the punishment of their own sins because they have no interest in that person that should take off this punishment from them The misery of all Unbelievers and such as lye out of Christ appears from these two considerations 1. Because the Sentence of the Law stands in full force against them that Law that says The soul that sins shall dye The wages of sin is death That Law is still in force against them and if they have not a Surety to bear this penalty of the Law for them they are liable to it themselves The Law exacts death from the sinner therefore thou must either dye in thy own person or in a Surety for the sentence of the Law cannot be reverst that saith The soul that sins shall dye 2. Divine Justice calls for punishment The Nature of God as he is a holy and just God inclines and obligeth him to punish sinners therefore if Divine Justice do not find out some other way to be satisfied in it will satisfie it self upon the Sinner himself In how sad a case is every person that is found out of Christ he is already condemned by the Law and is in danger of being arrested and seized upon by Divine Justice every moment O how doth it concern us all to secure our interest in Christ to get a part in his Satisfaction for as much as unless we can obtain an interest in Christ as our Surety to satisfie the Law and Divine Justice for us we are liable to bear the punishment which our sins deserve and to make satisfaction in our own persons The end of the fifth Sermon SERMON VI. Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends I Now proceed to that which remains The second Particular therefore is this That Christ did not only make himself passible and mortal for us but Christ did actually undergo suffering and death for us This I shall open in several Particulars 1. Our Lord Jesus Christ that he might bear the punishment of our sins underwent all manner of sufferings in his body for us he suffered hunger thirst weariness pain grief and the like Isa 53.4 He hath born our grief and carried our sorrows and vers 7. He was oppressed and he was afflicted Whatever pressures and loads of afflictions we may feel Christ felt the same yea he hath felt them in a far greater measure than we do It was part of the Curse pronounced upon â—lam after his Fall Cursed is the ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee Gen. 3.17 18. By these expressions Learned men observe That all the miseries and calamities of this life are set forth this was part of the Curse that man should be subject to all the miseries of this life the miseries that we all feel and experiment such as hunger weariness pain and the like Now that being part of the Curse that we should be subject to all these miseries Christ underwent the miseries that we are subject unto 2. Christ was exposed unto and suffered shame ignominy contempt and reproach for our sakes Hence was it that he was arraigned and condemned as a Malefactor by an earthly Judge hence it came to pass that he was buffeted reviled spit upon crowned with thorns mocked derided crucified between two thieves all which circumstances were matter of great reproach and contempt and all this our Saviour bare as the punishment of our sins and we cannot have a just and due contemplation of the sufferings of Christ what they are in themselves nor make the right use of them as to our selves unless we apprehend that whatever Christ suffered he suffered it as the punishment for our sins We read in the History of the Gospel what shame and contempt was poured on our Saviour in his being buffeted spit upon derided mocked and crowned with thorns but I fear there are too few that consider that he bare these things as the just punishment of our sins We read this as a History and that is all but if we look upon this with a spiritual eye we ought to consider that our Saviour bare all this as the just punishment of our sins for shame and contempt is one part of the punishment due to sin Hence is it that when the punishment of the wicked is described at the last Day it is described by this Some shall rise to shame and everlasting contempt Dan. 12.2 so that shame and everlasting contempt is part of the punishment that is due to sin Now then our Saviour bearing the whole punishment of our sins hath born that shame and contempt that we deserve Hence are those expressions Isa 50.6 That he gave his back to the smiters and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair he hid not his face from shame and spitting 3. Christ suffered in his Soul as well as in his body for us yea our Saviours sufferings in his Soul were his greatest sufferings Though the sufferings of his body were great yet the sufferings of his Soul were by far the greatest sufferings Joh. 12.27 Now is my soul troubled Mat. 26.28 My soul is exceeding sorrowful The Papists and some others will not admit these sufferings of our Saviour in his Soul they make the main of Christs sufferings to be in his body But the Scripture is clear in this That Christ suffered in his Soul as well as in his body and it was most necessary that Christ who was our Surety should suffer in his Soul as well as in his body and the reason is because Adam did primarily and principally sin in his soul sin first began in the soul and therefore it was meet that Christ should primarily and principally suffer in his Soul that punishment that was due to us for our sins It is the observation of a Learned man Christ saith he is to be considered under the notion of a Surety or Vndertaker for us Thence saith he it follows that his body was constituted and appointed as a Surety for our body his Soul was constituted a Surety for our souls so that Christ was to suffer that punishment in his Soul that we were to suffer in our souls and Christ was to undergo that punishment in his body that we were to suffer in our bodies and if we should suppose that our Saviour had not suffered that in his Soul which we should have suffered but only hath suffered such grief as belongs to the sensitive part then it would follow that the Soul or Spirit that is in us is not yet redeemed for what Christ hath not born for us doth remain still for us to suffer and to be undergone If therefore Christ suffered nothing in his Soul of what the Law of God and Divine Justice would inflict upon our spirits and souls as the punishment of sin it remains still to be undergone by us But much
it to his cross Col. 2.14 and he is the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world Joh. 1.29 that is he hath perfectly taken away sin as to the guilt and condemnation of it Now this could not have been if Christ had not suffered all that was to be suffered he could not have made an end of sin he could not have taken away the condemning power of it if all the punishment that was to be inflicted upon the sinner had not been inflicted upon him but now Christ by offering himself a Sacrifice for our sins hath born the whole punishment so that nothing more remains to be suffered that Divine Justice can demand This is implied in his being made a curse namely that the wrath of God was spent upon Christ to the utmost and that Divine Justice could desire no more than what was laid upon him The last Particular to clear this how Christ was made a curse is this The curse took hold on Christ so far as that Christ was exterminated and cut off by it The utmost punishment that can be inflicted upon a Malefactor amongst men is death the extermination of him from mankind cutting him off from the land of the living separating him from the society of mankind Now the curse proceeded upon Christ so far as that Christ was cut off by it Hence are those expressions of the Prophet He was cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people was he smitten or stricken Isa 53.8 So likewise we have the same expression in the Book of Daniel Dan. 9.26 After sixty two weeks shall Messias be cut off but not for himself Christ the true Messias was to be cut off but not for himself that is not for any sin of his own but he was cut off for us because he bare the guilt of our sins To understand this we must know that nothing satisfies the Law but the death of the sinner We know what the sentence was that God pronounced upon our first Parents In the day that thou eatest thou shalt dye the death and this is the general sentence of the Law The soul that sins shall dye and The wages of sin is death Death is part of the curse yea death is as it were the consummation of the curse Death as it is the inlet unto eternal death so it is the consummation of the curse The curse aims at the extermination and utter destruction of the sinner A man that is taken away by a corporal death he is for ever destroyed as to men though his soul survive yet he is taken from amongst men he hath no communion with mankind Death is the destruction of a person as to any fellowship and communion that he is to have with mankind any longer in this world and therefore death is the utmost consummation of punishment amongst men Thus the curse cuts off Christ and Christ dyes as bearing the curse yea the curse is consummated in the death of Christ Christ was accursed even as Adam was It is a good expression of one of the Ancients Christ descended as low as Adam did and so dissolved the curse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ by descending where Adam had brought himself by his Fall dissolves the curse that Adam had brought upon himself and his posterity the curse that was upon Adam brought him to death Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return The curse lying upon Adam subjected him to a state of mortality and brought him under the power of death Christ therefore being made a curse for us the curse subjects him to death and takes away his life Hence is that expression Heb. 2.9 That Christ tasted death for every man Death is the completion of the curse because the death of the body is the inlet to eternal death to those who are still under the power of the curse It is true Christ did not taste the pains of eternal death after his natural life was ended but Christ tasted the pains of supernatural death before the taking away of his natural life as I have shewed heretofore and here we may observe this difference in Christs sufferings and the damned's sufferings The damned suffer the pains of Hell after this life Christ suffered the pains of Hell here in this life corporal death is but the beginning of the damned's punishment but Christ at his death finished his sufferings So that in the order of suffering there is some difference between what Christ suffered and what the damned suffer The damned suffer the pains of Hell after this life Christ suffered them in this life yet Christ underwent death as a part of the curse and death as it is a part of the curse and a fruit of Gods wrath is a terrible thing yea most terrible and yet Christ that he might make satisfaction for us conflicted with this King of Terrors Christ as he was man had a natural fear of death as we have yet without sin and the reason is because Christ taking on him our nature took also upon him the infirmities of our nature Now there may be a natural fear of death without sin nature abhorring that which is contrary to it self and this was in our Saviour Christ being our Surety and seeing death coming upon him as part of the curse and as a part of the punishment due to us for our sins this made him to fear death Hence is that expression Heb. 5.7 He offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save him from death and was heard in what he feared Christ feared death as he was man especially he feared it as he saw it a part of the curse that was due to us and yet though he feared it the thing that he feared came upon him It is true the Apostle saith He was heard in what he feared How was he heard Was Christ heard so as to his fear of death as to be delivered from death No certainly if Christ had not dyed we must have dyed in our sins If Christ had not dyed we must have undergone death as a part of the curse How then is it said He was heard in what he feared He was heard so as that he was supported when he dyed and he was heard in being raised from the dead the third day so that he was heard in what he feared in his supportation under his sufferings and in his Resurrection but dye he must death was part of the curse yea the completion of the curse therefore Christ our Surety cannot escape death Christus sponsor noster communi maledictione nobis debitâ feriendus erat Christ says one being our Surety was to be struck with that common curse that was due to us death was due to us the great thing threatned upon sin therefore Christ being our Surety must of necessity undergo it Hence is that of Austin Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree Why
a command and call him to lay it down and therefore they who are self-murderers and would take away their own lives do violate the Law of their Creation they put that in their own power which God alone hath a power over they take upon them to dispose of their own lives which God alone who is their Creator and Soveraign Lord hath power to dispose of for none but he that gave us our lives hath a power and right to dispose of them But now Christ was God as well as Man and therefore Christ had a right to dispose of his own life I have power saith he to lay it down and I have power to take it again Christ as he was God being the Author Conserver and Maintainer of his own life as he was Man had power to dispose of that life and this was his love to us that he laid down his life for us which he had power to dispose of We come now to the second thing and that is to shew you how it was that Christ laid down his life for us This I shall open to you in several Particulars 1. Christ is said to lay down his life for us in that he was ready to do it He did not refuse to part with his life for us but was most ready to give it up for our sakes Greater love than this hath no man that he lay down his life for his friends that is greater love than this hath no man that he is ready to lay down his life for his friends he is certainly the best friend who is ready to venture and hazard his life for his friend Such a friend was Christ he was ready to offer and give up his life for our sakes As Paul said He counted not his life dear to him so he might finish his course with joy and the ministry which he had received of the Lord Jesus Act. 20.24 And in another place he saith He was ready not to be bound only but also to dye at Jerusalem for the Name of our Lord Jesus Act. 21.13 So this was much more true of Christ he counted not his life dear to him but was ready to offer it up for our sakes I am the good shepherd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the good shepherd giveth his life for his sheep Joh. 10.11 Here is the same Phrase as in the Text. Grotius observes upon the former Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mortem non defugere that the Phrase to lay down a mans life signifies not to decline death not to shun death Christ is the good Shepherd he doth not refuse to dye for the preservation of his sheep It is said of Paul and Barnabas that they were men that had hazarded their lives for the Name of the Lord Jesus Act. 15.25 They had hazarded their lives The words in the Original are They had delivered up their souls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is their lives their lives were not actually taken from them but the meaning is they carried their lives in their hands they were ready to give them up they often put their lives in hazard they were ready to have parted with them so Christ was ready to expose and give up his life for the good of his people This is one thing but the least thing 2. The second Particular for clearing of it is this Christ did freely and of his own accord give up his life and subject himself to death when there was no necessity of nature nor violence from men that could have compelled him thereunto To understand this we must know That all other men besides Christ being found sinners were under a Law of death by reason of sin For by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin Rom. 5.12 And the wages of sin is death Rom. 6. ult But now it was otherwise with Christ Christ being not a Sinner and his Humanity being united to the second Person in Trinity he was exempt from the power of death and all manner of sufferings any further than he in a way of voluntary condescension was pleased to subject himself to death and sufferings This our Saviour plainly declares to us Joh. 10.15 I lay down my life for my sheep and more fully vers 18. No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self The Divinity in Christ could if it had pleased have preserved the humane nature from death and all manner of suffering but saith our Saviour I lay it down of my self when no man could have taken away my life without my permission yet I did freely and of my own accord give up my life It is possible that one man may venture his life and expose himself to death for another but then he that doth so venture his life for another must otherwise first or last have dyed according to the course of Nature But now it was not thus with Christ there was no necessity of Nature compelling Christ to dye but only upon supposition of his own free condescension It is true Christ was born a mortal man subject to suffering and death as we are but that was only his own voluntary submission and condescension Voluntar submissio Calvin For look upon the flesh of Christ as it was personally united to the Word the second Person in Trinity so that flesh of his setting aside the consideration of his own voluntary subjecting of it to death and suffering I say that flesh of his by means of its union with the Word the second Person in Trinity had been immortal and impassible and by reason of that union immortality was due to it but it was for our sakes and the sheeps sake which he dyed for that he made himself passible and mortal I say it was for the sheeps sake that he that was impassible and immortal made himself passible and mortal Hence is that expression of one of the Ancients Impassibilis Deus non dedignatus est esse homo passibilis immortalis mortis legibus subjacere Leo. The impassible God did not disdain to become a passible man and he that was immortal to subject himself to the Laws of death Christ in the time of his death and suffering did so far suspend the virtue of his Divinity as that the glory and virtue of his Divinity did not extend it self so far to his flesh as to keep him from suffering and dying It is true the power of the Divinity supported Christ in dying therefore is it said that By the power of the Eternal Spirit he offered himself without spot to God Heb. 9.14 but it did not hinder him from dying If the glory and virtue of the Divinity had exerted it self fully in Christ it would have kept him from death and all manner of suffering But such was the love of Christ to us that the Divinity in Christ suspended its virtue so far that Christ might be in a capacity to suffer and dye for us And if you
shalt thou return Gen. 3.19 was the Curse pronounced upon man for sin Terra es in terram reverteris Earth thou art and unto earth shalt thou return By this expression Divines both ancient and modern understand a state of mortality that should come upon man by reason of sin Earth thou art and to earth shalt thou return that is thou shalt become mortal Terra es ostendit hominem in deterius commutatum Aug. Austin observes that expression Thou art earth it shews that the whole man was changed for the worse Man that had been immortal had it not been for sin is now become mortal by means of sin there is nothing that men fear more than death The Apostle tells us That men through fear of death are all their life-time subject to bondage Heb. 2. When man by sin was brought into a mortal state he was always in fear and expectation of death A man that is condemned doth not dye presently but he is in a dying condition and he is always in expectation of death and a man that is infected with the plague doth not it may be dye presently but he carries his deaths wound about him so man having sinned he had the matter of death in him he had that in him which would certainly and infallibly bring him unto death man having sinned brought himself into a mortal state therefore the Lord Jesus Christ our Surety that he might deliver us from this part of the Curse put himself into a state of mortality makes himself liable to death Hence is that of the Apostle Phil. 2. He took upon him the form of a servant and became obedient to the death even the death of the cross that is he took our nature and made himself mortal in it Had the Divinity in Christ exerted it self in its full power and strength it could have prevented suffering and death in Christ but it being a part of the Curse that we sâ—â—uld be subject to suffering and death the Divinity did so far suspend it self that Christ might become passible and mortal therefore Christ who was immortal in himself made himself mortal for our sakes In Rom. 8.2 we read of the Law of sin and of death The Law of sin is as Austin observes that whosoever sins shall dye Lex peccati ut quicunque peccârit moriatur August the soul that sins shall dye The Law of death is Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return Therefore man being subjected to a state of mortality by the Curse Christ underwent this Curse for us Heb. 2.14 That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil That through death he might destroy him c. The end why the Son of God assumed our nature was that he might suffer and dye in it he so assumed our nature as that being in our nature he might become passible and mortal in it Ought not Christ to have suffered these things Luk. 24. He that would be our Surety and pay our debt must suffer and dye for us and therefore that Christ might fully discharge our debt he was pleased to put himself into a state of suffering and death Learn from hence Vse 1 in the first place the infinite love of Christ that Christ who was free would become our Surety and bring himself under bonds for us and make himself liable to the Law and to the penalty of it for our sakes yea not only so that Christ who was most free would take upon him the payment of our debt but that he who in some respect was the Creditor and had the debt owing to him should yet in another respect and in a wonderful way of dispensation become the Surety and pay the debt for us Consider Christ as God sin was an offence against him as well as against the other Persons of the Trinity and Christ might have demanded and exacted punishment from men but yet Christ in a wonderful way of dispensation by assuming our nature and bearing the punishment due to us in it would become our Surety and pay the debt that was owing to himself Have we not reason here with the Apostle to cry out O the depth O the heights and depths and lengths and breadths of the love of Christ that when Christ might have demanded satisfaction from us he was pleased to take our nature and make satisfaction for us This shews us the great happiness and the singular priviledge of Believers Vse 2 who have an interest in Christ The priviledge of Believers lies in this That Christ who is their Surety hath undertaken to satisfie and discharge their debt for them Now if the debt of punishment which we owe to Divine Justice be already satisfied if the punishment which we owe to Gods Justice be already undergone Divine Justice can demand no more this consideration may be of unspeakable use and comfort to us when we come to be under agonies and terrors of conscience Those that truly belong to God may sometimes have such thoughts as these are What if I should be put to lye under the wrath of God What if the torments of the Damned should be inflicted upon me Holy Souls themselves have had some sips and tastes of Divine wrath Now that which may be of unspeakable comfort in such a case is this If thou be a true Believer if thou hast closed with Christ by faith thou hast already suffered punishment in Christ thy Head thou hast after a sort satisfied Divine Justice and born the torments of Hell in Christ thy Head Paul said I am crucified with Christ Gal. 2.20 I am crucified together with Christ concrucified When Christ was crucified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we were crucified together with him Christ suffering the punishment in our nature which was due to us it is in Gods account as if we had suffered Hence it is said He was made sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 and we are made the righteousness of God in him Now thou that art a true sincere Believer who lovest Christ and prizest him above all the world if thou hast already suffered the wrath of God and the torments of Hell in Christ thy Head it is to be hoped thou shalt not be put to suffer it in thy own person Who shall condemn saith the Apostle it is Christ that hath dyed Rom. 8.33 If Christ hath dyed thou shalt not dye and if Christ hath been condemned thou shalt not be condemned This shews the unspeakable misery of such who have no interest in Christ Vse 3 and no part in his Satisfaction Their misery appears in this That they are liable to bear the punishment of their own sins As this is the singular priviledge of Believers that they are exempted from punishment because Christ their Head and Surety hath born it for them so this is the unspeakable misery of all Unbelievers of all such as lye out of Christ that they are liable to bear
more sweet and comfortable is that speech of Ambrose My mind or spirit is crucified in Christ Mens mea in Christo crucifixa est Ambr. the meaning of which I take to be That the punishment which was due to my mind or spirit is laid upon Christ and I having suffered that in my mind or spirit in Christ my Head which I deserved to suffer I hope hereby to be set free from that punishment Christ I say suffered in his Soul hence is it said that Christ was smitten of God Isa 53.4 We did esteem him stricken smitten of God and it pleased the Lord to bruise him and to put him to grief vers 10. Christ was stricken of God immediately stricken in his Soul Psal 69.26 They persecute him whom thou hast smitten Mat. 26.31 I will smite the shepherd If Christ was smitten of God how should that be but immediately in his Soul Hence is that of one of the Ancients God saith he was justly angry with us for our sins and Christ interposing himself as the middle person took off the stroke and bare the punishment that hung over us Neither may it seem strange to us that our Saviour should suffer in his Soul for as much as he was pleased to take upon him the guilt of all our sins It is a memorable passage of a late modern Divine The guilt Dickson Therapeut Sacr. saith he of all our sins wickednesses and most hainous offences which from the beginning of the world to the end of it have been committed by any of the Elect all these were imputed to one Christ altogether and all at once and although Christ by taking the guilt of all these sins upon him did not pollute or defile that holy Soul of his yet nevertheless he did burthen his Soul with them by obliging himself to suffer the punishment that was due to the sins of the Elect as if so be those very sins had in some sort been his own sins Now saith he whenas we see the most profligate and impure sinners lyars thieves adulterers and the like when we see these they cannot patiently hear themselves to be called lyars or thieves or adulterers though guilty of such enormous crimes although it is manifest that they are guilty of them neither can they bear the shame and disgrace of their own guilt that yet doth manifestly lye upon them with how great a grief and passion of mind with how great a darkening of that sanctity and glory that was in our Saviour must we suppose that Christ did take upon his shoulders this most noisom dunghil of all our sins than which nothing could be more abhorring from the purity and sanctity of nature 4. Christ suffered death it self for us hence is it said That he tasted death for everyman Heb. 2.9 Nothing less than death could satisfie the Law the sentence of the Law was That the soul that sins shall dye therefore he that will be our surety and bear the punishment due to us must undergo death it self for us Some of the Papists tell us That such was the dignity of Christs person that the least drop of his Blood the least tear the least sigh of his heart would have been sufficient to redeem us But our Divines do well answer To what purpose then were all the rest of Christs sufferings his temptations his grief his reproaches and all that which he underwent both in his life and death If one drop of Christs blood had been sufficient to redeem us then all the rest that Christ suffered must needs be supposed to be superfluous and unnecessary But we must know that notwithstanding the dignity of Christs person the Law requires death In the day that thou eatest thou shalt dye the death therefore Divine Justice demanded the same punishment to be undergone which was threatned by the Law therefore death being threatned by the Law nothing less than death would satisfie Divine Justice The Apostle tells us in the Epistle to the Hebrews That under the Law without shedding of blood there was no remission the sacrifice must be killed and slain before there could be remission of sins Christ therefore being the true Sacrifice for our sins he was to be slain and put to death before remission of sins could be obtained for us It is true there were many advantages that did accrue by the dignity of Christs person some of which are such as these which Divines mention 1. That the death of one should be sufficient for the Redemption of so many If Christs person had not been of that dignity and worth it could not have been supposed that the death and suffering of one person would have sufficed for the Redemption of so many It is well observed by one of the Ancients If Christ had not been God how could he alone have been sufficient to have been a price for our Redemption Therefore there is that advantage which ariseth from the dignity of Christs person that the excellency of his person is such he being an infinite person that he is able to make satisfaction for all 2. The dignity of Christs person made the death of Christ to be meritorious for what may we not suppose that so great a Person who was of equal Majesty and Glory with the Father should not merit at the hand of his Father 3. The dignity of Christs person was available as to this That some circumstances of punishment which were not fit for him to undergo Christ undergoing that which was equivalent might be omitted as one circumstance which Divines mention is this namely That the torments of Hell which were to be suffered and undergone by us in the next life were suffered and undergone by Christ in this life These advantages did accrue from the dignity of Christs person yet notwithstanding this dignity of Christs person he that was to be our Surety was to undergo the substance of that punishment that we were to undergo Now death being the punishment that was to be suffered by the transgressors of the Law as being threatned by the Law Christ being our Surety was to undergo and suffer death for us 5. Christ did not only undergo natural death but he also tasted of supernatural death and so by consequence suffered the pains and torments of Hell for us Christ suffered the whole curse of the Law as to the substance of it Hence is that of the Apostle Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Gal. 3.13 Now the Curse of the Law was In the day that thou eatest thou shalt dye the death or as it may be rendred In dying thou shalt dye that is thou shalt dye doubly thou shalt dye a twofold death thou shalt dye naturally and thou shalt dye spiritually thou shalt dye a natural death in having thy soul separated from thy body and thou shalt dye a spiritual death in having thy soul separated from me Therefore it is well observed by one
