he made himself the Son of God John 19.7 i. e. equal with God as they understood it chap. 5.18 However the Socinians would mince that Expression now but this was far from a Criminal Accusation or a warrantable Reason why he should die as they pretended For being in the form of God of the same infinite Essence he counted it no Robbery to be equal with God Phil. 2.6 III. How did Christ restore those things which he took not away Answ In General by his Active and Passive Obedience for both are concern'd in this matter and contribute their joint influence towards the great and blessed Work of which I am now speaking As will appear 1. Christ's doing of the Will of God in such a manner as he did it was a greater Honour to God than ever had been or could be done before He did it in the most exact and sinless manner the Law of God in his Heart and copied out in his Actions was as perfect as it is in it self The Commandment though exceeding broad was not wider than his performance of it This could never be said of any of the Sons of Men before since the Fall of Adam for there is still a large mixture of Evil with all the Good they do and their best and compleat Duties will not bear weighing in an even Balance And as to Adam himself before he fell in his state of Uprightness there was a vast disproportion between his Obedience and the Obedience of Christ What comparison between the service of a Day and a whole Life What comparison between the Act of a Creature and the Acts of the Son of God! There was more Glory brought to God by his Son 's being his Servant but for one moment than by all the Angels in Heaven and Men on Earth being so for ever 2. Christ's suffering of the Will of God made a considerable addition to the Glory of God which had been impaired by the sin of Man Hebr. 5.8 Tho' he were a Son yet learned he Obedience by the things which he suffered This was admirable He that teaches Obedience to us and requires it of us learn'd it himself and he learn'd it experimentally for to learn to obey is to obey It was a Lesson which he practised and it was an harder Lesson than in cases where he was only call'd to do for it was by the things that he suffered This he refers to in that last famous Prayer of his John 17.4 I have glorified thee on the Earth I have finish'd the Work c. The finishing of his Work was by dying this crown'd all that he had done and undergone before and therefore this was the most eminent and signal instance of his glorifying God Therefore when Judas the Traytor was gone out Christ breaks forth Now is God glorified in me now the hour is coming John 13.31 Now all his Attributes Precepts Promises Threatnings are about to be made more illustrious by my Death than ever they have been 3. Christ hath provided for the Justification of the Sinner by the Obedience which he fulfilled By the Obedience of one shall many be made righteous Rom. 5.8 Our Lord Jesus is this One and Believers are those many all soand and true Believers whether strong or weak One Christ is able to justifie many God hath declared That what he hath done is enough for this purpose Isa 53.11 Yea it is more pleasing and satisfactory to God than if every one of these many had done what the Law calls for from them in their own Persons As Christ appear'd in Vision to John with a Garment down to the Feet Rev. 1.13 so the Robe of his Righteousness is long and large enough to supply all the Defects of ours and cover his whole Body Here is a sufficient ample Recompence for our former loss we gain a better in the room of what we had The Righteousness which sin carried out was a poor mutable temporary fading thing now an everlasting Righteousness is brought in Dan. 9.24 a Righteousness which cannot be taken away or by any means wrested from us 4. Christ communicates that Grace which is necessary for our Sanctification also He finds Sinners in their Blood but he does not leave them so he finds them without God but brings them to him he finds them afar off but makes them nigh he finds them haters of God and one another but he plants love to both in their Hearts by his own Spirit He purifies them to himself Tit. 2.14 and forms himself in them There are no partakers of Christ but what partake of God's Holiness by him they have no saving benefit from him that are destitute of this Isa 62.12 They shall call them The holy People theredeemed of the Lord. As Christ is the Author of Salvation to them that believe and obey him so he is the Author of their Faith and their Obedience we receive Grace from him in order to the receiving of him and walking in him There is no spiritual good thing that dwells in us but what is the effect of Christ's dwelling there Souls that are united to his Person are supplied out of his fullness and these are such Supplies as shall never fail or be cut off while we