as a God of compassion God is infinite in all his attributes in his justice as well as in his mercy these two cannot interfere as justice cannot intrench upon mercy so neither may mercy encroach upon justice the glory of both must be maintained Now by the breach of the Law the justice of God is wronged so that although mercy be apt to pardon yet justice requires satisfaction and calls for vengeance on sinners Every transgression Heb. 2. 2. must receive just recompence and God will not in any case absolve the guilty till this be done the hands of Exod. 34. 7. mercy are tied that she cannot act And seeing satisfaction could not be made to an infinite majesty but by an equal person and price therefore the son of God must become a curse for us by taking our nature and pouring out his soul to the death and by this means justice and mercy are reconciled and kiss each other and mercy now being set at liberty hath her free course to save poor sinners God will have his justice satisfied to the full and therefore Christ must bear all the punishment due to our sins or else God cannot set us free for he cannot go against his own just will observe the force of that phrase Christ ought to suffer And thus it behoved Christ to suffer Luk. 24. 26. and Mat. 26. 54. Thus it must be why must but because it was 1. So decreed by God 2. Foretold by the Prophets every particular of Christ's sufferings were foretold by the prophets even to their very spitting in his face 3. Prefigured in the daily morning and evening sacrifice this Lamb of God was sacrificed from the beginning of the world A necessity then there was of our Saviour's sufferings not a necessity of coaction for he died freely John 10. 11 14 17 18. and voluntarily but of immutability and infallibility for the former reasons mentioned An earthly Prince that is just holds himself bound to inflict punishment impartially upon the malefactor or his surety it stands upon his honour he saith it must be so I cannot do otherwise this is true much more of God who is Justice it self God who is great in counsel and excellent in working had store of means at hand whereby to set free and recover lost man-kind yet he was pleased in his infinite wisdom to pitch upon this way of satisfaction as being most agreeable to his holy nature and most suitable to his high and sovereign ends viz. Man's salvation and his own glory and that God doth stand upon full satisfaction and will not forgive one sin without it may be thus made evident First from the nature of sin which is that abominable 1. â—eâ— 44. 4. God could not â—salvâ— jure pass over the sin of man so as absolutely to let it go unpunished thing which God hates The sinner deserves to die for his sins Rom. 6. 23. Tho wages of sin is death every sinner is worthy of death They which commit such things are worthy of death Rom. 1. 32. Now God is just and righteous It is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you 2 Thes 1. 6. yea and God did therefore set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in bis blood Rom. 3. 25. To declare his righteousness that he might be just vers 26. Now if God be a just and righteous God then sin cannot absolutely escape unpunished for it is just with God to punish the sinner who is worthy of punishment and certainly God must deny himself if he will not be just 2 Tim. 2. 13. but this he can never do sin is of an infinite guilt and hath an infinite evil in the nature of it and therefore no person in heaven or earth but that person our Lord Jesus who is God-man and who had an infinite dignity that could either procure the pardon of it or make satisfaction for it no prayers no cries no tears no humblings no repentings no resolutions no reformations c. can stop the course of Justice or procure the guilty sinners pardon 't is Christ alone that can dissolve all obligations to punishment and break all bonds and chains of guilt and hand a pardon to us through his own blood Eph. 1. 7. we are set free by the blood of Christ By the blood of thy Zach. 9. 11. covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit 't is by his blood that we are justified and saved from wrath Rom. 5. 9. Much more being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath by him Pray tell me what is it to be justified but to be pardoned and what is it to be saved from wrath but to be delivered from all punishment Eph. 2. 13. Colos 1. 20. and both these depend upon the blood of Christ But The veracity of God requires it Look as God cannot but be just so he cannot but be true and if he cannot but be true then he will make good the threatnings that are gone out of his mouth Gen. 2. 17. In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Heb. in dying thou Under the name of death are comprehended all other calamities miseries and sorrows shalt die death is a fall that came in by a fall and without all pâ—radventure every man should die the same day he was born for the wages of sin is death and this wages should be presently paid did not Christ reprieve poor sinner's lives for a season upon which account he is said to be the Saviour of all men not of eternal preservation but of a temporal reservation He will by no means clear 1 Tim. 4. 10. the guilty The soul that sinneth it shall die Ezek. 18. Exod. 34. 7. 20. The wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him Rom. 2. 6. He will render to every man according to his deeds Oh sirs God can never so far yield as to abrogate his own Law and quietly to sit down with injury and loss to his own Justice himself having established a Law c. The Law pronounces him cursed that continues not in all things Gal. 3. 10. that are written therein to do them Now though the threatnings of men are frequently vain and frivolous yet the threatnings of the great God shall certainly take place and have their accomplishment though many ten thousand millions of sinners perish not one tittle of the Mat. 5. 18. dreadful threatnings of God shall fail till all be fulfilled Josephus saith that from that very time that old Eli heard those terrible threatnings that made their ears tingle 1 Sam. 3. 11 12 13 14. and hearts tremble that heard them Eli never ceased weeping ah who can look upon the dreadful threatnings that are pointed against sinners all over the book of God and not tremble and weep God cannot but in justice punish sinners neither is it in his choice
7. 15. 19. 21. 23. Isa 30. 22. 14. Hos 8. When the will stands upon such terms of defiance with all sin as that it will never enter into a league of friendship with any sin then is the Soul turned from every sin Thirdly In the judgments turning away from all sin by disapproving disallowing and condemning all sin Rom. 7. 15. O! saith the judgment of a Christian sin is the greatest evil in all the world 't is the only thing God abhors and that brought Jesus Christ to the Cross that damns Souls that shuts Heaven and that has laid the foundations of Hell O! It is the pricking thorn in my eye the deadly arrow in my side the two-edged-sword that hath wounded my Conscience and slain my comforts and separated between God and my Soul O! sin is that which hath hindred my prayers and imbittered my mercies and put a sting into all my crosses and therefore I can't but disapprove of it and disallow of it and condemn it to death yea to Hell from whence it came Fourthly In the purpose and resolution of the soul the soul sincerely purposing and resolving never willingly wilfully or wickedly to transgress any more Psal 17. 3. The general purpose and resolution of my heart is not to transgress though particular failings may attend me yet my resolutions and purposes are firmly set against doing evil Psal 39. 1. The true Penitent holds up his purposes and resolutions to keep off from sin and to keep close with God though he be not able in every thing and at all times to make good his purposes and resolutions c. But Fifthly In the earnest and unfeigned desires and careful endeavours of the Soul to abandon all sin to forsake all sin and to be rid of all sin Rom. 7. 22 23. You know when a prudent tender indulgent Father sees hs Child to fail and come short in that which he enjoyns him to do yet knowing that his desires and endeavours is to please him and serve him he will not be harsh rigid sowre or severe towards him but will spare him and exercise much tenderness and indulgence towards him and will God will God whose mercies reach above the Heavens and whose compassions are infinite and whose love is like himself carry it worse towards his Children then men do carry it towards theirs Surely no. God's Fatherly indulgence accepts of the will for the work Heb. 13. 18. 2 Cor. 8. 12. Certainly a sick man is not more desirous to be rid of all his Diseases nor a Prisoner to be freed from all his bolts and chains than the true Penitent is desirous to be rid of all his sins Sixthly and lastly In the common and ordinary declining shunning and avoyding of all known occasions of sin yea and all temptations provocations inducements and enticements to sin c. That royal Law 1 Thes 5. 22. Abstain from all appearance of evil is a Law that is very precious in a Penitent mans eye and commonly lyes warm upon a Penitent mans heart so that take him in his ordinary course and you shall find him very ready to shun and be shie of the very appearance of sin of the very shews and shadows of sin Job made a Covenant with his eyes Job 31. 1. and Joseph would not hearken to his bold tempting Mistriss to lye by her or to be with her Gen. 39. 10. And David when himself would not sit with Vain persons Psal 26. 3 4 5. Now a true penitential turning from all sins lyes in these six things and therefore you had need look about you for if there be any one way of wickedness wherein you walk and which you are resolved you will not forsake you are no true penitents and you will certainly lose your souls and be miserable for ever This Opinion that is now under-consideration is an opinion that will exceedingly deject many precious Christians and cause them greatly to hang down their heads especially in four days 1. In the day of common calamity 2. In the day of personal affliction 3. In the day of death 4. In the great day of account First In a day of common Calamity when the Sword is drunk with the blood of the slain or when the raging Pestilence lays thousands in heap upon heap or when Fevours Agues Gripes and other Diseases carry hundreds every week to their long homes O! now the remembrance of a mans beloved sins his bosom sins his darling sins if a Saint had any such sins will be very apt to fill his soul with fears dreads and perplexities Surely now God will meet with me now God will avenge himself on me for my beloved sins my bosom sins my darling sins O! how righteous a thing is it with God because of my beloved lusts to sweep me away by these sweeping Judgments that are abroad in the Earth On the contrary how sweet and comfortable a thing is it when in a day of common Calamity a Christian can appeal to God and appeal to Conscience that though he has many weaknesses and infirmities that hang upon him that yet he has no beloved sin no bosom sin no darling sin that either God or Conscience can charge upon him O! such a consideration as this may be as life from the dead to a gracious Christian in the midst of all the common Calamities that do's surround him and that hourly threaten him Secondly In the day of personal Affections when the smarting Rod is upon him and God writes bitter things against him when the Hand of the Almighty has toucht him in his Name Estate Relations c. O! now the remembrance of a mans beloved sins his bosom sins his darling sins if a Saint had any such sins will be as the hand writing upon the Wall Dan. 5. 5 6. that will make his counteance to be changed his thoughts to be troubled his joynts to be loosed and his knees to be dashed one against another O! now a Christian will be ready to conclude O! 't is my beloved sins my bosom sins my darling sins that has caused God to put this bitter cup into my hand and that has provokt him to give me gall and wormwood to drink Lam. 3. 19. Whereas on the contrary when a man under all his personal tryals though they are many and great yet can lift up his head and appeal to God and Conscience that though he has many sinful weaknesses and infirmities hanging upon him yet neither God nor Conscience can charge upon him any beloved sins any bosom sins any darling sins O! such a consideration as this will help a man to bare up bravely sweetly cheerfully patiently and contentedly under the heaviest hand of God as is evident in that great instance of Job who so sorely afflicted as Job and yet no beloved sin no bosom sin no darling sin being chargable upon him by God or Conscience Job 10. 7. chap. 31. 33. How bravely sweetly and Christianly do's Job bear up under
an offering for sin Ergo Christ offered his Soul as well as his Body Again Our Saviour himself saith My Soul is Math. 26. 38. very heavy unto death Certainly it was not the bodily death which Christ seared for then he should have been weaker than many Martyrs yea than many of the Romans who made no more of dying than of dining therefore Christs Soul was verily and properly stricken with heaviness and not with the beholding of bodily torments only as some dream But Fourthly That whereby Adam and we ever since do most properly commit sin by the same hath Christ the second Adam made satisfaction properly for our sin but Adam did and we all do properly commit sin in our souls our bodies being but the instruments Ergo Christ by and in his soul hath properly made satisfaction First The truth of the proposition is confirmed by the Apostle As by one mans disobediâ—nce we are made Sinners so by the Rom. 5 19. obedience of one many shall be made Righteous Christ then satisfied for us by the same wherein Adam disobeyed Nâ—w Adams soul was in the transgression as well as his body and accordingly was Christs very soul in his sufferings and satisfaction and Christ obeyed that is in his soul for obedience belongeth to the soul as one observeth upon those words of the Apostle Phil. 2. 8. He became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Who Agatho Epist ad Constantin upon Phil. 2. 8. doth not understand saith the same Author that obedience doth belong to the humane will That there is a kind of dying in the soul when it is pierced with grief besides the death of the soul either by sin or damnation is not disagreeing to the Scripture Simâ—on saith to Mary A sword shall pierce through thy soul Luk. 2 35. Look as then the body dyeth being pierced with a sword so the soul may be said to dye or languish when it is pierced with grief what else is Crucifying but dying Now the soul is said to be Crucified as is evident by that passage of the Apostle I am Crucified to the World when as yet his body was alive So Ambrose doubts not to say Gal. 6. 14. Mens mea in Christo Crucifixa est My soul was Crucified Ambâ—ose lib. 5. â—â— Luc. in Christ that is Christ in His Soul was Crucified which he calleth our soul because he did assume our soul and body or else where he saith Mea est voluntas quam suam dixit Ambrâ—se lib. 2. de sid c. 3. c. It is my will which he calleth his it is my heaviness which he took with my affections yet was it properly and personally Christs Soul and Will but ours by community of nature Secondly For the Assumption 1. Howsoever it be admitted that the body is the instrument of the soul both in sinning and suffering yet the conclusion is this That because sin is committed in the soul principally and properly therefore the satisfaction must be made in the soul principally and properly If this conclusion be granted we have that we would for the bodily pains affecting the soul are not the proper passions of the soul neither is the soul said to suffer properly when the body suffereth but by way of compassion and consent 2. We grant that in the proper and immediate sufferings of the soul the body also is affected As when Christ was in his Agony in the Garden his whole body was therewith stirred and mâ—â—â— and that it did sweat drops of blood But it is one thing when the grief beginneth immediatly in the soul and so affecteth the body and when the pain is first infliâ—ted upon the body and so worketh upon the soul there the soul suffereth properly and principally of which sufferings we speak here neither properly nor principally which is not the thing in question 3. It is not the reasonable soul that is affected with the body for it is a ground in Philosophy that the soul suffereth not but only the sensitive part But the grief that we speak of that is satisfactory for sin must be in the very reasonable soul where sin took the beginning and so Ambrose saith upon those words of Christ Ambrose de Incarnat cap. 7. My Soul is heavy to death Ad rationabilis assumptionem animae c. naturae humanae refertur affectum It is referred to the assumption of the reasonable soul and humane affection Pride Ambition Infidelity began in Adams soul and had their determination there in the committing of those sins the body had no part indeed with the ear they heard the suggestion of Satan but it was no sin till in their minds they had consented unto it Wherefore seeing the first sin committed was properly and wholly in the soul for the same the soul must properly and wholly satisfie Because sin took beginning from Adams soul the satisfaction also must begin in Christs Soul as Ambrose saith Inciplo in Christo vincere unde in Adam victus sum Ambrose lib 4. in Luc. I begin there to win in Christ where in Adam I was overcome Then it followeth that the sufferings of Christs soul took beginning there and were not derived by simpathy from the stripes and pain of the body We infer then that therefore Christs Soul had proper and immediate sufferings besides those which proceeded from simpathy with his body and all Christs sufferings were satisfactory Ergo Christ did satisfie for our sins properly and immediatly in his soul But if you please take this fourth Argument in another form of words thus The punishment which was pronounced against the first Adam our first Surety and in him against us that same did Christ the second Adam our next and best Surety bear for us or else it must still lye upon us to suffer it But the punishment threatned and denounced against Adam for transgression was not only corporal respecting our bodyes but spiritual also respecting our souls There was a spiritual malediction due unto our souls as well as a corporal c. Look as God put a Sanction on the Law and Covenant of works made with all of us in Adam that he and his should be liable to death both of body and soul which Covenant being broken by sin all Sinners became obnoxious to the death both of body and soul so it was necessary that the Redeemed should be delivered from the death of both by the Redeemers tasting of death in both kinds as much as should be sufficient for their Redemption O Sirs as sin infected the whole Man soul and body and the Curse following on sin left no part nor power of the mans soul free so Justice required that the Redeemer coming in the room of the persons Redeemed should feel the force of the Curse both in body and soul But Fifthly He shall see of the travel of his soul Isa 53. Here the soul is taken properly and the travel of Christs
Burial Resurrection and Ascension and besides they make rehearsal of very small circumstances therefore we may safely conclude that they would never have omitted Christs local descent into the place of the damned if there had been any such things besides the great end why they penned this History was That we might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that thus believing Jâ—h 20. 31. we might have life everlasting Now there could not have been a greater matter for the confirmation of our Faith than this that Jesus the Son of Mary who went down to the place of the damned returned thence to live in all happiness and blessedness for ever But Secondly If Christ did go into the place of the damned then he went either in soul or in body or in his Godhead not in his God-head for that could not descend because it is every where and his body was in the grave and as for his soul it went not to Hell but immediatly after his death it went to Paradise that is the third Heaven a place of joy and happiness This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise which words of Christ must be understood Luk. 23. 43. of his Man-hood or Soul and not of his Godhead for they are an answer to a demand and therefore unto it they must be sutable The Thief makes his request Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom vers 42. to which Christ Answers Verily I say unto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise I shall saith Christ this day enter into Paradise and there shalt thou be with me Now there is no entrance but in regard of his Soul or Man-hood for the God-head which is at all times in all Psal 139 7 13. Jer 23. 23 24. places cannot be properly said to entertain into a place But Thirdly When Christ saith To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise He doth intimate as some observe a resemblance which is between the first and second Adam The first Adam quickly sinned against God and was as Gen. 3. quickly cast out of Paradise by God Christ the second Adam having made a perfect and compleat satisfaction Heb 9. 26 28 cap. 10. 14. to the justice of God and the Law of God for mans sin must immediately enter into Paradise Now to say that Christ in Soul descended locally into Hell is to abolish this Analogy between the first and second Adam But Secondly 'T is not impossible that the pains of the second death should be suffered in this life time and place are but circumstances the main substance of the second death is the bearing of Gods fierce wrath and indignation Divine favour shining upon a man in Hell would turn Hell into a Heaven all sober seeing serious Christians will grant that the true though not the full joys of Heaven may be felt and experienced in this life 1 Pet. 1. 8. Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory or glorious either because this their rejoycing was a tast of their future glory or because it made them glorious in the eyes of men the original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is glorified already a piece of Gods Kingdom and Heavens happiness afore-hand Ah how many precious Saints both living and dying have cryed out O the joy the joy the inexpressible joy that I find in my Soul Ephe. 2 6. He hath made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus What is this else but even while we live by Faith to possess the very joys of Heaven on this side Heaven Now look as the true joys of Heaven may be felt on this side Heaven so the true though not the full pains of Hell may be felt on this side Hell and doubtless Cain Judas Julian Spira and others have found it so That Father hit the mark who Gen. 4. 13. said Judicis in mente tua sedet ibi Deus ad est accusator conscientia tortor timor The Judges Tribunal seat is in Augustin in Psal 57. thy soul God sitteth there as Judge thy Conscience is the Accuser and fear is the tormentor Now if there be in the soul a Judg an Accuser and a Tormentor then certainly there is a true tast of the torments of Hell on this side Hell Thirdly The place Hell is no part of the payment the laying down of the price makes the satisfaction this is all that is spoken and threatned to Adam Thou shalt dye Gen. 2. 1â— Peter saith the Devils are cast down to Hell and kept in chains of darkness 2 Pet. 2. 4 And Paul calls the Devil the Prince that ruleth in the Ayr. Ephe. 2. 2. The Ayr then is the Devils Hell well then seeing this ayr is the Devils present Hell we may safely conclude that Hell may be in this present world and therefore it is neither impossible nor improbable that the Cross was Christs Hell the death and this may be suffered here The wicked go to Hell as their Prison because they can never pay their debts otherwise the debt may as well be paid in the Market as the Goal Now Christ did discharge all his peoples debts in the days of his flesh when he offered up strong crys and tears Heb. 5 7. and not after death Look as a King entring into Prison to loose the Prisoners Chains and to pay their debts is said to have been in Prison so our Lord Jesus Christ by his souls sufferings which is the Hell he entred into hath released us of our pains and chains and paid our debts and in this sense he may be said to have entred into Hell though he never actually entred into the local place of the damned which is properly called Hell for in that place there is neither vertue nor goodness holiness nor happiness and therefore the holiness of Christs person would never suffer him to descend into such a place in the local place of Heaven and Hell It is not possible for any neither to be at once nor yet at sundry times successively for there is no passing from Heaven to Hell or from Hell to Heaven Luk. 16. 26. The place of suffering is but a circumstance in the business Hell the place of the damned is no part of the debt therefore neither is suffering there locally any part of the payment of it no more than a Prison is any part of an earthly debt or of the payment of it The Surety may satisfie the Creditor in the place appointed for payment or in the open Court which being done the Debtor and Surety both are acquitted that they need not go to Prison if either of them go to Prison it is because they do not or cannot pay the debt for all that Justice requires is to satisfie the debt to the which the Prison is meerly extrinsical Even so the Justice of God
cannot be satisfied for the transgression of the Law but by the death of the Sinner but it doth not require that this should be done in the place of the damned The wicked go to Prison because they do not they cannot make satisfaction otherwise Christ having fully discharged the debt needed not go to Prison Object But the pains and torments that are due to mans Obj. 5 sins are to be everlasting and how then can Christs short sufferings countervail them Answ That Christs sufferings in his soul and body Answ were equivalent to it although to speak properly Eternity is not of the essence of death which is the reward of sin and threatned by God but its accidental because man thus dying is never able to satisfie God therefore seeing he cannot pay the last farthing he is for Math. 18 28. 35. ever kept in Prison Look as eternal death hath in it eternity despair necessarily in all those that so die so Christ could not suffer but what was wanting in duration was supplyed 1. By the immensity of his sorrows conflicting with the sense of Gods wrath because of our sins imputed to him so that he suffered more grief then if the sorrows of all men were put together Christs Hell sorrows on the Cross were meritorious and fully satisfactory Isa 53. for our everlasting punishment and therefore in greatness were to exceed all other mens sorrows as being answerable to Gods justice 2. By the dignity and worth of him that did suffer Therefore the Scripture calls it the blood of God The damned must bear the wrath of God to all Eternity because they can never satisfie the justice of God for sin therefore they must lye by it world without end but Christ hath made an infinit satisfaction in a finit time by undergoing that fierce battel with the wrath of God and getting the Victory in a few hours which is equivalent to the Creatures bearing it and grapling with it everlastingly This length or shortness of durance is but a circumstance not of any necessary consideration in this case Suppose a man indebted a 100 l. and likely to lye in Prison till he shall pay it yet utterly unable if another man comes and lays down the money on two hours warning is not this as well or better done that which may be done to as good or better purpose in a short time what need is there to draw it out at length The justice of the Law did not require that either the Sinner or his Surety should suffer the Eternity of Hells torments but only their extremity it doth abundantly counterpoise the eternity of the punishment that the person which suffered was the eternal God Besides it was impossible that he should be detained under the sorrows of death Act. 2. 24. And if he had been so detained Then he had not spoiled principalities and powers nor triumphed over them Col. 2. 15. but had been overcome and so had not attained his end But Secondly The pains of Hell which Christ suffered though they were not infinit in time yet were they of an infinite price and value for the dignity of the person that suffered them Christs temporal enduring of Hellish sorrows was as effectual and meritorious as if they had been perpetual the dignity of Christs person did bear him out in that which was not meet for him to suffer nor fit in respect of our Redemption for if he should have suffered Eternally our Redemption could never have been accomplished but for him to suffer in soul as he did in body was neither derogatory to his person nor prejudicial to his work Infinitly in time Christ was not to suffer as one well observes Christ dyed secundum tempus Ambrose in 5. ad Rom. 6. in time or according to time Tempora in mundo sunt c. Times are in the world where the Sun riseth and setteth unto this time he dyed but where there is no time there he was found not only living but conquering Christ God-Man suffered punishment in measure infinit and therefore there is no ground why he should endure it eternally and indeed it was impossible that Christ should be Act. 2. 24. holden of Death because he was both the Lord of life and the Lords holy One 1 Cor. 2. 8. Act. 2. 27. But Thirdly If the measure of a mans punishment were infinit the duration needs not be infinit sinful mans measure of punishment is finit and therefore the duration of his punishment must be infinit because the punishment must be answerable to the infinit evil of sin committed against an infinit God O Sirs continual imprisonment in Hell arises from mans not being able to pay the price for could he pay the debt in one year he needs not lye two years in Prison Now the debt is the first and second death and because sinful man cannot pay it in any time he must endure it eternally but now Christ has laid down ready pay upon the nail to the full for all his chosen Ones and therefore it is not reâ—uired of him that he should suffer for ever neither can it stand with the holiness or justice of God to hold him under the second death he having paid the debt to the utmost Farthing Now that he hath fully paid the debt himself witnesseth Joh. 19. 30. saying when he had received the Vinegar It is finished so vers 28. After this Jesus knowing that all things were accomplished Though there are many interpretations given of this place by Augustine Chrysostom Jansenuâ— and others yet doubtless this alone will hold water viz. That the heavy wrath of the Lord which did pursue Christ and the second death which filled him with grievous terrors is now over and past and mans Redemption finished he speaketh here of that which presently should be and in the yielding up his Ghost was accomplished And thus you see that Jesus Christ did feel and suffer the very torments of Hell though not after a Hellish manner and you see also that Christ did not locally descend into Hell Shall we make a few inferences from hence First then O! how should these sad sufferings of Christ for us endear Christ to us O! what precious thoughts should we have of him O! how should we Psal 136. 17 18. prize him how should we honour him how should we love him and how should we be swallowed up in the admiration of him as his love to us has been matchless so his sufferings for us has been matchless I have read of Nero that he had a Shirt made of a Salamanders skin so that if he did walk through the fire in it it would keep him from burning So Christ is the true Salamanders skin that will keep the soul from everlasting burnings Isa 33. 14. and therefore well may Christians cry out with that Martyr None but Christ none but Christ Tigranes in Zenophon Lambert coming to Redeem his Father and Friends with his
8. 29. And behold they cryed out saying what have we do do with thee Jesus thou Son of God Art thou come hither to torment us before the time 1. They acknowledge God 2. Christ 3. The day of Judgment 4. That they shall be tormented then They who Piscat scorn the day of Judgment are worse than Devils and they who deny the Deity of Christ are worse than Devils The Devils are as it were for a time respited and reprived in respect of full torment and they are suffered as free Prisoners to flutter in the Aair and to course about the Earth till the great day of the Lord which they 2 Pet. 3. tremble to think on and which they that mock at or make light of are worse than Devils The Devils knew that torments were prepared for them and a time when these torments should be fully and fatally inflicted on them and loath they were to suffer before that time Ah Sirs shall not men tremble to deny what the Devils are forced to confess Shall I now make a few short inferences from what has been said and so conclude this head First then O labour to set up God as the great object of your fear this grand Lesson Christ commands us to take out Fear not them which kill the body but art not able Math. 10. 28. to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell yea I say unto you fear him Luk. 12 5. Christ doubles the precept that it might stick with more life and power upon us As one fire so one fear drives out another both the punishment of loss and the punishment of sense may be the objects of a filial fear the fear of a Son of a Saint of a Soul that is Espoused and Married 2 Cor. 11. 2. Hâ—s 2. 19 20. to Christ The fear of God and the fear of Sin will drive out the fear of death and the fear of Hell O Sirs will you not fear that God that hath the Keys of Hell and Death in his own hand that can spake you into Hell at pleasure that can by a word of command bring you to Rev. 1. 18 dwell with a devouring fire yea to dwell with everlasting burnings Ah Friends will you fear a burning Feaver and will you not fear a burning in Hell Will you fear when the House you live in is on fire and when the Bed you lye on Isa 33. 14. is on fire though it may be quenched and will you not fear that fire that is unquenchable when men run through the Streets and cry Fire Fire Fire How do your hearts quake and tremble in you and will you not fear the fire of Hell will you not fear everlasting fire Sir Francis Math. 3. 12. Math. 25. 41. Bacon in his History of Henry the Seventh relates how it was a by-word of the Lord Cordes who was a prophane Popish Atheistical French Lord that he could be content to lye seven years in Hell so he might win Callice from the English but had this Popish Lord lyen but seven minutes under unsupportable torments he would quickly have repented of his mad bargain It was good Counsel that one of the Ancients gave Descendamus in infernum viventes ne descendamus morientes Let us go into Hell while we are alive by a serious meditation and holy consideration that we may not go into it Bernard when we be dead by real miseries God can kill and more than that He can cast into Hell here is both temporal and eternal destruction both Rods and Scorpians He can kill the body and then damn both body soul and cast them into Hell and therefore it becomes every one to set up God as the great object of their fear Yea I say unto you fear him yea I say unto you fear him This redoubling of the speech adds a greater enforcement to the admonition 'T is like the last stroke of the hammer that rivets and drives up all to the head Thus David uses this ingemination Thou even Thou art to be Psal 76. 7. feared and who may stand in thy sight when thou art Angry thou canst look them to Death yea to Hell And 't is worth the observing that this ingemination and reinforcement here annexed is to the affirmitive clause not to the negative Our Saviour saith not Yea I say unto you fear not them but he places the reduplication upon the affirmative precept I say unto you fear him O Sirs temporal judgments are but the smoak of his Anger but in Hell there are the flames of his Anger that fire burns fiercely and there is no quenching of it Excuse me saith the Father thou breakest bonds and imprisonments O Emperour but God's threatnings are much more terrible He threatens Hell-torments and everlasting damnation and certainly where there is the greatest danger there 't is fit that there should be the greatest dread But Secondly Then flee from the Wrath to come 2. Math. 3. 7. Though destruction by the Romans is not here excluded yet the principal thing that he means by Wrath to come iâ— Hell-fire Math. 23. 33. Oh Sirs that you would seriously and frequently dwell upon these short hints 1. Wrath to come is the greatest Wrath 't is the greatest Evil that can befal a Soul Who knows the power of thy Wrath Psal 19. 11. Wrath to come is such Wrath as no man can either avoyd or abide and yet such is most mens stupidity that they will not believe it till they feel it As God is a great God so his Wrath is a great Wrath. I may allude to that which Zebah and Nahum 1. 16. Judg. 8. 21. Zalmunua said to Gideon As the man is so is his strength So may I say as the Lord is so is his Wrath. The wrath of an earthly King is compared to the roaring of Prov. 19. 12. a Lyon Heb. of a young Lyon which being in his prime roars most terribly he roars with such a force that he amazes the Creatures whom he hunts so as that they have no power to fly from him Now if the Wrath of a King be so terrible Oh how dreadful must the Wrath of the King of Kings then be The greater the Rev. 17. 14. evil is the more cause we have to flee from it Now Wrath to come is the greatest evil and therefore the more it concerns us to flee from it But Secondly Wrath to come is Treasured up Wrath. Sinners are still a Treasuring up Wrath against the day of Wrath in Treasuring there is 1. Laying in Rom. 2. 5. 2. Lying hid 3. Bringing out again as there is occasion Whilst wicked men are following their own Lusts they think that they are still adding to their own happiness but alas they do but add Wrath to Wrath they do but heap up Judgment upon Judgment punishment upon punishment Look as men are daily
