Peter that he could command millions of Angels to his rescue but he meerly submits unto his Father Not my will but thy will be done sayes he for God had laid upon him the iniquities of us all Esay 53. Let our faith therefore look mainly to this designe and plot of God and of Christ in his suffering to satisfie for our sins and to justifie us sinners When we consider him as borne flesh and bloud and laid in a manger think we withall that his meaning was to condemne sin in our flesh Rom. 8. 4. So when we read of him fulfilling all or any part of righteousnes take we his mind in withall to be that the Law might be fulfilled in us as it follows there who were then represented in him and so the fulfilling of it is accounted ours Behold we him in his life time as Iohn the Baptist did even as the Lamb of God bearing and taking away the sins of the world and when upon the Crosse let our faith behold the iniquities of us all met in him Surely he hath borne our sorrowes bearing our sinnes in his body on the tree and thereby once offered to beare the sinnes of many 1 Pet. 3. Heb. 9. c. This intent of Christ in all that he did and suffered is that welcome newes and the very spirit of the Gospel which faith preys and seiseth on CHAP. III. What support or matter of triumph Christs death affords to faith for Justification NOw having thus directed your Faith to the right object Christ and Christ as dying let us secondly see what matter of support and encouragement faith may fetch from Christs death for Justification And surely that which hath long agoe satisfied God himselfe for the sins of many thousand soules now in heaven The fulnesse of Christs satisfaction may very well serve to satisfie the heart and conscience of any sinner now upon earth in any doubts in respect of the guilt of any sins that can arise We see that the Apostle here after that large discourse of Justification by Christs righteousnes in the former part of this Epistle to the Rom. and having shewed how every way it abounds Chap. 5. he now in this 8. Chap. doth as it were sit down like a man over-convinced as ver 31. What then shall we say to these things He speaks as one satisfied and even astonished with abundance of evidence having nothing to say but onely to admire God and Christ in this work and therefore presently throws downe the Gauntlet and challengeth a dispute in this point with all commers Let Conscience and carnall reason Law and Sinne Hell and Devils bring in all their strength Who is he shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect who shall condemne Paul dares to answer them all and carry it with these few words It is God that justifies It is Christ that dyed And as in ver 37. We are more then conquerours in all these It was this that brought in the Prodigall that in his Fathers house there was bread enough And so likewise he who ever he was who was the Author of the 130. Psal when his soul was in deep distresse by reason of his sins ver 1 2. yet this was it that setled his heart to wait upon God that there was plenteous redemption with him Christs redemption is not meerly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a price or ransome aquivalent or making due satisfaction according to the just demerit of sinne but it is plenteous redemption there is an abundance of the gift of righteousnesse Rom. 5. 17. and unsearchable riches of Christ Ephes 3. 8. Yea 1 Tim. 1. 14. the grace of our Lord that is of Christ as ver 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we translate it was abundant but the word reacheth farther it was over-full redundant more then enough And yet sayes Paul ver 13. I had sins enough to pardon as one would think that might exhaust it I was a blasphemer c. But I found so much grace in Christ even more then I knew what to doe withall I shall not insist so largely on this first Head of Christs dying as upon those three following because it is the main subject of another Discourse which through Gods grace I intend to publish though in another method Onely for a taste to instance in some few particulars How Christs satisfaction may be set against the guilt of any sins and so made use of by faith shewing how Christs satisfaction may be opposed and set against the guilt of a poore sinners offences What is there that can be said to aggravate sin in the generall or any mans particular sins that may not be answered out of this Christ hath dyed and something not be considered in it which the conscience may oppose thereto So that what ever evill which according to the rules of spirituall reason which the righteous Law proceedeth by and containeth as the foundation of its righteousnesse in condemning or aggravating sinne a mans conscience may suggest to be in sinne oppositely hereunto may a mans faith according to the like rules of true spirituall reason shew a more transcendent goodnesse to have been in Christs death which the Gospel reveales and so may oppose the one to the other and have as good reason to shew why sinne should not condemne from CHRISTS death as Conscience can have that the Law may condemne As first 1. Against the hainousnesse of sin in the generall Is sinne the transgression of the Law Christ dying the Law-maker was subjected to the Law and will not that make amends Is sin the debasement of Gods glory manifested in his Word and Works Christs dying was the debasement and emptying of the brightnesse of his glory in the highest measure being personally manifested in the flesh The one of them is but as the darkning the shine or lustre of the Sun upon a wall but the other is as the obscuring of the Sun it selfe Sins highest evill lies in offending God but Christs righteousnesse is oppositely the righteousnesse of God himselfe or Iehovah made our righteousnesse So that God in our sinne is considered but as the object against whom but God in this our righteousnesse is the subject from whom and in whom this righteousnesse comes and is feated And so his God-head answerably gives a higher worth to it by how much the alliance which the subject hath to an action of its owne that proceeds from it is nearer then that which an object hath against which the action is committed Or secondly 2. Against any aggravation of particular sins what peculiar aggravations or circumstances are there in thy sinnes to weigh down with which some circumstances in Christs obedience and death may not be paralleld to lift thee up againe As first 1. Against the greatnesse of the act of any particular sin what ever Is it the greatnesse of thy sinne in the substance of the fact committed hath there been
