as well as to the second both in religious dispositions and holy performances and let this be joyned with a glorious external profession of Christ and the Gospel yet he may still abide under the Law and so be a stranger to the grace of justification It is not any one of these or the like qualifications and workings nor all of them put together that can raise the soul into a justified condition but still it abides under the curse What high characters of more than ordinary holiness doth the spirit of God put upon the Jews Isa 58.2 they sought God daily they delighted to know his ways as if they were a Nation that did righteousness yet they are rejected and disallowed even in their choicest and strictest duties Jesus Christ professeth that he will send away many at the last day which have done wonderfull works in his Name Matth. 7.22 23. This is a fine spun but I fear too common hypocrisie to make graces duties reformations performances the matter of our righteousness before God Let Christians take heed lest while they reckon on the blessing they be found under the curse The issue of this use is to knock us all off from thoughts of justification by the Law seeing we are all under the curse of it Let us not make account of such a thing it will prove but a dreame and we shall be deceived Let us by all means shun this most perilous work Sect. 5. Vse 5 6. 5. IT 's no wonder then if the preaching of the Law be so unwelcome so burthensome yea I may say so hatefull and abominable to the greatest part of our Congregations If you would prophesie unto them of wine and strong drink speak unto them smooth and pleasing things and tell them of nothing but Gospel and promises and comforts you are very welcome oh this is excellent Doctrine But contrariwise the Ministery of the Law is as unwelcome to their hearts as water into a ship or fire into their bones and can ye blame them Ier. 5.14 alas the Law breaths out nothing but curses against the men of the world it s like the roll of the book which was spread before Ezekiel written within and without with lamentations and mournings and woe Ezek. 2.10 which way soever the Minister turns it it speaks cursing to wicked men it flasheth hell fire in their faces continually how should this be endured to hear themselves cursed to their faces all the day long therefore they hate him that rebuketh in the gate Amos 5.10 sometimes they break out into gross and open distempers they rage and storm and persecute us they smite us with their tongues and call us railers and preachers of damnation they go away with their hearts filled with gall and malice and their tongues with clamours and outcries against us they say to us as the possessed persons said to Christ Are you come hither to torment us before the time Matth. 8.29 Others can bite in their wrath but they grumble in their hearts and sometimes say they could wish that their Minister were more discreet and it were well if he would keep him to his Text. But truly he that threateneth the curse of the Law against a natural man is not gone far from his Text. Thus it is and thus it will be while Satan is the God of this world and sin reigneth in the hearts of the men of the world we cannoâ— expect it should be otherwise Even John Baptist when he comes to cast down mountains must look to finde no better entertainment 6. Yet every hour we may strongly infer a necessity of preaching the Law although John Baptist be censured as a busie pragmatical fellow yet he must do his work for all that although the preaching of the Law be both tedious and odious to carnal men yet must we not neglect that piece of our Ministery in any case this Law-work must be attended in its due place for seeing man lies under this misery and danger its needfull that he should see and know it that so he may come to be affected with it as the case requires There is no wise man I suppose but would willingly be informed of any mischief that is towards him if he be under the displeasure of the supreme Power or in danger of some mortal disease or if he fear an adversary at Law every one would know the worst of his own cause for he may possibly by this means be put into a way to prevent or avoid it which otherwise ordinarily he cannot How much more needfull is this wisdome in the business of the soul Now the best and most regular way to attain this end is the Ministery and preaching of the Law it self that the wretched sinner by a particular home-application of it may get acquaintance with his wofull condition and so apply himself to the use of means whereby he may escape the danger Every natural man lies under the guilt of sin and therefore under the displeasure of the most high God sick of a mortal soul malady which brings him under the power of the second death cast in his cause before the judgement seat of heaven to his utter ruine and undoing It concerns him therefore to attend upon the Ministery of the Law that he may know how the case is with him A malefactor or trespasser amongst men may discover by searching into the Law of the Land what danger he is in so may the sinner by searching into the Law of God Whence I conceive I may be bold to conclude not onely the conveniency but also the necessity of the seasonable preaching of the Law in our ordinary ministration This is not a politick device of Preachers or purpose to screw into mens consciences that they may Lord it over them as carnal men are apt to judge but a way approved by God himself in order to the conversion of sinners and seconded by the practice of his servants in former times The Law is the Lords candle to reveal sin Rom. 3.20 and â—y consequence to reveal the curse due to sin It s the Lords hand to work wrath in the soul by striking it with conviction and with fear thereupon Rom. 4.15 God the great Law-giver hath put upon it such a beam of purity and authority that it is able to manifest sin to the conscience even in the most slie and hidden aberrations It 's the Lords Bayliff to hunt out sin in the several kinds degrees and colours of it and to lay his arrests upon the sinner It 's the Lords voice to call and fetch every Adam out of his thickets Gen. â— â— 10. yea it 's the Lords sword or slaughtering-knife whereby he kills and slays the sinner in himself that he may live unto God Gal. 2.19 Now that the Law may do all this it is not enough that the sinner have an overly and general knowledge of it but it must be opened and applied in some competent measure of
