the Father in the Son by the spirit forming on creating that nature as if three Sisters should make a garment betwixt them which only one of them wears yet terminative it was the act of the Son only 'T was he only that was made flesh And when 't is said he was made flesh misconceive not as if there was a mutation of the Godhead into flesh for this was performed not by changing what he was but by assuming what he was not As Aug. well expresseth it As when the Scripture in a like expression saith he was made sin 2 Cor. 5.21 And made a curse Gall. 3.13 The meaning is not that he was turned into sin or into a curse no more may we think here the Godhead was turned into flesh and lost its own being and nature because it 's said he was made flesh This is the sum of the Assertion This assertion that the word was made flesh is strongly confirmed He dwelt among us and we saw his glory This was no Phantasm but a most real and indubitable thing For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he pitcht his tent or Tabernacled with us And we are eye-witnesses of it Parralel to that Ioh. 1.1 2 3. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of Life c. Declare we unto you Hence Note DOCT. That Iesus Christ did really assume the true and perfect nature of man into a personal union with his divine nature and still remains true God and true man in one person for ever The Proposition contains one of the deepest mysteries in godliness 1 Tim. 3.16 A mysterie by which apprehension is dazled invention astonished and all expression swallowed up If ever the tongues of Angels were desirable to explicate any word of God they are so here Great is the interest of words in this Doctrine We walk upon the brink of danger The least tread awry may ingulph us in the bogs of error Arrius would have been content if the Council of Nice would but have gratified him in a Letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Nestorians also desired but a Letter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 These seemed but small and modest requests but if granted had proved no small prejudices to Jesus Christ and his truths I desire therefore the Reader would with greatest attention of mind apply himself to these truths 'T is a Doctrine hard to understand and dangerous to mistake I am really of his mind that said its better not touch the bottom than not keep within the circle melius est nescire centrum quà m non tenere circulum He did assume a true humane body that is plainly asserted Phil. 2.7 8 c. Heb. 2.14 16. In one place its call'd taking on him the seed of Abraham and in the Text Flesh. He did also assume a true humane soul that 's undeniable by its operations passions and expiration at last Matth. 26.38 and 27.50 And that both these natures make but one person is as evident from Rom. 1.3 4. Iesus Christ was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the Resurrection from the Dead So Rom. 9.5 Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever Amen But that you may have a sound and clear understanding of this mysterie I will 1. open the nature 2. the effects and 3. the reasons or ends of this wonderful union The nature of this union There be three illustrious and dazling unions in Scripture That of three persons in one God essentially That of two distinct natures and persons by one Spirit mystically And this of two distinct natures in one person Hypostatically This is my task to open at this time And for the more distinct and perspicuous management thereof I shall speak to it both Negatively and positively Think not when Christ assumed our nature that it was united consubstantially so as the three persons in the Godhead are united among themselves They all have but one and the same nature and will but in Christ are two distinct natures and wills though but one person Nor yet that they are united Physically as soul and body are united in one person For death actually dissolves that but this is indissoluble So that when his soul was expir'd and his body interred both soul and body were still united to the second person as much as ever Nor yet is it such a mystical union as is between Christ and Bâ—lievers Indeed that is a glorious union but though believers are said to be in Christ and Christ in them yet they are not one person with him They are not Christed into Christ or Goded into God as blasphemous Familists speaks But this Assumption of which I speak is that whereby the second person in the Godhead did take the humane nature into a personal union with himself by vertue whereof the manhood subsists in the second person yet without confusion both making but one person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Immanuel God with us So that though we truly ascribe a twofold nature to Christ yet not a double person For the humane nature of Christ never subsisted seperately and distinctly by any personal subsistance of its own as it doth in all other men but from the first moment of conception subsisted in union with the second person To explicate this mysterie more particularly let it be considered First The humane nature was united to the second person miraculously and extraordinarily being supernaturally fram'd in the womb of the Virgin by the over-shadowing power of the highest Luk. 1.34 35. By reason whereof it may truly and properly be said to be the fruit of the womb not of the loyns of man but not by man And this was necessary to exempt the assumed nature from the stain and pollution of Adams Sin which it wholly escaped in as much as he received it not as all others do in the way of ordinary generation wherein Original sin is propagated but this being extraordinarily produced was a most pure and holy thing Luk. 1.35 And indeed this perfect shining holiness in which it was produced was absolutely necessary both in order to its union with the Divine person and the design of that union which was both to satisfie for and to sanctifie us The two natures could not be conjoyned in the person of Christ had there been the least taint of sin upon the humane nature For God can have no fellowship with sin much less be united to it Or supposing such a conjunction with our sinful nature yet he being a sinner himself could never satisfie for the sins of others Nor could an unholy thing ever make us holy Such an high-Priest therefore became us as
of dearest love Joh. 13.23 now there was leaning on Iesus bosom one of his Disciples whom Iesus loved but Christ did not lean upon the Fathers bosom as that Disciple did on his but lay in it and therefore in Isa. 42.1 the Father calls him mine elect in whom my soul delighteth which is variously rendred the Septuagint quem suscepit whom my soul takes or wraps up others complacuit one that highly pleases and delights my very soul and 2 Cor. 8.9 he is said in this estate wherein I am now describing him to be rich and Phil. 2.7 to be equal with God and to be in the form of God i. e. to have all the glory and ensigns of the Majesty of God and the riches which he speaks of was no less then all that God the Father hath Joh. 16.15 all that the Father hath is mine and what he now hath in this his exalted state is the same he had before his humiliation Ioh. 17.5 now to glimpse out as we are able the unspeakable felicity of that state of Christ whilst he lay in that blessed bosom I shall consider it three ways negatively positively and comparatively Let us consider that state negatively by removing from it all those degrees of abasement and sorrow which his incarnation brought him under as First he was not then abased to the condition of a Creature which was a low stoop indeed and that which upon the matter undid him in point of reputation for by this saith the Apostle he made himself of no reputation Phil. 2.7 it emptied him of his glory for God to be made man is such an abasement as none can express but then not only to appear in true flesh but also in the likeness of sinful flesh as Rom. 8.3 O what is this Secondly Christ was not under the Law in this Estate I confess 't was no disparagement to Adam in the state of innocency to Angels in their state of glory to be under Law to God but it was an unconceivable abasement to the absolute independent being to come under Law yea not only under the obedience but also under the malediction and curse of the Law Gal. 4.4 but when the fulness of time was come God sent forth his Son made of a woman made under the Law Thirdly In this State he was not lyable to any of those sorrowful consequents and attendants of that frail and feeble state of humanity which he afterwards assumed with the nature as 1. He was unacquainted with griefs there was no sorrowing nor sighing in that bosom where he lay though afterwards he became a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief Isa. 53.3 a man of sorrows as if he had been constituted and made up of pure and unmixed sorrows every day conversing with griefs as with his intimate companions and acquaintance 2. He was never pinched with poverty and wants while he continued in that bosom as he was afterwards when he said the Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head Ah blessed Jesus thou needest not to have wanted a place to have lain thine head hadst thou not left that bosom for my sake 3. He never under-went reproach and shame in that bosom there was nothing but glory and honour reflected upon him by his Father though afterwards he was despised and rejected of men Isa. 53.3 his Father never looked upon him without smiles and love delight and joy though afterwards he became a reproach of men and despised of the people Psal. 22.6 4. His holy heart was never offended with an impure suggestion or temptation of the Devil all the while he lay in that bosom of peace and love he never knew what it was to be assaulted with temptations to be besieged and battered upon by unclean spirits as he did afterwards Matth. 4.1 then was Iesus led up of the Spirit into the Wilderness to be tempted of the Devil It was for our sakes that he submitted to those exercises of Spirit to be in all points tempted like as we are that he might be unto us a merciful and faithful high-Priest Heb. 4.15 5. He was never sensible of pains and tortures in soul or body there were no such things in that blessed bosom where he lay though afterwards he groaned and sweat under them Isa. 53.5 the Lord embraced him from eternity but never wounded him till he stood in our place and room 6. There were no hidings or withdrawments of his father from him there was not a cloud from eternity upon the face of God till Iesus Christ had left that bosom it was a new thing to Christ to see frowns in the face of his Father a new thing for him to cry my God my God why hast thou forsaken me Matth. 27.46 7. There were never any impressions of his Fathers wrath upon him as there were afterwards God never delivered such a bitter cup of wrath into his hands before as that was Matth. 26.39 Lastly There was no death to which he was subject in that bosom all these things were new things to Christ he was above them all till for our sakes he voluntarily subjected himself unto them thus you see what that state was not Let us consider it positively what it was and guess by some particular considerations for indeed we can but guess 〈◊〉 the glory of it as 1. We cannot but conceive it to be a state of matchless happiness if we consider the persons enjoying and delighting each in other he was with God Ioh. 1.1 God you know is the Fountain Ocean and Center of all delights and joys Psal. 16.11 in thy presence is fulness of joy To be wrapt up in the soul and bosom of all delights as Christ was must needs be a state transcending apprehension to have the Fountain of love and delight letting out it self so immediatly and fully and everlastingly upon this only begotten darling of his soul so as it never did communicate it self to any judge what a state of transcendent felicity this must be great persons have great delights 2. Or if we consider the intimacy dearness yea oneness of those great persons one with another the nearer the union the sweeter the communion now Jesus Christ was not only near and dear to God but one with him I and my Father are one Joh. 10.30 one in nature will love and delight there is indeed a Moral union of souls among men by love but this was a natural oneness no Child is so one with his Father no Husband so one with the Wife of his bosom no Friend so one with his Friend no Soul so one with its body as Jesus Christ and his Father were one O what matchless delights must necessarily flow from such a blessed Union 3. Consider again the purity of that delight with which the blessed Father and Son embraced each other the best Creature-delights one in another are mixed debased
is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners Heb. 7.26 And such an one must he needs be whom the holy Ghost produces in such a peculiar way 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That holy thing Secondly As it was produced miraculously so it was assumed integrally That is to say Christ took a compleat and perfect humane soul and body with all and every faculty and member pertaining to it And this was necessary as both Austin and Fulgentius have well observed that hereby he might heal the whole nature of that Leprosie of sin which had seiz'd and infected every member and faculty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He assumed all to sanctifie all as Damascen expresseth it He design'd a perfect recovery by sanctifying us wholly in Soul Body and Spirit And therefore assumed the whole in order to it Thirdly He assumed our nature as with all its integral parts so with all its Sinless infirmities And therefore it s said of him Heb. 2.17 That it behoved him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to all things that is all things natural not formally sinful as it 's limited by the same Apostle Heb. 4.15 to be made like unto his brethren But here our Divines do carefully distinguish infirmities into personal and natural Personal infirmities are such as befall particular persons from particular causes Such as Dumbness Blindness Lameness Leprosies Monstrosities and other deformities These it was no way necessary that Christ should not did he at all assume but the natural ones such as Hunger Thirst Weariness Sweating Bleeding Mortality c. Which though they are not in themselves formally and intrinsecally sinful yet are they the effects and consequents of sin They are so many marks that sin hath left of its self upon our natures And on that account Christ is said to be sent in the likeness of sinful Flesh Rom. 8.3 Wherein the gracious condescension of Christ for us is marvelously signallized That he would not assume our innocent nature as it was in Adam before the fall while it stood in all its primitive glory and perfection but after sin had quite defaced ruined and spoil'd it Fourthly The humane nature is so united with the Divine as that each nature still retains its own essential properties distinct And this distinction is not nor can be lost by that union So that the two understandings wills powers c. viz. The Divine and humane are not confounded but a line of distinction runs betwixt them still in this wonderful Person It was the Heresie of the Eutichians condemned by the Council of Chalcedon to affirm that there was no distinction betwixt the two natures in Christ. Against whom that Council determined that they were united 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without any immutation or confusion Fifthly The union of the two natures in Christ is an inseparable Vnion So that from the first moment thereof there never was nor to Eternity shall be any Separation of them If you ask how the union remained betwixt them when Christs humane Soul and Body were separated from each other upon the Cross Is not death the dissolution of union betwixt Soul and Body True The natural union betwixt his Soul and Body was dissolved by death for a time but this Hypostatical union remained even then as intire and firm as ever For though his Soul and Body were divided from each other yet neither of them from the Divine Nature Divines assist our conception of this mysterie by an apt illustration A man that holds in his hand a Sword sheathed when he pleaseth draws forth the Sword but still holds that in one hand and the sheath in the other and then sheaths it again still holding it in his hand so when Christ dyed his Soul and Body retained their union with the Divine Nature though not during that space one with another And thus you are to form and regulate your conceptions of this great mysterie Some adumbrations and imperfect similitudes of it may be found in Nature Among which some commend that union which the Soul and Body have with each other They are of different natures yet both make one individual man Others fault this because both these united make but one compleat humane nature whereas in Christs person are two perfect natures and commend to us a more perfect emblem viz. that of the Cyens and the tree or stock which have two natures yet make but one tree But then we must remember that the Cyens wants a root of its own which is an integral part but Christ assumed our nature integrally This defect is by others supplyed in the Miscletoe and the Oak which have different natures and the Miscletoe subsists in union with the Oak still retaining the difference of nature and though making but one tree yet bears different fruits And so much to the first thing namely the nature of this Union For the effects or immediate results of this marvelous Union let these three be well considered First The two natures being thus united in the person of the mediator by vertue thereof the properties of each nature are attributed and do truly agree to the whole person so that it 's proper to say the Lord of glory was crucified 1. Cor. 2.8 And the blood of God redeemed the Church Acts 20.28 That Christ was both in heaven and in earth at the same time Ioh. 3.13 Yet we do not believe that one nature doth transfuse or impart its properties to the other or that it is proper to say the Divine nature Suffered Bled or Dyed or the humane is omniscient omnipotent omnipresent but that the properties of both natures are so ascribed to the person that it is proper to affirm any of them of him in the concrete though not abstractly the right understanding of this would greatly assist in reaching the true sence of the forenamed and many other dark passages in the Scriptures Secondly Another fruit of this Hypostatical union is the singular advancement of the humane nature in Christ far beyond and above what it is capable of in any other person it being hereby replenished and fill'd with an unparelell'd measure of Divine graces and excellencies in which respect he is said to be annointed above or before his fellows Psal. 45.8 And so becomes the object of adoration and Divine worship Acts 7.59 This the Socinians oppugn with this Argument He that is worshiped with a Divine worship as he is mediator is not so worshiped as God but Christ is worshiped as mediator But we say that to be worshiped as mediator and as God are not opposite but the one is necessarily included in the other and therein is farther included the ratio formalis sub quâ of that Divine religious worship Thirdly Hence in the last place follows as another excellent fruit of this Union the concourse and co-operation of each nature to his mediatory works For in them he acts according to both
