an offering for sin Ergo Christ offered his Soul as well as his Body Again Our Saviour himself saith My Soul is Math. 26. 38. very heavy unto death Certainly it was not the bodily death which Christ seared for then he should have been weaker than many Martyrs yea than many of the Romans who made no more of dying than of dining therefore Christs Soul was verily and properly stricken with heaviness and not with the beholding of bodily torments only as some dream But Fourthly That whereby Adam and we ever since do most properly commit sin by the same hath Christ the second Adam made satisfaction properly for our sin but Adam did and we all do properly commit sin in our souls our bodies being but the instruments Ergo Christ by and in his soul hath properly made satisfaction First The truth of the proposition is confirmed by the Apostle As by one mans disobediâ—nce we are made Sinners so by the Rom. 5 19. obedience of one many shall be made Righteous Christ then satisfied for us by the same wherein Adam disobeyed Nâ—w Adams soul was in the transgression as well as his body and accordingly was Christs very soul in his sufferings and satisfaction and Christ obeyed that is in his soul for obedience belongeth to the soul as one observeth upon those words of the Apostle Phil. 2. 8. He became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Who Agatho Epist ad Constantin upon Phil. 2. 8. doth not understand saith the same Author that obedience doth belong to the humane will That there is a kind of dying in the soul when it is pierced with grief besides the death of the soul either by sin or damnation is not disagreeing to the Scripture Simâ—on saith to Mary A sword shall pierce through thy soul Luk. 2 35. Look as then the body dyeth being pierced with a sword so the soul may be said to dye or languish when it is pierced with grief what else is Crucifying but dying Now the soul is said to be Crucified as is evident by that passage of the Apostle I am Crucified to the World when as yet his body was alive So Ambrose doubts not to say Gal. 6. 14. Mens mea in Christo Crucifixa est My soul was Crucified Ambâ—ose lib. 5. â—â— Luc. in Christ that is Christ in His Soul was Crucified which he calleth our soul because he did assume our soul and body or else where he saith Mea est voluntas quam suam dixit Ambrâ—se lib. 2. de sid c. 3. c. It is my will which he calleth his it is my heaviness which he took with my affections yet was it properly and personally Christs Soul and Will but ours by community of nature Secondly For the Assumption 1. Howsoever it be admitted that the body is the instrument of the soul both in sinning and suffering yet the conclusion is this That because sin is committed in the soul principally and properly therefore the satisfaction must be made in the soul principally and properly If this conclusion be granted we have that we would for the bodily pains affecting the soul are not the proper passions of the soul neither is the soul said to suffer properly when the body suffereth but by way of compassion and consent 2. We grant that in the proper and immediate sufferings of the soul the body also is affected As when Christ was in his Agony in the Garden his whole body was therewith stirred and mâ—â—â— and that it did sweat drops of blood But it is one thing when the grief beginneth immediatly in the soul and so affecteth the body and when the pain is first infliâ—ted upon the body and so worketh upon the soul there the soul suffereth properly and principally of which sufferings we speak here neither properly nor principally which is not the thing in question 3. It is not the reasonable soul that is affected with the body for it is a ground in Philosophy that the soul suffereth not but only the sensitive part But the grief that we speak of that is satisfactory for sin must be in the very reasonable soul where sin took the beginning and so Ambrose saith upon those words of Christ Ambrose de Incarnat cap. 7. My Soul is heavy to death Ad rationabilis assumptionem animae c. naturae humanae refertur affectum It is referred to the assumption of the reasonable soul and humane affection Pride Ambition Infidelity began in Adams soul and had their determination there in the committing of those sins the body had no part indeed with the ear they heard the suggestion of Satan but it was no sin till in their minds they had consented unto it Wherefore seeing the first sin committed was properly and wholly in the soul for the same the soul must properly and wholly satisfie Because sin took beginning from Adams soul the satisfaction also must begin in Christs Soul as Ambrose saith Inciplo in Christo vincere unde in Adam victus sum Ambrose lib 4. in Luc. I begin there to win in Christ where in Adam I was overcome Then it followeth that the sufferings of Christs soul took beginning there and were not derived by simpathy from the stripes and pain of the body We infer then that therefore Christs Soul had proper and immediate sufferings besides those which proceeded from simpathy with his body and all Christs sufferings were satisfactory Ergo Christ did satisfie for our sins properly and immediatly in his soul But if you please take this fourth Argument in another form of words thus The punishment which was pronounced against the first Adam our first Surety and in him against us that same did Christ the second Adam our next and best Surety bear for us or else it must still lye upon us to suffer it But the punishment threatned and denounced against Adam for transgression was not only corporal respecting our bodyes but spiritual also respecting our souls There was a spiritual malediction due unto our souls as well as a corporal c. Look as God put a Sanction on the Law and Covenant of works made with all of us in Adam that he and his should be liable to death both of body and soul which Covenant being broken by sin all Sinners became obnoxious to the death both of body and soul so it was necessary that the Redeemed should be delivered from the death of both by the Redeemers tasting of death in both kinds as much as should be sufficient for their Redemption O Sirs as sin infected the whole Man soul and body and the Curse following on sin left no part nor power of the mans soul free so Justice required that the Redeemer coming in the room of the persons Redeemed should feel the force of the Curse both in body and soul But Fifthly He shall see of the travel of his soul Isa 53. Here the soul is taken properly and the travel of Christs