condemned sinners by their knowledge of him or by faith in his Name for he shall take upon him their iniquities and acquit them from blame And this Covenant of God with Christ is the very basis or bottome of the Covenant of Grace God made a Covenant with Christ the spiritual David Psal 89.3 4. that he might make a Covenant with all his Elect in him Rom. 11.26 27. He made this Agreement with Christ as the Head and on this is reared up the whole frame of precious promises comprised in the Covenant of Grace as a goodly building upon a sure foundation And herein the Levitical Priesthood was a type of the Priesthood of Christ That was settled on Aaron and his successors and continued unto them by Covenant their anointing was to be an everlasting Priesthood Exod. 40.15 and more fully Numb 25.12 13. he gave to Phineas and to his seed the Covenant of an everlasting Priesthood and by vertue thereof they were inabled to manage the Covenant of life and peace which was with them Mal. 2.5 as to the Legal and Ceremonial administration of it even so the true Priesthood is settled on Christ and continued to him by Covenant and by vertue of this he manageth the Covenant of Grace in its Evangelical and Spiritual administration And as they must bear the iniquity of the Congregation and so be made typically a Curse for them Lev. 10.17 So Christ must be made a Curse truly by imputation by bearing the iniquity of the Congregation of the first-born which are written in heaven Only the Apostle gives us this difference betwixt these two Covenants that those in the Law were made Priests without an oath but Christ was made with an oath Heb. 7.20 21. For the proof of which he brings Psal 110.4 noting out a special preheminence of his Priesthood above theirs that theirs was changeable and so had an end but his is unchangeable and perpetual the Lord having confirmed the Covenant by his Oath and so infeoffed him in it by a grant never to be revoked Therefore Covenant and Oath are sometimes put together as Psal 89.3 But I am sensible that I have expatiated too far The issue of all is this in short Christ being made a Curse for us proceeds from the purpose and good pleasure of God appointing him and calling him out thereunto and it is the execution of a wonderfull and glorious design or contrivement agreed upon by God and Christ for working out the salvation of the Elect. I hasten to the Application Sect. 4. Use 1. Information in four particulars ANd first This Truth will afford us matter of very useful Information to establish our judgements in some particulars of special concernment 1 It holds forth unto us the strange mischievousness of sin in the nature and workings of it Oh the excessive sinfulness the unspeakable poysonfulness of sin that could reach as high as heaven and bring the Son of the Eternal God under the Curse Oh that the sons and daughters of Adam would look about them begin at length seriously to consider what an hideous Monster they nourish what a venemous Serpent they keep yea hug in their bosomes Look upon it in this glass and see how black and ugly it appears If you have not seen it by the Ministry of the Law so as to humble you and to lay you low before the Lord I beseech you turn your eyes unto Jesus Christ and see what foul work it hath made what mischief it hath brought on him Behold here a strange sight a sad spectacle the blessed Son of God made acursed The justice of the Law hath found him amongst sinners and singled him out from all the company and set him as a mark to shoot at yea hath spent all the arrows of its quiver upon him and thereby hath mangled and rent and torn and wounded him grievously yea hath brought him down to the gates of death even as low as hell When thou hast presented him to thy minde in this pittiful pickle then reflect upon thy self and say What evill beast hath done this Was it any offence that he hath done against the Law in his own person that hath provoked it to pour out such a flood of curses upon him Oh no he was holy harmless undefiled there was no spot of unrighteousness in him It was for my rebellion treason apostacy from my Maker Me me adsum qui feci I have sinned and Christ hath suffered the curse for my sin Take now a survey of the several branches of this curse and see how it dogged him all along from his birth to his burial especially the griefes and the groans the sorrows and the sweats the tears the terrors and the torments of his soul under the power of the second death and then say in thy heart Oh fool that I was I did not beleeve that sin had been so exceeding bad as it is I see now it is no tame beast but an unreasonable ravenous devouring Serpent full of deadly poyson Canst thou see all this heavy load lying on the back of Christ and yet judge any sin to be small or go on with a proud heart and a high look maintaining thine old league with sin and continuing in the hell of thine accursed natural condition as if it were thy heaven 2 It re-mindes us further of the greatness of that misery whereinto man is implunged by sin For if Christ be made a curse who had no sin of his own but onely ours laid upon him What a grievous curse then must needs lye upon them who have the guilt of their personal sins sticking close to their consciences and still lye weltring in their own gore-blood especially on those wretched souls which must bear the wrath due to sin in their own persons for ever The men of the world put the evil day far from them they feel no harme they fear no danger and therefore they blesse themselves in their present state and say No curse shall take hold upon them But oh how much better were it to reason thus Christ was made a curse for sinners therefore surely sinners in themselves and without Christ are in a desperate condition If we should see a man grievously tormented and put to death with extraordinary tortures and should withall understand that he suffered all these things for another mans crimes and not for his own we would conclude thus Surely that man was a notorious Malefactor and if the stroke of Justice had fallen upon his own head what a terrible death must he have indured If this curse was so bitter his wrath so heavy on Christ our Surety how unspeakably bitter and heavy would it be on us the principals Yea bring it home to thy self and say Alas What have I done I have surely spun a fair thred I have brought my self into a lamentable condition that either the Son of God must come down from heaven and be made a curse for me or else I
of their own Tenents or the answering of Objections brought against them they do generally turn aside from the usuall and received signification of the words and offer violence to the Text to make it speak what they please For to touch a little on the 4 ends before-mentioned To the first Where doth the Scripture make the confirmationâ— of his Doctrine the professed adequate end of his sufferings He saith indeed that he came into the world that he might bear witness to the truth but this most properly belongs to his prophetical office Jo. 18. â—7 whereas his death belongs to his priesthood and besides his miracles served more peculiarly for the confirmation of his doctrine To the second Christ had power to forgive sinnes even while he lived on earth Mat. 9.6 and exercised that power frequently There was therefore no absolute necessity of his death for the purchasing of a priviledge which he had in possession already although it was necessary for the satisfying of Justice Jâ—h 10.28 17.2 He died to purchase for sinners a right to recâ—iv â—ot for himself a power to give them eternal life that mercie might have a free course to give out pardons which otherwise could not be To the Third It is credible that the death of Christ and such a death as it was in all the circumstances of it should be able to perswade sinners to that faith and hope nay rather it should be the ready way to diswade and knock them off Luke 21.21 To the Fourth it is granted as a secondary subordinate end 1 Pet. 2.21 Nec humilâ—tatis exempla nec charitatis insignia praeter Redemptionis sacramentum sâ—nt aliquid Bern. but doth not take away the other