sinners such a fair Foundation to rest their trembling Consciences upon While poor distressed Souls look to themselves they are perpetually puzled That 's the cry of distressed natural conscience Mica 6.6 Where with shall I come before the Lord the Hebrew is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 how shall I prevent or anticipate the Lord and so Montanus renders it in quo preoccupabo Dominum conscience sees God arming himself with wrath to avenge himself for sin crys out O how shall I prevent him If he would accept the fruit of my body those dear pledges of nature for the sin of my Soul he should have them But now we see God coming down in flesh and so intimately uniting our flesh to himself that it hath no proper subsistance of its own but is united with the Divine person hence it 's easie to imagine what worth and value must be in that blood and how eternal love springing forth triumphantly from it flourishes into Pardon Grace and Peace Here is a way in which the sinner may see Justice and Mercy kissing each other and the latter exercised freely without prejudice to the former All others Consciences through the world lie either in a deep sleep in the Devils arms or else are rouling Sea sick upon the waves of their own fears and dismal presages O happy are they that have dropt Anchor on this ground and not only know they have peace but why they have it Vse 5. Oh how great concernment is it that Christ should have Vnion with our particular persons as well as with our common nature For by this Union with our nature alone never any man was or can be Saved Yea let me add that this Union with your natures is utterly in vain to you and will do you no good except he have union with your persons by faith also It is indeed infinite mercy that God is come so near you as to dwell in your flesh and that he hath fitted such an excellent Method to save poor sinners in And hath he done all this Is he indeed come home even to your own doors to seek Peace Doth he vail his unsupportable glory under flesh that he might treat thee more familiarly And yet do you refuse him and shut your hearts against him Then hear one word and let thine ears tingle at the sound of it thy sin is hereby aggravated beyond the sin of Devils who never sin'd against a Mediator in their own nature who never despised or refused because indeed they were never offered terms of Mercy as you are And I doubt not but the Devils themselves who now tempt you to reject will to all Eternity upbraid your folly for rejecting this great Salvation which in this excellent way is brought down even to your own doors Vse 6. If Jesus Christ have assumed our nature Then he is sensibly toucht with the infirmities that attend it and so hath pity and compassion for us under all our burdens And indeed this was one end of his assuming it that he might be able to have compassion on us as you read Heb. 2.17.18 Wherefore in all things it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them hat are tempted O what a comfort is this to us that he who is our High-Priest in Heaven hath our nature on him to enable him to take compassion on us Vse 7. Seventhly Hence we see To what an height God intends to build up the happiness of man in that he hath layed the Foundation thereof so deep in the incarnating of his own Son They that intend to build high use to lay the Foundation low The happiness and glory of our Bodies as well as Souls is founded in Christs taking our flesh upon him For therein as in a Model or Pattern God intended to shew what in time he resolves to make of our Bodies For he will 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 transform our vile Bodies and make them one day conformable to the glorious Body of Jesus Christ Phil. 3.21 This flesh was therefore assumed by Christ that in it might be shewn as in a Pattern how God intends to honour and exalt it And indeed a greater honour cannot be done to the nature of man than what is already done it by this grace of union Nor are our persons capable of an higher glory than what consists in their conformity to this glorious head Indeed the flesh of Christ will ever have a distinct glory from ours in Heaven by reason of this Union For being the the Body which the word assumed it is two ways advanced singularly above the Flesh and Blood of all other men viz. Subjectively and Objectively Subjectively it is the Flesh and Blood of God Acts 20.28 And so hath a distinct and incommunicable glory of its own And Objectively it is the Flesh and Blood which all the Angels and Saints adore But though in these things it be supereminently exalted yet it is both the Medium and Pattern of all that glory which God designs to raise us to Vse 8. Lastly How wonderful a comfort is it that he who dwells in our Flesh is God! What Joy may not a poor believer make out of this What comfort one made out of it I will give you in his own words I see it a work of God saith he that experiences are all lost when Summons of improbation to prove our Charters of Christ to be counterfeit are raised against poor Souls in their heavy Tryals But let me be a sinner and worse than the chief of Sinners yea a guilty Devil I am sure my well beloved is God And my Christ is God And when I say my Christ is God I have said all things I can say no more I would I could build as much on this My Christ is God as it would bear I might lay all the world upon it God and Man in one Person Oh thrice happy conjunction As Man he is full of experimental sence of our Infirmities Wants and Burdens and as God he can support and and supply them all The aspect of Faith upon this wonderful Person how relieving how reviving how abundantly satisfying is it God will never divorce the believing Soul and its comfort after he hath marryed our nature to his own Son by the Hypostatical and our persons also by the blessed Mystical Union The SIXTH SERMON JOH VI. XXVII For him hath God the Father Sealed YOU have heard Christs compact or agreement with the Father in the Covenant of Redemption As also what the Father did in pursuance of the ends thereof in giving his Son out of his bosom c. Also what the Son hath done towards it in assuming Flesh. But though the glorious work be thus far advanced yet all he
Earth and risen again from the Dead we must in this Discourse follow him back again into Heaven and lodge him in that bosom of ineffable delight and love which for our sakes he so freely left For it was not his end in rising from the Dead to live such a low animal life as this is but to live a most glorious life as an enthroned King in Heaven upon which state he was now ready to enter as he tells Mary in the Text and bids her to tell it to the Disciples go tell my Brethren that I ascend to my Father c. In the former verses you find Mary waiting at Christs Sepulchre in a very pensive frame exceedingly troubled because she knew not what was become of Christ. Vers. 15. in the next verse Christ calls her by her name Mary she knowing the voice turned her selâ— and answered Rabboni And as a soul transported with joy rushes into his arms as desirous to clasp and embrace him but Iâ—sus said touch me not c. In which words we have Christs inhibition touch me not strange that Christ who rendred himself so kind and tender to all and not only admittted but commanded Thomas to put his finger into his wounds should sorbid Mary to touch him but this was not for want of love to Mary for he gives another reason for it presently I am not yet ascended i. e. say some the time for embracing will be when we are in Heaven Then and there shall be the place and time we shall embrace one another for ever more So Augustin Or thou detest too much upon my present state as if I had now attained the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 culminating point of my Exaltation When as yet I am not ascended so Camero and Calvin expound it Or lastly Christ would signifie hereby that it was not his pleasure in so great a juncture of things as this to spend time now in expressing this way her affections to him but rather to shew it by hasting about his service Which is The second thing observable viz. his injunction upon Mary to carry the tidings of his Resurrection to the Disciples in which injunction we have First The persons to whom this message was sent my Brethren so he calls the Disciples A sweet compellation and full of love much like that of Ioseph to his Brethren Gen. 45.4 Save only that there is much more tenderness in this than that for he twits them in the same breath with what they had done against him I am Ioseph your Brother whom ye sold but in this it is go tell my Brethren without the least mention of their Cowardize or unkindness And Secondly The message it self Tell my Brethren I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I ascend It 's put in the present Tense as if he had been then ascending though he did not ascend in some weeks after this but he so expresses it to shew what was the next part of his work which he was to act in Heaven for them and how much his heart was set upon it and longed to be about it I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God Not our Father or God in Common but mine and yours in a different manner Yours by right of dominion mine in reference to my humane nature not only by right of Creation though so too but also by special Covenant and Confaederation By Praedestination of my manhood to the grace of personal union by designation of me to the glorious office of Mediator My Father as I am God by eternal generation As man by collation of the grace of union And your Father by spiritual Adoption and regeneration Thus he is my God and your God my Father and your Father This is the substance of that comfortable message sent by Mary to the pensive Disciples Hence the Observation is DOCT. That our Lord Iesus Christ did not only rise from the Dead but also ascended into Heaven there to dispatch all that remained to be done for the compleating the Salvation of his people So much the Apostle plainly witnesseth Eph. 4.10 He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all Heavens i. e. all the aspectable Heavens A full and faithful account whereof the several Evangelists have given us Mark 16.19 Luk. 24.51 This is sometimes called his going away as Ioh. 16.7 Sometimes his being exalted Acts 2.33 Sometimes his being made higher than the Heavens Heb. 7.26 And sometimes his entring within the vail Heb. 6.19 20. All which are but so many Synonymous phrases expressing his ascension in a pleasant variety Now for the opening this act of Christ we will bind up the whole in the satisfaction of these six Questions First who ascended Secondly whence did he ascend Thirdly whither Fourthly when Fifthly how And lastly why did he ascend And these will take in what is needful for you to be acquainted with in this point First Who ascended This the Apostle answers Eph. 4.10 The same that descended viz. Christ. And himself tells us in the Text I ascend And though the ascension were of Christs whole person yet it was but a figurative and improper expression with respect to his divine nature but it agrees most properly to the humanity of Christ which really changed places and conditions by it And hence it is that it 's said Ioh. 16.28 I came forth from the Father and am come into the world again I leave the world and go to the Father He goes away and we see him no more As God he is spiritually with us still even to the end of the world But as man the heavens must contain him till the restitution of all things Acts 3.21 Secondly Whence Christ ascended I answer more generally he is said to ascend from this world to leave the world That is the terminus à quo Joh. 16.28 But more particularly it was from mount Olivet near unto Ierusalem The very place where he began his last sorrowful Tragedy There where his heart began to be sadded there is it now made glad O what a difference was there betwixt the frame Christ was in in that Mount before his Passion and this he is now in at his ascension But Thirdly Whither did he ascend It 's manifest it was into the third Heavens The Throne of God and place of the blessed Where all the Saints shall be with him for ever It 's said to be far above all heavens That is the heavens which we see for they are but the pavement of that stately Palace of the great King He is gone saith the Apostle within the vail i. e. into the most holy Place And into his Fathers house Ioh. 14.2 And he is also said to go to the place where he was before Joh. 6.62 Back again to that sweet and glorious bosom of delight and Love from whence at his incarnation he
ascended you shall ascend to him personally hereafter oh that you would ascend to him Spiritually in acts of Faith Love and desires daily Sursum Corda up with your hearts was the form used by the Ancient Church at the Sacrament How good were it if we could say with the Apostle Phil. 3.21 Our Conversation is in Heaven from whence we look for a Saviour An heart ascendant is the best evidence of your interest in Christs ascension Inference 2. Did Christ go to Heaven as a fore-runner What haste should we make to follow him He ran to Heaven he ran thither before us Did he run to glory and shall we linger Did he flee as an Eagle towards Heaven and we creep like snails Come Christians lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset you and run with patience the Race set before you looking unto Iesus Heb. 12.1 2. The Captain of our Salvation is entred within the gates of the new Ierusalem and calls to us out of Heaven to hasten to him proposing the greatest incouragements to them that are following after him saying he that overcomes shall sit with me in my Throne as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne Rev. 3.21 How tedious should it seem to us to live so long at a distance from our Lord Jesus our Life Inference 3. Did Christ ascend so triumphantly leading Captivity Captive How little reason then have believers to fear their conquered enemies Sin Satan and every enemy was in that day led away in triumph dragged at Christs Chariot wheels Brought after him as it were in Chains 'T is a lovely sight to see the necks of those Tyrants under the foot of our Ioshuah He made at that day an open shew of them Col. 2.15 Their strength is broken for ever In this he shewed himself more than a conqueror for he conquered and triumphed too Satan was then trod under his feet And he hath promised to tread him under our feet also and that shortly Rom. 16.20 Some power our enemies yet retain the Serpent may bruise our heel but Christ hath crusht his head Inference 4. Did Christ ascend so munificently shedding forth so many mercies upon his people Mercies of inestimable value reserved on purpose to adorn that day O then see that you abuse not those most pretious ascension gifts of Christ but value and improve them as the choicest mercies Now the Ascension gifts as I told you are either the Ordinances and Officers of the Church for he then gave them Pastors and Teachers or the Spirit that furnisht the Church with all its gift Beware you abuse not either of these First Abuse not the Ordinances and Officers of Christ. This is a sin that no Nation is plunged deeper into the guilt of it thâ—n this Nation And no Age more than this Surely God hath written to us the great things of his Law and we have accounted them small things We have been loose wanton sceptical professors for the most part that have had nice and coy stomachs that could not relish plain wholesom truths except so and so modified to our humors For this the Lord hath a Controversie with the Nation and by a sore Judgement he hath begun to rebuke this sin already And I doubt before he make an end plain truths will down with us and we shall bless God for them Secondly But in the next place see that you abuse not the Spirit whom Christ hath sent from Heaven at his ascension to supply his bodily absence among us and is the great pledge of his care for and tender love to his people Now take heed that you dont vex him by your disobedience Nor greive him by your unkindnesses Nor quench him by your sinful neglects of duty or abuse of light O deal kindly with the Spirit and obey his voice Comply with his designs and yield up your selves to his guidance and conduct Methinks to be intreated by the Love of the Spirit Rom. 15.30 Should be as great an Argument as to be intreated for Christs sake Now to perswade all the Saints to be tender of grieving the Spirit by sin let me urge a few Considerations proper to the point under hand And Consid. 1. First He was the first and principal mercy that Christ received for you at his first entrance into Heaven It was the first thing he asked of God when he came to Heaven So he speaks Ioh. 14.16 17. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you No sooner had he set foot upon the place but the first thing the great thing that was upon his heart to ask the Father for us was that the Spirit might be forthwith dispatcht and sent down to his people So that the spirit is the first-born of mercies And deserves the first place in our hearts and esteems Consid. 2. Secondly The Spirit comes not in his own name to us though if so he deserves a dear welcome for his own sake and for the benefits we receive by him which are inestimable but he comes to us in the name and in the loves both of the Father and Son As one authorized and delegated by them Bringing his Credentials under both their hands and seals Ioh. 15.26 But when the Comforter is come whom I will send to you from the Father Mark I will send him from the Father and in Ioh. 14.26 The Father is said to send him in Christs name So that he is the messenger that comes from both these great and holy persons And if you have any Love for the God that made you any kindness for Christ that died for you shew it by your obedience to the Spirit that comes from them both and in both their names to us and who will be both offended and grieved if you grieve him O therefore give him an enterâ—ainment worthy of one that comes to you in the name of the Lord. In the Fathers name and in the Sons name Consid. 3. Thirdly But that is not the only consideration that should cause you to beware of grieving the Spirit because he is sent in the name of such great and dear persons to you but he deserves better entertainment than any of the Saints give him for his own sake and upon his own account and that upon a double score viz. Of his Nature and Office First On the account of his Nature for he is God Co-equal with the Father and Son in Nature and digniâ—y 2 Sam. 23.23 The Spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue the God of Israel said the Rock of Israel spake to me So that you see he is God The rock of Israel God omnipotent for he created all things Gen. 1.2 God omnipresent filling all things Psal. 139.7 God omniscient who knows your hearts Rom. 9.1 Beware of him therefore and grieve him not for in so doing you grieve God Secondly Upon
