a Concession or Permission to those wicked Instruments that shed his Blood a loosing of the chain to those Ban-dogs that compassed him about Such a Concession as was never given them before for still they were tyed up from perpetrating their wickedness and executing their malice till now and this was the hour which he often spake of My hour is not yet come But O what a dismal hour was it when it did come when Providence let loose both Devils and Men upon Christ deliver'd him over to the will of his Enemies And this was not all Christ was not only delivered up into the hands of the worst of men but which was much more terrible into the severe hands of Divine Justice to grapple with the pure unmixed and unallayed Wrath of the great and terrible God Lastly We will improve this point in a double Use by way of Information and Exhortation 1. Use of Information First The Severity of Gods Justice to Jesus Christ informs us what a dreadful evil sin is which so incenses the Wrath of God even against his own Son when he bare our sins and stood before the Bar of God as our Surety Come hither hard hearts hard indeed if this cannot break them you complain you cannot see the evil of sin so as to be deeply humbled for it fix your eyes a while here and intently consider the point in hand Suppose you saw a tender and pitiful Father come into open Court with fury in his face to charge his own his only and his most beloved Son and prosecute him to death and nothing able to satisfie him but his blood and be well pleased when he sees it shed Would you not say O what horrid evil hath he done it must be some deep wrong some heinous crime that he is guilty of else it could never be that his own Father could forget his bowels of pity and mercy yet thus did the Wrath of God break forth against his dear Son when he stood before the Bar as our Surety charged with the guilt of our sins Secondly Learn hence what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God Well might Luther cry out Nolo Deum absolutum Let me have nothing to do with an absolute God Woe to them that stand before God in their own persons without Christ how will Justice handle them For if these things were done in the green Tree what shall be done in the dry Tree Luk. 23. 31. Did the Son of God fear tremble sweat clods of Blood Did he stand amaz'd and fall into such an Agony of soul when he drank that cup which he knew in a few hours he should drink up and then never taste the bitterness of it more How sad is their case that must drink of that Cup for ever a Cup that hath Eternity to the bottom Thirdly How incomprehensible and ravishing is the love of God to men that would rather be so severe to Jesus Christ the darling of his soul than make us the objects of his Wrath for ever Which of you though there be infinitely less tenderness in your hearts than in Gods would lay your hands upon a Child the worst Child you have and put him to death for the sake of the best Friend you have in the world But God with his own hand delivered his Son his only Son that from everlasting was the delight of his soul who never offended him to death the most cursed and cruel death and all this for Enemies how unspeakable is this love and past finding out Fourthly Did not God spare his own Son then let none of us spare our own sins Sin was that Sword which pierced Christ O let sorrow for sin pierce your hearts if you spare sin God will not spare you Deut. 29 20. We spare sin when we faintly oppose it when we excuse cover and defend it when we are impatient under just rebukes and reproofs for it but all kindness to sin is cruelty to our own souls Fifthly and lastly If God did not spare Christ certainly he intends to spare Believers for his sake The Surety could not be spar'd that the Principal might be spar'd for ever If God had spared him he could not have spared us if he afflicts his People it is not for satisfaction to himself but profit to us Heb. 12. 10. Should God spare the rod of Affliction it would not be for our advantage So many sanctified afflictions as are spar'd or abated so many mercies and spiritual advantages are with-held from us But as for those strokes of Justice that are the effects of Gods Vindictive wrath they shall never be felt by Believers for ever All the Wrath all the Curse all the Galland Wormwood was squeez'd into Christ's Cup and not one drop left to imbitter ours 2. Use of Exhortation Did not God spare his own Son but give him up to death for us all Then possess your hearts fully in the assurance of this great truth That the greatest and best of mercies shall not be denied or withheld from you if you be in Christ. Lay it down as a sure conclusion of Faith and build up your hope and comfort upon it This takes in the second Observation and surely never was any truth better fortified never any inference more strongly inferr'd Henceforth may infer Temporal Spiritual and Eternal mercies all must be yours if you be Christs 1 Cor. 3. 