essential properties of a Creature As if now when exalted he were wholly or only God or as if the properties of the Humane Nature were swallowed up in the God-head That were inconsistent with his being true Man and would marr and obstruct our consolation exceedingly But his Exaltation consisteth 1. In the manifestation and decâ—aration of the person that was humbled and brought low to be God Omnipotent Omnipresent Alsufficient infinitly Wise Powerful Just c. For though these properties agree not to the Humane Nature yet they agree to his person and they are manifested to be in him without question 2. In the Exaltation of the Humane Nature of Christ-man to an inconceivable hight of glory such as the Humane Nature united to the Divine Nature is capable of by very many degrees beyond any thing that the Elect whether Angels or Men are capable of The personal union making him capable of far more glory and his excellent Offices calling for it 3. This Exaltation consists in his absolute Dominion and Kingly Power which is more observably directly and plainly manifested in the dayes of the Gospel-administration then it was under the Law So that now he is clearly known in respect of his Kingly Office to be God in our nature cloathed with our flesh and to be Immanuel Goâ—â—â—th us and that this Immanuel hath aâ—â—â—â—â—er in Heaven and Earth committed to him He hath the keys of Hell and of death and is King of kings and Lord of lords is exalted far above all principalities and powers and is given to be head over all things to the Church In which respect that is most properly to be understood when it is said that he is set on the right hand of God So that now Jesus Christ God and Man in one Person is in highest Glory and in absolutest Dominion nearest unto God far above that which Angels or Saints are capable of As Kings use to set their greatest Courtiers and Minions whom they would honour most on their right hand and as Solomon set his Mother on his right hand so is our Lord set on the right hand of God in highest glory It is true that as God he hath an absolutely Soveraign and independent Kingdom yet as Mediâ—tor God-man he hath a dispensatory Kingdom next unto the Father in glory 4. This Exaltation consists in Christs being furnished with qualifications suitable to that glorious condition wherein he is invested And though these qualifications of the Man Christ be not simply infinit yet they are far above what we can conceive And the qualifications of the Person God-man are infinite in which respect he is Omnipotent All-seeing and infinitly wise to provide every thing that may be for the good of his Church and People and to prevent what may tend to their hurt Omnipresent c. The Uses are three 1. This would waken and rouze our Spirits to a high holy and reverend esteem of Christ he is God above all gods Kiâ—g above all kings he hath gotten a name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow not superstitiously when he is named but holily and reverently to think of him and to worship and serve him We conceive among many faults and evils in Believers this is a root-evil even low thoughts of glorious Christ so that because he hath become low to lift us up we are ready to think the less of him but O! that we could behold the glorious condition he is exalted unto and could look upon 〈◊〉 as ere long coming in the clouds with 〈◊〉 and great glory in the glory of his Father and all the holy angels with him it would furnish reverend thoughts of him though not to hurt faith and confidence yet to breed holy awe and reverence in us to him-wards The 2d Use serves to shew what a formidable party they engage to top with them who slight our Lord Jesus Christ what loss they are at who loss him and what a great aggravation their sin hath who sin against him ye that slight refuse and oppose him do ye know whom ye refuse and whose dominion ye spurn against and how hard it will be for you to kick against the pricks do ye know your loss who loss him and how it will aggrege your guilt who despise him the more glorious Christ be the greater will the sin of the Unbeliever be therefore be aware what ye are doing ye have a mighty great and strong party to deal with and when the great day of his wrath comes and when he shall appear in his glory how will you be able to abide the least touch of it it will aggrege your sin and highten your misery that he whom the Father exalted was undervalued by you that ye scorned to take a direction from him or to submit to a censure drawen forth in his name and said at least by your practice Let us break his bands asunder and cast away his cords from us but he hath set his king on his holy hill of Zion for all that and he that sits in heaven will laugh the Lord will have you in derision think on it seriously and know that he is no mean person whom ye slight and despise and though this may now seem less than other sins yet it will one day ly heavy on your score and Conscience above many yea above all other sins The 3d. Use serves to be a motive and encouragemt to them that hear this Gospel to receive Christ and for the consolation of Believers who have received him 1. It serves to encourage you all to receive him He is no mean person that wooes you but King of kings and Lord of lords and if ye think it a happiness to be for ever with him then let it move you to close with him if ye do so ye shall be made glorious as he is glorious a due proportion betwixt the Head and the Members being kept ye shall sit on the same throne with him and behold his glory as he prayeth John 17. I will that these whom thou hast given me may be with me to behold my glory this is certainly a great Bargain if Christ be glorious he calleth you to share with him in the same glory 2. It serves for the consolation of Believers who have received him ye have an excellent Mediator a most glorious Head and Husband and a most excellent Dowry and ye shall know it to your superabundant satisfaction and joy in that day when as it is Psal 45. Ye shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needle work and shall enter into the kings palace and share of his glory and see him face to face and sit with him on his throne even as he hath overcome and is set down with his Father on his throne labour to be stayed in the faith and hope of this good glorious and desireable day that is coming when we shall not only see but partake of and be fully and
two Natures in one Person remains still He was God and Man still though as was hinted before there was a Suspension of such a Measure at least of the sensibly Comforting Influence of the Divine Nature from the Humane as had wont to be let out thereto And yet there was even then a sustaining Power flowing from the God-head that Supported Him so that He was not swallowed up of that which would have quite and for ever swallowed up all Creatures as is evident in this crying My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Which shewes that though the Union and Relation stood firm yet a comfortable Influence was much restrained 2. There was no sinfull Fretting no Impatiencie nor carnal Anxiety in our Lord all along His Sufferings for He did most willingly undergo them and hâ—d a kindly submission in them all As is evident by these Words But for this cause came I into this hour And not my will but thy will be done 3. There was not in H m any distrust of Gods Love nor any unbelief of His Approbation before God neither any the least Dâ—ffidence as to the Out-gate For in the Sadest and Sharpest of all His Conflicts He was clear about His Fathers Love to Him that the Relation stood firm and that there would be a Comfortable Out-gate as His Prayer before shews wherein He styles God Father And these hardest like Words uttered by Him on the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me do also shew wherein twice over He confidently asâ—â—rts His Interest My God my God Though He was most terribly Assaulted yet the Tentation did not prevaill over Him 4. Neither are we to conceive that there was any inward Confusion Challenge or Gnawing of Conscience in Him such as is in Desperat Sinners cast under the Wrath of God Because there was no inward cause of it nor any thing that could breed it yea even in that wherein He was Cautioner He was clear that He was doing the Fathers will and finishing the Work that was committed to Him and that even under the greatest Apprehensions of Wrath Therefore all such things are to be guarded against in our Thoughts least otherwayes we reflect upon our Innocent and Spotless Mediator But 2. To speak a Word to that wherein it doth consist 1. It did consist as we hinted before in the God-head's Suspending it's Comfortable Influence for a time from the Humane Nature Though our Lord had no Culpable Anxiety yet He had a Sinlesse Fear considering Him as Man and that the infinit God was Angry and Executing Angryly the Sentence of the Law against Him Though He was not angry at Him considered as in Himself but as He stood in the room of the Elect as their Cautioner of whom He was to exact the Payment of their Debt and could not but be in a wonderfull amazment as the Word is Mark 14.33 He was sore amazed And Heb. 5.7 It 's said when he had offeâ—ed up prayers and supplications with strong cryes and tears unto him that was able to save him from death he was heard in that which he feared Which looks to His wrestling in the Garden 2. He had an inexpressible sense of grief not only from the petty outward Afflictions that He was under which may be called petty comparatively though they were very great in themselves but also from the Torrent of Wrath flowing in on His Soul That Cup behoved to have a most bitter Relish and an inconceivable Anguish with it when He was a drinking of it as appeared in His Agony O! â—s He was Pained and Pinched in His Soul The Soul being especially sensible of the Wrath of Goâ— 3 It consisted in a sort of wonderfull Horrour which no question the marching up to say so of so many mighty Squadrons of the highly provoked Wrath of God and making so Furious and Formidable an Assault on the Innocent Humane Nature of Christ that considered simply in it's self was a finit Creature behoved necessarily to be attended with Hence He prayes Father if it be possible let this cup depart from me Intimating that there was a Sinless Loathness and a holy Abhorrence to middle with it and to adventure upon it Though we have not Hearts rightly