is certain that no innocent man as such can be thereupon obliged to suffer death or imprisonment but suppose that this innocent man having the free disposal of himself shall voluntarily offer his own life or liberty to the Magistrate in exchange for the forfeited life or liberty of the Criminal and the Magistrate shall think meet to accept it in this case he is justly liable notwithstanding his innocence to undergo the punishment that was due to the Offender For if he may justly offer this exchange as there is no doubt but he may supposing that he hath the free disposal of himself to be sure the Magistrate may justly accept of it because the life of the Offender is as much in his disposal as the life that is offered him in exchange for it is in the disposal of the Offerer so that he hath as much right to give the Offerer the Offender's life for his as the Offerer hath to give his own life for the Offenders and when both Parties have a right to the goods which they exchange with each other and the goods which they receive are on both sides equivalent to the goods which they give it is impossible the exchange should be injurious to either the Magistrate cannot be injured because for the life of the Offender which he gives he receives the life of the Offerer which is equivalent the Offerer cannot be injured because for his own life which he gives he receives the life of the Offender which is dearer to him and neither Party being injured the exchange must be just and equal on both sides Now that Christ had the free disposal of his own life he himself tells us Iohn 10.18 No man taketh my life from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again this commandment have I received of my Father And that the lives of our Souls were in God's free disposal as being justly forfeited to him by our sins the Scripture assures us when it tells that all have sinned and that the wages of sin is death Christ's life therefore being in his own free disposal he had an undoubted right to exchange it with God for the lives of our Souls and the lives of our souls being in God's free disposal he had as undoubted a right to exchange them with Christ's for his life upon the free Tendry which he made of it And in this exchange neither Party could be injured because they both received an equivalent for what they gave Christ gave his own life to God for which God gave him the lives of our Souls in exchange which were far dearer to him God gave the lives of our Souls to Christ for which Christ gave him his own most precious life in exchange which considering the infinite dignity of his Person was at the least tant-amount It is true indeed both Parties having a right to the free disposal of the goods which they exchange with each other to render the exchange just and valid it was necessary that both should be freely consenting to it now that God was freely consenting I shall shew by and by and that Christ was so too the Scripture expresly testifies for so we are told that he gave himself for our sins Gal. 1.4 and that he gave his life a ransom for many and gave his flesh for the life of the World Matt. 21.28 and in a word that he gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity Tit. 2.14 and that he laid down his life for us 1 John 3.16 all which plainly imply that by his own voluntary consent he substituted himself to suffer in our stead that we might escape and freely exchanged his own life with God for the lives of our Souls which were forfeited to him And if notwithstanding his innocence it were just in God to expose him without any respect to our sins to all those bitter sufferings he endured and that it was so the Socinians themselves must acknowledge or charge God with injustice how much more was it just when of his own accord he substituted himself to bear our punishment for us and freely exchanged his life for our Salvation V. And lastly His Death was admitted and accepted by God in lieu of the punishment which was due to him from Mankind and it is this that compleats it an Expiatory Sacrifice and without this it had been altogether insignificant to the expiation of sin notwithstanding all the above-named qualifications For it is the personal punishment of the Offender which sin gives God a right to and which the Obligation of his violated Law exacts since therefore all Mankind had sinned they all stood bound to God to suffer the desert of their sin in their own persons and therefore the suffering of another in our stead can signifie nothing towards the releasing us from this Obligation unless God in pure Grace and Favour to us shall please to admit and accept it because anothers suffering is not ours and it is ours that God hath a right to Indeed the punishment of the guilty person himself supposing it to be equal to his fault doth without any interposal of Grace extinguish the guilt of it and by its own force and vertue dissolve his Obligation to punishment because when a man hath suffered as much as he deserves he hath suffered as much as the Law can oblige him to and so consequently cannot be obliged to suffer any more but should another suffer for me even as much as I deserved to suffer my self it will be altogethâ—r insignificant to the expiation of my guilt unless God in meer grace will accept it for my suffering because it is not anothers suffering but my own that the obligation of his Law demands and exacts of me and although the others suffering for me may as effectually secure the Honour and Authority of God's Law as if I had suffered what I deserved in my own person yet it is evident that in admitting the others suffering instead of mine God remits and relaxes the Obligation of his Law which requires that I should suffer in my own person And therefore notwithstanding that Christ hath suffered for us and God hath admitted his suffering for ours yet this being out of meer grace and favour to us he is still truly said to pardon and forgive us for Christ's sake Eph. 4.32 because for the sake of Christ's suffering he graciously remits to us the Obligation of his Law which requires the punishment of our sin at our own hands and since his remitting to us the Obligation of his Law for the sake of Christ's suffering was pure grace and favour he was not at all obliged to remit it unconditionally but being absolute Master of his own graces and favours he might remit it upon what terms and conditions he pleased So that though if we had suffered in our own persons the utmost of what our sin doth
reason to repose our trust and confidence in him and therefore that we might have the same reason to confide in him in his Mediation for us as God had in his Mediation for him God so ordered it not only that he should assume our nature which if he had so thought meet he might have done without either being seen of us or born among us but also that he should so assume it as to be visibly born of humane kind and manifested in it in the open view and sight of the World. For in the fulness of that time which was long before prefixed in the Eternal Council of God the Holy Ghost by an immediate invisible and miraculous operation on the pure and Immaculate Womb of a Virgin called Mary of the Lineage of David inabled her without any Congress of Man to conceive a Child of humane kind consisting of a rational Soul in a mortal body which the Eternal Word or natural Son of God who was before all Worlds immediately assumed into a personal Vnion with himself whereby he became God-man who before was only God and this without either commixing his two natures into one or converting either of them into the other but under their Personal Union preserving them still distinct and separate which God-man the blessed Virgin that conceived him actually brought forth after the natural time of Women and Nursed and Educated till he arrived to the Age of man at which time he began personally to treat with men in his Father's behalf and in order to the reducing them to their bounden duty and allegiance to the Throne of Heaven revealed his Mind and Will to them with his own mouth and pressed and inforced it upon them with the most powerful Motives that ever were urged to mankind and by his own miraculous Works and most holy Example abundantly demonstrated to them that what he revealed to be the Will of his Father was true and practicable Thus far in his own person he Mediated for his Father with Men as I shall shew more fully hereafter The consideration of which ought in all reason and conscience to render his Mediation more prevalent with us For when God the Father hath condescended so far as to send down his only Son from Heaven on an Embassie to us to propose to us terms of reconciliation who had so highly incensed and affronted him when God the Son hath condescended so far as to cloath himself in our nature that therein he might indear himself to us and thereby oblige us to listen more attentively to his gracious proposals what a stupendous height of obstinacy will it be in us to stop our Ears against him and reject those terms of Mercy he proposes to us by persisting in a wilful rebellion Had God sent but one of the lowest Angels in Heaven to us to promise pardon and eternal life to us upon condition we would but sincerely submit to his Will one would have thought a proposal so infinitely reasonable in it self and advantagious to us should have been imbraced by us with transports and raptures but to reject it now when he hath sent it to us by his own Eternal Son whom all his Angels adore and by his Son incarnate in our own natures is such a degree of obstinacy and ingratitude together as no Devil was ever guilty of Suppose that you beheld this most glorious Person coming down to you from the right hand of God to tender you a Pardon and a Crown upon condition you would submit to his Father's Will and denounce everlasting vengeance against you if you persist in your rebellion would you dare by refusing to submit to reject that Pardon and that Crown and defie that vengeance to his face One would think it were impossible but yet in effect you do the same thing who believe that that Jesus who preached this Gospel to the World 1600. years ago was the Son of God in Humane Nature and yet obstinately refuse to submit to its proposals Hence from this very Topick that God hath in these last days spoken unto us by his own Son Heb. 1.2 the Apostle himself makes this inference Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard lest at any time we should let them slip Heb. 2.1 And now having finished his Personal Treaty or Mediation with us for God he lays the foundation of his everlasting Intercession for us with God before our own Eyes viz. in the Sacrifice of himself for the sins of the World. He might if he had pleased have suffered death for us in the invisible state and received those tortures from the malice of Devils which were inflicted on him by the malice of devilish men but that would not have given so great a satisfaction to our Faith. For for the Son of God to lay down his life for Sinners is such a stupendous instance of love as would have exceeded the belief of Mankind had it not been openly and visibly transacted and therefore he rather chose to resign up himself into the hands of the Iews his cruel Persecutors and by them to offer up his Life upon the Cross in the Publick view of the World. And now having given this sensible evidence to our Faith that he died for us to satisfie us farther that his death was accepted by his Father as a full atonement for our sins he rose again from the dead the third day after his Crucifixion which was a plain evidence that his Father was fully satisfied with what he had suffered for us because he exacted no more but by his Resurrection actually discharged him from any farther suffering for ever So that the Resurrection of Christ is not only an evidence of the truth of his Religion under which notion I shall discourse of it hereafter but also of the acceptation of his Sacrifice For so the Apostle intimates in Rom. 8.33 34. Who then shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect It is God that justifieth Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again i. e. Who is there now that can presume to denounce eternal condemnation against any good Christian since Christ himself hath laid down his life for him yea rather since he is risen again from the dead and hath thereby given sufficient evidence that God hath accepted his death as our ransom from eternal condemnation And now having satisfied our Faith in these two great points that he died for our sins and that God hath accepted his death in lieu of that eternal punishment that was due for them all the farther satisfaction we can ask or need is that as he came down from the Father to Mediate personally with us for him so he should return back again to the Father to Mediate personally for us with him to exhibite and plead his meritorious Sacrifice in our behalf and in vertue thereof to solicite our pardon and acceptation with God.