which is the chiefe and principal These two accord well hee dyed to satisfie for our sins and he dyed to to leave us an example of patience and obedience Great is the example of his humility and of his charity but they have no foundation to rest upon if there be no redemption But to go no further than the Text. There be three expressions which they wrest for the supporting and maintenance of their Errour 1 He was made a curse True say they as he was made sinne 2 Cor. 5.21 that is hee was judged by men to be a sinner and he was used accordingly so he was accounted a cursed man and therefore was sentenced to suffer a bodily death on the Cross which was a death proper to an accursed person But this falls short for God saith the Apostle made him to be sin and consequently a curse for us Man was no more but an instrument sinfully acting what God had holily purposed and Christs voluntarily undertaken Besides the Text which is here cited from Moses Deut. 21.23 runs thus He that is hanged is the curse of God or a curse unto God which being applied to Christ can import no less than this that God laid upon him our sin and the punishment due unto it by the doom of his righteous Law that the pleasure of the Lord might be executed upon him for answering whatsoever the Law could exact Nostra causa nostro bono Ut a peccatis retrahamur Nostra vâ—ce nostro loco 2 He was made a curse for us yea say they for us that is for our cause on our behalf for our good and so he gave himself he dyed for our sins that is our sins were the occasion of his death and he died that we might be drawn back from sin We yeeld all this but is there no more Yes assuredly We say for us that is in our room and stead who should else have born the curse in our own persons and for our sins to wit as the foregoing meriting cause thereof and that satisfaction being made to justice the curse might not fall on our heads The Greek word which is most frequently used in this argument 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is rendred for although sometimes it be put to note no more So Rom. 5.7 but the good or profit of another yet it signifies also in anothers stead and in some places cannot be fitly taken otherwise as 2 Cor. 5.14 If one dyed for all then were all dead which implies plainly that the death of that One was in stead of the death of All. And when the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 13. Was Paul crucified for you Thereby denying it he must mean that he was not crucified in their stead for he professeth elsewhere that he suffered for the Church and for the Elects sake that is for their spiritual benefit as Col. 1.24 2 Tim. 2.10 But to put all out of doubt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Scripture sometimes makes use of another word which signifies commutation or exchange or being in the place or room of another and must necessarily be so taken when it s applied to this business as Matth. 20.28 1 Tim. 2.6 He bare the curse and gave himself a ransome in our stead 3 Hereby he hath redeemed us from the curse Being made a curse for us he brought us out of the hands of the curse so that God was moved hereby to set us free from the guilt and punishment of our sin Here they bring two things to darken the clear truth 1 That the terme of Redemption Apud Grot. in defens c. 8. must be taken improperly for a deliverance without price or satisfaction such as that of the Children of Israel from Egypt whom God redeemed by the hand of Moses yet he paid no price nor gave in consideration either by death or otherwise for the compassing of it To this we say when the Scripture makes Redemption the effect of Christs bearing the curse of his suffering death of the shedding of his blood c. it can signifie no less than redemption in propriety of speech that is the freeing of poor sinners from the stroak of justice by giving due satisfaction This high extraordinary cause should in all reason produce a nobler effect than such a loose and frozen gloss gives to it Yea how doth this derogate from the worth of that glorious benefit to say it comes at so cheap a rate As for the redeeming of Israel by Moses although it was a type of our redemption by Christ yet wee know that the type and thing typified do not answer one another in all things Christ and Moses are compared as Redeemers but with a vast difference both as to the nature of the thing and the special means by which it was effected That of Moses was onely corporal from the servitude of the body This of Christ is chiefly spiritual from the bondage of eternal death Therefore there was no need that Moses should dye for them and if he had as it could have been no way effectual to their spiritual deliverance so it might probably have been rather destructive to their temporal freedome But Christ our Redeemer must necessarily dye for us else no possibility of
imputing of righteousness go together as it appears by the Apostles explication of the Prophet David's meaning Psal 32.1 2. Romans 4.6 7 8. God sees no iniquitie in Jacob and when the sins of Judah are sought for they shall not be found Jer. 50.20 understand this not in regard of the inordinacie and blameableness of the acts nor yet simply in reference to the just desert of sin considered in it self for these are of the very nature of sin and cannot be separated from it but in respect of the particular guilt and punishment of those persons which being taken away they do thereupon stand right in the Court of heaven We see it here in Courts below if nothing come in against a man if there be no accuser he is quit and stands as innocent in point of Law as if he had not been questioned So when Christ hath by his satisfaction disabled the Law from giving in any evidence against the poor sinner he then is absolved and stands clear before the great Judg when the Lord hath found a ransome then he doth not onely say Deliver the sinner but he shews unto him his uprightness that is he makes him partaker of the righteousness of Christ Iob 33.23 24. c. and so looks upon him as righteous through his satisfaction This was one end why the Lord made Christ sin for us 2 Cor. 5 21. Let the poor convinced soul take notice of this also Thou feelest much guilt on the spirit thou groanest under it and fearest damnation but here is thine acquittance When the poor woman's accusers were slunk away Christ said to her Woman hath no man condemned thee neither do I John 8.10 11. so saith the Lord to thee See poor soul the Law saith nothing against thee the mouth of thine accusers are stopp'd none can condemn thee neither will I yea thou mayest make the same challenge that the Apostle make's Who shall lay any thing to my charge God justifies c. Rom. 8.33 34. Sect. 3. Other four benefits flowing from Redemption 4. Adoption by Creation we were the sons of God we bare his image as a son bears the image of his father Luke 3.38 but yielding to Sathan's temptation and affecting a new fancied Divinity we fell from God lost the title and dignitie of sons forfeited all our birth-right and made our selves no better then the bratts of hell But the son of God manifested in the flesh hath not onely washed off our sin in the guilt and curse due to us but hath restored us to the dignity of children This was one of those high ends which the Lord