Matth. 5. 16. with Rom. 8. 30. and you will find that we are said to glorifie God and God also is said to glorifie us but with this difference We glorifie God by declaring those Divine Excellencies that were in God before God glorifies us by putting an Excellency upon us which we had not before We glorifie God here on Earth God glorifies us in Heaven as our Saviour saith John 17. 4 5. I have glorified thee on earth now O Father glorifie thou me with the glory which I had with thee before the world was What was that I wish I were able to tell you It may be some of you may think I say too much and others too little I desire as God will help me to say something of it that may lead your Thoughts into a further Consideration of this matter Therefore I shall endeavour to open that difficult Scripture Glorifie thou me with that glory which I had with thee before the World was John 17. 5. I conceive thus That Christ's Human Nature upon his Ascension to Heaven was according to its finite capacity lifted up by vertue of the Hypostatical Union into the Essential Glory of the Godhead which did not so shine forth in the Man Christ here on Earth as it doth now in Heaven It was under an Eclipse then in his state of Humiliation but now this Glory is fully communicated to the Human Nature of Christ and through Christ unto us John 17. 22. compared with Joh. 14. 20. I am in my father and ye in me and I in you saith he I say the Glory of the Godhead is communicated to the Human Nature of Christ and through Christ unto us who are united to him And by vertue of this Union the other Two Persons of the Trinity the Father and the Holy Ghost are said to dwell in us and to be in us The Father dwells in us and we in him 1 John 4. 12 13 16. If we dwell in Love we dwell in God and God dwells in us that is we have deep Apprehensions of the Love of God And the Spirit dwells in us Rom. 8. 11. comp with 1 Cor. 3. 16. I speak this to shew how near we are brought to God in Glory to the Father Son and Holy Ghost And thus you see how Saints are glorified in Christ blessed with all Spiritual Blessings in Heavenly Places in Christ Eph. 1. 3. And how Christ is glorified in them John 17. 10. Christ takes the Saints into his own Glory which is their Glorification perfective of their Happiness And this Manifestation of the Glory of Christ in and upon the Saints is said to be a glorifying of Christ John 17. 10. The Original Glory of Christ shining out upon us is our Glorification which doth consist in the Beatifical Vision in beholding the Glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ we see him face to face 1 Cor. 13. 12. Mat. 18. 10. We see him as he is which transforms us into his likeness 1 Joh. 3. 2. We then appear with him in glory Col. 3. 4. Joh. 7. 24. What can we conceive of this Glory What is this Glory The Scripture sets it forth by Allusions to things that are natural and so shall I. Glory then is a Splendor or Lustre arising up and resulting from the Beauty and Excellency of a thing above other things So God outshines all Creatures being transcendingly Good So that Glory in its perfection as it is in God the Fountain of it it is a continual Effulgency and Brightness flowing from God the Perfection of Beauty He dwells in inaccessible Light This is called sometimes The brightness of his glory Heb. 1. 3. always sending forth resplendent Beams and Rays of Light which do reach us in Heaven and do reflect a Glory upon us Thus the Glory of God is set forth in Scripture by things that are most glorious in our sight And I must tell you That Faith sees something in God that is beyond all these Metaphors of Light and Brightness I say beyond all these Notions of Light and Brightness a more excelling Glory in comparison of which all created Glory is no Glory But the Beatifical Vision is aboâ—e all the Visions of this Glory that Faith now gives us because it fills and satisfies the whole Capacity of our Souls We are then possessed of all and desire no more The School-men tell us Heaven is Appetitus quietivum doth satisfie and quiet the Desires of a man So saith the Scripture Psal. 17. 15. When I awake I shall be satisfied with thy likeness speaking of the Resurrection If the Love of the world is in you the love of the father is not in you 1 John 2. 15. If we are still flying out in our affections after worldly things it is a sign our minds are not quieted and satisfied with God alone School-Divines say further That in Hell there is fear but Heaven is above all Hope And they give this reason for it Because in Hell there is Successio Poenarum a Succession of Punishment which causes Fear but say they in Heaven Glory is absque Successione without Succession i. e. 'T is all present before ' em I suppose they mean this That the Saints above have a kind of actual Comprehension of their Eternal Beatitude in which there is nothing past or to come but all as present before them They don't Hope but certainly know that their Blessedness doth continue for ever That is I say the Saints above after the Resurrection cannot be more happy to all Eternity than they are the first moment of their Glorification And this I mean by an actual Comprehension of our Eternal Beatitude All is as present to Glorified Saints Brethren If these things seem difficult to you and do pass your knowledge are above your comprehension it is your happiness it is so that there is more Glory reserved for you than you can conceive Eye hath not seen ear hath not heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man the things that God hath prepared for them that love him Besides pray consider we that are Ministers do prophesie but in part we see but through a glass darkly no wonder then if these things seem abstruse and enigmatical The more spiritually-minded you are about these deep things of God seriously considering the Sufferings of Christ and the Glory that shall follow as 1 Pet. 1. 