such as proceeding from a true love of him may express the great sense we have of his love to us To this very end doth the Author of this Epistle add this consideration to others that he had laid down taken from the admirable Love and Condescension of the Son of God that we should be most solicitously careful even with warmth and all earnestness to hear his Voite To day Heb. 3.7 13. to exhort one another daily while it is called To day lest any of us should be hardned through the deceitfulness of sin to hold fast our profession Heb. 4.14 to hold the beginning of our considence stedfast unto the end Heb. 3.14 that so we may be made partakers of Christ And seeing that we have not an High-Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities Heb. 4.15 16. therefore to come boldly unto the Throne of Grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need And that for this among other reasons because the Compassion and Love of the Son of God hath so far stooped to the relief of sinful and miserable Man as to be made a little lower than the Angels Heb. 2.9 Seeing that as God he could not die for us he would become our Brother and assume our Nature into the Unity of his Person that so in our Nature thus assumed he might die for us and deliver us not only from Death but from all Fear of it Forasmuch as the Children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil And deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage In my discoursing of which words I will do these two things 1. I will Explain the most material words and expressions in the Text that we may fix upon the proper Notion of the nature of this our Bondage and our Deliverance from it 2. I will offer some of the most pertinent Considerations I can to quicken our thoughts and Apprehensions of the whole matter and to dispose us for receiving the kindly Influences of all in such a way as may be most agreeable to the Solemn occasion of our meeting together this Day 1. For Explication of the words and the true Notion of the thing The Innocency and Holiness of our blessed Saviours Life is judged to be one reason among others of what St. Peter told the Jews Act. 2.24 That it was not possble that he should be holden of death But this is of it self a Sufficient reason that none should be so vain as to think that when we speak of the Death of Christ we can be supposed to understand any thing else by it but only that Temporal Death which he suffered upon the Cross Whereas our own case is so wholly different that though we have the Honour to be of that Nature of which Christ did partake yet all we being polluted and guilty before God Rom. 3.19 we shall not come up to the full sense of the Scripture when we are told that Death is the wages of sin Rom. 6.23 1 Cor. 15.56 and that the Sting of it is sin nor shall we be sufficiently sensible of death as proceeding from and expressive of and always accompanied with the dreadful Wrath of God unless when we speak of that Death of which the Devil had the power and the fear of which made men subject to Bondage all their life-time we do as in reason we ought under stand by it not only the separation of the Soul and the Body but more especially Eternal Death and in the general the dreadful Curse in its full latitude to which Man was obnoxious by reason of Sin so that the measure of the hurtfulness of the Death we speak of is to be taken from hence because it is the effect of Gods Wrath and that because of Sin Now consequently hereupon if we would judge a right of that Bondage to which men are subject through the fear of this we must seriously think with our selves how it could be otherwise to them that are supposed to lie under the Guilt of sin and under the Sense of the Punishment that belongs to it but that the Malediction of God and the approaching of a certain Judgment Hell it self and everlasting burnings and all that can strike horror into the minds of men should ever be ready to offer themselves to their thoughts and This so unavoidably all their life-time that nothing can shew them any rational sufficient Ground to escape what they are afraid of when they seriously think of all this without respect to Christ And can it be otherwise conceived but that this must be a most wretched condition fitly called a Bondage not permitting men to do any thing with Freedom who cannot be otherwise but all their life time subject to this slavery of Sin of the Devil and of Death For all these in the issue do come to the same and therefore the fear of Temporal death as that leads to Eternal death but especially the fear of the last Prov. 14.18 Ephes 2.3 Mat. 23.15 Act. 13.10 as being that Inheritance of Mans Folly which as to a Child of Wrath Hell and the Devil a despised and forsaken Father and therefore now a just and righteous Judge will appoint him as his everlasting Portion in a place where there shall be nothing but weeping and gnashing of teeth cannot but seise men who being out of Christ are obnoxious to it with all anxiety horror and anguish of mind Thus poor miserable Man finds an endless torture in himself which so wholly possesseth him as to seem not to admit of any further Degrees if my Text did not mind us that the great Enemy of Man-kind the Devil is ever active and restless in adding all the weight and sharpness he can to this Bondage who besides his Tyranny and Usurpation upon men which could not exceed the extent that Gods Permission had given it for the Punishment of former sins and besides whatever claim he might make to men upon their Voluntary submission to him as consequent upon his having seduced them from their obedience to their Creator which yet seeing that they had no right to dispose of themselves and that their continued slavery was an addition to their Crime as well as to their Misery could not give him any just right or Dominion over them I say besides all this the Devil doth come upon Man with a more dreadful assault as having his fury armed with a Commission from God as the Executioner of his Wrath upon Malefactors already adjudged to death and consequently is said as to the never-failing success of what his malice could prompt him to to have had the power of death So that Man as considered without an Interest in what Christ hath done for him was in a double Bondage