21 22 23. Oh make sure that Christ is yours and never hesitate at any other mercy For First God hath certainly a value and esteem for his own Son infinitely above all other things He is his own Son his dear Son Col. 1. 13. the Beloved Eph. 1. 6. The delight of his soul Isa. 42. 1. Nothing is valued by God at that rate that Christ is valued If therefore he spare not the most excellent mercy but parts with the very darling of his soul for us how shall he deny or with-hold any lesser inferior mercy It is not to be imagined he is the mercy Emphatically so called Luk. 1. 72. Secondly Jesus Christ is a Comprehensive mercy including all other mercies in himself he is the Tree of Life all other mercies are but the fruits growing on him he is the Son of Righteousness and what-ever comfort spiritual or natural refreshes your souls or bodies is but a Beam from that Sun a Stream from that Fountain If then God part with Christ to you and for you he will not with-hold other mercies he will not give the whole Tree and deny an Apple bestow the Fountain it self and deny you the Streams All spiritual mercies are in him and given with him Eph. 1. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus All Temporals are in him and given with him Matth. 6. 33. they are additionals to that great mercy Thirdly If God spared not
Divine Justice to Christ appeared And this will manifest it self in the consideration of the following particulars First Let us consider what Christ suffered and we shall see the severity of Justice in his sufferings for he suffered all kinds of miseries anâ—…â—…at in the most intense degrees of them His sufferings were from all hands from Heaven Earth and Hell From his EneEnemies who Condemned him Buffeted him Reviled Scourged and Crucified him From his own Disciples and followers one of whom perfidiously betray'd him another openly deny'd him and all in the hour of his greatest trouble forsook and abandoned him He suffered in his Body the most exquisite torments the Cross was a cruel Engine of torment and more so to him than any other by reason of the excellent Crasis and temperament of his Body and his most acute and delicate sense for as the School-men truly say He was optime complectionatus of the most exact and exquisite Complexion and his senses remained acute and vigorous no way blunted during the whole time of his sufferings but full of life and sense to the last gasp as may be gather'd from Mark 15. 39. When the Centurion which stood over against him saw that he so cried out and gave up the ghost he said Truly this was the Son of God He suffered in his soul yea the sufferings of his soul were the very soul of his sufferings he felt in his inner man the exquisite torments and inexpressible anguish of the wrath of God Hence was that preternatural bloody sweat in the Garden and hence that heart-rending out-cry upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me In all which sufferings from Heaven from Earth from Hell from Friends from Enemies there was no allay or abatement of the least degree of misery God spared not his own Son saith the Text but delivered him up Wherein the severity of Divine Justice to Jesus Christ is displayed in these five remarkable considerations following First God spared not If mercy pity and forbearance might be expected from any hand surely it might be expected from God He is the Fountain of mercy The Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy saith the Apostle Jam. 5. 11. The most melting and tender compassions of a Mother to her Sucking Child are but cruelty in comparison with divine tenderness and mercy Isa. 49. 15. Can a Woman forget her sucking Child that she should not have compassion upon the Son of her Womb yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee Can a Woman the more affectionate Sex forget her sucking Child her own Child and not a Nursing child only her own Child whilst it hangs on her breast and with the Milk from her breast draws love from her heart Can such a thing as this be in Nature Possibly it may some such cruel Mothers may be found but yet I will not forget thee saith God Though humane corrupt Nature may be so vitiated yet from the Divine nature compassion and mercy are inseparable It flows as waters flow from their Fountain only here it restrained it self and let not out one drop to Jesus Christ in the day of his sufferings God the God of mercy spared not Secondly God spared not saith the Text i. e. he abated not any thing which Justice could inflict Christ was not spared one stroke one tear one groan one drop one sigh one shame one circumstance no not the least which Justice could demand as satisfaction for mans sin There be divers