Vnion with the second Person p. 57. Adversaries to the Vnion of the two natures in Christ who and how p. 58 59. Affections how moved by remembring Christ. p. 270 271. Afflictions four things to be studied in them p. 220. how they provoke to holiness p. 622. Agonies of Christ in the Garden whether preternatural p. 288. the cause of it p. ibid. Amyntas his intercession for his Brother Aechylus p. 156. Appetite wanton Appetites reproved p. 473. Apollogy none left to them that perish under Gospel-offers p. 231. and p. 46 47. Apostolical dignity what it was p. 298. Aptitude of the Sacrament to refresh the memory of Christ. p. 272. Articles of peace with God what they are p. 532. how sad not to be comprized in those Articles p. 533. Arraignment of Christ at Pilats bar an evidence believers are never cast at Gods bar p. 324 325. Ascension of Christ to Heaven opened p. 563. the terms of Christs Ascension p. 564. the reason and ends of it p. 568 569. Ascriptions of Praise to Christ for all our mercies how reasonable p. 92 93. Assumption of our Nature opened p. 52. our nature was Assumed integrally p. 55. And with all its natural infirmities ibid. Reasons of Christs Assuming our Nature p. 58. B. BElievers are warranted and incouraged to commit their soul into Christs hands at death p. 493. Believers under highest obligations to set then selves apart for Christ. p. 75 76. Believers immediately received into glory upon their dissolution p. 437. Four Arguments to evince it p. 438 439. Blaspheamous suggestions and how best cured p. 246. Blood of Christ of infinite value p. 348. How it cools and cases a distressed Conscience p. 348. How sad to have it cry against us p. 160. Bodies of Saints intended to be made glorious pieces and how that appears p. 63. Bodies of Saints how to be disposed used and ordered p. 556. The due honour of our bodies to be preserved and why p. 556. Bosom of God what is and what is not there p. 19 20. Breach made between us and God by sin how dreadful p. 86. Bread the excellency of it p. 267. Burden of Christs sufferings how great it was p. 465 466 467. Burial Christs dead body had a decent though not a pompous Burial p. 506. Three Reasons why Christ must have a Burial p. 508. Christs Burial obscure as to the manner of its performance by his friends p. 509. Christs Funeral is adorned by several famous miracles from Heaven p. 510. Decent and mournful Burials laudable among Christians p. 514. C. CAre of Christ over his Church and Ministers p. 121. His Care for it manifest in Sacramental appointment many wayes p. 273. Care of Christ for his natural relations p. 418 419. Change made by death very great p. 495. Children how dear to Parents p. 420. Nothing of Christ in rebellious Children p. 424. Five Queries to convict such p. 425. Six Considerations to humble disobedient Children p. 426. And Chidren presented with a famous pattern p. 419. Conscientious Children to be incouraged p. 428 429. Christ an invitation to Study him p. 9 10. Christs delights in the Fathers bosom infinite p. 17 18. Christ had no sorrows or wants in the Fathers bosom p. 15 16. Christs self-denyal in leaving the Fathers bosom for us p. 20. Christs excellency p. 9. Christ made flesh what it imports p. 51 52. Christ is true God p. 100 101. Christ the Original of all light p. 101. The first receptacle of all power p. 101. The manner of his providential influence p. 214 215. Christ is most excellent soul-food p. 272. Christ and his blood never grow stale p. 278. His love beyond all comparison p. 274. Christ hath finished redemption work p. 482. How he hath wrought it out in six particulars p. 481 482. a Character of Christs excellency p. 512 513. Christs glorious Majesty p. 581 584. Church safe and why p. 583. Circumcision a great abasement to Christ and that two wayes p. 237 238. Comfortable indeed that he who assumed our Nature is God p. 63. Company the very best sometimes a burden p. 290. Commission of Christ great security to our faith p. 63. Committing the soul to Christ implyes six great things in it p. 494 495. Seven excellent grounds of encouragement to this last and great work p. 496 497 498. The Concourse or co-operation of both Natures in Christs Mediatory works p. 90. Confession when and why our duty p. 316 317. Confidence in men a folly p. 309. Conscience how overborn by fleshly interests p. 323. Rules to prevent it p. 323. It s inward troubles dreadful ibid. Consecration of Christ what it is p. 71 72. Constancy in Religion urged p. 363. Content with our present state how rational p. 188. Court that tryed Christ had no authority so to do p. 314. Covenant of Redemption p. 26 27. The Form Foederates and performance of that Cevenant opened p. 27 28. The new Covenant how Christs death confirmed and ratified it p. 536 537. Cross of Christ three sweet considerations to bear it cheerfully p. 351 352. The Cross of Christ a dignified Cross. p. 364. Cup What it signifies in Scripture p. 284. What the passing of it is p. 284 285. Curse that may prove the soarest curse from which men promise themselves much content p. 307. D. DEath fairly overcome and that in its own territories by the Resurrection of Christ. p. 553. Death of the Cross what it was opened in six properties p. 343 344 345. The manner of Crucifying p. 346 347. Why Christ was Crucified p. 347 348. Death Christ chose to meet it in a praying posture p. 281 c. Christs Death the worst death for kind p. 344. Death not to be feared by believers p. 555. Their duty to long for it p. 188. Souls not ordinarily wrought on at Death p. 442. Choice encouragements to believers against the fear of Death p. 518 519. Delight of Christ in the Fathers bosome how great pure and constant p. 17. How transcendent to all other delights in the World p. 18 19. Defect The finishing of Christs work how great a relief against the defects that attend our works p. 484. Deliverance from wrath obtained by Christ is free full peculiar wonderful p. 524. Three signes of a soul delivered from wrath to come p. 528 529. Desersion Christ deserted by his Father in time of greatest need p. 449. Desersions either absolute or respective ibid. Respective Desersions of four sorts p. 450. How Christ was not Deserted opened in six particulars p. 450. In what sense Christ was deserted opened in five particulars p. 451 452. Two special ends of Gods forsaking Christ p. 453. Christs Desersion more afflictive than all his other Sufferings five Reasons for it p. 455 456. Every time we sin we deserve to be eternally deserted p. 455. Desersion the greatest misery p. 456. Christs desersion the believers comfort p. 457. Despising Christ how intollerable to the Father p. 46
p. 592 593. It is for Christs honour 595. Four Inferences from it p. 596 597. Justice it self discharges the believer p. 176. and p. 596. K. KIng what manner of King Christ is to the Saints p. 205.206 Kingly power of Christ exercised over believers p. 196 197. Kingdom of Christ in the soul how obtained p. 195 196. How Christ administers his spiritual Kingdom opened in five acts thereof p. 197 198. Spiritual priviledges of Christs Kingdom p. 201 202. Five discoveries of our subjection to Christs Kingdom p. 203 204. Know some know Christ yet as to themselves better they did not p. 8. Knowledge of Christ the very kernel of Scripture p. 3 4. His Knowledge fundamental to all graces duties and comforts p. 4 5. Knowledge of Christ very profound noble and sweet p. 5 6. It s preferrence to all other Knowledge in divers respects opened p. 6 7. Knowledge of Christ not to be concealed by thy dispensers of it p. 11. To whom we must go for knowledge p. 107. Eminent knowledge how it aggravates sin p. 304. L. LAw what need to pray for good Laws and good Executioners of them p. 322. Laziness in prayer condemned p. 292. Leaving our fears of God final leaving us how cured p. 457. Life how Christ was humbled in his life opened in divers particulars p. 237 238. Light divine light infused by Christ p. 102. Three excellent properties of it p. 118. Three great differences betwixt common and saving light p. 123 124. A Caution against unthankfulness for and abuse of light p. 125. Little words yea Syllable and Letters how great a weight may hang on them p. 53. Lives their preservation the effect of Christs care and watchful providence p. 216. Love how worthy Christ is of our love p. 21. Wherein Gods love was chiefly manifested p. 88 475. The love of the Father and Son not to be compared but admired p. 66. Christs love to the Saints the fairest pattern p. 79. The ardency of Christs love to Sinners p. 88. Saints obliged to love Christ p. 233. The great evidence of the strength of Christs love p. 225 226 c. M. MArks of persons given by the Father to Christ p. 36. Five marks to discover the Subjects of Christs Kingdom p. 203 204. no marks of grace more dangerous than those that come nearest true ones p. 333. Mediator Christ is so according to both his natures p. 90. What the import of the word is p. 84 85. Five things implyed in Christs being a Mediator p. 86 87 88. Christ the true and only Mediator evinced by three arguments p. 89 90. How dangerous to joyn any other Mediators with Christ. p. 92. Meekness under abuses Christ like p. 411. How dangerous to abuse meek spirits p. 415. A pattern of meekness proposed p. 416. Mercies of believers brought forth with great difficulty p. 354. Ministers the best rule to measure them and their doctrine by p. 108 109. A serious Caution to Ministers p. 10 11. How dangerous to despise Christs Ministers p. 64 65. How daring a sin to invade the office of the Ministry and why God permits it p. 65. Necessity of of a standing Ministry urged p. 104 105. Ministers their test and essential qualifications in six particulars p. 108 109. Misery of the ignorant opened in divers particulars p. 119 120. Moses and Christ compared p. 97. N. NAture our nature not united to Christ consubstantially Physically or Mystically p. 53 54. Necessary the finishing of Redemption work by Christ necessary on a threefold account p. 480 481 Necessity of a Priest evinced p. 131. Night Christs last night on earth how employed p. 266 28 283. O. OBedience to Christ must be universal p. 98 99. Obedience to Christ evidential of our interest in him p. 203 Oblation of Christ the fountain of our best mercies p. 150 151. The matter of Christs Oblation his own soul and body p. 141 842. The preciousness of that Oblation p. 142. Obligations to holiness from God the Father p. 604. Obligations to holiness from Christ. p. 608. Obligations to holiness from the spirit p. 609. Obligations from our selves p. 611 612. Obligations from our enemies p. 615. Offices what offices Christ was sealed to p. 68 69. Old men in an unconverted state objects of great pity p. 445. Opposition to Christ knowingly how dreadful p. 405. Ordinances of Christ the great efficacy and whence it arises p. 66. No power to operate on the heart in themselves p. 115 116. Ordinances not to be despised p. 64 65 571. Overplus of merit in Christ satisfaction Whence that overplus is p. 181 182. P. PAin there may be much pain but no curse in a believers death p. 351. Pains of Christ how great on the Cross p. 466. Christs pains in three respects greater than what the damned feel in Hell p. 468. Pardon God no loser in pardoning the greatest of sinners p. 176. Parents prayers for their Children how beneficial p. 262 26â— Patience of Christ almighty patience p. 388 389. Excellent properties of patience p. 389 390. The grounds and reasons of Christs patience 391 392 393. Eight excellent helps to patience p. 394 395 396. Pattern Christs desertion the pattern of ours in six respects p. 457 458. Patterns of holiness who are so p. 628. Perfection twofold Subjective and Effective both found in Christ. p. 479 480. Persecution followed Christ from the Cradle to the Cross p. 237. The greatest piety exempts not from it p. 244. Person of Christ extraordinary p. 73 74. Pilate who and what he was p. 318. Policy of Satan in chusing instruments p. 309. Poverty of Christ how great p. 239 240. Prayer a proper means to increase knowledge p. 107. Prayers of Saints presented by Christ p. 157. Christs last prayer what it was for the matter of it p. 285 286. What for quality p. 286 287. A singular relief against troubles to pray p. 289. Predication of the properties of each nature in concreto proper p. 57 58. Preferment spiritual by union with Christ. p. 21. Priesthood of Christ implyes six things p. 128 129. Priesthood of Christ defined p. 130. The necessity of Christs Priesthood evinced upon a double ground p. 131 132. He appears before God for us p. 168. Prejudices against Religion for its professors sake how unâ—ust p. 308. Price what Christs death being so called implyes p. 166. Properties of each nature distinct notwithstanding the hypostatical union in Christ. p. 56. Prophet Christ is so p. 97 98. Two parts of Christs prophetical office p. 96. The internal and principal part of it opened p. 113 114 c. Prosperity the ready way to attain it p. 219. Five things to be studied in it p. 220 221. Proverb of Sparta p. 419. Iewish Proverb p. 239. Proverb used in Gallens time p. 364. Providence its general influx on all creatures and their motion p. 209 210. Christ rules the providential Kingdom by seven acts p. 210 211. Its over-ruling wicked counsel p. 211
212 361 362. Purchase Christs blood purchased a rich inheritance for the Saints p. 180 181. Q. SIX Questions opening the difference betwixt suffering for Christ in this world and for sin in that to come p. 526. R. REconciliation with God its nature medium continuation properties and terms opened p. 530 531. Why effected by Christs death ibid. Redemption of souls costly p. 175. Rejecting knowledge how dangerous p. 11. Rejecting Christ most fatal p. 91 92. Relation of Christs sufferings to us p. 168. Religion Christian Religion incomparably sweet and satisfying to the Conscience p. 134 135. What cause men have to bless God for it ibid. Remembrance of Christ what it is opened at large p. 269 270. Two sorts of it ibid. What it includes p. 270 271. The usefulness of remembring Christ. p. 277 278. Rest no expectation of resting till we have done working and sinning p. 586. Four things break a Saints rest on earth p. 587. Resurrection of Christ the certainty of it p. 546. The absurdities following the denyal of it p. 546. The manner of his Resurrection opened in many particulars p. 547 548 c. Christs Resurrection was the Resurrection of the Saints head and representative p. 549. Resurrection of Saints the effect of Christs Resurrection three wayes p. 550 551. The agreement of our Resurrection with Christs opened in five particulars p. 551 552 553. Retracting what we have professed or done for Christ condemned by Pilates example p. 363. Revelations of Gods will by Iesus Christ various p. 101. Gradual p. 102. Plain p. 103. Powerful p. 103. Affectionate p. 104. Pure p. 104. Perfect p. 104. Righteousness how dangerous to joyn any thing of our own with Christs Righteousness in point of Iustification p. 177. S. SAcrament a special pledge of Christs care and love p. 273. Sacrament seasons heart melting seasons p. 276. Sacramental Bread and Wine whence their excellency p. 267. Saints their security for salvation from whence it is p. 262 263. Sanctification of Christ respects us p. 74 75. Our Sanctification the best evidence of our interest in a sanctified Iesus p. 80 81. Satisfaction to God necessary to our reconciliation p. 131. God stood upon full satisfaction p. 131. No meer man can satisfie God p. 132. Christs death made full satisfaction for sin p. 167. What divine satisfaction is p. 168. Five things imported in the satisfaction of Christ p. 168 169 170. Errors about the satisfaction of Christ refuted p. 171 172. Divers objections 173 c. of the Socinians answered about it p. 172 173 174. All thoughts of satisfying God by our selves to be abandoned p. 177. Sealing of Christ what it imports p. 69 70. How God the father sealed him p. 70 71. Why Christ must be sealed before he would act as Mediator p. 62 63. How many wayes the Spirit seals us p. 67. His sealing us an evidence of Christs being sealed for us p. 67. Security of believers argued from Christs Mediation p. 93. Self-denyal of Christ for us p. 20. Self-denyal for Christ how reasonable p. 22. Sentence given against Christ what it was Opened in six particulars p. 319 320. In what manner Christ received his Sentence p. 321. Services accidentally done for Christ unacceptable p. 362. Signes in the Sacrament of the Supper are of three sorts p. 272. Sin an infinite evil in it and how that appears p. 174. The horrid nature of sin opened p. 470. The deep pollution of sin p. 174. Sitting at Gods right hand what it imports opened in seven particulars p. 578 579 580. The Saints sitting with Christ what an advancement to them p. 582. Christ to be eyed in prayer as sitting at Gods right hand p. 584. Christ did not sit till he had finished his work Nor must we p. 586. Society we may have with such here whom we shall have no Society with in Heaven p. 309. Sorrow what it is p. 329. Sorrow distinguished into habitual actual natural supernatural p. 330. Souls how precious they are p. 440. Their sympathy with their bodies and their body with them p. 470. Spirit weighty considerations to keep Saints from grieving the Spirit p. 572. Stoop how low a stoop Christ made to recover us p. 224 225 226. Substance of Christs Mediatory Kingdom and the manner of administration distinguished p. 159 160. Substitution of Christ in our room as our Sacrifice necessary p. 159 160. The excellency and eternal efficacy of this Sacrifice opened p. 140 141 142 143 c. Success of Christs interest in the world unquestionable p. 366. Surety Christ is so and what his being so imports p. 85 86. Sufferings of Christ how great p. 466. They may affect natural hearts for three Reasons p. 330 331. Sufferings for Christ how glorious p. 526 527 58â— Sympathy of Christ with all that were burdened with sin or sorrow p. 241 242. T. TEars what they are p. 329. A double fountain of tears opened p. 330. Temptations of Christ fierce various and tedious p. 240 241. The great relief in temptation p. 246. Suitable temptations greatly hazard our ruine p. 305 306. Thief on the Cross his wonderful conversion p. 442 443. his example incourages none to delay conversion p. 443. Thirst proper and figurative p. 464. Thirst a great affliction p. 464. Christs thirst attributed to a double cause p. 466. Thirst in Hell what it is p. 472. Saints shall never thirst in Heaven p. 473 474. Throne how the Saints are confessors with Christ upon his throne p. 628. Time the preciousness of it and whence it results p. 435 436. Title affixed to the Cross of Christ what it was opened in six properties of it p. 358. The providence of God in the draught of Christs title remarkable in five things p. 360 361. Tryal of Christ for his life how managed p. 313. The inhumanity thereof p. 313 314. No man knows his own spiritual strength till it be put to the tryal p. 380. 381. Trust The Father and Son mutually trust each other p. 33. All our concerns to be trusted in the hands of Christ. p. 219 220. Trust in man how vain and foolish p. 309. V. THE Vicegerency of Christs sufferings p. 168. Understanding what it is and how opened p. 112 113. The proper office of Christ p. 114. Four things implyed in opening the understanding p. 114 115 116. Opening the understanding effected instrumentally by the word and spirit p. 117. The Union personal is extraordinary p. 54 55. How conserved when Christ was in the grave p. 57. How needful it is that Christ have union with our persons as well as natures p. 61. Unprincipled professors will become Apostates p. 305. Unbelievers where death will land them p. 440. Upbraid how those that perish under the Gospel will be upbraided by Iews Pagans and Devils p. 231 232. Uses that God will make of the Saints example in the day of judgement p. 628. Four uses he makes of it in this world p. 624 625 626. W. WEak