of the Ancients I think it is Ambrose's observation Therefore saith he it was said to Adam In dying thou shalt dye or as it is rendred Thou shalt dye the death and not simply Thou shalt dye because the death here spoken of concerns both soul and body Now then as Adam and we in him became subject to a double death one of the body the other of the soul So our Saviour being pleased to be our Surety subjected himself to a double death for our sakes to a natural death and to a supernatural death 1. To a natural death the separation of his humane soul from his body 2. To a supernatural and spiritual death the separation of his soul for a time from the comfort of Gods presence Hence is it that we read that our Saviour did not only suffer death in the Singular number but he underwent deaths in the Plural number as if it were intimated that there was a double death that he suffered Isa 53.9 He made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death in the Hebrew it is in his deaths in the Plural number and this was not without some special Mystery in it as some Learned men conceive yea there is a judicious Divine that saith expresly he is perswaded that both kind of deaths natural and supernatural are intimated by that expression when it is said He made his grave with the rich in his deaths Our Saviour underwent therefore a double death a natural death and a supernatural death That our Saviour suffered the first death a natural death a separation of his humane soul from his body that we do all know and believe Now that he tasted of the second death or supernatural death the separation of his soul from God taken in a right sense that I must speak unto To understand this we must know that the soul may be said to be separated from God two ways 1. By a voluntary aversion from God by sin this was not in our Saviour and could not be in him his will did always firmly and inseparably adhere to God even in the midst of his greatest sufferings It is true this is part of the punishment of sin in us namely that our wills are turned aside from God Adam voluntarily deserting of God this is now part of the punishment that is come upon him that he is now left to himself and thereupon there is an aversion of his will from God and this is that which we call spiritual Death when the will declines and turns from God the chief Good But this kind of death could not be in our Saviour and the reason is because he that was to bear the punishment of all other mens sins must necessarily be supposed to be without all sin himself Christ could not have been a Surety for our sins born the punishment of them if he had not been without all sin himself This aversion of the soul from God as it is the punishment of sin so it is in it self a sin Now Christ so bears the punishment of our sins as that he himself is still without all sin in a way of inhesion Christ hath the guilt of our sins laid upon him by way of imputation but he hath no sin in him by way of inhesion 2. The soul may be said to be separated from God in a way of deprivation namely when the soul is deprived of the comfort of Gods love and presence Now this our Saviour did undergo he was deprived of the comfort of his Fathers love and presence for a time as we shall shew more hereafter Psal 88.14 Lord why castest thou off my soul why hidest thou thy face from me This is spoken in the letter in the person of Heman but Learned men conceive that Christs sufferings are here represented to us under these expressions Lord why hidest thou thy face from me Gods face was hid from Christ for a time that so it might not be hid from us for ever And this was the spiritual death that our Saviour underwent not a death in sin which we are all subject to not any aversion of his will from God but desertion of God in point of comfort to be deserted and forsaken of God as our Saviour was is in some sense the spiritual death of the soul It is a good speech of one of the Ancients That is not death so properly that separates the soul from the body but that is most properly death which separates the soul from God God is life life it self he therefore that is separated from God must needs be dead as the body lives from the soul so the soul ut beatè vivat that it may live happily must live from God Hence are those expressions of Austin The life of the body is the soul but the life of the soul is God the body dyes when the soul recedes from it and the soul dyes when God recedes from it Therefore when our Saviour was so far forsaken and deserted of God for our sakes as to have no sensible taste of his love and favour for a time in this sense he underwent spiritual and supernatural death for us 6. The sixth Particular which follows upon this is That our Saviour tasting of supernatural death for us he did in so doing undergo the very pains of Hell for us Hence are those expressions Psal 116.3 The sorrows of death compassed me the pains of hell got hold of me I found trouble and sorrow So likewise My soul is heavy to the death Mat. 26.38 It is a great expression which we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 2.24 Having loosed the pains of death or the sorrows of death The Greek word properly signifies the sorrows of a travailing woman and what were these sorrows Those which he had in the Garden when he was in his Agony and when he sweat drops of blood and those which he had upon the Cross when he cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me These are called the sorrows or pains of death but indeed they were the sorrows or pains of Hell and therefore the vulgar Latin renders it the pains of hell because in these sorrows our Saviour did not only taste of the sorrows of natural death but he also tasted of the sorrows of supernatural death that is of the pains of Hell Hence is it as Learned men have observed That the sufferings of Christ and those great sorrows that he underwent are set forth in such a variety and multitude of expressions in the Scripture that sometimes they are set forth by the grave by darkness sometimes by the land of oblivion sometimes they are called wounding killing sometimes they are set forth by his being forsaken forsaken of his friends of his kindred yea of God himself sometimes they are called debts afflictions tempests solitude prison cuting off abjection treading under foot all which and many more which the Scripture is full of sets forth those most perfect
consummate and compleat sorrows and pains which our Saviour did suffer and undergo for our sake In Psal 22. which is certainly a Prophecy of Christ and a description of his sufferings we have these sufferings notably set forth in vers 1. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and vers 14. I am poured out like water all my bones are out of joynt my heart is like wax it is melted in the midst of my bowels my strength is dryed up like a potsherd and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws and thou hast brought me into the dust of death He that thinks this is spoken of some ordinary sufferings which are common to other men must needs have a very slender consideration of these things certainly they are more than common ordinary sorrows that drew such expressions from our Saviour in whose person here the Psalmist speaks our Saviour then tasted of supernatural death he did undergo the pains of Hell for us Now that I may unfold a little more particularly and distinctly how it was that Christ suffered the pains and torments of Hell for us I must do it in some particular Propositions and I would speak of this a little for these two ends 1. That we might more fully understand what it was that we deserved by our sins 2. That we might admire the love of Christ so much the more that he should suffer such pains and torments for us that we might be delivered from them 1. Our Saviour suffered the greatest and most inexpressible dolors anxieties and perplexities in his mind for us and yet without sin no sorrows were ever like to his sorrows Hence is that expression Mark 14.33 He began to be sore amazed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to be very heavy or He began to be afraid and grievously troubled The first word properly signifies to be struck with fear or to be astonished with fear our Saviour was as a person astonished this is the proper import of the word This amazement as we express it was such a passion as was stirred up in our Saviour by which from the sudden commotion of all the faculties of his Soul he was as a person astonished all over in a fear astonished at the greatness of the things he had to suffer neither dâ—d this astonishment speak any imperfection of Holiness in the humane nature of our Saviour but only demonstrated the greatness of his sufferings for it is possible that the mind by some sudden and vehement commotion from some terrible object may be so occupied and taken up that there may not be the free exercise of the thoughts for the present and yet this without sin this was the case of our Saviour he was like a person astonished at the greatness of the sufferings that he was to undergo and that he saw coming upon him all the faculties of his Soul were moved and stirred in him at the torrent of Divine wrath that he saw ready to break in upon him 2. The second word used by the Evangelist is He began to be amazed and very heavy This word is well rendred by our Translators very heavy for I find that Phavorinus renders the Substantive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phavorinus sadness of soul He began to be amazed and very sad Now concerning this fear and this grief that our Saviour underwent I shall speak more particularly hereafter but before we proceed to that I shall make some use of what hath been already opened Learn from hence in the first place Vse 1 how great an evil sin is nothing shews more clearly what an evil sin is than those great sorrows and sufferings of our Saviour that God should cast so innocent a person as Christ was in himself meerly because he was our Surety and took upon him the guilt of our sins into such great sorrows and inexpressible dolors both in soul and body this shews what an infinite evil sin is and how much God hates it and what it is that we deserve by it We may slight sin and think it a light and trivial thing but O let us stand by the Cross of Christ a while and see what it was that the Son of God and God suffered in our nature consider what grief what anguish what trouble and perplexity of soul he underwent and then we shall see that God doth not look upon sin as such a slight and trivial thing whatever we may do Would God have exposed his own innocent Son who was so near to him who was so tenderly beloved by him who always pleased him and who never offended him to so much ignominy to so much contempt and shame to so much pain grief and sorrow had he not hated sin infinitely had not his soul been infinitely set against it O when we find our hearts begin to play and dally with sin it is good for us to soak our hearts in the meditation of Christs sufferings to take a turn at the Cross of Christ and behold the Son of God incarnate made a spectacle to men and Angels and bearing the wrath of God to expiate the guilt of our sins Learn from hence what remains still to be suffered by Vnbelievers those dolors those sorrows Vse 2 those torments of soul and body that death which Christ hath not suffered for them remains still to be suffered by them in their own persons for the sentence of the Law must take place therefore unless thou have suffered in a surety thou art liable to suffer in thy own person the sentence of the Law is In dying thou shalt dye dye nuturally and dye spiritually taste of natural and supernatural death therefore unless thou have suffered this in a surety thou art liable to suffer this in thy own person Now all Unbelievers who are guilty either of positive or negative unbelief have no part in Christ or his sufferings 1. They who are guilty of positive unbelief such as reject Christ and will have nothing to do with him as they said We will not have this man to reign over us these have nothing to do with Christ and his sufferings 2. Such as are guilty of negative unbelief such who do not believe on Christ who do not close with him who do not embrace him by a lively faith all such have no part in Christ and in his sufferings therefore it necessarily follows that that which Christ hath not suffered for them remains still to be suffered by them in their own persons Joh. 3. ult He that believeth not on the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him O how should this make every soul of us to tremble lest we should be found out of Christ Canst thou bear the terrour of the first death when the sting of it is not taken away Or canst thou bear the fear of supernatural death to have thy soul separated from God for ever If thou hast not a part in Christ and in his death thou art liable to both
How Christ that was a person always beloved of God could yet bear the sense of his wrath And now I would make a little farther use of what hath been opened as to Christs being made a curse and then I shall proceed to the other Propositions that remain for the clearing the Doctrine of Christs Satisfaction Christ as we have heard hath been made a curse the wrath and displeasure of God hath been poured forth upon him whatever he underwent upon the Cross all that shame and pain all that grief and sorrow which he felt in soul and body was the effect of Gods wrath the punishment due to us for our sins the wrath of God was consummated upon him and he was cut off by the curse he underwent death as part of the curse Let us see what use may be made of this This may serve by way of direction to us Vse 1 to teach us what course to take when we are in distress and agony of conscience under the fear and terror of Gods wrath due to us for sin Who is there among us that some time or other may not lye under the fear of Gods wrath that may not be terrified with the apprehension of Gods wrath due to him for sin Now the proper relief in this case is to consider that Christ was made a curse If Christ hath felt what we fear if he hath suffered and undergone what we deserved what so proper a ground to relieve us as this We fear the wrath of God and Christ hath suffered that wrath This is the case of many of the children of God they do many times lye under dreadful apprehensions of Gods wrath and displeasure David in the trouble and anguish of his soul crys out Cast me not away from thy presence Psal 51.11 And that Saint we mentioned even now in Psal 88.14 Lord why castest thou off my soul Now when we begin to apprehend that God hath cast us off in displeasure when we are under trouble and anguish of soul and apprehend that God is highly incensed and his wrath is waxed hot against us what can give us relief in this case but to consider that Gods wrath was poured out to the utmost upon Christ our Head and Surety that the wrath of God spent it self and had a full vent upon him This therefore is the only course we can take when we are under the fear and apprehension of Gods wrath to lift up Christ in the arms of our faith and to interpose him between us and the wrath of an angry God If his wrath be kindled but a little blessed are all they that put their trust in Christ Psal 2.12 This Doctrine of Christ being made a curse is of marvellous and unspeakable use in the serious exercises of faith when the soul is under sore conflicts from the fear of Gods wrath If thou art burdened with the guilt of sin and the fear of Gods wrath thou mayst go to God and tell him that Christ hath suffered as much as ever thou hast deserved to suffer that there is nothing that he may justly inflict upon thee but it hath already been executed and inflicted upon Christ to the uttermost and will he punish sin twice Will he punish sin in thee and will he punish it in the person of his innocent Son who had no sin of his own but only took upon him their cause that were not able to deliver themselves from wrath From this Doctrine of Christs being made a curse Vse 2 we may learn what the true and proper Antidote is against the fear of death The proper Antidote against the fear of death is this That Christ hath suffered death as part of the curse therefore Christ having undergone death for us as a part of the curse if we be in Christ the curse of death is taken away from us It is true Believers undergo death still but here lyes the comfort to a Believer that death is no longer a curse to him Christ by undergoing death as a part of the curse yea as the completion of the curse hath taken away death as it is a curse Death is now no more a curse unto Believers but a passage unto life It is a sweet Text Hos 13.14 O death I will be thy plague O grave I will be thy destruction Christ by dying hath destroyed and overcome death and Believers are freed from death as a curse therefore is it that our Saviour saith He that believes on him shall never dye Joh. 11.26 What better news to any of the sons and daughters of men than to tell them they shall never dye Our Saviour assures us of this He that believes on him shall never dye Joh. 11.26 O but do not Believers dye as well as other men Object Yes they do Answ but they do not dye under the curse they dye not as malefactors as condemned persons 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Athanas Death is now as no death to a Believer it is only a passage unto eternal life a Believers true life is not interrupted by death Joh. 10.28 I give to them eternal life and they shall never perish If death did interrupt or take away a Believers true life then there might be a time when he might be said to perish but our Saviour speaks it with the strongest asseveration and with the greatest solemnity They shall never perish I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish therefore there is such a life given to a Believer by Christ that shall never perish though this natural life be taken away from him yet that which is the true life eternal life shall never be taken from him his natural life may be taken from him but instead of it he shall have eternal life I give unto them eternal life I proceed now to some other Propositions for the clearing the Doctrine of Christs Satisfaction The next Proposition therefore is this The eleventh Proposition God hath charged upon Christ the guilt and punishment of the sins of his people There is an act of God in this Christ did not only suffer such things as we have heard but he hath suffered them from the hand of God laying these things upon him as our Mediator and Surety Hence is it said That God hath made him to be sin for us 2 Cor. 5.21 God hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all Isa 53.6 God hath laid upon him there is the act of God the act of Divine Justice put forth in laying upon Christ all the punishment that he underwent Hence are those expressions that are so frequent in Scripture that Christ was made sin made under the Law that he was made a curse that he was made of God to us Redemption all which expressions plainly shew that there was an act of God put forth whereby Christ is made or appointed of God to be our Surety and that God did exact that debt of obedience and punishment from Christ which we should have
the desert of our own sins is in the sufferings of Christ Whatever Christ suffered was nothing but the desert of our sins it was that which we deserved should have been laid upon us Therefore when we come to make use of the sufferings of Christ his soul-sufferings or his bodily sufferings when we consider his soul-sufferings viz. his dereliction or his being forsaken of God the sense of Gods wrath that he underwent in his soul when we consider the pain grief torment and death that he suffered in his body we ought to consider with our selves that these were the very things we deserved we were the persons that deserved to be forsaken of God to have the face of God hid from us we were they that deserved to feel the wrath of God to be made the butt of Gods wrath and displeasure we deserved that pain anguish and death it self and all as part of the Curse for Christ suffered all these things for us and was made a Curse for us So that in the sufferings of Christ as in a glass or mirroir we may see what we deserved there was nothing Christ suffered but we deserved it and our hearts ought to be deeply soakt in these considerations as ever we desire to take in the benefit of Christs satisfaction He that doth not see himself worthy to be cast off nay I may say he that doth not see himself worthy to be cut off by the wrath of an angry God for his sins will never prize the satisfaction of Christ as he ought to do Christ in the work of his satisfaction trod the wine-press of Divine wrath therefore it becomes us to be sensible deeply sensible of our desert and worthiness of his wrath as ever we desire to have benefit by Christs satisfaction Our Saviour in the sixth of John doth at several times promise to us eternal life upon eating his flesh and drinking his blood vers 54. He that eats my flesh and drinks my blood shall have eternal life Now it is a good observation of one If thou wouldst eat the flesh of Christ and drink his blood so as to have eternal life by him do thou first taste death be sensible of what thou deservest by reason of sin be sensible of the spiritual death thou art subject to namely separation from God obnoxiousness to his wrath which is the death of the soul when once thou art sensible of spiritual death what it is to be separated from God what it is to lye under his wrath then thou wilt come with spiritual hunger and thirst to the sufferings of Christ to obtain life from him The second Direction is If we would make use of the Sufferings and Satisfaction of Christ so as to draw home the benefit of it to our selves let us direct the eye of our faith unto our natures suffering in Christ It was our nature that sinned and it is in our nature that satisfaction must be made and this is the great relief unto faith to see satisfaction made in the nature of man as sin was committed in the nature of man Consider what the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 15.21 Since by man came death by man also came the resurrection from the dead The Apostle plainly intimates that this is the singular happiness and comfort of Believers that as happiness was lost at first in and by our nature so happiness is now recovered and restored in and by our nature It was the nature of man that sinned in the first Adam and it is the nature of man that hath obeyed and satisfied in Christ the second Adam It was the nature of man that was deprived of happiness and lost communion with God and was subject to death in the first Adam and it was the nature of man that was restored to happiness that was admitted unto communion with God that was raised from the dead in Christ the second Adam Therefore is it that in Rom. 5.19 we read of two men Adam and Christ As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners By one mans disobedience here is Adam the first man Now read the fifteenth verse of the same Chapter If through the offence of one many be dead much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ hath abounded unto many Here we have another man the second man from Heaven as he is called 1 Cor. 15.47 also The man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 Now the scope of the Apostle is to shew that as disobedience was acted in the nature of man by Adam the first man so obedience was performed in the nature of man by Christ who was the second man from Heaven This is a great quiet and relief to faith to find that in our nature that is adequate and commensurate to the Law Christ having satisfied the Law in our nature for us it is in Gods account as if we had satisfied it Consider that expression Rom. 8.4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us Some Learned men interpret that phrase in us that is in our nature Christ having fulfilled the Law for us in a part of our nature it is in Gods account as if so be we had fulfilled it This is more fully explained to us by the Author to the Hebrews Heb 2.11 c. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren Christ is here spoken of as the Head of all the Elect. Now he is the person that sanctifieth He that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified Christ is the person sanctifying all the Elect are sanctified in him Now to sanctifie another is to make him holy and to present him holy unto God Christ doth thus sanctifie the Elect he makes them holy and presents them holy to God first in his own person and that he may do this that he may be in a capacity to do it he must participate of one and the same common nature with them whom he doth so sanctifie therefore is it that the Apostle says He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are of one the meaning is they are of one and the same common nature the person sanctifying and the persons sanctified are of one and the same common nature the head is true man and the members are true men This the Apostle doth farther amplifie at vers 14. For as much then as the children were made partakers of flesh and blood he also himself took part of the same Christ being the Head of the Elect and it being his office to redeem them he must come into their nature and do and suffer that in their nature which they ought to have done and suffered they were made subject to death therefore Christ tasted death for them as we have it vers 9. Christ taking upon him the same nature with his brethren did punctually fulfil for them in their nature whatever was expected from
