and are the measures of his duty to God to himself and to his fellow creatures This was publisht by the voice of Reason and is holy just and good Holy as it enjoins those things wherein there is a conformity to those Attributes and Actions of God which are the pattern of our imitation So the general Rule is Be holy as God is holy in all manner of conversation and this is most honourable to the humane nature 'T is just that is exactly agreable to the frame of mans faculties and most suitable to his condition in the world and good that is beneficial to the observer of it In keeping of it there is great reward And the obligation to it is eternal it being the unchangeable will of God grounded on the natural and unvariable relations between God and Man and between Man and the Creatures Besides the particular directions of the Law of Nature this general Principle was planted in the reasonable Soul to obey God in any instance wherein he did prescribe his pleasure Moreover God was pleased to enter into a Covenant with Adam and with all his Posterity naturally descending from him And this was the effect 1. Of admirable Goodness For by his Supremacy over Man he might have signified his Will meerly by the way of Empire and requir'd Obedience But he was pleased to condescend so far as to deal with Man in a sweeter manner as with a Creature capable of his Love and to work upon him by rewards and punishments congruously to the reasonable Nature 2. Of Wisdom to secure Man's obedience For the Covenant being a mutual engagement between God and Man as it gave him infallible assurance of the reward to strengthen his Faith so it was the surest bond to preserve his Fidelity 'T is true the Precept alone binds by vertue of the authority that imposes it but the consent of the Creature increases the Obligation It twists the cords of the Law and binds more strongly to Obedience Thus Adam was God's servant as by the condition of his nature so by his choice accepting the Covenant from which he could not recede without the guilt and infamy of the worst perfidiousness The terms of the Covenant were becoming the Parties concern'd God and Man It established an inseparable Connexion between Duty and Felicity This appears by the Sanction In the day thou eatest of the forbidden fruit thou shalt die In that particular species of Sin the whole genus is included according to the Apostles Exposition Cursed is every one that doth not continue in all the works of the Law to do them The threatning of Death was exprest it being more difficult to be conceiv'd The promise of Life upon his Obedience was implied and easily suggested it self to the rational Mind These were the most proper and powerful motives to excite his Reason and affect his Will For Death primarily signifies the dissolution of the vital union between the Soul and Body and consequently all the preparatory dispositions thereunto Diseases Pains and all the Affections of Mortality which terminate in Death as their center This is the extremest of temporal Evils which innocent Nature shrunk from it being a deprivation of that excellent state which Man enjoyed But principally it signified the separation of the Soul from God's reviving presence who is the only Fountain of Felicity Thus the Law is interpreted by the Lawgiver The Soul that sins shall die Briefly Death in the threatning is comprehensive of all kinds and degrees of evils from the least Pain to the compleatness of Damnation Now 't is an inviolable Principle deeply set in the Human Nature to preserve its being and blessedness so that nothing could be a more powerful restraint from Sin than the fear of Death which is destructive to both This constitution of the Covenant was founded not only in the Will of God but in the nature of the things themselves And this appears by considering 1. That Holiness is more excellent in it self and separately considered than the reward that attends it 'T is the peculiar glory of the Divine Nature God is glorious in Holiness And as He prefers the infinite purity of his Nature before the immortal felicity of his state so he values in the reasonable Creature the vertues by which they represent his Holiness more than their perfect Contentment by which they are like Him in Blessedness Now God is the most just esteemer of things his judgment is the infallible measure of their real worth 't is therefore according to natural order that the Happiness of Man should depend upon his Integrity and the reward be the fruit of his Obedience And although it is impossible that a meer Creature in what state soever should obtain any thing from God by any other title but his voluntary Promise the effect of his Goodness yet 't was such Goodness as God was invited to exercise by the consideration of Mans obedience And as the neglect of his Duty had discharged the Obligation on God's part so the performance gave him a claim by right of the Promise to everlasting Life 2. As the first part of the alliance was most reasonable so was the Second that Death should be the wages of Sin It is not conceivable that God should continue his favour to Man if he turn'd Rebel against Him For this were to disarm the Law and expose the Authority of the Lawgiver to contempt and would reflect upon the Wisdom of God Besides If the reasonable Creature violates the Law it necessarily contracts an obligation to punishment So that if the Sinner who deserves death should enjoy life without satisfaction for the offence or Repentance to qualifie him for pardon both which were without the compass of the first Covenant this would infringe the unchangable rights of Justice and disparage the Divine Purity In the first Covenant there was a special clause which respected Man as the inhabitant of Paradise That he should not eat of the Tree of Knowledg of good and evil upon pain of Death And this Prohibition was upon most wise and just reasons 1. To declare God's Sovereign Right in all things In the quality of Creator he is Supreme Lord. Man enjoyed nothing but by a derived title from his Bounty and Allowance and with an obligation to render to him the Homage of all As Princes when they give estates to their Subjects still retain the Royalty and receive a small rent which though inconsiderable in its value is an acknowledgment of dependance upon them So when God placed Adam in Paradise he reserved this mark of his Soveraignty that in the free use of all other things Man should abstain from the forbidden Tree 2. To make trial of Mans Obedience in a matter very congruous to discover it If the Prohibition had been grounded on any moral internal evil in the nature of the thing it self there had not been so clear a testimony of God's Dominion
is said that His Blood cleanseth from all sin and that it purgeth the Conscience foom dead Works and that we are washt from our sins in His Blood The frequent Sprinklings and Purifications with Water under the Law prefigured our cleansing from the defilements of sin by the Grace of the Spirit but the shedding of the Blood of Sacrifices was to purge away sins so far as they made liable to a Curse Thirdly Our exemption from punishment and our restoration to Communion with God in Grace and Glory is the fruit of his expiating sin For this reason the Blood of the Mediator speaks better things then that of Abel For that cryed for revenge against the Murderer but his procures remission to Believers And as the just desert of sin is separation from the presence of God who is the fountain of felicity so when the guilt is taken away the person is received into God's favour and fellowship A representation of this is set down in the 24 of Exod. where we have described the manner of dedicating the Covenant between God and Israel by bloody Sacrifices after Moses had finisht the Offering and sprinkled the Blood on the Altar and the People the Elders of Israel who were forbid before to approach neer to the Lord were then invited to come into his presence and in token of reconciliation feasted before him Thus the Eternal Covenant is establisht by the Blood of the Mediator and all the benefits it contains as remission of sins freedom to draw near to the Throne of Grace and the enjoyment of God in Glory are the fruits of his reconciling Sacrifice The sum of all is this That as under the Law God was not appeased without shedding of Blood nor sin expiated without suffering the punishment nor the sinner pardoned without the substitution of a sacrifice so all these are eminently accomplisht in the Death of Christ. He reconciled God to us by his most precious Blood and expiated sin by enduring the Curse and hath procured our pardon by being made sin for us So that 't is most evident that the proper and direct end of the Death of Christ was that God might exercise his Mercy to the guilty sinner in a way that is honourable to his Justice 'T is objected that if God from infinite Mercy gave his Son to us then antecedently to the coming of Christ he had the highest love for mankind and consequently there was no need that Christ by his Death should satisfie Justice to reconcile him to us But a clear answer may be given to this by considering 1. That Anger and Love are consistent at the same time and may in several respects be terminated on the same subject A Father resents a double affection towards a rebellious Son he loves him as his Son is angry with with him as disobedient Thus in our laps'd state God had compassion on us as his creatures and was angry with us as sinners As the injured party he laid aside his anger but as the preserver of Justice he required satisfaction 2. We must dinstinguish between a love of good-will and compassion and a love of complacency The first is that which moved God to ordain the means that without prejudice to his other perfections he might confer pardon and all spiritual benefits upon us the other is that whereby he delights in us being reconciled to him and renewed according to his Image The first supposes him placable the latter that he is appeased There is a visible instance of this in the case of Job's Friends The Lord said to Eliphaz the Temanite My anger is kindled against thee and thy two Friends because ye have not spoken of me the things that are right as my Servant Job Here is a declaration of God's anger yet with the mixture of Love for it follows therefore take unto you now seven Bullocks and seven Rams and go to my Servant Job and offer up for your selves a burnt-offering and my Servant Job shall pray for you for him will I accept He loved them when he directed the way that they might be restored to his Favour yet he was not reconciled for then there had been no need of Sacrifices to atone his anger 2. T is further objected that supposing the Satisfaction of Christ to Justice both the freeness and greatness of God's Love in pardoning sinners will be much lessen'd But it will appear that the Divine Mercy is not prejudiced in either of those respects First The freenss of Gods Love is not diminished for that is the original mover in our Salvation and hath no cause above it to excite or draw it forth but meerly arises from his own will This Love is so absolute that it hath no respect to the sufferings of Christ as Mediator for God so loved the World that he gave his Son to die for us and that which is the effect and testimony of his Love cannot be the impulsive cause of it This first Love of God to Man is commended to us in Christ who is the medium to bring it honorably about Secondly Grace in Scripture is never opposed to Christs Merits but to ours If we had made Satisfaction Justice it self had absolved us For the Law having two parts the command of our Duty which consists in a moral good and the sanction of the punishment that is a physical evil to do or to suffer is necessary not both or if we had provided a Surety such as the Judge could not reject we had been infinitely obliged to him but not to the favour of the Judg. But 't is otherwise here God sent the Reconciler when we were enemies and the Pardon that is dispenc'd to us upon the account of his Sufferings is the effect of meer Mercy We are justified freely by his Grace through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ. 'T is pure Love that appointed and accepted that imputes and applies his Righteousness to us And as the Freeness so the Riches of his Mercy is not lessened by the Satisfaction Christ made for us 'T is true we have a pattern of God's Justice never to be parallel'd in the Death of Christ but to the severity of Justice towards his only beloved Son his clemency towards us guilty Rebels is fully comensurate For He pardons us without the expence of one drop of our Blood though the Soul of Christ was poured forth as an Offering for Sin Thus in an admirable manner He satisfies Justice and glorifies Mercy and this could have been no other way effected for if He had given His Spirit alone to restore us to His Image His Love had eminently appeared but the honour of his Justice had not been secured But in our Redemption they are infinitely magnified His Love could give no more than the Life of His Son and Justice required no less for Death being the Wages of Sin there could be no satisfaction without the Death of our Redeemer CHAP. XIV The
Law it was not restrain'd to himself but is the Sin of the common nature Adam broke the first link in the chain whereby Mankind was united to God and all the other parts which depended upon it are necessarily separated from him From hence the Scripture saith that by Nature we are Children of wrath that is liable to punishment and that hath relation to guilt And of this we have convincing Experience in the common Evils which afflict Mankind before the commission of any actual Sin The Cries of Infants who are only eloquent to grief but dumb to all things els discover that Miseries attend them The Tears which are born with their Eyes signifie they are come into a state of Sorrow How many Troops of Deadly Diseases are ready to seize on them immediatly after their Entrance into the World So that 't is apparent God deals with Man as an enemy and therefore guilty of some great crime from his Birth The Ignorance of this made the Heathens accuse Nature and blaspheme God under that mask as less kind and indulgent to Man than to the Creatures below him They are not under so hard a Law of coming into the world They are presently instructed to Swim to Fly to Run for their preservation They are cloathed by Nature and their Habits grow in proportion with their Bodies some with Feathers some with Wool others with Scales which are both Habit and Armour But Man who is alone sensible of shame is born naked and though of a more delicate temper is more exposed to injuries by distemper'd Seasons and utterly unable to repel or avoid the evils that encompass him Now the account the Scripture gives of Original Sin silences all these complaints Man is a Ttransgressor from the Womb and how can he expect a favourable Reception into the Empire of an offended God Briefly Sometimes Death enters into the retirements of Nature and changes the Womb into a Grave which proves that assoon as we partake of the human Nature we are guilty of the Sin that is common to it For the wages of Sin is Death Adam in his innocent state had the Priviledges of Immortality but by him Sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men as a just Sentence upon the guilty for that all men have sinned 2. An Hereditary Corruption is transmitted to all that naturally descend from him If Adam had continued in his Obedience the spiritual as well as the natural Life had been conveighed to his Children but for his Rebellion he lost his primitive rectitude and contracted an universal Corruption which he derives to all his Posterity And as in a Disease there is the defect of Health and a distemper of the humours that affects the Body so in the depravation of Nature there is not the meer want of holiness but a strong proclivity to sin This privation of original Righteousness considerd as a Sin is naturally from Adam the principle of lapsed and corrupt Nature But as a punishment 't is meritoriously from him and falls under the ordination of Divine Justice Man â—ast it away and God righteously refuses to restore it 'T is a sollicitous impertinency to enquire nâ—cely about the manner of conveying this universal Corruption For the bare knowledg oâ— it is ineffectual to the cure And what greater folly than to make our own evils the object of simple Speculation I shall consider only that general account of it which is set down in the Scripture 'T is the universal and unchangable Law of Nature that every thing produce its like not only in regard of the same nature that is propagated from one individual to another without a change of the species but in respect of the qualities with which that nature is eminently affected This is visible in the several kinds of Creatures in the world they all preserve the nature of the principle from whence they are derived and retain the vein of their original the quality of their extraction Thus our Saviour tells us that the fruit partakes of the rottenness of the tree and whatever is born of the flesh is flesh The title of Flesh doth not signifie the material part of our humanity but the Corruption of Sin with which the whole nature is infected This is evident by the description the Apostle gives of it That the flesh is not subject to the Law of God and that which aggravates the evil is that it can't be Sinful Corruption is exprest by this title partly in regard it is transmitted by the way of carnal propagation Behold I was shapen in iniquity and in Sin did my mother conceive me And partly in regard 't is exercised by the carnal members This Corruption is a poison so subtile that it pierces into all the powers of the Soul so contagious that it infects all the Actions so obstinate that only Omnipotent Grace can heal it More particularly 1. 