to conceive nor Tongues suitable to express those most exquisite Sufferings yet these things shew that our Lord Jesus was exceedingly put to it in His Holy Humane Soul The 2 Use Serves to stir us up to wonder at the Love of God the Father that gave His own Son and exacted the Elect's Debt of Him and made the Sword of His Justice to awake against Him And to wonder at the Love of the Son that ingadged to be surety for them And humbled Himself so Low to lift them up It was wonderfull that He should stoup to become Mâ—n and to be a poor Man and to die but more that He should come this length as to be in an Agony of Soul and to be so tossed with a Tempest of Terrible Wrath though He was not capable of Tossing as meer Creatures are This being well considered would highten exceedingly the praise of Grace in the Church and very much warm the Hearts of Sinners to Him And for pressing this Use a little and for provocking to Holy Wondering at this Love consider these Four 1. Who it was that suffered tâ—us Even He that was without guile He that was Gods delight His Fatheâ—s Fellow the express image of his person He thâ—t made all things and who will one Day be Judge of all Iâ—'s even He that thus Suffered 2. Whâ—t He Suffered even the Wrath of God and the Wrath of God in such a Degree and Measure as was equivalent to all that the Elect should have Suffered Eternally in Hâ—ll which presseth forth from Him these expressions which we hinted at before 3. For whom all this was which makes it appear to be yet more wonderfull It was for a number of lost straying sheep That were turned every one to his own way as it is verse 6. For Dyvours and debauched Bankerupts that were Enemies to and in Tops with Him Some of them Spitting in His Face some of them upon the Consultation of taking away His Life as may be gatherâ—d from Acts 2. Yea take the best of them for whom He suffered even those whom He took to the Garden with Him to be Witnesses of His Agony and we will find them sleeping when He is in the hight of it and is thereby cast into a Top Sweat of Blood and out of Case to Watch and bear Burden with Hâ—m but for an hour It had been much for Him to have Suffered for Righteous Persons but as it is Rom. 5. God commends his love to us in this that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us 5. The manner how He Suffered to wit most Willingly and Patiently though He easily could hâ—ve commanded more then twelve legions of Angels to rescue Him yet He would not but
Sin and Wrath may come to be absolved And this leads you in to know that there is a New Covenant made through a Mediator in which there is a Promise of Life and Salvation through believing in Him which Rom. 10. is called the law of faith which gives a Sinner ground of hope to be Justified by the Righteousnesse of a Cautioner and leads him in to know the Defence that he may and ought to plead upon before God And there is here presupposed as a necessity of knowing your selves so a necessity of knowing the Law and Covenant of Works for if we plead innocent in any one Sin whereof we are guilty it may hazard our eternal ruine And a necessity of knowing Jesus Christ who is the Meritorious Cause of our Justification that He became man and did take to Himself a true Humane Body and a reasonable Soul that by the Union of His two Natures He might be God and Man in one Person in reference to which He must needs be known for if we know Him not to be Man we cannot understand how Divine Justice is Satisfied and if we know Him not to be God we cannot understand how the Humane Nature can be sustained and supported and carried through in Satisfying the Justice of God and withal a necessity of knowing how the Mediator procures this Justification and this leads us in to know His Office how He was a Priest and interposed betwixt God and Sinners and made Himself an Offering for our Sin and maketh intercession for us how He was a Prophet and how when the thing was unknown to wit how a Sinner might have peace with God He revealed it of Old by His Prophets in the Old Testament and by His Apostles and Ministers in the New Testament and doth by His Spirit ellighten the Soul to take up the difference betwixt Justification by Faith and Justification by Works how He is a King to subdue Sin in us to mortifie our Corrupt Nature that will still boast till it be subdued to guide us in His way to fight our Spiritual Battels in us and for us and to take course with all His and our Enemies Otherwayes if we know not this though we were justified just now we would be led captive by Sin and Satan to our ruine within an hour but knowing Him to be King it gives Faith footing to expect Through-beating and Victory 4. As we must know what Christ is so we must know what is in Christ and what is communicated and applyed to Sinners by Him and so the condition of the Covenant of Grace which is Faith whereby we come to be united to Christ and that this Faith is not a bare assenting to the Truth but a closing with and a resting on Him for we can never believe except we know what Faith is 5. It is needful that we know what Dutie is called for from a Justified Person to wit Repentance and Holiness because though He Justifies none for Repentance yet He Justifies none but Penitents and He requires Repentance from all whom He Jusâ—ifies Except ye repent saith Christ ye shall all likewise perish For the Curse lyes at the door and we are so to Repent as that with grief and hatred of Sin we turn from it unto God with full purpose of heart and endeavour after new Obedience 6. There is also a necessity of the Knowledge of Christs Ordinance though non absoluâ—ely in order to Justification to know the Sacraments and how thâ—y represent Christ and the benefits that come by Him and how they do Ratifie and Confirm the Believers Right to Him and these good things promised through Him Let me intreat you Believers and as many as look for Justification to â—â—ndy throughly to know that these things are necessary to be known even to know God and your selves and what ye may be justly charged with before Him that your mouths may be stoped to know Jesus Christ and His Offices For ye can never upon ground expect Justification except ye know who hath procured it to know what God requires of these who are Justified in a Word study so much as may bring you to know your lost estate and the remedy thereof and how to found your Defence when ye come before God c. And if ye would study thus to know God and know your selves and your Natural Condition and Jesus Christ and the way how ye come to be Justified through Him and your Duty to Him and so make a Catechisme to your selves out of these few heads it were a short and sure way to come to knowledge The 2d Use Serves for Reproof and Conviction to them that lye still in ignorance which is a most Sinful and Dangerous Condition for if Knowledge be a Duty and if Ignorance be a Sin and such a Sin as hazards the Soul then what a woful case are many of you in who now hear me Lay aside all other Sins I would be ashamed to speak of the great Ignorance that is among you How many of you are there that cannot give any tollerable account of your Catechism who know not your natural State and Condition nor the way how to come at peace with God nor any ground for your Faith to rest upon nor Christ nor His Offices and alace if it be so what better are ye then Heathens Sure ye are much worse because ye have dispised Knowledge Can the Gospel give you Faith to whom it never gave Knowledge There are several sorts of Persons to whom I would here speak a Word 1 There are some that never lay the necessity of Knowledge to heart betwixt whom and Turks and Pagans there is in this respâ—ct but little difference and yet such will be ready to say we live and do as well as we may that there may not be a quarrel or contraversie betwixt God and us But is it possible but there must be a quarrel if it were but on this alone account that ye think there is none O! that ye would consider what a Sin Ignorance is when the Devil appeared in the World he made it a great part of his first Work to extinguish and put out the light of Knowledge and by this means he labours still to keep Folk in Ignorance hence the Apostle sayes 2 Cor. 3. If our gospel he hid it is hid to them who are lost whose eyes the god of this world hath blinded Prophanity and Error are great Baits and Snares but Ignorance carries moe to hell then both these do for Ignorance fostereth and cheerisheth if it do not also beget Prophanity and Error as the Apostle Peter insinuats when he sayes that the Ignorant or Unlearned Wrest or pervert the Scriptures unto their own destruction much Ignorance and Conceit of Knowledge will soon and easily shake people loose and make them a Prey to Error and also to Prophanity must not Ignorance then be an evil thing when it leads the way to so many other Sins and at
