was but Typical of the Spirit by which Christ was consecrated or Sealed to his Offices Thirdly Christ was Sealed by the Fathers immediate testimony from Heaven whereby he was declared to be the Person whom the Father had solemnly designed and appointed to this work And God gave this extraordinary testimony of him at two remarkable seasons The one was Just at his entrance upon his Publique Ministry Matth. 3. ult The other but a little before his sufferings Matth. 17.5 This voice was not formed by such Organs and Instruments of speech as ours are but by creating a voice in the air which the people hear sounding thereby this God owned approved and as by a Seal ratified his work Fourthly Christ was Sealed by the Father in all those extraordinary miraculous works wrought by him in which the Father gave yet more full and convincing testimonies to the world that this was he whom he had appointed to be our Mediator These were convictive to the world that God had sent him And that his Doctrine was of God God annointed Iesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and power who went about doing good and healing all that were oppressed of the Devil for God was with him Acts 10.38 And so Ioh. 5.36 I have a greater witness than that of John for the works which the Father hath given me to finish the same works that I do bear witness of me that the Father hath sent me Therefore he still refer'd those that doubted of him or of his Doctrine to this Seal of his Father even the miraculous works he wrought in the power of God Matth. 11.3.4 5. And thus the Father Sealed him Lastly We will enquire why it was necessary Christ should be Sealed by his Father to this work And there are these three weighty reasons for it First Else he had not corresponded with the Types which prefigured him and in him it was necessary that they be all accomplished You know under the Law the Kings and High-Priests had their Inaugurations by solemn unctions in all which this consecration or Sealing of Christ to his work was shadow'd out And therefore you shall find Heb. 5.4 5. No man taketh this honour to himself but he that is call'd of God as was Aaron so also mark the necessary correspondency betwixt Christ and them Christ glorifi'd not himself to be made an High-Priest but he that said unto him thou art my Son Secondly Moreover hereby the hearts of believers are the more engaged to love the Father in as much as it appears hereby that the Fathers love and good will to them was the Original and Spring of their Redemption For had not the Father Sealed him such a Commission he had not come but now he comes in the Fathers name and in the Fathers love as well as his name and so all men are bound to ascribe equal glory and honour to them both As it is Ioh. 5.23 Lastly And Especially Christ would not come without a Commission because else you had no ground for your Faith in him How should we have been satisfied that this is indeed the true Messiah except he had opened his Commission to the world and shew'd his Fathers Seal annexed to it If he had come without his Credentials from heaven and only told the world that God had sent him and that they must take his bare word for it Who could have rested his Faith on that Testimony And that is the true meaning of that place Ioh. 5.31 If I bear witness of my self my witness is not true How so You will say doth not that contradict what he saith Ioh. 8.14 Though I bear record of my self yet my record is true Therefore you must understand truth not as it is opposed to reality but the meaning is if I had only given you my bare word for it and not brought other evidence from my Father my Testimony had not been Authentick and valid according to humane Laws But now all doubtings are precluded Let us next improve this Inference 1. Hence we infer the Vnreasonableness of Infidelity and how little the rejecters of Christ can have to pretend for their so doing You see he hath opened his Commission in the Gospel shewn the world his Fathers Hand and Seal to it given as ample satisfaction as reason it self could desire or expect yet even his own received him not Ioh. 1.11 And he knew it before hand and therefore complain'd by the Prophet Isa. 53.1 Who hath believed our Report c. Yea and that he is believed on in the world is by the Apostle put among the great mysteries of godliness 1 Tim. 3.16 A man that well considers with what convincing evidence Christ comes would rather think it a mysterie that any should not believe But O the bruitish obstinacy and Devilish enmity that is in nature to Jesus Christ Devilish did I say you must give me that word again for he compell'd their assent We know thee whom thou art And it is equally as wonderful to see the facility that is in nature to comply mean while with any even the most foolish imposture Let a false Christ arise and he shall deceive many As it is Matth. 24.24 Of this Christ complains and not without great reason Ioh. 5.43 I am come in my Fathers name and ye receive me not If another come in his own name him will ye receive q. d. You are incredulous to none but me Every deceiver every pitiful cheat that hath but wit or rather wickedness enough to tell you the Lord hath sent him though you must take his own single word for it He shall obtain and get Disciples but though I come in my Fathers name i. e. shâ—wing you a Commission Sign'd and Seal'd by him doing those Works that none but a God can do yet ye receive me not But in all this we must adore the Justice of God in permitting it to be so giving men up to such unreasonable obstinacy and hardness It is a sore plague that lies upon the world and a wonder that we all are not ingulphed in the same Infidelity Inference 2. If Christ were Sealed to his Work by his Father then how great is the sin of those that reject and despise such as are sent and Sealed by Iesus Christ for look as he came to us in his Fathers name so he hath sent forth by the same Authority Ministers in his name And as he acts in his Fathers so they in his Authority As thou hast sent me into the world even so have I also sent them into the world Joh. 17.18 And so Ioh. 20.21 As my Father hath sent me so have I sent you You may think it a small matter to despise or reject a Minister of Christ a sin in the guilt whereof I think no Age hath been plunged deeper than this but hear and let it be a warning to you for ever in so doing you despise and put the slight both upon the Father
heard him So that his very enemies were forced to acknowledge that never any man spake like him Joh. 7.46 Thirdly It implys Christ to be the Original and fountain of all that light which is ministerially diffused up and down the world by men Ministers are but Stars which shine with a borrowed light from the Sun So speaks the Apostle 2 Cor. 4.6 7. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Iesus Christ. Those that teach men must be first taught by Christ. All the Prophets of the Old and all the Apostles Pastors and Teachers of the New Testament have lighted their Candles at his Torch 'T was Christ that gave them a mouth and wisdom Luk. 21.15 What Paul received from the Lord he delivered to the Church 1 Cor. 11.23 Jesus Christ is the chief Shepherd 1 Pet. 5.4 And all the under Shepherds receive their gifts and commissions from him These things are manifestly implyed in Christs Prophetical Office We shall next enquire how he executes and discharges this his Office Or how he enlightens and teacheth men the will of God And this he hath done variously gradually plainly powerfully sweetly purely and fully First Our great Prophet hath revealed to men the will of God variously Not holding one even and constant tenour in the manifestations of the Fathers will but as the Apostle speaks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at sundry times and in divers manners Heb. 1.1 Sometimes he taught the Church immediately and in his own person Ioh. 18.20 He declared Gods righteousness in the great congregation Psal. 22.22 And sometimes immediately by his Ministers and Officers deputed to that service by him So he dispensed the knowledge of God to the Church both before his incarnation It was Christ that in the time and by the Ministry of Noah went and Preached to the Spirits in prison as it is 1 Pet. 3.19 That is to men and women then alive but now separated from the body and imprisoned in Hell for their disobedience And it was Christ that was with the Church in the wilderness instructing and guiding them by the Ministry of Moses and Aaron Acts 7.37 38. And so he hath taught the Church since his ascension He cannot now be personally with us having other business to do for us in Heaven but however he will not be wanting to teach us by his Officers whom for that end he hath set and appointed in the Church Ephes. 4.11.12 Secondly He hath dispensed his blessed light to the Church gradually The discoveries of light have been 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is in many parts or parcels sometimes more obscure and cloudy as it was to the Old Testament-believers by Visions Dreams Urim Thumim vocal Oracles Types Sacrifices c. Which though comparatively it were but a weak glimering light and had no glory set by that which now shines 2 Cor. 3.7 8 9 10 18. Yet it was sufficient for the instruction and Salvation of the Elect in those times But now is light sprung up gloriously in the Gospel dispensation And we all with open face behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord. It is to us not a twy-light but the light of a perfect day And still it is advancing in the several ages of the world I know more said Luther than blessed Austin knew and they that come after me will know more than I know Thirdly Jesus Christ our great Prophet hath manifested to us the will of God plainly and perspicuously When he was on earth himself he taught the People by Parables and without a Parable he spake nothing Matth. 13. 3 4. He cloathed Sublime and Spiritual mysteries in earthly Metaphors stooping them thereby to the low and dull capacities of men Speaking so familiarly to the People about them as if he had been speaking earthly things to them Ioh. 3.12 And so according to his own example would he have his Ministers Preach using great plainness of speech 2 Cor. 3.12 And by manifestation of the truth commending themselves to every mans conscience 2 Cor. 4.2 Yet not allowing them to be rude and careless in expression pouring out indigested crude immethodical words No an holy serious strict and grave expression befits the lips of his Embassadours And who ever spake more weightily more Logically or perswasively than that Apostle by whose Pen Christ hath admonished us to beware of vain affectation and swelling words of vanity But he would have us stoop to the understandings of the meanest And not give the People a Comment darker than the Text. He would have us rather pierce their consciences than tickle their phancies And break their heart than please their ears Christ was a very plain Preacher Fourthly Jesus Christ discovered truth powerfully Speaking as one having authority and not as the Pharisees Matth. 