had in his eye when he sent him in that humbled posture to redeem us it was that we might receive the adoption of sonnes Gal. 4.4 5. The Apostle Paul reckoning up eight several honours which God had conferred upon the people of the Jews wherein they excelled all other nations he sett's adoption first as the most eminent Rom. 9.4 according to that Exod. 4.22 Israel is my son even my first born This being but an external dignity to continue for a time till the partition wall should be broken down was a shadow and resemblance of that Gospel-honour which we have by the work of Redemption even the right or dignity to be the sons of God Jo. 1.12 the Congregation of the first born Heb. 12.23 and if children then heirs yea joint heirs with Christ Rom. 8.17 for being now in Christ and made partakers of his righteousness we have fellowship also with him in his Sonship Gal. 3.26 This is a fruit of the abundant grace of Christ and an high advance of the work of Redemption applied If the Lord be pleased to have pity on base runagate prodigalls he might have bought us out into the condition of hired servants that had been favour far beyond expectation But to adopt us into his family Luk. 15.19 22 23. Dignitas quaedam sablimis Ames to kill the fatted calf for us to put upon us the best robe to set us at his table and to grace us with the honour of sonnes yea heirs of God a better estate than Adam lost what an high dignity is this behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed on us and admire it 1 Jo. 3.1 2. Indeed it doth not yet appear what we shall be our happiness lyes under a cloud vailed from the eyes of the world and in a great part from our selves also but yet we are even here the Lord's first born and the glory of this condition shall one day be revealed in despite of hell and the world Judge not your selves miserable because your neighbours so account you but know that your Redeemer hath purchased your enfranchisement and now the Lord takes you for his sonnes and daughters never to be disinherited or cast out any more 5. Sanctification The first Adam having wantonly engaged in a rebellion against his Maker did thereby not onely implunge himself and all his into the gulf of Gods curse but also forfeit that matchless Jewel of his Image which was infinitely too good to be prosticuted to his inordinate lust Whence followes a wofull change in our natures by a depravation of the whole frame of our soules in all the powers of them and making us like unto Sathan So that now we are every way dead as to our spiritual estate both by sin in the loss of God's favour which is better then life and in sin by the loss of that conformity to him which once we enjoyed But our great redeemer frees us from this death also by Sanctification This was one end of Christs giving himself for the Church that he might sanctifie and cleanse it Eph. 5.25 26. his death hath a soveraign vertue to work the death of sin as his life hath to work the life of righteousness Rom. 6.4 5 6. He is made of God to us Sanctification 1 Cor. 1.30 and now as there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ so they are set free from the Law of sin and death by that law of the spirit of life which is in Christ and all this ariseth from God's sending him to condemn sin in the flesh Rom. 8.1 2 3. Christ was put to death in the flesh and for a requital he puts to death the flesh that is the body of sin in us The law laid the Curse upon him and he having borne it turn's it upon the Law of sin which is in our members and blasts that rotten stump saying to it as once he said to the unprofitable fig-tree Let no fruit grow on thee henceforth for ever Matth. 21.19 and seting a new plant of holiness in the soul to bring forth fruit unto God Indeed we see it not yet fully done but the Curse is gone out against the old man and he is wasting and shall be utterly destroyed in time Let the Lords people see their happiness in this also Poor soul thou cryest out unclean unclean I
wrath And verse 34. he complains thus my soul is exceeding sorrowfull or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Crux anto crucem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beset round with sorrow unto death So Luke comprehends all this in one word calling it an agony Luke 22.44 where he also describes it by the effects both that it put him upon more than ordinary vehemency and as it were more outstretchedness in prayer which the Apostle expresseth by strong crying and tears Hebr. 5.7 and also that it caused him to sweat as it were great drops of blood trickling downe to the ground 2. On the cross here was the main blow he bare our sins on the tree 1 Pet. 2.24 here the wrath of Almighty God lay on his soul in the whole weight of it Now the justice of God musters all his forces and gathers together all his regiments to fall upon Christ with his whole army as if he would rout him at once He descended into hell I mean not locally into the place of the damned for after death his body went down to the grave and was locally there for the space of three days and his soul went into paradice that is into heaven the place of bliss and glory as Luke 23.43 but onely virtually and effectively in that being Mediator and standing in our stead he did even while he was on the cross before he gave up the ghost undergo those hellish pains and sorrows in his soul which were due to us for sin The Lord took him and plunged him into the sea of his wrath all the waves and billows of it came rouling over his head and he sunk down into the very depths of death The Prophet Jonah being in the belly of the whale was a type of Christ both in his corporal and spiritual death therefore those things may truly be applied to his soul-sufferings which he complains of John 2.3 4 c. the extremity whereof forced him to cry out with a loud voice Why hast thou forsaken me Matth. 27.46 even as Jonah had said long before I am cast out of thy sight Jon. 2.4 To conclude this Christ on the cross hath the fury of the battel poured down upon him so that he bare the very heat and burden of it here he drank up the very dregs and bitterness of the cup even to the bottom Sect. 2. Some usefull observations tending to clear it further FRom all these particulars we may observe onely as by the way these three things 1. That the sufferings of Christ were not seeming and in shew onely but real and indeed 2. That the bodily sufferings and death of Christ were not sufficient to satisfie for the sins of the world but he must also undergo the sufferings and death of the soul For the proper seat and subject of sin is the soul not the body which is but as the souls shop using it as the Smith doth his hammer and anvile therefore if he had not suffered in soul the plaister had been narrower than the sore 3. That the sufferings of the soul were not barely mediate or by consent from the body as sympathizing onely with it but proper and immediate The soul is the first and principal in sin the body but the instrument It is most agreeable to justice that the principal should be rather deeper in the punishment than the instrument which holds not here if the body suffer immediately and the soul onely by sympathy Doubtless that same wrath of God those terrors and torments of hell for the substance of them