lighter skirmishes for having emptied himself of his glory so that he did not appear to be that which indeed he was and subjected himself to the state of a servant and so a meet object of suffering he became a man of sorrows all his life long Isa 53.3 compassed about with infirmity Heb. 5.2 as soon as he was born he was laid in a manger because there was no room for him in the Inne while he was very young he was persecuted and forced to flie into Aegypt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was tempted of Sathan Quod illud dictum civium satis arguit Usser Annal. per poster p. 552. he wrought for his living at the trade of his reputed father as it is more than probable by that speech of the Mazarenes Mar. 6.3 Is not this the carpenter c He was the object of mans reproach he was called a wine-bibber a friend of publicans and sinners an enemy to Caesar one that hath a devil he was subject to the infirmities which are incident to mankind as hunger thirst poverty he was betrayed by Judas forsaken by his disciples abused by the Jews mocked buffetted spit upon crowned with thorns accused arraigned condemned as the vilest malefactor In one word he was a worm and no man Psal 22.6 2. The main brunt it self was that he was struck with death The Sacrifice in the Law was to be slain the goat which was to be offered for a sin-offering for the people must be killed and the blood of it must be brought within the veil Lev. 16.15 The same courses as to killing was to be taken with the burnt-offering peace-offering and trespass-offering as we may see in the 1 3 5 6 7. chapters of Leviticus So it was prophesied Isa 53.12 he poured out his soul unto the death and elsewhere often Now this death which Christ did undergo was both of the body and soul 1. He suffered the death of the body called the first death this Gabriel the Angel revealed to the Prophet Daniel some 1006 years before Dan. 9.26 the Messiah shall be cut off the accomplishment whereof the stories of the Evangelists relate very largely Isa 53.8 Acts 8.33 his life is taken from the earth We by sin had deserved the first death the taking down of this earthly frame by the separation of the soul and body therefore Christ our surety must die that death for us the particular end of death which he should and did suffer was the death of the cross which was so designed and ordered by the all-wise counsel and providence of God both because it was very painfull and grievous and also because it was a most shamefull and ignominious death but especially because it was even by divine appointment stigmatized with this brand of infamy that whosoever was hanged on a tree was to be accounted ceremonially accursed as it is avouched in the close of the verse It was not necessary that he should suffer all the several sorts of death as stoning burning sawing beheading c. it was sufficient that he suffered that one kind of death which the wisdom of God saw to be most fit and suitable neither yet was it necessary that his death should be attended with such cruelties as some men have been enforced to suffer as pulling the flesh from the bone pinching it with hot pincers and the like These are rather personal than natural and meerly accidental not essential to the first death Therefore the legs of Christ were not broken and although his body was laid in the grave yet he saw no corruption because these infirmities did not consist with the dignity of his person and the latter would have made void the fruit and effect of his sufferings Therefore the Scripture declares both these to be contrary to Gods will See Jo. 19 33-36 Acts 2.31 2. He suffered the death of the soul or that which is called the second death Sin brought death into the world not onely that death which pulls down this earthly frame but also that which makes a wofull separation of the whole man from God Therefore the Lord Jesus must undergo this death too Isa 53.10 he made his soul an offering for sin And this death stood in these two things 1. There was a stoppage or withdrawing of the sense of his fathers love and favour from his soul This he complains of as a forsaking Psal 22.1 and it answers to that poena damni punishment of loss which we should suffer But we must understand this to be done in such manner and measure as becomes the person suffering 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it was not a pulling the Godhead from the manhood this union continued entire all the time of his sufferings and shall do to all eternity Neither was it a deprival of the spirit wherewith his humane nature was filled even from the womb that did still abide in him and shall never be taken away from him according to that precious promise Isa 59.21 which I conceive must be fulfilled first in him and then in his seed with him Neither was it a total or perpetual withdrawing but onely in part and for a time the Lord turned away his face from him for a little season he hid himself out of his sight and would not be found he took off the sweet influence of the joy and comfort of the spirit suspending them for a time and keeping off from him at a great distance Psal 22.1 yet all this while God was present with him by his supporting grace so that he had some intermissions and an Angel came to comfort him Luke 22.43 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and he was heard in that he feared Hâ—b 5.7 or he was heard from his feare that is he was heard and delivered 2. There was a letting out and seizing of the Lords wrath and indignation upon his soul God did put into his hand a cup of the red wine of his wrath full of the mixture of the bitterest ingredients and he drank it off This answers to that pâ—na sensus punishment of pain which we should suffer All the waves of Gods displeasure went over his head See Psalm 18.4 5. 88.6 7 16 17. This supernatural death he suffered in both the kinds before mentioned first in the garden and after that on the cross In the garden Mat. 26.36 John 18.1 there the wrath of God did encounter him and he was put to grapple with it hand to hand he bare three several storms one after another and so took a deep draught of this bitter cup. The manner of it is described by sundry expressions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mark 14.33 he began to be sore amazed which notes a dreadfull astonishment arising from a sudden commotion of all the powers of his soul together and to be very heavie that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be surprized and possessed with a very great and pressing anguish of spirit through the unspeakable horrour of divine
a sufficient and satisfactory price unto God for the party Redeemed 1 Cor. 6.20 Therefore we are said to be bought with a price And this Price is called a ransome price Matt. 20.28 A price to ransome us out of our spirituall captivity Matt. 20.28 and it is said to be laied down 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now the preposition 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as learned men know signifieth a substitution and Surrogation of one in the roome of another As Matt. 2.22 Archelaus is said for to raign 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the roome of Herod Adde further That this Price which Christ laid down for our Redemption is called not onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Counter-prise or a price correspondent and answerable 1 Tim. 2.6 to the debt it is paid for It was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If any shall ask what this price was Saint Peter tells us 1 Pet. 1.19 Act. 20.28 It was the most pretious bloud of Christ and Saint Paul tells us It was the Bloud of God It is called the Bloud of God because shed in his humane nature by him whose Person was God blessed for evermore Rom. 9.5 and hereby it came to have an infinite virtue and efficacy in it Ex infinita Personae dignitate infinitum erat pretium sanguinis et carnis quam pro nobis obtulit Hence it was that the Bloud of one man became sufficient to Redeem all beleevers and the Bloud shed in a little space able to satisfy for sins which deserved eternall punishment because the Person that suffred was God as well as man All this and much more which might be added doth clearly prove That Jesus Christ hath made Satisfaction to God for the Sins of all who beleeve in him This great and fundamentall truth is very pithily soundly Orthodoxly practically and profitably handled in this ensuing Treatise It is written by a grave ancient and religious Minister of very good repute amongst the Godly in Yorkshire A Master-builder in Gods House If any shall not relish and taste the sweetness of it he will thereby make it appear that his Palate is much out of tune For to a real Christian it must needs be very welcom Let not our ignorance of the Author hinder us from buying and reading of it but let us consider that it is recommended to us by one who well knowes him Mr. Edw. Bowles Mininster at York and who is well-known to the world and in whose judgment we may safely confide The subject matter of this discourse is to shew how Jesus Christ who is the fountain of all blessedness volutarily submitted himself to be made a curse not onely accursed but a curse to Redeem us from the curse of the Law due to our sins And that this may not seem a riddle or a Paradox you must know that Christ Jesus may be considered 2 wayes 1. As he was the Sonne of God 1 Pet. 2.24 2. As our surety bearing our sins in his body upon the Cross In the first respect he was alwaies the well-beloved Sonne of God in whome he is well-pleased But as he was our Representative in this respect he underwent the wrath of God and the curse of the law due to us not due to him simply Mâ—tt 3.17 but due to us and born by him as our surety The hatred was against us and our sins God never hated his Sonne But yet as he stood in our stead and was made sin for us who knew no sin he suffered the effects of Gods hatred even the puishment due to our sins 2 Cor. 5.21 And whereas the Socinians and those who are against Christs Soule-sufferings say That Christ is therefore onely said to be made a curse because he suffred the bodily death of the Cross which by the law was a cursed way of dying and this they say is evident by what the Apostle addes in the latter end of the curse for it is written Gal 3.13 Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree This is notoriously false as appears 1. Because that curse which Christ redeemed us from that curse Christ was made or else the Apostle had not reasoned soundly in saying Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us That curse which Christ redeemed us from that curse he was made But Christ redeemed us from the corporal spiritual and eternal curse And therefore such a curse he was made secundum aequipollentiam though not secundum omnimodam Identitatem Jesus Christ for our sins suffered so much of the curse of the law as was possible D. Willet and necessary for him to suffer And as a learned man saith he suffred all such pains of hell which were neither dishonourable to his person nor defiling to his nature nor obstructive to the works of Redemption 2. The bodily death of Christ upon the Cross is brought in by the Apostle as one very well saith not as the formal reason of the Curse Calovâ—us in his Socinismus profligatus but onely as a signe and declaration of it The Curse did not precisely consist in the death of the cross neither were they that were hung upon a Tree therefore accursed because hung upon a Tree but the hanging on the Tree was a signe they were accursed as Hierome excellently Hier. upon Galat. 3.13 Non quicunque pependerit in ligno maledictus coram Deo sed qui propter scoelus suspensus Not every one that hangeth on a Tree is cursed of God but he that hangeth there for his sinne If Haman had prevailed for the hanging of innocent Mordecah upon the gallowes he should not have stood accursed Wherefore it was not the death of the Cross but our sinnes hanging upon the Cross that derived this curse upon Christ. This is evident by the very words of Moses quoted by the Apostle Deut. 21.22 23. If a man hath committed a sinne worthy of death and he be to be put to death and thou hang him on a Tree his body shall not remain c. By which words it appeares That it was not so much the kinde of death as the desert of death which made it ignominious It was our sinnes hanging with Christ upon the Cross which made the same an accursed death Adde what Moses saith Deut. 21.23 He that is hanged is accursed of God But now no death is in it self more ignominious then another before God 3. The shame thereof is external and concerneth men Ergo the Curse was not onely nor especially in the shamefulness of the death The ordinary gloss thus noteth upon the words Non est hoc in contumelia Domini quid mirum si maledictus dicitur a Deo qui habet in se quod Deus odit id est peccatum This redoundeth not to the reproach of God for what marveil if he be said to be accursed of God in 3 Gal. that
