Capacity and Freedom of our Thoughts and the more narrow and confined our Conceptions are the more strained and determin'd is the Liberty of our Choice and therefore since such a man's Thoughts can rise no higher than a worldly Interest he must be closely ty'd down by those Weights and Clogs and the desires of his Will as much fetter'd as the motions of his Mind His Soul does in a true sense cleave unto the Ground his Conceptions are fastened to his Bags and tho' he be tyed with the Chains of Gold he carries far greater marks of Slavery than he that drags those of Iron And 't is much the same with the lustful and incontinent as he has no power over the inclinations of his Body so he has nothing of a Rational and a Manly Liberty Being damn'd wholly to the Pleasures of Sense he is as much determin'd as the Beast by his Fancy he steers just like the Bruit not by a free Conduct but by a blind Swinge and instead of managing the Biass he does fatally close with it And what a slavish Captivity was this when we thus lay at the mercy of every Lust and servily crouch'd to a Devil from abroad and another from within And yet this was the common Condition of Humane Nature when the Lord came to deliver those Spirits that were thus in Prison and to turn our Captivity as the Rivers in the South And though the Heathen Morals may seem a Contradiction to this yet I am sure their Lives were much more a Contradiction to their Principles Whilst they gloried in their Natural Liberty they were as much Slaves to their Inclinations as if they had been the Ministers of Fate not Masters of their own Actions Their Reason did but serve to upbraid not to govern their Practice and when their Doctrine was most refin'd they themselves were settled upon the Lees and tho' some of them by the excellency of their Temper and the impressions of Grace were more free and dis-engaged from the Power of Vice yet as those Instances were but rare and extraordinary so their Vertues generally were as rotten and unsound as the Springs from which they issued And what has been faid of the Heathens was no less true of the Jews for the Apostle to the Romans makes but very little difference betwixt Jew and Gentile tho' they had the benefit of a new Revelation yet this Spirit of Bondage still dwelt upon them and the Yoke of their Sins was far heavier than that of their Ceremonies Wherefore if by the account of our Slavery we may form a judgment of the greatness of our Deliverance what a mighty Redemption was this that was wrought in Israel What a glorious Release was purchased by the Lord that bought us especially if we consider in the Second place that this Redemption was not only a discharge from the Captivity and Dominion of Sin as the Socinians imagine but from its guilt too and obligations to Punishment which brings me to the next thing to be consider'd viz. 2. That we all lay under such Guilt and Obligations to Punishment as could not have been cancell'd without the Blood of a Redeemer As the Divine Law does induce upon us an Obligation to Obedience so the breach of that Obedience does lay upon us another Obligation to Punishment For all Laws being made up of Rewards and Punishments the not living up to the encouragements of the one does render us obnoxious and liable unto the other And tho' every act of sin be as transient as that time in which it is committed yet the guilt of it is a lasting Obligation and dwelleth upon the Conscience according to that known Saying Sin lyeth at the doors Forasmuch then as the Scripture had concluded all under sin and by the guilt of it we became Debtors to God's vindictive Justice our Punishment was as unavoidable as our Satisfaction was impossible For since the Law had given Sentence that the Soul that sinned should dye what was there in us to arrest Vengeance or to put a stop to the Execution of Justice In us I say who instead of attoning for one Offence could only accumulate more and contract new Debts only but never lessen the old Wherewithal should the guilty man redeem his own Soul or that of his Brother when it would cost more than ever he could pay to redeem their souls so that he must let that alone for ever Wherewith says the Prophet should I come before the Lord and bow my self before the high God Should I come before him with burnt offerings and with the calves of a year old And will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams and ten thousand rivers of oyl Shall I give my first born for my transgression Micah 6.6.7 or the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul What is the impure issue of thy Bodyto expiate the impurities of thy Soul What merit is there in the richest Sacrifice to repair the Honour of the great Patron of Justice and Right How could the slaughter of a Beast propitiate for the guilty Man or the Bloud of the most spotless Lamb wash away the stain of a conscious Mind The Apostle indeed affirms That without Bloud there could have