lies all our comfort Homo qui debuit homo qui solvit Propter nostram justificationem sic dictum est per Christum nam nos peccatores in ipso infernales poenas quae justè merebamur exolvimus That Christ hath born what we should have born he hath suffered what we should have suffered It was man that owed the debt and man that paid the debt It is a memorable passage of a Learned man For our Justification it was that Christ was so dealt with for we sinners have suffered and undergone in Christ those very pains of Hell which we deserved 2. The Doctrine of Christs Satisfaction confutes the Papists who bring in other satisfactions besides that of Christ The Papists tell us That a man by some good act as they call it an act of charity or love to God may satisfie for sin also they tell us That we may make satisfaction by external works as by Fasting Prayers and Almsgiving and the like also some of them have affirmed That one man may make satisfaction to Divine Justice for another But all these assertions are impious and most derogatory to the honour of our Saviours Satisfaction For if it had been possible for us to have satisfied Divine Justice our selves what need our Saviour have suffered and undergone such things as we have heard Besides the Scripture teaches us That by one offering Christ hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 That one Sacrifice of his was sufficient to make satisfaction for sin therefore if Christs Satisfaction were sufficient whatever is done by us must needs be superfluous upon that account If that one offering of Christ were enough there is no need of other satisfactions of mens invention and bringing in Heb. 9.26 Christ hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath appeared to the abrogating of sin to the disannulling of sin so the word properly signifies Christ by his Sacrifice hath taken away the condemning power of sin wholly so that the power which sin had before to condemn us is perfectly abrogated and cancelled Therefore there is no need of humane satisfactions or if there were need of some satisfaction to be made by us what should we be able to bring to satisfie God Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or ten thousands of rivers of oyl shall we give the fruit of our body for the sin of our soul as the Prophet expresseth it Mic. 6.7 If we should attempt any of these things none of these would be able to satisfie God what then will become of all the Popish Satisfactions They tell us indeed That an act of love to God especially if it be intense and strong may satisfie for sin but how can that satisfie for a crime committed which is in it self due and a just debt Love to God yea the highest degree of love is a just debt that we owe to God The first and great Commandment of the Law is That we should love the Lord our God with all our heart with all our soul with all our strength with all our might Therefore it is not possible that by any good act as they call it we should satisfie God for any sin committed by us and the reason is because that good act was a thing due that which is a just debt in it self cannot satisfie for a former debt Besides there is no proportion between the act of a finite creature to make satisfaction and an infinite Majesty that is offended And whereas they suppose that some external works as Fasting Alms Penances and the like may pacifie God and make satisfaction for sin this proceeds from gross ignorance of the Nature of God and of the nature of sin For if God be infinitely holy and do infinitely hate sin and if God be infinitely just that he cannot but punish sin and that in the highest manner and if the demerit and desert of sin be such as that it deserves no less than the wrath of God and the torments of Hell it is very ridiculous to imagine that the Justice of God should be satisfied with such pitiful things as men may impose upon themselves And that one man who is but a meer man should be able to satisfie for another this is much more absurd For if a man be not able to satisfie for himself how is it possible that he should satisfie for another Si alio peccante alium poenitet non est ista prudens sed insana poenitentia August And we may well apply that speech of Austin If when one man sins another man thinks to repent and to make satisfaction for it that is not a prudent but a mad and frantick repentance And yet Bellarmine and other of the Papists tell us That one man may compensate and bear the punishment for another But we may oppose to them another speech of Austin Christus suscipiendo poenam non suscipiendo culpan culpam delevit poenam Aug. Christ by taking upon him the punishment of our sins and not taking upon him sin it self hath blotted and taken away both sin and punishment If Christ hath fully born the punishment that was due to our sins nothing need to be done by us by way of satisfaction for that is but a diminution to what our Lord Jesus Christ himself hath suffered and done for us The second Use is by way of Exhortation Vse 2 Let us be exhorted to make use of Christs Satisfaction and to have recourse to it upon all occasions in our approaches unto God this is in effect the use which the Author to the Hebrews makes of the Doctrine of Christs Priesthood Christs Satisfaction belongs to his Priestly Office and is a principal part of it Christs Satisfaction is that act of his Priestly Office whereby he offers himself as a Sacrifice to God to make atonement for our sins Now we ought by faith to have continual recourse to this great and eternal Sacrifice of the Son of God This is the Use which the Apostle teaches us to make of the great Doctrine of Christs Priesthood Heb. 10.19 20 c. Having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil that is to say his flesh and having an High Priest over the house of God let us draw near with a pure heart in full assurance of faith Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus it is the Blood of Christ that lays the foundation for out access to God and our acceptance with him This expression By the blood of Jesus is a Synecdoche a part being put for the whole the blood of Christ signifies his whole sufferings that Sacrifice of his and the work of his Satisfaction upon the Cross by that great and most perfect Sacrifice of his it is he offering
glorious Person Heb. 1.3 who having by himself purged our sins sate down on the right hand of the Majesty on high Rev. 1.5 He who is Alpha and Omega who is before Abraham was the first and the last who is was and is to come hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Blood and hath made us Kings and Priests unto God even his Father to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever I shall not proceed by Arguments to evince this great Scripture-truth which hath been so oppugned both by ancient and modern Hereticks and so nobly vindicated by Primitive Councils and Fathers and by nervous and learned Pens of latter days Polyaenus in his Roman Stratagems is but a wrigling slow-worm to this old Serpent in his direful Arts who like a Revelation-Scorpion carries death both in head and tail to bite with the teeth of fiery lyes and with his persecuting tail to slash the third part of the Stars out of the Heaven of the Church This Hydra hath not only hissed but mortally stung many a Soul in the Polonian Hungarian Transylvanian and Belgick Churches and I could hearily wish had never swum after Pelagius through the British Seas with whole folio's tyed about its neck to lay its poisonous eggs in our Seminaries The Lord speedily crush them in pieces that they may never hatch into fiery flying Serpents to provoke the Lord to vengeance What Country in Europe hath sweltred under more tearing scourges bitter State-confusions and convulsions and dreadful shakings than Poland where it had first principal vent and patronage And how far the Belgian Lion hath had his nails pared and his teeth knockt out by that hammer of Gods wrath in Europe since the publication of those blasphemous Treatises I wish both they and we did seriously lay to heart Blessed be God for the many Champions sent out of Israels Camp against Goliah of Gath in the Reformed Churches abroad and at home It may prove some mitigation of Divine displeasure and a prolonging of our tranquillity and I heartily pray that godly Magistrates would stir up their strength against it and put to their seal and sanction I am glad to find thâ—â— holy man bending his searches into this subject I hope to the preservative convinction of many and the establishment of others in that grand point of Christs Satisfaction The Lord of the everlasting Covenant I pray to sprinkle both this Book and all the People with the precious Blood of the Cross Heb. 9.12 By which he is entred into the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us Vers 26. Who as he did appear to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself so unto them that look for him he will appear the second time without sin unto salvation Lev. 16.4 Like as the High-Priest of old being cloathed only in linen went into the holy of Holies with the expiation-expiation-blood in a golden Bason but came out in all his gorgeous attire to bless the people Vers 23. so did the glorious High-Priest of our profession enter into the Heavens not in so conspicuous a manner being seen but of few when he ascended from Mount Olivet but when he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified by the presentment of his Blood and Intercession to the Father will come again in