have a being 5. Jesus Christ hath merited for us a present Blessedness in this World This necessarily follows upon what hath been said for they that are already in a justified and sanctified State must needs be in an happy State more happy upon these accounts than they can be miserable upon any other Where sin is taken away as to its damning Guilt and ruling Power no afflictive Evils can make us miserable but rather help to encrease our Happiness for the most uneasie Providences are so sanctified that it is better than if they were escaped 'T is a Privilege which we owe to the Blood of Christ that none of the Calamities of this Life shall hurt us but all shall do us good and 't is far more desirable to be kept in a Wilderness of Trouble under such a Promise than to be in a Paradice of Prosperity without it God deals with Believers as Children when he chastens them with Sinners as Enemies when he shines upon them Christ hath redeemed us from the whole Curse Gal. 3.13 from the Curse of temporal Afflictions as well as everlasting Destruction He was crowned with Thorns as the Fruit of the Curse here upon the Earth Gen. 3.18 to shew that hath born it for us and born it away from us 6. Jesus Christ hath procured for us a more full and absolute Blessedness in the World to come This is what we had forfeited all hopes of and title to but of him we have obtained this Inheritance again Ephes 1.11 Believers are made happy now by the earnest of it hereafter they will be more unconceivably happy in the actual compleat possession Whoso eateth my Flesh and drinketh my Blood hath eternal Life John 6.54 Eternal Life and Glory is
the very top and uttermost point the head Stone and the full blown Flower of a Creature 's Felicity when you have said this you can go no higher now to assure us the more comfortably of our arrival to this at last we have the pledges and beginnings of it here but the way of our receiving them is to be consider'd 'T is by eating the Flesh and drinking the Blood of Christ by Faith in the Lamb slain in our Passover Sacrific'd for his Flesh could not have been eaten nor his Blood drunk if he had not died 'T is the death of Christ which we must lay hold upon for Life and Salvation the Kingdom which he appoints to us is founded here for as one says Christ hath purchased by his Death all the Legacies bequeath'd in his Testament which no other Testator does IV. Why did Jesus Christ make it his Work to restore what he took not away 1. It was a necessary work a work which must be done in order to his being a Saviour God will have restitution made one way or another his injur'd Name and Honour must be vindicated It became him c. in bringing many Sons unto glory yea it would have become him if he had brought but one to make the Captain of our Salvation perfect through sufferings Hebr. 2.10 It was agreeable to his Wisdom Purity Truth and Righteousness that Jesus Christ should make compensation by his Blood for the Iniquity of Mâ—â— It was not fit nor consistent with the Perfections of Gods Nature that such Indignities 〈…〉 had offer'd should be passed by 〈…〉 without any notice taken or 〈…〉 Mercy cannot be exercis'd to the dispuragement of any other Attribute he cannot exile one to the depressing of the rest In the business of Salvation there was something else to be done besides the magnifying of Grace God had said that be would magnisie the Law and make it honourable Isa 42.21 This Law had been trampled on by every Child of Disobedience and therefore to assert and recover the Reputation of it Christ must be made under it perform what it enjoin'd and suffer what it threatned 2. It was a work impossible for any meer Creature to do so that if Christ did not it could not have been done by any Person besides him The Scripture speaks of the wicked Oppressor that he shall vomit up what he swallows down and according to his substance shall the restitution be Job 20.18 He shall refund to those whom he hath drained by rapine and Violence as far as his Estate will go But what restitution can there be when all the substance is wasted This is our case we are wretchedly poor and insolvent and have nothing to pay being reduc'd by Sin to absolute Beggary we have stoln away as far as was in our power the Crown from God and we have â—ined and plander'd our selves encroach'd upon the Rights of Heaven and wrong'd our own Souls and are utterly uncapable of making the least attonement for all this We can take away but we cannot restore When the Servant that owed Ten thousand Talents to his Lord was brought before him and could not pay his Debt his Lord commanded him to be sold Matth. 18.25 but alas we are not worth so much as our Debt amounts to If Justice should seize us it must detain us for ever we must not only be cast into Prison but kept there and our lying in Hell for ever would not satisfy God as Christ's suffering once upon the Cross SERMON XVI December 15. 