acceptance through the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ After we have betaken our selves to the Satisfaction of Christ and made use of it in a due manner we ought to hope for pardon and acceptance in the virtue of it To take hold of pardon before we have betaken our selves to the remedy and before we have made use of the means which God hath appointed for obtaining pardon this were presumption therefore for any person to run away with this doctrine Christ hath made full satisfaction to the Justice of God for the sins of men Christ hath suffered as much as we deserve therefore we need not trouble our selves our sins shall never condemn us this is but presumption for any man to reason after this manner until there be a serious application of the soul by faith to the Satisfaction of Christ for the pardon of sin For although there be an infinite treasure of merit and virtue in the death and sufferings of Christ to all that come to him yet this treasure and store house of merit that is in the death and satisfaction of Christ is opened unto none but unto such who by humble faith apply themselves to Christ for the virtue of his death Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled Mat. 5.6 There must be then hungering and thirsting after Christs righteousness before we shall be satisfied and there must be faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 Him hath God ordained to be a propitiation through faith in his blood therefore it is but presumption for any man to say Christ hath dyed and satisfied Gods Justice therefore my sins shall never condemn me without any more ado without troubling himself with any more than saying so for what is presumption Presumption is to expect the end without using the means Though there be an alsufficiency in the sufferings and satisfaction of Christ to save as many as come to him yet the satisfaction and sufferings of Christ are available and effectual to none but to such as by humble saith do apply themselves to him He is able to save to the utmost all that come to God by him Heb. 7.25 There must be a coming then otherwise there is no salvation to be expected We must first see the necessity of the Mediation and Satiffaction of Christ and in an humble manner address our selves to God by faith before we can expect benefit by his satisfaction therefore unless thou have seen thy perishing condition without Christ unless thou art sensible of the infinite need of his satisfaction to make thy peace with God and dost in an humble manner with holy desire apply thy self to Christ for the virtue and benefit of his satisfaction thou canst expect no benefit by him It is the hungring thirsting humble soul which seeth his perishing condition without the satisfaction of Christ and thereupon applies himself to it that only can expect benefit by it But now on the other hand after a person in due manner hath applied himself to the satisfaction of Christ and made use of it by faith as the remedy which God hath appointed it is so far from being presumption in such a person to lay hold of pardon as that it is his duty to take hold of pardon and acceptance and with humble confidence to expect it There is an express Text for this Heb. 10.22 Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith The Apostle is here speaking of the Priesthood of Christ and of the use we should make of his eternal Sacrifice Now saith he having pitcht our faith upon Christ as our Priest and upon the merit and virtue of his Sacrifice Let us draw near in full assurance of faith or with full certainty of faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the meaning is having made use of Christ as our Priest having pitcht our faith upon his Sacrifice let us not doubt of pardon and acceptance let us bear up our selves with a full confidence upon the merit of Christs Satisfaction This full assurance of faith is says a Judicious Divine a setled and full perswasion to be accepted through Jesus Christ When we have laid the stress of our faith upon the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ we ought to bear up our selves with an humble confidence that we shall be pardoned and accepted upon the account of the virtue and merit of Christs Satisfaction and not to do this not to have a humble confidence of pardon and acceptance after we have applied our selves to the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ would be greatly derogatory to the honour of Christs Satisfaction and also derogatory to the honour of many of Gods Attributes 1. If we might not have an humble confidence of pardon and acceptance through the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ after we have applied our selves to it this would be greatly derogatory to the honour of Christs Satisfaction Heb. 9.13 14. For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifieth to the purifying of the flosh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead work to serve the living God That which the Apostle asserts here is That the blood of Christ is able to purge tho conscience from dead works so as to serve the living God To perge the conscience from dead works is to purge the conscience from the guilt of sin to clear the conscience to absolve the guilt of sin in the eye of conscience so that the conscience shall have no more fear of guilt Now consider the Apostles argument If the blood of bulls and goats and the like were able to cleanse as to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God The force of the Apostles argument comes to this If the Levitical Rites if those Purifications that were used under the Law were sufficient to cleanse a person after a legal manner much more is the blood of Christ which is the blood of that person who is God as well as man be able to cleanse their conscience who do apply themselves by saith to him The Apostle argues thus They that lived under the Law had some purifying and cleansing yea some help as to their consciences by the Sacrifices that were then offered therefore much more they that apply themselves to the blood of Christ shall have benefit by virtue of his Sacrifice which was the true Sacrifice Under the Law when a person had committed a sin and brought his Offering to the Priest and had laid his hand on the head of the Sacrifice and when the beast that was brought to be sacrificed was slain and the blood was put upon the Altar there was atonement made for him and he might
God by a strict life they renounce the world spend their time in retirement abridge themselves of their delights and pleasures and live by such and such rules These and many more ways have men invented to satisfie God withal But it is a true speech of a moderate Papist Whatsoever was not God Quicquid Deus non est non potuerit sufficere was not sufficient to satisfie God All those ways that have been devised by men are too short to make satisfaction to the great God and if we summon our selves to God Tribunal and think with our selves how just and holy he is we shall soon apprehend his Justice will not be put off with such poor things as men bring to him to satisfie him withal nothing less than God can satisfie God The satisfaction of Christ is the satisfaction of that person who is God as well as man otherwise it had not been available and herein did the excellency of Christs Satisfaction appear that it was abundantly sufficient The dignity and excellency of Christs Satisfaction may yet farther appear from these considerations 1. That Christs Satisfaction was once made and but once the Sacrifice was but one and the Satisfaction made by it but one The Sacrifices under the Law were many The Sacrifices offered by the Heathen were many but Christs Sacrifice was but one and offered once for all Heb. 10.14 By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified 1 Pet. 3.18 Christ also hath once suffered for sin the just for the unjust Heb. 10.10 By the which will we are sanctified through the offering up the body of Christ once for all once only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Greek word hath a great force in it as Learned men observe It signifies that what was once done was so perfect and compleat that it was not necessary it should be done again nay that it was impious to repeat it Christs one Sacrifice comprehended the virtue of all other Sacrifices in it All the Sacrifices that were offered by men in all Ages both by Jews and Gentiles were a plain intimation that there was some Sacrifice by which God must be pacified and that men had an apprehension that God could be pacified no other way Now Christs Sacrifice was the true Sacrifice that which the world aimed at but could never attain was attained only by the Sacrifice of Christ that which the world would fain have been at and attained was to pacifie God now this could never be accomplished any other way but by the Sacrifice of the Son of God Christs Sacrifice was but one and yet by that one Sacrifice he hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified 2. The Satisfaction of Christ was perfect and compleat there was nothing wanting in it of what was necessary to make it compleat 1. The person who offers it was most holy and without sin Such an high Priest became us who was holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners Heb. 7.26 The Priests under the Law were to offer Sacrifices first for their own sins then for the sins of the people but Christ needed none of this for Christ had no sin therefore he that was without all sin in himself was most fit to make atonement for the sins of others 2. As the person himself that offered the Sacrifice was most perfect and compleat so the Sacrifice it self was most perfect and compleat and that appears by the effect of it Heb. 10.14 By one offering hath he perfected for ever them that are sanctified If the Offering and Sacrifice of Christ had not been most perfect in it self it could never have perfected others For this is a sure rule That the effect cannot rise higher than the cause therefore if Christs Offering had not been perfect in it self it could not have perfected others But now saith the Apostle he hath perfected and for ever perfected them that are sanctified that is Christ by his Sacrifice hath perfectly reconciled us to God There need be no more done to reconcile a person to God than what Christ hath done Now if the Sacrifice and Satisfaction of Christ hath that virtue and efficacy in it as to bring us into perfect reconciliation with God so as that there is no danger of losing it nor falling from it then it is a perfect and compleat satisfaction This shews us the dignity and excellency of Christs Satisfaction therefore we ought to have an high esteem of it and be so much the more incouraged to make use of it The end of the fourteenth Sermon SERMON XV. Joh. 15 1◠Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends TO proceed a little farther to shew the dignity of Christs Satisfaction 3. Consid 3 The Satisfaction of Christ was adequate and commensurate to what the Law and Divine Justice did require All that the Law could require was the death of the sinner In the day that thou eatest thou shalt dye the death thou shalt undergo a double death death natural and death supernatural Now Christ in the work of his Satisfaction hath undergone both these deaths he hath undergone natural death and supernatural death All that Divine Justice could require was that the sinner should undergo the utmost punishment that the nature of man was capable of now the sufferings of Christ were consummate sufferings in the highest measure and degree whatever the humane nature supported by the Deity could suffer that our Saviour did undergo therefore his satisfaction was adequate and commensurate to the Law and Divine Justice 4. We may see the dignity and excellency of Christs Satisfaction in this That the Satisfaction of Christ in some respect was more than sufficient Christ in respect of some circumstances attending his satisfaction hath paid and given more than the Law required for it is well observed by a Learned man The Law did not require that God should dye the Law required that man sinning man should dye but now the person dying and satisfying for us was God as well as man God hath redeemed the Church with his own blood Act. 20.28 Neither 1 did the Law require that any person should dye but for his own proper sin The language of the Law is The soul that sins shall dye Now every soul was to bear his own iniquity Neither 2 did the Law require such a death that should be of so great efficacy that it should not be only able to abolish death but also be able to introduce life and that a life far more excellent than that terrene and earthly life which Adam lost In these respects the Satisfaction of Christ was more than sufficient and therefore one of the Ancients hath this expression Christ hath paid for us much more than we owed and so much the more was that which Christ paid by how much the vast and immense Ocean excels the least drop Let us learn then to have high thoughts of the dignity and excellency
death of Christ is a certain Sacrament or pledge which certifies us that our death is nothing at all For if death hath executed all its power and strength upon Christ if death hath poured out all its venom and malignity upon Christ then there is nothing that remains in death to hurt us Death had nothing at all to do with Christ but only as he put himself under the power of death for our sakes Now the Son of God who was above death freely subjecting himself to death for our sakes and death having done all that it could against Christ it hath nothing more to do against a poor Believer It is true Believers dye still but yet their death is not part of the Curse the death of the Saints is only a passage unto life and it is that which prepares the way for a more blessed Resurrection Whatever was truly formidable or terrible in death is taken away by the death of Christ That which was most formidable in death was this that it was a part of the Curse that it was the effect of Divine wrath Now Christ having suffered the whole of Gods wrath for us death is not inflicted upon Believers as the effect of Gods wrath nay it is so far from being sent to a Believer in wrath that it is sent in mercy to him and death is an introduction unto a Believers happiness All things are yours things present things to come life is yours and death is yours 1 Cor. 3.21 22. Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord Rev. 14. Death is an introduction to the Saints unto their perfect and compleat happiness the Saints happiness is inchoate and begun in this life when they are first brought into the Kingdom of Grace and their happiness is compleat and consummate in the next life when they are by death ushered into the Kingdom of Glory Consid 11 The love of Christ in his sufferings appears in this That he came into our nature and became man on purpose that he might suffer for us One of the principal ends of the Incarnation of the Son of God was that he might suffer and dye for men This is intimated by the Apostle Heb. 2.14 For as much as the children are made partakers of flesh and blood he also himself took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil It is as much as if he had said Had he not partaken of our nature he could not have suffered for us as he was the Son of God and possessed of the Divine nature so he was not capable of suffering but therefore did he take on him our nature and became the Son of man that he might be in a capacity to suffer for men O what overcoming love was this that the Son of God did therefore take upon him our nature that he might be in a capacity to suffer for men had he always abode in the form of God only it had not been possible for him to suffer but therefore would he take upon him part of our passible and mortal flesh that so he might be in a capacity to suffer and dye for us Consid 12 The love of Christ in his suffering may be seen in this Because so great benefits accrue and come to us by the sufferings of Christ Christ by the merit of his sufferings hath purchased and procured the greatest blessings for us To instance in a few briefly 1. Christ by his sufferings hath purchased for us the forgiveness of sins Eph. 1.14 In whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins 2. Christ by his sufferings hath purchased for us peace and reconciliation with God Eph. 2.16 That he might reconcile us to God by the cross Col. 1.21 You that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death 3. Eternal life it self is the purchase of Christs sufferings Rom. 6. ult The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord that is through the merit of Jesus Christ our Lord so that eternal life is the merit of Christs death We have another clear Text to confirm this Heb. 9.15 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 are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance The eternal inheritance the inheritance which all the Elect are brought unto in Heaven is purchased by the death of Christ for so the Apostle expresseth it That by means of death those that are called might have the promise of eternal inheritance Hence is it that Heaven is called a purchased possession Eph. 1.14 Vntil the redemption of the purchased possession the Glory of Heaven is called a purchased possession Now in every purchase there must be a price there can be no purchase without a price the price therefore that was laid down for us that we might obtain eternal life was the price of Christs blood the death of Christ as appears from the former Scriptures 4. The Spirit of God and all that grace whereby we are inabled to believe and obey and in general whatever blessings are comprehended in the Covenant of Grace these are all the purchase of the death of Christ This is apparent from those words of our Saviour in the institution of the Supper This cup is the new Testament in my blood as much as if he should say All the mercies all the blessings of the new Covenant are the purchase of my blood and the Covenant it self is ratified and confirmed by my blood Now in the Covenant of Grace there are many great things promised in it the Lord promiseth to forgive the sins of his people he promiseth that he will put his Law in their minds and write it in their hearts he promiseth that he will give his Spirit to them and the like all these blessings are purchased and procured by the death of Christ great therefore must the love of Christ be in giving himself to suffer and dye for his people since by the death of Christ such great and admirable priviledges are purchased for them The Covenant of Grace is the greatest Charter of all our spiritual Priviledges whatever Priviledges belong to a Believer they are contained within the compass of the Covenant Now the Covenant it self is founded in the blood of the Mediator of the Covenant How precious then is that blood that purchased such great things for us And how great was the love of Christ that shed his blood to obtain such things for us Vse If the love of Christ be so great in his sufferings let us be exhorted from hence to meditate much on the sufferings of Christ O it were well for us if we could take many a turn at the Cross of Christ and
shall open that in several particulars 1. In that the Son of God came into a nature so inferiour to his own What comparison is there between God and the creature That the eternal God should joyn himself so nearly to the nature of his own creature this is admirable This was that made Bernard say When I consider the person of him who comes Dignationis magnitudinem expavesco I cannot comprehend the excellency of his Majesty when I consider to whom he comes I tremble at the greatness of his condescension To whom was it that this great person came He came to us poor men who dwell in houses of clay And will God indeed dwell with men Yea he dwells with man The Word was made flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and dwelt among us Joh. 1.14 He pitched his Tent and Tabernacle in a part of our nature he did not only converse familiarly and was seen among men but he pitched his Tent and Tabernacle in a part of our nature Without controversie great is the mystery of godliness God manifested in the flesh God was in that very flesh which the Son of God assumed God was in that flesh that was once seen here on earth and was afterwards given as a Sacrifice for the life of the world yea so in it as to dwell personally in it Therefore doth the Son of God call the flesh he assumed his own flesh Joh. 6.53 Now consider it what a disproportion is there between God and our flesh Yet the eternal Word is made flesh he who was with God in the beginning and who was God this very Word is made flesh Joh. 1.14 It is a notable expression one useth to illustrate this Although it was not suitable to humane flesh according to the condition of its own nature to be united to God in the unity of person yet this was becoming God in the infinite excellency of his own goodness It was nothing but infinite goodness could move God to condescend so low as to take a part of our flesh and cloath himself with it 2. The condescension of Christ in his Incarnation appears in this in that the Son of God took a part of our nature after humane nature had been infected and when the whole mass of humane nature lay infected with original sin Let none mistake here that part of humane nature which was united to the person of the Son of God had no taint or pollution of sin in it but thus we ought to conceive of it The mass of humane nature out of which this part or particle of humane nature was taken was infected with original sin and in the same moment that the Word the second person in Trinity joyned himself to our nature that part or parcel of humane nature that was joyned to his person was sanctified by the Holy Ghost so that in the same moment or instant the union was made that part of humane nature which was assumed was sanctified by the Holy Ghost neither was it sanctified before assumed nor assumed before sanctified but both were done in the same instant as soon as there was flesh so soon was it the flesh of the Word We must not suppose any instant of time when that part of humane nature that was joyned to the Son of God should have a subsistence of its own before it was united to his person no but at the same time it was flesh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the same time it was the flesh of the Word but this is that which commends the love of Christ and his great condescension that he should take part of our nature when the whole mass of it lay under the contagion of original sin God who was Purity and Holiness it self might justly have loathed and abhorred such impurity as ours he might justly have disdained to have sought out a habitation for himself among such polluted creatures None of the children of Adam was exempt and free from the contagion of original sin no not the Virgin her self who was the Mother of our Lord now that God should seek out and prepare for himself a habitation out of such an impure sink as our nature was by reason of sin this is that which greatly commends the love and condescension of the Son of God 3. The greatness of Christs love in his Incarnation with respect to his condescension appears in this in that he took our nature together with its infirmities He was in all things made like to us sin only excepted The Son of God did not only take flesh but he took passible mortal flesh such a nature as was subject to suffering and death this was a great commendation of his love For we must know the Divinity inhabiting in Christs humane nature could have prevented all suffering and death the Godhead which was personally united to the humane nature could have made the humane nature impassible and above suffering Therefore it is observed by a Learned man It was by the good pleasure of the Divine will Beneplacito Divinae voluntatis permittebatur carni pati operari quae propria that it was permitted to the humanity to do and suffer the things which were proper to it self The great end why the Son of God assumed our nature was that he might satisfie for the sins of men Now one is then said to satisfie for the offence of another when he takes upon himself the punishment that is due for such offences now suffering and death was the punishment due for sin By one man sin entred into the world and death by sin Rom. 5. Therefore the Son of God out of his great love to us was not only willing to take our nature but also the infirmities of our nature Isa 53.4 He hath born our griefs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and carried our sorrows That which was not assumed was not healed if Christ had not born our infirmities our infirmities had not been healed 4. The greatness of Christs condescension in his Incarnation appears in this in that he suffered the glory of his Divinity to be hid and veiled for a time in our nature after he had assumed it This is that which the Scripture calls his emptying himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 2.7 We read it He made himself of no reputation in the Original it is He emptied himself How did Christ empty himself The former words compared with those that follow do acquaint us He was in the form of God Now that he that was in the form of God should take upon him the form of a servant should be made in the likeness of men and was found in fashion as a man there was his emptying himself He might always have continued in the form of God only without taking to himself the form of a servant or if he will take the form of a servant he might presently and immediately shew forth the glory of his Divinity in that humane nature which he
standing in such near relation to Christ as to be his body a part of himself this is the reason that Christ hath preserved it and will preserve it to the end of the world Mat. 18. I will build my Church See here he calls it his Church he challengeth a peculiar interest in it Feed the Church of God which he hath redeemed with his own blood Act. 20.28 Therefore the Church standing so nearly related to Christ no wonder Christ takes such care of it Learn from hence to whom to attribute all the deliverances of the Church it is our faithful omnipotent sympathizing compassionate Head that hath been the Author of all the preservations and deliverances we have seen and upon him we must depend for the time to come Lastly Vse 5 This may serve as a ground to confirm our faith touching the certian glorification of the Saints A part of our nature is already in the Head of the Church Christ man who is the Head of the Church is exalted to the highest state of glory God hath highly exalted him c. Phil. 2.9 Now though it be true Christ must be allowed his preheminence the head hath a preheminence above the members yet the members shall follow the head they shall have their measure of glory though not the same degree of glory In Heb. 6. ult we read how Christ is entred into heaven as our fore-runner If Christ be in Heaven the Saints who are members of his body shall certainly follow after It is the last passage in that last prayer of our Saviour That the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them and I in them Joh. 17. ult It is the inestimable priviledge of the Saints saith Calvin upon this Text that Christ was beloved of the Father for our sakes that we might be partakers of the same love If the Father hath glorified Christ he will certainly glorifie us if we be his members Only we must consider what is spoken in the last clause of all and I in them As we expect to be comprehended in that love with which our Head is embraced we must be sure to be in him We must see that we be in Christ and Christ in us we must have true and real union with him and if we be thus united to him then the love wherewith the Father hath loved him shall be communicated to us therefore let us endeavour to make sure of our Union with Christ and in-being in him and then as the Father hath commended his love to him the Head of the Church in glorifying him he will also commend his love to us in glorifying us in like manner The end of the fifth Sermon SERMON VI. Eph. 3. vers 17 18 19. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by saith that ye being rooted and grounded in love May be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge 7. THE seventh Particular to demonstrate the greatness of the Love of Christ in the work of his Incarnation is this The love of Christ in his Incarnation appears in this In that by means of the Incarnation of the Son of God our nature as it is in the Head of the Church is restored to its ancient purity integrity and perfection It is a good observation of one of the Ancients Filius Dei naturam nostram sibi conjunxit ut eam in se primò per seipsum ad pristinam pulchritudinem restitueret Cyril The Son of God hath joyned our nature to himself that first of all he might repair our nature in himself and by himself restore our nature to its ancient beauty To understand this we must know that Adam had lost original Righteousness infected and corrupted mans nature with the contagion and taint of Original sin Now the Son of God by his Incarnation hath repaired our nature and restored it to its primitive beauty and perfection The first Adam by his Fall left our nature under the contagion of Original sin the Son of God in his Incarnation took up our nature without sin and as the second Adam represents our nature in himself pure and spotless Such an High-Priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners Heb. 9.26 So that this is the singular priviledge of Believers although they be poor sinful creatures in themselves groaning under the body of sin and death yet they have this to glory in that their Head the Lord Jesus is without sin and presents their nature pure and spotless before the Throne of God In him is no sin 1 Joh. 3.5 He doth not say In him was no sin that is true indeed for in him was no sin neither was there any guile found in his mouth But the Apostle saith here In him is no sin It is as much as if he should say As Christ was without sin here on Earth so he is without sin in Heaven he presents our nature pure and spotless before the Throne of God This is the singular priviledge of Believers that they may glory in Christ their Head when they have nothing to glory in of their own Hence is it that which the Apostle faith We glory in Christ Jesus or we boast in Christ Jesus c. Phil. 3.3 as much as to say We do not boast in our selves we do not glory in our own righteousness but we glory in the Righteousness of Christ we glory and boast in this that we have that righteousness and perfection in our Head which we have not in our selves 8. The love of Christ in his Incarnation appears in this In that by means of the Incarnation of the Son of God there is a foundation laid for our acceptance with God This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Mat. 3. ult This is spoken of the Son incarnate after he was made man God the Father delights in the Son when incarnate To understand this we must know as he was the eternal Son the express image of the Fathers person proceeding from the Father by eternal Generation so he was eternally his delight This is clear from Prov. 8.30 I was daily his delight Now that which we are farther to consider is As the Father delights in the Son as his eternal Son so he delights in the Son when incarnate when made man he delights in the Son when cloathed with our nature the eternal Son being the object of his Fathers delight and complacency and the Son taking our nature into personal Union with himself the love delight and complacency of the Father redounds and overflows if I may so express it unto the humane nature assumed Joh. 3.35 The Father loveth the Son And how doth he love him Not only as the Son simply considered but he loves him as the Son incarnate he loves him as the Son come into our nature he loves him as he is Mediator To open this a little
