Sacrifice he must be such as the Law required pure and spotless Fifthly His sanctifying himself for our sakes speaks the strength of his Love and largeness of his heart to poor sinners thus to set himself wholly and entirely apart for us So that what he did and suffered must all of it have a respect and relation to us He did not when consecrated for us live a moment do an act or speak a word but it had some tendency to promote the great design of our Salvation He was only and wholly and always doing your work when consecrated for your sakes His Incarnation respects you Esa. 9.6 For us a Child is born to us a Son is given And he would never have been the Son of man but to make you the Sons and Daughters of God God would not have come down in the likeness of sinful flesh in the habit of a man but to raise up sinful man into the likeness of God All the miracles he wrought were for you to confirm your Faith When he raised up Lazarus Joh. 11.42 Because of the people which stand by I said it that they might believe that thou hast sent me While he lived on earth he lived as one wholly set apart for us And when he dyed he dyed for us Gal. 3.13 He was made a curse for us When he hanged on that cursed tree he hang'd there in our room and did but fill our place When he was buried he was buried for us For the end of it was to perfume our Graves against we come to lie down in them And when he rose again it was as the Apostle saith for our Iustification Rom. 4.25 When he ascended into glory he protested it was about our business That he went to prepare places for us And if it had not been so he would have told us Ioh. 14.2 And now he is there it is for us that he there lives For he ever lives to make intercession for us Heb. 7.25 And when he shall return again to Judge the world he will come for us too He comes when ever it be to be glorified in his Saints and admired in them that believe 2 Thes. 1.10 He comes to gather his Saints home to himself that where he is there they all may be in Soul and Body with him for ever Thus you see how as his Consecration for us doth speak him set a part for our use so he did wholly bestow himself time life death and all upon us Living and Dying for no other end but to accomplish this great work of Salvation for us Sixthly His sanctifying himself for us plainly speaks the Vicegerency of his death that it was in our room or stead When the Priest Consecrated the Sacrifice it was set apart for the people So it 's said of the scape Goat And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live Goat and confess over him all the iniquities of the Children of Israel and all their transgressions in all their sins puting them upon the head of the Goat And shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the Wilderness Levit. 16.21 Thus Isa. 53.6.7 He stood in our room to bear our burden And as Aaron laid the iniquities of the people upon the Goat so were ours laid on Christ. It was said to him in that day on thee be their Pride their Unbelief their hardness of heart their vain thoughts their earthly mindedness c. Thou art Consecrated for them to be the Sacrifice in their room His death was in our stead as well as for our good And so much his sanctifying himself for us imports Seventhly His sanctifying himself imports the extraordinariness of his Person For it speaks him to be both Priest Sacrifice and Altar all in one A thing unheard of in the world before So that his name might well be called wonderful I sanctifie my self I sanctifie according to both natures My self that is my humane nature which was the Sacrifice upon the Altar of my Divine nature For 't is the Altar that sanctifies the gift As the three offices never met in one Person before so these three things never met in one Priest before The Priests indeed Consecrated the bodies of Beasts for Sacrifice but never offered up their own Souls and Bodies as a whole burnt offering as Christ did And thus you have the import of this phrase I sanctifie my self for their sake Secondly I shall shew you briefly the habitude and respect that all this hath to us For unto us the Scriptures every where refer it So in 1 Cor. 5.7 Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us Eph. 5.2 He loved the Church and gave himself for it See Tit. 2.14 This will be made out by a three fold consideration of Christs Death And First Let it he considered that he was not offered up to God for his own Sins For he was most holy Isa 53.9 No iniquity was found in him Indeed the Priests under the Law offered for themselves as well as the people But Christ did not do so Heb. 7.27 He need not daily as those High-Priests to offer up Sacrifice first for his own Sins and then for the peoples And indeed had he been a sinner what value or efficacy could have been in his Sacrifice He could not have been the Sacrifice but would have needed one Now if Christ were most holy and yet put to death and cruel sufferings either his Death and sufferings must be an act of injustice and cruelty or it must respect others whose persons and cause he sustained in that suffering capacity He could never have suffered or dyed by the Fathers hand had he not been a sinner by imputation And in that respect as Luther speaks he was the greatest of sinners Or as the Prophet Isaiah speaketh all our sins were made to meet upon him Not that he was so intrinsecally but was made so sc. by imputation As is clear from 2 Cor. 5.21 He was made sin for us that had no sin So that hence it 's evident that Christs Death or Sacrifice is wholly a respective or relative thing Secondly It is not to be forgotten here that the Scriptures frequently call the death of Christ a price 1 Cor. 6.20 And a ransom Matth. 20.28 Or counterprice To whom then doth it relate but to them that were and are in bondage and captivity If it were to redeem any it must be captives but Christ himself was never in Captivity He was always in his Fathers bosom as you have heard but we were in cruel bondage and thraldom under the Tyranny of sin and Satan And it 's we only that have the benefit of this ransom Thirdly Either the death of Christ must relate to believers or else he must die in vain As for the Angels those that stood in their integrity needed no Sacrifice and those that fell are totally excluded from any benefit by it He is not a Mediator for them And among men
13 14. or more briefly The Priesthood of Christ is that whereby he expiated the sins of men and obtained the favour of God for them Col. 1.20 22. Rom. 5.10 But because I shall insist more largely upon the several parts and fruits of this office it shall here suffice to speak thus much as to its general nature which was the first thing proposed for explication The necessity of Christs Priesthood comes next to be opened Touching which I affirm according to the Scriptures It was necessary in order to our salvation that such a Priest should by such a Sacrifice appear before God for us The truth of this assertion will be cleared by these two principles which are evident in the Scripture viz. That God stood upon full satisfaction and would not remit one sin without it And that fallen man is totally uncapable of tendring him any such satisfaction Therefore Christ who only can must do it or we perish First God stood upon full satisfaction and would not remit one sin without it This will be cleared from the nature of sin And from the veracity and wisdom of God First From the nature of sin which deserves that the sinner should suffer for it Penal evil in a course of Justice follows moral evil Sin and sorrow ought to go together Betwixt these is a necessary connexion Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death Secondly The veracity of God requires it The word was gone out of his mouth Gen. 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye From that time he was instantly and certainly obnoxious and lyable to the death of soul and body The Law pronounces him cursed that continues not in all things that are written therein to do them Gal. 3.9 Now though mans threatnings are often vain and insignificant things yet Gods shall surely take place Not one tittle of the Law shall fail till all be fulfilled Matth. 5.18 God will be true in his threatnings though thousands and millions perish Thirdly The wisdom of God by which he governs the rational world admits not of a dispensation or relaxation of the threatnings without satisfaction For as good no King as no Laws for government As good no Law as no penalty And as good no penalty as no execution To this purpose one well observes It 's altogether undecent especially to the wisdom and and righteousness of God that that which provoketh the execution should procure the abrogation of his Law That that should supplant and undermine the Law for the alone preventing whereof the Law was before established How could it be expected that â—en should fear and tremble before God when they should find themselves more feared than hurt by his threats against sin So then God stood upon satisfaction and would admit no treaty of peace on any other ground Let none here object that reconciliation upon this only score of satisfaction is derogatory to the riches of grace or that we allow not God what we do men viz. to forgive an injury freely without satisfaction Free forgiveness to us and full satisfaction made to God by Jesus Christ for us are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things inconsistent with each other as in its proper place shall be fully cleared to you And for denying that to God which we allow to men you must know that man and man stands on even ground Man is not capable of being wronged and injured by man as God is by man There is no compare betwixt the nature of the offences To conclude man only can freely forgive man in a private capacity so far as the wrong concerns himself but ought not to do so in a publick capacity as he is a Judge and bound to execute justice impartially God is our Law-giver and Judge He will not dispense with violations of the Law but strictly stands on compleat satisfaction Secondly Man can tender to God no satisfaction of his own for the wrong done by his sin He finds no way to compensate and make God amends either by doing or by suffering his will First Not by doing This way is shut up to all the world None can satisfie God or reconcile himself to him this way For its evident our best works are sinful All our righteousness as filthy rags Isa. 64.6 And it 's strange any should imagine that one sin should make satisfaction for another if it be said not what is sinful in our duties but what is spiritual pure and good may ingratiate us with God It is at hand to reply that what is good in any of our duties is a debt we owe to God yea we owe him perfect obedience and it is not imaginable how we should pay one debt by another Quit a Farmer by contracting a new engagement if we do any thing that is good we are beholding to grace for it Ioh. 15.5 2 Cor. 3.5 1 Cor. 15.10 In a word those that have had as much to plead on that score as any now living have quitted and utterly given up all hopes of appeasing and satisfying the justice of God that way It 's like holy Iob feared God and eschued evil as much as any of you yet he saith Job 9.20 21. If I justifie my self mine own mouth shall condemn me if I say I am perfect it shall also prove me perverse Though I were perfect yet would I not know my soul I would despise my life It may be David was a man as much after the heart of God as you yet he said Psal. 143.2 Enter not into judgement with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified It 's like Paul lived as holy heavenly and fruitful a life as the best of you and far far beyond you yet he saith 1 Cor. 4.4 I know or am conscious to my self of nothing yet am I not thereby justified His sincerity might comfort him could not justifie him And what need I say more the Lord hath shut up this way to all the world And the Scriptures speak it roundly and plâ—â—â—ly Rom. 3.20 Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight Compare Gal. 3.21 Rom. 8.3 Secondly And as man can never reconcile himself to God by doing so neither by suffering That is equally impossible For no sufferings can satisfie God but such as are proportionable to the offence we suffer for And if so an infinite suffering must be born I say infinite for so sin is an infinite evil objectively considered as it wrongs an infinite God Now sufferings may be said to be infinite either in respect of their weight exceeding all bounds and limits The letting out the wrath and fury of an infinite God Or in respect of duration being endless and everlasting In the first sense no Creature can bear an infinite wrath It would swallow us up In the second it may be born as the damned do but then ever to be suffering is never to have satisfied