7.29 They were cold and dull Preachers Their words did even freeze betwixt their lips But Christ spake with power There was heat as well as light in his Doctrine And so there is still though it be in the mouth of poor contemptible men 2 Cor. 10.4 The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the casting down of strong holds 'T is still quick and powerful sharper than a two edged Sword and piercing to the dividing asunder of Soul and Spirit and of the jâ—ynts and marrow Heb. 4.12 The blessed Apostle imitated Christ. And being filled with his Spirit spake home and freely to the hearts of men So many words so many claps of Thunder as one said of him which made the hearts of sinners shake and tremble in their breasts All faithful and able Ministers are not alike gifted in this particular but surely there is an holy seriousness a Spiritual grace and Majesty in their Doctrine commanding reverence from the hearers Fifthly This Prophet Jesus Christ taught the people the mind of God in a sweet affectionate and taking manner His words made their hearts burn within them Luk. 24.32 It was Prophesied of him Isa. 42.2 He shall not cry nor life up nor cause his voice to be heard on high A bruised reed he shall not break and smoaking flax be shall not quench He knew how to speak a word in season to the weary Soul Esa. 61.1 He gathered the Lambs with his arms And gently led those with young Esa. 4.11 How sweetly did his words slide to the melting hearts about him He drew with cords of Love with the bands of a man He discouraged none Upbraided none that were willing to come to him His familiarity and free condescensions to the most vile and and despiseable sinners was often made the matter of his reproach Such is his gentle and sweet carriage to his people that the Church is called the Lambs Wife Rev. 19.7 Sixthly He revealed the mind of God purely to men His Doctrine had not the least dash of
full Satisfaction First The Matter or Substance of the Promise made by Christ viz that he shall be with him in Praradise By Paradise he means Heaven it self which is here shadowed to us by a place of delight and pleasure This is the receptacle of gratious souls when separated from their bodies And that Paradise signifies Heaven it self and not a third place as some of the Fathers fondly imagined is evident from 2 Cor. 12.2 4. where the Apostle calls the same place by the names of the third Heaven and Paradise This is the place of blessedness designed for the people of God so you find Rev. 2.7 To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God i. e. to have the fullest and most intimate communion with Jesus Christ in Heaven And this is the substance of Christs promise to the Thief Thou i. e. thou in spirit or thou in thy noblest part thy soul which here bears the name of the whole person thou shalt be with me in Paradise Secondly The Person to whom Christ makes this excellent and glorious promise It was to one that had lived lewdly and profanely a very vile and wretched man in all the former part of his time and for his wickedness now justly under condemnation Yea to one that had reviled Christ after that sentence was executed on him However now at last the Lord gave him a penitent believing heart Now almost at last gasp he is soundly in an extraordinary way converted and being converted he owns and professes Christ amidst all the shame and reproach of his death Vindicates his innocency and humbly supplicates for mercy Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom Thirdly The set time for the performance of this gratious Promise to him To day this very day shalt thou be with me in glory Not after the resurrection but immediately from the time of thy dissolution thou shalt enjoy blessedness And here I cannot but detect the cheat of those that deny an immediate state of glory to believers after death Who to the end this Scripture might not stand in full opposition to their as uncomfortable as unsound opinion loose the whole frame of it by drawing one pin yea by transposing but a comma putting it at the word day which should be at the word thee and so reading it thus verily I say unto thee to day referring the word day to the time that Christ made the promise and not to the time of its performance But if such a liberty as this be yielded what may not men make the Scriptures speak There can be no doubt but Christ in this expression fixes the time for his happiness To day shalt thou be with me Fourthly and Lastly You have here the Confirmation and Seal of this most comfortable Promise to him with Christs solemn asseveration verily I say unto thee Higher security cannot be given I that am able to perform what I promise and have not out promised my self for Heaven and the glory thereof are mine I that am faithful and true to my promises and never crackt or strained my credit with any I say it I solemnly confirm it verily I say unto thee to day shalt thou with me in Paradise Hence we have three plain obvious truths for our instruction and consolation Doct. 1. That there is a future eternal state into which souls pass at death Doct. 2. That all Believers are at their death immediatly received into a state of glory and eternal happiness Doct. 3. That God may though he seldom doth prepare men for this glory immediately before their dissolution by death These are the useful truths resulting from this remarkable word of Christ to the penitent Thief We will consider and inprove them in the order proposed DOCT. 1. That there is a future eternal state into which souls pass at death This is a principal foundation-stone to the hopes and happiness of souls And seeing our hopes must needs be as their foundation and ground work is I shall briefly establish this truth by these five Arguments The beeing of a God evinces it the Scriptures of truth plainly reveal it the Consciences of all men have resentments of it the incarnation and death of Christ is but a vanity without it And the immortality of humane souls plainly discovers it Arg. 1. The being of a God undeniably evinces a future state for humane souls after this life For if there be a God who rules the world which he hath made he must rule it by rewards and punishments equally and righteously distributed to good and bad Putting a difference betwixt the obedient and disobedient The Righteous and the wicked To make a species of creatures capable of moral government and not to rule them at all is to make them in vain and inconsistent with his glory who is the last end of all things To rule them but not suitably to their natures consists not with that infinite wisdom from which their beings proceeded and by which their workings are ruled and ordered To rule them in a way suitable to their natures viz. by rewards and punishments and not to perform or execute them at all is utterly incongruous with the veracity and truth of him that cannot lie This were to impose the greatest cheat in the world upon men and can never proceed from the holy and true God So then as he hath made a rational sort of creatures capable of moral government by rewards and punishments so he rules them in that way which is suitable to their natures promising it shall be well with the righteous and ill with wicked These promises and threatnings can be no cheat meerly intended to scare and fright where there is no danger or encourage where there is no real benefit but what he promises or threatens must be accomplished and every word of God take place and be fulfilled But it 's evident that no such distinction is made by the providence of God at least ordinarily and generally in this life but all things come alike to all and as with the righteous so with the wicked Yea here it goes ill with them that fear God they are oppressed They receive their evil things and wicked men their good Therefore we conclude the righteous Judge of the whole earth will in another world recompence to every one according as his work shall be Arg. 2. Secondly And as the very being of God evinces it so the Scriptures of truth plainly reveal it These Scriptures are the Pandect or System of the Laws for the goverment of men which the wise and holy Ruler of the world hath enacted and ordained for that purpose And in them we find promises made to the Righteous of a full reward for all their obedience patience and sufferings in the next life or coming world And threatnings made against the wicked of eternal wrath and anguish as the Just recompence of their sin