third but the Father Son and holy Ghost are that same one Object of Worship And when we pray to one we pray to all The reason is clear Because though there be three Persons in the God-head yet there is but one Essence in the God-head and the divine essential Properties which are the grounds on which we adore God are essential and agree to all the Persons of the God-head the Father hath not one Omnipotency and the Son another neither are there two Omnipotents but one Omnipotent God and so in other Attributs they are the same essential properties of the God-head and incommunicable And therefore though the Father be another Person and as they use to speak alius yet he is not another thing or aliud but the same God with the Son and holy Ghost And although the Persons have a real distinction amongst themselves yet none of them are really distinct from the God-head and so there is but one Object of Worship and therefore though sometimes all the Persons be named yet it 's not to shew any distinction in the Object of our worship but to shew who is the Object of our worship To wit one God yet three Persons or iâ— three 3. That though in prayer to God we may name either the Father the Son or the Holy Ghost yet whomsoever we name it 's alwayes the same God Father Son and Holy Ghost that is worshipped And this followeth well on the former and may be the use of it For if the Father be God and if we worship him as God we cannot worship him but we must worship the Son and Holy Ghost with him because they are the same God having the same essential Attributs And therefore 4. Whensoever we pray to and name one of the Persons we would not conceive that he is lesse worshipped that is not named or that we pray lesse to him that is not named as it may be in the same prayer when a Person begins at first he names the Father and when he hath proceeded a little he names the Son men would then beware of thinking that there is a difference in the Object they are praying to or as if they began to pray to one of the Persons and now they are praying to another as a distinct party for it is still the same God who is the Object of worship We observe it to teach you calmness soberness and composedness of frame in approaching to God wherein folks would beware of curious tossing in their mind and imagination what may be the Object of their worship and of suffering it to run in an itchingly curious way on the distinction of the Persons but would stay their mind upon one God in three Persons and seek after no more The 2d is How the Mediator is the Object of our prayers or may be prayed unto and for clearing of this we would propose these considerations 1. That it is a certain truth that the Person that is the Mediator is the Object of our woriship and may be prayed unto because he is God the second Person of the God-head And therefore Act. 7. at the close a direct prayer is put up to him by Stephen Lord Jesus saith he receive my Spirit 2. We say this That the Adoration and Worship that is given to the Mediator is not of any distinct kind from that Adoration and Worship that is given to the Father and the Holy Ghost but the same supream divine worship for he is the same God with the Father and Holy Ghost and although he be Mediator it derogats nothing from his God-head and the Scripture speaking of no divine Worship but one we are therefore not to conceive him to be worshipped with lesse confidence fear or reverence then the other Persons of the Trinity For there is no such worship in Scripture and to give him lesse would derogat from the Majesty of Jesus Christ who is God equal with the Father and the Spirit For although as Mediator he be inferiour to the Father yet the Person whom we worship is God equal with the Father and the Holy Ghost 3. The worshipping of Jesus Christ Mediator and the giving of him divine worship is not the worshipping of any other Object but of the same to wit God who is made flesh and is manifested in our nature by the union of the second Person of the God-head with the humane nature which he hath assumed and taken to him upon which it follows that Jesus Christ must be the same Object of worship and that our worshipping of him is the worshipping of God and that our praying to him is praying to God the Father Son and Spirit And there is reason to take heed to this because when we in prayer are speaking to the Mediator thoughts may steal in as if we were not so immediatly and directly speaking to God as when we name the Father 4. Consider That Christ Jesus being worshipped with this divine worship as the one Object of worship for as we shew there cannot be two Objects of divine worship it will follow that Christ Jesus as God is worshipped for though it be the Person that 's Mediator and Man that is worshipped yet it 's not the Person as Man but as God that is worshipped And the reason is clear because it 's not Christ Jesus as Man but as God that hath these properties of God to be Omni-scient Omni-potent Infinit Supream Adorable c. And therefore as upon the one hand we say that Christ God died and suffered because he being God and Man in one Person the Person that was and is God died and suffered though the God-head did not neither can suffer So upon the other hand we say that Christ Man is prayed unto because he who is God Man is prayed unto as God But though there be an union of the two natures in the Mediators Person and though the properties of the one nature be sometimes attributed to the other because of the straitnesse of the union yet we must still keep the properties of each nature distinct and in our worship-application to him consider him accordingly As to be finite agrees to his humane nature and is to be attributed to that and to be infinite agrees to his divine nature and is to be attributed to him in respect of that To clear it a little if it be possible for us to clear it we must conceive in our worshipping of God in the Person of a Mediator A threefold Object of our worship for so Divines use to distinguish and we hold us closse by them 1. The Material Object or the Object which we worship that is the Person we pray to 2. The Formal Object of our worship or that which is the ground or account on which we worship that Person 3. The Object of our Consideration in our worshipping of that Person on that aâ—â—ount As for instance 1. The Man Christ Jesus is the Person whom we worship or pray unto but
Souldiers And we esteemed him not That is we the people of the Jews who owe him more respect esteemed him not And hence he concludes that it is no wonder that but few believe on him And so in the words following he goes on to describe his Humiliation and to remove the offence that might be taken at it Surely he hath born our griefs c. As if he had said there is no such cause to skar and stumble at Christ for his lowness and base outward condition for it was not for himself but for us that he became so low and therefore it did not become us to think so little of him His griefs and sorrows are humane infirmities that he subjected himself to for our sake For the wrath of God which he suffered for us is spoken of afterwards And because there is great difference betwixt Christs bearing of infirmities and our bearing of infirmities He being like to us in all things except sin I shall for clearing of this name three distinctions given by Divines when they discourse of this purpose 1. They distinguish and put difference betwixt the taking on of infirmities and the contracting of infirmities The taking on of infirmities is the assuming of the effect without the cause of the infirmity without the sinful defect Contracting of infirmity is the drawing on of the defect with and by the cause Now we draw on the cause with the effect Christ took on the effect but he had no sinful defect in him to draw on such infirmities He might have taken on the nature of man without the infirmities if he had so pleased but he took on the nature and infirmities without the cause 2. They distinguish betwixt these infirmities which are simply natural such as man might have had though he had never sinned and these infirmities which flow from mans nature as fallen and corrupted The first sort may be called Passive and look to suffering as to be hungry thirsty weary sensible of that which hurts the body The second sort may be called Active and are sinful as flowing from sin and tending to sin as inclination to ill and indisposition to good dulness as to the uptaking of Gods mind c. Our Lord took on the first sort of infirmities that are simply natural and may be without sin But he was free of the other that implyes corruption in the nature He was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin saith the Apostle Heb. 4.15 3. They distinguish infirmities in these that are called natural and common to all men as men and these that are personal and acquired as flowing from some defect in generation or are drawn on by some intemperance grossness in the life and conversation As some Families are subject to Diseases that come by Generation Others draw on Diseases by Whoredome Drunkenness and the like Now our Lord was free of these last because being conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin there was no defect in His Generation And being blameless in his life and conversation he could acquire none of these infirmities and therefore the infirmities which he bare are of the first sort that is such as are common to all men and to men as men And hence we think it probable which some say That as our Lord was not sick so he was not capable of sickness being so perfect in his constitution or complexion which makes for the glory of Grace and saith That our Lord behoved to die a violent death there being no principle in him tending to a natural death though notwithstanding he did most willingly to satisfie Justice for sinners And this may serve to explain these words That he was a man of sorrows and acquainted with griefs We come now to observe some things from the words And 1. From the condition our Lord is described to come to the world in Observe That the Messiah the Lords Servant that was to redeem his people was to become man This is here supposed and Prophesied of as the first step of his Humiliation He is called a Man And it is an aggravation of it that he was to be a man of sorrows Or taking our Lord Messiah to be already come we may take the Observation thus That the Lord Jesus Christ the eternal Son of the eternal Father is also a true and real Man A common truth yet a truth fundamental to the Gospel whereof we are not to think the less or the worse because it is a common truth When the fulness of time came saith the Apostle Gal. 4 4. God sent forth his Son made of a Woman made under the Law Who as it is Philip. 2. Thought it no robbery to be equal with God yet took upon him the shape of a Servant and was made in likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient c. So Heb. 2.14 It 's said of him That forasmuch as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same c. And vers 11. Both he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of one for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren And vers 16. He took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham wherefore in all thinge it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren He was made even like unto us in all things except sin And if we look to the way of grace there was good reason for this that the Redeemer of sinners behoved to be Man 1. If we consider the interposed or adjoyned threatning to the Covenant of Works The day thou eats thou shalt surely die There must be a satisfaction to Justice and the curse threatned must be born 2. The curse must be born by man the Nature that sinned must die the Party offending must satisfie in his own Person or in a Cautioner And 3. By our Lord's becoming Man 1. He came to have a right as being near of Kin to sinners to redeem them And 2. By this the Law hath right to pursue and exact the Debt of him And 3. By this Grace hath access to commend the Redeemer of sinners to sinners Heb. 2.17 18. And 4.15 16. Wherefore in all things it behoved him to he made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High Priest c. And that we have such a Redeemer it makes God to say so trystable and Grace to have access 1 Tim. 2.5 There is one God and one Mediator between God and men the Man Christ Jesus and this gives man access to step in to God 4. This makes the mystery of Godliness to shine the more radiantly and the wisdome and love of God to shine the more conspicuously thorow it 1 Tim. 3.16 Without controversie great is the mystery of Godliness God manifested in the flesh And John 1.14 The Word was made
