and Goodness was greater towards the Angels than towards Man But when some of these once glorious Creatures rebelled against their Creator and fell from their happy Station God was pleased to admit of no Mediator to intercede for their Pardon but left them to reap the fruit of their Folly and condemned them for ever to that remediless Misery into which their sin had most deservedly plunged them But with Man he dealt otherwise for when he also by transgressing that easie Command which was given him in Paradise had incurred the same Condemnation with those apostate Spirits God was pleased here to mingle Mercy with Justice and to order the matter so that tho' he did both pronounce and execute the Sentence of Death upon him which he had threatned in case of his disobedience yet he made even Death it self a Happiness to him as well as a Punishment a gate of Life and Immortality and an inlet into a far more glorious Paradise than that which before he had forfeited This was a Mercy beyond all Expectation above the thoughts of Men or Angels to comprehend that whereas he left no place of Repentance to the fallen Angels but hat reserved them in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day yet he had pity on Man though a Creature of an inferior Nature so that even before he pronounced against him the Sentence of Death he published a short Gospel of Peace and Reconciliation and assured him that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpents head Thus did God utterly confound the Malice of Satan and cause his mischief to return upon his own pate his aim was to bring Man into the same Perdition with himself without any hopes of recovery that so he might insult over him as his Captive and Vassal for ever but so far was God from suffering him to enjoy the Pleasure of such a Triumph that he presently declares that that supposed Victory that he had gained over Man should end in his own eternal overthrow that though he had dispossessed the first Adam of his earthly Paradise yet he would at his appointed time send another Adam that should conduct all the race of Mankind that would believe in him and obey him to take Possession of those glorious Mansions from whence he and his rebellious Companions were fallen a Man whom all the Angels of God should worship a Man that should trample Satan under his feet a Man that should be one with God at whose name every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth a Man that should have the keys of hell and of death who having lead captivity captive and spoiled principalities and powers should ascend into the highest Heavens and sit on the right hand of God Angels and Authorities and Powers being made subject unto him But though God was resolved that though Man was thus miserably lost and sold into the hands of Satan to the utter confusion and astonishment of him that had wrought his ruin he should be redeemed and restored again yet this was no easie Task even to Omnipotence it self but God was forced to be at the Expence both of pains and charge to effect it The Creation of Man and of the whole World cost him no trouble at all For he spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast but Man's Redemption cost the highest price that Heaven had to give not corruptible things as silver and gold but the precious blood of the Son of God as of a lamb without blemish and without spot That Man might live God himself was fain to become Man and to die for the satisfaction of the Divine Justice A Mystery so great so incomprehensible that though nothing be more plainly and fully revealed in the holy Scripture yet many who notwithstanding call themselves Christians will not be perswaded to believe it most impudently and ungratefully denying the Lord that bought them and bringing upon themselves swift destruction Thus you see the ransome that was paid for us we were bought with a price a Price inestimable a Price infinite a Price greater than which the mercy of God could not give and less than which his Justice would not accept The greatness of this Price sufficiently intimates the great reason that there was that such a Price as this should be paid For certainly God who doth nothing in vain would never have been at such a vast Expence as this had not there been great occasion for it and so there was upon all accounts The Wisdom the Mercy the Justice all the Attributes of God at once required this Price and all at once were glorified by the Payment of it far more than by the Creation of the World The malice and cruelty of Satan required that this Price should be paid for his Confusion and above all the Misery of Man required it for his Redemption Though some of the Angels fell yet others and doubtless the greatest part of them kept their Station and so God was pleased to punish the one for their Rebellion and to reward the other for their Fidelity But with us the Case was otherwise all the whole race of Man was lost in Adam insomuch that not one of his Posterity could plead Exemption either from Death or Hell And had God suffered them to have been all thus lost without any hopes of recovery Satan would have had too great cause to triumph and