O Lord of hosts how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem the Angel here is that Jesus who is our Advocate 1 John 2. 1 2. with the father he speaks as one intimately affected with the state and condition of poor Jerusalem Christ plays the Advocate for his suffering people and feelingly pleads for them he being afflicted in all their afflictions it moved him to observe that God's enemies were in a better case than his people and this put him upon that passionate expostulation O Lord of hosts how long wilt thou not have mercy on Jerusalem Alexander the great applied his Crown to the souldiers forehead that had received a wound for him and Constantine the great kissed the hollow of Paphnutius eye that he had lost for Christ what an honour was it to the souldier and to Paphnutius that these great men should have fellow-feeling of their sufferings and sympathize with them in their sorrows but oh then what an honour is it to such poor worms as we are that Jesus Christ who is Godman who is the Prince of the Kings of the earth that he should have a fellow-feeling Rev. 1. 5. of all our miseries and sympathize with us in all our troubles But Tenthly Is Jesus Christ God-man is he very God and very man then from hence you may see the excellency of Christ above man above all other men yea above Adam in innocency Christ as man was perfect in all graces Isa 11. 1 2. And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledg and of the fear of the Lord. God gave the spirit of wisdom to him not by measure and Joh. 3. 34. Luk. 2. 46 47. therefore at twelve years of age you find him in the Sanedrim disputing with the Doctors and asking them questions 1 John 16. and of his fulness have all we received grace for grace Col. 1. 19. for it pleased the father that in him should all fulness dwell cap. 2. 3. In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledg The state of innocency was an excellent estate it was an estate of Gen. 1. 27. Eph. 4. 22 23 24. perfect holiness and righteousness by his holiness he was carried out to know the Lord to love the Lord to delight in the Lord to fear the Lord and to take him as his chiefest good A legal holiness consists in an exact perfect and compleat conformity in heart and life to the whole reveiled will of God and this was the holiness that Adam had in his innocency and this holiness was immediately derived from God and was perfect Adam's holiness was as co-natural to him as unholiness is now to us Adam's holiness was as natural and as pleasing and as delightful to him as any way of unholiness can be natural pleasing and delightful to us The estate of innocency was an estate of perfect wisdom knowledg and understanding witness the names that Adam gave to Gen. 2. 20. all the creatures suitable and apposite to their natures The estate of innocency was an estate of great honour and dignity David brings in Adam in his innocent estate with a Crown upon his head and that Crown was a Crown of glory and honour thou hast crowned him with glory and Psal 8. 5. honour his place was little lower than the Angels but far above all other creatures The estate of innocency it was an estate of great Dominion and Authority man being made the Soveraign Lord of the whole Creation Psal 8. 6 7 8. we need not stand to enlarge upon one parcel of his demesns namely that which they call Paradise sith the Gen. 1. 26. whole both of Sea and Land and all the creatures in both were his Possession his Paradise certainly man's first estate was a state of perfect and compleat happiness there being nothing within him but what was desirable nothing without him but what was amiable and nothing about him but what was serviceable and comfortable and yet Jesus Christ who is God-man is infinitely more glorious and excellent than ever Adam was for Adam was set in a mutable condition but Christ is the Rock of Ages he is stedfast and abiding for ever he is yesterday Heb. 13. 8. and to day and the same for ever he is the same afore time in time and after time he is the same that is unchangeable in his Essence Promises and Doctrine Christ is the same in respect of vertue and the faith of believers even his Manhood before it was in being was cloathed with perfection of grace and so continueth for ever And again Adam was a mere man and alone by himself but in Christ the humane nature was hypostatically united unto the divine and hence it comes to pass that Christ even as man had a greater measure of knowledg and revelation of Grace and heavenly gifts than ever Adam had The Apostle tells us that in Christ dwells all the fulness of the Godhead 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bodily that is essentially that is not by a naked and bare communicating of vertue as God is said to dwell in his Saints but by a substantial union of the two natures divine and humane the eternal word and the man consisting of soul and body whereby they become one 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 one person one subsistence Now from this admirable and wonderful union of the two natures in Christ there flows to the Manhood of Christ a plenitude and fulness of all spiritual Wisdom and Grace such as was never found in any mere man no not in Adam whilest he stood in his integrity and uprightness But Eleventhly Is Jesus Christ God man is he very God and very man then this truth looks very sowrly and frowningly upon all such as deny the Godhead of Christ as Arrians Turks Jews how many be there in this City in this Nation who stiffly deny the Divinity of Christ and dispute against it and write against it and blaspheme that great truth without which I think a man may safely say there is no possibility of salvation In ancient times near unto the Age of the Apostles this Doctrine of Christ's Godhead and Eternal Generation from the father was greatly opposed by sundry wicked and blasphemous Hereticks as Ebion Cerinthus Arrius c who stirred up great troubles and bloody Persecutions against the Church for maintaining this great truth of Christ's Godhead they asserted that Christ had no true slesh 't was only the likeness of flesh which he appeared in and that his body was only a phantastick imaginary body but had the body of Christ been only such a body then his conception nativity death resurrection are all too but imaginary things and then his sufferings and crucifiction are but mere fancies too
should in a physical sense suffer which indeed is impossible yet these sufferings did so affect the Person that it may truly be said that God suffered and by his blood bought his people to himself for albeit the Act. 20. 28. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19 20. 1 Cor. 6. 20. cap. 7. 23. proper and formal subject of physical sufferings be only the humane Nature yet the principal subject of sufferings both in a physical and moral sense is Christs Person God and Man from the dignity whereof the worth and excellency of all sorts of sufferings the merit and the satisfactory sufficiency of the price did flow O Sirs you must seriously consider that though Christ as God in his God-head could not suffer in a physical sense yet in a moral sense he might suffer and did suffer For he being in the form of God thought it not robbery Phil. 2. 6 7 8. to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a Man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross O! who can sum up the contradictions the railings the revilings the contempts the despisings and calumnies that Christ met with from Sinners yea from the worst of Sinners But how could so low a debasing of the Son of man or of the humane nature assumed by Christ consist with the Object 2 Majesty of the Person of the Son of God We must distinguish those things in Christ which are Answ proper to either of the two Natures from those things which are ascribed to his Person in respect of either of the Natures or both the Natures for infirmity physical suffering or mortality are proper to the humane Nature The glory of power and grace and mercy and super-excellent Majesty and such like are proper to the Diety but the sufferings of the humane Nature are so far from diminishing the glory of the divine Nature that they do manifest the same and make it appear more clearly and gloriously for by how much the humane Nature was weakned depressed and despised for our sins for our sakes by so much the more the love of Christ God and Man in one person toward man and his mercy and power and grace to man do shine in the eyes of all that judiciously do look upon him Object How could Christ indure Hell-fire without Obj. 3 grievous sins as blasphemy and despair c. I Answer That we may walk safely and without offence Answ these things must be premised First That the sorrows and sufferings of Hell be no otherwise attributed to Christ than as they may stand with the dignity and worthiness of his Person the holiness of his Nature and the performance of the office and work of our Redemption First then for the soul of Christ to suffer in the local place of Hell to remain in the darkness thereof and to be tormented with the material flames there and eternally to be damned was not for the dignity of his Person to whom for his excellency and worthiness both the place manner and time of those torments were dispensed with Secondly Final Rejection and Desperation Blasphemy and the worm of Conscience agreeth not with the holiness of his Nature Who was a Lamb without a spot and therefore we do not we dare not ascribe them to him Heb. 9. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 19. But Thirdly Destruction of body and soul which is the second death could not fall upon Christ for this were to have destroyed the work of our Redemption if he had been subject to destruction But Fourthly and lastly Blasphemy and Despair are no parts of the pains of the damned but the consequents and follow the sense of Gods wrath in a sinful Creature that is overcome by it But Christ had no sin of his own neither was he overcome of wrath and therefore he always Rev. 16. 9. 11. held fast his integrity and innocency Despair is an unavoidable Companion attending the pains of the second death as all Reprobates do experience Desperation is an utter hopelesness of any good and a certain expectation and waiting on the worst that can befall and this is the lot and portion of the damned in Hell The wretched sinner in Hell seeing the sentence passed against him Gods purpose fulfilled never to be reversed the gates of Hell made fast upon him and a great Gulf fixt Luk. 16. 26. betwixt Hell and Heaven which renders his escape impossible He now gives up all and reckons on nothing but uttermost misery Now mark this despair is not an essential part of the second death but only a consequent or at the most an effect occasioned by the sinners view of his irremediless woful condition but this neither did nor could possibly befall the Lord Jesus He was able by the power of his God-head both to suffer and to satisfie and to overcome therefore he expected a good issue and Psal 16. 9 10. Act. 2. 26 27 28 31. knew that the end should be happy and that he should not be ashamed Isa 5. 6 7. c. Though a very shallow stream would easily drown a little Child there being no hope of escape for it unless one or another should step in seasonably to prevent it Yet a man that is grown up may groundedly hope to escape out of a far more deep and dangerous place because by reason of his stature strength and skill he could wade or swim out Surely the wrath of the Almighty manifested in Hell is like the vast Ocean or some broad deep River and therefore when the sinful Sons and Daughters of Adam which are Rom. 5. 6. without strength are hurl'd into the mid'st of it they must needs lye down in their confusion as altogether hopeless of deliverance or escaping but this despair could not seize upon Jesus Christ because although his Father took Isa 63. 1 2 3. him cast him into the Sea of his wrath so that all the billows of it went over him yet being the mighty God with whom nothing is impossible he was very able to pass through that Sea of wrath and sorrow which would have drowned all the world and come safe to shore Object But when did Christ suffer Hellish Torments Obj. 4 they are inflicted after death not usually before it but Christs soul went strait after death into Paradise how else could he say to the penitent Thief This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Now to this Objection I shall give these following Answers First That Christs soul after his Passion upon the Cross did not really and locally descend into the place of the damned may be thus made evident First All the Evangelists and so Luke among the rest 1. Luk. 1. 3. intending to make an exact Narrative of the life and death of Christ hath set down at large his Passion Death
divine greatness stamp'd upon the works of providence but what are the works of Providence to the work of Redemption what are all providential works to Christ's coming from heaven to his being incarnate to his doings sufferings and dying and all this to ransom poor souls from the curse hell wrath and eternal death souls are dear and costly things and of great price in the sight of God Amongst the Romans those their proper goods and estates which men had gotten in the wars with hazard of their lives were called Peculium Castrense of a Field-purchase Oh how much more may the precious and immortal souls of men be called Christ's Peculium Castrense his purchase gotten not only by the jeopardy of his life but with the loss of his life and blood Ye know saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 1. 18. 19. that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as with silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition but with the precious blood of the son of God as of a lamb without a spot Christ that only went to the price of souls hath told us that one soul is more worth than Mat. 16. 26. all the world Christ left his father's bosom and all the glory of heaven for the good of souls he assumed the nature of man for the happiness of the soul of man he trod the Wine-press of his father's wrath for souls he wept for souls he swet for souls he prayed for souls he payed for souls and he bled out his heart-blood for the redemption of souls The soul is the breath of God the beauty of man the wonder of Angels and the envy of Devils 't is of an Angelical nature 't is a heavenly spark a celestial plant and of a divine off-spring 't is capable of the knowledg of God of union with God of communion with John 14. 8. Psal 17. 15. God and of an eternal fruition of God there is nothing that can suit the soul below God there is nothing that can satisfie the soul without God the soul is so high and so noble a piece that it scorns all the world what are all the riches of the East or West Indies what are Rocks of Diamonds or Mountains of Gold or the price of Cleopatra's draught to the price that Christ laid down for souls 't is only the blood of him that is God-man that is an equivolent price for the Redemption of souls Silver and Gold hath redeemed many thousands out of Turkish bondage but all the Silver and Gold in the world could never redeem one poor soul from Hellish bondage from hellish torments Souls are a dear commodity he that bought them found them so and yet at how cheap a rate do some sinners sell their immortal souls Callenuceus tells us of a noble man of Naples that was wont prophanely to say that he had two-souls in his body one for God and another for whosoever would buy it but if he hath one soul in Hell I believe he will never find another for Heaven A person of quality who is still alive told me a few years since that in discourse with one of his servants This pious Gentleman was with me in May 1673. at my house he asked him what he thought would become of his soul if he lived and died in his ignorance and enmity against God c. he most prophanely and atheistically answered that when he died he would hang his soul on a hedg and say run God run Devil and he that can run fastest let him Discipul at de tâ—mp Serâ— 132. take my soul I have read of a most blasphemous wretch that on a time being with his companions in a common Inn carrowsing and making merry asked them if they thought a man had a soul or no whereunto when they replyed that the souls of men are immortal and that some of them after death lived in hell and others in heaven For so the writings of the Prophets and Apostles instructed them he answered and swore that he thought it nothing so but rather that there was no soul in man to survive the body but that Heaven and Hell were mere fables and inventions of Priests to get gain and for himself he was ready to sell his soul to any that would buy it then one of his companions took up a cup of wine and said sell me thy soul for this cup of wine which he receiving We laugh at little children to see them part with rich Jewels for silly trifles and yet daily experience tells us that multitudes are so childish as to part with such rich and precious Jewels as their immortal souls for a lust or for base and unworthy trifles of whom it may be truly said as Augustus Caesar said in another case they are like a man that fishes with a golden hook the gain can never recompence the loss that may be sustained bad him take his soul and drank up the wine Now Satan himself being there in man's shape bought it again of the other at the same price and by and by bad him give him his soul the whole company affirming it was meet he should have it since he had bought it not perceiving the Devil but presently he laying hold of this soul-seller carried him into the Air before them all to the great astonishment and amazement of the beholders and from that day to this he was never heard of but hath now found by experience that men have souls and that Hell is no Fable Ah for what a thing of nought do many thousands sell their souls to Satan every day how many thousands are there who swear curse lye cheat deceive c. for a little gain every day I have read that there was a time when the Romans did wear Jewels on their shooes Oh that in these days men did not worse Oh that they did not trample under feet that matchless Jewel their precious and immortal souls Oh sirs there is nothing below heaven so precious and noble as your souls and therefore do not play the Courtiers with your poor souls now the Courtier does all things late he rises late and dines late and sups late and goes to bed late and repents late Christ made himself an offering for sin that souls might not be undone by sin the Lord died that slaves might live the son dies that servants might live the natural son dies that adopted sons may live the only begotten son dies that bastards might live yea the judg dies that Malefactors may live Ah friends as there was never sorrow like Christ's so there was never love like Christ's love and of all his love none to that of soul-love Christ who is God-man did take upon him thy nature and bare thy sins and suffered death and encountered the Cross and was made a sacrifice and a curse and all to bring about thy Redemption and therefore thou maist safely conclude that the work of Redemption is a great work But
