us from the Fear of Death and from the eternal Wrath of God To which we were before Obnoxious and so should have been to all eternity without any Hopes of Deliverance from this dreadful Bondage or without any Possibility that by any thing we could do we should be Accepted of by God and admitted to his Favour If we were not assured from the great Mercy which we this day Commemorate That it is the Blood of Christ who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God that doth purge our Conscience from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.14 Two things therefore more I shall briefly do 1. I shall give some more particular account from the Scripture of Christs Dying for us And 2. I shall point at some of those Heads from whence your own Thoughts may make a yet farther and a more close Practical Improvement of the whole 1. Some more particular account from the Scripture 1. The Death of Christ is represented to us in the Scripture as a Propitiatory Sacrifice and the Price of our Redemption Rom. 5.11 By him we have now received the Atonement And When we were Enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son V. 10. V. 1. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ He hath made peace through the Blood of his Cross Colos 1.20 We have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sins Colos 1.14 The Chastisement of our peace was upon him and with his stripes we are healed Isa 53.5 And this is more apparent because together with the mention of I his there is a manifest Intimation of Gods Acceptance of it in our Stead Christ is said by the Grace of God to have tasted Death for every man Heb. 2.9 In our Stead he suffered Death and Gods Grace and special Favour is acknowledged in all this in that it was For Us that he died that God Accepted it As Such And therefore God's Love did appear to the World in giving his only begotten Son In sending him that the World through him might be saved John 3.16 17. God by all This hath shewed himself so clearly to be for us that the Apostle asks the question Who then can be against us He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all How shall he not with him also freely give us all things Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifieth Who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh Intercession for us Rom. 8.31 32 33 34. His Resurrection giving abundant evidence of the Dignity of the Sacrifice of his Death and of Gods gracious Acceptance of it And his Intercession for us making good to us the Effects of it 2. That Gods Favour to us was to be obtained in This Way namely by the Death of Christ is so clearly foretold in Isa 53. that nothing can be more And the same was also Typified by the Paschal Lamb by the Sacrifices and by what the High-Priest did on the great Day of Atonement Thus Christ did put away Sin by the Sacrifice of himself Heb. 9.26 By his own Blood he obtained eternal Redemption for us Ver. 12. 3. That this should be done is represented to us in the Scripture as a gracious and wise Contrivance of God and as an Agreement between God the Father and the Son Thus what was done against Jesus Acts 4.27 28. is said to have been before determined by the Hand and Counsel of God And Act. 2.23 the Jews are said to have taken Jesus and by wicked hands to have crucified and slain him being delivered by the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God And as to the Agreement between God the Father and the Son Bp. Pearson on the Creed p. 185. that the Son should do all this on our behalf we read Isa 53.10 11. of the Lords bruising him and putting him to grief and of making his Soul an offering for Sin and that he should bear the Iniquities of many Upon his doing all which it 's said that he shall see his Seed he shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand Now the Declaration of the Sons Readiness to do all this that so all might be effected that was agreed to by the Father to follow upon it is expressed Heb. 10.5 c. Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not but a Body hast thou prepared me In Burnt-offerings and Sacrifices for Sin thou hast had no pleasure Then said I Lo I come to do thy Will O God And the Apostle adds ver 10. By the which Will we are Sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all Than all which nothing can be more clear So that those men must be supposed to Delight in Contradiction that can be bold and forward to object any thing against the manifest Evidence of all this 4thly and lastly The Scripture doth give us some Grounds according to our weak measure of judging of the great and high things of God whereupon we may observe the Fitness of all this and the Suitableness of those Means that have been used to the good and wise Ends for which they were used That an Expiation in general was necessary Mans Weakness to fulfil the Law doth seem to be one Reason Rom. 8.3 What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh Or as the Expression for sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is otherwise expressed in the Margent of that Place By a Sacrifice for sin he condemned sin in the flesh And many Reasons have been given why a Satisfaction should be made before God would pardon Sin with respect to the Holiness of God and to the securing a due Honour and Regard to his Law and to the expressing how Odious Sin was in the sight of God That so men by having Pardon over-easily granted might not be Encouraged to Sin or at least not so much Deterr'd from it And that we might the better judge of All This by considering at what a heavy Price our Redeemer purchased Pardon for us And the Wisdom of God doth farther appear in this That the Price of our Redemption was to to be paid in Our Nature In which Nature also he was to take Possession of Heaven and therefore a little before he left this World he laid this Consideration before his Sorrowful Disciples to Comfort them Joh. 14.2 3. I go to prepare a Place for you that where I am there ye may be also Other Reasons may also be given in Explication of such Places as these namely That the Captain of our Salvation was to be made perfect through Sufferings Heb. 2.10 Luke 24.26 And That