blasphemously to boast that he had baffled the Wisdom and Goodness of God having utterly ruined and destroyed Man the chief work of all the visible Creation a Creature highly beloved of God and precious in his sight whom he plainly declared that he designed for great and noble Ends first by taking as it were special Counsel and Advice about his Creation and then imprinting upon him his own glorious Image and making him Lord of all the Creatures upon Earth Let us make man saith he in our own image after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattel and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth Gen. 1.26 It was therefore a Stratagem worthy of the wisdom and goodness of God to rescue so considerable a part of the Creation out of the paw of that roaring Lyon who thought to have devoured it and to make the wicked malice of Satan contrary to his Expectation tend to the increasing not only of his own Misery but of Man's Felicity Lastly the deplorable Condition of fallen Man required that this Price should be paid for his Redemption and certainly it was none of the least Motives that induced God to lay it down Our Saviour himself seems to intimate that it was the chief For saith he God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life
Secondly That he should make an atonement for our Sins and satisfie the Justice of God incensed against us by our Disobedience And thirdly That he should assist and defend us against all the attempts of our spiritual Enemies and furnish us with means sufficient for the working out our Salvation And accordingly we find him represented in the Scriptures of the Old Testament sometimes as a Prophet that should in a more eminent manner than any that ever were before or shall be after him publish and declare the Will of God This God himself foretold unto Moses and by him unto all Israel Deut. 18.18 I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren like unto thee and will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my Name I will require it of him Sometimes we find him represented as a Priest that should make an atonement for the Sins of his People So Psal 110.4 The Lord hath sworn and will not repent thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedeck And wherein his priestly Office chiefly consisted the Prophet Isaiah informs us chap. 53. He was to pour out his soul unto death to be an offering for sin to be numbred with the transgressours to bear the sin of many and to make intercession for the transgressours And sometimes we find him to be represented as a King reigning with soveraign Power and Authority in a Kingdom that should have no end So Psal 2.6 8. Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Sion Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession Thus it was necessary that the Messias should be qualified in order to the accomplishing the great Work of our Redemption Since by Nature we are utterly ignorant of the Will of God and destitute of all saving Knowledge it was necessary that he should be a Prophet sent from Heaven to reveal it unto us Since by Sin we were become Enemies unto God it was necessary that he should be a Priest to make Reconciliation and Intercession for us And since we were to engage in a dangerous War to fight against Principalities and Powers Adversaries far stronger and mightier than our selves that with all their force continually withstand us in our way to Heaven and that had already enslaved us all under their accursed Tyranny by the Dis-obedience of our first Parents it was necessary that he should be a mighty King endued with Power from on high to assert our Liberty and to subdue and discomfit our Enemies before us All these Qualifications I say were necessarily required in the Messias and all are expresly ascribed unto him in the Old Testament Now that our blessed Saviour did come into the World for this very end for which the Prophets foretold that the Messias should come and that he was most eminently qualified in the same manner as they foretold he should be is most clearly evident in the account which the holy Evangelists and Writers of the New Testament have given us of him First he came for that very end for which the Messias was to come which as the Prophet Daniel speaks was to finish the transgression and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity and to bring in everlasting righteousness which is the same in effect which the Apostle saith here in my Text To redeem them that were under the law that we might receive the adoption of sons That this was the end of our Saviour's coming not only my Text but almost every page of the New Testament assures us The son of man saith our Saviour of himself is come to seek and to save that which was lost Luk. 19.10 and Matth. 