us to him that he might be a fit Mediator takes upon him the nature of man that so being God and man in one person and having interest in both parties he might bring God and man together Hence is it that the Mediator hath this appellation of Christ given to him Luk. 2.17 Vnto you is born this day a Saviour which is Christ the Lord. Christ you know signifies the anointed Under the Old Testament Kings Priests and Prophets were wont to be anointed Now Christ being to undertake the office of Mediator in general and those three Offices in particular of Prophet Priest and King he also is anointed Christs Vnction or Anointing properly belongs to his humane nature Act. 10.38 God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost For although it be true that Christ is the name of the person subsisting in both natures and the name of Christ doth not only agree to Christ as he is man but as he is God manifested in the flesh yet Christs anointing properly respects his humane nature As God he needed not any anointing for he had all fulness in himself therefore he was properly anointed as man If it be asked what this anointing of Christ was I answer It is that plenitude and fulness of the gifts of the Holy Ghost yea the fulness of the Godhead which dwells personally in the humane nature assumed whereby he is qualified to perform the office of Mediator Christ being to undertake the Office of Mediator hath his humanity filled with all habitual grace and also the presence of the Divinity inhabiting personally in his humane nature So that Christs assumption of our nature anointing it with the Spirit of all grace lays the foundation for the great work of his Mediatorship It is well observed by a Judicious Divine That we may more firmly believe Chemnitius that the benefit of Redemption doth belong to us therefore did the Son of God assume a nature that was of the same substance with ours and near akin with us by which in the virtue of the Divinity he might accomplish our Redemption that as by humane nature in Adam sin and death entred into the world so by the same nature in Christ righteousness and life might be restored to the world 2. As the Incarnation of Christ lays the foundation and prepares the way to the work of Mediatorship in general so by the Incarnation Christ is fitted and prepared as it were to enter upon the execution of those three great Offices of his the Office of a Prophet Priest and King 1. The Lord Jesus assuming mans nature performs the office of a Prophet to the Church in the humane nature assumed The great work of the Prophets of old was to be the Messengers of God to the people the Interpreters of Gods mind and will they were to reveal Gods mind and will to the people The Lord Jesus undertaking our nature is the great Messenger of the Covenant the Interpreter of the Fathers counsels he hath revealed the whole will and mind of the Father to us Heb. 1.2 God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son Joh. 15.15 All things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you Should God speak to us immediately from Heaven we should be affrighted at his presence and terrified with his Majesty as they were when they heard God speaking to them from Mount Sinai and said Let not God speak to us but let Moses speak to us Exod. 20.19 Therefore hath the Son of God assumed our nature and appeared visibly in flesh and conversed among men like one of us that we might receive the Law at his mouth The humanity of Christ is the Organ of the Divinity And this is one great commendation of the office of the Ministry as Peter Martyr hath observed That the Son of God who was God over all blessed for ever was pleased to take up humane nature that he might perform the office of a Minister in it Therefore is Christ called Rom. 15.8 A Minister of the Circumcision that is to the Jewish Church There is some Controversie among Divines concerning the knowledge that was in the humane soul of Jesus Christ but this is certain Christ as man had all things made known to him that did concern our salvation now whatsoever the Lord Jesus as man received from the Father that as the great Prophet of the Church he hath faithfully revealed to his people Joh. 17.8 I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me Christ as man receives all from the Father and he gives out all to the Church Thus his Incarnation prepares him for the execution of his Prophetical Office 2. The Son of God by assuming mans nature is prepared for the execution of his Priestly Office Two great works were incumbent on the Priests under the Law 1. To offer Sacrifices and make atonement for the people 2. To intercede and pray for the people 1. One Office of the Priest was to offer Sacrifice and make atonement So Heb. 8.3 Every High-Priest is ordained to offer gifts and sacrifices 2. Another office of the Priest was to pray for the people Therefore saith Samuel God forbid that I should cease to pray for you Now the Son of God by assuming our nature is qualified to perform both these works of a Priest 1. Christ by his Incarnation is fitted to offer Sacrifice God took no delight in the Sacrifices of beasts and cattle Sacrifices and burnt-offerings thou wouldst not therefore did the Son of God take a true humane body and offered himself for a Sacrifice Heb. 9.26 Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself Christ is Priest Altar and Sacrifice Christ is the Sacrifice that is offered so vers 28. Christ was offered to bear the sin of many Christ is the name of the person subsisting in both natures so that there is a concourse of both natures the Divine and humane nature in the work of Satisfaction The humane nature was the nature suffering and the Divine nature that sanctified the sufferings of the humanity The Divinity was in the humanity in the time of its offering that body which hung upon the Cross which suffered and dyed was the body of him who was God it was filled and replenished with God the Godhead did personally inhabit in it in the time of its suffering Although the Godhead did not put forth its operation as it might have done but did rest and suspend its operations for a time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it might give liberty to the humane nature to suffer for if the Godhead should have put forth its operation as it might it could have hindred all passion and suffering in the humane nature yet the personal union always remained the Son of God did always retain and keep the humane nature in the bond of personal union in the height of his sufferings and he
my God why hast thou forsaken me He was deprived of the sense and comfort of his Fathers love Secondly Christ suffered natural death his humane soul was truly separated from his body Now Christ having satisfied that Law In the day that thou eatest thou shalt dye the death by suffering the penalty of that Law hath fully delivered his people from the curse Gal. 3.13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us A Learned man observes Because according to the sentence of the Divine Judgment in that day Adam fell and sinned humane nature ought to have been punished with eternal perdition therefore the Son of God offered himself to assume humane nature and afterwards did assume it that so man might not dye the death And the same Learned man hath another expression to the same purpose Because humane nature was depraved and lost so that it became the body of sin and death therefore the Son of God in lieu thereof was pleased in the humane nature assumed to condemn sin and abolish death and in his own person restore humane nature to righteousness life and happiness Christ having dyed for sin once dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him Rom. 6.9 10. Our nature as it is in Christ it is above death and the fear of death O let us think of these things these things are the most solid grounds of comfort Our nature in Christ is above death and the fear of death it is possessed of life and immortality and brought to perfect happiness Hence is that expression 2 Tim. 1.10 Christ who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the Gospel Christ hath already brought life and immortality into our nature Christ doth already stand possessed of immortality in his own person And this is the singular comfort of Believers that they may see a part of their own nature set above sorrow misery and death and brought to the greatest happiness they can wish or long for and that they may be assured they shall be possessed of the same happiness in their measure which Christ their Head is possessed of This Christ assures them of Joh. 17.22 The glory which thou hast given me I have given them Christ had glory with the Father from Eternity as he was his natural and coessential Son this he speaks of vers 5. Glorifie me with thy self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was Now besides this there is a glory which is given to him the glory which thou gavest me I have given them Christ had a glory given to him as man and Mediator Now the glory which was given to Christ as man and Head of the Church is given to the Elect so that all the Elect do participate and share in it in their measure The glory which thou hast given me I have given them Calvin observes upon that Text The Samplar or pattern of perfect happiness is so exprest and set forth in Christ that nothing is confined to Christ only but Christ was therefore inriched that he might inrich Believers the glory which thou hast given me I have given them Christ and his Members share in glory in common only reserving the difference between Head and Members Christ hath the glory of the Head Believers have glory as Members Christs glorification is the surest pledge of our glorification for how is it possible that he who is our Head and is now in glory with the Father should leave us to those miseries we are now obnoxious to whenas we are so nearly related to him we being members of his body of his flesh and of his bones Eph. 5.30 and he that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit The Church being so nearly related to Christ and Christ being in glory how is it possible Christ should leave them under those miseries they are now subject unto 17. The greatness of Christs love in his Incarnation appears in this In that by means of the Incarnation all the Elect shall have a standing Monument before their eyes wherein they may see and behold the infiniteness and transcendency of the love of God to all Eternity And the reason of this Proposition is this Because the Hypostatical or personal Union shall not be dissolved in Heaven the humane nature shall remain and abide united to the Divinity to all Eternity As in Heaven we shall be admitted to the sight of God we shall see the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity we shall see the Unity of the Essence and the three persons Father Son and Spirit subsisting in this one Essence of God so in Heaven we shall see the great Mystery of the personal Union the Mystery of the two Natures in the person of Christ more than now we can And this will be one part of the happiness of Heaven that we shall see our nature united to the Divinity in the person of the Son of God and by this means we shall come to understand the greatness of the love of God by seeing how near our nature is taken unto God in the person of our Head The Hypostatical or personal Union is the foundation of the mystical Union viz. of our union and communion with God God hath taken a part of our nature into personal union with himself and by means of this we have union and communion with him Now in Heaven we shall have a clear sight what that glory is which Christ our Head is advanced unto by the personal union And this I take to be carried in that great Text Joh. 17.24 Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me The happiness of Heaven will be to gaze upon the glory of Christ as a Learned Divine expresseth it That they may behold my glory as if so be this would be Heaven enough for the Elect to see the glory their Head is possessed of And what glory is this That they may behold my glory certainly the glory of his Divinity Christ had glory with the Father before the foundation of the world Joh. 17.5 He was in the form of God saith the Apostle now all the Elect shall see and behold his glory that is they shall see the glory of his Divinity and how so They shall see and behold the glory of his Divinity shining forth through his humanity The humane nature is united to the Divinity in the person of the Son now the Elect in Heaven shall see that person who hath assumed their nature to be true God and to have all the glory of the Divinity in him As the second person in Trinity is true God and hath all the glory of the Divinity in him so the Elect in Heaven shall see the humane nature united to the Divinity in the person of the Son Therefore is it added in the close of the verse For
weigh and ponder these things you may well cry out O the depths O the depths of Christs love 3. The third Particular is this The Heart of Christ was much in this work As Christ was ready and prepared to dye and what he did was free and voluntary of his own accord without any necessity compelling him thereunto but what he voluntarily brought himself under so the heart of Christ was much set upon this work of laying down his life for us Lo I come to do thy will O God Heb. 10.7 I have a Baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitned till it be accomplished Luk. 12.50 The Heart and Spirit of Christ as he was man was most intent upon this work yea there was the concourse of both his Wills his Divine and humane will in laying down his life for us Here I shall shew a little how there was the concourse of both Christs Wills his humane and Divine will in this work 1. Christ as man according to his humane will was willing to suffer and dye for us For though he prayed Father save me from this hour Joh. 12.27 and thereby shewed the verity and truth of our nature in him and the greatness of the sufferings he was to undergo yet presently he adds in the very next words Nevertheless for this end came I to this hour hereby plainly declaring that although the Verity of humane nature which was in him had a natural aversness in it from suffering yet such was his love to the Father and to our Salvation that that love overcame that inclination of nature if I may so call it or that natural aversness rather which was in humane nature from suffering Save me from this hour for this end came I to this hour Though Nature would have abhorred suffering and spared it self take it as to its natural inclination and tendency yet such was his love to his Father and us that it made him lay aside the inclinations of Nature and to break through that natural aversness that was in humane nature from suffering 2. Christ who was God as well as true man according to his Divine will was willing to dye and suffer even in that nature of ours which he had assumed The Divinity did not suffer could not suffer but the person who was God as well as man according to his Divine will as well as according to his humane will was willing to suffer and dye in that nature of ours which he assumed Joh. 17.19 For their sakes sanctifie I my self For what was it that Christ was sanctified he sanctified himself to be a Sacrifice for our sins he sanctified himself by his Death and Sufferings so is this Text generally expounded by Divines I sanctifie my self to suffer well but how did Christ sanctifie himself he sanctified himself in that nature in which he suffered and dyed he suffered in the humane name therefore it was in that nature that he sanctified himself O but who was the person sanctifying all this while It was I I sanctifie my self None but God can say I sanctifie my self no meer creature can say I sanctifie my self Christ therefore that was God could say I sanctifie my self Christ therefore as he was God or according to his Divine will sanctifies himself as man to be a Sacrifice for our sins Hence is it that we have that expression Heb. 10.10 By the which will we are sanctified even by the offering up the body of Jesus once for all By the which will we are sanctified The will here spoken of is the will of God the Father as is plain by the Context Now then this will of the Father and Christs will as he is God is one and the same for as the Father and the Son have but one Essence so they have but one Will. Now by the Divine will which is one and the same in the Father and the Son are we sanctified By the which will we are sanctified by the offering up of the body of Jesus once for all saith the Apostle It was the Divine will that the body of Jesus should be offered up and Christ according to his humane will was willing to offer himself up for the Son being in our nature speaks to the Father after this sort Lo I come to do thy will so that as I said there was the concourse of both wills in Christ the humane and Divine will in offering up himself in laying down his life for us And this I speak to shew how willing how infinitely willing Christ was in this work of offering himself and that his heart lay wholly in this work both his wills his will as God and his will as man was ingaged in this work of laying down his life for us 4. The fourth Particular is this As Christ was ready and willing to give up his life for us so he did actually lay down his life for us Eph. 5.24 Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that is he gave himself actually for the Church It was not only in the purpose and intention of his heart to do it but he gave himself actually for the Church Christ did actually offer up his life a Sacrifice for us Eph. 5.2 Christ hath loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour In every Sacrifice there is the thing sacrificed the Altar the Priest and the Oblation or the offering up of the Sacrifice Now Christ did actually offer up himself a Sacrifice for us It was not enough that the beast to be sacrificed was brought to the Altar but he must be slain there and offered up upon the Altar Thus Christ gave his body to be crucified and he actually offered himself to Divine Justice for us hence is it said that He was delivered up for our offences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 4.25 Who was delivered up that is delivered up to death delivered up to death and suffering by the Fathers will and pleasure and by his own voluntary offering up of himself Hence is it that we read of the offering up of the body of Jesus once for all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 10.10 By the oblation of the body of Jesus Christ made an offering or oblation of himself to the Father Heb. 9.26 Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself The meaning is Christ hath appeared in our nature to destroy and abolish sin by offering up himself a Sacrifice for sin 5. The fifth and last Particular is this That Christ in laying down his life for us intended it as a price and ransom to expiate and take away the guilt of our sins The Socinians the great Adversaries to Christian Religion cannot bear this They will not admit that Christ laid down his life as a price or ransom or by way of satisfaction to atone God for the sins we have committed They tell
doubting Christians who are concerned about their Salvation other men are concerned about their temporal interests in this world but the great concernment of serious Souls is to secure their Salvation Now these considerations may be of great use unto such The end of the first Sermon SERMON II. Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends IN the former Discourse I dispatched the two first Particulars 1. I opened the import of the Phrase what this Phrase did import for a man to lay down his life for his friend 2. I shewed you how it was that Christ laid down his life for us It remains now that I proceed to speak something to the third thing and that is this How is it said that Christ laid down his life for his friends whereas elsewhere it is said that we were enemies when Christ dyed for us Rom. 5.10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Here it is said that we were enemies when Christ dyed for us and yet in the Text it is said that Christ did lay down his life for his friends How are these two to be reconciled I shall lay down several Particulars for the clearing of this which also are necessary to be laid down for the understanding of the Text it self 1. It is certain that by Nature we are all enemies unto God and Christ when he dyed for us when he laid down his life for us found us in a state of enmity Although some of the Elect who then lived when Christ suffered were already reconciled to God yet consider them and us all by nature we are enemies unto God and Christ dyed for us when we were enemies so in the Text before If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Rom. 5.10 Also it appeareth from another Text Col. 1.21 You that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death Sin is a plain rebellion against God sin is a fighting against him a perfect opposition to the will of God so opposite is the sinner to Gods will and so much bent upon his own will that he is angry with God and hates God because Gods will crosses his will Now when we were sinners and enemies when we stood in this direct opposition and desiance to God even then Christ dyed for us Rom. 5.8 God commended his love to us that whilst we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Those who are called Sinners in this verse are called Enemies in the 10. verse If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Every sinner is an enemy to God Christ therefore dyed for us when we were enemies that is the first thing 2. The second Particular to clear the Point in hand is this Though we were truly and properly enemies unto God yet in some sense God accounted us and looked upon us as friends how so not as being friends to him but as he being a friend to us not that we had any love or affection for God but that God had good will and kindness for us It is a great Text to clear this 1 Joh. 4.10 Herein is love not that we loved God but that God loved us and gave his Son to be the propitiation for our sins Hence is it that one of the Ancients hath this expression Etsi nondum quidem amantibus sed tamen jam amatis Christ saith he dyed for his friends although not for such friends as did already love him yet for such friends as were in some sort beloved by him For it was out of his love that he dyed for us 3. The third Particular to clear it is this Christs Death was the means to make us friends and to reconcile us to God Col. 1.22 You hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death It is a Speech of one of the Ancients Christus non aliter pro amicis mortuus est nisi pro acquirendis scil ut amicos faceret ex inimicis Christ did no otherwise dye for his friends than that he might make them friends that is that he might make them friends who were enemies before and Christs death was influential to make us the friends of God or to reconcile us to him these two ways 2. Christ by his death hath abolished and taken away the enmity that was between God and us Hence is it said expresly that Christ hath slain the enmity by his Cross Eph. 2.16 That he might reconcile both in one body by the Cross having slain the enmity thereby That he might reconcile both that is that he might reconcile both Jews and Gentiles in one body by the Cross that is by the Sacrifice of himself upon the Cross Having slain the enmity thereby that is having taken away the enemity that was between God and us by the Sacrifice of himself upon the Cross God was infinitely offended with us by reason of sin now Christ offering himself as a Sacrifice upon the Cross for our sins hereupon God is pacified and appeased the enmity that God had against us is now slain and taken quite away God hath now no more against us There is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 Now the enmity that was between God and us being slain and removed there is a foundation laid for friendship between God and us whilst two persons remain unreconciled they cannot cordially love one another whilst the difference remains there are heats and animosities heart burnings one against another but when the difference is taken up then there is a foundation laid for love and friendship So in this case so long as we apprehend that God hath a controversie with us that he is angry with us for our sins that he is ready to condemn us for them this drives us farther from God we cannot love him whilst we are under such apprehensions but when we know that God is reconciled by the death of Christ that his Justice is satisfied that he will not condemn us for our sins this lays the foundation for friendship then are we ingaged to draw near to God and to give up our selves in ways of obedience to him Now Christ by his death hath satisfied Gods Justice and thereby slain the enmity that was between God and us and so laid the foundation of friendship between God and us 2. Christ by his death hath purchased the spirit of regeneration which doth renovate and change our hearts and take away the natural enmity that is in them against God and inclines our hearts unto God Tit. 3.5 According to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour The Holy Ghost is shed on us through Jesus
exposeth us to Divine wrathhence is it said That by nature we are children of wrath Eph. 2.3 And the sentence of the Law is Indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil Rom. 2.8 9. Wrath is due to us as we are sinners now Christ by the work of his Satisfaction turns away this wrath from us He it is that trod the wine-press of divine wrath Isa 63.3 And Christ bearing the wrath of God for us delivers us from that wrath Hence it is said We are saved from wrath through him Rom. 5.9 And that We are delivered from wrath to come by him 1 Thess 1. ult Jesus that delivereth us from the wrath to come 2. The second effect of Christs Satisfaction is the procuring of pardon of sin for us Thus in those known words of the Institution of the Lords Supper our Saviour tells us This is the new Testament in my blood that was shed for the remission of sins The blood of Christ was shed on purpose to procure the pardon of sin and it doth procure pardon of sin for us Eph. 1.7 In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins One great fruit of Christs Satisfaction and our Redemption by Christ is that by means of that Satisfaction and Redemption of his we should have forgiveness of sins therefore in the Text mentioned before it is said Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins Rom. 3.25 The meaning I take to be this That God having received satisfaction through the death and sufferings of Christ thereupon he gives forth pardon and remission of sins to us 3. The third effect of Christs Satisfaction is eternal life Christ by his Satisfaction procures eternal life for us hence is it that we read of the promise of an eternal inheritance through the death of Christ Heb. 9.15 Christs sufferings are not only satisfactory but they are also meritorious Christs sufferings did not only turn away the evil of punishment from us but they procured the good of eternal life for us Hence it is said That grace reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord Rom. 5. ult The obedience of Christ active and passive is operative to bring us to eternal life 1. Vse 1 See what infinite reason there is that we should seek after a part and interest in Christs Satisfaction For 1. Without an interest in Christs Satisfaction we are liable to answer to Divine Justice in our own persons Divine Justice will be satisfied one way or other for God himself hath pronounced it That he will by no means clear the guilty Exod. 34.7 God is just and the justifier of them that believe in Jesus Rom. 3.26 Therefore if we do not get an interest in Christ that he may fatisfie for us we are liable to be cast into prison by the hand of Divine Justice and we shall not come forth thence till we have paid the uttermost farthing 2. Without an interest in Christs Satisfaction Divine wrath still hangs over us It is Christ only that by his Satisfaction pacifies and turns away Gods wrath therefore unless we have a part in Christs Satisfaction infinite and unsupportable wrath hangs over our heads every moment and will assuredly fall upon us and we know not how soon it may do so He that believes not on the Son hath not life but the wrath of God abides upon him Joh. 3. ult 3. Without an interest in Christs Satisfaction we cannot have the pardon of sin for it is by the Satisfaction of Christ as we have heard that pardon of sin is procured We are liable to answer to Gods Justice for all our sins and all our sins will certainly come in against us to condemn us unless we have a part in Christs Satisfaction 4. Without an interest in Christs Satisfaction we can make out no title to eternal life Heaven is called the purchased inheritance Vntil the redemption of the purchased possession Eph. 1.14 Heaven is the purchase of the death and sufferings of Christ therefore unless we have an interest in the virtue of Christs sufferings we can have no title to the heavenly inheritance Here it may be said But what shall we do that we may have a part in Christs Satisfaction 1. Let us labour to see our infinite need of Christ and his Satisfaction we never see the worth of Christs Satisfaction till first we see our selves to be condemned persons O let us be more deeply sensible what the Law and Divine Justice have against us As we are sinners we are condemned persons in Law The wages of sin is death The soul that sins shall dye This is the sentence of the Law O let us labour to be deeply sensible of this and then we shall see the need of Christs Satisfaction 2. If we would have an interest in Christs Satisfaction let us labour to know Christ and him crucified Paul saith That he determined to know nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified 1 Cor. 2.2 You will say Why is the knowledge of a crucified Christ so necessary to Salvation The reason is because the death and sufferings of Christ is the only means of atonement and to bring us unto reconciliation with God Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation There is no pacifying of an angry God but by the Blood of Jesus Christ and it is Faith in his Blood that gives us an interest in the atonement Him hath God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood We must therefore close with a crucified Christ by faith cast an aspect of faith upon the Son of God in our nature offering himself up to God as a Sacrifice for our sins It is faith in this Sacrifice of Christ that must procure reconciliation for us Joh. 3.14 15. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life Christ is lifted up as the brazen Serpent was lifted up It was their looking on the brazen Serpent that brought healing to them that were stung by the fiery Serpents and it is our looking upon a crucified Christ by an eye of faith casting an aspect of faith upon Christ as crucified and the virtue of his sufferings that must bring Salvation to us who are sinners and who deserve to perish as we are such The end of the third Sermon SERMON IV. Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends I Now proceed to the second thing which is to lay down several distinct and particular Propositions for the clearing of this great Doctrine the Doctrine of Christs Satisfaction And here the Propositions that I shall lay down