fell down-right upon the soul of Christ which sinners should and reprobates must endure in their souls for sin Yet still this must be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in such a way as suits with the dignity of the person suffering there was a mitigation or abatement in his soul-sufferings from the rigour which the damned shall be put to in three particulars 1. In the place of suffering this is but a circumstance in the business hell the place of the damned is no part of the debt therefore neither is suffering there locally any part of the payment of it no more than a prison is any part of an earthly debt or of the payment of it The surety may satisfie the creditor in the place appointed for payment or in the open court which being done the debtor and surety both are acquitted that they need not go to prison if either of them goe to prison it is because they do not or cannot pay the debt for all that justice requires is to satisfie the debt to the which the prison is meerly extrinsecal even so the justice of God cannot be satisfied for the transgression of his Law but by the death of the sinner but it doth not require that this should be done in the place of the damned The wicked goe to prison because they do not they cannot make satisfaction otherwise Christ having fully discharged the debt needed not to go to prison 2. In the time of continuance the damned must bear the wrath of God to all eternity because they can never satisfie the justice of God for sin therefore they must lie by it world without end but Christ hath made an infinite satisfaction in a finite time by undergoing that fierce battel with the wrath of God and getting the victory in a few hours which is equivalent to the creatures bearing it and grapling with it everlastingly The lenth or shortness of durance is but a circumstance not of any necessary consideration in this case Suppose a man indebted 100 l. and likely to lie in prison till he shall pay it yet utterly unable if another man comes and lays down the money on two hours warning is not this as well or better done That which may be done to as good or better purpose in a short time what need is there to draw it out at length The justice of the Law did not require that either the sinner or his surety should suffer the eternity of hells torments Non aeternitatem sed duntaxat extremitatem but onely their extremity It doth abundantly counterpoise the eternity of the punishment that the person which suffered was the eternal God Besides it was impossible that he should be detained under the sorrows of death Act. 2.24 and if he had been so detained then he had not spoiled Principalities and Powers nor triumphed over them but had been overcome and so had not attained his end 3. In a companion of the pains of the second death unavoidably attending it in reprobates to wit desperation an utter hopelesnesse of any good a certain expectation and waiting on the worst that can befall I shall not enter into a dispute whether the despair of the damned in hell be properly a sin ot not there be good Divines both ancient and modern that hold the negative which to me seemes most probable not so much from that ground on which they go that there is no sin
in hell it being the place of suffering not of doing nor from this that despair being the privation of hope as hope is not of the things which are seene Rom. 8.24 so despair is not of the things which are already felt Whence some would infer that as hope in the glorified Saints ceaseth because they have now the enjoyment of the blessedness which they expected so despair shall cease in the damned because they are possessed already of everlasting destruction But I suppose it cannot rationally be denied that the damned in hell do despair onely I say it is very probable that this despair is not properly a sin for as hope doth ever suppose and eye a promise of some good thing to come apprehending it as certain and waiting for the accomplishment so desperation hopes contrary must needs be exercised about the same object but puts forth a contrary act apprehends the promise as impossible and casts off all expectation of the accomplishment of it Now promises are confined to this life onely although the things promised for the best part of them are to be enjoyed in the life to come there are no promises made to them that are actually damned in hell of any future good and therefore as it would be no vertue in them to hope so it is no sin in them to despaire But to returne the wretched sinner in hell seeing the sentence passed against him Gods purpose fulfilled never to be reversed the gates of hell made fast upon him Luk. 16.26 and a great gulfe fixed betwixt hell and heaven which renders his escape impossible he now gives up all and reckons on nothing but the uttermost misery Now this despair is not an essential part of the second death but onely a consequent or at the most an effect occasioned by the sinners view of his irremedilesse wofull condition But this neither did nor could possibly befall the Lord Jesus he was able by the power of his God-head both to suffer and to satisfie and to overcome therefore he expected a good issue and knew that the end should be happy and that he should not be ashamed Ps 16.9.10 Acts 2.26 27 28 31. Isaiah 50. ver 6 7 c. Even as a very shallow streame would easily drowne a little childe there could be no hope of escape unlesse some man should come in due time to relieve it because it wants strength to save it selfe whereas a growne man might hope well enough to escape out of a far deeper place because by reason of his stature strength and skill he could wade or swimme out Truly the wrath of the Almighty manifested in hell is like the vast ocean or some broad deep river and therefore when the sinfull sons and daughters of Adam which are without strength are hurled into the midst of it they must needs lie downe in their confusion as altogether hopelesse of deliverance or escaping but this despaire could not seize upon Jesus Christ because although his Father took him and cast him into the sea of his wrath Isa 9.6 57.16 63.1 3 5. so that all the billowes of it went over him yet being the mighty God with whom nothing is impossible he was very able to pass thorow that sea which would have drowned all the world and to come safe to shore Thus of the first Branch Sect. 3. Shewing by whom or by what power he was made a Curse BUt then secondly we may make a further inquiry by whom or by what power he was thus made a Curse for us we finde that he was made of the seed of David according to the flesh Rom. 1.3 made of a woman and under the Law Gal. 4.4 made Surety of a better Testament Heb. 7.22 and so here made a Curse But who made him or how comes he who is the Son of God blessed for ever to be a Curse For the clearing of this I shall speak something to it 1. Negatively 2. Positively 1. Negatively It was not done 1. By any power or authority which the Law had over him in respect of himself for he did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth 1 Pet. 2.22 1 Pet. 1.19 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 19. Yea he was as a Lamb without blemish and without spot therefore the Law could not take hold on him it had nothing at all to lay to his charge nor could possibly fasten