'T is an innate Habit not meerly acquir'd by Imitation The root of bitterness is planted in the Humane Nature and produces its fruits in the various seasons of Life No age is free from its working Every imagination of the thoughts of Mans heart are only evil and continually evil We see this verified in Children when the most early acts of their Reason and the first instances of their apprehension are in Sin If we ascend higher and consider Man in his Infant-state the vicious inclinations which appear in the Cradle the violent motions of anger which disturbs Sucklings their endeavour to exercise a weak revenge on those that displease them convince us that the Corruption is natural and proceeds from an infected Original 2. As 't is Natural so Universal Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean That is How can a Righteous person be born of a Sinner The Answer is peremptory Not one The Fountain was poison'd in Adam and all the Streams partake of the infection All that are derived from him in a natural way and have a relation to him as their common father are sharers in this depravation What difference soever there is in their Climates Colours and external conditions of life yet the blood from whence they spring taints them all 3. Corrupt Nature is pregnant with the seeds of all Sin although they do not shoot forth together And for this several accounts may be given 1. Although all Sins agree in their cause and end yet some are contrary in their exercise 2. The humane spirit is not capable of many Passions in their height at the same time and 't is the art of our spiritual Enemies to suit their Temptations to the capacity of Man 3. As the same Poison produces different effects in different Bodies according to those various Humours which are predominant in them so the same Corruption of Nature works variously according to the different tempers of Men. For although the conception of Sin depends immediatly upon
makes us guilty of his Death And when he shall come in his Glory and be visible to all that Pierced Him what Vengence will be the portion of those who despised the Majesty of his Person the mystery of his Compassions and Sufferings Those that lived and dyed in the darkness of Heathenism shall have a cooler Climate in Hell then those who neglect the great Salvation CHAP. XII Divine Justice concurs with Mercy in the work of our Redemption The Reasons why we are Redeemed by the Satisfaction of Justice are specified to declare Gods hatred of Sin to vindicate the honour of the Law to prevent the secure commission of Sin These Ends are obtained in the Death of Christ. The reality of the Satisfaction made to Divine Justice considered The requisites in order to it The appointment of God who in this transaction is to be considered not as a Judg that is Minister of the Law but as Governour His right of Jurisdiction to relax the Law as to the execution of it His Will declared to accept of the compensation made The consent of our Redeemer was necessary He must be perfectly Holy He must be God and Man THe Deity in it self is Simple and Pure without mixture or variety The Scripture ascribes Attributes to God for our clearer understanding And those as essential in Him are simply one They are distinguish'd only with respect to the diverse objects on which they are terminated and the different effects that proceed from them The two great Attributes which are exercised towards reasonable Creatures in their lapsed state are Mercy and Justice these admirably concur in the work of our Redemption Although God spared guilty Man for the honour of his Mercy yet He spared not his own Son who became a Surety for the offender but delivered Him up to a cruel Death for the glory of his Justice For the clearer understanding of this three things are to be considered 1. The Reasons why we are redeemed by the Satisfaction of Justice 2. The Reality of the Satisfaction made by our Redeemer 3. The compleatness and perfection of it Concerning the first there are three different Opinions among those who acknowledge the reality of Satisfaction 1. That 't is not possible that Sin should be pardoned without Satisfaction For Justice being a natural and necessary excellency in God hath an unchangable respect to the qualities which are in the Creatures That as the Divine Goodness is necessarily exercised towards a Creature perfectly holy so Justice is in punishing the guilty unless a Satisfaction intervene And if it be not possible considering the perfection of the Deity that Holiness should be unrewarded far less can it be that Sin should be unpunisht since the exercise of Justice upon which Punishment depends is more necessary than that of Goodness which is the cause of Remuneration For the Rewards which Bounty dispenses are pure Favours whereas the Punishments which Justice inflicts are due In short Since Justice is a Perfection 't is in God in a supreme degree and being infinite 't is inflexible This Opinion is asserted by several Divines of eminent Learning The Second Opinion is That God by his Absolute Dominion and Prerogative might have releas'd the Sinner from Punishment without any Satisfaction For as by his Sovereignty He transfer'd the Punishment from the guilty to the innocent so He might have forgiven Sin if no Redeemer had interposed From hence it follows that the Death of Christ for the Expiation of Sin was necessary only with respect to the Divine Decree 3. The Third Opinion is That considering God in this transaction as qualified with the Office of Supreme Judg and Governor of the World who hath given just Laws to direct his Creatures in their Obedience and to be the rule of his proceedings with them as to Rewards and Punishments He hath so far restrain'd the exercise of his Power that upon the breach of the Law either it must be executed upon the Sinner or if extraordinarily dispenst with it must be upon such terms as may secure the Ends of Government and those are His own Honour and publick Order and the Benefit of those that are governed And upon these accounts 't was requisite supposing the merciful design of God to pardon Sin that his Righteousness should be declared in the Sufferings of Christ. I will distinctly open this In the Law the Sovereignty and Holiness of God eminently appear And there are two things in all Sins which expose the Offender justly to Punishment 1. A Contempt of God's Sovereignty and in that respect there is a kind of equality between them He that offends in one is guilty of all they being ratified by the same Authority And from hence 't is that Guilt is the natural Passion of Sin that alwaies adheres to it For as God hath a Judicial Power to inflict Punishment upon the Disobedient by vertue of his Soveraignty so the desert of Punishment arises from the despising it in the violation of his Commands 2. In every Sin there is a contrariety to Gods Holiness And in this the natural turpitude of Sin consists which is receptive of degrees From hence arises Gods hatred of Sin which is as essential as his Love to Himself the infinite Purity and Rectitude of his Nature infers the most perfect abhorrence of whatever is opposite to it The righteous Lord loves righteousness but the wicked his soul hates Now the Justice of God is founded in his Sovereignty and his Holiness and the reason why 't is exercised against Sin is not an arbitrary Constitution but his Holy Nature to which Sin is repugnant These things being premised it follows That God in the relation of a Governor is Protector of those Sacred Laws which are to direct the Reasonable Creature And as 't was most reasonable that in the first giving the Law He should lay the strongest restraint upon Man for preventing Sin by the threatning of Death the greatest evil in it self and in the estimation of Mankind so 't is most congruous to Reason when the command was broke by Mans Rebellion that the Penalty should be inflicted either on his Person according to the immediate intent of the Law or something equivalent should be done that the Majesty and Purity of God might appear in his Justice and there might be a visible discovery of the value He puts on Obedience The life of the Law depends upon the execution of it for impunity extenuates Sin in the account of Men and incourages to the free commission of it If Pardon be easily obtained Sin wil be easily committed The first temptation was prevalent by this perswasion that no punishment would follow Besides if upon the bold violation of the Law no punishment were inflicted not only the glory of God's Holiness would be obscured as if He did not love Righteousness and hate Sin but suffered the contempt of the one and the commission of the other without controul but it
with corruptible things as Silver and Gold but with the precious Blood of Christ as of a Lamb without blemish and without spot And by his knowledg shall my righteous Servant justifie many 4. 'T was requisite the Mediator should be God and Man He must assume the nature of Man that he might be put in his stead in order to make satisfaction for him He was to be our representative therefore such a conjunction between us must be that God might esteem all his People to suffer in him By the Law of Israel the right of Redemption belonged to him that was next in blood Now Christ took the Seed of Abraham the original element of our nature that having a right of Propriety in us as God He might have a right of Propinquity as Man He was allied to all Men as Men that His sufferings might be universally beneficial And He must be God 't is not his Innocency onely or Deputation but the Dignity of His Person that qualifies Him to be an all-sufficient Sacrifice for Sin so that God may dispense pardon in a way that is honourable to Justice For Justice requires a proportion between the Punishment and the Crime and that receives its quality from the dignity of the person offended Now since the Majesty of God is infinite against whom sin is committed the guilt of it can never be expiated but by an infinite Satisfaction There is no name under Heaven nor in Heaven that could save us but the Son of God who being equal to Him in greatness became Man If there had been such compassion in the Angels as to have inclined them to interpose between Justice and us they had not been qualified for that Work not only upon the account of their different nature so that by substitution they could not satisfie for us nor that being immaterial substances they are exempted from the dominion of death which was the punishment denounc'd against the sinner and to which his Surety must be subjected but principally that being finite Creatures they are incapable to atone an incensed God Who among all their glorious Orders durst appear before so consuming a fire who could have been an Altar whereon to sanctifie a Sacrifice to Divine Justice no meer Creature how worthy so ever could propitiate the supreme Majesty when justly provoked Our Redeemer was to be the Lord of Angels The Apostle tells us that it pleased the Father that in him all fulness should dwell This respects not his original Nature but his Office and the reason of it is to reconcile by the blood of the Cross things in Heaven and in the Earth From the greatness of the Work we may infer the quality of the means and from the quality of the means the Nature of the Person that is to perform it Peace with God who was provoked by our Rebellion could only be made by an infinite Sacrifice Now in Christ the Deity it self not its influences and the fulness of it not any particular perfection only dwelt really and substantially God was present in the Ark in a shadow and representation He is present in nature by his sustaining Power and in his Saints by special favour and the eminent effects the Graces and Comforts that proceed from it but he is present in Christ in a singular and transcendent manner The Humanity is related to the Word not only as a Creature to the Author of its being for in this regard it hath an equal respect to all the persons but by a peculiar conjunction for 't is actuated by the same subsistence as the Divine Essence is in the Son but with this difference the one is voluntary the other necessary the one is espoused by Love the other received by Nature Now from this intimate Union there is a communication of the special qualities of both natures to the Person of Christ Man is exalted to be the Son of God and the Word abased to be the Son of Man As by reason of the vital Union between the Soul and Body the essential parts of Man 't is truly said that he is rational in respect of his soul and mortal in respect of his body This Union derives an infinite merit to the obedience of Christ. For the humane nature having its complement from the Divine Person 't is not the nature simply considered but the person that is the fountain of actions To illustrate this by an instance the civil Law determines that a tree transplanted from one soile to another and taking root there it belongs to the owner of that ground in regard that receiving nourishment from a new earth it becomes as it were another tree though there be the same individual root the same body and the same soul of vegetation as before Thus the humane nature taken from the common mass of Mankind and transplanted by personal Union into the Divine is to be reckoned as intirely belonging to the Divine and the actions proceeding from it are not meerly humane but are raised above their natural worth and become meritorious One hour of Christs Life glorified God more than an everlasting duration spent by Angels and Men in the praises of him For the most perfect creatures are limited and finite and their services cannot fully correspond with the Majesty of God but when the Word was made Flesh and entered into a new state of subjection he glorified God in a Divine manner and most worthy of him He that comes from above is above all The all sufficiency of his Satisfaction arises from hence He that was in the form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God that is in the truth of the Divine Nature He was equal with the Father and without sacriledge or usurpation possest Divine Honour he became obedient to the Death of the Cross. The Lord of Glory was Crucified We are purchased by the Blood of God And the Blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all Sin The Divine Nature gives it an infinite and everlasting efficacy And 't is observable that the Socinians the declared enemies of his Eternity consentaneously to their first impious error deny his Satisfaction For if Jesus Christ were but a titular God his Sufferings how deep soever had been insufficient to expiate our offence in His Death He had been only a Martyr not a Mediator For no Satisfaction can be made to Divine Justice but by suffering that which is equivalent to the guilt of sin which as 't is infinite such must the Satisfaction be CHAP. XIII Divine Justice is declared and glorified in the Death of Christ. The threefold account the Scripture gives of it As a Punishment inflicted for Sin as a Price to redeem us from Hell as a Sacrifice to reconcile us to God Man was Capitally guilty Christ with the allowance of God interposes as his Surety His Death was inflicted on him by the Supreme Judg. The impulsive Cause of it was Sin
