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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nature_n	death_n	sin_n	sin_v	3,797	5	9.4651	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96661	Mount Ebal levell'd or Redemption from the curse. Wherein are discovered, 1. The wofull condition of sinners under the curse of the law. 2. The nature of the curse, what it is, with the symptomes of it, in its properties, and effects. 3. That wonderful dispensation of Christs becoming a curse for us. 4. The grace of redemption, wherein it stands, in opposition to some gross errors of the times, which darken the truth of it. 5. The excellent benefits, priviledges, comforts, and engagements to duty, which flow from it. By Elkanah Wales, M.A. preacher of the Gospel at Pudsey in York-shire.	Wales, Elkanah, 1588-1669.	1658 (1658)	Wing W294; Thomason E1923_1; ESTC R209971	189,248	382

effectual calling Jesus Christ was made a curse and so became a sacrifice for sinners not that they might immediately without any more ado be made partakers of the redemption purchased thereby or be actually redeemed upon the very offering made but that having first made this benefit feasible so that now there is such a thing to be had which without him neither is nor could be he might afterwards communicate it to the Elect and give them the personal possession of it that they might enjoy it for themselves And this he doth by a powerful drawing them to himself and so by union to him they have a real interest in this benefit Therefore the Apostle sometimes speaks of it as appropriated to beleevers Eph. 1.7 Col. 1.14 and Jehovah stiles himself the Churches Redeemer Isa 49.26 as often elsewhere and Job calls him his Redeemer Job 19.25 Both these considerations are here implied as depending necessarily the one upon the other in respect of those that shall be saved and that they are not to be confounded but distinguished appears by Heb. 9.15 where we may observe a clear difference betwixt the death of the Mediator for the redemption of transgressions and receiving the promise of the inheritance This latter being laid down as a consequent or fruit of the former and limited to them that are called To conclude Take the whole in this short summe Redemption is the buying out and delivering of sinners from the curse of the Law and so from the guilt of sin and the wrath of God and the condemation of hell due thereunto by the death and satifaction of Christ the Mediator Sect. 2. Proof from Scripture-reason FOr the latter this main truth concerning the redemption of sinners by Christ now made a curse for them may receive further confirmation from grounds of Scripture-reason whether we consider the fitness of the person to undertake such an enterprise or the efficaciousness of his sufferings 1 The person was every way fit to redeem us being both God and man 1 He is true God 1 Joh. 5.20 blessed for ever Rom. 9.5 the only begotten of the Father Joh. 1.14 the onely begotten Son which is in the bosome of the Father vers 18. and therefore very gracious with him which the Father himself did solemnly testifie by a voice from heaven Matth. 3.17 He is the mighty God Isa 9.6 therefore the Father hath laid help on him Ps 89.20 the Horn of David Psal 132.17 and the Horn of salvation Luke 1.69 mighty to save Isa 63.1 he was infinite lyable to break through all difficulties and with an holy scorn to sleight an whole host of the most terrible enemies to march through them without danger and in despite of them all to fetch waters of life for us out of the Well of Bethlehem He is the Lord 1 Chro. 11.18 Is there any thing too hard for him Jer. 32.27 2 He is true man also in one and the same person flesh of our flesh and bone of our bone next a kin to us therefore he is not ashamed to call us brethren Heb. 2.11 It was a Levitical Ordinance that if an Israelite were fallen into decay and had sold himself to a stranger any of his brethren or nigh of kin unto him might redeem him Lev. 25.47 48 49 and the same might be done if he had sold any part of his possession vers 25. therefore these two phrases are used indifferently to note the same thing a near kinsman and one that hath right to redeem Ruth 2.20 3.9 Of this we have an instance in Hanameel Cosen-german to the Prophet Jeremy Chap. 32.7 8. c. This doubtless had some reference to Christ We had sold our selves to a stranger even to Satan to serve him Christ is a near kinsman one of the same stock and blood with us therefore the right of redemption is his It was also a statute and a custome in Israel That if a man dyed having no childe to inherit after him then his brother or next kinsman should take his wife and raise up seed to his deceased brother Deut. 25.5 c. and withall if the inheritance were alienated or set to sale he was to buy it out or redeem it for the use of the first-born that so it might continue settled upon the Family of the dead man Wee have a clear instantial Gospel-truth lys hid as I conceive Old Adam dyed and left no seed behinde him that might inherit heaven and moreover the inheritance was quite extinct and lost as to him and all his and therefore the Lord thrust him out of Paradise Gen. 3.24 Onely Jesus Christ is found the next kinsman who begetting sons and daughters by the word of Truth doth therby raise up a seed of God redeem the forfeited