the least guilt upon him save onely as he stood ingaged for us it lay not against him 2. Much less was it not by any power or contrivement of the creature for then it must be either Sathan or man but 1 Sathan could not do it for although he be the Prince of the world and had an heart brim full of malice against him yet he had nothing at all in him no power or authority over him no not in the least measure 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 14.30 How could he when the unclean spirits were at his command he cast them out with a word 2. Neither was man able to put him into this condition to make him a Curse no nor all the men in the world It was not the iniquity of the times into which he was fallen although it was a very evill time their very hour and the power of darkness Luke 22.53 yet that was not the proper working cause of it Neither was it the perfidiousness of Judas his houshold servant that was but a remote interveening means for the bringing of it on or raising it up to the height Nor was it the mischievous disposition and plottings of the high Priests and Jews against him he could easily have befooled and prevented them all he could for a word of his mouth have had a guard of more than twelve legions of Angels for his assistance or rescue Matth. 26.53 54. And when they came to apprehend him he did but speak a word and they went backward and fell to the ground Joh. 18.6 Neither was it lastly the timorousness of Pilate whereby he yeelded to the importunity of the Jews even against his own conscience See Mat. 27.18 24. Luke 23.4 14.22 c. And when Pilate did proudly boast of his power over him he checked him and told him roundly that all his power was no more but an inferiour delegated power meerly at the pleasure of an higher Joh. 19.10 11. So then it was not any one of these nor all these put together that could possibly bring the Son of God under the Curse they were onely subordinate instruments acting in some parts of it but he was infinitely above them all We must seek out some higher cause Therefore 2 Positively The Scripture holds forth three things very remarkable to this purpose which being taken joyntly are that soveraign power whereby Christ was made a Curse 1 The decree and appointment of God As he was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world 1 Pet. 1.20 so he was delivered to death by the
to be presented before the Lord the one to be offered for a sin-offering the other to be kept alive for a Scape-goat that Aaron having laid his hands on his head and confessed over him all the iniquities of the children of Israel might afterwards send him away bearing their iniquities into a Land not inhabited All this is fulfilled in Christ he hath both given himself to be a sin-offering for us and thereby removed guilt so far that when it is sought it cannot be found Jer. 50.20 So much is implied in that expression Heb. 9.26 He hath put away sin by the sacrifice of himself therefore redemption and propitiation are put together as the effect and cause First 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Pâ—acamentum he is a propitiation pacifying Gods wrath and rendring him propitious to sinners and thence follows Redemption Rom. 3.24 25. When the debt is discharged then the Law with the arrests and executions of it are void and of no force So Christ having paid our debt hath thereby both removed sin and guilt and voyded the curse of the Law so that now it hath nothing against us 2 He hath broken the Serpents head according to the ancient Prophesie given out in Paradise Gen. 3.15 by taking part of flesh and blood with us he hath through death destroyed him that had the power of death that is the devil and so wrought our deliverance Heb. 2.14 15. The Son of God was manifested that he might loose or dissolve the works of the Devil 1 Joh. 3.8 he hath as it were shattered them all to peeces Isa 30.14 and will still be shattering them hee will not spare so that there shall not be left so much as a shred Now this was one of his works to hold poor sinners fast bound and shut up under the brazen bolts of the curse of the Law unto condemnation but he hath broken the gates of brass and cut the bars of iron in sunder Psal 107.16 He hath met those terrible enemies the Philistims of hell and grappled with them hand to hand he hath discomfited them and brought them under and he will not cease till he hath beaten them small as the dust before the wind nor turn again till they be consumed That which David spoke of himself as the Type See Isa 63.3 4 c. is eminently fufilled in Jesus Christ onely Psal 18.37 38-42 He is that little David that prevailed over the great Champion Goliah of Gath with a sling and with a stone and smote him and slew him 1 Sam. 17.50 51. He is that strong invincible Sampson that rent in peeces that infernal roaring Lion as easily as if he had been a Kid Judg. 14.5 6. that slew the Philistims hip and thigh with a great slaughter Chap. 15.8 and when they had him fast bound with new cords they became as flax upon his armes and with the jaw-bone of an Ass laid heaps upon heaps vers 14 15 16. that carried away the door of the gates of Hell to set the prisoners at liberty Chap. 16.3 and made the noblest conquest when he seemed to be wholly conquered and no hope was left that ever he could look up again slaying at his death far more than hee had slain in his life vers 21-30 He hath spoyled Principalities and powers and triumphed over them on the Cross Col. 2.15 When the High commission Court and Star-chamber were cast down then all fell with them that appertained to them as there are no more informations pleadings censures punishments So there are no Serjeants Bayliffs Apparitors Pursevants even so this Lord Jesus having thrown down the Court of sin by his death and thereby disabled the Law he hath also judged the great Catch-pole of hell and put him out of office so that he cannot now execute the curse and wrath of God upon poor sinners as gladly hee would and although for the present he can reach to bruise their heel and doth often work them wo yet the Redeemer will tread him under their feet shortly Romans 16. ver 20. Sect. 3. An Objection If by Ransome then not by Rescue Answered THus much for the clearing and prooving of the Conclusion but here lieth a Doubt in the way for answering whereof wee may borrow a little light from the premises If our Redemption was by Christ's becoming a Curse for us and so by buying us out with the price of his blood How could it then be by strength of hand and a forcible rescue These two seem to destroy one another Ransome and Rescue Vâ—de Musculum loc com de redemptâ—one To be delivered by the paying of a price and to be delivered by conquest are inconsistent as to the same persons The nature of the things is so different that they cannot concurre in the same deliverance Ans Although these two do usually stand at a distance yet in this great business of the Redemption of mankinde they close well together To clear this take these three Considerations 1. Mankinde by the breach of the Law being become a debtor to justice and under the curse even in the extremity of it and Almighty God who is the party wronged being the onely soveraign Lord and Lawgiver Therefore the principal and most proper way to effect