life from Christ First there 's his own dignity express'd then his dignifying us who is himself the first begotten among the dead and the Prince of the Kings of the earth Revel 1.5 and then as followes Verse 6 hath made us Kings and Priests unto God the Father A Royal Priesthood That the Dignity of Believers is express'd by these two together by Priesthood and Royalty teaches us the Worth and Excellency of that Holy Function taken properly and so by analogy the dignity of the Ministry of the Gospel which God hath plac'd in his Church in stead of the Priesthood of the Law for therefore doth this Title of Spiritual Priesthood fitly signify a great Priviledge and Honour that Christians are promoted to and is joyn'd with that of Kings because the proper Office of Priesthood was so Honourable Before it was establish'd in one Family the chief the first born of each Family had right to this as a special Honour and amongst the Heathens in some places their Princes and greatest Men yea their Kings were their Priests and universally the performing of their Holy things was an imployment of great Honour and esteem amongst them Though humane ambition hath strain'd this consideration too high to the favouring and founding of a Monarchical Prelacy in the Christian World yet that abuse of it ought not to prejudge us of this due and just consequence from it that the holy Functions of Gods House have very much Honour and Dignity in them And the Apostle we see 2 Cor. 3. preferr's the Ministry of the Gospel to the Priesthood of the Law so then they mistake much that think it a disparagement to Men that have some advantage of Birth or Wit more than ordinary to bestow them thus and judge the meanest Persons and things good enough for this high calling sure this conceit cannot have place but in an unholy Irreligious mind that hath either none or very mean thoughts of God If they that are called to this Holy Service would themselves consider this aright it would not puff them up but humble them comparing their own worthlesness with this great work and wonder at Gods dispensation that should have honour'd them so Eph. 3.8 So the more a Man rightly extols this his Calling the more he humbles himself under the weight of it and would make them very careful to walk more like it in eminency of holiness for in that consists the true dignity of it There is no doubt that this Kingly Priesthood is the common Dignity of all Believers this honour have all the Saints they are Kings have victory and Dominion given them over the powers of darkness and the lusts of their own hearts that held them captive and domineer'd over them before Base slavish lusts not born to command yet are the hard taskmasters of unrenewed minds and there is no true subduing them but by the power and spirit of Christ thay may be quiet for a while in a Natural Man but they are but then asleep as soon as they awake again they return to hurry and drive him with their wonted violence Now this is the benefit of receiving the Kingdom of Christ into a Mans heart that it makes him a King himself all the Subjects of Christ are Kings not only in regard of that pure Crown of Glory they hope for and shall certainly attain but in the present they have a Kingdom that is the pledge of that other overcoming the World and Satan and themselves by the power of Faith Mens bona regnum possidet 't is true but there is no mind truly good but that wherein Christ dwells There is not any kind of Spirit in the World Noble like that Spirit that is in a Christian the very Spirit of Jesus Christ that great King the spirit of glory as our Apostle calls it infr c. 4. This is a sure way to enoble the basest and poorest amongst us this Royalty takes away all attendors nothing of all that is past to be laid to our charge or to dishonour us They are not shut out from God as before But being in Christ are brought neer unto him and have free access to the Throne of his grace Heb. 10. They resemble in their Spiritual estate the legal Priesthood very clearly 1. In their Consecration 2. In their service and 3. In their Laws of living 1. They were wash'd therefore this express'd Revel 1.5 He hath washt us in his Blood and then followes made us Kings and Priests There were no coming near unto God in his holy Services as his Priests unless we were cleans'd from the guiltiness and pollution of our sins This that pure and purging Blood doth and it alone no other Laver can do it no water but that fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness No blood none of all that blood of Legal Sacrifices Heb. 9. but only the Blood of that spotless Lamb that takes away the sins of the World So with this we have that other Ceremoany of the Priests Consecration which was by Sacrifice as well as by washing for he at once offer'd up himself as our Sacrifice and let out his blood for our washing and with good reason is that prefix'd there Revel 1.5 He hath loved us and then it followes washed us in his blood that precious stream of his heart blood for our washing told clearly that it was a heart full of unspeakable Love that was the source of it 3. There is anointing Namely The graces of the Spirit confer'd upon Believers flowing unto them from Christ For 't is of his fulness that we all receive grace for grace and the Apostle St. Paul sayes 2 Cor. 1.21 that we are establish'd and anointed in Christ it was poured on him as our head and runs down from him unto us He Christ and we Christians as partakers of his anointing The consecrating Oyl of the Priests was made of the richest Oyntments and Spices to shew the preciousness of the graces of Gods Spirit that are bestow'd on those Spiritual Priests and as that holy Oyl was not for common use nor for any other Persons to be anointed withal save the Priests only so is the Spirit of grace a peculiar gift of Believers others might have costly oyntments amongst the Jewes but none of that same sort with the Consecration-Oyl Natural Men may have very great gifts of Judgment and Learning and eloquence and Moral Vertues but they have none of this precious Oyl Namely the spirit of Christ communicated to them No all their endowments are but common and profane that Holy Oyl signified particularly Eminency of light and knowledge in the Priests therefore in Christians there must be light they that are grosly ignorant of Spiritual things are sure not of this order this anointing is said to teach us all things 1. Iohn 2.27 That holy Oyl was of a most fragrant sweet smell by reason of its precious composition but much more sweet is the smell of that Spirit wherewith believers