and if so then what would become of us what would become of our salvation then our faith would be in vain and our hope would be in vain and our hearing preaching praying and receiving would all be in vain yea then all our Religion would vanish into a mâ—re fancy also when a man's conscience is awakened to see his sin and misery and he shall find guilt to lay like a load upon his soul and when he shall see that divine justice is to be satisfied and divine wrath to be pacified and the curse to be born and the Law to be fulfilled and his nature to be renewed his heart to be changed and his sins to be pardoned or â—lsâ— his soul can never be saved how can such a person venture his soul his all upon one that is but a mâ—re crcature certainly a mere man is no Rock no City of refuge and no sure foundation for a man to build his faith and hope upon woe to that man that ever he was born that has no Jesus but a Socinian's Jesus to rest upon oh 't is sad trusting to one who is man but not God flesh but not spirit as you love the eternal safety of your precious souls and would be happy for ever as you would escape Hell and get to Heaven lean on none rest on none but that Jesus who is God-man who is very God and very man Apollinaris held that Christ took not the whole nature of man but a humane body only without a soul and that the Godhead was instead of a soul to the Manhood Also Eutyches who confounded the two natures of Christ and their properties c. Also Apelles and the Manichees who denied the true humane body and held him to have an aerial or imaginary body Though the popular sort deified Alexander the great yet having Plutarch in vita got a clap with an Arrow he said ye stile me Jupiter's son as if immortal sed hoc vulnus clamat esse hominem this blood that issues from the wound proves me in the issue a man this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the blood of man not of God and smelling the stench of his own flesh he asked his flatterers if the God's yielded such a scent so may it be said of Jesus Christ our Saviour though Myriads of Angels and Saints acclaim he is a God ergo immortal and a crew of Hereticks disclaim him to be man as the Marcionites averred that he had a phantastical body and Apelles who conceived that he had a sydereal substance yet the streams of blood following the arrow of death that struck him makes it good that he was perfect man of a reasonable soul and humane flesh subsisting And as this truth looks sowerly upon the above mentioned persons so it looks sowerly upon the Papists who by their Doctrine of the real presence of Christ's body in the Sacrament do overthrow one of the properties of his humane nature which is to be but in one place present at once This truth also looks sowerly upon the Lutherans or Ubiquitaries who teach that Christ's humane nature is in all places by vertue of the personal union c. I wonder that of all the old Errours swept down into this latter Age as into a sink of time this of the Socinians and Arrians should be held forth among the rest O sirs beware of their Doctrines shun their meetings and persons that come to you with the denial of the Divinity of Christ in their mouths this was John's Doctrine and Practise Irenaeus saith that after he was returned from his banishment and came to Ephesus he came to bathe himself and in the bath he found Cerinthus that said Christ had no being till he received it from the Virgin Mary upon the sight of whom John skipped out of the Bath and called his companions from thence saying let us go from this place lest the Bath should fall down upon us because Cerinthus is in it that is so great an enemy to God ye see his Doctrine see his words too 2 John 10 11. If any come to you having not this doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds What that Doctrine was if you cast your eye upon the Scripture you shall find it to be the Doctrine of the Divinity of Christ shew no love where you owe nothing but hatred I hate every Psal 119. 113. false way saith David And I shall look upon Auxentius as upon a Devil so long as he is an Arrian said Hilarius We must shew no countenance nor give no encouragement to such as deny either â—ne divinity or humanity of Christ I have been the longer upon the Divinity and humanity of Christ 1. Because the times we live in require it 2. That poor weak staggering Christians may be strengthned established and setled in the truth as it is in Jesus 3. That I may give in my testimony and witness against all those who are poysoned and corrupted with Socinian and Arrian Principles which destroy the souls of men 4. That those in whose hands this book may fall may be the better furnished to make head against men of corrupt minds who by slight of hand and cunning craftiness lie in wait to deceive Eph. 4. 14. Sixthly As he that did feel and suffer the very torments of Hell though not after a hellish manner was God-man so the punishments that Christ did sustain for us must be referred only to the substance and not unto the circumstances of punishment The punishment which Christ endured if it be considered in its substance kind or nature so 't was the same with what the sinner himself should have undergone Now the punishment due to the sinner was death the curse of the Law c. now this Christ underwent for he was made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. but if you consider the punishment which Christ endur'd with respect to certain circumstances adjuncts and accidents as the eternity of it desperation going along with it c. then I say it was not the same but equivalent Whether the work of man's redemption could have been wrought without the sufferings and humiliation of Christ is not determinable by men but that it was the most admirable way which wisdom justice and mercy could require cannot be denied And the reason is because though the enduring of the punishments as to the substance of them could and did agree with him as a surety yet the circumstances of those punishments could not have befallen him unless he had been a sinner and therefore every inordination in suffering was far from Christ and a perpetual duration of suffering could not befall him for the first of these had been contrary to the holiness and dignity of his person and the other had made void the end of his suretiship and Mediatorship which was so to suffer as yet to conquer and
as a God of compassion God is infinite in all his attributes in his justice as well as in his mercy these two cannot interfere as justice cannot intrench upon mercy so neither may mercy encroach upon justice the glory of both must be maintained Now by the breach of the Law the justice of God is wronged so that although mercy be apt to pardon yet justice requires satisfaction and calls for vengeance on sinners Every transgression Heb. 2. 2. must receive just recompence and God will not in any case absolve the guilty till this be done the hands of Exod. 34. 7. mercy are tied that she cannot act And seeing satisfaction could not be made to an infinite majesty but by an equal person and price therefore the son of God must become a curse for us by taking our nature and pouring out his soul to the death and by this means justice and mercy are reconciled and kiss each other and mercy now being set at liberty hath her free course to save poor sinners God will have his justice satisfied to the full and therefore Christ must bear all the punishment due to our sins or else God cannot set us free for he cannot go against his own just will observe the force of that phrase Christ ought to suffer And thus it behoved Christ to suffer Luk. 24. 26. and Mat. 26. 54. Thus it must be why must but because it was 1. So decreed by God 2. Foretold by the Prophets every particular of Christ's sufferings were foretold by the prophets even to their very spitting in his face 3. Prefigured in the daily morning and evening sacrifice this Lamb of God was sacrificed from the beginning of the world A necessity then there was of our Saviour's sufferings not a necessity of coaction for he died freely John 10. 11 14 17 18. and voluntarily but of immutability and infallibility for the former reasons mentioned An earthly Prince that is just holds himself bound to inflict punishment impartially upon the malefactor or his surety it stands upon his honour he saith it must be so I cannot do otherwise this is true much more of God who is Justice it self God who is great in counsel and excellent in working had store of means at hand whereby to set free and recover lost man-kind yet he was pleased in his infinite wisdom to pitch upon this way of satisfaction as being most agreeable to his holy nature and most suitable to his high and sovereign ends viz. Man's salvation and his own glory and that God doth stand upon full satisfaction and will not forgive one sin without it may be thus made evident First from the nature of sin which is that abominable 1. â—eâ— 44. 4. God could not â—salvâ— jure pass over the sin of man so as absolutely to let it go unpunished thing which God hates The sinner deserves to die for his sins Rom. 6. 23. Tho wages of sin is death every sinner is worthy of death They which commit such things are worthy of death Rom. 1. 32. Now God is just and righteous It is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you 2 Thes 1. 6. yea and God did therefore set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in bis blood Rom. 3. 25. To declare his righteousness that he might be just vers 26. Now if God be a just and righteous God then sin cannot absolutely escape unpunished for it is just with God to punish the sinner who is worthy of punishment and certainly God must deny himself if he will not be just 2 Tim. 2. 13. but this he can never do sin is of an infinite guilt and hath an infinite evil in the nature of it and therefore no person in heaven or earth but that person our Lord Jesus who is God-man and who had an infinite dignity that could either procure the pardon of it or make satisfaction for it no prayers no cries no tears no humblings no repentings no resolutions no reformations c. can stop the course of Justice or procure the guilty sinners pardon 't is Christ alone that can dissolve all obligations to punishment and break all bonds and chains of guilt and hand a pardon to us through his own blood Eph. 1. 7. we are set free by the blood of Christ By the blood of thy Zach. 9. 11. covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit 't is by his blood that we are justified and saved from wrath Rom. 5. 9. Much more being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath by him Pray tell me what is it to be justified but to be pardoned and what is it to be saved from wrath but to be delivered from all punishment Eph. 2. 13. Colos 1. 20. and both these depend upon the blood of Christ But The veracity of God requires it Look as God cannot but be just so he cannot but be true and if he cannot but be true then he will make good the threatnings that are gone out of his mouth Gen. 2. 17. In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Heb. in dying thou Under the name of death are comprehended all other calamities miseries and sorrows shalt die death is a fall that came in by a fall and without all pâ—radventure every man should die the same day he was born for the wages of sin is death and this wages should be presently paid did not Christ reprieve poor sinner's lives for a season upon which account he is said to be the Saviour of all men not of eternal preservation but of a temporal reservation He will by no means clear 1 Tim. 4. 10. the guilty The soul that sinneth it shall die Ezek. 18. Exod. 34. 7. 20. The wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him Rom. 2. 6. He will render to every man according to his deeds Oh sirs God can never so far yield as to abrogate his own Law and quietly to sit down with injury and loss to his own Justice himself having established a Law c. The Law pronounces him cursed that continues not in all things Gal. 3. 10. that are written therein to do them Now though the threatnings of men are frequently vain and frivolous yet the threatnings of the great God shall certainly take place and have their accomplishment though many ten thousand millions of sinners perish not one tittle of the Mat. 5. 18. dreadful threatnings of God shall fail till all be fulfilled Josephus saith that from that very time that old Eli heard those terrible threatnings that made their ears tingle 1 Sam. 3. 11 12 13 14. and hearts tremble that heard them Eli never ceased weeping ah who can look upon the dreadful threatnings that are pointed against sinners all over the book of God and not tremble and weep God cannot but in justice punish sinners neither is it in his choice
If thou wouldest have thy heart brought and kept 6. Psal 34. 18. Isa 57. 15. 2 Chron. 34. 27. in an humble broken bleeding melting tender frame then seriously peruse this Treatise But Seventhly If thou wouldest always come to the Lord's table with such a frame of spirit as Christ may take a delight to meet thee to own thee to bless thee to bid thee welcom Mat. 26. â—6 27 28 Luk. 22. 19 20. 1 Cor. 11. 23. to the 30. and to seal up his love and thy pardon to thee then seriously peruse this Treatise especially that part of it where the dreadful and amazing sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ both in body and soul are at large set forth But Eightly If thou wouldest have a clear sight of the length 8. Eph. 3. 18. Isal 146. 8. and breadth and depth and height of the love of Christ then seriously peruse this Treatise But Ninthly If thou wouldest have thy love to Christ tryed 9. Cant. 1. 7. cap. 8. 5 6 7. raised acted inflamed discovered and augmented c. then seriously peruse this Treatise But Tenthly If thou art a strong man in Christ Jesus and 10. 2 Tim. 2. 1. Hâ—b 5. 14. 1 â—oâ— 2. 6 7. 1 Joh. 2. 14. wouldest have thy head and heart exercised in the great things of God and in the deep things of God and in the mysterious things of God then seriously peruse this Treatise But Eleventhly If thou art but a weak Christian a babe a 11. 1. Cor. 3. 1. Heb. 5. 13. 1 Pet. 2. 2. 1 John 2. 1 12 13. little child a shrub a dwarf in grace holiness and communion with God and in thy spiritual attainments enjoyments and experiences then seriously peruse this Treatise especially the first part of it But Twelfthly If thou wouldest know whether thou art an indulger 12. Job 20. 11 12 13 14. Mica 6. 6 7. Rom. 13. ult James 4. 3. of sin and if thou wouldest be stocked with singular remedies against thy special sins then seriously peruse the former part of this Treatise But Thirteenthly If thou wouldest be rooted grounded 13. 1 Pet. 5. 10. Isa 53. Heb. 10. 10 12 14 Gal. 4. 4 5. Rom. 8. 3 4. 2 Cor. 5. 21. strengthened and settled in those two grand points of the Gospel viz. The active and passive obedience of Christ and be daily refreshed with those pleasant streams with those waters of life that flow from thence then seriously peruse this Treatise But Fourteenthly If thou wouldest be throughly acquainted 14. Isa 53. cap. 63. 2. 1 Pet. 2. 21 22 23 24. John 10. 11 15. 17 16. with the sufferings of Christ in his body and soul with their greatness and grievousness c. And if thou wouldest understand the mighty advantages we have by his sufferings then seriously peruse this Treatise But Fifteenthly If thou wouldest be able strongly to prove against the Socinians and the high Atheists of the day and such as make so great a noise about a light within them that there is a Hell a place of torment provided and prepared Mat. 25. 41. Psal 9 17. Prov. 5. 5. for all wicked and ungodly persons then seriously peruse this Treatise But Sixteenthly If thou wouldest in a Scripture-glass see the torments of hell and know how to avoid them and what divine improvements to make of them and be resolved in several questions concerning hell and hellish torments then seriously peruse this Treatise But Seventeenthly If thou wouldest be able strenuously to 17. 1 John 1. 2 14. 1 Tim. 2. 5. maintain and defend Christ's Eternal Deity and Manhood against all corrupt Teachers and Gain-sayers then seriously peruse this Treatise But Eighteenthly If thou wouldest be rooted and grounded in 18. Jer. 23. 6. Isa 45. 24. cap. 61. 10. 1 Cor. 1. 30. that great Doctrine of the Imputed Righteousness of Christ and be warmed refreshed cheared comforted and delighted with those choice and singular consolations that flow from thence then seriously peruse this Treatise But Nineteenthly If thou wouldest be set at liberty from many 19. Psal 42. 5 11. Psal 55. 5. 2 Cor. 7. 5. fears and doubts and disputes that often arise in thy soul about thy internal and eternal estate then seriously peruse this Treatise But Twentiethly If thou wouldest have all grace to flourish 20. Psal 92. 12 13 14. Rom. 15. 13. Act. 13. 36. 2 Cor. 12. 9 10. Rev. 12. 1. 2 Cor. 2. 14. and abound in thy soul if thou wouldest be eminently serviceable in thy Generation if thou wouldest be ripe for sufferings for death for heaven if thou wouldest be Temptation-proof if thou wouldest be weaned from this world and triumph in Christ Jesus when the world triumphs over thee then seriously peruse this Treatise Reader if thou wouldest make any earnings of thy reading this Treatise then thou must 1. Read and believe what Act. 18. 8. cap. 24. 14. Psal 1. 2. Psal 119. 5 18. Act. 17. 11. Psal 119. 9. John 13. 17. Psal 119. 105 106. thou readest 2. Thou must read and meditate on what thou readest 3. Thou must read and pray over what thou readest 4. Thou must read and try what thou readest by the touchstone of the word 5. Thou must read and apply what thou readest that plaister will never heal that is not applyed c. 6. Thou must read and make conscience of living up to what thou readest and of living out what thou readest this is the way to honour thy God to gain profit by this Treatise to credit Religion to stop foul mouths to strengthen weak hands to better a bad head to mend a bad heart to rectifie a disorderly life and to make sure work for thy soul for heaven for eternity Reader In a fountain sealed and treasures hid there is little profit or comfort no fountain to that which flows for common good no treasures to those that lie open for publick service If thou gettest any good by reading this Treatise give God alone the glory and remember the Authour when thou art in the Mount with God his prayers for thee are that thou mayest be a knowing Christian a sincere Christian a growing Christian a rooted Christian a resolute Christian an untainted Christian an exemplary Christian an humble Christian and then he knows thou wilt be a saved Christian in the day of Christ so he rests who is Thy Cordial Friend and Souls Servant Tho. Brooks The Interest of Reason in Religion together with the Import and Usage of Scripture Metaphors and the Nature of the Union between Christ and Believers modestly discoursed All occasioned by some late Writings particularly a Book of Mr. Sherlock's entituled Knowledg of God by Robert Ferguson Serious and Weighty QUESTIONS CLEARLY And Satisfactorily Answered The first Question or Case is this 1. Quest WHat are the special Remedies Means or Helps against cherishing or keeping up of any special or peculiar sin either in heart or