11. the more plain and evident will this Glory be unto you You will know more of it than the Tongue of Men or Angels can express There are certain Elevations of an enlightned mind that do sometimes raise our Apprehensions of Divine Mysteries above and beyond our ordinary thoughts of them The Spirit takes us up into the Mount of Glory and shews us the things of Christ more demonstatively than any Minister in the World is able to do When we are heaving at some heavy body we lift here and we lift there and it may be upon some sudden
way fitted for the Office of a Mediator touched with the feeling of our Infirmities in all points tempted as we are Heb. 4. 15. A body hast thou prepared me Heb. 10. 5. i. e. Framed to such a temper that Christ through our nature might best express God's love to man Christ acted over the life of God in man's nature therefore it was necessary that the humane Nature of Christ should be adapted and suited to the Divine Nature which was done three ways viz. First By the perfection of it being free from all contagion of sin by a miraculous conception the Holy Ghost over-shadowing the Virgin Mary and separating humane Nature in the first conception of Christ from original sin that descends down upon it in all who come into the World by natural Generation Secondly By the Hypostatical union of the humane Nature to the Divine in the second Person of the Trinity which eternally secures our humane Nature in Christ from all possibility of the least defection puts it quite out of the power of the Devil any way to corrupt or vitiate it by all his subtil contrivances and temptations by which he did vainly attempt such a thing perfect Nature in the first Adam I don't say could not but did not preserve it self Adam did not fall for want of light and knowledge no he could never have fallen unless he would 't was from the mutability of his Will that he fell but the humane Nature of Christ the second Adam being under the Government of a Divine immutable Will can never fall hence it is that our standing in Christ is secured to eternity Thirdly By the pouring out of the Spirit without measure upon him that so strengthned all his humane Faculties that 't was impossible the Devil should ever impose upon him such an overflowing fulness of the Spirit leaves no room for any carnal impression to be made upon him his humane Nature received such a Divine tincture from the essence of the Godhead so powerfully influencing his Manhood that the Devil found nothing in him to work upon he met with God in every thought in every word in every Action of Christ in every motion and affection of his heart and finding one so much greater than himself continually aiding and strengthning the Man Christ he despairs of Victory and leaves him The Devil was not mistaken in the Nature of the Man Christ which was really humane but he was mistaken in the Person of Christ which was solely Divine such a Person in such a Nature he never thought to meet with that which posed the Devil was the Person of Christ he might know him to be God and yet apply himself to him as Man that he is sure he was he could not conceive how humane Nature could subsist but in a humane Person and as such a Person he set upon him but found it hard to kick against the pricks such a mighty Man he never grapled with before he was so shamefully foyled in this encounter that he never durst look Christ in the face afterwards he came behind him often like a Coward in disguise and by his wicked Instruments annoyed him all he could but durst not send him a second Challenge to fight it out with him once more hand to hand no he had enough of that already now he foams and rages at a distance throws his fiery darts here and there strikes at the Image of Christ in the Saints where ever he sees it but dares not come up to his Person face to face the great thing that the Devil dreads in the second coming of Christ he knows that is the time of his torment Therefore having such a high priest who is set on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens Heb. 8. 1. who is not ashamed to call us Brethren let us not be ashamed to call God Father Christ will bear us out in it the Children of God as such are not known to the World 1 John 3. 1. Have hard usage from the World 2 Cor. 48. 9 10. Yet God knows them is kind to them and tender of them Isa. 54. 11. Behold now we are the sons of God 1 John 3. 2. Now under all our infirmities and afflictions God is with us in the fire and in the water he has a great love to and very high esteem of all his Children since thou wast precious in my sight thou hast been honourable and I have loved thee Isa. 43. 2 3 4. He will by no means take away his loving kindness utterly from them Psal. 89 32 33. Deut. 8. 5. We are apt to think otherwise Isa. 49. 