3. 13. 15. He 's called the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2. 5. 1 Cor. 15. 21. Since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead God's justice would be satisfied in the same nature that had sinned 16. God's son made of a woman Gal. 4. 4. 17 Man 1 Tim. 2. 5. The man Christ Jesus 18. The son of David Mat. 1. 1. Mar. 12. 35. How say the Scribes that Christ is the son of David In that the Scribes and Pharisees knew and acknowledged according to the Scripture that Christ should be the son of David that is should be born and descend of the stock and posterity of David according to the flesh Hence we may easily gather the truth of Christ's humane nature that he was ordained of God to be true man as well as God in one and the same person for else he could not be the son of David Now that he must be the son of David even the Scribes and the Pharisees knew and acknowledged as we see here and this was a truth which they had learned out of the Scriptures and not only they but even the common sort of Jews in our Saviour's time John 7. 42. some of the common people spake thus Hath not the scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David and the Messiah was then commonly called the son Rom. 1. 3. of David so then Christ being of the seed of David after the flesh he must needs be true man as well as God for which cause he was incarnate in the due time appointed of God that is to say he being the son of God from everlasting did in time become man taking our nature upon him together with the infirmities of our nature sin only excepted John 1. 14. Now thus you see that the 18 denominations that are given to Christ in the blessed Scriptures do abundantly demonstrate the certainty of Christ's humane nature But Thirdly Christ took the whole humane nature he was truly and compleatly man consisting of flesh and spirit body and soul yea that he assumed the entire humane nature with whatever is proper to it Christ took to himself the whole humane nature in both the essential parts of man soul and body the two essential and constitutive parts of man are soul and body where these two are there 's the true man now Christ had both and therefore he was true man First Christ had a true humane and reasonable soul the reasonable soul is the highest and noblest part of man this is that which principally makes the man and hath the greatest influence into his being and essence if therefore Jesus Christ had only a humane body without a humane soul he had wanted that part which is most essential to man and so he could not have been looked upon as true and perfect man O Sirs Christ redeemed and saved nothing but what he assumed the redemption and salvation reach no farther than the assumption our soul then would have been never the better for Christ had he not taken that as well as our body Hence said Augustine Aug de civ Dei lib. 10. c. 27. p. 586 Therefore he took the whole man without sin that he might heal the whole of which man consists of the plague of sin And Fulgentius to the same purpose As Fulgent ad Thrasymund lib. 1. p. 251. the Devil smote by deceiving the whole man so God saves by assuming the whole man If he will save the whole man from sin he will assume the whole man without sin saith Nazianzen The Scriptures do clearly evidence that Christ had a real humane soul Mat. 26. 38. My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death every word is emphatical my soul his sorrows pierced his soul Psal 22. 16. and sorrowful round about even to death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is heavy round about Look as the soul was the first Agent in transgression so it is here the first Patient in affliction to death that is this sorrow will never be finished or intermitted but by death My soul is exceeding sorrowful then Christ had a true humane soul neither was his Deity to him for a soul as of old men of corrupt minds have fancied for then our bodies only had been redeemed by him and not our souls if he had not suffered in soul as well as in body The sufferings of his body were but the body of his sufferings the soul of his sufferings were the sufferings of his soul which was now beset with sorrows and heavy as heart could hold John 12. 27. Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say The Greek word signifies a vehement commotion and perturbation as Herod's mind was troubled when he Mat. 2. 3. heard that a new King was born or as the Disciples were Mat. 14. 26. troubled when they thought they saw a spirit walking on the sea and cryed out for fear or as Zachary was troubled Luk. 1. 12. at the sudden sight of the Angel The rise and cause of Christ's soul-trouble was this the Godhead hiding it self from the humanitie's sense and the father letting out not only an apprehension of his sufferings to come but a present taste of the horrour of his wrath due to man for sin he is amazed overwhelmed and perplexed with it in his humanity and no wonder since he had the sins of all the Elect laid upon him by imputation to suffer for And so this wrath is not let out against his person but against their sins which were laid on him Now though Christ was here troubled or jumbled and puzzled as the word imports yet we are not to conceive that there was any sin in this exercise of his for he was like clean water in a clean vessel which being never so often stirred and shaken yet still keeps clean and clear neither are we to think it strange that the son of God should be put to such perplexities in this trouble as not to know what to say for considering him as man encompassed with our sinless infirmities and that this heavy weight of wrath did light upon him on a sudden it is no wonder that it did confound all his thoughts as man O Sirs look that as sin hath infected both the souls and bodies of the Elect and chiefly their souls where it hath its chief seat so Christ to expiate this sin did suffer unspeakable sorrows and trouble in his soul as well as torture in his body for my soul is troubled saith he Though some sufferings of the body be very exquisite and painful and Christ's in particular were such yet sad trouble of mind is far more grievous than any bodily distress as Christ also found who silently bare all his outward troubles but yet could not but cry out of his inward trouble Now is my soul troubled Isa 53. 10. Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin when Christ suffered for us our sins were laid upon
Christ be not God yea God-man then we shall never be able to answer all the challenges that either divine Justice or Satan can make upon us whatsoever the justice of God can exact that the blood of God can discharge now the blood of Christ is the blood of God as I have evidenced in the second Reason by reason of the hypostatical union the humane nature being united to the divine the humane nature did suffer the Divine did satisfie Christ's Godhead did give both Majesty and Essicacy to his sufferings Christ was sacrifice Priest and Altar He was Sacrifice as he was man Priest as he was God and man and Altar as he was God it is the property of the Altar to sanctifie the thing offered Mat. 23. 19. on it so the Altar of Christ's divine nature sanctified the sacrifice of his death and made it meritorious Man sinned and therefore man must satisfie Therefore the humane nature must be assumed by a surety for man cannot do it If an Angel should have assumed humane nature it would have polluted him Humane nature was so defiled by sin that it could not be assumed by any but God Now Christ being God the Divine nature purified the Humane nature which he took and so it was a sufficient sacrifice The person offered in sacrifice being God as well as man This is a most noble ground upon which a believer may challenge Satan to say his worst and to do his worst let him present God as terrible yea as a consuming Heb. 12. 29. fire let him present me as odious and abominable Zecha 3. 2 3. in the sight of God as once he did Joshuah let him present me before the Lord as vile and mercenary as once he did Job let him aggravate the heighth of God's displeasure Job 1. 9 10 11. and the heighth and depth and length and breadth of my sins I shall readily grant all and against all this I will set the infinite satisfaction of dear Jesus this I know that though the justice of God cannot be avoided nor bribed yet it may be satisfied Here is a proportionable satisfaction here is God answering God 'T is a very noble plea of the Apostle who is he that condemneth Rom. 8. 34. it is Christ that died let Satan urge the justice of God as much as he can I am sure that the justice of God 1 John 1. 7 8 9. makes me sure of Salvation and the reason is evident because his justice obligeth him to accept of an adequate satisfaction of his own appointing The justice of God maketh me sure of mine own happiness because if God be just that satisfaction should be had when that satisfaction is made Justice requireth that the person for whom it is made shall be received into favour I confess that unless God had obliged himself by promise there were no pressing his justice thus far because Noxa sequitur caput There was mercy in the promise of sending Christ Gen. 3. 15. Had not Christ stept in between man's sin Gods wrath the world had fallen about Adam's ears out of mercy to undertake for us otherwise we cannot say that God was bound in justice to accept of satisfaction unless he had first in mercy been pleased to appoint the way of a surety Justice indeed required satisfaction but it required it of the person that sinneth Gen. 2. 17. But of the tree of the knowledg of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die or dying thou shalt die or as others read the words thou shalt surely and shortly or suddenly die and without controversie every man should die the same day he is born The wages of sin is death and this wages Rom. 6. 23. should be presently paid did not Christ as a boon beg poor sinners lives for a season for which cause he is called the Saviour of all men not of eternal preservation 1 Tim. 4. 10. but of temporal reservation it was free and noble mercy to all mankind that dear Jesus was promised and provided sealed and sent into the world that some might be eternally saved and the rest preserved from wrath for Jâ—hn 6. 27. a time Here cometh in mercy that a surety shall be accepted and what he doth is as if the person that offended should have done it himself Here is mercy and salvation surely bottomed upon both ah what sweet and transcendent comfort flows from this very consideration That Christ is God But Fourthly the great and glorious majesty of God required it that Christ should be God God the father being a God of infinite holiness purity justice and righteousness none but he who was very God who was essentially one with the father could or durst interpose John 10. 30. cap. 14. 9 10 11. c. between God and fallen man The Angels though they are glorious creatures yet they are but creatures and could these satisfie divine justice and bear infinite wrath and purchase divine favour and reconcile us to God and procure our pardon and change our hearts and renew our natures and adorn our souls with Grace and yet all these things must be done or we undone and that for ever Now if this were a work too high for Angels then we may safely conclude that it was a work too hard for fallen man Man was once the mirrour of all understanding the Hicroglyphick of Wisdom but now quantum mutatus ab illo there is a great alteration for poor sorry man is now sent to school to learn wisdom and instruction of the beasts birds and creeping things he is sent to the Pismire to learn providence Prov. 6. 6 To the Stork and to the Swallow to learn to make a right use of time Jer. 8. 7. To the Oxe and the Ass to learn knowledg Isa 1. 3. And to the fowls of the Air to learn confidence Mat. 6. Man that was once a master of knowledg a wonder of understanding perfect in the science of all things is now grown blockish sottish and senseless and therefore altogether unfit and unable to make his peace with God to reconcile himself to God c. But Fifthly and lastly that Christ's sufferings and merits might be sufficient it was absolutely necessary that he should be God The sin of man was infinite I mean in finitely punishable if not infinite in number yet infinite in nature every offence being infinite it being committed against an infinite God No creature could therefore satisfie for it but the sufferer must be God that so his infiniteness might be answerable to the infiniteness of men's offences There was an absolute necessity of Christ's sufferings partly because he was pleased to substitute himself in the sinner's stead and partly because his sufferings only could be satisfactory Now unless he had been man how could he suffer and unless he had been God how could he satisfie offended Justice
readiness and resoluteness whatsoever calamities or miseries may attend us for Christ's sake or the Gospel's sake Ah what a shame would it be if we should â—ot be always ready to suffer any thing for his sake who hath suffered so much for our sins as is beyond all conception all expression Never was Jacob more gracious and acceptable to his father Isaac than when he stood before him cloathed in the garments of his rough brother Esau then the father smelling the savour of the elder Gen. 27. 27. brothers garments said Behold the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed And never are we more gracious and acceptable to our heavenly father than when we stand before him cloathed in the rough garments of Christ's afflictions and sufferings Oh Christians all your sufferings for Christ they are but in lets to your glorious reigning with Christ Justin Martyr saith that when the Romans did immortalize their Emperours as they called it they brought one to swear that he see him go to Heaven out of the fire but we may see by an eye of faith the blessed souls of Martyrs fly to heaven like Elias in his fiery charriot or like the Angel that appeared to Manoah in the flames By the consent of the School-men all Martyrs shall appear in the Church triumphant bearing the signs of their Christian wounds about them as so many speaking testimonies of their holy courage that what here they endured in the behalf of their Saviour may be there an addition to their glory But Sixthly hath Jesus Christ suffered such great and grievous things for you Oh then in all your fears doubts and conflicts with enemies within or without fly to the sufferings of Christ as your City of refuge Did Christ endure a most ignominious death for thee did he take on him thy sinful person and bare thy sin and death and cross and was made a sacrifice and curse for thee Oh then in all thy inward and outward distresses shelter Psal 90. 1. Psal 91. 1 4 9. thy self under the wings of a suffering Christ I have read of Nero that he had a shirt made of a Salamander's skin so that if he went through the fire in it it would keep him from burning Oh sirs a suffering Christ is this Salamander's skin that will keep the Saints from burning in the midst of burning from suffering in the Dan. 3. 24. 29. Isa 43. 2. midst of sufferings from drowning in the midst of drowning In all the storms that beat upon your inward or your outward man eye the sufferings of Christ lâ—an upon Zach. 13. 10. Cant. 8. 5. 2 Cor. 2. 14. Eph. 6. 14. the sufferings of Christ plead the sufferings of Christ and triumph in the sufferings of Christ It is storied of a Martyr that writing to his wife where she might find him when he was fled from home oh my dear said he Surius in vita sancti Elzearii if thou desirest to see me seek me in the side of Christ in the cleft of the rock in the hollow of his wounds for there I have made my nest there will I dwell there shalt thou find me and no where else but there In every temptation let us look up to a crucified Christ who is fitted Heb. 2. 17 18. cap. 4. 15 16. and qualified to succour tempted souls oh my soul when ever thou art assaulted let the wounds of Christ be thy City of refuge whither thou maist fly and live Let us learn in every tentation which presseth us whether it be sin or death or curse or any other evil to translate it from our selves to Christ and all the good in Christ let us learn to translate it from Christ to our selves Look as the Burgess of a Town or Corporation sitting in the Parliament house beareth the persons of that whole Town or place and what he saith the whole Town saith and what is done to him is done to the whole Town even so Christ upon the cross stood in our Isa 53. 4 5 6. place and bare our sins and whatsoever he suffered we suffered and when he died all the faithful died with him and in him I have read of a gracious woman who being by Satan strongly tempted replyed Satan if thou hast any thing to say to me say it to my surety who has undertaken all for me who hath paid all my debts and satisfied Divine Justice and set all reckonings even between God and my soul Do your sins terrifie you oh then look up to a crucified Saviour who bare your sins in his own body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2. 24. When sin stares you in the face oh then turn your face The strongest Antidote against sin is to look upon sin in the red glass of Christ's blood Auâ—tin to a dying Jesus and behold him with a spear in his side with thorns in his head with nails in his feet and a pardon in his hands Hast thou wounded thy conscience by any great fall or falls O then remember that there is nothing in heaven or earth more efficacious to cure the Bern. Ser. 61. in cant wounds of conscience than a frequent and serious meditation on the wounds of Christ Doth death that rides upon the pale horse look gashly and deadly upon thee Rev. 6. 8. Rom. 5. 6 8. oh then remember that Christ died for you and that by his death he hath swallowed up death in victory Oh 1 Cor. 15. 55 56 57. remember that a crucified Christ hath stripped death of his sting and disarmed it of all its destroying power death may buzz about our ears but it can never sting our souls Look as a crucified Christ hath taken away the guilt of sin though he hath not taken away sin it self so he hath taken away the sting of death though he hath not taken away death it self He spake excellently that said that is not death but life wbich joyns the dying man to Christ Ambrosius in 1 Tim. 5. 6. Death will blow the bud of Grace into the flower of Glory and that is not life but death that separates the living man from Christ Austin longed to die that he might see that head that was crowned with thorns Did Christ die for me saith one that I might live with him I will not therefore desire to live long from him all men go willingly to see him whom they love and shall I be unwilling to die that I may see him whom my soul loves Bernard would have us never to let go out of our minds the thoughts of a crucified Christ let these says he be meat and drink unto you let them be your sweetness and consolation your honey and your desire your reading and your meditation your contemplation your life death and resurrection certainly he that shall live up to this counsel will look upon the King of terrors as the King of desires Are
is a Toad hates every Toad and he who hates a Godly man because he is Godly he hates every Godly man and so he who hates sin because 't is sin he hates every sin Rom. 7. 15. What I hate that do I. Thirdly Every Godly man would fain have his sins not only pardoned but destroyed his heart is alienated from his sins and therefore nothing will serve him or satisfie him but the blood and death of his sins Isa 2. 20 chap. 30. 22. Hos 14. 8. Rom. 8. 24. Saul hated David and sought his life and Haman hated Mordâ—cat and sought his destruction and Absalom hated Amnon and kill'd him Julian the Apostate hated the Christians and put many thousands of them to death The great thing that a Christian has in his eye in all the duties he performs and in all the Ordinances that he attends is the blood and death and ruine of his sins Fourthly Every Godly man groans under the burden of sin 2 Cor. 5. 4. For we that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burdened Never did any Porter groan more to be delivered from his heavy burden than a Christian groans to be delivered from the burden of sin the burden of affliction the burden of temptation the burden of desertion the burden of opposition the burden of persecution the burden of scorn and contempt is nothing to the burden of sin ponder upon that Psal 38. 4. and Psal 40. 12. ver and Rom. 7. 24 ver Fifthly Every Godly man combats and conflicts with all known sin In every gracious Soul there is a constant and perpetual conflict The flesh will be still a lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh Gal 5. 17 Rom. 7. 22 23. â— King 14. 30. 31. Though sin and grace were not born together and though sin and grace shall never die together yet whiles a Believer lives in this world they must live together and whilst sin and grace do cohabit together they will still be opposing and conflicting one with another Sixthly Every gracious heart is still a crying out against his sins he crys out to God to subdue them he crys out to Christ to crucifie them he crys out to the Spirit to mortifie them he crys out to faithful Ministers to arm him against them and he crys out to sincere Christians that they would pray hard that he may be made Victorious over them Now certainly it is a most sure sign that sin has not gained a mans heart a mans love nor his consent but committed a Rape upon his Soul when he crys out bitterly against his sin It is observable That if the Ravished Virgin under the Law cryed out she was guiltless Deut. 22. 25 26 27. certainly such as cry out of their sins and that would not for all the world indulge themselves in a way of sin such are guiltless before the Lord. That which a Christian does not indulge himself in that he do's not do in divine account But Seventhly The fixed purposes and designs of a Godly man is not to sin Psal 17. 3. I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress that is I have laid my design so as not to sin Though may have many perticular failings yet my general purpose is not to sin Psal 39. 1. I said I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue I will keep my mouth with a Bridle while the wicked is before me When ever a Godly man sins he sins against the general purpose of his Soul David laid a Law upon his tongue he uses three words in the first and second verses to the same purpose which is as if he should say in plain English I was silent I was silent I was silent and all this to express how he kept in his passion that he might not offend with his tongue Though a Godly man sins yet he doth not purpose to sin for his purposes are fixt against sin Holiness is his high-way and as sin is it self a by-way so it is besides his way The honest Traveller purposes to keep straight on his way so that if at any time he misse his way he misses his purpose Though Peter denyed Christ yet he did not purpose to deny Christ yea the setled purpose of his Soul was rather to die with Christ than to deny Christ Math. 26. 35. Peter said unto him Though I should dye with thee yet will I not deny thee Interpreters agree that Peter meant as he speak But Eighthly The setled Resolutions of a gracious heart is not to sin Psal 119. 106. I have sworn and I will perform it that I will keep thy Righteous Judgments Neh. 10. 28 29 30 31. dwell on it Job 31. 1. c. Micha 4. 5. For all people will walk every one in the name of his God and we walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever So Daniel and the 3 Children Blessed Hooper resolves rather to be discharged of his Bishoprick than yield to certain Ceremonies Jerom writes of a brave Woman who being upon the wrack bid her Persecutors do their worst for she was resolved that she would rather die then lye The Prince of Conde being taken Prisoner by Charles the Nineth of France and put to his choyce first whether he would go to Mass or second be put to Death or thirdly suffer perpetual Imprisonment Answered as for the first I will never do by the assistance of Gods grace and as for the other two let the King do with me what he pleaseth for I am very well assured that God will turn all to the best The Heavens shall as soon fall said William Flower to the Bishop that perswaded him to save his life by retracting as I will forsake the Opinion and Faith I am in God assisting of me So Marchus Arethusius chose rather to suffer a most cruel Death than to give one half-penny towards the Building of an Idol Temple So Cyprian when the Emperour in the the way to his Execution said Now I give thee space to consider whether thou wilt obey me in casting a grain of Frankincens into the fire or be thus miserably slain Nay saith he there needs no deliberation in the case There are many thousands of such instances scattered up and down in History Ninethly There is a real willingness in every gracious Soul to be rid of all sin Rom. 7. 24. Hos 14. 2. 8. Job 7. 21. Saving grace makes a Christian as willing to leave his sin as a Slave is willing to leave his Galley or a Prisoner his Dungeon or a Thief his Bolts or a Beggar his Rags Many a day have I sought Death with â—cars saith blessed Cooper not out of impatience dist ust or perturbation but because I am weary of sin and fearful of falling into it Look as the Daughters of Heath even made Rebeccah weary of her life Gen. 27. 46. so Corruptions within makes a gracious Soul even weary of his life
those sad changes and dreadful providences that would have broke a thousand of such mens hearts upon whom God and Conscience could charge beloved sins bosom sins darling sins But Thirdly In the day of death Death is the King of terrors as Job speaks and the terror of Kings as the Philosopher speaks Oh how terrible will this King of terrors be to that man upon whom God and Conscience can charge beloved sins bosom sins darling sins This is certain when a wicked man comes to die all the sins that ever he committed don 't so grieve him and terrifie him so sad him and sink him and raise such horrors and terrors in him and put him into such a hell on this side Hell as his beloved sins his bosom sins his darling sins and had Saints their beloved sins their bosom sins their darling sins Ah what a Hell of horror and terror would these sins raise in their souls when they come to lye upon a dying Bed But now when a Child of God shall lye upon a dying Bed and shall be able to say Lord thou knowest and Conscience thou knowest that though I have had many and great failings yet there are no beloved sins no bosom sins no darling sins that are chargeable upon me Lord thou knowest and Conscience thou knowest 1. That there is no known sin that I don't hate and abhor 2. That there is no known sin that I don't combat and conflict with 3. That there is no known sin that I don't grieve and mourn over 4. That there is no known sin that I would not presently freely willingly and heartily be rid of 5. That there is no known sin that I don 't in some weak measure endeavour in the use of holy means to be delivered from 6. That there is no known sin the effectual subduing and mortifying of which would not administer matter of the greatest joy and comfort to me Now when God and Conscience shall acquit a man upon a dying Bed of beloved sins of bosom sins of darling sins who can express the joy the comfort the peace the support that such an acquittance will fill a man with Fourthly In the day of Account the vâ—ry thoughts of which day too many is more terrible than Death it self such Christians as are Captivated under the power of this opinion viz. That the Saints have their beloved sins their bosom sins their darling sins such cannot but greatly fear and tremble to appear before the Tribunal of God O! saith such poor hearts how shall we be able to answer for beloved sins our bosom sins our darling sins as for infirmities weaknesses and follies that has attended us we can plead with God and tell him Lord when Grace has been weak Corruptions strong Temptations great and thy Spirit withdrawn and we off from our Watch we have been worsted and captivated But what shall we say as to our beloved sins our bosom sins our darling sins O these fill us with terror and horror and how shall we be able to hold up our heads before the Lord when he shall reckon with us for these sins But now when a poor Child of God thinks of the day of Account and is able through grace to say Lord though we cannot clear our selves of infirmities and many sinful weaknesses yet we can comfortably appeal in thee and our Consciences that we have no beloved sins no bosom sins no darling sins O with what comfort confidence and boldness will such poor hearts hold up their heads in the day of Account when a Christian can plead those six things before a Judgment seat that he pleaded in the third particular when he lay upon a dying Bed how will his fears vanish and how will his hopes and and hopes and heart revive and how comfortably and boldly will he stand before a Judgment-Seat But Ninethly This opinion that is now under consideration has a very great tendancy to discourage and deaden the hearts of Christians to the most noble and spiritual duties of Religion viz. 1. Praising of God 2. Delighting in God 3. Rejoycing in God 4. Admiring of God 5. Taking full content and satisfaction in God 6. Witnessing for God his Truth his Ordinances and ways 7. To self-tryal and self-examination 8. To the making of their Calling and Election sure I cannot see with what comfort confidence or courage such souls can apply themselves to the Eight duties last mentioned who lye under the power of this opinion viz. That Saints have their beloved sins their bosom sins their darling sins But now when a Christian is clear and he can clear himself as every sincere Christian can of beloved sins of bosom sins of darling sins how is he upon the advantage ground to fall in roundly with all the Eight duties last mentioned But Tenthly and lastly This opinion that is now under consideration has a very great tendency to discourage multitudes of Christians from coming to the Lords Table I would willingly know with what comfort with what confidence with what hope with what expectation of good from God or of good from the Ordinance can such Souls draw near to the Lords Table who lye under the power of this opinion or perswasion that they carry about with them their bosom sins their beloved sins their darling sins How can such souls expect that God should meet with them in the Ordinance and bless the Ordinance to them How can such souls expect that God should make that great Ordinance to be strengthening comforting refreshing establishing and enriching unto them How can such souls expect that in that Ordinance God should Seal up to them his Eternal Loves their Interest in Christ their Right to the Covenant their Title to Heaven and the Remission of their sins who bring to his Table their beloved sins their bosom sins their darling sins But now when the People of God draw near to the Table of the Lord and can appeal to God that though they have many sinful failings and infirmities hanging upon them yet they have no beloved sins no bosom sins no darling sins that they carry about with them How comfortably and confidently may they expect that God will make that great Ordinance a blessing to them and that in time all those glorious ends for which that Ordinance was appointed shall be accomplished in them and upon them Now by these ten Arguments you may see the weakness and falseness yea the dangerous nature of that opinion that many worthy men have so long Preacht Maintained and Printed to the World viz. That the Saints have their beloved sins their bosom sins their darling sins neither do I wonder that they should be so sadly out in this particular when I consider how apt men are to receive things by Tradition without bringing of things to a strict examination and when I consider what strange definitions of Faith many famous worthy men have given both in their writings and Preachings and when I consider what a