equally from every Minister alike yet it must be acknowledged that there is something we know not what to call it more acceptable reception of those who at first were the means of bringing men to God then others like the opinion some have of Physitians whom they love The Apostle comforts these strangers of this dispersion by the spiritual union which they obtained by Effectual calling and so calls off their eyes from their outward dispersed and dispised condition to look above that as high as the spring of their happiness the free love and Election of God Scattered in the Countries and yet gathered in Gods Election chosen or pickt out Stangers to men amongst whom they dwelt but known and foreknown to God removed from their own Country to which men have naturally an unalterable affection but made heirs of a better as followes verse 3.4 And having within them the evidence both of Eternal Election and that expected salvaâ—ion the Spirit of holiness verse 2. At the best a Christian is bâ—t a Stranger here set him where you will as our Apostle teacheth after and 't is his priviledge that he is so and when he thinks not so he forgets and disparages himself and descends far below his quallity when he is much taken with any thing in this place of his Exile But this is the wisdom of a Christian when he can solace himself against the meaness and any kind of discomfort of his outward condition with the comfortable assurance of the love of God that he hath called him to holiness given him some measure of it and an endeavour after more and by this may he conclude that he hath ordained him unto salvation if either he is a Stranger where he lives or as a stranger deserted of his friends and very near stript of all outward comforts yet may he rejoyce in this that the Eternal unchangable Love of God that is from Everlasting to Everlasting is sealed to his soul O what will it avail a man to be compassed about with the favour of the world to sit unmolested in his own home and possessions and to have them very great and pleasant well moneyed and landed and befriended and yet estranged and sever'd from God not having any token of his special Love To the Elect The Apostle here denominates all the Christians to whom he writes by the condition of true Believers calling them Elect and sanctified c. And the Apostle St. Paul writes in the same stile in his Epistles to the Churches not that all in these Churches were such indeed but because they professed to be such and by that their profession and Calling as Christians they were obliged to be such and as many of them as were in any measure true to that their Calling and profession were really such Besides it would seem not unworthy of Consideration that in all probability there would be fewer false Christians and the number of true believers usually greater in the Churches in those Primitive times then now in the best reformed Churches because there could not then be many of them that were from their Infancy bred in the Christian Faith but for the greatest part were such as being of years of discretion were by the hearing of the Gospel converted from Paganisme and Iuduisme to the Christian Religion first and made a deliberate choise of it to which there were at that time no great outward Encouragements and therefore the lesse danger of multitudes of hypocrites which as Vermine in Summer breed most in the time of the Churches Prosperity Tho no Nation or Kingdom had then universally received the faith but rather hated and persecuted it yet were there even then amongst them as the writings of the Apostles testifie false Brethren and inordinate walkers and men of corrupt minds earthly minded and led with a spirit of envy and contention and vainglory Howsoever the question that is moved concerning the necessary qualifications of all the members of a true visible Church can no way as I conceive be decided from the Inscriptions of the Epistle but eertainly they are useful to teach Christians and Christian Churches what they ought to be and what their holy profession requires of them and sharply to reprove the gross unlikeness and inconformity that is in the most part of man to the description of Christians As there be some that are too strait in their Judgement concerning the being and nature of the visible Church so certainly the greatest part of Churches are too loose in their practice From the dissimilitude betwixt our Churches and those we may make this use of reproof That if aâ— Apostolical Epistle were to be directed to us it behoved to be Inscribed to the Ignorant prophane maliâ—ious c. As he who at the hearing of the Gospel read said Either this is not the Gospel or we are not Christians So either these Charâ—cters given in the Inscription of these Epistles are not true Characters or we are not true Christians Verse 2. Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father through Sanctification of the Spirit unto Obedience and sprinckling of the blood of Iesus Christ. IN this verse we have their Condition and Causes of it Their Condition Sanctified and Iustified the former expressed by Obedience the latter by sprinkling of the blood of Christ. The Causes 1 Eternal Election 2. The Execution of that Decree Their Effectual Calling which I conceive is meant by Election here the selecting them out of the World and joyning them to the fellowship of the Children of God so Ioh. 15.19 The former Election particularly ascribed to God the Father the latter to the Holy Spirit And the blood of Jesus Christ the Son of God is here the cause of their Justification and so the whole Trinity concurring dignifie them with this their Spiritual and happy estate First I shall discourse of these seperately and then of their Connection 1. Of the state it selfe and first of Iustification tho named last This sprinkling has respect to the Rite of the Legal Purification by the sprinkling of Blood and that appositely for these Rites of sprinkling and Blood did all point out this Blood and this Sprinkling and exhibited this true ransome of souls which was only shadowed by them As the use and end of Sprinkling was Purification and Expiation because sin merited death and that the pollutions and staines of human nature was by sin Such is the pollution that it can be no manner of way washt off but by Blood Heb. 9. â—2 Neither is there any Blood able to purge from sin except the most precious Blood of Jesus Christ which is called the blood of God Act. 20.28 That the stain of sin can only be washt off by Blood inâ—imates that it merits Death And that no Blood but that of the Son of God can do it intimates that this stain merits Eternal Death and it had been our portion except the death of the Eternal Lord of life had freed