be Is it indeed worth no more than this in your eyes Surely you will not be long of that opinion Will you be of that mind think you when death and Judgement shall have throughly awakned you O no then a thousand worlds for a Christ. As its storied of our Crook-back'd Richard when he lost the field and was in great danger by his enemies that pressed upon him O now said he a Kingdom for an Horse Or think ye that any beside you in the world are of your mind You are deceived if you think so To them that believe he is precious through all the world 1 Pet. 2.7 And in the other world they are of a quite contrary mind Could you but hear what is said of him in heaven in what a dialect the Saved of the Lord do extoll their Saviour or could you but imagine the self revenges the self torments which the damned suffer for this their folly and what a value they would set upon one tender of Christ if it might but again be hoped for you would see that such as you are the only despisers of Christ. Beside methinks its astonishing that you should despise a mercy in which your own souls are so dearly so deeply so everlastingly concerned in as they are in this gift of God If it were but the soul of another nay less if but the body of another and yet less than that if but anothers beast whose life you could preserve you are obliged to do it but when it is thy self yea the best part of thy self thine own invaluable soul that thou ruinest and destroyest hereby Oh what a monster art thou to cast it away thus What! will you slight your own souls Care you not whether they be saved or whether they be damned Is it indeed an indifferent thing with you which way they fall at death Have you imagined a tollerable Hell Is it easie to perish Are you not only turned Gods enemies but your own too O see what monsters can sin turn men and women into O the stupifying besotting intoxicating power of Sin But perhaps you think that all these are but uncertain sounds with which we alarm you It may be thine own heart will Preach such Doctrine as this to thee Who can assure thee of the reallity of these things What shouldst thou trouble thy self about an invisible world or be so much concerned for what thine eyes never saw nor didst ever receive the report from any that have seen them Well though we cannot now shew you these things yet shortly they shall be shewn you and your own eyes shall behold them You are convinced and satisfied that many other things are real which you never saw But be assured that if the word spoken by Angels was stedfast and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence of reward How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation Which at first began to be spoken to us by the Lord and was confirmed to us by them that heard him God also bearing them witness Heb. 2.2 3 4. But if they be certain yet they are not near It will be a long time before they come poor soul how dost thou cheat thy self It may be not by twenty parts so long a time as thine own phancy draws it forth for thee Thou art not certain of the next moment And suppose what thou imaginest what is Twenty or Forty years when it is past yea what is a thousand years to the vast eternity Go trifle away a few days more sleep out a few nights more and then lie down in the dust it will not be long ere the Trump of God shall awaken thee and thine eyes shall behold Jesus coming in the clouds of heaven and then you will know the price of this sin O therefore if there be any sence of eternity upon you any pity or love for your selves in you if you have any concernments more than the beasts that perish despise not your own offered mercies slight not the richest gift that ever was yet opened to the world and a sweeter cannot be opened to all Eternity The FIFTH SERMON JOH I.XIV. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us c. YOU have heard the Covenant of Redemption opened The work therein propounded by the Father and consented to by the Son is such as infinitly exceeds the power of any meer Ceature to perform He that undertakes to satisfie God by obedience for the sin of man must himself be God And he that performeth such a perfect obedience by doing and suffering all that the Law required in our rooms must be man These two natures must be united in one person else there could not be a concourse or co-operation of either nature in his mediatory works How these natures are united in the wonderful person of our Immanuel is the first part of the great mysterie of of godliness A Subject studied and adored by Angels And the mysterie thereof is wrap'd up in this Text. Wherein we have First the incarnation of the Son of God plainly asserted Secondly that assertion strongly confirmed In the assertion we have three parts The person assuming 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word i. e. the second person or subsistent in the most glorious Godhead call'd the Word either because he is the scope and principal matter both of the prophetical and promisory word Or because he expounds and reveals the mind and will of God to men as vers 18. The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father he hath declared or expounded him The Nature assumed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 flâ—sh i. e. the intire humane Nature consisting of a true humane soul and body For so this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Rom. 3.20 And the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which answers to it by a usual Metonymie of a part for the whole is used Gen. 6.12 And the word flesh is rather used here than man on purpose to aggravate the admirable condescention and abasement of Christ there being more of vileness weakness and opposition to spirit in this word than in that as is pertinently noted by some Hence the whole nature is denominated by that part and called flesh The Assumption it self 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was made not fuit he was as Socinus would render in design to overthrow the existence of Christs glorify'd body now in heaven But factus est it was made i. e. he took or assumed the true humane nature called flesh for the reason before rendred into the unity of his divine person with all its integral parts and essential properties and so was made or became a true and real man by that assumption The Apostle speaking of the same act Heb. 2.16 Uses another word He took on him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fitly rendred he took on him or he assumed Which assuming though inchoative it was the work of the whole Trinity God
natures The humane nature doing what is humane viz. Suffering Sweating Bleeding Dying and his Divine nature stamping all these with infinite value and so both sweetly concur unto one glorious work and design of mediation Papists generally deny that he performs any of his mediatory works as God but only as man but how boldly do they therein contradict these plain Scriptures See 2 Cor. 5.19 Heb. 9.14.15 And so much as to the second thing propounded viz. the fruits of this Union The last thing to be opened is the grounds and reasons of this assumption And we may say touching that 1. That the humane nature was not assumed to any intrinsecal perfection of the Godhead but to make that humane nature it self perfect The Divine did not assume the humane nature necessarily but voluntarily not out of indigence but bounty not because it was to be perfected by it but to perfect it by causing it to lie as a pipe to the infinite all-filling Fountain of grace and glory of which it is the great receptacle 2. And so consequently to qualify and prepare him for a full discharge of his mediatorship in the offices of our Prophet Priest and King Had he not this double nature in the Unity of his person he could not have been our Prophet for as God he knows the mind and will of God Ioh. 1.18 Ioh. 3.13 And as man he is fitted to impart it suitably to us Deut. 18.15 16 17 18. Compared with Acts 3.22 As Priest had he not been man he could have shed no blood and if not God it had been no adaequate value for us Heb. 2.17 Acts 20.28 As King had he not been man he had been an Heterogenous and so no fit head for us And if not God he could neither rule nor defend his Body the Church These then were the designs and ends of that assumption Vse 1. Let all Christians rightly inform their minds in this truth of so great concernment in Religion and hold it fast against all subtil adversaries that would wrest it from them The Learned Hooker observes that the dividing of Christs Person which is but one and the confounding of his Natures which are two hath been the occasion of these errors which have so greatly disturbed the peace of the Church The Arrians deny'd his Deity leveling him with other meer men The Apollinarians maimed his humanity The Sabellians affirmed that the Father and Holy Ghost were incarnated as well as the Son and were forced upon that absurdity by another error viz. denying three distinct persons in the Godhead and affirming they were but three names The Euticheans confounded both natures in Christ denying any distinction of them The Seleusians affirmed that he uncloathed himself of his humanity when he ascended and hath no humane Body in Heaven The Nestorians so rent the two natures of Christ assunder as to make two distinct persons of them But ye Beloved have not so learned Christ. Ye know he is 1. true and very God 2. True and very man that 3. these two natures make but one person being united inseparably 4. That they are not confounded or swallowed up one in another but remain still distinct in the person of Christ. Hold ye the form of sound words which cannot be condemned Great things hang upon all these truths Oh suffer not a stone to be loosed out of the Foundation Vse 2. Adore the love of the Father and Son who bid so high for your Souls and at this rate were contented you should be recovered First The love of the Father is herein admirably conspicuous who so vehemently willed our salvation that he is content to degrade the darling of his Soul to so vile and contemptible a state which was upon the matter an undoing to him in point of reputation as the Apostle intimates Phil. 2.7 If two persons be at variance and the superiour who also is the wronged person begin to stoop first and say you have deeply wronged me yea your blood is not able to repair the wrongs you have done me however such is my love to you and willingness to be at peace with you that I will part with what is most dear to me in all the world for peace sake yea though I stoop below my self and seem as it were to forget my own relation and endearments to my own Son I will not suffer such a breach betwixt me and you Ioh. 3.16 God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son And how astonishing is the love of Christ that would make such a stoop as this to exalt us Oh 't is ravishing to think that he should pass by a more excellent and Noble Species of Creatures refusing the Angellical nature Heb. 2.16 To take Flesh. And not to solace and dispart himself in it neither not to experience sensitive pleasures in the body for as he needed them not being at the Fountain head of the highest joys so it was not at all in his design but the very contrary even to make himself a Subject capable of sorrows wounds and tears It was as the Apostle elegantly expresseth it in Heb. 2.9 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he might sensibly tast what relish Death hath and what bitterness is in those pangs and agonies Now O that you would get your hearts suitably imprest and affected with these high expressures of the love both of the Father and Son How is the courage of some Noble Romans celebrated in the story for the brave adventures they made for the Common-wealth But they could never stoop as Christ did being so infinitly below him in personal dignity Vse 3. And here the infinite wisdom hath also left a famous and everlasting mark of it self which invites yea even chains the eyes of Angels and men to it self Had there been a general Council of Angels to advise upon a way of recovering poor sinners they would all have been at an everlasting demur and loss about it It could not have entred their thoughts though they are Intelligencies and most sagatious Creatures that ever mercy pardon and grace should find such a way as this to issue forth from the heart of God to the hearts of sinners Oh how wisely is the method of our recovery laid So that Christ may well be call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Cor. 1.24 The power and wisdom of God For as much as in him the Divine wisdom is more glorified than in all the other works of God upon which he hath imprest it Hence it is that some of the School-men affirm though I confess my self unsatisfied with it that the incarnation of Christ was in it self so glorious a demonstration of Gods wisdom and power and thereupon so desirable in it self that though man had not sinned yet Christ would have been made man Vse 4. Hence also we infer the incomparable sweetness of the Christian Religion that shews poor
should act in that assumed Body had been invallid and vain without a due call and Commission from the Father so to do Which is the import of the words now before you This Scripture is a part of Christs excellent reply to a self-ended generation who followed him not for any Spiritual excellencies that they saw in him or Soul advantages they expected by him but for bread Insteed of making his service their meat and drink they only served him that they might eat and drink Self is a thing may creep into the best hearts and actions but it only predominates in the Hypocrite These people had sought Christ from place to place and having at last found him they salute him with an impertinent complement Rabbi when camest thou hither vers 25. Christs reply is partly disswasive and partly directive He disswades them from puting the secondary and subordinate in the place of the principal and ultimate end Not to prefer their Bodies to their Souls Their fleshly accommodations to the glory of God Labour not for the meat that perisheth Wherein he doth not take them off from their lawful labours and callings but he disswades them first from minding these things too intently and secondly he disswades them from that odious Sin of making Religion but a pretence for the belly And it is partly directive and that in the main end and business of Life But labour for that meat which endures to Eternal Life To get bread for your Souls to live Eternally by And that he might engage their diligence in seeking it to purpose he shews them not only where they may have it Which the Son of Man shall give you but also how they may be fully satisfied that he hath it for them in the clause I have pitched on For him hath God the Father Sealed In these words are three parts observable First The Person Sealing or investing Christ with Authority and Power Which is said to be God the Father Though all the Persons in the Godhead are equal in nature dignity and power yet in their operation there is an order observed among them The Father sends the Son The Son is sent by the Father The Holy Ghost is sent by both Secondly The Subject in which God the Father lodges this Authority Him that is the Son of Man Jesus Christ he is the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 first receptacle of it And he must here be understood exclusively God the Father hath so Sealed him as he never Sealed any other before him or that shall arise after him No name is given in heaven or earth but this name by which we are Saved Acts 4.12 The government is upon his shoulders Isa. 9. Thirdly Here is farther observable the way and manner of the Fathers delegating and committing this Authority to Christ. And that is by Sealing him Where we have both a Metonymie the Symbal of Authority being put for the Authority it self And a Metaphor Sealing which is a humane act for the ratifying and confirming an Instrument or grant being here applied to God Like as Princes by Sealed Credentials confirm the Authority of those that are sent by them As the Dutch Annatators well express the meaning of it Hence we Note DOCT. That Iesus Christ did not of himself undertake the work of our Redemption but was solemnly Sealed unto that work by God the Father When I say he did not of himself undertake this work I mean not that he was unwilling to go about it for his heart was as fully and ardently engaged in it as the Fathers was so he tells us Psal. 4.7 Loe I come to do thy will O God thy Law is in my heart But the meaning is he came not without a due call and full commission from his Father And so it is to be understood in opposition to intrusion not voluntary susception And this is the meaning of that Scripture Ioh. 8.42 I proceeded and came from God neither came I of my self but he sent me And this the Apostle plainly expresseth and fully clears Heb. 5.4 5. And no man taketh this honour to himself but he that is call'd of God as was Aaron so also Christ glorified not himself to be made an High-Priest but he that said unto him thou art my Son And on the account of these Sealed Credentials he received from his Father he is called the Apostle and High-Priest of our profession Heb. 3.1 i. e. One called and sent forth by the Fathers Authority Our present business then is to open Christs commission and view the great Seal of Heaven by which it was ratified And to preserve a clear Method in the explication of this great truth into which your Faith and comfort is resolved I shall First shew what was the work and office to which the Father Sealed him Secondly What his Sealing to this work doth imply Thirdly How and by what acts the Father Sealed him to it Fourthly Why it was necessary that he should be thus Sealed and authorized by his Father And then improve it in its proper Uses What was that office or work to which his Father Sealed him I answer more generally he was Sealed to the whole work of mediation for us thereby to recover and save all the elect whom the Father had given him So Ioh. 17.2 It was to give Eternal Life to as many as were given him It was to bring Iacob again to him Esa. 49.5 Or as the Apostle expresses it Pet. 3.18 That he might bring us to God More particularly in order to the sure and full effecting of this most glorious design he was Sealed to the offices of a Prophet Priest and King that so he might bring about and compass this work First God Sealed him a commission to Preach the glad tidings of Salvation to sinners This commission Christ opened and read in the audience of the people Luk. 4.18 19 20 21. And when he had opened the Book he found the place where it is written the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath annointed me to Preach the Gospel to the poor he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted to Preach deliverance to the Captives and the recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised To Preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the Book c. And he began to say unto them this day is this Scripture fulfilled in your ears He also Sealed him to the Priesthood and that the most excellent Authorizing him to execute both the parts of it viz. Oblatory and intercessory He call'd him to offer up himself a Sacrifice for us I have power saith he to lay down my Life this commandment have I received of my Father Joh. 10.18 And upon that account his offering up of his Blood is by the Apostle stiled an act of obedience as it is Phil. 2.8 He became obedient unto death He also call'd him to intercede for us Heb. 7.21 24 25.
