his own Tragedy still poor despised of his own Countreymen and of those that were of reputation for Learning and Piety scandalized under the name of an Impostor a Winebibber a friend to Publicans and sinners a worker by the Devil mad and possessed with a Devil These and the like were his entertainments in the World and which is more often put to shift for his life and in sum what the Prophet predicted concerning him fulfilled to the uttermost Isa 53.3 Despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and all this to befall the Eternal Son of God under the vail of our flesh And all this voluntarily undertaken and cheerfully undergone even for the sakes of his Enemies and those very people from whom he received these indignities 3. But all these were but like small velitations and conflicts preparatory to the main Battel We therefore come to the Third Consideration Christ Jesus and him Crucified there is the account of the Text As Christ Jesus is the most worthy subject of all knowledge so Christ Jesus under this consideration as Crucified is that which is the fullest of wonder admiration love And therefore let us now take a survey of Christ Jesus crucified as that is the highest manifestation of his love so it is the eye the life of the Text Christ above all other knowledge and Christ Crucified above all other knowledge of Christ And now a man upon the first view would think this kind of knowledge so much here valued were a strange kind of knowledge and the prelation of this knowledge a strange mistake in the Apostle 1. Crucified Death is the corruption of nature and such a kind of death by crucifixion the worst the vilest of deaths carrying in it the punishment of the lowest condition of men and for the worst of offences and yet that death and such a death should be the ambition of an Apostle's knowledge is wonderful 2. Christ crucified carries in it a seeming excess of incongruity that he that was the Eternal Son of God should take upon him our nature and in that nature annointed and consecrated by the Father full of Innocence Purity Goodness should dye and that by such a death and so unjustly Could this be a subject or matter of knowledge so desireable as to be preferred before all other knowledge which should rather seem to be a matter of so much horrour so much indignation that a man might think it rather fit to be forgotten than to be affected to be known 3. Jesus crucified a Saviour and yet to be crucified it seems to blast the expectation of Salvation when the Captain of it must dye be slain be crucified it carries in it a kind of victory of death and hell over our salvation when the instrument thereof must suffer death and such a death When the Birth of Christ was proclaimed indeed it was matter of joy and worthy the proclamation of Angels Luke 2.12 To you is born this day a Saviour which is Christ the Lord and can the death of that Saviour be a thing desireable to be known The Birth of Christ seemed to be the rising Sun that scattered light hope and comfort to all Nations but can the setting of this Sun in so dark a cloud as the Cross be the choicest piece of knowledge of him which seems as it were to strangle and stifle our hopes and puts us as it were upon the expostulation of the dismay'd Disciples Luke 24.21 But we trusted it had been he which should have redeemed Israel But for all this this knowledge of Christ Jesus crucified will appear to be the most excellent comfortable useful knowledge in the world if we shall consider these Particulars 1. Who it was that suffered 2. What he suffered 3. From whom 4. How he suffered 5. For whom he suffered 6. Why and upon what Motive 7. For what End he suffered 8. What are the fruits and Benefits that accrew by that suffering All these Considerations are wrapt up in this one subject Christ Jesus and him crucified 1. Who it was that thus suffered It was Christ Jesus the Eternal Son of God cloathed in our flesh God and Man united in one Person his manhood giving him a capacity of suffering and his Godhead giving a value to that suffering and each nature united in one person to make a compleat Redeemer the Heir of all things Heb. 1.2 the Prince of Life Acts 3.15 the Light that lighteneth every man that cometh into the world Joh. 1.9 as touching his Divine nature God over all blessed for ever Rom. 9.5 and as touching his Humane nature full of Grace and Truth Joh. 1.14 and in both the beloved Son of the Eternal God in whom he proclaimed himself well pleased Math. 3.17 But could no other person be found that might suffer for the sins of Man but the Son of God Or if the business of our Salvation must be transacted by him alone could it not be without suffering and such suffering as this No. As there was no other Name given under Heaven by which we might be saved nor was there any found besides in the compass of the whole World that could expiate for one sin of man but it must be the Arm of the Almighty that must bring Salvation Isa 63.5 So if the Blessed Son of God will undertake the business and become the Captain of our Salvation he must be made perfect by suffering Heb. 2.10 and if he will stand in the stead of man he must bear the wrath of his Father if he will become sin for man though he knew no sin he must become a curse for man And doubtless this great mystery of the person that suffered cannot choose but be a very high and excellent subject of knowledge so full of wonder and astonishment that the Angels gaze into it And as it is a strange and wonderful thing in it self so doubtless it was ordained to high and wonderful ends bearing a suitableness unto the greatness of the instrument This therefore is the first Consideration that advanceth the excellency of this knowledge the person that was Crucified 2. What he suffered Christ Jesus and him crucified though all the course of his life was a continual suffering and the preamble or walk unto his death which was the end of his life yet this was the completing of all the rest and the tyde and waves of his sufferings did still rise higher and higher till it arrived in this and the several steps and ascents unto the Cross though they began from his Birth yet those which were more immediate began with the preparation to the Passover The Council held by the chief Priests and Scribes for the crucifying of our Saviour was sate upon two days before the Passover Matth. 26.2 Mark 14.1 and this was the first step to Mount Calvary And doubtless it was no small addition to our Saviour's Passion that it was hatched in the Council of the chief