sacrifice the meritorious cause so of necessity there must be faith the instrumental cause And these concauses do all sweetly meet in their influences and activities in our remission and tranquility of conscience and are all suo genere in their kind and place absolutely necessary to the procuring and applying of it What the near that the blood of Christ is shed if I have no interest in it no saving influences from it O be convinvinced this is the end the business of life Faith is the Phoenix grace as Christ is the Phoenix mercy He is the gift Joh. 4.10 And this is the work of God Ioh. 6.29 the death of Christ the offers and tenders of Christ never saved one soul in themselves without believing application But wo is me how do I see sinners either not at all toucht with the sense of sin and so being whole need not the Physitian or if any be sâ—â—â—g and wounded with guilt how do they lick themselves whole with their own duties and reformations as Physitians say of wounds let them but be kept clean and nature will find balsom of its own to heal them If it be so in spiritual wounds what need Christ to have left the Fathers bosom and come down to dye in the quality and nature of a Sacrifice for us O if men can but have health pleasure riches honours and any way make a shift to still a brawling conscience that it may not check or interrupt them in these enjoyments Christ may go where he will for them And I am assured till God shew you the face of sin in the glass of the Law Make the Scorpions and fiery Serpents that lurk in the Law and in your own consciences to come hissing about you and smiting you with their deadly stings till you have had some sick nights and sorrowful days for sin you will never go up and down seeking an interest in the blood of this sacrifice with tears But Reader if ever this be thy condition then wilt thou know the worth of a Christ. Then thou wilt have a value for the blood of sprinkling As I remember it 's storied of our Crook-back Richard when he was put to a rout in a field battel and flying on foot from his pursuing enemies he cried out O now said he a Kingdom for a Horse So wilt thou cry a Kingdom for a Christ. Ten thousand Worlds now if I had thâ—m for the blood of sprinkling Corollary 3. Is Christ your High-Priest and is his Priestood so indispensably necessary to your salvation then freely acknowledge your utter impotency to reconcile your selves to God by any thing you can do or suffer And let Christ have the whole glory of your recovery ascribed to him It 's highly reasonable that he that laid down the whole price should have the whole praise If any man think or say he could have made an attonement for himself he doth therein cast no light reproach upon that profound wisdom which laid the design of our redemption in the death of Christ. But of this I have spoken elsewhere And therefore Corollary 4. In the last place I rather choose to perswade you to see your necessity of this Priest and his most excellent sacrifice and accordingly to make use of it The best of you have polluted natures poisoned in the womb with sin those natures have need of this sacrifice They must have the benefit of this blood to pardon and cleanse them or be eternally damned Hear me ye that never spent a tear for the sin of nature if the blood of Christ be not springled upon your natures it had been better for you that you had been the generation of beasts the off-spring of Dragons or Toads They have a contemptible but not a vitiated sinful nature as you have Your Actual sins have need of this Priest and his sacrifice to procure remission for them If he take them not away by the blood of his cross they can never be taken away They will lie down with you in the dust They will rise with you and follow you to the Judgement seat crying we are thy works and we will follow thee All thy repentance and tears shouldst thou weep as many tears as there be drops in the Ocean can never take away sin Thy duties even the best of them need this sacrifice It is in the verture thereof that they are accepted of God And were it not God had respect to Christs offering he would not regard or look towards thee or any of thy duties Thou couldst no more come near God than thou couldst approach a devouring fire or dwell with everlasting burnings Well then say I need such a Priest every way Love him in all his offices See the goodness of God in providing such a sacrifice for thee Meat drink and air not more necessary to maintain thy natural life than the death of Christ is to give and maintain thy spiritual life O then let thy soul grow big whilst meditating of the usefulness and excellency of Christ which is thus displaied and unfolded in every branch of the Gospel And with a deep sence upon thy heart let thy lips say blessed be God for Iesus Christ. The TWELFTH SERMON HEB. X.XIV. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified AFter this more general view and consideration of the Priesthood of Christ method requires that we come to a nearer and more particular consideration of the parts thereof which are his Oblation and Intercession answerable to the double office of the High-Priest offering the blood of the Sacrifices without the holy place which Typed out Christs oblation and then once a year bringing the blood before the Lord into the most holy place presenting it before the Lord and with it sprinkling the mercy-seat wherein the intercession of Christ the other part or Act of his Priesthood was in a lively manner Typified to us My present business is to open and apply the Oblation of Christ. The efficacy and excellency whereof is excellently illustrated by a comparison with all other oblations in the precedent context and with a singular Encomium commended to us in these words from the singularity of it It is but one offering one not only specifically but one numerically considered But once offered and never more to be repeated For Christ dieth no more Rom. 6.9 He also commends it from the efficacy of it By it he hath perfected i. e. not only purchased a possibility of salvation but all that we need to our full perfection It brings in a most intire compleat and perfect righteousness All that remains to make us perfectly happy is but the full application of the benefits procured by this Oblation for us Moreover it 's here commended from the extensiveness of it Not being restrained to a few but applicable to all the Saints in all the ages and places of the world For this indefinite them that are sanctified is
SERMON GAL. III. XIII Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us YOU have seen the general nature necessity and parts of Christs Priesthood viz. his Oblation and Intercession Before you part from this office it 's necessary you should further take into consideration the principal fruits and effects of his Priesthood Which are compleat Satisfaction and the Aquisition or purchase of an eternal inheritance The former viz. the satisfaction made by his blood is manifestly contained in this excellent Scripture before us wherein the Apostle having shewn before at the tenth verse that whosoever continues not in all things written in the Law to do them is cursed declares how notwithstanding the threats of the Law a Believer comes to be freed from the curse of it Namely by Christs bearing that curse for him and so satisfying Gods justice and discharging the Believer from all obligations to punishment More particularly in these words you have the Believers discharge from the curse of the Law and the way and manner thereof opened First The Believers discharge Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law The Law of God hath three parts Commands Promises and Threatnings or Curses The Curse of the Law is its condemning sentence whereby a sinner is bound over to deaâ—h even the death of soul and body The chains by which it binds him is the guilt of sin and from this none can loose the soul but Christ. This curse of the Law is the most dreadful thing imaginable It strikes at the life of the sinner Yea his best life the eternal life of the soul. And when it hath condemned it is inexorable No cries nor tears no reformations or repentance can loose the guilty sinner for it requirâ—s for its reparation that which no meer creature can give even an infinite satisfaction Now from this curse Christ frees the Believer That is he dissolves the obligation to punishment Cancels the hand-writing Looses all the bonds and chains of guilt So that the curse of the Law hath nothing to do with him for ever Secondly We have here the way and manner in an by which this is done And that is by a full price paid down and that price paid in the room of the sinner both making up a compleat and full satisfaction He pays a full price every way adequate and proportionable to the wrong So much this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate redeemed imports He hath bought us out or fully bought us That is by a full price This price with which he so fully bought or purchased our freedom from the curse is not only called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 20.28 a ransom But more emphatically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 1 Tim. 2.5.6 which might be translated an adequate or fully answerable ransom And so his freeing us by this price is not only expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou hast bought us to God by thy blood Rev. 5.9 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath fully perfectly bought us out And as the price or ransom paid was full perfect and sufficient in it self so it was paid in our room and upon our account So saith the Text by his being made a curse for us The meaning is not that Christ was made the very curse it self Changed into a curse no more than when the word is said to be made flesh the divine nature was converted into flesh but it assumed or took flesh and so Christ he took the curse upon himself Therefore it 's said 2 Cor. 5.21 He was made sin for us who knew no sin That is our â—in was imputed to our surety and laid upon him for satisfaction And so this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for implies a substitution of one in the place and stead of another Now the price being full and paid in lieu of our sins and thereupon we fully redeemed or delivered from the curse It follows as a fair and just deduction that DOCT. The death of Christ hath made a full satisfaction to God for all the sins of his Elect. He to wit our surety Christ was oppressed and he was afflicted saith the Prophet Isai. 53.7 it may be as fitly rendred and the words will bear it without the least force it was exacted and he answered But how being either way translated it establisheth the satisfaction of Christ may be seen in our learned Annotations on that place So Col. 1.14 in whom we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sin Here we have the benefit viz. redemption interpreted by way of Apposition even the remission of sins and the matchless price that was laid down to purchase it the blood of Christ. So again Heb. 9.12 by his own blood he entred once into the holy place having obtained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eternal redemption for us Here 's eternal redemption the mercy purchased His own blood the price that procur'd it Now for as much as this Doctrine of Christs satisfaction is so necessary weighty and comfortable in it self and yet so much opposed and intricated by several enemies to it the method I shall take for the clearing establishing and preparing it for use shall be First To open the nature of Christs satisfaction and shew what it is Secondly To establish the truth of it and prove that he made full satisfaction to God for all the sins of the Elect. Thirdly To answer the most considerable Objections made against it And Lastly to Apply it First What is the satisfaction of Christ and what doth it imply I answer Satisfaction is the Act of Christ God-man presenting himself as our surety in obedience to God and love to us to do and suffer all that the Law required of us and thereby freeing us from the wrath and curse due to us for our sins First It is the Act of God-man no other was capable of giving satisfaction for an infinite wrong done to God But by reason of the union of the two natures in his wonderful person he could do it and hath done it for us The humane nature did what was necessary in its kind it gave the matter of the Sacrifice the divine nature stampt the dignity and value upon it which made it an adequate compensation So that it was opus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the act of God-man Yet so that each nature retained its own properties notwithstanding their joynt influence into the effect If the Angels in Heaven had laid down their lives or if the blood of all the men in the world had beeen poured out by Justice this could never have satisfied because that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worth and value which this Sacrifice hath would have still been wanting It was God that redeemed the Church with his own blood Act. 20.28 If God redeem with his own blood he redeems as God-man without any dispute Secondly If he