imputing of righteousness go together as it appears by the Apostles explication of the Prophet David's meaning Psal 32.1 2. Romans 4.6 7 8. God sees no iniquitie in Jacob and when the sins of Judah are sought for they shall not be found Jer. 50.20 understand this not in regard of the inordinacie and blameableness of the acts nor yet simply in reference to the just desert of sin considered in it self for these are of the very nature of sin and cannot be separated from it but in respect of the particular guilt and punishment of those persons which being taken away they do thereupon stand right in the Court of heaven We see it here in Courts below if nothing come in against a man if there be no accuser he is quit and stands as innocent in point of Law as if he had not been questioned So when Christ hath by his satisfaction disabled the Law from giving in any evidence against the poor sinner he then is absolved and stands clear before the great Judg when the Lord hath found a ransome then he doth not onely say Deliver the sinner but he shews unto him his uprightness that is he makes him partaker of the righteousness of Christ Iob 33.23 24. c. and so looks upon him as righteous through his satisfaction This was one end why the Lord made Christ sin for us 2 Cor. 5 21. Let the poor convinced soul take notice of this also Thou feelest much guilt on the spirit thou groanest under it and fearest damnation but here is thine acquittance When the poor woman's accusers were slunk away Christ said to her Woman hath no man condemned thee neither do I John 8.10 11. so saith the Lord to thee See poor soul the Law saith nothing against thee the mouth of thine accusers are stopp'd none can condemn thee neither will I yea thou mayest make the same challenge that the Apostle make's Who shall lay any thing to my charge God justifies c. Rom. 8.33 34. Sect. 3. Other four benefits flowing from Redemption 4. Adoption by Creation we were the sons of God we bare his image as a son bears the image of his father Luke 3.38 but yielding to Sathan's temptation and affecting a new fancied Divinity we fell from God lost the title and dignitie of sons forfeited all our birth-right and made our selves no better then the bratts of hell But the son of God manifested in the flesh hath not onely washed off our sin in the guilt and curse due to us but hath restored us to the dignity of children This was one of those high ends which the Lord had in his eye when he sent him in that humbled posture to redeem us it was that we might receive the adoption of sonnes Gal. 4.4 5. The Apostle Paul reckoning up eight several honours which God had conferred upon the people of the Jews wherein they excelled all other nations he sett's adoption first as the most eminent Rom. 9.4 according to that Exod. 4.22 Israel is my son even my first born This being but an external dignity to continue for a time till the partition wall should be broken down was a shadow and resemblance of that Gospel-honour which we have by the work of Redemption even the right or dignity to be the sons of God Jo. 1.12 the Congregation of the first born Heb. 12.23 and if children then heirs yea joint heirs with Christ Rom. 8.17 for being now in Christ and made partakers of his righteousness we have fellowship also with him in his Sonship Gal. 3.26 This is a fruit of the abundant grace of Christ and an high advance of the work of Redemption applied If the Lord be pleased to have pity on base runagate prodigalls he might have bought us out into the condition of hired servants that had been favour far beyond expectation But to adopt us into his family Luk. 15.19 22 23. Dignitas quaedam sablimis Ames to kill the fatted calf for us to put upon us the best robe to set us at his table and to grace us with the honour of sonnes yea heirs of God a better estate than Adam lost what an high dignity is this behold what manner of Love the Father hath bestowed on us and admire it 1 Jo. 3.1 2. Indeed it doth not yet appear what we shall be our happiness lyes under a cloud vailed from the eyes of the world and in a great part from our selves also but yet we are even here the Lord's first born and the glory of this condition shall one day be revealed in despite of hell and the world Judge not your selves miserable because your neighbours so account you but know that your Redeemer hath purchased your enfranchisement and now the Lord takes you for his sonnes and daughters never to be disinherited or cast out any more 5. Sanctification The first Adam having wantonly engaged in a rebellion against his Maker did thereby not onely implunge himself and all his into the gulf of Gods curse but also forfeit that matchless Jewel of his Image which was infinitely too good to be prosticuted to his inordinate lust Whence followes a wofull change in our natures by a depravation of the whole frame of our soules in all the powers of them and making us like unto Sathan So that now we are every way dead as to our spiritual estate both by sin in the loss of God's favour which is better then life and in sin by the loss of that conformity to him which once we enjoyed But our great redeemer frees us from this death also by Sanctification This was one end of Christs giving himself for the Church that he might sanctifie and cleanse it Eph. 5.25 26. his death hath a soveraign vertue to work the death of sin as his life hath to work the life of righteousness Rom. 6.4 5 6. He is made of God to us Sanctification 1 Cor. 1.30 and now as there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ so they are set free from the Law of sin and death by that law of the spirit of life which is in Christ and all this ariseth from God's sending him to condemn sin in the flesh Rom. 8.1 2 3. Christ was put to death in the flesh and for a requital he puts to death the flesh that is the body of sin in us The law laid the Curse upon him and he having borne it turn's it upon the Law of sin which is in our members and blasts that rotten stump saying to it as once he said to the unprofitable fig-tree Let no fruit grow on thee henceforth for ever Matth. 21.19 and seting a new plant of holiness in the soul to bring forth fruit unto God Indeed we see it not yet fully done but the Curse is gone out against the old man and he is wasting and shall be utterly destroyed in time Let the Lords people see their happiness in this also Poor soul thou cryest out unclean unclean I
26.70 c. yet the Lord Jesus passed by all these provocations and he became both a witness of his sufferings and a partaker of the glory to be revealed Acts 13.9 1 Pet. 5.1 Saul who was also called Paul did not onely reject Christ and the tender of Salvation by him but also was injurious a persecuter a blasphemer plaid the mad man against the Saints and compelled them to blaspeme Might not Paul have despaired of favour and said surely God will plead the cause of his Justice against me he will never put up such high affronts against mercie But we hear no such language No the grace of our Lord saith he was exceeding abundant c. 1 Tim. 1.13 14. Herein he was set for a pattern to us 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 16. Let the same minde be in us 2. For the latter The converted soule who is actually made partaker of the grace of Redemption and all his scores cleared as to his estate of unregeneracy yet even he may see matter of discomfort by reason of 〈◊〉 1. It s presence or in dwelling Oh saith the Godly soul I feel a lump of sinne still â—â—â—â—ing in me there is a troublesome Inmate that still hampers me a continual dropping 〈◊〉 â—oâ—ome-enemy which besets and clogs 〈◊〉 wofully it is as near me as my very bowels I cannot be quiet for it if I lie down or if I rise up if I go forth or if I come in it is still about me In the business and imployments of my ordinary calling it't ' puting in an oar and in performance of Religious duties but it act's with all its might raising up oftentimes such base passions and lusts as like a malignant East-winde are ready to blast my best fruits Oh sad complaint But pause a while and take one thing with another Thou thinkest thou art still under the Curse while the case is thus with thee but it is not so The great designe of thy Redeemer in destroying sinne and delivering thee from it doth not take place fully whilest thou art in this mortality His meaning was not to remove it wholly out of thy soul so as no footstep of it should remain but onely to take away the sting and deadly ruining power of it for the present The total abolishing of it must be a gradual work not to be perfected till thou shalt put on incorruption Thy happiness here stands not in the not having sin but in the Lords not imputing of sin through the satisfaction of Christ It is the wisedome of our heavenly Father thus to exercise those whom he prepares to be vessels of mercy He will have their remaining time here to be a warfare that they may know the fellowship of Christs sufferings He was burthened with thy sin and could not be rid of it till death thou must be conformed to thine head and make account it will be thy neighbour while thou art in the body But remember that while thou art yoked with this body of sin and groaning under it thy Redeemer hath compassion on thee If the Canaanite be in the Land he will be a thorn in Israels side yet he shall not prevail Holy Paul had a law in his members which led him captive to the law of sin and made him cry out Oh miserable man yet even then he can thank God in the view of full deliverance by Christ Rom. 7.21 23 c. Thine head is now conforming thee to himselfe and will not cease till hee hath wrought out thy victory with triumph 2 It is prevalency or domineering Oh! if I had it under I could have some ground of comfort but alas it is exceeding masterful it doth not onely lead but hold me captive Oh! how doth sin rage within me Strong lusts like the Anakims If there be any grace in me any thing of the new man it is but as a grashopper in comparison of a Gyant One cryes out of the lust of the flesh which soon kindles and gets up into a flame of inclination to bodily uncleanness Another of the lust of the eyes in too eager desires after the world A third of pride of life in ambitious aspirings after great things A fourth of rash anger which bears him down as with the stream and puts him upon unseemly language and carriage And although I pray and strive against my lust saith the Christian yet it still ever and anon gets the upper hand I have been overtaken with a gross sin I have fallen into it again and again yea I have sinned willingly against knowledge and with delight I fear I shall one day perish by the hand of sin But stay a while and hearken what the Lord will speak to thee It is a sad thing that Christs free-man should be so hankled in a snare and so trampled under the feet of a masterful lust and more sad if he should lay under the power and command of a gross sin in the actual committing of it yet there is hope in Israel concerning this Onely take notice that I have no designe to bolster up the sinner in his way of inquity my endeavour is to speak peace to the disconsolate Saint I say then thou art not alone poor soul others of the Lords people have been and may be in this very condition Noah foulely overcome with wine yet commended by God himself to be a righteous man Sampson intangled in the love of one Harlot after another yet numbred among those which by faith obtained a good report David deeply implunged into those two gross sinnes Adultery and murder and abiding under the guilt of them a long time yet who among all the Lords Worthies registred in Scripture was comparable to him There were sacrifices in the Law for sins against knowledge as well as sins of ignorance A man that was grievously infected with the Leprosie Levit. 6.1 2 6 7. Levit. 13. â— 14 4 c. had means of cleansing at hand as well as he that was defiled with ordinary uncleanness The blood of the Redeemer can purge all sorts of sins and therefore the mercy of God doth reach out to pardon all Exod. 34.7 Is thy sin in too great power Remember that Christ crucified is the power of God he will break the head of Leviathan he came to destroy the works of the Devil 1 Joh. 3.8 Hast thou sinned willingly and with delight Jesus Christ delighted to do his Fathers will Ps 40.8 he suffered willingly for thy sin The Lord sometimes gives lust and sin leave to rage and master his servants for a season but it shall not totally prevail Although thy corruptions be as the sons of Zeruiah to David too hard for thee yet if the bent of thy soul bee against them if thou fightest against them with the heart of an enemy thou shalt at last bee conquerour over them through the Cross of Christ See the promise Rom. 6.14 3 The advantage which Justice might get against him by