man's deliverance was to give satisfaction to justice so that either sinners must die the death in their own persons or Christ their surety must give his life a ransome for them being at an utter loss in themselves Against this it may be objected Then we must say that Christ redeemed us from God and himself being God he redeemed us out of his own hands by paying a price to himself which is absurd Ans This seeming absurdity will vanish if we keep to Scripture phrase and take along with us these Two things 1. The person of the Redeemer was not onely God but also man and although as to the sufficiency for the work and the valour and efficacie of it he must necessarily be God yet both the right and act of Redemption belonged to him properly as man so that we may say It was the man Christ that bought us out of the hands of the curse and wrath of God 2. God the Father himself had a special hand in this business the whole dispensation and managing of it was by his supream and soveraign appointment as we heard before and thus it is no more absurd to say that God took a course to satisfie his own justâ—ce and to redeem us from himself than to say that a King doth so when he gives his own son to lay down his life Or a Creditor when he requires the debt of his own Son for which the son was surety by the Fathers consent for the saving of Traitors from the stroak of his Law 2. Man being thus obnoxious to the justice of God and therefore delivered up by him into the hands of Sathan as his jaylour or executioner to keep him as his
marriage motioned upon assurance that the man would not rest till he had finished the thing Ruth 3.18 So much more should we learn silently to wait for the happy issue of this great transaction betwixt Christ and us in our compleat Redemption and full marriage in heaven 3. Hearty rejoycing in the foresight of it Let those strong desires and lively hopes be carried on and sweetned with the mixture of spiritual joy which may comfortably refresh and chear your soules all along in every condition upon the view of this day before-hand The Apostle speaking in the Name of justified persons saith We rejoyce in hope of the glory of God yea even in tribulations Rom. 5.2 3. and of himself he saith a crown of righteousness is laid up for me having fought a good fight c. The manner of his expression breathes out joy and contentment in the forethought of it 2 Tim. 4.8 and long before this holy Job discovers the same spirit of gladness I know saith he that my Redeemer livâ—th and that he shall stand up at the last day and then I shall see God in my flesh Job 19.25 26. How doth the apprentice or hired servant rejoyce to think on the expiration of his Terme and the last day of his service Thou poor soul who art still forced to serve the Law of sinne in thy flesh look forward and see the time of thy freedome coming on and be comforted How do the Mariners and Sea-faring men that have been wether-beaten and tossed with tempests rejoyce Psal 107.30 when they see the haven afarre off where they may be quiet If thou be put upon hard adventures and art sailing through a rough sea of stormes and troubles in this world yet lift up thine eyes and behold the haven of perfect liberty and glory whereunto thy Redeemer will wafâ— thee shortly and let this chear up thy Spirit How greatly doth it glad the heart of a condemned prisoner that lies bound in affliction and iron to hear the report of a pardon sealed at Court for him which shall be put into his hands at the Assises and solemnly proclaimed for his benefit the welcome thought of these things makes his heart even leap for joy and he begins to insult upon the prison his bonds and fetters and all the instruments of his restraint and saith I shal get rid out of all your hands ere long Thou ransomed soul Thy pardon is sealed in heaven the report thereof is comed to thine eares and heart by the ministerie of the Gospel It shall be effectually pleaded for thee at the day of Christ's appearing and thou shalt be possessed of an absolute freedome never to know bondage under sinne and the Curse any more Oh then Plal. 126.1 1. let thy mouth be filled with laughter and thy tongue with singing Let thy meditations on this subject be sweet and feast thy soul thereon with great delight Say thus to the glory of thy Redeemer Lord Jesus thou camest once to be accursed for me that was my shame but thou wilt come again at that day to be admired in me that shall be thy honour 2 Thes 1.10 Beloved Christians let us learn these lessons and practise them But truly such carriage requires a spiritual frame of heart I shall therefore adde a few particulars commending them to your observation as necessary helps to further us in the main dutie 1. Carefully keep thy self unspotted of the world let not the pleasure of any carnal lust so tickle thy soul as to get within thee and seise upon the vitals of grace give not libertie to thy foot to walk in any forbidden path but take pains to purge out thy dross and baggage more and more that thou mayest be pure in heart and undefiled in the way Through this gross neglect too many Christians suffering iniquitie to cleave to their hands disable themselves from loving the appearing of Christ they do not desire it but are averse from it they do not hope for it but rather fear it they cannot sensibly rejoyce in it but the thoughts of it put them into dumps and sadness Onely this taking heed to thy self will dispose thee to lift up thy face without spot yea thou shalt be secure because there is hope Jâ—b 11.14 c. 2. Preserve in thy self a willingness to die Thâ—s was the failing of Elijah 1 Kin. 19.4 and Jonah Chap. 4.3 8. I mean a well-grounded reall willingness not slavish or constrained through impatience under sufferings or discontent in an unwelcome condition but sincere and cordial from a longing after Jesus Christ to enjoy him in the full fruit of his Redemption This was S. Paul's temper Phil. 1.21 There is indeed in every man naturally an aversness from death being the dissolution of his frame and an evil of punishment and the grace of Regeneration doth not wholly take it away but onely keeps it within due Bounders and raiseth up in the soul a supernatural desire of blessedness with Christ in heaven and a willingness to submit to death in order to the attaining thereof Get thy heart wrought to this frame and held up By death the Lord will set thee free from all thy chaines and not till then if thou canst not make it welcome it seems thou art not wearie of thy chaines yet alas how common is this distemper We look upon the grace of Redemption as very desireable and we would enjoy it at the very height yet we hang still in the bodie and are loth to die The prisoner that knowes his Supersedeas is granted or his pardon sealed will he be loth to see the prison doores set open or shrink at the knocking off his bolts from his leggs If the Lord Jesus came down from heaven took upon him the curse of the Law and bare the wrath of God due to us Rebels and all that he might bring us to God in glory shall we stand off and so cause him to lose his labour Is heaven and the pleasures of God's right hand of no more worth in thine eye Oh Christians death may well be terrible to such as are strangers to Christ but he hath taken away the sting of it for you Therefore labour to get up above your feares and be freely content to be unclothed that you may be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.1 8. 3. In thy whole course after conversion commit thy soul and all the hopes of thy happiness unto Jesus Christ Lay up thy crown with him commend thy darling thy choicest treasure unto him and let him keep it for thee He hath ransomed thy soul which thou hadst lost and recovered the inheritance of heaven which thou hadst forfeited by thy treason therefore put them over into his hands by faith and hope and let him have the custody of them Do this in every condition of life wherein the Lord shall set thee When the light shines about thy Tabernacle and thou enjoyest prosperitie in things below say