Look as he must be more than man that he may be able to suffer that his sufferings may be meritorious so he must be man that he may be in a capacity to suffer die and obey for these are no work for one who is only God A God only cannot suffer a man only cannot merit God cannot obey man is bound to obey wherefore Christ that he might obey and suffer he was man and that he might merit by his obedience and suffering he was God-man just such a person did the work of Redemption call for That Christ's merits might be sufficient he must be God for sufficient merit for Mankind could not be in the person of any mere man no not in Christ himself considered only as man for so all the grace he had he did receive it and all the good he did he was bound to do it for he was made of a woman and made under the Law not only Gal. 4. 4. under the Ceremonial Law as he was a Jew but under the Moral as a man for it is under that Law under which we were and from which we are redeemed therefore Gal. 3. 13. in fulfilling it he did no more than that which was his duty to do he could not merit by it no not for himself much less for others considered only as man therefore he must also be God that the dignity of his person might add dignity and vertue and value to his works in a word Deus potuit sed non debuit homo debuit sed non potuit God could but he should not man should but he could not make satisfaction therefore he that would do it must be both God and man Torris erutus ab igne as the Prophet speaketh Is not this a fire-brand taken out of the fire you know that in a fire-brand taken out of the fire there is fire and wood inseparably mixed and in Christ there is God and man wonderfully united He was God else neither his sufferings nor his merits could have been sufficient and if his could not much less any man 's else for all other men are both conceived and born in Original sin and also much and often defiled with actual sin and therefore we ought for ever to abhor all such popish Doctrines Prayers and Masses for the dead which exalt mans merits man's satisfaction For no man can by Psal 49. 7. 8. v. any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him for the redemption of their soul is precious and it ceaseth for ever And therefore all the money that hath been given for Masses Dirges Trentals c. hath been cast away for Jesus Christ who is God-man is the only Redeemer and in the other world money beareth no mastery Let me make a few inferences from what has been said and therefore First is it so that Christ is God-man that he is God 1. 1 Pet. 1. 21. and man then let this raise our faith and strengthen our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ faith is built on God Now Jesus Christ is very God and therefore the fittest foundation in the world for us to build our faith upon God manifest in the flesh is a firm basis for faith and comfort Heb. 7. 25. ad plenum saith Erasmus ad perfectum say others He is able to save to the uttermost Christ is a thorow Saviour he saves perfectly and he saves perpetually he never carries on Redemption-work by halves Christ being God as well as man is able by the power of his Godhead to vanquish Death Devils Hell and all the enemies of our Salvation and by the power of his Godhead is able to merit pardon of sin the favour of God the heavenly inheritance and all the glory of the other world for this dignity of his person addeth vertue and Acts 20. 28. efficacy to his death and sufferings in that he that suffered and died was very God therefore God is said to have purchased the Church with his own blood Christ having suffered in our nature which he took upon him that is in his humane soul and body the wrath of God the curse and all the punishments which were due to our sins hath paid the price of our Redemption pacified divine wrath and satisfied divine Justice in the very same nature in which we have sinned and provoked the holy one of Israel so that now all believers may triumphingly say There is no condemnation to us that are in Râ—m 8. 1. v. Christ Jesus Christ having in our nature suffered the whole curse and punishment due to our sins God cannot in justice but accept of his sufferings as a full and compleat satisfaction 1 John 1. 7 9. for all our sins so that now there remaineth no more curse or punishment properly so called for us to suffer either in our souls or bodies either in this life or in the life to come but we are certainly and fully delivered from all not only from the eternal curse and all the punishments and torments of Hell but also from the curse and sting of bodily death and from all afflictions as they are 1 Cor. 15. 55 56. curses and punishments of sin that Jesus who is God-man hath changed the nature of them to us so that of bitter curses and heavy punishments they are become fatherly chastisements the fruits of divine love and the Heb. 12. 5 6 7. Rev. 3. 19. promoters of the internal and eternal good of our souls Oh! how should these things strengthen our faith in dear Jesus and work us to lean and stay our weary souls wholly and only upon him who is God-man and who of God 1 Cor. 1. 30. is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption Among the Evangelists we find that Christ had a threefold entertainment among the sons of men some received him into house not into heart as Simon Luk. 7. 44. the Pharisee who gave him no kiss nor water to his feet some neither into heart nor house as the graceless Mat. 8. 34. swinish Gergesites who had neither civility nor honesty some both into house and heart as Lazarus Mary Martha John 11. 16. c. certainly that Jesus who is God-man deserves the best room in all our souls and the uppermost seat in all our hearts But Secondly If Jesus Christ be God-man very God and very man then what high cause have we to observe admire wonder and even stand amazed at the transcendent love of Christ in becoming man Oh! the firstness the freeness the unchangeableness the greatness the matchlesness of Christ's love to fallen man in becoming man men many times shew their love to one another by hanging up one another's pictures in their families but ah what love did Christ shew when he took our nature upon him Heb. 2. 16. For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
readiness and resoluteness whatsoever calamities or miseries may attend us for Christ's sake or the Gospel's sake Ah what a shame would it be if we should â—ot be always ready to suffer any thing for his sake who hath suffered so much for our sins as is beyond all conception all expression Never was Jacob more gracious and acceptable to his father Isaac than when he stood before him cloathed in the garments of his rough brother Esau then the father smelling the savour of the elder Gen. 27. 27. brothers garments said Behold the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed And never are we more gracious and acceptable to our heavenly father than when we stand before him cloathed in the rough garments of Christ's afflictions and sufferings Oh Christians all your sufferings for Christ they are but in lets to your glorious reigning with Christ Justin Martyr saith that when the Romans did immortalize their Emperours as they called it they brought one to swear that he see him go to Heaven out of the fire but we may see by an eye of faith the blessed souls of Martyrs fly to heaven like Elias in his fiery charriot or like the Angel that appeared to Manoah in the flames By the consent of the School-men all Martyrs shall appear in the Church triumphant bearing the signs of their Christian wounds about them as so many speaking testimonies of their holy courage that what here they endured in the behalf of their Saviour may be there an addition to their glory But Sixthly hath Jesus Christ suffered such great and grievous things for you Oh then in all your fears doubts and conflicts with enemies within or without fly to the sufferings of Christ as your City of refuge Did Christ endure a most ignominious death for thee did he take on him thy sinful person and bare thy sin and death and cross and was made a sacrifice and curse for thee Oh then in all thy inward and outward distresses shelter Psal 90. 