were called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance Now concerning the passive obedience or suffering of Christ I would present unto you these conclusions First That the sufferings of Jesus Christ were free and voluntary and not constrained or forced Austin saith that Christ did suffer quia voluit quando voluit quomodo voluit Joh. 10. 17. I lay down my life ver 18. No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again Gal. 2. 20. Who gave himself for me Christs sufferings did rise out of obedience to his Father Joh. 10. 18. This Commandement have I received of my Father and Joh. 18. 11. The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it And Christs sufferings did spring and rise out of his love to us who loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2. 20. so Ephe. 5. 25. As Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it And indeed had Christs sufferings been involuntary they could not have been a part of his obedience much less could they have mounted to any thing of merit for us Christ was very free and willing to undertake the work of mans Redemption when he cometh into the world he saith Sacrifice and Offerings thou wouldest not but a body hast thou prepared me Then said I Hâ—b 1â— 5. Lo I come to do thy Will O God It 's the expression of one overjoy'd to do the Will of God So Luk. 12. 50. I have a Baptisme to be Baptised with and how am I straitned till it be accomplished There was no power no force to compel Christ to lay down his life therefore it is called the offering of the body of Jesus Heb. 10. 10. Nothing could fasten Christ to the Cross but the golden link of his free Love Christ was big of love and therefore he freely opens all the pores of his body that his blood may flow out from every part as a precious Balsom to cure our wounds The heart of Christ was so full of love that it could not hold but must needs burst out through every part and member of his body into a bloody sweat Luk. 22. 44. At this time it is most certain that there was no manner of violence offered to the body of Christ no man touched him or came near him with Whips or Thorns or Spears or Lances Though the Night was cold and the Ayre cold and the Earth on which he kneeled cold yet such a burning love he had in his breasts to his people as cast him into a bloody sweat 'T is certain that Christ never repented of his sufferings Isa 53. 11. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied It is a Metaphor that alludes to a Mother who though she hath had hard labour yet doth not repent of it when she sees a Child brought forth So though Christ had hard Travel upon the Cross yet he doth not repent of but thinks all his sweat and blood well bestowed because he sees the Man-child of Redemption is brought sorth into the world He shall be satisfied the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies such a satiating as a man hath at some sweet repast or banquet And what do's this speak out but his freeness in suffering But here some may object and say that the Lord Jesus Obj. when the hour of his sufferings drew nigh did repent of his Suretyship and in a deep passion prayed to his Father to be released from his sufferings Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me and that three times over Math. 26. 39 42 44. Now to this Objection I shall Answer first more generally Answ and secondly more particularly First in the general I say that this earnest prayer of his doth not denote absolutely his unwillingness but rather sets out the greatness of his willingness for although Christ as a man was of the same natural affections with us and desires and abhorrences of what was destructive to nature and therefore did fear and deprecate that bitter cup which he was ready to drink yet as our Mediator and Surety and knowing it would be a Cup of Salvation to us though of exceeding bitterness to himself he did yield and lay aside his natural reluctancies as Man and willingly obeyed his Fathers will to drink it as our loving Mediator as if he should say O Father whatsoever becometh of me of my natural fâ—ar or desire I am content to submit to the drinking of this Cup thy Will be done But Secondly and more particularly I Answer that in these words of our Lord there is a two-fold voice 1. There is vox naturâ— the voyce of nature Let this Cup pass from me 2. There is vox officii the voyce of his Mediatory office 〈…〉 less not as I will but as thou wilt The first voyce 〈◊〉 this Cup pass intimates the velleity of the inferiour part of his Soul the sensitive part proceeding from unnatural abhorrency of death as he was a Creature The latter voyce Nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt expreâ—â— the full and free consent of his will complying with the will of his Father in that grand everlasting design of bringing many Sons unto glory by making the Captain of their Salvation perfect through sufferings Heb. 2. 10. It was an Argument of the truth of Christ his humane Nature that he naturally dreaded a dissolution He owed it to himself as a Creature to desire the conservation of his being and he could not become unnatural to himself For no man ever yet hated his own Flesh Ephe. 5. 29. Phil. 2. 8. But being a Son he learned submission and became obedient to the death even the death of the Cross that shameful cruel cursed death of the Cross the suffering whereof he owed to that solemn Astipulation which from everlasting passed between his Father and himself the third person in the blessed Trinity the Holy Ghost being witness And therefore though the Cup was the bitterest Cup that ever was given man to drink as wherein there was not death only but wrath and curse Yet seeing there was no other way left of satisfying the justice of his Father and of saving Sinners most willingly he took the Cup and having given thanks as it were in those words The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it Never did Bridegroom goe with more chearfulness to be Married to his Bride than our Lord Jesus went to his Cross Luk. 12. 20. Though the Cup that God the Father put into Christs hand was bitter very bitter yea the bitterest that ever was put into any hand yet he found it sweetned with three Ingredients 1. It was but a Cup it was not a Sea 2. It was his Father and not Satan that mingled it and that 〈◊〉 in all the bitter Ingredients that were in it 3. It was a gilt not
was heavy unto death beset with terrors as the word implies when he drank that bitter cup that cup of bitterness that cup mingled with curses which made him sweat drops of blood which if men or Angels had but sip'd of 't would have made them reel stagger and tumble into Hell The Soul of Christ was over-cast with a Cloud of Gods displeasure The Greek Church speaking of the sufferings of Christ calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unknown sufferings Ah Christians who can speak out this sorrow The spirit of a man will sustain Pâ—ov 18. 11. his infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear Christs Soul is sorrowful but give me that word again his Soul is exceeding sorrowful but if that word be yet too low then I must tell you That his Soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death not only extensively such as must continue for the space of seventeen or eighteen hours even until death it self should finish it but also intensively such and so great as that which is used to be at the very point of death and such as were able to bring death it self had not Christ been reserved to a greater and heavier punishment of this sorrow is that especially spoken Behold Lament 1. 12. and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger Many a sad and sorrowful Soul hath no question been in the world but the like sorrow to this was never since the Creation the very terms or phrases used by the Evangelists speaks no less He was sorrowful and heavy saith one amazed and very heavy saith another in an Agony saith a third in a Soul-trouble saith a fourth Certainly the bodily torments of the Cross were much inferior to the Agony of his Soul the pain of the body is the body of pain Oh but the very soul of sorrow is the Souls sorrow and the very soul of pain is the Souls pain Secondly That which Christ assumed or took of our nature he assumed to this end to suffer in it and by suffering to save and redeem it But he took the whole nature of man both body and soul ergo He suffered in both first the assumption is evident and needs no proof that Christ took upon him both our soul and body the Apostle assures us where he saith That in all things it became Heb. 2. 17. him to be like unto us therefore he had both body and soul as we have Secondly Concerning the proposition viz. That what Christ took of our nature He took it by suffering in it properly and immediatly to Redeem us Now this is evident by that blessed word where the Apostle saith Christ took part with them that he might destroy vers 14 15. through death him that had the power of death that is the Devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Hence I reason thus that wherein Christ delivered us he took part with us in but he delivered us from fear of death Ergo he did therein communicate with us Now marke This fear was the proper and immediate passion of the Soul namely the fear of death and God's anger And the Text giveth this sense Because the fear of this death kept them in bondage but the sear only of the bodily death doth not bring us into such bondage witness that Song of Zachery That we being delivered from the hands of our Enemies Luke 1. 74. should serve him without fear this then is a spiritual fear from the which Christ did deliver us Ergo He did communicate with us in this fear for the Apostle saith Heb. 2. 18. In that wherein he suffered and was tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted Certainly that fear which fell on Christ was a real fear and it was in his Soul and did not arise from the meer contemplation of bodily torments only for the very Martyrs in the encountering with them have feared little Assuredly there was some great matter that lay upon the very Soul of Christ which made him so heavy and sorrowsul and so afraid and in such an Agony But if you please take this second Argument in another form of words thus What Christ took of ours that He in suffering offered up for us for His assuming of our Nature was for this end to suffer for us in our Nature but he took our Nature in Body and in Soul and he delivered our souls as well as our bodys and the sins of our souls did need his Sacrifice as well as the sins of our bodys and our souls were Crucified with Christ as well as our bodys Mens mea in Christo Crucisixa est saith Ambrose Surely if our whole man was lost then our whole man did need the benefit and help of a whole Saviour and if Christ had assumed only our flesh our body then our souls adjudged adjudged to punishment had remained under transgression without hope of pardon Several sayings of the Ancients doth further strengthen this Argument take a tast of some Si totus homo periit totus benesiâ—io salvateris indiguit c. If the whole man perished August â—ont Feliâ—i n. c. 13. the whole man needed a Saviour Christ therefore took the whole man body and soul if he had taken only flesh the soul should remain addict to punishment of the first transgression without hope of pardon By the same reason Christ must also suffer properly in soul because not by taking our soul but by satisfying in his soul our soul is delivered Suscepit animum meam Suscepit corpus meum Ambrose Ambrose He took all our passions or affections to sanctifie them Damaâ—cene Hâ—b 5. 9. all in himself but Christ was Sanctified and Consecrated by his death and so doth he consecrate us For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10. 14. Ergo By his offering of our soul and suffering in our soul hath he consecrated our soul and affections Suscepit affectum meum ut emanduret He took my affection to amend it c. Now he hath amended it in that he consecrated it by his offering Heb. 10. 14. Iâ—llud pro nobis suscepit quod in nobis amplius pâ—riclitabatur He hath taken that for us which was most in danger for us c. that is our soul as he expoundeth it de incarnat c. 7. But Christ hath not otherwise delivered us from the danger but by entring into the danger for us this danger of the soul is the fear and feeling of Gods wrath Thirdly Christ bore our sorrows Isa 53. 4. Now what sorrows should we bear but the sorrows due unto us for our sins and surely these were not corporal only but spiritual also and those did Christ bear in his soul The same Prophet saith ver 10. He shall make his soul
an offering for sin Ergo Christ offered his Soul as well as his Body Again Our Saviour himself saith My Soul is Math. 26. 38. very heavy unto death Certainly it was not the bodily death which Christ seared for then he should have been weaker than many Martyrs yea than many of the Romans who made no more of dying than of dining therefore Christs Soul was verily and properly stricken with heaviness and not with the beholding of bodily torments only as some dream But Fourthly That whereby Adam and we ever since do most properly commit sin by the same hath Christ the second Adam made satisfaction properly for our sin but Adam did and we all do properly commit sin in our souls our bodies being but the instruments Ergo Christ by and in his soul hath properly made satisfaction First The truth of the proposition is confirmed by the Apostle As by one mans disobediâ—nce we are made Sinners so by the Rom. 5 19. obedience of one many shall be made Righteous Christ then satisfied for us by the same wherein Adam disobeyed Nâ—w Adams soul was in the transgression as well as his body and accordingly was Christs very soul in his sufferings and satisfaction and Christ obeyed that is in his soul for obedience belongeth to the soul as one observeth upon those words of the Apostle Phil. 2. 8. He became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Who Agatho Epist ad Constantin upon Phil. 2. 8. doth not understand saith the same Author that obedience doth belong to the humane will That there is a kind of dying in the soul when it is pierced with grief besides the death of the soul either by sin or damnation is not disagreeing to the Scripture Simâ—on saith to Mary A sword shall pierce through thy soul Luk. 2 35. Look as then the body dyeth being pierced with a sword so the soul may be said to dye or languish when it is pierced with grief what else is Crucifying but dying Now the soul is said to be Crucified as is evident by that passage of the Apostle I am Crucified to the World when as yet his body was alive So Ambrose doubts not to say Gal. 6. 14. Mens mea in Christo Crucifixa est My soul was Crucified Ambâ—ose lib. 5. â—â— Luc. in Christ that is Christ in His Soul was Crucified which he calleth our soul because he did assume our soul and body or else where he saith Mea est voluntas quam suam dixit Ambrâ—se lib. 2. de sid c. 3. c. It is my will which he calleth his it is my heaviness which he took with my affections yet was it properly and personally Christs Soul and Will but ours by community of nature Secondly For the Assumption 1. Howsoever it be admitted that the body is the instrument of the soul both in sinning and suffering yet the conclusion is this That because sin is committed in the soul principally and properly therefore the satisfaction must be made in the soul principally and properly If this conclusion be granted we have that we would for the bodily pains affecting the soul are not the proper passions of the soul neither is the soul said to suffer properly when the body suffereth but by way of compassion and consent 2. We grant that in the proper and immediate sufferings of the soul the body also is affected As when Christ was in his Agony in the Garden his whole body was therewith stirred and mâ—â—â— and that it did sweat drops of blood But it is one thing when the grief beginneth immediatly in the soul and so affecteth the body and when the pain is first infliâ—ted upon the body and so worketh upon the soul there the soul suffereth properly and principally of which sufferings we speak here neither properly nor principally which is not the thing in question 3. It is not the reasonable soul that is affected with the body for it is a ground in Philosophy that the soul suffereth not but only the sensitive part But the grief that we speak of that is satisfactory for sin must be in the very reasonable soul where sin took the beginning and so Ambrose saith upon those words of Christ Ambrose de Incarnat cap. 7. My Soul is heavy to death Ad rationabilis assumptionem animae c. naturae humanae refertur affectum It is referred to the assumption of the reasonable soul and humane affection Pride Ambition Infidelity began in Adams soul and had their determination there in the committing of those sins the body had no part indeed with the ear they heard the suggestion of Satan but it was no sin till in their minds they had consented unto it Wherefore seeing the first sin committed was properly and wholly in the soul for the same the soul must properly and wholly satisfie Because sin took beginning from Adams soul the satisfaction also must begin in Christs Soul as Ambrose saith Inciplo in Christo vincere unde in Adam victus sum Ambrose lib 4. in Luc. I begin there to win in Christ where in Adam I was overcome Then it followeth that the sufferings of Christs soul took beginning there and were not derived by simpathy from the stripes and pain of the body We infer then that therefore Christs Soul had proper and immediate sufferings besides those which proceeded from simpathy with his body and all Christs sufferings were satisfactory Ergo Christ did satisfie for our sins properly and immediatly in his soul But if you please take this fourth Argument in another form of words thus The punishment which was pronounced against the first Adam our first Surety and in him against us that same did Christ the second Adam our next and best Surety bear for us or else it must still lye upon us to suffer it But the punishment threatned and denounced against Adam for transgression was not only corporal respecting our bodyes but spiritual also respecting our souls There was a spiritual malediction due unto our souls as well as a corporal c. Look as God put a Sanction on the Law and Covenant of works made with all of us in Adam that he and his should be liable to death both of body and soul which Covenant being broken by sin all Sinners became obnoxious to the death both of body and soul so it was necessary that the Redeemed should be delivered from the death of both by the Redeemers tasting of death in both kinds as much as should be sufficient for their Redemption O Sirs as sin infected the whole Man soul and body and the Curse following on sin left no part nor power of the mans soul free so Justice required that the Redeemer coming in the room of the persons Redeemed should feel the force of the Curse both in body and soul But Fifthly He shall see of the travel of his soul Isa 53. Here the soul is taken properly and the travel of Christs