person meerely and upon his owne bottome onely there had beene no occasion for such a speech and yet consider him as he stood in our stead there was for what need of such a Justification if he had not been some way neer a condemnation He therefore must be supposed to stand here in Esay at Gods Tribunall as well as at Pilates with all our sins upon him And so the same Prophet tels us Ch. 53. 6. God made the iniquities of us to meete on him He was now made sin and a curse and stood not in danger of Pilates condemnation only but of Gods too unlesse he satisfied him for all those sins And when the wrath of God for sin came thus in upon him his faith was put to it to trust wait on him for his Justification for to take off all those sins together with his wrath from off him and to acknowledg himselfe satisfied him acquited Therfore in the 22. Ps which was made for Christ when hanging on the Crosse and speaks how his heart was taken up that while he is brought in as putting forth such a faith as here we speak of when he called God his God My God my God then whēas to his sense he had forsaken him why hast thou forsaken me Yea he helped his faith with the faith of the Fore-fathers whom upon their trust in him God had delivered Our Fathers says he trusted in thee they trusted and thou didst deliver them Yea at the 5. v. we find him laying himselfe at Gods feet lower then ever any man did I am a worme sayes he which every man treads on and counts it a matter of nothing for to kill and no man as it follows and all this because he bare our sins Now his deliverance and justification from all these to be given him at his resurrection was the matter the businesse he thus trusted in God for even that he should rise again and be acquited from them So Psal 16. a Psalme made also for Christ when to suffer and to lie in the grave ver 8 9 10. The Lord is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my heart is glad my flesh also resteth in hope Or as in the Originall dwels in confident surenesse thou wilt not leave my soule in hell that is under the load of these sins and thy wrath laid on me for them neither wilt thou suffer thy holy One in my body to see corruption This is in substance all one with what is here said in this one word He is neere that justifies me for Christs Resurrection was a Iustification of him as I shall hereafter shew Neither 2. 2. A faith for the justifying of us did he exercise faith for himselfe only but for us also and that more then any of us is put to it to exercise for himselfe for he in dying and emptying himselfe trusted God with the merit of all his sufferings aforehand there being many thousands of soules to be saved thereby a long while after even to the end of the world He dyed and betrusted all that stock into his Fathers hands to give it out in Grace and Glory as those for whom he dyed should have neede And this is a greater trust considering the infinite number of his elect as then yet to come then any man hath occasion to put forth for himselfe alone God trusted Christ before he came into the world and saved many millions of the Jews upon his bare word And then Christ at his death trusts God againe as much both for the salvation of Jews and Gentiles that were to beleeve after his death In Heb. 2. 12 13 14 15. it is made an Argument that Christ was a man like us because he was put to live by faith like as we are which the angels doe not and to this end the Apostle brings in these words prophecied of him as spoken by him of himselfe I will put my trust in him as one proofe that he was a man like unto us Now for what was it that he trusted God By the Context it appeares to be this that he should be the salvation of his brethren and children and that he should have a seede and a generation to serve him and raise up a Church to God to praise him in For this is made his confidence and the issue of his sufferings in that fore-cited Psal 22. from ver 22. to the end How should the consideration of these things both draw us on to faith Vse To draw on to faith and encourage us therein and encourage us therein and raise up our hearts above all doubtings and withdrawings of spirit in beleeving For in this example of Christ we have the highest instance of beleeving that ever was He trusted God as we have seene for himselfe and for many thousands besides even for all his elect and hast not thou the heart to trust him for one poore soule Yea Christ thus trusted God upon his single Bond but we for our assurance have both Christ and God bound to us even God with his surety Christ for he is Gods Surety as well as ours A double Bond from two such Persons whom would it not secure If God the Father and God the Son thus mutually trusted one another for our salvation whom would it not induce to trust them both for ones own salvation when as otherwise they must be damned that will not 1. This example of Christ may teach and incite us to beleve For did Christ lay downe all his glory and empty himselfe and leave himselfe worth nothing but made a Deed of Surrendring all he had into his Fathers hands and this in a pure trust that God would justifie many by him as it is in Esay 53. and shall not we lay downe all we have and part with what ever is deare unto us afore hand with the like submission in a dependance and hope of being our selves justified by him Especially against the greatnesse of sinnes And withall 2. it may encourage us to beleeve Hast thou the guilt of innumerable transgressions comming in and discouraging thee from trusting in him Consider but what Christ had though not of his owne Christ was made as Luther boldly in this sense that we speak of him speakes the greatest sinner that ever was that is by imputation for the sins of all Gods chosen met in him And yet he trusted God to be justified from them all and to be raised up from under the wrath due of them Alas thou art but one poore sinner thy faith hath but a light and smal load laid upon it namely thy own sins which to this summe he undertook for are but as an unite to an infinite number God laid upon him the iniquities of us all Christ trusted God for his own Acquitance from the sins of all the world and when that was givē him he yet again further trusted him to acquit the world for his satisfaction sake But thou
stories use to stir up a principle of humanity in men unto a compassionate love which Christ himselfe at his suffering found fault with as being not spirituall nor raised enough in those women who went weeping to see the Messiah so handled Weep not for me sayes he that is weep not so much for this thus to see me unworthily handled by those for whom I dye And therefore accordingly as these stirrings are but fruits of the flesh so humane inventions as Crucifixes and lively representations of the story of Christs Passion unto the sight of fancy doe exceedingly provoke men to such devotionall meditations and affections but they work a bare historicall faith only a historicall remembrance and an historicall love as I may so call them And no other then such doth the reading of the story of it in the Word work in many who yet are against such Crucifixes But saving justifying faith chiefly minds and is most taken up with the maine scope and drift of all Christs sufferings for it is that in them which answers to its owne aime and purpose which is to obtaine forgivenesse of sins in Christ crucified As God looks principally at the meaning of the Spirit in prayer Rom. 8. so doth faith look principally to the meaning of Christ in his sufferings As in all other Truths a Beleever is said to have the mind of Christ 1 Cor. 2. ult so especially he minds what was the mind and heart of Christ in all his sufferings And therefore you may observe that the drift of all the Apostles Epistles is to shew the intent of Christs sufferings how he was therein set forth to be a prepitiation for sinne to beare our sinnes upon the tree to make our peace c. He was made sinne that we might be made the righteousnesse of God in him As in like manner the scope of the Euangelists is to set forth the story of them for that is necessary to be known also And thus did that Euangelicall Prophet Isaiah chiefly set forth the intent of Christs sufferings for justification Esay 53. throughout the Chap. as David before had done the story of his Passion Psal 22. And thus to shew the use and purpose of his sufferings was the scope of all the Apostles Sermons holding forth the intent of Christs passion to be the justification and salvation of sinners This is a faithfull saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ came into the world to save sinners 1 Tim. 1. 