for this could neither consist with the purity of his Nature nor innocence nor dignity of his Person nor the hypostatical union of both Natures in him But he suffered as much as was consistent with these considerations and as considering the dignity of his person was equivalent to the sin and demerits of all Mankind 2. That his righteousness imputed to us doth not exempt us from acquiring a righteousness inherent in us this were to disappoint the end of his suffering which was to redeem us from our vain conversation and make us a peculiar people zealous of good works 3. That this purchase of Salvation by Christ for Believers is not to render them idle or secure or presumptuous where there is such a disposition of Soul it is an evident Indication that it is not yet truly united unto Christ by true Faith and Love his Grace is sufficient to preserve us and alwayes ready to do it if we do not wilfully neglect or reject it THE VICTORY OF FAITH Over the WORLD I. JOH V. 4 For whosoever is born of God overcometh the world and this is the victory that overcometh the world even your faith THese things are herein considerable 1. The Act which is here declared Victory or Overcoming 2. The Person that exerciseth this act or concerning whom this act is affirmed described by this description a person that is born of God 3. The Thing upon which this act of victory is exercised viz. the world 4. The Instrument or Means by which this act is exercised viz. Faith 5. The Method or Order or Formal Reason whereby faith overcometh this world Some few Observations I shall deliver touching all these in the order proposed I. Victory or Overcoming is a subjugation or bringing under an opposing party to the power and will of another and this victory is of two kinds complete and perfect or incomplete and imperfect 1. The notion of a complete victory is when either the opposing party is totally destroyed or at least when despoiled of any possibility of future resistance Thus the Son of God the Captain of our Salvation overcame the World Joh. 16.33 Be of good cheer I have overcome the world and thus when we are delivered from this body of death we shall overcome the world this complete victory will be the portion of the Church and Christian triumphant Again 2. There is a victory but incomplete such as the victory of the children of Israel was over the Canaanites which though they were subdued as to any possibility of a total reacquiring of a superiority or equality of power yet they were not subdued from a possibility of annoying disquieting and rebelling they remained still thorns to vex and disturb though not to subdue their conquerors there was still an over-ballance of power in the victors though not wholly to extirpate them And this is the condition of the Christian militant in this world he keeps the world in subjection and every day gets ground upon it but he cannot expect to obtain a perfect complete and universal conquest of it till he can truly say with our Blessed Lord Joh. 14.30 The prince of this world hath nothing in me Which cannot be till our change comes for till then we carry about with us lusts and passions and corruptions which though with all vigilancy and severity kept under and daily impaired in their power and malignity will hold a correspondence with the world and the prince thereof and be ready to deceive and betray us though never to regain their empire and sovereignty and the reason is significantly given by the same Apostle 1 Joh. 3.9 For his feed abideth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God Indeed he may and shall have sin as long as he hath flesh about him 1 Joh. 1.8 If we say we have no sin we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us But although we have sin still abiding in us and like the the byass in a Bowl warping us to the world yet that vital seminal principle of the grace of God in Christ always keeps its ground its life and tendency toward heaven and wears out wasts and gradually subdues the contrary tendency of sin and corruption II. The Person exercising this act of victory and conquest he that is Born of God All men by nature may be said in some sense to be born of God the Apostle tells the Athenians Act. 17.28 We are all his off-spring But in this place this heavenly birth is a second a supervenient birth from God and hence it is called Regeneration the New birth birth of the water and the Spirit birth of the Spirit the formation of Christ in the soul and the creature so new born stiled the New creature the New man a partaker of the divine nature born not of the will of man nor of the will of the flesh but born of the will of God And all these and the like expressions are figurative and seem to carry in them a double analogy first to the first creation of mankind and secondly to the ordinary generation of mankind since their first creation 1. As to the former analogy we know by the Holy Word that the first man was the root of all mankind stamped with the signature of the image of Almighty God principally consisting in Knowledge Righteousness and Holiness and stood or fell as the common representative of all mankind This image of God was in a great measure lost and defaced by the fall of man and more every day spoiled by the actual sins and acquired corruptions of his descendants Christ the second Adam had instamped upon him a new inscription of the glorious God came to be a common head root and parent of as many as are united unto him by faith love and imitation and to instamp anew upon them that lost and decayed image of God who thereby put on the New man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness Ephes 4.24 and so becoming a New creature 2 Cor. 5.17 Galat. 5.6 renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him Coloss 1.10 they receive a new stamp and impression from this great exemplar Christ Jesus the true image of the invisible God 2. The second analogy is to the ordinary generation of mankind wherein as a little but powerful vital principle which we call the Soul forms and moulds the foetus according to the specifical nature of man in all his lineaments and proportions and never gives over its operation till it hath completed that bodily mass into its full complement of parts and afterwards gradually augments and perfects it in his organs and faculties So by a vital principle derived from God through Christ into the soul the same is moulded fashioned formed increased and perfected according to this new principle of life which is usually called Grace Whereby it comes to pass that as the soul is the vital and conforming principle of the body so