us from it Filthiness needs sprinkling Guiltiness such as deserves death needs sprinkling of Blood and the death it deserves being Everlasting death The Blood must be the Blood of Christ. The Eternal Lord of life dying to free us from the sentence of death The Soul as the body hath its life its health its purity and the contrary of these its Death Diseases Deformities and Impurity which belong to it as to their first Subiect and to the body by participation The Soul and Body of all mankind is stained by the Pollution of sin The impure Leprosie of the Soul is not a spot outwardly but wholly inward hence as the corporal Leprosie was purified by the sprinkling of blood so is this Then by reflecting we see how all this that the Apostle St. Peter expresseth is necessary to Justification 1. Christ the Mediator betwixt God and man is God and man 2. A Mediator not only interceeding but also satisfying Eph. 2.16 3. This satisfaction doth not reconcile us unless it be applyed Therefore there is not only mention of blood but the sprinkling of it the spirit by faith sprinkleth the soul as with hysop wherewith the sprinkling was made this is it of which the Prophet speaks Isai. 52.15 So shall he sprinkle many Nations And which the Apostle to the Hebrewes prefers above all Legal sprinklings Chap. 9.12 13 14. both as to its duration and as to the excellency of its effects Men are not easily convinced and perswaded of the deep stain of sin and that no other Laâ—er can fetch it out but the sprinkling of the Blood of Jesus Christ. Some that have moral Resolutions of amendment dislike at least gross sins and purpose to avoid them and 't is to them cleanness enough to reform in those things but they consider not what becomes of the guiltiness they have contracted already and how that shall be purged how their natural pollution shall be taken away be not deceived in this 't is not an evaâ—ishing sigh or a light word or a wish of God forgive me no nor the highest current of Repentance nor that which is the truest evidence of Repentance Amendment 'T is none of these that purifies in the sight of God and expiats wrath they are all imperfect and stained themselves cannot stand and answer for themselves much less be of value to counterpoise their former guilt of sin the very tears of the purest Repentance unless they be sprinkled with this Blood are impure all our washings without this are but washings of the Blackmore it is labour in vain Ier. 2.22 Iob. 9.30 31. There is none truly purged by the Blood of Christ that do not endeavour purity of heart and Conversation but yet it is the Blood of Christ by which they are all fair and there is no spot in them here 't is said Elect to obedience but because that obedience is not perfect there must be sprinkling of the Blood too There is nothing in Religion further out of natures reach and out of its likeing and believing then the doctrine of Redemption by a Saviour and a Crucified Saviour by Christ and by his blood first shed on the Cross in his suffering and then sprinkled on the soul by his Spirit 'T is easier to make men sensible of the necessity of Repentance and amendment of life though that is very difficult then of this purging by the sprinkling of this precious Blood Did we see how needful Christ is to us we would esteem and love him more 'T is not by the hearing of Christ and of his blood in the Doctrine of the Gospel 't is not by the sprinkling of water even that water that is the sign of this blood without the blood it self and the sprinkling of it Many are present where it is sprinkled and yet have no portion in it Look to this that this blood be sprinkled on your souls that the destroying Angel may pass by you There is a Generation not some few but a generation deceived in this they are their own Deceivers pure in their own eyes Prov. 30.12 How earnestly doth David pray wash me Purge me with hysop Though bathed in tears Psa. 6.6 that satisfied not wash thou me This is the honourable condition of the Saints That they are purified and consecrated unto God by this sprinkling yea have on loâ—g while Robes washt in the Blood of the Lamb There is mention indeed of great Tribulation but there is a double comfort Joyned with it 1. They come out of it that tribulation hath an end And 2 They pass from that to glory for they have on the Robe of Candidates long white Robes washt in the blood of the Lamb washt white in blood as for this blood 't is nothing but purity and spotlesness being stained with no sin and besides hath that vertue to take away the stain of sin where 't is sprinkled My Wellbeloved is white and ruddy saith the Spouse thus in his death ruddy by bloodshed white by Innocence and purity of that blood Shall they then that are purged by this blood return to live among the Swine and tumble with them in the pudle what gross injury is this to themselves and to that Blood by which they were cleansed They that are chosen to this sprinkling are likewise chosen to Obedience this blood purifieth the heart yea This blood purgeth our Consciences from dead works to serve the living God Heb. 9.14 Vnto Obedience 'T is easily understood to whom when obedience to God is expressed by the simple absolute name of Obedience it teacheth us that to him alone belongs Absolute and Unlimited Obedience all obedience by all creatures And 't is the shame and misery of man that he hath departed from this Obedience that we are become Sons of disobedience But Grace renewing the hearts of believers changeth their natures and so their names and makes them Children of obedience As afterwards in this Chapter This Obedience consists as in the receiving Christ as our Redeemer so also at the same time as our Lord or King an intire rendring up of the whole man to his obedience This Obedience then of the only begotten Jesus Christ may well be understood not as his Actively as Beza but Objectivly as 2 Cor. 10.5 I think here 't is contain'd yea chiefly understood To signifie that Obedience which the Aposte to the Romans calls the Obedience of faith by which the Doctrine of Christ is received and so Christ himself which uniteth the believing soul to Christ he sprinkles it with his blood to the remission of sin and is the root and spring of all future obedience in the Christian life By Obedience Sanctification is here intimated it signifies then both habitual and active obedience Renovation of heart and conformity to the Divine will the mind is illuminated by the Holy Ghost to know and believe the divine will yea this Faith is the great and chief part of Obedience Rom. 1.8 the truth of the Doctrine