15. and they still set forth what the plot was at which God by an ancient designment aimed at in the sufferings of Christ which was an end higher then men or Angels thought on when hee was put to death And thus faith takes it up and looks at it And upon this doth Peter in his Sermon Acts 2. pitch their faith where having first set forth the hainousnesse of their sin in murdering the Lord of life then to raise up their hearts againe that so seeing Gods end in it they might be drawne to beleeve he tellls them that All this was done by the determinate counsell of God ver 23. and that for a farther end then they imagined even for the remission of sins through his Name as in the closure of that Sermon he shews It was not the malice of the Jews the falsenesse of Iudas the fearfulnesse of Pilate or the iniquity of the times he fell into that wrought his death so much as God his Father complotting with Christ himselfe and aiming at a higher end then they did there was a farther matter in it it was the execution of an ancient contrivement and agreement whereby God made Christ Sinne and laid our sins upon him God was in Christ not imputing our sinnes to us but making him sinne 2 Cor. 5. 20. Which Covenant Christ came at his time into the world to fulfill Sacrifice and burnt offering thou wouldst not have Heb. 10. 5. Loe I come to doe thy will and that will was to take away sinnes ver 4 10 12 14 15 16. These words Christ spake when he took our nature and when he came into the world clothed with infirmities like unto us sinners Rom. 8. 3. God sent his Son in the likenes of sinfull flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh Mark that phrase for sin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is there put for propter as Iohn 10. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not for a good work That is not because of a good work or for a good works sake So here For sinne that is because of sin sin was the occasion of his taking the likenesse of sinfull flesh what to encrease it no but to condemne it as it follows that is to cast and overthrow it in its power and plea against us that instead of sins condemning us he might condemne sin and that we might have the righteousnesse of the Law ver 5. This phrase for sinne is like unto that in Rom. 6. 10. He dyed unto sinne that is for sins cause for so the opposition that follows evinceth In that he liveth he liveth unto God that is for God and his glory So he dyed meerly for sin that sin might have its course in Justice and for its sake suffered death so putting to silence the clamour of it The death of Christ was the greatest and strangest design that ever God undertook and acted and therefore surely had an end proportionable unto it God that willeth not the death of a sinner would not for any inferiour end will the death of his Sonne whom he loved more then all creatures besides It must needs be some great matter for which God should contrive the death of his Sonne so holy so innocent and separate from sinners neither could it be any other matter then to destroy that which he most hated and that was Sin and to set forth that which he most delighted in and that was Mercy So Rom. 3. 25 26. And accordingly Christ demeaned himselfe in it not at all looking at the Jews or their malice but at his Fathers command and intent in it And therefore when he was to arise to goe unto that place where he should be taken As the Father gave me commandement sayes he so doe I Arise let us goe hence Iohn 14. 31. And when Iudas went out at Christs owne provocation of him What thou doest doe quickly sayes he the Sonne of man goeth as it was determined he lookt to his Fathers purpose in it When he went out to be taken it is said Iohn 18. 4. Iesus knowing all things that should befall him went forth And when he was in his Agony in the Garden whom doth he deale with but his Father Father sayes he if it be possible let this cup passe and God made his Passion of so great necessity that it was even impossible that that cup should passe Indeed had Christ stood in his owne stead it had been an easie request and justice to grant it yea so he tells
we were dead with Christ even then when he dyed so in the 2. of Coloss 13. we are said to be risen with him in respect of our justification which is the thing in hand The words are And you being dead in your sins namely the guilt of your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh that is in respect of the power of corrupt nature hath he quickned together with him having forgiven you all your trespasses See here the forgivenesse of our sins or our justification is called a quickning or a raising up of us as the 12. ver hath it together with him in a conformity and relation to that justification from our sins which at his Resurrection he received in our names His meaning is he was justified then in our names and so we are now justifyed through the vertue of that our communion with him therein For if you mark the connexion of the words with what follows ver 14. you will finde this forgiving of their trespasses ver 13. through their being quickned together with him not onely to have been done when they beleeved and so when they had that justification personally first applyed to them of which it is true the words in the 12. ver are to be understood but also then to have been done when he having as it follows in the 14. ver blotted out the hand-writing of Ordinances which was against us nailing it to his Crosse and having spoiled Principalities and Powers and got the victory namely in his rising again had made a shew of them openly in his ascending to heaven triumphing over them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in himselfe as the Margent hath it of which words I shall farther speak in the next Head So as then when Christ did this in himselfe then were our sins forgiven then were we acquited with him and triumphed with him he doing all this in our stead representing us CHAP. VII How all this both the support of our faith and our Justification by Christs Resurrrection is sealed up to us in Baptisme The Conclusion How faith may make use of Christs Resurrection in its pleas to God ANd all this our communion with Christ in his Resurrection both in respect of Sanctification which the 6. of the Rom. holds forth and of Justification which this place in the Coloss holds forth is lively as both places declare set out and sealed up to us in the Sacrament of Baptisme Rom. 6. 3 4. we are said to be buried with him in Baptisme c. and Col. 2. 