soul is his sufferings for it follows And he shall bear their Iniquities But Sixthly Christ gave himself for his peoples sins Gal. 1. 9. 6. Ephe. 5. 25. 1 Tim. 2. 6. Who gave himself for our sins Tit. 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might Redeem us from all Iniquities c. but the body only is not himself ergo The Apostle saith Phil. 2. 7. Christus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exinanivit Christ did empty or evacuate himself or as Tertullian expounds it Exhausit Teâ—tâ—llian Conâ—ra Marcian lib. 5. He drew out himself or was exhaust which agrees with the Prophesis of Daniel chap. 9. 26. Mâ—ssias shall have nothing being brought to nothing by his death without life strength esteem honour c. Hence we conclude that if Christ were exhaust upon the Cross if nothing was left him that he suffered in body and soul that there was no part within or without free from the Cross but all was emptied and poured out for our Redemption Again We read That Christ through the eternal Spirit Heb. 9. 14 offered himself to God Whatsoever was in Christ did either offer or was offered His eternal Spirit only did offer ergo His whole humane Nature both Body and Soul was offered Thus Origen witnesseth in these words Origen â—om 9 in Levit. Vide quo modo verus pontifex Jesus Christus adsumptâ— batillocarnis humanae c. See how our true Priest Jesus Christ taking the censor of his humane flesh putting to the fire of the Altar that is His magnificent Soul wherewith he was born in the flesh and adding Incense that is an immaculate Spirit stood in the middest between the living and the dead Thus you see that he makes Christs soul a part in the Sacrifice Seventhly and lastly Christs love unto man in suffering for him was in the highest degree and greatest measure that could be as the Lord saith What could I have done any more for my Vineyard that I have not done unto it But if Christ had given his Body only and not his Soul for us he had not done for us all he could and so his love should have been greatly empaired and diminished ergo He gave his Soul also together with his Body to be the full price of our Redemption and certainly the travail and labour of Christs Soul was most acceptable unto God Isa 53. 12. Therefore I will give him a Portion with Isa 35. 12. the great because he hath poured out his Soul unto death c. and bare the sins of many Doubtless the sufferings of Christ in his Soul together with his Body doth most fully and amply commend and set forth Gods great love to poor Sinners Before I close up this particular take a few Testimonies of the Fathers which do witness with us for the sufferings of Christ both in Soul and Body Christ hath taken off us that which he should offer as Ambrose de Incarnat c. 6. proper for us to Redeem us and whatsoever Christ took off us he offered ergo He offered Body and Soul for he took both Another upon these words My Soul is heavy saith Anima Concil Hispalens 2. c. 13. passionibus obnoxia divinitas libra His Soul was subject to passions his Divinity was free c. If nothing were free but his Divine Nature than his Soul was subject to the proper and immediate passions thereof Perspicuum est sicut corpus flagellatum ita animam verè Hierom in 35. cap. Isa doluisse c. It is evident that as his body was whipped so his Soul was verily and truly grieved lest some part of Christs sufferings should be true some part false ergo Christs Soul as properly and truly suffered as his Body the Soul had her proper grief as the Body had whipping the whipping then of the body was not the proper grief of the soul Whole Christ gave himself and whole Christ offered himself ergo He offered his soul not only to suffer by way of compassion with his body as it may be Fulgenâ—ius ad Thâ—aâ—maud lib. 3. answered but he offered it as a Sacrifice and suffered all passions whatsoever incident to the soul The same Author expounds himself further thus Because this God took whole man therefore he shewed in truth in himself the passions of whole man and having a reasonable soul what infirmities soever of the soul without sin he took and bare If Christ then did take and bare all the passions of the soul without sin then the proper and immediate grief and anguish thereof and not the compassion only with the body To these let me add the consent of the reformed Churches French Confes Christ did suffer Harm p. 59. Sect. 6. both in body and soul and was made like unto us in all things Sin only excepted Thomas granteth that Christ Secundum genus passus est 3. Par. qu 46. Artic. 5. omnem passionem humanam in general suffered all humane sufferings as in his soul heaviness fear c. Now the Testimonies of the Fathers and the consent of the reformed Churches affirming the same that Christ was Crucified in his soul and that he gave his soul a price of Redemption for our souls Who can then doubt of this but that Christ verily properly immediately suffered in his soul in all the proper passions thereof as he endured pains and torments in his flesh and if you please this may go for an eighth argument to prove that Christ suffered in his soul Secondly That the sufferings of Christ in his soul were very high and great and wonderful both as to the punishment of loss and as to the punishment of sense all which I shall make evident in these four particulars First That Jesus Christ did suffer dereliction of God really that he was indeed deserted †Forsaken 1. By denying of protection 2. By withdrawing of solace Non solvit unionem sed subtraxit visionâ—m Leo. The Union was not desolved but the beams the influence was restrained forsaken of God is most evident Math. 27. 46. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But to prevent mistakes in this high point seriously consider 1. That I do not mean that there was nay such desertion of Christ by God as did desolve the union of the Natures in the person of Christ For Christ in all his sufferings still remained God and Man Nor 2. Do I mean an absolute desertion in respect of the presence of God For God was still present with Christ in all his sufferings and the God-head did support his Humanity in and under his sufferings but that which I mean is this That as to the sensible and comforting manifestations of Gods presence thus he was for a time left and forsaken of God God for a time had taken-away all sensible consolation and fâ—lt joy from Christs humane soul that so divine justice might in his sufferings be the more fully satisfied In this
desertion Christ is not to be looked upon simply as he is in his own person the Son of the Father in whom he is always well pleased but as he standeth in the room of Sinners Surety and Cautioner Math. 3. 17. Mark 1. 11. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Christ spake these words that thereby he might draw the Jews to a serious consideration and a nim adversion of his death and passion which he underwent not for his own but for our sins Pet. Gal. lib. 8. c. 18. pag 343. paying their debt in which respect it concerned Christ to be dealt with as one standing in our stead as one guilty and paying the debt of being forsaken of God which we were bound to suffer fully and for ever if he had not interposed for us There is between Christ and God 1. An eternal Union natural of the person 2. Of the God-head and Man-hood 3. Of Grace and Protection In this last sense he means forsaken according to his feeling Hence he said Not my Father my Father but my God my God which words are not words of complaining but words expressing his grief and sorrow Our Lord Christ was forsaken not only of all Creature comforts but that which was worse than all of his Fathers favour to his present apprehension left forlorne and destitute for a time that we might be received for ever Christ was for a time left and forsaken of God as David who in this particular was a type of Christs suffering cryed out Psal 22. 1. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me why art thou so far from my help He was indeed really forsaken of God God did indeed leave him in respect of his sense and seeling So was Christ truly and really forsaken of God and not in colour or shew as some affirm Athanasius speaking of Gods forsaking of Christ saith All things were done naturally and in truth not in opinion or shew Though God did still R liâ—quâ—t Deâ—s dum nâ—n pâ—â—â— â—aâ—h Tâ—â—uâ—â—n continue a God to David yet in Davids apprehension and feeling he was forsaken of God Though God was still a God to Christ yet as to his feeling he was left of God to wrestle with God and to bear the wrath of God due unto us Look as Christ was scourged that we Ambrose might not be scourged so Christ was forsaken that we might not be forsaken Christ was forsaken for a time that we might not be forsaken for ever Fevardentius absolutely denies that Christ did truly complain upon the Cross that he was forsaken of God Fevarden pag â—73 Con 〈…〉 and therefore he thus objecteth and reasoneth If Christ were truly forsaken of God it would follow that the Hypostatical Union was dissolved and that Christ was personally separated from God for otherwise he could not be forsaken To what he objects we thus reply first If Christ had been totally and eternally forsaken the personal union must have been dissolved but upon this temporal and partial rejection or dereliction there followeth not a personal dissolution or general dereliction But secondly As the Body of Christ being without life was still Hypostatically united to the God-head so was the soul of Christ though for a time without feeling of his favour the dereliction of the one doth no more dissolve the Hypostatical Union than the death of the other If life went from the body and yet the Deity was not separated in the personal consecration but only suspended in operation So the feeling of Gods favour which is the life of the soul might be intermitted in Christ and yet the Divine Union not dissolved Thirdly Augustine doth well shew how this may be August lib de 〈◊〉 divin when he saith Passio Christi dulcis fuit divinitatis somnus That the passion of Christ was the sweet sleep of his Divinity like as then in sleep the soul is not departed though the operation thereof be deferred so in Christs sleep upon the Cross the God-head was not separated though the working power thereof were for a time sequestred Look as the Elect Members of Christ may be forsaken though not totally or finally but ex parte in part and for a time and yet their Election remain firm still the same may be the case of our head that he was ex parte de relictus only in part forsaken and for a time always beloved for his own Innocency but for us and in our person as our pledg and Surety deserted There are two kinds of dereliction or forsaking one is for a time and in part so the Elect may be and so Christ was forsaken upon the Cross another which is total final and general and so neither Christ nor his Members never was nor never shall be forsaken Christ in the deepest anguish of his soul is upheld and sustained by his Faith My God my God whereby he sheweth his singular confidence and trust in God notwithstanding the present sense of his wrath But how can Christ be forsaken of God himself being God Quest for the Father Son and Holy-Ghost are all three but one and the same God Yea How can he be forsaken of God seeing he is the Son of God and if the Lord leave not his Children which hope and trust in him how can he forsake Christ his only begotten Son who depended upon him and his mighty power First By God here we are to understand God the Father Answ 1 the first person of the blessed Trinity according to the vulgar and common rule when God is compared with the Son or Holy-Ghost then the Father is meant by this title God not that the Father is more God than the Son for in dignity all the Three Persons are equal but they are distinguished in order only and thus the Father is the first Person the Son the Second and the Holy-Ghost the Third Secondly Our Saviours complaint that he was forsaken Answ 2 must be understood in regard of his humane Nature and not of his God-head although the God-head and Man-hood were never severed from the first time of his Incarnation but the God-head of Christ and so the God-head of the Father did not shew forth his power in his Man-hood but did as it were lye a sleep for a time that the Man-hood might suffer Thirdly Christ was not indeed utterly forsaken of Answ 3 God in regard of his humane Nature but only as it were forsaken that is Although there were some few minutes and moments in which he received no sensible consolations from the Deity yet that he was not utterly forsaken is most clear from this place where he flees unto the Lord as unto his God My God my God as also from his Resurrection the third day Fourthly Divines say that there are six kinds of dereliction Answ 4 or forsakings 1. By dis-union of person and 2. By loss of grace and 3. By diminution and weaknings of grace and 4. By want of assurance
after our likeness Gen. 1. 26. which makes a prudent Interpreter think that when they are joyned it is by Hendiadys and that the Andr. Rivet in Gen. Exer 〈…〉 Nihil est in macrocosm 〈…〉 num praeter microcosmum â—avoâ—inus There is nothing in the vast world of Creatures truly great except the little world of man Holy Ghost meaneth an Image most like his own It is exceeding much for mans honour that he is an Epitomy of the world an abridgement of other Creatures partaking with the stones in being with the Stars in motion with the Plants in growing with the Beasts in sense and with Angels in science But his being made after Gods Image is far more You know when great men erect a stately building they cause their own picture to be hung upon it that spectators may know who was the chief founder of it So when God had created the Fabrick of this world the last thing he did was the setting up his own Picture in it Creating man after his own Image When the great Creator went about that noble work that prime piece of making of man He doth as it were call a solemn Counsel of the sacred persons in the Trinity And God said Let us make Man in our Image Gen 1. 26. Man saith one in his Creation is Angelical in his Corruption Diabolical in his Renovation Theological in his Translation Majestical an Angel in Eden a Devil in the World a Saint in the Church a King in Heaven c. Man before his Fall was the best of Creatures but since his Fall he is become the worst of Creatures He that was once the Image of God the glory of Paradise the worlds Lord and the Lords darling is now become an abomination to God a burden to Heaven a Plague to the World and a slave to Satan When Man first came out of Gods Mint he did shine most gloriously as being bespangled with Holiness and clad with the royal Robe of Righteousness his Understanding was filled with knowledge his Will with uprightness his Affections with holiness c. But yet being a mutable Creature and subject to temptations Satan quickly stript him of his happiness and cheated and cousened him of his Imperial Crown as we use to do Children with an Apple If God had created Angels and men immutable he had created them Gods and not Creatures but being made mutable we know they did fall from their primitive purity and glory and we know that out of the whole Host of Angels he kept some from falling and when all mankind was fallen he Redeemed some by his Son Now mark as he shews mercy upon some in their Salvation Rom. 7. 21 22 23. so it is meet that he should glorifie his justice upon others in their Condemnation And because there must be distinct places for the exercise of the one and for the execution of the other which are in God equally infinit by an irrecoverable decree from the foundation of the world a glorious habitation was prepared for the one and a most hideous Dungeon for the other These shall go into everlasting punishment and the Righteous into Math. 25. 