eye fast on one thing but another as glorious comes to be presented Brethren what a blessed thing is it to live in God to be viewing the mysteries of godlinesse Seeing God himselfe is laid out before your eye as in manifold manifestations of his own glory Saints may do nothing else but ravish their hearts with the diversity of heavenly light which breakes forth from the bosome of God One would thinke there needed no other mystery to take up the thoughts of a Saint but this that the blessed God is manifested in flesh Who is able to reach the fulnesse of this discovery But yet you have another mystery as great and amazing springs out before your eyes to astonish you that this God was justified in spirit The first respects his humiliation in our flesh The other the beginning of his exaltation and yet these are only various expressions of Jesus Christ our Mediatour There was two great things to be done for the salvation of sinners Satisfaction and Justification God now in regard of these two considerations manifests himselfe as in two form as First in flesh as abased and humbled that in our own nature he might satisfie for our sins and lay a ground-worke of eternall communion with us and then as a testimony of the reality of this satisfaction he was justified by or in the spirit So that you have Christ set out in these two considerations as standing in our own flesh to beare the guilt and charge the misery and punishment of our sins and as discharged and justified from all these by the spirit There be these things to be opened 1. What it is to justifie 2. What meant by spirit 3. How God is said to be justified in spirit For the first to justifie or to be justified are words though commonly spoken yet much mistaken Bellarmine and the Jesuits take it ever in a Physicall sence for the infusing habituall principles of grace in the heart and so make it all one with Sanctification that so by that they might have a way of setting up their own righteousnesse equall with if not above the righteousnesse of Christ and yet it is not to be denied but sometimes this word signifies to make just But the common and usuall signification is first to pronounce or declare one just So Luke 16.15 Wisdome is justified of her children that is all the sons of wisdome will vindicate her from all the false aspersions cast on her by the sons of folly in the world and pronounce her righteous that there are the issues of life in her waies That thou mayest be justified by thy sayings Rom. 3.4 that is declared to be just So in Mat. 12. saith Christ out of thy words thou shalt be justified or condemned that is pronounced just according as thy words are good Secondly It is taken sensu forensi in a legall sense for the acquitting or absolving a Malefactor from the guilt and punishment of the Law Esa 5.23 he which justifies the wicked and condemns the righteous is an abomination to the Lord speaking of the Rulers and these which sit in judgement that is he which laies guilt on an honest man but acquits a wicked man How is a man said to be justified this way 1. When as he is falsely accused and is declared by the Judge not to have done the fact but to be righteous then he is justified from that act 2. When a man is really accused and yet for and in consideration of some other thing is acquitted and absolved from the guilt and punishment of that which was laid to him then he is said to be justified also For the second thing what is meant by Spirit This word is likewise taken divers waies in Scripture Sometimes for the soule and life of a man Into thy hands I commend my spirit Psal 31. Christ cried and gave up his spirit Mat. 27. that is his life departed from him But especially it is taken these foure waies 1. For the whole divine Nature or the God-head God is a spirit that is the Nature of God is spirituall unknown to flesh 2. It is sometimes taken for the divine Nature of Christ so the Lord is that spirit that is Jesus Christ is that spirit which is opposed to all the outward and fleshly ordinances of the Law 3. It is taken for the Holy Ghost or third person of the Trinity as distinct from the Father and the Sonne There be three that beare witnesse in Heaven the Father the VVord and the Spirit 1 John 5. It is the spirit which beares witnesse for he is truth I will send the Comforter even the spirit of truth Iohn 14. And I will pray the Father for it Iohn 3. 