been no remission or pardon of Sins but then he further assures us that it could not be obtain'd by that of Bulls and Goats 'T is true men in all Ages lying under the Conscience of their Guilt took Sanctuary in their Sacrifices as the only expedients to put a stop to Divine Wrath but this was rather a groundless presumption upon his Goodness than a satisfaction to his Justice And though God himself did appoint those Sacrifices under the Law to make an attonement for their Offerers yet as the efficacy of these did not extend to any greater Offences so neither could they have expiated the less by any other vertue than what was derived from the Bloud of Christ Insomuch that had there remained no other Sacrifice for Sin we must have perish'd like those Beasts that were slain upon the Altar and in the sin that we had sinned and in the trespass that we had trespassed in them we must have died But Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus who not only accepted but prepared a better Sacrifice for us Ever Blessed be that Lamb that sitteth upon the Throne who when all other Exepdients fail'd when neither the Steams of Bloud nor the Clouds of Incense could prevail with Heaven when Judgment and Vengeance hung over our Heads when the Grave and Hell lay open upon us did by an amazing condescention make his soul an offering for sin Isa 53.10 and bought us with a price 2. Which is the second general Head to be consider'd Namely the Price that was laid down to procure our Discharge What the deliberate Counsil of God had before determin'd what the ancient Prophecies had long since foretold that the Messiah should shed his Bloud and die
was this day punctually accomplish'd Thus it was written says St. Luke and thus it behoved Christ to suffer Luke 24.46 And thus When we were yet without strength Rom. 5.6 in due time Christ died for the ungodly Not only his Disciples do testifie these things but the most senseless part of the Creation was both a Witness and a joint Sufferer under them Nature it self felt the Agonies of the day and gave publick Testimony to them by its trembling and Convulsion The Sun fell into an unnatural labour at the setting of this glorious Sun of Righteousness the veil of the Temple was rent in peices and the Rocks gave out that their Great Shepherd was Dead And as 't is certain that he died so 't is no less evident that he suffered for us Men and for our Redemption By the same Authority we believe that he laid down his Life we must believe too that he gave it as a Price or Ransom for us We live indeed as if we had been redeemed with Silver and Gold or at the small expence of the Bloud of Bulls and Goats but the Apostle assures us that we were not redeem'd with those corruptible things 1 Pet. 1.18 but with the precious bloud of Christ. Which expression as 't is a just Comment upon my Text so it informs us that what Silver and Gold is in a civil Contract and Purchase the same was the Bloud of Christ in this spiritual one and as the former is usually laid down for the release of a party that stands bound and obliged so the latter was no less design'd for the discharge of our Guilt This was the great end of his coming into the World as St. Matthew assures us Matt. 20.28 to give his life a ransom for many By which 't is intimated to us that as our Saviour's Life was given in exchange and commutation for ours so the great end of laying it down was that he might buy off the Punishment of our Transgressions with the price of his Bloud agreeable to that of the Apostle who tells us that he died for the redemption of transgressions Heb. 9.15 Every one knows that a Ransom is nothing else but a price paid down to discharge the personal obligation of another and therefore if the Life of Christ was a Ransom for us it must be given in lieu of ours and substituted as much in our stead as the life of the Beast under the Law was in the room of the Offerer Had I no other Authority for this yet what we read of the Jewish Sacrifices will sufficiently warrant the Interpretation for 't is most certain that the Bloud of the Sacrifices amongst them was nothing less than a stated price for the Redemption of the Offeuder And I may as well question whether there were any such Sacrifices at all as whether they were a Ransom for him that offer'd them And consequently if all those Sacrifices were prefigurative only of our Saviours as the Apostle makes them If there was such an exact congruity and correspondence betwixt both we may rationally conclude that what was intended there by the Bloud of the Beast was more effectually accomplished by that more excellent Sacrifice the Bloud of Jesus This is the easiest and most natural Construction of all those places wherein he is said to die for our Sins to bear our Iniquities to be made a Curse a Sacrifice and Sin for us The sense of all which is so clear and obvious that you may justly wonder why I should insist on them But you cannot be ignorant