Statutes of God there is a two-fold Obedience to all the Royal Commands of God First One is legal when all is done that God requireth and all is done as God requireth when there is not one path of duty but we do walk in it perfectly and continually thus no man on Earth doth or can walk in all God's Statutes or fully do what he Commandeth For in many things we offend all Jam. 3. 2. So Eccles 7. 20. There is not a just man upon the Earth that doth good and sinneth not 1 King 8. 46. For there is no man that sinneth not Prov. 20. 9. Who can say I have made my heart clean I am pure from my sin Job 14. 4. Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean not one 1 Joh. 1. 8. If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us Secondly Another is Evangelical which is such a walking in all the Statutes of God and such a keeping of all the Commands of God as is in Christ accepted of and accounted of as if we did keep them all this walking in all God's Statutes and keeping of all his Commandements and doing of them all is not only possible but it is also actual in every Believer in every sincere Christian and it consists in these particulars First In the Approbation of all the Statutes and Commandements of God Rom. 7. 12. The Commandement is holy and just and good ver 16. I consent unto the Law that it is good there is both assent and consent Psal 119. 128. I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right A sincere Christian approves of all Divine Commands though he can't perfectly keep all Divine Commands But Secondly It consists in a Conscientious submission unto the Authority of all the Statutes of God Every Command of God hath an Authority within his heart and over his heart Psal 119. 161. My heart standeth in awe of thy Word A sincere Christian stands in awe of every known Command of God and hath a spiritual regaâ—d unto them all Psal 119. 6. I have respect unto all thy Commandements But Thirdly It consists in a cordial willingness and a cordial desire to walk in all the Statutes of God and to obey all the Commands of God Rom. 7 18. For to Will is present with me Psal 119. 5. O! that my ways were directed to keep thy Statutes ver 8. I will keep thy Statutes But Fourthly It consists in a sweet complacency in all Gods Commands Psal 119. 47. I will delight my self in thy Commandement which I have loved Rom. 7. 22. I delight in the Law of God after the inward man But Fifthly He who obeys sincerely obeys universally though not in regard of practice which is impossible yet in regard of affection he loves all the Commands of God yea he dearly loves those very Commands of God that he cannot obey by reason of the infirmity of the flesh by reason of that body of sin and death that he bears about with him ponder upon that Psal 119. 97. O how I love thy Law Such a pang of love he felt as could not otherwise be vented but by this pathetical exclamation O how I love thy Law ver 113 163 127 159 167. ponder upon all these verses But Sixthly A sincere Christian obeys all the Commands of God he is universal in his obedience in respect of valuation or esteem he highly values all the Commands of God he highly prizes all the Commands of God as you may clearly see by comparing these Scriptures together Psal 119. 72 127 128. Psal 19. 8 9 10 11. Job 23. 12. But Seventhly A sincere Christian is universal in his Obedience in respect of his purpose and resolution he purposes and resolves by Divine assistance to obey all to keep all Psal 119. 106. I have sworn and will pâ—rform it that I will keep thy Righteous Judgments Psal 17. 3. I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress But Eighthly A sincere Christian is universal in his Obedience In respect of his inclination he has an habitual inclination in him to keep all the Commands of God 1 King 8. 57 58. 2 Chron. 30. 17 18 19 20. Psal 119. 112. I have inclined my heart to perform thy Statutes always oven to the end But Ninethly and lastly Their Evangelical keeping of all the commands of God consists in their sincere endeavour to keep them all they put out themselves in all the ways and parts of obedience they do not willingly and wittingly slight or neglect any Commandement but are striving to conform themselves thereunto as a Dutiful Son doth all his Fathers commands at least in point of endeavour So your sincere Christians make Conscience of keeping all the Commands of God in respect of endeavours Psal 119. 59. I turned my feet unto thy Testimonies God esteems of Evangelical Obedience as perfect obedience Zacharias had his failings he did hesitate through unbelief for which he was struck dumb yet the Text tells you That he walked in all the Commandements of the Lord blameless Luk. 1. 6. Because he did cordially desire and endeavour to obey God in all things Evangelical Obedience is true for the essence though not perfect for the degree A Child of God obeys all the Commands of God in respect of his sincere desires purposes resolutions and endeavours and this God accepts in Christ for perfect and compleat obedience This is the glory of the Covenant of Grace that God accepts and esteems of sincere obedience as perfect obedience Such who sincerely endeavour to keep the whole Law of God they do keep the whole Law of God in an Evangelical sense though not in a legal sense A sincere Christian is for the first Table as well as the second and the second as well as the first he doth not adhere to the first and neglect the second as Hypocrites do neither doth he adhere to the second and contemn the first as prophane men do O Christians for your support and comfort know that when your desires and endeavours are to do the Will of God entirely as well in one thing as another God will graciously pardon your failings and pass by your imperfections He will spare you as a man spareth his Son that serveth him Mal. 3. 17. Though a Father see his Son to fail and come short in many things which he enjoyns him to do yet knowing that his desires and endeavours are to serve him and please him to the full he will not be rigid and severe with him but will be indulgent to him and will spare him and pitty him and shew all love and kindness to him The Application is easie c. The second Question or case is this viz What is that Faith that gives a man an interest in Christ and in all those blessed benefits and favours that comes by Christ or whether that person that experiences the following particulars may not safely groundedly and
righteousness in him to cloath me c. and therefore I can't but approve of the Lord Jesus as such a good as exceeds all the good that is to be found in Angels and Men the good that I see in Christ doth not only counterpoise but also excel all that real or imaginary good that every I have met with in any thing below Christ Christ must come into the will he must be received there else he is never savingly received Now before the Will will receive him the Will must be certainly informed that he is good yea the best and greatest good or else he shall never be admitted there Let the understanding assent never so much to all propositions concerning Christ as true if the judgment doth not approve of them as good yea as the best good Christ will never be truly received God in his working maintains the faculties of the Soul in their actings as he made them 13thly So far as I know my own heart I am sincerely willing to receive the Lord Jesus Christ in a Matrimonial Covenant according to these Scriptures Hos 2. 19 20. 2 Cor. 11. 2. Isa 54. 5. Isa 61. 10. Isa 62. 5. Cant. 3. 11. c. Through grace I am First Sincerely willing to take the Lord Jesus Christ for my Saviour and Sovereign Lord. So far as I know my own heart I do through mercy give my hearty consent that Christ and Christ alone shall be my Saviour and Redeemer It is true I do duties but the desire of my soul is to do them out of love to Christ and in obedience to his Royal Law and Pleasure I know my best Righteousnesses are but as filthy rags Isa 64. 6. And woe would be to me had I no other shelter or Saviour or resting place for my poor soul than rags than filthy rags And so far as I know my own heart I am sincerely willing to give up my self to the guidance and government of Jesus Christ as my sovereign Lord and King desiring nothing more in this world than to live and die under the guidance and government of his Spirit Word and Grace But Secondly I am willing through grace to give a Bill of Divorce to all other Lovers without exception or reservation So far as I know my own heart I desire nothing more in this world than that God would pull out right-eye sins and cut off right-hand sins I am very desirous through grace to have all sins brought under by the Power Spirit and Grace of Christ but especially my special sins my head corruptions I would have Christ alone to Rule Reign in the haven of my heart without any Competitour But Thirdly I am sincerely willing through Grace to take the Lord Jesus Christ for Better for Worse for Richer for Poorer in Sickness and in Health and in his Strength I would go with him through fire and water resolving through his Grace that nothing shall divide betwixt Christ and my Soul So far as I know my own heart I would have Christ though I beg with him though I go to Prison with him though in agonies in the Garden with him though to the Cross with him But Fourthly So far as I know my own heart I am sincerely willing First to receive the Lord Jesus Christ presently 1 John 12. Secondly to receive him in all his Offices as King Prophet and Priest Col. 2. 6. Acts 5. 31. Thirdly To receive him into every room of my soul to receive him into my understanding mind will affections c. Fourthly To receive him upon his own terms of denying my self taking up his Cross and following of him where-ever he goes Math. 16. 21. Rev. 14. 4. c. Fifthly and lastly So far as I know my own heart I do freely consent 1. To be really Christs 2. To be presently Christs 3. To be wholly Christs 4. To be only Christs 5. To be eminently Christs 6. To be for ever Christs c. Certainly that Christian that has and do's experience the particulars last mentioned under the second question that Christian may safely groundedly boldly and comfortably conclude that his faith is a true justifying saving Faith the Faith of Gods Elect and such a Faith as clearly evidences a gracious Estate and will never leave his Soul short of Heaven Now how many thousand Christians are there that have this Faith that is here described which is doubtless a true justifying saving Faith that gives a man an interest in the person of Christ and in all the blessings and benefits that comes by Christ who yet question whether they have true faith or no partly from weakness partly from temptations and partly from the various definitions that are given of Faith by Protestants both in their Preachings and Writings and it is and must be for a lamentation that in a point of so great moment the Trumpet should give such an uncertain sound The third Question or case is this viz. whether in the great day of the Lord the day of general Judgment or Eccles 11. 9. cap. 12. 14. Matth. 12. 36. cap. 18. 23. in the particular Judgment that will pass upon every soul immediately after death which is the stating of the soul in an Eternal estate or condition either of happiness or misery whether the sins of the Saints the follies and Luk. 16. 2. Rom 14. 10 12. 2 Cor. 5. 10. Heb. 9. 27. cap. 13 17. 1 Pet. 4 5. vanities of Believers the infirmities and enormities of sincere Christians shall be brought into the judgment of discussion and discovery or no Whether the Lord will either in the great day of account or in a mans particular day of account or judgment publickly manifest proclaim and make mention of the sins of his people or no This question is bottomed upon the ten Scriptures in the Margent which I desire the Christian Reader to consult and upon the sad and daily complaints of many dear sincere Christians who frequently cry out O! we can never answer for one evil thought of ten thousand nor we Jâ—â— 9. 3. Psal 19. 12. Psal 143. 2. Ezr 19. 6. can never answer for one idle word of twenty thousand nor we can never answer for one evil action of a hundred thousand and how then shall we stand in Judgment how shall we look the Judg in the Face how shall we be ever able to answer for all our Omissions and for all our Commissions for all our sins of Ignorance and sins against light and knowledge for all our sins against the Law and for all our sins against the Gospel and for all our sins against soveraign Grace and for all our sins against the Remedy against the Lord Jesus and for all the sins of our Infancy of our Youth Heb. 9 27. and of old Age c. What account shall we be able to give up when we come to our particular day of Judg-ment immediately after our death or in the great and general day of account
out thy transgressions Isa 43. 25. Isa 4â— 22. for my own sake and will not remember thy sins I have blotted out as a thick Cloud thy transgressions and as a Cloud thy sins Who is this that blots our transgressions he that hath the keys of Heaven and Hell at his girdle that opens and no man shuts that shuts and no man opens he that hath the power of life and death of condemning and absolving of killing and making alive he it is that blotteth out transgressions If an Under-Officer should blot out an Indictment that perhaps might do a man no good a man might for all that be at last cast by the Judge but when the Judge or King shall blot out the Indictment with their own hand then the Indictment cannot return now this is every Believers case and happiness Secondly To those glorious expressions of Gods not remembring of their sins any more Isa 43. 25. And I Jer. 31. 34. will not remember thy sins And they shall teach no more every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother saying Know ye the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their Iniquity and I will remember their sin no more So the Apostle For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness Heb. 8 12. and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more And again The same Apostle saith This is the Covenant that I will make with them After those days Heb. 10. 17. That which Cicero said flatteringly of Caesar is truly affiâ—med of God Nihil oblivâ—sci solet praeter injurias he forgetâ—eth nothing but the wrongs that daily are done him by his saith the Lord I will put my Laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more The meaning is their iniquities shall be quite forgotten I will never mention them more I will never take notice of them more they shall never hear more of them from me though God hath an Iron memory to remember the sins of the wicked yet he hath no memory to remember the sins of the righteous Thirdly His not bringing their sins into Judgment doth most and best agree with those blessed expressions of his casting their sins into the depth of the Sea and of his casting them behind his back He will turn again he Mic. 7. 19. will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea Where sin is once Pardoned the Remission stands never to be repealed pardoned-sin shall never come in account against the pardoned man before God any more for so much doth this borrowed speech import If a thing were cast into a River it might be brought up again or if it were cast upon the Sea it might be discerned and taken up again but when it is cast into the depths the bottom of the Sea it can never be buoyed up again By the Metaphor in the Text the Lord would have us to know that sins pardoned shall rise no more they shall never be seen more they shall never come on the account more he will so drown their sins that they shall never come up before him the second time And so much that other Scripture imports Behold Isa 38. 17. for Peace I had great bitterness But thou hast in love to my Soul delivered it from the Pit of Corruption for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back These last words are a borrowed speech taken from the manner of men who are wont to cast behind their backs such things as they have no mind to see regard or remember A gracious soul hath always his sins before his face I acknowledge Psal 51. 3. my transgressions and my sin is ever before me and therefore no wonder if the Lord cast them behind his back The Father soon forgets and casts behind his back those faults that the Child remembers and hath always in his eyes so doth the Father of Spirits Fourthly His not bringing their sins into Judgment doth best agree with that sweet and choice expression of Gods pardoning the sins of his people And I will cleanse them from all their Iniquity whereby Jer. 33. 8. they have sinned against me and I will pardon all their Iniquities whereby they have sinned and whereby they have transgressed against me So in Micah Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth Iniquity and passes by the transgressions of Mic 7. 18. the remnant of his heritage as though he would not see it but wink at it He retaineth not his Anger for ever because he delighteth in Mercy The Hebrew word Nose from Nasa that is here rendered pardoned signifies a taking away when God pardons sin he takes it shier away that if it should be sought for yet it could not be found Jer â—0 20. as the Prophet speaks In those days and in that time saith the Lord the Iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none and the sins of Judah and they shall not be found for I will pardon them whom I reserve and these words and passeth by in the afore-cited seventh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gnabâ—â— he passed over of Micah and the 18th according to the Hebrew Vegnober Gnal is and passeth over God passeth over the transgression of his heritage that is he takes no notice of it as a man in a deep muse or as one that hath hast of business seeth not things before him his mind being busied about other matters he neglects all to mind his business As David when he saw in Mephibosheth the feature of his friend Jonathan took no notice of his lameness or any other defect ot deformity So God beholding in his people the glorious Image of his Son winks at all their â—sa 40 1 2. faults and deformities which made Luther say Do with me what thou wilt since thou hast pardoned my sin and what is it to pardon sin but not to mention sin Fifthly His not bringing their sins into the Judgment of Discussion and Discovery doth best agree to those expressions of forgiving and covering Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered In the Original Psal 32. 1. it is in the plural Blessednesses so here is a plurality of Blessings a chain of Pearls The like expression you have in the 85th Psalm and the second v. Thou hast forgiven the Iniquity of thy people thou hast covered all their sin Selah For the understanding of these Scriptures aright take notice that to Cover is a Metaphorical expression Covering is such an action Sic velâ—â—tur ut in judicio non râ—vel ntur which is opposed to disclosure to be covered it is to be so hid and closed as not to appear Some make the Metaphor from filthy loathsome objects
sins were not pardoned until you do repent then we should be left to an uncertainty whiles our sins be pardoned or when they will be pardoned for it may be long ere we repent as you see in David who lay long under the guilt of Murther and Adultery before he repented and you know Solomon lay long under many high sins before he repented c. and it may be more long ere we do or can know that we do truly repent of our sins But Ninethly If all sins were not forgiven at once then justification is not perfect at once but is more and more increased and perfected as more and more sins are pardoned which cannot consist with the true doctrine of justification Certainly as to the state of justification there is a full and perfect remission of all sins considered under the differences of time past present and to come as in the state of Condemnation there is not any one sin pardoned so in the estate of Justification there is not any one sin but is pardoned for the state of Justification is opposite to all Condemnation and Curse and Wrath. But Tenthly All agree that as to Gods eternal decree or purpose of forgiveness all the sins of his people are forgiven God did not intend to forgive some of their sins and not the rest but an universal and full and compleat forgiveness was fixedly purposed and resolved on by God Forgiveness of sins is a gracious act or work of God for Christ sake discharging and absolving believing and repenting persons from the guilt and punishment of all their sins so that God is no longer displeased with them nor will he ever remember them any more nor call them to an account for them nor condemn them for their sins but will look on them and deal with them as if they had never sinned never offended him Thirdly Consider that at the very moment of a Believers dissolution all his sins are perfectly and fully forgiven all their sins are so fully and finally forgiven them that at the very moment of their souls going out from the body there is not one sin of omission or commission nor any aggravation or least circumstance left standing in the book of Gods remembrance and this is the true reason why there shall not be the least mention made of their sins in their tryal at Christs Tribunal because they were all pardoned fully and finally at the hour of their death all debts were then discharged all scores were then crossed so that in the great day when the Books shall be opened and perused there shall not one sin be found but all blotted out and all reckonings made even in the blood of Christ Indeed if God should pardon some sins and not others he would at the same time be a friend and an enemy and we should be at once both happy and miserable which are manifest contradictions besides God doth nothing in vain But it would be in vain for God to pardon some sins but not all for as one leak in a Ship unstopped will sink the Ship and as one sore or one disease not healed nor cured will kill the body so one sin unpardoned will destroy the soul Fourthly God looks not upon those as Sinners whose sins are pardoned Luk. 7. 37. And behold a Woman in the City which was a sinner A notorious sinner a branded sinner mark it is not said behold a Woman which is a sinner but behold a Woman which was a sinner to note that sinners converted and pardoned are no longer reputed sinners Behold a Woman which was a sinner look as a man when he is cleansed from filth is as if he had never been defiled so when a Sinner is pardoned he is in Gods account as if he had never sinned Hence those phrases in Cant. 4. 7. Thou art all fair my love and there is no spot in thee Col. 2. 10. And ye are compleat in him who is the head of all principality and power as though he had said Because in himself he hath the Well-head of Glory and Majesty the which becometh ours in that he is also the head of his Church Col. 1. 21. And you that were somtime alienated and Enemies in your mind by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled ver 22. In the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight that is by his Righteousness imputed and imparted Ephe. 5. 27. That he might present it to himself a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but that it should be holy and without blemish The word present is taken from the custom of solemnizing a Marriage first the Spouse was woed and then set before her Husband adorned with his Jewels as Rebecca was with Isaacs Rev. 14. 5. And in their mouth was found no guile for they are without fault before the Throne of God 1. They are without fault by imputation 2. By inchoation Hence Job is said to be a perfect man Job 1. And David to be a man after Gods own heart Act. 13. 22. The forgiven party is now looked upon and received with that love and favour as if he had never offended God and as if God had never been offended by him Hos 14. 1 2 4. Isa 54. 7 8 9 10. Jer. 31. 33 34 36 37. Luk. 15. 19 20 21 22 23. Here the sins of the Prodigal are pardoned and his Father receives him with such expressions of love and familiarity as if he had never sinned against him his Father never so much as objects any one of all his high sinnings against him Hence it is that you read of such sweet kind tender loving comfortable expressions of God towards those whose sins he had pardoned Jer. 31. 16. Refrain thy voyce from weeping and thine eyes from tears verse 20. Is Ephraim my dear Son is he a pleasant Child Math. 9. 2. Son be of good cheer thy sins are forgiven thee The Schools say that the remission of sins is not only oblativa mali but collativa boni a remotion of guilt but a collation of good Look as he that is legally acquitted of Theft or Murder is no more reputed a Thief or Murdeter so here Isa 50. 20. In those days and in that time saith the Lord the Iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none and the sins of Judah and they shall not be found for I will pardon them whom I reserve Pardoned sin is in Gods account no sin and the pardoned sinner in Gods account is no sinner as the pardoned debtor is no debtor Where God hath pardoned a man there he never looks upon that man as a siner but as a just man Pardon of sin is an utter abolition of it as it doth reflect upon the person making him guilty and obliging him actually to condemnation in this respect the pardoned man is as free as if he had never sinned Therefore the Believer
by charging them all upon Christs score That is a great expression of Nathan to David The Lord hath put away thy sin But the Original runs thus The Lord hath made thy sins to pass over that is to 2 Sam 12. 13. pass over from thee to his Son he hath laid them to his charge Now Christ hath discharged all his Peoples Debts and Bonds There is a two-fold debt which lay upon us one was the debt of Obedience unto the Law and this Christ did pay by fulfilling all Righteousness Math. 3. 15. The other was the debt of punishment for our transgressions and this debt Christ discharged by his Death on the Cross Isa 53. 4 10 12. and by being made a Curse for us to redeem us from the Curse Gal. 3. 13. Hence it is that we are said to be bought with a price 1 Cor. 6. 20. chap. 7. 23. and that Christ is called our Raâ—som Lutron Math. 20. 28. and Antilutron 1 Tim. 2. 6. The words do signifie a valuable price laid down for anothers Ransom The Blood of Christ the Son of God was a valuable price a sufficient price it was as much as would take off all Enmities and take away all Sin and to satisfie Divine Justice and indeed so it did and therefore you read That in his blood we have Redemption even the forgiveness of our sins Ephes 1. 7. Col. 1. 14 20. and his death was such a full compensation to divine Justice that the Apostle makes a challenge to all Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect and vers 34. Who is he that Condemneth it is Christ that dyed As if he had said Christ hath satisfied and discharged all The Greek word Antilutron is of special Emphasis The vulgar Latine renders it Redemptionem Redemption Beza Redemptioms precium a price of Redemption but neither of them fully expressing the force of the word which properly signifieth a counter-price when one doth undergoe in the room of another that which he should have undergone in his own person As when one yields himself a Captive for the Redeeming of another out of Captivity or giveth his own life for the saving of anothers There were such Sureties among the Greeks as gave life for life body for body and in this sence the Apostle is to be understood when he saith that Christ gave himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Ransom a counter-price paying a price for his people Christ hath laid down a price for all Believers they are his dear bought Ones they are his choyce redeemed Ones Isa 51. 11. Christ gave himself Antilutron a counter-price a Ransom submitting himself to the like punishment that his redeemed Ones should have undergone Christ to deliver his Elect from the Curse of the Law did subject himself to that same Curse of the Law under which all man-kind lay Jesus Christ was a true Surety one that gave his life for the life of others as the Apostle saith of Castor and Pollux that the one redeemed the others life with his own death So did the Lord Jesus he became such a Surety for his Elect giving himself an Antilutron a Ransom for them Joh. 6. 51. Tit. 2. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 18. Rev. 1. 5. chap. 5. 9. O what comfort is this unto us to have such a Jesus who himself bare our sins even all our sins left not one unsatisfied for laid down a full ransom a full price such an expiatory Sacrifice as that now we are out of the hands of Justice and Wrath and Death and Curse and Hell and are reconciled and made near by the Blood of the everlasting Covenant the Blood of Christ as the Scripture speaks is the Blood of God Act. 20. 28. So that there is not only satisfaction but merit in his Blood there is more in Christs Blood than meer payment or satisfaction there was merit also in it to acquire and procure and purchase all spiritual good and all eternal good for the people of God not only immunities from sin Death Wrath Curse Hell c. but priviledges and dignities of Sons and Heirs yea all Grace and all Love and all Peace and all Glory even that glorious Inheritance purchased by his Blood Ephes 1. 14. Remember this once for all that in justification our debts are charged upon Christ they go upon his accounts you know that in sin there is the vicious and staining quality of it and there is the resulting guilt of it which is the obligation of a Sinner over to the Judgment Seat of God to answer for it Now this guilt in which lies our debt this is charged upon Christ Therefore saith the Apostle God was in Christ reconciling the World to himself not imputing their Trespasses unto them 2 Cor. 5. 19. And hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin ver 21. You know in Law the Wifes Debts are charged upon the Husband and if the Debtor be disabled than the Creditor sues the Surety Fide jussor or Surety and Debitor in Law are reputed as one person Now Christ is our Fide jussor He is made sin for us saith the Apostle for us that is in our stead A Surety for us one who puts our scores on his accounts our burden on his shoulders so saith that Princely Prophet Isaiah Isa 53. 4 5. He hath born our griefs and carried our soroows how so He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities that is he stood in our stead he took upon him the answering of our sins the satisfying of our debts the clearing of our guilt and therefore was it that he was so bruised c. You remember the scape-Goat upon his Head all the Iniquities of the Children of Israel and all their transgressions in all their sins were confessed and put And the Goat did bâ—ar upon him all their Iniquities Lev. 16. 21 22. What is the meaning of this Surely Jesus Christ upon whom our sins were laid and who alone died for the ungodly Rom. 5. 6. and bear our burdens away Therefore the Believer in the sence of guilt should run unto Christ and offer up his Blood unto the Father and say Lord it is true I owe Thee so much yet Father forgive me remember that thine own Son was my Ransom his Blood was the price he was my Surety and undertook to answer for my sins I beseech thee accept of his Attonement for he is my Surety my Redemption Thou must be satisfied but Christ hath satisfied thee not for himself what sins had he of his own but for me they were my debts which he satisfied for and look over thy book and thou shalt find it so for thou hast said He was made sin for us and that he was wounded for our transgressions Now what a singular support what an admirable comfort is this that we our selves are not to make up our accounts and reckonings but that Christ hath cleared all accounts and
reckonings between God and us Therefore it is said That in his blood we have Redemption even the forgiveness of sins Eph. 1. 7. Quest Whether it were not against the justice of God that Q. Christ who was in himself innocent without all sin a Lamb without a spot should bear and endure all thâ—se punishments for us who were the offending and guilty and obnoxious persons only Or if you please thus Whether God was not unjust to give his Son Jesus Christ Q. to be our Surety and Mediator and Redeemer and Saviour for as much as Christ could not be any one of these for and unto us but by a willing susception of our sins upon himself to be for them responsible unto the justice of God in suffering those punishments which were due for our sins I shall speak a few words to this main Question I say then that it is not always and in all cases unjust but it is somtimes and in some cases very just to punish one who is himself Innocent for him or those who are the â—nocent and guilty Grotius in his Book de satisfactione gives divers instances but I shall mention only two First In case of Conjunction where the innocent party and the nocent party do become legally one party and therefore if a Man Marries a Woman indebted he thereupon becomes obnoxious to pay her debts although absolutely considered he was not obnoxious thereunto But Secondly In case of Surety-ship where a person knowing the weak and insufficient condition of another doth yet voluntarily put forth himself and will be bound to the Creditor for him as his Surety to answer for him by reason of which Surety-ship the Creditor may come upon him and deal with him as he might have dealt with the principal Debtor himself and this course we do ordinarily take with Sureties for the recovery of our right without any violation of justice Now both these are exactly applicable to the business in hand for Jesus Christ was pleased to Marry our Nature unto himself he did partake of our flesh and blood and became man and one with us And besides that he did both by the Will of his Father and his own free consent become our Surety and was content to stand in our stead or room so as to be made sin and curse for us that is to have all our debts and sorrows all our sins and punishments laid upon him and did engage himself to satisfie God by bearing and suffering what we should have born and suffered And therefore although Jesus Christ absolutely considered in himself was innocent and had no sin inherent in himself which therefore might make him lyable to Death and Wrath and Curse yet by becoming one with us and sustaining the office of our Surety our sins were laid on him and our sins being laid upon him he made himself therefore obnoxious and that justly to all those punishments which he did suffer for our sins I do confess that had Christ been unwilling and forced into this Surety-ship or had any detriment or prejudice risen to any party concerned in this transaction than some complaint might have been made concerning the Justice of God But First There was a willingness on all sides for the passive work of Christ First God the Father who was the offended party he was willing which Christ assures us of when he said Thy Will be done Math. 26. 42. Act. 4. 25 26 27 28. Secondly We poor Sinners who are the offending party are willing We accept of this gracious and wonderful Redemption and bless the Lord who so loved us as to give his Son for us And thirdly Jesus Christ was willing to suffer for us Behold I come Psal 40. 7. And shall I not drink of the Cup which my Father hath given me to drink Joh. 18. 11. I have a Baptisme to be Baptised with and how am I straitned till it be accomplished Luk. 12. 50. He calls the death of his Cross a Baptisme partly because it was a certain immersion into extream calamities into which he was cast and partly because in the Cross He was so to be sprinkled in his own Blood as if he had been drowned and Baptised in it the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is here rendred strained signifies to be pained pressed or pent up not with such a grief as made him unwilling to come to it but with such as made him desire that it were once over There seems saith Grotius to be a similitude implyed in the Original word taken from a Woman with Child which is so afraid of her bringing forth that yet she would fain be eased of her burden Joh. 10. 11. I am the good Shepherd The good Shepherd giveth his life for the Sheep Christ is that good Shepherd by an excellency that held not his life dear for his Sheeps safety ver 15. I lay down my life for the Sheep vers 17. Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life vers 18. No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self A necessity there was of our Saviours death but it was a necessity of immutability because God had decreed it Act. 2. 23. not of coaction He laid down his life freely He dyed willingly But Secondly No parties whatsoever were prejudiced or lost by it we lost nothing by it for we are saved by his death and reconciled by his death and Christ lost nothing by it ought not Christ to have suffered these things and enter into his glory Luk. 24. 26. The Captain of our Salvation is made perfect through sufferings Heb. 2. 10. You may see Christs glorious Rewards for his sufferings in that Isa 53. 10 11 12. And God the Father lost nothing by it for he is glorified by it I have glorified thee on Earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do Joh. 17. 4. Yea he is fully satisfied and repaired again in all the honour which he lost by our sinning I say he is now fully repaired again by the sufferings of Christ in which he found a price sufficient and a Ransom and enough to make peace for ever In the day of account a Christians great plea is that Christ has been his Surety and paid his debts and made up his accounts for him Now from what has been said last a Christian may Eccles 11. 9. cap. 12 14. Math. 12. 1â— cap. 18. 23. Luk. 16. 3. Rom. 14. 10. 2 Cor. 6. 10. Heb. 9. 27 cap. 13. 17. 1 Pet 4. 5. form up this second plea to the ten Scriptures in the Margent that refer either to the general Judgment or to the particular Judgment that will pass upon every Christian immediately after death O blessed Lord upon my first believing and closing with Jesus Christ thou didst justifie me in the Court of glory from all my sins both as to guilt and punishment Upon my first act of believing thou didst pardon all my sins