14. Zion said the Lord hath forsaken me my Lord hath forgotten me We shall be apt to entertain hard thoughts of God upon all occasions if we live not under the daily sense of our Adoption in which we see the Fatherly love of God flowing down so strongly towards us through Christ that we cannot but greatly rejoyce in it THE NECESSITY OF Preaching CHRIST I COR. I. 23 24. But we preach Christ crucified c. THE design of the Apostle here is to vindicate the Doctrine of our Salvation by Christ from all those Aspersions that were cast upon it both by the Jews and Gentiles the Gospel then was as much cry'd down by some as it was cry'd up by others The Apostle tells you who were for it and who were against it he divides all men into two ranks viz. The Called and Uncalled the Converted and Unconverted he tells you that they who were effectually Called and Converted were for the Gospel but the Uncalled and Unconverted were against it and as it was then so it is now Hence note Obs. That all unregenerate Persons whether Jews or Gentiles will have a fling at the Gospel 't is contrary to them and they are as contrary to it they can't reach the Mystery of it and therefore do slight and contemn it but all who are effectually called and savingly enlightned do highly prize it they see much of the Power and Wisdom of God in that excellent contrivance of Man's Salvation by Christ they desire to know nothing but Christ and him Crucified Let us have a care we do not darken the evidence of our Conversion by a Spirit of opposition to the Gospel in the main fundamental points of it I shall do little else in this Exercise but open the terms of the text observing some things by the way But we preach Christ crucified c. He shews the matter and manner of his Preaching in this Chapter what he Preached and how 1. The matter of his Preaching or what he Preached viz. The Gospel v. 17. The Cross v. 18. Or Christ Crucified v. 23. 2. The manner of his Preaching v. 17. Not with Wisdom of words So 1 Cor. 2. 4. vide Vnto the Jews a stumbling-block they were offended at Christ's low mean humble state in the flesh they did not look for any great matter from such
of man made of the dust of the Earth laying aside all consideration of sin made it impossible for man to be brought so near to God as Christ has brought him 'T is something difficult to apprehend how Adam in Innocency held Communion with God how he could pray without a Mediator But after he fell for those few hours before the Promise of Christ came to him no doubt he was full of horror The Text says he was afraid and hid himself from the presence of the Lord Gen. 3. 8 9 10. But Christ interposes took our nature upon him to convey his to us to make that ours by Grace which was his by Nature so uniting us to God again CHAP. IV. 4. How Christ was fitted and qualified for the Office of a Mediator HE had the Nature of both parties in him as our Immanuel Isa. 7. 14. He had a right in both as God manifest in the Flesh he stood in the middle between both parties and may be called the Third Isa. 19. 24. because Israel was joined in league and amity with Egypt and Assyria they all had an interest in one another all were Blessed of God v. 25. So God and man considered as united in a Third Person who is God-man they both have an interest in him and he is them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mediator is one who stands in the middle between Two partaking of both the extreams In this sense Christ is a middle Person medius not only by Office but by Nature as God-man Divinity and Humanity being substantially united in his Person he must be God that he may be able to satisfie he must be man that he may be in a capacity to die So that medius may refer to the Person Mediator to the Office the Office depends upon the Person such an Office requires such a Person who was God-man Christ is a Mediator according to both his Natures as God-man as his Divine Person is Incarnate in Christ's Mediation both natures are imployed and do act distinctly His Deity did what was Divine his Humanity what was Humane and what was done according to either Nature is ascribed to his Person The Person of the Mediator hath something common to both the dissenting parties viz. The same essence of the Godhead though not the same Personality with the Father and the Holy Ghost and the same humane Nature with us not numerical but specifical In the Incarnation of Christ humane Nature is not individuated to a formal subsistency in this particular Man by the Divine Essence but by the Personality of the Son and therefore the Son is said to be Incarnate because the Person of the Son gives humane Nature a subsistency in himself The Person of Christ joins Two Natures not disagreeing for the sinless Humanity of Christ was never contrary to his Divinity though inferior to it Christ thus Incarnate lays out himself to reconcile God and man which his Two Natures do fit him for disposing and giving an aptitude to the Office of a Mediator for Christ is Mediator oeconomically and by Office Christ's assuming humane Nature was part of his Humiliation and did fit him for his Mediatory Office Phil. 2. 7 8. Though as has been said there was no enmity between God and Christ's sinless humane Nature yet as 't is in us 't is defiled and contrary to God therefore Christ mediates for us with the Father Though Christ Offered up himself a Sacrifice for us in humane Nature yet the whole Divine Person may be said to be offered up in that Nature John 10. 