be there were none above him whose will he were bound to take notice of Hence is that expression in the Book of Job Job 21.15 Who is the Almighty that we should serve him This is the language of wicked men this is virtually the language of every sin Every sin is a disavowing of Gods Authority it is virtually and interpretatively a renouncing Gods Authority 3. Man by sin as he doth virtually and interpretatively cast off Gods Authority so he doth properly and formally cast off his own subjection unto God God gives to man a Law as the Rule of his obedience and he doth plainly refuse to be subject to that Law This is that which the Lord complains of in many places Jer. 11.7 8. For I earnestly protested to your fathers in the day that I brought them up out of the land of Egypt even unto this day rising early and protesting saying Obey my voice Here is Gods command but what follows Yet they obeyed not but walked every one in the imagination of their evil heart Sin is a perfect casting off of the creatures subjection unto God 4. Another account upon which sin is so displeasing unto God is this Man by sin prefers his own will before his Creators will God hath declared this or that to be his will in such or such a Law of his but mans will lies cross and contrary hereunto and when man sins he makes Gods will to stoop to his will now what is this but a manifest contempt of God when man who is but a creature prefers his own private will above the supreme and soveraign Will of his Maker 5. Sin is most displeasing unto God upon this account because man by sin makes himself his last end and refers all to himself Man when he sins seeks not to please God but seeks to please himself only and what is this but to make himself his last end Now as the quintessence of Holiness lies in love to God so the very quintessence of sin lies in self-love Now when man is wholly taken up in self-love and self-pleasing he is perfectly carried off from God as his last end and wholly centers in himself and when man makes himself his last end what doth he do but as it were make himself a God to himself For what is more proper to God than this to be his own end to make himself his last end that which is proper to God is to be the first cause and the last end Now man by sin makes himself his last end and so by consequence makes himself a God to himself If this be the nature of sin that it causeth man to dethrone God and to set up himself for God instead of God this must needs render sin most displeasing unto God and he must needs be highly offended with man by reason of it 5. The fifth Proposition is Man having sinned the Nature of God as he is just as well as the Will of God as he is true and faithful to his word inclines him to punish sin I will not enter into that dispute whether or no God out of his absolute Power might not have pardoned sin without satisfaction This is a Question much agitated but I shall wave that Controversie and shall content my self to lay down such Principles as are more plain and may be more easily taken in by all 1. Then I say That the Nature of God as he is just inclines him to punish sin God is often called in Scripture a Just and a Righteous God and as he is a righteous God so he loves Righteousness Psal 11.7 The righteous God loveth righteousness And in that place the Righteousness of God is given as the reason why it is that God punisheth wicked men for in the verses immediately foregoing it is said Vpon the wicked he shall rain snares fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest this shall be the portion of their cup. And then the reason is added in those words For the righteous God loveth righteousness As much as if it had been said The Righteousness of Gods Nature inclines him to deal righteously with men Justitia est suum cuique tribuere It is the part of justice to distribute to every man his own Therefore since punishment belongs to wicked men it is the Righteousness of God to measure out to them what they do deserve To understand this we must consider that man standing in the relation of a creature unto God and upon that account being under a Law of obedience to his Maker God having also laid so great an obligation upon man by giving him so excellent a Being in case man sin against the duty which he is under as a creature and if he sin against that obligation which is laid upon him by his Creator in giving him a Being and so excellent a Being man in so doing sins against all right and equity and God as he is the Rector and Governor of the World cannot but take notice of such obliquity in man and testifie his displeasure against man for violating the Law of Right and Equity Hence is that of the Apostle Rom. 1.18 The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men The plain meaning I take to be That God is highly offended with men by reason of sin and he testifies his displeasure against sin by executing his Judgments in an open manner many times even as by a hand from Heaven The wrath of God is revealed from heaven c. there is a finger stretched out from Heaven in the Judgments of God whereby God doth testifie and declare to all the world his displeasure against sin So Rom. 1. ult This is the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death This is the Judgment of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Judgment of God I take to be the just and upright determination of God the dictate of the Divine Vnderstanding to speak after the manner of men determining what is just what is fit and equal this is that which the Divine Understanding determines that man sinning he is worthy of death This is the judgment of God saith the Apostle that they that commit such things are worthy of death It is that which the Divine Wisdom and Understanding determines as just fit and equal that mans sinning should be punished with death there is a condignity in the nature of sin that requires punishment so that either God must go contrary to what his infinite and most unerring Wisdom determines to be right fit and equal or else he must punish sin for this is the Judgment of God saith the Apostle that the sinner is worthy of death therefore that must not be done which the Divine Wisdom thinks just fit and equal should be done or else the person that sins must fall under punishment Now the Apostle tells us Rom. 2.2 That the Judgment of God is according to truth and this
is when he is speaking of this very judgment of his in inflicting death upon the sinner The judgment of God is according to truth that is God in determining to punish men for sin determines according to right and equity God is not too rigorous and severe in so doing but he doth determine according to the equity and righteousness of the cause Now that the Nature of God as he is a just and a holy God inclines him to punish sin will appear from three considerations 1. God hates sin infinitely Jer. 44.4 O do not that abominable thing which I hate Sin is that abominable thing which God hates and Gods hatred of sin ariseth from the Holiness of his Nature God is so holy that he cannot but hate sin It is not a matter of liberty to God for him to hate sin or not to hate it God hates sin necessarily he cannot but hate it as he is necessarily holy so he doth necessarily hate sin Now if God do hate sin if he hate it infinitely if he hate it necessarily then he cannot to speak after the manner of men but have an infinite aversation from it for what we hate we have a perfect aversation from and if God hath an infinite aversation from sin as we may suppose that he hath because he hates it how should he manifest and declare this aversation but by punishing of it This is sufficiently declared in the Text I mentioned before Rom. 1.18 The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men As much as if it had been said God hates sin infinitely and hath all along manifested this his hatred and indignation against sin by the judgments which he hath executed in all Ages of the World The drowning of the old World the burning of Sodom and Gomorrha by fire and brimstone from Heaven the swallowing up of Corah Dathan and Abiram and all those remarkable Judgments which we read of in the Word of God what are these but so many infallible proofs of Gods hatred of sin and his indignation against it His nature is set against it and he declares the Holiness and Righteousness of his Nature by the Judgments he inflicts upon men for the commission of it 2. That the Nature of God as he is a holy and just God inclines him to punish sin this also will evince it That it is a Principle that is inlaid in the minds of men that there is corrective or punitive Justice in God whereby he is inclined to punish men when they sin Hence was it that the Heathens spake of an avenging Eye 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such an Eye as saw and beheld all mens evil actions and was ready to avenge them The Apostle speaks of the Gentiles in common who knowing the judgment of God in the Text I mentioned before Rom. 1. ult As there is such a thing as corrective or punitive Justice in God so all men by the light of Nature retain some sense of it in themselves It is one of those common notions that is impressed in the minds of men and I think we may say it is indelible that God is just most just and as he is just so he is inclined to render to all men according to their works 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This the Apostle calls the righteous judgment of God and this righteous judgment of God consists in this that he will render to all men according to their works The Apostle speaks of this at large Rom. 2.5 c. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God The Apostle calls it the righteous judgment of God and wherein doth this righteous judgment of God consist he tells us in the next verse Who will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life But unto them that are contentious and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil but glory honour and peace to every one that worketh good This is the righteous judgment of God And if we compare this with the foregoing verses it will appear that men have some sense of this righteous judgment of God in themselves for in the first verse of the second Chapter it is said Thou art inexcusable O man whosoever thou art that judgest What is it that men judge They judge that which is spoken of in the last verse of the first Chapter Who knowing the judgment of God that they which commit such things are worthy of death Men have this judgment in themselves that when they sin they are worthy of death this is the judgment which they have in their own consciences 3. As this impression is left in the hearts of men that God is just so men are under some fear and expectation of punishment after they have sinned upon this account because God is just Hence is it that God tells Cain In case thou do evil sin lieth at the door Gen. 4.7 Sin lieth at the door that is the guilt of sin No sooner doth a man commit sin but conscience if it be awakened will tell him presently that punishment is due for that sin Now these three considerations shew that God is holy and just and as he is holy and just so his nature inclines him to punish sin 2. The second thing is this The Will of God as he is true and faithful to his word inclines him to punish sin God threatned that in the day that man sinned he should dye the death Now God must be true to his own word This is certain God decreed to punish sin and he could decree nothing but what was just God having therefore justly decreed to punish sin and manifested that Decree in his word of threatning God must be true to his own Decree and his Word in punishing man when he sinned Pertinent to this is that passage which I have met with in a Learned man God saith he cannot act or do any thing contrary to his own will now God wills that which is just and this was just that the punishment and all the punishment that was due by the Law should be suffered and undergone Hence he infers that this Proposition is always true That God could not have delivered mankind from misery but by a full satisfaction and that all that which the Law requires to be undergone should be undergone Dei posse velle est non posse nolle God could not because he would not he could not because he had determined that the punishment which the Law did denounce should be undergone and inflicted It is a good speech of one of the Ancients Quod ad potentiam Dei omnia ei possibilia funt quod adjustitiam possibilia sola quae
justa As to the power of God all things are possible unto God but as to the justice of God nothing is possible but what is just Therefore God having decreed and that most justly to punish sin God could not but punish sin 6. The sixth Proposition is That God being merciful as well as just doth in his infinite Wisdom find out a way how his Justice may be salved and man not perish This is that which the Apostle declares to us Rom. 3.24 25 26. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood To declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus The scope of the Apostle is plainly this To shew that God hath a mind to forgive sin and yet he would be just too therefore that he might be merciful and just both at once God found out a way how he might forgive sin and yet his Justice not be prejudiced Hence was it that God appointed Christ to be a ransom for us that so Christ bearing the punishment that we deserved the Justice of God might be satisfied in what Christ suffered and yet his Mercy might be glorified in remitting the punishment to us Him hath God ordained to be a propitiation through faith in his blood saith the Apostle God remits sin freely as to us and so his mercy is glorified as to us and yet he receives full satisfaction from Christ and so his Justice is glorified in him Thus mercy and truth are met together righteousness and peace have kissed each other Psal 85.10 God having found full satisfaction to his Justice in the blood of Christ there is a sweet reconciliation between those two seeming contrary Attributes the Justice and Mercy of God This is elegantly set forth by one of the Ancients after this manner There is a controversie or a strife as it were between the Justice and the Mercy of God Altercatio est inter Dei justitiam misericordiam but this strife is ended in the death of Christ because in the death of our Saviour Divine Justice is satisfied in all that it did desire Divine Justice saith If Adam dye not I am lost and Mercy on the other hand saith If Adam doth not obtain mercy one way or other I am lost now Christ interposing by his death each of these Attributes have what they do desire Learn from what hath been said the Justice Vse 1 Equity and Righteousness of God in punishing of sin Psal 98.9 With righteousness shall he judge the world and the people with equity Ezek. 18.29 Art not my ways equal are not your ways unequal The ways of God are full of equity when God punisheth sin there is the greatest equity that he should do so there is that demerit in sin and there is that Holiness and Justice in the Nature of God that calls upon him to punish sin Sin is after a sort infinitely evil not that it is simply and in it self so but sin may be said to be infinitely evil with respect to the object as it is contrary to the glory of God who is Bonum infinitum an infinite good God also who is the Governor of the World seeing how much the Sinner had violated the Law of Right and Equity judges it a just and righteous thing that Sinners should undergo punishment therefore no man hath cause to quarrel with God and to think hardly of him for inflicting punishment upon him because of sin for This is the judgment of God that they which do such things are worthy of death Rom. 1.32 This is the judgment of God as much as if it had been said God hath determined this in his infinite Understanding It is the upright and just determination of the most wise God that the Sinner is worthy of death God is not too rigorous in his judgment in this case he judges according to the equity of the cause Rom. 2.2 The judgment of God is according to truth Isa 3.11 Wo unto the wicked it shall be ill with him for the reward of his hands shall be given him The reward of his hands shall be given him O this is certain every mans condemnation will be found just at last and it will appear to him that it is most just God condemns no man but for sin and there is that desert in sin for which God may justly condemn men and I conceive that a great part of the torments of the Damned consists in this That they shall have their eyes opened and their understandings inlarged which are now shut and closed up to see that turpitude baseness unworthiness monstrousness unreasonableness that was in sin and that they are justly punished for committing that which was so contrary to the Law of their Creation and to the Principles of their own Beings as they are reasonable creatures For what is more just equal and reasonable than that the creature should honour obey and serve his Creator and take notice of his Laws and yield conformity to them And what more unjust unreasonable and unequal than the creature should cast off Gods Authority and live in contempt of his Maker and defiance of his Laws Now when men shall have their understandings opened to take in this more fully then they will see that God is just in punishing sin and that their condemnation is most just Learn from hence Vse 2 that there is no way for a guilty Soul to appear before God but by flying to the Satisfaction of Christ God is so holy that he cannot but hate sin so just that he cannot but punish sin How then can a poor guilty creature appear before the presence of the Divine Majesty laden with all his sins O it is an easie thing for a secure Sinner that knows neither what the nature of sin is nor what the nature of God is to slight sin But he that once comes to see a little of the turpitude and deformity that is in sin and will summon himself into Gods presence and consider what the Holiness Purity and Justice of Gods Nature is will soon have other thoughts of sin and of his own condition by reason of sin God is of purer eyes than to behold the least iniquity and he will by no means clear the guilty therefore he that hath but a little sight of Gods Holiness and of his infinite Justice and Righteousness will soon cry out with the Prophet I am undone Isa 6.5 And nothing can ease or quiet a poor trembling Soul in this case but flying to the Satisfaction of Christ When a man compares his impurity with Gods infinite Purity and Holiness when he compares his own sinfulness and unworthiness with Gods
infinite Justice and Righteousness then he must needs see himself worthy of condemnation and nothing can give ease and quiet to trembling consciences in this case but for a man to turn his eye upon the Satisfaction of Christ and see the Justice of God satisfied in Christ In Christ the Justice of God is satisfied to the utmost upon him was the wrath of God poured out to the full and the whole punishment that was due to us was inflicted upon him hither it is therefore that we must flye for refuge when-ever we are under the sense of guilt and under fears of condemnation by reason of sin there is no refuge but by flying to the Satisfaction of Christ The end of the fourth Sermon SERMON V. Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends I Proceed now to the seventh Proposition which is this It was the compact and agreement between the Father and the Son that the Son the second Person in Trinity should take our nature and in that nature become our Surety and undertake the payment and discharge of our debt for us I say this was the compact and agreement between the Father and the Son hence is it said The counsel of peace was between them both Zach. 6.13 Some Learned men render it Between those two Inter illos duos that is between the Father and the Son the counsel of peace was between them both Here it may be said Object How could there be such a compact or an agreement as this is between the Father and the Son concerning mans Redemption and Salvation God is but one the Divine Essence is but one and the Divine Will but one How then could there be this compact and agreement between the Father and the Son since they are both one and the same God and have one and the same essential Will To this the Answer is plain Answ that as the Essence of the Father and the Son is but one so the Will is but one But for as much as the Father and the Son are considered as distinct Persons so the counsel of peace is said to be between them both Here are two Persons spoken of from which also the third the Holy Ghost is not to be excluded but all the three Persons agree in one and the same will Now according to the counsel of the whole Trinity the Son the second Person of the three is to take our nature and in that nature to become our Surety hence is it said That Jesus is made a surety of a better Testament Heb. 7.22 And Christ being made a Surety by virtue of the compact that was between him and the Father he is to undertake the payment of our debt for that is the nature of a Surety A Surety is properly an Vndertaker 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one that undertakes anothers cause and debt There are some Divines that call this compact between the Father and the Son the Covenant of Redemption and this Covenant of Redemption they describe after this fort namely The Covenant of Redemption say they it is the agreement between the Father and the Son who was designed to be Mediator concerning the Elect who are supposed to lye in sin and misery by their own demerit together with the rest of men I say concerning the Elect to be converted sanctified and saved by virtue of the obedience of the Son as Mediator which was to be performed to the Father this they call the Covenant of Redemption The Apostle doth plainly intimate this compact or agreement that was between the Father and the Son Heb. 10.5 6 7. Wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not but a body hast thou prepared me In burnt-offering and sacrifice for sin thou hast had no pleasure Then said I Lo I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will O God When Christ saith here Lo I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will O God he plainly refers to that ancient Decree and Compact that was between the Father and himself It was the Fathers will from Eternity that the Son should take a body and offer up that body to make satisfaction for the sins of the Elect and the Son consented to this will of the Father and what he did in time in assuming a body and in offering up that body was in pursuance of that ancient Decree and Compact that was between him and the Father therefore it is said In the volume of the book it is written I come to do thy will O God The eighth Proposition is this That Christ becoming our Surety stands responsible to the Law and is liable to pay all the debt we owe to God Hence are those expressions that he was made under the Law Gal. 4.4 That he was made a Curse for us Gal. 3.10 To understand this we must know that Christ is to be considered as a common Person as sustaining the persons of all the Elect. Look as the first Adam was a common person the obedience which he was bound to perform we were obliged unto and therefore when he sinned we sinned in him and when he became obnoxious to the curse and to death by reason of sin we also became obnoxious to the same Curse and death in him Rom. 5.12 Wherefore as by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all have sinned So Christ is to be considered as a common Person Christ undertaking to be our Surety the obedience which we were bound to perform Christ is bound to perform and the punishment which we are obnoxious unto by reason of our violation of the Law Christ becoming our Surety is obnoxious to the same punishment Hence is it said of the first Adam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he is the figure of him that was to come Rom. 5.14 The figure of him that was to come that is the Type of Christ the first Adam is the Type of the second Adam How so As the first Adam was a common person and all his seed were comprehended in him and represented by him so the second Adam is to be looked upon as a common person and all his seed are comprehended in him and represented by him therefore Christ is called the second Adam 1 Cor. 15.45 The first Adam was made a living soul the second Adam was made a quickning Spirit Here it may be inquired How was it that the first Adam was made a common person And how was it that Christ the second Adam became a common person I answer briefly The first Adam was made a common person by Divine ordination and appointment and by the Law of his Creation he being the head and root of all mankind and Christ was made a common person partly by Divine ordination and appointment and
punishment because he was able to satisfie the Justice of God by his sufferings without suffering to Eternity 2. As for that which we call the Worm of Conscience which is one thing in the punishment of the Damned Christ could not undergo that and the reason is because that which is called the worm of conscience is an inseparable adjunct of sin inhering in the person in whom it is now Christ was most free from sin in his own person it is true he had sin imputed to him the guilt of our sins was imputed to him but he had no guilt of his own and therefore he could not have this worm of conscience for that which we call the worm of conscience is nothing else but conscience reflecting upon a mans actions and tormenting him upon the account of the obliquity and deformity that hath appeared in them Now Christ having done nothing that was contrary to the Law He had done no violence neither was guile found in his mouth as the Prophet speaks Isa 53. it was not possible he should undergo the worm of conscience because this supposeth sin in the person that underwent it which Christ was most free from 3. As for that of Despair some Divines are of opinion that despair is not properly in the Damned and the reason they give is this As hope in the godly after the last Judgment shall cease because hope shall then be swallowed up in fruition so they suppose that despair shall cease in the wicked because that perdition and destruction is then actually come upon them which before they feared But it may be said Do not the Damned see that they are miserable and that they shall be miserable for ever and doth not this cause them to despair To this they answer It is true the Damned see themselves in that misery from which they shall never be delivered but yet it may still be doubted whether this may be called Despair yea or no and the reason is say they because despair supposeth a sense of some future time but now in Eternity there is no time The Damned have a certain knowledge of misery that they are under they feel it at the present and therefore say they that which they do already feel they need not fear Hence is that speech of one of the Ancients Grief hath no fear in it because fear doth no longer torment the mind when a man begins already to suffer what he did fear But I know not whether it be worth the while to dispute whether despair be properly in the Damned yea or no. This I am sure of that the Damned know that they are miserable and they know that this misery shall continue always they know that it shall not be otherwise with them than now it is and this is equivalent unto despair but this is rather an adjunct of their torment and punishment than the substance of it therefore it was not necessary Christ should undergo it 2. We say That despair as it is opposite to the grace of hope so it could not be in Christ because despair at it is opposite to hope speaks a deordination and it would suppose some sin which Christ was most free from and therefore Christ when he was in the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and height of all his sufferings when he had lost the sense and feeling of Gods love yet he manifested the highest faith when he saith My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Though he had not the sense and feeling of Gods love but complains that he was forsaken yet he calls God his God and that manifested his faith and where there is faith there will be hope for hope is the daughter of faith therefore despair was not in Christ But though Christ did not suffer some circumstances and adjuncts of punishment that the Damned suffer yet Christ suffered the substance of what we were to suffer and this is that which I must now begin to speak unto And here I am to shew how it was that Christ suffered the substance of what we ought to have suffered 1. Christ made himself passible and mortal for our sakes that is he made himself subject to suffering and death for our sakes Sin is the inlet of suffering and death had there been no sin there had been no suffering or death It was sin that brought in both suffering and death when man had sinned God first said to the woman I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children Gen. 3.16 To the man he saith Cursed be the ground for thy sake in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life Gen. 3.17 Here we see sin brought in sorrow and suffering so also sin brought in death Gen. 2. In the day thou eatest thou shalt surely dye Rom. 5.12 Wherefore as by one man sin entred into the world and death by sin Now Christ our Surety that he might bear the punishment that was due to us he put himself into a state of suffering and death for us sin having brought in suffering and death into the world as the just demerit of it and the curse that was due to it Christ I say being our Surety put himself into a state of suffering and death for us To understand this we must know that although the Son of God had assumed our nature yet he needed not unless he had pleased to have subjected himself unto suffering and unto death For Christ assuming our nature without sin was in respect of the innocency of his Humanity and also in respect of the personal Union exempted both from the Law of suffering and of death but Christ becoming our Surety and being to bear the whole punishment that was due to us by reason of sin and it being the nature of the Curse 1. That we should be liable to suffering and death And 2. That we should actually undergo suffering and death therefore Christ did voluntarily undergo both these 1. He did subject himself to a passible and mortal state And 2. He did actually undergo suffering and death for us 1. Christ did subject himself to a passible estate he that was above all suffering made himself subject to suffering for our sake Hence is it said that he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Isa 53.3 Hence also is it said He was tempted in all points like unto us sin only excepted Heb. 4.15 Christ was exposed to all manner of sufferings and temptations whatsoever excepting sin 2. Christ did subject himself to a mortal estate for our sakes The flesh of Christ as it was united to the second Person in Trinity who was God had been immortal had he not voluntarily subjected himself to death for our sakes but that being part of the Curse that man should become mortal and subject to death by reason of sin Christ was willing to subject himself to that part of the Curse Dust thou art and to dust