1. Psal 91. 1 4 9. thy self under the wings of a suffering Christ I have read of Nero that he had a shirt made of a Salamander's skin so that if he went through the fire in it it would keep him from burning Oh sirs a suffering Christ is this Salamander's skin that will keep the Saints from burning in the midst of burning from suffering in the Dan. 3. 24. 29. Isa 43. 2. midst of sufferings from drowning in the midst of drowning In all the storms that beat upon your inward or your outward man eye the sufferings of Christ lâ—an upon Zach. 13. 10. Cant. 8. 5. 2 Cor. 2. 14. Eph. 6. 14. the sufferings of Christ plead the sufferings of Christ and triumph in the sufferings of Christ It is storied of a Martyr that writing to his wife where she might find him when he was fled from home oh my dear said he Surius in vita sancti Elzearii if thou desirest to see me seek me in the side of Christ in the cleft of the rock in the hollow of his wounds for there I have made my nest there will I dwell there shalt thou find me and no where else but there In every temptation let us look up to a crucified Christ who is fitted Heb. 2. 17 18. cap. 4. 15 16. and qualified to succour tempted souls oh my soul when ever thou art assaulted let the wounds of Christ be thy City of refuge whither thou maist fly and live Let us learn in every tentation which presseth us whether it be sin or death or curse or any other evil to translate it from our selves to Christ and all the good in Christ let us learn to translate it from Christ to our selves Look as the Burgess of a Town or Corporation sitting in the Parliament house beareth the persons of that whole Town or place and what he saith the whole Town saith and what is done to him is done to the whole Town even so Christ upon the cross stood in our Isa 53. 4 5 6. place and bare our sins and whatsoever he suffered we suffered and when he died all the faithful died with him and in him I have read of a gracious woman who being by Satan strongly tempted replyed Satan if thou hast any thing to say to me say it to my surety who has undertaken all for me who hath paid all my debts and satisfied Divine Justice and set all reckonings even between God and my soul Do your sins terrifie you oh then look up to a crucified Saviour who bare your sins in his own body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2. 24. When sin stares you in the face oh then turn your face The strongest Antidote against sin is to look upon sin in the red glass of Christ's blood Auâ—tin to a dying Jesus and behold him with a spear in his side with thorns in his head with nails in his feet and a pardon in his hands Hast thou wounded thy conscience by any great fall or falls O then remember that there is nothing in heaven or earth more efficacious to cure the Bern. Ser. 61. in cant wounds of conscience than a frequent and serious meditation on the wounds of Christ Doth death that rides upon the pale horse look gashly and deadly upon thee Rev. 6. 8. Rom. 5. 6 8. oh then remember that Christ died for you and that by his death he hath swallowed up death in victory Oh 1 Cor. 15. 55 56 57. remember that a crucified Christ hath stripped death of his sting and disarmed it of all its destroying power death may buzz about our ears but it can never sting our souls Look as a crucified Christ hath taken away the guilt of sin though he hath not taken away sin it self so he hath taken away the sting of death though he hath not taken away death it self He spake excellently that said that is not death but life wbich joyns the dying man to Christ Ambrosius in 1 Tim. 5. 6. Death will blow the bud of Grace into the flower of Glory and that is not life but death that separates the living man from Christ Austin longed to die that he might see that head that was crowned with thorns Did Christ die for me saith one that I might live with him I will not therefore desire to live long from him all men go willingly to see him whom they love and shall I be unwilling to die that I may see him whom my soul loves Bernard would have us never to let go out of our minds the thoughts of a crucified Christ let these says he be meat and drink unto you let them be your sweetness and consolation your honey and your desire your reading and your meditation your contemplation your life death and resurrection certainly he that shall live up to this counsel will look upon the King of terrors as the King of desires Are
is a Toad hates every Toad and he who hates a Godly man because he is Godly he hates every Godly man and so he who hates sin because 't is sin he hates every sin Rom. 7. 15. What I hate that do I. Thirdly Every Godly man would fain have his sins not only pardoned but destroyed his heart is alienated from his sins and therefore nothing will serve him or satisfie him but the blood and death of his sins Isa 2. 20 chap. 30. 22. Hos 14. 8. Rom. 8. 24. Saul hated David and sought his life and Haman hated Mordâ—cat and sought his destruction and Absalom hated Amnon and kill'd him Julian the Apostate hated the Christians and put many thousands of them to death The great thing that a Christian has in his eye in all the duties he performs and in all the Ordinances that he attends is the blood and death and ruine of his sins Fourthly Every Godly man groans under the burden of sin 2 Cor. 5. 4. For we that are in this Tabernacle do groan being burdened Never did any Porter groan more to be delivered from his heavy burden than a Christian groans to be delivered from the burden of sin the burden of affliction the burden of temptation the burden of desertion the burden of opposition the burden of persecution the burden of scorn and contempt is nothing to the burden of sin ponder upon that Psal 38. 4. and Psal 40. 12. ver and Rom. 7. 24 ver Fifthly Every Godly man combats and conflicts with all known sin In every gracious Soul there is a constant and perpetual conflict The flesh will be still a lusting against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh Gal 5. 17 Rom. 7. 22 23. â— King 14. 30. 31. Though sin and grace were not born together and though sin and grace shall never die together yet whiles a Believer lives in this world they must live together and whilst sin and grace do cohabit together they will still be opposing and conflicting one with another Sixthly Every gracious heart is still a crying out against his sins he crys out to God to subdue them he crys out to Christ to crucifie them he crys out to the Spirit to mortifie them he crys out to faithful Ministers to arm him against them and he crys out to sincere Christians that they would pray hard that he may be made Victorious over them Now certainly it is a most sure sign that sin has not gained a mans heart a mans love nor his consent but committed a Rape upon his Soul when he crys out bitterly against his sin It is observable That if the Ravished Virgin under the Law cryed out she was guiltless Deut. 22. 25 26 27. certainly such as cry out of their sins and that would not for all the world indulge themselves in a way of sin such are guiltless before the Lord. That which a Christian does not indulge himself in that he do's not do in divine account But Seventhly The fixed purposes and designs of a Godly man is not to sin Psal 17. 