17 18. Christ speaks there as Mediator the power that he had of laying down and taking up his life was the power of the Divine Person not of his humane Nature Some of the Schoolmen have this apt similitude viz. As a man draws a Sword out of a Scabbard holding the Sword in one hand and the Scabbard in the other so the Divine Person of Christ separated his Soul from the Body as a Sword from the Scabard and yet kept both parts united to himself Toletus Christ took our Flesh in which he was mortal and freed even our flesh from that mortality when he raised it from the dead Aug. de Civ D. l. 9. c. 15. mortalitatem habuit transeuntem and so raising us ex mortuis facit immortales Who could swallow up death but he who was life it self It makes much for the relief of fearful Consciences that our Mediator is God-man we should tremble at the mention of God only but when we hear he is Man as well as God then we come willingly to a man like our selves God hath hid and veiled his Majesty under our flesh that the brightness of his Glory might not overcome us When God appeared of old to the Patriarchs it was in some visible shape which he took up for that time and laid down again but now he has really taken the substance and truth of humane Nature into a fixed union to the Person of his Son never to be dissolved Heb. 1. 1. Christus Incarnandus was Mediator under the Old Testament as Exod. 23. 20 21. This could not be a created Angel because he had power to forgive sin therefore it was Christ to come apud Deum facta facienda things actually done and to be done hereafter things present and to come are all one Jesus Christ the same yesterday to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. Who was verily fore-ordained 1 Pet. 1. 20. Faith in Christ to come saved our fore-fathers Christ was an effectual Mediator then in esse cognito not in esse reali this gives present efficacy to a moral Cause hence Abraham had the benefit of Christ's Mediation therefore he rejoyced John 8. 56 58. The Israelites are said to tempt Christ 1 Cor. 10. 9. Therefore he was with the Church then so verse 4. called a rock David calls Christ Lord Psal. 110. 1. Which shews that Christ had power over him to save him to redeem him so that you see Christ tho not actually Incarnate procured Remission of sin for the Saints then who acted Faith on Christ to come they saw him a far off Numb 24. 17. Promises do signifie something before they are fulfilled the Merits of Christ's Blood being known to God before it was actually shed had its vertue and influence from the beginning According to the Divine Oeconomy Christ mediates with the Father only he is never in Scripture brought in praying to the Son or the Spirit Christ as God-man is Mediator to himself as he is essentially God and Christ as Mediator is inferior to himself As he is essentially God so he is the Party offended but as Mediator God-man so he is the party that makes reconciliation A Mediator is not of one i. e. He consists of two distinct Natures Angels and Saints are mere Creatures and never will be more and therefore will make but sorry Mediators the Man Christ is the highest Creature Image of God because he
choice of his God 6. Many of the more civilized sober Professors even of Christianity are apt to rest in general Notions of a Deity when they don't know God himself they don't know him who is God My Text leads me to speak of The Knowledge of God in Christ if what I shall say be not so plain and easie as you would have it Pray remember that I am speaking of that great mystery of godliness God manifest in the flesh which no tongue neither of men or angels is able fully to set forth and to express Yet I hope through the guidance of the Spirit of God what I shall deliver upon this high Subject will fall in with the Conceptions of your Faith and with the Spiritual Apprehensions of an Enlightned Mind Now I proceed A True Saving Knowledge of God implies these Three Things 1. A Knowledge of God in the Person of Christ Incarnate That God manifest in the Flesh of Christ is the only True God 3. That this only True God manifest in the Flesh is our God CHAP. IV. Of the Knowledge of God in the Person of Christ. WHat this Personal Knowledge of God in Christ is I shall explain We conceive God to be a distinct Being from all created Beings above all beyond all and before all the only Jehovah the Great Essentiator who is an Eternal Being himself and gives Being to all other things this God we cannot see with our bodily eyes but with the eyes of a mind spiritually enlightned we may i. e. we may see him by an eye of Faith conceiving him to be all that which he hath revealed himself to be in Christ. Till we see God in the Person of Christ the Mediator we have no certain Object for our Faith to fix upon our natural Notions of God will never carry us to any Person who is God the Scriptures only lead us to Christ as the Son of God The Person of the Father and of the holy-Holy-Ghost are invisible but the Second Person hath made himself visible by taking our Nature upon him and is the only True Visible Image of the Invisible God He is God-Man which signifies not Two Personalities but Two Natures united