and from point to point who have begun one Sabbath where you left another it will be your inexcusable fault if these things be not fixed in your understandings and memories as nails fastened in a sure place especially since providence hath now brought to your eyes what hath been so often sounding in your ears which is no small help to fix these truths upon you and prevent that great hazard of them which commonnly attends bare hearing for now you may have recourse as often as you will to them view and review them till they become your own But though this be a great and singular advantage yet it is not all you may have by a methodical understanding of the doctrine of Christ it 's more than a judicious understanding them or faithful remembring them that you and I must design even the warm vital animating influences of these truths upon our Hearts without which we shall be never the better yea much the worse for knowing and remembring them Truth is the sanctifying instrument Ioh. 17.17 the mould into which our souls are cast Rom. 6.17 according therefore to the stamps and impressions it makes upon our understandings and the order in which truths lye there will be the depth and lastingness of their impressions and influences upon the heart As the more weight is laid upon the seal the more fair and lasting impress is made upon the wax He that sees the grounds and reasons of his peace and comfort most clearly is like to maintain it the more constantly Great therefore is the advantage Christians have by such methodical systems Surely they may be set down among the desiderata Christianorum the most desired things of Christians Divers worthy modern pens have indeed undertaken this noble subject before me some more succinctly others more Copiously These have done worthily and their praises are in the Churches of Christ yet such a breadth there is in the knowledge of Christ that not only those who have written on this subject before me but a thousand Authors more may imploy their pens after us and not one interfere with or straiten another And such is the deliciousness of this subject that were there ten thousand Volumes written upon it they would never cloy or become nauseous to a gracious heart We use to say one thing tires and it 's true that it doth so except that one thing be virtually and eminently all things as Christ is and then one thing can never tire For such is the variety of sweetness in Christ who is the deliciae humanigeneru the delights of the Children of men that every time he is opened to believers from Pulpit or Press it is as if Heaven had furnished them with a new Christ and yet he is the same Christ still The Synopsis praefixed to this Treatise will shew you that the method is wholly new and the Treatise it self will satisfie you that I have not boasted in another mans line of things made ready to my hand which I speak not in the least to win any praise to my self from the undertakement but to remove prejudices from it for I see more defects in it than most of my Readers will see and can forethink more faults to be found in it than I shall now stand to tell thee of or make answer for It was written in a time of great distractions and didst thou but know how oft this work hath dyed and revived under my hand thou wouldst wonder that ever it came to thine I am sensible it may fall under some censorious it may be envious eyes and that far different judgements will pass upon it for pro captu lectoris habent sua fata libelli and no wonder if a Treatise of Christ be when Christ himself was to some a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence I expect not to please every Reader especially the envious magna debet esse eloquentia quae invitis placet It is as hard for some to look upon other mens gifts without envy as it is to look upon their own without pride nor will I be any farther concerned with such Readers than to pity them well knowing that every proud contempt and envious censure is a Granado that breaks in the hand of him that casts it But to the ingenious and candid Reader I owe satisfaction for the obscurity of some parts of this discourse occasioned partly by the conciseness of the stile and partly by the mistakes of the Printer For the first I have this only to say that I was willing to crowd as much matter as I could into this number of sheets in thy hand that I might therein ease thee both in thy pains and purse I confess these Sermons were Preached in a more relaxed stile and most of these things were inlarged in the Pulpit which are designedly contracted in the Press that the Volume might not swell above the ability of common Readers And it was my purpose at first to have comprised the second part viz. the Application of the Redemption that is with Christ unto sinners in one Volume which occasioned the contraction of this but that making a just Volume it self must await another season to see the light If the Reader will be but a little the more intent and considerate in reading this conciseness will turn to his advantage And for the mistakes that have happened in the Press they are not for the most part very material and the principal ones are collected to your hand which being corrected before you read the obscurity which is objected will in great part be thereby removed This may suffice to shew the usefulness of such composures and to prevent offence but something yet remains with me to say to the Readers in general to those of this Town in special and to the Flock committed by Christ to my charge more especially To Readers in general according as their different states and conditions may be there are six things earnestly to be requested of them 1. If you be yet strangers to Christ let these things begin and beget your first acquaintance with him I assure thee Reader it was a principal part of the design thereof and here thou wilt find many directions helps and sweet incouragements to assist a poor stranger as thou art in that great work Say not I am an enemy to Christ and there is no hope of Reconciliation for here thou wilt see how God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself say not all this is nothing except God had told thee so and appointed some to treat with thee about it for he hath committed unto us the word of this reconciliation say not yea that may be from your own pity and compassions for us and not from any commission you have for it for we are Ambassadours for Christ 1 Cor. 5.19 Say not O but my sins my sins are greater than can be forgiven the difficulties of my salvation too great to be
grace with full satisfaction to the Iustice of God the Apostle 2 Tim. 1.9 tells us we are saved according to his own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Iesus before the world began that is according to the gratious terms of this Covenant of Redemption and yet you see notwithstanding how strictly God stands upon satisfaction from Christ so then Grace to us and satisfaction to Justice are not so inconsistent as the Socinian Adversaries would make them what was debt to Christ is grace to us when you hear men cry out here 's Grace indeed pay me all and I will forgive you remember how all mouths are stopt with that one Text Rom. 3.24 being Iustified freely by his grace and yet he adds through the Redemption that is in Christ. Vse 5. Again hence Judge of the antiquity of the love of God to believers what an antient friend he hath been to us who loved us provided for us and contrived all our happiness before we were yea before the world was we reap the fruits of this Covenant now the seed whereof was sown from Eternity yea it is not only ancient but also most free no excellencies of ours could engage the love of God for as yet we were not Vse 6. Judge hence how reasonable it is that believers should embrace the hardest terms of obedience unto Christ who complyed with such hard terms for their salvation they were hard and difficult terms indeed on which Christ received you from the Fathers hand it was as you have heard to pour out his soul unto death or not to enjoy a soul of you here you may suppose the Father to say when driving this bargain with Christ for you My Son here be a company of poor miserable souls that have utterly undone themselves and now lye open to my Justice Justice demands Satisfaction for them or will satisfie it self in the eternal ruine of them what shall be done for these souls And thus Christ returns O my Father such is my love to and pitty for them that rather than they shall perish eternally I will be responsible for them as their Surety bring in all thy bills that I may see what they owe thee Lord bring them in all that there may be no after reckonings with them at my hand shalt thou require it I will rather choose to suffer thy wrath than they should suffer it Upon me my Father upon me be all their debt But my Son if thou undertake for them thou must reckon to pay the last mite expect no abatements if I spare them I will not spare thee Content Father let it be so charge it all upon me I am able to discharge it and though it prove a kind of undoing to me though it impoverish all my riches empty all my treasures for so indeed it did 2 Cor. 8.9 though he were rich yet for our sakes became poor yet I am content to undertake it blush ungrateful believers O let shame cover your faces Judge in your selves now hath Christ deserved that you should stand with him for trifles that you should shrink at a few petty difficulties and complain this is hard and that is harsh O if you knew the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ in this his wonderful condescention for you you could not do it Vse 7. Lastly How greatly are we all concerned to make it sure to our selves that we are of this number which the Father and the Son agreed for before the world was that we were comprehended in Christs bargain and compact with the Father Yea but you will say who can know that there were no witnesses to that bargain Yes We may know without ascending into Heaven or prying into unrevealed Secrets that our names were in that Covenant if 1. You are believers indeed for all such the Father then gave to Christ John 17.8 the men that thou gavest me for of them he spake immediately before they have believed that thou didst send me 2. If you savingly know God in Jesus Christ such were given him by the Father Joh. 17.6 I have manifested thy name unto the men thou gavest me by this they are discriminated from the rest vers 25. the world hath not known thee but thâ—se have known c. 3. If you are men and women of another world Joh. 17.16 they are not of the world as I am not of the world may it be said of you as of dying men that you are not men and women for this world that you are Crucified and dead to it Gal. 6.14 that you are strangers in it Heb. 11.13 14. 4. If you keep Christs word Joh. 17.6 thine they were and thou gavest them me and they have kept thy word by keeping his word understand the receiving of the word in its sanctifying effects and influences into your hearts and your perseverance in the profession and practice of it to the end Joh. 17.17 sanctifie them through thy truth thy word is truth Joh. 15.7 if ye abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will blessed and happy is that soul upon which these blessed characters appear which our Lord Jesus hath laid so close together within the compass of a few Verses in this 17 of Iohn these are the persons the Father delivered unto Christ and he accepted from the Father in this blessed Covenant The FOURTH SERMON JOH III. XVI For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son c. YOU have heard of the gracious purpose and design of God to recover poor sinners to himself by Jesus Christ and how this design of love was laid and contrived in the Covenant of Redemption whereof we last spake Now according to the terms of that Covenant you shall hear from this Scripture how that design was by one degree advanced towards its accomplishment in Gods actual giving or parting with his own Son for us God so loved the world that he gave c. The whole precedent context is spent in discovering the nature and necessity of Regeneration and the necessity thereof is in this Text argued and inferred from the peculiar respect and eye God had upon believers in giving Christ for them they only reaping all the special and saving benefits and advantages of that gift God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish In the words are considerable The Original Spring or Fountain of our best mercies the love of God The love of God is either benevolent beneficient or complacential his benevolent love is nothing else but his desire and purpose of saving and doing us good so his purpose of grace to Iacob is called love Rom. 9.13 Iacob have I loved but this being before Iacob was could consist in nothing else but the gracious purpose of God towards him his beneficent love is his actual doing good to the persons beloved