sins of many and make intercession for the transgressors all which expressions do as plainly denote him to be substituted to be punished for us in order to our release as it is possible for words to do and unless we will admit that to be the sence of Scripture which the words of it do as plainly import as they could have done if it had been its sence it will be impossible to determine it to any sence whatsoever because men may prevaricate upon the plainest words and with quirks of Wit and Criticism pervert them to a contrary meaning And I dare undertake by the same Arts that our Adversaries use to avoid the force of these Testimonies to elude the plainest words that the Wit of man can invent to express this Proposition that Christ's Death was a punishment for our sins which to any reasonable man is a sufficient answer to all the Socinian Cavils And indeed the whole current of Scripture runs so clear against them that they do as good as acknowledge that according to the most common and natural acceptation of its words it fairly implies the Doctrine we contend for viz. that the Death of Christ was a real punishment for the sins of the World but their main Plea is that it is unjust in the nature of the thing to punish one man for the sins of another and therefore we ought rather to impose any sence on the words of Scripture how forein soever than attribute to God so great a piece of injustice as the punishing his own Son for the sins of the World. But as for the Iustice of this procedure I shall endeavour by and by to clear and vindicate it II. He died in pure and spotless Innocence and this was highly necessary to his being an Expiatory Sacrifice for the sins of others For had he been a sinner he had deserved to die upon his own account and the utmost effect of his Death could have been only the Expiation of his own sin by which his life must have been forfeited to the divine Justice and it is impossible that he who hath forfeited his own life should by his death redeem the forfeited lives of others And accorcordingly Heb. 7.26 27. we are told that such an High Priest became us who is holy harmless and undefiled separate from sinners and made higher than the Heavens who needed not daily as those High Priests to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins c. because the Sacrifice which he offered was his own life so that had he been obliged to offer that for his own sins it could have made no Expiation for ours the bare payment of a man 's own debt being no satisfaction for other mens And therefore herein the Apostle places the vertue and efficacy of Christ's bloud by which it was rendred sufficiently precious to be a ransom for the sins of the World that it was of a Lamb without spot or blemish i. e. the bloud of a most holy and innocent person who never deserved the least evil on his own account and therefore was truly precious and sit to be a ransom for the sins of others 1 Pet. 1.18 19. And accordingly he is said to be made sin for us i. e. to be devoted as a Sacrifice for our sins who knew no sin 2 Cor. 5.21 where you see the great Emphasis of his Sacrifice is laid upon his Innocence as that which was necessary to qualifie him to be a Sacrifice for others So that by that spotless obedience of Christ's life through the whole course of which he did no sin neither was there any guile found in his mouth he consecrated himself an acceptable Sacrifice to God for the sins of the World. III. His Death was of sufficient intrinsick worth and value to be an equivalent commutation for the punishment that was due to the whole world of sinners For the reason why God would not pardon sinners without some commutation for the punishment that was due from them to his Justice was that he might preserve and maintain the Authority of his Laws and Government For had he exacted the punishment from the sinners themselves he must have destroyed the whole Race of Mankind and had he pardoned them on the other hand without any punishment at all he must have exposed his authority to the contempt and outrage of every bold and insolent Offender and therefore to avoid these dangerous extremities of severity and impunity his infinite wisdom found out this expedient to admit of some exchange for our persons and punishment that so some other thing or person being substituted in our stead to suffer and be punished for us neither we might be destroyed nor our sins be unpunished This therefore being the reason of God's admitting of Sacrifice it was highly requisite that the punishment of the Sacrifice should bear some proportion to the guilt of the Offenders otherwise it will not answer God's reason of admitting it For since the reason of his admitting it was the security of his Authority the less he had admitted the less he must have secured his Authority by it For to have exacted a small punishment for a great demerit would have been within a few degrees as destructive to his Authority as to have exacted none at all to punish but little for great Crimes is within one remove as mischievous to Government as total impunity and therefore to support his own Authority over us it was highly requisite that he should exact not only a punishment for our sin but also a punishment proportionable to the guilt and demerit of it For there is no doubt but the nearer the punishment is to the demerit of the sin the greater security it must give to his Authority And upon this account the Sacrifices of the Iews were infinitely short of making a full expiation for their sins because being but brute Animals their death was no way a proportionable punishment to the great demerit of the sins of the People For what proportion could there be between the momentany sufferings of a Beast and those eternal sufferings which the sins of a man do deserve The death of a Beast is a punishment very short of the death of a Man but infinitely short of that eternal death to which the man's guilts do oblige him and accordingly the Expiations which were made for Men by the death of those Beasts were very short and imperfect For so the Apostle tells us that they only sanctified to the purifying of the flesh Heb. 9.13 that is to the acquitting them from their Corporal Penalties and legal Vncleannesses but could not at all make them perfect as pertaining to their Consciences i. e. could not expiate the guilt of any wilful sin by which their Consciences were laid waste and wounded ver 9. And accordingly the Heathen seem to be aware how short the death of Beasts was of the punishment which was due for the sins of Men. For though in ordinary cases they
Females and Proselytes and which was much more acceptable to the Gentiles as not being at all offensive to them as Circumcision was it being one of their own Religious Ceremonies and much less painful in its own nature But though this was of a quite different nature from Circumcision yet it was instituted by our Saviour to supply its room and to serve its religious ends and purposes viz. to transact and seal and ratifie the new Covenant between God and us For in Baptism the Party Baptized makes a solemn Vow and Profession by himself or his Sponsor of fidelity and Allegiance to God through Jesus Christ and hence Baptism is called the answer or promise of a good Conscience 1 Pet. 3.21 For in the Apostolick Age as Origâ—n tells us in Num. Homil. 5. there were certain questions proposed by the Minister to the Person to be Baptized which St. Cyprian calls Interrogatio Baptismi the Interrogation of Baptism Now the questions proposed were first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wilt thou renounce the Devil To which the Party answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I do renounce then he was asked again 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Dost thou consent to resign thy self to Christ To which he answered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I do consent and this answer or promise being made with a sincere intention was that in all Probability which the Apostle here calls the answer of a good Conscience and if so it is certain that these words do imply our formal Covenanting with God in Baptism Of the truth of which we have a large account in Rom. 6.3 4 5. Know ye not that so many as were baptized into Iesus Christ were baptized into his death therefore we are buried with him by Baptism into death that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father even so we also should walk in newness of life for if we have been planted together into the likeness of his death we shall be also into the likeness of his Resurrection where it is plain that those Phrases buried with Christ and risen with Christ are only the sense and signification of that Eastern custom in Baptism viz. of Plunging the Baptized person under water and raising him up again which being Sacramental actions must be supposed to have a peculiar import and significancy and the significancy of them the Apostle here plainly tells us wholly refers to the Death and Burial and Resurrection of Christ and therefore the plunging under water must necessarily refer to Christ's Death and Burial and the raising up again to his Resurrection The true import therefore of these Baptismal actions must be First a solemn profession of our belief that as we are buried under water and raised up again so Christ died and was buried and raised up from the dead which being the principal Articles of Christianity do include all the rest Secondly They also import a solemn engagement of the Party baptized to die to and endeavour utterly to extinguish all his sinful lusts and affections even as Christ died and was buried and to rise from the spiritual death of sin into newness of life even as Christ rose from his natural death to live for ever Since therefore in their Baptism they did by the same actions signifie their belief of the Death and Burial and Resurrection of Christ together with their own resolution of dying to sin and rising to righteousness they might very well be said to dye with Christ in those actions to be buried with Christ and to rise with Christ since what is represented as done together is representatively done together and it is usual in Sacraments to call the representing signs by the names of the things which they represent For so the Paschal Lamb is called the Passover and the Bread and Wine in the Lord's Supper the Body and Bloud of Christ and for the same reason the plunging under water and raising up again in Baptism is here called dying with Christ and rising with Christ because in the same actions Christ's natural Death and Resurrection and our spiritual Death and Resurrection are represented together The meaning therefore of the above cited passage is plainly this You cannot be ignorant that when you were baptized into Jesus Christ you made a solemn Profession that you would conform your selves to his Death in dying to sin even as he died for it so that in your Baptismal immersion you were representatively buried with him that so as Christ was raised from the dead so you in conformity thereto might live a new regenerate life for if we conform to his Death in dying to sin as we promised to do in our immersion we shall be sure to conform to his Resurrection also in living to Righteousness as we promised to do in our rising out of the water again By which it is evident that Baptism is on our part a solemn engagement of our selves to perform the conditions of the New Covenant And indeed the very phrase Baptized into Iesus Christ can import no less than a solemn resignation of our selves to Christ in Baptism For so the phrase Baptized into Moses 1 Cor. 10.2 plainly denotes the Jews giving up themselves to him to be governed by him as the Minister of God. And accordingly the Apostle tells us that so many as have been Baptized into Christ have put on Christ Gal. 3.27 and putting on Christ is opposed by the Apostle to making no provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof Rom. 13.14 and therefore must necessarily denote an ingagement of our selves to a strict observance of the Laws of Christian purity or which is the same thing a promise or stipulation on our part of universal obedience to his Laws By all which it is evident that in this solemnity of Baptism we put our selves under Christ as our Head and Covenant with him to be ruled by him in our Faith and Manners And as in this Ceremony of Initiation we strike Covenant with him so doth he with us For in this sacred Action the Minister is the authorized Proxy of Jesus Christ and therefore his giving the holy Sign is Christ's own action and doth to all intents and purposes as much oblige him as if he did it in his own Person For since Christ is not upon Earth and so cannot transact the New Covenant with us in his own Person it is necessary he should do it by Authorized Proxies impowered by himself to do it in his Name which Proxies being thus Authorized by him do as effectually oblige him by those federal Rites which they perform in his Name as if he himself had performed them in his own Person For he doth what they do by his Authority and is as effectually obliged by what he doth by them mediately as by what he doth by himself immediately For thus his Commission runs by which he Authorized them and their Successors to the end of the World Go teach all Nations baptizing
