not mixed with Faith And that for making the Duty acceptable Faith is necessarily requisite we may clearly see Heb. 11.6 where it is expressly said that without Faith it is impossible to please God And how is it that Abel offers a more excellent Sacrifice than Cain it was nothing sure in Cain's Sacrifice it self that made it be casten nor any thing in Abel's that made it be received or acceptable but Faith in the Messiah to come that was found to be in the one and was a missing in the other Is there not reason then to press this Duty on you and to exhort you not to think this a common and easie thing though the most part think it to be so if we look to the benefites of it to the difficulty of it and to the rarity of it in the World there is no Duty had need more to be press'd than this even that Christ Jesus should get the Burthen of your immortal Souls cast on Him by this Saving Faith I shall therefore in the further prosecution of this First Shew what mainly ye would eshew and avoid as that whereat Folk more ordinarily stumble Secondly What it is we would press you to and on what Grounds For the first I know the deceits and mistakes in Men about the Exercise of Faith are so many that they are moe then can well or easily be reckoned up yet we shall in some generals spoken of before hint at a few of them for so long as ye continue in the same Snares they must be still pointed out to you and endeavours still used to undeceive and extract you out of them and therefore 1. Beware of resting on a Doctrinal Faith which before I called Historical We know it 's hard to convince some that they want Faith yet we would have you to consider that it is not every kind of Faith but Saving Faith that will do your turn it 's the want of that which the Prophet complains of And therefore to open this a little ye would consider That there may be really such a Faith as is an assent to the truth of the Word in a natural Man yea in a Reprobate but that Faith will never unite to Christ nor be waited with the Pardon of Sin First I do not say that every one that is in the visible Church hath this Doctrinal Faith to believe a Heaven and a Hell that the Scripture is the Word of God and that all that believe in Christ shall get Pardon of Sin and Life the carriage alace of many testifies that they have not this much whatever fleeting notions they may have of these things or whatever esteem they may seem to put on the Gospel and whatever profession they may make that they believe the truth of it yet in their deeds they deny it for if there were a fixedness in the Doctrinal Faith of the Gospel in Men they durst not for their Souls live as they do Neither yet Secondly Do we say that all they that have this Doctrinal Faith of the Gospel or somewhat of it do believe every passage in it alike but often as they please them they believe them Hence many believe what the Word speaks of Mercy and of Pardon of Sin and will not question that but what it speaks of Holiness and of the severity of God's reckoning with Men for Sin they do not so credit that part of the Word it 's true where the Faith of the one is the Faith of the other will some way be but because the one agrees better with their Corruption than the other therefore the one is not so so received as the other and it 's very frequent with such to be found diminishing from one place and adding to another of the Word of God Nor Thirdly Do we say that all Men do in a like and equal degree believe the truâ—h of the Word there is in some more Knowledge in some less in some moe Convictions in some fewer and though we preach to you all yet there are some that believe not this to be God's Ordinance albeit there are many who will not be saved that takes this Word to be the Word of God and believe what is the meaning of it because the Word it self says it is so And the reason of this is 1. Because there is nothing that is not Saving but a Natural Man may hâ—ve it now this Doctrinal Faith is not Saving and so a Natural Man may have it yea the Devils believe and tremble and James does not dispute with these to whom he writes on this account that they believe not thus but tells them that Historical Faith was not enough and we think a man in Nature may have a great perswasion of the truth of the Word of God and that what it says will come to pass and yet still continue but a Natural Man A second Reason is Because the Scripture speaks so often of many sorts of Faith that are not Saving as Exod. 14. at the close it 's said the People believed the Lord and Psal 106.12 then they believed His Word and sang His praise and John 2.23 many believed on Christ to whom He did not commit himself there was Faith in them which His Signs and Miracles extorted from them which was not Saving and Matth. 13. two or three such acts of Faith are spoken of in the Parable of the Sower that were not Saving however sound they might be in their own kind and 1 Cor. 13. we have such a Faith spoken of as a Man dare not deny the truth of the Word though he should bring his Body to be burnt by his avouching of the same A third Reason is Because as much credit may be given to the Word as is given to any other History that is creditably believed and it 's on this ground that we believe there was such Men as Cesar Pompey Wallace c. and it being certain that there may be impressions on the Consciences of Hearers that this is God's Word backed with some common work of the Spirit and that it is generally received to be the Word of God in the part of the World we live in what wonder is it that Folk believe thus and drink in this Historical or Doctrinal Faith of the Word so as they may even dare to suffer to Death for it and yet in the mean time they may want Saving Faith the Devils being as sure as any Natural Man is that God is true and that His Word will be performed and therefore they say to Christ Art thou come to torment us before the time the Paâ—gs of a Natural Conscience in Men will assure them of a Judgment coming though they tremble to think on it And therefore ere we proceed further take a word of Use from this and it may let you see the great and very general mistake of the most part of the Hearers of the Gospel in resting on this Doctrinal Faith If ye tell them that
Command with many gracious Promises knit to it as Isa 55. Hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting Covenant with you even the sure mercies of David And whenever the Command of Believing comes out it 's always with a Promise as Paul deals with the Jaylor Act. 16. Believe and thou shalt be saved and Mark 16. towards the close the Lord says They that believe shall be saved to encourage to Faith in Him 5. It presses the Offer and commands embracing of it with the Promise with a certification for the Offer is not conditional but alternative Mark 16. If ye believe not ye shal be damned so Deut. 30. Death and Life are proposed and they are bidden choose If the Gospel be not effectual in it's Commands and Promises it will be effectual in its Threatnings The Word of God will triumph one way or the other and not return to Him void as is very clear Isa 55.11 and 2 Cor. 2.15 16. It triumphs in some while they are brought by the Promise to give obedience to the command of Believing and to them it becomes the savour of life unto life and to others it triumphs as to the execution of the Threatning on them for their Unbelief and to them it becomes the savour of death unto death In a word Christ Jesus comes so near People in this Gospel that He must either be chosen and Life with Him or refused to the destruction and death of the Refuser ye have the same Christ the same Word the same Covenant the same obligation to Believe proposed to you that Believers from the beginning of the World had and another ye will not get and what more can the Gospel do to bring Christ near to you when it brings Him so near that ye have Him in your offer and the Authority of God and His Promises interposed to perswade you to accept of the Offer and Threatnings added to certifie you that if ye accept it not ye shall perish in which respect we may say as the Prophet Isaiah doeth chap. 5. What could God do more to his vineyard which he hath not done as to the holding out of the Object of Faith Jesus Christ to be rested on by you But some wiâ—l it may be object here 1. But if there come not Life and Power with the Offer it will not do the turn we cannot Believe nor receive the Offer Answ Whose fault is this that ye want ability It 's not God's fault ye have a sure ground to Believe His Woâ—d is a warrand good enough the Promises â—re free enough the Motives sweet enough the great fault is a Hâ—art of unbelief in you that ye will not believe in Christ nor open to Him when He is brought to your Door I doubt yea I put it out of doubt when all that ever heard the Gospel shâ—ll stand before the Throne that there shall be one found that shall dare to make this excuse that they were not able to receive Christ the Gospel brings Christ so near them that they must either say yea or nay it is not so much I cannot as I will not believe and that will be found a wilful and malicious refusal 2. It may be objected But how can this Gospel come to all alike seing it cannot be that these that will never get good of the Gospel hath it as near to them as these that get the saving Fruit of it Answ Not to speak of God's Purpose or what He intends to make of it not of the Power and Fruit that accompanies it to some and not to all it 's certain the Gospel and Christ in its Offer comes alike near to all that hear it It objectively reveals the same glad Tydings to all with the conditional offer of Life and with the same command and encouragement and certification in Threatnings as well as Promises In these respects Christ is brought alike near to all and when God cometh to reckon He will let Sinners know in that day that the Gospel came to their Door and was refused yea it comes and where it comes will take hold of some to pluck them out of the Snare and be ground of Faith to them and to others it will be a ground of Challenge and so the savour of death unto death for though it take not effect as to its Promises in all nor in its Threatnings to all yet as to either Death or Life it wiâ—l take effect in every one so as if Life be refused Death steps in the room of it But it may be asked Why will God have Christ in the Offer of the Gospel brought so near the Hearers of it Answ 1. Because it serves to commend the Grace and Love of God in Christ Jesus when the Invitation is so broad that iâ— is to all it speaks out the royalty of the Feast upon which ground 2 Cor. 6.1 it 's called Grace the Offer is so large and wide 2. Because it serves for warranding and confirming the Elect in the receiving of this Offer for none of the Elect could receive Him if He were not even laid to their Door It 's this which gives us warrand to receive that which God offers it 's not because we are elected or beloved of God before time or because He purposed to do us Good that we believe these are not grounds of Faith being God's secret Will but we believe because God calleth and maketh the Offer inviteth and promiseth knowing that He is faithful and we may trust Him Hence David says I will never forget thy Word and in God will I praise his Word for the Word in its Offer speaks alike to all and to none particularly Indeed when it comes to the Application of Promises for Consolation that is to be made according to the qualifications in the Persons but the Offer is to all 3. Because by this means the Lord hath the fairer access to found His Quarrel and Contraversie against Unbelievers and to make their Ditty and Doom the clearer in the day of the Lord when it s found that they never received the Offer My people would not hearken to my voice and Israel would none of me therefore I gave them up to their own hearts lusts and they walked in their own counsels and this is an approbation given to Justice here it 's well-wair'd seeing they would not receive Thee that they get worse in Thy room Use 2. Seing Christ comes near you in this Gospel and this is one of the Mercat days I intreat you while He is near receive Him call upon Him while He is near or take it in the plain words of the Apostle open to Him take Him in give Him welcome while He bodes Himself to say so on you there is not a Conscience in any Man that hears this Gospel but he will have this testimony from Him in it that He came near them was in their sight and within their reach and grips as it were if they