6. life Eternal yea so certain are both these places that they were of old prepared for that very purpose Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world and so Depart ye Cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Look as God foresaw vers 41. the different estates and conditions of Men and Angels so he provided for them distinct and different places Doubtless Hell was constituted before Angels or or Men fell Hell was framed before sin was hatched as Heaven was formed and fitted before any of the Inhabitants were produced But Secondly That there is a Hell both the Old and New Testament doth clearly and fully testifie take some instances Psal 9. 17. The wicked shall be turned into Hell Sheol is often put for the Grave Psal 16. 10. but not always and all the Nations that forget God in the Hebrew there are two into 's into into Hell that is The Wicked shall certainly be turned into the nethermost Hell yea they shall forcibly be turned into the lowest and darkest place in Hell God will as it were with both hands thrust him In tenebras ex tenebris infelicit ex exclusi in felicius excludendi August into Hell If Sheol here signifie the Grave only what punishment is here threatned to the Wicked which the Righteous is not equally liable to Doubtless Sheol here is to be taken for that prison or place of torment where Divine justice detayns all those in hold that have all their days rebelled against him scorned his Son despised the means of Grace and dyed in open Rebellion against him The Psalmist saith my Author declares the miserable Mollerus condition of all those who live and dye in their sins Aeternis punientur paenis They shall be everlastingly punished And Masculus reads the place thus Animi impiorum cruciatibus debitis apud inferos punientur The souls of the ungodly shall be punished in Hell with deserved torments Certainly the very place in which the wicked shall lodge and be tormented to all Eternity viz. Hell the bottomless Pit a Dungeon of darkness a Lake of fire and brimstone a fiery Furnace will extreamly aggravate the dolefulness of their condition O Sirs were all Vide Bellarm. de Eter Faelâ— the Water in the Sea Ink and every pile of Grass a Pen and every hair on all the mens heads in the world the hand of a ready Writer all would be too short graphically to delincate the nature of this Dungeon where all lost souls must lodge for ever Where is the man who to gain a world would lodge one night in a Room that 's haunted with Devils and is it nothing to dwell in Hell with them for ever So Solomon Prov. 5. 5. saith By death and Hell is in this place meant not only temporal death and the visible grave but also eternal death and hell it self even the place of the damned The Dutch Annotations of the Harlot That her feet go down to death her steps take hold on Hell here Sheol is translated Hell and in the judgment of Lavator is well translated to Foveam vel infernum passus ejus tenebunt which saith he is spoken not so much of natural death as of spiritual and that eternal destruction which followeth thereupon and he gives this for a reason why we should understand the place so Because Whordom being an abominable sin defiling the Members of the Body of Christ dissolving and making void the Covenant between God and Man must needs be accompanied with an equivalent judgment even excluding those that are guilty thereof without Repentance 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Gal. 5. 19 20 21. Rev. 21. 27. Heb 13. 4. the Kingdom of Heaven into which pure and undefiled place no unclean
by the Embassadours of King Hunnerick answered thus Being assured of God and my Lord Christ I tell you what Victor Uticens l. 3. Wandâ—l perfecat you may tell the King Let him burn me let him drive me to the Beasts let him torment me with all kind of torments I shall never consent to be an Arrian and though the Tyrant afterwards did torture him with very great tortures yet he could never work him over to Arianism The best remedy against the slavish fear of Tyrants is to set that great God up as the object of our fear who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell Mark He doth not say to destroy soul and body simply or absolutely so that they should be no more for that many that love their Lusts and prize the World above a Saviour would be contented withal rather than to run the hazard of a fierce hot persecution but to punish them eternally in Hell where the Worm never dyeth nor the Fire never goeth out Now by Hell in this Math. 10. 28. The Grave cannot be meant because the soul is not destroyed Eccles 12 7. Phil. 1. 3. with the body in the Grave as they both shall be if the person be wicked after the Morning of the Resurrection in Hell From the immortality of the soul we may infer the Eternity of mans future condition the soul being immortal it must be immortally happy or immortally miserable It was Luthers complaint of old We Luther Tim. 4. 33. 4. more fear the Pope with his Purgatory than God with his Hell and we trust more in the Absolution of the Pope from Purgatory than in the true Absolution of God from Hell and is it not so with many this day who bears their heads high in the Land and who look and long for nothing more than to see Room flourishing in the mid'st of us Take one Scripture more viz. 1 Pet. 3. 19 20. By which also he went and Preached unto the Spirits in Prison Spirits that is the Souls departed not Men but Spirits to keep an Analogy to the 18th ver Christ suffered being made dead in the flesh and made alive by the Spirit in which Spirit he had gon and Preached to them that are now Spirits in Prison because they disobeyed when the time was when the Patience of God once waited in the days of Noah Broughton in his Epistle to the Nobility of England August lib. 1. de civ dei cap. 17. which somtimes were disobedient When once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah That is Christ by his Spirit in the Ministry of Noah did Preach to the men of the Old World who are now in Hell In Noahs time they were on Earth but in Peters time they were in Hell Mark Christ did not Preach by his Spirit in his Ministry or any other way to Spirits who were in Prison or in Hell while he Preached to them There are no Sermons in Hell nor any Salvation there The loving kindness of God is abundantly declared on Earth but it shall never be declared in Hell Look as there is nothing felt in Hell but destruction so there is nothing found in Hell of the offers of Salvation One offer of Christ in Hell would turn Hell into a Heaven One of the Ancients hath reported the opinion of some in his time who thought that thou there be destruction in Hell yet not eternal destruction but that Sinners should be punished some a lesser others a longer time and that at last all shall be freed And yet saith he Origen was more merciful in this point than these men for he held that the Devil himself should be saved at last Of this opinion I shall say no more in this place then this one thing which he there said These men will be found to erre by so much the more fouly and against the right words of God so much the more perversly by how much they seem to themselves to judge more mercifully for indeed the justice of God in punishing of Sinners is as much above Isa 55. 7 8 9. the reach of mans thoughts as his mercies in pardoning them are O let not such who have neglected the great Heb. 2. 3. Salvation when they were on Earth ever expect to have an offer of Salvation made to them when they are in Hell consult these Scriptures Math. 25. 30. Math. 13. 41 42. Rev. 9. 2. 〈◊〉 Rev. 14. 19 20. Rev. 20. 1 2 3 7. I must make hast and therefore may not stand upon the opening of these Scriptures having said enough already to prove both out of the Old and New Testament that there is a Hell a place of torment provided and prepared for all wicked and ungodly men But The third Argument to prove that there is a Hell is this The beams of natural light in some of the Heathens have made such impressions on the heart of natural Conscience that several of them have had confused notions of a Hell as well as of a Judgment to come Though the poor blind Heathens were ignorant of Christ and the Gospel and the great work of Redemption c. yet by the light of Nature and reasonings from thence they did attain to the understanding of a Deity who was both just and good as also that the soul was immortal and that both rewards and punishments were prepared for the souls of men after this life according as they were found either vertuous or vicious Profound Bradwardine and Bradw de causa dei l. 1. c 1. c. several others have produced many proofs concerning their apprehensions of this truth What made the Heathen Emperour Adrian when he lay a dying cry out O animula vagula blandula c. O my little wretched wandring soul whether art thou now hasting c. Oh what will become of me live I cannot dye I dare not but some discoveries of Hell of wrath to come Look as these poor Heathens did feign such a place as the Elizean Fields where the Vertuous should spend an Eternity in pleasures so also they did feign a place called Tartarum or Hell where the Vicious should be Eternally tormented Tertullian and after him Chrysostom affirmeth that Poets and Phylosophers and all sorts of men speaking of a future retribution have said that many are punisht in Hell Plato is very plain that whoever are not expiated but prophane shall go into Hell to be tormented for their wickednesses with the greatest most bitter and terrible punishments for ever in that Prison in Hell And Jupiter speaking to the other Gods concerning the Grecians and Trojans saith If any shall so hardy be To aid each part in spight of me Him will I tumble down to Hell In that Infernal place to dwell So Horace speaking concerning Joves Thunder-bolts saith Quo bruta tellus vaga slumina Quo styx invisi horrida Taenari scdes c. With which Earth Seas the Stygian
accordingly pouring down on his head the whole curse and all those dreadful punishments which are threatened in it against sin for the curse followeth sin as the shadow the body whether it be sin inherent or sin imputed even as the blessing follows righteousness whether it be righteousness inherent or righteousness imputed But Fifthly He that did feel and suffer the very torments of Hell though not after a hellish manner was God-man Christ participates of both natures being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God and man God-man such a Mediator sinners needed no Mediator but such a one who hath interest in both parties could serve their turns or save their souls and such a one is the Lord Jesus he hath an interest in both parties and he has an interest in both natures the God-head and the man hood The blessed Scriptures are so express and clear in these points that they must shut their eyes with a witness against the light that can't see Christ to be God man to be God and man I shall first speak something of Christ as he is God Now here are fathomless depths and bottomless 1 Pet. 1. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The word signifies to look wishly and intently as the Cherâ—biâ—â—s of old look'd into the Mercy-Seat Exod. 25. 18 19 It signifie prying into a thing over-veiled and hidden from â—ight to look as we say wishly at it as if we would look even through it bottoms if I may so speak here are stupendious and amazing mysteries astonishing and confounding excellencies such as the holy Angels themselves desire to pry into God is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dwelling in accessible light 1 Tim. 6. 16. Here are such beauties and perfections that had I as the Poet speaks a hundred tongues a hundred mouths and a voice of steel yet I could not sufficiently describe them Nevertheless give me lieve to say something concerning our Lord Jesus Christ who is one eternal God with the Father and with the Holy Ghost I might produce a cloud of witnesses in the case but it is enough that we have the Authority of the sacred Scriptures both in the Old and New Testament confirming of it and therefore I shall lay down some proofs or demonstrations of the eternal Godhead of Christ which I shall draw out of the blessed Scripture This is a point of high concernment that Christ is God so high as whosoever buildeth not upon this buildeth upon the Sands This is the rock of our Salvation The word was God Concerning John 1. 1. this important point consider First That the Godhead of Christ is clearly asserted and manifested both in the Old and New Testament Take a taste of some of those many Scriptures which might be cited Isa 43. 10. 11 12. That ye may know Compare these Scriptures of the Old Testament with these in the New Heb. 1. 2 3. 1 John 1. 7. Aâ—s 4. 12. Eph. 4. 8. Râ—m 9. 30. Jer. 33. 23. Psal 6. 68 18 19 20. and believe and understand that I am he I even I am Jehovah and besides me there is no Saviour And Isa 41. 21. 22 23 24 25. There is no God else besides me A just God and Saviour there is none besides me Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else To me every knee shall bow In Jehovah have I righteousness In Jehovah shall the seed of Israel be justified Compare this with Rom. 14. 10 11. And the Socinians may as safely conclude that there is no other God but Jesus Christ as they may conclude that there is no God but God the Father from the seventeenth of John But they and we ought to conclude from these Scriptures that Jesus Christ is not a different God from the Father but is one and the same God with him so he is called The mighty God The everlasting Father Isa 9. 6. Take a few clear places out of the New Testament as that in Rom. 9. 5. Of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is over all God blessed for ever more Christ is here himself called God blessed for ever So Tit. 2. 13. Looking for that hope and the glorious appearance of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Who is it that shall appear at the last day in the clouds but Christ who is called the great God and our Saviour God blessed for ever saith Paul to the Romans The great God saith Paul to Titus 1 John 5. 20. And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and eternal life Phil. 2. 6. He was in the form of God and thought it no robbery to be equal with God And Coloss 2. 9. In him dwelleth the fulness of the Godhead bodily John 20. 28. My Lord and my God 1 Tim. 3. 16. God manifested in the flesh To which of Heb. 1. 1. the Saints or Angels did God say at any time thou art my Son The Heir of all things the illustrious brightness of my Glory and lively character of my person Thy Throne oh God is for ever and ever and all the Angels of God shall worship thee Certainly he who is Gods own proper natural consubstantial coessential only begotten Son he is God where ever this Sonship is there 's the Deity or the Divine Essence Now Christ is thus Gods son therefore he is God What the Father is as to his nature that the Son must also be now the first person the Father of Christ is God whereupon he too who is the Son must be God also A Son always participates of his Fathers essence there is betwixt them evermore an Identity and oneness of nature if therefore Christ be Gods Son as is most evident throughout the Scripture he is then he must needs have that very nature and essence which God the Father hath insomuch that if the second person be not really a God the first person is but equivocally a Father These Scriptures out of the Old and New Testament are so evident and pregnant to prove the Godhead of Christ that they need no illustration yea they speak so fully for the Divinity of Christ that all the Arians and Socinians in the world do but in vain go about to elude them But Secondly Let us ponder seriously upon these Scriptures John 3. 13. And no man hath ascended up to Heaven but he that came down from Heaven even the Son of man which is in Heaven v. 31. He that cometh from above is above all he that cometh from Heaven is above all John 8. 23. Ye are from beneath I am from above John 16. 28. I came forth from the Father and am come into the world and again I leave the world and go to the Father Now from these blessed Scriptures we may