His Sufferings were equivalent to the Sentence of the Law The Effect of them is our Freedom An Answer to the Objection That 't is a violation of Justice to transfer the Punishment from the guilty to the innocent The Death of Christ is the Price that redeems from Hell This singular effect of his Death distinguishes it from the death of the Martyrs An Answer to the Objections How could God receive this Price since he gave his Son to that Death which redeems us And how our Redeemer supposing him God can make Satisfaction to Himself The Death of Christ represented as a Sacrifice The Expiatory Sacrifices under the Law were substituted in the place of guilty Men. The Effects of them answerable to their threefold respect to God Sin and Men The Atonement of Anger the Expiation of Sin and Freedom from Punishment All sorts of Placatory Sacrifices are referr'd to Christ and the effects of them in a sublime and perfect manner No prejudice to the Freeness and Greatness of God's Love that Christ by his Death reconciled Him to men HAving premised these things I shall now prove that the Divine Justice is really declar'd and glorified in the obedient Sufferings of Christ. For the opening this point 't is necessary to consider the account the Scripture gives of his Death which is threefold 1. 'T is represented under the relation of a Punishment inflicted on him for Sin and the effect of it is Satisfaction to the Law 2. As a Price to redeem us from Hell 3. Under the notion of a Sacrifice to reconcile God to Sinners First As a Punishment inflicted on him for Sin This will appear by considering 1. That Man by his Rebellion against God was capitally guilty He stood sentenced by the Law to Death 2. Christ with the allowance of the Supreme Judg interposed as our Surety and in that relation was made liable to Punishment Sins are by resemblance called Debts As a Debt obliges the Debtor to payment so Sin doth the Sinner to Punishment And as the Creditor hath a right to exact the Payment from the Debtor so God hath a right to inflict Punishment on the guilty But with this difference the Creditor by the meer signification of his will may discharge the Debtor for he hath an absolute power over his estate whereas publick Justice is concern'd in the Punishment of the guilty This is evident by many instances For 't is not sufficient that a Criminal satisfie his Adversary unless the Prince who is the Guardian of the Laws give him Pardon The interest of a private Person who hath received an injury is so distinct from that of the State that sometimes the injured party solicites the Pardon of the offender without success Which shews that principally 't is not to satisfie the particular person that the Crime is punish'd but to satisfie the Law and prevent future Disorders Now our Debt was not pecuniary but penal And as in civil Cases where one becomes Surety for another he is obliged to pay the Debt for in the estimate of the Law they are but one person So the Lord Jesus Christ entring into this relation He sustained the person of Sinners and became judicially one with them and according to the order of Justice was liable to their punishment The displeasure of God was primarily and directly against the Sinner but the effects of it fell upon Christ who undertook for him The Apostle tells us That when the Fulness of time came God sent his Son made under the Law that he might redeem them that were under the Law He took our Nature Condition He was made under the Law Moral and Ceremonial The directive part of the Moral Law He fulfilled by the Innocency of his Life the penalty he satisfied as our Surety being under an Obligation to save us And he appeared as a Sinner in his subjection to the Law of Moses That Hand-writing was against us He therefore enter'd into the Bond that we had forfeited In his Circumcision He signed it with those drops of Blood which were an earnest of his shedding the rest on the Cross. For whosoever was Circumcised became a Debtor to the whole Law And we may observe 't is said That as Moses lifted up the brazen Serpent so the Law of which Moses was a type and Minister lifted up the Messiah on the Cross. 3. The Scripture is very clear and express in setting down the part that God had in the Sufferings of Christ as Supreme Judg the impulsive cause that moved Him their proportion to the punishment of the Law and the effect of them for our Deliverance He was delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledg of God All the various and vicious actions of men were over-ruled by his Providence The falsness of Judas the fearfulness of Pilate and the malice of the Jews were subservient to Gods eternal design And as He wills not the Death of a Sinner much less of his Son but for most weighty Reasons these are declared by the Prophet All we like sheep have gone astray and turned every one to his own waies Our Errours were different but the issue was the same that is Eternal Death And the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all that is the Punishment of our Iniquities His Sufferings had such a respect to Sin as included the imputation of it 'T was an act of Sovereignty in God to appoint Christ as Man to be our Surety but an act of Justice to inflict the punishment when Christ had undertaken for us 'T is said He hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows The expressions are comprehensive of all the Miseries of his Life especially his last Sufferings The Hebrew words Nasa and Sabal signifie such a taking away as is by laying upon one who bears it from us And thus it is interpreted by St. Peter He himself bare our sins in his own Body on the tree This necessarily implies the derivation of our guilt to him and the consequent of it the transferring of our punishment Those words are full and pregnant to the same purpose He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our Iniquities the chastisement of our peace was on him and with his stripes we are healed Where the meritorious cause of his Sufferings is set down as appears by the connexion of the words with the former The Jews thought him stricken smitten of God and afflicted that is justly punisht for Blasphemy and usurping Divine Honour In opposition to this conceit 't is added But he was wounded for our transgressions This the Apostle expresly telleth us when he declares that Christ died for our Sins This will appear more fully by considering what the desert of Sin is By our Rebellion we made the forfeiture of Soul Body to Divine Justice Death both the first and the second was the Sentence of the Law Now the Sufferings of Christ were answerable
to this Punishment The Death which the Law threatned for Sin was to be accompanied with Dishonour and Pain And he suffered the Death of the Cross to which a special Curse was annext And this was not onely in respect of the Judgment of Men before whom a Crucified person was made a Spectacle of publick Vengeance for his Crimes but in respect of Gods declaration concerning it The Jews were commanded that none should hang on a Tree longer then the Evening lest the Holy Land should be profaned by that which was an express mark of Gods Curse Now the legal Curse was a Typical signification of the real that should be suffered by our Redeemer Besides his Death was attended with exquisite pains he suffer'd variety of torments by the scourges the thorns the nails that pierc'd his Hands and Feet the least vital but most sensible parts He refused the Wine mix'd with Myrrh that was given to stupifie the senses for the design of his Passion requir'd that he should have the quickest sense of his Sufferings which were the Punishment of Sin And his inward Sorrows were equivalent to the pains of loss and sense that are due to Sinners 'T is true there are circumstances in the Sufferings of the damn'd as Blaspemy Rage Impotent fierceness of mind which are not appointed by the Law but are accidental arising from the perversness of their Spirits For the punishment of the Law is a Physical evil but these are Moral and that punishment is inflicted by the Judge but these are onely from the guilty Sufferers Now to these he was not possibly liable Besides the Death that the Sinner ought to Suffer is Eternal attended with despair and the intolerable anguish of Conscience Now our Redeemer having no real Guilt was not liable to the worm of Conscience and his Temporary Sufferings were equivalent to the Eternal upon the account of his Divine Person so that he was not capable of Despair But he endur'd the unknown terrours of the second Death so far as was consistent with the Perfection of his Nature The anguish of his Soul was not meerly from sympathy with his Body but immediately from Divine Displeasure It pleased the Lord to bruise him this principally respects the Impressions of Wrath made upon his inward Man Had the Cup he fear'd been onely Death with the bitter ingredients of dishonour and pain many have drank it with more appearing resolution The Martyrs endured more cruel torments without complaint nay in their sharpest conflicts have exprest a triumphant joy Whereas our Redeemer was under all the innocent degrees of fear and sorrow at the approach of his Sufferings From whence was the difference Had Christ less Courage He was the Fountain of their Fortitude the difference was not in the disposition of the Patients but in the Nature of the Sufferings He endured that which is infinitely more terrible than all outward torments The Light of Joy that always shined in his Soul a sweet Image of Heaven was then totally eclips'd God the Fountain of Compassion restrain'd himself his Father appear'd a severe inexorable Judge and dealt with him not as his Son but our Surety Under all the Cruelties exercis'd by men the Lamb of God open'd not his mouth but when the Father of Mercies and the God of all Consolations forsook him then he broke forth into a mournful complaint Now by this account of Christs Sufferings from Scripture 't is evident they were truly penal for they were inflicted for Sin by the Supreme Judg and were equivalent to the Sentence of the Law And the benefit we receive upon their account proves that they are satisfaction to Divine Justice for we are exempted from Punishment by his Submission to it He freed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us The Chastisements of our Peace was upon him by whose stripes we are healed So that his Death being the Meritorious Cause of freeing the Guilty is properly Satisfaction Before I proceed to the second Consideration of Christs Death I will briefly answer the Objection of the Socinians viz. That 't is a Violation of Justice to transfer the Punishment from one to another so that the Righteous God could not Punish his innocent Son for our Sins Now to show the invalidity of this Pretence we must consider 1. That Justice is not an irregular appetite of Vengeance arising from Hatred that cannot be satisfied but with the Destruction of the Guilty It preserves Right with pure Affections and is content when the Injury is repair'd from whomsoever satisfaction comes 2. Though an innocent person can't suffer as innocent without Injustice yet he may voluntarily contract an Obligation which will expose him to deserved sufferings The Wisdom and Justice of all Nations agree in punishing one for anothers fault where consent is preceding as in the case of Hostages And although it is Essential to the Nature of Punishment to be inflicted for Sin yet not on the Person of the Sinner for in Conspectu fori the Sinner and Surety are one 3. That exchange is not allowed in Criminal Causes where the Guilty ought to suffer in Person 't is not from any Injustice in the Nature of the thing for then it would not be allowed in Civil but there are special Reasons why an Innocent Person is not ordinarily admitted to suffer for an offender 1. No man hath absolute Power over his own life 'T is a depositum consigned to him for a time and must be preserv'd till God or the Publick good calls for it 2. The Publick would suffer prejudice by the loss of a good Subject Therefore the Rule of the Law is just Non auditur perire volens The desire of one that devotes himself to ruine is not to be heard And the guilty person who is spared might grow worse by impunity and cause great disorders by his evil example But these considerations are of no force in the case of our Saviour For 1. He had full Power to dispose of his life I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again this Commandment have I received of my Father He declares his Power as God that his life intirely depended on his will to preserve it or part with it and his subjection as Mediator to the order of his Father 2. Our Saviour could not finally Perish 'T was not possible he should be held under the power of Death Otherwise it had been against the Laws of reason that the precious should for ever suffer for the vile Better ten thousand Worlds had been lost than that the Holy One of God should perish He saved us through his Sufferings though as by fire and had a glorious reward in the issue 3. There is an infinite good redounds from his Sufferings for Sinners are exempted from Death and the preservation of the guilty is for the glory of Gods government for those who are redeemed by his Death
Glorious Trinity were equally provok'd by our Sin and to obtain our Pardon the Son with the consent of the Father deposits his Interest into his Hands and as a Mediator intervenes between us and him who in this Transaction is the Depositary of the Rights of Heaven and having performed what Justice required he reconciled the World to God that is to the Father Himself and the Eternal Spirit In this Cause his Person is the same but his Quality is different he made Satisfaction as Mediator and receiv'd it as God 'T is in this sense that the Apostle saith We have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the righteous Not to exclude the other Persons but in regard the Father as the First Person is the Protector of Justice our Mediator in appeasing Him appeases the others also 3. The Death of Christ is represented under the notion of a Sacrifice offer'd up to God For the more full understanding of this we must consider that Sacrifices were of two kinds 1. Some were Eucharistical They are called Peace-offerings by which the Sacrificer acknowledged the Bounty of God and his own unworthiness and rendered Praise for a favour received and desired the Divine Blessing 2. Expiatory The Sin-offerings for the averting of Gods wrath The Institution of them was upon a double Reason 1. That Man is a sinner and therefore obnoxious to the just indignation and extreme displeasure of the Holy and Righteous God 2. That God was to be propitiated that he might pardon them These Truths are engraven in the natural Consciences of Men as appeares by theâ—â— pretended Expiations of sin among the Heathens But are more clearly reveal'd in the Scripture Under the Law without the effusion of Blood there was no Remission To signifie that God would not forgive Sin without the atonement of Justice which required the Death of the Offender but it being tempered with Mercy accepted a Sacrifice in his stead And that there was a Substitution of the Beast in the place of the guilty Offender appeares by the Law concerning Sacrifices 1. None were instituted for Capital Offences as Murder Idolatry Adultery c. Because the Sinner himself was to be cut off But for other Sins which although in strictness they deserved Death yet God who was the King of Israel was pleased to remit the Forfeiture and to accept the life of the Sacrifice for the Life of the Sinner 2. The guilty Person was to offer a clean Beast of his own to signifie the Surrogation of it in his stead For in the relation of a Possessour he had a dominion over it to apply it to that use 3. The Priest or the person that offer'd was to lay his hands on the head of the Sacrifice thereby Consecrating it to God and Devoting it in his stead to bear the Punishment For this reason 't was called a Sin and a Curse 4. The Confession of Sin by the People or the Priest as in the day of Atonement signified that the guilt of all met on the Sacrifice for Expiation 5. The Blood was to be shed wherein the vital spirits are an express representation what the Sinner deserved and that it was accepted for his Life 6. Lastly The deprecating of God's Anger was joyned with the Sacrifice As when a Man was slain and the Murderer was not found the Elders of the City next to the dead Body were to kill an Heifer in a Valley and to pray that innocent Blood might not be laid to their charge otherwise the Land could not