the Elect as their Surety and Gods Justice pursuing and holding him in on the other side so that he cannot decline being sisted at the Bar of Justice because as it is vers 6. the sins of all the Elect met upon him and he having as it is vers 7. the bitter cup in his hand which by his engagement he was obliged to drink he stands there by the Decree of God and by the Covenant of Redemption tying him to satisfie and being pursued by Wrath and Justice the words come out Father if it be possible let this cup depart from me yet not my will but thine be done his engagement hemming him in and wrath pursuing him he stands betwixt these two as a prisoner and upon these two the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all and he was exacted upon and answered for them follows well the third that he was put in prison for in these Verses the steps of our Lords Humiliation are followed out in a legal way as before the bar of Gods Tribunal 2ly This being our Lords posture we shall consider the effects of this pressure of spirit which we may draw to these four heads 1. He was under the sense of great Soul-pain sorrow and trouble for the cup of the wrath of God being bitter which he was to drink it could not but deeply sting his holy humane nature which was the procuring cause of his agony and that which made his soul sorrowful and brought out the bloody sweat 2. Beside his grief and dolour there was a holy horrour and considering the party that he had to do with it was impossible it could be otherways impossible for a finit though a sinless creature to look on an angry God and on wrath poured forth into the cup which it must needs drink and not to have a horrour at it it were not becoming the sinless humane nature of our blessed Lord not to be affected with a holy and sinless horrour at that most bitter cup which brought out that sad cry Father let this cup depart from me which did not proceed from any dislike he had to fulfil his engagement or from any rewing or unsuitable resentment that he had so engaged himself but from an apprehended sinless disproportionableness to speak so in his finit sinless humane nature to encounter with the wrath of his Father to which though he most willingly yielded yet in it self it was dreadful 3. There was a pinshing and straitning of holy fear as if there had been in him a sinless dispute or debate what will become of this can a man win thorow this though he was God as well as man how will this be gotten born This looks as if death would get the victory Thus it 's said Heb. 5.7 In the days of his flesh he offtred up strong crys and supplications with tears and was heard in that which he feared he put up strong crys to be delivered not from dying but from the power of death and was heard in that which he feared to shew a holy care to prevent death could that have been and a sinless fear of it lest it should swallow him up 4. There was a pinshing and straitning from love to the Father and to the doing of his Will and from love to the Elect and to their Salvation which pushed him forward to perform and fulfil his engagement accordingly Luk. 12.41 he says I have a baptizm to be baptized with and how am I straitned till it be accomplished and hence it was that these words were uttered by him Father not my will but thine be done and therefore though he had power to command twelve legions of Angels for his relief yet to speak so love binds his hands that he will not use his power for his own liberation But to guard this Doctrine from mistakes take a fourfold advertisement concerning this inward soul-pinshing which will help to clear somewhat of his Soul-suffering that followeth And. 1. Think not that there was any sinful or unsuitable confusion or perturbation of mind in our Lord such as useth to be in us there being no dreg of corruption in his mind to jumble or discompose his holy humane nature 2. Beware of thinking that there was any fretting or anxiety in him or any discontentedness with the Bargain his expressions shew forth the contrary for saith he I could command twelve legions of angels yet he would not do it 3. Think not that there was any jealousie in him of the Fathers love though there was a suspension of the comfortable and joyful sense of it yet there was not the least lousing of the faith of it as is clear by his doubling of these words My God my God when in his saddest pinsh he cried out as bâ—ing forsaken 4. Ye would not look on this as holding out any distrust as to the event I have saith he power to lay down my life and I have power to take it up again and I will rise again the third day he knew that the Covenant of Redemption betwixt the Father and him stood firm and sure But it 's the consideration of God's now coming as his Party to exact the Elects Debt of him and his standing at the Bar to answer for it which puts him in this agony and though considering Christ as man personally united to the God-head whereby he was keeped from sinking he had no distrust to be carried thorow yet considering him as Man suffering and that to speak so with reverence in such a divine subject there was an eclipse of that sensible joy that proceeded from the two natures together It 's not possible to conceive of Christ in this posture but wrath and anger behoved to be some-way dreadful or terrible to him The Uses are 1. To evidence the truth of what our Lord suffered and how severely he was pinshed and straitned It was not the Scribes and Pharisees pursuing him nor the Souldiers buffeting and mocking of him and carrying him to the high Priest's hall and from Pilate to Herod and back again that so much troubled him but there was a higher Hâ—nd that he had to look to and a Judge and Court to which he was now answering that was very far above theirs And therefore as a 2d Use of the Doctrine Think it not such a light thing as many do to satisfie Justice or to give God a ransom for Souls ye see how it pinshed the Cautioner and put him as in a prison unspeakably deceived are they who think that two or three formal words will make their peace with God and that they will slip in to Heaven so Be not carried away with this delusion but consider seriously what will become of you if ye be put to answer for your own Debt when he handled the Cautioner his own Son so roughly ye that will sleep on and scorn to let any word pick at you or prick you the Justice of God shall prick you and put you to
own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree And when He had Offered up Himself as a Sacrifice he sat down on the right hand of majesty on high He is the alone Sacrifice that comes properly in the Room of Elect Sinners 2. As there behoved to be One to Offer the Sacrifice so Christ Jesus is the Priest that Offered up the Sacrifice of Himself He is not only the Sacrifice but the Priest And in this He differed from other Priests Heb. 7.26 Such an high Priest became us who is holy harmless seperat from sinners and made higher then the heavens and then follows who needs not dayly as these high priests to offer up sacrifices first for their own sins and then for the sins of the people for this he did once when he offered up himself There are three things ordinarly Attributed to Christ as to His Sacrifice to wit That He was the Sacrifice the Altar and the Priest 1. He was the Sacrifice in respect of His Humane Nature which we are not so to look upon as Abstracting and Dividing it from His Divine Nature For though He Suffered in the Flesh yet it was the same Person that was God that Suffered 2 He was the Altar by which His Sacrifice received a speciall Efficacy Vertue Value and Commendation As it 's said The Altar sanctifies the offering So Christ Jesus according to His God-head was the Altar which did put an special excellency on His Sufferings and made them to be of such Worth and Value Therefore Heb. 9.14 It 's said that he through the eternal spirit offered up himself without spot unto God It was the Suffering of the Person that was God that made the Sacrifice to be accepted 3. He was the Priest and that according to both His Naturs each Nature concurring and that joyntly as in one Person to the making of the Sâ—crifice Offered up to God acceptable 3. We have in Him a reall destruction but do not mistake the Word It is not so to be understood as if He were annihilated or had been utterly destroyed and undone but the meaning is this That He was Killed or put to Death and His Soul seperat from His Body in which respect He ceased to be what He was before for a time having been really Slain Dead and Buried And 4. All this was according to God's prescription and appointment in the Covenant of Redemption This commandement saith He John 10.18 have I received of my Father to wit that I should lay down my life for my sheep And most emphatically He says John 14.13 as my Father gave me commandement even so mark even so most exactly in conformity to the Commandement do I It was all as to every circumstance ordered according to the good pleasure of God who was pleased thus to bruise Him and to put Him to Grief The 1. Use of it serves To teach us how to Conceive and Consider of Christ's Death and Sufferings rightly to wit even as a Sacrifice designed by God to come in the Room of Elect Sinners and how to look upon His Death not as the ordinary Death of ordinary or meer Men who by necessity of Nature Die but to look on it as being appointed of God to be a Sacrifice properly so taken for the Sins of His People 2dly This serves to clear some Truths concerning our Lord Jesus His Sacrifice For we must consider it as satisfying to Justice and Meritoriously procuring the escaping from Wrath and Salvation of them for whom He Interposed It is from the gross Ignorance or from the wicked