over them First He imposes a new Law upon them and enjoyns them to be severe and punctual in their obedience to it The soul was a Belialite before and could endure no restraint It 's Lusts gave it Law We our selves were sometimes foolish disobedient serving divers lusts and pleasures Tit. 3.3 What ever the flesh craved and the sensual appetite whined after it must have cost what it would cost if damnation were the price of it it would have it provided it should not be present pay Now it must not be any longer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without Law to God but under Law to Christ. Those are the articles of peace which the soul willingly signes in the day of its admission to mercy Matth. 11.29 Take my yoak upon you and learn of me This Law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Iesus makes them free from the Law of sin and death Rom. 8.2 Here 's much strictness but no bondage For the Law is not only written in Christs Statute-book the Bible but coppied out by his spirit upon the hearts of his subjects in correspondent principles which makes obedience a pleasure and self-denial easie Christs yoak is lined with Love so that it never galls the necks of his people 1 Joh. 5.3 His commandments are not grievous The soul that comes under Christs government must receive Law from Christ and under Law every thought of the heart must come Secondly He rebukes and chastises souls for the violations and trangressions of his Law That 's another act of Christs Regal authority whom he loves he rebukes and chastens Heb. 12.6 7. These chastisements of Christ are either by the rod of providence upon their bodies and outward comforts or upon their spirits and inward comforts Sometimes his rebukes are smart upon the outward man 1 Cor. 11.30 For this cause many among you are weakly and sick and many sleep They had not that due regard to his body that became them and he will make their bodies to smart for it And he had rather their flesh should smart than their souls should perish Sometimes he spares their outward and afflicts their inner man which is a much smarter rod. He withdraws peace and takes away joy from the spirits of his people The hidings of his face are sore rebukes However all is for emendation not for destruction And it is not the least priviledge of Christs Subjects to have a seasonable and sanctified rod to reduce them from the waies of sin Psal. 23.3 thy rod and thy staff they comfort me Others are suffered to go on stubbornly in the way of their own hearts Christ will not spend a rod upon them for their good Will not call them to account for any of their transgressions but will reckon with them for altogether in Hell Thirdly Another Regal Act of Christ is the restraining and keeping back his servants from iniquity and withholding them from those courses which their own hearts would incline and lead them to For even in them there is a spirit bent to backsliding but the Lord in tenderness over them keeps back their souls from iniquity and that when they are upon the very brink of sin my feet were almost gone my steps were well nigh slipt Psal. 73.2 Then doth the Lord prevent sin by removing the occasion providentially or by helping them to resist the temptation gratiouslyly assisting their spirits in the trial So that no temptation shall befall them but a way of escape shall be opened that they may be able to bear it 1 Cor. 10.13 And thus his people have frequent occasions to bless his name for his preventing goodness when they are almost in the midst of all evil And this I take to be the meaning of Gal. 5.16 This I say then walk in the spirit and ye shall not fulfil the lusts of the flesh Tempted by them ye may be but fulfil them ye shall not My spirit shall cause the temptation to die and wither away in the womb in the embrio of it so that it shall not come to a full birth Fourthly He protects them in his waies and suffers them not to relapse fom him into a state of sin and bondage to Satan any more Indeed he is restless in his endeavours to reduce them again to his obedience he never leaves tempting and soliciting for their return and where he finds a false professor he prevails but Christ keeps his that they depart not again Joh. 17.12 All that thou hast given me I have kept and none of them is lost but the son of perdition They are kept by the mighty power of God through faith to salvation 1 Pet. 1.5 Kept as in a Garrison according to the importance of that word None more solicited none more safe than the people of God They are preserved in Christ Iesus Jude 1. It is not their own grace that secures them but Christs care and continual watchfulness Our own graces left to themselves would quickly prove but weights sinking us to our own ruine As one speaks this is his Covenant with them Jer. 32.4 I will put my fear in their inwards and they shall not depart from me Thus a King he preserves them Fifthly As a King he rewards their obedience and encourages their sincere services Though all they do for Christ be duty yet he hath united their comfort with their duty This I had because I kept thy precepts Psal. 119.56 They are engaged to take this encouragement with them to every duty that he whom they seek is a bountiful rewarder of such as diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 O what a good master do the Saints serve Hear how a King expostulates with his Subjects Jer. 2.31 Have I been a barren wilderness on a land of darkness to you q. d. Have I been such a hard master to you Have you any reason to complain of my service To whomsoever I have been straight-handed surely I have not been so to you You have not found the waies or wages of sin like mine Sixthly He pacifies all inward troubles and commands peace when their spirits are tumultuous This peace of god Rules in their hearts Col. 3.15 it doth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 act the part of an Umpire in appeasing strife within When the tumultuous affections are up and in a hurry when anger hatred and revenge begin to rise in the soul this hushes and stills all I will hearken saith the Church what God the Lord will speak for he will speak peace to his people and to his Saints Psal. 85.8 He that saith to the raging Sea be still and it obeys him he only can pacifie the disquieted spirit They say of Frogs that if they be croaking never so much in the night bring but a light among them and they are all quiet Such a light is the peace of God among our disordered affections These are Christs Regal acts And he puts them forth upon the souls of his people powerfully
or the bestowing the effects of his love upon us according to that purpose His complacential love is nothing else but that delight and satisfaction he finds in beholding the fruits and workings of that grace in us which he first intended for us and then actually collated or bestowed on us This love of benevolence is that which I have opened to you under the former head Gods compact with Christ about us or his design to save us on the Articles and terms therein specified The love of beneficence is that which this Scripture speaks off out of this fountain Christ flowed to us and both run into that of complacency for therefore he both purposed and actually bestowed Christ on us that he might everlastingly delight in beholding the glory and praise of all this reflected on himself by his redeemed ones This then is the fountain of our mercies The mercy flowing out of this fountain and that is Christ the mercy as he is Emphatically called Luk. 1.72 the marrow kernel and substance of all other mercies He gave his only begotten Son this was the birth of that love the like whereunto it never brought forth before therefore it 's exprest with a double emphasis in the Text the one is that particle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so he so loved the world here is a sic without a sicut how did he love it why he so loved it but how much the tongues of Angels cannot declare And moreover to encrease and aggravate the mercy he is stiled his only begotten Son to have given a Son had been wonderful but to give an only begotten Son that 's love unexpressible unintelligible The objects of this love or the persons into whose lap and arms the eternal love delivered Christ and that is the world this must respect the elect of God in the world such as do or shall actually believe as it is exegetically exprest in the next breath that whosoever believes in him should not perish those whom he calls the world in that he stiles believers in this expression and the word world is put to signifie the elect because they are scattered through all parts and are among all ranks of men in the world these are the objects of this love it is not Angels but men that were so loved he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a lover a friend of man but never 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the lover of friend of Angels or Creatures of another species The manner in which this never enough celebrated mercy flows to us from the Fountain of Divine love and that is most freely and spontaneously He gave not he sold or barely parted from but gave nor yet doth the Fathers giving imply Christ to be meerly passive for as the Father is here said to give him so the Apostle tells us Gal. 2.20 that he gave himself who loved me and gave himself for me the Father gave him out of good will to men and he as willingly bestowed himself on that Service Hence the Note is DOCT. That the gift of Christ is the highest and fullest manifestation of the love of God to sinners that ever was made from eternity to them How is this gift of God to sinners signalized in that place of the Apostle 1 Joh. 4.10 herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins why doth the Apostle so magnifie this gift in saying herein is love as if there were love in nothing else may we not say that to have a being a being among the rational creatures therein is love to have our life carryed so many years like a taper in the hand of Providence through so many dangers and not yet put out in obscurity therein is love to have food and rayment convenient for us beds to lye in relations to comfort us in all these is love yea but if you speak comparatively in all these there is no love to the love exprest in sending or giving Christ for us these be great mercies in themselves but set by this mercy they are all swallowed up as the light of Candles when brought into the Sun-shine no no herein is the love that God gave Christ for us And it is remarkable that when the Apostle would shew us in Rom. 5.8 what is the noblest fruit that most commends to men the root of Divine love that bears it he shews us this very fruit of it that I am now opening But God saith he commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us this is the very flower of that love The Method into which I will cast this precious point shall be this 1. To shew how Jesus Christ was given by the Father 2. How that gift is the fullest and richest manifestation of the love of God that was ever made to the world 3. And then draw forth the Uses of it How was Jesus Christ given by the Father and what is implyed therein You are not so to understand it as though God parted with his â—â—terest and propriety in his Son when he is said to give him he was as much his own as ever when men give they transfer propriety to another but when God had given him he was I say still as much his own as ever but this giving of Christ implyes 1. His designation and appointment unto death for us for so you read that it was done according to the determinate counsel of God Acts 2.23 look as the Lamâ—â—nder the Law was separted from the flock and set apart for a Sacrifice though it were still living yet it was intentionally and pâ—â—paratively given and consecrated to the Lord so Jesus Christ was by the counsel and purpose of God thus chosen and set apart for this Service and therefore in Esa. 42.1 God calls him his elect or chosen one 2. His giving Christ implys a parting with him or setting him as the French hath it at some distance from himself for a time there was a kind of parting betwixt the Father and the Son when he came to tabernacle in our flesh so he expresseth it Joh. 16.28 I came forth from the Father and am come into the world again I leave the world and go to the Father this distance that his incarnation and humiliation set him at was properly as to his humanity which was really distant from the glory into which it is now taken up and in respect of manifestation of delight and love The Lord seemed to carry it as one at distance from him O this was it that so deeply pierced and wounded his Soul as is evident from that complaint Psal. 22.1 2. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Why art thou so far from the voice of my roaring O my God I cry in the day time and thou hearest not c. 3. Gods giving of Christ implies his delivering him into the