4. Taken for the product or work of the Spirit what is borne of the Spirit is Spirit that is of the same Nature with the Spirit it selfe So that now for God to be justified in the Spirit is not meant as if he had any righteousnesse infused in him which he had not before but that he was justified that is declared to be righteous one who had no sin neither was guile found in his mouth and that he was absolved from all that charge of the guilt and punishment of sin which was laid upon him and one who had finished his course and done his worke compleatly both satisfyed the law and the justice of God and that in or by the Spirit that is his God-head or by the vertue and merit of his divine Nature which made all he did efficacious and satisfactory the Spirit it selfe bearing witnesse of it and fully discharging him from what was laid upon him For these words as one saith to be brought in answer to an objection which might be made on this that Christ was God manifest in flesh that is humbled and abased or else he could not have suffered why hence the world thought he was a deceiver that he was not such a one as he pretended took upon him as a malefactor and used him so why but he was not so for though he was manifested in that base and low way and so united and clouded in flesh yet he was justifyed in the spirit they saw not that inward glory and power which was in Christ's Nature but what ever men esteemed of him yet the spirit it selfe justified him But seeing this is so great a mystery set in the second ranck of the deep things of God we had need look more narrowly into it and see what the Scripture saith concerning this how Jesus Christ may be said to be justified This is to be premised in generall that it is spoken in opposition to his humiliation or manifestation in flesh for in that he seemed to be condemned to walke up and downe as a sinner one which was the shame of the world and therefore he is said to be justified in the spirit that is 1. Internally what ever he was without yet within he had a spirit of glory his outside was meane
blame of all and been liable to the execution of all this in his own soule therefore though he was manifest in flesh as one condemned in that flesh yet the power of his Godhead raised him up from under the power of death and declared him as a righteous person one that was accepted for and that had compleatly satisfied for poore sinners And as at first conversion we passe from death to life that is from an estate of death and condemnation to an estate of life and justification So did Christ at his Resurrection from an estate of death and guilt which was laid on him to an estate of life and glory and justification from sin for had there been any sin unsatisfied for he could not have been justified Use 1. Is to informe us of the greatnesse of this mystery that God should be justified in spirit That God should manifest himselfe is a wonder and especially in flesh But that we should be justified that implies a guilt some default and doubtlesse this is one of the wonderfullest discoveries of his love to soules How can God be said to be justified who can imagine any evill in the Almighty who finds folly in the Angels they are not able to justifie themselves in his sight but the mysterie is in this that God himselfe which was in our flesh which is none other then Christ he is also justified for us God in our flesh takes upon him the charge of our debts and by his owne spirit justifies himselfe Oh how are poor soules raised at these expressions All the works of our salvation are done by God himselfe he taking that on him and acting over that in the person of his Sonne which must be particularly done in them Two things was to be done to save us Satisfaction and Justification payment of debt and discharge of bonds VVhy now God comes in our Nature and is both punished and justified as if he had done the offence not we God is justified instead of us and dyes when it was our condition let our hearts not be commonly affected with this mystery 2. Vse This mystery raiseth againe from the dead the hopes and joyes of poor soules and in the midst of all their sins and apprehension of wrath gives the strongest ground for Faith in their justification VVhy was God or God in Christ justified he had no need of such an act in himselfe no guile was ever found in his mouth he was a Lambe without spot but all this is to denote what God was for us that he might be to us All the acts that were to be done on us and to us were first done to God in our Nature acted on Jesus Christ and he was but an image of what is to be personally done to us yea whatever consideration he passed under it was as in our stead and we are to reckon our selves as sharers with him yea as really partakers with him as if we had acted it in our own persons When he dyed he stood under an act of attainder for sin he acted nor was capable of none but only stood there for us and our very sins on the Crosse were crucified with Christ and satisfied for by him as if we had paid the utmost farthing with our owne hands so when he was justified by the spirit we were justified He was justified as a common person in the room of all the Elect as he died as a common person for their sins In these two expressions you have all the mystery of Redemption and the reconciliation of sinners to God 1. God was manifest in flesh to bear our sins and to be abased and humbled for them whereby he might satisfie himselfe and then in the token of acquittance and absolution of us from all these sins he is justified in spirit and all the objections of unbeliefe are answered in this Saith the soule how shall my sins be satisfied for why God is manifest in flesh for that end to lay downe an infinite price to his justice But how shall I know that my sins are taken away and that I am justified from them why that God was justified in spirit that is