of Sin and of Punishment The Devil was the Author of and the Solicitor to Sin by the entrance of which into the World Death also entred Rom. 5.12 and passed upon all Men for that all have sinned And through Sin it was that he had the power of death that is of inflicting death both of body and soul By this it was that the Devil reigned over Men to their eternal destruction For in that sense this Kingdom of his may be conceived to be fitly called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Empire Dominion of death from the effect of it in that it was deadly and destructive to Man But to the great joy of us all and that we may ever adore and magnifie the blessed and only Potentate 1 Tim. 6.15 the King of Kings and Lord of Lords and submit our selves to God James 4.7.12 the one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy having now this assurance that if we resist the Devil he will flee from us this dreadful Empire is now brought to its fatal period and the Tyrant as such being wholly deprived of his Tyranny is destroyed too as if he were not at all as to any hurt that he can do us our strong Helper and mighty Deliverer the holy and ever blessed Jesus God and Man having rescued us out of the jaws of death and destruction by destroying him that had the power of it The promised Seed of the Woman hath punished that piercing and crooked Serpent Isa 27.1 hath broken the head of that fierce and terrible Leviathan Psal 74.14 in such a way as that he hath truly shewed himself to be the Seed of the Woman The Conquest was obtained by him in Humane nature and that not without receiving such Wounds as he in that nature was capable of not without the honourable marks of a Bloody Victory For as Christ the Seed of the Woman did bruise the Serpents Head Gen. 3.15 so also the Serpent was permitted to bruises his Heel Through Death he destroyed him that had the Power of death And now having thus far given some account of the several words and expressions in my Text the full import of the Doctrin of it will be more clearly stated by comparing the proper Notion of the Bondage and Deliverance there mentioned with some few particulars which are to be considered as they are Dependant and Consequent upon that which is primarily to be understood or as they belong to that Application which it is but reasonable we should make of the whole to our selves 1. That there is a Yet-remaining Bondage to which the Fear of Death doth make Particular men Subject must be acknowledged which may admit of several Degrees as they are more or less the Servants of Sin Rom. 6.16 17 c. Rom. 8.9 13. Because not having the Spirit of Christ not through the Spirit mortifying the deeds of the Body But serving divers Lusts and Pleasures living in Malice and Envy Hateful and Hating one another Tit. 3.3 They must in their own Thoughts be concluded to be so far from having any Benefit by that Deliverance which Christ hath obtained as in truth to be the Enemies of the Cross of Christ Phil. 3.18 Though the Gospel of Christ be preached unto them as well as unto others Heb. 4.2 yet the Word preached doth not profit them not being mixed with Faith in them not begetting that Hope in them 1 John 3.3 by which they are enabled to purifie themselves to have always a Conscience void of offence toward God and toward Men. Act. 24.16 And therefore unless they be grossy deluded being sensible that the Death of Christ is of no Advantage to them while they Continue in an impenitent State It is impossible but that they must Fear Death and cannot be supposed even to think themselves Delivered from this Fear by the Death of Christ But the Bondage in my Text and our Deliverance from it are in this present Discourse to be looked upon not with respect to the Particular Subject but to the Common Nature of Man Christ himself only excepted The Bondage as incident to Humane Nature as Faln and Depraved And the Deliverance from it as that which All men stand in Need of and of which all are Capable as to the Foundation of it that is laid in the Death of Christ and with the Refusal of which all are Chargeable to whom the tender of it is made by the Preaching of the Gospel We are All either Actually under it or as to any thing that is in our selves Subject to the greatest extremity of it or we are in some Measure actually Delivered from the Effects of it and have a comfortable prospect of a Compleat Deliverance All have Sinned and come short of the glory of God Being justified freely by his Grace Rom. 3.23 24. through the Redemption that is in Jesus Christ Only of this to prevent all Presumption we must ever be mindful that those Only are the persons to whom now there is no Condemnation Rom. 8.1 2. who are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the Flesh but after the Spirit Such in whom the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus hath made them Free from the Law of Sin and Death 2. There is also a Farther Bondage which is Consequent on the Fear of Temporal Death when Men for Fear of Persecution or Death do commit Sin or neglect any part of their Duty by that means endeavouring to avoid what they fear our Deliverance from which is Consequent upon our cordial Belief of that Deliverance which Christ hath obtained for us by his Death For if we truly believe That and acquiesce in it as our Happiness Why should we be afraid of them which Kill the Body but are not able to Kill the Soul Mat. 10.28 Nay doth not our Faith if it be lively and sincere teach us above all things to fear him which is able to Destroy both Soul and Body in Hell Heb. 4.1 c. Ever fearing lest a Promise being left us of entring into Gods rest any of us should fail of it through Unbelief Of which there can be no greater instance than by Slighting that Deliverance our Saviour hath obtained for us to declare that we place no Confidence in it 3. There is also a Fear of Death to which Weak though Sincere Christians may be in some measure Subject which may at Sometimes so much Disturb them as to Approach very near to the Bondage here in my Text and which is at all times both their Unhappiness and their Sin This proceeds from great Defects in their Faith and in other Graces and generally from great Neglect of what their holy Profession doth call them to Now though the serious Consideration of the Deliverance here in my Text and mens hearty Endeavors to work out their Interest in it with fear and trembling of another nature Phil.