the like proportion also is betwixt the blood that consecrates them Earthly things with common Heavenly things with the most excellent blood So then there are two things to be especially observed here First The nature of Christs death and sufferings it had the nature use and end of a Sacrifice and of all Sacrifices the most excellent Secondly The necessity of his offering up it was necessary to correspond with all the Types and prefigurations of it under the Law but especially it was necessary for the expiating of sin the propitiating of a justly incensed God and the opening a way for reconciled ones to come to God in The point I shall give you from it is DOCT. That the sacrifice of Christ our high Priest is most excellent in it self and most necessary for us Sacrifices are of two sorts Eucharistical or thank-offerings in testification of homage duty and service and in token of gratitude for mercies freely received and Ilastical or expiatotory for satisfaction to Justice and thereby the attoning and reconciling of God Of this last kind was the sacrifice offered by Jesus Christ for us To this Office he was called by God Heb. 5.5 in it he was confirmed by the unchangeable oath of God Psal. 110.4 for it he was singularly qualified by his incarnation Heb. 5.6 7. and all the ends of it he hath fully answered Heb. 9.11 12. My present design is from this Scripture to open the general nature and absolute necessity of the Priesthood of Christ. Shewing what his Priesthood implys in it and how all this was indispensably necessary in order to our recovery from the deplorable state of sin and misery First then we will consider what it supposes and implies And then wherein it consists And there are six things which it either presupposeth or necessary includeth in it First At first sight it supposes mans revolt and fall from God and a dreadful breach made thereby betwixt God and him else no need of an attoning sacrifice If one dyed for all then were all death 2 Cor. 5.14 dead in Law under sentence to dye and that eternally In all the sacrifices from Adam to Christ this was still preached to the world that there was a fearful breach betwixt God and man and that even so justice required our blood should be shed And the fire flaming on the Altar which wholy burnt up the sacrifice was a lively Emblem of that fiery indignation that should devour the Adversaries But above all when Christ that true and great sacrifice was offered-up to God then was the fairest glass that ever was in the world set before us to see our sin and misery by the fall in Secondly His Priesthood supposes the unalterable purpose of God to take vengeance for sin He will not let it pass I will not determine what God could do in this case by his absolute power but I think it is generally yielded that by his ordinate power he could do no less than punish it in the person of the sinner or of his surety Those that contend for such a forgiveness as is an Act of Charity like that whereby private persons forgive one another must at once suppose God to part with his right cedendo de jure suo and also render the satisfaction of Christ altogether useless as to the procurement of forgiveness Yea rather an obstacle than a means to it Surely the nature and truth of God oblige him to punish sin He is of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity 1 Heb. 13. And beside the word is gone out of his mouth that the sinner shall dye Thirdly The Priesthood of Christ presupposeth the utter impotency of man to appease God and recover his favour by any thing he could do or suffer Surely God would not come down to assume a body to dye and be offered up for us if at any cheaper rate it could have been accomplished There was no other way to recover man and satisfie God Those that deny the satisfaction of Christ and talk of his dying to confirm the truth and give us an example of meekness patience and self-denyal affirming these to be the sole ends of his death do not only therein root up the foundation of their own comfort peace and pardon but most boldly impeach and tax the infinite Wisdom God could have done all this at a cheaper rate The sufferings of a meer creature are able to attain these ends The death of the Martyrs did it But who by dying can satisfie and reconcile God What creature can bring him an adequate and proportionable value for sin Yea for all the sin that ever was or shall be transmitted to the natures or committed by the persons of all Gods Elect from Adam to the last that shall be found alive at the Lords coming Surely none but Christ can do this Fourthly Christs Priesthood implys the necessity of his being God-man It was necessary he should be a man in order to his passion compassion and derivation of his righteousness and holiness to men Had he not been man he had had no sacrifice to offer no soul or body to suffer in The Godhead is impatible immortal and above all those sufferings and miseries Christ felt for us Besides his being man fills him with bowels of compassion and tender sense of our miseries This makes him a merciful and faithful High-Priest Heb. 4.15 And not only fits him to pity but to sanctifie us also for he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are both of one Heb. 2.11 14 17. And as necessary it was our High-Priest should be God since the value and efficacy of of his sacrifice results from thence Fifthly The Priesthood of Christ implies the extremity of his sufferings In sacrifices you know there was a destruction a kind of Annihilation of the Creature to the glory of God The sheding of the creatures blood and burning its flesh with fire was but an umbrage or faint resemblance of what Christ endured when he made his soul an offering for sin Sixthly and Lastly It implies the gratious design of God to reconcile us at a dear rate to himself in that he called and confirmed Christ in his Priesthood by an oath and thereby laid out a sacrifice of infinite value for the world Sins for which no sacrifice is allowed are desperate sins And the case of such sinners is helpless But if God allow yea and provide a sacrifice himself how plainly doth it speak his intentions of peace and mercy These things are manifestly presupposed or implyed in Christs Priesthood This Priesthood of Christ is that function wherein he comes before God in our name and place to fulfil the Law and offer up himself to him a sacrifice of reconciliation for our sins and by his intercession to continue and apply the purchase of his blood to them for whom he shed it All this is contained in that famous Scripture Heb. 10.7 8 9 10 11 12
the severity of the Law that when it is once offended it will never be made amends again by all that we can do It will not discharge the sinner for all the sorrow in the world Indeed if a man be in Christ sorrow for sin is something and renewed obedience is something God looks upon them favourably and accepts them gratiously in Christ but out of him they signifie no more than the intreaties and cries of a condemned malefactor to reverse the legal sentence of the Judge You may toyl all the day of your life and at night go to bed without a candle To that sense that Scripture sounds Isa. 50. ult Behold all ye that kindle a fire that compass your selves about with sparks walk in the light of your fire and in the sparks that you have kindled this shall ye have of mine hand ye shall lie down in sorrow By fire and the light of it some understand the sparkling pleasures of this life and the sensitive joys of the creatures but generally it 's taken for our own natural righteousness and all acts of duties in order to our own justification by them before God And so it stands opposed to that faith of recumbency spoken of in the verse before By their compassing themselves about with these sparks understand their dependence on these their duties and glorying in them But see the fatal issue ye shall lie down in sorrow That shall be your recompence from the hand of the Lord. That 's all the thanks and reward you must expect from him for slighting Christs and prefering your own righteousness before his Reader be convinced that one act of faith in the Lord Jesus pleases God more than all the obedience repentance and strivings to obey the Law through thy whole life can do And thus you have the first special fruit of Christs Priesthood in the full satisfaction of God for all the sins of Believers The FIFTEENTH SERMON GAL. IV. IV V. But when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law that we might receive the Adoption of Sons THis Scripture gives us an account of a double fruit of Christs death viz. the payment of our debt and the purchase of our inheritance First The payment of our debt expressed by our redemption or buying us out from the obligation and curse of the Law which hath been discoursed in the last exercise Secondly the purchase of an inheritance for those redeemed ones expressed here by their receiving the Adoption of Sons Which is to be our present subject Adoption is either civil or divine Of the first the Civil Law gives this difinition that it is A Lawful Act in imitation of nature invented for the comfort of them that have no children of their own Divine Adoption is that special benefit whereby God for Christs sake accepteth us as Sons and makes us heirs of eternal life with him Betwixt this Civil and Sacred Adoption there is a twofold agreement and disagreement They agree in this that both flow from the pleasure and good will of the Adoptant And in this that both confer aright to priviledges which we have not by nature but in this they differ One is an Act imitating nature the other transcends nature The one was found out for the comfort of them that had no children the other for the comfort of them that had no Father This Divine Adoption is in Scripture either taken properly for that act or sentence of God by which we are made Sons or for the priviledges with which the Adopted are invested And so it 's taken Rom. 8.23 and in this Scripture now before us We lost our inheritance by the fall of Adam we receive it as the Text speaks by the death of Christ which restores it again to us by a new and better title The Doctrine hence is DOCT. That the death of Iesus Christ hath not only satisfied for our debts but over and above purchased a rich inheritance for the children of God For this end or cause he is the Mediator of the New-Testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance Heb. 9.15 We will here first see what Christ paid Secondly what he purchased Thirdly for whom First What Christ paid Our Divines comprize the vertue and fruits of the Priesthood of Christ in these two things viz. solutio debiti acquisitio haereditatis payment and purchase answerably the obedience of Christ hath a double relation ratio legalis justiciae the relation of a legal righteousness an adequate and exactly proportionated price And it hath also in it ratio super legalis meriti the relation of a merit over and beyond the Law To object as some do the satisfaction of Christ was more than sufficient according to our Doctrine and therefore could not be intended for the payment of our debt is a senseless cavil For surely if Christ paid more than was owing he must needs pay all that was owing to divine Justice And truly it is but a bad requital of the Love of Jesus Christ who beside the payment of what we owed would manifest his bounty by the redundancy of his merit which he paid to God to purchase a blessed inheritance for us This overplus of satisfaction which was the price of that inheritance I am now to open is not obscurely hinted but plainly expressed twice in Rom. 5.15 But not as the offence so also is the free gift for if through the offence of one many be dead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much more the grace of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Iesus Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 hath abounded or flowed abundantly unto many So vers 17. For if by one mans offence death raigned by one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 much more they which receive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the overflowings or abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall raign in life by one Iesus Christ. In both which places Christ and Adam are compared as the two roots or common heads of mankind both agreeing in this property of communicating their conditions to those that are theirs yet there is a great deal of difference betwixt them for in Christ the power is all divine and therefore infinitely more active and effectual He communicates abundantly more to his than they lost in Adam So that this blood is not only sufficient to redeem all those that are actually redeemed by it but even the whole world also And were there so many worlds of men as there are men in the world it would be sufficient for them also and yet still there would be an overplus of value For all those worlds of men would rise but to a finite bulk but this blood is infinite