that appertains to him alone to be able to bring in an everlasting Righteousness and to make reconciliation for Iniquity Dan. 9. 24. It is by Christ alone That they who believe are justified from all things from which they cannot be Ecclâ—s 11 9. cap 12. 14 Matth. 1â— 14. cap. 18. 2â— Luk. 16. 3. Rom. 1â— 10. 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 10. Heb 9. 27. cap. 13. â—7 1 Pet. 4. 5. justified by the Law of Moses Act. 13. 39. Now from the active obedience of Christ a sincere Christian may form up this third plea as to the ten Scriptures in the Margent that refer either to the general judgment or to the particular judgment that will pass upon every Christian immediately after death O! blessed God thou knowest that Jesus Christ as my Surety did perform all that active obedience unto thy holy and righteous Law that I should have performed but by reason of the in-dwelling power of sin and of the vexing and molesting power of sin and of the captivating power of sin could not There was in Christ an habitual righteousness a conformity of his nature to the holiness of the Law for 1 Pet. 1. 19. he is a Lamb without spot and blemish the Law could never have required so much righteousness as is to be found in him and as for practical righteousness there was never any aberration in his thoughts words or deeds Hâ—b 7. 26. The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me John 14. 30. The Apostle tells us That we are made the Righteousness of God in him he doth emphatically add that clause 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 6. 21. in him that he may take away all conceit of inherence in us and establish the Doctrine of imputation As Christ is made sin in us by imputation so we are made righteousness in him by the same way Augustines place which Beza cites is a most full Commentary God the Father saith he made him to be sin who know no sin that we might be the Righteousness of God not our own and in him that is in Christ not in our selves and being thus justified we are so Righteous as if we were Righteousness it self O! holy God Christ my Surety hath universally kept thy Royal Law he hath not offended in any one point yea he hath exactly and perfectly kept the whole Law of God he stood compleat in the whole will of the Father his active obedience was so full so perfect and so adaequate to all the Laws demands that the Law could not but say I have enough I am fully satisfied I have found a Ransom I can ask no more Neither was the obedience of Christ fickle or transient but permanent and constant it was his delight his meat and drink yea his Heaven to be still a doing the will of his Father Assuredly whilst our Lord Joh. 4. 33 34. Jesus Christ was in this world he did in his own person fully obey the Law he did in his own person perfectly conform to all the holy just and righteous commands of the Law Now this his most perfect and compleat obedience to the Law is made over to all his Members to all Believers to all sincere Christians it is reckoned to them it is imputed to them as if they themselves in their own persons had performed it All sound Believers being in Christ as their head and Surety the Laws righteousness is fulfilled in them legally and imputively though it be not fulfilled in them formally subjectively inherently or personally sutable to that of the Apostle That the Righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us mark not by us but in us for Christ in our Nature Râ—m 8 4. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which Beza well tenders 〈◊〉 legis that the right of the Law might be fulfilled in us hath fulfilled the right of the Law and therefore in us because of our communion with him and our ingrafting into him God hath condemned sin the flesh of his Son that all that which the Law by a right could require of us might be performed by him for us so as if we our selves had in our own persons performed the same The Law must have its right before a Sinner can be saved we cannot of our selves fulfil the right of it But here 's the comfort Christ our Surety hath fulfilled it in us and we have fulfilled it in him Certainly whatsoever Christ did concerning the Law is ours by imputation so fully as if our selves had done it Do's the Law require obedience saith Christ I will give it Do's the Law threaten Curses saith Christ Math 3 15. cap. 5 17 18 they shall be borne The precept of the Law saith Christ shall be kept and the promises received and the punishments endured that poor Sinners may be saved Our Righteousness and Title to eternal life do indispensably depend upon the imputation of Christs active obedience to us there must be a perfect obeying of the Law as the condition of life either by the Sinner himself or by his Surety or else no life which doth sufficiently evince the absolute necessity of the imputation of Christs active obedience to us the Sinner himself being altogether unable to fulfil the Law that he may stand Righteous before the great and glorious God Christs fulfilling of it must necessarily be imputed to him in order to righteousness There are two great things which Jesus Christ did undertake for his redeemed ones the one was to make full satisfaction to Divine Justice for all their sins Now this he did by his Blood and Death the other was to yield most absolute conformity to the Law of God both in nature and life by the one he has freed all his Redeemed ones from Hell and by the other he has qualified all his Redeemed ones from Heaven This is my Plea O Lord and by this plea I shall stand Well saith the Lord I accept of this plea as honourable just and righteous Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Secondly As Jesus Christ did for us perform all that active obedience which the Law of God required so he did also suffer all those punishments which we had deserved by the transgression of the Law of God in which respect he is said 2 Cor. 2. 22. To be made sin for us 1 Pet. 2. 24. Himself to bear our sins in his own body on the Tree 1 Pet. 3. 18. For Christ also hath once suffered for sin the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God Phil. 2. 8. To humble himself and to become obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Gal. 3. 13. To be made a Curse an Exceration for us Ephe. 5. 2. To give himself for us an Offering and Sacrifice unto God Heb. 9. 15. And for this cause he is the Mediator of the New Testament that by means of Death for the Redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament they which
Fifthly To say peremptorily he suffered what is it but to say that he principally suffered that he excessively suffered To say he suffered What is it but to say he was the cheif sufferer the arch sufferer and that not only in respect of the manner of his sufferings that he suffered absolutely so as never did any but also in respect of the measure of his sufferings that he suffered excessively beyond what ever any did And thus we may well understand and take those words He suffered That lamentation of the Prophet Lam. 1. 12. is very applicable to Christ Behold and see if there be any sorrows like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fiorce anger Now is it not enough for the Apostle to say that Christ hath suffered but will you yet ask what But pray Friends be satisfied and rather of the two ask what not for what sufferings can you think of that Christ did not suffer Christ suffered in his Birth and he suffered in his Life and he suffered in his Death he suffered in his Body for he was diversly tormented he suffered in his Soul for his Soul was heavy unto death he suffered in his Estate they parted his Rayment and he had not where to rest his head he suffered in his good Name for he was counted a Samaritan a Devillish Sorcerer a Wine-bibber an Enemy to Caesar c. He suffered from Heaven when he cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me He suffered from the Earth when being hungry the Fig-tree proved fruitless to him He suffered from Hell Satan assaulting and encountering of him with his most black and horrid temptations He began his life meanly and basely and was sharply persecuted He continued his life poorly and distressedly and was cruelly hated He ended his life wofully and miserably and was most grievously tormented with Whips Thorns Nails and above all with the terrors of his Fathers wrath and horrors of hellish agonies Ego sum qui peccavi I am the man that have sinned but these Sheep what have they done said David when he saw the Angel destroying his people 2 Sam. 24. 17. And the same speech may every one of us take up for our selves and apply to Christ and say I have sinned I have done wickedly but this Sheep what hath he done yea much more cause have we than David had to take up this complaint For First David saw them dye whom he knew to be Sinners but we see him dye who we knew knew no sin 2 Cor. 5. 21. But Secondly David saw them dye a quick speedy death we see him dye with lingering torments He was a dying from six to nine Math. 27. 45 46. Now in this three hours darkness he was set upon by all the powers of darkness with utmost might and malice but he foyled and spoiled them all and made an open shew of them as the Roman Conquerors used to do triumphing over them on his Cross as on his Chariot of State Col. 2. 15. attended by his vanquished Enemies with their hands bound behind them Ephe. 4. 8. But Thirdly David saw them dye who by their own confession was worth ten thousand of them we see him dye for us whose worth admitteth no comparison But Fourthly David saw the Lord of glory destroying mortal men and we see mortal men destroying the Lord of glory 1 Cor. 2. 8. O how much more cause have we then to say as David I have sinned I have done wickedly but this Innocent Lamb the Lord Jesus what hath he done what hath he deserved that he should be thus greatly tormented Tully though a great Orator yet when he comes to speak of the death of the Cross he wants words to express it Quid dicam in crucem tollere What shall I say of this death saith he But Thirdly As the sufferings of Christ were very great so the punishments which Christ did suffer for our sins these were in their kinds and parts and degrees and proportion all those punishments which were due unto us by reason of our sins which we our selves should otherwise have suffered Whatsoever we should have suffered as Sinners all that did Christ suffer as our Surety and Mediator always excepting those punishments which could not be endured without a pollution and guilt of sinâ— The chasrisement of our peace was upon him Isa 53. 5. And including the punishments common to the nature of man not the personal arising out of imperfection and defect and distemper Now the punishments due to us for sin were corporal and spiritual And again they were the punishments of loss and of sense and all these did Christ suffer for us which I shall evidence by an induction of particulars First That Christ suffered corporal punishments is most clear in Scripture You read of the Injuries to his Person of the Crown of Throns on his Head of the smiting of his Cheeks of spitting on his Face of the scourging of his Body of the Cross on his Back of the Vinegar in his Mouth of the Nails in his Hands and Feet of the Spear in his Side and of his crucifying and dying on the Cross 1 Pet. 2. 24. Who himself in his own body on the Tree bare our sins 1 Cor. 15. 3. Christ dyed for our sins according to the Scriptures Rev. 1. 5. And washed us from our sins in his own Blood Col. 1. 14. In whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sins Math. 26. 28. For this is my Blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Christ suffered derision in every one of his Offices First In his Kingly Office They put a Scepter in his Hand a Crown on his Head and bowed their Knees saying Hail King of the Jews Matth. 27. 29. Secondly In his Priestly Office They put upon him a gorgeous white Robe such as the Priests wore Luk. 23. 11. Thirdly In his Prophetical Office When they had blindfolded him Prophesie say they who it is that smiteth thee Luk. 22. 64. Sometimes they said Thou art a Samaritan and hast a Devil Joh. 8. 48. And sometimes they said He is beside himself why hear ye him Mark 3. 21. And as Christ suffered in every one of his Offices so he suffered in every member of his Body in his Hearing by their reproaches and crying Crucifie him Crucifie him In his sight by their Scoffings and scornful gestures In his Smell in his being in that noysome place Gâ—lgotha Math. 27. 33. In his Tast by his tasting of Vinegar mingled with Gall which they gave him to drink Math. 27. 33. In his Feeling by the Thorns on his Head blows on his Cheeks spittle on his Face the Spear in his side and the Nails in his Hands he suffered in all parts and members of his body from head to foot His Head which deserved a better Crown than the best in
magnitude and multitude great drops and those so many so plentious as that they went through his Apparel and all streamed down to the ground and now was the time that his garments were dyed with crimson red that of the Prophet though spoken in another sense yet in some respect may be applyed to this Wherefore art thou red in thy Apparel and thy garments like him that treadeth the Wine-fat O what a sight was here his Isa 63. 2. head and members are all on a bloody sweat and this sweat trickles down bedecks his garments which stood like a new firmament studded with stars portending an approaching storm Nor stays it there but it falls down to the ground Oh happy garden that was watered with such tears of blood Oh how much better are these rivers than Abana and Pharpar rivers of Damasâ—us yea then Bernard all the waters of Israel yea than all those rivers that waters the Garden of Eden so great was Scanderbegs ardor in Battel that the blood burst out Bucholeer of his lips but from our Champions not lips only but whole body burst out a bloody sweat Not his eyes only were Fountains of tears or his head waters as Jeremy wished but his whole body was turned as it were into Jer. 9 1. Rivers of blood A sweet comfort to such as are cast down for that that their sorrow for sin is not so deep and soaking as they could desire Christs blood is put in Scripture by a Synecdoche of the part for all the sufferings which he underwent for the sins of the Elect especially his bloody death with all its concomitants so called First Because death especially when it is violent is joyned with the effusion of blood If we had lived in the days of our Fathers we would Math 23. 30. not have been partakers with them in the blood of the Prophets And so again Pilaâ—e said I am Innocent of the Math. 27. 24. blood of this just person that is of his death Secondly Herein respect is had to all the Sacrifices of the Law whose blood was poured out when they were offered up Hâ—b 9. 22. Almost all things are by the Law purged with blood and without shedding of blood there is no remission so that the blood of Christ is the Anti-type aimed at in the blood of those Sacrifices that were slain for Sinners sins But Secondly As the death of Christ on the Cross was a bitter death a bloody death so the death of Christ on the Cross was a lingring death It was more for Christ to suffer one hour than for us to have suffered for ever but his death was lengthened out he hung three hours on the Cross he dyed many deaths before he could dye one from the sixth hour till the nineth hour that is from twelve till three in the Afternoon there was darkness over Math. 27. 45. all the Land About twelve when the Sun is usually brightest it began now to darken And this darkness was so great that it spread over all Luk. 23. 44. the Land of Jewry yea some think over all the world so we translate it in Luke And there was darkness over all the Earth to shew Gods dislike of their horrid cruelty He would not have the Sun give light to so horrid an act the Sun as it were hid her face that she might not see the Sun of Righteousness so unworthily so wickedly handled It was dark 1. To shew the blindness darkness ignorance of the Jews in crucifying the Lord of glory 2. To shew the detestation of the fact 3. To shew the â—vileness of our sins This darkness was not a natural Eclipse of the Sun for first it cannot be so total so general Nor Secondly It could not be so long for the interposed Moon goeth swiftly away Certainly this was no ordinary Eclipse of the Sun seeing the Passover was kept at the full Moon when the Moon stands right opposite to the Sun on the other side of the Heaven and for this cause cannot hinder the light of Exod. 10. 12. the Sun but a supernatural work of God coming to pass by Miracle like as the darkness in Aegypt The Moon being now in the full it being the mid'st of the Lunar moneth when the Passover was killed and so of necessity the body of the Moon which useth to Eclipse the Sun by its interposition and being between us and the Sun must be opposite to and distant from the Sun the diametrical breadth of the Hemisphere the Full Moon ever rising Suid. in viâ—ae 5. Dion at the Suns setting and therefore this Eclipse could never be a natural Eclipse Many Gentiles besides Jews observed this darkness as a great Miracle Dionysius the Areopagite as suidas relates could say at first sight of it Amos 8. 9. Either the World is ending or the God of Nature is suffering of this darkness Amos long before had Prophesied And it shall come to pass in that day that I will cause the Sun to go down at Noon and I will darken the Earth in the clear day The opinion of Authors concerning the cause of this darkness are various some think that the Sun by Divine power withdrew and held back its beams others say that the obscurity was caused by some thick Clouds which were miraculously produced in the Ayre and spread themselves over all the Earth Others say that this darkness was by a wonderful interposition of the Moon which at that time was at full but by a Miracle interposed it self betwixt the Earth and Sun Whatsoever was the cause of this darkness it is certain that it continued for the space of three hours as dark as the darkest Winter Math. 27. 46. Nights About three which the Jews call the nineth hour the John 19. 28 30. Sun now beginning to receive his light Jesus cryed with a loud voice Eli Eli Lama sabachthani My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And then that the Scripture might be sulfilled he said I thirst and when he Luk. 23. 46. had received the Vinegar he said It is finished and at last crying with a loud voyce he said Father into thy hands I commend my Spirit and having said thus he gave up the Ghost Christs words were ever gracious but never more gracious than at this time You cannot find in all the books and writings of men in all the Annals and Records of time either such sufferings or such sayings as were these last words and wounds sayings John 19. 30. and sufferings of Jesus Christ And having said thus he gave up the ghost or as John relates it He bowed his head and gave up the ghost Christ would not off the Cross till all was done that was here to be done Christ Emisit nâ—n amisit Ambrose bowed not because he was dead but first he bowed and then dyed that is he dyed freely and willingly without constraint and
was heavy unto death beset with terrors as the word implies when he drank that bitter cup that cup of bitterness that cup mingled with curses which made him sweat drops of blood which if men or Angels had but sip'd of 't would have made them reel stagger and tumble into Hell The Soul of Christ was over-cast with a Cloud of Gods displeasure The Greek Church speaking of the sufferings of Christ calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unknown sufferings Ah Christians who can speak out this sorrow The spirit of a man will sustain Pâ—ov 18. 11. his infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear Christs Soul is sorrowful but give me that word again his Soul is exceeding sorrowful but if that word be yet too low then I must tell you That his Soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death not only extensively such as must continue for the space of seventeen or eighteen hours even until death it self should finish it but also intensively such and so great as that which is used to be at the very point of death and such as were able to bring death it self had not Christ been reserved to a greater and heavier punishment of this sorrow is that especially spoken Behold Lament 1. 12. and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger Many a sad and sorrowful Soul hath no question been in the world but the like sorrow to this was never since the Creation the very terms or phrases used by the Evangelists speaks no less He was sorrowful and heavy saith one amazed and very heavy saith another in an Agony saith a third in a Soul-trouble saith a fourth Certainly the bodily torments of the Cross were much inferior to the Agony of his Soul the pain of the body is the body of pain Oh but the very soul of sorrow is the Souls sorrow and the very soul of pain is the Souls pain Secondly That which Christ assumed or took of our nature he assumed to this end to suffer in it and by suffering to save and redeem it But he took the whole nature of man both body and soul ergo He suffered in both first the assumption is evident and needs no proof that Christ took upon him both our soul and body the Apostle assures us where he saith That in all things it became Heb. 2. 17. him to be like unto us therefore he had both body and soul as we have Secondly Concerning the proposition viz. That what Christ took of our nature He took it by suffering in it properly and immediatly to Redeem us Now this is evident by that blessed word where the Apostle saith Christ took part with them that he might destroy vers 14 15. through death him that had the power of death that is the Devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Hence I reason thus that wherein Christ delivered us he took part with us in but he delivered us from fear of death Ergo he did therein communicate with us Now marke This fear was the proper and immediate passion of the Soul namely the fear of death and God's anger And the Text giveth this sense Because the fear of this death kept them in bondage but the sear only of the bodily death doth not bring us into such bondage witness that Song of Zachery That we being delivered from the hands of our Enemies Luke 1. 74. should serve him without fear this then is a spiritual fear from the which Christ did deliver us Ergo He did communicate with us in this fear for the Apostle saith Heb. 2. 18. In that wherein he suffered and was tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted Certainly that fear which fell on Christ was a real fear and it was in his Soul and did not arise from the meer contemplation of bodily torments only for the very Martyrs in the encountering with them have feared little Assuredly there was some great matter that lay upon the very Soul of Christ which made him so heavy and sorrowsul and so afraid and in such an Agony But if you please take this second Argument in another form of words thus What Christ took of ours that He in suffering offered up for us for His assuming of our Nature was for this end to suffer for us in our Nature but he took our Nature in Body and in Soul and he delivered our souls as well as our bodys and the sins of our souls did need his Sacrifice as well as the sins of our bodys and our souls were Crucified with Christ as well as our bodys Mens mea in Christo Crucisixa est saith Ambrose Surely if our whole man was lost then our whole man did need the benefit and help of a whole Saviour and if Christ had assumed only our flesh our body then our souls adjudged adjudged to punishment had remained under transgression without hope of pardon Several sayings of the Ancients doth further strengthen this Argument take a tast of some Si totus homo periit totus benesiâ—io salvateris indiguit c. If the whole man perished August â—ont Feliâ—i n. c. 13. the whole man needed a Saviour Christ therefore took the whole man body and soul if he had taken only flesh the soul should remain addict to punishment of the first transgression without hope of pardon By the same reason Christ must also suffer properly in soul because not by taking our soul but by satisfying in his soul our soul is delivered Suscepit animum meam Suscepit corpus meum Ambrose Ambrose He took all our passions or affections to sanctifie them Damaâ—cene Hâ—b 5. 9. all in himself but Christ was Sanctified and Consecrated by his death and so doth he consecrate us For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10. 14. Ergo By his offering of our soul and suffering in our soul hath he consecrated our soul and affections Suscepit affectum meum ut emanduret He took my affection to amend it c. Now he hath amended it in that he consecrated it by his offering Heb. 10. 14. Iâ—llud pro nobis suscepit quod in nobis amplius pâ—riclitabatur He hath taken that for us which was most in danger for us c. that is our soul as he expoundeth it de incarnat c. 7. But Christ hath not otherwise delivered us from the danger but by entring into the danger for us this danger of the soul is the fear and feeling of Gods wrath Thirdly Christ bore our sorrows Isa 53. 4. Now what sorrows should we bear but the sorrows due unto us for our sins and surely these were not corporal only but spiritual also and those did Christ bear in his soul The same Prophet saith ver 10. He shall make his soul
being without sin could neither by Indignation displease his Father nor by Desperation destroy himself So that if you consider either the adjuncts of Hell or the effects then I say we do remove all them as far off from the holy soul of Christ as Heaven is from Hell or the East from the West or darkness from light c. Thirdly Consider the punishment it self Now concerning this we say That our blessed Saviour as in himself he bare all the sins of the Elect. So he also suffered the whole punishment of body and soul in general that was due unto us for the same which we should have endured if he had not satisfied for it and so consequently we affirm that he felt the anguish of soul and horror of Gods wrath and so in soul entred into the torments of Hell for us sustained them and vanquished them One spaking in honour of Christs passion saith Cum iram Dei Calvin in Math. 2â— 39. sibi propositum videret When he saw the wrath of God set before him presenting himself before Gods tribunal loaden with the sins of the whole world it was necessary for him to fear the deep bottomless pit of death Again Calvin in Math. 27. 46. saith the same Author Cum species Christo objecla est c. Such an object being offered to Christs view as though God being set against him he were appointed to destruction he was with horror affrighted which was able an hundred times to have swallowed up all mortal Creatures but he by the wonderful power of his spirit escaped with Victory What dishonour was it to our Saviour Christ saith another to suffer that which was necessary for Fulk in Act 2. Sect. 11. our Redemption namely that torment of Hell which we had deserved and which the Justice of God required that he should endure for our Redemption Or rather what is more to the honour of Christ then that he vouchsafed to descend into Hell for us and to abide that bitter pain which we had deserved to suffer Eternally and what may rather be called Hell then the anguish of soul which he suffered when he being yet God complained that he was forsaken of God O Sirs this we need not fear to confess that Christ bearing our sins in himself upon the Cross did feel himself during that combat as rejected and forsaken of God and accursed for us and the flames of his Fathers wrath burning within him so that to the honour of Christs Passion we confess that our blessed Redeemer refused no part of our punishment but endured the very pains of Hell so far as they tended not neither to the derogation of his Person deprivation of his Nature destruction of his Office c. Here it may be query'd whether the Lord Jesus Christ underwent the idem the very self-same punishment that we should have undergone or only the tantundem that which did amount and was equivalent thereunto To which I Answer That in different respects both may be affirmed The punishment which Christ indur'd if it be considered in its substance kind or nature so 't was the same with that the Sinner himself should have undergone but if it be considered with respect to certain circumstances adjuncts or accidents which attend that punishment as inflicted upon the Sinner so 't was but equivalent and not the same The punishment due to the Sinner was death the curse of the Law upon the breach of the first Covenant now this Christ underwent For Gal. 3. 13. he was made a Curse for us The adjuncts attending this death were the Eternity of it Desperation going along with it c. These Christ was freed from the dignity of his Person supplying the former the sanctity of his Person securing him against the latter therefore in reference unto these and to some other things already mentioned it was but the tantundem not the idem but suppose there had been nothing of sameness nothing beyond equivalency in what Christ suffered yet that was enough for it was not required that Christ should suffer every kind of Curse which is the effect of sin but in the general accursed death Look as in his fulfilling of the Law for us it was not necessary that he should perform every holy duty that the Law requireth for he could not perform that obedience which Magistrates or Married persons are bound to do It s enough that there was a fulfilling of it in the general for us So here it was not necessary that Jesus Christ should undergo in every respect the same punishment which the offender himself was lyable unto but if he shall undergoe so much as may satisfie the Laws threatnings and vindicate the Law-giver in his Truth Justice and Righteous government that was enough Now that was unquestionably done by Christ But some may object and say How could Christ suffer Obj. 1 the pains of the second death without dis-union of the Godhead from the Man-hood for the God-head could not dye Or what interest had Christs God-head in his humane sufferings to make them both so short and so precious and satisfactory to Divine justice for the sins of so many Sinners especially when we consider that God cannot suffer I Answer It followeth not that because Christ is United Answ 1 into one Person with God that therefore he did not suffer the pains of Hell for by the same reason he should not have suffered in his body for the Union of his Person could have preserved him from sufferings in the one as well as in the other and neither God Angels nor Men compelled him to undertake this difficult and bloody work but his own free and unspeakable love to Man-kind as himself declares Joh. 10. 17. Therefore my Father Isa 53. 12. Psal 40. 7 8. Heb. 10. 9 10. loves me because I lay down my life ver 18. No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self If Christ had been constrained to suffer then both men and Angels might fear and tremble but as one saith well Voluntas Bernard sponte morientis placuit Deo The willingness of him that dyed pleased God who offered himself to be the Redeemer of fallen man But secondly I Answer from 1 Joh. 3. 16. Hereby Answ 2 perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us The person dying was God else his person could have done us no good The Person suffering must be God as well as man but the God-head suffered not As if you shoot off a Cannon in the bright ayr the ayr suffers but the light of it suffers not Actions and passions belong to persons Nothing less then that person who is God-Man could bear the brunt of the day satisfie Divine justice pacifie Divine wrath bring in an everlasting Righteousness and make us happy for ever But Thirdly I answer thus Albeit the passion of the humane Nature could not so far reach the God-head of Christ that it