vain conversation What fruit had ye sayes the Apostle in those things whereof ye are now asham'd Either count that shame that at the best growes out of them their fruit or confess they have none therefore they are called the unfruitful works of darkness Let the Voluptuous Person say it out upon his death-bed what pleasure or profit doth then abide with him of all his former sinful delights Let him tell if there remain any thing of them all but that that he would gladly not have to remain the sting of an accusing Conscience which is as lasting as the delight of sin was short and evanishing Let the covetous and ambitious declare freely even those of them that have prospered most in their pursuit of Riches and Honour what ease all their Possessions or titles do then help them to whether their pains are the less because their Chests are full or their Houses stately or multitude of friends and servants waiting on them with Hat and Knee and if all these things cannot ease the body how much less can they quiet the mind And therefore is it not true that all pains in these things and the uneven wayes into which they sometimes stept aside to serve those ends and generally that all the wayes of sin wherein they have wearied themselves were vain Rollings and tossings up and down not tending to acertain Haven of peace and happiness 't is a lamentable thing to be deluded all a Life time with a false dream Isa. 2.8 You that are going on in the common Road of sin although many and possibly your own Parents have trod it before you and the greatest part of these you now know are in it with you and keep you Company in it yet be perswaded to stop a little and ask your selves what it is you seek or expect in the end of it would it not grieve any labouring Man to work hard all the day and have no wages to look for at night 't is a greater loss to wear out our wholâ— life and in the evening of our dayes find nothing but anguish and vexation Let us then think this that so much of our life as is spent in the wayes of sin is all lost fruitless and vain Conversation And in so far as the Apostle saye here You are redeemed from this Conversation this Imports it a â—ervile slavish Condition as the other word expresses it to live fruitless And this is the Madness of a sinner that he fancies Liberty in that which is the basest thraldome as those poor frentique Persons that are lying ragged and bound in Chaines yet Imagine that they are Kings that their Irons are Chaines of gold their rags Robes and their filthy Lodge a Pallace As 't is misery to be liable to the sentence of death so 't is slavery to be subject to the dominion of sin and he that is delivered from the one is likewise set free from the other There is one Redemption from both He that is redeem'd from destruction by the blood of Christ is likewise redeem'd from that vain and unholy Conversation that leadâ— to it So Tit. 2.14 Our Redeemer was anointed for this purpose not to free the Captives from the sentence of death and yet leave them still in Prison but to proclaim liberty to them and the opening of the Prison to those that are bound Isa. 61.1 You easily perswade your selves that Christ hath died for you and Redeem'd you from Hell but you Consider not that if it be so he hath likewise Redeem'd you from your vain Conversation and both set you free from the service of sinâ— Certainly while you find not that you can have no assurance of the other if the Chaines of sin continue still upon you for any thing you can know these Chaines do bind you over to the other Chaines of darkness the Apostle speaks of Let us not delude our selves if we find the love of sin and of the World work stronger in our hearts than the love of Christ we are not as yet partakers of his Redemption But if we have indeed laid hold upon him as our Redeemer then are we Redeem'd from the service of sin not only from the grossest Profaness but even from all kind of fruitless and vain Conversation And therefore ought to stand fast in that Liberty and not entangle our selves again to any of our former vanities Not redeemed with Corruptible things From the high price of our Redemption the Apostle doth mainly inforce our Esteem of it and the preservation of that liberty so dearly bought and the avoiding all that unholiness and vain conversation from which we are freed by that Redemption 1. He expresseth it negatively not with corruptible things Oh foolish we that hunt them as if they were Incorruptible and Everlasting treasures no not the best of them these that are in highest account with Men not with Silver and Gold these are not of any value at all towards the Ransom of Souls they cannot buy off the death of the Body nor cannot purchase the continuance of temperal life much less can they reach to the worth of Spiritual and Eternal life The precious soul could not be redeem'd but by blood and by no blood but that of this spotless Lamb Jesus Christ who is God equal with the Father And therefore his Blood is called the blood of God Act. 20. So that the Apostle may well call it here precious exceeding the whole World and all things in it in value Therefore frustrate not the sufferings of Christ if he shed his blood to Redeem you from sin be not false to his End As of a Lamb without blemish He is that great and everlasting Sacrifice that gave value and vertue to all the Sacrifices under the Law their blood was of no worth to the purging away of sin but by Relation to his blood and the Laws concerning the choyce of the Pascall Lamb or other Lambs for Sacrifice were but obscure and imperfect shadowes of his purity and perfections who is the undefiled Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World A Lamb in meekness and silence he opened not his mouth Isa. 53.7 And in purity here without spot or blemish My well beloved sayes the Spouse is white and ruddy white in spotless Innocency and red in suffering a bloody death For as much as ye know 'T is that must make all this effectual the right Knowledge and due Consideration of it Ye do know it already but I would have you know it better more deeply and practically turn it often over be more in the study and meditation of it there is work enough in it still for the discerningest mind itâ— a mystery so deep that you shall never reach the bottom of it and withall so useful that you shall find alwayes new profit by it Our folly is we gape after new things and yet are in effect Ignorant of the things we think we know best that learned Apostle that knew