third branch to this distinction and maketh it more plain by saying That all things that were made are either visible or invisible or mixt visible as the Stars and Fouls and Clouds of Heaven the Fish in the Sea and Beasts upon the Earth Invisible things as the Angels they also were made Then there is a third sort of creatures which are of a mixt nature partly visible in regard of their bodies and partly invisible in regard of their souls and those are Men Eph. 2. 9. who created all things by Jesus Christ Heb. 1. 2. He hath in these last days spoken to us by his son whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds This may seem somewhat difficult because he speaketh of worlds whereas we acknowledg but one but this seeming difficulty you may easily get over if you please but to consider the persons to whom he writes which were Hebrews whose custom it was to stile God Rabboni Dominus mundorum the Lord of the worlds They were wont to speak of three worlds The lower world the higher world and the middle world The lower world containeth the Elements Earth and Water and Air and Fire The higher world that containeth the Heaven of the blessed And the middle world that containeth the starry Heaven They now being acquainted with this language and the Apostle writing to them he saith that God by Christ made the worlds those worlds which they were wont to speak so frequently of And whereas one scruple might arise from that expression in the Ephesians God created all things By Jesus Christ and this to the Hebrews By whom he made the worlds As if Christ were only an instrument in the Creation and not the principal efficient Therefore another place in this chapter will clear it which speaketh of Christ as the principal Efficient of all things Heb. 1. compare the 8th and 10th verses together To the son he saith thy throne O God is for ever and ever then Christ is God then And thou Lord vers 10. hast laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of thy hands Namely thine that is the Son which he spake of before Christ is the principal Efficient of the Creation and in this sence it is said by him were all things made not as by an instrument but as by the chief Efficient 6. The preservation and sustentation of all things Colos 1. 17. by him all things consist They would soon fall asunder had not Christ undertaken to uphold the shattered condition thereof by the word of his power All creatures that are made are preserved by him in being life and motion Heb. 1. 3. He upholdeth all things by the word of his power Both in respect of being excellencies and operations sin had hurled confusion over the world which would have fallen about Adam's ears had not Christ undertaken the shattered condition thereof to uphold it He keeps the world together saith one as the hoops do the barrel Christ bears up all things continuing to the several creatures their being ordering and governing them and this he doth by the word of his power by this word he made the world He spake and it was done And by this word he governeth the world by his own mighty word the word of his power both these are divine actions and being ascribed unto Christ evidence him to be no less than God Now from what has been said we may thus argue He to whom those actions are ascribed which are proper to the most high God he is the most high God but such actions or works are ascribed to Christ ergo he is the most high God But Sixthly Christ's eternal Deity may be demonstrated from that divine honour and worship that is due to him and by Angels and Saints given unto him The Apostle sheweth Gal. 4. 8. That religious worship ought to be performed to none but to him that is God by nature and that they are ignorant of the true God who religiously worship them that are no Gods by nature and therefore This is a clear full evidence that Jesus Christ is and must be more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mere mâ—n or yet a divine man as Doctor Lusâ—ing â—n stiles him in Heb. 7. 22. vers if Christ were not God by nature and consubstantial with the father we ought not to perform religious worship to him Divine worship is due to the second person of this coessential Trinity to Jesus Christ our Lord and God There is but one immediate formal proper adequate and fundamental reason of divine worship or adorability as the schools speak and that is the soveraign supreme singular majesty independent and infinite excellency of the eternal Godhead for by divine worship we do acknowledge and declare the infinite majesty truth wisdom goodness and glory of our blessed God we do not esteem any thing worthy of divine honour and worship which hath but a finite and created glory because divine honour is proper and peculiar to the only true God who will not give his glory to any other who is not God God alone is the adequate object of divine faith hope love and worship because these graces are all exercised and this worship performed in acknowledgment of his infinite perfection and independent excellency and therefore no such worship can be due to any creature or thing below God There is not one kind of divine honour due to the father and another to the son nor one degree of honour due to the father and another to the son for there can be no degrees imaginable in one and the same excellency which is single because infinite and what is infinite doth excel and transcend all degrees and bounds And if there be no degrees in the ground and adequate reason of divine worship there can be no reason or ground of a difference of degrees in the worship it self The father and the son are one one in power excellency nature Jâ—hn 10. 30. one God and therefore to be honoured with the same worship That all men should honour the son even as John 5. 23. they honour the father every tongue must confess that Jesus Christ who is man is God also and therefore equal Pâ—il 2. 6 11 12. to his father and it can be no robbery no derogation to the father's honour for us to give equal honour to him and his coequal son who subsists in the form of God in the nature of God Thus you see the divine nature the infinite excellency of Jesus Christ is an undeniable ground of this coequal honour and therefore the worship due to Christ as God the same God with his father is the very same worship both for kind and degree which is due to the father But for the further and clearer opening of this consider First that all inward worship is due to Christ as 1. Believing on him Faith is a worship which belongs only to God
3. 13. 15. He 's called the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2. 5. 1 Cor. 15. 21. Since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead God's justice would be satisfied in the same nature that had sinned 16. God's son made of a woman Gal. 4. 4. 17 Man 1 Tim. 2. 5. The man Christ Jesus 18. The son of David Mat. 1. 1. Mar. 12. 35. How say the Scribes that Christ is the son of David In that the Scribes and Pharisees knew and acknowledged according to the Scripture that Christ should be the son of David that is should be born and descend of the stock and posterity of David according to the flesh Hence we may easily gather the truth of Christ's humane nature that he was ordained of God to be true man as well as God in one and the same person for else he could not be the son of David Now that he must be the son of David even the Scribes and the Pharisees knew and acknowledged as we see here and this was a truth which they had learned out of the Scriptures and not only they but even the common sort of Jews in our Saviour's time John 7. 42. some of the common people spake thus Hath not the scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David and the Messiah was then commonly called the son Rom. 1. 3. of David so then Christ being of the seed of David after the flesh he must needs be true man as well as God for which cause he was incarnate in the due time appointed of God that is to say he being the son of God from everlasting did in time become man taking our nature upon him together with the infirmities of our nature sin only excepted John 1. 14. Now thus you see that the 18 denominations that are given to Christ in the blessed Scriptures do abundantly demonstrate the certainty of Christ's humane nature But Thirdly Christ took the whole humane nature he was truly and compleatly man consisting of flesh and spirit body and soul yea that he assumed the entire humane nature with whatever is proper to it Christ took to himself the whole humane nature in both the essential parts of man soul and body the two essential and constitutive parts of man are soul and body where these two are there 's the true man now Christ had both and therefore he was true man First Christ had a true humane and reasonable soul the reasonable soul is the highest and noblest part of man this is that which principally makes the man and hath the greatest influence into his being and essence if therefore Jesus Christ had only a humane body without a humane soul he had wanted that part which is most essential to man and so he could not have been looked upon as true and perfect man O Sirs Christ redeemed and saved nothing but what he assumed the redemption and salvation reach no farther than the assumption our soul then would have been never the better for Christ had he not taken that as well as our body Hence said Augustine Aug de civ Dei lib. 10. c. 27. p. 586 Therefore he took the whole man without sin that he might heal the whole of which man consists of the plague of sin And Fulgentius to the same purpose As Fulgent ad Thrasymund lib. 1. p. 251. the Devil smote by deceiving the whole man so God saves by assuming the whole man If he will save the whole man from sin he will assume the whole man without sin saith Nazianzen The Scriptures do clearly evidence that Christ had a real humane soul Mat. 26. 38. My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death every word is emphatical my soul his sorrows pierced his soul Psal 22. 16. and sorrowful round about even to death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is heavy round about Look as the soul was the first Agent in transgression so it is here the first Patient in affliction to death that is this sorrow will never be finished or intermitted but by death My soul is exceeding sorrowful then Christ had a true humane soul neither was his Deity to him for a soul as of old men of corrupt minds have fancied for then our bodies only had been redeemed by him and not our souls if he had not suffered in soul as well as in body The sufferings of his body were but the body of his sufferings the soul of his sufferings were the sufferings of his soul which was now beset with sorrows and heavy as heart could hold John 12. 27. Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say The Greek word signifies a vehement commotion and perturbation as Herod's mind was troubled when he Mat. 2. 3. heard that a new King was born or as the Disciples were Mat. 14. 26. troubled when they thought they saw a spirit walking on the sea and cryed out for fear or as Zachary was troubled Luk. 1. 12. at the sudden sight of the Angel The rise and cause of Christ's soul-trouble was this the Godhead hiding it self from the humanitie's sense and the father letting out not only an apprehension of his sufferings to come but a present taste of the horrour of his wrath due to man for sin he is amazed overwhelmed and perplexed with it in his humanity and no wonder since he had the sins of all the Elect laid upon him by imputation to suffer for And so this wrath is not let out against his person but against their sins which were laid on him Now though Christ was here troubled or jumbled and puzzled as the word imports yet we are not to conceive that there was any sin in this exercise of his for he was like clean water in a clean vessel which being never so often stirred and shaken yet still keeps clean and clear neither are we to think it strange that the son of God should be put to such perplexities in this trouble as not to know what to say for considering him as man encompassed with our sinless infirmities and that this heavy weight of wrath did light upon him on a sudden it is no wonder that it did confound all his thoughts as man O Sirs look that as sin hath infected both the souls and bodies of the Elect and chiefly their souls where it hath its chief seat so Christ to expiate this sin did suffer unspeakable sorrows and trouble in his soul as well as torture in his body for my soul is troubled saith he Though some sufferings of the body be very exquisite and painful and Christ's in particular were such yet sad trouble of mind is far more grievous than any bodily distress as Christ also found who silently bare all his outward troubles but yet could not but cry out of his inward trouble Now is my soul troubled Isa 53. 10. Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin when Christ suffered for us our sins were laid upon
Isa 53. 7. 1 Pet. 2. 24. him vers 5. 6. as by the Law of sacrificing of old the sinner was to lay his hands upon the head of the beast Levit. 8. 14. 18. 22. v. confessing his sins and then the beast was slain and offered for expiation thus having the man's sins as it were taken and put upon it and hereby the sinner is made righteous The sinner could never be pardoned nor the guilt of sin removed but by Christ's making his soul an offering for sin what did Christ in special recommend to God when he was breathing out his last gasp but his soul Luk. 23. 46. When Jesus had cried out with a loud voice he said father into thy hands I commend my spirit and having said thus he gave up the Ghost that is to thy safe custody and blessed tuition I commend my soul as a special treasure or Jewel most charily and tenderly to be preserved and kept Luke 2. 52. He increased in wisdom and stature here 's stature for his body and wisdom for his soul his growth in that speaks the truth of the former and his growth in this the truth of the latter his body properly could not grow in wisdom nor his soul in stature therefore he must have both There are two essential parts which make up one of his natures his Manhood viz. soul and body but both of these two of old have been denyed Marcion divests Christ of a body and Apollinaris of a soul and the Arrians held that Christ had no soul but that the Deity was to him instead of a soul and supplyed the office thereof that what the soul is to us and doth in our bodies all that the divine nature was to Christ and did in his body and are there not some among us that make a great noise about a light in them that dash upon the same rock but the choice Scriptures last cited may serve sufficiently to confute all such brain-sick men But Secondly as Christ had a true humane and reasonable soul so Christ had a perfect entire compleat body and every thing which is proper to a body for instance 1. he had blood Heb. 2. 14. He also took part of the same that is of flesh and blood Christ had in him the blood of a man shedding of blood there must be for without it Heb. 9. 22. there is no remission of sin the blood of bruit creatures Heb. 10. 4 5 10. v. could not wash away the blots of reasonable creatures wherefore Christ took our nature that he might have our blood to shed for our sins There is an Emphasis put upon Christ as man in the great business of man's salvation The Man Christ Jesus the remedy carrying in it a suitable 1 Tim. 2. 5. ness to the Malady the sufferings of a man to expiate the sin of man 2. He had bones as well as flesh Luk. 24. 39. A spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have 3. Christ had in him the bowels of a man Phil. 2. 8. which bowels he fully expressed when he was on earth Mat. 12. 18 19 20. nay he retaineth those bowels now he is in heaven in glory he hath a fellow feeling of his people's miseries Acts 9. 4. Saul Saul why persecutest thou me see Mat. 25. 35. to the end of that chapter though Christ in his glorified state be freed from that state of frailty passibility Mortality yet he still retains his wonted pity 4. He had in him the familiarity of a man how familiarly did Christ converse with all sorts of persons in this world all the Evangelists do sufficiently testifie Man is a sociable and familiar creature Christ became man Heb. 2. 17. that he might be a merciful High Priest Not that his becoming man made him more merciful as though the mercies of a man were more than the mercies of God but because by this means mercy is conveyed more suitably and familiarly to man But Fourthly and lastly our Lord Jesus Christ took our infirmities upon him when Christ was in this world he submitted to the common accidents adjuncts infirmities miseries calamities which are incident to humane nature For the opening of this remember there are three sorts of infirmities 1. There are sinful infirmities Jam. 5. 7. Psal 77. 10. the best of men are but men at the best witness Abraham's unbelief David's security Job's cursing Gen. 20. 2. Psal 30. 6. 7. Job 3. Jen. 4. Jonas his passion Thomas his unbelief Peter's lying c. Now these infirmities Jesus Christ took not upon him for though he was made like unto us in all things yet without sin Heb. 4. 15. 2. There are personal infirmities which from some particular causes befall this or that person as Leprosie blindness dumbness Palsie Dropsie Epilepsie Stone Gout Sickness Christ was never sick sickness arises from the unfit or unequal temperature of the humours or from intemperance of labour study c. but none of these were in Christ he had no sin and therefore no sickness Christ took not the passions or infirmities which were proper to this or that man 3. There are natural infirmities which belong to all Mankind since the fall as hunger thirst wearisomness sorrowfulness sweating bleeding wounds death burial now these natural infirmities that are common to the whole nature these Jesus Christ took upon him as all the Evangelists do abundantly testifie our dear Lord Jesus he lay so many weeks and months in the Virgin 's womb he received nourishment and growth in the ordinary way he was brought forth and bred up just as common infants are he had his life sustained by common food as ours is he was poor afflicted reproached persecuted tempted deserted falsely accused c. he lived an afflicted life and died an accursed death his whole life from the cradle to the cross was made up of nothing but sorrows and sufferings and thus you see that Jesus Christ did put himself under those infirmities which properly belong to the common nature of man though he did not take upon him the particular infirmities of individuums Now what do all these things speak out but the certainty and reality of Christ's Manhood Que. But why must Christ partake of both natures was it absolutely necessary that he should so do An. Yea it was absolutely necessary that Christ should partake of both natures and that both in respect of God and in respect of us First in respect of us and that First because man had sinned and therefore man must 1. 1 Cor. 15. 21. be punished by man came death therefore by man must come the resurrection of the dead man was the offender therefore man must be the satisfier man had been the sinner and therefore man must be the sufferer it is but justice to punish sin in that nature in which it had been committed by man we fell from God and by man we must be brought back to God by the first