3. I am purposed that my mouth shall not transgress that is I have laid my design so as not to sin Though may have many perticular failings yet my general purpose is not to sin Psal 39. 1. I said I will take heed to my ways that I sin not with my tongue I will keep my mouth with a Bridle while the wicked is before me When ever a Godly man sins he sins against the general purpose of his Soul David laid a Law upon his tongue he uses three words in the first and second verses to the same purpose which is as if he should say in plain English I was silent I was silent I was silent and all this to express how he kept in his passion that he might not offend with his tongue Though a Godly man sins yet he doth not purpose to sin for his purposes are fixt against sin Holiness is his high-way and as sin is it self a by-way so it is besides his way The honest Traveller purposes to keep straight on his way so that if at any time he misse his way he misses his purpose Though Peter denyed Christ yet he did not purpose to deny Christ yea the setled purpose of his Soul was rather to die with Christ than to deny Christ Math. 26. 35. Peter said unto him Though I should dye with thee yet will I not deny thee Interpreters agree that Peter meant as he speak But Eighthly The setled Resolutions of a gracious heart is not to sin Psal 119. 106. I have sworn and I will perform it that I will keep thy Righteous Judgments Neh. 10. 28 29 30 31. dwell on it Job 31. 1. c. Micha 4. 5. For all people will walk every one in the name of his God and we walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever So Daniel and the 3 Children Blessed Hooper resolves rather to be discharged of his Bishoprick than yield to certain Ceremonies Jerom writes of a brave Woman who being upon the wrack bid her Persecutors do their worst for she was resolved that she would rather die then lye The Prince of Conde being taken Prisoner by Charles the Nineth of France and put to his choyce first whether he would go to Mass or second be put to Death or thirdly suffer perpetual Imprisonment Answered as for the first I will never do by the assistance of Gods grace and as for the other two let the King do with me what he pleaseth for I am very well assured that God will turn all to the best The Heavens shall as soon fall said William Flower to the Bishop that perswaded him to save his life by retracting as I will forsake the Opinion and Faith I am in God assisting of me So Marchus Arethusius chose rather to suffer a most cruel Death than to give one half-penny towards the Building of an Idol Temple So Cyprian when the Emperour in the the way to his Execution said Now I give thee space to consider whether thou wilt obey me in casting a grain of Frankincens into the fire or be thus miserably slain Nay saith he there needs no deliberation in the case There are many thousands of such instances scattered up and down in History Ninethly There is a real willingness in every gracious Soul to be rid of all sin Rom. 7. 24. Hos 14. 2. 8. Job 7. 21. Saving grace makes a Christian as willing to leave his sin as a Slave is willing to leave his Galley or a Prisoner his Dungeon or a Thief his Bolts or a Beggar his Rags Many a day have I sought Death with â—cars saith blessed Cooper not out of impatience dist ust or perturbation but because I am weary of sin and fearful of falling into it Look as the Daughters of Heath even made Rebeccah weary of her life Gen. 27. 46. so Corruptions within makes a gracious Soul even weary of his life
righteousness in him to cloath me c. and therefore I can't but approve of the Lord Jesus as such a good as exceeds all the good that is to be found in Angels and Men the good that I see in Christ doth not only counterpoise but also excel all that real or imaginary good that every I have met with in any thing below Christ Christ must come into the will he must be received there else he is never savingly received Now before the Will will receive him the Will must be certainly informed that he is good yea the best and greatest good or else he shall never be admitted there Let the understanding assent never so much to all propositions concerning Christ as true if the judgment doth not approve of them as good yea as the best good Christ will never be truly received God in his working maintains the faculties of the Soul in their actings as he made them 13thly So far as I know my own heart I am sincerely willing to receive the Lord Jesus Christ in a Matrimonial Covenant according to these Scriptures Hos 2. 19 20. 2 Cor. 11. 2. Isa 54. 5. Isa 61. 10. Isa 62. 5. Cant. 3. 11. c. Through grace I am First Sincerely willing to take the Lord Jesus Christ for my Saviour and Sovereign Lord. So far as I know my own heart I do through mercy give my hearty consent that Christ and Christ alone shall be my Saviour and Redeemer It is true I do duties but the desire of my soul is to do them out of love to Christ and in obedience to his Royal Law and Pleasure I know my best Righteousnesses are but as filthy rags Isa 64. 6. And woe would be to me had I no other shelter or Saviour or resting place for my poor soul than rags than filthy rags And so far as I know my own heart I am sincerely willing to give up my self to the guidance and government of Jesus Christ as my sovereign Lord and King desiring nothing more in this world than to live and die under the guidance and government of his Spirit Word and Grace But Secondly I am willing through grace to give a Bill of Divorce to all other Lovers without exception or reservation So far as I know my own heart I desire nothing more in this world than that God would pull out right-eye sins and cut off right-hand sins I am very desirous through grace to have all sins brought under by the Power Spirit and Grace of Christ but especially my special sins my head corruptions I would have Christ alone to Rule Reign in the haven of my heart without any Competitour But Thirdly I am sincerely willing through Grace to take the Lord Jesus Christ for Better for Worse for Richer for Poorer in Sickness and in Health and in his Strength I would go with him through fire and water resolving through his Grace that nothing shall divide betwixt Christ and my Soul So far as I know my own heart I would have Christ though I beg with him though I go to Prison with him though in agonies in the Garden with him though to the Cross with him But Fourthly So far as I know my own heart I am sincerely willing First to receive the Lord Jesus Christ presently 1 John 12. Secondly to receive him in all his Offices as King Prophet and Priest Col. 2. 6. Acts 5. 31. Thirdly To receive him into every room of my soul to receive him into my understanding mind will affections c. Fourthly To receive him upon his own terms of denying my self taking up his Cross and following of him where-ever he goes Math. 16. 21. Rev. 14. 