in its worth and dignity Since then there is not a whole world no not half but the far less part of the world redeemed by the blood of Christ which was sufficient for so many how great must be the surplusage and redundancy of merit Here our Divines rightly distinguish betwixt the substance and accidents of Christs death and obedience Consider that Christs suffering as to the substance of it it was no more than what the Law required For neither the justice nor love of the Father would permit that Christ should suffer more than what was necessary for him to bear as our surety but as to the circumstances the person of the sufferer the cause and efficacy of his sufferings c. it was much more than sufficient A super legale meritum a merit above and beyond what the Law required For though the Law required the death of the sinner who is but a poor contemptible creature it did not require that one perfectly innocent should die It did not require that God should shed his blood It did not require blood of such value and worth as this was I say none of this the Law required though God was pleased for the advancement and manifestation of his Justice and Mercy in the highest to admit and order this by way of commutation admitting him to be our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or ransomer by dying for us And indeed it was a most gratious relaxation of the Law that admitted of such a commutation as this for hereby it comes to pass that Justice is fully satisfied and yet we live and are saved which before was a thing that could not be imagined Yea now we are not only redeemed from wrath by the adequate compensation made for our sins by Christs blood and sufferings substantially considered but to a most glorious inheritance purchased by his blood considered as the blood of an Innocent as the blood of God and therefore as most excellent and efficatious blood above what the Law demanded And this is the meaning of Athanasius when he saith that Christ recompensed or made amends for small things with great He means not that sin considered absolutely and in it self is small O no but compared with Christs blood and the infinite excellency and worth of it it is so And Chrysostom to the same purpose Christ paid much more saith he than we owed and so much more as the immense Ocean is more than a small drop So that it was rightly determined by holy Anselme no man saith he can pay to God what he owes him Christ only paid more than he owed him And by this you see how rich a treasure there lies by Christ to bestow in a purchase for us beyond and above what he paid to redeem us even as much as his soul and body was more worth than ours for whom it was sacrificed and that is so great a sum that all the Angels in Heaven and men on earth can never compute and sum up so as to shew us the total of it And this was that inexhaustible treasure that Christ expended to procure and purchase the fairest inheritance for Believers Having seen the treasure that purchased let us next enquire into the inheritance purchased by it Secondly This inheritance is so large that it cannot be surveyed by creatures nor can the boundaries and limits thereof be described for it comprehends all things 1 Cor. 3.22 All is yours ye are Christs and Christ is Gods Revel 21.7 He that overcomes shall inherit all things And yet I do not think or say that Dominium fundatur in gratia that Temporal Dominion in founded in grace No that 's at the cast and dispose of providence but Christ by his death hath restored a right to all things to his people But to be more particular I shall distribute the Saints inheritance purchased by Christ into three heads All Temporal good things all Spiritual good things and all Eternal good things are theirs First All Temporal good things 1 Tim. 6.7 He hath given us all things richly to enjoy Not that they have the possession but the comfort and benefit of all things Others have the sting gall wormwood bayts and snares of the creature Saints only have the blessing and comfort of it So that this little which a Righteous man hath is in this among other respects better than the treasures of many wicked Which is the true key to open that dark saying of the Apostle 2 Cor. 6.10 as having nothing and yet possessing all things They only possess others are possessed by the world The Saints do uti mundo frui Deo use the world and enjoy God in the use of it Others are deceived defiled and destroyed by the world but these are refresht and furthered by it Secondly All Spiritual good things are purchased by the blood of Christ for them As justification which comprizes remission of sins and acceptation of our persons by God Rom. 3.24 Being Iustified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ. Sanctification is also purchased for them Yea both initial and progressive sanctification For of God he is made unto us not only wisdom and righteousness but sanctification also 1 Cor. 1.30 These two viz. our Justification and Sanctification are two of the most rich and shining robes in the wardrobe of free-grace How glorious and lovely do they render the soul that wears them These are like the Bracelets and Jewels Isaack sent to Rebecca Adoption into the family of God is purchased for us by this blood For ye are all the children of God by faith in Iesus Christ Gal 3.26 Christ as he is the Son is haeres natus the heir by nature as he is Mediator he is haeres constitutus the heir by appointment appointed heir of all things as it is Heb. 1.2 By this Sonship of Christ we being united to him by faith become Sons and if Sons then heirs O what a manner of love is this that we should be called the Sons of God 1 Joh. 3.1 That a poor beggar should be made an heir yea an heir of God and a joynt heir with Christ. Yea that very faith which is the bond of union and consequently the ground of all our communion with Christ is the purchase of his blood also 2 Pet. 1.1 To them that have obtained like pretious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Iesus Christ. This most pretious grace is the dear purchase of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yea all that peace joy and spiritual comfort which are sweet fruits of faith are with it purchased for us by this blood So speaks the Apostle in Rom. 5.1 2 3. Being Iustified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Iesus Christ c. moreover the Spirit himself who is the Author Fountain and Spring of all these graces and comforts is procured for us by his death and resurrection Gal. 3.13 14. Christ
reallize and if it do so it must needs overcome the heart Ah Christian canst thou look upon Jesus as standing in thy room to bear the wrath of a Deity for thee Canst thou think on it and not melt That when thou like Isaac wast bound to the Altar to be offered up to Justice Christ like the Ram was caught in the Thicket and offered in thy room When thy sins had raised a fearful tempest that threatned every moment to entomb thee in a Sea of wrath Iesus Christ was thrown over to appease that storm Say Reader can thy heart dwell one hour upon such a Subject as this Canst thou with Faith present Christ to thy self as he was taken down from the Cross drencht in his own blood and say these were the wounds that he received for me This is he that loved me and gave himself for me Out of these wounds comes that balm that heals my soul. Out of these stripes my peace When we hang'd upon the Cross he bore my name upon his breast like the high Priest It was love pure love strong love to my poor soul to the soul of an enemy that drew him down from Heaven and all the glory he had there to endure these sorrows in soul and body for me Oh you cannot hold up your hearts long to the piercing thoughts of this but your bowels will be pained and like Ioseph you will seek a place to vent your hearts in Thirdly Faith cannot only reallize and apply Christ and his death but it can reason and conclude such things from his death as will fill the soul with affection to him and break the heart in pieces in his presence When it views Christ as Dead it Infers is Christ dead for me then was I dead in Law Sentenced and condemned to die eternally 2 Cor. 5.14 If one die for all then were all dead How woful was my case when the Law had past Sentence on me I could not be sure when I lay down but that it might be executed before I rose Nothing but a puff of breath betwixt my soul and Hell Again is Christ dead for me then I shall never die If he be condemned I am acquitted Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It 's God that justifieth it 's Christ that died Rom. 8.34 My soul is escaped as a Bird out of the snare of the Fowler I was condemned but am now cleared I was dead but am now alive O the unsearchable riches of grace O Love past finding out Again did God give Christ to such miseries and sufferings for me how shall he withhold any thing now from me He that spared not his own Son will doubtless with him freely give me all things Rom. 8.32 Now I may rest upon him for pardon peace acceptance and glory for my soul. Now I may relie upon him safely for provision protection and all supplies for my body Christ is the root of all these mercys He is more than all these he is nearer and dearer to God than any other gift Oh what a blessed happy comfortable state hath he now brought my soul into To conclude did Christ endure all these things for me then it 's past doubt he will never leave nor forsake me It cannot be that after he hath endured all this he will cast off the souls for whom he endured it Here the soul is Evangelically broken by the considerations of the mercys which emerge and flow to it out of the Sea of Christs blood Fourthly and Lastly Faith cannot only reallize apply and Infer but it can also compare the love of Christ in all this both with his dealings with others and with the souls dealing with Christ who so loved it To compare Christs dealings with others is most affected He hath not dealt with every one as with me Nay few there are that can speak of such mercies as I have from him How many are there that have no part nor portion in his blood That must bear that wrath in their own persons that he bare himself for me He hath kissed me over other mens shoulders He hath reached a pardon to me over other mens heads He espied me out and singled me forth to be the object of his love leaving thousands and millions still unreconciled Not that I was better than they for I was the greatest of sinners Far from righteousness As unlikely as any to be the object of such grace and love My companions in sin are left and I taken Now the soul is full The heart grows big too big to contain it self Yea Faith helps the soul to compare the love of Christ to it with the returns it haâ—h made to him for that love And what my soul hath thy carriage to Christ been since this grace that wants a name appeared to thee Hast thou returned love for love Love suitable to such love Hast thou prized valued and esteemed this Christ according to his own worth in himself or his kindness to thee Ah no I have grieved pierced wounded his heart a thousand times since that by my ingratitude I have suffered every trifle to justle him out of my heart I have neglected him a thousand times and made him say is this thy kindness to thy friend Is this the reward I shall have for all that I have done and suffered for thee Wretch that I am how have I requited the Lord this shames humbles and breakes the heart And when from such sights of faith and considerations as these the heart is thus affected it affords a good argument indeed that thou art gone beyond all the attainments of temporary believers Flesh and blood hath not revealed this Inference 1. Have the believing meditations of Christ and his sufferings such heart melting influences then sure there is but little faith among men Our dry eyes and hard hearts are evidences against us that we are strangers to the sighs of faith God be merciful to the hardness of your hearts How is Christ and his love flighted among men How shallow doth his blood run to some eyes Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes fountains of tears for this What monsters are carnal hearts We are as if God had made us without affections As if all ingenuity and tenderness were dried up Our ears are so accustomed to the sounds of Christ and his blood than now they are become as common things If a child die we can mourn over our dead but who mourns for Christ as for an only Son We may say of faith when men and women sit so unaffected under the Gospel as Martha said of Christ concerning her brother Lazarus if thou pretious faith hadst been here so many hearts had not been dead this day and in this duty Faith is that burning-glass which contracts the beams of the grace and love and wisdom and power of Jesus Christ together reflects these on the heart and makes it burn but without it we feel nothing