that there are many in the World that take up with a quite different sense of them who deal with Scripture as some do with Witnesses torture them so and force them till they speak what they themselves please and being not willing to stretch their Faith beyond their own Reason are resolved to shape all mysteries to it They allow indeed that Christ's Bloud was shed for us that is in a large sense for our Good and Benefit but not as a proper Ransom and Offering to God for us that he laid down his Life to seal the truth of his Doctrin and to be an Example to us of suffering for the same but they will not grant that he parted with it by way of compensation and satisfaction to Divine Justice And whether those Expressions before mentioned do import no more I leave it to you to Judge 'T is true indeed that where 't is said he laid down his Life for us it may be interpreted in their sense for our good and benefit only without making any attonement or satisfaction for our Sins But when the sacred Writings do assure me 1 Pet. 2.24 That he did bear our sins in his own body so as to feel the Chastisement of our peace upon him Isa 53.5 that he so far endured the Punishment of our Sins as to have his Soul made an Offering for them that he suffered so in our stead as to be made Sin for us What else can I conclude but this that his Bloud was a true Sacrifice to turn God's Wrath from us and a valuable Price offered in our behalf to propitiate Heaven That his Bloud was shed for the Remission of our Sins may be wrested to signifie what these men would have it that 't was shed only to give us assurance of Pardon and Remission but when the Scripture is so express that now in the end of the World he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself Heb. 9.26 and since the Apostle by telling us Heb. 10.4 That the bloud of bulls and goats could not take away sins does plainly insinuate that the Bloud of Christ was therefore shed to supply that defect of the legal Sacrifices What other sense can I fix on it but this that his sacred Bloud was poured out to make an attonement for our Souls and to procure the expiation of our Guilt It seems strange indeed that God should exact the Bloud of his own Son when being a free Sovereign Power he might have released the Sinner without any price or satisfaction at all For so far it must be granted that every supreme Independent Governour may discharge an Offender at pleasure without any Compensation And therefore there is no such vindictive Justice in God as to determine him necessarily to punish the Guilty either in his own Person or his Undertaker But then we must remember that could we assign no Reasons for God Almighty's proceedings yet our Faith ought to remove those Mountains which our Reason cannot his Judgments are unsearchable and his ways past finding out But yet there are very good Reasons why he should require the Price of Bloud for had he quitted the Offender without some reasonable satisfaction he could neither have vindicated his own Honour nor secured the Authority of his Laws and Government For he that pardons the Guilty without a valuable Consideration does but expose his
mighty Redemption is wrought for you and how shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation That we may not therefore trample upon the Bloud of the Covenant nor baffle all the great ends of our Saviour's undertaking we must remember that as he has done great things for us so there is something to be done on our sides too Though he has deliver'd us from one Obligation yet he has laid upon us another to Obedience It was for this end that he deliver'd us from the hand of our Enemies that we might serve him without fear and he therefore bought us with a Price that we might glorifie God with Body and Spirit which are Gods. Which is the Fourth and last thing to be consider'd viz. The obligation that does arise from this consideration that he has bought us and that is that we should glorifie God both with Body and Spirit which are Gods. That we are purchas'd by the Bloud of Christ is the most powerful Motive and unanswerable Argument for our Obedience to him for he that purchases any thing as he has a just Title and Dominion over it so there is all the reason in the World that he should have its use and service This is nothing else but what is agreeable to the standing Rules of Justice For by the ancient Laws to which the Apostle here alludes the Servant was but the property of the Master and his Service as much due as that of any other Tool or Instrument 'T is a known Rule in the civil Law Servile eaput nullum jus habet The Servant has no power or disposal of himself no right to possess any thing but all things are at the pleasure and for the benefit of his Lord. I appeal to your selves and you may be judged by your own measures who ever bought a Vine without the reasonable expectation of the Fruit of it who ever purchased a Field without appropriating to