these to the terrours of natural death and to the terrours of supernatural death O let us not think it an indifferent thing whether we get a part in Christ yea or no certainly God did not put his innocent Son to suffer all these things we have heard of in vain and certainly if the Gospel be true Christ hath suffered all these things and if Christ hath suffered all these things then all of us did stand in need of them and if we need them it concerns us deeply to make sure our part and interest in them The end of the sixth Sermon SERMON VII Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends I Come now to speak particularly of that which was formerly mentioned in the general and here we shall shew 1. How it was that our Saviour suffered fear and what the fear was that he underwent 2. I shall shew how it was that he suffered grief because these are the two things which the Evangelist insists upon in the Text formerly mentioned Mark 14.33 1. Our Saviour was afflicted with sore fear yea he was even overwhelmed and oppressed by fear yet without sin hence is that expression of the Apostle Heb. 5.7 He was heard in that he feared But here it may be said Object What was that fear that our Saviour was struck with when he is said to be amazed with fear or astonished with fear I answer Answ It was the fear or horror of Divine wrath due to us for our sins Certainly it was not a corporal death that our Saviour feared so much many of the Martyrs by the Grace they had received were much carried above the fear of a corporal death much more may we suppose that the perfect and consummate Grace that was in the heart of our Saviour would have carried him above the fear of a natural death but it was the fear of Divine wrath that he was struck with therefore is it that he crys out Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me What was this cup Certainly the cup of Divine wrath as I may shew you more hereafter this then was that which our Saviour feared the wrath of God Fear says a Learned man was cast into the humane nature of our Saviour which being a creature fear might possess it lest it should be swallowed up of an angry God who did exact as much as rigid justice ought or could require from so great a person who was the Surety or Vndertaker Our Saviour knew right-well that he was to bear not the guilt of one or two or a few sins not the guilt of some lesser sins only but the guilt of the greatest sins he knew that he was to bear the guilt not of the sins of some of the Elect only but the guilt of all the sins of all the Elect what a torrent then or sea rather of wrath must our Saviour needs see coming on his most holy Soul when the wrath of God which was due for the sins of all the Elect was like to come upon him at once Well therefore might he be afraid If it be possible for Satan to aggravate and blow up the guilt of a little sin as we would account it in the eye of a mans conscience so as it shall seem the greatest sin in all the world as certainly he can and those that have to do with troubled consciences know how often he doth it and such a sin is ready to make a soul to despair unless Divine Grace do step in and help it into what a consternation then may we well suppose the humane soul of our Saviour to be cast when the sins of all the Elect the most great horrid and hainous sins as well as the least were bound upon him by the omnipotent hand of God his Father and he knew he was to answer for them all well might our Saviour fear in this case Neither is it to be wondred at that our Saviour should be thus struck with fear and astonishment if we consider that Christ did not only take our nature but he took the infirmities of our nature namely such as were inculpable and without sin and he also assumed our natural affections as grief sorrow and the like It is natural to the creature to fear and tremble at the sight and presence of an angry God thus we read how the rocks clave in sunder and the mountains have trembled when God hath shewn forth the terribleness of his Majesty and it is natural to men when any terrible object presents it self and some evil approaches although it be not as yet inflicted especially when some such evil approches as is greater than a mans strength to fear and be astonished therefore our Saviour having the verity and truth of our nature in him and having the verity and truth of humane passions in him yet without sin having the most terrible object that ever was set before him and that which would have been too great for him to bear had he been but meer man and that is the wrath of the great God due to the sins of all the Elect well might he be astonished and fear 2. Our Saviour was oppressed with grief and sorrow as well as fear Fear is such a passion as ariseth from some imminent or impending evil grief is a passion that ariseth from some present or inflicted evil Fear is the expectation of some suture evil grief is that which ariseth from the sense of some present evil Now our Saviour had not only fear but grief he felt that in his most holy Soul which was cause of greatest grief and sorrow to him This is set forth by the Evangelist Matthew Mat. 26.37 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He began to be sorrowful and very heavy He began to be grieved and very heavy The Greek word is a full and a significant word The Criticks in the Greek Tongue render it by other words which signifie to be in an agony to be very much grieved Our Saviour was in an agony of sorrow oppressed and overwhelmed with sorrow and therefore it follows in the next words He began to be grieved and very heavy and he said to them that is to his Disciples My soul is exceeding sorrowful So great was our Saviours sorrow that he could not contain himself he must needs vent his sorrow by telling it to his Disciples I say our Saviour seeks a vent for his sorrow by acquainting his Disciples how great his sorrow was he saith to them My soul is exceeding sorrowful There are many holy Souls that will bear great sorrows and undergo many burdens and temptations and yet declare them unto none Certainly had our Saviours sorrows been but common and ordinary he would not have complained of them to his Disciples but so great was his sorrow that he is fain to seek for a little ease by venting himself to his Disciples And what is it that he
saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 undequaque tristis est anima mea My soul is exceeding sorrowful My soul is sorrowful on every side so the word properly signifies my soul is environed or compassed about with sorrow sorrow and grief possess me all over Yet that is not all but he adds farther My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death So great was his grief and sorrow before he came to the Cross and the sufferings that he underwent there that the greatness of his grief and sorrow had almost brought him to death before-hand yea we may well suppose that had not our Saviour had the power of the Divinity to support him the strength of his sorrows in the Garden before he came to the Cross might have taken away his natural life He saith his soul was heavy to the very death We see how many are killed with grief when grief and sorrow rises to a great height many have had their natural spirits suppressed and dyed away under it Now our Saviours sorrows did far exceed the sorrows of all other men yea if all mens sorrows were put together our Saviours sorrows exceeded them all and the reason is because he sustained the person of all the Elect and he bare the punishment not only of a few sins but of all the sins of all his people at once Therefore if he had not had the power of the Divinity to have supported him the greatness of his sorrows might have sunk him and brought him down to death but having other things to suffer upon the Cross besides those things he suffered in the Garden he was not sorrowful unto death absolutely that is not sorrowful so as to dye in and by those sorrows but yet he was sorrowful next to death setting aside death it self his sorrow and grief in the Garden was so great as it could not have been greater even in death it self My soul is sorrowful unto death Thus I have shewed how our Saviour suffered a great deal of anxiety and perplexity in his mind in respect of fear in respect of grief but this is only in general But to come a little nearer the matter and the thing it self 2. Our Saviour conflicted with the sense of Gods wrath in his soul I have shewed how he suffered the greatest anxiety perplexity and grief in his mind Now I shall shew how the great sorrows our Saviour underwent did arise from the conflict he had with Gods wrath in his soul Mat. 26. Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me What cup was this Truly the cup of Divine wrath The cup of God is the wrath of God Calix Dei ira Dei est ira Dei justa est vindicta quae imponitur à justo Judice the wrath of God is the just revenge which is inflicted by a just Judge for our sins and this is the cup our Saviour drank of our Saviour that he might bear the punishment that was due to us for our sins tasted of the wrath of God conflicted with the sense of Gods wrath The better to take in this we must consider that the sense of Divine wrath is part of the punishment that is due to us for our sins yea it is a principal part of the punishment and a great part of the pains and torments of Hell consists in it It is a speech of Luther The greatest temptation of all others is that temptation by which God is set in direct opposition to a man and appears contrary to him Quâ Deus contrarius homini ponitur This temptation saith he is an unsupportable temptation and is properly Hell it self and no man can tell how great this temptation is but he that hath felt it Now when a man is under the sense of Gods wrath he apprehends God to be contrary to him and to be set in direct opposition against him and as was said this is part of the punishment that is due to us for sin Observe what is spoken to this purpose Rom. 2.8 9. But to hem that are contentious and obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil The Apostle is here speaking what is the punishment that shall come upon men for sin now he describes it by this Indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish Now by these expressions indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish I conceive the Apostle doth not only intend the effects of Divine wrath all the miseries that shall be laid upon the damned as the effects of Divine wrath but he also intends the impression of Divine wrath upon the conscience of the sinner and therefore he expresseth it by so many words that intimate so much indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish these words plainly intimate the horror and anguish that shall be upon the spirit of the damned and whence doth this tribulation and anguish arise certainly from the fense of Gods wrath When our first Parents had sinned God appeared to them as an angry God in an angry manner to Adam he saith Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I said thou shalt not eat and to the Woman he said What is this that thou hast done Both these are expressions of anger When therefore man had sinned God appears to him as an angry God Now our Saviour being to take upon him the guilt of our sins he was to conflict with the sense of Gods wrath and therefore he had great and deep apprehensions fastned upon his soul concerning the displeasure that was due from God to us by reason of sin Christ when he came to suffer for our sins saw the Justice of God armed with revenge against us for our sins he saw the Justice of God ready to take hold on him as our Surety who had taken upon him the guilt of our sins There is a Learned man who is no friend to the Soul sufferings of Christ but makes it his business to oppose them that yet in discussing that argument is at last brought to this confession Christ saith he in his sufferings had a present sight of the Divine Majesty sitting as it were in Judgment and armed with the infinite power of Divine Justice to avenge the sins of men This is the confession of an Adversary that opposes the Soul-sufferings of Christ Now they which do assert the Soul-sufferings of Christ do only add thus much more That Christ did not only see Gods wrath that was due to us for our sins but he tasted of it and felt it and conflicted with the sense of it for to what purpose should he see it and not feel it Or how could Christs seeing the weight of Divine wrath that was due to us and not bearing it have expiated and taken away the guilt of our sins The sense of Divine wrath was that which was due to us as the punishment of sin for the Law saith Cursed is he that continueth not in all
which was That he did not only feel the wonted presence of his Father withdrawn from him but he saw God alienated from him yea he saw his Justice armed against him to revenge upon him the sins of the Elect. O this was more than a thousand deaths Learn from what hath been opened Vse 1 how great a pain the pain of loss is Learn how great a misery it is to be separated from the sight of God This was so grievous to our Saviour that he could not contain himself from that bitter out-cry we heard of before he crys out in the bitterness of his soul My God my God why hast thou forsaken me O if Christ could not bear the want of the sight of God for so short a season and space foâ—â—â— was but for a short space of time this desertion continued with him how wilt thou bear to be separated from God for ever Mark what the sentence is that will be pronounced upon wicked men at the great Day Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire O in those words Depart from me is the very Hell of Hell there is not any thing worse in Hell than this Depart from me Consider also what the Apostle saith 2 Thess 1. Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord. How canst thou bear the thoughts of being separated from God for ever I often think of the expression I heard from a troubled Soul O said that person I have lost God and must be separated from him for ever O can you think what a misery it is to sustain the loss of God and be separated from him for ever It is true wicked men love not God and care not for his presence and therefore they think it will be no great loss for them to be separated from him whom they do not love But when wicked men shall come to understand that there is no happiness but in the injoyment of God and that the last perfection that their Being was capable of was to injoy him though they love not God yet they love themselves though they love not God yet they love happiness therefore though they think it a little thing to be separated from God now they will not think it a little thing to be separated from happiness at last With thee saith the Psalmist is the fountain of life and in thy light we shall see light Psal 36.9 Being separated from God they are separated from light separated from joy separated from happiness separated from every thing that is good God that is the chief good makes every thing good that is so and what can be good where the chief good is absent therefore this will be matter of eternal torment to lost souls that they are destitute and come short of that happiness which their Beings were capable of Here is comfort to deserted Souls Vse 2 Christ himself was deserted therefore if thou be deserted God dealeth no otherwise with thee than he did with Christ thou mayst be beloved of God and not feel it Christ was so he was beloved of the Father and yet had no present sense and feeling of his love This may be a great comfort and support to holy Souls under the suspension of those comforts and manifestations which sometimes they have felt Christ himself underwent such a suspension therefore such a suspension of Divine comfort may consist with Gods love Thou mayst conclude possibly I am a Hypocrite and therefore God hath forsaken me this is the complaint of some doubting Christians I am a Hypcorite and therefore God hath forsaken me but thou hast no reason so to conclude there was no failure in Christs obedience and yet Christ was forsaken in point of comfort therefore desertion in point of comfort may consist with truth of grace yea with the highest measure of grace so it did in our Saviour It is true there is a root in us of this desertion some sin of ours that oftentimes occasions this desertion It was not so with Christ Christ had no sin of his own for which he was deserted he only bare the guilt of our sins and he was deserted for a time that we might not be deserted for ever But though there be that in us that may occasion desertion yet this is some relief to us that Christ hath undergone desertion though not for any sin of his own as we do and the greatest relief of all is that Christ was deserted that we might not be deserted the face of God was hid from him for a time that so it might not be hid from us for ever Wherefore to conclude this point If thou be one that hast fled for refuge to the hope that is set before us if thou hast come to Christ and believed on him in truth thou needst not fear that thou shalt be deserted of God for ever because Christ hath born desertion for us the Lord may hide his face from thee for a time but he will not hide it for ever because Christ hath suffered this part of the punishment due to us he hath born that absence of Divine comfort which thou deservest to lye under for ever Christ hath suffered dereliction for us The end of the eighth Sermon SERMON IX Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends HAving shewed already how our Saviour underwent the Pain of loss in his spiritual dereliction or desertion it remains that I should shew how it was that he suffered the pain of sense in being made a Curse for us That which Divines call the Pain of sense is a most perfect sense of the wrath of God and all the miseries that do attend it it doth I say In vivo efficaci sensuâ—irae Divinae consist in a quick and lively sense of the wrath of God Now our Saviour in being made a curse for us had this perfect sense of Gods wrath and felt those miseries that do attend it as we shall shew more by and by That Christ was made a curse for us the Scripture is clear the Apostle tells us expresly in that known Text Gal. 3.10 That Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Sin was the inlet of the Curse and the Curse was the punishment of sin When Adam had sinned the Lord saith to him Cursed is the ground for thy sake Gen. 3.17 Now if the ground be accursed for Adams sake Adam himself must needs be much more accursed Quod efficit tale est magis tale for that which makes any other thing to be what it is is much more so in it self If therefore Adam be the cause why the ground is cursed Adam himself must needs be much more accursed This is more fully explained in that sentence of the Law Deut. 27.26 Carsed be he that confirmeth not all the words of the Law to do them Every transgressor of the Law is
Christ as to his own sense and apprehension should be as a person loathed and abhorred of God for our sakes who was always beloved of God in himself but let us rather wonder at the greatness of our sins that he that was so dear to God in himself should yet be made the object of his wrath and indignation and be dealt withal as if he were a person hated of God meerly to expiate the guilt of our sins It is an elegant expression which a Learned man hath Quid mirum si maledictus dicitur Deo qui habet in se quod odit Deus hoc est peccatum What wonder is it that he should be accounted accursed of God that hath that upon him which God hates that is sin Christ was looked upon by God as standing guilty of our sins in a way of imputation He hath made him to be sin for us How made him to be sin In a way of imputation Christ had no sin of his own but he was made sin by way of imputation Therefore Christ sustaining the person of a Sinner although he had no sin of his own he is accurst of God the wrath of God breaks forth upon him Neither was it a little wrath that was let forth upon Christ but there was a whole Sea and Deluge of wrath let forth upon Christ so much wrath as the humane nature was capable of bearing so much must we suppose was let in upon him and the reason is because sin deserves the utmost degree of punishment that the nature of the creature is capable of therefore must we suppose that the wrath of God was consummated in our Saviour Whatever wrath the humane nature supported by the Divinity was capable of bearing all that we must suppose was poured out upon our Saviour Hence is that expression of the Prophet I have trodden the wine-press alone and there was no one with me Isa 63.3 Our Saviour in his Passion in his Sufferings in the Garden and on the Cross hath trodden the wine press of Divine wrath the wrath of God was exprest and poured forth upon him to the utmost Now who knows who can conceive what this means Who knows what the power of Gods anger is Who knows what that wrath is that is let forth upon the spirits of the damned Job complains in his afflictions That God hunted him as a fierce lion and that he did shew himself marvellous upon him Job 14.16 Now if God might shew himself thus marvellous and terrible to his own children whom he doth love how marvellous and terrible doth he shew himself to the damned whom he hates Now Christ our Surety though he was always beloved of God as in himself yet he bare the very pains of Hell for us Look therefore what wrath the damned feel who lye under the heat and fierceness of Gods wrath that must Christ feel who is our Surety that we may be delivered from it O let us consider these things and let them sink deeply into our hearts Let us consider with our selves in what wrath it is that God manifests himself to a damned soul in the same wrath did God manifest himself to Christ who was our Surety that so we might be kept from damnation for if Christ had not suffered the pains of Hell for us we must have been left to suffer them our selves 2. Whatever shame whatever ignominy and contempt whatever pain and torment whatever sorrow and grief either in his soul or body our Saviour suffered and underwent upon the Cross he saw plainly that it was the effect of the wrath of God and the just punishment that was due to us for our sins The sting of an affliction is when a man suffers as a guilty person when he seeth clearly that what he suffers he suffers it as an effect of Gods wrath and as a just punishment of sin from an angry God A man might suffer great things as long as he seeth no mixture of wrath in all his sufferings but when he plainly seeth a vein of wrath from God in all his sufferings this is the sting of all his sufferings Now our Saviour though he was most innocent in himself yet he seeth that the Justice of God proceeds against him as standing under the guilt of our sins and whatever was inflicted upon him was nothing else but the effect of Divine wrath due to us The death of Christ was a shameful death and a painful death 1. Crucifixion or the death of the Cross was a shameful or ignominious death Hence is that expression of the Apostle Heb. 12. He endured the cross and despised the shame The death of the Cross had shame and ignominy attending of it Crucifixion was such a kind of punishment as was wont to be inflicted upon servants Crux erat servile supplicium mors turpissima and was one of the basest kinds of death And the reason why Crucifixion or hanging upon a tree was accounted so infamous was because he that was hung upon a tree by being lifted up in that manner was looked upon as an execrable person as one that was not fit to live upon the earth as one that was fit to be thrust out of the world turned out of the society of mankind 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 therefore is it that the Heathens accounted this death an impure and filthy kind of death 2. Crucifixion was painful as well as shameful To have several parts of the body thrust through with nails and fastened to a tree and hang there several hours together this must needs be a painful death Now our Saviour sustained all this all this shame all this pain and that which was the venom of all this he sustained and underwent as the effect of Gods wrath and the just punishment that was due to us for our sins So likewise he sustained the greatest sorrows and dolors in his soul as I have shewed at large heretofore Our Saviour finding himself forsaken and deserted of God finding God himself alienated from him yea set against him to cut him off this must needs fill his most holy Soul with the greatest anguish and sorrow and yet all this which he so underwent the pain and shame the anguish and sorrow whatever it was he underwent in either kind in his soul or body he suffered it all as the fruit of Gods anger and displeasure against sin avenging our sins upon him as our Surety And that our Saviour saw all these things coming upon him and actually inflicted upon him as the effect of Gods wrath is plain by what the Apostle adds Gal. 3.13 Christ was made a curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that hangs upon a tree The Apostle proves his assertion Christ was made a curse for us by this Topick or Argument for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree Christ being crucified in that manner being exposed to that kind of suffering and death it was