all his Royalty and receive us to the mansions purchased and prepared for them Zech. 6.13 and will sit down as King and Priest upon his Throne for ever But not to prevent your progress from the threshold into the lovely Building of this Treatise composed by a Person of great worth and approbation in the Churches of Christ pray give me leave in the Porch to point at some material things respecting this holy Author I confess I am not so furnisht with sufficient and copious matter as to digest a full description of his life but what I had from his gracious Son Mr. Thomas Row I shall succinctly contract and add somewhat of my own Observation and then recommend you to God and the Word of his Grace Let me cast all under these four Heads his Personage Qualifications Studies and Sayings His stature inclined to tallness his visage affable and somewhat smiling his gestures grave and decent his behaviour meek and courteous and what is very observable and much to be imitated 1 Thess 4.11 he medled with his own business not interposing much less imposing on other Churches being averse to ostentation and publick appearance of a quiet spirit and replenisht with the desires of Heaven as 't is observed by Naturalists that the dew never falls in a stormy or cloudy night As to his Studies letting pass the usual Cursus in the Arts and Sciences which he followed in the injoyment of the Methods of both Vniversities his skill in the copious and elegant Greek with its curious Criticisms deserves a remarkable accent Among the various Sects of ancient Philosophers he was most addicted to Plato and the shades of the Academick walks From the Grecian Schools he stept into the Roman Cloisters to hear what they had to say before the Reformation sprang The Civilians having found the Justinian Laws as I remember at Pisa and considered the Theodosian Codex began to digest them into some Method The Divines took example and collected a Body of Sentences Among whose numerous Gladiators he most fancied the fencings of Aquinas Bradwardin Suarez and Alvarez being pleased with their reason but not their subtilties their substantial Arguments but not their Quiddities finding some little Pearls in great Dunghils was wont to say They had great heads but little hearts And indeed when the original Fountains of Scripture were stopt up by the Philistins and little but rage and fury filled most places with the blood of the slain Professors of the Truth who could expect but the Owl which once should often fly in the Lateran Wherefore from the Papal Schools he went beyond Sea and stood under the Fathers Pulpits and delighted in hearing the African Wits Athanasius Cyril and Austin Athanasius he highly honoured for his notable Writings against the Arians and his strenuous Vindication of the Deity of Christ and the Doctrine of the three Persons by the holy Scriptures and was wont to say That he wrote so like an Apostle that he was even ravished with him Cyril he also greatly esteemed for his Ephesine conflicts on the same account Austin of the Latin Communion he passed from Alexandria to Hippo on purpose to see and discourse with him because of his shining holiness and especially his irresistible Defence of irresistible Grace And indeed I may add there 's no hearty Enemy of free Grace but such as want it and those that feel its power in the heart are its greatest Lovers His Book of the Trinity though he judged somewhat obscure yet not without some light He had a value also for Basil and the two Grecian Gregories and indeed in
memorable speech of one of the Ancients which may clear the matter in hand By that nature which is seen Per naturam quae cernitur adoretur quae non cernitur Divinitas the Divinity which cannot be seen may be worshipped We worship God in and by the humane nature of Jesus Christ but this cannot be said of any of the Saints we cannot worship God in and by any of the Saints as we do in and by the humane nature of Jesus Christ 3. Consider Christ-man hath Dominion and Soveraignty over all creatures as hath been shewed at large This cannot be said of Angels or men that they have this Soveraignty over all creatures So that we see Christ hath the preheminence in all things as the Apostles expression is Col. 1.18 These things are necessary to establish our judgments when many have been so injurious to the honour of the Lord Jesus as to level his person and dignity with the persons of the Saints Learn to admire the great Love of God in Christ Vse 2 We have heard how our nature is advanced in the Head of the Church now what God hath done for Christ he hath in some measure done for us therefore is it said Blessed be God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly things in Christ Eph. 1.3 And in another place He hath made us to sit together in heavenly places with him Christs advancement in some sort is our advancement his exaltation is our exaltation God hath honoured our nature in advancing Christ-man so high the Divine nature in Christ needed nothing it was capable of receiving nothing as he was the Eternal Son so he was coequal and coessential with the Father all the glory that comes to him in time is cast upon the humane nature Now that God should advance our nature so much as he hath done in our Head this should affect our hearts greatly What is man that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that thou shouldst magnifie him Psal 8.4 That the Divinity should shew it self in and by a part of our nature that a part of our nature should stand and continue in personal union with the second person in Trinity that a part of our nature should be advanced above Angels set in authority above all creatures this should astonish us Chrysostome saith he was swallowed up by this consideration It is a great thing saith he a thing full of wonder and amazement that our flesh should sit at the right hand of God and be adored by Angels and Archangels When I think of this says he I find my self put into an ecstasie Learn from what hath been opened Vse 3 where to seek for God how we ought to come to God Would we know where to seek for God and where we may expect to find him We must seek for God in and by the humanity of Jesus Christ the humanity of Jesus Christ is the Temple of the Divinity here therefore it is we must seek for God and here may we hope to find him It is an expression that Luther hath Deus nec vult nec pocest inventri nisi in hac humanitate per hanc humanitatem Luther God neither will nor can be found but by the humanity of Jesus Christ which says he God hath lifted up as a Standard that by it he may gather to himself all his children out of the world Christ himself hath told us He is the way to the Father Joh. 14 6. How is he the way to the Father The Son incarnate the Son become man is the way to the Father Joh. 1.18 No man hath seen God at any time the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father he hath revealed him How doth the Son reveal him In and by the humane nature assumed He that hath seen me hath seen the Father Joh. 14.9 How is it that he that hath seen Christ hath seen the Father The meaning is the Divinity lay hid in that humanity of his and the Divinity was to be seen and apprehended by that humanity of his This is notably set forth by the Apostle Heb. 10.19 20. Having boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us thorough the veil that is to say his flesh It is an observation which Calvin hath upon this Text The flesh of Christ is not be despised because it is as a veil that doth cover the Majesty of God and yet directs us the way to injoy all that is in God Look as the veil in the Temple did cover all those things that lay hid and secret in the Sanctuary Nec quisquam Deum inveniet nisi cui via ostium erit Christus homo Calv. and yet withal was the way that opened unto all so the Divinity that lay hid in the flesh of Jesus Christ brings us to Heaven No man shall ever find God unto whom Christ-man is not the way and the door This is that our Saviour means when he says Ye believe in God believe also in me Joh. 14.1 The naked absolute Divinity is at too great a distance from us and we know not where to find God in his naked simple Essence therefore our Saviour directs us to look to God manifest in his flesh By the Son incarnate there is a fair way opened for us to the Father Vse 4 This may inform us whence the Church hath had all its preservations and what may be a ground to our faith that the Church shall still be preserved in all Ages Eph. 1.22 And hath put all things under his feet That is he hath put all things under Christs feet God the Father hath subjected all things to Christ-man the Head of the Church the government is upon his shoulders Now saith the Apostle No man ever hated his own flesh c. Eph 5.29 The Church is near akin to Christ flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone no wonder therefore that Christ takes care of the Church which is so nearly related to himself The Church is as it were a part of Christ the head and members make up Christ mystical so also is Christ 1 Cor. 12.12 The Apostle speaks there of Believers As the body is one and hath many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body so also is Christ All Believers together with Christ their Head make up Christ mystical Christ may be considered personally and he may be considered mystically Christ personally considered is that person who was born of the Virgin dyed on the Cross rose again the third day ascended up into Heaven and sits on the right hand of God Christ mystical is Christ and all Believers the head and members in conjunction The Church is said to be the Body of Christ the fulness of him who filleth all in all Eph. 1.22 Now then the Church