should in a physical sense suffer which indeed is impossible yet these sufferings did so affect the Person that it may truly be said that God suffered and by his blood bought his people to himself for albeit the Act. 20. 28. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19 20. 1 Cor. 6. 20. cap. 7. 23. proper and formal subject of physical sufferings be only the humane Nature yet the principal subject of sufferings both in a physical and moral sense is Christs Person God and Man from the dignity whereof the worth and excellency of all sorts of sufferings the merit and the satisfactory sufficiency of the price did flow O Sirs you must seriously consider that though Christ as God in his God-head could not suffer in a physical sense yet in a moral sense he might suffer and did suffer For he being in the form of God thought it not robbery Phil. 2. 6 7 8. to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a Man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross O! who can sum up the contradictions the railings the revilings the contempts the despisings and calumnies that Christ met with from Sinners yea from the worst of Sinners But how could so low a debasing of the Son of man or of the humane nature assumed by Christ consist with the Object 2 Majesty of the Person of the Son of God We must distinguish those things in Christ which are Answ proper to either of the two Natures from those things which are ascribed to his Person in respect of either of the Natures or both the Natures for infirmity physical suffering or mortality are proper to the humane Nature The glory of power and grace and mercy and super-excellent Majesty and such like are proper to the Diety but the sufferings of the humane Nature are so far from diminishing the glory of the divine Nature that they do manifest the same and make it appear more clearly and gloriously for by how much the humane Nature was weakned depressed and despised for our sins for our sakes by so much the more the love of Christ God and Man in one person toward man and his mercy and power and grace to man do shine in the eyes of all that judiciously do look upon him Object How could Christ indure Hell-fire without Obj. 3 grievous sins as blasphemy and despair c. I Answer That we may walk safely and without offence Answ these things must be premised First That the sorrows and sufferings of Hell be no otherwise attributed to Christ than as they may stand with the dignity and worthiness of his Person the holiness of his Nature and the performance of the office and work of our Redemption First then for the soul of Christ to suffer in the local place of Hell to remain in the darkness thereof and to be tormented with the material flames there and eternally to be damned was not for the dignity of his Person to whom for his excellency and worthiness both the place manner and time of those torments were dispensed with Secondly Final Rejection and Desperation Blasphemy and the worm of Conscience agreeth not with the holiness of his Nature Who was a Lamb without a spot and therefore we do not we dare not ascribe them to him Heb. 9. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 19. But Thirdly Destruction of body and soul which is the second death could not fall upon Christ for this were to have destroyed the work of our Redemption if he had been subject to destruction But Fourthly and lastly Blasphemy and Despair are no parts of the pains of the damned but the consequents and follow the sense of Gods wrath in a sinful Creature that is overcome by it But Christ had no sin of his own neither was he overcome of wrath and therefore he always Rev. 16. 9. 11. held fast his integrity and innocency Despair is an unavoidable Companion attending the pains of the second death as all Reprobates do experience Desperation is an utter hopelesness of any good and a certain expectation and waiting on the worst that can befall and this is the lot and portion of the damned in Hell The wretched sinner in Hell seeing the sentence passed against him Gods purpose fulfilled never to be reversed the gates of Hell made fast upon him and a great Gulf fixt Luk. 16. 26. betwixt Hell and Heaven which renders his escape impossible He now gives up all and reckons on nothing but uttermost misery Now mark this despair is not an essential part of the second death but only a consequent or at the most an effect occasioned by the sinners view of his irremediless woful condition but this neither did nor could possibly befall the Lord Jesus He was able by the power of his God-head both to suffer and to satisfie and to overcome therefore he expected a good issue and Psal 16. 9 10. Act. 2. 26 27 28 31. knew that the end should be happy and that he should not be ashamed Isa 5. 6 7. c. Though a very shallow stream would easily drown a little Child there being no hope of escape for it unless one or another should step in seasonably to prevent it Yet a man that is grown up may groundedly hope to escape out of a far more deep and dangerous place because by reason of his stature strength and skill he could wade or swim out Surely the wrath of the Almighty manifested in Hell is like the vast Ocean or some broad deep River and therefore when the sinful Sons and Daughters of Adam which are Rom. 5. 6. without strength are hurl'd into the mid'st of it they must needs lye down in their confusion as altogether hopeless of deliverance or escaping but this despair could not seize upon Jesus Christ because although his Father took Isa 63. 1 2 3. him cast him into the Sea of his wrath so that all the billows of it went over him yet being the mighty God with whom nothing is impossible he was very able to pass through that Sea of wrath and sorrow which would have drowned all the world and come safe to shore Object But when did Christ suffer Hellish Torments Obj. 4 they are inflicted after death not usually before it but Christs soul went strait after death into Paradise how else could he say to the penitent Thief This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Now to this Objection I shall give these following Answers First That Christs soul after his Passion upon the Cross did not really and locally descend into the place of the damned may be thus made evident First All the Evangelists and so Luke among the rest 1. Luk. 1. 3. intending to make an exact Narrative of the life and death of Christ hath set down at large his Passion Death
High-Court of the Jews But The third kind of secret Murder is an open reviling and reproaching of a Brother in these words But whosoever shall say thou Fool shall be in danger of Hell-fire Thou Fool this is a word of greater disgrace than the former 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies unsavory or without rellish a Fool here is by a metaphor called insipid Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sote which we call Sot shall be in danger of Hell-fire or to be cast into Gehenna Gehenna comes from the Hebrew word Gettinnom that is the Valley of Hinnom lying near the City of Jerusalem in which Valley in former times the Itolatrous Josh 15. 8. Jews caused their Children to be burned alive between the glowing arms of the brazen Image of Moloch imitating vide 2. King 23 10. Jer. 7. 31. Jer. 32. 35. Jer. 19. 4 5 6. the Abominations of the Heathen And hence the Scripture often makes use of that word to signifie the place of eternal punishment where the damned must abide under the wrath of God for ever There were four kinds of punishments exercised among the Jews First Stranglings 2. The Sword 3. Stoning 4. The Fire Now this last they always judged the worst as Beza affirms upon this very place In these words Shall be in danger of Hell-fire Christ alludes to the great Sanhedrim and the highest degree of punishment that was inflicted by them namely to be burned in the Valley of Hinnom which by a known Metaphor is transferred to Hell it self and the inexpressible torments thereof For as those poor wretches being inclosed in a brazen Idol-heat with fire were miserably tormented in this Valley of Hinnom So the wicked being cast into Hell the Prison of the damn'd shall be eternally tormented in unquenchable fire This Valley of Hinnom by reason of the pollution of it with slaughter blood and stencth of Carkasses did become so execrable that Hell it self did afterwards inherit the same Name and was called Gehenna of this very place And that 1. In respect of the hollowness and depth thereof being a low and deep Valley 2. This Valley of Hinnom was a place of misery in regard of those many slaughters that were committed in it through their barbarous Idolatry So Hell is a place of misery and infelicity wherein there is nothing but sorrow 3. Thirdly By the bitter and lamentable crys of poor Infants in this Valley is shadowed out the crys and lamentable torments of the damned in Hell 4. In this Valley of Hinnom was another fire which was kept continually burning for the consuming of dead Carkasses and filth and the garbidge that came out of the City Now our Saviour by the fire of Gehenna in this Mat. 5. 22. hath reference principally to this fire signifying hereby the perpetuity and everlastingness of Hellish pains To this last judgment of the Sanhedrim viz. Burning Doth Christ appropriate that kind of Murder which is by open reviling of a Brother that he might notifie the heynousness of this sin marke in this Scripture Judgment Councel and Hell fire do but signifie three degrees of the same punishment c. See also Matth. 5. 29 30. And if thy right Eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee for it is profitable for thee that one of thy Members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into Hell And if thy right hand offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee for it is profitable for thee that one of thy Members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into Hell-fire Julian taking these commands literally mockt at Christian Religion as foolish cruel and vain because they require men to maim their members He mockt at Christians because no man did it and he mockt at Christ because no man obeyed him but this Apostate might have seen from the scope that these words were not to be taken literally but figuratively Some of the Antients by the right hand and the right eye do understand Relations Friends or any other dear enjoyments which draws the heart from God Others of them by the right eye and the right hand do understand such darling sins that are as dear to men as their right eyes and right hands That this Hell here spoken of is not meant of the Grave into which the body shall be laid is most evident because those Christians who do pull out their right eyes and cut off their right hands that is mortifie those special sins which are as dear and near to them as the very members of their bodies shall be secured and delivered from this Hell whereas none shall be exempted from the Grave though they are the choycest persons on Earth for grace and holiness Death like the Duke of Parma's Sword knows no difference twixt Robes and Raggs twixt Prince and Peasant All flesh is grass The Isa 40. 6. flesh of Princes Nobles Counsellors Generals c. is grass as well as the flesh of the meanest Beggar that walks the Streets The mortal Sythe saith one is master Hâ—rat l. 1. Oct. 28. of the Royal Scepter it mows down the Lillies of the Crown as well as the Grass of the Field Never was there Oratour so Eloquent nor Monarch so Potent that could either Dâ—aths Motto is Nulli cedo perswade or withstand the stroak of death when it came It is one of Solomons sacred Aphorisms The Rich and the Poor meet together somtimes in the same Bed somtimes Prov. 22. 2. at the same Board and somtimes in the same Grave Death is the common Inne of all Man-kind There is no defence against the stroak of death nor no discharge in that Hâ—b 9. 27. Eccles 8. 8. War Death is that only King against whom there is no rising up If your Houses be fired by good help they Prov. 30. 31. may be quenched if the Sea break out by art and industry it may be repaired If Princes Invade by power and policy they may be repulsed If Devils from Hell shall tempt by assistance from Heaven they may be resisted But Death comes into Royal Pallaces and into the meanest Cottages and there is not a man to be found that can make resistance against this King of terrors and terrour of Kings Deaths Motto is Nemini parco I spare none Thus you see that by Hell in Math. 5. 29 30. You may not you cannot understand the Grave and therefore by it you must understand the place of the damned But if you please you may cast your eye upon another Scripture viz. Math. 10. 28. Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell The word rather is not a comparative but an adversative We should not fear man at all when he stands in competition with God So Victorian the Pro-Consul of Carthage being sollicited to Arrianism
yeâ— the unprofitable servant into outer darkness Into a darkness beyond a darkness into a Dungeon beyond and beneath the prison The darkness of Hell is compared 2. Pet. 2. 4. Juâ—le verâ—â— 6. Acts 12. 10. This priâ—on was without the gate near mount â—alâ—â—ry and it was the loathsoâ—est and vilest prison of all for iâ— it the Thieves who were carried to Calvary to be executed were kep't and Christ alludeth to this prison in that Matth. 8. 12. and that Matth. 22. 13. and that Matth. 25. 30. Cast him into utter darkness Which allusion could not be understood unless there had been a dark prison without the City where was utter darkness to the darkness of those prisons which were often times out of the City By outer darkness the Holy-Ghost Would signifie to us that the wicked should be in a state most remote from all heavenly happiness and blessedness and that they should be expulsed out of the blessed presence of God who is mentium Lumâ—n It is usual among the Greeks by a comparative to set forth the superlative degree by outer darkness we are to understand the greatest darkness that is as in a place most remote from all light They shall be cast into outer darkness that is they shall be cast into the corporal and palpable darkness of the infernal prison Immediately after death Sinners Souls shall be cast into the infernal prison and in the day of judgment both their souls and their bodies shall be cast into outer darkness Darkness is no other thing than a privation of light Now Light is twofold viz. 1. Spiritual as Wisdom Grace Truth now the privation of this light is internal darkness and ignorance in the spirit and inward man 2. There is a sensible and corporal light whose privation is outer darkness and this is the darkness spoken of in the three Scriptures last cited For although there be fire in hell yet it is a dark and smoaky fire and not clear except only so as the damned may see one another for the greater encrease of their misery as some write Now I shall leave the ingenious Reader to conclude as he pleases concerning the place where Hell is desiring and hoping that he will make it the greatest business of his life to escape Hell and to get to Heaven c. Thirdly and Lastly If Jesus Christ did feel and suffer the very torments of Hell though not after a hellish manner then let me infer that certainly the Papists are greatly out they are greatly mistaken and do greatly err who boldly and confidently assert that Christs Soul in substance went really and locally into Hell Bellar. de Christ Animâ— lib. 4. cap. 10. 11 12 13 14 15 16. Teâ— 1. Vide Calvin in Instituâ— lib. 2. cap. 16. Sect. 9. Bellarmine takes a great deal of pains to make good this assertion but this great Champion of the Romish Church may easily be confuted First because that limbus patrum and Christs fetching the fathers from the skirts of Hell about which he makes so great a noise is a meer fable and not bottomed upon any solid grounds of Scripture Secondly because upon Christs dying and satisfying for our sins his soul went that very day into Paradise as Adam sinning was that very day cast out of Luke 23. 43. Gen. 3. 23 24. John 18. 30. Heb. 9. 12. 1 Thâ—s 1. 10. Eph. 4. 8. Heb. 2. 14. 15. Coloss 2. 14. 15. 'T is a plain allusion to the Roman Triumphs where the Victor ascended to the Capitol in a Chariot of State the prisoners following on foot with their hands bound behind them c. Paradise and his soul could not be in two places at once Thirdly because this descent of Christs Soul into Hell was altogether needless and to no end what need was there of it or to what end did he descend not to suffer in Hell for that was finished on the Cross not to redeem or rescue the Fathers out of Hell for the elect were never there and Redemption from Hell was wrought by Christs death as the Scriptures do clearly evidence not to triumph there over the Devils c. For Christ triumphed over them when he was on the Cross Christ in the day of his solemn inauguration into his Heavenly Kingdom triumphed over Sin Death Devils and Hell when Christ was on the Cross he made the Devils a publick spectacle of scorn and derision as Tamerlane did Bajazet the great Turk whom he shut up in an Iron Cage made like a Grate in such sort as thaâ— Turk Hist 220. â—e might on every side be seen and so carried him up and down all Asia to be scorned and derided by his own people By these few hints you may see the vanity and folly of the Papists who tell you that Christs soul in substance went really and locally into Hell I might make other inferences but let these suffice at this time Fourthly As Jesus Christ did feel and suffer the very torments of Hell though not after a hellish manner so Jesus Christ was really certainly made a curse for us Jesus Christ did in his soul and body bear that curse of the Law which by reason of transgression was due to us Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law Gala. 3. 13. being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree He saith not Christ was cursed but a curse which is more it shews that the curse of all did lie upon him The death on the tree was accursed above all kinds of deaths as the Serpent was Gen. 3. 14. accursed above all the beasts of the field This Scripture Not that all that are hanged should be damned for the contrary appears in that Luke 23. 43. Neither is hanging in it self or by the law of nature or by civil law more execrable than any other death refers to Deut. 21. 33. His body shall not remain all night upon the tree but thou shalt in any wise hury him that day for he that is hanged is accursed of God The holy and wise God appointed this kind of punishment as being the most cruel and reproachful for a type of the punishment which his Son must suffer to deliver us from the curse Hanging on a tree was accounted the most shameful the most dishonourable the most odious and infamous and accursed of all kinds of death both by the Israelites and other nations because the very manner of the death did intimate that such men as were thus executed were such execrable base vile and accursed wretches that they did defile the earth with treading on it and would pollute the earth if they should die upon it and therefore were hang'd up in the air as persons not fit to converse amongst men or touch the surface of the ground any more But what should be the reason why the ceremonial Law affixed the curse to this death rather than any
Isa 53. 7. 1 Pet. 2. 24. him vers 5. 6. as by the Law of sacrificing of old the sinner was to lay his hands upon the head of the beast Levit. 8. 14. 18. 22. v. confessing his sins and then the beast was slain and offered for expiation thus having the man's sins as it were taken and put upon it and hereby the sinner is made righteous The sinner could never be pardoned nor the guilt of sin removed but by Christ's making his soul an offering for sin what did Christ in special recommend to God when he was breathing out his last gasp but his soul Luk. 23. 46. When Jesus had cried out with a loud voice he said father into thy hands I commend my spirit and having said thus he gave up the Ghost that is to thy safe custody and blessed tuition I commend my soul as a special treasure or Jewel most charily and tenderly to be preserved and kept Luke 2. 52. He increased in wisdom and stature here 's stature for his body and wisdom for his soul his growth in that speaks the truth of the former and his growth in this the truth of the latter his body properly could not grow in wisdom nor his soul in stature therefore he must have both There are two essential parts which make up one of his natures his Manhood viz. soul and body but both of these two of old have been denyed Marcion divests Christ of a body and Apollinaris of a soul and the Arrians held that Christ had no soul but that the Deity was to him instead of a soul and supplyed the office thereof that what the soul is to us and doth in our bodies all that the divine nature was to Christ and did in his body and are there not some among us that make a great noise about a light in them that dash upon the same rock but the choice Scriptures last cited may serve sufficiently to confute all such brain-sick men But Secondly as Christ had a true humane and reasonable soul so Christ had a perfect entire compleat body and every thing which is proper to a body for instance 1. he had blood Heb. 2. 14. He also took part of the same that is of flesh and blood Christ had in him the blood of a man shedding of blood there must be for without it Heb. 9. 22. there is no remission of sin the blood of bruit creatures Heb. 10. 4 5 10. v. could not wash away the blots of reasonable creatures wherefore Christ took our nature that he might have our blood to shed for our sins There is an Emphasis put upon Christ as man in the great business of man's salvation The Man Christ Jesus the remedy carrying in it a suitable 1 Tim. 2. 5. ness to the Malady the sufferings of a man to expiate the sin of man 2. He had bones as well as flesh Luk. 24. 39. A spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have 3. Christ had in him the bowels of a man Phil. 2. 8. which bowels he fully expressed when he was on earth Mat. 12. 18 19 20. nay he retaineth those bowels now he is in heaven in glory he hath a fellow feeling of his people's miseries Acts 9. 4. Saul Saul why persecutest thou me see Mat. 25. 35. to the end of that chapter though Christ in his glorified state be freed from that state of frailty passibility Mortality yet he still retains his wonted pity 4. He had in him the familiarity of a man how familiarly did Christ converse with all sorts of persons in this world all the Evangelists do sufficiently testifie Man is a sociable and familiar creature Christ became man Heb. 2. 17. that he might be a merciful High Priest Not that his becoming man made him more merciful as though the mercies of a man were more than the mercies of God but because by this means mercy is conveyed more suitably and familiarly to man But Fourthly and lastly our Lord Jesus Christ took our infirmities upon him when Christ was in this world he submitted to the common accidents adjuncts infirmities miseries calamities which are incident to humane nature For the opening of this remember there are three sorts of infirmities 1. There are sinful infirmities Jam. 5. 7. Psal 77. 10. the best of men are but men at the best witness Abraham's unbelief David's security Job's cursing Gen. 20. 2. Psal 30. 6. 7. Job 3. Jen. 4. Jonas his passion Thomas his unbelief Peter's lying c. Now these infirmities Jesus Christ took not upon him for though he was made like unto us in all things yet without sin Heb. 4. 15. 2. There are personal infirmities which from some particular causes befall this or that person as Leprosie blindness dumbness Palsie Dropsie Epilepsie Stone Gout Sickness Christ was never sick sickness arises from the unfit or unequal temperature of the humours or from intemperance of labour study c. but none of these were in Christ he had no sin and therefore no sickness Christ took not the passions or infirmities which were proper to this or that man 3. There are natural infirmities which belong to all Mankind since the fall as hunger thirst wearisomness sorrowfulness sweating bleeding wounds death burial now these natural infirmities that are common to the whole nature these Jesus Christ took upon him as all the Evangelists do abundantly testifie our dear Lord Jesus he lay so many weeks and months in the Virgin 's womb he received nourishment and growth in the ordinary way he was brought forth and bred up just as common infants are he had his life sustained by common food as ours is he was poor afflicted reproached persecuted tempted deserted falsely accused c. he lived an afflicted life and died an accursed death his whole life from the cradle to the cross was made up of nothing but sorrows and sufferings and thus you see that Jesus Christ did put himself under those infirmities which properly belong to the common nature of man though he did not take upon him the particular infirmities of individuums Now what do all these things speak out but the certainty and reality of Christ's Manhood Que. But why must Christ partake of both natures was it absolutely necessary that he should so do An. Yea it was absolutely necessary that Christ should partake of both natures and that both in respect of God and in respect of us First in respect of us and that First because man had sinned and therefore man must 1. 1 Cor. 15. 21. be punished by man came death therefore by man must come the resurrection of the dead man was the offender therefore man must be the satisfier man had been the sinner and therefore man must be the sufferer it is but justice to punish sin in that nature in which it had been committed by man we fell from God and by man we must be brought back to God by the first
one only Mediator betwixt Isa 63. 3. I confess the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is given to Moses in that Gal. 3. 19. but Moses was but a typical Mediator and you never find that Moses is called a Mediator in a way of redemption or satisfaction or paying a Ransom for so dear Jesus is the only Mediator so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 us used in that 1 Tim. 2. 5. Heb. 8. 6 7. 8. Heb. 9. 14 15. Heb. 12. 22 23 24. God and men and 't is as high folly and madness to make more Mediators than one as 't is to make more Gods than one There is one God and one mediator betwixt God and men for look as one husband satisfies the wife as one father satisfies the child as one Lord satisfies the servant and on sun satisfies the world so one Mediator is enough to satisfie all the world that desire a Mediator or that have an interest in a Mediator The true sence and import of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mediator is a middle person or one that interposes betwixt two parties at variance to make peace betwixt them Though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mediator be rendred variously sometimes an Umpiere or Arbitrator sometimes a messenger betwixt two persons sometimes an interpretor imparting the mind of one to another sometimes a reconciler or peace-maker yet this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth most properly signifie a Mediator or a midler because Jesus Christ is both a middle person and a middle officer betwixt God and man to reconcile and reunite God and man This of all others is the most proper and genuine signification of this name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ is the middle that is the second person in the Trinity betwixt the Father and the Holy Ghost He is the only middle person betwixt God and man being in one person God-man and his being a middle person fits and capacitates him to stand in the midst between God and us And as he is the middle person so he is the middle officer intervening or interposing or coming between God and man by office satisfying God's justice to the full for man's sins by his sufferings and death and maintaining our constant peace in heaven by his meritorious intercession Hence as one observes Jesus Christ is Gerhard a true Mediator is still found in medio in the middle He was born as some think from Wisd 18. 14. about the middle of the night he suffered in the middle of the world that is at Jerusalem seated in the middle of the Heb. 11. 12. earth he was crucified in the midst between the two John 19. 18. thieves he died in the air on the cross in the midst between heaven and earth he stood after his Resurrection John 20. 19. in the midst of his Disciples and he has promised that where two or three are gathered together in his name he Mat. 18. 20. will be in the midst of them and he walks in the midst Rev. 2. 1. of the seven golden candle-sticks that is the Churches And he as the heart in the midst of the body distributes Ephe. 4. 15 16. spirits and vertue to all the parts of his mystical body Thus Jesus Christ is the Mediator betwixt God and man middle in person and middle in office And thus you have seen at large what a meet Mediator Jesus Christ is considered in both his natures considered as God-man But Secondly If Jesus Christ be not God then there is no spiritual nor eternal good to be expected or enjoyed If Christ be not God our preaching is in vain and your hearing is in vain and your praying is in vain and your believing is in vain and your hope of pardon and forgivness by Jesus Christ is in vain for none can forgive sins but a God Mark 2. 7. John 3. 16. John 10. 28. 2 Tim. 4. 8. James 1. 12. 1 Pet. 5. 4. v. Rev. 3. 21. Rev. 2. 11. Christ hath promised that believers shall never perish he hath promised them eternal life and that he will raise them up at the last day he has promised a Crown of Righteousness he has promised a Crown of Life he has promised a Crown of glory he has promised that conquering Christians shall sit down with him in his throne as he is set down with his father in his throne He has promised that they shall not be hurt of the second death And a thousand other good things Jesus Christ has promised but if Jesus Christ be not God how shall these promises be made good If a man that hath never a foot of Land in England nor yet worth one groat in all the world shall make his will and bequeath to thee such and such houses and Lands and Lordships in such a County or such a County and shall by Will give thee so much in Plate and so much in Jewels and so much in ready money whereas he is not upon any account worth one penny in all the world certainly such Legacies will never make a man the richer nor the happier None of those great and precious promises which are hinted at above will signifie any thing if Christ be not God for they can neither refresh us nor chear us in this world nor make us happy in that other world If Christ be not God how can he purchase our pardon procure our peace pacifie divine wrath and satisfie infinite justice A man may satisfie the justice of man but who but a God can satisfie the justice of God will God accept of thousands of Micah 6. 7. Rams or ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl or the first-born of thy body for the sin of thy soul Oh? No he will not he cannot that Scripture is worthy to be written in letters of Gold Acts 20. 28. Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the flock over the which the holy Ghost hath made you over-seers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood This must needs relate to Christ and Christ is here called God and Christ's blood is called the blood of God and without a peradventure Christ could never have gone through with the purchase of the Church if the blood he shed had not been the blood of God This blood is called God's own blood because the son of God being and remaining true God assumed humane flesh and blood in unity of person by this phrase that which appertaineth to the humanity of Christ is attributed to his Divinity because of the union of the two natures in one person and communion of properties The Church is to Christ a bloody Spouse an Acheldama or field of blood for the could not be redeemed with silver and gold but with 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. the blood of God so it is called by a communication of properties to set forth the incomparable value and vertue thereof But Thirdly if