it down for either the Elect behoved to die or he himself and since it is so as if he said then behold here is my life take it and I will lay it down that they poor things may go free and therefore does my Father love me says he because I lay down my life for my sheep not because it 's taken from me against my will but because I wiâ—lingly and of my self lay it down and when he is brought before Pilate and Herod and they lay many things to his charge Mat. 26.63 and Mark 15. He held his peace so that it 's said that Pilate marvelled Mark 15. he knew that he could not but have much to say for himself as all men in such a case use to have but he answered nothing or as it 's in the Text yet he opened not his mouth the reason was because he would not divert the course of Justice nor mar the Lords design in the work of the Elects Redemption through his death and sufferings He came not into the world to accuse Pilate or the Jews and to justifie himself though now and then for the conviction of enemies and for his own necessary clearing he did let a word fall but being engaged for the Elect he wil needs perform all that Justice called for And in this willingness he hath a respect to two things 1. To the Fathers satisfaction for his willing suffering is that which makes it a Sacrifice acceptable and well-pleasing to him 2. To the Elects consolation that they may know thâ—y had a willing Saviour that had no necessity laid on him to satisfie but satisfiâ—d willingly And from these two arises a third even the glory of the Mediators satisfaction for herein his love to the Elect shines brightly I lay down my life for my sheep this is the heart-waâ—ming commendation of his sufferings that with delight and pleasure he underwent them as if he had been purchasing a kingdom to himself Now to come to the Use of all these Doctrines when they with the things contained in them are laid together we profess we cannot tell you what excellent Uses they yield Would to God we were all in such a frame as the Eunuch was in when he read this Scripture as tâ—e divine History gives us an account Acts 8. ver 32. and forward who when Philip had begun to preacâ— to him on this excellent suâ—ject was so taken that before the Sermon or Discourse was at an end be ng holily impatient at any longer delay he says to Philip Here is water what hinders me to be baptized I say again would to God we were all in such a frame and that this were the fruit of such a Doctrine as this to many of you nay to all of you Use 1. Wonder Believers at the extensiveness and infinitness of the Grace of God and at the heart-affecting and soul-ravishing love of the Mediator at Grace in God that spared the Debtor and exacted payment from the Cautioner the Son of his love at love in the Mediator that payed so much and so willingly and cheerfully If any subject of thoughts be pertinent for us while we are about to celebrate the Sacrament of the Lords Supper certainly this were pertinent concerning a crucified Christ in stating himself in our room to pay our Debt and doing this of his own accord without the solicitation or interposing of any Creature and doing it withall so frankly and cheerfully Was ever the like of this love heard tell of for one and more especially for such a one to suffer so much and so cheerfully unrequired we would have you confirmed in the Faith of this great and sweet Truth that he had never better will nay never so good will to eat his Dinner then and as he had to suffer and satisfie Justice for you though at a dear rate He says John 4. It was his meat to do the fathers will that sent him and to finish his work Have ye suitable thoughts of his love when ye read the Gospel have ye in the Word seen him standing before Pilate in your room not answering when he is accused and Pilate marvelling at his silence and did Pilate marvel knowing and being convinced of his innocency and have ye never marvelled or marvelled but very little sure your little marvelling at his silence is the more sadly marvellous that the cause of his silence when he was charged with your iniquities with such and such a piece of your miscarriage with such a vain and roaving heart with such a wanton look with such a profane or idle word of yours with the horrid sin of your having so abused slighted and neglected him c. that the cause I say of his silence at such a terrible accusation and charge and not vindicating of himself or saying these faults miscarriages and transgressions are not mine as he might have done was pure love to you O! is not this strange and yet most true wonder then more at it Use 2. Here is strong consolation to Believers and wonderful wisdom in the rise and convey of it in uniting Justice and Love out of which the consolation springs Justice exacting upon and distressing the Son of God and he satisfying Justice so fully that though all the Elect had satisfied eternally in Hell it had not been made to shine so splendidly and gloriously Justice also on the Mediators side in yielding and giving satisfaction though it should oppress and break Soul and Body And yet love both on the Father and Mediators side on the Fathers side love in finding out this way of satisfaction to his own Justice when there was no cure but by wounding of his own Son and yet he was content rather to wound him than that the Elect should suffer and be wounded eternally and love on the Mediators side who willingly yields and undergoes their Debt and will not hide his face from shame and spitting what may not the Believer expect from God when he spared not his own Son for him and what may he expect from Christ who spared not himself for his sake and who is that good Shepherd that laid down his life for the Sheep and held his tongue and quarrelled not with those that smote him will he quarrel with a poor Sinner coming to him and pleading for the benefite of satisfaction no certainly but as the word is Zeph. 3.17 He will rest in his love or as the word signifies He will be silent or dumb in his love he will not upbraid thee nor cast up thy former miscarriages he will not say reproachfully to thee where wast thou so long playing the Prodigal he is better content with thy recovery than ever he was discontent or ill-pleased with all the wrong thou didst unto him Use 3. This word of Doctrine lays down the ground whereupon a sinner sensible of sin may build his expectation of peace with God The transaction concluded and agreed upon is the ground of his coming
to His Death what benefite redâ—unds to them from His Offices of King Priest and Prophet to the slaying of Sin and quickening to holy Duties what benefite or fruit from His Death Alace no more with most then if He had never died what profite or real influence as to any Spiritual change do any to count upon find and think ye all these things to be but words They know Him not that feel not something of the efficacy of His Death and Resurrection in themselves 3. Observe That the Report concerning Christ is the main subject and eâ—rand that has been and is and will be common to all the Ministers of the Gospel to the end of the World It 's our Report it was the Report of all the Prophets Act. 10.43 To him bear all the Prophets witness that through his Name whosoever believeth on him should have remission of sins they all agree and have a joint Testimony in these 1. In one Subject Christ and the same things concerning Him as that the pardon of Sin is to be gotten in Him and through Faith in Him and no other way c. 2. In one Commission they have all one Commission though they be not all equal all are not Apostles yet all are Ambassadours there is the same Authority for us to report and you to receive the Gospel as if Isaiah or Paul were preaching the Authority depending on the Commission and not on the persons of Men who carry it 3. In one common End which they all have and in one common Object they are sent to 4. In this that they all hold of one common Master being Gifts of one and the same Mediator Eph. 4. When he ascended on high he led captivity captive and gave gifts to men to some Apostles c. The first Use is To teach you not to think the less of the Testimony or matter testified because of these that testifie to you if Isaiah or Paul were testifying to you ye would get no other Tydings though their life and way would be of another sort and stamp then ours are alace for the most part we are warranded as well as they to make Christ known to you therefore take heed of rejecting this Testimony of this Christ that we bear witness unto it is the same Christ that the Law and the Prophets bear witness to There is not another name given under heaven whereby a sinner can be saved it 's through Him that whosoever be on Him may receive remission of sins in this ye have not onely us but the Prophets and Apostles to deall with yea Jesus Christ and God Himself and the rejecting of us will be found to be the rejecting of them it 's the same Testimony on the matter that it was in Isaiah his time and therefore tremble and fear all ye that slight the Gospel ye have not us for your Party but all the Prophets and Isaiah among the rest and our Lord Jesus Christ who hath said He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me there will be many aggravations of the guilt of an Unbeliever and this will be a main one even the Testimony of all the Prophets that concur in this Truth which they have rejected take heed to this all ye Atheists that know not what it is to take with Sin and all ye Hypocrites that coin and counterfeit a Religion of your own and all ye legal Persons that lean to your own righteousness what will ye say when it shall be found that ye have rejected all these Testimonies ye must either say ye counted them false Witnesses which ye will not dare to say or that ye accounted them true and yet would not receive their Testimony and the best of these will be found sad enough for if ye counted them true why did ye not believe them this will be a very pungent dilemma Use 2. For comfort to poor Believers they have good ground to receive and rest upon Jesus Christ there is never a Prophet Apostle or Preacher of the Gospel but he hath sealed this Truth concerning Christ what needs any sinner scar at Him or be fearful to close with Him will ye give credit to the Testimony of Isaiah and of Peter Acts 10.43 and of the rest of the Prophets and Apostles then receive their Report and set your selves to be among the number of Believers that their Testimony may be rested on We are perswaded there is one of two that will follow on this Doctrine either a strong encouragement to and confirmation of believing and quietly resting on Jesus Christ for pardon of sin or a great ground of aggravation of and expostulation with you for your guilt who care not whether ye receive this Report or not We shall say no more for the time but God bless this to you SERMON II. ISAIAH LIII I Who hath believed our report And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed THE Prophet Isaiah is very solicitous about the fruit of his Preaching when he hath preached concerning Christ as indeed it is not enough for Ministers to preach and for People to hear except some fruit follow and now when he hath been much in Preaching and looketh to others that have been much in that work he sadly regrates the little fruit it had and would have among them to whom Christ was and should be spoken of a thing that in the entry should put us to be serious lest this complaint of Isaiah stand on record against us seeing he complains of the Hearers of the Gospel not only in his own time but in our time also We told you there were four things in this first part of the Verse 1. The great errand that Ministers have to a People it is to report concerning Christ and beside what we observed from this Head before looking to the Scope we shall observe further 1. The end that Ministers should have before them in preaching Christ and the Gospel is That the Hearers of it may be gained to Jesus Christ by hearing so as they may be brought to believe on Him it 's in a word to gain them to saving Faith in Christ 2. It is implyed That Jesus Christ is only to be proposed as the Object of Faith to be rested on by the Hearers of the Gospel and as the only ground of their Peace there is no name that can be mentioned for the salvation of Souls but this Name only ly and there is no other Gospel can be proposed but that which holdeth Him out to People 3. Observe which is much the same with the former Observation and to which we would speak a little more particularly That by the preaching of the Gospel Jesus Christ is laid before the Hearers of it as the Object of their Faith and proposed to be believed upon by them else there would be no ground of this complaint against them but where-ever this Gospel is preached there is Christ is laid as it were at the