thee it is thy Son that Son in whom thou didst proclaim thy self well pleased that Son whom thou hearest always it is he that begs of thee and begs of thee a dispensation from that which he most declines because he most loves thee the terrible unsupportable hiding thy face from me And this was not one single request but thrice repeated reiterated and that with more earnestness Mark 14.39 And again he went away and prayed and spake the same words Luke 22.44 And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly Certainly that impression upon his soul that caused him to deprecate that for which he was born to deprecate it so often so earnestly must needs be a sorrow and apprehension of a very terrible and exceeding extremity 4. Such was the weight of his sotrow and confusion of soul that it even exceeding the strength of his humane nature to bear it it was ready to dissolve the Union between his Body and Soul insomuch that to add farther strength unto him and capacity to undergo the measure of it an Angel from Heaven is sent not meerly to comfort but to strengthen him to add a farther degree of strength to his humane nature to bear the weight of that wrath which had in good earnest made his Soul sorrowful unto death had it not been strengthned by the ministration of an Angel Luk. 22.43 and this assistance of the Angel as it did not allay the sorrow of his Soul so neither did it intermit his importunity to be delivered from the thing he felt and feared but did only support and strengthen him to bear a greater burden of it And as the measure of his strength was increased so was the burden which he must undergo increased for aster this he prayed again more earnestly the third time Luk. 22.43 the supply of his strength was succeeded with an addition of sorrow and the increase of his sorrow was followed with the greater importunity He prayed more carnestly Heb. 5.7 With strong crying and tears Luk. 22. 44. And being in an agony be prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground This was his third address to his Father Matth. 26.44 and here was the highest pitch of our Saviour's passion in the Garden His Soul was in an agony in the greatest concussion consusion and extremity of sorrow fear anguish and astonishment that was possible to be inslicted by the mighty hand of God on the soul of Christ that could be consistent with the purity of the nature of our Saviour and the inseparable union that it had with the Divine nature Insomuch that the confusion and distraction of his soul under it and the strugling and grapling of his soul with it did make such an impression upon his body that the like was never before or since The season of the year was cold for so it appears Joh. 18.18 the Servants and Officers had made a fire of coals for it was cold and the season of the time was cold it was as near as we may guess about midnight when the Sun was at his greatest distance and obstructed in his influence by the interposition of the Earth for it appears they came with Lanthorns and Torches when they apprehended him Joh. 18.3 and he was brought to the high Priest's Hall a little before Cock-crowing after some time had been spent in his Examination Math. 26.69 And yet for all this such is the agony and perturbation of our Saviour's soul that in this cold season it puts his body in a sweat a sweat of blood great drops of blood drops of blood falling down to the ground and certainly it was no light conflict within that caused such a strange and un-heard of symptom without Certainly the storm in the soul of Christ must needs be very terrible that his blood the seat of his vital spirits could no longer abide the sense of it but started out in a sweat of blood and such a sweat that was more than consistent with the ordinary constitution of humane nature And during this time even from the eating of the Passover until this third address to his Father was over the suffering of our Saviour lay principally if not only in his soul Almighty God was wounding of his spirit and making his soul an offering for sin And though the distinct and clear manner of this bruising of our Saviour's soul cannot be apprehended by us yet surely thus much we may conclude concerning it 1. He was made sin for us that knew no sin 2 Cor. 5.21 he stood under the imputation of all our sins and though he were personally innocent yet judicially and by way of interpretation he was the greatest offender that ever was for the Lord laid upon him the iniquity of us all Isa 53.6.2 And consequently he was under the imputation of all the guilt of all those sins and stands in relation unto God the righteous Judge under the very same obligation to whatsoever punishment the very persons of the offenders were unto the uttermost of that consistency that it had with the unseparable union unto the Father and this obligation unto the punishment could not choose but work the same effects in our Saviour as it must do in the sinner desperation and sin excepted to wit a sad apprehension of the wrath of God against him The purity and justice of God which hath nothing that it hates but sin must pursue sin wherever it find it and as when it finds sin personally in a man the wrath of God will abide there so long as sin abides there so when it finds the same sin assumed by our Lord and bound as it were to him as the wood was to Isaac when he was laid upon the Altar the wrath of God could not chuse but be apprehended as incumbent upon him till that sin that by imputation lay upon him were discharged For as our Lord was pleased to be our Representative in bearing our sins and to stand in our stead so all these affections and motions of his soul did bear the same conformity as if acted by us As he put on the person of the sinner so he puts on the same sorrow the same shame the same fear the same trembling under the apprehension of the wrath of his Father that we must have done And so as an imputed sin drew with it the obligation unto punishment so it did by necessary consequence raise all those confusions and storms in the soul of Christ as it would have done in the person of the sinner sin only excepted 3. In this Garden as he stands under the sin and guilt of our nature so he stands under the curse of our nature to wit a necessity of death and of undergoing the wrath of God for that sin whose punishment he hath undertaken for us the former the dissolution of his body and soul by a most accursed death and the latter the suffering of his soul and