that we being dead to sin should live unto Righteousness by whose stripes ye were healed THat which is deepest in the heart is readily most in the mouth That which abounds within runs over most by the Tongue or Pen when Men light upon the speaking of that Subject that possesses the affection they can hardly be taken off or drawn from it again Thus the Apostles in their writings when they make mention any way of Christ suffering for us they love to dwell on it as that which they take most delight to speak of Such delicacy and sweetness is in it to a Spiritual taste that they like to keep it in their mouth and are never out of their theam when they insist on Jesus Christ though they have but nam'd him by occasion of some other Doctrine for he is the great subject of all they have to say Thus here the Apostle had spoke of Christ in the foregoing words very fitly to this present Subject setting him before Christian Servants and all suffering Christians as their compleat example both in point of much suffering and of perfect Innocency and Patience in suffering And express'd their engagement to study and follow that example yet he cannot leave it so but having said that all those his sufferings wherein he was so exemplary were for us as a chief consideration for which we should study to be like him he returns to that again and enlarges himself in it in words partly the same partly very near those of that Evangelist among the Prophets Esay Chap. 53. And it suits very well with his main scope to press this point as giving both very much strength and sweetness to the Exhortation as being most reasonable that we willingly conform to him in suffering that had never been an Example of suffering nor subject at all to sufferings nor capable of them but for us and most comfortable in the light sufferings of this Moment to consider that he hath freed us from the sufferings of Eternity by suffering himself in our stead in the fulness of time That Jesus Christ is in doing and suffering our Supream and Matchless Example and that he came to be so is a truth but that he is nothing further and came for no other end is you see a high point of falshood for how should Man be enabled to learn and follow that example of obedience unless there were more in Christ and what would become of that great reckoning of disobedience that Man stands guilty of No these are too narrow he came to bear our sins on his own Body on the tree and for this purpose had a Body fitted for him and given him to bear this burden to do this as the will of his Father to stand for us in stead of all Offerings and Sacrifices and by that will sayes the Apostle we are Sanctified through the offering of the body of Iesus Christ once for all This was his business not only to rectifie sinful Mankind by his example but to redeem him by his Blood he was a teacher come from God As a Prophet he teaches us the way of Life and as the best and greatest of Prophets is perfectly like his Doctrine and his actions that in all Teachers is the livelyest part of Doctrine his carriage in Life and death is our great Pattern and instruction But what is said of his forerunner is more eminently true of Christ he is a Prophet and more then a Prophet a Priest satisfying justice for us and a King conquering sin and death for us an Example in deed but more than an Example our Sacrifice and our Life and all in all 't is our Duty to walk as he walked to make him the pattern of our steps 1 Ioh. 2.6 But our comfort and salvation lyeth in this that he is the propitiation for our sins Verse 2. So in the first Chapter of that Epistle Verse 7. We are to walk in the Light as he is in the Light For all our walking we have need of that which followes that bears the great weight the Blood of Iesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin and so still that glory which he possesseth in his own Person is the pledge of ours he is there for Vs. he lives to make intercession for us sayes the Apostle and I go to prepare a place for you sayes he himself We have in the words these two great points and in the same order as the words ly 1. The nature and quality of the sufferings of Jesus Christ And 2. The end of them In the expression of his suffering we are to consider 1. The commutation of the Persons he himself for us 2. The work undertaken and performed he bare our sins in his own body on the tree 1. The Act or sentence of the Law against the breach of it standing in force and Divine justice expecting satisfaction death was the necessary and inseperable consequent of sin If you say the Supream Majesty of God being accountable to none might have forgiven all without satisfaction We are not to contest that nor foolishly to offer to sound the bottomless deep of his absolute prerogative Christ implies in his Prayer that it was impossible that he could escape that cup But the impossibility is resolv'd into his Fathers will as the cause of it But this we may clearly see following the tract of the holy Scriptures our only safe way that this way wherein our salvation is contriv'd is most excellent and suitable to the greatness and goodness of God so full of wonders of wisdom and love that the Angels as our Apostle tells us before cannot forbear looking on it and admiring it for all their exact knowledge yet they still find it infinitly beyond their knowledge still in astonishment and admiration of what they see and still in search looking in to see more Those Cherubims still haveing their eyes fixed on this Mercy Seat Justice might indeed have siez'd on rebellious Man and laid the pronounc'd punishment on him mercy might have freely acquit him and pardon'd all But can we name any place where mercy and justice as relating to condemned Man could have met and shined joyntly in full aspect save only in Jesus Christ in whom indeed Mercy and truth met and righteousness and peace kissed each other Yea in whose Person the Parties concern'd that were at so great a distance met so near as nearer can not be imagin'd And not only was this the only way for the consistence of these two Justice and Mercy but take each of them severally and they could not have been in so full lustre as in this Gods just hatred of sin did out of doubt appear more in punishing his own only begotten Son for it than if the whole race of Mankind had suffer'd for it Eternally Again it raises the notion of Mercy to the highest that sin is not only forgiven us but for this end God's own coeâ—ernal Son is given to us and for us Consider