a plain sign and token that he was looked upon and dealt with as a person accursed of God Maledicti symbolum crux Crux signum maledictae mortu The Cross was a Symbol of the Curse the Cross was a sign of an accursed death Now it is well observed by a Learned man The death of the Cross simply and in it self considered was no more accursed than any other kind of death but therefore was the death of the Cross an accursed death because the person that was to undergo it was an accursed person Transgressio pendentis maledictionem contrabit The transgression of him that was hanged upon the tree was that which did contract the curse If a person had committed a sin worthy of that death he was an accursed person If Christ had not taken upon him the guilt of our sins the death of the Cross could not have rendred him accursed Maledictum cones peccati The Curse is that which accompanies sin and follows upon it therefore it is an elegant passage of one of the Ancients Non ideo maledictus quia pendet sed ideo pendet quia maledictus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Maledictio Dei upensus A person is not therefore accursed because he hangs upon the tree but he is therefore hanged upon the tree because he is accursed The Text from whence the Apostle takes this is Deut. 21.23 He that is hanged is cursed of God so we render it and so the Septuagint renders it Cursed of God Arius Montanus renders it A person that is hanged is the curse of God He is the curse of God that is the curse of God is upon such a person and because the curse of God is upon him therefore doth he suffer that punishment The Chaldee Paraphrase therefore renders it well For as much as he hath sinned against the Lord therefore he is hanged upon the tree Sin preceding brings the curse and the curse of God being upon such a person that kind of punishment was to be inflicted Our Saviour therefore being carried to the Cross and crucified saw plainly that the punishment of our sins was laid upon him our sins were imputed to him as our Surety and he being by this means led to the Cross saw plainly that he suffered the punishment that was due to us The Cross was a sign and Symbol of Christs being made a curse for us And Learned men have this apprehension that in this place in Deuteronomy the Lord did before-hand in his infinite Wisdom point out that kind of death hanging upon the tree as an accursed death because he intended that the death and sufferings of Christ should be signified thereby and that Christ dying in this manner his death should be the expiatory Sacrifice to expiate and take away the Curse that lay upon the whole world By way of admonition Vse 1 Let us be admonished to take heed of being offended at the Cross of Christ Flesh and blood carnal reason are apt to be offended at the Cross of Christ the wisdom of this world is apt to be offended at Christs sufferings carnal reason cannot bear that he that is the Saviour of the world should be exposed to so much shame and contempt Christ crucified saith the Apostle was to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness 1 Cor. 1. The Jews in derision call Christ He that was hanged up Talui suspensus But we may say with the Apostle God forbid that we should glory in any thing save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ He that is ashamed of the cross and sufferings of Christ let him be ashamed of his own Salvation Christ suffering what he did was the cause of our Salvation if ever we saved We may speak to such as are offended at Christs cross and at the shamefulness of his sufferings in the words of Tertullian Parce unicae spei totius orbis quodcunque Deo indignum est mihi expedits Tertul. Be contented to spare the only hope of the whole world thou that destroyest so necessary a pillar of faith whatsoever it is that may seem unworthy of God that was most necessary and expedient for man This is plain and evident if Christ had not been crucified and born the curse of the Law the curse of the Law had still lain upon us and remained to be born by us The Law saith expresly Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written therein to do them and as many as are of the works of the Law are under the curse Therefore if we are under the curse as certainly we are if Christ hath not born the curse for us we must have been still left to bear it Therefore we have reason to be so far from being offended at the sufferings of Christ and at the ignominiousness of his death that we have infinite reason to be so much the more thankful Quantò major est injuria tantò major debetur gratia by how much the greater injury and indignity Christ underwent for us by so much the more thanks we owe to him for suffering so much for us for what relief or comfort could we have had against the pains of Hell and that curse which we deserved if Christ had not suffered the pains of Hell and been made a curse for us Therefore take heed of being offended at the Cross of Christ Vse 2 This shews us how sad and deplorable our condition by nature is Hath Christ been made a curse for us then we by nature are all under the curse Christ that was most blessed in himself was made a curse for us Christ was not born for himself nor lived for himself nor suffered nor dyed for himself but all that Christ did and suffered was for us If therefore Christ was made a curse for us it is a certain sign we are all by nature under the curse and O what a sad and deplorable thing is it to be under the curse of God! The curse is the comprehension of all evil it is the Epitome of all misery the curse comprehends in it all the miseries in this life and eternal damnation in the next The Apostle opens the nature of the Curse to us at large when he saith Rom. 2.8 9. Indignatin and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil This is but a Paraphrase on the Curse and this is the curse that all of us by nature are subject to Indignation wrath tribulation anguish who can bear the thoughts of these things Who of us can think of remaining and abiding under the wrath of God at present and of suffering eternal damnation hereafter Of how much concernment then is it to every one to see that he come out from being under the curse For this is certain we are all by nature under the curse and what will it be to lye under the power of the curse and under the power of the
wrath of God for ever O it is of infinite concernment to us to make haste to him and to embrace him that was made a curse for us that we might be delivered from the curse Christ was made a curse for us that he might deliver them from the curse who flee for refuge to the hope set before them Nothing can pacifie the sin-revenging Justice of God but holding up Christ in the arms of our faith who was made a curse and upon whom the curse hath spent all its venom all its force and strength He that believes on the Son is not condemned Joh. 3.18 Oh let the Doctrine of the Curse which hath been opened make Christ more and more precious to us let us embrace him with both the arms of our faith If we can hide our selves in the Righteousness and Satisfaction of Christ the curse which we have deserved shall never overtake us The end of the ninth Sermon SERMON X. Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends I Come to a third Particular to shew you how it was that Christ was made a curse for us The third Particular is this In Christs being made a curse the wrath of God was consummated upon him Christ in being made a curse for us bare the whole punishment that was due to us It was not part of the punishment only but the whole punishment which was due to us that Christ underwent All the curses of the Law did as it were meet upon him and there was nothing wanting which the Law would inflict upon sinners as sinners but the curse brought upon Christ as our Surety The curse notes the utmost execution of evil upon the sinner It is in the nature of the curse to imprecate the greatest evil upon a person and to bring the utmost evil upon him that it can Therefore Christ being made a curse for us he bare all the punishment that the Law could inflict Maledictio Christi continet omnem poenam nostram Christs being made a curse says a Learned man contains in it all our punishment Whatever punishment was due to us was contained in this That Christ was made a curse And another Judicious Divine hath a passage to this purpose In Christs being made a curse the fulness of Gods wrath and the dregs of that horrible cup was wholly poured out upon that sacred head of his when together and at once Heaven and Earth and Hell seemed to conspire together to exact from our Surety that punishment that was due to our sins in that cursed kind of death which was a sign or Symbol of the Divine curse that lay upon him The whole punishment that was due to us for our sins was laid upon Christ in his being made a curse Hence is that expression Isa 53.6 10. The Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all or as it is in the Margent He hath made the iniquity of us all to meet upon him The sins of all the Elect did meet on Christ that is God did charge all the sins of the Elect upon Christ Christ was reckoned a sinner by imputation as it is in the last verse of that Chapter He was numbred with the transgressors and he bare the sins of â—â—ny He was numbred with the transgressors Christ though he was no sinner in himself yet he was reckoned a sinner 1 Cor. 6.20 He made him to be sin that knew no sin Now as all the sins of the Elect were charged upon Christ in a way of imputation so the punishment of their sins was laid upon him Hence is that expression The chastisement of our peace was upon him Isa 53.3 that is the whole punishment due to us was laid upon Christ and this is called the chastisement of our peace because Christs undergoing of this punishment was that which was necessary to make our peace the Justice of God required satisfaction and unless the punishment which the Law threatens were some way born and undergone God would not be at peace with us therefore saith the Prophet The chastisement of our peace was upon him that is the punishment that was due to us was inflicted and laid upon our Surety that so we that were at variance with God before might now be brought into peace with him Therefore it follows in the same place By his stripes we are healed the chastisement of our people was upon him and by his stripes we are healed Christ bearing that which we should have born he undergoing our punishment this is the means to make our peace with God Hence also is that expression of the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 2.24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree Christ our Surety bare all our sins he hath born the guilt and punishment of all the sins of the Elect and that wholly and fully whatever the Law and Divine Justice would inflict upon us as sinners that Christ our Surety hath born for us Hence is it that our Saviour immediately before his death uttered these words It is finished Joh. 19.30 It is finished 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Acta transacta omnia Beza consummated or perfected all things were done and transacted by Christ that were necessary to be done by him Christ did not make an end of his sufferings until he had suffered all that he was to suffer It is finished that is as another expounds that expression Christ fulfilled all the Scripture-prophecies the subst ance of the Types were fulfilled in him and he fulfilled all that which God determined to be paid for the expiation of sin Christ finished the whole work of our Redemption he left nothing undone and unsuffered that was to be done and suffered in order to the accomplishment of our Salvation It is finished as much as if it had been said Nothing remains more to be suffered but the very act of dying and giving up his life which he was now just about to do all that the Law and Justice could inflict upon him was inflicted upon him and therefore he said It was finished Hence are those expressions we have in the Book of Daniel Dan. 9.24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression and to make an end of sin and to make reconciliation for iniquity Consider those expressions to make an end of sin and to make reconciliation for iniquity That expression which we translate to make an end of sin it is in the Originai to seal up sin Christ hath sealed up sin in respect of the guilt of it as to condemnation Christ by his death hath so sealed up sin that sin hath no more power to condemn those who believe on him he hath perfectly taken away the condemning power of it Hence is it said That Christ hath rased out the hand-writing of ordinances that was against us which was contrary to us and took it out of the way nailing
is it said Every one That so Christ himself saith he might not be excluded Christ who was blessed in his own Righteousness was yet accursed for our sins The curse prevailed so far as to take away Christs life to separate his soul from his body It is true the curse could not prevail so far as to separate either from his person to separate his soul or his body from his person the Person of the Son of God the second Person in Trinity remained united to the soul and body of Christ even when his body and soul were separated each from other and it is our greatest happiness that it was so viz. that the curse could not reach the Person of Christ if I may so express it that is reach his Person so as to dissolve the Union of the two Natures for if the curse could have reached the Person of Christ in the sense I am now speaking of that is if the curse could have extended it self to the Person of Christ so as to dissolve the Union of the two Natures this would have made the death of Christ ineffectual if death could have dissolved the personal Vnion Christs death would have been no more than the death of a meer man of a just man and so his death could not have been meritorious and have satisfied for the sins of the world But though the curse could not take hold of Christs Person so as to dissolve the union between his Person and our nature yet the curse took hold of our nature united to Christs Person The curse did prevail so far as to separate his humane soul from his body To understand this a little more clearly let us consider the Divine nature in Christ was above the Law and above the curse the curse could not reach his Divine nature it could not possibly hurt that but now Christ having assumed our nature and voluntarily made himself subject to the Law and to the curse in our nature the Law hath to do with our nature in Christ We being under sin and under the curse the curse had dominion over us therefore the Apostle tells us That sin reigned unto death Rom. 5.21 Now Christ being our Surety and the Law finding our nature in Christ and that Christ had transferred the guilt of our sins upon himself the Law armed with the curse deals with Christ as a sinner and it proceeds so far as to make the utmost breach upon our nature that it can it rends his holy soul from his pure body And thus for a time the curse seems to triumph over our nature as it stood in Christ Hence is that of the Apostle Rom. 6.9 Christ being dead dyeth no more death hath no more dominion over him This plainly intimates that death and the curse had dominion over Christ for a time and the curse proceeded so far as to the extinction of his natural life his soul was separated from his body though the union between the two natures was not dissolved I come to the third and last Particular and that is this How it was possible for this to be Christ was most blessed in himself how then was it possible for him thus to be made a curse The curse implies anger wrath displeasure in him that pronounceth and inflicts it as hath been shewn how then was it possible for Christ to suffer the wrath of God that was always beloved of God To this several things are to be answered 1. Consider Christ in himself and so he was always beloved of God Mat. 3.17 This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased Isa 42.1 Behold mine Elect in whom my soul delighteth And Christ as he was man had more titles than one to his Fathers love 1. Christ had a title to his Fathers love as his Humanity is taken into so near a relation to the natural Son of God The humane nature in Christ is made one in person with the natural Son of God so that there is not another subsistence of the second Person in Trinity and the humane nature but there is one subsistence to the second Person in Trinity and to the humane nature therefore the humane nature being taken in as it were to have its subsistence in the person of the natural Son of God being taken into the unity of the same person must needs be beloved of the Father upon that account above all creatures 2. Christ is beloved of the Father as he is a just and an innocent person and he must needs be beloved of the Father upon that account Isa 46.8 The Lord loveth the righteous Christ being a just and a righteous pâ—â—son the Father could not but love him as considered in himself 3. The Father loved Christ upon the account of his obedience Joh. 10.17 Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life for my sheep and in the next verse This commandment have I received of my Father Christ obeying his Father in laying down his life for his sheep is one title he hath to his Fathers love therefore consider Christ in himself so he was always beloved of the Father 2. Christ suffered the wrath of God as he was our Surety and as he stood in our stead 1 Pet. 4.1 Christ hath suffered for us 1 Pet. 3.18 Christ hath once suffered for sin the just for the unjust This is a clear Text Christ was a just person in himself and as he was a just person so he was always beloved of God and could not but be beloved of him But now as he that was a just person in himself gave himself to suffer for the unjust so it was that he bare the wrath of God The wrath of God was due to the unjust Tribulation and anguish indignation and wrath upon every soul of man that doth evil Rom 2. Therefore if the just will suffer for the unjust in their room and stead he must then suffer what they must have suffered It is a true speech of Austin Mors Christi fuit conditionis non criminis Aug. The death which Christ underwent was not in respect of any crime or offence that he himself had committed but it was in respect of the condition that he brought himself into that is Christ suffered the wrath of God not for any crime or offence of his own but in the condition of a Mediator because of our sins Hence is it said That he was delivered up for our offences Rom. 6. ult So in that of the Prophet Isa 53.5 He was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him Christ took upon him the discharge and payment of our debt therefore though he was always beloved of God in himself yet as personating and representing us who were sinners so it was that he sustained the wrath of God All we like sheep have gone astray saith the Prophet and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all Isa 53.6 We
had any influence as to the satisfying of Gods Justice Now the whole Doctrine of Christs Satisfaction that hath been opened doth oppugn this assertion of theirs for it hath been proved at large that Christ hath suffered the substance of what we ought to have suffered and that what Christ did suffer was with this intention 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnus exolvit quod ab omnibus debebatur Ambros to make satisfaction for us Mat. 20.28 The Son of man came not to be ministred unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom for many It is a speech of one of the Ancients One hath paid that which was due from all If the death of Christ were only a kind of Martyrdom and to confirm the truth which he had taught and were only for an example and for no other ends but these then the death of Christ would be very little different from the deaths of other of the Saints for other of the Saints have laid down their lives to confirm the truths they have professed and the sufferings of other of the Saints are given to us for an example We have an express Scripture for this Jam. 5.10 Take my brethren the Prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord for an example of suffering affliction and of patience Here we see the Prophets sufferings are given for an example to us but certainly the sufferings of Christ are far of another nature than the sufferings of the Prophets or of any of the Saints whatsoever It is an excellent speech of one of the Ancients Although saith he the death of many of the Saints hath been precious in the sight of God yet notwithstanding the death of no innocent person besides Christ himself was the propitiation for the world It is the expression which the Apostle John useth 1 Joh. 2.2 where he tells us That Christ is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world Though the deaths of the Martyrs were precious yet none of their deaths was the propitiation for the sins of the world and then our Author goes on Acceperunt justi non dederunt coronas exempla nata sunt patientiae non dona justitiae Those just persons who have been martyred for the truth have received not given Crowns and from the courage and fortitude of the Martyrs in their sufferings we have examples of patience afforded to us not any gifts of merit Theirs were but single deaths that were undergone by them neither doth one pay anothers debt there was only one Lord Jesus Christ found among the sons of men in whom all were crucified all have dyed all have risen again They who deny and take away the Doctrine of Christs Satisfaction endeavour to take from us a principal part of the Gospel and to remove from us the principal pillar of all our comfort and support for one of the great Truths which the Gospel reveals is the Righteousness of Christ for the justification of a sinner So the Apostle tells us Rom. 1.16 17. I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ for therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith The Apostle here gives us an account of the Gospel what it is that the Gospel reveals it reveals to us the Righteousness of God the great and fundamental Truth revealed in the Gospel is that righteousness whereby men may be justified in the sight of God What this righteousness is the Apostle doth more fully make known to us in another place of this Epistle Rom. 3.25 26. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his righteousness So that the righteousness which the Gospel reveals is That God is willing to pardon sinners and to accept them as righteous upon the account of the death and sufferings of his Son and upon the account of the satisfaction which he hath made So that they who go about to subvert the Satisfaction and Righteousness of Christ do in effect undermine the whole Gospel and do as much as lyes in them disannul it For if the scope of the Gospel be to reveal the Righteousness of Christ which is the result of his death and sufferings the result of his obedience active and passive then they that would take away this would take away a main part of the Gospel from us So likewise as the denying of Christs Satisfaction is the overthrow of a principal part of the Gospel so it is that which takes away the main pillar of our comfort For if Christ hath not satisfied for us we are still liable to satisfie the Justice of God in our own persons for God is a just and righteous God He hath said That he will by no means clear the guilty and the sentence of the Law remains firm upon us That the soul that sins shall dye and Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them Therefore unless Christ hath made satisfaction for us all these things must of necessity stand firm against us unless there be a ransom found for us we are still liable to answer to Divine Justice It is a great Scripture to confirm this Job 33.23 24. If there be a messenger with him an interpreter one of a thousand to shew unto man his uprightness then is he gracious to him and saith Deliver him I have found a ransom for him To shew unto man his uprightness The uprightness here spoken of is conceived by Learned men not the uprightness of man himself but the uprightness of God To shew unto man his uprightness that is the uprightness of God What is this uprightness of God It is Gods uprightness in dealing with man according to the tenour of Gospel-grace Compare this with Rom. 3.22 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ Here we have a description of the tenour of Gospel grace the grace of the Gospel consists in this That we are justified freely by Gods grace through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ Now this is the uprightness of God Gods dealing with men according to the tenour of his grace promulgated in the Gospel God having discovered this to be his mind that he will pardon mens sins upon the account of the death and sufferings of his Son when this uprightness of God is thus discovered to men and they by faith lay hold of the grace of God thus promulgated and made known to them then God hath found a ransom Now when God hath found a ransom for men then he saith Deliver them then is he gracious and saith Deliver him from going down into the pit for I have found a ransom for him Had there not been a ransom found for us there had been no deliverance from the pit of destruction here
how is it that men entertain these offers of grace and good things made to them in Christ read vers 5. They made light of it and went their ways one 18 his farm another to his merchandise O but mark the issue how doth God take this flighting of his grace rejecting of his Son and despising of the marriage-feast read vers 7. When the King heard of this he was wroth and he sent forth his armies and destroyed those murtherers and burnt up their city This was the revenge which God took for his despised and rejected grace He sent the Armies of the Romans burnt up Jerusalem destroyed the Nation of the Jews to whom Christ and the Gospel was first sent That the Son of God who was God blessed for ever should come from Heaven in person that he should take to himself the nature of man and do and suffer such things for man in the nature of man and yet be contemned and rejected by men this makes the sin of men very great In Joh. 6.51 our Saviour tells us That he was the living bread that came down from heaven and the bread which he would give was his flesh which he would give for the life of the world I am the living bread which came down from heaven The Son of God who was life happiness salvation and all good things came down into our nature assumed a part of our flesh and gave that flesh for the life of the world Now when the Son of God himself so great a person and all his sufferings shall be contemned and despised this must needs be great sin This is more fully explained to us in another Scripture Heb. 10.26 27 28 29 30. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remains no more sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries He that despised Moses law dyed without mercy under two or three witnesses Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace for we know him that said Vengeance belongeth unto me I will recompense saith the Lord. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God The scope of the Apostle is to shew how severely God punisheth the contemners and despisers of Gospel-grace The sin of such who contemn the Gospel and reject the grace of it consists in this That they neglect and contemn the great Sacrifice that was offered for sin that is plainly implied in that expression when it is said There remains no more sacrifice for sin If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remains no more sacrifice for sin It is as much as if the Apostle had said There was a sacrifice for sin there was a sacrifice appointed there was a means to pacifie and atone God namely the death of his Son But they that neglect and reject the grace of the Gospel they contemn this sacrifice this great and only sacrifice they contemn the sufferings and satisfaction of Christ by which they might have peace with God Now let us consider what is the sentence that is passed upon such What is like to become of such who thus contemn the Gospel and despise the grace of it who contemn the great and only sacrifice That which is reserved for such is this It is judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remains no more sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversary 1. Consider God accounts such adversaries as persist and continue in sin after the offer and tender of grace to them God would be reconciled to men but they will not be reconciled to him therefore they are adversaries they continue in open hostility against God 2. There is judgment reserved for such a certain and fearful looking for of judgment God will judge them according to their deserts he will execute judgment upon them according to their demerit and that we may fully understand this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he calls it fiery indignation Beza renders it Heat of fire as much as if it had been said The hottest of Gods wrath is reserved for such and shall fall upon such as contemn and reject the Gospel And then the Apostle goes on to confirm this in vers 28 29. He that despised Moses law dyed without mercy under two or three witnesses Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who tramples under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace The force of his argument comes to this He that transgressed the Law of Moses was punished he therefore that despiseth the Gospel shall be much more punished He that despised Moses law dyed without mercy Why doth the Apostle call it Moses Law That which was called Moses Law was indeed the Law of God Moses was only the Minister to whom and by whom it was delivered but the Law was God's But Moses is set here in opposition to Christ Moses was a Minister and Servant only but Christ was more than a Minister and a Servant Christ was the Son of God therefore doth the Apostle say Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who trod under foot the Son of God Here lies the force of the argument If God did not suffer the transgressours of the Law which was published by Moses a Minister and Servant to go unpunished much less will he suffer the rejection of the Gospel which was published by his own Son that came out of his bosom to go unpunished The Law came by Mases but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1.17 But this is not all the Doctrine of the Gospel hath not only a more excellent Publisher than the Law which is the Son of God whereas Moses was a Minister and Servant only but there is something more in it the matter published and the great object of saith propounded in the Gospel is the Son of God himself that expression Who hath trampled under foot the Son of God doth not only intimate that Christ the Son of God is the Publisher of the Gospel but it also intimates the great sin of them who reject the Gospel in that they reject so excellent a Person as the Son of God is who is the subject matter of the Gospel Compare this with other Scriptures Rom. 1.3 Separate unto the Gospel of God concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. The great thing which the Gospel reveals is the Son of God 2