study upon his knees Those truths that are got by Prayer leave an unusual sweetness upon the heart If Christ be our Teacher it becomes all his Saints to be at his Feet Inference 4. If Christ be the great Prophet and Teacher of the Church We may thence discern and Iudge of Doctrines and it may serve us as a test to try them by For such as Christ is such are the Doctrines that flow from him Every errour pretends to derive it self from him but as Christ was holy humble heavenly meek peaceful plain and simple and in all things alien yea contrary to the wisdom of the world the gratifications of the flesh such are the truths which he teacheth They have his Character and Image ingraven on them Would you know then whether this or that Doctrine be from the Spirit of Christ or no Examine the Doctrine it self by this rule And whatsoever Doctrine you find to incourage and countenance sin to exalt self to be accommodated to earthly designs and interests to wrap and bend to the humours and Lusts of men in a word what Doctrine soever directly and as a proper cause makes them that profess it carnal turbulent proud sensual c. You may safely reject it and conclude this never came from Jesus Christ. The Doctrine of Christ is after godliness His truth sanctifies There is a gustus Spiritualis judicii a Spiritual taste by which those that have their sences exercised can distinguish things that differ The Spiritual man Iudgeth all things 1 Cor. 2.15 His ear tryes words as his mouth tasteth meats Job 34.3 Swallow nothing let it come never so speciously that hath not some relish of Christ and holyness in it Be sure Christ never reveal'd any thing to men that derogates from his own glory or prejudices and obstructs the ends of his own Death Inference 5. And as it will serve us for a test of Doctrines so it serves for a test of Ministers and hence you may Judge who are authorized and sent by Christ the great Prophet to declare his will to men Surely those whom he sends have his Spirit in their Hearts as well as his words in their Mouths And according to measures of grace received they faithfully endeavour to fullfil their Ministry for Christ as Christ did for his Father as my Father hath sent me saith Christ so send I you Joh. 20.21 They take Christ for their pattern in the whole course of their Ministration and are such as sincerely endeavour to imitate the great Shepherd in these six particulars following First Jesus Christ was a faithful Minister the faithful and true witness Rev. 1.5 He declared the whole mind of God to men Of him it was Prophetically said Psal. 40.10 I have not hid thy righteousness within my heart I have declared thy faithfulness and thy Salvation I have not concealed thy loving kindness and thy truth from the great congregation To the same sence and almost in the same words the Apostle Paul professed in Acts 20.20 I have kept back nothing that was profitable unto you and vers 35. I have shewed you all things Not that every faithful Minister doth in the course of his Ministry anatomize the whole body of truth and fully expound and apply each particular to the People no that is not the meaning but of those Doctrines which they have opportunity of opening they do not out of fear or to accommodate and secure base low ends withhold the mind of God or so corrupt and abuse his words as to subject truth to their own or other mens Lusts. They Preach not as pleasing men but God 1 Thes. 2.4 For if we yet please men we cannot be the servants of Christ Gal. 1.10 Truth must be spoken though the greatest on earth be offended Secondly Jesus Christ was a tender hearted Minister Full of compassion to souls He was sent to bind up the broken in heart Isa. 61.1 He was full of bowels to poor sinners He grieved at the hardness of mens hearts Mark 3.5 He mourned over Ierusalem and said O Ierusalem Ierusalem how oft would I have gathered thy Children as a Hen gathers her brood under her wings Matth. 23.37 His bowels yearned when he saw the multitude as Sheep having no Shepherd Matth. 9.36 These bowels of Christ must be in all the under Shepherds God is my witness saith one of them how greatly I long after you all in or after the pattern of the bowels of Christ Iesus Phil. 1.8 He that shews a hard heart unaffected with the dangers and miseries of souls can never shew a commission from Christ to authorize him for ministerial work Thirdly Jesus Christ was a laborious painful Minister he put a necessity on himself to finish his work in his day A work infinitely great in a very little time Ioh. 9.4 I must work the works of him that sent me while it is day the night cometh when no man can work O how much work did Christ do in a little time on earth He went about doing good Acts 10.38 He was never idle When he sits down at Iacobs Well to rest himself being weary presently he falls into his work Preaching the Gospel to the Samaritaness In this must his Ministers resemble him Striving according to his working that worketh in them mightily Col. 1.28 29. An idle Minister seems to be a contradiction in adjecto as who should say a dark light Fourthly Iesus Christ delighted in nothing more than the success of his Ministry To see the work of the Lord prosper in his hand this was meat and drink to him When the seventy returned and reported the success of their first Embassie Lord even the Devils are subject to us through thy name Why saith Christ I behold Satan fall as lightning from heaven As if he had said you tell me no news I saw it when I sent you out at first I know the Gospel would make work where it came And in that hour Iesus rejoyced in Spirit Luk. 10.17 18 21. And is it not so with those sent by him Do'nt they value the success of their Ministry at an high rate it is not saith one the expence but the recoyling of our labours back again upon us that kills us Ministers would not die so fast nor be gray-headed so soon could they but see the travel of their Souls My littlle Children saith Paul of whom I travel again in birth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 till Christ be formed in you Gal. 4.19 As for those that have the name of Shepherds only who visit the flock only once a year about shearing time who have the instruments of a foolish Shepherd â—fâ—rcipes mulctra the shears and pail Zech. 11.15 Woful will be their condition at the appearing of this great Shepherd Fifthly Iesus Christ was a Minister that lived up to his Doctrine His Life and Doctrine harmonized in all things He pressed to holiness in his Doctrine and was the great Pattern of
the like proportion also is betwixt the blood that consecrates them Earthly things with common Heavenly things with the most excellent blood So then there are two things to be especially observed here First The nature of Christs death and sufferings it had the nature use and end of a Sacrifice and of all Sacrifices the most excellent Secondly The necessity of his offering up it was necessary to correspond with all the Types and prefigurations of it under the Law but especially it was necessary for the expiating of sin the propitiating of a justly incensed God and the opening a way for reconciled ones to come to God in The point I shall give you from it is DOCT. That the sacrifice of Christ our high Priest is most excellent in it self and most necessary for us Sacrifices are of two sorts Eucharistical or thank-offerings in testification of homage duty and service and in token of gratitude for mercies freely received and Ilastical or expiatotory for satisfaction to Justice and thereby the attoning and reconciling of God Of this last kind was the sacrifice offered by Jesus Christ for us To this Office he was called by God Heb. 5.5 in it he was confirmed by the unchangeable oath of God Psal. 110.4 for it he was singularly qualified by his incarnation Heb. 5.6 7. and all the ends of it he hath fully answered Heb. 9.11 12. My present design is from this Scripture to open the general nature and absolute necessity of the Priesthood of Christ. Shewing what his Priesthood implys in it and how all this was indispensably necessary in order to our recovery from the deplorable state of sin and misery First then we will consider what it supposes and implies And then wherein it consists And there are six things which it either presupposeth or necessary includeth in it First At first sight it supposes mans revolt and fall from God and a dreadful breach made thereby betwixt God and him else no need of an attoning sacrifice If one dyed for all then were all death 2 Cor. 5.14 dead in Law under sentence to dye and that eternally In all the sacrifices from Adam to Christ this was still preached to the world that there was a fearful breach betwixt God and man and that even so justice required our blood should be shed And the fire flaming on the Altar which wholy burnt up the sacrifice was a lively Emblem of that fiery indignation that should devour the Adversaries But above all when Christ that true and great sacrifice was offered-up to God then was the fairest glass that ever was in the world set before us to see our sin and misery by the fall in Secondly His Priesthood supposes the unalterable purpose of God to take vengeance for sin He will not let it pass I will not determine what God could do in this case by his absolute power but I think it is generally yielded that by his ordinate power he could do no less than punish it in the person of the sinner or of his surety Those that contend for such a forgiveness as is an Act of Charity like that whereby private persons forgive one another