of the thing Page 109 The Doctrine 1. Cleared by shewing what Redemption is name and thing ib. 2. Confirmed by Scripture-grounds ib. 1. The fitness of the person to undertake being true God and true man Page 114 2. The efficaciousness of his sufferings Page 116 Whereby he hath 1. given abundant satisfaction to justice ib. 2. broken the Serpents head c. Page 118 An Objection If by Ransome then not by Rescue Answered by 3 Considerations in reference to 3 persons with whom the Redeemer had to deal Page 120 1. God the soveraign Lawgiver being wronged by man's sinne the chief thing to be done was to satisfie Justice by paying of a Ransome ib. 2. Sathan into whose hands man is delivered to be his Jailour or executioner being man's deadly enemy doth oppose his deliverance and holds him captive still therefore he must be rescued by conquest Page 122 3. Man's slavery is voluntary in respect of himself and his heart is averse from deliverance therefore the Redeemer must put forth an Almighty power to subdue him and make him willing to accept of liberty Page 125 Another Objection It might have been done in an easier way answered Page 126 1. This was the good pleasure of his will ibid. 2. Most agreeable to his holy nature 1. Sutable to his soveraign ends and setting forth the glory of his 1. Justice 2. Truth 3. Wisdome 4. Goodness Page 127 CHAP. V. 1. USE Confutation of enemies to this grace Page 131 1. Papists which adde several parcels to make up the price of Redemption Page 132 2. Socinians which teach that Christ's becoming a curse for us was not for satisfaction but onely for an example of imitation Page 134. CHAP. VI. 2. INformation in sundry branches Page 143 1. The love of God and Christ is unspeakable ib. 2. The work Redemption is a very costly peice Page 144 3. The grace of the Gospel is very precious Page 145 4. God will have a Church Page 146 5. The Church is very dear to Jesus Christ Page 148 6. The condition of the invisible Church is incomparably happy discovered Page 149 1. In three excellent properties of Redemption It s 1. Free and gracious ibid. 2. Full and plenteous Page 150 3. Eternal and without period Page 151 2. In rare spiritual benefits which flow from it Page 153 154 155 4. Adoption Page 160 5. Sanctification Page 162 6. Final Redemption Page 163 7. Full Glorification Page 166 3. In seven precious priviledges attending on Redemption Page 169 1. It makes us truly blessed Page 170 2. And the Lords peculiar people Page 171 3. The Redeemer is at Gods right hand carrying on the work Page 172 4. He hath purchased the gift of the Spirit to bestow on the elect Page 175 5. By personal interest in it we become the Lords free-men Page 177 6. All the promises are ours Page 179 7. We have a special interest in Gods providence Page 181 Four priviledges more common Page 186 1. Redemption opens a sluce for the waters of life to run among the Gentiles ibid. 2. It is the foundation of the general Covenant made with mankinde Page 187 3. By the merit and vertue of it the Jewes shall be called Page 189 4. It overflows to the bettering of the whole Creation Page 190 CHAP. VII 3. COnsolation against the annoyances Page 193 1. Of sin 1. In our old estate ibid. 1. The hainousness Page 196 2. Multitude ibid. 3. Long continuance Page 196 4. Advantage by neglecting the offer of grace Page 197 2. In our new condition Page 200 1. It s presence ibid. 2. It s prevalence Page 212 3. Advantage by frequent neglects and swarvings Page 214 2. Of terrors by new guilt Page 216 3. Of cursing and reproaches Page 208 4. Of temporal afflictions especially Page 209 1. Persecutions for righteousnes Page 211 2. Sufferings in innocency Page 212 3. Punishments for sin Page 213 Quest Whether the evils which the Redeemed suffer may properly bee called curses answered by a distinction Page 214 CHAP. VIII 4. EXamination Actual interest in Redemption tried by sundry evidences Page 216 1. Dear love of the Redeemer which is incorrupt if it be 1. Single Page 217 2. Superlative Page 219 3. Invincible Page 220 4. Accompanied with self-jealousie Page 222 2. Weariness under the bondage of sin past and present Page 224 3. Sincere resolution and actual endeavour to abandon all sin Page 227 4. Separation from the world c. Page 229 5. Walking after the Spirit Page 230 6. Purity of heart and life Page 233 CHAP. IX 5. EXhortation 1. To sensless sinners which lye secure under their slavery Page 235 Advice in five particulars ibid. 1 Give way to the Law to convince you ibid. 2. Resolve not to abide in this condition but take counsel from Gods Ministers Page 238 3. Fall down before the Lord in an humble and full confession Page 239 4. Still take notice of this Ransom and of the feaseableness of deliverance by it study it and bee affected with it Page 241 5. Walk in the way which God hath limited forgetting an actual share in it Page 242 Which is 1. Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ 2. Repentance from dead works Page 243 Motives to set upon this way Page 245 1. No possibility of deliverance in any other way Page 247 2. Else Christ will glorifie his justice in leaving thee a prisoner to the Curse for ever Page 248 3. Now the Lord offers this mercy in the Ministry by his Spirit Page 249 4. The welfare and comfort of Gods Ministers depends much upon this ibid. CHAP. X. 2. TO sensible sinners which are burdened with the Curse Page 251 Counsel to thee in three particulars Page 252 1. Ponder the weight and strength of this great design ibid. 2. Continue instant in prayer Page 253 254 3. Learn self-denial abandoning thine own wisdome sense c. Page 255 5. Objections of an humbled soul Page 256 1. I know not whether I be redeemed or not 2. Christ never meant to redeem all Page 257 3. Onely the Elect are redeemed but I know not that I am elected Page 264 4. I have neglected so long that my day is past ibid. 5. I do not see that it is my way thus to beleeve I do not I cannot beleeve Page 267 All these answered severally Page 269 10. Encouragements to accept of Redemption Page 273 1. The name of God is most sweet ibid. 2. It is a clause in the Mediators Commission that he shall proclaim liberty ibid. 3. The termes are reasonable and easie Page 274 4. Faith engageth Christ to relieve a soul in extremity Page 275 5. This is the way to self-abasement Page 276 6. And to exalt Jesus Christ Page 277 7. It s the best part of thy thankfulness Page 278 8. And the most commendable self-love ibid. 9. A blessed thing to beleeve when all things perswade the contrary Page 279 10. Thousands of captive sinners have gone this way
stroak of that curse which of right belongs to us so that it lies not now any longer on the backs of poor sinners but on him for them and in their stead therefore he is called a surety Heb. 7.22 the surety stands in the room of a debtor malefactor or him that is any way obnoxious to the Law such is Adam and all his posterity we are by the doom of the Law evil doers transgressors and upon that score we stand indebted to the justice of God and lie vnder the stroke of his wrath Now the Lord Jesus seeing us in this condition he steps in and stands between us and the blow yea he takes this wrath and curse off from us unto himself he stands not onely or meerly after the manner of a surety among men in the case of debt for here the surety indeed enters bond with the principal for the payment of the debt but yet he expects that the debtor should not put him to it but that he should discharge the debt himself he onely stands as a back-set of good security No Christ Jesus doth not expect that we should pay the debt our selves but he takes it wholly to himself as a surety for a murtherer or traitor or some other notorious malefactor that hath broken prison and is run away he lies by it body for body state for state and undergoes whatsoever the malefactor is chargeable withall for satisfying the Law even so the Lord Jesus stands surety for us runnagate malefactors making himself liable to all that curse which belongs to us that he might both answer the Law fully and bring us back again to God As the first Adam stood in the room of all mankind fallen 1 Pet. 3.18 so Christ the second Adam stands in the room of all mankind which is to be restored he sustains the person of all those which do spiritually descend from him and unto whom he beares the relation of an head But to open it yet more fully I conceive that to this making of him a curse for us these three things do concur 1. His taking upon him the nature of man which is both sinfull and accursed the children were partakers of flesh and blood and he also took part of the same Heb. 2.14 he came in the likeness of sinfull and therefore of accursed flesh Rom. 8.3 he took upon him the nature not of this or that particular man as Abraham David Peter or any other but the nature of mankind in general even that self-same nature that sinned and is therefore accursed It was not a similitude or shadow of flesh or a meer shew of being a man but truly really sensibly flesh or manhood as himself avouched to his Disciples after his resurrection bidding them handle him that they might be satisfied that it was not a spirit which they saw but the very same true body which he had before Luk. 24.39 The Word or second Person in Trinity took the nature of man into the unity of his person that it might dwell and have its subsistence in the Godhead onely John 1.14 2. The real imputation of our sin or the guilt of our sin to him Isa 53.6 He was made sin for us even he which knew no sin 2 Cor. 5.21 All the sins of the Elect were charged upon him both original and actual and he had them all by imputation without any inherence of sin in him at all he had no sin of his own neither of nature nor practice for he was conceived by the overshadowing of the Holy Ghost and so was born holy Luk. 1.35 And besides had the guilt but of one even the smallest personal sin been upon his soul it would have utterly disabled him from the work of his Mediatorship Heb. 7.26 yet he had the sins of others the sin of the world was laid at his door as if it had been his own he was numbred with the transgressors Mar. 15.28 Isaiah 53.12 Luk. 22.37 And thus the Lord looked upon him as a sinner upon our account If this had not been so how could either death have been justly inflicted upon him or his merit have been imputed unto us This must be Luthers meaning when he saith Christ was the greatest sinner he was Manasseh that Idolater David that adulterer Peter that denier of his Master c. to wit by imputation onely he being made sin for them as the Apostle speaks 3. An actuall undergoing and suffering the wrath of God and the fearful effects thereof in the punishments threatned in