inheritance and so settle it upon the first-born of Adams family for ever yet with this difference that this seed shall not be called after the name nor inherit in the right of the first Adam but they shall be called by a new name which the mouth of the Lord shall name Isa 62.2 And they shall inherit in the right of the second Adam onely Act. 26.18 Eph. 1.11 2 The sufferings of Christ were fully efficacious to redeem us for thereby 1 He hath given abundant satisfaction to the justice of God and so hath weakned yea nullified 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and taken away sin in the guilt and condemning power of it God sent his Son in the similitude of sinful flesh and for sin that is upon the sad and woful occasion of sins being in the world or that he might abolish and destroy it And what is the fruit of this glorious designe Why he hath condemned sin in the flesh that is by laying the curse which the Law threatned against sinners upon that very flesh or nature which had sinned he hath cast sin in its own plea. A mans work may be said to plead for his pay the crime of a Malefactor cryes for the execution of the Law upon him so sin pleads against the sinner and calls for death its wages to be inflicted upon him Sin although as an act it be transient yet in the guilt of it lyes in the Lords high Court of Justice filed upon record against the sinner and calling aloud for deserved punishment saying Man hath sinned and man must suffer for his sin But now Christ having suffered for sin that plea is taken off Lo here saith the Lord the same nature that sinned suffereth mine own Son being made flesh hath suffered death for sin in the flesh the thing is done the Law is satisfied and so he non-suits the action and casts it out of the Court as unjust Thus whereas sin would have condemned us he hath condemned sin and there is now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus Rom. 8.1 3. The blood of the Mediator out-cryes the clamor of sin We read Lev. 16.7 c. of two Goats which were

of peace and salvation to the lost world but every mothers childe of us had continued in the bond of iniquity and had suffered the extremity of the curse in our own persons for ever For this is the very next bottome whereupon all Gospel-grace and whatsoever is necessary to the salvation of sinners doth stand and as it were the soul from which it hath both being and breathing The excellency of the cause hath a strong influence into the effect to make it excellent also If we look upon the nature and frame of man in the first Creation his body curiously wrought out of the dust of the earth his soul breathed into him from heaven to be both a living creature and made after the Image of God Gen. 1.26 2.7 and all this done with a word we cannot but say it is a very excellent and precious work David stands wondering at it Psal 139.14 15. How much more excellent and precious is the work of grace which is the fruit of Redemption our second Creation for the effecting whereof the Lord did not onely Let it be but as if that were not sufficient the second person must lay aside his glory and take upon him the form of a servant and not onely bear our nature but also our sin and curse even to the death Phil. 2.7 8. By this we should estimate the exceeding great worth of that grace which is brought unto us by the revelation of the Gospel If some good things of nature be precious much more are those of grace Deut. 33.1 c. Prov. 3.14 15. And if we cannot but wonder at some of the eminentest works of nature how much more cause have we to admire the beauty and glory of that great work of grace which the Apostle calls marvellous light 1 Pet. 2.9 See 1 Pet. 1.12 4 God will have a Church Although Adam and all his posterity revolted from God and ran away into the tents of Satan his utter enemy to his dishonour and their own ruine yet for all that he hath a designe to fetch back and recover a number of them to make them his own people and thereby to glorifie the riches of his grace towards them in an eminent measure Me thinks I hear the Lord speaking on this manner What hath the crooked Serpent of hell served me thus Hath he enticed Adam unto rebellion against me and cheated him into the curse of my Law Alas poor man I pitty thee that thou hast suffered thy self to be thus ensnared How art thou fallen from thy dignity Into what a gulf of perdition hast thou implunged all thy posterity Ier. 48.30 But I know Satan his pride his malice and his envy that he would not leave me a people on the earth to serve me I know his wrath but it shall not be so his lyes shall not so effect it I will take a speedy course to befool him in his own plot I will have a people that shall be for my praise in despite of him Having therefore predestinated from eternity a considerable number of this forlorn generation and finding them now among the pots covered all over with filth and shame through their Apostacy his infinite wisdome deviseth a way to recover them out of captivity He gives the Lord Jesus out of his own bosome tha● by taking upon him the curse due to them he might ransome them from the curse and separate them from the lost world which lyes in wickedness and under the power of Satan and so form them for himself that they might shew forth his praise Isa 43.21 These are the very matter whereof the Church