be clensed from the guilt of Blood but by the Blood of the Murderer 2. The Effects of these Sacrifices declare their nature And they are answerable to their threefold respect to God to Sin to Man To God that his Anger might be appeased to Sin that the fault might be expiated to Man that the guilty person might obtain Pardon and Freedom from Punishment Thus when a Sacrifice was duly offered 't is said to be of a sweet savour unto the Lord and to atone him Lev. 1.17 and the Remission of Sins with the Release of the Sinner followed The Priest shall expiate it that is declaratively and it shall be forgiven him Now there was a double Guilt contracted by those that were under the Mosaical Dispensation 1. Typical From the breach of a Ceremonial Constitution which had no relation to Morality Such were natural Pollutions accidental Diseases the touching of a dead Body c. which were esteemed vicious according to the Law and the Defiled were excluded from Sacred and Civil Society Now these Impurities considered in themselves deserved no punishment For involuntary and inevitable Infirmities and corporeal things which do not infect the inward man are the marks of our abject and weak state but are not in themselves sinfull Therefore Ceremonial Guilt was expiated by a Ceremonial Offering For 't is according to the nature of things that Obligations should be dissolved by the same means by which they are contracted As therefore those Pollutions were penal merely by the positive Will of God So the exercise of his Supreme Right being tempered with Wisdome and Equity he ordained that the guilt should be abolisht by a Sacrifice and that they should be fully restored to their former Priviledges Thus the Apostle tells us that the Blood of those Sacrifices Sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh that is communicated a legal Purity to the Offerers and consequently a right to approach the holy Place Now the reason of these Institutions was that the legal Impurity might represent the true defilements of Sin and the Expiatory Sacrifices prefigure that great and admirable Oblation which should purge away all Sin 2. A real Guilt which respects the Conscience and was contracted from the breach of the Moral Law and subjected the Offender to Death temporal and eternal This could not be purged away by those Sacrifices For how is it possible the Blood of a Beast should cleanse the Soul of a Man or content the Justice of an offended God Nay on the contrary they reviv'd the guilt of Sin and reinforced the rigour of the Law and were a publick profession of the Misery of Men For this reason the Law is called the Ministry of Death As the Moral contained a declaration of our guilt and Gods right to punish so all the parts of the Ceremonial were either arguments and convictions of Sin or images of the punishment due for them But as they had a relation to Christ who was their Complement so they signified the expiation of moral guilt by his Sacrifice and freed the Sinner from that temporal Death to which he was liable as a Representative of our freedom from Eternal Death by the Blood of the Cross. This will appear more clearly by considering 1. That all kinds of placatory Sacrifices are referred to Christ in the New Testament 2. That all their Effects are attributed to him in a sublimer and most perfect
manner He is called a Lamb in the notion of a Sacrifice The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world A Lamb was used in the Expiation of moral and legal Impurities He is called our Passover that was sacrificed for us The Paschal Lamb in its first Institution had an expiatory efficacy for God by looking on that Blood averted the destruction from the Israelites which seized on the Egyptians This was the reason of the Prohibition that none should go out of the house till the Morning lest they should be struck by the destroying Angel Not but that the Angel could distinguish the Israelites from the Egyptians abroa◠but 't was typical to shew their security was in being under the guard of the Lambs Blood which was shed to spare theirs Thus the Apostle Peter tells us We are redeemed by the Blood of the pure and perfect Lamb. And he was represented by the red Heifer whose ashes were the chief ingredient in the water of Purification For if the Blood of Bulls and Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the Flesh How much more shall the Blood of Christ purge the Conscience Especially the Anniversary Sacrifice which was the Abridgment and Recapitulation of all the rest had an eminent respect to Christ The whole Epistle to the Hebrews is tinctured with this divine Doctrine Secondly The Effects of Christs Death are infinitely more excellent than those that proceeded from Levitical Sacrifices The Law had a shadow of good things to come But the real Virtue and Efficacy is only found in Christ. 1. The Aversion of Gods Wrath is ascribed to his Death according to the Words of the Apostle Whom God hath set forth to be a Propitiation through Faith in his Blood to declare his Righteousness for the Remission of Sins that are past through the forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his Righteousness that he might be Just and the justifier of him that believed in Jesus A Propitiation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Title of the Mercy-Seat partly in regard it cover'd the Tables of the Law which were broke by us to signifie that by Him Pardon is procur'd for us and principally because God was rendred Propitious by the sprinkling the Blood of the Sacrifice on it and exhibited himself there as on a Throne of Grace favourable t◠his people For this Reason he gives the name of the Figure to Christ for he alone answers the Charge of the Law and interposes between Justice and our Guilt and by his own Blood hath reconciled God to us Now the design of God in this appointment was to declare his Righteousness that is that Glorious Attribute that inclines him to punish Sinners For in the Legal Propitiations although the guilt of Men was publickly declared in the Death of the Sacrifices yet the Justice of God did not fully appear since he accepted the Life of a Beast in Compensation for the Life of a Man but in the Death of Christ he hath given the most clear Demonstration of his Justice a sufficient Example of his Hatred to Sin Condemning it and Revenging himself upon it in the Person of his beloved Son that the whole World may acknowledge 't was not from any Inadvertency but meerly by the Dispensation of his Wisdom and Goodness that he forbore so long And by the Death of Christ he hath declared that Glorious Mystery which no created Understanding could ever have conceived that he is inflexibly just and will not suffer sin to pass unpunish'd and that he justifies those who are guilty in themselves if by a purifying Faith they receive Christ for Pardon The same Apostle tells us that Christ hath given himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Eph. 5.2 He is qualified as a Priest whose Office it was to present to God an offering for Appeasing his Anger He gave himself the Oblation that is added to his Death gives the compleat Formality of a Sacrifice to it for 't is the Priest gives being to the Sacrifice and the effect of it is to be a sweet smelling savour to God that is to conciliate his Favour to us The same phrase is applyed to the Sin-Offering under the Law We may observe that upon this account our Reconciliation to God is attributed to the Death of Christ in distinction from his Glorified Life For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his Life And the same Apostle tells us that God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself not imputing their trespasses unto them we pray you therefore in Christs stead be reconciled to God A double Reconciliation is mentioned that of God to Men and of Men to God the first is the ground of the Apostle's exhortation the latter the effect of it The first was obtained by the Death of Christ who by imputation had our guilt transferred upon Him and consequently our punishment and in consideration of it God who is Just and Holy is willing to pardon penitent Believers The latter is by the powerful working of the Spirit who assures Men that are guilty and therefore suspicious and fearful of God's anger that he is most willing to pardon them upon their repentance since he hath in such an admirable manner found out the means to satisfie his Justice 2. The true expiation of sin is the effect of Christs Death He is called the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the World Now sin may be taken away in two manners First by removing its guilt and exempting the Person that committed it from Death and when this is effected by enduring the punishment that was due to sin 't is properly expiation Secondly By healing the corrupt inclinations of the Heart from whence actual sins proceed 'T is true our Redeemer takes away sin in both these respects he delivers from the Damnation and Dominion of it for he is made of God our Righteousness and Sanctfication But the first sense is only convenient here for 't is evident that the Lamb took away sin that is the guilt of it by dying instead of the sinner and had no effect for the destroying the malignant habits of sin in those who offered them It appears further that this Divine Lamb hath taken away the guilt of our sins in that He bore them in his own Body on the Tree For the native force of the word signifies not only to take away but to carry and bear which applyed to sin is nothing else but to suffer the penalty of it And 't is to be observed when Cleansing Purifying and Washing are attributed to the Blood of Christ they have an immediat respect to the guilt of sin and declare its efficacy to take off the obligation to punishment Thus 't
David with respect to Solomon If he commit Iniquity I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the childaen of men that is Chastise him moderately For in the stile of the Scripture as things are magnified by the Epithet Divine or of God as the Cedars of God that is very tall And Nineve is called The City of God that is very great So to signifie things that are in a mediocrity the Scripture uses the Epithet humane or of Men And according to the Rule of Opposition the Rod of God is an extraordinary Affliction which destroys the Sinner 't is such a Punishment as a man can neither inflict nor endure But the Rod of Men is a moderate Correction that doth not exceed the strength of the Patient But every purely vindictive Punishment which the Law pronounces is in proportion to the nature of the Crime not the strength of the Criminal 3. They are distinguisht by the intention and end of God in inflicting them 1. In Chastisements God primarily designs the Profit of his People That they may be partakers of his Holiness When they are secure and carnal He awakens Conscience by the sharp voice of the Rod to reflect upon Sin to make them observant for the future to render their Affections more indifferent to the World and stronger towards Heaven The Apostle expresses the nature of Chastisements When we are judged we are instructed by the Lord They are more lively Lessons than those which are by the Word alone and make a deeper impression upon the heart David acknowledges Before he was afflicted he went astray but now have I kept thy words Corrupt Nature makes Gods Favours pernicious but his Grace makes our Punishments profitable Briefly They are not satisfactions for what is past but admonitions for the time to come But purely vindictive Judgments are not inflicted for the reformation of an Offender but to preserve the honour of the Sovereign and Publick Order and to make compensation for the breach of the Law If any advantage accrue to the Offender 't is accidental and besides the intention of the Judg. 2. The end of chastisements upon Believers is to prevent their final destruction When we are Judged we are Chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the World And this sweetens and allays all their Sufferings As the Psalmist declares Let the Righteous smite me and it shall be a kindness let him reprove me it shall be an excellent oile which shall not break my head But the Vindictive Punishment of a Malefactor is not to prevent his condemnation for Death is sometimes the Sentence In this respect the temporal evils that befal the Wicked and the Godly though materially the same yet legally differ For to the Wicked they are as so many earnests of the compleat payment they shall make to Justice in another World the beginnings of Eternal Sorrows but to the Godly they are in order to their Salvation They are as the Red-Sea through which the Israelites past to the Land of Promise but the Egyptians were drowned in it Briefly their Sufferings differ as much in their issue as the Kingdoms of Heaven and of Hell 2. That Death remains to Believers doth not lessen the perfection of Christs Satisfaction 'T is true considered absolutely 't is the revenge of the Law for sin and the greatest temporal evil so that it may seem strange that those who are Redeemed by an Alsufficient ransom should pay this Tribute to the King of Terrors But the nature of it is changed 't is a Curse to the wicked inflicted for Satisfaction to Justice but a Priviledge to Believers As God appointing the Rainbow to be the Sign of his Covenant that he would drown the World no more ordain'd the same Waters to be the token of his Mercy which were the instrument of his Justice Blessed are the dead that die in the Lord. And the Psalmist tells us that precious in the sight of the Lord is the Death of his Saints Christ hath taken away what is truly destructive in it 'T is continued for their advantage 1. Corruption hath so depraved the sensitive appetite that during our natural state we are not intirely freed from it but Death that destroyes the natural frame of the Body puts an end to sin And in this respect there is a great difference between the Death of Christ and of Believers the end of his was to remove the guilt of sin of theirs to extinguish the reliques of it 2. 'T is a delivery from Temporal evils and an entrance into Glory Death and Despair seize on the Wicked at once but the Righteous hath hope in his Death 3. The Grave shall give up its spoils at the last It retains the Body for a time not to destroy but purifie it Our Saviour tells us that whoever believes on him shall not see death for he will raise them up at the last day He that dies a Man shall revive an Angel cloathed with Light and Immortality I will conclude this argument with the words of St. Austin Ablato criminis nexu relicta est mors Nunc vero majore mirabiliore gratia Salvatoris in usus justitiae peccati poena est conversa tum enim dictum est Homini morieris si peccaveris nunc dictum est Martyri morere ne pecces Et sic per ineffabilem Dei misericordiam ipsa poena vitiorum transit in arma virtutis fit justi meritum etiam supplicium peccatoris Although the Guilt of Sin is removed yet death remains But by the admirable Grace of the Redeemer the punishment of sin is made an advantage to Holiness The Law threatned Man with Death if he sinned the Gospel commands a Martyr to die that he may not sin And thus by the unspeakable Mercy of God the punishment of Vice becomes the security of Virtue and that which was revenged upon the sinner gives to the Righteous a title to a glorious reward CHAP. XV. Inferences In the Death of Christ there is the clearest discovery of the evil of sin The strictness of divine Justice is most visible in it The consideration of the ends of Christs Death takes off the scandal of the Cross and changes the offence into admiration The Satisfaction of Justice by Christs Sufferings affords the strongest assurance that God is ready to pardon sinners The absolute necessity of complying with the terms of the Gospel for Justification There are but two wayes of appearing before the supreme Judge either in Innocence or by the Righteousness of Christ The Causes why men reject Christ are a legal temper that is natural to them and the predominant love of sin The unavoidable misery of all that will not submit to our Saviour 1. FRom hence we may discover most clearly the evil of Sin which no Sacrifice could expiate but the Blood of the Son of God 'T is true the