himself its encrease and productions And 't is the very same Case here you are not your own but bought with a price and I know no other consequence than what the Apostle makes that we should therefore glorifie him with Body and Spirit which are his And then wilt thou rightly discharge this duty when every part that is in thee shall recognize this Title of a Redeemer by a pecular Consecration to his Service when every faculty and power shall own the Lord that bought them by an entire resignation to God's Will and Disposal Then wilt thou truly glorifie God in thy Body when thou doest bear in thy own Body the marks of Christ Jesus when thou caust shew the power of his Sacrifice by the Sacrifice of thy Lusts and can'st view in thy own Flesh the Triumphs of his Cross when thy crucified Flesh shall represent the Crucifixion of thy bleeding Master when every mortified Member shall give a publick Attestation to thy belief of a mortisied Saviour and all thy conquer'd Inclinations shall set forth the glory of his Purchase Then wilt thou truly value the Price of his Bloud when every sensual Appetite does share in the Agonies of his Passion when that Body of thine is delivered from the body of sin and death and when all those Members that were the Instruments of sin unto uncleanness shall be made the Instruments of righteousness unto God. And as we must thus glorifie him with our Bodies so likewise with the Spirit of our Minds Thy Soul was to be made an Offering to him that saved it as his was an Offering for thy Sin and all its powers were to be put upon the stretch and vigorously exercis'd in the advance of his Glory The Pride of thy understanding was to be humbled under the sense of his Meekness and Humility Thy Reason and Judgment must submit to all those misterious Doctrines of that Faith which he publish'd to the World. Every proud Imagination was to be cast down and every Thought as the Apostle expresseth it was to be Captivated into the Obedience of Christ. All the desires of thy Will were to be regulated by those Eternal Laws of Holiness which he has preacht to us Thy Affections must be rais'd as high as the Throne of thy Lord and Master and screw'd up to a passionate Love and Admiration of his Goodness In short then will thy Body and Soul glorifie God and the Lord that bought them when all thy Heart all thy Strength and all thy Soul shall be strongly engaged in promoting his Honour in submitting to his Will and fulfilling his Commands And this certainly when all is done was the great end of his dying for us that they which henceforth live should no longer live unto themselves 2 Cor. 5.15 but unto him that died for us And the reason of it is strong and forcible because whether we live or die we are the Lords Rom. 14.8 For this purpose did he redeem us with his Bloud that he might redeem us too from all iniquity and purifie unto himself a peculiar people zealous of good works that henceforth we should no longer be the servants of Sin but alive unto God Wherefore if this be the great Design of our Saviour's undertaking if all that he has done and suffer'd for us was to deliver us from our Crimes and to fit us for his Service in order to our happiness how just is our Damnation if we don't act up in congruity to those ends If our own Interest on one side or the principles of Justice on the other can't have a due Influence upon us yet a Sense of Ingenuity and Gratitude may justly prevail over us For who can be so insensible to a Curse as to neglect grateful returns and suitable requitals for such an undeserved and mighty Deliverance Do but consult all Ages what Honour and Esteem have been bestowed on those that have redeemed their Countries from Slavery and unjust Dominion what solemn acknowledgments have been paid to such publick Benefactors even in the most barbarous and uncivilized Nations how they have erected Altars Statues and Monuments adored their Memories and eterniz'd their Names by fixt and establisht Solemnities of Worship And if the deliverance of our Bodies from a Temporal Slavery if the recovery of our Civil Rights and Properties be worthy of such hearty Acknowledgments what must be expected from us who are redeem'd both in Body and Soul from Principalities and Powers from the Terrors of Darkness and the Shadow of an Eternal Death How should this inflame all our Passions make our Hearts hot within us kindle the Fire till at last it breaks out into publick Acts of Praise and Thanksgiving Let them give thanks says the Prophet whom the Lord hath redeem'd and deliver'd from the hand of the Enemy let every Knee be bended in the Adoration of this Mighty Redeemer let every Tongue be talking of his wondrous Works and telling of his Salvation from day to day And let us all affectionately joyn with that Heavenly Host above crying out and saying Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing And therefore Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore FINIS