Look as he must be more than man that he may be able to suffer that his sufferings may be meritorious so he must be man that he may be in a capacity to suffer die and obey for these are no work for one who is only God A God only cannot suffer a man only cannot merit God cannot obey man is bound to obey wherefore Christ that he might obey and suffer he was man and that he might merit by his obedience and suffering he was God-man just such a person did the work of Redemption call for That Christ's merits might be sufficient he must be God for sufficient merit for Mankind could not be in the person of any mere man no not in Christ himself considered only as man for so all the grace he had he did receive it and all the good he did he was bound to do it for he was made of a woman and made under the Law not only Gal. 4. 4. under the Ceremonial Law as he was a Jew but under the Moral as a man for it is under that Law under which we were and from which we are redeemed therefore Gal. 3. 13. in fulfilling it he did no more than that which was his duty to do he could not merit by it no not for himself much less for others considered only as man therefore he must also be God that the dignity of his person might add dignity and vertue and value to his works in a word Deus potuit sed non debuit homo debuit sed non potuit God could but he should not man should but he could not make satisfaction therefore he that would do it must be both God and man Torris erutus ab igne as the Prophet speaketh Is not this a fire-brand taken out of the fire you know that in a fire-brand taken out of the fire there is fire and wood inseparably mixed and in Christ there is God and man wonderfully united He was God else neither his sufferings nor his merits could have been sufficient and if his could not much less any man 's else for all other men are both conceived and born in Original sin and also much and often defiled with actual sin and therefore we ought for ever to abhor all such popish Doctrines Prayers and Masses for the dead which exalt mans merits man's satisfaction For no man can by Psal 49. 7. 8. v. any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him for the redemption of their soul is precious and it ceaseth for ever And therefore all the money that hath been given for Masses Dirges Trentals c. hath been cast away for Jesus Christ who is God-man is the only Redeemer and in the other world money beareth no mastery Let me make a few inferences from what has been said and therefore First is it so that Christ is God-man that he is God 1. 1 Pet. 1. 21. and man then let this raise our faith and strengthen our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ faith is built on God Now Jesus Christ is very God and therefore the fittest foundation in the world for us to build our faith upon God manifest in the flesh is a firm basis for faith and comfort Heb. 7. 25. ad plenum saith Erasmus ad perfectum say others He is able to save to the uttermost Christ is a thorow Saviour he saves perfectly and he saves perpetually he never carries on Redemption-work by halves Christ being God as well as man is able by the power of his Godhead to vanquish Death Devils Hell and all the enemies of our Salvation and by the power of his Godhead is able to merit pardon of sin the favour of God the heavenly inheritance and all the glory of the other world for this dignity of his person addeth vertue and Acts 20. 28. efficacy to his death and sufferings in that he that suffered and died was very God therefore God is said to have purchased the Church with his own blood Christ having suffered in our nature which he took upon him that is in his humane soul and body the wrath of God the curse and all the punishments which were due to our sins hath paid the price of our Redemption pacified divine wrath and satisfied divine Justice in the very same nature in which we have sinned and provoked the holy one of Israel so that now all believers may triumphingly say There is no condemnation to us that are in Râ—m 8. 1. v. Christ Jesus Christ having in our nature suffered the whole curse and punishment due to our sins God cannot in justice but accept of his sufferings as a full and compleat satisfaction 1 John 1. 7 9. for all our sins so that now there remaineth no more curse or punishment properly so called for us to suffer either in our souls or bodies either in this life or in the life to come but we are certainly and fully delivered from all not only from the eternal curse and all the punishments and torments of Hell but also from the curse and sting of bodily death and from all afflictions as they are 1 Cor. 15. 55 56. curses and punishments of sin that Jesus who is God-man hath changed the nature of them to us so that of bitter curses and heavy punishments they are become fatherly chastisements the fruits of divine love and the Heb. 12. 5 6 7. Rev. 3. 19. promoters of the internal and eternal good of our souls Oh! how should these things strengthen our faith in dear Jesus and work us to lean and stay our weary souls wholly and only upon him who is God-man and who of God 1 Cor. 1. 30. is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption Among the Evangelists we find that Christ had a threefold entertainment among the sons of men some received him into house not into heart as Simon Luk. 7. 44. the Pharisee who gave him no kiss nor water to his feet some neither into heart nor house as the graceless Mat. 8. 34. swinish Gergesites who had neither civility nor honesty some both into house and heart as Lazarus Mary Martha John 11. 16. c. certainly that Jesus who is God-man deserves the best room in all our souls and the uppermost seat in all our hearts But Secondly If Jesus Christ be God-man very God and very man then what high cause have we to observe admire wonder and even stand amazed at the transcendent love of Christ in becoming man Oh! the firstness the freeness the unchangeableness the greatness the matchlesness of Christ's love to fallen man in becoming man men many times shew their love to one another by hanging up one another's pictures in their families but ah what love did Christ shew when he took our nature upon him Heb. 2. 16. For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he assumed apprehended caught laid hold on the seed of Abraham as the Angel did on Lot as Christ Gen. 19. 16. did on Peter or as men do upon a thing they are glad Mat. 14. 31. they have got and are loath to lâ—t go again Oh sirs it is a main ground and pillar of our comfort and confidence that Jesus Christ took our flesh for if he had not took our flesh upon him we could never have been saved by him Christ took not a part but the whole nature of man that is a true humane soul and body together with all the essential properties and faculties of both that in man's nature he might die and suffer the wrath of God and whole curse due to our sins which otherwise Heb. 2. 14. being God only he could never have done and that he might satisfie divine justice for sin in the same nature that had sinned and indeed it was most meet and fit that the Mediator who was to reconcile God and man should partake in the natures of both parties to be reconciled Oh what matchless love was this that made our dear Lord Jesus to lay by for a time all that glory that he John 17. 5. had with the father before the world was and to assume our nature and to be found in fashion as a man to see Phil. 2. 8. the great God in the form of a servant or hanging upon the Cross how wonderful and astonishing was it to all that believed him to be God-man God manifested in 1 Tim. 3. 16. 1 Pet. 1. 11. our flesh is an amazing mystery a mystery fit for the speculation of Angels that the eternal God should become 1 Tim. 2. 5. the man Christ Jesus that a most glorious Creator should Dan. 7. 9 13 22. Mat. 2. 11. become a poor creature that the Ancient of days should become an Infant of days that the most high should stoop so low as to dwell in a body of flesh is a glorious mystery that transcends all humane understanding It would have seemed a high blasphemy for us to have thought of such a thing or to have desired such a thing or to have spoken of such a thing if God in his everlasting Gospel had not reveiled such a thing to us Among the Romish Priests Friars Jesuits they count it a great demonstration of love an high honour that is done to any of their orders when any Noble man or great Prince who is weary of the world and the world weary of him comes among them and takes any of their habits upon him and lives and dies in their habits Oh what a demonstration of Christ's love is it and what a mighty honour hath Jesus Christ put upon mankind in that he took our nature upon him in that he lived in our nature and died in our nature and rose in our nature and ascended in our nature and now sits at his fathers right hand in Acts 1. 10 11. our nature Though Jacob's love to Rachel and Jonathan's love to David and David's love to Absolom and the primitive Christians love to one another was strong very strong yet Christ's love in taking our humane nature upon him does infinitely transcend all their loves I think Bern. sup cant ser 20. saith one speaking of Christ he cannot despise me who is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh â— for if he neglect me as a Brother yet he will love me as a husband that 's my comfort Oh my Saviour saith one didst thou Hierom. die for love of me a love more dolorous than death but to me a death more lovely than love it self I cannot live love and be longer from thee I read in Josephus that when J. s Bel. Jud. l. 1. c. 8. Herod Antipater was accused to Julius Caesar as no good friend of his he made no other Apology but stripping himself stark naked shewed Caesar his wounds and said let me hold my tongue these wounds will speak for me how I have loved Caesar ah my friends Christ's wounds in our nature speak out the admirable love of Jesus Christ to us and Oh how should this love of his draw out our love to Christ inflame our love to that Jesus who is God-man blessed for ever Mr. Welch a Suffolk-minister weeping at table being asked the reason said it was because he could love Christ no more ah what reason have we to weep and weep again and again that we can love that Jesus no more who hath shewed such unparalelled love to us in assuming of the humane nature Et ipsam animam odio haberem si non diligeret meum Jesum I must hate my very soul if it should not love my Jesus saith Bernard ah what cause have we given to hate our selves because we love that dear Jesus no more who is very God and very man But Thirdly Is Jesus Christ God-man is he very God and 3. consult hese Scriptures Isa 61. 1. Dan. 9. 24. 1 John 3. 8. Luk. 1. 74. 75. Tit. 2. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 4. very man then we may very safely and roundly assert that the work of Redemption was a very great work the Redemption of souls is a mighty work a costly work to redeem poor souls from sin from wrath from the power of Satan from the curse from hell from the condemnation was a mighty work wherefore was Christ born wherefore did he live sweat groan bleed die rise ascend was it not to bring deliverance to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound was it not to make an end of sin to finish transgression and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to destroy the works of the Devil and to abolish death and to bring life and immortality to light and to redeem us from all iniquity and to purifie us to himself and to make us a peculiar peple zealous of good works Certainly the work of Redemption was no ordinary or common thing God-man must engage in it or poor fallen man is undone for ever The greater the person is that is engaged in any work the greater is that work the great Monarchs of the world do not use to engage their sons in poor low mean and petty services but in such services as are high and honourable noble and weighty and will you imagine that ever the great and glorious God John 1. 18. 8. Pro. 22. 33 would have sent his son his own son his only begotten son his bosom son his son in whom his soul delighted before the foundations of the earth was laid to redeem poor sinners souls if this had not been a great work a high work and a most glorious work in his eye The Creation of the world did but cost God a word of his mouth Let there be light and there was light but the Redemption Gen. 1. 3. of souls cost him his dearest son there is a
divine greatness stamp'd upon the works of providence but what are the works of Providence to the work of Redemption what are all providential works to Christ's coming from heaven to his being incarnate to his doings sufferings and dying and all this to ransom poor souls from the curse hell wrath and eternal death souls are dear and costly things and of great price in the sight of God Amongst the Romans those their proper goods and estates which men had gotten in the wars with hazard of their lives were called Peculium Castrense of a Field-purchase Oh how much more may the precious and immortal souls of men be called Christ's Peculium Castrense his purchase gotten not only by the jeopardy of his life but with the loss of his life and blood Ye know saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 1. 18. 19. that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as with silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition but with the precious blood of the son of God as of a lamb without a spot Christ that only went to the price of souls hath told us that one soul is more worth than Mat. 16. 26. all the world Christ left his father's bosom and all the glory of heaven for the good of souls he assumed the nature of man for the happiness of the soul of man he trod the Wine-press of his father's wrath for souls he wept for souls he swet for souls he prayed for souls he payed for souls and he bled out his heart-blood for the redemption of souls The soul is the breath of God the beauty of man the wonder of Angels and the envy of Devils 't is of an Angelical nature 't is a heavenly spark a celestial plant and of a divine off-spring 't is capable of the knowledg of God of union with God of communion with John 14. 8. Psal 17. 15. God and of an eternal fruition of God there is nothing that can suit the soul below God there is nothing that can satisfie the soul without God the soul is so high and so noble a piece that it scorns all the world what are all the riches of the East or West Indies what are Rocks of Diamonds or Mountains of Gold or the price of Cleopatra's draught to the price that Christ laid down for souls 't is only the blood of him that is God-man that is an equivolent price for the Redemption of souls Silver and Gold hath redeemed many thousands out of Turkish bondage but all the Silver and Gold in the world could never redeem one poor soul from Hellish bondage from hellish torments Souls are a dear commodity he that bought them found them so and yet at how cheap a rate do some sinners sell their immortal souls Callenuceus tells us of a noble man of Naples that was wont prophanely to say that he had two-souls in his body one for God and another for whosoever would buy it but if he hath one soul in Hell I believe he will never find another for Heaven A person of quality who is still alive told me a few years since that in discourse with one of his servants This pious Gentleman was with me in May 1673. at my house he asked him what he thought would become of his soul if he lived and died in his ignorance and enmity against God c. he most prophanely and atheistically answered that when he died he would hang his soul on a hedg and say run God run Devil and he that can run fastest let him Discipul at de tâ—mp Serâ— 132. take my soul I have read of a most blasphemous wretch that on a time being with his companions in a common Inn carrowsing and making merry asked them if they thought a man had a soul or no whereunto when they replyed that the souls of men are immortal and that some of them after death lived in hell and others in heaven For so the writings of the Prophets and Apostles instructed them he answered and swore that he thought it nothing so but rather that there was no soul in man to survive the body but that Heaven and Hell were mere fables and inventions of Priests to get gain and for himself he was ready to sell his soul to any that would buy it then one of his companions took up a cup of wine and said sell me thy soul for this cup of wine which he receiving We laugh at little children to see them part with rich Jewels for silly trifles and yet daily experience tells us that multitudes are so childish as to part with such rich and precious Jewels as their immortal souls for a lust or for base and unworthy trifles of whom it may be truly said as Augustus Caesar said in another case they are like a man that fishes with a golden hook the gain can never recompence the loss that may be sustained bad him take his soul and drank up the wine Now Satan himself being there in man's shape bought it again of the other at the same price and by and by bad him give him his soul the whole company affirming it was meet he should have it since he had bought it not perceiving the Devil but presently he laying hold of this soul-seller carried him into the Air before them all to the great astonishment and amazement of the beholders and from that day to this he was never heard of but hath now found by experience that men have souls and that Hell is no Fable Ah for what a thing of nought do many thousands sell their souls to Satan every day how many thousands are there who swear curse lye cheat deceive c. for a little gain every day I have read that there was a time when the Romans did wear Jewels on their shooes Oh that in these days men did not worse Oh that they did not trample under feet that matchless Jewel their precious and immortal souls Oh sirs there is nothing below heaven so precious and noble as your souls and therefore do not play the Courtiers with your poor souls now the Courtier does all things late he rises late and dines late and sups late and goes to bed late and repents late Christ made himself an offering for sin that souls might not be undone by sin the Lord died that slaves might live the son dies that servants might live the natural son dies that adopted sons may live the only begotten son dies that bastards might live yea the judg dies that Malefactors may live Ah friends as there was never sorrow like Christ's so there was never love like Christ's love and of all his love none to that of soul-love Christ who is God-man did take upon him thy nature and bare thy sins and suffered death and encountered the Cross and was made a sacrifice and a curse and all to bring about thy Redemption and therefore thou maist safely conclude that the work of Redemption is a great work But
to divine Justice had not Christ been God-man he could never have been an able surety he could never have paid our Heb. 7. 25. debts he could never have satisfied divine Justice he could never have brought in an everlasting righteousness Dan. 9. 24. he could never have spoiled Principalities and Powers Câ—lâ—s 2. 15. and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them on the Cross a plain allusion to the Roman Triumphs where the Victor ascending up to the Capitol in a Charriot of state all the prisoners following him on foot with their hands bound behind them and the Victor commonly threw certain pieces of Coyn abroad to be pick'd up by the common people So Christ in the day of his solemn inauguration into his heavenly Kingdom triumphed over Sin Death Devils and Hell and gave gifts to men and had he not been God-man he could never have merited for us a glorious Reward If we consider Christ himself as a mere man setting aside his Godhead Eph. 4. 8â— he could not merit by his sufferings for 1. Christ as he was man only was a creature now a mere creature can merit nothing from the Creator 2. Christ's sufferings as he was man only were finite and therefore could not merit infinite glory indeed as he was God his sufferings were meritorious but consider him purely as man they were not This is wisely to be observed against the Papists who make so great a noise of men's merits for if Christ's sufferings as he was mere man could not merit the least favour from God then what mortal man is able to merit at the hand of God the least of mercies by his greatest sufferings But Seventhly Is Jesus Christ God-man is he very God and very man then from hence we may see the greatest pattern of humility and self-denyal that ever was or will be in this world that he who was the Lord of glory that he who was equal with God that he should Phil. 2. 6. John 1. 18. leave the bosom of his father which was a bosom of the sweetest loves and the most ineffable delights that he should put off all that glory that he had with the father John 17. 5. before the foundation of the world was laid that he should so far abase himself as to become man by taking on him our base vile nature that so in this our nature he Heb. 2. 10. might dye suffer satisfie and bring many sons to glory Oh here is the greatest humility and abasement that ever was and oh that all sincere Christians would endeavour to imitate this matchless example of humility and self denial Oh the admirable condescentions of dear Jesus that he should take our nature and make us partakers 2 Pet. 1. 4. of his divine nature that he should put on our rags and put upon us his Royal Robes that he should Rev. 19. 7 8. 2 Cor. 8. 9. make himself poor that we might be rich low that we might be high accursed that we might be blessed Gal. 3. 10 13. Oh wonderful Love oh Grace unsearchable ah Christians did Christ stoop low and will your be stout proud and high was he content to be accounted a worm a wine-bibber an enemy to Caesar a friend of Publicans and sinners a Devil and must you be all in a flame when vain men make little account of you was he willing to be a curse a reproach for you and will you shrug and shrink and faint and fret when you are reproached for his name did Jesus Christ stoop so low as John 13. 14. to wash his Disciples feet and are you so stout and sturdy that you cannot hear together nor pray together nor sit at the table of the Lord together though you all hope at last to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in Mat. 8. 11. v. the Kingdom of Heaven shall one Heaven hold you at last and shall not one House one Bed one Table one Church hold you here Oh that ever worms should swell with such intolerable pride and stoutness he who was God-man was lowly meek self-denying and of a most condescending spirit and oh that all you who hope for salvation by him would labour to write after so fair a copy Bernard calls humility a self-annihilation The same Author saith that humility is conservatrix virtutum Thou wilt save the humble saith Job in the Hebrew Job 22. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is him that is of low eyes an humble Christian hath lower thoughts of himself than others can have of him Abraham is dust and ashes in his own eyes Jacob is Gen. 18. Gen. 32. 10. less than the least of all mercies David though a great King yet looks upon himself as a worm I am a worm Psal 22. 6. and no man The word in the Original Tolugnath signifieth a very little worm which breedeth in Scarlet a worm that is so little that a man can hardly see it or perceive it Oh how little how very little was David in his own eyes and Paul who was the greatest among the Apostles yet in his own eyes he was less than the Eph. 3. 8. See my unsearchabletiches of Christ upon that Text. least of all Saints Non sum dignus dici minimus saith Ignatius I am not worthy to be called the least Lord I am Hell but thou art Heaven said blessed Cooper I am a most hypocritical wretch not worthy that the earth should bear me said holy Bradford Luther in humility speaks thus of himself I have no other name than sinner sinner is my name sinner is my surname this is the name by which I shall be always known I have sinned I do sin I shall sin in infinitum Ah how can proud stout spirits read these instances and not blush certainly the sincere humble Christian is like the Violet which grows low hangs the head down and hides it self with its own leaves and were it not that the frequent smell of his many virtues discovers him to the world he would chuse to live and die in his self-contenting secrecy But Eighthly Is Jesus Christ Godman is he very God and very man then hence we may see how to have access to God namely by means of Christ's humane nature which he hath taken upon him to that very end that he might in it die and suffer for our sins and so reconcile Rom. 5. 1 2. Eph. 3. 12. us to God and give us access to him Eph. 2. 18. By him we have access to the father The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a leading by the hand an introduction an adduction it is an allusion saith Estius to the customs of Princes Eph. 1. to whom there is no passage unless we are brought in by one of their Favourites Though the Persian Kings held it a piece of their silly glory to hold off their best friends who might not come near them but upon special
to deliver and therefore though he did suffer death for us in the substance of it yet he neither did nor could suffer death in the circumstances of it so as for ever to be held by death for then in suffering death he should not have conquered death nor delivered us from death neither was it necessary to Christ's substitution that he should undergo in every respect the same punishment which the offender himself was liable unto but if he underwent so much punishment as did satisfie the Law and vindicate the Law-giver in his holiness truth justice and righteousness that was enough Now that was unquestionably done by Christ as the Scriptures do abundantly testifie It must be readily granted that Christ was to suffer the whole punishment due unto sin so far as it became the dignity of his person and the necessity of the work but if he had suffered eternally the work of Redemption could never have been accomplished and besides he should have suffered that which could no ways beseem him And therefore the Apostle saith Heb. 2. 10. It became him to be consecrated through sufferings Christ was only to pass through such sufferings as became him who was ordained to be the Prince and Captain of our salvation It became him to be man and it became him in our humane nature to suffer death and it became him to sustain for us the substance of those punishments that we should have undergone and accordingly he did what our sins did deserve and what justice might lay upon us for those sins all that did Christ certainly suffer or bear Jesus Christ did so suffer for our sins as that his sufferings were fully answerable to the demerit of our sins And I think I may safely say that God in justice could not require any more or lay on any one more punishment than Jesus Christ did suffer for our sins and my reason is this because Christ bare all our sins and all our sorrows and was obedient unto the death and made a Isa 53. Gal. 3. 13. curse for us and more than this the Law of God could not require and if Christ did suffer all that the Law of God required then certainly he suffeed so much as did satisfie the justice of God viz. as much punishment as was commensurated with sin But Seventhly and lastly the meritorious cause the main 7. Isa 53. 4 5. There were other subordinate ends of his sufferings as 1. To sanctifie sufferings to us 2. To sweeten sufferings to us 3. To succour us experimentally under all our sufferings Heb. 2. 17 18. 4. That he might be prepared to enter into his glory Luk. 24. 26 5. That he might be a Conquerour over sufferings which was one piece of his greatest glory c. end and the special occasion of all the sufferings of Christ were the sins of his people Christ was our surety and he could not satisfie for our sins nor reconcile us to God without suffering Isa 53. 5. But he was wounded for our transgressions the Hebrew word for wounded 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath a double Emphasis either it may signifie that he was pierced through as with a dart or that he was tormented or pained as women or other creatures are wont to be that bring forth with pain and torment at the time of their travail for the word in the Text last cited comes regularly from a root that signifies properly to be in pain as women are when they bring forth It was our transgressions that gave Christ his deadly wounds it was our sins that smote him and bruised him Look as Zippora said to Moses Exod. 4. 25. Surely a bloody husband art thou to me so may Christ say to his Church surely a bloody spouse hast thou been to me Christ's spouse may look upon him and say It was I that have been that Judas that have betrayed thee it was I that was the souldiers that murdered thee It was my sins that brought all sorrows and sufferings all mischiefs and evils upon thee I have sinned and thou hast suffered I have eaten the sower Grapes and thy teeth were set on edge I have sinned and thou hast died I have wounded thee and thou hast healed me It is the wisdom and oh that it might be more and more the work of every believer to look upon an humble Christ with an humble heart a broken Christ with a broken heart a bleeding Christ with a bleeding heart a wounded Christ with a wounded heart according to that Zech. 12. 10. Christ was wounded bruised and cut off for sinners sins When Christ was taken by the souldiers he said If ye seek me let these go their way Christ was willing that the hurt which sinners had done to God and the debt which they owed to him should be set upon his score and put upon his account and the Apostle mentions it as a remarkable thing That Christ died for the ungodly Rom. 5. 8. The just for the unjust 1 Pet. 3. 18. our sins were the meritorious cause of Christ's sufferings Christ did not suffer for himself for Heb. 4. 15. cap. 7. 26. he was without sin neither was guile found in his mouth The grand design errand and business about which Christ came into the world was to save sinners He had his 1 Tim. 1. 15. Mat. 1. 21. name Jesus because he was to save is people from their sins he died for our sins not only for our good as the final cause but for our sins as the procuring cause of his death He was delivered for our offences Christ died Rom. 4. 25. 1 Cor. 15. 3. for our sins according to the scriptures that is according to what was typified prophesied and promised in the blessed Scriptures Gal. 1. 4. He gave himself for our sins 1 Pet. 2. 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body upon the tree by whose stripes ye were healed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The whole Testament hath not the like two relatives at once in the original as if I should say by whose stripes of his we are healed Peter saith Estius alludes to the stripes that servants receive from their cruel masters therefore he return to the second person ye are healed here you see that the Physician 's blood became the sick man's salve we can hardly believe the power of sword-salve But here is a mystery that only the Gospel can assure us of that the wounding of one should be the cure of another Oh what an odious thing is sin to God that he will pardon none without blood yea without the blood of his dearest son Oh what a Hell of wickedness Heb. 9. 22. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. must there be in sin that nothing can expiate it but the best the purest the noblest blood that ever run in veins Oh what a transcendent evil must sin be that nothing can purge it away but death but the death of the Cross no death but an
instances and not blush Certainly the more Christ hath suffered for us the more dear Christ should be unto us the more bitter his sufferings have been for us the more sweet his love should be to us and the more eminent should be our love to him O let a suffering Christ lie nearest your hearts let him be your Manna your Tree of Life your Morning-star 't is better to part with all than with this Pearl of price Christ is that golden pipe through which the golden oyl of salvation runs and oh how should this inflame our love to Christ Oh that our hearts were more affected with the sufferings of Christ Who can tread upon these hot coals and his Can. 8. 7 8. heart not burn in love to Christ and cry out with Ignatius Christ my love is crucified If a friend should die Joh. 10. 17 18. for us how would our hearts be affected with his kindness and shall the God of Glory lay down his life for us and shall we not be affected with his goodness Shall Saul be affected with David's kindness in sparing his life 1 Sam. 24. 16. and shall not we be affected with Christ's kindness who Joh. 1. 18. to save our life lost his own O the infinite love of Christ that he should leave his Fathers bosom and come down Joh. 14. 1 2 3 4. from heaven that he might carry you up to heaven that he that was a Son should take upon him the form of a Phil. 2. 5 6 7 8. servant that you of slaves should be made Sons of enemies should be made friends of heirs of wrath should Rom. 8. 17. be made heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ that to save us from everlasting ruine Christ should stick at nothing but be willing to be made flesh to lie in a manger to be tempted deserted persecuted and to die upon a Cross O what flames of love should these things kindle in all our hearts to Christ Love is compared to fire in heaping love upon our enemy we heap coals of Râ—m 12. 19 20. Prov. 26. 21. fire upon his head now the property of fire is to turn all it meets with into its own nature fire maketh all things fire the coal maketh burning coals and is it not a wonder then that Christ having heaped abundance of the fiery coals of his love upon our heads we should yet be but key-cold in our love to him Ah what sad metal are we made of that Christ's fiery love cannot inflame our love to Christ Moses wondred why the Bush Exod. 3. 3. consumed not when he see it all on fire but if you please but to look into your own hearts you shall see a greater wonder for you shall see that though you walk like those three Children in the fiery furnace even in the Dan. 3. midst of Christ's fiery love flaming round about you yet there is but little very little true smell of that sweet fire of love to be felt or found upon you or in you Oh when shall the sufferings of a dear and tender-hearted Saviour kindle such a flame of love in all our hearts as shall still be a breaking forth in our lips and lives in our words and ways to the praise and glory of free Grace Cant. 2. 5. O that the sufferings of a loving Jesus might at last make us all sick of love O let him for ever lie betwixt our Cant. 1. 13. breasts who hath left his Fathers bosom for a time that he might be enbosom'd by us for ever But Thirdly Then in the sufferings of Christ as in a Gospel-glass you may see the odious nature of Sin and accordingly learn to hate it arm against it turn from it and subdue it Sin never appears so odious as when we Psal 119. 104 113 128. Rom. 7. 15. cap. 12. 9. behold it in the â—ed Glass of Christ's sufferings Can we look upon sin as the occasion of all Christ's sufferings can we look upon sin as that which made Christ a curse and that made him forsaken of his Father and that made him live such a miserable life and that brought him to die such a shameful painful and cruel death and our hearts not rise against it Shall our sins be grievous unto Christ and shall they not be odious unto us shall he die for our sins and shall not we die to our sins did not he therefore suffer for sin that we might cease from sin did not he bear our sins in his own body on the tree 1 Pet. 4. 1. that we being dead to sin should live to righteousness If 1 Pet. 2. 24. one should kill our father would we hug and imbrace him as our father no we would be revenged on him Sin hath killed our Saviour and shall we not be reveng'd on it Can a man look upon that Snake that hath stung his dearly beloved spouse to death and preserve it alive warm it at the fire and hug it in his bosom and not rather stab it with a thousand wounds 'T is sin that hath stung our dear Jesus to death that has crucified our Lord clouded his glory and shed his precious blood and oh how should this stir up our indignation against it ah how can a Christian make much of those sins that killed his deared Lord how can he cherish those sins that betrayed Christ and apprehended Christ and bound Christ and condemned Christ and scourged Christ and that violently drew him to the Cross and there murdered him It was neither Judas nor Pilate nor the Jews nor the Souldiers that could have done our Lord Jesus the least hurt had not our sins like so many Butchers and Hangmen come in to their assistance After Julius Caesar was treacherously murthered in the Senate-house Antonius brought forth his Coat all bloody cut and mangled and laying it open to the view of the people said Look here is your Emperors coat and as the bloody conspirators have dealt by it so have they dealt with Caesar's body whereupon the people were all in an uproar and nothing would satisfie them but the death of the murtherers and they run to the houses of the conspirators and burnt them down to the ground But what was Caesar's coat and Caesar's body to the body of our dear Lord Jesus which was all bloody rent and torn for our sins Ah how should this provoke us to be revenged on our sins how should we for ever loath and abhorr them how should our fury be whetted against them how should we labour with all our might to be the death of those sins that have been the death of so great a Lord and will if not prevented be the death of our Souls to all eternity To see God thrust the sword of his pure infinite and incensed wrath through the very heart of his dearest Son notwithstanding all his supplications prayers Heb. 5. 7. tears and strong cries