Christs death was Justice and Mercy In respect of man it was murder and cruelty In respect of himself it was obedience and humility Hence our note is DOCT. That our Lord Iesus Christ was not only put to death but to the worst of deaths even the death of the Cross. To this the Apostle gives a plain testimony Phil. 2.8 He became obedient to death even the death of the Cross where his humiliation is both specified he was humbled to death and aggravated by a most emphatical reduplication even the death of the Cross. So Act. 5.30 Iesus whom ye slew and hanged upon a tree q. d. it did not suffice you to put him to a violent but you also put him to the most base vile and ignominious death you hanged him on a tree In this point we will discuss these three particulars viz. the nature or kind the manner and reasons of Christs death upon the tree First I shall open the kind or nature of this death by shewing you that it was a violent painful shameful cursed slow and succourless death First It was a violent death that Christ died Violent in it self though voluntary on his part He was cut off out of the land of the living Isai. 53.8 And yet he laid down his life of himself no man took it from him Joh. 10.17 I call his death violent because he died not a natural death i. e. he lived not till nature was consumed with age as it is in many who live till their balsamum radicale radical moisture like the oyl in the Lamp be quite consumed and then go out like an expiring Lamp It was not so with Christ. For he was but in the very flower and prime of his time when he died And indeed he must either die a violent death or not die at all partly because there was no sin in him to open a door to natural death as it doth in all others Partly because else his death had not been a sacrifice acceptable and satisfactory to God for us That which died of it self was never offered up to God but that which was slain when it was in its full strength and health The Temple was a Type of the body of Christ. Now when the Temple was destroyed it did not drop down as an antient structure decayed by time but was pulled down by violence when it was standing in its full strength Therefore he is said to suffer death and to be put to death for us in the flesh 1 Pet. 3.18 That 's the first thing It was a violent though a voluntary death For violent is not opposed to voluntary but to natural Secondly The death of the Cross was a most painful death Indeed in this death were many deaths contrived in one The Cross was a Rack as well as a Gibber The pains Christ suffered upon the Cross are by the Apostle emphatically stiled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Act. 2.24 the pains of death but properly they signifie the pangs of travail yea the birth pangs the most acute sorrows of a travailing woman His soul was in travail Isai. 53. His body in bitter pangs and being as Aquinas speaks optime complectionatus of the most excellent Crisis exact and just temperament his sences were more acute and delicate than ordinary and all the time of his suffering so they continued not in the least blunted dulled or rebated by the pains he suffered The death of Christ doubtless contained the greatest and acutest pains imaginable Because these pains of Christ alone were intended to equalize all that misery which the sin of man deserved all that pain which the damned shall and the Elect deserved to feel Now to have pains meeting at once upon one person equivalent to all the pains of the damned Judge you what a plight Christ was in Thirdly The death of the Cross was a shameful death Not only because the crucified were stripped quite naked and so exposed as spectacles of shame but mainly because it was that kind of death which was appointed for the basest and vilest of men Their Free-men when they committed capital crimes were not condemned to the Cross. No that was looked upon as the death appointed for slaves Tacitus calls it servile supplicium the punishment of a slave and to the same sense Iuvenal speaks pone crucem servo put the Cross upon the back of a slave As they had a great esteem of a Free-man so they manifested it even when they had forfeited their lives in cutting them off by more honourable kinds of death This by hanging on the tree was alwaies accounted most ignominious To this day we say of him that 's hanged he dies the death of a dog And yet it 's said of our Lord Jesus Heb. 12.2 he not only endured the Cross but also despised the shame Obedience to his Fathers will and zeal for your Salvation made him digest the shame of it and despise the baseness that was in it Fourthly The death of the Cross was a cursed death Upon that account he is said to be made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a curse for us for it is written cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree Gal. 3.13 This refers to Deut. 21.23 His body shall not remain all night upon the Tree but thou shalt in any wise bury him that day for he that is hanged is accursed of God The very Symbol of lifting them up betwixt heaven and earth carryed much shame in it For it implied this in it that the person so used was so execrable base and vile that he deserved not to tread upon the earth or touch the surface of the ground any more And the command for burying them that day doth not at all mitigate but rather aggravates this curse speaking the person to be so abominable that as he is lifted up into the air and hanging between heaven and earth as unworthy ever to set foot more upon the earth so when dead they were to hasten to bury him that such an abominable sight might be removed assoon as might be from before the eyes of men And that the earth might not be defiled by his lying on the surface of it when taken down However as the Learned Iunius hath Judiciously observed that this curse is only a Ceremonial curse For otherwise it 's neither in it self nor by the Law of nature or by civil Law more execrable than any other death And the main reason why the Ceremonial Law affixed the curse to this rather than any other death was principally with respect to the death Christ was to die And therefore Reader see and admire the providence of God that Christ should die by a Roman and not by a Iudaick Law For Crucifying or Hanging on the Tree was a Roman punishment and not in use among the Jews But the Scriptures cannot be broken Fifthly The death of the Cross was a very slow and lingering death They died leisurably
Which still increaseth and aggravateth the misery of it If a man must die a violent death it 's a favour to be dispatcht As they that are pressed to death beg for more weight And it 's a favour to those that are hanged to be smitten on the breast or plucked by the heels by their friends On the contrary to hang long in the midst of tortures to have death coming upon us with a slow pace that we may feel every tread of it as it comes on is a misery The Tyrant that heard the poor Martyr was dead under his first torments said as one disappointed Evasit He hath escaped me For he intended to have kept him much longer under torments And it was the cruel counsel of another to his executioner Let him die so as he may feel himself how he dies And surely in this respect it was worse for Christ than any other that was ever nailed to the Tree For all the while he hanged there he remained full of life and acute sence His life departed not gradually but was whole in him to the last Other men die gradually and towards their end their sence of pain is much blunted They faulter fumble and expire by degrees but Christ stood under â—he pains of death in his full strength His life was whole in him This was evident by the mighty outcry he made when he gave up the Ghost Which argued him then to be full of strength contrary to the experience of all other men Which made the Centurion when he heard it to conclude Surely this was the Son of God Mark 15.37 39. Sixthly It was a succourless and helpless death to Christ. Sometimes they gave to malefactors amidst their torments Vinegar and Myrh to blunt dull and stupifie their Sences And if they hanged long would break their bones to dispatch them out of their pains Christ had none of this favour Instead of Vinegar and Myrh they gave him Vinegar and Gall to drink to aggravate his torments And for the breaking of his bones he prevented it by dying before they come to break his legs For the Scriptures must be fulfilled which saith not a bone of him shall be broken This now was the kind and nature of that death he died Even the violent painful shameful cursed slow and succourless death of the Cross. An Ancient punishment both among the Romans and Carthaginians But in honour of Christ who died this death Constantine the great abrogated it by Law ordaining that none should ever be Crucified any more because Christ died that Death Secondly As to the manner of the execution They that were condemned to the death of the Cross saith a Learned Antiquary of our own bare their Cross upon their own shoulders to the place of execution Then was stript of all their cloaths for they suffered naked And then were fastned to the Cross with nails The manner how that was done one gives us in these words They stretch him out meaning Christ like another Isaac upon his own burden the Cross that so they might take measure of the holes And though the Print of his blood upon it gave them the true length of his body yet how strictly do they take it longer than the truth Thereby at once to Crucifie and rack him Then being nailed like as Moses lifted up the Serpent so was the Son of man lifted up And when the Cross with the Lord fastned on it fell into its socket or basis it Jerked the whole and every part of his sacred body And the whole weight hanging on his nailed hands the wounds by degrees grew wider and wider till at last he expired in the midst of those tortures And that the equity of their proceedings might the better appear to the people the cause of the punishment was written in Capital Letters and fixed to the Tree over the head of the Malefactor Of this appendant to this kind of death I shall speak distinctly in the next Sermon before I come to handle the manner of his death there being so much of providence in that circumstance as invites us to spend more than a few transient thoughts upon it Mean while in the next place Thirdly We will enquire briefly into the reasons why Christ died this rather than any other kind of death And amongst others these three are obvious First Because Christ must bear the curse in his death and a curse by Law affixed to no other kind of death as it was to this The Learned Masius upon Iosuah 2.29 Commenting upon the death of the King of Ai who was hanged on the Tree until evening tells us that the principal reason of the malediction and execrableness of this death was because the death of Christ was prefigured in that mysterie Christ came to take away the curse from us by this death and so must be made a curse On him must all the curses of the Moral Law lie which were due to us And that nothing might be wanting to make it a full curse the very death he died must also have a Ceremonial curse upon it Secondly Christ died this rather than any other kind of death to fulfil the Types and prefigurations that of old were made with respect to it All the Sacrifices were lifted up from the earth upon the Altar But especially the brassen Serpent prefigured this death Numb 21.9 Moses made a Serpent of Brass and put it upon a pole And saith Christ Ioh. 3.14 As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness so must the Son of man be lifted up that so he might correspond with that lively Type made of him in the wilderness Thirdly Christ died this rather than any other death because it was predicted of him and in him must all the predictions as well as Types be fully accomplished The Psalmist spake in the person of Christ of this death as plainly as if he had rather been writing the History of what was done than a Prophesie of what was to be done so many years afterwards Psal. 22.16 17. For dogs have compassed me about the assembly of the wicked have enclosed me they pierced my hands and my feet I may tell all my bones they look and stare upon me Which hath a manifest reference to the distâ—ntion of all his members upon the Tree which was as a rack to him So Zech 12.10 They shall look upon me whom they have pierced Yea Christ himself had foretold the death he should die in the forecited Ioh. 3.14 Saying he must be lifted up i. e. hanged between heaven and earth And the Scriptures must be fulfilled Thus you have a brief account both of the kind manner and reasons of this death of Christ. The improvement of it you have in the following Inferences of truth diducible from it Inference 1. Is Christ dead And did he die the violent painful shameful cursed slow and succourless death of the Cross Then surely there is forgiveness with