our miserable natural estate there is as close an union betwixt us and sin as betwixt our Souls and Bodies it lives in us and we in it and the longer we live in that condition the more the union growes and the harder it is to dissolve it and it is as old as the union of Soul and Body begun with it so that nothing but that death here spoke of can part them And this death in this relative sense is mutual in the work of conversion sin dyes and the soul dyes to sin and these two are really one and the same the spirit of God kills both at one blow Sin in the Soul and the soul to sin as the Apostle sayes of the World both are kill'd the one to the other And there are in it chiefly these two things that make the difference 1. The Solidness And 2. The universallity of this change under this notion of Death Many things may ly in a Man's way betwixt him and the acting of divers sins which possibly he affects most some restraints outward or inward may be upon him the authority of others or the fear of shame or punishment or the check of an enlightned conscience and though by reason of these he commit not the sin he would yet he lives in it because he loves it because he would commit it as we say the soul lives not so much where it animats as where it Loves And generally that kind of Metaphorical life by which a Man is said to live in any thing hath its principal Seat in the affection that 's the immediate link of the union in such a life and the untying and death consists chiefly in the disengagement of the heart breaking off the affection from it Ye that love the Lord hate evil An unrenewed mind may have some temporary dislikes even of its beloved sins in cold blood but it returnes to like them within a while A Man may not only have times of cessation from his wonted way of sinning but by reason of the Society wherein he is and withdrawing of occasions to sin and divers other causes his very desire after it may seem to him to be abated and yet he not dead to sin but only asleep to it and therefore when a temptation back'd with opportunity and other inducing circumstances comes and joggs him he awakes and arises and followes it A Man may for a while distaste some meat that he loves possibly upon a surfet but he regains quickly his likeing of it Every quarrel with sin and fit of dislike of it is not this hatred Upon the lively representing the deformity of his sin to his mind Certainly a Natural Man may fall out with it but these are but as the litle jarres of Husband and Wife that are far from dissolving the Marriage 't is not a fixed hatred such as amongst the Jews inferr'd a divorce if thou hate her put her away and that is to die to it as by a Legal Divorce the Husband and Wife are civilly dead one to another in regard of the ty and use of Marriage Again some Mens Education and Custome and morall principles may free them from the grossest kind of Sins yea a Man's temper may be averse from them but they are alive to their own kind of sins such as possibly are not so deform'd in the common account Coveteousness or Pride or hardness of heart and either a hatred or disdain of the wayes of Holiness that are too strict for them and exceed their size Beside for the good of humane Society and for the Interest of his own Church and People God restrains many Natural Men from the height of wickedness and gives them moral Vertues There be very many and very common sins that more refined Natures it may be are scarce tempted to but as in their Diet and Apparel and other things in their Natural Life they have the same kind of being with other Persons though more neat and pleasant so in this living to sin They live the same life with other ungodly Men though in a litle more deicate way They consider not that the Devils are not in themselves subject to nor capable of many of those sins that are accounted grossest amonst Men and yet are greater Rebels and Enemies to God than Men are But to be dead to sin goes deeper and extends further than all these Namely a most inward alienation of heart from sin and most universal from all sin an antipathy to the most beloved sin Not only he must forbear sin but hate it I hate vain thoughts and not only hate some but all I hate every false way A stroke at the heart does it which is the certainest and quickest Death of any wound For in this dying to sin all the whole Man of necessity dyes to it the mind dyes to the Device and study of Sin that vein and invention becomes dead the hand dies to the acting of it the ear to the delightful hearing of things profane and sinful the Tongue to the Worlds dialect of Oaths and rotten-speaking and calumny and evil speaking this is the commonest piece of the Tongues life in sin the very natural heat of sin that acts and vents most that way the Eye dead to that intemperate look that Solomon speaks of eyeing the Wine when it is red and well colour'd in the cup. Prov. 23. That is is taken with looking on the glittering skin of that Serpent till it bite and sting as there he addes Dead to that unchaste look that sets fire in the heart to which Iob blind folded and deaded his eyes by an express compact and agreement with them I have made a Covenant with mine eyes The Eye of a Godly Man is not on the false sparkling of the Worlds Pomp and Honour and Wealth 't is dead to them quite dazled with a greater beauty the grass look's fine in the morning when 't is set with those liquid Pearles the drops of dew that shine upon it but if you can look but a little while on the body of the Sun and then look down again the Eye is as it were dead sees not that faint shining on the earth that it thought so gay before and as the Eye is blinded and dies to it so within a few hours it quite evanishes and dyes it self Men think it strange that the Godly are not of their Dyet that their Appetite is not stirr'd with the delights of dainties they know not that such as be Christians indeed are dead to those things and the best dishes that are set before a dead Man give him not a stomach The Godly Mans throat is cut to those meats as Solomon advises in another subject But why may not you be a litle more sociable to follow the fashion of the World and and take a share with your Neighbours may some say without so precise and narrow examining every thing 'T is true sayes the Christian that the time was I advis'd as litle with