the law As he became a debtor and was so accounted even so he made payment thereof he was made a sacrifice for sin and bare to the full all that ever divine justice did or could require even the uttermost extent of the curse of the Law of God He must thus undergo the curse because he had taken upon him our sin The justice of the most high God revealed in the Law looks upon the Lord Jesus as a sinner because he hath undertaken for us and seizeth upon him accordingly pouring down on his head that curse and those punishments which are threatened in it against sin for the curse followeth sin as the shadow the body whether it be sin inherent or sin imputed even as the blessing follows righteousness whether it be righteousness inherent or righteousness imputed The Scripture is very clear and full in holding forth this as the main part of the curse it was prophesied of long before Isa 53.4 5. c. he was stricken or smitten and this striking was even unto wounding and this wounding was accompanied with bruising And because all our iniquities in the punishments of them met in him as all rivers in one sea all arrows in one butt all the Regiments of an Army in one place of rendezvous therefore he was oppressed for he was brought forth as a Lamb to the slaughter in his humiliation his judgment was taken away Acts 8.33 yea he was cut off from the Land of the living It was also fore-typified and represented by many sorts of Sacrifices in the Law 1 Cor. 5 7. All those Prophecies and types were accomplished in him he told his disciples often in the days of his flesh that he must suffer many things and so he did see Heb. 9.26 28. He hath appeared once in the end of the world to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself and He was once offered to bear the sins of many All this suffering is comprehended in that sentence Gen. 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thou shalt die this was the punishment which Divine Justice did award against sin therefore this he must suffer But because the main sâ—â—ess and as it were the very dregs of this bitter cup lies here it may be worth our labour to consider it a little more particularly and that 1. In the preparation thereunto 2. In the main brunt it self 1. There was a preparation to it by many smaller and
wrath And verse 34. he complains thus my soul is exceeding sorrowfull or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Crux anto crucem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 beset round with sorrow unto death So Luke comprehends all this in one word calling it an agony Luke 22.44 where he also describes it by the effects both that it put him upon more than ordinary vehemency and as it were more outstretchedness in prayer which the Apostle expresseth by strong crying and tears Hebr. 5.7 and also that it caused him to sweat as it were great drops of blood trickling downe to the ground 2. On the cross here was the main blow he bare our sins on the tree 1 Pet. 2.24 here the wrath of Almighty God lay on his soul in the whole weight of it Now the justice of God musters all his forces and gathers together all his regiments to fall upon Christ with his whole army as if he would rout him at once He descended into hell I mean not locally into the place of the damned for after death his body went down to the grave and was locally there for the space of three days and his soul went into paradice that is into heaven the place of bliss and glory as Luke 23.43 but onely virtually and effectively in that being Mediator and standing in our stead he did even while he was on the cross before he gave up the ghost undergo those hellish pains and sorrows in his soul which were due to us for sin The Lord took him and plunged him into the sea of his wrath all the waves and billows of it came rouling over his head and he sunk down into the very depths of death The Prophet Jonah being in the belly of the whale was a type of Christ both in his corporal and spiritual death therefore those things may truly be applied to his soul-sufferings which he complains of John 2.3 4 c. the extremity whereof forced him to cry out with a loud voice Why hast thou forsaken me Matth. 27.46 even as Jonah had said long before I am cast out of thy sight Jon. 2.4 To conclude this Christ on the cross hath the fury of the battel poured down upon him so that he bare the very heat and burden of it here he drank up the very dregs and bitterness of the cup even to the bottom Sect. 2. Some usefull observations tending to clear it further FRom all these particulars we may observe onely as by the way these three things 1. That the sufferings of Christ were not seeming and in shew onely but real and indeed 2. That the bodily sufferings and death of Christ were not sufficient to satisfie for the sins of the world but he must also undergo the sufferings and death of the soul For the proper seat and subject of sin is the soul not the body which is but as the souls shop using it as the Smith doth his hammer and anvile therefore if he had not suffered in soul the plaister had been narrower than the sore 3. That the sufferings of the soul were not barely mediate or by consent from the body as sympathizing onely with it but proper and immediate The soul is the first and principal in sin the body but the instrument It is most agreeable to justice that the principal should be rather deeper in the punishment than the instrument which holds not here if the body suffer immediately and the soul onely by sympathy Doubtless that same wrath of God those terrors and torments of hell for the substance of them fell down-right upon the soul of Christ which sinners should and reprobates must endure in their souls for sin Yet still this must be understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in such a way as suits with the dignity of the person suffering there was a mitigation or abatement in his soul-sufferings from the rigour which the damned shall be put to in three particulars 1. In the place of suffering this is but a circumstance in the business hell the place of the damned is no part of the debt therefore neither is suffering there locally any part of the payment of it no more than a prison is any part of an earthly debt or of the payment of it The surety may satisfie the creditor in the place appointed for payment or in the open court which being done the debtor and surety both are acquitted that they need not go to prison if either of them goe to prison it is because they do not or cannot pay the debt for all that justice requires is to satisfie the debt to the which the prison is meerly extrinsecal even so the justice of God cannot be satisfied for the transgression of his Law but by the death of the sinner but it doth not require that this should be done in the place of the damned The wicked goe to prison because they do not they cannot make satisfaction otherwise Christ having fully discharged the debt needed not to go to prison 2. In the time of continuance the damned must bear the wrath of God to all eternity because they can never satisfie the justice of God for sin therefore they must lie by it world without end but Christ hath made an infinite satisfaction in a finite time by undergoing that fierce battel with the wrath of God and getting the victory in a few hours which is equivalent to the creatures bearing it and grapling with it everlastingly The lenth or shortness of durance is but a circumstance not of any necessary consideration in this case Suppose a man indebted 100 l. and likely to lie in prison till he shall pay it yet utterly unable if another man comes and lays down the money on two hours warning is not this as well or better done That which may be done to as good or better purpose in a short time what need is there to draw it out at length The justice of the Law did not require that either the sinner or his surety should suffer the eternity of hells torments Non aeternitatem sed duntaxat extremitatem but onely their extremity It doth abundantly counterpoise the eternity of the punishment that the person which suffered was the eternal God Besides it was impossible that he should be detained under the sorrows of death Act. 2.24 and if he had been so detained then he had not spoiled Principalities and Powers nor triumphed over them but had been overcome and so had not attained his end 3. In a companion of the pains of the second death unavoidably attending it in reprobates to wit desperation an utter hopelesnesse of any good a certain expectation and waiting on the worst that can befall I shall not enter into a dispute whether the despair of the damned in hell be properly a sin ot not there be good Divines both ancient and modern that hold the negative which to me seemes most probable not so much from that ground on which they go that there is no sin
bear the curse my self and for ought I see it will presse me down to hell But stay a little and consider Christ is made a curse for sinners which are under the curse of the Law thou art one of this unhappy number thou seest and bewaylest thy woful condition and abhorrest thy self Wherefore then doest thou not own this and take it home and say Christ is made a curse even for me If thou wert oppressed See 1 Tâ—m 1.15 16. overburthened with debt Creditors coming in on every side so that thou couldest not tell which way to turne thee no remedy but to prison Suppose now a man of very great wealth should offer himself to be thy Surety to satisfie all for thee were it not great folly in thee to refuse him and to say I have not deserved such favour or to distrust him and to say I cannot beleeve that he will do it Or suppose thou wert a Traitor to the supreme Magistrate convicted condemned if his Son should undertake for thee and yeeld up himself to justice in thy stead Were it not madness in thee to reject him especially if thou shouldest understand that this is done not onely by the Fathers consent but also by his appointment and approbation Poor sinner this is thy case Thou art this Debtor this Traitor and therefore under the curse Jesus Christ is made a curse for thee even by the appointment of his Father he comes to take it off from thee and to lay it upon himself Wilt thou now put him from thee and say This cannot be he will never do this for me and the rather pause a while and resolve to give him leave to take it If thou be wise thou wilt not stay long in the place of the breaking forth of children Hos 13.3 Thou art in darkness here is a glympse of light thou art in prison there is a door of hope to escape The curse is too heavy for thee Christ is willing to ease thee of it Do not thou keep it to thy self to be swallowed up by it but let thine eye be towards him Look upon him as made sin and curse for thee and upon this ground dispute for thy soul thus Hath he indeed become a curse for me Why then there is hope I may escape it 2. And if we can take down this truth so as to make account that he is made a curse for us in particular then we may look on our selves as engaged upon this score to the practice of a necessary duty If the Lord Jesus did not stick to be made a curse for us then should not we be unwilling to be made a curse for him The onely begotten Son of God blessed for ever did abase himself he became a worm for us the reproach of men and contempt of the people Psal 22.6 7. he was despised reviled abused yea scorned spitted on and trodden under foot for us and shall we thinke it too much to suffer those things for him he was content to undergo the displeasure the wrath yea the curse of the most high God for our sakes and shall we the sorry sons and daughters of the earth the right heirs of the curse refuse or shrink to undergo the displeasure the wrath the curse of man for his sake Oh no let us lie down at his feet let us lay our bodies as the ground Isa 51.23 and as the street to them that go over let us submit to become any thing for Christ let us not be evil doers but if we be so accounted and be put to suffer as evil doers let us bear it patiently we should be ready to meet in the mid-way and cheerfully to imbrace the greatest injuries the foullest indignities which the devil or man