the riches of the free grace of God there being a Decree of Election for saving so many and for bringing them to Glory And they being under sin there is another decree and threatning that goes forth for cursing the sinner and these two seeming to be altogether irreconciliable the Question comes in on the one hand how is it possible that a sinner under the curse can be saved And upon the other hand how is it possible that an Elect of God can be damned The wisdome of God looseth the knot Spotless Justice is satisfied by taking hold of and falling on the Cautioner Wonderful Grace and Love vent themselves in pardoning the sinner and in accepting of a ransome for him And manifold wisdome manifests it self in knitting these two together so as none of them can want its effect But all returns to the manifestation of the Glory of Grace in the up-shot It cannot be that the Elect shall be damned Yet here stands the threatning of a just God and his curse ready to be execute but here is the reconciliation The curse is execute on the Mediator whereby God shews himself to be a hater of sin and an avenger of the wrong done to his Justice And the Elect sinner is pardoned whereby God manifesteth the freedome of his grace and his wonderfully condescending love But now we come to a 9th Doctrine which is more directly held forth in the words and it hath two Branches that our Lord Jesus his death and sufferings is a proportionable price and satisfaction laid down for the sins of the Elect and for them only This is in the express words of the Prophet If the Question be asked Wherefore suffered Christ all this He answers he suffered it as a price for transgression If it be asked again for whom or for whose transgression did he suffer He answers not for all Men and Women in the World but for the transgression of my people was he stricken or the stroak was on him for their transgressions The first Branch of the Doctrine is to this purpose that Christs suffering is intended to satisfie for the transgression of Gods elected people and with respect to satisfying for their sins did he suffer And if we take these to be truths that we marked before as implyed in the words this will natively and necessarily follow If he engaged to be Cautioner and Surety for the Elects debt then his laying down his life must be on the same account and for the same end Now when we speak of Christs laying down a price to satisfie for the transgressions of the Elect we mean not only this that his sufferings and death have a value in themselves to satisfie for their sins but that they are so intended by him in undergoing of them and that they are so accepted of God according to his purpose and according to the transaction that past betwixt Jehovah and the Mediator They are not only as Socinians say to be a confirmation of the Doctrine which he preached and to be a rule and example to us of patient suffering and of giving obedience to the death as he did But it 's also and mainly to satisfie the Justice of God for our debt So then this wicked Tenet of the Socinians is exceeding derogatory to the sufferings of Christ and to the matchless love that shined in them yea and even to the whole design of Redemption For if Christs sufferings be not a satisfaction to Justice we are left without all just plea and apology for our selves at Gods Bar and if we have none then that curse looks the wakened sinner full in the face The day thou eats thou shalt surely die And however men in their security may please themselves with such dreams and think that a satisfaction to Justice is not needful yet if the conscience be once wakened it will not be quieted without one And if mens Faith give not credit to Gods threatnings they can have but little or rather no comfort at all in his promises There is therefore a necessity of a satisfaction and if Christs sufferings be not the satisfaction there is not another and so the whole work of Redemption is overturned So then though Christ in his sufferings hath left us a Copy how we should suffer yet that is not the only nor the principal end of them but it is contrived in the Covenant of Redemption and intended by the Medi tor and withall accepted by Jehovah that they should be the meritorious cause of procuring pardon to the Elect and the price of their Redemption This may be further cleared and confirmed 1. From the phrase that is ordinarily made use of in Scripture He suffered for the sins of his people And in the Text For the transgression of my people was he stricken Their sins had a peculiar influence in bringing the stroak on him And what influence I pray could they have but as they procured the stroak to him And if his stroaks were procured by our sins then the desert of them was laid on him and his sufferings behoved to be the curse that we elect sinners should have suffered So when he is called their Cautioner it tells that he undertook their debt and his laying down of his life is the performance and fulfilling of his undertaken Suretyship and Cautionry And considering that their debt was exacted of him and that he was arraigned before Gods Tribunal as their Surety in their room and that this could be for nothing else but to answer for them as being their Cautioner His sufferings behoved to be intended as a satisfaction for their sins For the Elects sins were not the cause why Pilate the people of the Jews and the Scribes and Pharisees pursued him to death but for our sins he was sisted before God's Tribunal and being our Cautioner he was called to reckon for them and they were put upon his account or score 2. It 's clear also from the names that his sufferings get in the Scripture where they are called the price of our Redemption a buying of us a propitiation for our sins that pacified God Rom. 3.25 and 1 John 2.2 A Sacrifice often and Ransome Matth. 20.28 The Son of man came to give his life a ransome for many that is for all his Elect people to relieve them from the bondage they were under which plainly shews the respâ—ct that his sufferings had to our sins that they were a propitiation for them to God 3. It 's clear if we consider that Christs death as to its object is for the transgressions of all Gods people of all the Eâ—ect that lived before he suffered whether they died in their infancy or at age and for all that lived or shall live and die after his suffering to the end of the world Now what benefite could redound to them that died ere Christ came in the flesh by his sufferings if it were as Socinians say for his death could not sure be a pattern
of patience and obedience to them But the efficacy of his death was from the beginning of the world He was still in that sense the Lamb slain before his Incarnation as well as since And if it be not meritorious in procuring Salvation to Elect Infants what influence or advantage can it have as to them Either they are not taken to Heaven at all or they are taken to Heaven and yet not in the least obliged to Christ for their being brought thither or if they be obliged to him it is certainly by vertue of the merit of his sufferings for expiating the sins of his people 4. It 's clear from this that in this same Chapter and throughout the Gospel all the benefits that come to Gods people as namely Justification and pardon of sin they are attributed to this as the cause of them as vers 11. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many And if all the spiritual benefits that come to us were procured by his death there must necessarily be vertue in it that procured them and it must be a price and satisfaction in reference to the procuring and purchasing thereof that he laid down in his dying 5. It is clear from the end that God had before him in the work of Redemption and in Christ's Sufferings which was to glorify his Justice as well as his Mercy and that neither of them might be clouded or reflected upon now by Christ's death God's Justice is glorified and he is seen to be just in executing his threatning against sin even in the person of his own dearly beloved Son when he became Surety for sinners but if his sufferings had not a satisfaction in them to Divine Justice though there might be some shew of shewing Mercy yet none at all of a satisfaction to Justice but saith the Apostle Rom. 3.25 26. God hath set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness and that he might be just and the justifier of them which believe in Jesus by this God hath made it manifest that he is a just God that none may preposterously presume upon Mercy nor dare to bourd with sin when it is pursued in the Surety with such severity For Use and Application 1. Do not think these truths to be of little concernment to you as alace they and such like truths of the Gospel are often thought of by many and therefore they are tasteless to them and it 's a weariness to people to hear them spoken of and yet notwithstanding this same truth that we are now upon is a great ground of our faith for if we believe not this that Christ was a propitiation for sin we can have no ground of lippening to him or believing on him but knowing and being confirmed in the faith of this truth we have cordially closing with him ground from it to expect God's favour and to be fred from the curse because Christ as our Surety undertook and accordingly satisfied for us which is the thing that makes his death to be sweet that Christ in his death should demit himself to leave us an example is much yet if we had no more by it it would be but cold comfort except we had it as a satisfaction to Divine Justice to rest upon Though this may be looked upon as doctrinal only yet it comes nearer to our practice then we are aware of and though we have not Socinians in opinion and profession to deal with yet we have two sorts that are Socinians in heart amongst us 1. These that securely sin on still and yet hope to get mercy and who will confess that they are sinners but that for making an amends they will pray and mend their life and they will speak of a number of things but it may be not one word of Christ or of his purchase or of their natural inclination to presume and to slight Christ as if they had nothing yet to look to but a Covenant of works without a Saviour or as if God had removed or would remove the curse threatned without a satisfaction so that Christs satisfaction is not known nor rested on by the multitude of Hypocrites that live in the visible Church and this is easily proven from this that there are but very few who make use of him or stand in awe to sin if it were believed that Justice required and will have satisfaction either of the sinner himself or of a surety in his room and that Christ is the only Surety Folks would either quite their hopes of Heaven or be more in Christs common and that so many mantain the hope of Heaven without a due consideration of a satisfaction to Justice by Christ and without employing of him it declares plainly that they are drunken with this error A 2d sort are these who being wakened in Conscience and sensible of sin yet are as heartless hesitating and hopeless to get peace through him as if he had not satisfied what else does the doubting and despondency of such say but that there is not a compleat satisfaction in Christ's death and that therefore they dare not trust to it otherwise they would wonder that God hath provided such a remedy and yet adventure to rest upon it seing God is as well pleased with it as if they had not provocked him at all or had satisfied his Justice themselves 2ly It serves to let us see what we are in God's common and debt and how much we are obliged to the Mediator when there was a necessity that either he should suffer or that we should perish and that though his sufferings drew so deep as to bring him to prison and to judgment and to put him to a holy sinless anxiety and perplexity that yet he yielded to it and underwent all for our sakes this is our great ground of confidence and the strong stay of the mind of a wakened Believer And should make us wonder at the Fathers love that gave the son and at the Sons love that was so condescending and should make our souls warm towards him who when we deserved nothing but to be hurried away to the Pit was content to enter himself as our Surety and to pay our Debt It should also be a motive to chase souls in to him knowing that where sin is there a satisfaction must be and that there is therefore a necessity to fly to him and to be in him because there is no other way to get Justice satisfied the through conviction whereof is that which through grace not only chaseth the soul to but engageth it to close with Christ and to rest upon him and to give him the credit of its thorow-bearing when it is ready otherwise to sink Now the Lord himself teach you to make this use of this Doctrine SERMON XXXII ISAIAH LIII VIII Vers 8. He was taken from prison and from judgement and who shall declare his generation For he was cut off out of the
land of the living fâ—r the transgression of my people was he stricken THere is nothing that concerns us more than to be well acquainted with the doctrine of Christ Jesus and his Sufferings The Prophet hath therefore been much in shewing what Christ suffered in the former words and hath largely described his Humiliation to Judgment and Death for saith he he was cut off out of the land of the living In the words read he answers two important questions concerning his sufferings 1. To what end were all these sufferings he answers that they were for transgressions even to be a satisfaction to Justice for them The 2. Question is For whose sins were the sufferings of Christ to be a satisfaction It is answered expresly in the words for the transgression of my people was he stricken or the stroak was upon him it was for the sins of the Elect and of the Elect only for this is the Prophets scope who having spoken of Christs sufferings and death holds forth the meritorious and procuring cause and end thereof and this is the result design and sum of all even to be a satisfaction for Gods elect People for as we shew by Gods People are not meaned all men in the world nor the Jews only for Christ hath many sheep beside them but it 's Gods peculiar People in opposition to the multitude who are not his People The Doctrine or rather the branch of the Doctrine we left at was this and it 's exclusive that Christ's death is only intended to be a price for the sins of God's elect People and was laid down with respect to them his death and sufferings are to be looked upon and considered only as a price and satisfaction for their sins and for the sins of none other or thus Jesus Christ in his suffering and in the laying down of his life had a respect to the elect and intended the removing of the sins and transgressions of God's elect people only and of none other we know nothing that we can make of these words nor of the Prophets scope in them but this who as he hath been describing Christs sufferings in all other respects so doth he in this to wit in respect of the persons for whom he suffered and of the meritorious cause and end of his sufferings for says the Text for the transgressions of my people that is of Gods elect people was he stricken This branch