denyal of this ground that the damnable denyers of Christ's Satisfaction do also deny the Propriety of His Sacrifice on Earth and bound it to Heaven whereas it is bounded to His Death though by vertue of this One Offering He continues to interceed for us in Heaven 3dly It teaches Sinners what is the native Use which they should make of this Sacrifice They should look upon it as the only Sacrifice to prevent Eternal Death and the Curse of God anâ— so it demonstrats to us that either Jesâ—s Christ must be received by Faith and His Sacrifice rested on or we must resolve to meet with Wrath and the Curse of God our selves in our own Persons 4ly It serves to clear us anent the Way and Tract of Grace to wit how it came to passe that our Lord who was innocent and without Sin was so bruised and put to grief He came to be a Propitiâ—tion for the Sins of His People and sisted Himself in our Room as our Cautioner as a Sin-offering for us It would doubtlesse gnash many Questions and Doubts that arise in the Hearts of Believers if it were well understood They may say we should have been in such and such a sad condition this and that terrible thing would have come on us if He had not Interposed never enough can these words be spoken and thought of that we have 2 Cor. 5. ult He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him 5ly It serves for notable Consolation to Believers who have betaken themselves to Christ and have many Challenges for Sin to buckle with That His Death was to be properly a Sacrifice for Sin and was so accepted of God in their Room So that ye see the right uptaking of Christs Death is a matter of no little moment Christ crucified being the very Substance of the Gospel It helps much to keep alive the Impression of our Sinfulness and of the Goodness of God and gives us Direction how to escape Wrath by puting Him in our Room There is nothing wherein Folks more readily miscarry in making of their Peace with God then in not making the right use of Christ and of His Sacrifice and Death Some praying for Pardon of Sin from Him and not for Him or for His sake when they know not what they are saying as we hinted at before Some praying for strength from Him for Dutie that they may do for themselves not considering that we are Justified by His Interposing in our Room and by Faith's closing with Him under that consideration as fisting Himself at the Bar of Justice and as being content to be a Sin-offering and the Lord accepting of Him in the Room of Elect Sinners This being well considered gives to Faith much clearness how to take Him up when the Soul honestly aims to partake of the benefit of His Sufferings 2ly For clearing this a little further we would know That there are as Divines observe Four or Five wayes how the Death of Christ is to be considered or how Christ in procuring by His Death Redemption Peace and Pardon to Sinners is holden forth in Scripture 1. He purchases Redemption and Pardon of Sin Meritoriously or He Merits it by His Death this Respects the Value of Christ's Sufferings and Satisfaction So that if we consider Christ in Himself and the Elect in themselves His Death
will do the turn and this wiil do it most infallibly and most fully as to the procuring of Pardon of Sin and the making of their Peace with God So that by the right making use of this Sacrifice a Sinner may most really expect â—emission of Sins and Peace with God and His Friendship as if Sin had never been For otherwayes Christ could not be called the Sin-offering or an offering for sin If He were not accepted in Room of the Sinner that comes to Him To clear it a little There are Four thingâ— in and about this Sacrifice to make out this and to prove That a Sinner that makes use of this Sacrifice may expect the Pardon of Sin and Peace with God The 1. Is the excellency of His Offering He offered himself As it is Heb. 7.27 and Heb. 10.10.12.14 The Offering up of Himself and of His Blessed Body on the Tree was another sort of Sacrifice then all these Bulls Rams and Goats Offered under the Law that were but Types of Him The 2. Is the excellency of the Person that Offered up this Offering which is in effect the excellency of the Priest As the Sacrifice was excellent beyond all other Sacrifices so also is the Priest above all other Priests Heb. 7.26 Such an high Priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled seperat from sinners A Priest who is the Son and is set over the House as the Heir and though the Humane Nature was the Sacrifice yet as was said before not as abstracted from the Divine Nature the Person being but One and so the Priest Offering commends the Sacrifice Offered and makes that it cannot but be accepted The 3d. is His Willing condescending to be the Sin-offering to Interpose Himself and to become this Sacrifice out of respect to the Honour of God that His Justice might be Vindicated and Satisfied And that thereby access might be made for shewing Mercy to the Heirs of Salvation which exceedingly commends this Sacrifice according to that of John 10.17 Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again No man taketh my life from me but I lay it down of my self and take it again It commends His Sacrifice that He was not constrained to it but did it most Willingly and with Delight It 's true if we look to Him as the Eternal Son of God and the second Person of the blessed Trinity He could not but be Loved of the Father as well before His Incarnation as after but that He sayes Therefore doth my Father love me It is to be understood an account of His Voluntary condescending as Mediator to do His Fathers will and out of respect to His Honour ingadging and according to His ingadgement satisfying His Justice for the Elect And this cannot but commend His Offering That such a glorious Person who was Holy Harmless and Undefiled should out of tenderness to the Honour of God and that the wrong done to it by Sinners might be repaired and out of love to the Elect should condescend to stoup so low as to make Himself a Sin-offering This regard for the Honour of God and Willing condescendencie to Suffer for the Repairing of it is abundantly Valuable and though it be a great Word above the disrespect that Sinners evidenced to the Honour of God by their sinning The 4th is the Covenant which is the ground of this Offering and that whereby it is regulated and the Terms of it It was not an undertaking as a piece of Will-worship but according to the deliberat Counsel and Fore-knowledge of God wherein it was Determined that the Son should become Cautioner and be made lyable for the Debt of the Elect and be an Offering for their Sin by which Freedom from Sin and Wrath should accresce to Elect Sinners and all this being concluded in the Covenant of Redemption His Offering could not but be accepted for us The Lord having condescended on the Articles of that Covenant for this very end This Doctrine is of mighty great and notable concernment to Sinners and were there any such Wakening and Rouring amongst us that Souls were put to say and cry What shal we do to be saved The opening up of the Truth to wit That Christ is a Sin-offering for Sinners and that by His Offering the Atonement is made would be much more acceptable and refreshfull And therefore let this be the 1. Use That though there be nothing imaginable that can be brought before God which will be acceptable to Him as a satisfaction to His Justice yet here there is a Ransome found by the Offering whereof to God a Soul that is lying under challenges for Sin and apprehensions of Wrath may expect absolution This is in effect that which Elihu sayes Job 33. If there be an interpreter one of a thousand to shew unto man his righteousnesse then he is gracious unto him and saith deliver him from going down to the pit I have found a ransome here is the Ransome our Lord Jesus Christ stepping in in Sinners Room and Offering Himself up a Sacrifice to satisfie the Justice of God So that a Sinner in making use of that may come to be in good terms with God and are not these glad Tydings of great joy that an Offering is provided a Ransome payed and a way found out how Sinners lyable to the Curse may expect Freedome It 's no small matter that God hath given this Subject to us to speak of and to you to hear of that the Torturing Anxiety of a Soul driven almost to Dispair may have this for an answer even the Blood of Jesus that blood of sprinkling that purges the conscience from dead works which as it satisfies Justice so it quiets the Conscience of the Sinner that flies unto it and makes right use of it It would become Sinners well to think more of these Glad Tydings and to study to have them alwayes Fresh There are many Parts of the World wherein Men are Sacrificing Beasts some Lambs some Rams some other Beasts And some it may be the First-born of their Bodies for the Sin of their Souls and which is lamentable Sacrificing these things to the Devil on the matter at least and not to God and yet all that does not their turn And not having hard of this Offering they cannot make use of it neither can their Conscienee ever be quiet But our Lord Jesus hath sent these blessed News to us and hath shewed us what is the Sin-offering the Atonement and Propitiatory Sacrifice We need not send our Children through the fire nor bring any other Offering to God to appease His Wrath He hath given us His Son and hath accepted Him for a Sin-offering and hath told us that this shall be as sufficient and satisfying as if we had made the satisfaction our selves here O! here is the wonder even a wonder of wonders Use 2. See here the way how we come to Life by Christ It's imported