can possibly heap upon us either for Christ and his testimony or with Christ in the prosecution and maintenance of any good cause wherein the Lord calleth us to appear Let not all the black-mouthed curses that hell it self can invent knock us off from well-doing or discourage us in the work of the Lord Jesus Whatsoever the work is let it suffice us if he accept us and be glorified Take my brethren the Apostles and Saints of God in times past for your examples herein 1 Cor. 4 9-13 I think saith S. Paul speaking of himself and his fellows that God hath set forth us as it were men appointed to death we are fools weak despised for Christs sake we are made as the filth of the world and the off-scouring of all things For thy sake I have born reproach saith David Psal 69.7 yea for thy sake are we killed all the day long saith the Church Psal 44.22 which the Apostle applies to himself Rom. 8.36 Mind well that serious exhortation Act. 5.41 and the ground from whence it is inferred Hebr. 13.11 12 13. As the bodies of those beasts whose blood was offered for the expiation of sin were burnt without the camp Lev. 6.27 Lev. 4.11 12 21. so Jesus also that he might sanctifie the people with his own blood suffered without the gate Thus the Lord Jesus submitted to the curse for us what must we do now for him Why even go forth unto him without the camp bearing his reproach He went out of the city and bare his own cross to Golgotha Jo. 19.17 We must with Simon the Cyrenean bear it after him Luk. 23.26 We must deny our selves take up our cross and follow him Mat. 16.24 If we hate not all even our own lives for him he disclaims us from being his Disciples Luk. 14.26 27. yea our spirits should be all on a flame within us in affectionate desires of the glory of Christ so that we should be content even to be accursed from Christ Vide Zanch. de Nat. Dei l. 5. c. 3. at least in the loss and forgoing of our share in eternal blessedness for the further enlargement of his kingdom in the salvation of many This was the mind of holy Paul Rom. 9.3 and it should be our mind also Those nice and delicate Christians which look for every mans blessing and good word which cannot endure a frowning brow an harsh word or an ill turn for Christ but they are ready to faint in their minds and to cast off all do requite the Lord Jesus very badly who endured such contradiction of sinners yea the cross it self for them Heb. 12.2 3. Jer. 12 5. If running with footmen weary you how will you keep pace with horses If some sprinklings and dashings of rain water in a fair day of prosperity do so disquiet you that you are ready to sit down and desert your Saviour then how will you do in the swelling of Jordan when not onely the rain falls but the floods come and the windes blow and the storms of persecution assaile you on every side threatening your utter overthrow Oh then what will you say to bonds and fetters to the dungeon and little-ease to racks and
may not I will not suffer this high affront of Adam and his posterity against my holy Law whereby the honour both of my justice and truth are in danger to be trampled under foot And yet if I should let out all my wrath upon them the spirit would fail before me and the souls which I have made Isa 57.16 I will therefore let it out upon their Surety and he shall bear it for them that they may be delivered and thus the Lord in wrath remembers mercie Hab. 3.2 I have done with the doctrinal part of this Conclusion I proceed to the Application CHAP. V. Use 1. Confutation of Papists and Socinians 1. THis main Gospel-truth may afford us some help towards the Confutation of the damnable Doctrine of two grand Enemies of the cross of Christ and of this great and glorious work of Redemption by his becoming a curse for us 1. Papists who not being content with this way of Christ have devised other means and put into the hands of sinners something else to make up the price of their Redemption They present us with several parcels to this purpose as Bellar. De poenitentia lib. 4. cap. 2 3 6 7. 1. That a man may redeem himself from the temporal punishment of his sins by some notable and extraordinary good works while he lives as by fasting pilgrimages almes-deeds building and endowing of Churches hospitalls and the like They grant that Christ by his sufferings hath made satisfaction immediately for the guilt of eternal death but then when the sin is remitted there remains still on the sinners an obligation to temporal punishment for which we must make satisfaction our selves one way or other and so in part redeem our selves But oh where shall we find that man except Jesus Christ that can shew us such a good work Verily the best choicest the eminentest works of any meer man that ever the Sun saw or shall see are poor weak blemished things like a menstruous cloth infinitely short of the puritie of God's Law and therefore no way equivalent to the injurie done to him by sin 2. That there is a Purgatory-fire wherein all those must be purged Bellar. de purgatorio which die in the guilt of Venial sin who yet may redeem themselves at length by their own sufferings there or they may be ransomed before by the prayers and offerings of the living But the Scripture holds forth nothing to us concerning this nay it affords us many strong arguments against it if it were worth the while to produce them They say this fire is every whit as hot as hell-fire but I am confident it never burnt any body nor do I know to what use it serves but onely to warme the kitchin of that Man of sin 3. That there is a certain Treasury in the Church Idem De Indulgentâ—â—s Vide Ames wherein are laid up the remainder of the superabundant satisfaction of Christ and those sufferings of the virgin Mary and other Saints which were more and greater than they needed for themselves and the keyes of this chest are committed to the Pope of Rome that he may upon just and reasonable cause dispence Indulgencies either by himself or by his Delegates unto them that need and desire them to make satisfaction for the temporal punishment oftheir sins But this is no better than the former For besides that Christ's satisfaction although in it self infinite hath nothing more in it than needs as to the application of it to those for whom God did intend it where shall we finde the man that hath done or suffered more then he ought to have done or deserved to suffer In truth these are but as Babies for children to play with or as when a mother promises her child an apple to till it on to some good action Bell. Eâ—â— de Indulg cap 6. which yet she doth not give it as some Papists do confess O rely because they come off at good round rates they serve to fill the coffers of the great merchant of Rome In a word all these are meer fancies yea lying vanities which cannot stand with this Truth For if Christ was made a curse for us and thereby hath wrought our Redemption then either there is no other way to effect it in whole or in part or else it will follow that Christ's work is imperfect which who dares once imagine As for us we may ascribe to the Psalmists Resolve Psa 49.7 8 9. No man can redeem his brother If not from temporal death how much less from eternal we shall leave these offals to the dogs of Rome for we have enough in Christ 2. Socinus and his followers who teach that Christs becoming a Curse for us and the whole course of his humiliation in doing and suffering was not at all for satisfaction but onely to set forth himself to us an example for our imitation and in his own person both by doing and suffering to shew us the way to heaven This Heresie was first hatched by Pelagius about the time of S. Augustine and about 700 years after revived by Abailardus in the time of holy Bernard as it seems by his writing against him Vide Grâ—tii dâ—fâ—ns cap. 1. Vâ—scii respons cap. 3. ex Socino aliis and now of late started again by Socinus with an advantage of more liveliness as it is usual with heresies when they come to a second and third resurrection For thus they deliver themselves more particularly Jesus Christ came into the world on this errand both to declare unto sinners the way to eternal life and to bestow it on them in case they will follow his counsel And for this purpose he was content to suffer death that thereby he might 1. Seal confirm and put out of question the truth and certaintie of his doctrine 2. Purchase to himself the right of bestowing eternal life upon them 3. Perswade them to that which is necessary for the obtaining of it to wit faith to believe his word and promise and sure hope to wait for the accomplishment of it 4. Hold forth himself before them a remarkeable matchless example of patience and obedience And whereas the Scripture doth frequently ascribe remission and salvation to the death of Christ that say they is a figurative speech They are the proper effects of his resurrection and the glorie which followed and are attributed to his death onely because he must necessarily die before he could rise again But now that Christ was so made a curse for us as to suffer the punishment due to our sins in way of a satisfaction to divine justice and thereby to redeem us from the curse this they will flatly denie and condemn it Seâ—tentia vaâ—d pâ—â—n 〈◊〉 Dâ—â—naâ—◠〈◊〉 â—laâ—phemis as an opinion that is deceitfull erroneous and very pernicious yea false absurd and horribly blasphemous and it is observable that when they make use of any Scripture either for the strengthening
have a very foule nasty heart my soule is a very stie of all uncleanness I am carnal fold under sin Rom. 7.14.23.34 I can do no good thing Oh miserable man who shall deliver mee why Christ thy Redeemer hath made thee a new creature he hath put into thee a principle of holiness and he is still at work in thee weakning sin by degrees so that though it will dwell in thee yet it shall not over-master thee nor bring thee under its feet Corruption shall go down and grace shall get up more and more The Lord Jesus will not spare either pains or cost in prosecuting this business he will wear of that filthy slough of the old nature and the image of hell and make thee partaker of the divine nature that thou mayest be conformed to his own image Sigh and breath after it 6. Final Redemption Which stands in the total removal and absence of all miserie and imperfection begun at death to be perfected at the resurrection The Apostle calls it the Redemption of our bodies Rom. 8.23 as I conceive for these reasons 1. To distinguish it from the first and great act wrought by Christ on the Cross to wit Redemption by way of merit whereon the main stress of the business lay which was not intended so much for the body as the soul to deliver it from guilt and curse 2. To intimate that part of Redemption which we shall be partakers of by death whereby we shall be set free from manifold evils and annoyances which compass us about and molest us while we are in the bodie 3. Because the accomplishment of this benefit at the last day shall be more visible in the bodie The soules of righteous men even before the resurrection are fully delivered from all bondage wanting onely that perfection which stands in their union to their bodies These lying in their graves as in prison under misery shall then be united again to their souls and so both shall be equally sharers according to their several capacities in this final Redemption So then this is a certain effect or consequent of the great work wrought by Jesus Christ the price is paid for the whole and full deliverance shall come in the day of Resurrection which is therefore called the day of Redemption Eph. 4.30 and Christ is made of God to us Redemption 1 Cor. 1.30 At that day oh most desirable day there shall be a clear riddance from all those unwelcome guests which sin hath brought into the world As 1. from the evils of the bodie or outward man all crosses incident to our imperfect condition here whether attendants on mortality or corrections for our wandrings and miscarriages or sufferings for righteousness 2. from the evils of the soul or inward man from sin with all the rags and tatters of it which being fast on us here from the temptations of Sathan and