of sin is in Scripture frequently attributed to the Father as well as to the Son So 1 Iohn 1.9 If we confess our sins he i. e. the Father is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness and Eph. 4.32 Forgiving one another even as God for Christs sake hath forgiven you From whence it is plain that forgiveness of sin appertains to God as well as Christ and that both have their appropriate shares in it and therefore since it is impossible that the same individual action should proceed from two distinct Agents in this Act of forgiveness the Father must do something which the Son doth not and the Son must do something which the Father doth not They must both of them act an appropriate part in it and each have a distinct agency from each other For the fuller explication therefore of this Article I shall endeavour to shew first what it is which the Father doth in forgiving sins and secondly what the Son doth I. What is it that the Father doth in this Act of forgiveness of sin To which in short I answer That the Fathers part herein is to make a general grant of pardon to offenders upon such a consideration as he shall think meet to accept and with such a limitation and restriction he shall think fit to make which general Grant is nothing else but those glad tidings of the Gospel which he proclaimed to the World by Jesus Christ viz. that in consideration of Christs Death and Sacrifice he would freely forgive all penitent and believing sinners their personal obligation to eternal punishment and receive them into grace and favour So that in forgiving our sins there are these three things peculiar to God the Father First His making a general Grant of Pardon to us Secondly His making it in consideration of Christs Death and Sacrifice Thirdly His making it with those restrictions and limitations of Faith and Repentance First One thing peculiar to God the Father in forgiving sins is his making a general Grant of pardon and forgiveness to sinners For the Law against which all men had sinned and by which they were obliged to eternal punishment was strictly and properly the Law of God the Father who being the first and supreme person in the Godhead was consequently always the first and supreme in the divine Dominion Now the divine Dominion consisting even as all other Dominions do of a Legislative and executive power the Father must be supreme in both and consequently the Laws of the divine Dominion must be more especially and peculiarly his And hence it is called The Will of the Father Mat. 7.21 so in the Lords Prayer the Divine Law is in a peculiar manner stiled the Will of God the Father Thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven Matth. 12.50 our Saviour stiles it the Will of his Father which is in Heaven and elsewhere the Commandment of his Father vid. Ioh. 12.5 Mat. 15.3.6 Mar. 7.8 9. by all which it is evident that the Divine Law against which we have all offended and by which we are obliged to punishment is appropriately and peculiarly the Will and Commandment of God the Father and it being so the right of exacting or remitting the punishment of this Law must be peculiarly and appropriately inherent in him For the penalty of the Law is due to him whose Law it is and it is he alone can loose us from it who bound it upon us so that it was the Fathers peculiar as to give the Law so to indemnifie offenders from the Penalty of it and accordingly we find that publick Grant of pardon which through Jesus Christ is made to sinners is in Scripture every were attributed to the Father so we are told that it is God who for Christs sake hath forgiven us Eph. 4.32 and that it is God who hath set forth Christ to be a Propitiation though faith in his bloud to declare his Righteousness for the remission of sins that are past that he might be just and the justifier of them that believe in Iesus Rom. 2.25 26. that it was God who was in Christ reconciling the world to himself not imputing their trespasses unto them 2 Cor. 5.19 And in a word that it is God who is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness 1 John 1.9 where his being faithful and just plainly refers to some publick Grant and Promise by which he hath obliged himself to penitent offenders And indeed the whole new Covenant in which this publick Grant of remission of sins is contained vid. Heb. 8.12 is the act and deed of God the Father It was he that in consideration of Christs Death and Sacrifice granted this grand Charter of mercy to the World for seeing it was to the Father that that Sacrifice was offered in consideration of which the new Covenant was granted vid. Eph. 4.2 compared with Col. 1.20 the grant of it must necessarily be from the Father And as it was the Father that made this publick grant of Remission to sinners so II. It was he that made it in consideration of Christs Death and Sacrifice for so Christ himself tells us that it was by commandment which he received from his Father that he laid down his life Iohn 10.17 18. and when he was going to offer up himself upon the Cross he tells his Disciples As the Father gave me Commandment even so do I arise let us go hence i. e. to execute that Command which the Father hath given me to lay down my life for the sheep Ioh. 10.15 from whence it is evident that it was the Father who exacted the Death and Sacrifice of Christ in consideration of that publick Grant of forgiveness which he made to the World for it was through his blood that we have redemption the forgiveness of sins according to the Riches of his i. e. the Fathers grace Eph. 1.7 and that blood of his was an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Eph. 5.2 So that it was God the Father that did both exact and accept the sacrifice of Christ which as I have shewed at large Sect. 4. was in consideration of his pardoning and forgiving Sinners III. And lastly It was God the Father also that made this Grant of forgiveness to us with these restrictions and limitations of our believing and repenting For as the promises of the Covenant were his in which remission of sin is proposed to us so must the conditions of it be also by which it is limited and restrained Because it can belong to none but the giver to limit and conditionate his own Gifts and Grants Now the Conditions of our forgiveness are faith and repentance oâ—â—ather the condition of it is such a Faith such a lively and active belief in Jesus Christ as doth beget in us sincere repentance and renovation of life for so S. Paul tells us again
will 118. Fourthly He sealed his Declaration with his own Blood 120. Fifthly He Instituted an Order of Men to Preach what he had declared to the World 121. Sixthly He sent his Holy Spirit when he left the World to recollect and explain his Doctrine to those whom he had ordained to Preach it and to inable them also to prove it by Miracles 123 124. SECT IV. Of Christs Priestly Office. To what persons the Priesthood antiently belonged 130. What the Melchisedecan Priesthood was and in what respects Christs Priesthood is of that Order 132. what the old Priesthood was and in what acts it consisted 136. That it consisted first in Sacrificing and secondly in presenting the Sacrifice to God by way of Intercession for the People 136 c. That this ancient Priesthood was in both these acts of it intended by God for a Type of the Priesthood of our Saviour 142 c. SECT V. Concerning the first Act of our Saviours Priesthood viz. Sacrificing That the death of Christ had in it all the requisite Conditions of a Sacrifice for Sin and what those Conditions are shewed in five Particulars 147 c. these Conditions applyed to our Saviours death as first In his death he was substituted in the room of sinful Men to be punish'd for them in order to their being released from their personal Obligation to punishment 151. Secondly He dyed a pure and spotless Innocent Thirdly His death was of sufficient intrinsick worth and value to be an equivalent commutation for the punishment that was due to the whole World of sinners 155. Fourthly His death was on his part voluntary and unforced 160 161. Fifthly His death was admitted and accepted of God in lieu of the punishment which was due to him from Mankind 164. The wisdom of this method of Gods· admitting Christs sacrifice for sinners in order to the reforming Mankind shewn in five Particulars â— First That the Sacrifice of Christs death was a most sensible and affecting acknowledgement of the infinite guilt and demerit of our sin 167. Secondly It was an ample declaration of Gods severity against sin 169. Thirdly It was a most obliging expression of the love of God and our Saviour to us 171. Fourthly It is a sure and certain ground of our hope of pardon if we repent and amend 174. Fifthly It is a seal and confirmation of the New Covenant 177. SECT VI. Of Christs Intercession or presenting his Sacrifice to God in Heaven by way of Advocation for us The Nature of it defined 183. The definition explained in the several parts of it which are four First It is a Solemn Address of our Blessed Saviour to God the Father in our behalf 184. Secondly This Address is performed by the presenting his Sacrificed Body to the Father in Heaven 186. Thirdly it is continued and perpetuated by the perpetual Oblation of this his sacrificed Body 190. Fourthly In vertue of this perpetual Oblation he doth always successfully move and solicit God 193. And that which he moves him to is First to receive and graciously accept our sincere and hearty Prayers 196. Secondly to impower him to bestow on us all those Graces and Favours which in consideration of his Sacrifice God hath promised to us 199. The admirable tendency of this method of Gods communicating his Favours to us through Christs Intercession to reform Mankind shewn in five Particulars First It naturally tends to excite in us a mighty awe of the Divine Majesty 204. Secondly It also tends to give us the strongest conviction of Gods hatred of Sin 206. Thirdly It secures us from presuming upon Gods mercy while we continue in our sins 208. Fourthly It encourages us to approach God with chearfulness and freedom 212. Fifthly It assures our diffident minds of Gods gracious intentions to perform to us all the good things which he hath promised to us upon our performing the condition of them 216. SECT VII Of Christs Kingly Office. Christs universal Royalty successâ—â—e to his Sacrifice and Intercession pag. 221 c. Christ had a particular Kingdom in this World viz. The â—ewish Church before his Incarnation and during his abode upon Earth 225. and therefore that which he was exalted to upon his ascension was the universal Kingdom of the World ibid. Six Heads proposed to be treated of concerning our Saviours Kingdom 226. SECT VIII Of the Rise and Progress of Christs Kingdom from the Fall to his Incarnation Of which an account is given at large in eight Propositions pag. 227. First That the Kingdom of Christ is founded in the new Covenant 228. Secondly That the new Covenant commenced immediatly after the Fall and was afterwards in a particular manner renewed to Abraham and his Posterity ibid. c. Thirdly That from its first Commencement Christ was Mediator of it and so he continued to be all along under that particular renewal