is the thing here mainly understood as following immediatly an the back of His Sufferings 2. Because they have Life from Him efficiently as He works it in them and by the Gospel begets them Therefore He is said 1. Tim. 1.10 To have brought life and immortality to light through the gospel which was not known in many parts of the World till Christ brought it forth In this respect Believers are Christ's Seed we are not born Believers of our Parents nor have the Faith which we have of the Ordinances nor of Ministers as efficient Causes thereof But it is from our Lord Jesus who is Believers Father Thus Believers have an Affinity and near Relation to Christ even to be His Children And any that would lay claim to Faith or Spiritual Life would see well that it be this way kindly and as we use to say leill come from Jesus Christ and that they be in His Debt and Common for it 2ly They are His Seed in respect of the likeness that is betwixt Him and them or in respect of the Qualifications that are in them as they are said 2 Pet. 1.4 By the exceeding great and precious promises to be made partakers of the divine nature They have of the same Spirit for the kind that He as Mediator hath in Him And it 's in this respect that Cant. 7.1 The Believer is called the Princess daughter which especially looks to the Spiritual Generous and Noble Qualifications that are deryved from Christ to the Believer Hence Believers are said to have the Spirit of Sons when all others though they be the greatest in the World have but the Spirit of Servants and their Generosity is nothing to that of Believers who are made partakers of the divine nature We have not sayes the Apostle received the spirit of fear but of faith and love and of a sound mind Ah! there are many that claime Kindred and Relation to Christ that are very unlike Him 3ly They are called Christ's Seed in respect of the care that He hath of them Never Mother was more tender of the Sucking Child then He is of His Believing Children Therefore sayeth the Lord Isa 49.15 A mother may forget her sucking child but I will not forget thee Hence is that Phrase even as to visible Professors in the Church who refuse to listen to the call of the Gospel which is much more eminently verified in Believers Matth. 23. How often would I have gathered thee as a hen doth her chickens under her wings So tender and respective is He to His Children as the Mother is tender to the Sucking Child or as the Hen is of her newly hatched and young Chickens for they are in some respect come out of His own Bowels His Blood was shed to Purchase them So it is said Isa 40.11 He gathered the lambs with his arm he carries them in his bosome And gently leads those that are with young And O! what Massie Consolation have such Words as these in them And what confidence may Believing Sinners have to come to this Mediator That is a Mother a Father a Brother and a Parent that hath begotten us out of His own Bowels and in some respect as we are Believers hath as a Mother conceived us in His own Womb. 4ly They are called His Seed in respect of the Portion which they get from Him The Apostle sayes that Parents provide for their Children It 's indeed eminently so here Believers come under His Care oversight and Tutory And as a Man provides for His Houshold His Children and Servants Meat in due season And the Apostle sayes he is worse then an infidel that provides not for them of his own house even so our Lord Jesus as He gives Believers their Spiritual Life so He entertains that Life provides for them and trains them up and on till he enter them in to the Possession of Eternal Life they are made by Him Princes Psal 45.16 Intituled to a Kingdom yea all His Children are Kings and sit with him on his throne Rev. 2. last Verse and are made partakers of His Glory and to speak so they Fair as He Fairs they Dwell as He Dwells and behold His Glory O! is not this much That the poor Dyvour that hath nor a Penny left him nor to leave to another should be thus Dignified as to have a claim to Christ's Kingdom to be an Heir and a joynt Heir with Him who is the Heir of all things For so we come to be Retoured to speak so and so be served Heirs to all things As it is Rev. 21.7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things And it goes on this ground Heb. 1.2 That the Mediator is appointed heir of all things with whom being joint heirs we are Heirs too and are made to Inherit all things 5ly They are called His Seed because of the manner of their coming to the Possession of that which through Him they have a Claim to For they have Claim to nothing but by being Heirs to and with Him And by believing in Him They are Heirs of the promise in some respect as Isaac was So then briefly to recapitulat all these would ye know the way that Believers are Christ's Seed 1. He begets them and they have their Spiritual Life of Him 2. He is tender of them as of His own Children 3. They are furnished with Qualifications and Dispositions suitable to Him 4. They have a rich Portion from Him and are well provided for 5. What good they get is for His sake who is their Father Here we may allude to that Word Rom. 11. They are beloved for the Fathers sake by a Right and Title to Him they come to have a Good and Goodly Portion They claim not their Portion because of this or that thing in themselves but by their being served Heirs to Christ being come of Him they come to get a Right to what is His. Use As all Relations betwixt Christ and Bellevers speak out much Consolation So doth this if we were in Case to apply it This one Word hath in it and holds forth a good Condition and is a very broad Chartour See here then 1. What we are in Christ's Common and Debt who are Believers It 's much to be made a Friend to be fred from the Curse of God and to have all our Debt payed But this is more to be His Seed to be His own Children to have our Life of Him to have our Provision and Portion from Him It 's really a wonder that we wonder not more at this and other Relations that are betwixt Him and Believers as namely he is the Believers Father and takes them to be His Sons and Daughters He is the Believers Brother and is not ashamed to call them brethren He is the Believers Husband and they are His Spouse He is their Bridegrome and they are His Bride Such Relations as these are pitched upon and made choise of to fill If I may speak so the Faith of
suitable for Sinners to carry the Faith of this along with them in their bosome If He procured Heaven to us by His Soul-suffering and Travel we cannot procure it to our selves and therefore a necessity lyes on all that would be at Heaven to be in Christ's common for it And this is the up-shot of all that Dyvour Sinners may know that they are in His common As for His Purchase so for the Applicâ—tion of it Use 2. This Doctrine yeelds much Consolation and it is the Fountain and Rise of it His Soul travel bought it all and makes way to the bringing of us to the possession of it And in many respects our Consolation depends on it We shall look upon it as the rise thereof more generally in these respects 1. That to a poor Sinner lying under the Curse there is a possibility of getting it put by and kept off that Heaven is not desperat and that the fear of coming before the Tribunal of Justice is not absolute for our Lord hath satisfied Justice the Price that He laid down was not for nought but levelled at this very Scope as the Apostle hath it 2 Cor. 5. ult He was made sin for us that knew no sin that we Sinners might be made the righteousness of God in or through him and what strong Consolation is this for a Sinner under the Curse of God to have this word spoken to him though thou cannot satisfy Justice for thy self yet there is a way laid down to satisfy it for thee the Mediator having the Price that was required proposed to Him did not stick at the Terms but held the Bargain and hath accordingly actually performed it 2. It is a Consolation in this respect That not only is there a Compleat Satisfaction given to Justice but a willing Saviour ready to make that Satisfaction forthcoming and to make it forthcoming freely can there be a greater proof of our Lord Jesus His Love to Sinners then this That when they were considered with all their Debt lying on their heads He undertook this Soul-travel for them to procure them Salvation from Wrath and Justice This is more then His giving them His Word for it though that had been enough it 's more then the giving them His Oath thus to commend His Love As it is John 15.13 Greater love hath no man then this that a man should lay down his life for his fâ—iend but sayes the Apostle Rom. 5.8.10 God commends his love to us that while we were yea sinners yea enemies Christ died for us This good Shepherd laid down His Life for His Sheep 3. It 's a Consolation in this respect That there is also a willingness to the Lord Jehovah the provoked Party to accept of this Satisfaction and to absolve the Elect on account of this Satisfaction For what I pray was all this Soul-travel that the Lord underwent But Jehovah His transferring of the Debt of the Elect on Him according to the transaction that had past in the Covenant of Redemption He would never have made the Sword of His Justice to awake against the man that was His Fellow if He had not been content to accept of His Satisfaction for them that should make use of it for we have not only the Mediator and His Satisfaction to look upon in this Soul-travel but also the contrivance of the Covenant called in the former words The pleasure of the Lord who while we were enemies gave His Son and was content to want Him for a time to speak so and to be a distinct party to pursue Him Is not this then a good Bargain when we have a willing Mediator and Merchant content to give the Price and Satisfaction and a gracious and willing God content to accept of this Satisfaction and both of them content to make the Application of it to us freely As it is Revel 3.18 Here is matter of strong Consolation the ground whereof will not fall to wit The mediators Soul-travel and the Lord Jehovah will not cast the Bargain When the poor Sinner sayes I have nothing to pay but there is a Price in Christ's Satisfaction offered in the Gospel and the Judge sayes admits it for the Sinner that lays claim to it as if the Sinner had never Sinned or had actually payed the Price himself But 4. Look a little further and we will find more Consolation though this be much consider a Sinner in a tempted condition and under Sad-soul-exercise that wots not what to do with Unbelief with the Devil and with the Wrath of God all which are like to overwhelm and swallow them up and the heart is like to sink here is the native and kindly Fountain for such a Soul to drink at That our Lord Jesus suffered more and that it was another sort of Cup that He drank of and drank out And for these Ends 1. To take away the Sting and Bitterness of thy Cup. 2. To procure and Meritoriously to Purchase a Freedom and Out-gate from these Temptations to thee 3. Also that He might be made a Sympathizing High-Priest and the more compassionat towards the Person that should be so Tempted according to that Heb 2. ult For that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able also to succour these that are tempted He was Tempted that He might have kindly sympathy with Tempted Souls and therefore when such are ready to fall a swoon He dates and dandles them as it were on His Knee and when they are in hazard to turn their backs in the Conflict He comes up with fresh strength and recruits them So Heb. 4.15 We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin We have such an High Priest as was not only mocked and scorned of Men and some way deserted of God but who was tempted though not from Sin within for He was without Sin yet to Sin for He was assaulted by the Devil and tempted to unbelief and other gross Sins As is clear Matth. 4. though as He sayeth Himself The prince of this world had nothing in him And He was not only tempted to Sin but as if He had actually Sinned He met with Wrath from all there is a sweet and strong Sympathy flowing from such bowels as one Brother hath towards another yea inconceivablie beyond the tenderest bowels that the most warmly loving Brethren in all the World have one towards another And therefore he knows well what Apprehensions Temptations riding thick to speak so will attempt to beat in upon poor Souls and can from experience Sympathy with them It is not so to be understood as if there were any additionall degree made to His Kindnesse Skill and Grace as He is God These being infinit in Him as so confedred yet He being Man as well as God or having a humane Nature He hath from His Personal experience a Sympathy and that in a humane way