the spirit which speaks nothing but truth and who knowes all things did publickly declare that there was a compleat righteousnesse obtained for sinners and did pronounce it to Christ as in the name of all the Elect. It is worthy further search into this what Christs being justified in the spirit amounts unto for the comfort of poor soules in regard of their justification that so we may all see what full and plenteous redemption there is in Jesus Christ and what matter of holy triumph we have in regard of our own justification First that Jesus Christ should be justified and that for us or in our name as the Atturney takes up the bond in Court for his Client it is as good in Law as if the party himselfe were there to recieve the verdict and see the act inrolled And observe it was more for Christ to be justified a harder thing then for us for he had the sins of the whole world of the Elect upon him and yet Christ beleeved his justification in that former place Esa 50. he is neer that justifies me Well mayest thou beleeve the particular justification of thy person seeing Christ was justified for thee before hand he was that great surety that stood bound to pay thy debts and he was publiquely acquitted for thee And this is certaine that Christ being justified at that moment all the Elect were virtually and really justified in him that act of God which pass'd on him was drawne up in the name of all you and when you beleeve this Indenture is showne unto your hearts But secondly in that he was justified in the spirit our comfort is raised higher for it was not an ordinary acquittance which was given Christ in our name but what was drawne up by the spirit of truth who can speak nothing but truth God himselfe justified himselfe in our Nature by his owne spirit such an infallible witnesse cannot be questioned And though by spirit be meant his God-head in generall yet it is specially meant of that person which is the spirit Therefore the Apostle Iohn Iohn 1.5 6 7 8 9 10. reduceth all to this that it was the spirit that beares witnesse to this that life is in Iesus Christ Christ came by water and blood saith he but Christ is the spirit that beares witnesse to this There were two things which did justifie Christ and both done by the spirit his resurrection and ascension into Heaven in that he rose againe it was cleer that he was justified for else he could not have risen if he had not satisfied the bands of Death would have held him fast in the Grave but that he can raise from the dead he was declared to be the sonne of God with power but still by the holy spirit Rom. 1.3 And in that he by the spirit was
but his inside blessed 2. Externally he was notwithstanding all the visible actings of him in the world and the misapprehensions of wicked men yet the spirit did still justify him and cleer him and declare him to be righteous Two things were laid on Christ which he had need to be justified from 1. The false aspersions which the world laid on him they lookt on him as a deceiver a friend of Publicans and Sinners one which blasphemed when he said he was the sonne of God one which had a Devill and wrought all his miracles by the Devill 2. The state he stood in under our sins have had the guilt and the punishment of them laid on him whereby he stood as a visible malefactor and under the visible sentence of condemnation For Christ was really charg'd with the satisfaction of our sins and was liable to all that the Law could say to us for them Now he had need to be justified from this by having an acquittance and absolution by the spirit of God Now in both these wayes may Christ be said to be justified 1. He was justified in the spirit from all those wicked imputations his enemies laid on him none were accounted of so vile as Jesus Christ all the reproaches that could be invented were laid on him they called him a Devill commonly Now see how he was justified in the spirit that is first how cleer he was within in his spirit no guile was found in his mouth 2. By his Godhead what bright sparklings of God was in the face of Jesus Christ to the conviction of his enemies many times when they came to catch him they were catch'd by the beauty of his glory and faine to confesse he was a righteous one and that never any spake or acted like him in all that ever he did in the acts of his humiliation he was justified in it God clearing it up that he was the true Messias and Saviour of the world when he was borne wise men came by the spirit to see him and worship him when he was baptized the spirit came downe visibly on him and proclaim'd from Heaven that he was the beloved Son of God with him he was infinitely well pleased Nay come to the uttermost degree of his humiliation when he hung on the Crosse between two thieves by his spirit he converted one of them and made them acknowledge he was the righteous man and they only the sinners In a word what ever he did or spoke the spirit did act it in him and justified him in it I speak not of myselfe but God testifyes of me Iohn 6. He was begotten in the wombe by the spirit led up and downe in the spirit offer'd up by the eternall spirit raised