of it to the People of Israel 233 c. Fourthly Christs being always Mediator of this Covenant necessarily implies his having been always King over all that were admitted into it and particularly over the People of Israel 235 c. and that he was the Divine King that reigned over Israel and who in the Old Testament is promiscuously called Jehovah and the Angel of Jehovah is proved in five Propositions 238 239 c. Fifthly That after his coming into the World he still retained this his right and title of King of Israel in particular 255 c. Sixthly That the main Body of the Jews rejected Christ from being their King and were thereupon rejected by him yet was there a remnant of them that received and acknowledged him 258. Seventhly That this remnant still continued the same individual Church or Kingdom of Christ with what it was before its main Body revolted they very much reformed and improved 259 c. Eighthly That to this individual Church or Kingdom of Christ thus reformed and improved was superadded all those Gentiles that were afterwards converted to Christianity 272 c. SECT IX Of the Nature and Constitution of Christs Kingdom The Kingdom and Church of Christ the same 275. The universal Church or Kingdom of Christ defined 277. This definition explained in the several parts of it which are eight 272 278. First It is one Vniversal Society consisting of all Christian People 278 c. Secondly It consists of all Christian People incorporated by the New Covenant 280 c. Thirdly These Christian People are incorporated by the New Covenant in Baptism 283 c. Fourthly They are incorporated under Iesus Christ their supreme Head 291. Fifthly This one Vniversal Society thus incorporated is distributed into particular Churches 292 c. Sixthly These particular Churches are distributed under Lawful Governors and Pastors 295 c. Seventhly These particular Churches thus distributed hold Communion with each other 298 c. Eighthly The Communion which these particular Churches hold is first in all the Essentials of Christian Faith 303 c. Secondly in all the
no sorts of objects do so vigorously impress and affect him as those which strike immediately on his senses and hence it is that he so greedily prefers carnal before rational and sensitive before spiritual goods notwithstanding the later are in themselves infinitely greater and more eligible and that in his conceptions of spiritual objects he is so prone to blend and intermix them with carnal and Corporeal Phantasms because his mind is so estranged from spiritual objects by its continual intimacy and familiarity with sensual ones that it can hardly frame any Idea of them without disguising them into some bodily semblance God therefore being a spiritual and invisible Essence and upon this account far removed out of the Ken and Prospect of our sense our sensual and depraved minds must either be naturally indisposed to think seriously of and consequently to be duly affected by him which renders us prone to Irreligion or to sophisticate our conceptions of him with corporeal Images and Phantasms which renders us prone to Idolatry to prevent both which God in great condescension to this deplorable weakness of humane minds hath always thought meet to converse with us under some sensible appearance or visible Symbol of his Divine Presence Thus when God conducted his Chosen People through the Red Sea and Wilderness he went before them in a Pillar of Cloud by day and in a Pillar of Fire by night and when afterwards he gave them his Law he descended upon Mount Sinai in a bright and glorious flame overcast with thick and solemn clouds in which illustrious appearance he afterwards made his entrance into the Tabernacle where he made his constant abode and from whence he frequently exhibited himself to the Peoples eyes and senses in a body of visible light and glory which visible light is in holy Scripture very often called the Glory of the Lord. And since God in condescension to the weakness of humane minds thought it meet to present himself to the senses of men in some visible appearance there is the same reason why the Mediator should assume some visible substance to his invisible Godhead that therein he might exhibit himself to our sense and thereby at once affect our minds with a great love and dread of his divine Majesty and by vouchsafing us a visible presence prevent our framing Idols and false Images and Representations of him in our own minds Now of all sensible substance there was none so proper for this end as Humane Nature which is that above all others that we are most intimately acquainted with and most accustomed to love and reverence and obey It is true had his design been to Govern us by terrors and affrightments as he did the Iews it would have been more proper for him to assume that dreadful appearance of a consuming fire in which he was wont to converse with them but his design being to erect his Empire in mens Souls and to captivate their Wills into a free and generous obedience he could not have appeared to us in any visible substance so proper for this end so apt to oblige and aw to indear and terrifie us together as Humane Nature And accordingly as God dwelt of old in the Iewish Tabernacle and thence displayed himself before the Eyes of that People in a visible Glory so the Word as St. Iohn tells was made flesh and tabernacled among us for so the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies i. e. as in condescension to the weakness of the Iews he pitched his Tabernacle among them and thence frequently appeared in a visible Glory to their sense so in condescension to ours he pitched his Tabernacle in our flesh or nature from whence as he proceeds we behold his Glory i. e. at his Baptism and Transfiguration as the glory of the only begotten Son or in which the only begotten Son was wont to display himself from between the Cherubins Iohn 1.14 In short therefore since in Mediating for God with us it was very needful that in compliance with our weakness he should address to our sense in some visible appearance and since there was no visible appearance in which he could so advantagiously address to us as that of Humane Nature it hence evidently appears how requisite it was that he should assume our Nature to his Deity and be Man as well as God. And as it was requisite he should be God-man in order to his Mediating for God with us so was it also no less requisite in order to his Mediating for us with God because as I shall shew hereafter to Mediate for us with God implies first his making an atonement for our sins with his Bloud Secondly his appearing for us as our Advocate in Heaven Now as for the first it was highly requisite that he should be Man that so he might suffer for us his Divinity being wholly impassible and this reason the Apostle himself assigns Heb. 2.14 Forasmuch then as the Children are partakers of flesh and bloud he also himself speaking of Christ took part of the same that through death he might destroy him who hath the power of death and seeing he was to assume another Nature to his Divinity that so he might suffer for us it was most fit and proper that he should assume ours rather than any other For since God in mercy had consented to accept of another person's suffering for our sins it was very requisite that what he suffered for us should come as near to our own personal suffering as it was possible that so it might be more exemplary to us and more nearly affect us with dread and horrour for our sins and next to our own personal suffering is the suffering of our Nature and therefore since the punishment of our sins was to be transferred from our Persons it was highly fit it should be inflicted on our Nature which it could not have been had not he been Man who endured it And as it was requisite that he should be Man that so he might suffer and that so the Nature at least that had sinned might suffer so it was no less requisite that he should be God-man in one and the same person to render his sufferings a valuable Consideration for all that Punishment that was due to God upon the score of the infinite sins of an infinite number of sinners For how could the bloud of one man though never so innocent or excellent have amounted to a valuable commutation for the forfeited lives and souls of a world of guilty sinners Or what less than the bloud of God-man could have been any way equivalent to that Eternal Punishment that was due to God from the whole Race of Mankind And yet that it should be in some measure equivalent was highly requisite as I shall shew hereafter both to satisfie the divine Iustice for what is past and to secure the divine Authority for the future and accordingly we are said to be purchased with the bloud of God Acts
And therefore to satisfie us in this also after he had abode some time upon Earth after his Resurrection and satisfied his Disciples by frequent converses with them that he was really risen and given them all necessary Orders for their future conduct in the propagation of his Gospel he carried them out to Bethany where after he had lift up his hands and blessed them he ascended before their eyes into Heaven upon which it is said Luke 24.52 That they worshipped him and returned to Ierusalem with great Ioy surely not because their dear Lord was gone from them never in this World to be seen by them more that was cause of sorrow rather than joy to them but because he was gone to the right hand of the Father there to intercede in Person for them and for ever to exhibite that wounded and bleeding body of his by which he had made expiation for the sins of the World and purchased the promise of the Spirit and of eternal life upon this account indeed they had great cause to rejoyce because now they knew they had a sure Friend in Heaven where their main hope and interest lay even that very Friend who not long before had freely exposed himself to a most shameful and tormenting death to rescue them from death eternal and who after such an instance of love they could not but conclude would employ his utmost interest with the Father in their behalf and in a word who being the only begotten of the Father whose precious Bloud he had graciously accepted as a ransom for the sins of the World could not but have an interest with him infinitely sufficient to obtain for them all the graces and favours that were fit either for them to ask or for his Father to bestow So that now if we heartily comply with him as Mediating for his Father with us we have all the encouragement in the world to depend on him as Mediating for us with his Father since he doth not Mediate with him by a second hand or at a distance but in his own Person in that very Person which is not only infinitely dear to the Father as being his only begotten Son but hath also infinitely merited of him by offering him his own life at his command as a Sacrifice for the sins of the World. And accordingly upon this consideration the Apostle founds the hope of Christians 1 Iohn 2.1 2. My little Children these things write I unto you that ye sin not but if any man sin let him not presently give up himself as hopeless and irrecoverable for we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the Righteous and he is the Propitiation for our sins VI. And lastly Another thing which the Scripture proposes to our belief concerning this Mediator is that upon his return from us to Heaven there to Mediate Personally for Men with God he substituted the divine and Omnipresent Spirit Personally to promote and effectuate his Mediation for God with Men. When he went up to Heaven there to Mediate for us with God he did not thereby abandon his Mediation for God with us but immediately substituted a certain mighty spiritual Being to act for him whom he calls the Advocate or as we render it the Comforter and the Holy Ghost and who was to Mediate with Men in his behalf even as he Mediated with them in the behalf of his Father and to Advocate for his Authority as he Advocated for his Father's For so he tells his Ministers whom he left behind him to assert and propagate his Authority in the World I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter or Advocate i. e. to plead for and inforce your Ministry in my behalf whose Ministers you are that he may abide with you for ever even