kinds of mercy in God there is in him preventing mercy delivering mercy and sparing mercy Now sparing mercy as one well observes is the lowest mercy of all the three 'T is less mercy to be spared or abated some degree or circumstance of misery than to have misery prevented by mercies stepping in betwixt us and it It 's less also than to be wholly delivered out of the hand of misery Either of these are greater acts of mercy than to abate a degree or shorten an hour of our trouble the least abatement of any one circumstance of misery had been sparing mercy though it had been but the least and lowest act of mercy and yet even this was denyed to Christ he was not abated one minute of time or the least degree of sorrow God spared not Thirdly He spared not his own Son 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 So stiled Signanter his own or his proper Son in a special and peculiar manner nearer and dearer to him than the Angels who are his Sons by Creation Joâ—… 1. 6. or any of the Saints who are his Sons by grace in the way of Regeneration and Adoption Joh. 1. 12 13. This was his own Son by Nature a Son of an higher rank and order Psal. 2. 7. begotten in an ineffable manner from all Eternity in his own divine essence and so is his Son by Nature having the same Essence and Nature with the Father being co-equal co-essential and co-eternal with the Father No relation in nature is so intimate strict and dear as this our Children are not so much our own Children our bodies are not so much our own bodies as Christ was Gods own Son and yet though he were so dear to him his other Self his express Image his own dear Son he spared him not God spared not his own Son Fourthly And that which makes a farther discovery of Divine severity towards Jesus Christ is this that God spared not his own Son in the day of his greatest distress when he cryed to his Father in an Agony that if it were possible the cup might pass from him For of that day this Scripture is mainly to be understood the day when he fell to the ground and pray'd That if it were possible the hour might pass When he said Abba Father all things are possible to thee take away this Cup from me Mark 14. 35 36. He beheld his own dear Son sweltering under the heaviest pressure of his wrath sweating great drops of Blood crying If it be possible let this hour this cup pass and yet it could not be granted O the severity of God! He heard the cry of Ahab and spared him he heard the Ninevites cry and spared them He heard the cries of Hagar and Ishmael and spared them Yea he hears the young Ravens when they cry and feeds them But when his own Son cryed with the most vehement cry that the Cup might pass he cannot be excused he must drink it up even the very dregs of the Cup of trembling and that to the last drop O the Justice and Severity of God! Fifthly and lastly Consider what the Father of mercies did instead of sparing the Son of his love and the Text will inform you that he delivered him up for us all So 't is noted in Act. 2. 23. Him being delivered by the determinate Counsel and fore-knowledge of God ye have taken and with wicked hands have Crucified and Slain There was
us that make too light of sin and are easily overcome by every temptation to the commission of it O come hither and behold the Lamb of God and you cannot possibly have slight thoughts of sin after such a sight of Christ. See here the price of sin behold what it cost the Lord Jesus Christ to expiate it Did he come into the world as a Lamb bound with the bands of an irreversible decree to die for sin Did he come from the Bosom of the Father to be our Ransomer and that at the price of his own life Did the hand of severe Justice shed the Heart-blood of this Immaculate Lamb to satisfie for the wrong thy sins have done to God and yet canst thou look upon sin as a light matter God forbid I remember when the Worthies of Israel brake through the Host of the Philistines and brought unto David the waters of the well of Bethlehem It 's said 2 Sam. 23. 17. he would not drink thereof but pouered it out before the Lord and said Be it far from me that I should do this is not this the Blood of the men that went in Jeopardy of their lives He longed for it and yet would not taste it how pleasant soever it would have been to him considering what hazard was run to obtain it Ah Christian it was but the hazard of their Blood that gave cheque to David's appetite to the water and if the water had cost an equal quantity of their blood yet it had been but a low argument to disswade him from drinking it to this consideration that now lies before thee Thy sin actually cost the Blood of Christ one drop whereof is more valuable than all humane blood and yet wilt thou not deny thy Lusts nor resist a temptation for his sake Behold the Lamb of God slain for thy sin and thou canst never have slight thoughts of it any more Thirdly Is there any among you that droop and are discouraged in their spirits because of their manifold aggravated Iniquities who being over-weighed with the burdensome sense of sin despond and sink in their minds to such I would apply the words of my Text as a soveraign Cordial to revive their hearts and hopes Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world If the Blood of the Lamb can take away the sin of the world it can take away thy sin though there be a world of sin in thee For do but consider Christ as designed from Eternity to be our Propitiation Joh. 6. 