and clears it It shall be saith he that many shall be Justified through Faith in Him For he shall bear their iniquities He shall take on and pay their Debt And so as I said it is a reason confirming the former Truth and shewing that it cannot be otherwayes but they must be absolved through Faith in Him because He bears the punishment due to them for their Sin It serves also to clear how Justification is attained by Faith to wit not by any vertue or efficacy that is in Faith abstractly considered as if believing of it self did the turn but by vertue of Christs bearing their iniquities and making Satisfaction for them which Faith layes hold on So that when he said By his knowledge shall many be justified It is not by any efficacy attributed to their believing but by vertue of Christs Righteousnesse and Satisfaction which only Faith gives a Title to and is the midse and way by which a Believer comes to it and so as I have said it serves for explication of the former Truth So that if the question be asked how can Sinners be Justified by believing It 's here answered because Christ shall take on their Debt and the Righteousnesse purchased by Him shall redound to them and be reckoned theirs It 's the same on the matter with that which we have 2 Cor. 5. ult He that knew no sin was made sin for us and what follows That we might be made the righteousness of God in him which clears that this way of Justification which the Gospel holds out is not as I just now said by any efficacy or worth in Faith it self nor by any inherent qualifications in the person that believes but this is the ground of it Christs bearing of our iniquities The Elect were Sinners and Christ hath taken on Him their iniquities Therefore they cannot but upon their fleeing to Him by Faith be Justified when they plead His Satisfaction for their Defence before God their Absolution must needs follow This is the scop of these Words which are as it were the bond knitting all the rest together and containing the foundation whereon our Justification is founded There are only Three Words here that need a little of explication 1. By iniquity is not meaned Sin formally taken We shew when we spake of the 6. v. That Christ was not the Sinner formally considered that being inconsistent with His holy Nature and with the personal union of the Man head with the God-head But the meaning is that He took on Him the punishment due to our iniquities or the punishment that our iniquities deserved 2. When He is said to bear their iniquities it imports a burdensome bearing or His bearing of it with a weight and that there was a weight in it as it 's said verse 3. and 4. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief surely he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows And therefore the Apostle 1 Pet. 2.24 saith He his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree when He was made a curse for us as it is Gal. 3.13 He did bear our Sins by coming under the Curse that was due to us for them In a word His bearing of our iniquities is a real satisfying of the Justice of God for them by interposing His own blessed back and taking on the stroaks that were due to us 3. When it 's said Their iniquities It relats to the many that in the former Words are said to be justified through His Knowledge it 's spoken of the iniquities of the Elect and Believers who through Christ are made friends with God And therefore these being the many they cannot but be Justified because Christ hath come and payed their Debt according to His Ingagement These Words as almost every other verse of this Chapter contain the substance of the Gospel Take shortly Five or Six Observations from them which we shall put together The 1. Is That the Person who is to be Justified by Faith in Christ is naturally lying in iniquities this is supposed while it is said that Christ shall bear their iniquities â—ven the iniquities of them who are to be Justified through Faith in Him So it 's said before The Lord hath laid on him the iniquities of us all and we all like sheep have gone astray These and many other Scriptures nay the whole current of the Scriptures confirm the point and put it beyond debate I observe it for these Ends and Uses which will shew why it is so frequently marked 1. That the freedom of Gods Grace may kyth the more in their Justification They are Sinners even as others are and it 's Grace that makes the diffâ—rence Therefore their Justification must be free If then any would have good or have gotten good by the Gospel and by Christ offered to them therein let them know that it is freely 2. That a Believer who is Justified should be very humble for he was a Sinner as well as others and is still a Sinner in part Therefore it becomes him to walk fortly with a stopped mouth and to be tender and compassionat towards other Sinners There is not a Believer but the weight of his iniquities would have born him down to Hâ—ll had not Christ interposed and taken them on him and therefore he ought to be both humble and thankful 3. That Sinners who have the offer of Christ's Righteousnesse in the Gospel may not dispair how great soever their Sins be Indeed if they resolve to continue in Sin or to Sin that Grace may abound they have no ground to expect pardon the Apostle doth with abhorrency reject the drawing of such conclusions from the Grace of God Rom. 3. But for a guilty Sinner that hath no good in himself to commend him to Christ to lean to and to believe in Him who justifies the ungodly is a Doctrine which the same Apostle approves and gives an open door to them that desire to abandon Sin and to expect Justification through Christ's Satisfaction Thus a door is set open to you to bâ—lieve in Him who justifies ungodly Sinners to betake your selves to Him who is the Saviour 4. To confound and stop the mouths of all Self-righteous men as having nothing to do with Christ He came to take on iniquity and to bear it He came to seek and to save that which was lost and hath not a commission to save Self-righteous Folks For he came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance and so long as they continue in that condition they cannot look on themselves as persons whom He came to call neither can they take any comfort in or from His coming The 2d Observation is That wherever iniquity is it 's a burden a heavy burden There is nothing more heavy then Sin it being that which presses the guilty person to the lowest Hell It brought the fallen Angels out of Heaven to the pit ye may tâ—ke an instance or two of
2. The formal Object of our worship is Christs God-head and we pray to him on that account because He is the Eternal Infinit Omni-potent Supream c. in respect of his divine nature 3. In our worshipping of this Mediator on this account or ground the mind may be swayed to it on consideration that the person whom we worship as God is also Mediator and Man and this proposes no new Object of worship but gives a motive to induce us to worship him and warms the heart with love to him as when we go to pray to him the mind may consider him as one that died now so considered he is not the Object of our worship because it holds him out as humbled and suffering yet our so considering him strengthens Faith to expect what we need from him and it induces to pray to him and engages to love him even as the People of Israel in prayer to God sometimes used that Title Our redeemer that brought us out of Egypt Yet the ground and account on which they worshipped him was his being the Eternal Infinit and Omnipotent God and the consideration of his Works were but motives to induce them to worship him and to strengthen their Faith in expecting what they stood in need of from him So is it here For if it were possible to conceive that the Mediator that died were not God we would not pray to him for God is the alone Object of divine worship yet to consider that he is God and yet died is an inducement to us to pray to him and it strengthens our Faith to consider that as he is God so also Man one that died and hath also entered himself in this near relation to us For the 3d. which will help to clear the former That is the forms of such Petitions as may be used in petitioning the Mediator we need the lesse to stand on it if as hath been said we hold us by these grounds 1. That there is but one Object of worship 2. That this one Object of worship is God 3. That in worshipping the Mediator we do not divine that Object of our worship Yet we shall speak a word for clearing 1. What form seems most allowable here 2. For clearing of somewhat which we hinted at the other day anent one particular form of petition First then This is clear that we may pray directly to the Mediator by naming him as Stephen does Act. 7. at the close 2. That the Mediator when prayed to may be considered as such by us For there is a differenee betwixt that which is considered by us in the act of our worship and that which is the Object