of the Doctrine is of great weight and concernment in the whole strain of Grace for if this march-stone be lifted and removed Grace becomes common and as some call it universal and so to be in effect no grace at all for Grace hath a peculiar channel of its own wherein it runs towards a certain select number and not towards all I do not mean of grace taken in a large sense for so all men as they are partakers of any mercy or of common favours may be said to have grace extended to them but I mean God's special grace favour and good will which is extended only to the Elect for whose sins Christ suffered the right bounding of which Doctrine shews forth both God's soveraignty in the dispensing of grace and the freeness thereof in communicating and manifesting of it to whom he will and which thus considered is especially engaging of the hearts of them on whom he pleaseth to manifest it Ere I come to confirm this branch of the Doctrine take a word or two of advertisement in the entry 1. That Christ's death may be considered two ways 1. In respect of it self and as abstracting from the Covenant of Redemption wherein it is contrived as to all the circumstances of it in which sense as his death and sufferings are of infinite value worth so they are as Divines use to speak of value to redeem the whole world if God in his design and decree had so ordered and thought meet to extend it 2. We are to consider his sufferings and death as a price agreed upon in the Covenant or Bargain of Redemption wherein these two or three things concur 1. God's proposal 2. Christ's acceptation and design in laying down his life 3. The Fathers acquiescing therein and declaring himself well pleased therewith we speak not here of Christ's death in the first respect that is as abstracting from the Covenant for in that respect he might have laid down his life for few or moe for some or for all if it had been so intended but we speak of it in the second respect as it 's a price agreed upon in God's purpose and Christ's design and in God's acceptation and thus we say that his death is only intended as a satisfaction and recompence for the sins of the Elect and was laid down for them only 2ly We may consider Christ's sufferings and death in the fruits of it either as they respect common favours and mercies common gifts and means of grace which are not peculiar and saving but common to Believers with others being bestowed upon professors in the visible Church or as they are peculiar and saving such as Faith Justification Adoption c. Now when we say that Christ's sufferings and death are a price for the sins of his People we exclude not the Reprobate simply from temporal and common favours and mercies that come by his death they may have and actually have common gifts and works of the Spirit the means of Grace which are some way effects and fruits of the same Covenant but we say that the Reprobate partake not of saving Mercy and that Christs death is a satisfaction only for the Elect and that none others get pardon of Sin Faith Repentance c. by it but they only it was intended for none others and this we clear and confirm from and by these following grounds and arguments which we shall shortly hint at The 1. Argument is drawen from this same assertion of the Prophet thus If Christs death be only a satisfaction for the sins of Gods People then it is not a satisfaction for the sins of all but it 's a satisfaction only for the sins of Gods People therefore not for all for his People are not all men or all men are not his People but his People are a peculiar People separate from others in God's purpose and decree as we cleared before from John 17. Thine they were and thou gavest them me and the Text says expresly for the transgressions of my people was he stricken he respected the sins of God's People in accepting of the Bargain and in laying down his Life and for their sins only God accepted him yea the very mentioning of them thus here secludes all others and we must expone them exclusively as taking in none others and must look upon the things spoken of them as agreeing to no other even as it 's said Heb. 4. There remains therefore a rest to the people of God which is certainly exclusive of all others and hence when our Lord
speaks of them John 17. he opposeth them to and contradistinguisheth them from all others I pray for them I pray not for the world buy for them that thou hast given me out of the world to let us know that the things prayed for to the one are denied to the other according to the strain of the Covenâ—â—t Aâ— ad ground is drawen from the strain and frame of the Covenâ—nt of Redemption where we find two things clear 1. That as to the end and convey of it the Elect are the only Persons for â—hose good and behove it 's intended and if it be the Elect for whom he entered in that Covenant theâ— the advantage good and benefite of the Elect must be eâ—ed in this main aâ—ticle of the Covenant which relates to Chriâ—'s death and sufferings For 1. In the Covenant of Redemption the good of the Elect is proposed and designed by the Father as is clear John 6.39 40. This is the Fathers will that sent me that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing and this is the Fathers will that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life which will be the more clear if we consider the time when this is spoken it 's at such a time when many will not come to him and belâ—â—ve on him as vers 36 37. Ye also have seen me and believe not all that the Father hath given shall come unto me and him that cometh I will in no wise cast out for I came down from heaven not to do my own will but the will of him that sent me and then follows This is the will of him that sent me c. and vers 43 44. Murmure not saith he among your selves no man can come to me except the Father that sent me draw him this ye heard of from John 17.2 at greater length 2. Look on the Son's side of the Covenant and it will also be clear for his undertaking must be according to the Fathers proposing if the Father did not propose all but some only to be redeemed then his undertaking must be for these some and not for all conform to the Fathers proposal Psal 40. Then said I lo I come to do thy will O my God now the Fathers will is that the should undertake for these given him and it 's not his will that he should undertake for others therefore he did not undertake for them 3. Christs sufferings and death are the execution of the Fathers will and therefore must be the execution of his undertaking according to his engagement for the Elect and given ones therefore these two are put together John 17.9 and 19. I pray for them I pray not for the world but for them which thou hast given me and for their sakes I sanctifie my self that is for their sakes whom thou hast given me and not for the world He sancrifies himself for them for whom he prays for them that are given him and no more 2ly This is clear in the Covenant that Christs death is intended thereâ—n as all other Mercies covenanted are that is to say to whom Faith Effectual Calling Justification c. are covenanted for these is Christ's death covenanted and for none others for the Covenant being mutual the repromâ—ssion on the Fathers part must be of equal extent with the Son's stipulation but all these are only peculiarly applicable to the Elect as benefites flowing from and following upon Christ's death which therefore must be peculiarly intended for them as being undergone for them hence when Christ speaks of Faith and Effectual Calling John 6. he says All that the Father hath given me shall come unto me and none other will nor can come so Justification Pardon of Sin c. are bought to the Elect and to none others and when the smallest of blessings are covenanted and articled for none other but for the Elect shall Jesus Christ himself that gift of God or his death which is the chief thing articled in the Covenant be covenanted for or applyed to any others but to them A 3d. ground is drawen from Christs executing of his Offices for this piece or part of Christs executing of his Office must correspond and be of equal extent with all the other parts and pieces of his Offices such as his effectual teaching interceeding subduing to himself c. which are no broader then the Elect for he executes no part of any of his Offices for the behove and benefite of any but of the Electâ— he saâ—ingly enlightens no others he subâ—uts none others to the faith of the Gospel he interceeds for none others his intercession is not for the world therefore his death must be for none others all these being commenturâ—â—le and oâ— equal extent his intercession being grounded on his suffâ—ring therefore Joh. 17. he lays by the world expressly as theâ—e for whom he will not pray and looks back to the Covenant as the ground of his undertaking for the Elect given him out of the world and not for others and if he will not pray nor interceed for others what reason can be given of his dying for others when he will not do the less which is to pray for them it were absurd to think or say that he will do the greater which is to lay down his life for them A 4th ground is this Christ's death is one of the peculiar evidences of his deâ—rest love beyond which there is none greater and a main proof and fruitâ— thereof and therefore is not common to all but is intended for them only whom he peculiarly loves and designs to bring through to glory which is clear Eph. 5.26 Husbands love your wives as Christ loved his Church and gave himself for it c. Rom. 5.5 God commends his love to us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us John 15.13 Greater love hath no man then this that a man should lay down his life for his friends there is a world of Reprobates whom Christ never loved with peculiar love and sure for these he did not die Jacob have I loved but Esau have I hated saith the Lord Rom. 9.13 which the Apostle holdeth forth as a sort of copy of God's dealing in reprobation and election in reference to all Mankind and where the Lord himself hath set bounds betwixt them whom he loves and hates it 's too great liberality or rather too great presumption for any under whatever specious pretences to extend this his peculiar love to these whom he disclaims A 5th ground is taken from the effect thus All for whom Christ died are justified and freed from the guilt of their sins in due time but Christ Jesus hath not purchased and actually procured freedom to all men from their sins all men be not justified therefore he laid not down his life for all For 1. It cannot be said that he laid down his life for purchasing and buying of such wares
and yet that he got not that which he bought and seing the event tells plainly that all are not justified and brought to Heaven it cannot be that he laid down his life a Ransom for all but it must be for the Elect only that he died 2. To say that God exacts double payment of one and the self same Deâ—â— that he exacts from men over again that which Christ payed already for them reflects on the Justice and Wisdom of God and to say that a person that goes to hell shall be no less in his common then another that goes to Heaven is no less absurd for the Apostle says Rom. 5.10 If while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life where he plainly insinuates that if a person be bought by Christs death it cannot be that he can perish for if the price be payed by his death and so the greater thing be done much more will the lesser we shall be saved by his life now this reasoning could have no force if Christ died for any that shall perish yea vers 11. of this Chapter it 's said By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many for he shall bear their iniquities where it 's clear that as many and no moâ— whose iniquities Christ hath taken on and born shall be justified for the one is given as a reason of the other and there should be no consequence to his justifying of them from his bearing of their iniquitries if he could by his death bear their iniquities whom he never justified A 6th ground is taken from the end of the Covenant which is to put a difference betwixt special Grace peculiar to some and severe Justice to others and particularly and especially in Christs death which makes out what we affirm for if when Christ died many were actually damned it cannot be said that he died for these not that it was with them as with Believers before his death for it cannot he said that the intention of his death in the Covenant could be beyond what it was at his death the one being the execution of the other And sure it could not be intended at his death for the damned For it would seem a very absurd thing to say that when Christ was to go and lay down his life that he was going to suffer for many that were suffering for their own sins in Hell as many reprobat sinners were before he came in the flesh Can any imagine a possibility of such a thing Our Lord was not to be so indifferent in the administration of Grace as to cast it thus away And can any reasonably think that at one and the same time the same punishment shall be exacted from Christ and from the persons themselves for whom he suffered It is possible that this could be intended in the Covenant of Redemption Or is there free access to Justice to pursue Christ as Cautioner when the Principal Debtor is actually siezed upon Indeed when the Principal is set free as the Elect were before his death there is access to pursue the Cautioner for their debt But no such thing