27. Him hath God the Father Sealed as Sacrificed in our room in the fulness of time 1 Cor. 5. 7. Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us as accepted by the Father with greatest content and pleasure even as a sweet smelling savor Eph. 5. 2. as publiquely justified and discharged by God the Creditor at his Resurrection 1 Tim. 3. 16. and John 16. 9. And lastly Consider him as now in Heaven where he appears before God for us as a Lamb that had been slain Rev. 5. 6. bearing the very marks of his death and presenting them before God as the most effectual and moving plea to procure pardon and mercy for his people Let these things I say be duely pondred and nothing will be found more effectual to relieve the despondent minds of poor Believers against the sinking sense of their sin He that represents himself in the Sacrament as wounded for you shews at the same time to the Father in Heaven the real Body that was wounded than which nothing more effectually moves mercy or stays the sliding feet of a poor Believers hope And that whether we consider First The dignity of that body which was wounded the most hâ—…llowed and deeply sanctified thing that ever was created Luk. 1. 35. That holy thing Secondly Or his Vicegerency in suffering He was wounded for our Transgressions Isa. 53. 5. It was for that hard proud vain dead heart that thou complainest of Or Thirdly The end and design of those wounds which was to repair the Honour of God and the violated Law the language of that blood which is said to speak better things than the blood of Abel Heb. 12. 24. is this Father have these poor souls wounded thy Name thine Honour thy Law Behold the wounds thy Justice hath inflicted on me for reparation of all that wrong they have done thee Oh how sweetly doth the Blood of the Lamb settle the Conscience of a poor drooping Believer Fourthly Is there any among you that are faint-hearted and ready to shrink away from any sufferings for Christ as unable to bear and endure any thing for his sake To such I would say in the words of this Text. Behold the Lamb of God Did Christ suffer such grievous things for you and cannot you suffer small matters for him Alas what is the wrath of man to the wrath of the great and terrible God! Beside he was an Innocent Lamb and deserved not to suffer the least degree of penal evil upon his own account but thou hast deserved Hell and yet shrinkest under the sufferings of a moment Did he suffer so much for you and can you suffer nothing for him Surely he in suffering for you hath left you an example that you should follow his steps 1 Pet. 2. 21. What is our Blood compar'd in dignity to the Blood of Christ What are our sufferings compar'd in kind or degree to the sufferings of Christ Nothing is found to fortifie a mans spirit for sufferings as the Meditation of Christs sufferings for us doth Fifthly Is there any among you that are impatient under your own personal tryals and troubles apt to howl under common afflictions from the hand of God or swell with revenge under injuries from the hands of men To such I would say Behold the Lamb of God Was Christ a Lamb for meekness and art thou a Lyon for fierceness Was he silent not once opening his mouth when he suffered most vile things from the hands of Sinners and can you bear nothing He suffered patiently and deserved it not you suffer impatiently and have deserved infinitly more O that you would learn to be more Christ-like in all your tryals afflictions Let it not be said that Christ carried it as a Lamb when he was tried and we like Swine grumbling or houling when we are tried O get a Christ-like temper Sixthly Is there any among you that stagger at the promises through unbelief That cannot rely upon a word of promise because their own unbelieving hearts fill them with unworthy suspicions of the power faithfulness or willingness of God to perform them to them O that such would behold the Lamb of God as represented in this Ordinance Are not all the promises of God Sealed to Believers in the Blood of this Lamb Heb. 9. 17 18 19 20. Are not all the promises of God in Christ Yea and Amen to all that are in him 2 Cor. 1. 20. Or is there