must at once suppose God to part with his right cedendo de jure suo and also render the satisfaction of Christ altogether useless as to the procurement of forgiveness Yea rather an obstacle than a means to it Surely the nature and truth of God oblige him to punish sin He is of purer eyes than to look upon iniquity 1 Heb. 13. And beside the word is gone out of his mouth that the sinner shall dye Thirdly The Priesthood of Christ presupposeth the utter impotency of man to appease God and recover his favour by any thing he could do or suffer Surely God would not come down to assume a body to dye and be offered up for us if at any cheaper rate it could have been accomplished There was no other way to recover man and satisfie God Those that deny the satisfaction of Christ and talk of his dying to confirm the truth and give us an example of meekness patience and self-denyal affirming these to be the sole ends of his death do not only therein root up the foundation of their own comfort peace and pardon but most boldly impeach and tax the infinite Wisdom God could have done all this at a cheaper rate The sufferings of a meer creature are able to attain these ends The death of the Martyrs did it But who by dying can satisfie and reconcile God What creature can bring him an adequate and proportionable value for sin Yea for all the sin that ever was or shall be transmitted to the natures or committed by the persons of all Gods Elect from Adam to the last that shall be found alive at the Lords coming Surely none but Christ can do this Fourthly Christs Priesthood implys the necessity of his being God-man It was necessary he should be a man in order to his passion compassion and derivation of his righteousness and holiness to men Had he not been man he had had no sacrifice to offer no soul or body to suffer in The Godhead is impatible immortal and above all those sufferings and miseries Christ felt for us Besides his being man fills him with bowels of compassion and tender sense of our miseries This makes him a merciful and faithful High-Priest Heb. 4.15 And not only fits him to pity but to sanctifie us also for he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are both of one Heb. 2.11 14 17. And as necessary it was our High-Priest should be God since the value and efficacy of of his sacrifice results from thence Fifthly The Priesthood of Christ implies the extremity of his sufferings In sacrifices you know there was a destruction a kind of Annihilation of the Creature to the glory of God The sheding of the creatures blood and burning its flesh with fire was but an umbrage or faint resemblance of what Christ endured when he made his soul an offering for sin Sixthly and Lastly It implies the gratious design of God to reconcile us at a dear rate to himself in that he called and confirmed Christ in his Priesthood by an oath and thereby laid out a sacrifice of infinite value for the world Sins for which no sacrifice is allowed are desperate sins And the case of such sinners is helpless But if God allow yea and provide a sacrifice himself how plainly doth it speak his intentions of peace and mercy These things are manifestly presupposed or implyed in Christs Priesthood This Priesthood of Christ is that function wherein he comes before God in our name and place to fulfil the Law and offer up himself to him a sacrifice of reconciliation for our sins and by his intercession to continue and apply the purchase of his blood to them for whom he shed it All this is contained in that famous Scripture Heb. 10.7 8 9 10 11 12
13 14. or more briefly The Priesthood of Christ is that whereby he expiated the sins of men and obtained the favour of God for them Col. 1.20 22. Rom. 5.10 But because I shall insist more largely upon the several parts and fruits of this office it shall here suffice to speak thus much as to its general nature which was the first thing proposed for explication The necessity of Christs Priesthood comes next to be opened Touching which I affirm according to the Scriptures It was necessary in order to our salvation that such a Priest should by such a Sacrifice appear before God for us The truth of this assertion will be cleared by these two principles which are evident in the Scripture viz. That God stood upon full satisfaction and would not remit one sin without it And that fallen man is totally uncapable of tendring him any such satisfaction Therefore Christ who only can must do it or we perish First God stood upon full satisfaction and would not remit one sin without it This will be cleared from the nature of sin And from the veracity and wisdom of God First From the nature of sin which deserves that the sinner should suffer for it Penal evil in a course of Justice follows moral evil Sin and sorrow ought to go together Betwixt these is a necessary connexion Rom. 6.23 The wages of sin is death Secondly The veracity of God requires it The word was gone out of his mouth Gen. 2.17 In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely dye From that time he was instantly and certainly obnoxious and lyable to the death of soul and body The Law pronounces him cursed that continues not in all things that are written therein to do them Gal. 3.9 Now though mans threatnings are often vain and insignificant things yet Gods shall surely take place Not one tittle of the Law shall fail till all be fulfilled Matth. 5.18 God will be true in his threatnings though thousands and millions perish Thirdly The wisdom of God by which he governs the rational world admits not of a dispensation or relaxation of the threatnings without satisfaction For as good no King as no Laws for government As good no Law as no penalty And as good no penalty as no execution To this purpose one well observes It 's altogether undecent especially to the wisdom and and righteousness of God that that which provoketh the execution should procure the abrogation of his Law That that should supplant and undermine the Law for the alone preventing whereof the Law was before established How could it be expected that â—en should fear and tremble before God when they should find themselves more feared than hurt by his threats against sin So then God stood upon satisfaction and would admit no treaty of peace on any other ground Let none here object that reconciliation upon this only score of satisfaction is derogatory to the riches of grace or that we allow not God what we do men viz. to forgive an injury freely without satisfaction Free forgiveness to us and full satisfaction made to God by Jesus Christ for us are not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 things inconsistent with each other as in its proper place shall be fully cleared to you And for denying that to God which we allow to men you must know that man and man stands on even ground Man is not capable of being wronged and injured by man as God is by man There is no compare betwixt the nature of the offences To conclude man only can freely forgive man in a private capacity so far as the wrong concerns himself but ought not to do so in a publick capacity as he is a Judge and bound to execute justice impartially God is our Law-giver and Judge He will not dispense with violations of the Law but strictly stands on compleat satisfaction Secondly Man can tender to God no satisfaction of his own for the wrong done by his sin He finds no way to compensate and make God amends either by doing or by suffering his will First Not by doing This way is shut up to all the world None can satisfie God or reconcile himself to him this way For its evident our best works are sinful All our righteousness as filthy rags Isa. 64.6 And it 's strange any should imagine that one sin should make satisfaction for another if it be said not what is sinful in our duties but what is spiritual pure and good may ingratiate us with God It is at hand to reply that what is good in any of our duties is a debt we owe to God yea we owe him perfect obedience and it is not imaginable how we should pay one debt by another Quit a Farmer by contracting a new engagement if we do any thing that is good we are beholding to grace for it Ioh. 15.5 2 Cor. 3.5 1 Cor. 15.10 In a word those that have had as much to plead on that score as any now living have quitted and utterly given up all hopes of appeasing and satisfying the justice of God that way It 's like holy Iob feared God and eschued evil as much as any of you yet he saith Job 9.20 21. If I justifie my self mine own mouth shall condemn me if I say I am perfect it shall also prove me perverse Though I were perfect yet would I not know my soul I would despise my life It may be David was a man as much after the heart of God as you yet he said Psal. 143.2 Enter not into judgement with thy servant for in thy sight shall no man living be justified It 's like Paul lived as holy heavenly and fruitful a life as the best of you and far far beyond you yet he saith 1 Cor. 4.4 I know or am conscious to my self of nothing yet am I not thereby justified His sincerity might comfort him could not justifie him And what need I say more the Lord hath shut up this way to all the world And the Scriptures speak it roundly and plâ—â—â—ly Rom. 3.20 Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight Compare Gal. 3.21 Rom. 8.3 Secondly And as man can never reconcile himself to God by doing so neither by suffering That is equally impossible For no sufferings can satisfie God but such as are proportionable to the offence we suffer for And if so an infinite suffering must be born I say infinite for so sin is an infinite evil objectively considered as it wrongs an infinite God Now sufferings may be said to be infinite either in respect of their weight exceeding all bounds and limits The letting out the wrath and fury of an infinite God Or in respect of duration being endless and everlasting In the first sense no Creature can bear an infinite wrath It would swallow us up In the second it may be born as the damned do but then ever to be suffering is never to have satisfied