can be alledged for others that were already damned But their being taken hold of by Justice is a proof that he answered not for them nor payed their debt 7. We may argue thus If Christ died for all then either for all indifferently and so all were alike obliged to Christ Or for some more absolutely that must be satisfied for and for others conditionally on supposition that they should believe But this last is absurd for 1. The Scripture makes not two considerations of Christs death 2. It were absurd to say that now it cannot be told whether Christ died for such an one or not 3. Either that condition is bought to them or not If it be bought then it must be fulfilled If it be not bought then 1. That person cannot be said to be bought because all needful for his Redemption is not bought and payed for 2. Either that condition can be fulfilled by themselves or not if it may be by themselves then is Free-will established and none are absolutely redeemed If it cannot be fulfilled by themselves and yet bought by him for them then they are determined for another end to wit not to get it and what wisdom can there be in such a Redemption as this The 1. Use serves for clearing and confirming of a Gospel truth of the Covenant of Redemption and for the refutation of a contrary error As we have somewhat of many errors practically in our hearts so have we this amongst the rest that Christ died for all sinners which fosters peoples security and their groundless hope of admission to Heaven But here we see that our Lord Jesus in laying down his life intended the satisfaction of Divine Justice for none but for his Elect people and if so there are many for whom he never intended the benefite of his death There are three particular Branches of the error which this Doctrine confutes 1. Their opinion which is more lax and takes in the sins of all men and women in the world and giveth them an equal share in Christs sufferings as if in his intention in laying down of his life and in Gods purpose he had suffered and died for all for him that goes to Hell as well as for him that goes to Heaven But if Christ stand as Cautioner for the Elect only then sure this opinion cannot hold for all are not Gods Elect And therefore all are not indifferently redeemed And though it may be that some of you think that this looks liker grace yet it s not only absurd as being contrary to truth but its absurd also even with respect to grace For 1. It makes grace a common thing a man that is in Hell to be as much obliged to Christ as one that is in Heaven And though it plausibly pretends to give grace abroad and large extent yet it takes away the power of it For if grace be thus largely extended it 's not grace that makes the application of grace but the free will of the Creature For grace according to this opinion leaves men to be saved or not as they please and leaves it self to be overcome by mans will And therefore these errours divide not but go together hand in hand For where grace is made so large free-will is made to have a dominion over it and thus the weight of grace and of election are laid upon it 2. It lessenâ—â— the estimation of Gods grace in the minds of people for thus they think little of Heaven and suppose that it is an easie matter to win at it and it breeds in them a fearlessness of Hell and of Gods Wrath And if many of you had not drunken in this errour practically ye would not be so confident of nor so obstinatly maintain your hope of Heaven without
and it pleads much for them that never heard the Gospel yea possibly for all if they be not obliged to believe the Gospel as it 's hard to say they are who never heard of it 4. There are many in hell this day who know and feel this to be an untruth being condemned for sins against the Covenant of Works therefore he undertook not their debt nor payed for them And when the Books shall be cast open there will be many other sins sound to be reckoned for then sins against the Gospel Are not Whoremongers Adulterers Murtherers Thieves c to to reckon for these sins It 's very sad that such things should take place with men otherwayes useful but is in other things so in this hurtful â—hich we should not speak of were it not that they are spread abroad in Books wherewith many may be leavened A 3d. Branch of this errour which this Doctrine refutes is that Christ died conditionally for all hearers of the Gospel to whom he is conditionally offered and this is also vented by the same Authors who say that though he hath not bought all men absolutely nor died to procure life absolutely to them yet that he did so conditionally and upon supposition that they should afterward believe on him But there can be no conditional satisfaction intended here for 1. If respect be had only to the sins of the Elect in Christs undertaking then none is had to the sins of all 2. If the Fathers acceptation of the price be absolute then there is no conditional buying 3. If it be conditional then he suspended the effect of his death the satisfaction for his Soul-travel on mans will And if this condition could not be fulfilled by man then it is an unwise bargain and nothing of it may fall to be fulfilled and then believing is no fruit of grace Again he hath either bought Faith to them as he hath done to the Elect or not If he hath then they reject it and so grace is not efficacious If not he hath bought the end without the midses leading to it Or thus if it be conditional it 's either on a condition which they can fulfil or on a condition that they cannot fulfil If it be on a condition which they can fulfil then it hangs Grace on mens free-will and suâ—pends the Decree of Election on their receiving of Christ If it be a condition that is not in their power to fulfil then either Christ hath bought that condition to them or not to say that he hath not bought the condition of Faith it will infer a strange assertion that he hath bought life and not the condition the end and not the midses And if it be said that he hath bought it it cannot be said that he hath done so absolutely because they never get it Or if absolutely then to the Elect only in whom it must be and is in due time fulfilled And so in effect it resolves in this that Christ's purpose is to be bounded and confined to say so to the Elect only There are some difficulties and objections that will readily here be moved which we will not enter upon only for preventing of mistakes It stands in the way of some to hinder their believing as they suppose that Christ hath died for some and not for all aad they know not if they be of that small number If we were to speak to such we would say 1. God hath not elected all and so who knows if he hath elected them I And he will not save all and who knows if he will save them And so the doubt will stick still If folks will thus break in upon Gods secret will and purpose which belongs not to them 2. Christs death for you is not the formal ground not warrand of your Faith not yet of the offer of the Gospel but the Lords will warranding you to believe and calling for it from you and his commanding you to rest upon Christ for the attaining of righteousness as he is offered in the Gospel We are invited by his command and promise and we are not first called to believe that Christ died for us but we are called â—â—â—st to believe in him that is offered to us in the Gospel that is our duty And folks are not condemned because Christ died not for them but because when he offered the benefit of his death and sufferings to them they slighted and rejected it We are to look first to what Christ calleth to and not to meddle with the other to wit whom Christ minded in his death till we have done the first The Word bids all believe that they may be saved and such as neglect this command will be found disobedient 3. Though Christ hath not died for all yet all that flee unto him by Faith shall be partakers of his death and from this ye should reason and not from his intention in dying If ye come not to him ye cannot have ground to think that he died for you but if ye go to him by Faith ye may expect that he will pray for you and own you for Believers Christ casts in that word John 17. They have believed thy word as well as that other Thine they were and thou gavest them me And if we put these two together the one will be found as sure a ground of consolation as the other But it were but a poor comfort to say that Christ died for all and yet that they may all or most or many of them perish for all that The 2d Use serves to stir them up to thankfulness for whom Christ hath satisfied and who are fled for refuge to him If there be any here to whom Christ hath manifested such love that they can say he hath loved me and given himself for me O! How are ye obliged to wonder and bless him Greater love than this cannot be and it should warm your hearts with love to him the more when ye reflect on God's design upon you in particular in the Covenant of Redemption Use 3d. If Christ intended his Death and Sufferings only for behove of the Elect Then as because few come to Heaven all should be the more diligent so because Christ died not for all every one should aim in Gods own way to have it made sure to himself that Christ died for him and should be the more watchful and diligent to make his Calling and Election sure because as it s not all that are elected so it s not all that are purchased by Christs death Redemption is sure in it self and free Grace kithes conspicuously in it yet Wisdom and Soveraignity do also appear in this that it s not of all therefore study ye to make it sure by fleeing to Christ by Faith and by the study of Holineâ—s and Mortification in his Strength and through the power of his Death which will be a proof of your Interest in it This were much more suitable than to be quarreling with God's
Decrees as some are brought in Rom. 9.19 Why doth he find fault who hath resisted his will To whom the Apostle answers Who art thou that repliest against God it becomes you not to dispute with God but to seek with more Sollicitude and with holy and humble carefulness to make the matter sure to your selves we may well raise storms by our disputs but shall come to no peace by them this can only be come at by fleeing to the hope set before us SERMON XXXIII ISAIAH LIII IX Vers 9. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death because he had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth EVery passage of our Lords way in prosecuting the work of Redemption hath somewhat wonderful in it we heard of several of them especially in his Humiliation how very low the blessed Cautioner condescended to come for relief of the captivity how he was put to wrestle and fight and what great Strengths or strong Holds he was put as it were to take in there is one strong Hold to speak so not spoken of as yet which must also be stormed and the fortifications of it pulled down by the Mediator and that is the Grave the Prophet tells us that as he declined not death so neither did he decline the Grave but as he was cut off out of the land of the living as a wicked man in the account of men so in the account of men he was taken down from the cross with the Thieves and buried in the Grave as one of them I shall not trouble you with diversity of interpretations but shall only hint at two things for your better understanding of the words in which the difficulty lyeth The 1. is this Whether doth this relate to his Humiliation only or to his Exaltation or to both for it cannot be reasonably thought but his being buried with the wicked is a piece of his Humiliation to make it only an evidence of his Humiliation seems not to stand with the next part of the words because he had done no violence c. which is a causal reason of that which goeth before But we answer that there may be here a respect had unto both the first words respect his Humiliation comparing them with the truth of the History as it is set down Matth. chap. 27. where it is clear that he was destinate in the account of men and by their appointment to be buried with wicked men for they thought no more of him than if he had been a wicked man The next words And with the rich in his death look to his Exaltation and the meaning of them is that however he was in the account of men buried with Thieves and laid in the grave as a Malefactor or wicked Man yet in God's account and by his appointment and over-ruling providence it was otherwayes for he put a difference betwixt him and others and gave him a honourable burial with the rich though he was designed by men to be buried with thieves yet as we have it Matth. 