4. c. Fifthly and lastly So far as I know my own heart I do freely consent 1. To be really Christs 2. To be presently Christs 3. To be wholly Christs 4. To be only Christs 5. To be eminently Christs 6. To be for ever Christs c. Certainly that Christian that has and do's experience the particulars last mentioned under the second question that Christian may safely groundedly boldly and comfortably conclude that his faith is a true justifying saving Faith the Faith of Gods Elect and such a Faith as clearly evidences a gracious Estate and will never leave his Soul short of Heaven Now how many thousand Christians are there that have this Faith that is here described which is doubtless a true justifying saving Faith that gives a man an interest in the person of Christ and in all the blessings and benefits that comes by Christ who yet question whether they have true faith or no partly from weakness partly from temptations and partly from the various definitions that are given of Faith by Protestants both in their Preachings and Writings and it is and must be for a lamentation that in a point of so great moment the Trumpet should give such an uncertain sound The third Question or case is this viz. whether in the great day of the Lord the day of general Judgment or Eccles 11. 9. cap. 12. 14. Matth. 12. 36. cap. 18. 23. in the particular Judgment that will pass upon every soul immediately after death which is the stating of the soul in an Eternal estate or condition either of happiness or misery whether the sins of the Saints the follies and Luk. 16. 2. Rom 14. 10 12. 2 Cor. 5. 10. Heb. 9. 27. cap. 13 17. 1 Pet. 4 5. vanities of Believers the infirmities and enormities of sincere Christians shall be brought into the judgment of discussion and discovery or no Whether the Lord will either in the great day of account or in a mans particular day of account or judgment publickly manifest proclaim and make mention of the sins of his people or no This question is bottomed upon the ten Scriptures in the Margent which I desire the Christian Reader to consult and upon the sad and daily complaints of many dear sincere Christians who frequently cry out O! we can never answer for one evil thought of ten thousand nor we Jâ—â— 9. 3. Psal 19. 12. Psal 143. 2. Ezr 19. 6. can never answer for one idle word of twenty thousand nor we can never answer for one evil action of a hundred thousand and how then shall we stand in Judgment how shall we look the Judg in the Face how shall we be ever able to answer for all our Omissions and for all our Commissions for all our sins of Ignorance and sins against light and knowledge for all our sins against the Law and for all our sins against the Gospel and for all our sins against soveraign Grace and for all our sins against the Remedy against the Lord Jesus and for all the sins of our Infancy of our Youth Heb. 9 27. and of old Age c. What account shall we be able to give up when we come to our particular day of Judg-ment immediately after our death or in the great and general day of account
out thy transgressions Isa 43. 25. Isa 4â— 22. for my own sake and will not remember thy sins I have blotted out as a thick Cloud thy transgressions and as a Cloud thy sins Who is this that blots our transgressions he that hath the keys of Heaven and Hell at his girdle that opens and no man shuts that shuts and no man opens he that hath the power of life and death of condemning and absolving of killing and making alive he it is that blotteth out transgressions If an Under-Officer should blot out an Indictment that perhaps might do a man no good a man might for all that be at last cast by the Judge but when the Judge or King shall blot out the Indictment with their own hand then the Indictment cannot return now this is every Believers case and happiness Secondly To those glorious expressions of Gods not remembring of their sins any more Isa 43. 25. And I Jer. 31. 34. will not remember thy sins And they shall teach no more every man his Neighbour and every man his Brother saying Know ye the Lord for they shall all know me from the least of them to the greatest of them saith the Lord for I will forgive their Iniquity and I will remember their sin no more So the Apostle For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness Heb. 8 12. and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more And again The same Apostle saith This is the Covenant that I will make with them After those days Heb. 10. 17. That which Cicero said flatteringly of Caesar is truly affiâ—med of God Nihil oblivâ—sci solet praeter injurias he forgetâ—eth nothing but the wrongs that daily are done him by his saith the Lord I will put my Laws into their hearts and in their minds will I write them and their sins and iniquities will I remember no more The meaning is their iniquities shall be quite forgotten I will never mention them more I will never take notice of them more they shall never hear more of them from me though God hath an Iron memory to remember the sins of the wicked yet he hath no memory to remember the sins of the righteous Thirdly His not bringing their sins into Judgment doth most and best agree with those blessed expressions of his casting their sins into the depth of the Sea and of his casting them behind his back He will turn again he Mic. 7. 19. will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea Where sin is once Pardoned the Remission stands never to be repealed pardoned-sin shall never come in account against the pardoned man before God any more for so much doth this borrowed speech import If a thing were cast into a River it might be brought up again or if it were cast upon the Sea it might be discerned and taken up again but when it is cast into the depths the bottom of the Sea it can never be buoyed up again By the Metaphor in the Text the Lord would have us to know that sins pardoned shall rise no more they shall never be seen more they shall never come on the account more he will so drown their sins that they shall never come up before him the second time And so much that other Scripture imports Behold Isa 38. 17. for Peace I had great bitterness But thou hast in love to my Soul delivered it from the Pit of Corruption for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back These last words are a borrowed speech taken from the manner of men who are wont to cast behind their backs such things as they have no mind to see regard or remember A gracious soul hath always his sins before his face I acknowledge Psal 51. 3. my transgressions and my sin is ever before me and therefore no wonder if the Lord cast them behind his back The Father soon forgets and casts behind his back those faults that the Child remembers and hath always in his eyes so doth the Father of Spirits Fourthly His not bringing their sins into Judgment doth best agree with that sweet and choice expression of Gods pardoning the sins of his people And I will cleanse them from all their Iniquity whereby Jer. 33. 8. they have sinned against me and I will pardon all their Iniquities whereby they have sinned and whereby they have transgressed against me So in Micah Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth Iniquity and passes by the transgressions of Mic 7. 