this inflames rather than allays the Distemper For as things are more clearly known so more sensibly felt by comparison He that is tormented with the Gout cannot relieve his misery by remembring the pleasant Wine he drank before his fit 4. The Stoicks Universal Cure of afflictions was to change their opinion of them and esteem them not real evils Thus Posidonius so much commended by Tully who for many years was under torturing Diseases and survived a contiunal Death being visited by Pompey at Rhodes he entertained him with a Philosophical Discourse and when his pains were most acute he said Nihil agis dolor quanquam sis molestus nunquam teâ— esse confitebor malum In vain dost thou assault me pain though thou art troublesome thou shalt never force me to confess thou art evil But the folly of this boasting is visible for though he might appear with a chearful countenance in the Paroxism of his Disease to commend his Philosophy like a Mountebank that swallows poison to put off his Druggs yet the reality of his grief was evident his Sense was overcome though his Tongue remained a Stoick If words could charm the Sense not to feel pains or compose the mind not to resent afflictions 't were material to give molifying Titles to them But since 't is not Fancy that makes them stinging but their contrariety to Nature 't is no relief to represent them otherwise than they are 5. Others compos'd themselves by considering the benefit of patience Discontent puts an edge on troubles to kick against the pricks exasperates the pain to be restless and turmoiling increases the Feaver But this is not properly a consolation for although a calm and quiet submission prevents those new degrees of trouble which by fretting and vexing we bring upon our selves yet it doth not remove the evil which may be very afflicting and grievous in its own nature so that without other considerations to support the mind it will sink under it And as these so many other Arguments they used to fortifie the Spirit against Sufferings are like a hedg which at a distance seems to be a safe retreat from Gunshot but those who retire to it find it a weak Defence This appears by the carriage of the best instructed Heathens in their calamities Professing themselves to be wise in their Speculations they became fools in practice and were confounded with all their Philosophy when they should have made use of it Some kill'd themselves for the apprehension of sufferings their death was not the effect of courage but cowardise the remedy of their fear Others impatient of disappointment in their great designs refused to live I will instance in two of the most eminent among them Cato and Brutus they were both Philosophers of the manly sect and Vertue never appeared with a brighter lustre among the Heathens than when joyned with a Stoical resolution And they were not imperfect Proficients but Masters in Philosophy Seneca employs all the ornaments of his Eloquence to make Catoes Elogy He represents him as the consummate exemplar of Wisdom as one that realized the sublime Idea of Virtue described in their Writings And Brutus was esteemed equal to Cato Yet these with all the power of their Philosophy were not able to bear the shock of Adversity Like raw Fencers one thrust put them into such disorder that they forgot all their instructions in the place of trial For being unsuccesful in their endeavours to restore Rome to its liberty overcome with discontent and dispair they laid violent hands upon themselves Cato being prevented in his first attempt afterwards tore open his Wounds with fierceness and rage And Brutus ready to plunge the Sword into his Breast complained that Vertue was but a vain name so insufficient are the best Precepts of meer natural Reason to relieve us in distress As Torrents that are dryed up in the heat of Summer when there is the most need of them so all comforts fail in extremity that are not derived from the Fountain of Life I will only add how ineffectual Philosophy is to support us in a dying hour The fear of Death is a Passion so strong that by it Men are kept in bondage all their days 'T is an Enemy that threatens none whom it doth not strike and there is none but it threatens Certainly that Spectre which Caesar had not courage to look in the face is very affrighting Alexander himself that so often despised it in the Field when passion that transported him cast a Vail over his Eyes yet when he was struck with a mortal Disease in Babylon and had Death in his view his Palace was filled with Priests and Diviners and no superstition was so sottish but he used to preserve himself And although the Philosophers seem'd to contemn Death yet the great preparations they made to encounter it argue a secret fear in their Breasts Many Discourses Reasonings and Arguments are employed to sweeten that cruel necessity of it but they are all ineffectual 1. That 't is the condition of our nature to be a Man and immortal are inconsistent But this consolation afflicts to extremity If there were any means to escape the soul might take courage He is doubly miserable whose misery is without remedy 2. That it puts a period to all temporal evils But as this is of no force with those who are prosperous and never felt those miseries which make Life intolerable so it cannot rationally relieve any that have not good hopes of felicity after death The Heathens discovered not the sting of Death as 't is the wages of sin and consigns the guilty to eternal Death so that they built upon a false foundation as if it were the cure of all evils 3. They encouraged themselves from their ignorance of the consequences of death whether it only changed their place or extinguish'd their persons Socrates who dyed with a seeming indifference gave this account of it That he did not know whether death was good or evil But this is not fortitude but folly as Aristotle observes That a readiness to encounter dangers arising from ignorance is not true valour but a brutish boldness What madness is it then for one that enters upon an eternal state not knowing whether it shall be Happy or Miserable to be uneffected with that dreadful uncertainty But now the Gospel furnishes us with real remedies against all the evils of our present state 'T is the true Paradise wherein the Tree of Life is planted whose Leaves are for the healing of the Nations We are assured that God disposes all things with the Wisdom and Love of a Father and that his Providence is most admirable and worthy of praise in those things wherein they who are only led by sence doubt whether it be at all For as 't is the first point of prudence to keep off evils so the second and more excellent is to make them beneficial Christians
as to violate the Fidelity of Marriage without the wounding of Chastity or to poison a Parent without failing in the duty that is owing to them And to express his indignation he tells them Sic ergo ipsi salva venia in Gehennam detruduntur dum salvo metu peccant Let them expect that God will cast them into Hell without prejudice to their Pardon as they pretend to Sin without prejudice to the respect they bear him To sum up all Jesus Christ as by his Doctrine and Life he clearly discover'd our Duty so he offers to us the Aid of his Spirit for our assistance by which the Commands of the Gospel are not only possible but easy And to enforce our obligations he hath threatned such Vengeance to the rebellious and promised such a Reward to those that obey the Gospel that it is impossible we should not be deeply affected with them if we seriously believe them and He hath given such evidence of their truth that 't is impossible we should not believe them unless the God of this world hath blinded our minds 'T is matter therefore of just astonishment that Christians should not express the efficacy of the Gospel in their actions How can a reasonable Creature believe that eternal Damnation shall be the Punishment of Sin and yet live in the wilful practice of it The Historian speaking of Mushroms that somtimes prov'd deadly to whole Families asks with wonder What pleasure could allure them to eat such doubtful Meat Yet they may be so corrected as to become innocent But when 't is certain that the Pleasures of Sin are mortal Can any one be tempted by those attractives to venture on that which will undoubtedly bring Death to the Soul Let Sense itself be Judg and make the comparison between whatsoever the present Life can afford for delight in Sin and what the future Death will bring to torment it Let the Flesh see into what torments all its delights shall be changed and with what other fire than of impure Lust it shall burn for ever Besides We are encouraged to our Duty with the assurance of a Happiness so excellent that not only the enjoyment of it in the next World but the just expectation of it here makes us truly blessed If the Reward were small or the Promise uncertain there might be some pretence for our not performing the Conditions to obtain it but when the one is infinitely great and the other as true as the God of truth what more powerful motive can be conceiv'd to make us holy 'T is the Apostles chosen Argument that We should walk worthy of him who hath call'd us to his Kingdom and Glory The Heathens were in a great measure strangers to the Secrets of another World they had but a shadow of probability we have the Light of Truth brought down from Heaven by the Son of God that reveals to us a Blessedness that deserves our most ardent active Affections But if Men are not wrought on by natural Reason nor divine Faith if neither the Terrours of the Lord nor the blessed Hope can perswade them from Sin to Holiness their condition is irrecoverable In this the Rules of Natural and Spiritual Healing agree Where neither Corrosives nor Lenitives are successful we must use the Knife if cutting off be unprofitable we must fear the part if the Fire is ineffectual the Ulcer is incurable If the threatning of Hell-fire through Unbelief and Carelesness is not fear'd and hath no efficacy to correct and change Sinners what remains but to make a presage of eternal Death that will unavoidably and speedily seize on them And if so clear a discovery of the Heavenly Glory doth not produce in men a living Faith that works by Love and a lively Hope that purifies the Heart and Conversation what can be concluded but that they are wholly sensual and senseless and shall be for ever deprived of that Blessedness they now despise and neglect CHAP. XX. The Divine Power is admirably glorified in the Creation of the World in respect of the greatness of the effect and the manner of its production T is as evident in our Redemption The Principal Effects of it are considered The Incarnation of the Son of God is a work fully responsible to Omnipotence Our Redeemers Supernatural Conception by the Holy Ghost The Divine Power was eminently declared in the Miracles Jesus Christ wrought in the course of his Ministry His Miracles were the evidence of His Celestial Calling they were necessary for the conviction of the World their Nature considered The Divine Power was Glorified in making the Death of Christ Victorious over all our Spiritual Enemies The Resurrection of Christ the effect of Glorious Power The Reasons of it from the quality of his Person and the nature of his Office that he might dispense the Blessings he had purchased for Believers His Resurrection is the foundation of Faith It hath a threefold reference to his Person as the Son of God to his Death as an Alsufficient Sacrifice to his Promise of raising Believers at the last day THE Divine Power is admirably glorified in the Creation of the World not only in regard of the greatness of the Effect that comprehends the Heavens and Earth and all things in them but in regard of the marvelous way of its Production for He made the great Universe without the concurrence of any material cause from nothing For this reason the raising this glorious Fabrick is producâ—d as the distinctive character of the Deity from the troop of false gods The Psalmist declares The Lord is to be fearâ—d above all gods for all the gods of the Nations are Idols but the Lord made the Heavens And as He began the Creation by proceeding from nothing to real existence so in forming the other parts He drew them from infirm and indisposed matter as from a second nothing that all his Creatures might bear the real testimonies of Infinite Power Thus He commanded Light to arise out of Darkness and sensible Creatures from an insensible Element He created Man the accomplishment of all his Works from the lowest and grossest Element the Earth Now although at the first view we might conceive that the visible World is the greatest Miracle that ever God performed yet upon serious reflection we shall discover that the works of Grace are as wonderful as the works of Nature and that the Power of God is as evidently exprest in our Redemption as in the Creation For the fuller understanding of this I will consider some of the principal Effects of the Divine Power in order to our blessed Recovery 1. The Incarnation of the Son of God in accomplishing whereof such Power was exercis'd as no limited Understanding is able to comprehend The Word was made Flesh. This signifies the real Union between the Humane Nature and the Divine in our Redeemer Before his Incarnation he appeared in an humane form to the Patriarchs and
Power admirably appeared in making the Death of Christ victorious over all our Spiritual Enemies Now to shew what an eminent degree of Power was exercised in the effecting this we must consider that after Satan was cast out of Heaven for his Rebellion he set up a throne on the Earth and usurpt an absolute Empire over Mankind His Power was great and his Malice was equal to his Power The Apostle represents him with his black Army under the titles of Principalities and Powers the rulers of the darkness of this world spiritual wickednesses in heavenly places as in respect of the Order among them so in respect of their Dominion they exercise in the World His Principality hath two parts To tempt Men powerfully to sin and to execute the wrath of God upon them He works effectually in the Children of Disobedience He fires their Lusts and by the thick ascending smoak darkens their Minds and hurries them to do the vilest Actions And he hath the power of death to torment Sinners God justly permitting him to exercise his Cruelty upon those who comply with his Temptations Now in the time of Christ seeing many ravish'd out of his hands and translated into the Kingdom of God he grew jealous of his state and by his instruments brought Him to a cruel and shameful Death He then in appearance obtain'd a compleat Conquest but in truth was absolutely overcome And from hence the glorious Power of Christ is most clearly manifested As he that will take the height of a Mountain must descend to the lowest part of the Valley where fixing his Instrument he may discover the distance from the foot to the top of it So we must descend to the lowest degree of our Saviours abasement to understand the height of his exaltation By Death he overcame him that had the power of Death that is the Devil For his cruel Empire was founded in Mans Sin his greatness was built on our Ruins All the penal Evils he brings on Mankind are upon the account of our Disobedience and his mighty power in Temptations is from our inward Corruption Otherwise he might surround but could not surprise us Now the Lord Christ by his Death hath taken away the Guilt and Power of Sin The Guilt in enduring the Curse of the Law and thereby satisfying Eternal Justice which all the Creatures in Heaven and Earth could not do and the Power of it By crucifying our old man with him that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin By the Cross of Christ the world is crucified to us and we are crucified to the world By it we are vindicated from the power of Satan into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God For this reason our Saviour a little before his Passion said Now shall the Prince of this world be cast out By the Cross he spoil'd Principalities and Powers and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it to their extreme confusion in the view of Heaven and Earth Although the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ are the proper acts of his Triumph yet his Death is the sole cause and original of it The Nails and Spear that pierced his Body were his omnipotent Arms and the Cross the instrument of his Sufferings was the Trophee of his Victory All our triumphant Palms are gathered from that tree 'T is there our Saviour bruised the head of the old Serpent and renewed his antient Victory over him And from hence it was that upon the first Preaching of Christ crucified Oracles were struck dumb and put to eternal silence invisible Powers were forc'd to do him visible honour As the Rising Sun causes the