any thing put into any promise of greater value than the Blood of the Lamb that was shed to purchase it Or is not the giving of Christ to die for us the accomplishment of the greatest promise that ever God made to us And after the fulfilling thereof what ground remains for any to doubt the fulfiling of lesser promises Lastly Is there any among you that desire to get up your affections at this Table to have your hearts in a melting temper to awaken and rouze up all the powers of your souls in so great an occasion for it as this Behold the Lamb of God and this will do it Christ calls off your eyes and thoughts from all other objects to himself Isa. 65. 11. I said behold me behold me Fix the eye of Faith here and you will feel a pang quickly coming upon your hearts like that Cant. 2. 5. Stay me with Flaggons comfort me with Apples I am sick with love Your eye will affect your hearts Whilst you behold your hearts will melt within you THE SIXTH MEDITATION UPON Rom. 8. ver 32. He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things THIS Scripture contains a most weighty argument to encourage and confirm the Faith of Christians in the expectation of all spiritual and temporal mercies It proceeds from the greater to the lesser affirmatively He that delivered his Son for us what can he deny us after such a gift every word hath its weight Did not God spare i. e. abate any thing which his justice could inflict upon his Son his own Son opposed here to his adopted Sons as being infinitly more excellent than they and most dear to him above and beyond all others but on the contrary delivered him up how dear soever he was unto him to Humiliation contradiction of Sinners to all sorrows and temptations yea to death and that of the Cross and all this for us for us Sinners for us Enemies to God for us unlovely Wretches How shall he not with him also freely give us all things How is it imaginable that God should with-hold after this spirituals or temporals from his people How shall he not call them effectually justifie them freely sanctifie them throughly and glorifie them eternally How shall he not cloath them feed them protect and deliver them Surely if he would not spare or abate to his own Son one stroke one tear one groan one sigh one circumstance of misery it can never be imagined that ever he should after this deny or withhold from his people for whose sakes all this was suffered any mercies any comforts any priviledge spiritual or temporal which is good for them and needful to them So that in the words we find 1. A Proposition 2. An Inference from it The Proposition opens the severity of Gods justice to Christ the Inference declares the riches of his mercy to us in Christ. First We have here before us a Proposition containing the severity of Divine Justice towards Christ And this is expressed two ways Viz. 1. Negatively he spared him not 2. Aâ—…irmatively he delivered him up for us First Negatively He spared not his own Son There is a three-fold mercy in God viz. Preventing mercy which steps between us and trouble Delivering mercy which takes us out of the hand of trouble And Sparing mercy which though it do not prevent nor deliver yet it mitigates allays and graciously moderates our troubles and though sparing mercy be desirable and sweet yet it is the least and lowest sort of mercy that God exercises towards any Though it be mercy to have the time of sufferings shortned or one degree of suffering abated yet these are the lowest and least effects of mercy and yet these were denied to Jesus Christ when he stood in our room to satisfie for us God spared not one drop he abated not one degree of that wrath which Christ was to suffer for us Secondly Affirmatively But on the contrary he delivered him up for us all He delivered him as a Judge by sentence of Law delivers up the Prisoner to be Executed 'T is true Pilate delivered him to be Crucified and he also gave himself for us but betwixt Gods delivering Pilates delivering and his own there is this difference to be observed In God it was an Act of highest Justice In Pilate an Act of greatest wickedness In himself an Act of wonderful obedience God as by an act of highest Justice delivered him up for us For us notes the Vicegerency of his sufferings not only for our good as the final cause nor only for our sins as the meritorious cause but for us i. e. in our room place or stead according to 1 Pet. 3. 18. and 2 Cor. 5. 