12. Buryed with him in Baptisme wherein also you are risen with him The ominent thing signified and represented in Baptisme is not simply the bloud of Christ as it washeth us from sin but there is a farther representation therein of Christs Death Buriall and Resurrection in the Baptized's being first buryed under water and then rising out of it and this not in a bare conformity unto Christ but in a representation of a communion with Christ in that his Death and Resurrection Therefore it is said We are buryed with him in Baptisme and Wherein you are risen with him It is not simply said like as he was buryed and rose but With him So as our communion and one-nesse with him in his Resurrection is represented to us therein and not onely our conformity or likenesse unto him therein And so Baptisme representeth this to us that Christ having once in himselfe sustained the persons of all the Elect in his Buriall and Resurrection that now upon the party himselfe who is baptized is personally particularly and apparently re-acted the same Part againe in his Baptisme thereby shewing what his communion with Christ before was in what was then done to Christ that he then was buried with Christ and rose with him and upon that ground is now in this outward sign of Baptisme as in a shew or representation both buryed and also riseth againe And moreover hence it is that the Answer of a good conscience which is made the inward effect of this Ordinance of Baptisme 1 Pet. 3. 21. is there also attributed unto Christs Resurrection as the thing signified and represented in Baptisme and as the cause of that answer of a good conscience Even Baptisme saith he doth now also save us as being the Ordinance that seales up salvation not the putting away of the filth of the flesh or the washing of the outward man but the answer of a good conscience towards God By the Resurrection of Iesus Christ To open these words Our consciences are that principle in us which are the seat of the guilt of all the sinnes of the whole man unto whose Court they all come to accuse us as unto Gods Deputy which Conscience is called Good or Evill as the state of the man is If his sinne remain unpardoned then as his estate is damnable so his conscience is evill If his sins bee forgiven and his person justified his conscience is said to bee good Conscience having its denomination from the mans state even as the Urine is called good or bad as the state of the mans body is healthful or unsound whose Urine it is Now in Baptisme forvivenesse of sins and justification being sealed up to a believers faith conscience under that lively representation of his Communion with Christ in his Resurrection hence this is made the fruit of Baptisme that the good conscience of a believer sealed up in Baptisme hath where withall from thence to answer all accusations of sin that can or doe at any time come in upon him and all this as it is there added By vertue of the resurrection of Iesus Christ namely in this respect that his Communion with Christ in his Resurrection hath been represented in his Baptisme as a ground of his faith and of that Answer unto all accusations So that indeed the same thing that Paul sayes by way of triumph and defiance to all accusations Who shall condemne Christ is risen the very same thing Peter here mentions though not by way of Defiance yet of a Beleevers Answer and Apologie That if sinnes doe come to condemne or accuse a good conscience is ready to say Christ is risen and I was then justified in him There is my Answer which nothing in heaven nor hell is able to reply unto This is the answer of a good conscience by the Resurrection of Iesus Christ Now to crown this second Pillar of Faith with this Coronis or Conclusion Application by way of Application or Direction to a believers faith How saith is to make use of this in pleading our Justification How to make use of Christs Resurrection in point of non-condemnation You heard before out of Rom. 6. that in respect of Mortification as the Apostle there reasoneth we may be truly said to have been perfectly dead to all sinne in Christs dying unto sin once and through his representing us therein as dying unto sinne in and with him So as although we be for
tied his feete to his Chariot wheels and dragged him dead round about the walls of Troy Now thus did Christ then deale with our sinnes and all other enemies The Second act is casting abroad of gifts He gave gifts to men It was the custome at their triumphs to cast new Coines missilia abroad among the multitude so doth Christ throw the greatest gifts for the good of men that ever were given Therefore who shall condemne sins and devills are not only dead but triumphed over Compare with this that other place Colos 2. 15. Having spoiled Principalities and powers he made a shew of them openly triumphing over them in himself So I reade it and the Greeke beares it and so it is in the margent varied it is a manifest allusion unto the manner of Triumphs after victories among the Romans even unto two of the most notable parts thereof the first of spoiling the enemie upon the place ere they stirred out of the field and this was done by Christ on the Crosse Having spoiled them first as ver 14. hath it He speakes it of the devills our enemies and accusers they had all Gods threatnings in his Law and the Ceermoniall Law the Bond for our debt unto the Morall Law to shew for it in these lay the power of the Devill over us that he could boldly come to God and accuse us and sue our bond And therefore Heb. 2. 14. he is said to have the power of Death Now Christ first tooke away all his power and spoiled him of all his ensignes weapons and colours which he did on the place where the battail was fought namely on the Crosse and nailed our bond thereto and having paid the debt left the bond canceld ere he stirred off the Crosse But then having thus spoiled these enemies on the Crosse hee further makes a publique triumphall shew of them in his own person which is a second Act as the manner of the Roman Emperors was in their great triumphs to ride through the City in the greatest state and have all the spoiles carried before them and the Kings and Nobles whom they had taken they tyed to their Chariots and led them as Captives And this did Christ at his ascension for of his triumphing at his Ascension I take this Triumph in this Epistle to the Colos to be understood and so to be interpreted by that forecited 4. of the Ephesians He plainly manifesting by this publique open shew of them at his Ascension that he had spoiled and fully subdued them on the Crosse That which hath diverted Interpreters from thinking this of 2. Col. to have been the triumph of his Ascension hath been this That the triumph is said to have been made 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they interpret in it as if it referred to the Crosse mentioned ver 14. as the place of it when as it may as well be translated in himselfe i. e. in his own power and strength noting how he alone did this which other Conquerours doe not they conquer not in themselves and by themselves which Christ did And yet it was the Law that if the Roman Emperours or Generals themselves took any thing in War they had a peculiar honour to dedicate it in triumph more peculiarly Now Christ conquered in himselfe and therefore triumphed in himselfe and himselfe alone And thus it became our Redeemer like another Sampson not onely to break Sins bars and fling off Hell-gates and come out of that Prison