great thing for God to become man but it was a greater thing for that person who was God to put himself into the nature of man to dye for man Joh. 6.51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven and the bread which I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world Christ is said to come down from Heaven by his Incarnation when the Son of God took our nature into unity of person with himself this was his coming down from Heaven Now that the Word as he is called Joh. 1.1 In the beginning was the Word that the Word the second Person in Trinity should not only assume flesh but give that flesh for the life of the world this was the highest demonstration of love Hence is that expression of the Apostle 1 Joh. 3.16 Hereby preceive we the love of God that he lay down his life for us As if he should say This is the most illustrious and glorious manifestation of the love of God to us that that Person who was God laid down his life for us He that was God by nature took up the humanity in a voluntary way of condescension and having voluntarily taken up our nature voluntarily laid down the life of his humanity for us It was not possible for him to lay down the life of his Divinity but that Person who was God took up the humane nature and in that nature laid down the life of his humanity for us This is that which sets forth the greatness of Christs love that he should lay down his life for us What more contrary or unsuitable to the Nature of God than sin suffering and death and yet Christ who was God as well as man God and man in one person although he had no sin of his own no sin inherent in him yet was he content to be accounted a sinner He was numbered among the transgressors as the Prophet speaks Isa 53. yea He was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 Christ also who was above suffering and death exposed himself to suffering and death for us He tasted death for every man Heb. 2.9 Thus was the Son of God pleased out of the greatness of his love to us to put himself as it were out of Heaven into Hell and to descend from the height and top of happiness to the lowest degree of misery and abasement He humbled himself saith the Apostle and became obedient to the death even the death of the cross This Doctrine of the Cross is the greatest stumbling-block and offence to carnal reason to hear of a crucified God to hear that he that was to be the Saviour of the world should suffer and dye this is that which carnal reason cannot away with 1 Cor. 1.23 We preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness A crucified Saviour was the great stumbling-block to the world and yet that which was accounted foolishness by the men of the world was the Wisdom of God to save the world by it This I say was the lowest degree of Christs humiliation or exinanition that the Lord of glory should expose himself to suffering and death for our sakes this is commonly expressed in that Article of our Faith That Christ descended into Hell When we say that Christ descended into Hell we are not to understand any local descension as if Christ did descend into the place of the Damned thus indeed Bellarmine and some others have understood that Article of a local descension but by Christs descending into Hell we are to understand the lowest degree of his humiliation his descending into a state of mortality and death first being content to put himself into a passible and mortal state who himself had been impassible and immortal and then actually undergoing suffering and death for us Eph. 4.9 That he ascended what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth What are those lower parts of the earth into which Christ descended Compare it with Acts 2.27 Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell that is thou shalt not leave it in the grave So that Christs descending into the lowest parts of the earth is his descending into the grave Christ indeed suffered the pains of Hell but we do not read he descended into Hell locally and Christ suffered the pains of Hell in this life as I had occasion to shew heretofore But his soul did not locally descend into Hell no his soul was taken into Paradise This day saith Christ to the repenting Thief shalt thou be with me in Paradise Thou shalt be with me that is as a Learned man understands it thy humane soul shall be with my humane soul in Paradise Christ as to the presence of his Divinity is every where therefore when he speaks of his being in Paradise this is most properly to be understood of his humane soul that his humane soul was to be in Paradise Christs descending into Hell therefore notes his descending into the state of the dead which was the completion of all his sufferings and the lowest state of his humiliation 2. The love of Christ in his sufferings and in the work of his Satisfaction appears in this That we were the offending persons and Christ a person most innocent It was we that had done the wrong and injury unto God and yet Christ who had not committed the least offence was content to suffer for us Isa 53.6 All we like sheep have gone astray and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all So in vers 9 10. He had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him Hence also is that of the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 3.18 Christ suffered for sin the just for the unjust Christ who was a just and an innocent person gave himself to suffer for us who were the unjust and nocent persons yea which is much more admirable Christ who was one of the persons offended unto whom the wrong and injury was done he comes to suffer and bear the punishment for them that had committed the offence The injured person is content to bear the punishment for them who had done him the wrong and injury Sin is an offence against all the Persons of the Trinity for as all the Persons of the Trinity have but one Essence one Majesty one and the same Will so sin strikes at all the Persons and is an offence against all because it is one and the same common Divinity that is offended in all and yet the Son of God who is one of the Persons of the Trinity and had received wrong and injury from men by reason of their sins was pleased to take upon him the nature of man and to bear the punishment which man had deserved for his offence against himself as well as against the other Persons Hence is it said
That Christ hath given himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Tit. 2.14 Observe that expression That he might purifie unto himself Christ did not give himself that he might purifie to the Father only a peculiar people but also that he might purifie to himself a peculiar people So Eph. 5.25 Christ gave himself for his Church that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word that he might present it to himself a glorious Church Here it is said That he might present it to himself a glorious Church As Christ by his death and sufferings reconciled us to God the Father so he reconciled us to himself also It is true the Scripture when it speaks of the work of reconciliation doth in a peculiar manner attribute it to the Father as the Person to whom we are reconciled and it speaks of our reconciliation to God by Christ 2 Cor. 5.18 All things are of Godâ— who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ Col. 1.20 By him to reconcile all things to himself By him that is by Christ To reconcile all things to himself that is to the Father by Christ then we are reconciled to the Father But we must understand this aright When it is said We are reconciled to the Father by Christ we must not suppose that the other Persons are excluded We are not only reconciled to the Father but we are reconciled to the whole Trinity and Christ considered as Mediator as God-man reconciles us to himself considered as God simply And here lies the Mystery of Divine wisdom and goodness that God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself God is the person offended and yet in and by his Son it is he that offers reconciliation to the world 3. The greatness of Christs love in laying down his life for us appears in this That there was no merit in us to move Christ to lay down his life for us It is well observed by Austin It was our sins not our merits that drew Christ from Heaven to earth As we could not merit Christs Incarnation so neither could we merit his death and sufferings for us For what is it that we can suppose that should merit Christs death and sufferings for us Was it our fore-seen faith or our fore-seen obedience This is all that can be supposed Now these were the effects of Christs death and sufferings therefore they could not be the cause of them It is observed by Alvarez That Christs fore-seen Merits were the cause of all that grace that was bestowed upon man in the state of lapsed nature Joh. 1.17 Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ All the grace that we receive in lapsed nature is by Jesus Christ Eph. 1.4 God hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ Christs Merits are the foundation of our faith and obedience Whatever faith and obedience is found in us is wrought by the Spirit of Christ in us Now the Spirit it self that works all grace in us is the purchase and fruit of the death of Christ Tit. 3.4 After that the kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man appeared not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour The Holy Ghost is shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour that is through the Merit of Jesus Christ our Saviour Now it is by this Spirit that faith it self and all other effects of grace are wrought in us therefore it is said By grace are ye saved through faith and that not of your selves it is the gift of God Eph. 2.8 4. We were so far from having any merit to oblige Christ to suffer and dye for us that we were full of demerit full of evil merits We were sinners enemies rebels against God and herein God commended his love to us that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Rom. 5.8 The greatest love amongst men is when one friend will dye for another Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friend But where was it known that ever any man laid down his life for his enemy Yet Christ hath commended his love to us in that while we were enemies he dyed for us Col. 1.21 You that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death It is commonly said That sin is a kind of God-murther Peccatum est Deicidium the sinner would dethrone God and take away the life and Being of God if it lay in his power Now herein the admirable and transcendent love of God to man appeared That when man by sin would dethrone God and take away the life and Being of God if it were in his power that God would lay down his life for them that would take away his life and Being God redeemed the Church with his own blood and Hereby perceive we the love of God that he laid down his life for us Learn to study much the greatness of Christs love in his sufferings Vse 1 and in the work of his Satisfaction Let us often have recourse to the Cross of Christ and by the eye of faith behold the Son of God in our nature giving himself a Sacrifice for our sins The more we study the love of Christ in his sufferings and in the work of his Satisfaction we shall find two notable effects of it 1. Hereby we shall be strengthened and confirmed in our belief of Christs love to us 2. This will be a means to beget greater measures of love in our hearts to Christ 1. The more we contemplate the love of Christ to us in his sufferings and satisfaction the more shall we be strengthened and confirmed in our belief of Christs love to us 1 Joh. 4.16 We have known and believed the love that God hath towards us for God is love How come we to know and believe the love that God hath towards us Compare this with the former verses and they will shew us vers 8 9 10. God is love In this was manifested the love of God to us that he sent his only begotten Son that we might live through him Herein was love not that we loved God but that God loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins When by faith we can apprehend and believe that God hath sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins this will confirm us in the certain belief and perswasion of the love of God to us Who hath reason to doubt of Gods love when he is certainly perswaded and doth firmly believe that God hath sent his Son from Heaven to earth to take our nature and being in our
him giving himself to us for these are no vain words This is my body which was broken for you setting aside those gross conceits of the Papists That the bread is transubstantiated into the body of Christ and that Christ is corporally present under the outward form of the Elements I say setting aside their gross conceits there is certainly a real though spiritual presence of Christ to every believing soul in the Sacrament The humane nature of Christ indeed is really present in Heaven therefore is it said Whom the heavens must contain till the time of the restitution of all things Act. 3. Yet the virtue of Christs body and blood is still really communicated to every believing soul Corpus ipsum in quo passus est resurrexit yea not only so saith Calvin Not only the virtue of his Death and Resurrection but that very body that dyed and rose again this is offered to us in the Sacrament these are great Mysteries indeed Now not to have a due reverence to such great and sublime Mysteries as these are to come to these as if they were common and ordinary things or to come to them with a common and slight spirit this is to come unworthily 2. Then do we come unworthily to the Sacrament when we live in the practice of any gross sin or retain the love of any sin We profess by our coming to the Sacrament that we believe that Christ dyed for such and such sins and yet we love these sins or continue in the practice of those sins that cost Christ his life this is to offer the greatest indignity to the Son of God This is as if a Traitor should come to sit at Table with the King to dine or sup with him and yet never repent of his treason but retain a traiterous mind and intention in his heart all the while When a man sits at the same table to eat and drink with another it is a sign of friendship no one would willingly admit another to his table but whom he accounts to be his friend When we come to the Lords Table we profess the highest friendship to Christ now when we profess the highest friendship to Christ and yet retain that in our love and practice that is most directly contrary to the honour and glory of Christ this is the greatest indignity that can be This is that the Apostle calls the crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting him to an open shame Heb. 6.6 What is this but crucifying Christ afresh and making Christ as contemptuous as possibly we can whenas we profess to expect salvation by the death and sufferings of Christ and yet in the mean time love harbour entertain and practise those very things we say we believe Christ dyed for Certainly every loose Christian that makes a profession of Christ and yet lives in gross open sins makes a plain mock of Christ and his sufferings for he professeth that he believes he shall be pardoned by the sufferings and death of Christ and yet he continues in the love and practice of those sins as if so be the end of Christs death were that men might continue in their sins and not be delivered from them 3. Then do men come unworthily to the Sacrament when they come without examining themselves Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup 1 Cor. 11.28 It is observable the Apostle opposeth this examining a mans self to his eating unworthily In the former verse he had said He that eats this bread and drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord now he adds But let a man examine himself so then if a man do not examine himself then he eats unworthily But it may be said Object What ought a man to examine himself about Concerning two things Answ 1. Concerning his state 2. Concerning the present frame and dispostion of his heart 1. A man ought to examine himself concerning his state whether he be in Christ whether he have a right to such an Ordinance 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobate We must examine our selves concerning our fundamental estate whether that be good yea or no to examine what standing we have in Christ 2. We ought to examine our selves concerning the frame and disposition of our souls whether we be in a fit frame to partake of such an Ordinance We ought to examine our selves whether our hearts be strongly bent and inclined to any sin whether we be under the power of any sin this is the examination of our repentance We ought to examine what the frame of our hearts is God-ward whether the bent of our hearts be towards God and the ways of God this is the examining of our other graces Now when we rush upon the Sacrament without reflexion and examination of our spiritual state this is unworthy coming And here let us observe That the children of God themselves may in a degree come in an unworthy manner for there are several degrees of unworthy receiving They that have slight and contemptuous thoughts of this Ordinance they that live in gross and scandalous sins they are guilty of unworthy receiving in the highest degree But then they that have true grace and do not retain in their hearts the love of any sin yet if they are remiss in searching into their hearts to find out their secret corruptions and to judge themselves for them they come unworthily in a lesser degree and God may correct his own children for their spiritual remisness in this kind The Apostle tells us For this cause many were sickly and weak and many were fallen asleep 1 Cor. 11.30 that is for coming to the Sacrament without due preparation Others who grosly profane this Ordinance that come to this Ordinance and live in gross sins and continue to live and dye in them God punisheth them otherwise he punisheth them with eternal condemnation He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself or judgment to himself as the word may be rendred The godly themselves coming in a rude and careless manner to this Ordinance may and oftentimes do bring the judgment of temporal chastisement upon themselves for not coming in a right manner to so great an Ordinance But such as are profane who come to this Ordinance and yet live in sin they eat to themselves the judgment of eternal condemnation Now to return unto what we first propounded to come unworthily to the Sacrament is one way of contemning Christs sufferings And if it be asked What is the reason of it why is the unworthy receiving of the Sacrament a contemning of Christs sufferings I answer 1. Because the Sacrament is a plain revelation and exhibition of Christ crucified This is my body which was broken
for you That very body of Christ in which he suffered dyed rose again is offered to us in the Sacrament to be looked upon by faith The Sacrament is as the Ancients call it Verbum visibile a visible Word The Sacrament declares by visible signs and representations that which the Word doth in another way Now as it is a great sin to contemn Christ when he is made known to us in the way of the Word so it is a great sin to contemn Christ when he is revealed to us by his own signs and symbols which are of his own institution instituted on purpose by himself to make himself known to us 2. The Sacrament is appointed to confirm our union and communion with Christ The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ 1 Cor. 10. The ancient Church called the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Sacramentum unionis the Sacrament of Vnion because it is that special Ordinance by which our union and communion with Christ is strengthened and confirmed And our Saviour in effect tells us as much when he saith He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him Job 6.56 When we eat Christs flesh and drink his blood Christ dwells in us and we in him Now when we profess the nearest union and communion with the person of Christ and with the death and sufferings of Christ and we slight both his person and his sufferings this must needs be a great sin Thus have we heard now how Christ and his sufferings may be contemned there is another thing that may be added and that is 5. That Apostates such as fall from deny and renounce the faith of Christ they once presessed they do in an eminent manner pour contempt upon the sufferings of Christ Of these the Apostle speaks in a peculiar manner Heb. 10. and of these he saith That they account the blood of the Covenant by which they are sanctified an unholy thing He that apostatizes from the Christian Profession what doth he do but make a mock of Christ and his sufferings as if all that he had formerly professed concerning Christ and his sufferings were but a meer sable Now it concerns us greatly to see that we be not found in the number of such who are contemners of Christs person or of his sufferings and the reason is because great punishment is denounced on such Heb. 10.29 Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace There is a sorer punishment shall be inflicted upon such who despise the person of Christ and contemn his sufferings and I verily believe this is one main cause of the Judgments which God hath already executed and will yet further execute upon the unthankful world because his Son hath been revealed to the world in this last Century of years more than in former Ages by that clear and great light that hath broken forth and yet men make no reckoning of Christ and of his grace but are grown worse and worse more profane and atheistical under the light of the Gospel that hath shone upon them As Idolatry was the great sin that God did avenge under the Old Testament upon the Jews that were then his professing people so the contempt of the Gospel wherein there hath been a plain and manifest revelation of the Son of God and of that grace and salvation which is brought by his death and sufferings seems to be the great sin that God is avenging upon professing Christians The end of the nineteenth Sermon SERMON XX. Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends I Proceed now to another Consideration to shew the greatness of Christs Love in his Sufferings Consid 7 The love of Christ in his sufferings appears in this That the Son of God so great a person should suffer such things as he did suffer for us The love of Christ doth not only appear from the consideration of the excellency of the person suffering but also from the consideration of the things themselves that he suffered for us that so great a person should suffer so much shame such reproach such indignity as he did for us this is that which commends Christs love to us Heb. 12.2 He endured the cross and despised the shame Isa 50.6 I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair I hid not my face from shame and spitting That the Son of God should suffer such things for us poor men that he should suffer such pains and torments in soul and body for us this commends his love to us The sufferings of Christ did far exceed the sufferings of any other man yea if the sufferings of all men were put together they are not to be compared with the sufferings of Christ and the reason is because Christ did suffer the very pains of Hell for us as we have heard Christ did not only suffer from men but he suffered from the hands of his Father it pleased the Father to bruise him he put him to grief Isa 53. Christ did not only suffer in his body but he suffered in his soul yea his soul-sufferings were the greatest sufferings there it was that he suffered dereliction there it was that he suffered the sense of Gods wrath no sorrows were ever like to Christs sorrows and yet these sorrows Christ did voluntarily and electively undergo for our sakes Our Saviour knew before-hand what his sufferings were like to be and yet he freely underwent them Christ did not rush upon his sufferings unawares but he knew what his sufferings would be and yet he was content to undergo them for our sakes Luk. 12.50 I have a baptism to be baptized with he speaks of the Baptism of his sufferings The Lord Jesus knew that he was to undergo such sore and grievous sufferings and yet he voluntarily underwent them he did not rum ignorantly upon them but he knew before-hand what he was to suffer and yet he chose voluntarily to suffer that which he knew would be so bitter and grievous to him It is a great alleviation of a mans sufferings not to know what he hath to suffer the contemplation of a mans sufferings before-hand is sometimes almost as great a suffering as the suffering it self that he is to undergo but yet the Son of God had the contemplation and foresight in his mind of the sufferings that he was to undergo for us yet he was content notwithstanding to under go them Mat. 16.21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew to his Disciples how he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the
Elders and chief Priests and Scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day Our Saviour was not ignorant of his own sufferings but had a perfect contemplation of them in his mind before-hand he knew how great and bitter and sore they would be and yet he was content to undergo them for our sakes Consid 8 The love of Christ in his sufferings appears in this That so great a person should give himself to suffer such things to expiate so vile a thing as sin which yet he hated so much and had power to punish that the life of the best person should go to expiate the worst thing this is admirable Sin is the worst of evils the vilest thing in the world Now that the life of the most excellent person the life of the Son of God should be given to expiate so vile a thing as sin this is admirable indeed The Lord hath caused to meet on him the iniquity or perversness of us all Isa 53. Sin is the perversness of the creature it is the crookedness or depravation of a mans actions sin is a defection or turning aside from a right path and yet the Son of God gave himself to expiate so vile a thing as sin is Dedit tam inaestimabile pretium pro tam despecta odioque dignissima re Luther It is a speech of Luther He gave so inestimable a price for our sins for a thing so vile so despicable so worthy to be hated What more abominable what more odious in the sight of God than sin and yet the Son of God gave himself to expiate our sins Sin is most hareful to Christ Heb. 1.9 Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity it is spoken of Christ and yet though Christ hated sin so much he gave himself for our sins Gal. 1.4 Who gave himself for our sins and as Christ hated sin so had he power to punish and to be avenged for it and yet rather than we should undergo the punishment that was due to us he himself who had power to inflict the punishment and might justly have done it was content to suffer the punishment for us Well may we cry out with Luther O the condescension and love of God to wards man God was the person offended and yet God came to suffer the punishment that man deserved Consid 9 The love of Christ in his sufferings appears in this That Christ had all the Elect before him at once and suffered for all the Elect. It was not for one or a few of the Elect only that he suffered or for some or a few of their sins that he suffered but it was for all the sins of all the Elect Eph. 5.25 Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it It was the Church that Christ gave himself for Christ knew all his sheep by name and he laid down his life for his sheep Paul could say He hath loved me and given himself for me and every true Believer may say He hath loved me and given himself for me Why now what an insinite Sea and Ocean of love must there needs be in the heart of Christ when as Christ out of the greatness of his love gave himself as a Sacrifice to expiate the guilt of all the sins of all the Elect that ever had been committed or should be committed to the end of the world This is set forth by the Apostle 1 Joh. 2.2 He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world that is Christ is not only the propitiation for ours sins who do now live and believe on him but he is also the propitiation for the sins of all others who shall live after us and believe on him even to the end of the world The virtue of Christs death and the efficacy of his sufferings to the Elect of all Ages Consid 10 The love of Christ in his sufferings appears in this That Christ by his death and sufferings hath delivered us from that which was the greatest matter of fear to us The great thing which all the sons of men have feared hath been death and the consequence of death The great thing threatned for sin was death In the day that thou eatest thou shalt dye the death Death was the great punishment threatned for sin hence it comes to pass that all mankind ever since the Fall have been under a slavish fear of death and the consequence of death The great things which we do naturally dread are death and what follows death Hell and the wrath of God Now Christ by laying down his life hath taken away the fear of death and the consequences of death This is fully expressed by the Apostle Heb. 2.14 That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage There are two things which the Apostle intimates are the great things that do keep men in bondage all their days the one is the fear of death and the other is the power that the Devil had over men That he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil The Devil hath not the power of death simply and absolutely but he is said to have the power of death as he is the Executioner of Gods wrath and drags men to the torments of Hell Now Christ by his death delivers us from both these he delivers us from the fear of death and from the power of the Devil 1. Christ by death delivers us from death the strength and venom of death is spent in the death of Christ Christ underwent death as it was the Curse that was denounced upon us for sin Now death is no more a part of the Curse to a Believer because Christ hath undergone it as a curse for us 2. Christ hath also undergone the pains and torments of Hell as formerly hath been shewed and therefore he hath enervated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made void or frustrated the power of the Devil as the word signifies Christ by his death hath taken away Satans power The Devil after a sort as he was the Executioner of Gods wrath might be said to have the power of death that is of eternal death after a sort and in a sense he hath power over those torments which the damned feel But now Christ having born those pains and torments for his people the Devil hath nothing to do with them he hath no power over them Could we contemplate death as we ought to do in the death of Christ we might see death to have lost all its strength all its venom in the death of Christ It is the observation of Luther Could we believe so firmly as we ought to do that Christ dyed for our sins and rose again for our justification there would remain nothing of fear or terrour in us for saith he the