consists I mean the invisible Church which may be defined a chosen company of the posterity of Adam whom God hath purchased with his own blood out of every Kindred and Tongue and People Mat 16.18 and Nation to be a peculiar people to himself Act. 20.28 Rev. 5.9 Tit. 2.14 Thus out of the ashes of this ruined world God raiseth up to himself a glorious Phenix Eph. 5.26 A Church which shall never dye but shall be established for ever Psal 102.28 125.1 5 The Church is very dear and precious in the eyes of the Lord Jesus They are the purchase of his own blood and thereby are become his peculiar people The costliness of any commodity puts upon it a suitable preciousness endearing it to the person which bare the cost of it Jacob served a hard service for Rachel and that inhanced her worth in his heart and increased his love to her so that the dayes seemed to him but a few Gen. 29.20 Michal Davids wife cost him two hundred fore-skins of the Philistims 1 Sam. 18.27 A great adventure an high exploit This doubtless rendred her the more dear to him which appears by his peremptory requiring her after she was unjustly taken away from him and had been some years another mans wife Probably seven years 2 Sam. 3.13 14 c. Jesus Christ served a very hard service and wrought a very great exploi● that he might purchase unto himself a Church to be his Spouse and having compassed her with much difficulty he looks upon her as his Sister his Love his Dove his fair One yea all fair the fairest among women the One the onely One the choice One his heart is ravished with her Cant. 4.9 she is as the poor mans little Ewe Lamb that lay in his bosome and was unto him as a Daughter 2 Sam. 12.31 A Kingdome or City wonne in battel with confused noise Hephzibah Isa 62.4 Multo sanguine ac vulneribus ea victoria stetit and garments rolled in blood Isa 9.5 is so much more dear to the Conquerour because it cost so dear The Kingdome of heaven the City of the great King is conquered out of the the hands of Satan at a very dear rate It cost the Lord Jesus strong crying and tears yea much blood and many wounds therefore surely it is very near to his heart and precious in his sight Isa 43.4 6 The condition of the invisible Church and all the members of the Lords chosen people is incomparably happy They are the onely renowned Society in the world for they are the Lords Redeemed ones This glorious design when once it takes place in poor lost sinners and is laid in their bosomes puts them into a glorious estate We may say of the Church as Moses of Israel Deut. 33.29 Happy art thou who is like unto thee O people saved by the Lord c. That we may take the length and breadth of this happiness let us look upon Redemption in its 1 Properties 2 Benefits 3 Priviledges Sect. 2. Three properties of Redemption and three Benefits issue from it 1 REdemption by Christ hath these three excellent Properties 1 It s free and gracious As the Israelites sold themselves to their corporal enemies for naught so we became slaves to our spiritual enemies without price and as they so we are redeemed without

hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law Ergo. But I rather chuse to take it for an amplification of that ver 10. concerning the curse of the Law although to our purpose it matters not whether way we take it by way of prevention of an objection Some might say if that be so indeed that the Law doomes all men accursed which do not keep it then we are all in a wofull case * Magna vox Quomodo igitur sanab●mur Olevian in Loc. for none of us are able to keep it therfeore the Law having pronounced us accursed we are accursed with a witnesse past help remedy then your doctrine of Justification proves a bootlesse thing Not so saith the Apostle for although by the sentence of the Law we lie under the curse yet we are not therefore helplesse for Jesus Christ hath wrought our redemption disanulled the curse and rescued us from it and so hath laid a ground-work for Justification by himself alone and eternall blessednesse thereby as v. 14. I may call my Text a sacred Oracle or a Divine Axiom holding forth the great work of Redemption by Christ Observe in it 1. The miserable estate of mankind implyed under the curse of the Law 2. The remedy provided Christ hath redeemed us from it 3. The means whereby he hath procured this benefit being made a Curse c. Or thus Three main Truths are here presented to our view 1. What we are in our selves under the curse of the Law 2. What Christ is made for us a curse 3. What good he hath procured for us thereby he hath redeemed us from it So that we have here three conclusions or Doctrines which I shall propound and prosecute in their order 1. All men are under the curse of the Law 2. Christ was made a curse for us which are under the curse of the Law 3. Christ by being made a curse for us hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law CHAP. II. Sect. 1. The first Conclusion cleared in four propositions THe first Conclusion or Doctrine is this All men are under the curse of the Law This is the condition of all mankind as they stand since the fall that they are liable to the curse of Gods Law I shall evidence this Truth by four Propositions I. All men are under the Law I speak now of man in his first condition and as he was made in Adam God did set the first man and all his posterity