1696. PSALM LXIX iv last Clause Then I restored that which I took not away 3. JEsus Christ was ordained of God to this work and in that respect there was a necessity of his accomplishing it John 9.4 I must work the work of him that sent me c. This was the work of him that sent him and therefore he could not decline it Christ could not resist the Will of the Father any more than he could cease to love him John 14.31 That the World may know that I love the Father as the Father gave me commandment even so I do His Obedience was an Evidence of his Love to God as it is of ours though there be no proportion between his and ours for no Creatures love to God was ever so strong or ever so tried Cyrus was styled the Man that executed God's Counsel Isa 46.11 but he did it ignorantly for he knew not God but the Man Christ Jesus understood his Work and who gave it him to do and design'd the Execution of God's Counsel in it as an Expression of his matchless Affection to him It became our Lord Jesus in the quality of God's Commissioner To be faithful to him that appointed him Heb. 3.2 He was put in trust with this Business and he must shew his Fidelity in performing it There is such an exact Agreement between his and the Father's Will that when God pleas'd to require his Service he could not but say Lo I come 4. Christ had engag'd to take this Work upon him which is a sort of Engagement that the Scripture more than once expresses by striking Hands Job 17.3 Prov. 22.26 So our Lord Jesus had covenanted with the Father before all Time to do that which in the fulness of Time he actually came to do Now this Agreement which bears an Eternal Date could not be disanulled or made void again as God the Father had sworn with respect to Christ and could not repent Psalm 110.4 So Jesus Christ having enter'd into such a Bond it stood firm as the Ordinances of Heaven and he could not go back from the Execution or Performance of it If the Covenant of Redemption might have been broken the whole Design might have miscarried the Counsel of Peace had been overthrown and all the Thoughts of God to us-ward had come to nothing It was upon this unmoveable Foundation that the Salvation of all the Believers under the Old Testament was built as well as those under the New so that if Christ had not made good what he undertook they that were let into Heaven must have been cast out But the Considence that God reposed in his Son could not be so defeated He that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not is the Character of a Citizen of Sion Psalm 15.4 But most eminently true of Christ 5. The Infinite Love of Christ to Sinners did sweetly incline him to this Work His Delights who was the Wisdom of God were with the Sons of Men Prov. 8.31 He delighted in Mercy and in them as the needy Objects of it who otherwise were altogether undelightful The Bowels of Jesus Christ were troubled for us he could not bear to see his whole reasonable Creation in this lower World made a Prey to the Devil without interposing for the effectual Rescue of a chosen peculiar Number Our Misery was the Motive to his Compassion that swayed him to Acts of Pity when our guilt would have provokt him to
threatned with the burning Furnace Dan. 3.17 Our God is able to deliver us and he will deliver us Be satisfied that he who is able to save will actually save those that cast themselves upon him SERMON XXIV October 15. 1697. HEBREWS VII xxv Therefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make Intercession for them II. AS to the Evidence which the Apostle brings to prove his Assertion by The Eternal Life and Intercession of Jesus Christ in Heaven Here we are to consider three Things viz. The Life of Christ in Heaven His Intercession there And the Objects of it or Persons on whose behalf he lives and intercedes First The eternal Life of Christ in Heaven In opening of this we should shew That he lives and that he lives for ever and how the Conclusion of his being able to save is built and founded hereupon 1. That Christ lives not only as he is the living God Hebr. 3.12 and so eternal Life is essential to his Deity 1 John 1.2 15 20. but he lives as Mediator and that very Life which he laid down as Man he hath taken up again and possesses it now more advantagiously than before This was the grand Controversie in the Apostolical Times between the Jews and Christians so Festus represents it to Agrippa as a Quarrel about one Jesus who was dead whom Paul affirmed to be alive Acts 25.19 The Jews would have him to be really in the State of the Dead still and that his Disciples stole him out of the Grave to give Reputation to their new Doctrine but the Apostles were Witnesses of his Resurrection and preached this where-ever