the Spirit of Truth c. I will not leave you comfortless or without an Advocate I will come to you that is by this Spirit of Truth who is to be my Vicegerent even as I am my Father's Iohn 14.16 17 18. But for the fuller explication of this great and necessary Article I shall first shew what this divine Spirit is which Christ hath substituted to Mediate for God with us in his absence Secondly I shall explain his subordination and substitution to Christ in this part of his Mediation Thirdly I shall shew what it is that he hath done and still continues to do in order to the effecting this Mediation First What this divine Spirit is which Christ hath substituted to Mediate for God with us in his absence I answer it is the third Person in the Tri-une Godhead For that besides the Father and the Son there is a third divine Person subsisting in the Godhead seems to have been a current Doctrine among the ancient Writers both Gentile and Iewish and is most plainly and expresly asserted in holy Scripture which third Person is known in Scripture by the name of the Holy Ghost or the Spirit of the Lord. For that the Holy Ghost so often named in the New Testament is the same with that Spirit of the Lord so much celebrated in the Old S. Peter expresly asserts 2 Pet. 1.2 For the Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost from which words it is evident that this Holy Ghost whom S. Peter here mentions is the very same with that holy Spirit or Spirit of the Lord by whom as we are told in the Old Testament the ancient Prophets were inspired vid. Isa. 63.11 2 Sam. 23.2 Mich. 2.7 and abundance of other places and accordingly S. Peter applies that Prophecy of Ioel 2.28 I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh to that miraculous descent of the Holy Ghost on the day of Pentecost Acts 2.16 17. but this is that saith he which was spoken by the Prophet Ioel c. which could not be true if Peter's Holy Ghost were not the same with Ioel's spirit of the Lord. But it is most certain that the Holy Ghost whom S. Peter and the New Testament so often mention was in the first place a real Person and not a meer Quality as the Socinians vainly dream For so we every where find personal properties and actions attributed to him Thus he is said to speak Acts 28.25 and Heb. 3.7 yea and his speeches are frequently recorded so Acts 10.20 The Spirit said unto Peter arise therefore get thee down and go with them for I have sent thee and Acts 13.2 The Holy Ghost said separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them and how can we without horrible force to such plain historical relations which ought to be literal and not figurative attribute these speeches to a meer Vertue or Quality And elsewhere he is said to reprove the world Iohn 16.8 and to search into and know the deep things of God 1 Cor. 2.10 11. and to divide his Gifts
God by way of Intercession for Mankind And hence his bloud is called the bloud of sprinkling which speaks better things for us than the bloud of Abel Heb. 12.24 which is a plain allusion to the High Priest's sprinkling the bloud of the Sacrifice before the Mercy-Seat on the great day of Expiation by which action as I shewed before he interceded with God to be propitious to the People in consideration of that bloud which he there presented in their behalf And therefore as the Holy of Holies was a Type of Heaven Heb. 9.24 and the High Priest's entering thereinto after he had slain the Sacrifice a Type of our Saviour's entring into Heaven after the Sacrifice of himself Ibid. verse 7 11 12. so the High Priesâ—'s sprinkling the bloud before the Mercy-Seat was also a Type of our Saviour's presenting his bloud to the Father in Heaven and there pleading it in our behalf and hence he is said to have entered into the Holy place that is into Heaven the Antitype of the Holy of Holies and to have obtained Eternal Redemption for us neither by the bloud of Bulls and Goats as the Jewish High Priest did but by his own bloud Heb. 9.12 where the High Priest's entering into the Holy of Holies with the bloud of Bulls and Goats is plainly opposed as a Type to its Anti-type to Christ's entering into Heaven with his own bloud and therefore the High Priest's interceding for the People in the Holy of Holies in vertue of the bloud of their Sacrifices must necessarily be Typical of Christ's interceding for us in Heaven in the vertue of his Thus as God cast and contrived the Rites and Ceremonies of the Jewish Law in general into a prefiguration or visible Prophecy of the Mysteries of the Gospel that so by those Emblematical Predictions he might intimate before-hand those glorious truths to pious and inquisitive minds which he intended afterwards more plainly to reveal vid. Col. 2.17 and Heb. 10.1 so particularly in the Jewish Priesthood he drew a rude draught and representation of the future Priesthood of our Saviour that so by that figurative Sacrifice and Intercession he might visibly foreshew and intimate to the World the Sacrifice and Intercession of our Saviour For thus it is evident from Philo that the Jews understood their High Priest to be a Type of the Eternal Word or Messias for thus in his Allegories he makes the Temple to be an Emblâ—m of the World 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in which God's first-born Divine Word is the High Priest and in several other parts of his Writings he makes the High Priests Crown and Vestments to be Types and Representations of the dignity and perfections of the Eternal Word by which it is evident that by their Typical High-Priesthood the Jews were in some measure instructed in the nature of the Priesthood of our Saviour Thirdly and lastly I shall now proceed to explain the Priesthood and Priestly Acts of our Saviour corresponding to that ancient Priesthood in which they were prefigured In General therefore the Priesthood of our Saviour corresponding to that ancient Priesthood consists in offering up himself a Sacrifice for our sins and in presenting that Sacrifice to God in our behalf and thereby interceding with him to be merciful and propitious to us So that the Priesthood of our Saviour consists in these two acts First In offering up himself a Sacrifice for our sins Secondly In presenting that Sacrifice to God by way of Intercession for us of each of which I shall discourse at large SECT IV. Concerning the Sacrifice of our Saviour IN handling the first of these viz. the Sacrifice of our Saviour I shall endeavour first to shew that the death of Christ had in it all the requisite conditions of a most real and compleat Sacrifice for sin Secondly To make appear how effectually God's exacting such a Sacrifice in order to his being reconciled to sinners conduces to their reformation First That the death of Christ had in it all the requisite conditions of a real and most compleat Sacrifice for sin Now to make both a true and perfect expiatory Sacrifice there are five things indispensibly necessary First That in being sacrificed it should be substituted in the room of an Offender to be punished for him in order to his being released from his own Personal obligation to punishment For in all those Legal expiations which prefigured this great Expiation of our Saviour the killing of the Sacrifice was as I shewed before a real transferring and inflicting upon it the punishment due to the Offender that offered it in order to his being excused from suffering it in his own person Secondly Another necessary condition of an Expiatory Sacrifice is that it should be pure sound and unblemished and indeed this condition is required in all kinds of Sacrifices whether Expiatory or Eucharistical that they should be pure or Legally clean and that they should be sound and without blemish For so Lev. 22.20 But whatsoever hath a blemish that shall ye not offer for it shall not be acceptable for you and ver 21. It shall be perfect i. e. sound and entire to be accepted there shall be no blemish therein and then he goes on to particulars it shall not be blind or broken or having a Wâ—n or scurvy or scabbed verse 22. Now though the legal uncleanness and the natural blemishes here forbidden in Sacrifices had nothing of sin or immorality in them yet the prohibition of these natural blemishes in Sacrifices that were incapable of moral ones denotes the necessity of a moral cleanness and unblemishedness in that great Expiatory Sacrifice for the sins of the World which they Typified and prefigured and hence Christ is called A Lamb without blemish and without spot 1 Pet. 1.19 Thirdly Another necessary condition to a perfect Expiatory Sacrifice is that it should be of such an intrinsick worth and value as that its death may be in some measure an equivalent Commutation for the punishment which the Offender deserves For the end of punishing whether it be the Offender himself or another in his stead is to secure and maintain the Authority of the Law in order whereunto it is highly requisite that the punishment should ordinarily be equivalent to the demerit of the Crime otherwise it will not be a sufficient motive to warn and deter men from committing it And herein consisted the imperfection of the ancient expiatory Sacrifices that what they suffered was much short of what the Offenders they suffered for deserved for they only substituted the life of a Brute in the room of the life of a Man which is of far greater worth and value and therefore by how much less valuable the life of a Beast is than the life of a Man by so much less was the punishment transferred upon the Sacrifice than the guilt contracted by the Offender Fourthly Another necessary condition to the making of a true and perfect Sacrifice was that it
sacrificed Beasts as well as the Iews yet in great extremities when they conceived their Gods to be highly displeased with them even the most civilized of them sacrificed Men which shews that they thought the death of Beasts to be an insufficient expiation for the sins of men And indeed it cannot be denied but that the Sacrifice of a Man as such is much more proportionable to the punishment which the sins of men deserve than the Sacrifice of a Beast because a Man is a much nobler Creature as being far advanced above a Beast by the Prerogative of his Reason and consequently his death considered as a Man must be a much more valuable exchange for the punishment that is due to those he dies for But herein the Heathen were miserably mistaken that they did not consider that the men whom they sacrificed were sinners as well as themselves and that it is a much greater flaw in an Expiatory Sacrifice to be a Sinner than to be a Brute For whereas the latter only renders it less effectual and valuable the former as was shewn before renders it utterly void and insignificant and therefore though the death of a Man considered as such is of much more value than the death of a Beast yet to expiate for the sins of men there is more internal vertue and efficacy in the death of an innocent Beast than of a sinful Man because the latter can expiate only for his own sin whereas the former can have no sin but that of others to expiate Since therefore men were all spotted and blemished with Sin there was no life so fit for them to offer to God in commutation for their forfeited lives as that of innocent Brutes so that the best commutation they could make was infinitely short of their demerit And suppose that the men which the Heathen offered had been all pure and innocent yet their lives would have been only an equivalent commutation for the forfeited lives of an equal number of sinners unless therefore one half of Mankind had been innocent and they had been sacrificed for the other half that was guilty it had not been an equal Commutation so much as for the temporal punishment which was due to God from the guilty but then for their eternal punishment a Hecatomb of Angels had been short and insufficient For what proportion is there between a temporary death and an eternal misery Since therefore in great compassion to us God hath thought meet to accept of a Sacrifice in lieu of that punishment which was due to him from Mankind and since to secure his own Authority it was highly requisite that what this Sacrifice suffered for us should be in some measure equivalent to what we had deserved and