the inticements of an evil world wherewith we are encompassed and also from the second death the wrath to come in the damnation of hell Gladâ—us mortâ—s retusus vulnerat adhuâ—â— sed câ—â—â—a pâ—â—â—cuâ—um Calv. in 〈◊〉 The first death indeed will hold us under a long time but at length it shall be destroyed 1 Cor. 15.26 and in the mean time it is but as a sword without edg which may wound a little yet without danger it shall do us no hurt but be as a wicked door to let our souls into immortalitie and the grave with the corruption of it shall be as a bed of spices to perfume our bodies and to prepare them for the resurrection Briefly whatsoever there is in all the world that can be called evil we shall be set free from it all forever all imperfection both of parts and degrees shall be done away Matt. 22.30 1 Cor. 13.10 yea Gods own ordinances as marriage preaching and sacraments which are given as remedies of weakness here shall take their leave as things whereof we shall have no further need or use Let the Lords redeemed lift up their heads and see this part of their happiness afarr off Your soules and bodies both lie under a thousand wearisome vanities in this pilgrimage but your redemption draweth nigh when there shall be no more sorrow nor crying but all tears shall be wiped away from your eyes Rev. 21.7 never to know or taste of misery any more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 7. Full Glorification We have some foretasts of it in this life therfore the Apostle speaketh of it as a thing done in those that are justified Rom. 8.30 when God gives poor believing souls assurance of his love sence of his favour and fills the heart with joy and peace then he begins to glorifie them Therefore this joy is called unspeakable and full of glory 1 Pet. 1.8 these are a choice portion of the first fruits of the spirit Rom. 8.23 we shall reap the whole harvest of glory in heaven It s called by way of Eminency the salvation of our souls 1 Pet. 1.9 Redemption and the former benefits flowing from it are salvation begun and continued for we are saved here Eph. 2.8 2 Timoth 1.9 but this shall bee salvation consummate The Scripture sets forth this benefit by variety of appellations as Eternal life Matth. 25.46 Everlasting habitations Luke 16.9 Paradise Luke 23.43 The recompence of reward Heb. 11.26 A Crown of Righteousness 2 Tim. 4.8 A Crown of glory that fades not away 1 Pet. 5.4 The glory which is to be revealed in us or into us Rom. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—â—to us Nâ—n nâ—m astâ—bâ—mus q asâ—inanes vacui Spectateres nec gâ—oria quasi extriae sâ—cus revelabâ—tur nâ—bâ— sed in nobis Bernard 8.18 For we shall not stand as idle spectators looking upon it as a thing without us but we shall be possessours of it within us the everlasting Kingdome of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ 2. Pet. 1.11 The inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1.12 and the riches of the glory of it Eph. 1.18 Yea an inheritance incorruptible undefiled and which withereth not away 1 Pet. 1.4 And on this account the Apostle calls it the Adoption Rom. 8.23 because that shall be the time of our entring into the full possession of the Kingdome which is prepared for us and unto which we are intituled by adoption It was a main end of Christs giving himself for the Church that at length he might present it to himself a glorious Church without spot or wrinkle Eph. 5.25 27. And the Apostle reasoning from reconciliation by Christs death to salvation by his life Rom. 5.10 intimates that this is a necessary consequent of that This estate shall be the perfection of all created contentments Here shall be riches which cannot be plundered treasures which corrupt not pleasures which vanish not whatsoever is truly desirable which men enjoy severally some this some that in this world heaven hath all these and infinitly much more in a far more
their breathing in the air treading on the earth and the like common favours are the fruits of Redemption Every Son and daughter of Adam is beholding to the grace of the Redeemer for their very lives and their reprival from the damnation of hell yea were it not for this the whole world might probably have been turned into a Chaos again It 's certain that this great visible fabrick with all the creatures in it both living and liveless Sun Moon Starres Elements Plants c. is subject to vanitie God hath subjected it in his just judgement for man's Apostasie So that it lies under the bondage of corruption the creatures have lost much of their beauty and virtue they are forced to do service to the servants of sin Matth. 5.45 The good things of the earth are put to bad uses 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mundi partium in ea summus est consensus quod omnes una finem istorum malorum expectant Beza and imployed to the dishonour of the Creator Hos 2.8 under this heavy burthen they sigh yea they travel in pain and that together with joynt consent earnestly exspecting an end of these evils which shall be at the day of the general judgement when all things shall be restored Acts 3.21 and the children of God shall be possessed of full redemption The creature was made for man and as it became a sharer with him in the bondage of corruption so it shall be also according to its capacity in his deliverance and glorious liberty to come Rom. 8.19 20 c. How this shall be by what means and in what manner it is not easie to determine Some think by a total abolition of the substance and if it cease to be it ceases to be under bondage The most say by an alteration of qualities it shall be so changed as it shall seem to be not the same but another and the Scripture tells us that the heavens and earth that are now are reserved to be burnt with fire 2 Pet. 3.7.10 which say they So some expound Job 14.12 see Caryl on that text at large is meant of their purgation not their annihilation Howsoever it be for the manner the thing is without question the creature shall be delivered Now this priviledg flowes from the Redemption wrought by Christ For 1. As it was man's sin that brought the curse upon the creature so the taking away of the sin of man is the taking of the curse from the creature even as the restoring of a Traitor is the restoring of all that depends upon him 2. The present Liberty and glory of the sonnes of God is an effect of Redemption therefore so is the Liberty and glory which the creature shall enjoy with them this being an appurtenance to that and as the shadow to the body It behoves us to take notice of this for our selves It should sadden our hearts when we consider that the Creature fares worse through our Apostasie and yet it may rejoyce us that it fares better by our recovery But I have dwelt too long on the use of Information I shall therefore dismiss it and proceed to another CHAP. VII Use 3. Sect. 1. Consolation against sinnes old and new severally 3. THe Lords Redeemed may with joy draw up cordial waters of Consolation out of this well of salvation The former use hath afforded us much matter of refreshing having sent forth sundry crystal streames of comfort to make glad the city of our God Yet there is moee behinde The main Conclusion Isa 12.3 that Christ hath ransomed us from the curse by becoming a curse for us is a solid ground of consolation to poor sinners against sundry distempers or annoyances whereunto they are subject in this life as 1. Against sinne which may be considered 1. as it was in there old estate of bondage 2. as it is now in their restored condition 1. For the former The humbled soul looking back upon his old slavery under sin may conceive cause of discouragement by sundry aggravations of it which will present themselves unto him But the right understanding of this truth will afford him help against them I observe especially four 1. The greatness and heynousness of his sinnes in particular Oh saith he were mine iniquities of an ordinary size I could have hope but alas they are mighty ones like the great mountains some of them are of a deep die crying crimson scarlet sinnes outragious miscarriages they are gone over my head and reach up to the heavens But oh poor soul dost thou think that thy sinnes can be greater than Christs satisfaction or that he took upon him the curse of small sinnes Dicat terra redempta sanguine Magna iniquitas mea sed maâ—or est redemptio tua Aug. 2 King 21.1 2 c. 16. and not of great ones Assuredly this is a mighty redemption a great salvation God made his power wonderfull in the work of Creation and he makes his mercy as wonderfull in this work of new creation Art thou a greater sinner then Manasseh Read his story where the Holy Ghost points him out in his black and ugly colours and tell me if thou didst ever hear of such a monster yet the fruit of this Redemption reached even unto him for upon his humiliation the Lord was intreated of him 2 Chron. 33.12 13. thy greatest sinnes are finite but the merit of Christ's redemption is infinite If some mountains were removed and hurled into the great Ocean it would swallow them up that they could not be seen So the Sea of Christs bloud will drown the huge mountains of thy iniquities Though thy sinnes be as scarlet thy Redeemer will make them white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall be as wool Isa 1.18 Oh then never lay the weight of thy guilt in the balance with Christs satisfaction never fear that that will overweigh this Thy surety hath made thy peace for the greatest as well as the smallest faults He was charged with thy most heinous crimes that thou mightest be delivered from the curse of them 2. The multitude and numerousnes of them Though I have not committed such greisly enormous sinnes as some others have done yet I have made that up in the number which is wanting in weight my transgressions are manifold yea innumerable more than the haires of mine head Psal 40.12 or the sands that are on the sea shore Be it so But dost thou think that they are more than Christs merits Hath he born in his body and made satisfaction for all the sinnes of all the Elect from Adam to the last man on earth and dost thou fear thy sinnes are so very many that this satisfaction cannot reach to take them away The Apostle comparing the guilt of the first sin with the free gift by Christ gives the preheminence to this in that the former brought condemnation for one but this latter brings justification for many offences Rom. 5.16 and