Humility and Self-abasement As in Abraham who lay on his face when God Sealed the Covenant to him Gen. 17.1 2 3. This O this brings home the sweet and good of all when this Seal is superaded to that The SEVENTH SERMON JOH XVII XIX And for their Sakes I sanctifie my Self JESUS CHRIST being fited with a Body and authorized by a Commission now actually devotes and sets himself apart to his Work In the former Sermon you heard what the Father did in this you shall hear what the Son hath done towards the Fathers advancement of that glorious design of our Salvation He sanctified himself for our Sakes Wherein observe 1. Christs sanctifying of himself 2. the end or design of his so doing First You have Christs sanctifying of himself The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is not here to be understood for the cleansing purifying or making holy that which before was unclean and unholy either in a Moral sence as we are cleansed from Sin by sanctification or in a Ceremonial sence as persons and things were sanctified under the Law though here is a plain allusion to those legal Rites But Christs sanctifying himself imports First His Separation or setting apart to be an oblation or Sacrifice So Beza nempe ut sacerdâ—s victima As the Priest and Sacrifice I sanctifie my self imports Secondly His Consecration or Dedication of himself to this holy use and service So the Dutch Annotations I sanctifie my self i. e. I give up my self for an holy Sacrifice And so our English Annotations I Sanctifie i. e. I Consecrate and voluntarily offer my self an holy and unblemished Sacrifice to thee for their Redemption So that as under the Law when any day person or vessel was consecrated and dedicated to the Lord it was so intirely for his use and service that to use it afterward in any common service was to prophane it and polute it As you see Dan. 5.3 Secondly The end of his so sanctifying himself for their Sakes And that they might be Sanctified where you have the finis eujus the end for whom for their i. e. for the Elect sake For them whom thou gavest me And the finis cui the the end for which that they might be sanctified Where you also see that the death of Christ wholly respects us He offered not for himself as other Priests did but for us that we may be sanctified Christ is so in love with holyness that at the price of his blood he will buy it for us Hence the Observation is DOCT. That Iesus Christ did dedicate and wholy set himself apart to the Work of a Mediator for the Elect sake This point is a glass wherein the eye of your Faith may see Jesus Christ preparing himself to be offered up to God for us Fitting himself to die And to keep a clear Method I shall open these two things in the doctrinal part first what his sanctifying himself implys Secondly how it respects us First What is implyed in this phrase I sanctifie my self And there are seven things carried in it First This phrase I sanctifie my self implys the personal union of the two natures in Christ. For what is that which he here calls himself but the same that was consecrated to be a Sacrifice even his humane nature This was the sacrifice And this also was himself So the Apostle speaks Heb. 9.14 He through the eternal Spirit offered up himself to God without Spot So that our nature by that assumption is become himself Greater honour cannot be done it Or a greater ground of comfort proposed to us But having spoken of that union in the former Sermon I shall remit the Reader thither Secondly This sanctifying or consecrating himself to be a Sacrifice for us implys the greatness and dreadfulneâ—s of that breach which sin made betwixt God and us You see no less Sacrifice than Christ himself must be sanctified to make attonement Judge of the greatness of the wound by the breadth of the plaister Sacrifice and offering and burnt offering for sin thou wouldst not but a body hast thou prepared me Heb. 10.5 All our repentance could we shed as many tears for Sin as there have fallen drops of rain Since the Creation could not have been our attonement but God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself And had he not sanctified Christ to this end he would have sanctified himself upon us in Judgement and fury for ever Thirdly This his sanctifying himself implys his free and voluntary undertakement of the Work It is not I am sanctified as if he he had been meerly passive in it as the Lambs that typed him out were when pluckt from the fold but it 's an active verb that he uses here I sanctifie my self he would have none think that he dyed out of a necessity of compulsion but out of choice Therefore he is said to offer up himself to God Heb. 9.14 And in Ioh. 10.18 I lay down my life of my self no man takes it from me And although it 's often said his Father sent him and gave him yet his heart was as much set on that work as if there had been nothing but glory ease and comfort in it he was under no constraint but that of his own Love Therefore as when the Scripture would set forth the willingness of the Father to this work it saith God sent his Son and God gave his Son so when it would set forth Christs willingness to it it saith he offered up himself gave himself and here in the Text sanctified himself The sacrifice that strugled and came not without force to the Altar was reckon'd ominous and unlucky by the Heathen our sacrifice dedicated himself He dyed out of choice And was a free-will offering Fourthly His sanctifying himself implys his pure and perfect holyness That he had no Spot or blemish in him Those beasts that prefigured him were to be without blemish And none else were consecrated to that Service So and more than so it behoved Christ to be Heb. 7.26 Such an High-Priest became us as is holy harmless undefiled separate from Sinners And what it became him to be he was Therefore in allusion to the Lambs offered under the Law the Apostle calls him a Lamb without blemish or Spot 1 Pet. 1.19 Every other man hath a double Spot upon him the heart Spot and the life Spot The Spot of original and the Spots of actual Sins But Christ was without either He had not the Spot of original Sin for he was not by man He came in a peculiar way into the world and so escaped that Not yet of actual sins for as his nature so his life was Spotless and pure Isa. 53.9 He did no iniquity And though he was tempted to sin externally yet he was never defiled in heart or practice He came as near it as he could come for our sakes yet still without sin Heb. 4 15. If he sanctifie himself for a
Sacrifice he must be such as the Law required pure and spotless Fifthly His sanctifying himself for our sakes speaks the strength of his Love and largeness of his heart to poor sinners thus to set himself wholly and entirely apart for us So that what he did and suffered must all of it have a respect and relation to us He did not when consecrated for us live a moment do an act or speak a word but it had some tendency to promote the great design of our Salvation He was only and wholly and always doing your work when consecrated for your sakes His Incarnation respects you Esa. 9.6 For us a Child is born to us a Son is given And he would never have been the Son of man but to make you the Sons and Daughters of God God would not have come down in the likeness of sinful flesh in the habit of a man but to raise up sinful man into the likeness of God All the miracles he wrought were for you to confirm your Faith When he raised up Lazarus Joh. 11.42 Because of the people which stand by I said it that they might believe that thou hast sent me While he lived on earth he lived as one wholly set apart for us And when he dyed he dyed for us Gal. 3.13 He was made a curse for us When he hanged on that cursed tree he hang'd there in our room and did but fill our place When he was buried he was buried for us For the end of it was to perfume our Graves against we come to lie down in them And when he rose again it was as the Apostle saith for our Iustification Rom. 4.25 When he ascended into glory he protested it was about our business That he went to prepare places for us And if it had not been so he would have told us Ioh. 14.2 And now he is there it is for us that he there lives For he ever lives to make intercession for us Heb. 7.25 And when he shall return again to Judge the world he will come for us too He comes when ever it be to be glorified in his Saints and admired in them that believe 2 Thes. 1.10 He comes to gather his Saints home to himself that where he is there they all may be in Soul and Body with him for ever Thus you see how as his Consecration for us doth speak him set a part for our use so he did wholly bestow himself time life death and all upon us Living and Dying for no other end but to accomplish this great work of Salvation for us Sixthly His sanctifying himself for us plainly speaks the Vicegerency of his death that it was in our room or stead When the Priest Consecrated the Sacrifice it was set apart for the people So it 's said of the scape Goat And Aaron shall lay both his hands upon the head of the live Goat and confess over him all the iniquities of the Children of Israel and all their transgressions in all their sins puting them upon the head of the Goat And shall send him away by the hand of a fit man into the Wilderness Levit. 16.21 Thus Isa. 53.6.7 He stood in our room to bear our burden And as Aaron laid the iniquities of the people upon the Goat so were ours laid on Christ. It was said to him in that day on thee be their Pride their Unbelief their hardness of heart their vain thoughts their earthly mindedness c. Thou art Consecrated for them to be the Sacrifice in their room His death was in our stead as well as for our good And so much his sanctifying himself for us imports Seventhly His sanctifying himself imports the extraordinariness of his Person For it speaks him to be both Priest Sacrifice and Altar all in one A thing unheard of in the world before So that his name might well be called wonderful I sanctifie my self I sanctifie according to both natures My self that is my humane nature which was the Sacrifice upon the Altar of my Divine nature For 't is the Altar that sanctifies the gift As the three offices never met in one Person before so these three things never met in one Priest before The Priests indeed Consecrated the bodies of Beasts for Sacrifice but never offered up their own Souls and Bodies as a whole burnt offering as Christ did And thus you have the import of this phrase I sanctifie my self for their sake Secondly I shall shew you briefly the habitude and respect that all this hath to us For unto us the Scriptures every where refer it So in 1 Cor. 5.7 Christ our Passover is Sacrificed for us Eph. 5.2 He loved the Church and gave himself for it See Tit. 2.14 This will be made out by a three fold consideration of Christs Death And First Let it he considered that he was not offered up to God for his own Sins For he was most holy Isa 53.9 No iniquity was found in him Indeed the Priests under the Law offered for themselves as well as the people But Christ did not do so Heb. 7.27 He need not daily as those High-Priests to offer up Sacrifice first for his own Sins and then for the peoples And indeed had he been a sinner what value or efficacy could have been in his Sacrifice He could not have been the Sacrifice but would have needed one Now if Christ were most holy and yet put to death and cruel sufferings either his Death and sufferings must be an act of injustice and cruelty or it must respect others whose persons and cause he sustained in that suffering capacity He could never have suffered or dyed by the Fathers hand had he not been a sinner by imputation And in that respect as Luther speaks he was the greatest of sinners Or as the Prophet Isaiah speaketh all our sins were made to meet upon him Not that he was so intrinsecally but was made so sc. by imputation As is clear from 2 Cor. 5.21 He was made sin for us that had no sin So that hence it 's evident that Christs Death or Sacrifice is wholly a respective or relative thing Secondly It is not to be forgotten here that the Scriptures frequently call the death of Christ a price 1 Cor. 6.20 And a ransom Matth. 20.28 Or counterprice To whom then doth it relate but to them that were and are in bondage and captivity If it were to redeem any it must be captives but Christ himself was never in Captivity He was always in his Fathers bosom as you have heard but we were in cruel bondage and thraldom under the Tyranny of sin and Satan And it 's we only that have the benefit of this ransom Thirdly Either the death of Christ must relate to believers or else he must die in vain As for the Angels those that stood in their integrity needed no Sacrifice and those that fell are totally excluded from any benefit by it He is not a Mediator for them And among men
Gods choice and yours He chooses not men because they are holy but that they may be so You are to chuse them for so your delightful Companions that God hath chosen and made holy Let all your delights be in the Saints even them that excel in vertue Psal. 16.3 Fourthly God abhors and hates all unholiness do ye so also that you may be like your Father which is in Heaven And when the Spirit of holiness runs down thus upon you a sweeter evidence the World cannot give that Christ was sanctified for you Holy ones may confidently lay the hand of their Faith on the head of this great Sacrifice and say Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us The EIGHTH SERMON I TIM II.V. And one Mediator betwixt God and Men the man Christ Iesus GReat and long preparations bespeak the solemnity and greatness of the work for which they are designed A man that had but seen the heaps of Gold Silver and Brass which David amassed in his time for the building of the Temple might easily conclude before one Stone of it was laid that it would be a magnificent Structure But lo here is a design of God as far transcending that as the substance doth the shadow For indeed that glorious Temple was but the Type and Figure of Jesus Christ Ioh. 2.19.21 and a weak adumbration of that living spiritual Temple which he was to build cementing the lively Stones thereof together with his own blood 1 Pet. 2.5 6. that the great God might dwell and walk in it 2 Cor. 6.16 the preparations for that Temple were but of few years but the consultations and preparations for this were from Eternity Prov. 8.31 and as there were preparations for this work which Christ dispatcht in a few years before the world began so it will be matter of eternal admiration and praise when this world shall be dissolved What this astonishing glorious work is this Text will inform you as to the general nature of it It is the work of mediation betwixt God and Man managed by the sole hand of the man Christ Jesus In this Scripture for I shall not spend time to examine the words in their contexture you have a description of Iesus the Mediator and he is here described three ways viz. by his work or office a Mediator by the singularity of his mediation one Mediator And by the nature and quality of his Person imploy'd in this singular way of Mediation the man and lastly his name 's Iesus Christ. First he is described by the work or office he is imploy'd about 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mediator a middle Person So the word imports a fit indifferent and equal Person that comes between two Persons that be at variance to take up the difference and make Peace Such a middle equal indifferent Person is Christ. A days-man to lay his hand upon both to arbitrate and award justly and give God his due and that without ruine to poor man Secondly he is described by the singularity of his mediation One Mediator and but one though there be many Mediators of reconciliation among men and many Intercessors in a petitionary way betwixt God and Men yet but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one only Mediator of reconciliation betwixt God and Men and 't is as needless and impious to make more Mediators than one as to make more Gods than one There is one God and one Mediator betwixt God and Men. Thirdly he is described by the nature and quality of his Person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. the man Christ Iesus This description of him by one nature and that the humane nature also wherein as you shall see anon the Lord especially consulted our encouragement and Comfort I say his being so described to us hath through the corruption of men been improved to the great dishonour of Jesus Christ both by the Arrians and Papists The former took occasion from hence to affirm that he was but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a meer man The latter allow him to be the true God but on this weak ground affirm that he performed not the work of mediation as God but only a man Thus what the Spirit ordered for our comfort is wickedly retorted to Christs dishonour For I doubt not but he is described by his humane nature in this place not only because in this nature he paid that ransom which he speaks of in the words immediately following but especially for the drawing of Sinners to him seeing he is the man Christ Jesus One that cloathed himself in their own Flesh and to encourage the Faith of Believers that he tenderly resents all their wants and miseries and that they may safely trust him with all their concerns as one that will carefully mind them as his own and will be for them a merciful and faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God Fourthly he is described by his names By his Appellative name Christ and his proper name Iesus The name Iesus notes his work about which he came and Christ the Offices to which he was anoynted and in the execution of which he is our Iesus In the name Iesus the whole Gospel is hid It is the light the food the medicine of the Soul as one speaks The note from hence is DOCT. That Iesus Christ is the true and only Mediator betwixt God and Men. Ye are come to Iesus the Mediator of the New Covenant Heb. 12.24 And for this cause he is the Mediator of the new Testament c. Heb. 9.14 I might shew you a whole vein of Scriptures running this way but to keep a profitable and clear method I shall shew you First what is the sence of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mediator Secondly what it implys as it is applied to Christ. Thirdly how it appears that he is the true and only Mediator betwixt God and Men. Fourthly in what capacity he performed his Mediatory work First What is the sence and import of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mediator and the true sence and importance of it is a middle person or one that interposes betwixt two Parties at variance to make peace betwixt them So that Satan is medium disjungens a medium of discord so Christ is medium conjungens a medium of Concord and Peace And he is such a middler both in respect of his person and office in respect of his person he is a middler that is one that hath the same nature both with God and us true God and true man and in respect of his office or work which is to interpose or transact the business of reconciliation between us and God The former some call his substantial the latter his evergitical or operative meditation though I rather conceive that which is call'd his substantial mediation is but the aptitude of his person to execute the mediatorial function And that it doth not constitute two kinds of mediation his being a middle Person