18. the remnant of his heritage as though he would not see it but wink at it He retaineth not his Anger for ever because he delighteth in Mercy The Hebrew word Nose from Nasa that is here rendered pardoned signifies a taking away when God pardons sin he takes it shier away that if it should be sought for yet it could not be found Jer â—0 20. as the Prophet speaks In those days and in that time saith the Lord the Iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none and the sins of Judah and they shall not be found for I will pardon them whom I reserve and these words and passeth by in the afore-cited seventh 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gnabâ—â— he passed over of Micah and the 18th according to the Hebrew Vegnober Gnal is and passeth over God passeth over the transgression of his heritage that is he takes no notice of it as a man in a deep muse or as one that hath hast of business seeth not things before him his mind being busied about other matters he neglects all to mind his business As David when he saw in Mephibosheth the feature of his friend Jonathan took no notice of his lameness or any other defect ot deformity So God beholding in his people the glorious Image of his Son winks at all their â—sa 40 1 2. faults and deformities which made Luther say Do with me what thou wilt since thou hast pardoned my sin and what is it to pardon sin but not to mention sin Fifthly His not bringing their sins into the Judgment of Discussion and Discovery doth best agree to those expressions of forgiving and covering Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered In the Original Psal 32. 1. it is in the plural Blessednesses so here is a plurality of Blessings a chain of Pearls The like expression you have in the 85th Psalm and the second v. Thou hast forgiven the Iniquity of thy people thou hast covered all their sin Selah For the understanding of these Scriptures aright take notice that to Cover is a Metaphorical expression Covering is such an action Sic velâ—â—tur ut in judicio non râ—vel ntur which is opposed to disclosure to be covered it is to be so hid and closed as not to appear Some make the Metaphor from filthy loathsome objects
Cor. 5. 10. Heb 9. 27. cap. 13. 17. 1 Pet. 4 5 to the ten Scriptures in the Margent that refer either to the general judgment or to the particular judgment that will pass upon every Christian immediately after death O blessed God Jesus Christ has by his own blood ballanced and made up all reckonings and accounts that were between thee and me and thou hast vehemently protested that thou wilt not bring me into Judgment that thou wilt blot out my Transgressions as a thick Cloud and that thou wilt remember my sins no more and that thou wilt cast them behind thy back and hurl them into the depth of the Sea and that thou wilt forgive them and cover them and not impute them to me c. This is my Plea O Lord and by this plea I shall stand Well saith the Judge of Quick and Dead I own this plea I accept of this plea I have nothing to say against this plea the plea is just safe honourable and righteous enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Secondly Every Sinner at his first believing and closing with Christ is justified in the Court of glory from all his sins both guilt and punishment Justification Act. 13. 39. doth not increase or decrease but all sin is pardoned at the first act of believing All who are justified are justified alike there is no difference amongst Believers as to their justification one is not more justified than another for every justified person hath a plenary Remission of his sins and the same Righteousness of Christ imputed but in Sanctification there is difference amongst Believers Every one is not sanctified alike for some are 1 Cor. 12. 19 1â— 14. 1 Joh 2 1. 12 13 14. stronger and higher and others are weaker and lower in grace As soon as any are made Believers in Christ all the sins which they have committed in time past and all the sins which they are guilty of as to the time present they are actually pardoned unto them in general and in particular Now that all the sins of a Believer are pardoned at once and actually unto them may be thus demonstrated First All phrases in Scripture imply thus much Esa 43. 25. I even I am he which blotteth out thy Transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins Jer. 31. 34. I will forgive their Iniquity and I will remember their sin no more Jer. 33. 8. And I will pardon all their Iniquities whereby they have sinned and whereby they have Transgressed against me Ezek. 18. 22. All his Transgressions that he hath committed they shall not be mentioned unto him Heb. 8. 12. I will be merciful unto their Vnrighteousness and their sins and their Iniquities I will remember no mâ—re ergo all is pardoned at once But Secondly That Remission of sins that leaves no Condemnation to the party offending is the Remission of all sins for if there were any sin remaining a man is still in 2. At a sinners first Conâ—ersion his sins are truly and perfectly pardoned 1. All as to sin already past 2. All as to the state of Remission they had a perfect right to the pardon of all their sins paâ—t present and to come though not an equal 〈◊〉 the state of Condemnation but Justification leaves no Condemnation Romans 8. 1. vers There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus and ver 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect It is God that justifieth and ver 38 39. Nor things present nor things to come shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord and Joh. 5. 24. He that heareth my Word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into Condemnation but is passed from death to life ergo all sins are pardoned at once or else they were in a state of Condemnation c. Thus you see it evident that there is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus therefore there is full remission of all sins to the soul at the first act of believing But Thirdly A Believer even when he sinneth is still united to Christ Joh. 15. 1. 6. Joh. 17. 21 22 23. 1 Cor. 6. 17. And he is still Cloathed with the Righteousness of Christ which covers all his sins and dischargeth him from them so that no guilt can redound to him Isa 61. 10. Jer. 23. 6. 1 Cor. 1. 30. Phil. 3. 9. c. But Fourthly A Believer is not to fear Curse or Hell at all which yet he might do if all his sins were not pardoned at once but some of his new sins were for a while unpardoned c. But Fifthly Our Lord Jesus Christ by once suffering suffered for all the sins of the Elect past present and to come the infinite wrath of God the Father fell on him for all the sins of the chosen of God Isa 53. 9. Heb. 12. 14. chap. 10. 9 10 12 14. If Christ had suffered for ten thousand worlds he could have suffered no more than he did for he suffered the whole infinite wrath of God the Father the wrath of God was infinite wrath the sufferings of Christ were infinite sufferings ergo Look as Adam's sin was enough to infect a thousand worlds so our Saviours merits are sufficient to save a thousand worlds those sufferings that he suffered for sins past are sufficient to satisfie for sins present and to come That all the sins of Gods Isa 54. 5 6. people in their absolute number from first to last were laid upon Christ who in the days of his sufferings did meritoriously purchase perfect remission of all their sins to be applyed in future times to them and by them is most certain But Sixthly Repentance is not at all required for our justification where our pardon is only to be found but only Faith therefore pardon of sin is not suspended until we repent of our sins But Sevently If the Remission of all sins be not at once it is either because my faith cannot lay hold on it or because there is some hinderances in the way But a man by the hand of faith may lay hold on all the merits of Christ and the word reveals the pardon of all and the Sacrament of the Lords Supper seals and confirms the pardon of all and there is no danger nor inconvenience that attends this assertion for it puts the highest obligation imaginable upon the soul as to fear and obedience Psal 1 30. 3. v. If thou Lord shouldest mark Iniquities O Lord who shall stand ver 4. But there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared Forgiveness makes not a Christian bold with sin but fearful of sin and careful to obey as Christians find in their daily experience By this Argument it appears clear that the forgiveness of all sins is made to the soul at once at the first act of Believing But Eightly If new