he was in but as in signe of a Trophie to take them on his back and carry them up the hill as Sampson the Type of him did the gates of the City to an high hill himselfe triumphantly carrying them on his own shoulders Now did Christ then who was your Surety thus triumph then let your faith triumph likewise for this was not onely done by your Surety but in your stead seeing this for us here is to be put to each thing mentioned The Apostle cals for this at our hands here We are more then Conquerors sayes he ver 37. Then A third support to faith from Gods first entertainment of Christ when he came first to Heaven thirdly see him entring into Heaven when he comes first to Court after this great undertaking how doth God looke on him is God satisfied with what he hath done As you know when a Generall comes home there useth to be great observing how the King takes his service as performed according to commission Christ as a Surety undertook for sinners fully to conquer all our enemies and God bade him look that he did it perfectly or never see his face more Heb. 5. He was to be perfect through sufferings and those sufferings to be such as to perfect us also Heb. That this is a further evidence that God is satisfied for sin 10. Now behold your Surety is like a Conqueror entred Heaven let that convince you that he hath satisfied the debt and performed his commission to a tittle God would never have suffered him to come thither else but as soon as ever his head had peept into Heaven have sent him downe again to performe the rest But God lets him enter in and he comes boldly and confidently and God lets him stay there therefore be convinced that he hath given God full satisfaction Christ himself useth this argument as the strongest that could be brought to convince the World that his righteousnesse which he had in his Doctrine taught them was the righteousnesse which men were only to be saved by the true Righteousnesse of God indeede Iohn 16. 9 10. He shall convince the world of righteousnesse that is worke faith in the hearts of men to believe and lay hold on my righteousnesse as the true righteousnesse that God hath ordained and this because sayes he I go to my Father and you shall see me no more That is by this argument and evidence it is and shall be evinced that I who undertooke to satisfie for sin and to procure a perfect righteousnesse have perfectly performed it and that it is a righteousnesse which Gods justice doth accept of to save sinners by In that I after my death and finishing this worke will ascend up to my Father into Heaven and keepe my standing there and you shall see me no more Whereas if I had not fulfilled all righteousnesse and perfectly satisfied God you may be sure there would be no going into Heaven for mee nor remaining there God would send me down again to doe the rest and you should certainly see mee with shame sent back again but I goe to Heaven and you shall see me no more CHAP. III. Shewing what evidence also Christs sitting at Gods right hand having beene our Surety affords to our faith for justification NOw then in the next place for his being or sitting at Gods right hand which is the second particular to be spoken of As soone as Christ was carried into Heaven look as all the Angels fell downe and
a place in Egypt for his Brethren whom Gods providence meant to bring after him so more openly doth Christ Ascend to Heaven professedly declaring that to be his businesse I go to prepare a place for you and it is my Fathers house saith he where I can provide for you and make you welcome You heard before what welcome God gave Christ when he first arrived there and what he said to him and Christ said as it were again to God I come not alone I have much company many of my brethren and followers to come after for it was the declared and avowed end of his comming to prepare a place for them I prayed when I was on earth that where I am they might be also Iohn 17. and now I am come hither my traine must come in too I am not compleate without them If you receive me you must receive them also and I am come to take up lodgings for them Thus the Captain of our salvation being made perfect through sufferings and then crowned with glory and honour in bringing of many Sons to Glory as Heb. 2. 10. of which company he was Captain is brought in saying to God ver 13. Behold I and the Children which God hath given me he speakes it when brought to glory I am their Captain and they must follow mee Where I am they must be Lo I am here and am not to come alone but to bring to glory all the Children which thou hast given me They shall be all welcome saies God there is roome enough for them many mansions so that we neede not feare nor say in our hearts doubting and despairing Who shall ascend up to Heaven for us to bring us thither as Rom. 10. Christ hath done it That is the first thing but that is not all 2. 2. That he entred in our very names and stead took possession in our right He entred into Heaven in our very names and so is to be considered in that act as a Common person as well as in his Death and Resurrection and so representing us and also taking possession in our right and we in him as a guardian takes possession for Heirs under age Heb. 6. 20. the fore-runner is for us entred into Heaven the fore-runner for us that is our fore-runner A fore-runner is a fore-runner of followers and of such as stay not long behinde and usually goes before as a harbinger to provide and take up lodgings for them that are to come and writes the names of those who are to come over the doores of such and such roomes that they may not be taken up by any other And so Heb. 12. 23. the names of the first borne are said to be written in Heaven or enrolled there And 1. Pet. 1. 5. their places or mansions in Heaven are said to be reserved for them they stand empty as it were yet taken up so as none shall take them from them their names and titles to them being entred and superscribed And so he truly entred pro nobis for us that is in our stead and in our names as a Common person and therefore the High-Priest in the Type entred into the Holy of Holies with all the names of the Tribes on his Breast even so doth Christ with ours even as a Common person in our names thereby shewing that we are likewise to come after him and this is more then simply to prepare a place it is to take possession of a place and give us a Right thereto So that your Faith through this consideration What comfort faith may derive from this We may behold our selves in heaven already may see your selves as good as in Heaven already For Christ is entred as a Common Person for you Justification hath two parts First Acquitance from sin and freedome from condemnation as here Who shall condemne And Secondly Iustification of life as it is called Rom. 5. 