is the highest discovery of the Lords hatred and indignation of sin that ever was or will be 'T is true God discovered his great hatred against sin by turning Adam out of Paradise and by casting the Angels down to hell by drowning the old world and by raining hell out of heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah and by the various and dreadful judgments that he has been a pouring forth upon the world in all ages but all this hatred is but the picture of hatred to that hatred which God manifested against sin in causing the whole curse to meet upon our crucified Lord as all streams meet in the sea 'T is true God discovers his hatred of sin by those endless easless and remediless torments that he inflicts upon Devils and damned spirits but this is no hatred to that hatred against sin which God discovered when he opened all the flood-gates of his envenom'd wrath upon his Son his own Son his only Son his Son Isa 53. 5 6. Prov. 8. 30 31. Matth. 3. ult that always pleased him his Son that never offended him Should you see a father that had but one son and he such a son in whom he always delighted and by whom he had never been provoked a son that always made it his business his work his heaven to promote Joh. 8. 49 50. the honour and glory of his father a son who was always Joh. 9. 4. most at ease when most engaged in his fathers service Joh. 4. 34. a son who counted it his meat and drink to do his father's will now should you see the father of such a son inflicting the most exquisite pains and punishments tortures and torments calamities and miseries upon this his dearest son you would readily conclude that certainly the sins the offences that have put the father upon exercising such amazing such matchless severity fury and cruelty upon his only Son are infinitly hateful odious Jer. 44. 4. Zech. 8. 17. The Rabbins to scare their Scholars from sin used to tell them that sin made God's head ache but I may say sin hath made Christs head ache and his heart ach too and and abominable to him Now if you please but to cast your eye upon the actings of God the Father towards Jesus Christ you will find that he hath inflicted more torments and greater torments upon the Son of his dearest love than all mortals ever have or could inflict upon their only sons Isai 53. 6. The Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all Heb. Hath made the iniquities of us all to meet on him or to light or fall on him rather God made all the penalties and sufferings that were due to us to fall upon Jesus Christ as a man is wont to fall with all his might in a hostile manner upon his enemy God himself inflicted upon dear Jesus whatsoever was requisite to the satisfying of his Justice to the obtaining of pardon and to the saving of all his elect vers 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise him he hath put him to grief all the devils in hell nor all the men upon earth could never have bruised or put to grief our Lord Jesus if it had not pleased the Lord to bruise him and put him to grief he had never been bruised or put to grief O how should this work us to look upon sin with indignation Suppose a man should come to a Table and there should be a knife laid at his Trencher and it should be told him this is the very knife that cut the throat of your child or father if this person should use this knife as any other knife would not every one say Surely this man had but very little love to his father or his child who can use this bloody knife as any other knife So when you meet with any temptation to sin O then say This is the very knife that cut the throat of Jesus Christ that pierced his sides that was the cause of his sufferings and that made Christ to be a curse and accordingly let your hearts rise against it Ah how well doth it become Christians to look upon sin as that accursed thing that made Christ a curse and accordingly to abhorr it Oh with what detestation should a man fling away such a knife and with the like detestation should every Christian fling away his sins as Ephraim did his Idols Get you Hosea 14. 8. Isa 2. 20. cap. 30. 22. hence what have I any more to do with you Sin thou hast slain my Lord thou hast been the only cause of the death of my Saviour Let us say as David Is not this the 2 Sam. 23. 17. blood of the men that went in jeopardy of their lives so is not this the sin that poured out Christ's blood oh how should this enrage our hearts against sin because it cost Heb. 2. 10. the Captain of our salvation not the hazard but the very loss of his life God shewed Moses a tree wherewith he Exod. 15. 25. might make the bitter waters sweet but lo here is a tree wherewith ye may make the sweet waters of sin to become bitter Look upon the tree on which Christ was crucified remember his Cross and the pains he suffered thereon and the seeming sweetness that is in sin will quickly vanish when you are sollicited to sin cast your eye upon Christ's Cross remember his astonishing sufferings for sin and it will soon grow distasteful to your souls for how can that chuse but be hateful to us if we seriously consider how hurtful it was to Jesus Christ who can look upon the Cross of Christ and excuse his sin as Adam did saying The woman which thou gavest me she Gen. 3. 12. gave me of the tree and I did eat who can look upon the Cross of Christ and colour his sin as Judas did saying Hail Matth. 26. 49. Master who can look upon the Cross of Christ and deny his sin as Gehazi did saying Thy servant went no whither 2 Kings 5. 25. who can look upon the Cross of Christ and defend his sin as Jonah did saying I do well to be angry O sirs where is Jonah 4. 9. that hatred of sin that use to be in the Saints of old David could say I hate vain thoughts and I hate every false Psal 119 104 113 128. Rom. 7 15. way and Paul could say what I hate that do I. 'T is better saith one to be in hell with Christ than to be in heaven with sin O how odious was sin in the Saints eye The primitive Christians chose rather to be cast to Lyons without Ad leonem magis qnà m lemonem saith Tertullian than to be left to lusts within so great was their hatred of sin I had rather saith Anselm go to hell pure from sin than to heaven poluted with that guilt I will rather saith another leap into a Bonfire than wilfully to sin
Law he did come up to perfect and universal consâ—rmity to it he did whatever the Law enjoyns and he suffered whatever the Law threatens Christ by his active and passive obedience hath fulfilled the Law most exactly and completely Gal. 3. 13. As he was perfectly holy he did what the Law commanded and as he was made a curse he underwent what the Law threatned and all this he did and suffered in our steads and as our Surety what ever Christ did as our Surety he made it good to the full so that neither the righteous God nor yet the righteous Law could ever tax him with the least defect And this must be our great Plea our choice our sweet our safe our comfortable our acceptable Plea both in the day of our particular accounts when we die and in the great day of our account when a crucified Saviour shall judge the World Although sin as an act be transient yet in the guilt of it it lies in the Lord 's high Court of Justice filed upon record against the sinner and calling aloud for deserved punishment saying Man hath sinned and man must suffer for sin but now Christ hath suffered that plea is taken off Lo here saith the Lord the same Nature that sinned suffereth mine own Son being made flesh hath suffered death for sin in the flesh the thing is done the Law is satisfied and so non-suits the action and casts it out of the Court as unjust Thus whereas sin would have condemned us Christ hath condemned sin he hath weakned yea nullified and taken away sin in the guilt and condemning power of it by that abundant satisfaction that he hath given to the Justice of God by his active and passive Obedience so that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus for Rom. 8. 1 3. the blood of the Mediator out-cries the clamour of sin and this must be a Christians joy and triumph and plea in the great day of our Lord Jesus As Christ was made 2 Cor. 5. 21. sin for us so the Lord doth impute the sufferings of Christ to us that is he accepts of them on our behalf and puts them upon our account As if the Lord should say unto every particular believer My Son was thy Surety and stood in thy stead and suffered and satisfied and took away thy sins by his blood and that for thee in his blood I find a ransom for thy soul I do acknowledge my self satisfied for thee and satisfied towards thee and thou art delivered and discharged I forgive thee thy sins and am reconciled unto thee and will save thee and glorifie thee for my Sons sake in his blood thou hast Redemption the forgiveness of thy sins As when Simile a Surety satisfies the Creditor for a debt this is accounted to the Debtor and reckoned as a discharge to him in particular I am paid and you are discharged saith the Creditour so it is in this case I am paid saith God and you are discharged and I have no more to say to you but this Enter into the joy of your Lord Matth. 25. 21. The Fifth Plea that you are to make in order to the 5. Eccles 11. 9. cap. 12. 14. Mat. 12. 14. cap. 18 23. Luk. 16. 3. Rom. 14. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 10. Heb. 9. 27 cap. 13. 17. 1 Pet. 4 5. Ten Scriptures in the Margin that respects the account that you are to give up in the great day of the Lord is drawn from the imputed Righteousness of Christ to us the Justification of a Sinner in the sight of God upon the account of Christ's Righteousness imputed to him whereby the guilt of sin is removed and the person of the Sinner is accepted as righteous with the God of Heaven is that which I shall open to you distinctly in these following Branches First That the Grace of Justification in the sight of God is made up of Two parts 1. There is Forgiveness of the offences committed against the Lord 2. Acceptation of the person offending pronouncing him a righteous person and receiving him into favour again as if he had never offended This is most clear and evident in the blessed Scriptures First there is an Act of absolution and acquittal from the guilt of sin and freedom from the condemnation deserved by sin the desert of sin is an inseparable accident Rom. 8. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is a forensick word relating to what is in use amongst men in their Courts of Judicature to condemn 'T is the sentence of a Judge decreeing a mulct or penalty to be inflicted upon the guilty Person or concomitant of it that can never be removed it may be truly said of the sins of a justified person that they deserve everlasting destruction but Justification is the freeing of a sinner from the guilt of his iniquity whereby he was actually bound over to condemnation as soon as any man doth sin there is a guilt upon him by which he is bound over to the wrath and curse of God and this guilt or obligation is inseparable from sin the sin doth deserve no less than everlasting damnation Now forgiveness of sin hath a peculiar respect to the guilt of sin and removal of that when the Lord forgives a man he doth discharge him of that obligation by which he was bound over to wrath and condemnation Rom. 8. 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus vers 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect it is God that justifieth vers 34. who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died Beloved the Lord is a holy and just God and he reveils his wrath from heaven against Rom. 1. 18. Gel. 3. 10. Râ—m 1. 32. Rom. 6. 23. all unrighteousness and there is a curse threatned to every transgression of the Law and when any man sinneth he is obnoxious unto the curse and God may inflict the same upon him but when God forgives sins he therein doth interpose as it were between the sin and the curse and between the obligation and the condemnation When the sinner sins God might say unto him sinner by your sinning you are now fallen into my hands of Justice and for your sins I may according to my righteous Law condemn and curse you for ever but such is my free my rich my sovereign grace that for Christ's sake I will spare you and pardon you and that curse Jer. 31. 20. and condemnation which you have deserved shall never fall upon you Oh! my bowels my bowels are yearning towards you and therefore I will have mercy mercy Jâ—b 33. 13 24 28 30. upon you and will deliver your souls from going down into the pit when the poor sinner is indicted and arraigned at God's bar and process is made against him and he found guilty of the violation of God's holy Law and accordingly judged guilty by God and adjudged to Job
or freedom whether he will damn the obstinate impenitent sinner or no Look as God cannot but love holiness where-ever he sees it so he cannot But loath and punish wickedness where-ever he beholds it neither will it stand with the infinite wisdom of God to admit of a dispensation or relaxation of the threatnings without satisfaction God had passed a peremptory doom and made a solemn declaration of it in his word that he that sinneth shall die the death and he will not he cannot break his word you know he had fore-ordained Jesus Christ and set him forth to take upon himself this burden to become a propitiation Rom. 3 35. 1 Pet. 1. 20. for sin through his blood and made known his mind concerning it in his written word plainly Isa Exigitur as Junius and some others read it 53. 7. If we read the words it is exacted or strictly required meaning the iniquity or punishment of us all vers 6. It is required at his hands he must answer it in our stead and so he is afflicted and this affliction reacheth even to the cutting him off vers 8. Therefore when Christ puts this work upon an ought and must be he lays the weight of all on the Scriptures thus it is written as you may see in the texts lately cited as if he should say God hath spoken it and his truth engageth him to see it done so God hath threatned to punish sin and his truth engageth him to see it done Oh sirs there is no standing before that God that is a consuming fire a just judg a holy God except I have Heb. 12 9. one to undertake for me that is mighty to save and mighty to satisfie divine justice and mighty to pacifie divine Isa 63. 1. wrath and mighty to bear the threatnings and mighty to forgive sin when God forgives sin he does it in a way of Isa 19. 20. righteousness 1 John 1. 9. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness he doth not say he is merciful but just to forgive us our sins because they are satisfied for and God's justice will not let him demand the same debt twice of the surety and of the debtor too it will never stand with the unspotted justice and righteousness of God to require such debts of us which Christ Rom. 3. 25. by shedding his most precious blood hath discharged for us Mark the maledictory sentence of death denounced by the Law against sinners was inflicted by God upon Christ this is that which the Prophet Esay positively asserts where he saith the chastisement that is the punishment called a chastisement because inflicted by a father and only for a Isa 53. 5 7. time of ourpeace was upon him and again he was oppressed and he was afflicted which according to the genuine sence of the Original is better rendred it was exacted to wit the punishment of our sin and he was afflicted or he answered to wit to the demand of the penalty The curse to Theod. disp l. 15. c. 5. which we are subject saith Theodorus he assumed upon himself of his own accord the death that was not due Gr. mer. l. 3. c. 13. to him he underwent that we might not undergo that death which was due to us saith Gregory he made himself Arnol. de sep verb Tr. 1. a debter for us who were debtors and therefore the Creditor exacts it from him saith Arnoldus Now God's justice being satisfied for our offences it cannot but remit those offences to us As the Creditor cannot demand that of the debtor which the surety hath already paid so neither can God exact the punishment of us which Christ hath suffered and therefore it is just with God to forgive us our sins It will be altogether needless to enquire whether it had been injustice in God to forgive without satisfaction St. Austin's determination is very solid there Aug. de Trinit l. 13. c. 10. wanted not to God another possible way and if it were unjust it were impossible but this of satisfaction was most agreeable to divine wisdom before God did decree this way it might be free to have used it or not but in decreeing this seemed most convenient and after it became When you are forgiven you are then released and for ever acquitted from any after reckonings with the justice of God divine Justice hath no more to say or do against you for remissa culpa remiâ—ttur paena if the fault be forgiven then also is the punishment forgiven nay let me speak with an holy and humble reverence God cannot in his justice punish when he hath pardoned necessary so that there can be no remission without it and however it might not have been unjust with God to have forgiven without it yet we are sure it is most just with him to forgive upon satisfaction Indeed the debt being paid by Christ God's very justice as I may say with reverence would trouble him if he should not give in the bond and give out an acquittance The believing penitent sinner may in an humble confidence sue out his pardon not only at the throne of grace but at the bar of justice in these or the like expressions Lord thou hast punished my sins in thy son wilt thou punish them in me thou hast accepted that suffering of thy son as the punishment of my sin therefore thou canst not in justice exact it of me for this were to punish twice for one offence which thy justice cannot but abhor Oh sirs God doth not pronounce men righteous when they are not but first he makes them so and then he pronounces them to be such so that if a man will be justified he must be able to produce such a compleat righteousness wherewith he may stand before the justice of God ah sinners the Lord is infinitely just as well as merciful and if ever your sins be pardoned it must be by an admirable contemperament or mixture of mercy and justice together it was one of the great ends of the Gospel-dispensation that God might exalt his justice in the justification of a sinner Rom. 3. 26. To declare Isay at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus But Thirdly The only matter of mans righteousness since the fall of Adam wherein he can appear with comfort before the Justice of God and consequently whereby alone he can be justified in his sight is the obedience and suffering of Jesus Christ the righteousness of the Mediatour there is not any other way imaginable how the Justice of God may be satisfied and we may have our sins pardoned in a way of justice but by the righteousness of the Son of God and therefore this is his name Jehovah-Tsidkenu the Lord our Righteousness this Jer. 23. 6. is his name that is this is the Prerogative of the Lord Jesus
person should fulfil the righteousness of the Law that it might be satisfied in its commands now in this plenary satisfaction made to the Law the Wisdom of God does gloriously shine The heart of God was so set upon a full satisfaction to his Law that rather than it should not be done his own Son must come from heaven and put on flesh and be himself made under the Gal. 4. 4 5. Law he must live a holy life and die a cursed death and all to satisfie the Law and to keep up the Authority of it But Fourthly God doth stand upon full satisfaction and will not forgive one sin without it that he might hereby cut off all occasions which the Devil his Arch-enemy might take to calumniate and traduce him for if God did not stand upon full satisfaction the Devil might accuse him 1. of Inconstancy and Changeableness that having threatned death to transgressors he did quite forget himself in waving the threatning and dispensing wholly with his Law by granting them free remission Yea 2. of Partiality and respect of persons that he should be so easie and forbearing as to let them pass without any punishment at all having been formerly so severe and rigid against himself in casting him and his Angels down to hell and keeping them in everlasting flames and chains of darkness without the least 2 Pet. 2. 4. Jude v. 6. hope of recovery Satan might say Lord thou mightest have spared me as well as Man but the Lord can now answer Man hath made satisfaction he hath born the Curse and thereby fully discharged all the demands of the Law if he had not I would no more have spared him than thee Ambrose brings in the Devil boasting against Christ and challenging Judas as his own He is not thine Lord Jesus he is mine his thoughts beat for me he eats with thee but is fed by me he takes bread from thee but money from me he drinks with thee but sells thy blood to me Had God pardoned sin without satisfaction ah how would Satan have boasted and triumphed over God himself But Fifthly and lastly God's standing upon full satisfaction and his not forgiving one sin without it bears a visible character of his goodness and loving kindness as well as it sounds out aloud the glory of divine Justice The great and the holy God whose Name is holy Exod. 15. 1 11. might have rigorously exacted the penalty of the Law on the persons of sinners themselves but he hath so far dispensed with his own Law as to admit of a Surety by whom the end of the Law that is the manifestation of his Justice and hatred of sin might be fulfilled and yet a considerable part of Mankind might be preserved from the jaws of the second death Rev. 20. 6. which otherwise must unavoidably have perished to all eternity God seems to speak at such a rate as this I may not I will not suffer this high affront of Adam Rom. 7. 12 14. and his posterity against my holy and righteous Law whereby the honour both of my Justice and Truth is in danger to be trampled underfoot and yet if I should let out all my wrath upon them they were never able Psal 78. 38. to stand under it but their spirits would fail before me and the souls that I have made I will therefore let out Isa 57. 16. all my wrath upon their Surety and he shall bear it for them that they may be delivered and thus the Lord in wrath remembers mercy Hab. 3. 2. But Fourthly we can receive no benefit by the Righteousness of Christ for Justification in the sight of God nor can we be pardoned and accepted thereupon until that righteousness become ours and be made over unto us how can we plead this righteousness before God except Isa 45. 2â— 25. we have an interest in this righteousness how can we rejoyce and triumph in this righteousness if this righteousness 2 Cor. 2. 14. â—al 6. 14. Rom. 5. 1. â—â—b 4. 15 16. â—sal 22. 1 2. Rom. 4. 7 8 9 10 11. Rom. 4. 3. If Christ's obedience be imputed to us it must be so imputed as to be our righteousness before God no imoutation beâ—ow this will serve our turns â—hâ—ar our heart â—nd save our souls Rev. 14. 8. Isa 63. 1. Râ—v 3. 18. be not made ours how can we have peace with God and boldness at the throne of grace through this righteousness except we can lay claim to this righteousness how can we conclude that we are happy and blessed upon the account of this righteousness except it be made over to us There is none of us that have such an inherent righteousness in our selves that we dare plead before the Bar of God and though God hath provided such a glorious Robe of righteousness for poor sinners as is the wonder and amazement of Angels yet what would all this avail the poor sinner if this righteousness be not made over to him O sirs remember this Christ's Righteousness must be yours it must be made over to you or else it will never stand you in stead Rom. 5. 17. For if by one mans offence death reigned by one much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in glory by one Jesus Christ except they receive the Righteousness of Christ it is nothing to them Christ's Righteousness is in it self white rayment and beautiful and glorious apparrel but it will never cover our nakedness except it be put on and we are cloathed with it it must be made over to us or we can never be justified by it 1 Cor. 1. 30. He of God is made to us righteousness if he be not made to us righteousness we shall never be righteous Though man hath lost a righteousness to be justified by yet there is an absolute necessity of having one God cannot love nor delight in any thing but righteousness God is a holy God a righteous God and therefore can only love and take pleasure in those that are righteous both by a righteousness imputed and a righteousness imparted Isa 45. 24. Surely shall one say in the Lord have I righteousness and strength ver 25. In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory Isa 54. 17. Their righteousness is of me saith the Lord Psal 71. 16. I will make mention of thy righteousness even of thine only Look as no man can be made rich by another mans riches except they are made his so no man can be made righteous by the righteousness of Christ except his righteousness be made over to him hence he is called the Lord our righteousness Jer. 23. 6. and hence we are said to be the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5. 21. hence we are said by his obedience to be made righteous 2 Cor. 5. 21. Fifthly and lastly The way whereby this Righteousness of Cods providing is
fundamental guilt no no but he was made sin by imputation and law-account he was our Surety and so our sins were laid on him in order to punishment And to prefigure this all the iniquities of Gods people were imputed to their sacrifice though they were not inherently his own as we read Levit. 16. 21 22 Aaron shall put all the iniquities of all the children of Israel and all their transgressions and all their sins upon the head of the Goat and the Goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities and why then should it seem strange that the perfect righteousness of our sacrifice and surety though it be not our own inherently should be imputed to us by the Lord and made ours Frequently and seriously consider that the word answering this imputing is in the Hebrew Chashab and in To impute in the General is to acknowledg that to be another's which is not indeed his and it is used either in a good or bad sense so that it is no more than to account or reckon It is the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us and accepted for us by which we are judged righteous the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which the summ as the learned say comes to this That though the words in the general signifie to think to reason to imagine c. yet very frequently they are used to signifie to account or reckon by way of computation as Arithmeticians use to do so that it is as it were a judgment passed upon a thing when all reasons and arguments are cast together And from this it is applied to signifie any kind of accounting or reckoning and in this sence imputation is taken here for God's esteeming and accounting of us righteous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to reckon or account 't is taken by a borrowed speech from Merchants reckonings and accounts who have their debt-books wherein they set down how their reckonings stand in the particulars they deal in Now in such debt-books Merchants use to set down whatever payments are only made either by the debtors themselves or by others in the behalf of them an example whereof we have in the Epistle to Philemon vers 18. where Paul undertakes to Philemon for Onesimus if he hath wronged thee or oweth thee any thing put that on my account that is account Onesimus his debt to Paul and Paul's satisfaction or payment to Onesimus which answers the double imputation in point of justification Psal 32. 1 2. that is of our sins to Christ and of Christ's satisfaction to us both which are implyed 2 Cor. 5. 21. He made him to be sin for us that is our sins were imputed to him that we might be the righteousness of God in him that is that his rightcousness might be imputed to us The language of Jesus Christ to his father seems to be this Oh holy Father I have freely and willingly taken all the debts and all the sins of all the believers in the world upon me I have undertaken to be their pay-master to satisfie thy justice to pacifie thy wrath to fulfil thy Law c. and therefore Loe here I am ready Psal 40. 6 7 8. Heb. 10. 4 5 6 7 8 9. to do what ever thou commandest and ready to suffer whatsoever thou pleasest I am willing to be reckoned a sinner that they may be reckoned righteous I am willing to be accounted cursed that they may be for ever blessed I am willing to pay all their debts that they may be set at liberty I am willing to lay down my life that John 10. 11 15 17 18. Rev. 20. 6. they may escape the second death I am willing that my soul should be exercised with the most hideous Agonies that their souls may be possessed of heaven's happinesses Oh what wonderful wisdom grace and love is here manifested that when we were neither able to satisfie the penalty of the Law or to bring a conformity to it that then Christ should interpose and become both redemption and righteousness for us Now from the imputed righteousness of Christ a believer may form up this fifth plea as to all the ten Scriptures Eâ—cles 11. 9. cap. 12. 14. Mat. 12. 14. cap. 18. 23. Luk. 16. 3. Rom. 14. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 10. Heb. 9. 27. cap. 13. 17. 1 Pet. 4. 5. in the margent that refer to the great day of account Oh blessed God thou hast given me to understand that the mediatory righteousness of Christ includes first the habitual holiness of his person in the absense of all sin and in the rich and plentiful presence of all holy and requisite qualities Secondly the actual holiness of his life and death by obedience By his active obedience he perfectly fulfilled the commands of the Law and by his passive obedience his voluntary sufferings he satisfied the penalty and commination of the Law for transgressions That perfect satisfaction to divine justice in whatsoever it requires either in way of punishing for sin or obedience to the law made by the Lord Jesus Christ God and man the Mediator of the new Covenant as a common head representing all those whom the father hath given to him and made over unto them that believe in him This is that righteousness that is imputed to all believers in their Justification and this imputed righteousness of thy dear son and my dear saviour is now my plea before thy bar of Justice Imputed righteousness is the same materially with that which the Law requireth The Righteousness which the Law requireth upon pain of damnation is a perfect obedience conformity to the whole Law of God performed by every son and daughter of Adam in his own person Now imputed righteousness is the same materially with that which the Law requireth it is obedience to the Law of God exactly and punctually performed to the very utmost Iota and tittle thereof without the least abatement Christ hath paid the uttermost farthing He is the fulfilling of the Law for righteousness and he hath fulfilled the Law in the humane nature to the intent that it might be fulfilled in the same nature to which it was at first given and all this he hath expresly done in all their names and on all their behalfs that believe in him That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in them Rom. 8. 3 4. It is as if our dear Lord Jesus had said oh blessed father this I suffer and this I do to the use and in the stead and room of all those that have ventured their souls upon me that they may have a righteousness which they may truly call their own and on which they may safely rest and in which they may for ever glory Isa 45. 24 25. Now it will never stand with the unspotted holiness justice and righteousness of God to reject this righteousness of his son or that plea that is bottomed upon it Oh the matchless happiness of believers who have so
Fourthly know for your comfort that this imputed righteousness of Christ will answer to all the fears doubts and objections of your souls How shall I look up to God the answer is in the righteousness of Jesus Christ how shall I have any communion with a holy God in this world the answer is in the righteousnâ—ss of Christ How shall I find acceptance with God the answer is in the righteousness of Christ How shall I die the answer is in the righteousness of Christ How shall I stand before a Judgment seat the answer is in the righteousness of Jesus Christ Your sure and only way under all temptations fears conflicts doubts and disputes is by faith to remember Christ and the sufferings of Christ as your Mediator and Surety and say Oh Christ thou art my sin in being made sin for me and thou art my curse being â— Coâ— 5. 21. â—al 3. 13. made a curse for me or rather I am thy sin and thou art my rightcousness I am thy curse and thou art my blessing I am thy death and thou art my life I am the wrath of God to thee and thou art the love of God to me I am thy hell and thou art my heaven Oh sirs if you think of your sins and of God's wrath if you think of your guiltiness and of God's justice your hearts will faint and fail they will fear and tremble and sink into despair if you do not think of Christ if you do not stay and rest your souls upon the mediatory righteousness of Christ The Imputed Righteousness of Christ The Imputed Righteousness of Christ answers all cavils and objections though there were millions of them that can be made against the good estate of a believer This is a precious truth more worth than a world that all our sins are pardoned not only in a way of truth and mercy but in a way of justice Satan and our own consciences will object many things against our souls if we plead only the mercy and the truth of God and will be ready to say oh but where is then the justice of God can mercy pardon without the consent of his justice but now whilst we rest upon the satisfaction of Christ justice and mercy kiss Psal 85. 10. each other yea justice saith I am pleased in a day of temptation many things will be cast in our dish about the multitude of our sins and the greatness of our sins and the grievousness of our sins and about the circumstances and aggravations of our sins but that good word Christ hath redeemed us from all iniquities he hath paid Titus 2. 14. the full price that justice could exact or require and that good word mercy rejoyceth against judgment may James 2. 13. support comfort and bear us up under all The infinite worth of Christ's obedience did arise from the dignity of his person who was God-man so that all the obedience of Angels and men if put together could not amount to the excellency of Christ's satisfaction The righteousness of Christ is often called the righteousness of God because it is a righteousness of God's providing and a righteousness that God is fully satisfied with and therefore no fears no doubts no cavils no objections no disputes can stand before this blessed and glorious righteousness of Jesus Christ that is imputed to us But Fifthly know for your comfort that the imputed righteousness of Christ is the best title that you have to shew for a Kingdom that shakes not for riches that corrupt not Heb. 12. 28. 1 Pet. 1 3 4 5. 2 Cor. 5. 1 2 3 4 for an inheritance that fadeth not away and for an house not made with bands but one eternal in the heavens 'T is the fairest certificate that you have to shew for all that happiness and blessedness that you look for in that other world The righteousness of Christ is your life your joy your comfort your crown your confidence your heaven your all oh that you were still so wise as to keep a fixed eye and an awakened heart upon the mediatory righteousness of Christ for that 's the righteousness by which you may safely and comfortably live and by which you may happily and quietly die It was a very sweet and golden confession which Bernard made when he thought Guliel Aâ—bas in vâ—ta Bern. lib. 1. cap. 12. himself to be at the point of death I confess said he I am not worthy I have no merits of mine own to obtain heaven by but my Lord had a double right thereunto an hereditary right as a son and a meritorious right as a sacrifice he was contented with the one right himself the other right he hath given unto me by the vertue of which gift I do rightly lay claim unto it and am not confounded ah that believers would dwell much upon this that they have a righteousness in Christ that is as full perfect and compleat as if they had fulfilled the Law Christ being the end of the Law for righteousness to believers invests believers with a righteousness every way as compleat as the personal obedience of the Law would Rom. 8. 3 4. have invested them withal yea the righteousness that believers have by Christ is in some respect better than that they should have had by Adam 1. Because of the dignity of Christ's person he being the son of God his righteousness is more glorious than Adam's was his righteousness is called the righteousness of God and we are made the 2 Cor. 5. 21. righteousness of God in him The first Adam was a mere man the second Adam is God and man 2. Because the righteousness is perpetual Adam was a mutable person he lost his righteousness in one day say some and all that glory which his posterity should have possessed had he stood fast in innocency But the righteousness of Christ cannot be lost his righteousness is like himself from everlasting to everlasting 't is an everlasting righteousness when once this white rayment is put upon a believer it Dâ—n 9. 24. can never fall off it can never be taken off This splendid glorious righteousness of Jesus Christs is as really a Rev. 19. 8. believers as if he had wrought it himself A believer is no loser but a gainer by Adam's fall by the loss of Adam's righteousness is brought to light a more glorious and durable righteousness than ever Adam's was and upon the account of an interest in this righteousness a believer may challenge all the glory of that upper world But Sixthly know for your comfort that this imputed righteousness of Christ is the only true basis bottom and ground for a believer to build his happiness upon his joy and comfort upon and the true peace and quiet of his conscience upon what though Satan or thy own heart or the world condemns thee yet in this thou maist rejoyce that God justifies thee you see what a bold challenge Paul