with him in the day of his Creation under the authority and command of his own Law We may look upon it under a double Notion 1. As a Platform of righteousnesse and thus we were under it by conformity the Law was written in mans heart so much is implyed Rom. 2.15 God made man after his own image Gen. 1.26 Which standeth in knowledge righteousnesse and holinesse of truth Col. 3.11 Eph. 4.24 His mind will and affections and all being conformable to the mind of God as the counterpart to the Original 2 As a rule of obedience and so we were under it by subjection As God bestowed upon man sufficient ability to obey the Law so likewise he tyed him to walk according to the prescript thereof exactly Man was not made * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 self-soveraign or Independant there was never any creature formed that might stand upon it's own bottom and say as Psa 12.4 Who is Lord over me or as those Jer. 31.2 We are Lords we will no more come unto thee Yea further besides the morall Law written in his heart God gave him a positive Law restraining him from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil upon pain of death and this was to serve both for the probation and the manifestation of his obedience to his Maker I need not insist longer on this proposition but shall take it for granted II. All men have broken the Law they have swarved from this Platform are gone aside from this Rule This must be branched out and explained in three particulars 1. Our first Parents broke the Law flew off from the holy commandment given to them and so made an escape from God their Master The story is plain Gen. 3. which Solomon expresseth thus Man hath found out many inventions Eccl. 7.29 Adam having a strict charge given not to eat of tha● one tree hearkened to the counsel of his wife who was before bewitched and ensnared by Satan speaking to her in the Serpent And although he had strength enough to have repelled the temptation and to have kept himself free yet he willingly yielded and withdrawing his heart from God went crosse to his charge Being set in an estate of happinesse and honour he proved disloyal and departed away wantonly and causlesly from the blessed God and betook himself to the creature this was a woful breach being not one single Iniquity but a compound or fardell of many as Divines observe especially these 4. 1. Distrust of God giving credit rather to the false tales and whisperings of Satan then to the word of the everliving God and entertaining thoughts tending to question the realnesse and sincerity of his commands promises and threatnings 2. Unthankfulnesse to God who had set him in such an excellent condition but he playes the part of an ambitious discontented subject who is displeased with that preferment which the Prince confers upon him he slights it and will have a better 3. Rebellion against God in going point blank against the commandment of God adventuring upon that which he had expresly forbidden not fearing the threatning but putting the Lord to it and tempting him to see what he would do 4. Apostasie from God * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a falling away a revolting from the Lord and so from righteousness holiness obedience subjection to him unto the service and obedience of Satan casting off his Creator leaving his Soveraign and Commander as it were on the plain field and running into the tents of his Enemy 2. We all broke the Law in them We were all in Adams loyns what he was we were what he did we did Although we did not in our own persons either talk with the Serpent or put forth our hands to take the fruit yet we did eat the forbidden fruit as well as he and so broke the Law and turned aside in him for he was not a single person standing for himself alone but a publick one standing in the room of all mankind therefore his sin being not meerly the sin of his person but of the whole nature of man is justly imputed to us all If Adam had stood in his uprightnesse we should have been partakers of the gains he forfeiting all we must share with him in the losse See Romans 5.12 In whom all have sinned and ver 19. By one mans disobdience many are made sinners Adam was the Head all his posterity the members If the Head plot and practise treason against the State is

stroak of that curse which of right belongs to us so that it lies not now any longer on the backs of poor sinners but on him for them and in their stead therefore he is called a surety Heb. 7.22 the surety stands in the room of a debtor malefactor or him that is any way obnoxious to the Law such is Adam and all his posterity we are by the doom of the Law evil doers transgressors and upon that score we stand indebted to the justice of God and lie vnder the stroke of his wrath Now the Lord Jesus seeing us in this condition he steps in and stands between us and the blow yea he takes this wrath and curse off from us unto himself he stands not onely or meerly after the manner of a surety among men in the case of debt for here the surety indeed enters bond with the principal for the payment of the debt but yet he expects that the debtor should not put him to it but that he should discharge the debt himself he onely stands as a back-set of good security No Christ Jesus doth not expect that we should pay the debt our selves but he takes it wholly to