not my mountain stands strong I can manage all things my self my welfare is in mine own hands When thy soul is filled with comfort by the light of Gods countenance lifted up upon it do not now trust thy self with thy spiritual happiness say not I shall carve so for my self as it shall be ever thus with me but lean upon thy Redeemer as the soveraign disposer of all thy concernments Psal 138.8 Especially look to this in the dayes of adversitie or danger by afflictions of soul or body then thou shalt be put to it thrust thy self under the wings of thy Saviour and deliver up all thine interests into his hands who hath bought thee for himself and will not see thee miscarry Is there any person or creature in heaven or earth whom you can betrust with them in assurance of safetie None besides him The Apostle Peter gives this savourie counsel to suffering Christians 1 Pet. 4.19 and we have two choice examples pertinent to this purpose The former of the Psalmist Psal 49 5-15 who in the dayes of evil when the iniquity of his heels should compass him about that is when he shall be exercised with afflictions and chastisements for his sinfull strayings and uneven walking yet resolves that he will not be afraid because he hath committed his soule unto God being assured that he would redeem it from the power of the grave in the morning of the resurrection while the men of the world whose trust is onely in the broken staffe of the creature shall fall short of their hopes and be miserably devoured by death eternal The latter example is the Apostle Paul 2 Tim. 1.12 who beares up courageously in the midst of his sufferings for the Gospel upon this ground He hath deposited his soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vide Bezam and the glory prepared for him in the hands of Christ and he was perswaded that he was able and willing too that is implyed to keep that which he had committed to him against that day 4. When the summons of death come to arrest thee and call thee hence then commit and commend tby spirit into the hands of the Lord God thy Redeemer Thus did David when Saul and his men hemmed him in on every side so that there was no way of escape open but he said he was cut off a gone man Psal 31.5 22. Some interpreters do probably take this See Mollerus and Piscator to be the occasion of his penning that Psalm The story is 1 Sam. 23.26 Jesus Christ thy Redeemer being readie to give up the Ghost on the Cross uttereth the same words Luke 23.46 and in this commending his soul into the hands of his father He hath respect to his members and thereby undertakes the safe keeping of all their soules Omnes suorum animas custodâ—endas suscepâ—t Calvin So that thou needest not fear to commit thy spirit at death unto him as he committed his to his Father Some of the most precious servants of God are recorded in Scripture as Presidents herein That expression of holy Jacob breathed out in the midst of his solemne speech to his sonnes on his death bed doth clearly imply this gracious practise Gen. 49.18 and Stephen the first Gospel-martyr followed the example of his master Jesus herein Acts 7.59 Go thou and learn that lesson that thou mayest have it in readiness on the day that thou shalt go hence and be no more Say thus Oh Lord here I am an unworthy creature but thou hast in pure love to my soul bought me out from the Curse and so delivered me from the pit of corruption Isa 38.17 and now that I must lay down this earthly Tabernacle I do freely render thee thine own I am thine save me Psal 119.94 I humbly wait for that Crown of righteousness the full possession of glory in perfect union with thy blessed self which thou hast purchased with so dear a price and is laid up for me and many poor soules in heaven 2 Tim. 4.8 Thus much of the Fifth Use which was for exhortation CHAP. XII Use 6. Admonition 6. LAstly I would improve this Truth by way of Admonition and from this as a new ground briefly whet upon your hearts that inference which I drew from the first Conclusion concerning Cursing that it is both irrational and irreligious So shall the just condemnation of that wicked practise be established in the mouth of two approved witnesses Deut. 17.6 As it is madness to wish a curse to our selves or others seeing we are all under the stroak of it by nature So truly it is a double madness to do it now that we are redeemed from it by grace Your own reason may disswade you from it on the former ground unless you be so desperate as to continue still under the curse and to implunge your selves deeper into the gulf and Religion may take you off on the latter ground unless you will resolve thus Christ indeed hath delivered sinners from the Curse but we are content to tamper with it still and so make your selves a thousand times more the children of wrath than you were before Yet alas how common is this miscarriage even among them that profess themselves to be redeemed by Christ It is too usual with some men to wish a curse to their own souls thereby either to confirm the truth of something or to binde themselves to do that which they have purposed in their hearts to do It is true we have examples of the best men in Scripture which have so done as Job chap. 31.7 8. c. and David Psal 7.3 4 5. but these were for the most part rather necessitated than voluntary for the clearing of their innocency alwayes advised and weighty with solemn reverence in the presence of God from whom they did certainly expect the accomplishment of their wish against themselves in case they should bee found faulty And thus they may be lawfull being used very sparingly But this cannot justifie the too frequent use of them without necessity upon trivial occasions rashly headily brutishly when the fear of God in the heart doth not manage the business to render it accepted As for the cursing and banning of others Oh how rife is it How easily do the common people fall into that base language If they be but a little provoked if passion get the upper hand in a small measure their tongues are forthwith all on a flame in bitter imprecations It is true also that some holy men are reported in Scripture to have cursed others It is commanded Jud. 5.23 It was practised by David Psal 69.22 c. By Elisha 2 King 2.24 By Nehemiah chap. 13.25 and Jeremy chap. 18.20 21. But these are meerly extraordinary being predictions of evill against others uttered by the Spirit of Prophesie which cannot warrant us to do the like And I suppose we shall scarcely meet with one approved example in the Book of God which will bear us