of that Act and as we said the motive that induces us to that Act is the uptaking of him as Mediator 3. That he may be designed Mediator and Redeemer and may get these Names and Titles because they serve to strengthen our Faith and to warm our affections to him even as when the people of Israel prayed to God they remembred that he was their Redeemer and Deliverer and had wrought so and so for them and these were motives to induce them to pray and served to strengthen their Faith in praying to him yet the ground and account on which they worshipped him was his own infinit glorious Majesty 4. It 's clear that when the Mediator is prayed unto something may be sought from him that agrees to the Office of the Mediator For instance he may be prayed unto to take to him his Government and to exerce it to give gifts unto men to gather his own Elect to make his will effectual for the ingathering of them c. yet even then a difference would be put betwixt the Object of our sutie and the matter we suite for which belongs to him as Mediator yet as God he is the Oâ—ject of our suite and prayer This seems to be â—â—lured at Psal 45. when the Psalmist speaking to the Son the Mediator sayes Giâ—d thy sword upon thy thigh ride prosperously let the kings arrows be sharp in the hearts of his enemies Which upon the matter seems clearly to relate to Christs executing his Office as Mediator yet look to the Title he gives him and the ground or account on which he puts up his prayer It 's the consideration of him as God Therefore he sayes O! thou most mighty a divine attribute pointing him out to be God And thy throne O God sayes he is from everlasting c. Now as for the 2d thing If all this be granted it may then be asked why we seem not to be satisfied with that manner of expression or form of petition which we hinted at the other day Lord Jesus make intercession for me plead for me with or before the Father Seing we allow such a Petition as this Lord Jesus make me partaker of thy intercession and the like As warrantably when put up with reverence and faith The same Object of worship being invocat with them both Answer 1. We say that the use-making and improving of Christs Intercession is not to be restricted to this manner of expression or form of Petition and it was for this end that we observed it For it cannot be said that only we make use of Christs Intercession when we use this form and so it 's not essential nor necessary to the use-making of Christ's Intercession This is the fault that is in it as if there were no use-making of his Intercession but when this form of Petition is used whereas we shew that it is mainly the exercise of Faith resting on his Intercession whereby it is improven and one may be usâ—ng this forme of word and yet not be improving his Intercession And another may not use this form of words and yet be improving it when Faith is exercised on it and th refore to improve his Intercession is rather by the exercise of Faith to rest on it then in any such form of words to pray to him and we would not think that Christ's Intercession is not made use of when the Father is prayed unto or when such a form of words is not used but place it in the exercise of Faith alone 2. We say if such a petition be well understood and qualified it is not simply sinful or evil if so be that our meaning in it amount to this much Lord Jesus let me be partaker of the benefites of thy Intercession even as we may pray Lord Jesus let me be partaker of the benefits of thy Satisfaction yet we say it would be well understood and qualified and a person in putting up such a petition would advert well that he be not praying to any other Object of worship but God and that his meaning be the same as if he were praying to the Father and said Father let me be accepted through the Intercession of the Son And thus the one is an improving of Christs Intercession as well as the other for although the altering the
to the curse of God for the transgressing of His Law which had said The soul that sins shall die and cursâ—d is every one that continueth not in all things written in the book of the law to do them 2. Add to this the supposition of Christ's undertaking to be the Elects Cautioner and to satisfie for their Debt whereby he steps into their room takes on their Debt And as the word is 2 Cor. 5. ult Becomes sin for them Is content to be lyable to and to be pursued by Justice for their Debt and though here there be a relaxation in respect of the Persons of the Elect for whom the Cautioner stands good yet in respect of the Curse and Death due to them there is no relaxation but the same thing due to them is laid on Him as it is Gal. 3. He hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us In every thing He was put to pay the equivalent for making up the Satisfaction due to Justice and these two being put together that Elect Sinners were obnoxious to Wrath and that our Lord came in their Room He behoved to be put to sad and sore Soul-suffering 3. Consider God's end in the Work of Redemption which is to point out the inconceivableness of His wonderfully condescending Grace and Mercy in exacting of satisfaction from the Cautioner and in setting the Sinner free that His Grace may be so Glorified as their shall be a proof given of His Justice and Soveraignity going along with it and Infinit Wisdom being set on Work to glorifiâ— infinit Grace and Justice there is a necâ—ssity for the promoving of this end that the Mediator shall thus satisfie and the more full the Satisfaction be the more conspicuously do the Grace and Justice of God shine forth and are Glorified according to that word Rom 3.26 To declare his righteousnâ—ss that he might be just and the justifier of him that shall believe in Jesus This is the end of Christ's being made a Propitiation that God may be manifested to be Spotlesse and Pure in His Justice as well as Free and Rich in His Mercy and Grace who having given a Law to Man will not acquite the transgression thereof without a condigne Satisfaction 4 Consider that it is indeed a great thing to satisfie Justice for Sin that it 's more to satisfie Justice for all the Sins of one Person which all the Angells in Heaven and Men on Earth cannot do and therefore the punishment of the Damned in Hell is drawn out to Eternities length and yet there is never a Compleat Equivalent Satisfaction made to Justice but it is most of all to satisfie Justice for all the Sins of all the Elect who though they be few in comparison of the Reprobat World yet simply considered they are many yea even innumerable And our Lord having taken all their Sins on Him He is peremptorly required to satisfie for them all And if this withall be added that He is to satisfie for all the Sins of all the Elect at once in a very short time and hath the Curse and Wrath of God due to them Mustered and Marshaled in Batallie against Him and as it were in a great Body in a most formidable manner marching up towards Him and seriously charging Him and all the Wrath which they should have drunken through all Eternity which yet would never have been drunk out nor made the less put in one Cup and propined to Him as the Word is Psal 110. He shall drink of the brook in the way The Wrath of God running like an impetuous River must be drunk up at once and made dry by Him These being put together do clearly and convincingly shew that it could not but be an inexpressible and inconceivable Soul-travell and Suffering that our Lord Jesus was put to The Use of this Doctrine is large and the 1. Use is this Tâ—at ye would take it for a most certain Truth which the Scriptures doth so Frequently and Significantly hold forth That our Lord Jesus in performing the Work of Redemption had much sad Soul-travell and sorrow The Faith of this is very usefull to demonstrat the great love of God and of the Mediator For doubtless the more Suffering be undergone by the Mediator the more love Kythes therein to the Elâ—ct 2. It serves to hold out the Soveraignity and Justice of God and the horribleness of Sin 3. In respect of God's People it 's usefull that they may be through and clear in the Reality and Worth of Christ's Satisfaction He having no other End in it but to satisfie Justice for their Sin 4. It 's usefull to shew the Vanity and Emptinesse of Mens Supposed and Fancied Merits and of any thing that can be alleadged to be in Mans Suffering or doing for the satisfying of Divine Justice seing it drew so deep on Christ the Cautioner And here two gross Errours come to be Refuted and Reprobated One of the Socinians who seek quite to overturn Christ's Satisfaction And another of the Papists that minish His Satisfaction and Extenuat and Derogat from the great Priviledge of the Pardon of Sin as if any thing could procure it but this Satisfaction of Christ by His Soul-travell both which are aboundantly refuted by this Text. But to speak a word more particularly to the First For clearing of which ye will ask What could there be to affect the Holy Humane Soul of our Lord Or what was that wherein His Soul-sufferings did consist But before we speak to this we would premit this Word of Advertisement in the entry That there are two sorts of Punishments or Penal Effects of Sin The 1. Sort are such as are simply Penal and Satisfying as proceeding from some extrinsick cause The 2d sort are sinfull One Sin in the Righteous Judgement of God drawing on another And this proceeds not simply from the nature of Justice but from the nature of a meer sinfull Creature and so from an intrinsick cause of a Sinful Principle in the Creature Now when we speak of the Soul-sufferings of Christ which He was put to in Satisfying for the Sins of the Elect We mean of the former that is Sufferings that are simply Penall For there was no intrinsick Principle of Corrupt Nature nor ground of Chalâ—enge in Him as there is in Sinfull Creatures And therefore we are to conceive of His Soul-sufferings as of some thing inflicted from without and are not to conceive of them as we do of Sinfull Creatures or that have Sin in them whereof he was altogether free Having premitted this we shall speak a little to these two 1. To that wherein this Soul-suffering did not consist 2. To that wherein it did consist For the former wherein it was not 1. We are not to suppose or imagine any actuall separation betwixt His God-head and His Man-head as if there had been an interruption of the Personall Union not so for the Union of the