is that our Saviour prays for in that great and famous Prayer of his Joh. 17.21 That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee c. And vers 23. I in them and thou in me that they may be made perfect in one That which our Saviour intends in this passage is not only that the Faithful should be united among themselves but that they should be united unto God This is the most firm binding and knitting together of things when God is in Christ Christ is in us and the Faithful united among themselves God the Father is the root Christ the stock the holy Spirit as the sap we the branches and the graces of the Saints are the fruits And that this union may be effected Christ took from us a part of our nature on the other hand he hath given to us his own flesh and blood and that we might be united to God he hath given to us the holy Spirit Is it so Vse 1 that by the Incarnation of the Son of God there is a foundation laid for our Adoption and being made the sons of God then learn what course we are to take if we desire to be the children of God Who is there that would not desire to be a child of God If we would be the children of God here we may see the ready way how to attain this priviledge If we desire to be the sons and daughters of God we must chuse and close with Christ the natural Son of God A great and choice Scripture 2 Cor. 6.18 I will be a father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty If we will be the sons and daughters of God we must first see that we close with Christ the natural Son of God God saith of Christ I will be unto him a Father Heb. 1.5 God is first a Father unto Christ before he is or will be a Father unto us Now we must close with the natural Son of God as ever we desire to be the adopted sons of God Joh. 1.12 To as many as received him he gave power to become the sons of God We are by nature children of wrath children of hell children of the curse and are we contented to abide so always Are we contented always to abide in that condition of distance and estrangement to God If you would have God a Father you must get into Christ God out of Christ is a sin revenging God Let us therefore look well to our faith Gal. 3.26 We are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus If our faith be not right if we have not closed with Christ in a right manner we have no evidence that we are the children of God There is a spurious a bastard faith a false faith that is not a true faith there is a meer historical faith which is a consenting that the Scripture is true there is a temporary faith when there are some flashes and pangs of affection towards Christ but then there is the faith of Gods Elect let us look after this You will ask What is this faith That faith takes a man wholly off himself takes him perfectly from his own bottom and makes him look to another for wisdom righteousness sanctification This is faith to go out perfectly out of our selves and to live perfectly upon another as to all the parts of our salvation and this is the faith that the just must live by If we be in Christ by faith then shall we be the sons of God If by means of the Incarnation God hath brought himself down to us Vse 2 and rendred himself more facile and easie to be apprehended by us this may inform us how we may best conceive of God The way for us to conceive of God is for us to conceive of God in Christ The Saints of God do find it a difficult thing to conceive of God to have right thoughts and conceptions of God Now would you know how to conceive of God O learn to conceive of God in Christ God is at so great a distance from us that if we set our selves to think or conceive of him in his naked absolute simple nature our thoughts would soon lose themselves or else be overwhelmed with the greatness of his Majesty So true is that saying Scrutator Majestatis opprimetur à gloria He that thinks to dive into the Abyss of the Divinity will soon find himself overwhelmed with the Divine glory The Lord hath said No man can see his face and live We cannot behold the Sun in the Firmament in its noon-day glory we can much better behold the Sun in a cloud than behold it in its simple glory so God hath veiled his glory in the flesh of his Son and the way for us to behold God is to contemplate God in the face of Jesus Christ It is far more easie for us to conceive of the humane nature in the person of Christ than to conceive of the naked simple and absolute Divinity When we conceive of the humane nature in the person of Christ the mind hath something to rest and stay it self upon and by the humanity we climb up by degrees to the Divinity It is true faith ought not to terminate it self in the humanity but by the humanity we ought to climb and ascend up to the Divinity By him we believe in God 1 Pet. 1.21 It is Calvins opinion Tunc remoto velo palà m cernemus Deum in sua Majestate regnantem neque ampliùs media erit Christi humanitas quae nos ab ulteriore Dei conspectu cohibeat Calv. in 1 Cor. 15. That in Heaven when God shall be all in all we shall then see God without the veil of Christs flesh then say she the veil being removed we shall behold God openly reigning in his Majesty neither shall the flesh of Christ oppose it self as a Medium to hinder us from the farther sight of God How far and with what limitation this opinion of his may take place I shall not now inquire but sure I am whilst we are here on earth we cannot behold God without this veil the veil of Christs flesh Whilst we are here on earth the new and living way into the holiest is consecrated for us through the veil that is to say his flesh Heb. 10.19 20. Upon this Text Calvin himself hath this passage No man shall ever find God but he unto whom Christ-man is the door and the way The flesh of Christ is that veil which covers God and by this veil we must come into the holy of Holies and have admittance into the Divine presence It is dangerous for us to think of God or to approach to him any other way but in Christ He is the way the truth and the life and no man cometh to the Father but by him that is no man can come to the Father but by him They are weighty and memorable passages Luther hath
Privatio prâ—mii beaâ—â—â—ci Perfectionis ad quam erant apti nati carentia ex peccato causatae and the pain of sense The pain of loss is the want of blessedness or else it is the privation of the beatifical reward Other School men describe it more largely thus The pain of loss is the want of that perfection which men were capable of and is brought upon them by reason of sin Now in this pain of loss the damned are deprived of all good things they are deprived of all peace all joy all comfort all solace and refreshment they are deprived of the fellowship of the Saints and Angels but amongst all the pains of loss which the damned undergo the greatest of all is the want of the sight of God and therefore some of the School-men describe the pain of loss only by this Privatio visionis fruitionis Divinae That it is a deprivation of the Divine vision and fruition not but that the damned are deprived of all other comforts and good things but the sight and fruition of God comprehends all the rest being deprived of the sight and fruition of God the chief good they must necessarily be deprived of the comfort of other particular goods Now this deprivation of the sight of God being part of the punishment that is due to us for our sins this pain of loss our Saviour underwent for us in his dereliction and desertion His humane soul was deprived of that clear sight and vision of the Deity for a time We by sin deserved to be deprived of the sight of God and Christ in his dereliction his humane soul was deprived of the sight of God for a time Divines are wont commonly to say That Christ from the moment of his conception had the sight of God his humane soul being immediately united to the Deity Christ from the very moment of his conception had the sight of God Now for our Saviour who had known experimentally how sweet the comfort of his Fathers face had been and had lived all his days under the warm beams and influences of the Divinity and had had his soul all along refreshed with the sense of the Divine presence for him to be left in that horror and darkness as to have no taste of comfort no glimpse of the Divinity breaking in upon his humane soul how great an affliction must that needs be unto him This spiritual dereliction as was formerly hinted which our Saviour underwent was part of the punishment due to us for our sins When Adam had sinned he was driven out of Paradise he was banished out of the presence of God man forsaking God God forsook him and withdrew himself from him now that dereliction which we deserved in Adam Christ suffered for us Hence is that of Cyril When Adam had transgressed the Divine commandment humane nature was forsaken of God and made subject unto the curse and to death Now these words of our Saviour when he crys out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me are the words of Christ manifestly discharging or paying that debt of dereliction that was come upon us by means of sin and pacifying God this way Hence also is that expression of another of the Ancients Deseritur cum desertis c. Christ was deserted with them who were deserted and Christ paid the tribute for that nature which he had