foresaw a great trial then at hand yea and all the after trials of his people as well as that He knew how much they would be sifted and put to it in that hour and power of darkness that was coming He knew their faith would be shaken and greatly staggered by the approaching difficulties when they should see their Shepherd smitten and themselves scattered The Son of man delivered into the hands of Sinners and the Lord of Life hang dead upon the tree yea sealed up in the grave He foresaw what straights his poor people would fall into betwixt a busie Devil and a bad heart therefore he prays and pleads with such importunity and ardency for them that they might not miscarry Secondly He was now entring upon his intercession-work in Heaven and he was desirous in this prayer to give us a Specimen or sample of that part of his work before he left us that by this we might understand what he would do for us when he should be out of our sight For this being his last on earth it shews us what affections and dispositions he carried hence with him and satisfies us that he who was so earnest with God on our behalf such a mighty pleader here will not forget us or neglect our concerns in the other world Yet Reader I would have the alwaies to remember that the intercession of Christ in Heaven is carried at a much higher rate than this It 's performed in a way more suitable to that state of honour to which he is now exalted Here he used prostrations of Body cries and tears in his prayers There it 's carried in a more majestick and with more state becoming an exalted Jesus But yet in this he hath left us a special assistance to discover much of the frame temper and working of his heart now in Heaven towards us Thirdly and Lastly He would leave this as a standing monument of his Father-like care and love to his people to the end of the world And for this it is conceived Christ delivered this prayer so publickly not withdrawing from the Disciples to be private with God as he did in the Garden but he delivers it in their presence these things I speak in the world this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with the â—ircumstance of place in the world doth plainly speak it to be a publick prayer And not only was it publickly delivered but it was also by a singular providence recorded at large by Iohn though omitted by the other Evangelists that so it might stand to all generations for a testimony of Christs tender care and Love to his people Fourthly If you ask how this gives evidence of Christs tender care and Love to his people which is the last enquiry I answer in few words For the thing is plain and obvious It appears in these two particulars First His Love and care manifest in the choice of mercies for them He doth not pray for health honour long life riches c. but for their preservation from sin spiritual joy in God sanctification and eternal glory No mercies but the very best in Gods treasure will content him He was resolved to get all the best mercies for his people the rest he is content should be dispensed promiscuously by providence But these he will settle as an heritage upon his children O see the Love of Christ Look over all your spiritual inheritance in Christ compare it with the richest fairest sweetest inheritance on earth and see what poor things these are to yours O the care of a dear Father O the love of a Saviour Secondly Besides what an evidence of his tenderness to you and great care for you was this that he should so intently and so affectionately mind and plead your concerns with God at such a time as this was even when a world of sorrow was heming him in on every side A cup of wrath mixed and ready to be delivered into his hand At that very time when the clouds of wrath grew black a storm coming and such as he never felt before when one would have thought all his care thoughts and diligence should have been imployed on his own account to mind his own sufferings no he doth as it were forget his own sorrows to mind our peace and comfort O Love unspeakable Corollary 1. If this be so that Christ so eminently discovered his care and love for his people in this parting hour Then hence we conclude the perseverance of the Saints is unquestionable Do you hear how he pleads how he begs how he fills his mouth with arguments how he chooseth his words and sets them in order how he winds up his Spirit to the very highest pin of zeal and fervency and can you doubt of success can such a Father deny the importunity and strong reasonings and pleadings of such a Son O it can never be He cannot deny him Christ hath the art and skill of prevailing with God He hath as in this appears the tongue of the Learned If the heart or hand of God were hard to be opened yet this would open them but when the Father himself loveth us and is inclined to do us good who can doubt of Christs success that which is in motion is the more easily moved The cause Christ manageth in Heaven for us is Just and Righteous The manner in which he pleads is powerful and therefore the success of his suit is unquestionable The Apostle professeth 2 Cor. 1.3 we can do nothing against the truth He means it in regard of the bent of his heart he could not move against truth and Righteousness And if a holy man cannot much less will a holy God If Christ undertake to plead the cause of his people with the Father and use his oratory with him there is no doubt but he carries it Every word in this prayer is a chosen shaft drawn to the head by a strong and skilful hand you need not question but it goes home to the white and hits the mark aimed at Doth he pray Father keep through thine own name those thou hast given me Sure they shall be kept if all the power in Heaven can keep them O think on this when dangers surround your souls or bodies When fears and doubts are multiplied within When thou art ready to say in thy hast all men are liers I shall one day perish by the hand of sin or Satan Think on that incouragement Christ gave to Peter Luke 22.31 I have prayed for thee Corollary 2. Again hence we learn that Argumentative prayers are excellent prayers The strength of every thing is in its joints There lies much of the strength of prayer also How strongly jointed how nervous and argumentative was this prayer of Christ Some there are indeed that think we need not argue and plead in prayer with God but only present the matter of our prayers to him and let Christ alone whose office it is to plead with the
in Hell for ever Rom. 2.5 6 7 8 9 10. Thou treasurest up to thy self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous Iudgement of God Who shall render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life but unto them that are contentious and obey not the truth but obey unrighteousness indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doth evil c. So 2 Thes. 1.4 5 6 7. So that we our selves glory in you in the Churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure Which is a manifest token of the righteous Iudgement of God That ye may be counted worthy of the Kingdom of God for which ye also suffer Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Iesus shall be revealed from Heaven in flaming fire c. To these plain testimonies multitudes more might be added if it were needful Heaven and Earth shall pass away but these words shall never pass away Arg. 3. Thirdly As the Scriptures reveal it so the Consciences of all men have some resentments of it Where is the man whose Conscience never felt any impressions of hope or fear from a future world If it be said these may be but the effects and force of discourse or education we have read such things in the Scriptures or have heard it by Preachers and so raise up to our selves hopes and fears about it I demand how the Consciences of the Heathens who have neither Scriptures nor Preachers came to be imprest with these things Doth not the Apostle tells us Rom. 2.15 That their Consciences in the mean while work upon these things Their thoughts with reference to a future state accuse or else excuse i. e. their hearts are cheared and encouraged by the good they do and terrified with fears about the evils they commit Whereas if there were no such things Conscience would neither accuse or excuse for good or evil done in this world Arg. 4. Fourthly The incarnation and death of Christ is but a vanity without it What did he propose to himself or what benefit have we by his coming if there be no such future state Did he take our nature and suffer such terrible things in it for nothing If you say Christians have much comfort from it in this Life I answer the comforts they have are raised by faith and expectation of the happiness to be enjoyed as the purchase of his blood in Heaven And if there be no such heaven to which they are appointed No Hell from which they are redeemed they do but comfort themselves with a Fable and bless themselves in a thing of nought Their comfort is no greater than the comfort of a Beggar that dreams he is a King and when he awakes finds himself a Beggar still Surely the ends of Christs death were to deliver us from the wrath to come 1 Thes. 1.10 Not from an imaginary but a real Hell to bring us to God 1 Pet. 3.18 To be the Author of eternal Salvation to them that obey him Heb. 5.9 Arg. 5. Fifthly and lastly The immortality of humane souls puts it beyond all doubt The soul of a man vastly differs from that of a Beast which is but a material form and so wholly depending on must needs perish with the matter But it is not so with us Ours are reasonable spirits that can live and act in a separated state from the body Eccles. 