14. Secondly We have also here before us a most sweet and comfortable inference and conclusion from this proposition If God have so delivered him how shall he not with him freely give us all things For Christ comprehends all other mercies in himself therefore in giving him for us all other mercies are necessarily with him given to us And these mercies the poorest weakest Believer in the world may warrantably expect from God For as God delivered him for us all so the treasures of all spiritual and temporal mercies are thereby freely opened to us all to the weak as well as to the strong He saith not Christ was delivered for all absolutely but for us all i. e. all that Believe all that are Elected and called in whose person it is manifest the Apostle here speaks as Pareus on the place well observed Hence these two doctrinal conclusions fairly offer themselves 1. Doct. That the rigor and severity of Divine Justice was executed upon Jesus Christ when he suffered for us 2. Doct. That Believers may strongly infer the greatest of mercies to themselves from the severity of Gods Justice to Jesus Christ. I would willingly speak to both these points at this time each affording such proper matter of meditation to us in such a season as this To begin therefore with the first observation 1. Doct. That the rigor and severity of Divine Justice was executed upon Jesus Christ when he suffered for us God did not spare him In Zach. 13. 7. you have Gods Commission given to the Sword of Justice to smiâ—… his own Son and that without pitty Awake O Sword against my Shepherd and against the man that is my fellow smite the Shepherd c. And when this Commission came to be executed upon Christ the Text tells us God did not spare him All the Vials of his wrath were poured out to the last drop Two things require our attention in this point 1. Wherein the severity of Justice to Christ appeared 2. Why must Justice be executed on him in such rigor and severity Why there could be no abatement mitigation or sparing mercy shewn him in that day First Wherein the severity of
Christ the best mercy but delivered him up for us all when we were his Enemies then certainly he will not deny lesser mercies when we are reconciled and made Friends to him And this is the forcible reason of the Apostle which even compels assent Rom. 5. 9. Much more being now justified by his Blood we shall be saved from wrath through him In a word Fourthly and lastly If it were the very design and intention of God in not sparing his own Son to open thereby a dore for all mercies to be let in upon us then 't is not imaginable he should with-hold them He will not lose his design nor lay so many stripes upon Christ in vain Some shall surely have the benefit of it and none so capable as Believers When God spared not his own Son this was the design of it and could you know the thoughts of his heart they would appear to be such as these I will now manifest the fierceness of my Wrath to Christ and the fulness of my Love to Believers The pain shall be his that the ease and rest may be theirs the stripes his and the healing balm issuing from them theirs The Condemnation his and the Justification theirs The Reproach and Shame his and the Honour and Glory theirs The Curse his and the Blessing theirs The Death his and the Life theirs The Vinegar and Gall his the sweet of it theirs He shall groan and they shall triumph He shall mourn that they may rejoyce His heart shall be heavy for a time that theirs may be light and glad for ever He shall be forsaken that they may never be forsaken Out of the worst of miseries to him shall spring the sweetest of mercies to them O Grace Grace beyond the conception of the largest mind the expression of the tongues of Angels THE SEVENTH MEDITATION UPON Mark 9. 24. And straight-way the Father of the Child cried and said with tears Lord I Believe help my Unbelief THE occasion of these words is to be gather'd from the Context and briefly it was this A tender Father brings a possessed Child to Christ to be cured with a Sipotes a doubting question If thou canst do any thing have compassion upon us and help us Words imparting much natural affection and tender love to his Child Have Compassion upon us and help us If the Child be sick the Parent is not well What touches the Child is felt by his Father And as they import his natural affection to his Child so also his own spiritual disease or the weakness of his Faith His Child was possest with a dumb Devil and himself with unbelieving doubts and suspitions of Christs ability to cure his Child The Child had a sick body and the Father an infirm soul. Satan afflicted one by a possession and the other by temptation ver 22. Christ returns his doubting language upon himself ver 23. If thou canst believe all things are possible to him that believeth q. d. Dost thou doubt of my ability to heal thy Child question rather thy own ability to believe for his cure If he be not heal'd the cause will not be in my inability but in thine own infidelity Which he speaks not to insinuate that Faith was in his own power but to convince him of his weakness and drive him to God for assistance which effect it obtain'd for immediately he cry'd out and said with tears Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief O how good is it for men to be brought into the straights of affliction sometimes Had not this man fallen into this distress it 's not like that he had at least not so soon arrived either to the sense of his grace or the weakness of it In the words we may note these three parts First A profession of his Faith Lord I believe Secondly A sense of the weakness of his Faith Help thou my unbelief Thirdly The affection with which both were uttered He cried out and said with tears If these tears proceeded from the sense and feeling of divine power inabling him to believe as some think than they were tears of joy and would inform us of this great truth That the least and lowest measure of true Faith is matter of joy unspeakable to the possessor of it If they proceeded from the sense of the weakness of his faith then they give us this note That the remainders of unbelief in the people of God do cost them many tears they are the burdens and sorrows of gracious souls 1. Doct. That the least and lowest measure of Faith is matter of joy unspeakable to the possessor of it The Apostle in the 2 Pet. 1. 1. calls it precious Faith and it well deserves that Epithet for the least and lowest degree of saving Faith is of invaluable excellency as will appear in these particulars First The least degree of saving faith truly unites the soul to Jesus Christ and makes it as really a branch or member of him as Moses Abraham or Paul were All saving Faith receives Christ Joh. 1. 12. Indeed the strong Believer receives him with a stronger and stedier hand than the weak one doth who staggers doubts and trembles but yet receives him and consequently is as much interessed in the blessed priviledges flowing from Union as the greatest Believer in the world Such are Christs complacency in our persons and duties his sympathy with us in our troubles and affections and our interest in his person and purchase And is not this matter of exceeding joy Is it not enough to melt yea overwhelm the heart of a poor Sinner to discover and feel that in his own heart which entitles him to such mercies Secondly From the least degree of saving faith we may infer'as plenary a remission of sin as from tht strongest The weakest Believer is as compleatly pardoned as the strongest Act. 10. 43. By him all that believe are justified from all things All that believe without difference of sizes strength or degrees the least as well as the greatest the Believer of a day old as well as the Fathers and Worthies of greatest name and longest standing Loe then the least measure of faith intitles thee as really to the greatest blessing as the highest acts of faith can do 'T is true the stronger the acting of faith is the clearer the evidence usually is but interest in the priviledge is the same in both If then thou canst discern but the weakest act and smallest measure of faith in thy soul hast thou not reason with him in the Text to cry out and say with tears Lord I belive Canst thou receive and read this Pardon the pardon of such and so many sins and not wet it with thy tears O it's matter of joy unspeakable Thirdly The least degree of saving faith infers thy Election of God and if that be not matter of melting and transporting consideration nothing is O it 's matter of more joy that our names are written in
work to the heart of Christ. I delight to do it it is in my heart Loe I come The Hebrew words note not simple consent or willingness but the highest pleasure and complacency that can be a work which ravishes his soul with the delights of it I delight to do thy will And that other expression Thy Law is within my heart or bowels hath as deep a sense and signification as the former It notes the greatest care solicitude and intention of mind in keeping the most precious treasure that was committed to him for so the phrase is used in Prov. 4. 21. And so did our Redeemer esteem and reckon this work which was by the Father demandated and committed to him Hence the note is Doct. That the will of God to redeem Sinners by the incarnation and death of Jesus Christ was most grateful and pleasing to the very heart of Christ. It is said Prov. 8. 31. when he was sollacing himself in the sweetest enjoyment of his Father whilst he lay in that blessed bosom of delights yet the very prospect of this work gave him pleasure Then were his delights with the Sons of men And when he was come into the world and had endured many abasures and injuries and was even now come to the most difficult part of the work yet how am I straightned or pained saith he till it be accomplished Luk. 12. 