assumed that is Christ paid our debt Christ was forsaken with us who were forsaken that so Divine grace and favour might return again to us the face of God was hid from him for a time that so it might not be hid from us for ever Now if it be asked But what was this dereliction I shall 1. Shew negatively what it was not and 2. Positively and affirmatively what it was 1. What it was not It was not a dissolution of the union of the two Natures The union of the two Natures in Christ continued notwithstanding this his dereliction for if the personal Union of the two Natures had been dissolved if it had not continued in the time of the sufferings of Christ then it would have followed that it was not God that was the Person that suffered and so the merit and efficacy of Christs sufferings would have been enervated and taken away but the Scriptures tell us That it was God that redeemed the Church with his own blood Act. 20.28 the Person suffering was God though it was in our nature that he suffered Also they tell us That they crucified the Lord of glory 1 Cor. 2.8 the Person suffering was God although it was in and by the flesh that he suffered Joh. 6.51 I am the bread that came down from heaven if any man eat of this bread he shall live for ever and the bread which I shall give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world The flesh which is given for the life of the world it is the flesh of the Word the flesh of the second Person in Trinity The Word was made flesh Joh. 1.14 that person who is called the Word the second Person in Trinity who came down from heaven by his Incarnation and took flesh gave that flesh for the life of the world The Word is the Person who takes flesh the Word the second Person in Trinity who takes a part of our flesh is not disjoyned or disunited from his flesh all the time of his sufferings it is his flesh still The bread which I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world The Word the second Person in Trinity accounts it his flesh whilst he suffers it was the flesh only that was capable of suffering but the Word the second Person in Trinity stood related to that flesh in the time of his suffering yea he was one with it in the bond of personal Union therefore it is said 1 Pet. 4.1 Christ suffered for us in the flesh It is a remarkable expression Christ suffered for us in the flesh the person suffering is Christ the Son of God though it was in the flesh in the Humanity that he suffered the humane nature is only capable of suffering but yet the person of the Son of God was united to that nature in the time when he suffered there was no dissolution of the union of the two natures Non dissolutione unionis sed substractione visioniâ— Christs dereliction was not by the dissolution of the Vnion but by the substraction of Vision as one of the Ancients speaks 2. This dereliction or desertion of our Saviour was not a desertion in point of grace Christ had all along the same presence of Divine grace with him to carry him out to all acts of obedience There was no failure as to any one act of obedience in Christ If Christ had been deserted in point of grace and any one act of obedience had been interrupted then his obedience had not been perfect and compleat and if his
how is it that men entertain these offers of grace and good things made to them in Christ read vers 5. They made light of it and went their ways one 18 his farm another to his merchandise O but mark the issue how doth God take this flighting of his grace rejecting of his Son and despising of the marriage-feast read vers 7. When the King heard of this he was wroth and he sent forth his armies and destroyed those murtherers and burnt up their city This was the revenge which God took for his despised and rejected grace He sent the Armies of the Romans burnt up Jerusalem destroyed the Nation of the Jews to whom Christ and the Gospel was first sent That the Son of God who was God blessed for ever should come from Heaven in person that he should take to himself the nature of man and do and suffer such things for man in the nature of man and yet be contemned and rejected by men this makes the sin of men very great In Joh. 6.51 our Saviour tells us That he was the living bread that came down from heaven and the bread which he would give was his flesh which he would give for the life of the world I am the living bread which came down from heaven The Son of God who was life happiness salvation and all good things came down into our nature assumed a part of our flesh and gave that flesh for the life of the world Now when the Son of God himself so great a person and all his sufferings shall be contemned and despised this must needs be great sin This is more fully explained to us in another Scripture Heb. 10.26 27 28 29 30. For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth there remains no more sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries He that despised Moses law dyed without mercy under two or three witnesses Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite to the Spirit of grace for we know him that said Vengeance belongeth unto me I will recompense saith the Lord. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God The scope of the Apostle is to shew how severely God punisheth the contemners and despisers of Gospel-grace The sin of such who contemn the Gospel and reject the grace of it consists in this That they neglect and contemn the great Sacrifice that was offered for sin that is plainly implied in that expression when it is said There remains no more sacrifice for sin If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remains no more sacrifice for sin It is as much as if the Apostle had said There was a sacrifice for sin there was a sacrifice appointed there was a means to pacifie and atone God namely the death of his Son But they that neglect and reject the grace of the Gospel they contemn this sacrifice this great and only sacrifice they contemn the sufferings and satisfaction of Christ by which they might have peace with God Now let us consider what is the sentence that is passed upon such What is like to become of such who thus contemn the Gospel and despise the grace of it who contemn the great and only sacrifice That which is reserved for such is this It is judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversaries If we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth there remains no more sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation which shall devour the adversary 1. Consider God accounts such adversaries as persist and continue in sin after the offer and tender of grace to them God would be reconciled to men but they will not be reconciled to him therefore they are adversaries they continue in open hostility against God 2. There is judgment reserved for such a certain and fearful looking for of judgment God will judge them according to their deserts he will execute judgment upon them according to their demerit and that we may fully understand this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he calls it fiery indignation Beza renders it Heat of fire as much as if it had been said The hottest of Gods wrath is reserved for such and shall fall upon such as contemn and reject the Gospel And then the Apostle goes on to confirm this in vers 28 29. He that despised Moses law dyed without mercy under two or three witnesses Of how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who tramples under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace The force of his argument comes to this He that transgressed the Law of Moses was punished he therefore that despiseth the Gospel shall be much more punished He that despised Moses law dyed without mercy Why doth the Apostle call it Moses Law That which was called Moses Law was indeed the Law of God Moses was only the Minister to whom and by whom it was delivered but the Law was God's But Moses is set here in opposition to Christ Moses was a Minister and Servant only but Christ was more than a Minister and a Servant Christ was the Son of God therefore doth the Apostle say Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who trod under foot the Son of God Here lies the force of the argument If God did not suffer the transgressours of the Law which was published by Moses a Minister and Servant to go unpunished much less will he suffer the rejection of the Gospel which was published by his own Son that came out of his bosom to go unpunished The Law came by Mases but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ Joh. 1.17 But this is not all the Doctrine of the Gospel hath not only a more excellent Publisher than the Law which is the Son of God whereas Moses was a Minister and Servant only but there is something more in it the matter published and the great object of saith propounded in the Gospel is the Son of God himself that expression Who hath trampled under foot the Son of God doth not only intimate that Christ the Son of God is the Publisher of the Gospel but it also intimates the great sin of them who reject the Gospel in that they reject so excellent a Person as the Son of God is who is the subject matter of the Gospel Compare this with other Scriptures Rom. 1.3 Separate unto the Gospel of God concerning his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. The great thing which the Gospel reveals is the Son of God 2