3.21 Who knoweth the spirit of man that goeth upward and the spirit of a Beast that goeth downward to the earth So that look as if a man dispute whether man be rational that his very disputing it proves him to be so so our disputes hopes fears and apprehensions of eternity prove our souls immortal and capable of that state Inference 1. Is there an Eternal State into which souls pass after this Life How pretious then is present time upon the improvement whereof that State depends O what a huge weight hath God hanged upon a small wyer God hath set us here in a State of Tryal according as we improve these few hours so will it fare with us to all Eternity Every day every hour nay every moment of your present time hath an influence into your Eternity Do ye believe this What and yet squander away pretious time so carelesly so vainly How do these things consist When Seneca heard one promise to spend a week with a friend that invited him to recreate himself with him He told him he admired he should make such a rash promise what said he cast away so considerable a part of your Life How can you do it Surely our prodigallity in the expence of time argues we have but little sence of great Eternity Inference 2. How rational are all the difficulties and severities of Religion which serve to promote and secure a future Eternal Happiness So vast is the disproportion betwixt Time and Eternity things seen and not seen as yet the present vanishing and future permanent state that he can never be justly reputed a wise man that will not let go the best enjoyment he hath on earth if it stand in the way of his eternal happiness Nor can that man ever escape the just censure of notorious folly who for the gratifying of his appetite and present accommodation of his flesh le ts go an eternal glory in heaven Darius repented heartily that he lost a Kingdom for a draught of water O said he for how short a pleasure have I sold a Kingdom It was Moses choice and his choice argued his wisdom he chose rather to suffer afflictions with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin which are but for a season Heb. 11.25 Men do not account him a fool that will adventure a Penny upon a probability to gain ten thousand pounds But sure the disproportion betwixt Time and Eternity is much greater Inference 3. If there certainly be such an Eternal State into which souls pass immediately after Death How great a change then doth Death make upon every man and woman O what a serious thing is it to die It 's your passage out of the swift river of Time into the boundless and bottomless Ocean of Eternity You that now converse with sensible objects with men and women like your selves enter then into the world of Spirits You that now see the continual revolutions of daies and nights passing away one after another will then be fixed in a perpetual NOW O what a serious thing is Death You throw a cast for Eternity when you die If you were to cast a Dye for your natural life oh how would your hand shake with fear how it would fall but what is that to this The souls of
to make it good when the time of the Promise is come as at death it is It cannot be Multitudes of Promises the whole Covenant of Promises give security to the soul against the fears of rejection or neglect by God And the souls dependance upon God and hanging upon a promise it s every rolling it self upon God from the incouragement the word gives it adds to the ingagement upon God When he sees a poor soul that he hath made redeemed sanctified sealed and by solemn Promise engaged himself to receive coming to him at death rolling it self upon his faithfulness that promised saying as David 2 Sam. 23.5 Though Lord there be many defects in me yet thou hast made a Covenant with me well order'd in all things and sure and this is all my salvation and all my hope Lord I am resolved to send out my soul in an act of Faith I will venture it upon the credit of thy Promise How can God refuse such a soul How can he put it off when it so puts it self upon him Sixthly But this is not all the gratious soul sustains many intimate and dear relations to that God into whose hands it commends it self at death It 's his Spouse and the consideration of such a day of Espousals may well encourage it to cast it self into the bosom of Christ its head and husband It is a member of his body flesh and bones Eph. 5.30 It is his child he its everlasting Father Isai. 9.6 It 's his friend Hence forth saith Christ I call you not servants but friends Joh. 15.15 What confidence may these and all other the dear relations Christ owns to the renewed soul beget in such an hour as this is What husband can throw off the dear wife of his bosom who in distresses casts her self into his arms What Father can shut the door upon a dear child that comes to him for refuge saying Father into thy hands I commit my self Seventhly and Lastly The unchangableness of Gods love to his people gives confidence they shall in no wise be cast out They know Christ is the same to them at last he was at first The same in the pangs of death as he was in the comforts of life Having loved his own which were in the world he loved them to the end Ioh. 13.1 He doth not love as the world loves only in prosperity But they are as dear to him when their beauty and strength is gone as when it was in the greatest flowrish If we live we live to the Lord and if we die we die to the Lord so then whether we live or die we are the Lords Rom. 14.8 take in all these things and weigh them both apart and together and see whether they amount not to a full evidence of the truth of this point that dying believers are both warranted and incouraged to commend their souls into the hands of God Whether they have not every one of them cause to say as the Apostle did 2 Tim. 1.12 I know whom I have believed and am perswaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed to him against that day The improvements of all this you have in the following practical Diductions Diduction 1. Are dying believers only warranted and encouraged thus to commend their souls into the hands of God What a sad straight then must all dying unbelievers be in about their souls Such souls will fall into the hands of God but that 's their misery not their priveledge They are not put by faith into the hands of mercy but fall by sin into the hands of justice Not God but the Devil is their Father Iob. 8.44 Whither should the child go but to its own Father They have not one of those forementioned encouragements to cast themselves into the hands of God except the naked relation they have to God as their Creator and that 's as good as none without the new creation If they have nothing but this to plead for their salvation the Devil hath as much to plead as they It 's the new creature that brings the first creation into repute again with God O dismal O deplorable case A pool soul is turning out of house and home and knows not where to go It departs and immediately falls into the hands of justice The Devil stands by waiting for such a soul whom God will throw to him as a Dog for a crust Little ah little do the friends of such a one think whilst they are honouring his dust by a splendid and honourable funeral what a case that poor soul is in that lately dwelt there and what fearful straights and extremities it is now exposed to They will cry indeed Lord Lord open to us Matth. 7.22 But to how little purpose are their vain cries Will God hear him when he cries Iob. 27.9 It 's a lamentable case Diduction 2. Will God gratiously accept and faithfully keep what the Saints commit to him at death how careful then should they be to keep what God commits to them to be kept for him while they live You have a great trust to commit to God when you die and God hath a great trust to commit to you whilst you live you expect that he should faithfully keep what then you shall commit to his keeping and he expects you should faithfully keep what he now commits to your keeping O keep what God commits to you as you expect he should keep your souls when you commit them unto him If you keep his truths he will keep your souls Because thou hast kept the word of my patience I also will keep thee c. Rev. 3.10 Be faithful to your God and you shall find him faithful to you None can pluck you out of his hand see that nothing wrest his truths out of your hands If we deny him he also will deny us 2 Tim. 2.12 Take heed lest those estates you have gotten as a blessing attending the Gospel prove a temptation to you to betray the Gospel Religion saith one brings forth Riches but the Daughter devours the Mother How can you expect acceptance with God who have betrayed his truth and dealt perfidiously with him Diduction 3. If believers may safely commit their souls into the hands of God How confidently may they commit all lesser interests and lower concernments into the same hand Shall we trust him with our souls and not with our lives liberties or comforts Can we commit the treasure to him and not a trifle Whatever you enjoy in this world is but a trifle to your souls Sure if you can trust him for eternal life for your souls you may much more trust him for the daily bread for your bodies I know it is objected that God hath made over temporal things to his people upon conditional promises and an absolute faith can never be grounded upon conditional promises But what means this objection Let your faith be but suitable to these conditional promises
thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled They shall then depend no more upon the stream but drink from the ever flowing fountain it self Psal 36.8 They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures For with thee is the fountain of life and in thy light shall we see light There they shall drink and praise and praise and drink for evermore All their thirsty desires shall be filled with compleat satisfaction O how desirable a state is heaven upon this account And how should we be restless till we come thither as the thirsty traveller is until he meet that cool refreshing spring he wants and seeks for This present state is a state of thirsting that to come of refreshment and satisfaction Some drops indeed come from that fountain by faith but they quench not the believers thirst Rather like water sprinkled on fire they make it burn the more but there the thirsty soul hath enough O bless God that Jesus Christ thirsted under the heat of his wrath once that you might not be scorched with it for ever If he had not cryed I thirst you must have cryed out of thirst eternally and never be satisfied Inference 6. Lastly Did Christ in the extremity of his sufferings cry I thirst Then how great beyond all compare is the love of God to Sinners Who for their sakes exposed the Son of his love to such extream sufferings Three considerations marvelously heighten that love of the Father First His putting the Lord Jesus into such a condition There is none of us would endure to see a Child of our own lie panting and thirsting in the extremity of torments for the fairest inheritance on earth Much less to have the soul of a child conflicting with the wrath of God and making such heart-rending complaints as Christ made upon the Cross if we might have the largest Empire in the world for it yet such was the strength of the love of God to us that he willingly gave Jesus Christ to all this misery and torture for us What shall we call this love O the height length depth and bredth of that love which passeth knowledge The love of God to Jesus Christ was infinitly beyond all the love we have to our children as the Sea is more than a spoonful of water and yet as dearly as he loved him he was content to expose him to all this rather than we should perish eternally Secondly As God the Father was content to expose Christ to this extremity so in that extremity to hear his bitter cries and dolorous complaints and yet not relieve him with