Conscience as others but sought my selfe and pleasd my self as they do and look't no further but that was when I was alive to those wayes but now truly I am dead to them and can you look for activity and conversation from a dead Man the pleasures of sin wherein I liv'd is still the same but I am not the same Are you such a Snake and a Fool sayes the Natural Man as to bear affronts and swallow them and say nothing Can you suffer to be abus'd so by such and such a wrong Indeed sayes the Christian again I could once have resented an injury as you or another and had somewhat of that you call high-heartedness when I was alive after your fashion but now that humour is not only something cool'd but 't is kill'd in me 't is cold dead as ye say and a greater Spirit I think than my own hath taught me another Lesson hath made me both deaf and dumb that way and hath given me a new vent and another language and another Party to speak to in such occasions see for this Psal. 38.12 13 14 15. They that seek my hurt speak mischievous things and imagine deceits all the day long What doth he in this cafe But I as a deaf man heard not and I was as a dumb Man that openeth not his mouth And why for in thee O Lord do I hope And for this deadness that you despise I have seen him that dyed for me who when he was reviled reviled not again This is the true Character of a Christian dead to sin but alas Where is this Christian to be found and yet thus is every one that truly partakes of Christ he is dead to sin really Hypocrites have a Historical kind of Death like this as Players in Tragedies Those Players have loose bags of Blood that receive the wound so the Hypocrite in some externals and it may be in that which is as near him as any outward thing his Purse he may suffer some Bloodshed of that for Christ but this death to sin is not a sounding fit that one may recover out of again the Apostle Rom. 6. addes that he is buried But this is an unpleasant Subject to talk thus of Death and Burial the very Name of Death in the softest sense it can have makes a sowr melancholly discourse It is so indeed if you take it alone if there were not for the life that 's lost a far better immediately following but so 't is here Living unto righteousness succeeds dying to sin That which makes natural death so affrightful the King of terrours as Iob calls it is mainly this faint belief and assurance of the Resurrection and glory to come And without this all mens moral resolves and discourses are too weak Cordialls against this fear they may set a good face on 't and speak big and so cover the fear they cannot cure but certainly they are a litle ridiculous that would perswade Men to be content to dy by reasoning from the necessity and unavoydableness of it which taken alone rather may beget a desperate discontent than a quiet compliance the very weakness of that Argument is that it is too strong Durum telum That of Company is phantastick it may please the imagination but satisfies not the judgement Nor are the miseries of life though somewhat Properer a full perswasive for Death the oldest decrepitest most diseased persons yet naturally fall not out with life but could have a mind to it still and the very truth is this the worst cottage any dwells in they are loath to go out till they know of a better And the reason why that which is so hideous to others was so sweet to Martyrs Heb. 11.35 And other godly Men that have heartily embrac'd death and welcom'd it though in very Terrible shapes was because they had firm assurance of Immortality beyond it the ugly Deaths head when the light of glory shines through the holes of it is comely and lovely To look upon death as Eternitie's birth day is that which makes it not only tolerable but aimiable Hic dies postremus aeterni natolis est Is the word I admire most of any Heathen Thus here the strongest inducement to this Death is the true notice and contemplation of this Life unto which it sets us over 't is most necessary to represent this for a natural Man hath as great an aversion every whit from this figurative Death this dying to sin as from natural Death and there is the more necessity of perswading him to this because his consent is necessary to 't no Man dies this Death to sin unwillingly although no Man is naturally wiling to it much of this death consists in a Man's consenting thus to dye And this is not only a lawful but a laudible yea a necessary self murder Mortify therefore your members which are upon the Earth Sayes the Apostle Col. 3.5 Now no sinner will be content to dy to sin if that were all but if it be passing to a more excellent Life then he gaineth and it were a folly not to seek this Death It was a strange power of Plato's discourse of the Souls Immortality that moved a young Man upon reading it to throw himself into the Sea that he might leap through it to that Immortality But truely were this Life of God this Life to righteousness and the excellency and delight of it known it would gain many minds to this death that steps into 't 1 There is a necessity of a new being to be the principle of new acting and motion as the Apostle sayes while ye served sin ye were free from righteousness so 't is while ye were alive to sin ye were dead to righteousness But there is a new breath of life from Heaven breathed on the Soul Then lives the Soul indeed when it is one with God and sees Light in his Light hath a Spiritual knowledge of him and therefore Soveraignely loves him and delights in his will and that is indeed to live unto righeousness which in a comprehensive sense takes in all the frame of a Christian life and all the duties of it towards God and towards Men. By this new Nature the very Natural motion of the soul so taken is obedience to God and walking in the paths of righteousness it can no more live in the habitude and wayes of sin than a Man can live under water Sin is not the Christians Element 't is too gross for his renew'd Soul as the water is for his body He may fall into 't but he cannot breath in it cannot take delight and continue to live in it but his delight is in the Law of the Lord that 's the walk that his Soul refreshes it self in he loves it entirely and loves it most where it most crosses the remainders of corruption that are in him he bends the strength of his Soul to please God aimes all at that it takes up his thoughts early and late