since we had deserved to suffer for ever it necessarily follows that this Sacrifice must be something infinitely more precious and valuable than the bloud of Bulls and Goats yea than the lives of Men or Angels and what can that be but the bloud of the Eternal Son of God the infinite dignity of whose Person rendered his sufferings for us equivalent to the infinite demerit of our sins For it was the dignity of his Person that gave the value to his sufferings and inhanced his temporary Death to a full equivalence to those endless miseries which we had deserved For if the life of a King be as David's People told him worth ten thousand lives of what an infinite value must the life of the Lord of glory and of the Prince of life be who being the Son of God of the same Nature and Essence with his eternal Father must from thence necessarily derive upon his Sacrifice an immensity of worth and efficacy And hence we are said to be purchased with the bloud of God Acts 20.28 and to have the life of God laid down for us Iohn 3.16 and to be redeemed not with corruptible things as Silver and Gold but with the precious bloud of Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 19. and accordingly the Author to the Hebrews makes the vertue and efficacy of Christ's bloud to consist in the worth and value of it For if the bloud of Bulls and Goats c. sanctified to the purifying of the flesh how much more shall the bloud of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.13 14. By all which it is evident that it was the infinite dignity of Christ's Person which derived that infinite merit on his Sacrifice whereby it became an equivalent to the infinite demerit of our sins Nay of such an infinite value and worth was his Sacrifice that it not only countervailed for the punishment due for our sin but did abundantly preponderate it upon which account God ingaged himself not only to remit that Punishment in consideration of it but also to bestow his Spirit and eternal life on us both which as hath been shewn before are as well the purchace of Christ's bloud as the remission of our sins For God might have remitted our punishment without superadding the gift of his Spirit and eternal life to it and therefore since in consideration of Christ's bloud he hath superadded these Gifts to the remission of our punishment it is evident that his bloud was equivalent to both i. e. that it was not only a valuable consideration for the pardon of our sins but also for the assistance of his Spirit and our eternal happiness IV. His Death was on his part voluntary and unforced For since as a Sacrifice he was to be innocent and yet to undergo the punishment of our sin he could not be the one and do the other without his own free consent and approbation For no innocent person can be justly made obnoxious to punishment but by his own Act and Choice because punishment bears a necessary respect to sin and the desert of suffering evil doth originally spring out of doing evil So that an innocent person considered as such cannot deserve to be punished nor consequently be justly obliged thereunto but yet notwithstanding his innocency he may by his own Will and Consent oblige himself to undergo a punishment which otherwise he did not deserve and when he hath so obliged himself the punishment may be justly exacted of him For though he hath no sin of his own to be punished for yet he may by his own act oblige himself to undergo the punishment of another man's And therefore though merely as an innocent person he cannot deserve to be punished either upon his own account or any other man's because having no sin of his own he cannot be guilty of another man's yet so far as he hath the free disposal of himself he may substitute himself in the room of one that is guilty and thereby render himself obnoxious to his punishment As for instance suppose that by some criminal action of his own a man hath forfeited his liberty or life to the Law it
deserve he had been obliged in justice to discharge us without any farther condition yet since out of his own free grace he hath admitted another to suffer for us he may admit it with what limitations he pleases and if he shall think meet as he hath done to limit it to our repentance and amendment all that Christ hath suffered for us will be insignificant to our discharge from our obligation to punishment unless we repent and amend So that the Death of Christ you see doth not expiate mens sins as their personal punishments do by their own natural vertue but by vertue of God's accepting it upon his own terms and conditions And without God's accepting it it would not have been at all an expiation for the sins of the World and without the conditions upon which he accepteth it viz. our repentance and amendment it will not be at all an Expiation for ours Now God hath solemnly declared his acceptance of Christ's Death as an Expiation for our sins for it was God that laid upon him the iniquities of us all Isa. 53.6 that gave his only begotten Son John 3.16 and sent him to be a propitiation for us 1 Joh. 4.10 which plainly imply his free acceptance of him And therefore Christ is said to have given himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Eph. 5.2 i. e. for an Expiation that was highly grateful and acceptable to him So that now the expiation of our sins by the bloud of Christ wholly depends on our performing the condition on which God hath accepted it and since it is upon condition that we repent and amend that God hath accepted the bloud of Christ in exchange for the eternal punishment we owe him unless we perform this condition the Bloud of Christ will not at all avail us but we shall still remain as much obliged to undergo that punishment as if he had never died for us at all God's acceptance indeed hath made the Death of Christ available for us under those conditions and limitations upon which he accepted it but if when he hath accepted it conditionally we expect that it should avail us absolutely and unconditionally we miserably deceive and abuse our own souls Thus far therefore God's acceptance of Christ's Death instead of the punishment we have deserved hath rendred it an effectual expiation and ransom for sinners that if they repent and amend they shall be released and acquitted from the obligation they lie under to suffer eternal punishment in their own persons and entitled to everlasting life and happiness And thus the Death of Christ you see had in it all the necessary qualifications of a real and compleat propitiatory Sacrifice I proceed therefore in the second place to shew what a wise and effectual method this of God's admitting Christ's Sacrifice for sinners is to reduce and reform Mankind which will evidently appear by considering these five things First That the Sacrifice of Christ's Death was a most sensible and affecting acknowledgment of the infinite guilt and demerit of our sin For thus under the Law the offering of Propitiatory Sacrifices implied a most solemn and sensible confession of the guilt of the Offerer For his laying his hand upon the head of his Sacrifice was a Symbolical action by which he solemnly acknowledged to God that he had justly deserved to suffer that death himself which his Sacrifice was suffering for him and accordingly the Jews have this Maxim Vbi non est peccatorum confessio ibi non est impositio manuum quia manuum impositio ad confessionem pertinet where there is no confession of sins there is no imposition of hands because the imposition of hands appertains to Confession For so Lev. 5.5 they are particularly directed to confess their sins upon their bringing their Trespass-Offering before the Lord and as hath been shewn before they had a set Form of Confession in all their expiatory Sacrifices and particularly in that solemn Propitiation viz. the dismission of the Scape-Goat the High Priest is directed to lay both his hands upon the Goat's Head and to confess over him all the iniquities of the Children of Israel Lev. 16.21 so that as Confession is a kind of audible Sacrifice so Sacrifice was a kind of visible Confession and the demerit of their sin being thus represented to their Eyes by the death of their Sacrifice was far more apt to move and affect them with horror and detestation of it than any audible Confession how severe or pungent soever And accordingly our Saviour in offering up himself as an expiation for our sin did as it were lay his hand upon his own head and as our Representative solemnly acknowledge to God that we had justly deserved to suffer for our sin a punishment equivalent to that which he was undergoing for us And what a dreadful one must that be which is equivalent to the Death of the Son of God What less punishment than our everlasting misery can countervail the temporary death of him who was so eminent and innocent who was God-man united in one person and the Lamb of God without spot or blemish If the Iews by sacrificing a Beast did make such a moving acknowledgment that they themselves deserved to die how much more did Christ by sacrificing himself for us acknowledge in our stead that we deserved to die eternally So that whatsoever vertue there is in the most bitter and pathetick confession to create in mens minds a horrour and detestation of their sins all that and much more there is in the Sacrifice of our Saviour whose Bloud cried louder against our sins and made a far more Tragical confession of their demerit than it 's possible for the most sorrowful Penitent to do with all the Eloquence of his grief and bitter strains of self-abhorrence And hence our Saviour is said to have condemned sin in the flesh Rom. 8.3 i. e. to have solemnly acknowledged by his dying for it what a dreadful punishment it deserves Secondly It is to be considered also that the Sacrifice of Christ's Death was a most ample declaration of God's severity against our sins All wise Governours ought so to exercise their Mercy as that it may not be prejudicial to their Authority by giving Offenders encouragement to kick against it but whilst their mercy is easie and apt to be moved by slight Reasons and Motives it will infallibly expose their Authority and render it cheap and vile in the eyes of bold and insolent Offenders the Reasons therefore which move a Prince to pardon Criminals ought to be such if possible as give all manner of discouragement to them from presuming upon impunity for the future God therefore being inclined by the infinite benignity of his Nature to shew mercy to sinners was obliged in wisdom to shew it in such a way and upon such reasons as might sufficiently discourage them from presuming upon his Mercy to the prejudice of his Authority