whole matter and dispose us for Receiving the kindly Influences of all in such a way as may be most agreeable to the Solemn Occasion of our meeting together This Day Had you One in this Place that were able fully and clearly to lay before you the Subject that This Day calls upon us to Consider What warm Affections would it beget in you What Tears would it draw from your eyes What Esteem and value would you have for the Christian Religion the Foundation of which and of all our hopes and expectation is laid in what we this day commemorate All Vice and Sin might reasonably be presumed to remain for ever odious to your thoughts and all Virtue and Goodness to have that Charming Aspect as to command your rational Choice as well as your passionate Address Good men would be confirmed in their Faith Love Meekness Patience and all vertuous Resolutions And bad men would be ashamed that they had so long trifled away their precious Time and would condemn themselves of the greatest Folly for neglecting so great Salvation and not having vouchsafed to stretch out a hand to receive so signal and important a Deliverance tendered to them with such astonishing Condescension such compassionate and tender Regard to their most deplorable State and recommended to them from our Saviours ready undertaking of so many Hardships to persuade them to be Wise for Themselves and to Love Themselves and to espouse their own Interest For a good Man some would even dare to die Rom. 5.7 8. But God commendeth his love towards us in that while we were yet Sinners Christ died for us And Can any Love be conceived to be like This of our Saviours which exceeds the highest expressions of Kindness and Pity that ever any one hath shew'd to his most dearly beloved Friend in the greatest need and Streight in which he can be imagined at any time to have been What strength would all this add to your Faith What amazing thoughts would you have of the Wisdom of God even the Wisdom which God hath ordained before the World unto our glory 1 Cor. 2.7 9. Such as eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath it ever entred into the heart of man How would you weep for our Saviours Sufferings and yet much of it proceed from Joy when you should have well considered how he contrived that he might be capable of Suffering for us and then readily received the bitter Cup from his Fathers hands Phil. 2.7 8. He First made himself of no neputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and Then he humbled himself yet farther and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross To Death which is so Dreadful that even upon a Natural account it hath been judged to be of all things most Terrible As being so contrary to Flesh and Blood so repugnant to Nature so destructive of all those Endearments which our nearest Relations Familiarities and Friendships and even that natural Propensity there is in man to Society have contracted Which puts a Period to all those Enjoyments which are agreeable to all those Capacities and Desires which our present Condition even without the loss of Virtue and Honour cannot chuse but acknowledge to be Grateful and which by long Custom and Usage do prescribe to that Claim which it is not easie for us to disown as wholly Unreasonable He became obedient to Death for our sake which if it had nothing else in it is yet a Privation of that which every mans Experience both of Himself and of what he may observe in Others will tell him to be sweet And That too the Death of the Cross a painful lingring ignominious and accursed Death How many farther Advantages might we receive from fixing a stedfast look upon Jesus the Author and finisher of our Faith who for the Joy that was set before him Heb. 12.2 endured the Cross despising the shame Could any thing hereafter discourage us from being Constant in our holy Profession from Persevering in all Christian Duties to the end Could it possibly be that we should be wearied and faint in our minds Ver. 3. if we did but seriously consider him that endured such contradiction of Sinners against himself Our Deliberate Thoughts of our Saviours Death and Passion would clear up to us many important Truths Could any man after he had well thought of it doubt of the Guilt that lies upon all Man-kind or of the Corruption and Depravation of our Nature seeing that the Salvation of Man did require thus much to be done Could he think himself sufficiently Secured from Danger by such Exercise of his natural Powers as may possibly be in many instances at his Command Would the acquiring of Political Vertues nay his Heroick courage in the Practice of them stand him in sufficient stead Could any man be ignorant of the Use of the Law to Shew us our Sin to Reprove us and Condemn us for it and so to make way for a firm lively Faith upon a Crucified Jesus that should stedfastly look on him whom our Sins have pierced Joh. 19.37 and should call to mind what St. Paul hath taught us That as Sin is the Sting of Death so the Law is the strength of Sin 1 Cor. 15.56 Gal. 3.10 And that as many as are of the works of the Law are under the Curse Could any such doubt of the need we have of the Consolations of the Gospel who should First have in his thoughts that Expression of the Psalmist Psal 143.2 with which we usually begin our Publick Devotions Enter not into judgment with thy Servant O Lord For in thy sight shall no man living be justified And Then should consider how St. Paul applies this general Truth to himself That he desired to be found in Christ Phil. 3.9 not having his own righteousness which is of the Law but that which is through the Faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by Faith And that he tells us That however there were many in the World who valued themselves upon Wisdom by which for all that 1 Cor. 1.20 21. they were not able to know God Yet the main thing that he put a Value on was the knowledge of Christ Crucified 1 Cor. 2.2 Of so great Importance is it to us in all these respects and for the inciting of us to all Courage and Resolution in the doing of our Duty Such an abundant matter will it afford us of Praising and magnifying the Wisdom and Mercy of God and the Love and compassionate Kindness of our gracious Redeemer Such powerful Motives will it afford us to love fear and obey God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent So much are we concerned to have the Subject of This Day and of my Text firmly fixed and rooted in our Minds and in our Hearts Even This so great and necessary Truth of Christ's dying for us and thereby delivering