of the wrath of God And the wine press was trodden without the city and blood came out of the wine-press even unto the horses bridles by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs It is observable these two Angels which come out with their sickles to reap down the world with great Judgments come not until after the Promulgation of the Gospel which was made to the world by the three Angels which we read of in the beginning of this Chapter When God had sent the Gospel to the world and offered reformation to it and the world did not obey the Gospel nor embrace the reformation offered to it then God sent these two Angels to reap down the world with his Judgments Cluverus in Apocalyp It is the opinion of a Learned man that this Prophecy concerns the times of Reformation when light had been offered to the world and the world grew wicked after light and reformation was offered to it Now that which is observable in the second Angels Commission is That he should thrust in his sickle and gather the cluster of the vine of the earth And the Angel thrust in his sickle into the earth and gathered the vine of the earth Now this expression of the Vine when it is taken mystically doth usually in Scripture signifie the Church of God Jer. 2.21 I have planted thee a choice vine And so in that passage of the Psalmist Behold and visit this thy vine The Church is compared to a Vine frequently in Scripture Now the Angel is commanded to gather the vine of the earth so that the Judgment here Spoken of is such a Judgment as did concern the Church at least the people that do profess themselves to be the Church The Reformed Churches which were planted at the first as a choice Vine with purity of Doctrine and more integrity of manners being degenerated from their first purity and bringing forth wild grapes of corrupt Doctrine and evil manners God sends his Angel with his sickle to cut down the cluster of this Vine And that which doth confirm this interpretation is this That the wine press is to be trodden without the City the City in the Revelations is Babylon the Mother of Harlots and abomination of the earth Now the wine-press was trodden without the City and blood came out of the wine-press even to the horses bridles So that the Judgment here spoken of doth not reach Babylon Rome which is mystical Babylon God hath his time when he will visit her he hath reserved a more fore Judgment for her but the Judgment that is here spoken of is a Judgment that reaches the Protestant Churches they are the Vine of the Earth the true Church by profession but not living up to their profession God punisheth them for their sinful and profane lives and the Judgment which God executes upon these is no small Judgment We read here of blood coming out to the horses bridles Which notes the copiousness and abundance of bloodshed which shall be at the time of the pouring out of this Judgment The Lord grant that we may not see this Scripture more and more verified I have been apt to think that the destruction which the Sword hath already made hath been in part a fulfilling of this Scripture and O that we could say that the force of this Prophecy and the strength of that Judgment which flows from it were already spent and exhausted but may not we yet fear that this Prophecy may bring forth more wrath and judgment upon us than yet we have seen If any thing prevent the farther effusion of blood which we read of here in this Scripture and that great wrath here threatened it must be humble hearty affectionate crys to Heaven faith in the blood of Christ with the through reformation of our lives for otherwise there seems to be great wrath determined against us therefore let us make this use of it to cry heartily to God let us endeavour to stand between the living and the dead to divert if it be possible that wrath which yet hangs over our heads The end of the fifteenth Sermon SERMON XVI Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends THere have been two Observations that have been propounded out of this Verse The first was Doct. 1 That our Lord Jesus Christ hath laid down his life for his people The second was Doct. 2 That the love of Christ in laying down his life for us was the highest expression or demonstration of his love Greater love than this hath no man that a man lay down his life for his friends Under the former Point I have had occasion to open the nature of Christs sufferings and to unfold as I was able the great Doctrine of Christs Satisfaction that which I am now to do in this latter Point is to shew the greatness of the love of Christ in his suffering and in the work of his Satisfaction for here lies the stress of the Text to shew that the love of Christ was eminently displayed in the work of his Satisfaction Greater love than this saith our Saviour hath no man that a man lay down his life for his friends Christs laying down his life for us was the most eminent expression of his love to us The Scripture when it speaks of the love of Christ it speaks of the heights and depths lengths and breadths of the love of Christ Now there are five things especially wherein these heights and depths and lengths and breadths of Christs love are eminently to be seen and they are 1. His Incarnation 2. His subjection to the Law 3. The work of his Satisfaction 4. The work of his Intercession 5. His Headship Now having already spoken of the Love of Christ in his Incarnation and also of the Love of Christ in his being made under the Law I come to shew how the love of Christ doth manifest it self and is to be seen in the work of his Satisfaction It is very observable that the Scripture when it speaks of the love of Christ lays the stress here it sets before us the love of Christ in his sufferings making the sufferings of Christ to be the great instance of Christs love to us Eph. 5.2 Walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour So at the 25. verse of that Chapter Even as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it Christ giving himself for the Church that is giving himself to suffer for it this was the great instance of his love Gal. 2.20 Who hath loved me and given himself for me Rev. 1.5 To him that hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood 2 Cor. 5.12 The love of Christ constraineth us because we thus judge that if one dyed for all then were all dead 1 Joh. 4.16 Hereby perceive we
of a common ordinary man this is great contempt The person suffering for us was no other than the Son of God and God manifested in the flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 The sufferings of this person therefore were not the sufferings of a common ordinary person but they were the sufferings of him who was God-man they were the sufferings of the Word made flesh who gave his flesh for the life of the world Therefore to contemn so great and excellent a person and all that he suffered in love to us must needs be the greatest sin But here it may be inquired When is the person of Christ contemned and when are his sufferings contemned 1. Then is the person of Christ in a degree at least contemned when we have not honourable thoughts of Christ suitable to the dignity of his person that is to say when we stick in his Humanity without elevating our thoughts to his Divinity our faith must indeed begin at the Humanity of Christ but it must not stick or rest there but we must climb up from the Humanity to the Divinity When therefore we stick in the Humanity of Christ without elevating our thoughts to his Divinity this is not to have so honourable thoughts of Christ as we ought to have and so by consequence it is a kind of contempt of him Joh. 14.1 Ye believe in God believe also in me as much as if our Saviour should say You all take it to be your duty to believe in God You believe in God simply considered O but that is not enough as you believe in God simply considered so you ought to believe in God inhabiting in the flesh of the Son Consider what our Saviour saith in the ninth verse of that Chapter He that hath seen me hath seen the Father the meaning of that I take to be He that hath seen the Son incarnate with a spiritual eye with an eye of faith he that hath seen the Son incarnate as he ought to see him he hath seen the Divinity of the Father in the person of the Son the Father and the Son have but one and the same common Divinity Therefore if we see the Son aright with a spiritual eye with an eye of faith we shall see the Divinity of the Father in the person of the Son Though the person of the Father is distinct from the person of the Son yet the Divinity of the Father is not different from the Divinity of the Son though the Father and the Son be distinct as to their persons yet there is but one and the same common Divinity between them both I and the Father are one Joh. 10.30 He that supposeth the Divinity or Godhead of the Father to differ from the Godhead of the Son doth neither know the Father nor the Son When therefore we do not elevate our thoughts to the Divinity of the Son we do in a degree contemn Christ when we do not look beyond the veil of his flesh and behold that Divine person that took up that flesh we do not give Christ that honour we ought to do 2. Then is the person of Christ contemned when we do not believe in Christ for salvation Joh. 3.18 He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God There is a great weight that lies upon that expression the name of the only begotten Son of God the reason why Unbelievers are condemned is because so great a person so excellent a person as the only begotten Son of God is revealed and offered to them in the Gospel and they refuse to