20.28 The son of man came not to be ministred unto but to minister and to give his life a ransome for many There is one God and one Mediator between God and men the man Christ Jesus who gave himself a ransome for all to be testified in due time 1 Tim. 2.5 6. I need not insist any more upon this Point than which nothing is more evident in all the Scriptures For this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners The end of all his Sermons of all his Miracles of his most holy Life and heavenly Doctrine of his most meritorious Death and Passion of his most glorious and triumphant Resurrection and Ascension into Heaven of his most gracious Mission of the Holy Ghost and of his continual Intercession for us at the right hand of God was that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works Thus ye see the end of our blessed Saviour's coming into the world is both by himself and his Apostles plainly declared to be the very same for which the Messias was to come But still this is not sufficient for one that was but an Impostor might impudently avouch himself to be the Messias and go about to perswade the world that he came for this very end But it was necessary that he that did come for it indeed and did truly accomplish it should bring with him as it were credential Letters from Heaven to assure the world that he was truly and really sent by God upon so great an Embassy And that he did do so is evident beyond all Contradiction in the Gospel All those eminent Offices which the Prophets in the Old Testament ascribe unto the Messias he undertook and performed to a tittle and was both a Prophet a Priest and a King in all respects incomparably beyond what ever the world either did or shall behold First he was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people His Doctrine was most Divine and Heavenly far surpassing what had been formerly delivered by Moses and the Prophets and agreeable to what they foretold should be delivered by the Messias Though it is most true that the Religion which was taught by Moses and the Prophets had God himself for its Author and therefore could not chuse but be good yet it is certain that it was a far more imperfect Revelation of the Divine Will than what was afterwards to be made by the Messias who was to establish a Religion unto which not only the Jews but all mankind should be obliged to submit or perish upon their refusal of it For the proof of this I might produce many places out of the Writings of the Prophets but the beginning of Isa 42. shall suffice for all Behold my servant whom I uphold mine elect in whom my soul delighteth I have put my spirit upon him he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles He shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his
Joh. 3.16 In the prosecution of this Point I might be very large for I should insist first upon that blessed Estate that Man enjoyed at his first Creation in innocence the Consideration of which would give us a truer prospect of that Misery which he afterwards brought upon himself by his disobedience for none can be so miserable as they that were once happy and lastly I should shew you how great Glory this price hath purchased for us which would appear likewise the greater after the sight of that Misery from which it hath redeemed us for rest is most welcome to the weary ease and liberty is by none so highly valued as by those persons that have been long detained in Bondage and Slavery and Joy and Happiness doubles its sweetness to them that have drunk deepest of sorrow But who is sufficient for these things How can we that are all conceived and born in Sin apprehend the Happiness of the state of Innocence Who is able to describe the horrour of the infernal Pit or to tell what it is to lie in Chains of darkness exiled for ever from the Divine Providence Who can ascend into the holy Hill of the Lord that he may give us an account of those Pleasures which are at God's right hand for evermore Even St. Paul himself tho' he was bred up at the feet of Gamaliel and abounded with Learning and Eloquence yet wanted words to tell us what he heard and saw when he was caught up into the third Heaven and could say no more of that wonderful Vision than that he heard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 words or things unutterable And in another place he tells us that eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him No these Subjects are all of them too great either for our tongue to express or for our thoughts to comprehend Let it suffice us then to know in short that whereas by Sin we had rendered our selves obnoxious to the greatest Misery that could possibly befal us had sold our selves to be Slaves and Vassals of Satan to be the most forlorn Objects of the eternal Scorn and Insolence and Cruelty of the Devil and his Angels God in his infinite Mercy hath been pleased by paying an inestimable price for our Ransome even the precious Blood of his only begotten Son to redeem us out of this Bondage into the glorious liberty of the children of God He hath bought our Bodies from the everlasting torment of those Flames which never shall be quenched and our Souls from the gnawing of that Worm which shall never die to be the Temples of his holy Spirit here and hereafter to be fellow-citizens with the saints and of the houshold of God in the heavenly Jerusalem We are bought with a price And hath God thus bought us with so invaluable a Price out of so dreadful Misery unto so unspeakable Felicity What returns then ought we to make unto