Night-birds to retire so his Name chas'd the rout of false Deities into darkness They continue to be our enemies but not our lords Now where did the Divine Power ever appear more glorious than in our crucified Saviour He hath done greater things suffering as Man than acting as God The Works of Creation and Providence are not equal to the effects of his Death In the Creation a corruptible World was produced from Nothing which as it had no disposition so no contrariety to receive the form the Creator gave it But the new World of Grace that is immortal was form'd out of rebellious matter The most eminent work of Providence was the drowning the Egyptians in the Red-Sea But the spiritual Pharaoh and all his Hosts were drowned in his Blood In short the Cross hath opened Heaven to us and wrought a miraculous change on the Earth But this I shall more particularly consider under another Head of Discourse Fifthly The Divine Power was eminently magnified in Christs Resurrection from the Grave This was foretold concerning the Messiah by the Prophet David speaking in the type My flesh shall rest in hope for thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell neither wilt thou suffer thy Holy One to see corruption As it was ordain'd by Gods Counsel so 't was executed by his Power This is decisive that He is the Messiah His other Miracles were performed by the Prophets but this was singular and only done by the God of the Prophets The Reasons of it prove that 't was equally necessary for his Glory and our Salvation 1. The Quality of his Person required it For He was a Heavenly Man without Guilt therefore immortal by the original Constitution of his Nature Death that is the wages of Sin had no power over him He was subject to it not by the Law of his Conception but the Dispensation of his Love not to satisfie Nature but purchase our Salvation Therefore the Eternal Law that annexes Immortality to Innocence would not suffer that He should remain in the state of Death 2. The Nature of his Office made it necessary As the Oeconomy of our Redemption required that He should descend from Heaven the Seat of his Glory that by dying He might expiate our Sins so after his lying in the Grave so long as to attest the reality of his Death 't was necessary he should rise again in order to his dispensing the glorious Benefits He had purchas'd The Apostle tells the Corinthians If Christ be not risen then our preaching is in vain and your faith is also in vain For the Faith of Christians hath a threefold reference 1. To the Person of Christ that he is the Son of God 2. To his Death that 't is an all-sufficient Sacrifice for Sin 3. To his Promise that He will raise Believers at the last Day Now the Resurrection of Christ is the Foundation of Faith in respect of all these 1. He was declar'd to be the Son of God with Power according to the Spirit of Holiness by the Resurrection from the dead He was the Son of God from Eternity as the Word and from the first moment of his Incarnation as God-Man But the honour of this relation was much eclips'd in his poor
our eyes from it to vanity Here the complaint is more just Ad sapientiam quis accedit quis dignam judicat nisi quam in transitu noverit we content our selves with slight and transient glances but do not seriously and fixedly consider this blessed design of God upon which the beginning of our happiness in this and the perfection of it in the next life is built Let us provoke our selves by the example of the Angels who are not concern'd in this Redemption as man is for they continued in their fidelity to their Creator and were alwayes happy in his favour and where there is no alienation between parties reconcilement is unnecessary yet they are Students with us in the same Book and unite all their powers in the contemplation of this mystery they are represented stooping to pry into these secrets to signifie their delight in what they know and their desire to advance in the knowledge of them With what intention then should we study the Gospel who are the Subject and end of it CHAP. VII The simple Speculation of the Gospel not sufficient without a real Belief and Cordial Acceptance The Reasons why the Jews and Gentiles conspir'd in the contempt of it How just it is to resign up the Understanding to Revelation God knows his own Nature and Will and cannot deceive us We must believe the things that are clearly revealed though we do not understand the manner of their existence Although they are attended with seeming contradictions No Article of Faith is really repugnant to Reason We must distinguish between things incomprehensible and inconceivable Between corrupt and right Reason How Reason is subservient to Faith Humility and Holiness qualifie for the belief of the Gospel-mysteries A naked belief of Supernatural Truths is unprofitable for Salvation An effectual Assent that prevails upon the Will and renders the whole Man obsequious is due to the quality of the Gospel-Revelation THe simple Speculation of this glorious Mystery will be of no profit without a real belief of it and a cordial acceptance of Salvation upon the terms which the Divine Wisdom prescribes The Gospel requires the Obedience of the Understanding and of the Will unless it obtains a full possession of the Soul there is no saving efficacy derived from it And such is the sublimity and purity of the Object that till Reason is sanctified and subdued it cannot sincerely entertain it I will therefore distinctly consider the opposition which carnal Reason hath made against it and shew how just it is that the Humane Understanding should with reverence yield up it self to the Word of God that reveals this great Mystery to us The Apostle tells us that Jews and Gentiles conspired in the contempt of the Gospel Reason cannot hear without great astonishment for the appearing contradiction between the terms that God should be made Man and the Eternal die The Jews esteem'd it an intolerable Blasphemy and without any Process of Law were ready to stone the Lord Jesus That being a man he should make himself equal with God And they upbraided him in his Sufferings that he could not save himself If he be the King of Israel let him come down from the Cross and we will believe on him The Gentiles despised the Gospel as an absurd ill-contrived Fable For what in appearance is more unbecoming God and injurious to his Perfections than to take the frail garment of Flesh to be torn and trampled on Their natural Knowledg of the Deity enclin'd them to think the Incarnation impossible There is no resemblance of it in the whole compass of Nature For natural Union supposes the parts incompleat and capable of Perfection by their joyning together But that a Being infinitly perfect should assume by personal Union a nature inferiour to it self the Heathens lookt on it as a Fable forg'd according to the model of the fictions concerning Danae and Antiope And the Doctrine of our Saviours Death on the Cross they rejected as an impiety contumelious to God They judged it inconsistent with the Majesty and Happiness of the Deity to ascribe to Him that which is the punishment of the most guilty and miserable In the account of carnal Reason they thought more worthily of God by denying that of Him which is only due to the worst of men Celsus who with as much Subtilty as Malice urges all that with any appearance could be objected against our Saviour principally insists on his Poverty and Sufferings the Meanness and Misery of his condition in the world 'T was fit saith he that the Son of God should appear as the Sun which renders it self conspicuous by its own light But the Gospel having declared the Word to be the Son of God relates that he was a man of Sorrows that had no power to defend himself and was deserted by his Father and Followers scourged with Rods and shamefully executed He could not reconcile so many things that seem'd utterly incompatible as Sovereignty and Servitude Innocence and Punishment the lowest of humane Miseries Death with the highest of divine Honours Adoration Briefly Nothing was more contrary to Flesh and Blood than to believe that person to be the Redeemer of the World who did not rescue himself from his Enemies and to expect Immortality from him that was overcome by Death Now the Causes of this Infidelity are 1. The Darkness of the Mind which is so corrupted by Original Pravity that it cannot behold Heavenly Mysteries in their proper light so as to acquiesce in the truth of them The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him and he cannot know them because they are spiritually discerned There is no proportion between the Natural Understanding and Supernatural Truths For although the rational Soul is a Spirit as 't is distinguisht from corporeal Beings yet till 't is purged from Errour and vitious Affections it can never discover the Divinity of things Spiritual so as to embrace them with certainty and delight As there must be a Spirit of Revelation to unvail the object so of Wisdom to enlighten the eye that it may be prepar'd for the reception of it As Heaven is only seen by its own Light So Christ is by his own Spirit Divine Objects and Faith that discerns them are of the same original and of the same quality The natural Understanding as the effects declare is like the Funeral Lamps which by the Antients were put into Sepulchers to guard the ashes of their dead Friends which shine so long as they are kept close a thick moist vapour feeding them and repairing what was consum'd but in opening the Sepulchres and exposing them to the free air they presently faint and expire Thus natural Reason whilst conversant in things below and watching with the dead that is in the Phrase of the Antients studying the Books of Men who have left the world it discovers
His enjoyment was rais'd above what the most glorious Spirits are capable of All his Faculties were pure and vigorous never blunted with Sin and intimately united to the Deity How cutting then was it to his Soul to be suspended from the perfect vision of God To be divorc'd as it were from himself and to lose that Paradise He alwaies had within Him If all the Angels of Light were at once depriv'd of their glory the loss were not equal to this dreadful eclipse of the Sun of Righteousness As if all the Stars were extinguisht the darkness would not be so terrible as if the Sun the fountain of light were put out Whatever his Sufferings were in kind yet in degree they were answerable to the full and just desert of Sin and surpast the power of the Humane or Angelical Nature to endure In short His Sorrows were only equall'd by that Love which procured them And as the Sufferings infflicted by the hand of God so the Evils He endured from men declare the infiniteness of our Redeemers Love to us For the further discovery of it 't is necessary to reflect upon his Death which is set down by the Apostle as the lowest degree of his Humiliation in which the succession of all his Bodily Sufferings is included it being the complement of all And if we consider the quality of it the Goodness of our Redeemer will be more visible in his voluntary submission to it Two Circumstances make the kind of death which is to be suffered very terrible to us Ignominy and Torment and they eminently concur in the Death of the Cross. 1. The greatest Ignominy attended it and that in the account of God and Men. As honour is in honorante it depends upon the esteem of others so infamy consists in judgment of others Now in the acount of the World every Death inflicted for a Crime is attended with disgrace But that receives its degrees from the manner of it To be executed privately is a favour but to be made a spectacle to the multitude encreases the dishonour of one that suffers When Death is speedily inflicted the sence of shame is presently past but to be exposed to publick view for many Hours as a Malefactor whilst the Beholders detest the Crime and abhor the Punishment is an heavy aggravation of it Beheading which is suddenly dispatcht by a Sword a military Instrument and therefore more honourable was a Priviledg But to hang on the Cross was the most conspicuous mark of the publick Justice and Displeasure a special Infamy was concomitant with it Among the Jews hanging on a Tree was branded with the Curse Therefore God commanded that the bodies of those that were hanged on a tree should be taken down in the Evening that the Land might not be defiled with a Curse And the judgment of other Nations was answerable for it was only inflicted on the most infamous Offenders as Fugitives Slaves Thieves and Traitors such whom the lowness of their Quality or the height of their Crimes rendred unworthy of any respect Hence 't is that Cicero to aggravate the Cruelty of Verres in crucifying a Roman Citizen calls it an unnamed wickedness No Eloquence could equal the evil of it 2. The pain of that Death was extreme The Hands and Feet those parts wherein the complexion of the Nerves meet and are of exquisite Sence were nailed Crucified persons suffered a slow Death but quick Torments They felt themselves die Therefore in pity the Soldiers broke their Legs to put a period to their Misery And to compleat their Punishment they were judg'd unworthy of Burial the last consolation of the dead they were deprived of Repose in the bosom of the Earth our common Mother and exposed as a prey to Birds and Beasts Now the Son of God endured no gentler or nobler Death than that of the Cross. His pure and gracious Hands which were never stretcht out but to do good were pierced and those Feet which bore the Redeemer of the World and for which the Waters had a reverence were nail'd His Body the precious workmanship of the Holy Ghost the Temple of the Deity was destroyed He that is the Glory of Heaven was made the scorn of the Earth The King of Kings was crucified between two Thieves in Jerusalem at their Sacred Feast in the face of the World His naked Body was exposed on the Cross for three Hours only covered with a Veil of Darkness This was such a stupendious submission of the Son of God that his Death astonisht the Universe in another manner than his Birth and Life his Resurrection and Ascension Universal Nature relented at his last Sufferings The Sun was struck with horrour and withdrew its light it did not appear crown'd with beams when the Creator was with thorns The Earth trembled and the Rocks rent the most insensible creatures sympathis'd with Him and 't is in this we have the most visible instance of Divine Love to us The Scripture distinctly represents the Love of God in giving his Son and the Love of Christ in giving Himself to die for Man and both require our deepest consideration The Father exprest such an excess of Love that our Saviour himself speaks of it with admiration God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes on Him should not perish but have everlasting Life If Abraham's resolution to offer his son was in the judgment of God a convincing Evidence of his Affection how much more is the actual sacrificing of Christ the strongest proof of God's Love to us For God had a higher Title to Isaac than Abraham had The Father of Spirits hath a nearer claim than the Fathers of the Flesh. Abraham's readiness to offer up his son was Obedience to a Command not his own choice 't was rather an act of Justice than Love by which he render'd to God what was his own But God Spared not his own Son in whom he had an Eternal Right And He was not only free from Obligation but not sued to for our Salvation in that wonderful way For what Love of Men or of the most charitable Spirits in Heaven could have conceived such a thought that the Son of God should die for our Redemption It had been an impious Blasphemy to have desired it so that Christ is the most absolute gift of God to us Besides The love of Abraham is to be measured by the Reasons that might excite it For according to the amiableness of the object so much greater is the love that gives it Many endearing cirumstances made Isaac the joy of his father yet at the best he was an imprafect mortal creature so that but a moderate affection was regularly due to him Whereas our Redeemer was not a meer Man or an Angel but God's only begotten Son which Title signifies his unity with him in his state and perfections and according to the Excellency of his Nature such