maintenance is their due Even Christ himself took care for his Mother Secondly You have had a brief account of the duties of this Relation next let us consider how Christs Example who was so subject to them in his life Luk. 2.51 and so careful to provide at his death enforces all those duties upon Children especially upon gratious Children And this it doth two ways both as it hath the obliging power of a Law and as he himself will one day sit in Judgement to take an account how we have imitated him in these things First Christs example in this hath the force and power of a Law yea a Law of Love or a Law lovingly constraining you to an imitation of him If Christ himself will be your pattern If God will be pleased to take Relations like yours and go before you in the discharge of relative Duties Oh how much are you obliged to imitate him and tread in all his footsteps This was by him intended as a president or pattern to facilitate and direct your Duties Secondly He will come to take an account how you have answered the pattern of obedience and tender care he set before you in the days of his flesh What will the disobedient plead in that day He that heard the groans of an afflicted Father or Mother will now come to reckon with the disobedient Child for them And the glorious example of Christs own obedience and tenderness for his Relations will in that day condemn and aggravate silence and shame such wretched Children as shall stand guilty before his Bar. Inference 1. Hath Jesus Christ given such a famous pattern of obedience and tenderness to Parents Then there can be nothing of Christ in stubborn rebellious and careless Children that regard not the good or comfort of their Parents The Children of disobedience cannot be the Children of God If providence direct this to the hand of any that are so my hearts desire and Prayer for them is that the Lord would search their souls by it and discover their evils to them whilst they shall read the following Queries First Query Have you not been guilty of slighting your Parents by irreverent words or carriages the old man or woman To such I commend the consideration of that Scripture Prov. 30.17 Which methinks should be to them as the hand writing that appear'd upon the plaister of the Wall to Belteshazar The eye that mocketh at his Father and despiseth to obey his Mother The Ravens of the Valley shall pick it out and the young Eagles shall eat it That is they shall be brought to an untimely end and the Birds of the air shall eat that eye that had never seen but for that Parent that was despised by it It may be you are vigorous and young they decayed and wrinkled with Age. But saith the Holy Ghost despise not thy Mother when she is old Prov. 23.22 Or when she is wrinkled as the Hebrew signifies It may be you are rich they poor owne and honour them in their poverty and despise them not God will requite it with his hand if you do Second Query Have you not been disobedient to the commands of Parents A Son of Belial is a Son of wrath if God give not Repentance to life Is not this the black brand set upon the Heathens Rom. 1.30 Have not many repented this upon a Ladder with an halter about their necks Woe to him that makes a Father or Mother complain as the Tree in the Fable that they are cloven assunder with the wedges that are cut out of their own bodies Third Query Have you not risen up rebelliously against and hated your Parents for chastening your bodies to save your souls from Hell Some Children saith one will not take that from a Parent which Beasts yea and salvage Beasts too Bears and Lions will take from their keepers What is this but to resist an Ordinance of God for your good And in rebelling against them to rebell against the Lord Well if they do not God will take the Rod into his own hand and him you shall not resist Fourth Query Have you not been unjust to your Parents and defrauded them First help to make them poor and then dispise them because they are poor O horrid wickedness What a complicated evil is this Thou art in the Language of Scripture a companion with destroyers Prov. 28.24 This is the worst of theft in Gods account You think you may make bold with them but how bold do you make with conscience and the command of God Fifth Query Are you not or have you not been ungrateful to Parents Leaving them to shift for themselves in those straights that you have helpt to bring them into Oh consider it Children this is an evil which God will surely avenge except ye repent What to be hardned against thine own flesh To be cruel to thine own Parents that with so much tenderness fed thee when else thou hadst perished I remember Luther gives us a story of one and oh that it might be a warning to all that hear it who having made over all he had to his Son reserving only a maintenance for himself at last his Son depised him and grudged him the very meat he eat and one day the Father coming in when the Son and his Wife were at dinner upon a Goose they shuffled the meat under the Table but see the remarkable vengeance of God upon this ungracious unnatural Son the Goose was turned into a monstrous Toad which seiz'd upon this vile wretch and kill'd him If any of you be guilty of these evils to humble you for them and reclaim you from them I desire these six Considerations may be lay'd to heart First That the effects of your obedience or disobedience will stick upon you and yours to many generations If you be obedient Children in the Lord both you and yours may reap the fruits of that your obedience in multitudes of sweet mercies for many generations So runs the Promise Eph. 6.23 Honour thy Father and Mother which is the first commandment with promise that it may be well with thee and thou maist live long on the earth You know what an eye of favour God cast upon the Recabites for this Ier. 35.8 from the 14. to the 20. verse and as his blessings are by promise entailed on the obedient so his curse upon the disobedient Prov. 20.20 Whoso curseth his Father or his Mother his Lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness i. e. the Lamp of his life quencht by death yea say others and his soul also by the blackness of darkness in Hell Secondly Though other sins do this sin seldom escapes exemplary punishment even in this world Our English History tells us of a Yeoman of Leicestershire who had made over all he had to his Son to prefer him in marriage reserving only a bare maintenance at his Sons Table Afterward upon some discontent the Son bid his Father get out of his
That Iesus Christ hath perfected and compleatly finished the great work of Redemption committed to him by God the Father To this great truth the Apostle gives a full testimony Heb. 10.14 By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified And to the same purpose speaks Joh. 17.4 I have glorified thee on earth I have finished the work thou gavest me to do Concerning this work and the finishing thereof by Jesus Christ upon the Cross we shall enquire what this work was how Christ finished it and what evidence can be produced for the finishing of it First What was the work which Christ finished by his death It was the fulfilling the whole Law of God in our room and for our Redemption as a Sponsor or surety for us The Law is a glorious thing The holiness of God that fiery attribute is engraven or stampt upon every part of it Deut. 33.2 From his right hand went a fiery Law The jealousie of the Lord watched over every point and tittle of it for his dreadful and glorious name was upon it It cursed every one that continued not in all things contained therein Gal. 3.10 Two things therefore were necessarily required in him that should perfectly fulfil it and both found in our surety and in him only viz. a subjective and effective perfection First A subjective perfection He that wanted this could never say it is finished Perfect working always follows a perfect being That he might therefore finiâ—h this great work of obedience and therein the glorious design of our Redemption loe in what shining and perfect holiness was he produced Luk. 1.35 That holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God and indeed such an High-Priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners Heb. 7.26 So that the Law could have no exception against his person Nay it was never so honoured since its first promulgation as it was by having such a perfect and excellent person as Christ to stand at its Bar and give it due reparation Secondly There must be also an effective perfection or a perfection of working and obeying before it could be said it is finished This Christ had for he continued in all things written in the Law to do them He fulfilled all righteousness as it behoved him to do Matth. 3.15 He did all that was required to be done And suffered all that was requisite to be sufferâ—d He did and suffered all that was commanded or threatned in such perfection of obedience both active and passive that the pure eye of divine Justice could not find a flaw in it And so finished the work his Father gave him to do And this work finished by our Lord Jesus Christ was both a necessary difficult and pretious work First It was a necessary work which Christ finished upon the Cross. Necessary upon a threefold account It was necessary on the Fathers account I do not mean that God was under any necessity from his nature of redeeming us this or any other way For our Redemption is opus liberi consilii an effect of the free counsel of God but when God had once decreed and determined to redeem and save poor sinners by Jesus Christ then it became necessary that the counsel of God should be fulfilled Act. 4.28 To do whatsoever thy hand and counsel had before determined to be done Secondly It was necessary with respect to Christ. Upon the account of that previous compact that was betwixt the Father and him about it Therefore it 's said by Christ himself Luk. 22.22 Truly the Son of Man goeth as it was determined i. e. as it was fore-agreed and covenanted under the necessity of fulfilling his engagement to the Father he came into the world and being come he still minds his engagement Joh. 9.3 I must work the works of him that sent me Thirdly Yea and it was no less necessary upon our account that this work should be finished For had not Christ finished this work sin had quickly finished all our lives comforts and hopes Without the finishing this work not a Son or Daughter of Adam could ever have seen the face of God Therefore it 's said Joh. 3.14 15. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life On all these accounts the finishing of this work was necessary Secondly As it was necessary this work should be finished so the finishing of it was exceeding difficult It cost many a cry many a groan many a tear many a hard tug before Christ could say it is finished All the Angels in Heaven were not able by their united strength to lift that burden one inch from the ground which Christ bare upon his shoulders yea and bare it away But how heavy a burden this was may in part appear by his propassion in the Garden and the bitter out-crys he made upon the Cross which in their proper places have been opened Thirdly and Lastly It was a most pretious work which Christ finished by his death That work was dispatched and finished in few hours which will be the matter of everlasting songs and triumphs to the Angels and Saints to all eternity O it was a pretious work The mercies that now flow out of this fountain viz. Justification Sanctification Adoption c. are not to be valued Besides the endless happiness and glory of the coming-world which cannot enter into the heart of man to conceive If the Angels sang when the foundation stone was laid what shouts what triumphs should there be among the Saints when this voice is heard It is finished Secondly Let us next inform our selves how and in what manner Jesus Christ finished this glorious work And if you search the Scriptures upon that account you will find that he finished it obedientially freely diligently and fully First This blessed work was finished by Jesus Christ most obediently Phil. 2.8 He became obedient to death even the death of the Cross. His obedience was the obedience of a servant though not servile obedience So it was foretold of him before he touched this work Isai. 50.5 The Lord God hath opened mine ear and I was not rebellious neither turned away back i. e. my Father told me the very worst of it He told me what hard and heavy things I must undergo if ever I finished this design of redemption and I was not rebellious i. e. I heartily submitted to and accepted all those difficulties For there is a Meiosis in the words I was content to stoop to the hardest and most ignominious part of it rather than not finish it Secondly As Christ finished it obediently so he finished it freely Freedom and obedience in acting are not at all opposite to or exclusive of each other Moses his Mother nursed him in obedience to the command of Pharaohs daughter yet most