Adam we were ruined by the second Adam we must be repaired The Rom. 5. 12. humane nature was to be redeemed therefore it was necessary that the humane nature should be assumed The Law was given to man and the Law was broken by man and therefore it was necessary that the Law should be fulfilled by man But Secondly that by this means the justice of God might be satisfied in the same nature which had sinned which was the nature of man Angels could not satisfie divine justice because they had no bodies to suffer the brutish sensible creatures could not satisfie the justice of God because they had no souls to suffer the sensible creatures could not satisfie divine justice because they had no sense to suffer therefore man having body soul and sense must do it for he had sinned in all and he could suffer in all Secondly there are reasons both in respect of God and in respect of our selves why Jesus Christ should be God and God-man also and they are these five First that he might be a meet Mediator between God and man Christ's office as Mediator was to deal with God for man and to deal for God with man Now that he might be sit for both these transactions for both parts of this office he must partake of both natures That he might effectually deal with God for man he must be God If a man sin against the Lord who shall entreat for him saith Eli to his sons 1 Sam. 2. 25. And that he might deal for God with man he must be man He must be God that he may be fit to transact treat and negotiate with God and he must be man that he may be fit to transact treat and negotiate with man when God spake unto Israel at Mount Sinai at the giving of the Law the people were not able to abide that voice or presence and therefore they desired an Internuncius a man like themselves who might be as a Mediator to go betwixt God and them Exod. 20. 18 19. Now upon his very ground Exod. 20. 18. besides many others that might be mentioned it was very requisite that Jesus Christ should be both God and man Heb. 12. 18. that he might be a meet Mediator to deal betwixt God and man Jesus Christ was the fittest person either in that upper or in this lower world to mediate between God and us There was none fit to umpeire the business between God and man but he that was God-man Job hit the nail when he said Neither is there any days-man betwixt Job 9. 33. us that might lay his hand upon us both There was a double use of the days-man and his laying his hand upon them 1. To keep the dissening parties asunder lest they should fall out and strike one another 2. To keep them together and compose all differences that they might not depart from each other the Application is easie man is not fit to mediate because man is the person offending Angels are not fit to mediate for they cannot satisfie divine Justice nor pacifie divine wrath nor procure our pardon nor make our peace nor bring in an everlasting righteousness upon us God the father was not fit for this work for he was the person offended and he was as much too high to deal with man as man was too low to deal with God The holy Ghost was not fit for this work for 't is his work to apply this Mediation and to clear up the believers interest in this Mediation So then there is no other person fit for this office but Jesus Christ who was a middle person 'twixt both that he might deal with both Christ could never have been fit to be the Mediator in respect of his office if he had not first been a middle person in respect of his natures for saith the Apostle Gal. 3. 20. Now a mediator is not a mediator of one but God is one A mediator is not a mediator of one that is of one party but is always of two differing parties to unite them not of one that is 1. Not of one person because mediation implies more persons than one it necessarily supposes different parties betwixt whom he doth mediate Christ to speak after the manner of men lays his hand upon God the father and saith O blessed father wilt thou be at peace with these poor sinners wil◠thou pardon them and wilt thou lift up the light of thy countenance upon them if thou wilt then I will undertake to satisfie thy justice and to pacifie thy wrath and to fulfil thy royal Law and to make good all the wrong they have done against thee And then he layeth his hand upon the poor sinner and saith sinner art thou willing to be changed and renewed art thou willing to come under the bond of the covenant art thou willing to give up thy heart and life to the guidance and government of the spirit then be not discouraged for thou shalt certainly be justified and saved 2. Not of one nature the Mediator must necessarily have more natures than one he must have the divine and humane nature united in his single person or else he could never suffer what he was to suffer nor never satisfie what he was to satisfie nor never bring poor sinners into a state of reconciliation 2 Cor 5. 19 20. with God and 't is farther observable that the Text last cited saith God is one viz. as he is essentially considered and therefore as so he cannot be the Mediator but Christ as personally considered he is not of one that is not of one nature for he is God and man too and therefore he is the only person that is fitted and qualified to be the Mediator and 't is observable that when Christ is spoken of as Mediator his Manhood is brought in that nature being so necessary to that office 1 Tim. 2. 5. For there is one God and one mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus Jesus Christ was God and man as man he ought to satisfie but could not as God he could satisfie but ought not but consider him as God and man and so he both could satisfie and ought to satisfie and accordingly he did satisfie according to what was prophecied of him Dan. 9. 24. He did make reconciliation for iniquity and brought in everlasting righteousness He did not begin to do something and then faint and leave his work imperfect but he finished it and that to the glory of his father John 17. 4. I have glorified thee on the earth I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do And 't is good to observe the singularity and oneness of the person mediating not many not a few not two but one Mediator between God and man there was none with him in his difficult work of Mediatorship but he carried it on alone though there are many Mediators among men yet there is but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
Christ be not God yea God-man then we shall never be able to answer all the challenges that either divine Justice or Satan can make upon us whatsoever the justice of God can exact that the blood of God can discharge now the blood of Christ is the blood of God as I have evidenced in the second Reason by reason of the hypostatical union the humane nature being united to the divine the humane nature did suffer the Divine did satisfie Christ's Godhead did give both Majesty and Essicacy to his sufferings Christ was sacrifice Priest and Altar He was Sacrifice as he was man Priest as he was God and man and Altar as he was God it is the property of the Altar to sanctifie the thing offered Mat. 23. 19. on it so the Altar of Christ's divine nature sanctified the sacrifice of his death and made it meritorious Man sinned and therefore man must satisfie Therefore the humane nature must be assumed by a surety for man cannot do it If an Angel should have assumed humane nature it would have polluted him Humane nature was so defiled by sin that it could not be assumed by any but God Now Christ being God the Divine nature purified the Humane nature which he took and so it was a sufficient sacrifice The person offered in sacrifice being God as well as man This is a most noble ground upon which a believer may challenge Satan to say his worst and to do his worst let him present God as terrible yea as a consuming Heb. 12. 29. fire let him present me as odious and abominable Zecha 3. 2 3. in the sight of God as once he did Joshuah let him present me before the Lord as vile and mercenary as once he did Job let him aggravate the heighth of God's displeasure Job 1. 9 10 11. and the heighth and depth and length and breadth of my sins I shall readily grant all and against all this I will set the infinite satisfaction of dear Jesus this I know that though the justice of God cannot be avoided nor bribed yet it may be satisfied Here is a proportionable satisfaction here is God answering God 'T is a very noble plea of the Apostle who is he that condemneth Rom. 8. 34. it is Christ that died let Satan urge the justice of God as much as he can I am sure that the justice of God 1 John 1. 7 8 9. makes me sure of Salvation and the reason is evident because his justice obligeth him to accept of an adequate satisfaction of his own appointing The justice of God maketh me sure of mine own happiness because if God be just that satisfaction should be had when that satisfaction is made Justice requireth that the person for whom it is made shall be received into favour I confess that unless God had obliged himself by promise there were no pressing his justice thus far because Noxa sequitur caput There was mercy in the promise of sending Christ Gen. 3. 15. Had not Christ stept in between man's sin Gods wrath the world had fallen about Adam's ears out of mercy to undertake for us otherwise we cannot say that God was bound in justice to accept of satisfaction unless he had first in mercy been pleased to appoint the way of a surety Justice indeed required satisfaction but it required it of the person that sinneth Gen. 2. 17. But of the tree of the knowledg of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die or dying thou shalt die or as others read the words thou shalt surely and shortly or suddenly die and without controversie every man should die the same day he is born The wages of sin is death and this wages Rom. 6. 23. should be presently paid did not Christ as a boon beg poor sinners lives for a season for which cause he is called the Saviour of all men not of eternal preservation 1 Tim. 4. 10. but of temporal reservation it was free and noble mercy to all mankind that dear Jesus was promised and provided sealed and sent into the world that some might be eternally saved and the rest preserved from wrath for Jâ—hn 6. 27. a time Here cometh in mercy that a surety shall be accepted and what he doth is as if the person that offended should have done it himself Here is mercy and salvation surely bottomed upon both ah what sweet and transcendent comfort flows from this very consideration That Christ is God But Fourthly the great and glorious majesty of God required it that Christ should be God God the father being a God of infinite holiness purity justice and righteousness none but he who was very God who was essentially one with the father could or durst interpose John 10. 30. cap. 14. 9 10 11. c. between God and fallen man The Angels though they are glorious creatures yet they are but creatures and could these satisfie divine justice and bear infinite wrath and purchase divine favour and reconcile us to God and procure our pardon and change our hearts and renew our natures and adorn our souls with Grace and yet all these things must be done or we undone and that for ever Now if this were a work too high for Angels then we may safely conclude that it was a work too hard for fallen man Man was once the mirrour of all understanding the Hicroglyphick of Wisdom but now quantum mutatus ab illo there is a great alteration for poor sorry man is now sent to school to learn wisdom and instruction of the beasts birds and creeping things he is sent to the Pismire to learn providence Prov. 6. 6 To the Stork and to the Swallow to learn to make a right use of time Jer. 8. 7. To the Oxe and the Ass to learn knowledg Isa 1. 3. And to the fowls of the Air to learn confidence Mat. 6. Man that was once a master of knowledg a wonder of understanding perfect in the science of all things is now grown blockish sottish and senseless and therefore altogether unfit and unable to make his peace with God to reconcile himself to God c. But Fifthly and lastly that Christ's sufferings and merits might be sufficient it was absolutely necessary that he should be God The sin of man was infinite I mean in finitely punishable if not infinite in number yet infinite in nature every offence being infinite it being committed against an infinite God No creature could therefore satisfie for it but the sufferer must be God that so his infiniteness might be answerable to the infiniteness of men's offences There was an absolute necessity of Christ's sufferings partly because he was pleased to substitute himself in the sinner's stead and partly because his sufferings only could be satisfactory Now unless he had been man how could he suffer and unless he had been God how could he satisfie offended Justice
Look as he must be more than man that he may be able to suffer that his sufferings may be meritorious so he must be man that he may be in a capacity to suffer die and obey for these are no work for one who is only God A God only cannot suffer a man only cannot merit God cannot obey man is bound to obey wherefore Christ that he might obey and suffer he was man and that he might merit by his obedience and suffering he was God-man just such a person did the work of Redemption call for That Christ's merits might be sufficient he must be God for sufficient merit for Mankind could not be in the person of any mere man no not in Christ himself considered only as man for so all the grace he had he did receive it and all the good he did he was bound to do it for he was made of a woman and made under the Law not only Gal. 4. 4. under the Ceremonial Law as he was a Jew but under the Moral as a man for it is under that Law under which we were and from which we are redeemed therefore Gal. 3. 13. in fulfilling it he did no more than that which was his duty to do he could not merit by it no not for himself much less for others considered only as man therefore he must also be God that the dignity of his person might add dignity and vertue and value to his works in a word Deus potuit sed non debuit homo debuit sed non potuit God could but he should not man should but he could not make satisfaction therefore he that would do it must be both God and man Torris erutus ab igne as the Prophet speaketh Is not this a fire-brand taken out of the fire you know that in a fire-brand taken out of the fire there is fire and wood inseparably mixed and in Christ there is God and man wonderfully united He was God else neither his sufferings nor his merits could have been sufficient and if his could not much less any man 's else for all other men are both conceived and born in Original sin and also much and often defiled with actual sin and therefore we ought for ever to abhor all such popish Doctrines Prayers and Masses for the dead which exalt mans merits man's satisfaction For no man can by Psal 49. 7. 8. v. any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him for the redemption of their soul is precious and it ceaseth for ever And therefore all the money that hath been given for Masses Dirges Trentals c. hath been cast away for Jesus Christ who is God-man is the only Redeemer and in the other world money beareth no mastery Let me make a few inferences from what has been said and therefore First is it so that Christ is God-man that he is God 1. 1 Pet. 1. 21. and man then let this raise our faith and strengthen our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ faith is built on God Now Jesus Christ is very God and therefore the fittest foundation in the world for us to build our faith upon God manifest in the flesh is a firm basis for faith and comfort Heb. 7. 25. ad plenum saith Erasmus ad perfectum say others He is able to save to the uttermost Christ is a thorow Saviour he saves perfectly and he saves perpetually he never carries on Redemption-work by halves Christ being God as well as man is able by the power of his Godhead to vanquish Death Devils Hell and all the enemies of our Salvation and by the power of his Godhead is able to merit pardon of sin the favour of God the heavenly inheritance and all the glory of the other world for this dignity of his person addeth vertue and Acts 20. 28. efficacy to his death and sufferings in that he that suffered and died was very God therefore God is said to have purchased the Church with his own blood Christ having suffered in our nature which he took upon him that is in his humane soul and body the wrath of God the curse and all the punishments which were due to our sins hath paid the price of our Redemption pacified divine wrath and satisfied divine Justice in the very same nature in which we have sinned and provoked the holy one of Israel so that now all believers may triumphingly say There is no condemnation to us that are in Râ—m 8. 1. v. Christ Jesus Christ having in our nature suffered the whole curse and punishment due to our sins God cannot in justice but accept of his sufferings as a full and compleat satisfaction 1 John 1. 7 9. for all our sins so that now there remaineth no more curse or punishment properly so called for us to suffer either in our souls or bodies either in this life or in the life to come but we are certainly and fully delivered from all not only from the eternal curse and all the punishments and torments of Hell but also from the curse and sting of bodily death and from all afflictions as they are 1 Cor. 15. 55 56. curses and punishments of sin that Jesus who is God-man hath changed the nature of them to us so that of bitter curses and heavy punishments they are become fatherly chastisements the fruits of divine love and the Heb. 12. 5 6 7. Rev. 3. 19. promoters of the internal and eternal good of our souls Oh! how should these things strengthen our faith in dear Jesus and work us to lean and stay our weary souls wholly and only upon him who is God-man and who of God 1 Cor. 1. 30. is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption Among the Evangelists we find that Christ had a threefold entertainment among the sons of men some received him into house not into heart as Simon Luk. 7. 44. the Pharisee who gave him no kiss nor water to his feet some neither into heart nor house as the graceless Mat. 8. 34. swinish Gergesites who had neither civility nor honesty some both into house and heart as Lazarus Mary Martha John 11. 16. c. certainly that Jesus who is God-man deserves the best room in all our souls and the uppermost seat in all our hearts But Secondly If Jesus Christ be God-man very God and very man then what high cause have we to observe admire wonder and even stand amazed at the transcendent love of Christ in becoming man Oh! the firstness the freeness the unchangeableness the greatness the matchlesness of Christ's love to fallen man in becoming man men many times shew their love to one another by hanging up one another's pictures in their families but ah what love did Christ shew when he took our nature upon him Heb. 2. 16. For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he assumed apprehended caught laid hold on the seed of Abraham as the Angel did on Lot as Christ Gen. 19. 16. did on Peter or as men do upon a thing they are glad Mat. 14. 31. they have got and are loath to lâ—t go again Oh sirs it is a main ground and pillar of our comfort and confidence that Jesus Christ took our flesh for if he had not took our flesh upon him we could never have been saved by him Christ took not a part but the whole nature of man that is a true humane soul and body together with all the essential properties and faculties of both that in man's nature he might die and suffer the wrath of God and whole curse due to our sins which otherwise Heb. 2. 14. being God only he could never have done and that he might satisfie divine justice for sin in the same nature that had sinned and indeed it was most meet and fit that the Mediator who was to reconcile God and man should partake in the natures of both parties to be reconciled Oh what matchless love was this that made our dear Lord Jesus to lay by for a time all that glory that he John 17. 