50. Two things might call our thoughts to stay upon them in this point First The decency of it why it ought to be so Secondly The reasons of it whence it came to be so First Why it ought to be a pleasant and grateful thing to Christ to take a body of flesh and lay it down by death again for the redemption of Sinners First It became Christ to go about this work with chearfulness and delight that thereby he might give his death the nature and formality of a sacrifice In all Sacrifices you shall find that God had still a regard a special respect to the will of the offerer See Exod. 35. 5. 21. Levit. 1. 3. the voluntariness and chearfulness with which it is given is of great regard with God Secondly It ought to be so in regard of the unity of Christs will with the Fathers The work of our redemption is call'd the pleasure of the Lord Isa. 53. 10. And what was the Fathers pleasure could not be displeasing to him who is one with the Father It 's impossible their wills can clash whose nature is one Thirdly This was necessary to magnifie and commend the love of Jesus Christ to us for whom he gave himself That he came into the world to die for us is a mercy of the first magnitude but that he came in love to our souls and underwent all his sufferings with such willingness for our sakes this heightens it above all apprehension O this is the most taking the most ravishing the most astonishing consideration of all He loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2. 20. He loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood Rev. 1. 5. Here love is in its highest exaltation Fourthly It was necessary to be so for the regulating of all our obedience to God according to this pattern That seeing and setting this great example of obedience before us we might never grutch nor grumble at any duty or suffering that God should call us to You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ how that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor Saith the Apostle when he would press the Corinthians to their duty 2 Cor. 8. 9. and when he would effectually urge the Philippians to their duty this is the argument Let this mind be in you which also was in Christ Jesus Phil. 2. 5. So that it became and behooved Christ thus to undertake this great service Secondly Next let us consider and examine whence it came to be so pleasant and acceptable to Jesus Christ to come into the world and die for poor Sinners And we shall find that although the sufferings of Christ were exceeding sharp and the cup of Gods wrath unspeakably bitter yet that which made it pleasant and desirable to Jesus Christ was the prospect he had of the sweet results and issues of his sufferings Isa. 53. 10 11. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied i. e. he shall have great content and pleasure from the issues and fruits of his sufferings as Psal. 128. 2. Thou shalt eat the labour of thy hands i. e. the fruit of thy labours So here He shall see the travail of his soul i. e. the fruit and effects of his travail and to see this shall be to him the reward and recompence of all his sufferings Now among the sweet results of the sufferings of Christ there are especially these three which he fore-saw with singular content and delectation First That in his sufferings there would be made a glorious display and manifestation of the divine Attributes yea such a glorious display of them as never was made before to Angels or to men nor ever shall be any more in this world For though First The Wisdom of God had made it self visible to men in the Creation of the world yet there it shone but in a faint and languishing beam compared with this Here divine Wisdom put it self as it were into a visible form and represented it self to the life See 1 Cor. 1. 24. and Eph. 30. 10. Behold in the death of Christ the Wisdom of God in its highest exaltation and glory O the manifold Wisdom of God! O the depth of his unsearchable wisdom Which I touched in some particulars before p. 102. Behold here the Wisdom of God raising more glory to himself by occasion of the breach of the Law than could ever have risen to him from the most punctual observation of its commands or the most rigorous execution of its threatenings from the occasion of the fall which was our undoing raising us to a far better estate and with a much better security to enjoy it than that from which we fell Yea behold and wonder God by the death of Christ recovering his Elect from all the danger and mischief of sin and yet making the way and manner of their recovery the fairest glass to represent the horror and evil of sin to them that ever was shewn them in this world Oh the tryumph of divine Wisdom Secondly Though the love of God had appeared before in our Creation Protection and Provision yet nothing to what it doth in our Redemption by the death of Christ Loe here is the love of God in its strength and glory 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 Herein is love i. e. here is the highest expression of Gods love to the Creature not only that ever was but that ever can be made