to Mortify drawes vertue from it Thus sayd one Christ aim'd at this in all those Sufferings that with so much love he went through and shall I disappoint him and not serve his end 4. That other powerfull grace of Love is joynt in this work with faith for Love desires nothing more than likeness and conformity though it be a painfull resemblance so much the better and fitter to testify love therefore 't will have the Soul dye with him that dy'd for it and the very same kind of death I am crucified with Christ sayes the great Apostle The Love of Christ in the Soul takes the very Nails that fastned him to the Crosse and crucifies the Soul to the World and to Sin Love is strong as Death particularly in this the strongest and liveliest Body when Death siezes it must yield and so becomes motionless that was so vigorous before And the Soul that is most active and unwearied in Sin when this Love siezes it it is kill'd to Sin and as Death seperates a Man from his dearest Friends and Society this Love breaks all the tyes and friendship with Sin Generally as Plato hath it Love takes away ones living in them selves and transfers into the party loved but the divine Love of Christ doth it in the truest and highest manner By whose stripes ye were healed The misery of fallen Man and the mercy of his deliverance are both of them such a deep as no one expression yea no variety added one to another can reach their bottom Here we have divers very significative ones 1. The guiltiness of sin as an intollerable burden pressing the Soul and sinking it and that transfer'd and layed on a stronger Back He bare Then 2. The same wretchedness under the same notion of a strange disease by all other means incurable healed by his stripe's And 3. again represented by the forlorn condition of a Sheep wandring and our Salvation to be found only in the love and wisdom of our great Shepherd And all these are borrow'd from that sweet and clear prophecy Isa. 53. The polluted nature of Man is no other but a bundle of desperate diseases he is spiritually dead as the Scriptures often teach Now this contradicts not nor at all Lessen's the matter But only because this misery justly called death is in a Subject animated with a natural life therefore so it may bear the Name and sense of sickness or wound and therefore 't is gross misprision they are as much out in their Argument as in their conclusion that would extract out of these expressions any evidence of remains of Spiritual life or good in our corrupted Nature But they are not worthy the contest tho vain heads think to argue themselves into life and are seeking that life by Logick in Miserable Nature that they should seek by faith in Jesus Christ Namely in these his stripes by which we are healed It were a large task to name our Spiritual Maladies how much more severally to unfold their Natures such a multitude of corrupt false Principles in the mind that as Gangrens do spread themselves through the Soul and defile the whole Man and total gross blindness and unbelief in Spiritual things and that stone of the heart hardness and impenitency Lethargies of senslesness and security and then for there be such complications of Spiritual diseases in us as in Naturals are altogether impossible such burning fevers of inordinate affections desires of lust and Malice and envy such racking and tormenting cares of Covetousness and feeding on Earth and Ashes as the Prophet speaks in another case according to the deprav'd appetite that accompanies some Diseases Such tumours of Pride and self-conceit that break forth as filthy botches in Mens words and carriage one with another And in a word what a wonderful disorder must needs be in the Natural Soul by the frequent interchanges and fight of contrary passions within it and to these from without how many deadly wounds we receive from the tentations of Satan and the World We receive them and by the weapons they furnish us we willingly wound our selves as the Apostle sayes of them who will be rich they fall into divers snares and noysome lusts and pierce them selves through with many sorrowes Did we see it no Infirmery nor Hospital ever so full of loathsome and miserable Spectacles as Spiritually our wretched Nature is in any one of us apart How much more when multitudes of us are met together But our evils are hid from us and we perish miserably in a Dream of happiness That makes up and compleats our wretchedness that we feel it not with our other diseases And this makes it worse still This was the Churches disease Rev. 3. Thou sayest I am rich and knowest not that thou art Poor c. We are usually full of complaints of triffling griefs that are of small moment and think not on nor feel not our Dangerous Maladies as he who shewed a Physician his fore finger but the Physician told him he had more need to think on the cure of a dangerous Impostume within him which he perceiv'd by looking to him though himself did not feel it In dangerous Maladies or wounds there be these evils a tendency to death and with that the apprehension of the terrour and fear of it and the present distemper of the Body by them and this is in sin 1. There is the guiltiness of sin binding over the Soul to death the most frightful eternal Death 2. The terrour of conscience in the apprehension of that death or wrath that is the consequent and end of sin 3. The raging and prevailing power of sin which is the ill habitude and distemper of the soul But these stripes and that blood that issued from them are a sound cure applied unto the soul they take away the guiltiness of sin and death deserved and free us from our engagement to those everlasting scourgings and lashes of the wrath of God and likewise they are the only cure of those present terrours and pangs of Conscience arising from the sense of that wrath and sentence of death upon the Soul Our Iniquities that met on his back laid open to the rod which in it self was free those hands that never wrought iniquity and those feet that never declined from the way of righteousness yet for our workes and wandrings were pierced and that Tongue dropping with Vinegar and Gall on the Cross that never spoke a guileful nor sinful word The Blood of those stripes are that Balm issuing from that tree of Life so pierced that can only give ease to the Conscience and heal the wounds of it and they deliver from the power of sin working by their influence and loathing of sin that was the cause of them they cleanse out the vitious humours of our corrupt nature by opening up that issue of Repentance they shall look on him and mourn over him whom they have pierced Now to the end it may