esteemed the most shameful the most dishonourable and infamous of all kinds of death and was usually therefore the punishment of those that had by some notorious wickedness provoked God to pour out his wrath upon the whol Land and so were hanged up to appease his wrath as we may see in the hanging of those Princes that were guilty of committing Numb 25. 4. Whordom with the Daughters of Moab and in the hanging of those Sons of Saul in the days of David when 2 Sam. 21. 6. there was a Famine in the Land because of Sauls perfidious oppressing of the Gibeonites nor was it without cause that this kind of death was both by the Israelites and other Nations esteemed the most shameful and accursed because the very manner of the death did intimate that such men as were thus Executed were such execrable and accursed wretches that they did defile the Earth with treading on it and would pollute the Earth if they should dye upon it and therefore were so trussed up in the Ayre as not fit to live amongst men and that others might look upon them as men made spectacles of Gods Indignation and Curse because of the wickedness they had committed which was not done in other kinds of death And hence it was that the Lord God would have his Son the Lord Christ to suffer this kind of death that even hence it might be the more evident that in his death he bare the Curse due to our sins according to that of the Apostle Christ hath Redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree The Gal. 3. 13. Chaldee translateth For because he sinned before the Lord he is hanged The Tree whereon a man was hanged the Stone wherewith he was stoned the Sword wherewith he was beheaded and the Napkin wherewith he was strangled they were all Buried that there might be no evil memorial of such a one to say This was the Tree Sword Stone Napkin wherewith such a one was Executed This kind of death was so execrable that Constantine made a Law that no Christian should dye upon the Cross he abolished this kind of death out oâ— his Empire When this kind of death was in use among the Jews it was chiefly inflicted upon Slaves that either falsly accused or treacherously conspired their Masters death But on whomsoever it was inflicted this death in all Ages among the Jews hath been branded with a special kind of ignominy and so much the Apostle signifies when he saith He abased himself to the death even to the Phil. 2. 2. death of the Cross I know Moses's Law speaks nothing in particular of Crucifying yet he doth include the same under the general of hanging on a Tree and some conceive that Moses in speaking of that Curse sore-saw what manner of death the Lord Jesus should die and let thus much sussice concerning Christs sufferings on the Cross or concerning his corporal sufferingâ— I shall now in the second place speak concerning Christs spiritual sufferings his sufferings in his Soul which were exceeding high and great Now here I shall endeavour to do two things First To prove that Christ suffered in his Soul and so much the rather because that the Papists say and write That Christ did not truly and properly and immediatly suffer in his Soul but only by way of simpathy and compassion with his body to the Mystical body and that his bare bodily sufferings were sufficient for mans Redemption 2. That the sufferings of Christ in his Soul were exceeding high and great for the first that Christ suffered in his Soul I shall thus demonstrate First Express Scriptures do evidence this Isa â—3 When thou shalt make his Soul an offering for sin he shall see his Seed c. Joh. 12. 27. Now is my Soul troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I unto this hour Math. 26. 37. 38. He began to be sorrowful and very heavy These were but the beginings of sorrow he began c. Sorrow is a thing that drinks up our spirits and he was heavy as seeling an heavy load upon him v. 38. My Soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death Christ was as full of sorrow as his heart could hold every word is Emphatical My Soul his Psal 6â— 1. 2. sorrow pierced his Heaven-born Soul As the Soul was the first Agent in transgression so it is here the first Patient in affliction The sufferings of his body were but Christs Soul was beleagured or compassed round round with sorrow as that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sounds 26 Math. 28 the body of his sufferings the soul of his sufferings were the sufferings of his Soul which was nòw beset with sorrows and heavy as heart could hold Christ was sorrowsul his Soul was sorrowful his Soul was exceeding sorrowsul his Soul was exceeding sorrowful unto death Christs Soul was in such extremity of sorrow that it made him cry out Father if it be possible let this Cup pass and this was with strong cryings and tears To cry and to cry Heb. 5. 7. with a loud voyce argues great extremity of sufferings Mark 14. 33. Mark saith And he began to be amazod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to be very heavy or we may more fully express it thus according to the original He begun to be gastred with wondersul astonishment and to be satiated filled brim full with heaviness a very sad condition All the sins of the Elect like a huge Army meeting upon Christ made a dreadful on-set on his Soul Luk. 22. 43 44. 'T is said He was in an Agony That 's a conflict in which a poor Creature wrestles with deadly pangs with all his might mustring up all his faculties and force to grapple with them and with-stand them Thus did Christ struggle with the Indignation of the Lord praying once and again with more intense fervency O that this Cup may pass away if it be possible let this Cup pass away while yet an Luk 22 42 43. Angel strengthened his outward man from utter sinking in the conslict Now if this weight that Christ did bare had been laid on the shoulders of all the Angels in Heaven it would have sunk them down to the lowest Hell it would have crackt the Axel-tree of Heaven and Earth It made His blood startle out of his body in congealed cloddered heaps The heat of Gods fiery Indignation made his blood to boil up till it ran over yea Divine wrath affrighted it out of its wonted Channel The Creation of Geâ— 1. the world cost him but a word he spake and the world was made but the Redemption of Souls cost him bloody sweats and Soul-distraction What conflicts what struglings with the wrath of God the powers of darkness what weights what burdens what wrath did he undergoe when his Soul