the like proportion also is betwixt the blood that consecrates them Earthly things with common Heavenly things with the most excellent blood So then there are two things to be especially observed here First The nature of Christs death and sufferings it had the nature use and end of a Sacrifice and of all Sacrifices the most excellent Secondly The necessity of his offering up it was necessary to correspond with all the Types and prefigurations of it under the Law but especially it was necessary for the expiating of sin the propitiating of a justly incensed God and the opening a way for reconciled ones to come to God in The point I shall give you from it is DOCT. That the sacrifice of Christ our high Priest is most excellent in it self and most necessary for us Sacrifices are of two sorts Eucharistical or thank-offerings in testification of homage duty and service and in token of gratitude for mercies freely received and Ilastical or expiatotory for satisfaction to Justice and thereby the attoning and reconciling of God Of this last kind was the sacrifice offered by Jesus Christ for us To this Office he was called by God Heb. 5.5 in it he was confirmed by the unchangeable oath of God Psal. 110.4 for it he was singularly qualified by his incarnation Heb. 5.6 7. and all the ends of it he hath fully answered Heb. 9.11 12. My present design is from this Scripture to open the general nature and absolute necessity of the Priesthood of Christ. Shewing what his Priesthood implys in it and how all this was indispensably necessary in order to our recovery from the deplorable state of sin and misery First then we will consider what it supposes and implies And then wherein it consists And there are six things which it either presupposeth or necessary includeth in it First At first sight it supposes mans revolt and fall from God and a dreadful breach made thereby betwixt God and him else no need of an attoning sacrifice If one dyed for all then were all death 2 Cor. 5.14 dead in Law under sentence to dye and that eternally In all the sacrifices from Adam to Christ this was still preached to the world that there was a fearful breach betwixt God and man and that even so justice required our blood should be shed And the fire flaming on the Altar which wholy burnt up the sacrifice was a lively Emblem of that fiery indignation that should devour the Adversaries But above all when Christ that true and great sacrifice was offered-up to God then was the fairest glass that ever was in the world set before us to see our sin and misery by the fall in Secondly His Priesthood supposes the unalterable purpose of God to take vengeance for sin He will not let it pass I will not determine what God could do in this case by his absolute power but I think it is generally yielded that by his ordinate power he could do no less than punish it in the person of the sinner or of his surety Those that contend for such a forgiveness as is an Act of Charity like that whereby private persons forgive one another must at once suppose God to part with his right cedendo de jure suo and also render the satisfaction of Christ altogether useless as to the procurement of forgiveness Yea rather an obstacle than a means to it Surely the nature and truth of God oblige him to punish sin He is of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity 1 Heb. 13. And beside the word is gone out of his mouth that the sinner shall dye Thirdly The Priesthood of Christ presupposeth the utter impotency of man to appease God and recover his favour by any thing he could do or suffer Surely God would not come down to assume a body to dye and be offered up for us if at any cheaper rate it could have been accomplished There was no other way to recover man and satisfie God Those that deny the satisfaction of Christ and talk of his dying to confirm the truth and give us an example of meekness patience and self-denyal affirming these to be the sole ends of his death do not only therein root up the foundation of their own comfort peace and pardon but most boldly impeach and tax the infinite Wisdom God could have done all this at a cheaper rate The sufferings of a meer creature are able to attain these ends The death of the Martyrs did it But who by dying can satisfie and reconcile God What creature can bring him an adequate and proportionable value for sin Yea for all the sin that ever was or shall be transmitted to the natures or committed by the persons of all Gods Elect from Adam to the last that shall be found alive at the Lords coming Surely none but Christ can do this Fourthly Christs Priesthood implys the necessity of his being God-man It was necessary he should be a man in order to his passion compassion and derivation of his righteousness and holiness to men Had he not been man he had had no sacrifice to offer no soul or body to suffer in The Godhead is impatible immortal and above all those sufferings and miseries Christ felt for us Besides his being man fills him with bowels of compassion and tender sense of our miseries This makes him a merciful and faithful High-Priest Heb. 4.15 And not only fits him to pity but to sanctifie us also for he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are both of one Heb. 2.11 14 17. And as necessary it was our High-Priest should be God since the value and efficacy of of his sacrifice results from thence Fifthly The Priesthood of Christ implies the extremity of his sufferings In sacrifices you know there was a destruction a kind of Annihilation of the Creature to the glory of God The sheding of the creatures blood and burning its flesh with fire was but an umbrage or faint resemblance of what Christ endured when he made his soul an offering for sin Sixthly and Lastly It implies the gratious design of God to reconcile us at a dear rate to himself in that he called and confirmed Christ in his Priesthood by an oath and thereby laid out a sacrifice of infinite value for the world Sins for which no sacrifice is allowed are desperate sins And the case of such sinners is helpless But if God allow yea and provide a sacrifice himself how plainly doth it speak his intentions of peace and mercy These things are manifestly presupposed or implyed in Christs Priesthood This Priesthood of Christ is that function wherein he comes before God in our name and place to fulfil the Law and offer up himself to him a sacrifice of reconciliation for our sins and by his intercession to continue and apply the purchase of his blood to them for whom he shed it All this is contained in that famous Scripture Heb. 10.7 8 9 10 11 12
SERMON GAL. III. XIII Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us YOU have seen the general nature necessity and parts of Christs Priesthood viz. his Oblation and Intercession Before you part from this office it 's necessary you should further take into consideration the principal fruits and effects of his Priesthood Which are compleat Satisfaction and the Aquisition or purchase of an eternal inheritance The former viz. the satisfaction made by his blood is manifestly contained in this excellent Scripture before us wherein the Apostle having shewn before at the tenth verse that whosoever continues not in all things written in the Law to do them is cursed declares how notwithstanding the threats of the Law a Believer comes to be freed from the curse of it Namely by Christs bearing that curse for him and so satisfying Gods justice and discharging the Believer from all obligations to punishment More particularly in these words you have the Believers discharge from the curse of the Law and the way and manner thereof opened First The Believers discharge Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law The Law of God hath three parts Commands Promises and Threatnings or Curses The Curse of the Law is its condemning sentence whereby a sinner is bound over to deaâ—h even the death of soul and body The chains by which it binds him is the guilt of sin and from this none can loose the soul but Christ. This curse of the Law is the most dreadful thing imaginable It strikes at the life of the sinner Yea his best life the eternal life of the soul. And when it hath condemned it is inexorable No cries nor tears no reformations or repentance can loose the guilty sinner for it requirâ—s for its reparation that which no meer creature can give even an infinite satisfaction Now from this curse Christ frees the Believer That is he dissolves the obligation to punishment Cancels the hand-writing Looses all the bonds and chains of guilt So that the curse of the Law hath nothing to do with him for ever Secondly We have here the way and manner in an by which this is done And that is by a full price paid down and that price paid in the room of the sinner both making up a compleat and full satisfaction He pays a full price every way adequate and proportionable to the wrong So much this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate redeemed imports He hath bought us out or fully bought us That is by a full price This price with which he so fully bought or purchased our freedom from the curse is not only called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 20.28 a ransom But more emphatically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 1 Tim. 2.5.6 which might be translated an adequate or fully answerable ransom And so his freeing us by this price is not only expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou hast bought us to God by thy blood Rev. 5.9 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath fully perfectly bought us out And as the price or ransom paid was full perfect and sufficient in it self so it was paid in our room and upon our account So saith the Text by his being made a curse for us The meaning is not that Christ was made the very curse it self Changed into a curse no more than when the word is said to be made flesh the divine nature was converted into flesh but it assumed or took flesh and so Christ he took the curse upon himself Therefore it 's said 2 Cor. 5.21 He was made sin for us who knew no sin That is our â—in was imputed to our surety and laid upon him for satisfaction And so this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for implies a substitution of one in the place and stead of another Now the price being full and paid in lieu of our sins and thereupon we fully redeemed or delivered from the curse It follows as a fair and just deduction that DOCT. The death of Christ hath made a full satisfaction to God for all the sins of his Elect. He to wit our surety Christ was oppressed and he was afflicted saith the Prophet Isai. 53.7 it may be as fitly rendred and the words will bear it without the least force it was exacted and he answered But how being either way translated it establisheth the satisfaction of Christ may be seen in our learned Annotations on that place So Col. 1.14 in whom we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sin Here we have the benefit viz. redemption interpreted by way of Apposition even the remission of sins and the matchless price that was laid down to purchase it the blood of Christ. So again Heb. 9.12 by his own blood he entred once into the holy place having obtained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eternal redemption for us Here 's eternal redemption the mercy purchased His own blood the price that procur'd it Now for as much as this Doctrine of Christs satisfaction is so necessary weighty and comfortable in it self and yet so much opposed and intricated by several enemies to it the method I shall take for the clearing establishing and preparing it for use shall be First To open the nature of Christs satisfaction and shew what it is Secondly To establish the truth of it and prove that he made full satisfaction to God for all the sins of the Elect. Thirdly To answer the most considerable Objections made against it And Lastly to Apply it First What is the satisfaction of Christ and what doth it imply I answer Satisfaction is the Act of Christ God-man presenting himself as our surety in obedience to God and love to us to do and suffer all that the Law required of us and thereby freeing us from the wrath and curse due to us for our sins First It is the Act of God-man no other was capable of giving satisfaction for an infinite wrong done to God But by reason of the union of the two natures in his wonderful person he could do it and hath done it for us The humane nature did what was necessary in its kind it gave the matter of the Sacrifice the divine nature stampt the dignity and value upon it which made it an adequate compensation So that it was opus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the act of God-man Yet so that each nature retained its own properties notwithstanding their joynt influence into the effect If the Angels in Heaven had laid down their lives or if the blood of all the men in the world had beeen poured out by Justice this could never have satisfied because that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worth and value which this Sacrifice hath would have still been wanting It was God that redeemed the Church with his own blood Act. 20.28 If God redeem with his own blood he redeems as God-man without any dispute Secondly If he
remission of sin to believers and lest we should lose the Emphatical word he doubles it to declare I say his righteousness Every one can see how his mercy is declared in remission but he would have us take notice that his justification of Believers is an act of Justice and that God as he is a just God cannot condemn the believer since Christ hath satisfied his debts This attribute seems to be the main bar against remission but now it 's become the very ground and reason why God remits Oh how comfortable a text is this Doth Satan or Conscience set forth thy sin in all its discouraging circumstances and aggravations God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation Must justice be manifested satisfied and glorified So it is in the death of Christ ten thousand times more than ever it could be in thy damnation Thus you have a brief account of the satisfaction made by Jesus Christ. Secondly We shall gather up all that hath been said to establish the truth of Christs satisfaction Proving the reality of it that it is not an improper catechristical fictitious satisfaction by divine acceptilation as some have very diminutively called it but real proper and full and as such accepted by God For his blood is the blood of a surety Heb. 7.22 who came under the same obligations of the Law with us Gal. 4.4 and though he had no sin of his own yet standing before God as our surety the iniquities of us all were laid upon him Isai. 53.6 and from him did the Lord with great severity exact satisfaction for our sins Rom. 8.32 punishing them upon his soul. Matth. 