee should wrong the glory of his justice and the glory of his justice must bee preserved as well as the glory of his mercy magnified the mercy of God cannot wrong justice nor the justice of God cannot overpower mercy therefore hence I infer thus much if there were no means in the world whereby the justice of God which had received wrong could be satisfied but only by the sufferings of him who was God and man then it was against the will of God and against the will of Christ which was both God and man and against their glory and dignitie to devise another way or means to pardon sinne without the satisfaction of divine justice it is against his glory power and wisedome to wrong either justice or mercy for he should either have wronged mercy in not pardoning or else wronged justice in not punishing of Christ therefore if there should be no way to doe it but only by the death of him who was both God and man then there was no other way of redemption but this way for an infinite justice being wronged there is no way else to satisfie an infinite justice but by the suffering of him who was infinite and that was onely the Lord Jesus Christ for there was no more infinites in the world I will winde it up thus that punishment which was included in the curse and which was deserved by the first Adam that was suffered by Christ the second Adam but the punishment both of soule and body were the punishments included in the curse and deserved by the sinne of Adam therefore it is borne by the second Adam as certainly as it was deserved by the first Adam Reason 3 The third reason is taken from the office of Christ and the place which he underwent because our Saviour Christ was our suretie and our sinnes were charged upon him and hee became paymaster so that the covenant which hee had made with God the Father bound him to it and his faithfulnesse and truth tied him to it nay he tooke all our sinnes upon him and therefore he must satisfie for thee If the Lord Christ were our suretie and tooke all our sinnes upon him by imputation and the debt was made his then the payment also must be discharged by the Lord Jesus Christ but certainly all your pride and stubbornnesse c. they were all charged upon our Saviour and set upon his soore and laid upon his backe therefore hee must suffer for all because hee was made sinne for all so the issue of the point is this unlesse the Lord Jesus Christ had suffered both in soule and body justice had not beene so fully satisfied but the justice of God required both and the curse included both and therefore Christ suffered both and hath fulfilled whatsoever was or could bee required by divine justice Now to come to the use something must bee said to justifie the riches of Gods free grace the first use shall be this Vse 1 It shall bee a word of confutation and it directly meets with Popish Purgatory a wicked errour that fals like Dagon before the Arke and like clouds dispersed by the Sunne so that sottish imagination is hence condemned by this doctrine it is a dreame devised to picke mens purses and to delude mens consciences and to fill the Popes coffers they thinke that Christ frees every faithfull man from the punishments of hell and from all that any sinne hath devised but onely there are some veniall sinnes and the punishments of those a man must suffer for himselfe and therefore when a man dies hee must goe downe to Purgatorie and there bee purged and cleansed from the evill of them this is that which they say if they can but perswade men that they shall be in Purgatorie