5. had with the father before the world was and to assume our nature and to be found in fashion as a man to see Phil. 2. 8. the great God in the form of a servant or hanging upon the Cross how wonderful and astonishing was it to all that believed him to be God-man God manifested in 1 Tim. 3. 16. 1 Pet. 1. 11. our flesh is an amazing mystery a mystery fit for the speculation of Angels that the eternal God should become 1 Tim. 2. 5. the man Christ Jesus that a most glorious Creator should Dan. 7. 9 13 22. Mat. 2. 11. become a poor creature that the Ancient of days should become an Infant of days that the most high should stoop so low as to dwell in a body of flesh is a glorious mystery that transcends all humane understanding It would have seemed a high blasphemy for us to have thought of such a thing or to have desired such a thing or to have spoken of such a thing if God in his everlasting Gospel had not reveiled such a thing to us Among the Romish Priests Friars Jesuits they count it a great demonstration of love an high honour that is done to any of their orders when any Noble man or great Prince who is weary of the world and the world weary of him comes among them and takes any of their habits upon him and lives and dies in their habits Oh what a demonstration of Christ's love is it and what a mighty honour hath Jesus Christ put upon mankind in that he took our nature upon him in that he lived in our nature and died in our nature and rose in our nature and ascended in our nature and now sits at his fathers right hand in Acts 1. 10 11. our nature Though Jacob's love to Rachel and Jonathan's love to David and David's love to Absolom and the primitive Christians love to one another was strong very strong yet Christ's love in taking our humane nature upon him does infinitely transcend all their loves I think Bern. sup cant ser 20. saith one speaking of Christ he cannot despise me who is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh â— for if he neglect me as a Brother yet he will love me as a husband that 's my comfort Oh my Saviour saith one didst thou Hierom. die for love of me a love more dolorous than death but to me a death more lovely than love it self I cannot live love and be longer from thee I read in Josephus that when J. s Bel. Jud. l. 1. c. 8. Herod Antipater was accused to Julius Caesar as no good friend of his he made no other Apology but stripping himself stark naked shewed Caesar his wounds and said let me hold my tongue these wounds will speak for me how I have loved Caesar ah my friends Christ's wounds in our nature speak out the admirable love of Jesus Christ to us and Oh how should this love of his draw out our love to Christ inflame our love to that Jesus who is God-man blessed for ever Mr. Welch a Suffolk-minister weeping at table being asked the reason said it was because he could love Christ no more ah what reason have we to weep and weep again and again that we can love that Jesus no more who hath shewed such unparalelled love to us in assuming of the humane nature Et ipsam animam odio haberem si non diligeret meum Jesum I must hate my very soul if it should not love my Jesus saith Bernard ah what cause have we given to hate our selves because we love that dear Jesus no more who is very God and very man But Thirdly Is Jesus Christ God-man is he very God and 3. consult hese Scriptures Isa 61. 1. Dan. 9. 24. 1 John 3. 8. Luk. 1. 74. 75. Tit. 2. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 4. very man then we may very safely and roundly assert that the work of Redemption was a very great work the Redemption of souls is a mighty work a costly work to redeem poor souls from sin from wrath from the power of Satan from the curse from hell from the condemnation was a mighty work wherefore was Christ born wherefore did he live sweat groan bleed die rise ascend was it not to bring deliverance to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound was it not to make an end of sin to finish transgression and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to destroy the works of the Devil and to abolish death and to bring life and immortality to light and to redeem us from all iniquity and to purifie us to himself and to make us a peculiar peple zealous of good works Certainly the work of Redemption was no ordinary or common thing God-man must engage in it or poor fallen man is undone for ever The greater the person is that is engaged in any work the greater is that work the great Monarchs of the world do not use to engage their sons in poor low mean and petty services but in such services as are high and honourable noble and weighty and will you imagine that ever the great and glorious God John 1. 18. 8. Pro. 22. 33 would have sent his son his own son his only begotten son his bosom son his son in whom his soul delighted before the foundations of the earth was laid to redeem poor sinners souls if this had not been a great work a high work and a most glorious work in his eye The Creation of the world did but cost God a word of his mouth Let there be light and there was light but the Redemption Gen. 1. 3. of souls cost him his dearest son there is a
to prove this expression is very weighty because all the wrath that was due for all the sins of the Elect all whose sins were laid on Christ Isa 53. 6. was greater than the wrath which belonged to any one sinner though damned for his personal sinning and besides this if you do seriously consider those sufferings of Christ in his Agony in the Garden you may by them conjecture what hellish torments Christ did suffer for us In that Agony of his he was afraid and amazed and fell Math. 14. 33. vers 34. flat on the ground He began to be sore amazed and to be very heavy and saith unto them My soul is exceeding sorowful unto death and his sweat was as it were great Luk 22. 44. drops of blood falling down to the ground He did sweat clotted blood to such abundance that it streamed through his apparel and did wet the ground which dreadful Agony of Christ how it could arise from any other cause than the sense of the wrath of God parallel to that in Hell I know not Orthodox Divines do generally take Christs sufferings in his soul and the detaining his body in the grave put in as the close and last part of Christs sufferings as the true meaning of that expression He descended into Hell not only because these pains which Christ suffered both in body and soul were due to us in full measure but also because that which Christ in point of torment and vexation suffered was in some respect of the same kind with the torment of the damned For the clearing of this consider that in the punishment of the damned there are these three things 1 The perverse disposition of the mind of the damned in their sufferings 2. The duration and perpetuity of their punishment And 3. The punishment it self tormenting soul and body Of these three the first two could have no place in Christ Not the first Because Heb. 9. 14. Heb. 10. 5 6 7 8. Act. 2. 24. 1 Pet. 2. 24. 1 Cor. 6. ult he willingly offered himself a Sacrifice for our sins and upon agreement paid the Ransom fully Not the second Because he could no longer be held under sorrows and sufferings than he had satisfied Divine Justice and paid the price that he was to lay down And his infinit excellency and glory made his short sufferings to be of infinit worth and equivalent to our everlasting sufferings The third then only remaineth which was the real and sensible torments of his soul and body which he did really feel and experience when he was upon the Cross O Sirs What need you question Christs undergoing of Hellish pains when all the pains torments curse and wrath which was due to the Elect did fall on Christ and lye on Christ till Divine Justice was fully satisfied Though Christ did not suffer eternal death for sinners yet he suffered that which was equivalent and therefore the justice of God is by his death wholly appeased It is good seriously to ponder upon these Scriptures Psal 18. 5. The sorrows of Hell did compass me about Psal 88. 3. My soul is filled with evil and my life draweth near to Hell Psal 86. 13. Thou hast delivered my Soul from the nethermost Hell In these places the Prophet speaks in the person of Christ and the Papists themselves do confess that the Hebrew word Sheol that is here used is taken for Hell properly and not for the Grave therefore these places do strongly conclude for the hellish sorrows or sufferings of Christ So Act. 2. 27. Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell If Christs soul be not left or forsaken in Hell yet it follows it was in Hell not that Christ did feel the sorrows of Hell after death but that he did feel the very sorrows of Hell in his soul while he lived Certainly the whole punishment of body and soul which was due unto us Christ our Redeemer was in general to suffer and satisfie for in his own person but the torments and terrors of Hell and the vehement sense of Gods wrath are that punishment which did belong to the soul ergo Christ did suffer the torments and terrors of Hell By the whole punishment you are to understand the whole kind or substance of the punishment not all the circumstances and the very same manner the whole punishment then is the whole kind of punishment that is in body and soul which Christ ought to have suffered though not in the same manner and circumstance 1. neither for the place of Hell Locally Nor 2. For the time Eternally Nor 3. For the manner Sinfully When we say Christ was to suffer our whole punishment all such punishments as cannot be suffered without sin as desperation final reprobation are manifestly excepted Christ did bear all our punishment though not as we should have borne it that is 1. Sinfully 2. Eternally 3. Hellishly But he did so bear all our punishment as to finish all upon the Cross and in such sort as Gods justice 2 Col 14. 15. was satisfied his Person not disgraced nor his Holiness defiled and yet mans Salvation fully perfected We Hâ—b 9. 4 cap. 10. 15. constantly affirm that Christ did suffer the pains of Hell in his Soul with these three restrictions 1. That there be neither indignity offered to his Royal Person 2. Nor injury to his Holy Nature 3. Nor impossibility to his glorious work All such pains of Hell then as Christ might have suffered 1. His Person not dishonoured 2. His Nature with sin not defiled 3. His work of our Redemption not hindered we do stedfastly believe were sustained by our Blessed Saviour Consider a few things First Consider the adjuncts of Hell which are these four 1. The place which is Infernal 2. The time which is Perpetual 3. The darkness which is unspeakable 4. The Ministers and Torments the Spirits and Devils which are irreconcileable Now these adjuncts of Hell Christ is freed from for the dignity of his person it was not fit that the Son of God the Heir of Heaven should be shut up in Hell or that he should for ever be tormented who is never from Gods presence sequestred or that the light of the world should be closed up in darkness or that he who bindeth the evil Spirits should be bound by them c. Secondly Consider the effects or rather the defects of Hell which are chiefly these two First The deprivation of all vertue grace holiness Secondly The real possession of all Vice Impiety Blasphemy c. Now the necessity of the work of Christ doth exempt him from these effects for if he had been either void of grace or possessed with vice he could not have been the Redeemer of poor lost souls for the want of Vertue he could not have Redeemed others for the presence of sin he should have been Redeemed himself and from fretting Indignation and fearful Desperation the piety and sanctity of his Nature doth preserve him who
being without sin could neither by Indignation displease his Father nor by Desperation destroy himself So that if you consider either the adjuncts of Hell or the effects then I say we do remove all them as far off from the holy soul of Christ as Heaven is from Hell or the East from the West or darkness from light c. Thirdly Consider the punishment it self Now concerning this we say That our blessed Saviour as in himself he bare all the sins of the Elect. So he also suffered the whole punishment of body and soul in general that was due unto us for the same which we should have endured if he had not satisfied for it and so consequently we affirm that he felt the anguish of soul and horror of Gods wrath and so in soul entred into the torments of Hell for us sustained them and vanquished them One spaking in honour of Christs passion saith Cum iram Dei Calvin in Math. 2â— 39. sibi propositum videret When he saw the wrath of God set before him presenting himself before Gods tribunal loaden with the sins of the whole world it was necessary for him to fear the deep bottomless pit of death Again Calvin in Math. 27. 46. saith the same Author Cum species Christo objecla est c. Such an object being offered to Christs view as though God being set against him he were appointed to destruction he was with horror affrighted which was able an hundred times to have swallowed up all mortal Creatures but he by the wonderful power of his spirit escaped with Victory What dishonour was it to our Saviour Christ saith another to suffer that which was necessary for Fulk in Act 2. Sect. 11. our Redemption namely that torment of Hell which we had deserved and which the Justice of God required that he should endure for our Redemption Or rather what is more to the honour of Christ then that he vouchsafed to descend into Hell for us and to abide that bitter pain which we had deserved to suffer Eternally and what may rather be called Hell then the anguish of soul which he suffered when he being yet God complained that he was forsaken of God O Sirs this we need not fear to confess that Christ bearing our sins in himself upon the Cross did feel himself during that combat as rejected and forsaken of God and accursed for us and the flames of his Fathers wrath burning within him so that to the honour of Christs Passion we confess that our blessed Redeemer refused no part of our punishment but endured the very pains of Hell so far as they tended not neither to the derogation of his Person deprivation of his Nature destruction of his Office c. Here it may be query'd whether the Lord Jesus Christ underwent the idem the very self-same punishment that we should have undergone or only the tantundem that which did amount and was equivalent thereunto To which I Answer That in different respects both may be affirmed The punishment which Christ indur'd if it be considered in its substance kind or nature so 't was the same with that the Sinner himself should have undergone but if it be considered with respect to certain circumstances adjuncts or accidents which attend that punishment as inflicted upon the Sinner so 't was but equivalent and not the same The punishment due to the Sinner was death the curse of the Law upon the breach of the first Covenant now this Christ underwent For Gal. 3. 13. he was made a Curse for us The adjuncts attending this death were the Eternity of it Desperation going along with it c. These Christ was freed from the dignity of his Person supplying the former the sanctity of his Person securing him against the latter therefore in reference unto these and to some other things already mentioned it was but the tantundem not the idem but suppose there had been nothing of sameness nothing beyond equivalency in what Christ suffered yet that was enough for it was not required that Christ should suffer every kind of Curse which is the effect of sin but in the general accursed death Look as in his fulfilling of the Law for us it was not necessary that he should perform every holy duty that the Law requireth for he could not perform that obedience which Magistrates or Married persons are bound to do It s enough that there was a fulfilling of it in the general for us So here it was not necessary that Jesus Christ should undergo in every respect the same punishment which the offender himself was lyable unto but if he shall undergoe so much as may satisfie the Laws threatnings and vindicate the Law-giver in his Truth Justice and Righteous government that was enough Now that was unquestionably done by Christ But some may object and say How could Christ suffer Obj. 1 the pains of the second death without dis-union of the Godhead from the Man-hood for the God-head could not dye Or what interest had Christs God-head in his humane sufferings to make them both so short and so precious and satisfactory to Divine justice for the sins of so many Sinners especially when we consider that God cannot suffer I Answer It followeth not that because Christ is United Answ 1 into one Person with God that therefore he did not suffer the pains of Hell for by the same reason he should not have suffered in his body for the Union of his Person could have preserved him from sufferings in the one as well as in the other and neither God Angels nor Men compelled him to undertake this difficult and bloody work but his own free and unspeakable love to Man-kind as himself declares Joh. 10. 17. Therefore my Father Isa 53. 12. Psal 40. 7 8. Heb. 10. 9 10. loves me because I lay down my life ver 18. No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self If Christ had been constrained to suffer then both men and Angels might fear and tremble but as one saith well Voluntas Bernard sponte morientis placuit Deo The willingness of him that dyed pleased God who offered himself to be the Redeemer of fallen man But secondly I Answer from 1 Joh. 3. 16. Hereby Answ 2 perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us The person dying was God else his person could have done us no good The Person suffering must be God as well as man but the God-head suffered not As if you shoot off a Cannon in the bright ayr the ayr suffers but the light of it suffers not Actions and passions belong to persons Nothing less then that person who is God-Man could bear the brunt of the day satisfie Divine justice pacifie Divine wrath bring in an everlasting Righteousness and make us happy for ever But Thirdly I answer thus Albeit the passion of the humane Nature could not so far reach the God-head of Christ that it