him of praise and thanks for such infinite Mercy How can we chuse but stand astonished and break out into the Psalmists Exclamation Lord what is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him What was Man being in Honour when he was but a degree lower than the Angels that God should regard him above the rest of his Creatures that he should make him have dominion over the works of his hands and put all things under his feet But when through his own fault he fell into Dishonour and became like the Beasts that perish what was he then or what else could he expect but that God should cast him for ever out of his Presence as the filth of the Creation And when after all this he meets with Mercy instead of Vengeance when God himself becomes his Advocate instead of his Enemy and instead of condemning him to Hell sends his only begotten Son to purchase for him the adoption of Sons and to make him more than ever the Darling and Favourite of Heaven what Testimony of gratitude ought we to shew for so incomprehensible Love What can we say what can we do to this Preserver of men The Apostle tells us in the following words of my Text we must glorifie him Ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in your body and in your spirit which are Gods And so I pass from God's mercy to our Duty He hath bought us with a price we must therefore glorifie him How easie an acknowledgment of how great a Mercy What could God do more for us than he did and what could we offer to him even for the least of his Benefits less than what he requires of us for the greatest The slightest Favour that we receive from the bountiful hand of God surely most justly Challenges from us the Sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving and he requires no more of us when he hath given us the highest Demonstration of Love that ever he shewed to any of his Creatures when he hath redeemed us from the lowest Abyss of misery into which our Nature could sink unto the most glorious and unspeakable Felicity of which it could be capable and hath done all this by paying for our Ransome the richest and most precious Jewel that was to be found in all the Treasury of Heaven still he asks but the same thing of us that he did before viz. that we will glorifie him And is it possible that there should be any man found that can refuse to perform so reasonable and pleafant a Service as this to so great a Benefactor Is it possible that when the blessed Son of God hath for our Salvation shed his most precious Blood laid down his Life and poured out his righteous soul unto death and made it an offering for our sins we should after all this think much to offer unto him the calves of our lips and refuse to sing an Hymn of praise to our Redeemer saying with the Saints in the Revelation Salvation and glory and honour and power unto the Lord our God Yes it is so possible that this black Ingratitude should be found amongst us that the greatest part of Mankind are guilty of it How many thousands are there amongst the Sons of men that instead of glorifying God in their body and in their spirit even in the very face of the glorious light of the Gospel that shines about them against all the strength of Reason the universal Consent of Mankind in all Ages and the secret Reluctancies and dreadful Checks of their own Consciences impudently deny both the being of God and the immortality of their own Souls How many thousands are there more who though they own the name of Christians and acknowledge one eternal and omnipotent God yet instead of glorifying God because they are bought with a price against the express words of the Apostle in my Text and the concurrent Sense and Harmony of the whole
and Blood and the Gate that must admit him into those Mansions of Glory is exceeding strait and he must strive hard if he will enter in at it Thus ye see in general that the Righteous shall scarcely be saved that is it shall cost him much Labour and Sweat and Pains to work out his Salvation and through much Tribulation through many and great Troubles and Afflictions through many amazing Difficulties and affrighting Dangers he shall at the last enter into the Kingdom of Heaven and receive a Crown of Glory And this will appear more plainly if we consider distinctly these several Difficulties which he hath to encounter in his way to Heaven And these are First his own natural Corruptions The best and holiest of Men our Blessed Saviour only excepted who was sanctified from the Womb are all conceived and born in Sin By one Man saith St. Paul Sin entred into the World and Death by Sin and so Death passed upon all Men for that all have sinned Rom. 5.12 And this Original Sin as it is generally stiled by Divines which the Righteous themselves even the best of God's Saints as well as other Men bring into the World with them deriving it from Adam by a wonderful but certain Propagation is of a spreading and infectious Nature as dangerous and deadly to the Soul if it be not carefully subdued and mortified as Leprosie to the Body It is ever active and stirring labouring and struggling continually to get the Mastery over the Soul that so it may break out into open