begins at the house of God 1 Pet. 4.17 Say then Is this thy case Thou hast sinned and now thou sufferest I advise thee to be humbled for it yet not to be discomforted The Redeemer hath born the heat and burthen of Gods wrath for thy sin and these punishments are not the effects of indignation steeled with hatred but anger meekned with love Minde it good Christian the Lord hath annexed this proviso to the Covenant of grace If you transgress you must expect to be visited with the rod yet the Covenant shall stand fast Psa 89.30 c. As poyson duely mixed and ordered by the art of the skilful Pâ—ysiâ—ian doth not kill but help to bring health So the wise God will temper the punishments which he layes on thee for sin that they should not hinder but further the fruit of thy Redemption Thy Saviour learned obedience by the things which he had suffered for thy sin Heb. 5.8 Take thou out the same lesson I might here take occasion to start and dispute this question Whether those which are actually made partakers of the grace of Redemption be so fully freed from the curse of the Law in this life that the evills which they suffer for sin have nothing of the curse in them nor can be truly so called But I look upon it as a strife about words the controversie may be thus decided 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The curse may be considered either materially as it is a thing contrary to the good and welfare of the creature and so unwelcome or formally as it the sinners liableness to the avenging wrath of God for sin Or it may be taken either largely for any evill whatsoever which is the reward of sin or strictly for that great evil of evils which stands in the separation of the sinner from God and his eternal perdition Take it materially or in the largest sense and both Scripture and experience speak it aloud that beleevers are not fully delivered from the whole curse in this life But take it formally and strâ—ctly and thus the elect sinner is wholly set free from it at the instant of his conversion The terrible tempest that would overwhelme him and render him utterly and everlastingly miserable is passâ—d by and shâ—ll not fall upon his head onely some drops and sprinklings may dash him but they shall not hurt him yea the nature of them is so altered Medâ—â—inales 〈◊〉 Aâ—g 〈◊〉 corrâ—â—â—â—nes◠〈…〉 â—nes fabrâ—â—â— loâ—â—s â—â—siones â—â—â—â—tâ—onâ—s candidatâ—â—â—es Guil Pâ—â—is apud Ames Bell. Enerv. that they do him good as the Lords Warning-peeces to bring him to repentance after his falls and a Physical receits which though they be not toothsome yet are wholesome to the soul Heb. 12.10 11. Jer. 24.5 If thou be well advised thou wilt not look upon them as effâ—cts of revenging justice but as fatherly chastisements and medicines to cure thy folly and helps to promote vertue as hammering or squarings and knocking 's or washings and whitenings Dan. 11.35 And this may minister sweet refreshing to thee under the roâ—â— even when thou hast the greatest cause of humiliation for thy sin CHAP. VIII Use 4. Examination Sect. 1. The first mark of actual interest in Redemption 4. BUt now lest some bold sinner should snatch at this Consolation under pretence of an interest in the grace of Redemption and the benefits and priviledges thereof it is requisite to adde something for Examination that every one may know whether he be actual partaker of them or no. If this was the great design of Jesus Christ in taking upon him the curse to buy poor sinners out of the hands of the Law and to deliver us from the Curse then it concernes us all to search our hearts and to try our wayes that upon due consideration we may be able to give a true satisfying answer in our own souls to this weighty case of conscience Whether am I indeed and truth redeemed from the curse of the Law For what shall it avail thee to claime that as thy right which upon due search will be found to be none of thine Shall not the Lord judge thee an Usurper and a Theefe in so doing Therefore judge thy selfe by inquiring how thy heart can answer to these markes and evidences of a redeemed soul 1. Dear love of the Redeemer Suppose a poor guiltie-slave tugging and sweating in an hard service under a cruel Lord and readie to breath out his soul for very anguish by reason of his bondage if now some happie man shall in meer compassion disburse a great summe for his ransome and set him at liberty how doth this engage the silly captives heart to his Deliverer How doth the esteem of him and commend him Oh! saith he had it not been for such a man I had lien by it for ever I even owe him my self and all that I am and I shall love him dearly as long as I live This is thy case if thou hast left Christ actually redeeming thee from the Curse Thou canst look upon him and consider both those depths of misery from which he hath rescued thee and that height of felicity whereinto he hath enstaâ—ed thee and also the desperate hazzards which he was constrained to runne for the perfecting of this great work and thou canst seriously profess and say with David I will love thee dearly O Lord my strength and my deliverer Psal 18.1 2. and 116.1 2 c. Thou canst now speak it in the uprightness of thy heart Oh my soul is exceedingly indeared unto the Lord Jesus for looking upon such a miserable creature I was as a dead dog before the Lord the curse of the Law was ready to wearie mee but Christ hath taken it off and delivered me from it Therefore I love him he hath my heart and shall have it for ever well then saith every pretender I doubt not but I am redeemed for I love Jesus Christ else I were not worthy to live But alas there is much false unsound Properties of sincere love of the Redeemer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae ad splendorem solis examen sustinere potest Pasor Lexic dissembling love in the world onely that which is pure sound and uncorrupt will evidence your interest in Redemption Eph. 6.24 Let us therefore hold up this Eagle before the Sun that we may trie whether it be right bred or a bastard True love to Christ the Redeemer is 1. Single carried to the person of Christ in a direct line the eye looks straight towards Christ so that he loves him primarily for himself and the good things which he enjoyes by him but at the second hand I grant that the benefit of Redemption applied is both a meanes to produce and an help to advance this love but when the soul begins to know Christ somewhat experimentally then he sees that beautie and excellency in him which renders him altogether lovely Can. 5.16 now he loves him intirely
not fail of her desires Thus it is with a poor son of Adam now made partaker of Redemption by Christ he is greatly in love with his Redeemer but considering the great inequality betwixt them and his proneness to offend he is jealous over his own base heart least some unworthy walking should give his love the lie and Christ the dearly beloved of his soul should turn him over to Sathan again and leave him to be a slave to sin and the curse or lest his love should decay or cool and Christ his onely one should be displeased at him and frown upon him The Gentiles grafted into the Olive-tree must not be high-minded but fear Rom. 11.20 Such are pronounced blessed Prov. 28.14 If Paul was jealous over the Corinthians much more might they themselves 2 Cor. 11.2 3. If this jealousie be a stranger to thee thy love may well be suspected By these signes thou mayest trie the truth of thy love to Christ and if thou findest this frame of spirit thou mayest conclude that thou art redeemed A love thus qualified is a sure evidence of thy Redemption For none can possibly love the Redeemer at this height but those which are actually partakers of the benefit By nature we do not we cannot love him onely the banner of his love in the work of Redemption displayed to the sinner by the spirit of God drawes his heart to love him It may be thou hast no assurance of any interest in this benefit but if thou findest in thy soul such an high estimation of Christ and grace and such an advised complacency of spirit in him as inclines thee to fix the dearest love of thy heart upon him notwithstanding the contrary struglings of the flesh within thee though it certainly draw after it the loss of all worldly interests whatsoever I say if this be thy frame thou hast no cause to fear thy condition Sect. 2. The second and third mark of interest in Redemption 2. WEariness under the bondage of sinne both that which is past and present 1. The remembrance of his late wofull thraldome under the guilt and power of sin doth sometimes sadden his spirit he cannot think of it without some degree of regret and sorrow The misery of his former slavery under sinne is his wormwood and gall when he hath it in remembrance his soul is humbled in him Yea although he hath good hope through grace that he hath escaped the danger of it yet that doth not damme or drie up the spring of sorrow in his soul but rather renders it now spiritual and kindly Now he saith in the language of the Prophet Oh let me never return into the house of this prison again lest I die there Trie thy self Iere. 37.20 It 's no sure signe of a good estate if upon supposal of thy interest in this benefit thy soule be lifted up to such an height of joy as drownes all thoughts of thy old sinfull condition and leaves thee altogether unaffected If the Apostle had judged this a commendable disposition he would never have exhorted the saints of Ephesus to remember in what a pitifull condition they had formerly been while they were farre off and in the flesh Ephes 2.11 12. 2. The sence of that heavie clogg which lies upon him the bodie of death with the lusts thereof which as fetters on his leggs are continually pinching him makes him to sigh and crie out Oh wretched man who shall deliver me and that not onely when he is in the dark about his spiritual estate but also in the day of his choisest assurance when he can heartily thank God in the view of his full deliverance to come Rom. 7.24 25. I conceive S. Paul doth there represent the temper of every right Christian as to this particular in his own example Suppose the armes leggs and other parcels of a dead carkass were chained to the body of a living man although the trunk of that carkass were taken quite away yet Oh how noisome would it be It would make a man wearie of himself Thus it is with the ransomed soul The bulk of the flesh as I may call it is destroyed by the cross of Christ the life of it is in a great measure laid in the dust when he is set free from the Law that is the commanding over-ruling masterfull power of sin yet still the members of this carkass the affections and lusts of the flesh are sprawling and stirring and working in him and these are as troublesome to a gracious heart as the stinking members of a dead body would be to a living body if they were coupled to it Consider thy self now and see how it is with thee Art thou as Rebekah weary of thy life Gen. 27.46 because of those daughters of Heth Canst thou say with all thine heart Oh that I were altogether freed from them oh that this vexatious Inmate with all her unwelcome train might be once pack'd out of doors that I might see it no more When shall it once be This is a sweet signe that thou art actually redeemed But now Art thou a stranger to this frame Is the bodie of sin no burthen nor grief of heart to thee Canst thou go under it without stooping Dost thou not rather bless thy self in thy civil carriage before men or at the best in thy religious outside profession and performances before God wondering at the preciseness of some persons which make so much adoe in sighing and lamenting under that pressing bondage of corruption which thou art not acquainted with nor knowest what it means This is a clear evidence that thou art still a wretched slave a meer stranger to the grace of Redemption 3 A sincere consolation and real endeavour to abandon all iniquity and for ever to relinquish a vain conversation Hee that hath laid a long time in iron fetters for his misdemeanours if he be wise for himself will utterly renounce those courses which hath brought him into that misery and he that hath felt the iron curse of the Law pinching his soul and is set free by the Lord Jesus the grace of God will effectually teach him to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts Tit. 2.12 When the Lord hath found a ransome for an humbled soul whose life was drawing near to the destroyers and hath sent his Commission to the Minister of the Gospel to deliver him the poor soul forthwith reflects upon himself and saith I have sinned and perverted that which is right and it profited me not that is I have gotten nothing by the trade of sin but woe and sorrow therefore I will follow it no longer Job 33 23.-27 I will not offend I will do no more Job 34.31 32. The Apostle Peter writing to the dispersed Jews tells them that they are redeemed from their vain conversation which they had received by tradition from their Fathers 1 Pet. 1.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They had sundry idle needless unprofitable customes both