us from the Fear of Death and from the eternal Wrath of God To which we were before Obnoxious and so should have been to all eternity without any Hopes of Deliverance from this dreadful Bondage or without any Possibility that by any thing we could do we should be Accepted of by God and admitted to his Favour If we were not assured from the great Mercy which we this day Commemorate That it is the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God that doth purge our Conscience from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.14 Two things therefore more I shall briefly do 1. I shall give some more particular account from the Scripture of Christs Dying for us And 2. I shall point at some of those Heads from whence your own Thoughts may make a yet farther and a more close Practical Improvement of the whole 1. Some more particular account from the Scripture 1. The Death of Christ is represented to us in the Scripture as a Propitiatory Sacrifice and the Price of our Redemption Rom. 5.11 By him we have now received the Atonement And When we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son V. 10. V. 1. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ He hath made peace through the Blood of his Cross Colos 1.20 We have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sins Colos 1.14 The Chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed Isa 53.5 And this is more apparent because together with the mention of I his there is a manifest Intimation of Gods Acceptance of it in our Stead Christ is said by the Grace of God to have tasted Death for every man Heb. 2.9 In our Stead he suffered Death and Gods Grace and special Favour is acknowledged in all this in that it was For Us that he died that God Accepted it As Such And therefore God's Love did appear to the World in giving his only begotten Son In sending him that the World through him might be saved John 3.16 17. God by all This hath shewed himself so clearly to be for us that the Apostle asks the question Who then can be against us He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all How shall he not with him also freely give us all things Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifieth Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh Intercession for us Rom. 8.31 32 33 34. His Resurrection giving abundant evidence of the Dignity of the Sacrifice of his Death and of Gods gracious Acceptance of it And his Intercession for us making good to us the Effects of it 2. That Gods Favour to us was to be obtained in This Way namely by the Death of Christ is so clearly foretold in Isa 53. that nothing can be more And the same was also Typified by the Paschal Lamb by the Sacrifices and by what the High-Priest did on the great Day of Atonement Thus Christ did put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself Heb. 9.26 By his own Blood he obtained eternal Redemption for us Ver. 12. 3. That this should be done is represented to us in the Scripture as a gracious and wise Contrivance of God and as an Agreement between God the Father and the Son Thus what was done against Jesus Acts 4.27 28. is said to have been before determined by the Hand and Counsel of God And Act. 2.23 the Jews are said to have taken Jesus and by wicked hands to have crucified and slain him being delivered by the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God And as to the Agreement between God the Father and the Son Bp. Pearson on the Creed p. 185. that the Son should do all this on our behalf we read Isa 53.10 11. of the Lords bruising him and putting him to grief and of making his Soul an offering for Sin and that he should bear the Iniquities of many Upon his doing all which it 's said that he shall see his Seed he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand Now the Declaration of the Sons Readiness to do all this that so all might be effected that was agreed to by the Father to follow upon it is expressed Heb. 10.5 c. Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not but a Body hast thou prepared me In Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices for Sin thou hast had no pleasure Then said I Lo I come to do thy Will O God And the Apostle adds ver 10. By the which Will we are Sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all Than all which nothing can be more clear So that those men must be supposed to Delight in Contradiction that can be bold and forward to object any thing against the manifest Evidence of all this 4thly and lastly The Scripture doth give us some Grounds according to our weak measure of judging of the great and high things of God whereupon we may observe the Fitness of all this and the Suitableness of those Means that have been used to the good and wise Ends for which they were used That an Expiation in general was necessary Mans Weakness to fulfil the Law doth seem to be one Reason Rom. 8.3 What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh Or as the Expression for sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is otherwise expressed in the Margent of that Place By a Sacrifice for sin he condemned sin in the flesh And many Reasons have been given why a Satisfaction should be made before God would pardon Sin with respect to the Holiness of God and to the securing a due Honour and Regard to his Law and to the expressing how Odious Sin was in the sight of God That so men by having Pardon over-easily granted might not be Encouraged to Sin or at least not so much Deterr'd from it And that we might the better judge of All This by considering at what a heavy Price our Redeemer purchased Pardon for us And the Wisdom of God doth farther appear in this That the Price of our Redemption was to to be paid in Our Nature In which Nature also he was to take Possession of Heaven and therefore a little before he left this World he laid this Consideration before his Sorrowful Disciples to Comfort them Joh. 14.2 3. I go to prepare a Place for you that where I am there ye may be also Other Reasons may also be given in Explication of such Places as these namely That the Captain of our Salvation was to be made perfect through Sufferings Heb. 2.10 Luke 24.26 And That