Saviour tells us It behoved Christ to suffer he doth not say that the Son of God should suffer but that Christ. This Title signifies the same Person in substance but not in the same respect and consideration Christ is the Second Person cloathed with our Nature There was no necessity that obliged God to appoint his Son or the Son to accept the Office of Mediator But when the Eternal Son had undertook that charge and was made Christ that is assumed our Nature in order to redeem us 't was necessary that He should suffer Besides His Consent was necessary upon another account For the Satisfaction doth not arise meerly from the Dignity of his Person but from the Law of substitution whereby He put himself in our stead and voluntarily obliged Himself to suffer the Punishment due to us The efficacy of his Death is by vertue of the Contract between the Father and Him of which there could be no cause but pure Mercy and His voluntary Condescension Now the Scripture declares the willingness of Christ particularly at his entrance into the World and at his Death Upon His comming into the World He begins his Life by the internal Oblation of Himself to his Father Sacrifice and Offering thou didst not desire mine ears hast thou opened that is He entirely resigned himself to be Gods Servant Burnt-Offering and Sin-Offering hast thou not required Then said I Lo I come in the volume of thy book 't is written of me I delight to do thy will O my God yea thy Law is within my heart He saw the Divine Decree and embrac'd it the Law was in his Heart and fully possest all his Thoughts and Affections and had a commanding influence upon his Life And his Willingness was fully exprest by Him when He approacht to His last Sufferings For although He declin'd Death as Man having natural and innocent desires of Self-Preservation yet as Mediator he readily submitted to it Not my Will but thine be done was his voice in the Garden And this argued the compleatness and fixedness of his Will that notwithstanding his aversation from Death absolutely considered yet with an unabated election He still chose it as the means of our Salvation No involuntary Constraint was laid upon him to force him to that submission But the sole causes of it were his free Compliance with his Fathers Will and his tender Compassion towards Men. He saith I have power to lay down my life and power to take it up this command I received of my Father In his Death Obedience and Sacrifice were united The Typical Sacrifices were led to the Altar but the Lamb of God presented Himself 't is said He gave himself for us to signifie his willingness in dying Now the Freeness of our Redeemer in dying for us qualified his Sufferings to be meritorious The Apostle tells us that By the obedience of one many are made righteous that is By his voluntary Sufferings we are justified for without his Consent his Death could not have the respect of a punishment for our Sins No Man can be compelled to pay anothers Debt unless he make himself Surety for it Briefly The Appointment of God and the Undertaking of Christ to redeem us from the Curse of the Law by his suffering it are the Foundation of the New-Testament 3. He that interpos'd as Mediator must be perfectly Holy otherwise he had been liable to Justice for his own Sin And guilty Blood is impure and corrupt apter to stain by its effusion and sprinkling than to purge away Sin The Apostle joins these two as inseparable He appeared to take away Sin and in Him is no sin The Priesthood under the Law was imperfect as for other reasons so for the sins of the Priests Aaron the first and chief of the Levitical Order was guilty of gross Idolatry so that Reconciliation could not be obtained by their Ministry For how can one Captive ransom another or Sin expiate Sin But our Mediator was absolutely innocent without the least tincture of Sin original or actual He was conceived in a miraculous manner infinitely distant from all the impurities of the earth That which is produced in an ordinary way receives its propriety from second Causes and contracts the defilement that cleaves to the whole species Whatever is born of blood and the will of the flesh that is form'd of the substance of the Flesh and by the sensual Appetite is defiled but though He was form'd of the substance of the Virgin yet by vertue of an Heavenly Principle according to the words of the Angel to her The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee therefore also that Holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God He came in the appearance only of sinful flesh As the Brazen Serpent had the figure and not the poison of the fiery Serpent He was without actual Sin He foil'd the Tempter in all his arts and methods wherewith he tried Him He resisted the Lust of the Flesh by refusing to make the stones Bread to asswage his Hunger and the Lust of the Eyes in despising the Kingdoms of the World with all their Treasures and the Pride of Life when he would not throw himself down that by the interposing of Angels for His rescue there might be a visible proof that He was the Son of God The Accuser himself confest Him to be the Holy One of God he found no corruption within Him and could draw nothing out of him Judas that betrayed him and Pilate that condemned him acknowledged his Innocence He perfectly fulfill'd the Law and did alwaies what pleased his Father In the midst of his Sufferings no irregular motion disturbed his Soul but He alwaies exprest the highest Reverence to God and incredible Charity to Men. He was compared to a Lamb for his Passion and his Patience that quietly dies at the foot of the Altar Besides We may consider in our Mediator not only a perfect freedom from Sin but an impossibility that he should be toucht by it The Angelical Nature was liable to folly but the Humane Nature by its intimate and unchangeable Union with the Divine is establisht above all possibility of Falling The Deity is Holiness 〈◊〉 self and by its personal presence is a greater preservative from sin than either the vision of God in Heaven or the most permanent habit of Grace Our Saviour tells us the Son can do nothing of himself but according to the pattern the Father sets him Now the perfect Holiness of our Redeemer hath a special efficacy in making his Death to be the expiation of Sin as the Scripture frequently declares For such an high Priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled and separate from sinners And he that knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made the Righteousness of God in him We are Redeemed not
are renewed by his Spirit He covers their sins that he may cure them He is made Righteousness and Sanctification to his People The serious belief that Christ by dying hath rescued us from Hell produces a superlative Love to him an ingenuous and grateful fear lest we should offend Him an ambition to please Him in all things briefly Universal Obedience to his Will as its most natural and necessary effect So that in laying the punishment on Christ under which Mankind must have sunk for ever there is nothing against Justice 2. The Death of Christ is the price which redeems us from our woful Captivity Mankind was fallen under the dominion of Satan and Death and could not obtain freedom by escape or meer power For by the order of Divine Justice we were detained Prisoners So that till God the Supreme Judg is satisfied there can be no discharge Now the Lord Christ hath procured our deliverance by his Death according to the testimony of the Apostle We have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sins His Blood is congruously called a price because in consideration of it our Freedom is purchased He is our Redeemer by Ransom He gave himself a Ransom for all and that signifies the price paid for the freeing of a Captive The word used by the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath a special Emphasis it signifies an exchange of conditions with us the redeeming us from Death by dying for us As the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who devoted themselves to Death for the rescuing of others Our Saviour told his Disciples that the Son of Man came to give his Life a ransom for many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a commutation or exchange with respect of things or persons Thus we are commanded to render to none Evil for evil And if a Son ask of his Father a Fish will he give him a Serpent for a Fish When 't is used in respect of persons it imports a substitution in anothers place Archelaus reigned instead of his Father Herod and Peter paid tribute for Christ that is representing Him the effect therefore of our Saviours words that He gave his Life a Ransome for many is evidently this that he dy'd in their stead and his Life as a Price intervened to obtain their Redemption 'T is for this Reason the Glorified Saints sung a Hymn of Praise to the Divine Lamb saying Thou art worthy for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy Blood This singular and blessed effect of Christs Death distinguishes it from the Death of the most Excellent Martyrs If he had dyed only for the Confirmation of the Gospel or to exhibit to us a Pattern of Suffering Graces what were there peculiar and extraordinary in his Death How can it be said that he was Crucified for us alone For the Martyrs Sealed the Truth with their Blood and left admirable Examples of Love to God of Zeal for his Glory of patience under Torments and of Compassion to their Persecutors yet it were intolerable Blasphemy to say that they redeem'd us by their Death And 't is observable when the Death of Christ is propounded in Scripture as a Pattern of Patience 't is with a special Circumstance that distinguishes it from all others Christ suffered for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps who his own self bare our Sins in his own Body on the Tree by whose stripes ye were healed The truth is if the sole end of Christs Death were to induce Men to believe His Promises and to imitate His Graces there had been no such necessity of it for the Miracles he did had been sufficient to confirm the Gospel yet Remission of Sins is never attributed to them and the Miseries he Suffered during the course of his Life had been sufficient to instruct us how to behave our selves under Indignities and Persecutions and at the last he might have given as full a Testimony to the Truth of his Doctrine by his descent from the Cross as by dying for us But no lower Price than his Blood could make Compensation to the Law and satisfaction to God and to deny this is to Rob him of the Glory of his Death and to destroy all our Comfort 'T is objected by those who nullifie the Mystery of the Cross of the Lord Jesus How could God receive this Price since he gave up his Son to that Death which Redeems us And how can our Redeemer supposing him God make satisfaction to himself To this I answer 1. The infinite Goodness of God in giving our Redeemer doth not devest him of the Office of Supreme Judge nor prejudice his examining of the Cause according to his Sovereign Jurisdiction and his receiving a Ransom to preserve the Rights of Justice inviolable There is an eminent instance of this in Zaleucus the Prince of the Locrians who past a Law that Adulterers should lose both their eyes and when his Son was convicted of that Crime the people who respected him for his Excellent Vertues out of pity to him interceded for the Offender Zaleucus in a Conflict between Zeal for Justice and Affection to his Son took but one Eye from him and parted with one of his own to satisfie the Law And thus he paid and received the Punishment he paid it as a Father and received it as the Conservator of Publick Justice Thus when guilty Mankind in its Poverty could not pay the Forfeiture to the Law God the Father of Mercies was pleased to give it from the Treasures of his Love that is the Blood of his Son for our Ransom And this he receives from the Hand of Christ offer'd upon the Cross as the Supreme Judge and declares it fully valuable and the Rights of Justice to be truly performed 2. It is not inconsistent with Reason that the Son of God cloathed with our Nature should by his Death make Satisfaction to the Deity and therefore to himself In the according of two Parties a Person that belongs to one of them may interpose for Reconciliation provided that he devests his own Interest and leaves it with the Party from whom he comes Thus when the Senate of Rome and the People were in dissension one of the Senators trusted his own Concernment with the Council of which he was a Member and mediated between the Parties to reconcile them Thus when the Father and the Son both possest of the Imperial Power have been offended by Rebellious Subjects 't is not inconvenient that the Son interpose as a Mediator to restore them to the Favour of the Prince And by this he reconciles them to himself and procures them Pardon of an Offence by which his own Majesty was violated This he doth as Mediator not as a a Party concern'd Now this is a fit Illustration of the Great Work of our Redemption so far as Humane things can represent Divine For all the Persons of the
Compleatness of Christ's Satisfaction proved from the Causes and Effects of it The Causes are the Quality of his Person and Degrees of his Sufferings The Effects are His Resurrection Ascension Intercession at Gods right hand and his exercising the Supreme Power in Heaven and Earth The excellent Benefits which God reconciled bestows on Men are the Effects and Evidences of his compleat Satisfaction They are Pardon of Sin Grace and Glory That Repentance and Faith are required in order to the partaking of the Benefits purchased by Christ's Death doth not lessen the Merit of his Sufferings That Afflictions and Dâ—ath are inflicted on Believers doth not derogate from their All-sufficiency THe Third thing to be considered is the Compleatness of the Satisfaction that Christ hath made by which it will appear that Gods Justice as well as Mercy is fully glorified in his Sufferings For the proof of this I will first consider the Causes from whence the compleatness of his Satisfaction arises Secondly The Effects that proceed from it which are convincing Evidences that God is fully appeas'd The Causes of his compleat Satisfaction are two 1. The Quality of his Person derives an infinite value to his obedient Sufferings Our Surety was equally God and as truely Infinite in His Perfections as the Father who was provoked by our Sins therefore he was able to make Satisfaction for them He is the Son of God not meerly in respect of the honour of his Office or the special Favour of God for on these accounts that Title is communicated to others but his only Son by Nature The sole preheminence in Gifts and Dignity would give Him the title of the first-born but not deprive them of the quality of Brethren Now the wisdom and justice of all Nations agree that Punishments receive their estimate from the quality of the Persons that suffer The Poet observes that the Death of a vertuous Person is more precious than of Legions Of what inestimable value then is the death of Christ and how worthy a Ransom for lost mankind For although the Deity is impassible yet he that was a Divine Person he suffered A King suffers more than a private person although the strokes he endures in his body cannot immediatly reach his honour And 't is specially to be observed that the Efficacy of Christs Blood is ascribed to his Divine Nature This the Apostle declares In whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of Sins who is the image of the invisible God Not an artificial Image which imperfectly represents the Original As a Picture that sets forth the Colour and Figure of a Man but not his Life and Nature But the essential and exact Image of his Father that expresses all his glorious Perfections in their immensity and eternity This is testified expresly in Hebr. 1.3 The Son of God the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person having purged by himself our sins is set down on the right hand of Majesty on High From hence arises the infinite difference between the Sacrifices of the Law and Christs in their value and vertue This with admirable Emphasis is set down in Hebr. 9.13 14. For if the blood of Bulls and of Goats and the ashes of an Heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purification of the flesh How much more shall the Blood of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offer'd himself without spot to God purge your Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Wherein the Apostle makes a double Hypothesis 1. That the Legal Sacrifices were ineffectual to purifie from real guilt 2. That by their Typical Cleansing they signified the washing away of moral guilt by the Blood of Christ. 