27.46 and upon his body Act. 2.23 and with this obedience of his Son is fully pleased and satisfied Eph. 5.2 And hath in token thereof raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand 1 Tim. 3.16 And for his righteousness sake acquitted and discharged believers who shall never more come into condemnation Rom. 8.1 34. All this is plain in Scripture and our faith in the satisfaction of Christ is not built on the wisdom of man but the everlasting sealed truth of God Yet such is the perverse nature of man and the pride of his heart that whilst he should be humbly adoring the grace of God in providing such a surety for us he is found accusing the justice and diminishing the mercy of God and raising all the objections which Satan and his own heart can invent to overturn that blessed foundation upon which God hath built up his own honour and his peoples salvation Thirdly In the next place therefore we shall reject those doctrines and remove the principal of those objections that are found militating against the satisfaction of Christ. And in the first place we reject with deep abhorrence that doctrine which ascribes to man any power in whole or in part to satisfie God for his own or other mens sins This no meer creature can do by active obedience were it so compleat that he could never sin in thought word or deed any more but live the most holy life that ever any lived For all this would be no more than his duty as a creature Luk. 17.10 and so can be no satisfaction for what he is by nature or hath done against God as a sinner Nor yet by sufferings For we have offended an infinite God and can never satisfie him by our finite sufferings We also with like detestation reject that doctrine which makes the satisfaction of Christ either impossible or fictitious and inconsistent with grace in the free pardon of sin Many are the cavils raised against Christs satisfaction the principal are such as these that follow The Doctrine of Christs Satisfaction is absurd for Christ say we is God if so then God satisfies himself then which what can be more absurd to imagine I Answer God cannot properly be said to satisfie himself for that would be the same thing as to pardon simply without any satisfaction But there is a twofold consideration of Christ. One in respect of his Essence and divine nature in which sence he is the object both of the offence and of the satisfaction made for it Another in respect of his person and oeconomy or office in which sense he properly satisfies God being in respect of his manhood another and inferior to God Ioh. 14.28 the blood of the man Christ Jesus is the matter of the satisfaction The divine nature dignifies it and makes it of infinite value A certain family hath committed treason against the King and are all under the condemnation of the Law for it the Kings Son moved with pity and love resolves to satisfie the Law and yet save the Family in order whereunto he marries a daughter of the family whereby her blood becomes Royal blood and worth the blood of the whole family whence she sprang this Princess is by her Husband executed in the room of the rest In this case the King satisfies not himself for the wrong but is satisfied by the death of another equivalent in worth to the blood of them all This similitude answers not to all the particulars as indeed nothing in nature doth or can but it only shews what it was that satisfied God and how it became so satisfactory If Christ satisfied by paying our Debt then he should have endured eternal torments For so we should and the damned shall We must distinguish betwixt what is essential and what is accidental in punishment The primary intent of the Law is reparation and satisfaction he that can make it at one intire payment as Christ could and did ought to be discharged He that cannot as no meer creature can ought to lye for ever as the damned do under sufferings If God will be satisfied for our sin before he pardon them how then is pardon an Act of Grace Pardon could not be an act of pure grace if God received satisfaction from us but if he pardon us upon the satisfaction received from Christ though it be of debt to him it is of grace to us For it was grace to admit a surety to satisfie more grace to provide him and most of all to apply his satisfaction to us by uniting us to Christ as he hath done But God loved us before Christ died for us for it was the love of God to the world that moved him to give his only begotten Son Could God love us and yet not be reconciled and satisfied Gods complacential love is indeed inconsistent with an unreconciled state He is reconciled to every one he so loves But his benevolent love consisting in his purpose of Good may be before actual reconciliation and satisfaction Temporal death as well as eternal is a part of the curse if Christ have fully satisfied by bearing the curse for us how is it that those for whom he bare it dye as well as others As Temporal death is a
part And his bearing it was no small part of the reparation or satisfaction he made for our sins More particularly to open the nature of this desertion of Christ by his Father there being much of intricacy and difficulty in it I shall proceed in the explication of it Negatively and Positively First Negatively when Christ cries out of Gods forsaking him he doth not mean that he had dissolved the personal union of the two natures Not as if the marriage knot which united our nature to the person of Christ was loosed or a divorce made betwixt them No for when he was forsaken of God he was still true and real Godman in one person Secondly When Christ bewails the Fathers forsaking him he doth not mean that he pulled away the prop of divine support from him by which he had till then endured the tortures and sufferings that oppressed him No though the Father deserted yet he still supported him And so much is intimated in these words of Christ Eli Eli which signifies my strong one my strong one God was with him by way of support when withdrawn as to manifestations of love and favour In respect of Gods supporting presence which was with Christ at this time it 's said Isai. 42.1 Behold my Servant whom I uphold and Joh. 16.32 I am not alone but the Father is with me So that this cannot be the meaning of it Thirdly Much less is it his meaning that God had left him as to inherent grace and sanctification Recalling that spirit of holiness which had anointed him above his fellows No no when he was forsaken he remained as holy as ever He had indeed less comfort but not less holiness than before Such a desertion had irritated and made void the very end of his death And his sacrifice could never have yielded such a fragrant odor to God as it did Eph. 5.2 Fourthly The love of God was not so withdrawn from Christ as that the Father had now no love for him nor delight in him That 's impossible he can no more cease to love Christ than to love himself His love was not turned into wrath Though his wrath only was now manifested to him as our surety and his love hid from him as his beloved Son Fifthly Nor was Christ forsaken by his Father finally upon what account soever it was that he was forsaken No it was but for a few hours that the dark cloud dwelt over his soul. It soon past away And the bright and glorious face of God shone forth again as bright as ever Psal. 22.1.24 compared Sixthly And lastly It was not a mutual desertion or a desertion on both parts the Father forsook him but he forsook not his Father When God withdrew he followed him crying my God my God Yet to speak positively of it though it did not dissolve the personal union nor cutting off divine supports nor remove his inherent grace nor turn his Fathers love into hatred nor continue for ever nor yet was it on both parts Christs forsaking God as well as God forsaking Christ yet I say it was First A very sad desertion the like unto which in all respects never was experienced by any nor can be to the end of the world All his other troubles were but small things to this they bare upon his body these upon his soul. They came from the hands of vile men this from the hand of a dear Father He suffered both in body and soul but the sufferings of his soul were the very soul of his sufferings Under all his other sufferings he opened not his mouth but this toucht the quick that he could not but cry out my God my God why hast thou forsaken me Secondly As it was a sad so it was a poenal desertion inflicted on him for satisfaction for those sins of ours which deserved that God should forsake us for ever as the damned are forsaken by him So that this cry as one observes was like the perpetual shriek of them that are cast away for ever This was that Hell and the torments of it which Christ our surety suffered for us For look as there lies a twofold misery upon the damned in Hell viz. pain of sence and pain of loss So upon Christ answerably there was not only an impression of wrath but also a Substraction or withdrawment of all sensible favour and love Hence it 's said by himself Ioh. 12.27 And now my soul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is troubled The word signifies troubled as they that are in Hell are troubled Though God did not leave his soul in Hell as others are he having enough to pay the debt which they have not yet in the torments thereof at this time he was Yea in sufferings at this time in his soul equivalent to all that which our souls should have suffered there to all Eternity Thirdly It was a desertion that was real and not fictitious He doth not personate a deserted soul and speak as if God had withdrawn the comfortable sence and influence of his love from him but the thing was so indeed The God-head restrained and kept back for this time all its joys comforts and sence of love from the man-hood yielding it nothing but support This bitter doleful out-cry of Christ gives evidence enough of the reality of it He did not feign but feel the burdensomness of it Fourthly This desertion fell out in the time of Christs greatest need of comfort that ever he had in all the time of his life on earth His Father forsook him at that time when all earthly comforts had forsaken him and all outward evils had broken in together upon him When men yea the best of men stood afar off and none but barbarous enemies were about him When pains and shame and all miseries even weighed him down then even then to compleat and fill up his sufferings God stands afar off too Fifthly And lastly It was such a desertion as left him only to the supports of his Faith He had nothing else now but his Fathers covenant and promise to hang upon And indeed as a Juditious Author perninently observes the Faith of Christ did several ways act and manifest it self in these very words of complaint in the Text. For though all comfortable sights of God and sence of love were obstructed yet you see his soul cleaves fiducially to God for all that My God c. Though sense and feeling spake as well as Faith Yet Faith speaks first my God before sence speaks a word of his forsaking His Faith prevented the complaint of sence and though sence comes in afterward with a word of complaint yet here are two words of Faith to one of Sence It is my God my God and but one word of forsaking As his Faith spake first so it spake twice when sence and feeling spake but once Yea and as Faith spake first and twice as much as sence so it spake more confidently than Sence did He lays a
large a capacity to take in the full sence of the wrath of God as Christ had The larger any ones capacity is to understand and weigh his troubles fully the more grievous and heavy is his burden If a man cast vessels of greater and lesser quantity into the Sea though all will be full yet the greater the vessel is the more water it contains Now Christ had a capacity beyond all meer creatures to take in the wrath of his Father And what deep and large apprehensions â—e had of it may be judged by the bloody sweat in the garden which was the effect of his meer apprehensions of the wrath of God Christ was a large vessel indeed As he is capable of more glory so of more sence and misery than any other person in the world Thirdly The damned suffer not so innocently as Christ suffered they suffer the just demerit and recompence of their sin They have deserved all that wrath of God which they feel and must feel for ever It is but that recompence which was meet But Christ was altogether innocent He had done no iniquity neither was guile found in his mouth yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him When Christ suffered he suffered not for what we had done but his sufferings were the sufferings of a surety paying the debts of others The Messiah was cut off but not for himself Dan. 9.26 Thus you see what his external sufferings in his body and his internal sufferings in his soul were Thirdly In the last place it is evident that such extream sufferings as these meeting together upon him must needs exhaust his very spirits and make make him cry I thirst For let us consider First What meer external pains and outward afflictions can do These prey upon and consume our spirits So David complains Psal. 39.11 When thou with rebukes correctest man for iniquity thou makest his beauty to consume away as a Moth i. e. look as a Moth frets and consumes the most strong and well wrought garment and makes it seary and rotten without any noise so afflictions wast and wear out the strongest bodies They make bodies of the firmest constitution like an old rotten garment They shrivel and dry up the most vigorous and flourishing body and make it like a bottle in the smoke Psal. 119.83 Secondly Consider what meer internal troubles of the soul can do upon the stongest body These quickly spend it's strength and devour the Spirits So Solomon speaks Prov. 17.22 A broken Spirit drieth the bones i. e. it consumes the very marrow with which they are moistned So Psal. 32.3 4. My bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long For day and night thy hand was heavy on me my moisture or chief sap is turned into the drought of Summer What a spectacle of pity was Francis Spira become meerly through the anguish of his spirit A spirit sharpned with such troubles like a keen knife cuts through the sheath Certainly who ever hath had any acquaintance with troubles of soul knows by sad experience how like an internal flame it feeds and preys upon the very spirits so that the strongest stoop and quail under it But Thirdly When outward bodily pains shall meet with inward spiritual troubles and both in extremity shall come in one day how soon must the firmest body fail and wast away like a candle lighted at both ends Now strengâ—h fails a pace and nature must fall flat under this load When the Ship in which Paul sailed fell into a place where two Seas met it was quickly wrackt and so will the best constituted body in the world if it fall under both these troubles together The soul and body sympathize with each other under trouble and muâ—ually relieve each oâ—her If the body be sick and â—ull of pain the spirit supports chears and relieves it by reason and resolution all that it can And if the spirit be afflicted the body sympathizes and helps to bear up the spirit But now if the one be over-laid with strong pains more than it can bear and calls for aid from the other and the other be oppressed with intolerable anguish and cries out under a burden greater than it can bear so that it can contribute no help but instead thereof adds to its burden which before was above strength to bear Now nature must needs fail and the friendly union betwixt soul and body suffer a dissolution by such an overwhelming pressure as this So it was with Christ when outward and inward sorrows met in one day in their extremity upon him Hence the bitter cry I thirst Inference 1. How horrid a thing is Sin How great is that evil of evils Which deserves that all this should be inflicted and suffered for the expiation of it The sufferings of Christ for sin gives us the true account and fullest representation of its evil The Law saith one is a bright glass wherein we may see the evil of sin but there is the Red glass of the sufferings of Christ and in that we may see more of the evâ—l of sin than if God should let us down to Hell and there we should see all the tortures and torments of the damned If we should see them how they lie sweltering under Gods wrath there it were not so much as the beholding of sin through this Red glass of the sufferings of Christ. Suppose the bars of the bottomless pit were broken up and damned spirits should ascend from thence and come up among us with the chains of darkness rattling at their heels and we should hear the groans and see the gastly paleness and tremblings of those poor creatures upon whom the righteous God hath imprest his fury and indignation if we could hear how their consciences are lashed by the fearful scourge of guilt and how they shriek at every lash the arm of Justice gives them If we should see and hear all this it is not so much as what we may see in this Text where the Son of God under his sufferings for it crys out I thirst For as I shewed you before Christs sufferings in divers respects were beyond theirs O then let not thy vain heart slight sin as if it were but a small thing If ever God shew thee the face of sin in this glass thou wilt say there is not such another horrid representation to be made to a man in all the world Fools make a mock of sin but wise men tremble at it Inference 2. How afflictive and intolerable are inward troubles Did Christ complain so sadly under them and cry I thirst Surely then they are no such light matters as many are apt to make of them If they so scorcht the very heart of Christ dryed up the green tree preyed upon his very spirits and turned his moisture into the drought of Summer they deserve not to be sleighted as they are by some The Lord Jesus was fitted to bear and suffer as strong