in One Divine Person The Person of Christ Incarnate is Divine tho many in the days of his flesh here saw his Person who did not own his Divinity they saw him who was God but did not own him to be God 't is Saving Knowledge only that gives us a true sight of God in Christ we never see him till then God in Christ is God indeed all other representations of God do change his Glory into a lye they are all idols and vanities The Heathens became vain in their imaginations multiplying gods to themselves but never agreed who was the only true God Christ said to the Jews vers 19. Ye neither know me nor my Father if ye had known me ye should have known my Father also because the Will of the Father concerning the Salvation of Sinners is revealed by Christ. To believe the Being of a God That there is a God and to believe in God are two things The light of Nature leads to the former but not to the latter because we must have a particular distinct Knowledge of God i. e. of him in particular who is God the only True Living Eternal God we must know his Name his Attributes his Power Wisdom Infinite Love and Mercy We must be able to prove all this from Divine Revelation before we can have sufficient ground for our Faith and Hope in him to believe we know not why in we know not whom is not Faith but fond Credulity this way we render Faith a very irrational thing a mere fancy We cannot prove the Attributes of God but by the Almighty Acts and Works of God we believe him to be God for his Works sake which the Word gives us so full an account of 'T is strange to see what a slight Knowledg of God men do rest in reposing so great a trust as they pretend to do in one whom they know not whether he be able to answer that trust they worship they know not whom they trust they know not whom Tho they own God whoever he be to be Almighty Infinite in Wisdom Love c. yet they chuse a God for themselves who is none of all this and so deceive themselves General Notions of Infinite Power Wisdom c. unless we see where to place them and to whom they do belong are but empty speculations no sufficient ground for our Faith Christ has outdone all that ever were called gods and therefore he only deserves that Name who has in himself revealed the true God to us all the Idols of the world are vanities The Son of God hath made himself visible by taking our flesh upon him and through that veil we look in upon the whole Trinity and know all that is called God in Christ Jesus He that hath seen me hath seen the Father John 14. 9. hath seen the Infinite Power of that Holy Spirit put forth by me No mere Creature holds forth two Natures but the Person of Christ does and therefore is the only Image of the Invisible God holding forth all that is contained in the Infinite Essence of the Divine Nature truly representing God in all his Essential Properties as God and his Father Christ is properly the Image of the Father not of the God-head for that is really in him he is very God The thing it self cannot be said to be the Image of it self Christ and the Father are one in the Essence of the God-head I and my father are one John 10. 30. But Christ is not the same Person with him whose Image he is When Christ is said to be the Image of God God is taken personally for the Father not essentially for the Divine Nature I am not now speaking of the Characteristical Differences of the Three Persons but of the Unity of Essence in which they all agree These three are one If you would know what manner of God the Father is you must look upon Christ his Image and conceive of him according to that manifestation of himself in the Flesh of Christ who has in that very flesh expressed and acted over all the Divine Attributes of God in the Miracles he wrought upon earth letting out a Divine Power through our humane Nature acting as God in our flesh Something of God's Glory appears in the Works of Creation but the Brightness of his Glory shines out only in the Face of Christ as men are known by their faces so God is known by Christ God having in an ineffable manner communicated his Essence to Christ he is therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the express image of his person As he holds forth the Glory of God to us he is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the brightness of his glory This is that Divine Person upon whom the eye of our Faith must be fixed I say
c. In the day thou eatest thou shalt die Nothing does establish this Law and give it its full course towards Believers but faith in Christ Jesus who was made a curse and died according to Law for our sins and being risen again he brings those whom he freed from the curse of the Law under the blessing of the Gospel giving eternal Life as a free-gift to all who thankfully receive it from his hand by faith owning him as the Author and Donor of it 3. The nature of the Offence as committed against an infinite God requires a price equivalent to it of infinite value none but God could satisfie God the wrath of God is asswaged by the blood of God and that he might bleed he became Man the Second Person of the Trinity as incarnate died for man tasted death for us in our nature which he still kept hypostatically untied to his own Divine Person for Christ by dying did not lay down humane Nature but humane Life only which he took up again and now lives for ever as a quickning Spirit communicating eternal Life to Believers through his humane nature now glorified in Heaven Therefore Christ is said to be our life Col. 3. 