27.57 Joseph of Arimathea went to Pilat and begged his body and wrapped it in clean Linnen and laid it in a new tomb which in God's providence was so ordered both to shew a difference betwixt him and those thieves and also to declare that he was innocent as the reason subjoined tells Because he had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth and to make way for the clearing of his Resurrection he being buried in such a remarkable place where never man had been buried before So then the sum of the words is this he was â—â—â—nâ—led in coming to the grave and in mens account and destination was buried as a wicked man yet by God's Decree and Providence it was so ordered that though he was poor all his days he had a honourable Burial such as rich men use to have because he had done no violence neither was theâ—e any deceit in his mouth God will not have it going as men designed but will have him honourably buried and laid in the Grave that thereby there might be the greater evidence of his innocency and a more full clearing and confirmation of the truth of of his resurrection What is rendered death here in our Translation is deaths in the plural number in the Hebrew to shew the greatness and terribleness of the death which he underwent and the sore spiriâ—uâ—l as well as bodily exercise that he was put unto at and in his death so that it was a complication of many deaths in one and at once which he suffered 2. Where it 's said in our Translation that He made his grave In the Original it is He gave his grave with the wicked so that the Pronoun He may be meaned rather of the Father his giving or it may be understood of the Mediator himself his giving and so the meaning is that it came not to pass by guess on God's side but was by him well ordered and upon the Mediators side it sets out his willingness to go to the Grave and his having an over-ruling hand as God in his own death and burial as he saith John 10.18 No man taketh my life from me but I lay it down of my self His death and burial were determined and well-ordered as to all the circumstances of both by a divine decree and by an over rulâ—ng hand of Providence and this agrees well with the reason subjoined because he willingly conâ—escended to die God put a difference betwixt him and others as is clear in that of John 10.17 Therefore does my father love me because I lay down my life for my sheep The Verse hath two parts 1. Something foretold concerning the Messiah and that is that he shall make or give his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death 2. There is a reason subjoined especially to the last part taken from his innocency and from the difference that was in his life betwixt him and all men in the world that therefore God put a difference betwixâ— him and them in his death and burial First then This point of Doctrine is implyed here that coming to the Grave is a thing common and certain to all men I mean that death or a state of death and to be in the grave in an ordinary way is common to all men and whoever want the priviledge of burial their condition in that respect is rather worse then better it 's supponed here that wicked men come to the grave therefore our Lord is said to make his grave with them and it is also supposed that rich men come to the grave therefore it 's said and with the rich in his death that which Solomon hath Eccles 8.8 of death may well be applyed to the grâ—ve there is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain it neiâ—her hath he power in the day of death and theâ—e is no discharge in that war neither shalâ—
wickedness deliver these that are given to it the most powerful wicked man cannot prevail over it nor is he able to resist and withstand it these who conquer most of the World are constrained at length to be content with some few foots of ground and their Bodies are turned into dust Job in the 3d Chapter of his book speaks of it as common to all to rich and poor to high and low to the King and the Beggar all are there in one Category if any were freed from it it would readily be rich men but as it is Psal 49.6 7. their riches will nor be a ransom for them They that trust in their wealth and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches none of them can by any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him so precious is the soul thaâ— the redemption of it ceases for ever Amongst all Mortals there is none that can buy himself from coming to the Church-yard or from coming to the grave but were he never so rich and honourable he must be said in a hell as well as the poor man the bravest and best guided Tomb is but a grave that sentence past by God must stand and will stand Dust thou art and to dust thou shalt return The translation of Enoch and Elias who old not see death do not alter the common rule though it shew the soveraignty and power of God what he can do Use 1. O! think more on Death and on the Grave these sure would be much more profitable subjects of thoughts then many things which our thoughts run ordinarily on It 's appointed for men once to die and thereafter cometh the judgment As we walk over and trod on the Graves of others now so some will be walking over and troding on ours ere long and within a few years our bodies will be turned into dust and our dust will not be known from the dust of others that lived before us it were good to have the faith of this more rooted and that we did meditate more frequently and seriously on it Use 2. It reproves the pride of men and women and their lusting after earthly vanities When death and the grave come where will all their brave Houses and Cloaths and well drest Beds be And what will become of your Silver and Gold These things will not go to the grave with you As ye brought nothing into the world so its certain that ye shall carry nothing out of it The consideration whereof would be a restraint and aw band to mens exorbitant desires The time is coming when six or seven foot in length and two or three foot in breadth of ground will serve the richest and most honourable And within a few years the Lord Provost's dust will not be known from the dust of the poor body that got a share of the common Contribution the dust of both will be alike Dress and pamper the body as ye will that beauty will not abide with you Wherefore then serves all this pride â—anity and â—ravity Seing a very little whiles time will lay it all in the dust and when all our projects will take an end as Job saith Chap. 17. Mâ— purposes are broken and what did break them off The grave saith he is waiting for me I have said to corruption to the rottenness of the earth thou art my mother and to the worms ye are my brother and sisters they and I must ly together These that now cannot get their bed made fine and soft enough the worms and they will lye together ere long in the grave the Chest or Coffin will not be so closs but they will win in nay they will breed in their own bodies do we not see this daily Were it not then good that when ye are going to the burials and graves of others ye were thinking on your own lying down in the grave And what will be your thoughts in that day of all things in this world If dead Corpses could speak out of their graves they would preach sharp warning to them that are alive and would say to such as are carrying them thither Beware of putting off thoughts of death and of the grave Though this be a common point of truth yet few walk suitably to it but we are generally in our practice as if it were not a truth no more minding death and the grave than if we were eternally to live here Use 3. As this should make folks sober in prosperity so it should make them patient in adversity A iittle time will make us all equal and what is the matter what our condition be if our peace be made sure with God Heathens may shame many of us that are professing Chriâ—â—ians who by the consideration of death have been brought to be much more sober in their carriage then alace many of us are 2dly Observe That the Messiah behoved to come to the grave and be buried It was so designed fore-told and fore-prophesied of He made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death Hence the Apostle Acts 2.30 citing Psal 16 8. gathers that as there was a necessity of his being in the grave so there was a necessity of his resurrection out of it because he should not see corruption in it His foul was not left in hell or in the grave neither did his flesh see corruption And in all the Evangelists It's clear that after death he was remarkably laid in the grave and very particular and special notice is taken of it Take here shortly some few reasons of this necessity according to the Lords appointment and no further The 1. whereof is this that the unstainedness and purity of Divine Justice may appear and that thereby the compleatness and perfection of his satisfaction as Mediator to the Justice of God may be confirmed If he had not been buried it might have been questioned whether that which folk suffer after death be a reality or not But his three days lying in the grave is a greater evidence of the unstainedness and purity of Justice and of its impartiality then the imprisoning of many Creatures for many tâ—ousands of years would have been This shews him to be a just God when sinners Cautioner is not only pursued to death but to the grave And therefore this is alwayes accounted the lowest part or step of his suffâ—rings And in the Creed his descending into hell is spoken of which in our excellent Catechism is expounded to be his continuing under the power of death for a time 2 It is much for the manifestation of the great love of God and of the rich condescending grace of the Mediator who is not only content to die but to come to the grave and to suffer death to have a kind of dominion over him for a time So that as death had power to separate his soul from his body so it prorogats that power during his being in the grave His enemies
have it more abundantly There are two things that we would speak a Word to for clearing of the Doctrine And then make Use of it The 1. is How this can be God's Design in Christ's Humiliation to beget many Sons to Life 2. How Christ's Death Contributs to this Design For the First When we speak of God's Design hâ—re we mean not His last and ultimat Design but His immediat Design in the Gospel which is subservient to that His last and ultimat Design to wit The Glorifâ—ing of His Grace and Justice in giving the Mediator to Satisfie Justice for Dyvour Sinners who are not able to Satisfie for themselves and He having chosen this as the Midst to that highest end we may well say that this is His immediat Design in the Gospel that thereby the Glory of His Grace and Justice might be manifested For the 2d Which is How Christ's Sufferings contribute to this end It may be soon cleared if we consider that there is a twofold Let in the way of Sinners partaking of Life which Christ's Suff rings do remove The 1. Let is a standâ—ng Quarrel betwixt God and the Elect they having Sinned and having nothing to pay their Debt This our Lord Jesus by His Death removes He payes the Debt and tears the Obligation called the hand writing that was against them nailling it to his Cross Col. 2. And in this respect His Death is called a ransome for many And in the Words before He is said to have made his Soul an offering for sin On the same account to wit That the Principal Debâ—or might be set free The 2d Let is Mans utter unfitnesse to walk with God For though the Debt were taken away yet they have no Life But Jesus Christ by His Death hath laid down a ground how a Sinner may be reconciled to God and may partake of Grace here And so be in case to walk with God even while sojourning in the World in some good measure and of the Life of Glory hereafter His Sufferings are not only a Ransome for their Debt but also a Bridge to speak so to step over the Gulf of the distance thâ—t is betwixt God and them unto Glory whither He as the Fore-runner is gone before them In this sense we have our Graces as the Fruits of Chriâ—t's Suffâ—rings the Life of Grace Faith Love Perseverance c. We have also Protection Preservation and Guiding in the way till we be brought through to Eternal Life As that Word is John 6.39 40. cited before That of all whom the Father hath given me I should loss nothing In the First respect Christ is surity for our Debt In the Second respect He is surity for our Duty In the First Respect we are admitted into Covenant with God In the Second we are entertained in it by Him who lives for ever to make Intercession for us Use 1. See here Believers what ye are in the Fathers Debt for sending His Son And what ye are in the Sons Debt for coming to die for you Ye behoved to have born the Curse your selves if He had not born it but He took it on H mself that ye might be Freed from it Thus it stood with you ye deserved to be shut out for ever from God to have the Sword of His Justice awakened against you And he gave his back to the smitters and his cheecks to them that plucked of the haire And was content that the Sword of Justice should awake against Him and smite Him that He might by His strips heal them and by His Death procure Life to them Yea it stood thus with you and it could not be otherwayes The Justice of God being provocked and the Elect being under the Curse as it is Gal. 3.10 Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things written in the Law to do them Ezek. 18.4 The soul that sins shall die Either they behoved to die or the Cautioner and our Lord was content to be a Sin-offering thereby to set Sinners free To be lifted up on the cross that he might draw all men after him to pay their D bt which all the Creatures could never have payed And therefore we would asâ— you if ye think Heaven and Glory to be of Worth and if ye think it to be a great mercy to be free from the Wrath to come and from the Damned State and Condition of Reprobat Angels and of Reprobat Men and Women in Hell And to be admitteâ— to enter with Abraham Isaac and Jacob into the Kingdome of God and into these Hâ—avenly Mansions Are ye not much in Chrisâ—'s Debt that procured this for you and at such a Rate that thereby Life might be communicate-to you who were Naturally Dead in Trespasses and Sins whatever the rest of the World think of it if any of you be Born again as you ought in a special manner to think much of it so ye will do in some measure for ye are as much in Christ's Common as all that is worth who was content that Poor Sinners should partake of Him and of the Life that is in Him to taste of Hâ—mself and who hath said Because I live ye shall live also In aâ—most wonderful way His Dâ—ath is the Price by which Life is Communicated to Us And it would become Bâ—â—â—â—vers well to be often reckoning what they are in His Debt It 's an of God's great Ends in the Work of Redemption even to have Sinners esteeming highly of and much Ravished with His Grace and with His Love brightly shinning in the way thereof yet less Conscience is made of this then of many other Duties by Believers We will send an Ear to a Practical Point of Doctrine and will some way ayme to mind it If we be bidden pray we will pray if we be commanded to Mortifie Sin we will endeavour it and so in other Duties But who minds this as a Dutie when we are called of God to Admire and Praise His Grace and Love and Humbly to Glory in Him so as seriously to set our selves to fall about it And yet this were a most Native Proper and Kindly Exercise for Believers even like the Work of those who say Salvation to our God that sits upon the throne and unto the Lamb Rev. 7.10 To him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood c. Rev. 1.5 To be taken up with such sweet Soliloquies in our selves about this Subject and with such Songs of Praise to Him who hath given us so noble a Beeing and Life which is convoyed to us by His Blood is sure a suitable Use of this Point For if our Life be of much Worth He must be of Infinitly much more Worth in Himself and should be so to us who purchased it at such a Dear Price The 2d Use is to exhort you whom we suppose to be renewed as some of you now hearing me are and O! that all of you were that when ever ye