they preach'd the Gospel for indeed the whole Gospel would be but an empty Fable without it If Christ were not alive what 's become of the Type of the Living Bird in the cleansing of the Leper that was let loose into the open Field Lev. 14.7 What 's become of the Type of the Scape Goat that was sent away into the Wilderness Chap. 16.21 How have these things received their Accomplishment but in the Life of Jesus It was as necessary for our Consolation and Salvation that Christ should live as that he should die The meer Death of Christ would profit us nothing could be no support to us if he had continued under the Power of Death Therefore as old Jacob was transported with Joy when he heard that Joseph was alive Gen. 45.26 28. So Job in the midst of his Afflictions triumph'd and glorifie in this I know that my Redeemer liveth Job 19.25 2. That he ever lives When our Lord speaks of his Death it was matter of stumbling to the Jews because say they we have heard out of the Law that Christ abideth for ever John 12.34 but they erred not knowing the Scripture This was not be understood in opposition to his dying but as consequent upon it for after his Death and notwithstanding his Death this was to be made good that he should abide for ever So we find our Lord himself from Heaven expounding it to John Rev. 1.18 I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore The Life which Christ lived upon Earth was a mortal temporary perishing Life as ours is for he took part of our Flesh and Blood in the same poor and miserable Circumstances as we do but the Life which he now lives in Heaven is of another sort of a more permanent and durable Nature So Rom. 6.9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more Death hath no more Dominion over him He cannot die a second time as Lazarus did who after his first Death was raised again and died again as the Body of his Humiliation even when dead saw no Corruption so his glorified Body with which he sits at the Right Hand of God can never see Death His present Life is such an one as swallows up mortality 3. How is the Inference of Christ's being able to save grounded here upon his Living for ever Answer Very strongly for the saving Power of Jesus Christ shines forth most illustriously in him as living Rom. 5.10 Being reconciled by his Death we shall be much more saved by his Life So Chap. 8. 34. Who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is raised again c. If Christ had been held by the Bands of Death or if it had been possible for him so to be held it had been impossible for him to be the Author of Salvation to any our Faith in him had been vain and our hope as a Spiders Web whereas now 't is firm and establish'd stedfast and unmoveable considering that Jesus Christ since his ignominious accursed Death is raised up to such a Blessed and Glorious Life This gives us mighty encouragement in several respects For 1. If Christ had not been able to save he could not have conquer'd Death as he hath done This one Victory which he hath obtained over that Enemy is a signal demonstration of his Power The Grave would have detained him and must kept him as the legal Executioner of Justice if he had not finish'd the Work of our Salvation as to the purchasing part and done all in dying once He could not be discharged till he had answer'd all Demands and when they were answer'd he could be under Arrest no longer but the Prosecution must cease When the Debt was paid it would have been false Imprisonment for Jesus Christ to remain in the Custody of Death on the other hand his reviving and breaking loose from those Restraints shews that all the Obstacles of our Salvation are taken out of the way Therefore if we suspect his Ability to save we must with the Jews disbelieve his rising again and look upon him no otherwise than as a dead Man to this very day 2. Our eternal Life is inseperably connected with the Life of Christ 'T is as certain that he is our Life as that he himself lives Col. 3.4 he will not Live and Reign without us but we shall Reign in Life by him He does not live meerly for himself but for us as he did not die for himself but only for us He lives as a publick Person a second Adam in whom all that belong to him shall be made alive as a quickning Head to his whole Body and to every Member in particular John 14.19 Because I live you shall live also He asserts our Life in conjunction with his own for his Life and the Life of those that are united with him cannot be divided 2 Cor. 13.4 He though Crucified through weakness lives by the Power of God so we likewise though weak shall live with him by vertue of the same Power Hence it is that the Apostle makes the great Doctrine of Christ's Resurrection to stand or fall with the Resurrection of Believers 1 Cor. 15.15 16. Whom God raised not up if so be that the