from the dead by the spirit That place in the Romans 1.3 cleers up this He was declared to be the Sonne of God with power by the spirit of holinesse in his Resurrection It is a place which answers this He was of the seed of David as concerning the flesh but declared to be the Sonne of God in the spirit when he did rise againe as much as to say he was God manifest in flesh that is in weakness and yet he was justified by the spirit of holinesse to be the sonne of God Christ would often call himselfe the son of God and for that he was called a blasphemer and for that they sought to put him to death as if they had said we will try that thou canst not dye if thou be the Son of God And so when he was put to death they were confirmed that he was a deceiver But now when he rose againe of himselfe then he was declared with power to be the son of God that is justifyed by the spirit of holinesse or the holy spirit that spirit did declare that he was full of holinesse But this was the least part of Christ's justification 2. Christ stood under the charge of all the sins of the Elect as a common person and so was by God himselfe condemned he bore our sins on the Tree in his owne body that is was really charged with the guilt and the punishment of it and though he was not guilty of any sinne yet was punished as the greatest malefactor standing as our surety Christ may seem to be condemned even by God himselfe and he must come off cleer or else lye under the punishment of it for ever for once the charge was laid on Christ the law looks to him Now Christ that was thus visibly condemned he is justified in the spirit not only that he was appointed to satisfie but that he had satisfied and took away these sins and it was reason that if God did charge him with the debt of our sins that after he had paid it he should be acquitted and declared just and the Justifyer of these for whom we undertook Now this is the great meaning of this phrase that whereas Christ was manifest as God in our flesh and so stood under the guilt of our sins he was justified in his spirit and cleered by God that he had fully satisfied him That whereas God was manifested in flesh that is as the Apostle saith Rom. 8. To condeme sin in the flesh that same God-man was also justified in the spirit that is freely and fully acquitted by his God-head from all these sins and so taken up into glory And Christ himselfe in a Prophesie when he was to dye and be judged as a condemned man he comforts himselfe with the thoughts of this He is neer that justifies me who shall condemne Esa 50.8 9. So likewise the Apostle speaking of Christs Resurrection he was put to death in the flesh but quickned in or by the spirit 1 Pet. 3.18 a place fully paralell unto this Paul saith he was justified in the spirit and Peter that he was quickned in the spirit both meane one and the same thing viz. that new life which Christ had from the dead when he left all our sins behind him and rose againe and by spirit is meant his God-head or divine nature whereby he was both raised from the grave and the guilt of sin together he was quickned and justified as a Malefactor by an absolution receives a new life after the sentence of death and this worke of justifying Christ is especially laid on Christs resurrection who when he dyed was as a condemned man but when he rose againe appeares as a righteous man which had finished his worke For justification implies and supposeth a former guilt laid to ones charge of which he is acquitted There was reason that if Christ bore our sins and stood as one condemned having done away sin should likewise be justified from the guilt of what was laid on him and be pronounced righteous Christ was under the greatest attainder that ever man was he stood publikely charged with the guilt of a world of sins and if he had not been justified by the spirit he had still laine under the
it Only they see it not as a mystery in them There is the difference of Saints sight of Christ it is as acting all for them and as a mystery within them but not so with Angels though yet they have some concernments in it for they stand by this Christ he is a head to them also But this will be more discovered in the second thing 2. How doe the Angels come to know this mystery whether it be naturall to them as such creatures or whether it be conveyed to them by some other meanes Some thinke that God did discover a modell of this mystery and gave a glimps of it to all the Angels at their first creation and shewed them who must be their head and thorough whom he would act all his mind even Jesus Christ as in our Nature which when the reprobated Angels saw they could not indure to come under that mystery or submit to Jesus Christ they liked not the sight and so fell and are now Devils for ever but the Elect Angels of whom we speak delighted in the sight of this mystery and submitted to the hint of this discovery and so stood by Christ and he was made a head to them and they subsist still in him But whether that be so or no this seems to be cleer that this mystery in Jesus Christ Angels had not the knowledge of it by their naturall being but