Christ ought to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory For besides the Correspondence that cannot but be between what God hath Fore-told and what doth come to pass it may not be unfit to observe a Denotation in all this of Gods Ordinary Methods in dealing with the Sons of Men He having thought it convenient to Exercise them with many Hardships before he bring them to an Immutable Happiness And therefore God having determined that those whom he purposed to Glorifie should even in this respect be Conformed to the Image of his Son Rom. 8.28 29. It was necessary that by Suffering he should be the First-born among many Brethren And therefore we should Learn from what befel him to Expect Sufferings and from his Example both to be Willing to suffer and How to suffer That God is to be Glorified in All that we are or are Capable of as well in Suffering as in Doing That we should never decline any Suffering Mat. 5.10 1 Pet. 2.18 c. or any Occasion of it for Righteousness sake And that even when we suffer wrongfully we are so to behave our selves as by our Christian-like Deportment to express that Meekness Patience and Submission and hearty Praying for our Persecutors which he did express to the wonder of all that beheld him We must hence learn to be Subject to all those that have Authority over us not only to the good and gentle but also to the froward For unto this matter doth St. Peter apply the Argument he fetcheth from what our Saviour suffered 1 Pet. 2.21 Telling us that Hereunto we are called because that Christ also suffered for us leaving us an Example that we should follow his steps Who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth Who when he was reviled reviled not again When he suffered he threatned not but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously This reason of the Fitness of our Saviours Sufferings is very Pious and the Application of it most Necessary But whatever Reasons we may take notice of they must all be considered with respect to Gods Decree and good pleasure and may not so be laid down as to make what We may Apprehend as Necessary a Limiting of the absolute Freedom of the Divine Will Which being premised I am willing a little farther to insist upon the Consideration of the Fitness that Christ should take Our nature upon him and therein suffer for us from what we read in the next Verse but one after my Text That It behoved him in all things to be made like unto his Brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God to make Reconciliation for the Sins of the people Upon these Two things I shall lay the main Stress of the matter and consider them in such a way as may be most pertinent to the main Subject of my Text. 1. That he might be a Merciful High-Priest the eternal Son of God took our nature upon him Not that he needed this to make any Addition to his Mercy which is infinite but that having those Affections that are Common to our nature and in our nature having had a lively Sense and Experience of our Infirmities Heb. 4.15 We according to that infinite distance there is between the Incomprehensible and Self-sufficient God and our poor Defective and Polluted nature might with the greater Assurance go to this Emmanuel this God with us Mat. 1.23 John 1.14 to the Word that was made flesh and dwelt among us and lay open all our wants before him 1 Tim. 2.5 as the One Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus For the infinite Perfections of God which are nothing else but the one same uncompounded Essence though apprehended by us under differing Conceptions which we call Justice Mercy Power c. are so far above our Comprehension that when according to our Measure we endeavour to form such Notions of them as may be a sufficient Ground for our Trust and Confidence without the lest Wavering or even Suspicion that our Ignorance may be Prejudicial to us we find our minds so Dazled with the exceeding glory of the Object and our thoughts so divided and many times Contrary to each other that the more we Think of that which cannot be Comprehended by us the more we are Confounded and do at last find it Impossible to have any firm Rest and assurance for the Soul which can pretend to Exceed that Discovery we have of God in Christ He that confiders what our Saviour hath told us of himself I am the way and the truth and the life Joh. 14.6 No man cometh unto the Father but by me must be wanting to himself in admitting that light which he may receive if he be at any loss in the certainty of this That as in Christ we have all requisite Knowledge of God so in and through him we can only expect to find the Great God who is Glorious in Holiness fearful in praises doing wonders Exod. 15.11 to be propitious to us It is therefore our Happiness that we have an High-Priest who having taken our Nature upon him hath thereby brought what is Necessary for us to know of God to that Measure that we are able to reach to The safest Prospect we can take of Gods infinite Attributes is in him that is the brightness of Gods glory Heb. 1.3 and the express Image of his Person And though it may be a dangerous Curiosity to lanch out too far into this Depth yet this is our Comfort and it should be our main Concern that we have in Christ not only a Satisfactory but even a Glorious discovery of that particular Attribute of God in which our lost Condition is chiefly concerned even that of Mercy in our Merciful High-Priest 2. It behoved the Son of God to be made like unto his Brethren that he might be a faithful High-Priest in things pertaining to God to make Reconciliation for the Sins of the People He having Undertaken to make Reconciliation and by so doing to shew himself in a most eminent manner to be our High-Priest and the Manner of this reconciliation being Agreed on between the Father and the Son how could it be but that the only Happiness of Sinful and Miserable Men must depend upon the making of such a reconciliation as would be Effectual How can we apprehend Christ to have been a Merciful High-Priest but we must conclude that he was therefore a Faithful High-Priest His Mercy inclined him to Compassionate our misery and to Intercede with God for Pardon as our High-Priest and therefore as our Faithful High-Priest he did not only Intercede for us but he interceded for us Powerfully He did all that in the Wisdom and Decree of God was necessary to obtain our Reconciliation Thus in all things he was like unto his brethren that he might be a faithful High-Priest that what we had need of and