close with him When the Son of God is propounded to men as the great object of their faith and so great and excellent a person as this is rejected by them this is the greatest contempt and this is that which brings condemnation upon men 3. Then are the sufferings of Christ contemned when men do not apply and betake themselves to the virtue of Christs sufferings to obtain salvation by them Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the world Joh. 1.29 Him hath God ordained to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Rom. 3.25 The sufferings of Christ were the great propitiatory Sacrifice the only means to reconcile us to God Now when men hearken to the sufferings of Christ as a story meerly they can hear it discoursed of and repeated again and again that there was such a person that did and suffered such things but they do not look upon themselves as concerned they see no need of the merit and virtue of Christs suffering neither do they apply themselves to the sufferings and death of Christ that they may receive atonement by it this is to make the blood of the Covenant a common thing as the Apostles expression is in the fore-mentioned place It is as if so be men accounted the blood of Christ but as common blood and his sufferings no more than the sufferings of an ordinary man A like phrase the Apostle hath when he speaks of some that come unworthily to the Lords Table he saith They do not discern the Lords body 1 Cor. 11.29 Not to discern the Lords body is not to make a difference between the sacramental bread and common ordinary bread not to see the Lords body represented to us in and by that bread Not to discern the Lords body is not to owne and acknowledge the preciousness of that body that is not to be able to distinguish this body from another body not to see an excellency in it In like manner to account the blood of Christ the blood of the Covenant a common thing is not to see the preciousness of this blood not to have a high esteem of it and not to apply our selves for salvation to it They that do not see the infinite worth and preciousness of the sufferings of Christ that do not apply themselves to the death and sufferings of Christ so as to extract salvation from them they contemn the sufferings of Christ Our Saviour himself saith expresly Joh. 6.53 Except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man you have no life in you Let us not think that it is an indifferent thing a matter of small moment whether we understand the worth of Christs sufferings and apply our selves to them yea or no. Our Saviour tells us plainly our salvation depends upon it Except ye eat the flesh and drink the blood of the Son of man ye have no life in you That is unless ye have skill to make use of my sufferings and to apply your selves to the virtue of them ye have no life in you that is you have not the life of Justification nor sanctification in you here in this world neither shall you have the life of Glory hereafter therefore it is not an indifferent thing whether we be acquainted with the virtue of Christs
sufferings without this we have no life in us Let us therefore take heed how we have slight thoughts of the sufferings of Christ this is to slight them when we do not study the virtue of these sufferings when we do not see our need of them and do not apply our selves to them that we may be saved by them 4. Then are the sufferings of Christ contemned when we come unworthily to the Lords Table The Sacrament of the Supper it is the Sacrament of the body and blood of Christ when therefore we rush upon the Sacrament in a rude manner we do in an eminent way contemn the sufferings of Christ The Supper of the Lord is called a shewing forth the Lords death 1 Cor. 11.26 As often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup ye do shew the Lords death till he come This phrase of shewing forth the Lords death implies three things in it 1. It implies the inward assent of the mind that we do indeed with our hearts and minds believe that Christ did dye and suffer such things for us as we read of in the Gospel 2. This phrase of shewing forth the Lords death implies the profession and confession of our faith before the world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we owne it and profess it before the world that we believe such and such things concerning Christ 3. It implies our faith in our our reliance upon the death and sufferings of Christ for salvation that is our expectation of salvation by the death of Christ and by that means only All this I take to be implied in this phrase of shewing forth the death of Christ the Sacrament therefore being a shewing forth of Christs death when we come to the Sacrament we have to do with the death and sufferings of Christ in a peculiar manner if therefore we rush upon that Ordinance in a rude or unworthy manner we must of necessity contemn the sufferings of Christ because the Sacrament is the special and peculiar Ordinance that is appointed to represent to us the death and sufferings of the Lord Jesus and that this is one way of contemning Christs sufferings the Apostle is exceeding clear and plain 1 Cor. 11.27 Whosoever shall eat and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. As much as if he should say Every unworthy Communicant every unworthy receiver at the Lords Table is guilty of no small sin he is guilty of the very body and blood of Christ that is he is as one that hath imbrued his hands in Christs blood he is guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. The Ancients expound it to this sense Every unworthy receiver and Communicant that comes in a rude manner to the Lords Supper is like Judas that betrayed Christ like the Jews that buffeted and spit upon him like to Pilate that condemned him and like the Souldiers that crucified him these dealt unworthily with the body of Christ and so doth every unworthy Communicant deal unworthily with the body of Christ The others indeed abused and dealt unworthily with his natural body but every unworthy Communicant deals unworthily with his sacramental body and the sin of the one is so much the greater than the sin of the other because many of them that had a hand in the crucifixion of the body of our Saviour looked upon him as an ordinary man they did not look upon him as the Son of God Hence doth the Apostle say If they had known it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory 1 Cor. 2.8 But now rude Christians who rush irreverently upon this Ordinance do profess they believe him to be the Son of God the Saviour of the world and yet offer indignity to him They therefore that come unworthily to the Lords Table do in an eminent manner contemn the sufferings of Christ But here it may be useful for us to inquire What is it to come unworthily Who are they that come unworthily Whosoever shall eat this bread 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily 1 Cor. 11.29 The Greek word as Peter Martyr observes Indecenter parùm congruè minùs apposité signifies in this place as much as indecently not congruously not in that fit manner as he ought to do he eats and drinks unworthily that comes in an indecent manner without due preparation to this Ordinance I shall more particularly shew what this unworthy receiving is in two or three things 1. Then do we come unworthily to the Sacrament when we have not a due reverence of those great and sublime Mysteries that are set before us in the Sacrament Whoever shall drink this cup of the Lord saith the Apostle this Cup of the Lord here is an accent that it is the Lords bread the Lords cup the bread that we partake of in the Sacrament is the Lords bread and the cup that we drink of in the Sacrament is the Lords cup. Some may say so is all our bread the bread that we live upon daily is the Lords bread and the cup we drink of daily is the Lords cup it is he that spreads our tables for us and causeth our cups to run over But we must consider that the bread here spoken of the sacramental Bread and the sacramental Cup are called the Lords bread and the Lords cup in a peculiar manner it is that bread that is instituted to signifie and represent the Lords body and it is that cup that is instituted to represent the Lords blood therefore when we look upon the sacramental bread as common ordinary bread when we drink of the sacramental wine as common ordinary wine this is a prophanation of this Ordinance We ought to be sensible of the Mystery that is in this Ordinance namely that the Lords body and his blood are represented to us by the outward signs The ancient Church were wont to call the Mysteries represented to us in the Sacrament tremendous Mysteries O here are tremendous Mysteries indeed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if we rightly consider what they are that are set before us in the Sacrament to see the incorporeal God assuming a humane body to see God personally inhabit in that flesh that suffered and offering that very body of his in which he was crucified dyed rose again and ascended into Heaven to be the food of our souls these are wonderful Mysteries indeed and yet these are the Mysteries that are represented to us in the Sacrament in the Sacrament we see the Son of God and God to have assumed a part of our flesh and then offering himself up in that flesh a Sacrifice for our sins and as we see the Son of God first giving himself for us upon the Cross so in the Sacrament we see him giving himself to us Here lyes the mystery of the Sacrament In the Sacrament we do not only see Christ giving himself for us but we also see