as they had it by revelation for this mystery the Apostle professeth Eph. 3 It was hid in God himselfe kept secret in his owne breast manifested to none out of God before he was pleased in time to reveale it they might see some probabilities of it have some guesses by seeing of God's heart that he was big with some rich design towards the creatures but the mystery was hid in God what it would be and in what manner they could not tell but by revelation though they saw God face to face yet they could not see this mystery in God's Nature for it lay in his decrees and councels which the Angels know not and it was a design from eternity before the Angels were acted and contrived in God yet this must be granted that they had a manifestation of Christ as to that which concerned themselves as he was their head and as they stood in Heaven by him but as the transactions of it concerned us sinners with the mysterie of it which is properly the mysterie of the Gospell they knew not but by degrees as it was acted and are still capable of increase When God had broken his mind opened his councels in that first promise made to Adam in renewing of the Covenant with Abraham in the types and ceremonies of the Law by all the Prophets so they gathered out the meanes of it and they got more by the birth of Christ by his ministry but there be two great waies by which Angels come to see much of the mystery of Christ in the Gospell 1. By seeing the person of Christ 2. By the Church and the manifestations of Christ to them For the first besides what they have seen in the action of Christ in this world formerly spoken of which yet gave them abundance of insight unto this mystery for they first preached the Gospell with joy and gladness to the world Luk. 2. They were the first Ministers of the Gospell in the affirmative that Christ was come they preached more of Christ then all the Prophets did and with greater joy they were in a multitude together praising God and saying peace on earth c. But besides that the now seeing Christs person in Heaâ—â—n as glorified and he being the expresse image of the Father that which expresseth all his heart and opens all his cabinets upon whom all the glory of God to man is acted the Angels cannot but by beholding Christ in this consideration know much of the Gospell from him Christ being the Epitome and summe of this mysterie but yet 2. The great knowledge Angels get in these mysteries is from the Church from the discoveries of Christ to the Saints That place of the Apostle deserves to be opened to this purpose Eph. 3.1 2. where it is said that one intent of preaching the Gospell is that Principalities and powers names given to Angels might know by the Church the manifold wisdome of God The Apostle had before magnified the preaching of Christ as the opening of the greatest mysterie that ever was to be revealed and to set it forth he saith first that it was kept hid from Ages and Generations of men and â—…id in God laid up as the great secret of Gods heart 2. He saith that the Angels come to get their knowledge of it from the Church the opposition is this that as it was hid from ages of men from the beginning of the world so it was also hid from the Angels and as men have the knowledge of it by the preaching of it so have Angels only the Church hath first they at second hand The Church is the great subject on which all this is to be acted it is that which concernes them they are folded up in it it is a mysterie in them as none have been privie to the first contrivance of this mysterie but these three which bare witnesse to it the Father the Word and the Spirit so none have the manifestations of it so glorious as the Saints who are the subjects of it The manifestations and openings of the mysterie of the Gospell are not properly in Heaven but in the Church therefore the meeting of the Saints are called Heavenly places because there Christ makes his Heaven and though the Angels see the mystery of it as Christ hath acted it by himselfe and in his own person yet they cannot see it as it is acted on the hearts of the Saints which is a new mystery therefore it is called a discovery of the manifold wisdome of God and the apostle saith Col. 1.27 That the riches of the glory of this mystery is Christ in us There is a depth in this mysterie and such manifold actings of the infinite wisdome of God that it is impossible for men or Angels to know it all at once It was so vast that God himselfe was faine to open it by degrees to act it in parts by manifold and divers actings of his wisdome And all this to the Church If a man will know the mystery of such an Art he must goe to schoole where that Art is taught The great things of Christ are taught in the Church Christ reveales that there which he doth no where else if Angels will see into the depth of this mysterie they must goe to school as it were unto the Church When a company of poor Saints are together Christ stands in the midst of them comes downe by the spirit makes a throne brings to light glories that were prepared for them before Angels had a being kept warm as it were in Gods heart all this while It is