the Majesty of God It would say this to you let not Our Lord Jesus rue of His Sufferings for as many as hear of this Offer and do not credit Him with their Souls they do what they can to make Him repent that ever He became Man and Suffered so much when He is thus shifted and unkindly requited by them to whom He makes the Offer and this is very home and urgent pressing of the necessity of making use of Him when such an Argument is made use of for thus it stands with you and His Offer speaks this Either make use of Christ and of His Soul-travel for saving of your Souls that so He may be satisfied or if ye slight Him ye not only destroy and cause to perish your own Souls but ye refuse to Satisfie Chirst for His Soul-travel and do what in you lyes to marr and defeat the End and Designe of His Sufferings and is not this a great and strongly pushing dilemma The result of your receiving or rejecting of Christ will be this if ye receive Him ye satisfie Him if ye reject Him ye say ye are not content that He should be satisfied and what can be expected to come of it when Christ Suffered so much and when all that was craved of you was to make use of Him and when it was told that that would satisfie Him and yet that was refused What a horrible challenge will this be in the Great Day And therefore to presse this Use a little we shall shew you here 1. What it is that we exhort you to And 2. What is the force of this Motive 1. We would commend to you in general that ye would endeavour the Salvation of your own Souls This is it He cryes to you Prov. 1.22 How long ye simple ones will ye love simplicity and ye scorners delight in scorning turn ye at my reproof c. He aims at this that ye should get your Souls saved from Wrath and this should not be prejudicial nor at the long run unsatisfying to your selves and it will be very satisfying to Him 2. It is not only to aim at Salvation simply but to aim at it by Him to aim at Pardon of Sin and Justification through His Righteousnesse and Satisfaction And that ye would bring no other Argument before God to plead upon for your Peace with Him but this and that ye would aim at Holinesse as a Fruit of His Death He having purchased a peculiar people to himself to be zealous of good works As it is Tit. 2.14 And that ye would aim to do holy Duties by His strengthning of you and that ye would live by Faith in Him which is your victory over the world and the very Soul of the practice of all holy Duties And 3. That ye aim to have a Comfortable Refreshfull and Chearfull Life in Him and by what is in Him as if it were your own it being legally yours by Faith in Him To be stoping your own mouth as having nothing in your selves to boast of and as I just now said to be chearing and delighting your selves from that which is in Him And as it is Psal 147. Even to be hoping in his mercy In a word It is to be studying peace with God through Him to be studying Holiness in His strength and to be studying a Comfortable and Chearfull walk through the grounds of joy that are given you in Him which is very reasonable would ye then do Him a favour and have Him Delighted and Satisfied do but this give Him your Souls to be saved by Him in His own way come to Him sensible of Sin and founding your Peace on Him though weak in your selves yet strong in Him On whom as the mighty one God hath laid help And studying holiness in His strength drawing vertue from Him only to moritify your lusts That it may be known that Christ hath died and is Risen again because Grace shines in such a Person And be Comforted in Him He that glories let him glorie in the Lord having given up with Creature-comforts and Confidences with your own Gifts Parts Duties c. And having betaken your selves to the Peace Strength and Consolation that are in a Mediator and which run through the Covenant of Grace and flow forth from Him as the Fountain from whom all the Grace and Comfort that come to us are derived 2dly For the force of the Motive consider seriously if this be not a pinching strait that ye are put to if this be it wherein Our Lords Satisfaction lyes and wherein the Salvation and Edification of your own Souls consist we pose you if it be any great difficult or unreasonable thing that is called for from you and if the Motive whereon it is prest be not most just and reasonable that these who have or profess to have the Faith of this that it will be Satisfaction to Him for all His Soul-travel that Sinners make use of Him should yeeld it to Him And whether in the Day of the Lord it will not be a most hainous shamefull and abominable Guilt that when the business of your own Salvation stood on this even on your Satisfying of Christ by yeelding ye refused disdained and scorned it and would not make use of Him for your Peace and would noâ— in His strength study Holiness though your own Souls should never be saved nor He satisfied or His Soul-travel This of all other Challenges will be the sharpest and most bitting and upon the other hand it may be most comforting to a poor bodie that is sensible of Sin and afraid of Wrath is there or can there be hazard to do Christ a pleasure by believing on Him It 's a thing delightsome to Him and therefore let this be one great Motive to press believing in Christ among the rest which though it be cross and thwarting to the unbelieving heart and may look like presumption to look a Promise in the Face and to offer to make application of it to the poor Sinners self Yet seing it's a thing so pleasing to Christ that it satisfies Him for all His Sufferings essay it upon this very account remembring alwayes that He delights in them that hope in his mercy and to him be praise for ever SERMON XLVIII ISAIAH LIII XI Vers 11. He shall see of the travel of his soul and shall be satisâ—â—â—d by his knâ—wledge shall my righteous servant justifie ma y for he shall bear their iniquities IT 's a great Work that Our Lord Jesus hâ—th undertaken in Satifying the Juâ—tice of God for the Sins of tâ—e Elâ—ct and He hath at a dear Raâ—e and with great Expence and Travel performed it Now it is but reason that He should again be satisfied that so Jehovah's Satisfaction and the Mediator's Satisfaction may go together and that is the thing that is promised here in these Words What this Satisfaction is which is promised to Him as the great thing in which He delights and by which He
it's weight on a Sinner when he becomes sensible of Sin Psal 38.4 My iniquities sayes David are gone over my head as a heavy burden they are too heavy for me It 's true Sins are not alwayes weighty to Folks sense yet in themselves they are weighty and sometime they will be found to be so by the Sinner So Psal 40.12 innumerable evils sayes the Psamist have compast me about my iniqâ—ities have taken hâ—ld of me so that I am not able to look up th y are moe then the hairs of my head therefore my heart faileth me In a word if the wrath of God and His curse be heavy Sin must be heavy Is not that heavy which damned and drowned the old World and will burn and bury in ashes this World that now is standing Is not that heavy that hath brought on so many weighty curses on the Creatures and subjected them to vanity Is not that heavy that brings by it's weight so many thousands and millions to Hell and that made our blessed Lord to cry yet without all sinful anxiety My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and my soul is heavy to the death And is it not that which makes the Lord say that He is pressed with his professing peoples Sins as a cart is pressed with sheaves all the indignation and opposition of the men of this World is nothing to Him in comparison of the Sins of His people He can break through briers and thornes and consume them together But the iniquities of His people are said to presse Him to shew the abominable loathsomnesse and weightinesse of them Use 1. It may make us wonder that men and women think so little of Sin There are many that will tush at a challenge or threatning for Sin but let me say it that mountains of Leid yea though all this World were turned into one Mass or Lump of Leid it should not be so heavy as Sin should be to you your Drunkenness Filthiness Covetousness Lying the vaging of the mind in privat Duties of worship throughout the Week and in publick Duties on the Lords Day your neglect of Prayer in Secret mocking at Piety c. shall however light now one day be found to be weighty when as it is Revel 6.6 Ye shall cry to the hills and mountains to fall upon you and hide you from the wrath of the Lamb A mountain would be thought light in that day but the Face and Wrath of the Lamb shall be terrible Therefore either give up with Sin and study Holinesse or make you for this dreadful postour that ye would wish to have a hill or a mountain tumbling on you and yet shal not get that wish granted what mean ye O! Atheists and desperatly secure pleasers of your selves with your idols that ye dare thus to ly and live under this burden Will ye be able to come before the Throne of God with it upon your back It 's a truth that Sin is such a burden as will sink you to the pit if ye seek not in Gods way to shake it off in time 2dly If it be such a burden make this twofold Use of it 1. Beware of keeping still upon you the burden of bygone Sins but take with them seek to be suitably affected with them betake your selves with all speed to Christ and cast your selves and your burden on Him It 's for this reason that Faith is called a leaning on Christ because when the burden of Sin is like to break the Sinners back Faith casts himself and his burden over on Christ 2. For the time to come study holinesse and take on no more of this burden alwayes remembring that when ye take on the Debt of the least Sin or seek to hood-wink as it were the conscience and to put out the eyes of it that ye may Sin the more securely and with the greater liberty ye are all the while but hightning your burden and making the weight of it the more intollerable and is that wisdom think ye to be taking on a burden of that which will presse crush sink and drown you eternally under its grievous and insupportable weight 3dly Observe That for as heavy a burden as Sin is Christ stooped down and took it on His blessed back John 1.29 Behold the lamb of God that taketh away or beareth and by bearing taketh away the sins of the world 1 Pet. 2.24 He him own self bear our sins in his body on the tree So the just suffered for the unjust Heb. 9. ult He was once offered to bear the sins of many Whether it was the same very burden that the Elect should have born or the equivalent of it we will not now Debate having spoken somewhat more particularly to it before either of them being according to the terms of the Covenant of Redemption and accepted of the principal Creditor yet it would seem that He did bear the curse in the essentials of it and in that respect came under the same burden He died because it was threatned The day thou eats thou shalt surely die and the soul that sins shall die and He died a cursed death because a cursed death was threatned as it is Gal. 3.10 compared with 13. And so come under the curse Here is love indeed and a true friends kind turn that when Sin was such a heavy burden Christ came in betwixt the Elect and it and took it on Himself and stood at the Bar of God as chargeable with our Debt which was really charged on Him as it is Isa 50.6 He gave his back to the smiters and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair he bide not his face from shame and spiting all these buffetings of prophane souldiers were but little to that weight of wrath that was laid on Him to the making of Him groan to that cup which in the Garden He drank out and which made Him sweat Blood and cry our My soul is exceeding sorrowful and heavy even unto death And Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me yet not my will but thine be done O! what a weight was it that made Him so cry out There needs no more to prove that He bare our Sins and that there was an exacting of Him what we were owing and that His Sufferings are indeed a Satisfaction to Justice for them even for the Sins of all the Elect. The Uses are two 1. It serves to hold out and confirm this truth That our Lord Jesus His Sufferings were a real Satisfaction to Justice for the Sins of the Elect and that by His Sufferings He was indeed put to bear their iniquities and that they were not only nor mainly for example though we may well make that use of them but He was made lyable for our Debt we Sinned and He suffered and Satisfied for our Sin we debauched our our Stock and played the bankrupts He payed our Debt 2. It serves hudgly to commend to us the Love of God