18. that is which gives title to eternall life Now dying and rising as a Common person for us procures the first sets us perfectly enough in that state of freedome from condemnation But then this Christ his entring into Heaven as a Common Person sets us farre above that state of Noncondemnation It placeth us in Heaven with him You would think your selves secure enough if you were ascended into Heaven As Heman said of his condition that he was free among the dead that is he reckoned himselfe in his despaire free of the company in Hell as well as if he had beene there thinking his name enrolled among them and his place taken up so you may reckon your selves as the word is Rom. 6. free of the company of Heaven and your places taken up there so that when you come to die you shall go to heaven as to your own place by as true a title though not of your own as Iudas went to Hell which is called his own place as Act. 1. the Apostle speaks What a start is this how far have you left below you pardon of sins and non-condemnation you are got above How securely may you say Who shall condemne Christ hath ascended and entered into Heaven This is the first branch of the second Head The influence that Christs Ascension hath into our justification and salvation CHAP. V. Demonstrateth in like manner what influence Christs sitting at Gods right hand hath into our justification upon that second consideration of his being a Common person And the security faith may have from thence THe consideration of his sitting at Gods right hand may in respect of the influence that it must needs have into our salvation yet adde more security unto our Faith if we either consider the power and authority of the place it selfe By considering two things and what it is to sit at Gods right hand Or secondly the relation the person he beares and sustaines in his sitting there even of a Common person in our right And both these being put together will adde strength mutually each to other and unto to our faith both to consider how great a prerogative it is to sit at Gods right hand and what such a one as sits there hath power to doe and then that Christ who is invested with this power and advanced to it he possesseth it all as our Head and in our Right as a Common person representing us And 1. §. 1. 1 The prerogatives of the place which are two Consider the prerogatives of the place it selfe they are two 1. Soveraignty of power and Might and Majestie 2. Soveraignty of authority and judgment either of which may secure us from non-condemnation 1. 1 Soveraignty of Majesty and power Soveraignty of power and might this the phrase sitting at Gods right hand implies Mat. 26. 64. where Christ himselfe expoundeth the purport of it Hereafter you shall see the Sonne of man sitting on the right hand of power And so 1 Ephes 20. 22. this is made the priviledge of Gods setting him at his
it selfe for them and handle matters so as Justice shall be as forward to save them as any other Attribute So that if God be said to be righteous in forgiving us our sins if we doe but confesse them as Chap. 1. of this 1. Epist of Iohn ver 9. then much more when Iesus Christ the righteous shall intercede for the pardon of them as he adds in the second ver of the ensuing Chap. and this if he will be just The worst Case he will make a good one not with colouring it over as cunning Lawyers doe or extenuating things but with pleading that righteousnesse which being put into the opposite ballance shall cast it for thee be there never so many sinnes weighed against it Yea and he will be just in it too and carry all by meere righteousnesse and equity In the explication of this Branch This explicated my purpose is not to insist upon the demonstration of that all-sufficient fulnesse that is in Christs satisfaction such as may in justice procure our pardon and salvation because it will more fitly belong to another Discourse but I shall absolve this point in hand by two things which are proper to this head of Intercession First By two considerations by shewing how that there is even in respect to Gods Justice a powerfull voice of Intercerssion attributed unto Christs bloud and how prevalent that must needs be in the eares of the righteous God Secondly especially when Christ himselfe shall joyne with that cry and Intercession of his blood himselfe in Heaven appearing and interceding in the strength of it For the first 1. How an Intercession and appeale to Gods justice is attributed to Christs bloud the Apostle Heb. 12. 24. doth ascribe a voice an appeal an Intercession unto the bloud of Christ in Heaven The blood of sprinkling sayes he speakes better things then the blood of Abel He makes Christs very bloud an Advocate to speak for us though Christ himselfe were silent as he sayes in another case Abel though dead yet speaketh Heb. 11. 4. Many other things are said to cry to Scripture and I might shew how the cry of all other things doe meet in this but Bloud hath the loudest cry of all things else in the eares of the Lord of Hosts the Iudge of all the world as he is in the 23. ver of that 12. Chap. styled Neither hath any cry the eare of Gods justice more then that of bloud The voyce of thy brothers bloud sayes God to Cain cryes unto me from the ground Gen. 4. 10. Now in that speech of the Apostle forecited is the allusion made unto the bloud of Abel and the cry thereof And he illustrates the cry of Christs bloud for us by the cry of that bloud of Abel against Cain it speaks better things then the bloud of Abel And his scope therein is by an Antithesis or way of opposition to shew that Christs blood cals for greater good things to be bestowed on us for whom it was shed then Abels bloud did for evill things and vengeance against Cain by whom it was shed For look how loud the bloud of one innocent cryes for justice against another that murdered him so loud will the bloud of one righteous who by the appointment and permission of a supreame Judge hath been condemned for another cry for his release and non-condemnation for whom he dyed And the more righteous he was who laid downe his life for another the louder still is that cry for it is made in the strength of all that worth which was in him whose bloud was shed Now to set forth the power of this cry of Christs bloud with justice let us compare it with that cry of Abels bloud in these two things wherein it will be found infinitely to exceed it in force and loudnesse First This cry of his bloud illustrated by a twofold comparison with the cry of the bloud of Abel in all which it exceeds it even the bloud of the wickedest man on earth if innocently shed doth cry and hath a power with Justice against him who murdered him Had Abel murdered Cain Cains bloud would have cryed and called upon Gods Justice against Abel but Abels bloud there is an emphasis in that Abels who was a Saint and the first Martyr in Gods Kalender and so his bloud cryes according to the worth that was in him Now Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his Saints and the bloud of one of Them cryes louder then the bloud of all Man-kind besides Now from this I argue If the bloud of a Saint cryes so what must the bloud of the King of Saints as Christ is called Revel 15. then doe If the blood of one member of Christs body what will then the blood of the head far more worth then that whole body how doth it fill Heaven and Earth with out-cries untill the promised intent of its shedding be accomplisht And as the Antithesis carries it looke how the blood of Abel cryed for the ruine and condemnation of his brother Cain so does Christs blood on the contrary for our pardon and non-condemnation and so much the lowder by how much his blood was of more worth then Abels was This was the blood of God so Act. 20. Who therefore shall condemne But 2. Christs blood hath in its crie here a further advantage of Abels blood attributed to it For that cryed but from earth from the ground where it lay shed and that but for an answerable earthly punishment on Cain as he was a man upon the earth but Christs blood is carried up to Heaven for as the High-priest carried the blood of the Sacrifices into the Holy of holies so hath Christ virtually carried his blood into Heaven Heb. 9. 