another body to be raised instead of this it would not be a Resurrection but a Creation for non Resurrectio dici poterit ubi non resurgit quod cecidit That can't be call'd a Resurrection where one thing falls and another thing rises as Gregory long since pertinently observed Secondly His body was raised not by a word of power from the Father but by his own spirit So will ours Indeed the power of God shall go forth to unburrough sinners and fetch them forcibly out of their Graves but the Resurrection of the Saints is to be effected another way as I opened but now to you Even by his spirit which now dwelleth in them That very spirit of Christ which effected their spiritual Resurrection from sin shall effect their corporal Resurrection also from the Grave Thirdly His body was raised first he had in this as well as in other things the preheminence so shall the Saints in respect of the wicked have the preheminence in the Resurrection 1 Thes. 4.16 The dead in Christ shall rise first They are to attend the Lord at his coming and will be knockt up â—ooner than the rest of the world to attend on that service As the Sheriff with his men go forâ—h to meet the Judge before the Jaylor brings forth his prisoner Fourthly Christs body was marvelously improved by the Resurrection and so will ours It fell in weakness but was raised in power no more capable of sorrows pains and dishonours In like manner our bodies are sown in weakness but raised in strength sown in dishonour raised in glory Sown natural bodies raised spiritural bodies as the Apostle speaks 1 Cor. 15.43 44. Spiritual bodies not properly but Analogically No distempers hang about glorified bodies nor are they thence forth subject to any of those natural necessities to which they are now tyed There are no flaws defects or deformities in the children of the Resurrection What members are now defective or deformed will then be restored to their perfect being and beauty for if the universal death of all parts be rescinded by the Resurrection how much more the partial Death of any single member As Turtullian speaks and from thence forth they are free from the Law of mortality they can die no more Luk. 20 35 36. Thus shall they be improved by their Resurrection Fifthly To conclude Christs body was raised from the Dead to be glorified and crowned with honour Oh it was a joyful day to him and so will the Resurrection of the Saints be to them the day of the gladness of their hearts It will be said to them in that morning awake and sing ye that dwell in the dust as Isa. 26.19 O how comfortable will be the meeting betwixt the glorified soul and its new raised body Much more comfortable than that of Iacobs and Iosephs after twenty years absence Gen. 46.29 Or that of Davids with Jonathan when he came out of the Cave to him 1 Sam. 20.41 Or that of the Father of the prodigal with his Son who was dead and is alive was lost and is found As he speaks Luk. 15. And there are three things will make it so First The gratifications of the Soul by the satisfaction of its natural appetite of union with its own body For even glorified souls in heaven have such an appetition and desire of re-union Indeed the Angels who are pure spirits as they never hâ—d union with so they have no inclination to matter but souls are otherwise tempered and disposed We are all sensible of its affection to the body now in its compounded state we feel the tender care it hath for the body the sympathy with it and loathness to be separated from it It 's said 1 Cor. 5.6 To be at home in the body And had not God implanted such an inclination to this its Tabernacle in it it would not have paid that due respect it ows the body while it inhabited in it nor have regarded what became of it when it left it This inclination remains still with it in heaven it reckons not it self compleatly happy till its old dear Companion and partner be with it and to that sence some understand those words Iob 14.14 All the daies of my appointed time i. e. of the time appointed â—or my body to remain in the Grave will I wait till my change viz. that which will be made by the Resurrection come for it 's manifest enough he speaks there of the Resurrection Now when this its inclination to its own body its longings and hankerings after it are gratified with a sight and enjoyment of it again oh what a comfortable meeting will this make it Especially if we consider Secondly The excellent temper and state in which they shall meet each other For as the body shall be raised with all the improvements and endownments imaginable which may render it amiable and every way desireable so the soul comes down immediatly from God out of Heaven shining in its holiness and glory It comes perfumed out of those Ivory Palaces with a strong scent of Heaven upon it And thus it re-enters its body and animates it again But Thirdly And principally that wherein the chief joy of this meeting consists is the end for which the glorified soul comes down to quicken and repossess it Namely to meet the Lord and ever to be with the Lord. To receive a full reward for all the labours and services it performed to God in this world This must needs make that day a day of Triumph and Exaltation It comes out of the grave as Ioseph out of his prison to be advanced to highest honour O do but imagine what an extasie of Joy and ravishing pleasure it will be for a soul thus to resume its own body and say as it were unto it come away my dear my ancient friend who servedst and sufferedst with me in the world come along with me to meet the Lord in whose presence I have bee ever since I parted with thee Now thy bountiful Lord hath remembred thee also and the day of thy glorification is come Surely it will be a joyful awaking For do but imagine what a Joy it is for dear friends to meet after long separation how do they use to give demonstrations of their love and delight in each other by Embraces Kisses Tears c. Or frame but to your selves a notion of perfect health when a sprightly vivacity runs through every part and the spirits do as it were dance before us when we go to any business Especially to such a business as the business of that day will be to receive a Crown and a Kingdom Do but imagine then what a Sun-shine morning this will be and how the pains and agonies cold sweats and bitter groans at parting will be recompenced by the joy of such a meeting And thus I have shewed you briefly the certainty of Christs Resurrection the nature and properties of it the threefold influence it hath on the
hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree That the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Iesus Christ that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith That spirit that at first sanctified and since hath so often sealed comforted directed resolved guided and quickned your souls had not come to perform any of these blessed Offices upon your hearts if Christ had not died Thirdly All Eternal good things are the purchase of his blood Heaven and all the glory thereof is purchased for you that are Believers with this price Hence that glory whatever it be is called an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you to the lively hope whereof ye are begotten again by the resurrection of Christ from the dead 1 Pet. 1.3 4. Not only present mercys are purchased for us but things to come also As it is 1 Cor. 3.22 Man is a prudent and prospecting creature and is not satisfied that it 's well with him for present unless he have some assurance it shall be well with him for time to come His mind is taken up about what shall be hereafter and from the good or evil things to come he raiseth up to himself vast hopes or fears Therefore to compleat our happiness and fill up the uttermost capacity of our souls all the good of eternity is put into the account and Inventory of the Saints Estate and Inheritance This happiness is ineffable It 's usually distinguisht into what is essential and what is accessory to it The essentials of it as we in our embodied state can conceive is either the Objective Subjective or Formal happiness to be enjoyed in Heaven The Objective happiness is God himself Psal. 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee If it could be supposed saith one that God should withdraw from the Saints in Heaven and say take Heaven and divide it among you but as for me I will withdraw from you the Saints would fall a weeping in Heaven and say Lord take Heaven and give it to whom thou wilt it 's no Heaven to us except thou be there Heaven would be a very Bokim to the Saints without God In this our glory in Heaven consists to be ever with the Lord. 1 Thes. 4.17 God himself is the chief part of a Saints inheritance in which sence as some will understand Rom. 8.17 they are called heirs of God The Subjective glory and happiness is the attemperation and suiting of the soul and body to God This is begun in sanctification perfected in glorification It consists in removing from both all that is indecent and inconsistent with a state of such compleat glory and happiness and in super-induceing and cloathing it with all Heavenly qualities The immunities of the body are its freedom from all natural infirmities which as they come in so they go out with sin Thenceforth there shall be no diseases deformities pains flaws monstrosities their good physitian death hath cured all this And their vile bodies shall be made like unto Christs glorious body Phil. 3.21 And be made a spiritual body 1 Cor. 15.44 For agility like the Chariots of Aminadab For Beauty as the top of Lebanon for incorruptibility as if they were pure Spirits The Soul also is discharged and freed from all darkness and ignorance of mind being now able to discern all truths in God that Chrystal Ocean of truth The leaks of the memory stopt for ever The roving of its fancy perfectly cured The stubbornness and reluctancy of the will for ever subdued and retained in due and full subjection to God So that the Saints in glory shall be free from all that now troubles them They shall never sin more nor be once tempted so to do for no serpent hisses in that paradise They shall never grieve or groan more for God shall wipe all tears from their eyes They shall never be troubled more for God will then recompense tribulation to their troubles and to them that are troubled rest They shall never doubt more for fruition excludes doubting The Formal happiness is the fulness of satisfaction resulting from the blessed sight and enjoyment of God by a soul so attemper'd to him Psal. 17.15 When I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likeness This sight of God in glory called the beatifical vision must needs yield ineffable satisfaction to the beholding soul in as much as it will be an intuitive vision The intellectual or mental eye shall see God 1 Ioh. 3.2 The corporeal glorified eye shall see Christ. Iob 19.26 27. What a ravishing vision will this be And how much will it exceed all reports and apprehensions we had here of it Surely the one half was not told us It will be a transformative vision it will change the beholder into its own image and likeness We shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 As Iron put into the fire becomes all fiery so the soul by conversing with God is changed into his very similitude It will be an Appropriative vision whom I shall see for my self Job 19.26 27. In Heaven interest is clear and undoubted fear is cast out No need of marks and signs there for what a man sees and enjoys how can he doubt of It will be a ravishing vision these we have by faith are so how much more those in glory How was Paul transported when he was in a visional way wrapt up into the third Heaven and heard the unutterable things though he was not admitted into the blessed society but was with them as the Angels are in our assemblies a stander by a looker on If a spark do so inflame what is it to lie down like a Phoenix in her bed of Spices Like a Salamander to live and move in the fire of love It will also be an eternal vision vacabimus videbimus as Augustin said we shall then be at leisure for this imployment and have no diversions from it for ever No evening is mentioned to the seaventh days sabbath no night in the new Ierusalem And therefore Lastly It will be a fully satisfying vision God will then be all in all Etiam ipsa curiositas satietur curiosity it self will be satisfied The blessed soul will feel it self blessed filled satisfied in every part Ah what an happiness is here to look and love to drink and sing and drink again at the fountain head of the highest glory And if at any time its eye be turned from a direct to a reflex sight upon what it once was how it was wrought on how fitted for this glory how wonderfully distinguished by special grace from them that are howling in flames whilst himself is shouting aloud upon its bed of everlasting rest all this will enhaunce the glory And so also will the Accessories of this blessedness The place where God is enjoyed