himself as a surety for a murtherer or traitor or some other notorious malefactor that hath broken prison and is run away he lies by it body for body state for state and undergoes whatsoever the malefactor is chargeable withall for satisfying the Law even so the Lord Jesus stands surety for us runnagate malefactors making himself liable to all that curse which belongs to us that he might both answer the Law fully and bring us back again to God As the first Adam stood in the room of all mankind fallen 1 Pet. 3.18 so Christ the second Adam stands in the room of all mankind which is to be restored he sustains the person of all those which do spiritually descend from him and unto whom he beares the relation of an head But to open it yet more fully I conceive that to this making of him a curse for us these three things do concur 1. His taking upon him the nature of man which is both sinfull and accursed the children were partakers of flesh and blood and he also took part of the same Heb. 2.14 he came in the likeness of sinfull and therefore of accursed flesh Rom. 8.3 he took upon him the nature not of this or that particular man as Abraham David Peter or any other but the nature of mankind in general even that self-same nature that sinned and is therefore accursed It was not a similitude or shadow of flesh or a meer shew of being a man but truly really sensibly flesh or manhood as himself avouched to his Disciples after his resurrection bidding them handle him that they might be satisfied that it was not a spirit which they saw but the very same true body which he had before Luk. 24.39 The Word or second Person in Trinity took the nature of man into the unity of his person that it might dwell and have its subsistence in the Godhead onely John 1.14 2. The real imputation of our sin or the guilt of our sin to him Isa 53.6 He was made sin for us even he which knew no sin 2 Cor. 5.21 All the sins of the Elect were charged upon him both original and actual and he had them all by imputation without any inherence of sin in him at all he had no sin of his own neither of nature nor practice for he was conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost and so was born holy Luk. 1.35 And besides had the guilt but of one even the smallest personal sin been upon his soul it would have utterly disabled him from the work of his Mediatorship Heb. 7.26 yet he had the sins of others the sin of the world was laid at his door as if it had been his own he was numbred with the transgressors Mar. 15.28 Isaiah 53.12 Luk. 22.37 And thus the Lord looked upon him as a sinner upon our account If this had not been so how could either death have been justly inflicted upon him or his merit have been imputed unto us This must be Luthers meaning when he saith Christ was the greatest sinner he was Manasseh that Idolater David that adulterer Peter that denier of his Master c. to wit by imputation onely he being made sin for them as the Apostle speaks 3. An actuall undergoing and suffering the wrath of God and the fearful effects thereof in the punishments threatned in the law As he became a debtor and was so accounted even so he made payment thereof he was made a sacrifice for sin and bare to the full all that ever divine justice did or could require even the uttermost extent of the curse of the Law of God He must thus undergo the curse because he had taken upon him our sin The justice of the most high God revealed in the Law looks upon the Lord Jesus as a sinner because he hath undertaken for us and seizeth upon him accordingly pouring down on his head that curse and those punishments which are threatened in it against sin for the curse followeth sin as the shadow the body whether it be sin inherent or sin imputed even as the blessing follows righteousness whether it be righteousness inherent or righteousness imputed The Scripture is very clear and full in holding forth this as the main part of the curse it was prophesied of long before Isa 53.4 5. c. he was stricken or smitten and this striking was even unto wounding and this wounding was accompanied with bruising And because all our iniquities in the punishments of them met in him as all rivers in one sea all arrows in one butt all the Regiments of an Army in one place of rendezvous therefore he was oppressed for he was brought forth as a Lamb to the slaughter in his humiliation his judgment was taken away Acts 8.33 yea he was cut off from the Land of the living It was also fore-typified and represented by many sorts of Sacrifices in the Law 1 Cor. 5 7. All those Prophecies and types were accomplished in him he told his disciples often in the days of his flesh that he must suffer many things and so he did see Heb. 9.26 28. He hath appeared once in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself and He was once offered to bear the sins of many All this suffering is comprehended in that sentence Gen. 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thou shalt die this was the punishment which Divine Justice did award against sin therefore this he must suffer But because the main s●●ess and as it were the very dregs of this bitter cup lies here it may be worth our labour to consider it a little more particularly and that 1. In the preparation thereunto 2. In the main brunt it self 1. There was a preparation to it by many smaller and