12. And this is intimated in this place also as by the coherence will appeare For all the other particulars of which this is one whereto he sayes the Saints are come they are all in Heaven You are come saies he ver 22 to the City of the living God the Heavenly Hierusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the Church of the first borne who are written in Heaven and to God the Iudge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect All which things are in Heaven neither names he any other then such And then adds And to the blood of sprinkling which speakes c. as a thing both speaking in Heaven and besprinkled from Heaven yea wherewith Heaven is all besprinkled as the Mercie-seat in the Holy of holies was because sinners are to come thither This Blood therefore cries from Heaven it is next unto God who sits Judge there it cries in his very eares whereas the cry of blood from the ground is further off and so though the cry thereof may come up to Heaven yet the blood it selfe comes not up thither as Christs already is Abels blood cryed for vengeance to come down from heaven but
Beatis nequaquam repugnare censendae sunt Those affections which are naturall to man and have no adhaesion of sinne or shame unto them but are wholly governed by reason and lastly are exempt from such effects as may any way hurt either the soule or the body there is no ground to thinke that such affections may not wel stand with the state of souls in blisse sayes Justinian upon this place Now if we consider it Christ his very state in glory is such as it becomes him to have such humane affections of pity and compassion in his whole man so far as to quicken and provoke him to our helpe and succour not such as to make him a man of sorrowes in himselfe again that were uncomely nay incompatible to him but such as should make him a man of succours unto us which is his office To this end it is to bee remembred that Christ in heaven is to be considered not personally only as in himselfe made happy in his Father but withall in his relations and in his offices as an Head unto us and in that relation hee now sits there as 1 Ephes 21. 22. and the head is the seat of all the senses for the good of the body and therefore most sensible of any other part Wherefore because his members unto whom he beares this relation are still under sinne and miserie therefore it is no way uncomely for him in that estate to have affections suitable to this his relation If his state of glory had been wholly ordained for his owne personall happinesse then indeede there had beene no use of such affections to remaine in him but his relation to us being one part and ingredient of his glory therfore they are most proper for him yea it were uncomely if he had them not Neither are they a weaknesse in him as so considered but rather part of his strength as the Apostle calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And although such affections might in one respect be thought an imperfection yet in another respect namely his relation to us and office for us they are his perfection As he is our Head which he is as he is a man it is his glory to be truly and really even as a man sensible of all our miseries Yea it were his imperfection if he were not And 4. let me adde this for our comfort that though all such affections as are any way a burthen to his spirit or noxious to his body be not now compatible to him and though that passionate frailty and infirmity which did help him here to pity and relieve men in misery out of a suffering hurtfull to himselfe though these be cut off yet in those workings of affections and bowels which he hath now which for substance are the same there is instead of that passionate frailty a greater capaciousnesse vastnesse and also quicknesse in his affections now in heaven so to make up a compensation so no lesse effectually to stir and quicken him to relieve us then those former affections did For it is certaine that as his knowledge was enlarged upon his entring into glory so his humane affections of love pity are enlarged in solidity strength and reality as true conjugall love useth to be though more passionate haply at first They are not lesse now but are onely made more spirituall And as Solomons heart was as large in bounty and royalty as in knowledge so Christs affections of Love are as large as his Knowledge or his Power They are all of a like extent and measure So far as Gods intention to shew mercy doth reach and who knowes the end of those riches so farre doth Christs disposition to bestow it Ephes 3. 19. The Love of Christ God-man passeth knowledge It hath not lost or beene diminished by his going to heaven Though God in his nature be more mercifull then Christs humane nature yet the act and exercise of Christs affections is as large as Gods purposes and decrees of mercy are And all those large affections and mercies are become humane mercies the mercies of a Man unto men 3. Privatively If these affections of Christs heart be not suffering and afflicting affections yet we may be way of Privation expresse this of them that there is a lesse fulnesse of joy and comfort in Chriss heart wstilst he sees us in misery and under infirmities comparatively to what will be when we are presented to him free of them all To cleare this I must recall and I shall but recall that Distinction I made in the 4. Demonstration Sect. 2. Part 2. of a double capacity of Glory or a double fulnesse of Joy which Christ is ordained to have The one Naturall and so due unto his person as in himselfe alone considered The other Additionall and arising from the compleated happinesse and glory of his whole Church wherewith mystically he is one So in Ephes 1. ult although he by reason of his personall fulnesse is there said to fill all in all yet as he is an Head in relation to his Church as his body as in the verses before he is spoken of thus the perfection of this his bodies beatitude it is reciprocally called his fulnesse and therefore untill he hath filled them with all happinesse and delivered them from all miserie himselfe remaines under some kinde of imperfection and answerably his affections also which are suited to this his relation have some want of imperfection in them whilst theylie under miserie in comparison of what his heart shall have when they receive this fulnesse Wee may warrantably say Christ shall bee more gladde then and is now as his children are growne up from under their infirmities and as they doe become more obedient and comfortable in their spirits so John 15. 10 11. I shall adde some illustration to this by this similitude which though it hold not in all things yet it will hold forth some shadowe of it The spirits of just men departed are said to be perfect Heb. 12. yet because they have bodies unto which they have a relation and unto which they are ordained to bee united they in this respect may be said to be imperfect till these bodies be re-united and glorified with them which will adde a further fulnesse to them Thus in some analogie it stands between Christ Personall and Christ Mysticall considered Although Christ in his owne Person be compleat in happinesse yet in relation to his members he is imperfect and so accordingly hath affections suited unto this his relation which is no derogation from him at all The Scripture therefore attributes some affections to him which have an imperfection joyned with them and those to be in him untill the day of judgement Thus Expectation and Desire which are but imperfect affections in comparison to that joy which is in the full fruition of what was expected or desired are attributed to him as he is man untill the day of Judgement Thus Heb. 10. 12 13. He