him giving himself to us for these are no vain words This is my body which was broken for you setting aside those gross conceits of the Papists That the bread is transubstantiated into the body of Christ and that Christ is corporally present under the outward form of the Elements I say setting aside their gross conceits there is certainly a real though spiritual presence of Christ to every believing soul in the Sacrament The humane nature of Christ indeed is really present in Heaven therefore is it said Whom the heavens must contain till the time of the restitution of all things Act. 3. Yet the virtue of Christs body and blood is still really communicated to every believing soul Corpus ipsum in quo passus est resurrexit yea not only so saith Calvin Not only the virtue of his Death and Resurrection but that very body that dyed and rose again this is offered to us in the Sacrament these are great Mysteries indeed Now not to have a due reverence to such great and sublime Mysteries as these are to come to these as if they were common and ordinary things or to come to them with a common and slight spirit this is to come unworthily 2. Then do we come unworthily to the Sacrament when we live in the practice of any gross sin or retain the love of any sin We profess by our coming to the Sacrament that we believe that Christ dyed for such and such sins and yet we love these sins or continue in the practice of those sins that cost Christ his life this is to offer the greatest indignity to the Son of God This is as if a Traitor should come to sit at Table with the King to dine or sup with him and yet never repent of his treason but retain a traiterous mind and intention in his heart all the while When a man sits at the same table to eat and drink with another it is a sign of friendship no one would willingly admit another to his table but whom he accounts to be his friend When we come to the Lords Table we profess the highest friendship to Christ now when we profess the highest friendship to Christ and yet retain that in our love and practice that is most directly contrary to the honour and glory of Christ this is the greatest indignity that can be This is that the Apostle calls the crucifying the Son of God afresh and putting him to an open shame Heb. 6.6 What is this but crucifying Christ afresh and making Christ as contemptuous as possibly we can whenas we profess to expect salvation by the death and sufferings of Christ and yet in the mean time love harbour entertain and practise those very things we say we believe Christ dyed for Certainly every loose Christian that makes a profession of Christ and yet lives in gross open sins makes a plain mock of Christ and his sufferings for he professeth that he believes he shall be pardoned by the sufferings and death of Christ and yet he continues in the love and practice of those sins as if so be the end of Christs death were that men might continue in their sins and not be delivered from them 3. Then do men come unworthily to the Sacrament when they come without examining themselves Let a man examine himself and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup 1 Cor. 11.28 It is observable the Apostle opposeth this examining a mans self to his eating unworthily In the former verse he had said He that eats this bread and drinks this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord now he adds But let a man examine himself so then if a man do not examine himself then he eats unworthily But it may be said Object What ought a man to examine himself about Concerning two things Answ 1. Concerning his state 2. Concerning the present frame and dispostion of his heart 1. A man ought to examine himself concerning his state whether he be in Christ whether he have a right to such an Ordinance 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith prove your own selves Know ye not your own selves how that Jesus Christ is in you except ye be reprobate We must examine our selves concerning our fundamental estate whether that be good yea or no to examine what standing we have in Christ 2. We ought to examine our selves concerning the frame and disposition of our souls whether we be in a fit frame to partake of such an Ordinance We ought to examine our selves whether our hearts be strongly bent and inclined to any sin whether we be under the power of any sin this is the examination of our repentance We ought to examine what the frame of our hearts is God-ward whether the bent of our hearts be towards God and the ways of God this is the examining of our other graces Now when we rush upon the Sacrament without reflexion and examination of our spiritual state this is unworthy coming And here let us observe That the children of God themselves may in a degree come in an unworthy manner for there are several degrees of unworthy receiving They that have slight and contemptuous thoughts of this Ordinance they that live in gross and scandalous sins they are guilty of unworthy receiving in the highest degree But then they that have true grace and do not retain in their hearts the love of any sin yet if they are remiss in searching into their hearts to find out their secret corruptions and to judge themselves for them they come unworthily in a lesser degree and God may correct his own children for their spiritual remisness in this kind The Apostle tells us For this cause many were sickly and weak and many were fallen asleep 1 Cor. 11.30 that is for coming to the Sacrament without due preparation Others who grosly profane this Ordinance that come to this Ordinance and live in gross sins and continue to live and dye in them God punisheth them otherwise he punisheth them with eternal condemnation He that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself or judgment to himself as the word may be rendred The godly themselves coming in a rude and careless manner to this Ordinance may and oftentimes do bring the judgment of temporal chastisement upon themselves for not coming in a right manner to so great an Ordinance But such as are profane who come to this Ordinance and yet live in sin they eat to themselves the judgment of eternal condemnation Now to return unto what we first propounded to come unworthily to the Sacrament is one way of contemning Christs sufferings And if it be asked What is the reason of it why is the unworthy receiving of the Sacrament a contemning of Christs sufferings I answer 1. Because the Sacrament is a plain revelation and exhibition of Christ crucified This is my body which was broken
for you That very body of Christ in which he suffered dyed rose again is offered to us in the Sacrament to be looked upon by faith The Sacrament is as the Ancients call it Verbum visibile a visible Word The Sacrament declares by visible signs and representations that which the Word doth in another way Now as it is a great sin to contemn Christ when he is made known to us in the way of the Word so it is a great sin to contemn Christ when he is revealed to us by his own signs and symbols which are of his own institution instituted on purpose by himself to make himself known to us 2. The Sacrament is appointed to confirm our union and communion with Christ The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ 1 Cor. 10. The ancient Church called the Sacrament of the Lords Supper Sacramentum unionis the Sacrament of Vnion because it is that special Ordinance by which our union and communion with Christ is strengthened and confirmed And our Saviour in effect tells us as much when he saith He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood dwelleth in me and I in him Job 6.56 When we eat Christs flesh and drink his blood Christ dwells in us and we in him Now when we profess the nearest union and communion with the person of Christ and with the death and sufferings of Christ and we slight both his person and his sufferings this must needs be a great sin Thus have we heard now how Christ and his sufferings may be contemned there is another thing that may be added and that is 5. That Apostates such as fall from deny and renounce the faith of Christ they once presessed they do in an eminent manner pour contempt upon the sufferings of Christ Of these the Apostle speaks in a peculiar manner Heb. 10. and of these he saith That they account the blood of the Covenant by which they are sanctified an unholy thing He that apostatizes from the Christian Profession what doth he do but make a mock of Christ and his sufferings as if all that he had formerly professed concerning Christ and his sufferings were but a meer sable Now it concerns us greatly to see that we be not found in the number of such who are contemners of Christs person or of his sufferings and the reason is because great punishment is denounced on such Heb. 10.29 Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace There is a sorer punishment shall be inflicted upon such who despise the person of Christ and contemn his sufferings and I verily believe this is one main cause of the Judgments which God hath already executed and will yet further execute upon the unthankful world because his Son hath been revealed to the world in this last Century of years more than in former Ages by that clear and great light that hath broken forth and yet men make no reckoning of Christ and of his grace but are grown worse and worse more profane and atheistical under the light of the Gospel that hath shone upon them As Idolatry was the great sin that God did avenge under the Old Testament upon the Jews that were then his professing people so the contempt of the Gospel wherein there hath been a plain and manifest revelation of the Son of God and of that grace and salvation which is brought by his death and sufferings seems to be the great sin that God is avenging upon professing Christians The end of the nineteenth Sermon SERMON XX. Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends I Proceed now to another Consideration to shew the greatness of Christs Love in his Sufferings Consid 7 The love of Christ in his sufferings appears in this That the Son of God so great a person should suffer such things as he did suffer for us The love of Christ doth not only appear from the consideration of the excellency of the person suffering but also from the consideration of the things themselves that he suffered for us that so great a person should suffer so much shame such reproach such indignity as he did for us this is that which commends Christs love to us Heb. 12.2 He endured the cross and despised the shame Isa 50.6 I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair I hid not my face from shame and spitting That the Son of God should suffer such things for us poor men that he should suffer such pains and torments in soul and body for us this commends his love to us The sufferings of Christ did far exceed the sufferings of any other man yea if the sufferings of all men were put together they are not to be compared with the sufferings of Christ and the reason is because Christ did suffer the very pains of Hell for us as we have heard Christ did not only suffer from men but he suffered from the hands of his Father it pleased the Father to bruise him he put him to grief Isa 53. Christ did not only suffer in his body but he suffered in his soul yea his soul-sufferings were the greatest sufferings there it was that he suffered dereliction there it was that he suffered the sense of Gods wrath no sorrows were ever like to Christs sorrows and yet these sorrows Christ did voluntarily and electively undergo for our sakes Our Saviour knew before-hand what his sufferings were like to be and yet he freely underwent them Christ did not rush upon his sufferings unawares but he knew what his sufferings would be and yet he was content to undergo them for our sakes Luk. 12.50 I have a baptism to be baptized with he speaks of the Baptism of his sufferings The Lord Jesus knew that he was to undergo such sore and grievous sufferings and yet he voluntarily underwent them he did not rum ignorantly upon them but he knew before-hand what he was to suffer and yet he chose voluntarily to suffer that which he knew would be so bitter and grievous to him It is a great alleviation of a mans sufferings not to know what he hath to suffer the contemplation of a mans sufferings before-hand is sometimes almost as great a suffering as the suffering it self that he is to undergo but yet the Son of God had the contemplation and foresight in his mind of the sufferings that he was to undergo for us yet he was content notwithstanding to under go them Mat. 16.21 From that time forth began Jesus to shew to his Disciples how he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things of the
death of Christ is a certain Sacrament or pledge which certifies us that our death is nothing at all For if death hath executed all its power and strength upon Christ if death hath poured out all its venom and malignity upon Christ then there is nothing that remains in death to hurt us Death had nothing at all to do with Christ but only as he put himself under the power of death for our sakes Now the Son of God who was above death freely subjecting himself to death for our sakes and death having done all that it could against Christ it hath nothing more to do against a poor Believer It is true Believers dye still but yet their death is not part of the Curse the death of the Saints is only a passage unto life and it is that which prepares the way for a more blessed Resurrection Whatever was truly formidable or terrible in death is taken away by the death of Christ That which was most formidable in death was this that it was a part of the Curse that it was the effect of Divine wrath Now Christ having suffered the whole of Gods wrath for us death is not inflicted upon Believers as the effect of Gods wrath nay it is so far from being sent to a Believer in wrath that it is sent in mercy to him and death is an introduction unto a Believers happiness All things are yours things present things to come life is yours and death is yours 1 Cor. 3.21 22. Blessed are the dead that dye in the Lord Rev. 14. Death is an introduction to the Saints unto their perfect and compleat happiness the Saints happiness is inchoate and begun in this life when they are first brought into the Kingdom of Grace and their happiness is compleat and consummate in the next life when they are by death ushered into the Kingdom of Glory Consid 11 The love of Christ in his sufferings appears in this That he came into our nature and became man on purpose that he might suffer for us One of the principal ends of the Incarnation of the Son of God was that he might suffer and dye for men This is intimated by the Apostle Heb. 2.14 For as much as the children are made partakers of flesh and blood he also himself took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil It is as much as if he had said Had he not partaken of our nature he could not have suffered for us as he was the Son of God and possessed of the Divine nature so he was not capable of suffering but therefore did he take on him our nature and became the Son of man that he might be in a capacity to suffer for men O what overcoming love was this that the Son of God did therefore take upon him our nature that he might be in a capacity to suffer for men had he always abode in the form of God only it had not been possible for him to suffer but therefore would he take upon him part of our passible and mortal flesh that so he might be in a capacity to suffer and dye for us Consid 12 The love of Christ in his suffering may be seen in this Because so great benefits accrue and come to us by the sufferings of Christ Christ by the merit of his sufferings hath purchased and procured the greatest blessings for us To instance in a few briefly 1. Christ by his sufferings hath purchased for us the forgiveness of sins Eph. 1.14 In whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins 2. Christ by his sufferings hath purchased for us peace and reconciliation with God Eph. 2.16 That he might reconcile us to God by the cross Col. 1.21 You that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death 3. Eternal life it self is the purchase of Christs sufferings Rom. 6. ult The wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord that is through the merit of Jesus Christ our Lord so that eternal life is the merit of Christs death We have another clear Text to confirm this Heb. 9.15 For this cause he is the Mediator of the new Testament that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first Testament they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance The eternal inheritance the inheritance which all the Elect are brought unto in Heaven is purchased by the death of Christ for so the Apostle expresseth it That by means of death those that are called might have the promise of eternal inheritance Hence is it that Heaven is called a purchased possession Eph. 1.14 Vntil the redemption of the purchased possession the Glory of Heaven is called a purchased possession Now in every purchase there must be a price there can be no purchase without a price the price therefore that was laid down for us that we might obtain eternal life was the price of Christs blood the death of Christ as appears from the former Scriptures 4. The Spirit of God and all that grace whereby we are inabled to believe and obey and in general whatever blessings are comprehended in the Covenant of Grace these are all the purchase of the death of Christ This is apparent from those words of our Saviour in the institution of the Supper This cup is the new Testament in my blood as much as if he should say All the mercies all the blessings of the new Covenant are the purchase of my blood and the Covenant it self is ratified and confirmed by my blood Now in the Covenant of Grace there are many great things promised in it the Lord promiseth to forgive the sins of his people he promiseth that he will put his Law in their minds and write it in their hearts he promiseth that he will give his Spirit to them and the like all these blessings are purchased and procured by the death of Christ great therefore must the love of Christ be in giving himself to suffer and dye for his people since by the death of Christ such great and admirable priviledges are purchased for them The Covenant of Grace is the greatest Charter of all our spiritual Priviledges whatever Priviledges belong to a Believer they are contained within the compass of the Covenant Now the Covenant it self is founded in the blood of the Mediator of the Covenant How precious then is that blood that purchased such great things for us And how great was the love of Christ that shed his blood to obtain such things for us Vse If the love of Christ be so great in his sufferings let us be exhorted from hence to meditate much on the sufferings of Christ O it were well for us if we could take many a turn at the Cross of Christ and