themselves Thus as it was the Custom of all Nations to solemnize their Covenants with one another by eating together so God in condescension to the manner of men and to confirm their Faith in his Promises did by the same Rite engage himself in Covenant with them And in the same manner the Sacrifice of our blessed Lord was a Seal and Ratification of the New Covenant upon which account it is called as the Iewish Sacrifices were the bloud of the Covenant Heb. 10.29 Heb. 13.20 For his Sacrifice upon the Cross was the meritorious Sin-offering in which he as the High-Priest the Head and Representative of his Church did solemnize the New Covenant between God and us and obtained of his Father an inviolable Ratification of his Promise of Grace and Eternal life For in that dreadful transaction God did solemnly engage himself to Christ in the behalf of his Church to perform to her what he had promised to the utmost upon the terms specified in the New Covenant And therefore Christ is said to have made reconciliation in his own body on the Cross and to have slain the enmity thereon Eph. 2.16 and to have made peace that is a Covenant of peace through the bloud of the Cross Col. 1.20 But then to this Sin-offering there follows a Peace-offering and that is the Lord's Supper in which the Church for her self by eating and drinking at this Table strikes Covenant with God and upon those holy signs of Christ's Body and Bloud gives to and receives from God assurance of mutual Amnesty and Friendship and hence 1 Cor. 10.16 20. this holy Supper is called The Communion of the Body and Bloud of Christ and drinking the Cup of the Lord and being partakers of the Table of the Lord. For when God in this Supper doth by the hand of his Priest present his Bread and Wine to us he doth thereby renew his Covenant with us and when we receive and eat and drink God's Viands we thereby renew our Covenant with him Thus God in great condescension to our desponding minds hath been pleased to ratifie his Covenant with us in our own way and manner not that this ratification doth render his Covenant surer in it self for nothing can be surer than his promise and yet for the confirmation of our diffident minds he is sometimes pleased to add his Oath to his Promise and for the same reason to his Promise and Oath he hath superadded these federal Ratifications which being the same with those legal Forms and Rituals by which men were wont to ratifie their Covenants and Agreements with one another are upon that account more apt to assure and confirm our minds And now what a mighty influence must this solemn confirmation of the New Covenant have upon us to excite and quicken our Piety and Vertue and render us actively zealous of good Works For when God hath not only owned all the promises of the New Covenant to be his by the many miraculous attestations he hath given them but hath also vouchsafed by all those federal Rites that were most sacred among men to oblige himself to perform them we have abundant reason to believe not only that it is he that hath promised all the good things of this Covenant but also that he is fully resolved to perform those promises to us if we perform the conditions of them since by the Bloud of his own Son he hath engaged himself to him in our behalf and by the Sacramental signs of the Body and Bloud of his Son he hath engaged himself to us in our own persons to perform what he hath promised to the utmost punctilio So that now our Faith in the Covenant stands upon a firm and immoveable foundation as having not only the Promise aâ—d the Oath but also the Seal of God to depend on and having all the good things of the Covenant thus solemnly consigned to us what abundant encouragement doth it give us to return to God and our Duty For now we are not only assured of his pardon and gracious reception but also of the assistance of his blessed Spirit to back and enforce our pious endeavours and to enable us to conquer all those resistances of flesh and bloud with which we are to contend and to encourage us to contend with all our might we have an immortal Crown of Glory proposed to us as the reward of our victory and are firmly assured that after we have spent a few moments here in the practice of Piety and Vertue we shall be removed from hence into that triumphant state of Immortality there to reign in unspeakable glory and delight among the blessed Conquerors above and sing Hallelujahs with them for ever For to all these blessed things we are entitled by the ratifications of the New Covenant Having therefore these great and precious Promises sealed to us by the bloud of Iesus Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord 2 Cor. 7.1 And thus you see how effectually the Death of Christ as it is a Sacrifice for sin contributes to our reformation But after all it must be acknowledged that it contributes only as a concurrent cause with our own endeavours it doth not work upon us as if we were dead Machines that have no vital principle of action in us nor yet as necessary Agents that have no free-will or principle of self-determination it draws us indeed but it is with the cords of a man i. e. with a powerful grace and perswasion but doth not drive or hale us with any violent or irresistible Agency For after all the powerful influence of his Death to reform and amend us we are still in our own disposal and so may resist and baffle the efficacy of his Death and in despite of it continue in our wickedness if we please But if we do it is at our own eternal peril and we must one day expect to answer not only for the bloud of our own souls which in despite of the most powerful method of saving them we have wilfully ruined and destroyed but also for the bloud of our Saviour which we have not only defeated but trampled on and if both these be brought to our account it had been better for us not only that we had never been born but that our Saviour himself had never been born since all that he hath done to save us will be brought in judgment against us as an horrid aggravation of our guilt to inflame the reckoning of our punishment So that unless we concur with this great design of Christ by endeavouring our own reformation to the utmost of our power his Death will not only be as insignificant to our happiness as it is to the redemption of Devils but even those vocal wounds of his which were made to plead for will accuse and condemn us and that eloquent Bloud which in its Native Language speaks better things for us than the
God himself can give us of his mercy and our happiness hath any force in it to oblige us to repent and amend this our Saviour's Intercession you see fairly proposes to us so that if this proposal doth not effectually influence our hope and thereby excite and animate our endeavours it is impossible that any encouragement should ever move or affect us And thus you see in all these several particulars how effectually this way of God's communicating his Favours to us through the Intercession of our Saviour tends to our reformation and amendment what a fruitful Topick of motives it is to induce us to repentance and how pathetically it addresses to every affection in us that is capable of persuasion what awful and reverential thoughts of Almighty God it suggests to our minds to dispose our stubborn Wills to an humble submission to him what a horrible representation it makes of our sins and of God's wrath and indignation against them and what a dreadful alarm it gives to our fear to rouse and awake us out of our sinful security And in a word how powerfully it encourages us to draw near unto God and to make our addresses to him with an humble and generous freedom and what vast assurances it gives to our hope of his gracious intentions towards us if we repent and amend All which considered one would think it were impossible for any man that believes and understands this wonderful method of mercy not to be moved and affected by it and certainly that man who hath obstinacy enough to withstand all its persuasions and finally to defeat and baffle those powerful attempts which it makes to reclaim him is a Creature not to be moved by Reason and Argument For in this he hath conquered the greatest motives of all sorts that can be urged to persuade men and when once he is got beyond the reach of persuasion and no motive of ingenuity or hope or fear can affect him his condition is desperate and his obstinacy incurable Wherefore as we would not finally disappoint this wonderful contrivance of God to reclaim us and thereby render our selves for ever desperate let us at length be persuaded seriously to consider the Motives and Arguments it proposes to us and never to cease urging and pressing them upon our own souls till they have conquered our obstinate Wills and prejudiced Affections and finally captivated us into a free compliance with their powerful persuasions For if through our wilful neglect and inconsideration this mighty project of mercy prove utterly unsuccessful with us it is certain we have sinned our selves past all hope of recovery and it will be in vain to make any farther experiment on us And when we have once baffled this last and most powerful remedy of the divine Goodness what remains but that it should give us up and utterly abandon us to the just desert and dire effects of our own folly and obstinacy SECT VI. Of the Kingly Office of our Saviour WHen I first entred upon this Argument of the particular Offices of our Mediator I proposed to handle them in the same order that he performed and executed them and accordingly as he began with his Prophetick Office of which his whole life was a continued Ministry so I have treated of this Office in the first place and as from his Prophetick he proceeded to his Priestly Office one part of which he executed on the Cross where he offered himself a Sacrifice for the sins of the World and the other upon his Ascension into Heaven where he presented and still continues to present his Sacrifice to the Father by way of intercession for us so I proceeded in the next place to treat of his Priesthood in both the parts of it and now in the last place in pursuit of the same order I proceed to his Regal or Kingly Office which was the last he entered upon after he had finished his Prophecy offered his Sacrifice and presented it to his Father in Heaven For so in Scripture the Regality of Christ is always spoken of as successive to both his Prophetick and Priestly Office and as the fruit and reward of his faithful discharge and execution of them So Phil. 2.8 9 10. it was because he humbled himself and became obedient to death even the death of the Cross that God highly exalted him and gave him a name which is above every name that at the name of Iesus every knee should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth And Rom. 14.9 the Apostle tells us that it was for this end that Christ both died and rose and revived that he might be Lord both of the dead and living and accordingly the Angels in St. Iohn's Vision attribute his advancement to his Regal dignity to the merit of his Death and Sacrifice Rev. 5.12 Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing And hence his sitting at the right hand of God which is the great Scripture-Metaphor by which his Regal Authority is expressed of the sense and meaning of which Pearson's Exposition of the Creed p. 277 278 279. is mentioned as the fruit and consequence of his Death and Intercession So Heb. 1.3 When he had by himself purged our sins i. e. by dying for us on Earth and presenting his Sacrifice in Heaven he sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high and Heb. 10.12 But this man after he had offered one Sacrifice for sins for ever sate down on the right hand of God and so also 1 Pet. 3.22 we are told that it was upon his going into Heaven i. e. to present his Sacrifice to his Father there that he was advanced to the right hand of God and that Angels and Authorities and Powers were made subject to him For his going into Heaven was a Priestly Act corresponding to the Priest's going into the Holy of Holies to present his Sacrifice to God there so that Christ's first arrival into Heaven and presenting his Sacrifice there is the beginning and commencement of his Intercession in answer to which he first received of his Father that Royal Power and Authority which he exercises both in Heaven and Earth and it is by vertue of the continuance of that his Priestly Intercession that this his Royal power is continued and perpetuated to him So that as he is a Royal Priest i. e. a Priest invested with Regal power to bestow the blessings he intercedes for so he is a Sacerdotal King i. e. a King that holds his Regal power in the right and virtue of his Priestly Intercession For it is by the continuance of his Intercession that he obttains the continuance of his Royal Authority to bestow those blessings on us which he intercedes for So that as Christ intercedes in the vertue of his Sacrifice so he rules in the vertue of his Intercession And accordingly you find in