4. And this life is in his son 1 John 5.11 Hid with Christ in God Col. 3. 3. The life which we derive from mere humane nature will quickly fail but the life which we derive by faith form the Divine Person of the Son of God is everlasting John 3. 16. As the father hath life in himself so hath he given to the son to have life in himself John 5. 26. i. e. He is life essentially the essence of the Deity is communicated by the Father to Christ incarnate and so he becomes the Fountain of life to us therefore let all those who hope to inherit eternal life join themselves by faith to Christ the only Fountain of life How little of this hidden life does appear in the effects of it among Professors We live more by sense than faith very solicitous about natural life but how few do carry it as those who have eternal life abiding in them 1 John 3. 15. Living in the flesh by the faith of the Son of God Gal. 2. 20. Who fell a Sacrifice for our sins but rose again and now lives for ever And gives eternal life to as many as the father hath given him John 17. 2. He has undertaken to the Father to draw all the Elect into a participation of that eternal life which he as man possess now in Heaven and because he lives we shall live for ever in him The Second person in the Trinity died as a man in our human nature to satisfie the Law and to evidence the reality of his death he lay buried three days in the Grave he was alive as God when dead as Man what a profound Mystery is this that the Deity of Christ should suffer his human Body to fall under the power of death for three days this shews the strength of sin the strength of the law and the strength of the wrath of God that so great a man as Christ was could not stand under and live die he must by the sanction of the law being found in the likeness of sinful flesh Rom. 8. 3. bearing our sins in his own Body on the Tree but the dignity of his person was such and the extremity of his sufferings so great that his three days death was equivalent to eternal death he did that in three days which a damned sinner in Hell cannot effect to eternity for that which is doing to eternity can never be actually done and compleated i. e. Christ gave full satisfaction to the Law in three days and therefore could not longer be detained in the Grave there was no Law nor Reason for it having paid the utmost farthing of our whole Debt the Prison-doors were opened and Christ let out That which keeps the Damned in Hell for ever is because they can never fully satisfie the law of God by all their sufferings therefore they must suffer on still to eternity but Christ by one offering hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10. 14. Christ could have chose whether he would have died or no but for this end he came into the World and did voluntarily yield up himself to the Death of the Cross but rising the Third Day he lives for ever and has brought eternal life into human Nature to be communicated to all his Members who cannot forfeit that life which they derive from the second Adam as we all did that which we derived from the first Adam In Adam all die and in Christ all are made alive 1 Cor. 15. 22. CHAP. II. To whom was this PRICE paid FIfthly To whom was this Price paid viz. Into the hands of God the Father to appease his wrath under which we were Joh. 3. 36. God's justice requires this 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the judgment of God that sinners are worthy of death Rom. 1. 32. To this end Christ is our propitiation Rom. 3. 25. Reconciling God to us that we may be received into his favour again hence God declares in the new Covenant I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more Heb. 8. 12. Sing O ye heavens c. Isa. 44. 23. vide That satisfaction that Christ gave to the Justice of God lay in his bearing the Punishment of our sins which is the wrath of God in all the dreadful effects of it 2 Cor. 5. 21. 1 Pet. 2. 24. He was made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. Died for us Mat. 20. 28. Isa. 53. 5. Was cut off for our sins Dan. 9. 26. Death was required to make satisfaction for sin In the day thou eatest c. The Wages of sin is death Rom. 6. 23. There is no escaping this death for us but by dealing with the Justice of God in some way that may satisfie Justice and save the sinner this Christ undertook and by his own Death effected for us He gave himself for our sins Gal. 1. 4. His Blood was the Price of our Redemption Price here is not taken as vulgarly for Money but whatever may satisfie him in whose hands the captive is that is the Price of Redemption God does not seek to make a gain of us that which he stand upon is the vindication of the honour of his Law and Justice the maintaining his Truth and Faithfulness To declare his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth ion Jesus Rom. 3. 26. Christ did not pay the Price of our Redemption to the Devil but to God the Father who had power to condemn us and as a Judge to detain us in prison till his Justice was satisfied therefore Christ deals with the Law-giver takes the penalty upon himself Whilst the condemning power of the Law is in force against us the Devil has a right in