and actual Transgressions And too often it doth so even in good Men and prevails sometimes over the most pious and devoutest Christians This was that which moved David to commit Adultery and Murder This was that which shook the Constancy of Peter and made him so timorously and basely to deny his Master And this is that which causes so many Weaknesses and Failings in all the Saints of God so that there is not a just Man upon Earth that doth good and sins not but in every Man there is a Law in his Members warring against the Law of his Mind and bringing him into Captivity to the Law of Sin which is in his Members Rom. 7.23 In every Man as the same Apostle speaks Gal. 5.17 The Flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh and these two are contrary the one to the other so that by means of this intestine War within him it comes to pass often times that he cannot do the things that he would Even the Heathen Philosophers did observe and complain of though they knew not the Cause of this strange Depravation of humane Nature Plato tells us that Men are by Nature wicked and cannot be perswaded to do that which is right and that the two great and principal Diseases of the Soul are Ignorance and Vice And to the same Effect Tully observes that Nature is to Man a Stepmother that brings him into the World with a naked Body feeble and helpless and with a Soul throughout the whole Course of his Life sorrowful and distracted with Multiplicity of Cares and Troubles tormented with Fears tired with Labour and prone to Lust wherein the Divine Light Wit and good Manners are as it were overwhelmed and stifled This sad Condition which all Mankind is in by Nature I say the wiser Sort even amongst the Heathen amidst the gross Darkness of Paganism and Idolatry had some little Knowledge of though they were utterly ignorant of the true Cause and Reason of it And therefore they made it their chief Care and Business by their Learning and Philosophy according to the best of their Power to correct and amend it But unto us Christians God hath unlocked this Secret and hath fully discovered this great and hidden Mystery which all the Learning of the profoundest Heathen Philosophers was not able to search out In the lively Oracles of the Holy Scriptures he hath fully explained unto us both the Cause and Danger and Remedy of this Corruption of our Nature In that Sacred Book we have it represented to us under divers Names and Characters all of them foul and abominable like it self This is that which Rom. 7.17 St. Paul calls the Sin that dwells in us Because since the Fall of our First Parents it is become natural and hereditary to us and never leaves us nor forsakes us in this World but abides continually in our Flesh even unto Death whence in the same Chapter it is called the Evil that is present with us and Hebr. 12.1 the Sin which doth so easily beset us because it cleaves to us so closely and inseparably and with so much Force and Violence presses and besieges all the Strength and Powers of our Soul The word in the Original is very Elegant and Emphatical and but once used in all the New Testament 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Sin which doth so easily beset us that Sin which doth as it were hug and embrace us and is continually insinuating and winding it self like a Serpent into our Hearts with a Design to deceive and beguile us This is that which ver 15. of the same Chapter is called a Root of Bitterness springing up to trouble us because it is ever plentiful in producing evil Branches and corrupt and deadly Fruit. This is that which by St. James is called the Lusts that war in our Members James 4.1 and by St. Peter the fleshly Lusts which war against the Soul 1 Pet. 2.11 St. Paul calls it the old Man and the Body of Sin Rom. 6 6. And what the Members of that Body are he tells us Coloss 3.5 Fornication Uncleanness inordinate Affection evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry Thus ye see the first Difficulty that the Righteous Man hath to encounter within his way to Heaven which renders that way so troublesome to him that notwithstanding all his Courage and Resolution he cannot walk in it without great Pains and Labour He carries a most unwelcome and heavy Clog about him from which he cannot possibly disengage himself which continually pulls him back and hinders and retards his Soul in its Flight towards those glorious Mansions of Joy and Happiness towards which it doth so eagerly press forward And had he no other Enemies but this one to vanquish even this alone might be sufficient to satisfie us that he shall scarcely be saved since it is most certain that he never shall be saved at all except he do overcome this first Enemy of his Salvation which of all others is the most formidable One deceitful Dalilab was worse to Samson than all the Philistines and this one innate intestine Foe of ours which lies continually in our Bosom is more dangerous to us than either the World or the Devil both which join their Forces together with this to bring us to Destruction And could we as we have all solemnly promised and engaged to do in our Baptismal Vow renounce all the sinfull Lusts