the least refreshment till he fainted and died under it He heard the cries of his Son That voice I thirst pierced heaven and reacht the Fathers ear but yet he will not refresh him in his agonies nor abate him any thing of the debt he was now paying and all this for the love he had to poor sinners Had Christ been relieved in his sufferings and spared then God could not have pitied or spared us The extremity of Christs sufferings was an act of Justice to him and the greatest mercy to us that ever could be manifested Nor indeed though Christ so bitterly complains of his thirst was he willing to be relieved till he had finished his work O love unspeakable He doth not complain that he might be relieved but to manifest how great that sorrow was which his soul now felt upon our account Thirdly And it should never be forgotten that Jesus Christ was exposed to these extremities of sorrow for sinners the greatest of sinners who deserved not one drop of mercy from God This commends the love of God singularly to us in that whilst we were yet sinners Christ dyed for us Rom. 5.8 Thus the Love of God in Jesus Christ still rises higher and higher in every discovery of it Admire adore and be ravished with the thoughts of this Love Thanks be to God for his unspeakable Gift The THIRTY FIFTH SERMON JOH XIX XXX When Iesus therefore had received the Vinegar he said it is Finished and bowed his head and gave up the Ghost IT is finished This is the sixth remarkable word of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the Cross uttered as a Triumphant shout when he saw the glorious issue of all his sufferings now at hand It is but one word in the original but in that one word is contained the sum of all Joy The very spirits of all divine consolation The ancient Greeks reckoned it their excellency to speak much in a little To give a Sea of matter in a drop of language What they only sought is here found I find some variety and indeed variety rather than contrariety among expositors about the relation of these words Some are of opinion that the antecedent is the legal Types and Ceremonies And so make this to be the meaning It is finished that is all the Types and Prefigurations that shadowed forth the Redemption of souls by the blood of Christ are now fulfilled and accomplished And doubtless as this is in it self a truth so it 's such a truth as may not be excluded as alien to the true scope and sense of this place And though it be objected that many Types and Prefigurations remained at this time unsatisfied even all that looked to the actual death of Christ his continuance in the state of the dead and his resurrection yet it 's easily removed by considering that they are said to be finished because they were just finishing or ready to be finished And it is as if Christ had said I am now putting the last hand to it A few moments of time more will compleat and finish it I have the sum now in my hand which will fully satisfie and pay God the whole debt It is now but bow the head and the work is done and all the Types therein fulfilled So that this cannot exclude the fulfilling of the Types in the death of Christ from their just claim to the sense of this place But yet though we cannot here exclude this sense we cannot allow it to be the whole or principal sense For loe a far greater truth is contained herein even the finishing or complement of the whole design and project of our Redemption and therein of all the Types that prefigured it Both these judicious Calvin conjoyns making the compleating of redemption the principal and the fulfilling of all the Types the Collateral and less principal sense of it Yet it must be observed when we say Christ finished Redemption-work by his death the meaning is not that his death alone did finish it for his abode in the grave resurrection and ascention had all of them their joynt influence into it but these being shortly to follow are all included in the scope of this place According then to the principal scope of the place we observe DOCT.
That Iesus Christ hath perfected and compleatly finished the great work of Redemption committed to him by God the Father To this great truth the Apostle gives a full testimony Heb. 10.14 By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified And to the same purpose speaks Joh. 17.4 I have glorified thee on earth I have finished the work thou gavest me to do Concerning this work and the finishing thereof by Jesus Christ upon the Cross we shall enquire what this work was how Christ finished it and what evidence can be produced for the finishing of it First What was the work which Christ finished by his death It was the fulfilling the whole Law of God in our room and for our Redemption as a Sponsor or surety for us The Law is a glorious thing The holiness of God that fiery attribute is engraven or stampt upon every part of it Deut. 33.2 From his right hand went a fiery Law The jealousie of the Lord watched over every point and tittle of it for his dreadful and glorious name was upon it It cursed every one that continued not in all things contained therein Gal. 3.10 Two things therefore were necessarily required in him that should perfectly fulfil it and both found in our surety and in him only viz. a subjective and effective perfection First A subjective perfection He that wanted this could never say it is finished Perfect working always follows a perfect being That he might therefore finiâ—h this great work of obedience and therein the glorious design of our Redemption loe in what shining and perfect holiness was he produced Luk. 1.35 That holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God and indeed such an High-Priest became us who is holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners Heb. 7.26 So that the Law could have no exception against his person Nay it was never so honoured since its first promulgation as it was by having such a perfect and excellent person as Christ to stand at its Bar and give it due reparation Secondly There must be also an effective perfection or a perfection of working and obeying before it could be said it is finished This Christ had for he continued in all things written in the Law to do them He fulfilled all righteousness as it behoved him to do Matth. 3.15 He did all that was required to be done And suffered all that was requisite to be sufferâ—d He did and suffered all that was commanded or threatned in such perfection of obedience both active and passive that the pure eye of divine Justice could not find a flaw in it And so finished the work his Father gave him to do And this work finished by our Lord Jesus Christ was both a necessary difficult and pretious work First It was a necessary work which Christ finished upon the Cross. Necessary upon a threefold account It was necessary on the Fathers account I do not mean that God was under any necessity from his nature of redeeming us this or any other way For our Redemption is opus liberi consilii an effect of the free counsel of God but when God had once decreed and determined to redeem and save poor sinners by Jesus Christ then it became necessary that the counsel of God should be fulfilled Act. 4.28 To do whatsoever thy hand and counsel had before determined to be done Secondly It was necessary with respect to Christ. Upon the account of that previous compact that was betwixt the Father and him about it Therefore it 's said by Christ himself Luk. 22.22 Truly the Son of Man goeth as it was determined i. e. as it was fore-agreed and covenanted under the necessity of fulfilling his engagement to the Father he came into the world and being come he still minds his engagement Joh. 9.3 I must work the works of him that sent me Thirdly Yea and it was no less necessary upon our account that this work should be finished For had not Christ finished this work sin had quickly finished all our lives comforts and hopes Without the finishing this work not a Son or Daughter of Adam could ever have seen the face of God Therefore it 's said Joh. 3.14 15. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life On all these accounts the finishing of this work was necessary Secondly As it was necessary this work should be finished so the finishing of it was exceeding difficult It cost many a cry many a groan many a tear many a hard tug before Christ could say it is finished All the Angels in Heaven were not able by their united strength to lift that burden one inch from the ground which Christ bare upon his shoulders yea and bare it away But how heavy a burden this was may in part appear by his propassion in the Garden and the bitter out-crys he made upon the Cross which in their proper places have been opened Thirdly and Lastly It was a most pretious work which Christ finished by his death That work was dispatched and finished in few hours which will be the matter of everlasting songs and triumphs to the Angels and Saints to all eternity O it was a pretious work The mercies that now flow out of this fountain viz. Justification Sanctification Adoption c. are not to be valued Besides the endless happiness and glory of the coming-world which cannot enter into the heart of man to conceive If the Angels sang when the foundation stone was laid what shouts what triumphs should there be among the Saints when this voice is heard It is finished Secondly Let us next inform our selves how and in what manner Jesus Christ finished this glorious work And if you search the Scriptures upon that account you will find that he finished it obedientially freely diligently and fully First This blessed work was finished by Jesus Christ most obediently Phil. 2.8 He became obedient to death even the death of the Cross. His obedience was the obedience of a servant though not servile obedience So it was foretold of him before he touched this work Isai. 50.5 The Lord God hath opened mine ear and I was not rebellious neither turned away back i. e. my Father told me the very worst of it He told me what hard and heavy things I must undergo if ever I finished this design of redemption and I was not rebellious i. e. I heartily submitted to and accepted all those difficulties For there is a Meiosis in the words I was content to stoop to the hardest and most ignominious part of it rather than not finish it Secondly As Christ finished it obediently so he finished it freely Freedom and obedience in acting are not at all opposite to or exclusive of each other Moses his Mother nursed him in obedience to the command of Pharaohs daughter yet most