other disciples professed their readiness to die with him yet those flee and these appear for him when the trial comes indeed If God desert the strong and assist the weak the feeble shall be as David and the strong as tow I speak not this to discourage any man from striving to improve inherent grace to the utmost For it 's ordinarily found in experience that the degrees of assisting grace are given out according to the measures of inherent grace but I speak it to prevent a sin incident to strong Christians which is to despise the weak which God corrects by such instances and examples as this before us Corollary 3. Hence we may be assisted in discerning the depths of Christs humiliation for us And see from what to what his love brought him It was not enough that he who was in the form of God became a creature which was an infinite stoop nay to be made a man an inferior order of creatures Nay to be a poor man to spend his daies in poverty and contempt But also to be a Dead corps for our sake O what manner of love is this Now the deeper the humiliation of the Son of God was the more satisfactory to us it must needs be For as it shews us the hainousness of sin that deserves all this so the fulness of Christs satisfaction whereby he makes up that breach O it was a deep humiliation indeed How unlike himself is he now become Doth he look like the Son of God What the Son of God whom all the Angels adore to be shuffled by three or four persons into his Grave in an evening To be carried from Golgotha to the Grave in this manner And there lie as a captive to Death for a time Never was the like change of conditions never such an abasement heart of in the world Corollary 4. From this Funeral of Christ results the purest and strongest consolation and incouragement to believers against the fears of Death and the Grave If this be so that Jesus hath layen in Grave before you let me say then to you as the Lord spake to Iacob Gen. 46.2 3. Fear not to go down to Egypt for I will go down with thee and will surely bring thee up thence So here fear not believer to go down to the Grave for God will be with thee there and will surely bring thee up thence This consideration that Jesus Christ hath layen in the Grave himself gives manifold encouragement to the people of God against the terrors of the Grave First The Grave received but could not destroy Jesus Christ. Death swallow'd him as the Whale did Ionah his Type but could not digest him when it had swallow'd him but quickly delivered him up again Now Christ lying in the Grave as the common head and representative of believers what comfort should this inspire into their hearts For as it fared with Christs personal so it shall with Christs mystical It could not retain him it shall not for ever retain them This Resurrection of Christ out of his is the very ground of our hope for a Resurrection out of our Graves Christ is risen from the dead and become the first fruits of them that slept 1 Cor. 15.20 Secondly As the union betwixt the body of Christ and the divine nature was not dissolved when that body was laid in the Grave so the union betwixt Christ and believers is not cannot be dissolved when their bodies shall be laid in their Graves It 's true the natural union betwixt his soul and body was dissolved for a time but the Hypostatical union was not dissolved no not for a moment That body was the body of the Son of God when it was in the Sepulchre In like manner the natural union betwixt our souls and bodies is dissolved by death but the mystical union betwixt us and Christ yea betwixt our very dust and Christ can never be dissolved Thirdly As Christs body when it was in the Grave did there rest in hope and was assuredly a partaker of that hope So it shall fare with the dead bodies of the Saints when they lay them down also in the dust My flesh also shall rest in hope saith Christ Psal. 16.9 10 11. In like manner the Saints commit their bodies to the dust in hope The righteous hath hope in his death Pro. 14.32 And as Christs hope was not a vain hope so neither shall their hope be in vain Fourthly And lastly Christs lying in the Grave before us hath quite changed and altered the nature of the Grave So that it is not what it was It was once a part of the Curse Dust thou art and unto dust thou shalt return was a part of the threatening and curse for sin The Grave had the nature and use of a prison to keep the bodies of sinners against the great Assizes and then deliver them up into the hands of a great and terrible God But now it 's no prison but a bed of rest Yea and a perfumed bed where Christ lay before us Which is a sweet consideration of the Grave indeed They shall enter into peace they shall rest in their beds Isa. 57.2 O then let not believers stand in fear of the Grave He that hath one foot in heaven need not fear to put the other into the Grave Though I go down to the valley of the shadow of Death I will fear no evil for thou art with me Psal. 23. Indeed the Grave is a terrible place to them that are out of Christ. Death is the Lords Serjeant to arrest them The Grave is the Lords Prison to secure them When death draws them into the Grave it draws them thither as a Lion doth his prey into the den to devour it So you read Psal. 49.14 Death shall feed or prey upon them Death there raigns over them in its full power Rom. 5.14 And though at last it shall render them again to God yet it were better for them to lie everlastingly where they were than to rise to such an end For they are brought out of their Graves as a condemned Prisoner out of the Prison to go to execution But the case of the Saints is not so The Grave thanks be to our Lord Jesus Christ is a priviledged place to them while they sleep there and when they awake it will be with singing When they awake they shall be satisfied with his likeness Corollary 5. Lastly Since Christ was laid in the Grave and his people reap such priviledges by it as ever you expect rest or comfort in your Graves see that you get Vnion with Christ now It was an ancient custom of the Jews to put rich treasures into the Graves with their friends as well as to bestow much upon their Sepulchers It 's said Hircanus opened Davids Sepulchre and took cut of it three thousand Talents of Gold and Silver And to this sence many interpret that act of the Chaldeans Ier. 8.1 At that time saith the
the Redeemer Nortons Orthodox Evangelist pag 41. The call of the Lord Jesus unto office includes election on the Fathers part and acceptation on the Mediators part and is set down after the manner of mutual transaction between God and Christ whereby he was designed thereunto as it were by way of Covenant If his soul shall set it self an offering for sin for so according to the original do good Authors read the Text he shall see his seed prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand ver 10. Doct. Vide Goodwins Triumph of faith Vide Roberts medulla â—ib p. 1577. et lyf Test. p. 83 84. Causa externae satisfactionis à patre decretae à filio susceptae est miseria nostra id est peccata quidem aeternam panam promerentiae exigentia in quam miseratio dei ferebatur ob quam poenas omnes nobis debitas subiit filius dei ut per cum pristinae faelicitati restituerentur Synop. puâ—â—or Theol. p. 350. Ego cujus immensa ac infinita est potentia sic tibi favebo ita te fulciam ut nihil adversus te posuit omnes adversarii tui Marlor in loc 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Antequam ab omnibus retro seculis tempora fluere inciperent decrevit Deus hanc nobis salutis gratiam per Christum conferre Calv. in loc 1 Vse 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Innitar in eo mont 3 Vse Vse 4. Vse 5. Vse 6. Father Son Father Son Vse 7. Ob. Sol. Serm. 4. Opens the admirable love of God in giving his own Son for us Hic igitur unigeniti nomen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est ad commendandam iâ— nos amoris divini vâ—heâ—entiam Buling in loc Doct. Omnia diliâ—it deus quae fecet inter ea magis creaturas rationales de illis ea amplius quae sunt membra unigeniti multo magis ipsum unigenitum Aug. T. 9 in Johan God might have redeemed us in another way for I suppose 't is opus liberi consilii a free dispensation but God so loved the world i. e he took this way that we might love Christ as well as believe in him He might have redeemed us so much in another way but he could not oblige us so much in another way Manton in Iude. p 108. Mr. Wall in his none but Christ. Dolor Christi major suit omnibus doloribus Aquinas Christus coelum non patiuntur hyperbolem Corol. 1. Corol. 2. Totum Iurcicum imperiam quantum quantum est mica tantum est quam Pater familias projicit cambus Luther Corol. 3. Fye fye saith one upon this condemned and foolish world that will give so little for Christ and salvation Oh! if there were but a free market proclaimed of Christ and salvation in that day when the Trumpet of God shall awaken the dead how many buyers would be there God sâ—nd me no more happinesâ— but that which the blind world to their eteâ—nal wo leteth slip through their fingers Serm. 5. Treats of Christs wonderful Person The incarnation is the miracle of miracles a testimony against unbelievers Isa. 7.14 and a document to believers None can declare his generation Isa. 53.8 Neither can any declare his incarnation his name is secret Iudg. 13.18 Wonderful Isa. 9.6 A name that no man knoweth viz. perfectly but himself The Trinity is the greatest the incarnation is the next mysterie Nortons Ortho. Evang. p. 38. (a) Verbum Substantiale non prolatium Fulgentius lib. 1. (b) Voluit Evangelista uti potius carnis quà m hominis nominâ— ut magis appareret quo se divinum verbum abjecerit cùm caro factum est Nam vilitas major in carne apparet oppositio major cum spiritu Maccoâ—â— loc Com. * Non mutando quod erat sed assumendo quod non erat Aug. Incarnatio est opus deâ— quo filius dei secundum oeconomiam divini consilii patris sui spiritus sancti sâ—se humilians veram integram perfectam sanctamque caraâ—m ex virgine Mariae spiritus saâ—cti operatione efficacia in unitate personae sibi assumpfit ita ut caro illa nullam propriam subsistentiam extraâ—dei filium habeat sed ab illo in â—o verè sustentetur gestetur duabus perfectis naturis inter se 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unitis unde constituitur persona Christi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Synopsis purioris Theologiae p. 295. * Reason saith one can never shew it self more reasonable than in ceasing to reason about things which are above reason Quae sunt occulta non sunt fâ—rutanda Quae manifesta non negligenda Prosper Nomina concreta non multiplicantur nisi multiplicentur supposita Uâ—um autem cum tantum sit in christo suppositum Unâ—s tâ—atum sit christus necesse est Trelcat page 67. The nature of the Hypostaticall union opened 1 Neg. Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Pos. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non quidem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aliud ex aliis sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 duae ipsae naturae in personam unitae Damasc. Hamaâ—a natura non est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 per se sâ—bsistens neque prius hâ—mana natura fuit postea assumpta fuit sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 atque in persona 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 subsistit Et sic una est Christi persona in qua quidem est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aliud atque aliud sed non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 alius atque alius Ut Greg. Naz apud Theodoret. Dialog 2. Aug. de civitate dei lâ—b 10. cap. 27. p. 586. Fugen ad Tra. lib. 1. p. 251. Damasc. lib. 3. cap. 20. Nec ulla peccati coatagio naturam illam humanam Christi inficere potuit cujus substantiam in se alioqui corruptam originariè ineffabilis spiritus sancti operatio ab omni prorsus macula sanctificavit purgavit plenissime ita fieri debait utpotâ— in qua purgatio peccatorum nostrorum facienda erat Trelcat Jnstit p. 58. Neque tamen humanitas hac ratione exaltata aut in deitatem mutata aut cum eâdem est confusa quasi ulliâ—sâ—uae deitâ—ti peculi aris existet sive qualitatis sive proprietatis particeps facta sed ab eâdem distiacta mansit usque manetâ— constans nempè fraito corpore consimilique quoad substantiam facultates essentiales hominum aliorum omnium anima Bradshaw de justific p. 79. Doubt Resolution Tolletus rem sic â—leganter illâ—strat Quemadmodum homo habens ensem in vagina qâ—ando vult exeâ—it â—â—sâ—m tamen unâ— manu vaginam tenet altera â—â—ser sic divina peâ—sona per mortem animam à corpore veluti ensem à vagina sâ—peravit utramque tamen partem sibi habuit unitam per resurrectionem autem aâ—imam corpori copulavit quasi ensem
you are Put all this together and see what this second argument contributes towards your further conviction and perswasion to holiness of life Have you received a supernatural principle fitting you for and inclining you to holy actions resisting and holding you back from sin Hath God also set before you such eminent patterns to encourage and quicken you in your way Doth the Spirit himself stand ready so many waies to assist and help you in all difficulties That bloody Tyrant was convinced in his conscience of the worth and excellency of that servant of God and was forced to reverence him for his holiness So Darius Dan. 6.14 18 19 20. What conflicts had he in himself about Daniel whom he had condemned his conscience condemned him for condemning so holy and righteous a person Then the King went to his Palace and passed the night in fasting neither were instruments of Musick brought before him and his sleep went from him He goes early in the morning to the Dâ—n and cries with a lamentable voice O Daniel servant of the living God How much is this for the honour of holiness that it conquâ—rs the very persecutors of it and makes them stoop to the meanest servant of God! 'T is said of Henry the second of France that he was so daunted by the heavenly Majesty of a poor Taylâ—r that was burnt before him that he went home sad and vowed that he would never be present at the death of such men any more When Valence the Emperour came in person to apprehend Basil he saw such Majesty in his very countenance that he reel'd at the very sight of him and had fallen backward to the ground had not his servants stept in to support him O holiness holiness thou art a conquerour So much as you shew of it in your lives so much you preserve your interest in the consciences of your enemies Let down this and they despise you presently Fifthly And lastly God will use the purity of your conversations to Iudge and convince the world in the great day 'T is true the world shall be Judged by the Gospel but your lives shall also be produced as a Commentary upon it and God will not only shew them by the Word how they ought to have lived but bring forth your lives and waies to stop their mouths by shewing how others did live And this I suppose is intended in that Text 1 Cor. 6.2 The Saints shall Iudge the world yea we shall Iudge Angels that is our examples are to condemn their lives and practices as Noah Heb. 11.7 is said to condemn the world by building the Ark i. e. his faith in the threatning and obedience to the command condemned their supineness infidelity and disobedience They saw him every day about that work diligently preparing for a deluge and yet were not moved with the like fear that he was this left them inexcusable So when God shall say in that day to the careless world did you not see the care and diligence the holy zeal watchfulness and self denial of my people who lived among you How many times have they been watching and praying when you have been drinking or sleeping Was it not easie to reflect when you saw their pains and diligence have not I a soul to look after as well as they a Heaven to win or lose as well as they Oh how speechless and inexcusable will this render wicked men yea it shall not be only used to Judge them but Angels also How many shocks of temptations have poor Saints stood when as they fell without a Tempter They stood not in their integrity though created in such excellent natures how much then are you concerned on this very account also to walk exactly If not instead of Judging them you shall be condemned with them And thus you see what use your lives and actions shall be put to and are these inconsiderable uses Is the winning over souls to God a small matter Is the salving the honour and reputation of godliness a small matter Is the encouraging the hearts and strengthening the hands of Gods poor Ministers amidst their spending killing labours a small matter Is the awing of the consciences of your enemies and Judging them in the last day a light thing Which of these can you call so O then since you are thus obliged to holiness of life Thus singularly assisted for it and since there are such great dependencies upon it and uses for it both now and in the world to come see that ye be holy in all manner of conversation See that as ye have received Christ Iesus the Lord so ye walk in him Alwaies remembring that for this very end Christ hath redeemed or delivered you out of the hands of your enemies that you might serve him without fear in righteousness and holiness all the daies of your lives Luk. 1.74 75. And to how little purpose will be all that I have preacht and you have heard of Christ if it be not converted into practical godliness This is the scope and design of it all And now Reader thou art come to the last leaf of this Treatise of Christ it will be but a little while and thou shalt come to the last Page or Day of thy life and thy last moment in that day Wo to thee wo and alas for ever if interest in this blessed Redeemer be then to get The world affords not a sadder sight than a poor Christless soul shivering upon the brink of Eternity To see the poor soul that now begins to awake out of its long dream at its entrance into the world of reallities to shrink back into the body and cry O I cannot I dare not die And then the tears run down Lord what will become of me O what shall be my eternal Lot This I say is a sad sight as the world affords That this may not be thy case relfect upon what thou hast read in these Sermons Judge thy self in the light of them Obey the calls of the Spirit in them Let not thy slight and formal Spirit float upon the surface of these truths like a feather upon the water but get them deeply infixed upon thy Spirit by the Spirit of the Lord turning them into life and power upon thee And so animating the whole course and tenour of thy conversation by them that it may proclaim to all that know thee that thou art one who esteemest all to be but dross that thou maist win Christ. FINIS An Alphabetical Table Referring to the Principal things contained in this Treatise A. ABilities of men to use Gods means what and how far page 122 123. Abuse Christ abused in a Court of Iudicatute p. 313 314 c. Accessories to the Saints happiness what p. 187 188. Accommodation of the body a Snare to the soul. p. 557. Adoption Civil and Spiritual p. 180. Adoration of Gods Iustice and Mercy in Christs death p. 475 476 381. Advancement of the humane nature by its