some terrible assault from these Infernal Powers so he tells his Disciples just before he went thither Hereafter I will not talk much with you for the Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me i. e. give me leave now to discourse freely with you because within a very little while I shall be so engaged that I shall not be at leisure to discharge my mind to you for the Prince of Devils is just now mustering up all his Legions against me and is coming to make his last effort upon me but this is my comfort he will find nothing in me no sinful inclination to take part with him no guilty reflection to expose me to his Tyranny Iohn 14.30 and accordingly Luke 22.53 when the Jews had apprehended him he expostulates the case with them why they did not lay hands on him before when he was daily with them in the Temple and then answers himself But now is your hour and the power of darkness as much as if he should have said I need not wonder you did not seize me sooner for this alas is the appointed time wherein my Father had decreed to let loose the Devils and you upon me Which plainly shews that in that dismal hour he was assaulted by the Devils as well as by the Iews for in all probability those crafty and sagacious spirits had smelt out the merciful design of his approaching death viz. that it was to be a ransom for the sins of the World and therefore though they were desirous enough of his death as is apparent by their animating Iudas and the Jews against him yet dreading the end and intention of it they resolve to imploy all their Art and Power to tempt and deter him from undergoing it and either to prevail with him to avoid it by a shameful Recantation or at least not to consent to it that so being forced and involuntary it might be void and ineffectual In which black design of theirs God himself thought meet so far to favour them as to give them his free permission to try him to the utmost that so having experienced in himself the utmost force of Temptation that Humane Nature is liable to he might thereby be touched with a more tender sympathy with it or as the Author to the Hebrews expresses it That having suffered himself being tempted he might be able to succour them that are tempted Chap. 17.18 But then secondly if we consider the woful Circumstances of his Agony it is evident that it was the effect of some far more powerful cause than meerly a natural fear of his ensuing Death and bodily Torment for no sooner was he entered on that Tragick Stage but he began to be sorrowful saith S. Matthew Chap. 26.37 or to be sore amazed as S. Mark Chap. 14.33 or to be very heavy as both which words according to their native signification declare him to have been all on a sudden oppressed with some mighty damp which arising from some fearful spectacle or imagination overwhelmed his Soul with an unknown and inexpressible anguish an Anguish that sunk and depressed him into as deep a dejection as it was possible for an innocent mind to endure causing him to groan out that sad complaint My Soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. My Soul is encompassed with grief and like a desolate Island surrounded on every side with an Ocean of sorrows and that even unto death as if it had been strugling under some mortal Pang and the pains of Hell had got hold upon it And so intolerable was his Passion that though he liberally vented it both at his Eyes and Lips in Tears and Sighs and sorrowful complaints yet that was not a sufficient discharge for it but through all the innumerable Pores of his body it poured out it self as it were in great drops of bloud Luke 22.44 All which considered I can by no means think that that which occasioned this bitter Agony was meerly the prospect of what he was going to suffer from the hands of men since not only some Martyrs but some Malefactors have suffered much more with less dejection and if you consult the History you will find that he bore his death far better than his Agony from whence we have just reason to believe that the later was more grievous to him than the former and that the Crucifixion of his body on the Cross was nothing near so painful to him as the crucifixion of his mind in the Garden And since his sufferings in his Agony are described with more Tragical Circumstances than his sufferings on the Cross we have just reason to conclude they were inflicted on him by more spiteful and powerful executioners and consequently that he endured the Tortures of men only on the Cross but of Devils in the Garden where being left all alone naked and abandoned of the ordinary supports of his Godhead and having only an Angel to stand by and comfort him i. e. to represent such considerations to him of the benefits and advantages of his Death as were most proper to fortifie him against the Temptations which the Devils were then urging to deter him from it he was in all probability surrounded with a mighty Host of Devils who exercised all their power and malice to persecute his innocent soul to distract and fright it with horrid Phantasms to afflict it with dismal suggestions and vex and cruciate it with dire imaginations and dreadful spectacles Thirdly If we consider that strange unaccountable drowsiness which seized his Disciples whilst he was in his Agony it seems to have been the effect of a Diabolical power for before he entered into the Garden he had expresly told them that the Hour was come wherein he was to be taken from them by an untimely death so that one would have thought the dear love which they bore him together with the infinite Concern they had in him might have been sufficient to have kept them awake for a few hours yet notwithstanding he desired them to watch with him being loth it seems to be left alone in a dark night among a company of horrid and frightful Spectres upon his return to them he found them fast asleep and though he gently upbraided them with their unkindness What could ye not watch with me one hour Yet he no sooner left them but they fell asleep again for as the Text tells us their eyes were heavy Heavy indeed that could not hold up for a few hours upon such an awakening occasion It is true indeed S. Luke attributes this prodigious drowsiness of theirs to their sorrow and so it is usual in Scripture to put the apparent cause for the real when the real cause is secret and invisible But how can we imagine that meer sorrow should necessitate three men to fall asleep together under the most awakening Circumstances all things considered that ever hapned to Mortals Why did it not as well force them
and general account of it in Scripture where we are only told that they shall awake to everlasting shame and contempt Dan. 12.2 and that they shall come forth to the Resurrection of Damnation John 5.28 and that upon their Resurrection they shall be judged according to their works and cast into the Lake of fire Rev. 20.13.15 from whence it is apparent that they shall be raised for no other end but to be punished to endure that vengeance which shall then be rendered to them even the vengeance of eternal fire for that will be their doom Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Since therefore their Resurrection will be only in order to their being fetched from Prison to Iudgment and sent from Iudgment to Execution to be sure their bodies will be raised in full capacity to suffer the fearful execution of their doom that is with an exquisite sense to feel and an invincible strength to sustain the torment of eternal fire For since they must suffer for ever they must be raised both passive and immortal with a sense as quick as lightening to perceive their misery and yet as durable as Anvil to undergo the stroaks of it which to all eternity will be repeated upon them without any pause or intermission Thus shall they be raised with a most vivacious and everlasting sense of pain that so they may ever feel the pangs of death without ever dying so St. Cyril Catech. illum 4. p. 26. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. wicked men shall be cloathed with eternal bodies that in them they may suffer the eternal punishment of their sins and so they shall have strength to suffer as long as vengeance hath will to inflict and therefore since it is the will of divine vengeance that they should suffer eternal fire the divine power will furnish them with such bodies as shall be able to endure everlasting scorching in that fire without being ever consumed by it for at their Resurrection their wretched Ghosts shall be fetched out of those invisible Prisons wherein they are now reserved in chains against the Judgment of the great Day to suffer in that body wherein they sinned and that therein they may be capable of lingring out an eternity of torment they shall be reunited to it in such a fatal and indissoluble bond as neither Death nor Hell shall ever be able to unloose And this is all the account we have from Scripture concerning the change that shall be made by the Resurrection in the bodies of wicked men viz. that from weak and corruptible bodies they shall be changed into vigorous and incorruptible ones and be endued with a quick and everlasting sense of all that everlasting punishment which they are raised to endure Thus having given an account at large of this second Regal Act which our blessed Saviour is yet to perform viz. Raising the dead I proceed to the III. And last viz. his judging the World. In treating of which great and fundamental Article of our Faith I shall endeavour First To prove the truth of the thing that our blessed Saviour shall judge the World. Secondly To give an account of the signs and forerunners of his coming to judge it Thirdly To shew the manner of his coming Fourthly To explain the whole process of his judgment I. I shall endeavour to prove the truth of the thing viz. that our Saviour shall judge the World than which there is no one Proposition more frequently and plainly asserted in holy Scripture Thus Acts 17.31 we are told that God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the World in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained and that this man is Jesus Christ we are assured Acts 10.42 And he commanded us to preach unto the People and to testifie that it is he which was ordained of God to be the Iudge of quick and dead So also 2 Tim. 4.1 I charge thee before God and the Lord Iesus Christ who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom And accordingly we are told that we shall all stand before the Iudgment seat of Christ Rom. 14.10 And all appear before the Iudgment seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done whether it be good or bad 2 Cor. 5.10 And to the same purpose our Saviour himself tells us that the Father judgeth no man that is immediately but hath given all judgment to his Son and afterward he gives the reason of it because he is the Son of man Iohn 5.22.27 that is because he dutifully complied with his Fathers Will in chearfully condescending to cloath himself in Humane Nature and therein to offer up himself a willing Victim for the sins of the World for so Rev. 5.9.12 Worthy is he alone to receive the Book of judgment and to open the Seals thereof because he was slain and hath redeemed us to God by his blood worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive the power and honour the glory and blessing appendent to his high Office of judging the World. From all which it abundantly appears that this great action of judging the World is to be performed by Christ. I proceed therefore to the Second general Head I proposed to treat of which was to give an account of the signs and forerunners of his coming to judgment For before he actually appears he will give the secure World a fearful warning of his coming by hanging out to its publick view a great many horrible signs and spectacles for thus the Prophet Ioel Ioel 1.30 31. I will shew wonders in the Heavens and in the Earth blood and fire and pillars of smoke the Sun shall be turned into darkness and the Moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord which Prophesie of his is particularly exemplified by our Saviour Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the Sun be darkened and the Moon shall not give her light and the Stars of Heaven shall fall and the Powers of the Heavens shall be shaken and then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven Matt. 24 29 30. and more particularly Luke 21.11.25 Great Earthquakes shall be in divers places and Famines and Pestilences and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from Heaven and there shall be signs in the Sun and in the Moon and in the Stars and upon the Earth distress of Nations with great perplexity the Sea and the Waves roaring and then it follows then shall they see the Son of man coming It is true this Prophesie of our Saviour immediately respects the destruction of Ierusalem and was in part accomplished in it several of these very signs being a little before the Calamity of that City actually exhibited to the publick view of the World as both Iosephus and Tacitus assure us and several others of them were exhibited immediately after