score and disanulled the Law as to the Curse of it so that it hath nothing to say against thee This lyon may roar upon thee but be not dismayed the Lord hath sent the Angel of the Covenant and hath shut the Lyon's mouth his Dan. 6.22 rage is abated his undoing power is taken away he may shew his teeth and snatch at thee but he cannot wound thee mortally Thou hast now a just and clear ground to go upon in answering all the demands pleeas and accusations that can lie against thee in God's high Court of Justice Therefore doe not nourish Legal feares any longer but turn the Curse over to thy Redeemer and boldly tell it that it hath nothing to do with thee The Apostle in telling the believers of Rome that they had not received the spirit of bondage again to fear Rom. 8.15 intimates that such a condition to be held down under the slavish fear of condemnation doth not well consist with the estate of the Redeemed sonnes of God 2. Bondage of conversation when a sinner having hearkened to the Call and counsel of the Gospel in accepting the offer of Christ and redemption by him gives leave to the bodie of sinne dwelling in him to act its part too much and to bring him into some degrees of willing bondage under those lusts or sinfull practises which formerly he had escaped and relinquished Dost thou challenge a share in this ransome Oh then do not enslave thy self again unto any sinne Art thou fetch'd out of the house of spiritual bondage with a mightie hand Take heed that thou hanker not after the flesh pots of Egypt or attempt a return thither as the people of Israel did Numb 14.4 Hath the Lord spoken peace to thee wilt thou then turne again to folly God forbid Psal 85.8 Oh! alas that any of us should after continuance in the profession of Christ for some considerable time suffer our selves to be ensnared in our olde lusts or fall into new wayes of sinne which yet is the sad case of some who at their entrance gave hopes of better things Jesus Christ that mightie Champion hath cast the Curse of the Law on a dead sleep If thou wilt give libertie to thy self to commit iniquitie or to trade in any forbidden way thou mayest fear that the noise of thy sinne will awake this fierce Lion ere thou be aware to tear thy soul in pieces Hearken to the Apostle's counsel Fashion not your selves according to your former lusts 1 Pet. 1.14 If the Manslayer having fled to the city of Refuge would afterwards make bold to wander without the border of it the Avenger of blood findeing him might lawfully kill him his blood must be on his own head Numb 35.26 c. Even so if thou hast once betaken thy self to Jesus Christ as thy refuge and after that stragglest out of his liberties into any sinfull practise thou art then within the reach of the Avenger of blood the Curse may meet with thee and slay thy soul Thy Redeemer hath hedged thee out from all such base courses as are contrary to the end of thy Redemption If thou wilt take Libertie where he gives none at thy peril be it The best thou canst expect is that when he comes he will complain and say Alas what profit is there in my blood that I have gone down to the pit to deliver thee out of it seing thou art returning thither again Be advised then thou ransomed Christian to lay a strict injunction upon thy self and say O my soul thou art now set free sinne no more least a worse thing come unto thee Ne veniat Christus c si te in peccato invenerit dicat tibi Quae utilitas in sanguine meo c. Ambros alluding to Psa 30.9 Ier. 37.20 John 5.14 and when through the prevailing of corruption thou art drawn aside into some vagarie make haste to returne by repentance and pray earnestly that the Lord would keep thee from going back into that old prison of sinne and the Curse out of which through the grace of Christ thou art escaped Sect. 2. Third Duty 3. GIve your selves up wholly to the pleasure service and obedience of your Lord Redeemer Resigne your selves to him to be at his appointment and to his glorie So doth the Apostle exhort from this very ground 1 Cor. 6.19 20. The Lord Jesus having paid thy ransome and made thee a freeman from the Curse challengeth thee now for his own and saith Thou art mine It is thy part to Eccho and say Lord I am thine and to dedicate thy self to him with full purpose of heart in the whole stream of thy conversation and that 1. In doing Israels deliverance from Egyptian bondage was an ingagement to obedience See the Preface to the Commandements Deut. 5.6 and one end of our Redemption from the hands of our spiritual enemies is that wee might serve him in holiness Exod. 20.2 and righteousness all our dayes Luke 1.74 75. Christ died and rose again that he might be Lord of quick and dead therefore whether we live or die it must be not to our selves but to him Rom. 14.7 8 9. Those that are redeemed to be Christ's peculiar people must be zealous of good works 1 Pet. 1.15 18 19. Tit. 2.14 Christ hath suffered that we being made partakers of the benefit of his sufferings might live all our time after the will of God 1 Pet. 4.1 2. It was no part of our Redeemer's business to free us from obedience but rather by adding this engagement of Redemption to that of Creation to make the bond more strong that a two-fold cord might not be easily broken We are too carnally selfish If we think that Christ had no aim in this great work but onely to deliver us from hell and bring us to heaven Doubtless he had a further end in his eye even to reduce us unto our first subjection and obedience from which we had wickedly departed with the advantage of better abilitie to serve him that we might be to his glory In all which not our own wisdome or will but the word of God must be attended as our line to work by especially the Morall Law which is the platforme of righteousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an eternal fixed Canon for the ordering of our conversation Therefore it 's called the Royal Law because the King of Kings hath appointed it to be the High-way for all his Subjects to walk in yea even believers must fulfil it Jam. 2.8 So that the Law ceaseth to condemne but not to command It is no longer a curse to destroy us yet it is still a Rule to direct us It 's strange that some men either cannot or will not see a clear difference betwixt the mark or finger which shews the way to the Traveller and the strength of body whereby he is enabled to go on in the way betwixt the command of the Law which prescribes us our
come into that place of torment Luke 16.27 28. as if he should say While I lived on earth I was a very slave to my sinful pleasures and utterly neglected all means of freedome Vide Jansenium in Comment ad haec verba Whether he speak from natural love to them or self-love lest his punishment should be increased by their â—ollowing his bad example I shall neither dispute nor determine and therefore here I lye under the wrath of God burning in this flame And I have some kinsmen still living who are posting on in the wayes of their own hearts and in great danger ere long to be cast into this prison Oh! that some good pitiful body would take a little pains to convince them of their sin to set before their eyes the curse under which they lye and to discover unto them the way of recovery that they may escape that woe which I feel So it may be some of your predecessors that are gone to their long home and are now lying in the chains of the pit have sad thoughts of heart for you that are left behinde when they consider that you are following their steps intent on the service and pursuit of your lusts and do wish that some effectual means were used whereby you might be reclaimed and saved from hell And now may we not hence safely conclude that it is a shameful thing and sadly to be lamented if the damned in hell do express more affectionate care of the eternal happiness of their kindred than those which pretend to be their best friends on earth you who either by advised choice or by long acquaintance are grown into intimate familiarity may make use of this help to put one another into the possession of the grace of Redemption Amicus est alter idem A friend is another the same Two persons joyned in a league of friendship are one soul in two bodies Your inward society and dear esteem of one another may both afford you more frequent opportunities may qualifie you with greater freedom in carrying on the work for mutual benefit Thou sayest such a one is to me even as mine own soul Why then dost thou not endeavour that it may go as prosperously with his soul as with thine own And you that are neighbours what do you Oh further one another in this way Do ye not see some that dwell about you fallen among the Theeves of hell left wounded and half dead Be you Samaritans do what you can to deliver and to heal them Your cohabitation and sundry occasions of conversing together give you these advantages of doing good which others cannot have Thou art commanded to love thy neighbour as thy self but if thou dost not labour to bring him into the fellowship of this grace with thy self then where is thy love It is sad to observe that at the meetings of neighbours one shall scarcely hear three wise words in a whole year tending to the good of souls To make short the desire of our Redeemers glory and zeal of the salvation of captive souls should constrain us to lay hold upon all advantages which Gods providence shall offer for doing good even to meer strangers if by any means we may be serviceable in furthering their eternal happiness by the enjoyment of this rich benefit See Psal 119.45 46. Sect. 4. The fifth Dutie 5. LOve the appearing of thy Redeemer which shall be at his second coming Believers are described by this propertie 2 Tim. 4.8 His first coming was to pay the price of Redemption and then to apply it to all those whom the Father hath given him in due season He will come again to fill up all empty Places to perfect the work and to save them to the uttermost Heb. 7.25 He was once offered to bear the sinnes of many and he shall come the second time in the end of the world without sinne unto salvation Heb. 9.28 He came at first burthened with the curse of the Law he shall come then in the fulness of the blessing of his Gospel Then shalt thou reap the full harvest of Redemption and all the fruits of it shall be laid in thy lap at once Oh then stirre up thy self thou redeemed soul to salute this happie day afarre off and to embrace it with an affectionate love and let this love discover it self by threatnings of 1. Vehement Desires Let thy heart be every like breathing after it and longing to enjoy it The godly which have the first fruits of the Spirit do sigh and groan within themselves Rom. 8.23 and the Apostle Peter call's upon us to look for and hasten unto the coming of the day of God 2 Pet. 3.12 These expressions note the earnest desires of the soule The traveller would fain come to the lodging place where he may rest at night The Day-taile-labourer breathes after the evening that he may be dismissed from his work and receive his wages Iob 7.2 They that journey from day to day in hot and drie countries and they that sweat and broil at harvest-work in the heat of Summer do gape after the cooling and refreshing shadow That shall be the time of thy rest thy refreshing thy reward after all the labours of thine obedience in doing and suffering the will of God here below If thou hast entred upon the possession of this grace by an unfained faith in the Redeemer and hast truly tasted the goodness of it in the first fruits how canst thou forbear to sigh and pant in the strength of thy desires for the enjoyment of the whole crop which is reserved for that day 2. Lively Hope Let those desires be attended with a patient expectation of that happy day of thy compleat deliverance Rom. 8.23 waiting is joyned with groaning The Apostle mentions it as a propertie of believers both there and elsewhere often 1 Cor. 1.7 they look for him as it were afarre off 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be their Saviour Phil. 3.20 and to them that thus look for him he will appear for their salvation Heb. 9.28 and the grace of God as it teacheth us to abandon sinne and to live godly so it inables us to look for that blessed hope and glorious appeaâ—ing of Christ Tit. 2.11 12 13. How vigorously think you did the Inhabitants of Jabesh-Gilead wait for the coming of Saul to their timely aid according to his solemne promise that they might be rid out of the hands of Nahash and delivered from the fear of that slaverie which he had threatened 1 Sam. 11.1 9 c. And how vigorously should we wait for the coming of Christ to set us absolutely free from that Nahash Serpens Augur Incantator that Serpent and conjurer of Hell and to tread him under our feet that he may never whisper more As Ruth was advised by her mother to sit still till she should see the issue of the business betwixt her and her kinsman concerning the Redemption and