is said to sit in heaven expecting till his enemies be made his footstoole The destruction of which enemies will adde to the manifestative glory of his kingdome Now as that will adde to the fulnesse of his greatnesse so the compleat salvation of his members will add to the compleatnesse of his glory And as the expectation of his enemies ruine maybe said to be an imperfect affection in comparison of the triumph that one day he shall have over them so his joy which he now hath in his Spouse is but imperfect in comparison of that which shall fill his heart at the great day of Marriage And acordingly the Scripture calls the accomplishment of these his desires a satisfaction so Isai 63. 11. He shall see of the travaile of his soule and be satisfied which argues desires to be in him lying under a want of something in the end to bee obtained Onely we must take in this withall that Jesus Christ indeede knowes and sees the very time when this his fulnesse through the exaltation of his members up to himselfe shall bee compleated and when he shall trample upon the necks of all his and their enemies Hee sees their day a comming as the Psalmist hath it which alleviates and detracts something from this imperfection that hee should thus expect or tarrie §. III. This Scruple satisfied How his heart can be feelingly touched wtth our Sinnes our greatest infirmities seeing he was tempted without sinne THere remaines one great unsatisfaction to be removed which cannot but of it selfe arise in every good heart You told us may they say that by infirmities sinnes were meant and that the Apostles scope was to encourage us against them also and they are indeede the greatest discomforts and discouragements of all other Now against them this which the Apostle here speakes affordeth us but little seeing Christ knowes not how experimentally to pitie us therein for he knew no sinne Yea the Apostle himselfe doth here except it Hee was tempted in all things yet without sinne It may comfort us indeede that Christ doth and will pittie us in all other infirmities because hee himselfe was subject to the like but hee never knew what it was to bee under sinne and vexed with a lust as I am and how shall I releeve my selfe against that by what the Apostle here speakes of him I shall endeavour to give some satisfaction and reliefe in this by these following considerations First The Apostle puts in indeede that hee was tempted yet without sinne and it was well for us that he was thus without sinne for he had not beene a fit Priest to have saved us else so Heb. 7. 25. Such an High-Priest became us as was separate from sinners innocent c. Yet for your reliefe withall consider that hee came as neer in that point as might be he was tempted in all things so sayes the Text though without sinne on his part yet tempted to all sinne so far as to bee afflicted in those temptations and to see the miserie of those that are tempted and to know how to pittie them in all such temptations Even as in taking our nature in his birth he came as neere as could be without being tainted with originall sin as namely by taking the very same matter to have his body made of that all ours are made of c. So in the point of actuall sinne also he suffered himselfe to bee tempted as far as might be so as to keepe himselfe pure He suffered all experiments to be tryed upon him by Satan even as a man who hath taken a strong antidote suffers conclusions to be tryed on him by a Mountibanke And indeede because hee was thus tempted by Satan unto sinne therefore it is on purpose added yet without sinne And it is as if he had said sinne never stained him though hee was outwardly tempted to it Hee was tempted to all sorts of sins by Satan for those three temptations in the wildernesse were the heads of all sorts of temptations as Interpreters upon the Gospels do shew Then Secondly To fit him to pittie us in case of sinne he was vext with the filth and power of sinne in others whom he conversed with more then any of us with sinne in our selves His righteous soule was vexed with it as Lots righteous soule is said to have been with the impure conversation of the Sodomites He endured the contradictions of sinners against himselfe Heb. 12. 3. the reproaches of them that reproached thee that is upon his God fell upon me Rom. 15. 3. It was spoken by the Psalmist of Christ and so is quoted of him by the Apostle that is every sinne went to his heart So as in this there is but this difference betwixt him and us that the regenerate part in us is vexed with sin in our selves and that as our own sin but his heart with sin in others onely yet so as his vexation was the greater by how much his soule was more righteous then ours which makes it up yea in that he sustained the persons of the elect the sinnes which he saw them commit troubled him as if they had beene his owne The word here translated Tempted is read by some 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is vexed Yea and Thirdly to helpe this also it may be said of Christ whilst he was here below that in the same sense or manner wherein hee bore our sicknesses Mat. 8. 17. who yet was never personally tainted with any disease in the same sense or manner he may be said to have borne our sins namely thus Christ when hee came to an elect child of his that was sick whom he healed his manner was first by a sympathie pittie to afflict himselfe with their sicknesse as if it had beene his owne Thus at his raising of Lazarus it is said that he groaned in spirit c. and so by the merit of taking the disease upon himselfe through a fellow-feeling of it he tooke it off from them being for them afflicted as if he himselfe had beene sick And this seemes to be the best interpretation that I have met with of that difficult place in Mat. 8. 16. 17. where it is said He healed all that were sick that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the Prophet saying Himselfe tooke our infirmities and bare our sicknesses Now in the like way or manner unto this of bearing our sicknesses hee might beare our sinnes too for hee being one with us and to answer for all our sinnes therefore when he saw any of his owne to sinne hee was affected with it as if it had beene his own And thus is that about the power of sin made up and satisfied And fourthly as for the guilt of sinne and the temptations from it he knowes more of that then any one of us He tasted the bitternesse of that in the imputation of it more deeply then wee can and of the cup of his Fathers wrath for it