Christ hath born their iniquities that Faith is a saving Grace and a Fruit of Christs Death that such as believe may conclude their Justification and that Christ will make out the benefits of His purchase to them what want Believers that may be for their comfort Whereas if we should lay it for a ground that Christ died for all what comfort were in that For all are not Justified and Saved but only Believers yea by the Doctrine of universal Redemption though ye were even new Believers ye could not conclude that ye should be saved because ye might fall from it again But our Doctrine of Justification hath solid consolation For Rom. 1.16 It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes And Rom. 3.12 It 's unto all and upon all that believe And it makes the Believer sure of his perseverance for it 's an expresse Article of the Covenant We shall only say this That ye will find that all that in Doctrine or Practice make the way to Heaven wydest they make it most unsicker and unsure and they are in great confusion and indeed it 's impossible it can be otherwayes For if men go once out of Gods way which is the strait and narrow way they can never be sicker and solidly sure because there is no solid ground of confidence in it The 2. Use serves to answer a Question that some out of curiosity pussel themselves with which if well soberly and wisely followed would be do curiosity and it is this How shall I know if Christ died for me Answer make it sure that ye believe and then ye shall be sure of the benefits of His Death For if He hath born the iniquities of these that believe and if there be no way to make it sure that He hath born our iniquities but by believing it is a needlesse stir and noise that is made about the knowledge of Election and of Christs intention in His Death for though we would say that He died for all it would not comfort except we said also that all go to Heaven But are ye burdened with Sin and have ye by Faith fled unto Christ and do ye actually rest upon Him Then ye may on that ground conclude your interest in Christ's Death and from that ascend to Election That which makes many Believers to be in hesitation as to this is their never throughing and making it clear to themselves whether they have believed and therefore if ye would see your Election and Interest in Christs Death put the matter of your believing to a point For it 's the door whereby ye win in to other secrets of God such as Election is and there is no other way to win to it Therefore these two are knit together John 6.39 40. This is the will of him that sent me that of all that he hath given me I should lose nothing And if it should be asked How shall I know who are given to Christ to be redeemed by Him The next verse answers This is the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life and I will raise him up at the last day would ye then know who are given and redeemed They are Believers I mean of such as are come to Age for none will make the question concerning Infants And therefore if ye would know the way of the coming to Knowledge of your Justification Redemption and Election of God begin at the lowest step of believing and make that sicker and all the rest will follow of will but if ye misken and overlook this and will go up to the top of the ladder per saltum and at the first it will be just with God that ye never win at the Knowledge of these secrets which were in His heart before the World was Use 3. It 's matter of Consolation to the Believer who may as certainly conclude an interest in Christ's Death as if he had heard the Transaction of Redemption read over and had seen his name in the Book of Life For our Lord saith John 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life If thou be a Believer thy name is there Christ hath born thy iniquities and what Consolation is that to them who are clear anent their Faith But alace it sayes there is much Rotten Unsound and Slippery Faith among us and also much Faith that is but little lively that there is so little solid comfort following it Use 4. It serves to demonstrat the nec ssity of believing the advantages of it and the necessity of our indeavouring to be clear that we do believe If these two go together Justification and Believing then there is a necessity of Believing and if these two go together clearness about our Believing and the Knowledge that Christ did bear our iniquities then there is in some respect a necessity that we know we believe otherwayes we can have little or no comfort in Christs bearing of our iniquities and of our being given to Christ to be redeemed by Him From these two the advantages of Believing may appear Therefore to make all sure Justification Christs bearing of your iniquities and â—our being given to Christ make it sure that ye are in the Faith and this way give all diâ—igence to make your Calling and Eâ—ection sure And the Lord Himself prevail with you to do so SERMON LXIII ISAIAH LIII XII Verse 12. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death and he was numbred with the transgressâ—urs and he bâ—re the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressours THere hath been a compendious Sum of the Covenant of Redemption delivered by the Prophet in this Câ—apter wherein what is required as the Price for Elect Sinners from the Mediator is ho d n forth on the one side in a l ge descâ—iption of Hâ—s Suffâ—rings and â—â—at is pâ—oposed as the Fruit that should follow and as the Satisfaction that the Mediator should have for His Sufferings is on the other side also laid down as that He should see his seed and prolong his dayes and that the pleasure of the Lord should prosper in his hand That he should see of the travel of his soul and be satisfied and that by his knowledge many should be justifiâ—d In this verse we have a summary re-capitulation and repetitâ—on of this mutual bargain only it is proposed in a difâ—erent method For before what was reqâ—ired and undertaken by the Mediator was first set down and then the Promises made to Him were next set down Here the method is altered and the Promises made to the Mediator are first set down and the conditions required of Him last set down it 's like to shew the onenesse of the Covenant and
the mutualnesse of the Terms of it and that though as to our conceiving and up-taking of it there be something first and something last yet with God there is no such thing but it is one present Act. Thâ— promises made to the Mediator are in two exprâ—ssiâ—â—s with an inference in the Word Therâ—fore knitting this to what went before I will divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong In short the similitudes here used are taken from Conquerours and Victors who having been in a War and fight and having defeat and routted all their Enemies and put them off the Field have a notable Out-gate Victory and Triumph and a great Spoil as the Fâ—â—iâ— of the War And so the meaning is That the Mâ—diator by His undertaking to Sâ—tâ— fie for the Elect should have a great Fâ—ght and Combat with many Enemies but He should losse nothing by it He shou d have a notable Our gate an excellent Victory and glorious Triumph great glory and spoil So that as there was never War like Hâ—s nor Enemies like these that He had to encounter with so there should never be such Victory Triumph and Spoil as our Lord Jesus should have The word Portion is not in the Original buâ— well supplied It is only I will divide him many as the Word is often used and He shall divide the spoil with the strong That is He shall iâ— dividing the Spoil be above the strongest The Words infer and take in these Three 1. A great defeat of and Victory over all the Mediators Enemies the Devil Death and the Curse He gets a great victory over them and gives them a great defeat so that they are quite beat off the Field as dividing the spoil imports Psal 68.12 She that remained at home divided the spoil and Isa 9.3 As men rejoyce when they divide the spoil 2. The great number of Captives that our Lord in His Victory and Triumph takes and brings off that is He gets a great bootie which is that spoken of in the words before By his knowledge shall many be justified and it 's that which is exprest in that Psal 68.18 Thou hast ascended on high thou hast led captivity captive that is these that were formerly captives thou hast redeemed from their capivity and led them captive that carried others captive as the people of God pray Psal 126.4 Turn again our captivity 3. It takes in the excellent Victory the great Triumph and Glory that the Mediator should have by this means He is exalted above every name that is named that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow of thinge in heaven of things in earth and of things under the earth For further clearing of it we shall recommend to you Two or Three places in which it 's like there is an allusion to this as that Col. 2.14 15. Blotting out the hand writing of ordinances that was against us and contrary to us taking it out of the way and nailling it to his cross tearing as it were the Obligation that the Law had over the Elect by His paying of their Debt And having spoiled principalities and powers he made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in it There is His Victory and Triumph He combats with subdues and trods under foot all His and His peoples Enemies by satisfying the Justice of God for the Elects Debt and spoils them of many Souls that were led captive by them and triumphed openly over them declaring Himself to have gotten the Victory in a most Majestick manner A 2d place is Phil. 2.8 9. Being found in fashâ—on as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto the death even to the death of the cross wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above eveâ—y name that at the name of Jâ—sus every knee should bow of things in heaven in earth and under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father This is His Victory Triumph and Glory such as none in Heaven or Earth ever had or shall have the like A 3d. Place is that Ephes 2.21 Hâ—â—alâ—ed him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all principalities and powers and might and dominion and every name that is named not only in this world but in that which is to come and hath put all things under his feet and given him to be head over all things to the church Whether they be Devils or good Angels or Men Sâ—ints militant or triumphant He is above them all all are made subject to Him and He is the head of His Church The expressions run in different Persons The first is in the First Person I will divide him a portion It 's a Promise of God the Father to the Mediator for His attaining the Victory as it 's said Ephes 1.20 God raised him from the dead The 2d Expression is in the 3d. Person He shall divide the spoil To shew that the Mediator God man concurred in the attaining the Victory Therefore Rom. 1.4 He is said to raise himself and in thâ—t it 's said I will divide and He shall divide It is to hold out the Mediator His attaining and possessing of what was promised and to shew that there is nothing promised to the Mediator but actually He is and shall be put in the full possession of it The last part of the Words holds out the conditions on the Mediators side in Four Expressions 1. Because he hath poured out his soul unto death That is because He willingly condescended to die He yetted or poured out His Soul to death 2. He was numbred with the transgressours He had a reproached and shameful Life and a reproached and cursed Death He was thought the worst of the World so that Barrabas a murtherer was preferred unto Him It also points out the respect that His Death had to a Satisfaction for the Sins of the Elect He was legally numbred and counted amongst transgressours though He was no Transgressour 3. He bare the sins of many which expones the former and sayes this much That noâ— only He simply died and died a shâ—meful Death but that He died for this end to bear and by His bearing to remove the Sins of the Elect for it relates to the many that in the former Words are said to be justified by his knowledge And it cannot be but these many shall be Justified because He did bear their Sins as to the Punishment and Curse due to them and whosoever Sins are born by Christ these are and shall be Justified and therefore He must be Victorious and have a glorious triumph and out-gate because He layes down His Life for His Sheep as it is John 10.17 Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life and take it up again And by the way it is a strange