off from the land of the living his life was taken from off the earth 3. As Acts 9. 33. Heb. 9. 14. 2 Pet. 3. 13 this Goat was not killed so Christ through the eternal Spirit offered up himself whereby he was made alive after death Though Christ Jesus died for our sins acording to his his Humanity yet death could not detain him nor overcome him nor keep him prisoner but by vertue of his impassible Deity he rises again and triumphs over Hos 13. 14. death and the grave and over principalities and powers Col. 2. 13. 4. As this Goat went into an inhabitable place so Christ went into heaven whither I go ye cannot come Christ Joh. 13. 33. speaks this not to exclude his Disciples out of heaven Vers 36. but only to shew that their entrance was put off for a time Saints must not expect to go to heaven and rest with Christ till they have fought the good fight of faith 2 Tim. â— 7 8. Heb. 12. 1. 1 Cor. 9 24. Act. 13. 30. finished their course run their race and served their generation Christ's own children by all their studies prayers tears and endeavours cannot get to heaven unless Joh. 14. 1 2 3. Christ come and fetches them thither Christ's own servants cannot get to heaven presently nor of themselves no more than the Jews could do Now if you please to cast your eye upon the Lord Jesus you will find and exact correspondency between the Type and the Antitype the one fully answering to the other Did they carry substitution in them that eminently was in Christ he indeed substituted himself in the sinners room he took our guilt upon him and put himself in our place and died in our stead he died that we might not die Whatever we should have undergone that he underwent in his body and soul he did bear as our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the punishments and torments that were due to us Christ's suffering dying satisfying in our stead is the great Article of a Christian's Faith and the main prop and foundation of the believers hope It is bottomed as an eternal and unmovable truth upon the sure Basis of the blessed Word Substitution in the case of the old sacrifices is not so evidently held forth in the Law but substitution with respect to Christ and his sacrifice is more evidently set forth in the Gospel Ponder seriously upon these Texts Rom. 5. 6. For when we were yet without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly vers 8. But God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Herein God lays naked to us the tenderest bowels of his fatherly This shews us the greatness of mans sin and of Christs love of Satans malice and of Gods Justice and it shews us the madness and blindness of the Popish Religion which tellâ— us that some â—â—â— are so light â—enial as that the sprinkling of holy water and ashes will pâ—rge them away compassions as in an Anatomy There was an absolute necessity of Christ's dying for sinners for 1. God's Justice had decreed it 2. His Word had foretold it 3. The Sacrifices in the Law had prefigured it 4. The foulness of mans sin had dâ—served it 5. The Redemption of man called for it 6. The glory of God was greatly exalted by it So 1 Pet. 3. 18. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins the just for the unjust To see Christ the just suffer in the stead of the unjust is the wonderment of Angels and the torment of Devils 1 Pet. 4. 1. Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh c. that is in the humane nature for the expâ—ation and taking away of our sins 1 Pet. 2. 21. Because Christ also suffered for us Joh. 10. 11. I lay down my life for the sheep this good Shepherd lays down life for life his own dear life for the life of his sheep Joh. 11. 50. Nor consider that it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people and that the whole nation perish not that is rather than the whole nation should perish Caiaphas took it for granted that either Christ or their Nation must perish and as he foolishly thought that of two evils he designed the least to be chosen that is that Christ should rather perish than their Nation but God so guided his tongue that he unwittingly by the powerful instinct of the Spirit prophesied of the fruit of Christ's death for the reconciliation and salvation of the elect of God Heb. 2. 9. That he by the grace of God should taste death for every man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or for every creature who all these be the Context sheweth 1. Sons that must be led unto glory ver 10. 2. Christ's Brethren ver 11. 3. Such children as are given by God unto Christ ver 13. In all which Scriptures the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is used which most commonly notes substitution the doing or suffering of something by one in the stead and place of others and so 't is all along here to be taken But there is another preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that proves the thing I am upon undeniably Matth. 20. 28. Even as the Son of man came not to be ministred unto Matth. 20. 28. but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a Redemptory price a valuable rate for it was the Blood of God wherewith the Church was purchased 1 Tim. 2. 6. Who gave Acts 20. 28. himself a ransom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for all the Greek word signifies a counterprice such as we could never have paid but must have remained everlasting prisoners to the wrath and justice of God O sirs Christ did not barely deliver poor captive souls but he delivered them in the way of a ransom which ransom he paid down upon the nail when their ransom was ten thousand talents Matth. 18. 24. and they had not one farthing to lay down Christ stand up in their room and pays the whole ransom Every one knows that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in composition signifies but two things â—ither opposition and contrariety or substitution and â—â—â—autation So that the matter will thus issue 1 Joh. 2. 18. Rom. 1â— 17. Matth. 5. 38. That eiâ—her we must carry it thus That Christ gave himself a ransom against sinners than which nothing can be more absurd and false or else thus That he gave himself a ransom in the room and stead of sinners which is as true as truth it self Certainly no head can invent no heart can conceive nor no tongue can express more clear plain pregnant and apposit words and phrases for the setting forth of Christ's substitution than is to be found in that golden Chapter of Isai 53. In this Chapter as in a holy Armory we
may find had I time to go through it many pointed daggers and two-edged swords and shields of brass to arm us against the corrupt notions and opinions of the blinded and deluded Socinians who fight with all their might against the Doctrine of Christ's substitution Ver. 4. Surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows c. ver 5. The chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed ver 6. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all or the Lord hath made the iniquity of us all to meet on him ver 7. He was oppressed and he was aflicted c. or as the words are rendred by some It was exacted and he answered ver 8. For the transgression of my people he was stricken ver 11. For he shall bear their iniquities ver 12. And he bare the sin of many All men of worth and weight conclude that all this is spoken of the Lord Jesus Christ Now what more clear and evident proofs can there be of Christ's susception of the sinners guilt and of his bearing the punishment due for it The Priests of old you know are said to bear the iniquity of the people Levit. 10. 17. God hath given it you to bear the iniquity of the congregation to make atonement for them before the Lord. The sinner bears his iniquity subjectively the Priest typically and the Lord Christ really Exod. 28. 38. That Aarib may bear the iniquity of the holy things Herein the high Priest was a Type of Christ answerable to which the Prophet Isaiah tells us that Christ our high Priest had Heb. 4. 14 15. the iniquities of all believers laid upon him and that he bare them in his own person so the Apostle Heb. 9. 28. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is an allusion to the Priests who carried up the sacrifice and with it the sins of the people to the Altar Christ our Priest did carry up the sins of his people upon the Cross and there made satisfaction for them in their room or stead by the sacrifice of himself and that Scripture is more worth than the Indies viz. 1 Pet. 2. 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he bare them Col. 2 13 14 15. aloft viz. when he climbed up his Cross and nailed them thereunto Christ in the Humane nature when he was upon the Cross did suffer all the punishments and torments that were due to our sins he cancelled all bonds annihilated the curse in which respects he is said to beaâ— our sins in his own body on the tree But to prevent prolixity I shall produce no more Scriptures though many more might have been produced to prove Christ a common Person a representative Head of all his Elect and that he did really substitute himself in their room and took upon himself their guilt and put himself in their place and did undergo whatever they should have undergone Now from all these Considerations a Child of God Eccles 11. 9. c 12 14. Maâ—â—h 12. 14. cap. 18. 2â— Luk 16. 3. Roâ— 4. 10. 2 Câ—r 5 10. Hâ—b 9 27 cap. 13 17. â—â— 4. 5. may form up this Sixth Plea as to the Ten Scriptures in the Margin that refer to the great day of account or to a man's particular account O blessed God Jesus Christ was a common Person a representative Head I am to be considered in him who is my Surety and therefore he is bound to pay all my debts and as he is a common person and stood in my stead so the satisfaction that is made unto thy Justice by him is in Law to be accounted mine as really as if my Attorney should pay a debt for me And therefore I must rest satisfied that the debt is paid and in Law shall never be exacted of me though it was not paid by my self in person but by another who did personate me in that act and did it for me and in my behalf Christ was a common Person personating as a second Adam the first Adam and all his posterity offering the same Nature for sin which fell by sin from the pattern of perfection God himself By man came death and by man came the resurrection from the dead 1 â—o 15 21. man for man person for person nature for nature and name for name There are two roots out of which life and death springs 1. As all that die receive their deaths wounds by the disobedience of the first Adam so all that live receive life from the obedience of the second Adam 2. As all die who are the sons of the first Adam by natural Generation so all live who are the sons of the second Adam through spiritual Regeneration O holy and blessed God thou hast set up Jesus Christ as a common person as the representative Head of all thy Elect and I am to be considered in that common Head and all that he has done as my Head and in my stead and room is to be reckoned to me as if I had done it in my own person and by this Plea I will stand rejoyce and triumph upon this God accepts of the Plea as sound and good and saith to him that pleads it Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord Matth. 25. 21. The seventh Plea that a believer may form up as to the ten Scriptures formerly cited that refer to the great day of account or to a mans particular account may be drawn from the consideration of Christ's Surety ship Our English Translation hath it Of a beâ—ter Testamâ—nt but not so fitly because properly a Testament neither useth nor needeth to have a Suretâ— as a Covenant doth Beza thereâ—â—re justly blameth both Erajmus and the Vulgar Translation for rendring it Testament for that a Surety is not added in Testaments And should it be added how can the same be both a Testator and a Surety So that this word Surety hath reference properly to a Covenaâ—t and not to a Testament Christ is called a Surety Heb. 7. 22. By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament The Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sponsor Fidejussor Praes a Surety a Pledger is very significative being derived as some think from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an hand as it were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in hands because the security or pledge is given in hand A Surety is properly one that willingly promiseth and undertakes to pay and discharge the debt if the debtor fail and be not able to make satisfaction himself Thus Paul willingly and spontaneously from the love he had to his new Convert Onesimus promised and undertook to make satisfaction to Philemon for any wrong that Onesimus had done him Phil. 18 19. If he hath wronged thee or oweth thee ought put it upon mine account I Paul have written it with mine
Of Oneness Of Christ's Oneness with the Father pag. 233 234. 235 P Of the Papists The ridiculous and superstitious devices of the Papists detected c. pag. 311 312 313 Of Pardon of sin That all the sins of believers are pardoned at once and actually unto them is proved by ten Arguments pag. 73 to 76 All a believer's sins are fully and finally pardoned at the hour of his death pag. 76 77 God looks not upon those as sinners whose sins are pardoned pag. 77 78 79 Pardon takes off our obligation to suffer eternal punishment pag. 79 80 Of Peace of Conscience The imputed righteousness of Christ is the only true basis bottom and ground for true peace and quiet of conscience pag. 348 349 350 351 352 353 Of the several Pleas that every sincere Christian may form up as to the ten Scriptures in the Old and New Testament that refer either to the General Judgment or to the particular Judgment that will pass upon every Christian immediately after death The first Plea pag. 72 73 The second Plea pag. 88. 89 The third Plea pag. 94 95 96 97 The fourth Plea pag. 288 289 313 314 315 The fifth Plea pag. 338 339 The sixth Plea pag. 373 The seventh Plea pag. 378 379 Of prizing Christ The Sufferings of Christ should raise up our hearts to a very high prizing of Christ pag. 300 301 302 303 Q Q. What that faith is that gives a man an interest in Christ c pag. 54. to 59 Q. Whether in the General Judgment or in that Particular Judgment that will pass upon all the Saints after death whether their infirmities or enormities their weaknesses or wickednesses shall be brought into the Judgment of discussion and discovery or no that they shall not is proved at large pag. 59 to 73 R Reasons Several weighty Reasons why Christ did partake of both Natures pag. 249 to 260 Of the Work of Redemption That the work of Redemption was a very great work pag. 263 264 265 266 267 Revelations the 19. 8. opened and applied pag. 334 335 336 Of the Righteousness of Christ Of the excellency and glory of Christ's Righteousness pag. 315 to 339 Nine strong Consolations that flow from the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness pag. 339 to 365 Of Running to Christ Vnder all our fears doubts conflicts we should still run to Christ pag. 308 309 310 311 S Of Satisfaction That God doth stand upon satisfaction and will not forgive one sin without it is made evident by five Arguments pag. 320 to 324 Of Sincerity When a man's heart is sincere with God pag. 1 2 3 Of Sin many weighty things about it Four ways to know when sin is indulged pag. 3 4 Thirteen Arguments to prove that no Godly man does or can indulge himself in any course or way or trade of Sin pag. 4 to 14 Ten Arguments to shew the folly vanity and falshood of that opinion that is received and commonly avowed by Ministers and Christians viz. That every Godly person hath his beloved sin his bosom sin pag. 14 to 24 First All wicked men have their beloved sins their darling sins c. pag. 24 25 Secondly The Elect before their conversion have had their beloved sins c. pag. 25 Thirdly after conversion the hearts of the Elect are most set against those sins which were once their beloved sins c. pag. 25 Fourthly After conversion a sincere Christian endeavours to be most eminent in that particular grace which is most contrary to that sin which was once his beloved sin c. pag. 25 26 Fifthly Though no Godly man hath any beloved sin yet every Godly man hath one sin or other to which they are more prone than to others pag. 26 27 28 29 Eight remedies against keeping up of any special sin either in heart or life against the Lord or against the light and convictian of a man 's own conscience pag. 29 to 42 Five and twenty Arguments against keeping up of any special sin in heart or life against the Lord or against the light of a man 's own conscience pag. 42 to 50 Of the sufferings of Christ See pag. 97 to 105 The true reasons why the Sufferings of Christ though short yet have a sufficient power and vertue in them to satisfie God's justice pag. 272 273 274 Of the Sufferings of Christ in his body The Sufferings of Christ in his body largely opened pag. 105 to 121 Of the Sufferings of Christ in his Soul The Sufferings of Christ in his soul largely opened pag. 121 to 131 The Sufferings of Christ in his soul were very high and great and wonderful pag. 131 to 137 That Jesus Christ did feel and suffer the very Torments of Hell though not after an Hellish manner pag. 137 to 153 Christ's Sufferings for us should mightily endear Jesus Christ to us pag. 153 154 155 The punishments that Christ did suffer for us must be referred only to the substance and not to the circumstances of punishment pag. 284 285 286 The meritorious cause of Christ's Sufferings were the sins of his people pag. 286 287 288 Seven Inferences from the consideration of the great sufferings of Christ pag. 289 to 315 Of the Suretyship of Christ All the sins of believers were laid upon Christ their Surety pag. 80 81 82 83 84 85 Q. Whether God were not unjust to give Jesus Christ to be our Surety answered pag. 85 86 87 88 The Suretyship of Christ considered at large pag. 374 to 379 T Of Triumphing in Christ Jesus The Imputation of Christ's Righteousness affords us the highest reason to rejoyce and triumph in Christ Jesus pag. 354 355 356 357 358 Of a True penitential turning from all sin A True penitential turning from all sin lies in six particulars pag. 17 18 19 Five and twenty Arguments to work us to turn from all sin pag. 42 to 50 Of Types The Scape-goat was a most lively Type of Christ pag. 368 369 V Of Universal Obedience Five and twenty Arguments for Vniversal Obedience pag. 42 to 50 An objection against universal obedience answered pag. 50 51 Vniversal obedience consists in nine things pag. 51 to 55 Of our Unrighteousness Christ's mediatory righteousness takes away all our Vnrighteousness pag. 342 343 W Of Willingness Christ's sufferings should work in us the greatest willingness to suffer for Christ pag. 303 to 308 Of the works of God The same Works which are peculiar to God are ascribed to Christ in the blessed Scriptures pag. 225 226 227 Of Worship Divine honour and Worship is due to Christ and by Angels and Saints is given unto him pag. 227 228 229 First All inward Worship is due to Christ pag. 229 230 Secondly All outward Worship is due to Christ pag. 230 to 232 When Jesus Christ was declared to the world God did command even the most glorious Angels to worship him as his natural and coessential Son pag. 232 233 ERRATA PAge 5. line 1. read all p. 6. l. 22. r. I. p. 22. l. 13. r. our p. 34. l. 14. heat r. heart p. 8. l. 4. him r. them p. 80. l. 31. lai r. laid p. 89. l. 16. r. so p. 111. l. 26. r. A 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 112. l. 7. opinion r. opening p. 112. l. 20. nature r. water p. 112. l. 28. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 125. l. 19. r. animam p. 174. m. r. Bernard p. 181. l. 23. r. to p. 188. m. r. summam paenae p. 197. l. 22. love r. lose p. 202. l. 1. reviled r. revealed p. 193. l. 36. the r. their p. 212. l. 18. r. not p. 133. m. r. Relinquit m. r. confut p. 137. l. 7. and r. the. p. 138. m. Rom. r. Act. p. 141. l. 8. Torments r. Tormentors p. 147. l. 11. Isa 5. r. Isa 50. p. 157. m. r. magnum p. 232. l. 30. any r. and. p. 234. l. 19. r. that l. 34. not r. nor p. 238. l. 3. r. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 263. l. 30. given r. even p. 267. l. 21. into r. with with r. into p. 283. l. 14. their r. her blot out my wife and children p. 296. l. 4. deared r. dearest p. 311. l. 15. r. he did p. 321. l. 29. r. Secondly p. 336. m. hat r. that p. 354. l. 38. blot cut it in the fourth leaf of the Epistle Dedicatory l. 2. the r. this There are sundry other mistakes in pointings changes and transpositions of letters misfiguring of pages c. besides Some are omitted because they do not much disturb the sence others because they will not easily escape thy notice Share the faults between the Author's absence and the Printers negligence and then correct before thou readest
he died chearfully and comfortably without murmuring or repining O what a wonder of love is this that Jesus Christ who is the Author of life the Fountain of life the Lord of life that he should so freely so readily so cheerfully lay down his life for us c. About four in the Afternoon he was pierced with a Spear and there issued out of his side both blood and water John 19. 34. And one of the Souldiers with a Spear pierced his side and forthwith came thereout blood and water Out of the side of Christ being now dead there issues water blood signifying that he is both our Justification Sanctification Thus was fulfilled that which was long before foretold Zach. 1â— 10. 1 Jâ—◠〈◊〉 Zach. 12 1. They shall by water and by blood Thus was there a Fountain opâ—â—ed to the house of David and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem even to all the Elect for sin and for uncleanness The Souldiers malice lived when Christ was dead The water and blood forthwith issuing out as soon as 't was pierced with a Spear did evidently shew that he was truely dead The Syriack paraphrase saith he pierced his rib that is the fifth rib where the pericardium lay It is very likely that the very Pericardium was pierced now the Pericardium is a film or skin like unto a Purse wherein is contained clear water to cool the heat of the heart The blood saith one signifies the perfect expiation of the sins of the Church and the water the daily Ambrose on Luk. â—â— washing and purging of it from the remainder of her corruption Water and blood issued on t of Christs side saith another to teach us that Christ justifieth none by his merit but such whom he sanctifieth by his Spirit Christ was pierced with a Spear and water and blood presently issued out of his side that his Enemies might not object that he rose again because he was but half dead on the Cross and being so taken down he revived to testifie the contrary truth John so seriously affirmeth the certainty of his death he being an eye-witness of the streaming out of Christs blood as he stood by Christs Cross O Gates of Heaven O Windows of Paradise O Palace of Refuge O Tower of strength O Sanctuary of the just O flourishing Bed of the Spouse of Solomon Me-thinks I see water and blood running out of his side more freshly than these golden streams which ran out of the Garden of Eden and watered the whole world But here I may not dwell c. But to shut up this particular about five which the Jews call the eleventh and the last hour of the day Christ was taken down and Buried by Joseph and Nichodemus But Thirdly As the death of Christ on the Cross was a lingring death so the death of Christ was a painful death this appears several ways First His Legs and Hands were violently racked and pulled out to the places fitted for his fastenings and then pierced through with Nails his Hands and Feet were nailed which parts being full of sinnews and therefore very tender his pains could not but be very acute and sharpe Secondly By this means he wanted the use both of his Hands and Feet and so he was forced to hang immoveable upon the Cross as being unable to turn any way for his ease and therefore he could not but be under very dolorous pains Thirdly The longer he lived the more he endured for by the weight of his body his wounds were opened and enlarged his Nerves and Veins were rent and torn asunder and his blood gushed out more and more abundantly still Now the invenomed Arrows of Gods wrath shot to his heart this was the direful Catastrophe and caused that vociferation and out-cry upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The Justice of God was now inflamed and heightned to its full 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8. 32. God spared not his Son God would not abate one farthing of the debt But Fourthly He dyed by piece-meals he dyed by little and little he dyed not all at once he that dyed on the Cross was long a dying Christ was kept a great while upon the rack it was full three hours betwixt his affixion and expiration and certainly it would have been longer if he had not freely and willingly given up the Ghost I have read that Andrew the Apostle was two whole days on the Cross before he dyed and so long might Christ have been a dying if God had not supernaturally heightened the degrees of his torment Doubtless when Christ was on the Cross he felt the very pains of Hell though not locally yet equivalently But Fourthly As the death of Christ on the Cross was a painful death so the death of Christ on the Cross was a shameful death Christ was in medio positus he hung between two Thieves as if he had been the principal Malefactor Math. 27. 38. Here they placed him to make the world believe that he was the great ring-leader of such men Christ was crucified in the mid'st as the chief of Sinners that we might have place in the mid'st of Heavenly Angels the one of these Thieves went railing to Hell the Zach. 3 7. other went repenting forth right to Heaven living long in a little time If you ask me the names of these two Thieves who Q. were crucified with Christ I must answer That although the Scripture nominates them not yet some Writers give them these names Dismas and Gâ—smas Dismas the happy and Gesmas the miserable Thief according to the Poet Gesmas damnatur Dismas ad astra levatur That is When Gesmas died to Dives he was sent When Dismas died to Abraham up he went Well might the Lamp of Heaven withdraw its light and mask it self with darkness as blushing to behold the Sun of Righteousness hanging between two Thieves He shall be an Apollo to me that can tell me which was the greater The blood of the Cross or the shame of the Cross Heb. 12. 2. It was a mighty shame that Sauls Sons were 2 Sam. 21. 6. hanged on a Tree O what a shameful death was it for Christ to hang on a Tree between two notorious Thieves But Fifthly and lastly As the death of Christ was a shameful death so the death of Christ was a cursed death Cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree The death on Deut. 21. 23. the Tree was Accursed above all kinds of death as the Serpent was Accursed above all Beasts of the field both for Gen. 3. 14. the first transgression whereof the Serpent was the instrument the Tree the occasion Since the death of any Malefactor might be a Monument of Gods Curse for sin it may be questioned why this brand is peculiarly set upon this kind of punishment that he that is hanged is Accursed of God To which I Answer that the reason of this was because this was
esteemed the most shameful the most dishonourable and infamous of all kinds of death and was usually therefore the punishment of those that had by some notorious wickedness provoked God to pour out his wrath upon the whol Land and so were hanged up to appease his wrath as we may see in the hanging of those Princes that were guilty of committing Numb 25. 4. Whordom with the Daughters of Moab and in the hanging of those Sons of Saul in the days of David when 2 Sam. 21. 6. there was a Famine in the Land because of Sauls perfidious oppressing of the Gibeonites nor was it without cause that this kind of death was both by the Israelites and other Nations esteemed the most shameful and accursed because the very manner of the death did intimate that such men as were thus Executed were such execrable and accursed wretches that they did defile the Earth with treading on it and would pollute the Earth if they should dye upon it and therefore were so trussed up in the Ayre as not fit to live amongst men and that others might look upon them as men made spectacles of Gods Indignation and Curse because of the wickedness they had committed which was not done in other kinds of death And hence it was that the Lord God would have his Son the Lord Christ to suffer this kind of death that even hence it might be the more evident that in his death he bare the Curse due to our sins according to that of the Apostle Christ hath Redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree The Gal. 3. 13. Chaldee translateth For because he sinned before the Lord he is hanged The Tree whereon a man was hanged the Stone wherewith he was stoned the Sword wherewith he was beheaded and the Napkin wherewith he was strangled they were all Buried that there might be no evil memorial of such a one to say This was the Tree Sword Stone Napkin wherewith such a one was Executed This kind of death was so execrable that Constantine made a Law that no Christian should dye upon the Cross he abolished this kind of death out oâ— his Empire When this kind of death was in use among the Jews it was chiefly inflicted upon Slaves that either falsly accused or treacherously conspired their Masters death But on whomsoever it was inflicted this death in all Ages among the Jews hath been branded with a special kind of ignominy and so much the Apostle signifies when he saith He abased himself to the death even to the Phil. 2. 2. death of the Cross I know Moses's Law speaks nothing in particular of Crucifying yet he doth include the same under the general of hanging on a Tree and some conceive that Moses in speaking of that Curse sore-saw what manner of death the Lord Jesus should die and let thus much sussice concerning Christs sufferings on the Cross or concerning his corporal sufferingâ— I shall now in the second place speak concerning Christs spiritual sufferings his sufferings in his Soul which were exceeding high and great Now here I shall endeavour to do two things First To prove that Christ suffered in his Soul and so much the rather because that the Papists say and write That Christ did not truly and properly and immediatly suffer in his Soul but only by way of simpathy and compassion with his body to the Mystical body and that his bare bodily sufferings were sufficient for mans Redemption 2. That the sufferings of Christ in his Soul were exceeding high and great for the first that Christ suffered in his Soul I shall thus demonstrate First Express Scriptures do evidence this Isa â—3 When thou shalt make his Soul an offering for sin he shall see his Seed c. Joh. 12. 27. Now is my Soul troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I unto this hour Math. 26. 37. 38. He began to be sorrowful and very heavy These were but the beginings of sorrow he began c. Sorrow is a thing that drinks up our spirits and he was heavy as seeling an heavy load upon him v. 38. My Soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death Christ was as full of sorrow as his heart could hold every word is Emphatical My Soul his Psal 6â— 1. 2. sorrow pierced his Heaven-born Soul As the Soul was the first Agent in transgression so it is here the first Patient in affliction The sufferings of his body were but Christs Soul was beleagured or compassed round round with sorrow as that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sounds 26 Math. 28 the body of his sufferings the soul of his sufferings were the sufferings of his Soul which was nòw beset with sorrows and heavy as heart could hold Christ was sorrowsul his Soul was sorrowful his Soul was exceeding sorrowsul his Soul was exceeding sorrowful unto death Christs Soul was in such extremity of sorrow that it made him cry out Father if it be possible let this Cup pass and this was with strong cryings and tears To cry and to cry Heb. 5. 7. with a loud voyce argues great extremity of sufferings Mark 14. 33. Mark saith And he began to be amazod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to be very heavy or we may more fully express it thus according to the original He begun to be gastred with wondersul astonishment and to be satiated filled brim full with heaviness a very sad condition All the sins of the Elect like a huge Army meeting upon Christ made a dreadful on-set on his Soul Luk. 22. 43 44. 'T is said He was in an Agony That 's a conflict in which a poor Creature wrestles with deadly pangs with all his might mustring up all his faculties and force to grapple with them and with-stand them Thus did Christ struggle with the Indignation of the Lord praying once and again with more intense fervency O that this Cup may pass away if it be possible let this Cup pass away while yet an Luk 22 42 43. Angel strengthened his outward man from utter sinking in the conslict Now if this weight that Christ did bare had been laid on the shoulders of all the Angels in Heaven it would have sunk them down to the lowest Hell it would have crackt the Axel-tree of Heaven and Earth It made His blood startle out of his body in congealed cloddered heaps The heat of Gods fiery Indignation made his blood to boil up till it ran over yea Divine wrath affrighted it out of its wonted Channel The Creation of Geâ— 1. the world cost him but a word he spake and the world was made but the Redemption of Souls cost him bloody sweats and Soul-distraction What conflicts what struglings with the wrath of God the powers of darkness what weights what burdens what wrath did he undergoe when his Soul