1. Their insufficiency to expiate Sin appears if we consider the subject Sin is to be expiated in the same nature wherein 't was committed now the Beasts are of an inferiour rank and have no communion with Man in his nature Or if we consider the object God was provoked by Sin and He is a Spirit and not to be appeased by gross material things His Wisdom requires that a rational Sacrifice should expiate the guilt of a rational Creature And Justice is not satisfied without a proportion between the Guilt and the Punishment This weakness and insufficiency of the Legal Sacrifices to expiate Sin is evident from their variety and repetition For if full Remission had been obtained The worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sin 'T is the sense of Guilt and the fear of Condemnation that required the renewing of the Sacrifice Now under the Law the Ministry of the Priests never came to a period or perfection The Millions of Sacrifices in all Ages from the erecting the Tabernacle to the coming of Christ had not vertue to expiate one Sin They were only shadows which could give no refreshment to the inflamed Conscience but as they depended on Christ the body and substance of them But the Son of God who offered himself up by the Eternal Spirit to the Father is a Sacrifice not only Intelligent and Reasonable but incomparably more precious than the most noble Creatures in Earth or in Heaven it self He was Priest and Sacrifice in respect of both His Natures His entire Person was the Offerer and Offering Therefore the Apostle from the excellency of his Sacrifice infers the unity of its Oblation and from thence concludes its Efficacy Christ did not by the Blood of Bulls and Goats but by his own Blood He entred in once to the Holy Place having obtained eternal Redemption for us and by one Offering He hath for ever perfected them who are sanctified Upon this account God promised in the New-Covenant That their Sins and Iniquities He would remember no more having received compleat satisfaction by the Sufferings of his Son 'T is now said that once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself And as it is appointed for all men once to die and after Death comes Judgment So Christ was once offered to bear the Sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin As there is no other natural death to suffer between Death and Judgment so there is no other propitiatory Sacrifice between his all-sufficient Death on the Cross and the last coming of our Redeemer There is one Consideration I shall adde to shew the great difference between Legal Sacrifices and the Death of Christ as to its saving vertue The Law absolutely forbids the eating of Blood and the peoples tasting of the Sin-offerings to signifie the imperfection of those Sacrifices For since they were consumed in their Consecration to Gods Justice and nothing was left for the nourishment of the Offerers 't was a sign they could not appease God The Offerers had communion with them when they brought them to the Altar and in a manner
not only in the relation of a Creator and universal Governour that gave Laws to regulate Conscience but in a special relation to the Jews as their King And as in a Civil State a prudent Governour permits a less evil for the prevention of a greater without an approbation of it So God was pleased in his Wisdom to tolerate those things in condescension to their carnal and perverse humors for the hardness of their Hearts lest worse inconveniences should follow But our Saviour reduces Marriage to the Sanctity of its original when man was formed according to the Image of God's Holiness He that made them at the beginning made them Male and Female for this cause shall a Man leave Father and Mother and cleave to his Wife and they twain shall be one flesh What therefore God hath joyned together let no Man put asunder From the unity of the Person that one Male was made and one Female it follows that the super-inducing of another into the Marriage-bed is against the first Institution And the Union that is between them not being only civil in a consent of wills but natural by the joyning of two bodies something natural must intervene to dissolve it viz. the Adultery of one party Excepting that case our Saviour severely forbids the putting the Wife away 4. Our Redeemer hath improved the obligations of the moral Law by a clearer discovery of the purity and extent of its precepts and by peculiar and powerful Enforcements In his Sermon on the Mount he clears it from the darkning glosses of the Phaisees who observed the letter of the Law but not the designe of the Lawgiver He declares that not only the gross act but all things of the same alliance are forbidden not only Murder but rash Anger and vilifying words which wound the Reputation Not only actual pollution but the impurity of the Eye and the staining of the Soul with unclean thoughts are all comprised in the prohibition He informs them that every Man in calamity is their Neighbour and to be relieved and commands them to love their deadliest enemies Briefly He tells the multitude that unless their Righteousness exceed the Righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees that is the utmost that they thought themselves obliged to they should not enter into the Kingdome of Heaven Besides our Saviour hath superadded special Enforcements to his Precepts The Arguments to perswade Christians to be universally Holy from Christs Redeeming them for that great end was not known either in the Oeconomy of Nature or the Law For before our lapsed state there was no need of a Redeemer and he was not revealed during the Legal Dispensation His Death was only shadowed forth in Types and foretold in such a manner as was obscure to the Jews The Gospel urges new reasons to increase our aversion from sin which neither Adam nor Moses were acquainted with So the Apostle dehorts Christians from uncleanness because their bodies are Members of Christ and Temples of the Holy-Ghost and therefore should be inviolably consecrated to purity If the Utensils of the Temple were so sacred that the employing them to a common use was revenged in a miraculous manner How much sorer punishment shall be inflicted on those who defile themselves after they were sanctified by the Blood of the Covenant The Gospel also recommends to us Love to one another in imitation of that admirable Love which Christ exprest to us and commands the highest Obedience even unto death when God requires it in conformity to our Redeemers Sufferings These and many other Motives are derived from a pure vein of Christianity and exalt the Moral Law to a higher pitch as to its Obligation upon men than in its first delivery by Moses 2. The Laws of Christ exceed the Rules which the best Masters of Morality in the School of Nature have prescribed for the Government of our Lives 'T is true there are remaining Principles of the Moral Law in the heart of Man Some warm sparks are still left which the Philosophers laboured to enliven and cherish Many excellent Precepts of Morality they delivered either to calm the Affections and lay the storms in our Breasts whereby the most men are guilty and miserable or to regulate the civil Conversation with others And since the coming of Christ Prometheus-like they brought their dead Torches to the Sun and stole some light from the Scriptures Yet upon searching we shall easily discover that notwithstanding all their boasts to purge the Soul from its defilements contracted by its union with the Body and to restore it to its primitive Perfection They became vain in their thoughts and their foolish heart was darkened Although the vulgar Heathens thought them to be guides in the safe way yet they were Companions with them in their wanderings And Truth instructs us that When the blind lead the blind both fall into the ditch I will briefly shew that their Morals are defective and mixt with false Rules only premising three things 1. That I shall not insist on their Ignorance of our Redeemer and their Infidelity in respect of those Evangelical Mysteries that are only discover'd by Revelation for that precisely considered doth not make them guilty before God But only take notice of their defects in natural Religion and moral Duties to which the Law written in the heart obliges all Mankind 2. That Vertue is not to be confounded with Vice although 't is not assisted by special Grace Those who performed acts of Civil Justice and Kindness and Honour were not guilty as those who violated all the Laws of Nature and Reason Their heroic Actions were praise-worthy among men and God gave them a temporal Reward although not being enlivened by Faith and purified by Love to God and an holy Intention for his Glory they were dead works unprofitable as to Salvation 3. Their highest Rule viz. To live according to Nature is imperfect and insufficient For although Nature in its original Purity furnisht us with perfect Instructions yet in its corrupt state 't is not so enlightened and regular as to direct us in our universal Duty 'T is as possible to find all the Rules of Architecture in the ruines of a Building as to find in the remaining Principles of the natural Law full and sufficient Directions for the whole Duty of Man either as to the performing good or avoiding evil The Mind is darkened and defiled with error that indisposes it for its office I will now proceed to shew how insufficient Philosophy is to direct us in our Duty to God our selves and others First In respect of Piety which is the chief Duty of the reasonable Creature Philosophy is very defective nay in many things contrary to it 1. By delivering unworthy Notions and Conceptions of the Deity Not only the vulgar Heathens chang'd the truth of God into a lie when they measured his Incomprehensible Perfections by the narrow compass of their
was a type of his lying in the Grave and Resurrection Moses in his Prophetical David in his Kingly Office praefigur'd him The Priestly Office being the Foundation of the other two and that upon which our Salvation principally depends was illustrated by two Glorious types Melchisedec and Aaron The one the high Priest in ordinary the other the Priest of God by extraordinary designation I will briefly touch upon the resemblance between him and Christ. Although Sacrifices were offer'd from the Beginning yet he is the first to whom that Title is given as called to that office in a special manner The Divinity of Christs Person the Eternity of his Office and the Infinite Value of his Oblation were shadowed forth by him Melchisedec is introduc'd into the Sacred story as one descending from Heaven and ascending thither without any account of his Birth or Death The silence of the Scripture is Mysterious for the Spirit conducted Holy Men in their Writings The Levitical Priests descended by Natural Generation from their predecessours and had successours in their Office which was annext to the race of Levi. But Melchisedec is represented without Father and Mother without Beginning and End of Days whose Priesthood was permanent in himself For things and Persons have a double being real in themselves and notional as they exist in the mind so that no mention being made of his coming into the World or leaving it the silence of the Scripture is equivalent to his continual duration Now in this was an adumbration of Christ who was the Eternal Son of God and really came from Heaven to execute his office and ascended thither And although his oblation was finisht on the Earth and his intercession shall cease in Heaven yet the effects of it shall be Eternal in his People and the Glory of it in himself The Apostle observes an other resemblance between the Supreme Quality of Melchisedec King of Salem and Jesus Christ He was King of Righteousness and Peace He Govern'd his Subjects in Righteousness and never stain'd those hands with humane Blood that were employed in the Sacred office of the Priesthood And by those Glorious Titles are signified the benefits our Saviour conveys to his People He is the true King of Righteousness By which is not intended the Righteousness that justifies before God in which respect he is call'd the Lord our Righteousness and is said to have brought in Eternal Righteousness for that respects his Priestly office in that quality he acquir'd it But that Title signifies his giving most Righteous Laws for the Government of the Church and his dispensing Righteous Rewards and Punishments Eternal Life and Death by which he preserves the Majesty of his Laws and secures the obedience of his Subjects And he is King of Peace by which we are not to understand his temper and disposition nor our peace with God for reconciliation is grounded on his Sacrifice nor peace with Conscience the effect of the other but that which depends on his Royalty As the King of Peace he keeps his Subjects in a calm and quiet Obedience all their Thoughts and Passions are regulated by his Will The Laws of secular Kings are only exposed to the eyes or proclaimed to the ears of their Subjects but His are engraven in their hearts By the inward and Almighty efficacy of his Spirit he inclines them to their Universal Duty and will bring them to Eternal Peace in his Glorious Kingdom First From hence we have an irrefragable Argument of the Truth and Divinity of the Gospel For 't is evident by comparing the antient Figures with the present Truth the Copies with the Original the Pictures with the Life that Eternal Wisdom contrived them For no created Understanding could frame so various Represenâ—ations of Christ and all exactly agreeing with him at such a distance before His appearance And if we compare the Predictions with the Events 't is most clear that only the Divine Knowledg could reveal them For otherwise how was it possible that the Prophets so many Ages before the Coming of Christ should predict those things concerning Him that exceeded the foresight of all the Angels of Light What Intelligence could there be between Moses and David and Isaiah that lived such a distance of time from one another to deliver such things as meet in him as their Centre And these Prophecies are conveyed to us by the Jews the most obstinate Enemies of Christianity who although they reverence the Letter yet abhor the accomplishment of them So that there can be no possible suspicion that they are feigned and of a later Date than their titles declare Their successive fulfilling is a perpetual Miracle to justifie the truth of our Religion Our Saviour used this Method for the instruction of his Disciples These are the words which I spake unto you that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses and in the Prophets and in the Psalms concerning me And St. Paul fram'd a powerful Demonstration from the Scriptures to prove that Jesus was the Christ. In his Writings he deciphers the riddles of the Law and removes the Veil to discover the Face of Christ engraven by the Divine Artificer Briefly by shewing the consent between the two Testaments he illuminates the Old by the New and confirms the New by the Old Now what Religion is there in the World whose Mysteries were foretold by the Oracles of God and figured by his Institutions above two thousand Years before 't was exhibited Whose Doctrine perfectly accords with the most antient venerable and Divine Writings Can that Religion be any other than Divine which God did so expresly predict and pourtray in such various manner for the receiving whereof He made such early Preparations in the World Certainly without offering the greatest violence to our rational Faculties none can disbelieve it He degrades himself from the dignity of being a Man that refuses to be a Christian. 2. From hence we may understand the incomparable Happiness of Christians not only above the Heathens who by Divine Desertion were wholly Strangers to the Covenants of Mercy but above God's peculiar People The Messiah was the expectation and desire of Heaven and Earth Before his coming the Saints had some glimmerings of Light which made them inwardly languish after the blessed Manifestation of it But that was reserved for Believers in the last Ages of the World That antient Promise the Morning Blush of the Gospel-Day That the Seed of the Woman should break the head of the Serpent and the Serpent bruise his heel signified the bloody Victory the Messiah should obtain over Satan but how little of it was understood One may as well from the sight of the Root foretel the dimensions of a Tree the colour figure and taste of its Fruits as from that Prediction have discover'd all the parts of our Mediator's Office and the excellent benefits resulting from it The Incarnation Crucifixion Resurrection and