was heavy unto death beset with terrors as the word implies when he drank that bitter cup that cup of bitterness that cup mingled with curses which made him sweat drops of blood which if men or Angels had but sip'd of 't would have made them reel stagger and tumble into Hell The Soul of Christ was over-cast with a Cloud of Gods displeasure The Greek Church speaking of the sufferings of Christ calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unknown sufferings Ah Christians who can speak out this sorrow The spirit of a man will sustain Pâ—ov 18. 11. his infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear Christs Soul is sorrowful but give me that word again his Soul is exceeding sorrowful but if that word be yet too low then I must tell you That his Soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death not only extensively such as must continue for the space of seventeen or eighteen hours even until death it self should finish it but also intensively such and so great as that which is used to be at the very point of death and such as were able to bring death it self had not Christ been reserved to a greater and heavier punishment of this sorrow is that especially spoken Behold Lament 1. 12. and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger Many a sad and sorrowful Soul hath no question been in the world but the like sorrow to this was never since the Creation the very terms or phrases used by the Evangelists speaks no less He was sorrowful and heavy saith one amazed and very heavy saith another in an Agony saith a third in a Soul-trouble saith a fourth Certainly the bodily torments of the Cross were much inferior to the Agony of his Soul the pain of the body is the body of pain Oh but the very soul of sorrow is the Souls sorrow and the very soul of pain is the Souls pain Secondly That which Christ assumed or took of our nature he assumed to this end to suffer in it and by suffering to save and redeem it But he took the whole nature of man both body and soul ergo He suffered in both first the assumption is evident and needs no proof that Christ took upon him both our soul and body the Apostle assures us where he saith That in all things it became Heb. 2. 17. him to be like unto us therefore he had both body and soul as we have Secondly Concerning the proposition viz. That what Christ took of our nature He took it by suffering in it properly and immediatly to Redeem us Now this is evident by that blessed word where the Apostle saith Christ took part with them that he might destroy vers 14 15. through death him that had the power of death that is the Devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Hence I reason thus that wherein Christ delivered us he took part with us in but he delivered us from fear of death Ergo he did therein communicate with us Now marke This fear was the proper and immediate passion of the Soul namely the fear of death and God's anger And the Text giveth this sense Because the fear of this death kept them in bondage but the sear only of the bodily death doth not bring us into such bondage witness that Song of Zachery That we being delivered from the hands of our Enemies Luke 1. 74. should serve him without fear this then is a spiritual fear from the which Christ did deliver us Ergo He did communicate with us in this fear for the Apostle saith Heb. 2. 18. In that wherein he suffered and was tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted Certainly that fear which fell on Christ was a real fear and it was in his Soul and did not arise from the meer contemplation of bodily torments only for the very Martyrs in the encountering with them have feared little Assuredly there was some great matter that lay upon the very Soul of Christ which made him so heavy and sorrowsul and so afraid and in such an Agony But if you please take this second Argument in another form of words thus What Christ took of ours that He in suffering offered up for us for His assuming of our Nature was for this end to suffer for us in our Nature but he took our Nature in Body and in Soul and he delivered our souls as well as our bodys and the sins of our souls did need his Sacrifice as well as the sins of our bodys and our souls were Crucified with Christ as well as our bodys Mens mea in Christo Crucisixa est saith Ambrose Surely if our whole man was lost then our whole man did need the benefit and help of a whole Saviour and if Christ had assumed only our flesh our body then our souls adjudged adjudged to punishment had remained under transgression without hope of pardon Several sayings of the Ancients doth further strengthen this Argument take a tast of some Si totus homo periit totus benesiâ—io salvateris indiguit c. If the whole man perished August â—ont Feliâ—i n. c. 13. the whole man needed a Saviour Christ therefore took the whole man body and soul if he had taken only flesh the soul should remain addict to punishment of the first transgression without hope of pardon By the same reason Christ must also suffer properly in soul because not by taking our soul but by satisfying in his soul our soul is delivered Suscepit animum meam Suscepit corpus meum Ambrose Ambrose He took all our passions or affections to sanctifie them Damaâ—cene Hâ—b 5. 9. all in himself but Christ was Sanctified and Consecrated by his death and so doth he consecrate us For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10. 14. Ergo By his offering of our soul and suffering in our soul hath he consecrated our soul and affections Suscepit affectum meum ut emanduret He took my affection to amend it c. Now he hath amended it in that he consecrated it by his offering Heb. 10. 14. Iâ—llud pro nobis suscepit quod in nobis amplius pâ—riclitabatur He hath taken that for us which was most in danger for us c. that is our soul as he expoundeth it de incarnat c. 7. But Christ hath not otherwise delivered us from the danger but by entring into the danger for us this danger of the soul is the fear and feeling of Gods wrath Thirdly Christ bore our sorrows Isa 53. 4. Now what sorrows should we bear but the sorrows due unto us for our sins and surely these were not corporal only but spiritual also and those did Christ bear in his soul The same Prophet saith ver 10. He shall make his soul
soul is his sufferings for it follows And he shall bear their Iniquities But Sixthly Christ gave himself for his peoples sins Gal. 1. 9. 6. Ephe. 5. 25. 1 Tim. 2. 6. Who gave himself for our sins Tit. 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might Redeem us from all Iniquities c. but the body only is not himself ergo The Apostle saith Phil. 2. 7. Christus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exinanivit Christ did empty or evacuate himself or as Tertullian expounds it Exhausit Teâ—tâ—llian Conâ—ra Marcian lib. 5. He drew out himself or was exhaust which agrees with the Prophesis of Daniel chap. 9. 26. Mâ—ssias shall have nothing being brought to nothing by his death without life strength esteem honour c. Hence we conclude that if Christ were exhaust upon the Cross if nothing was left him that he suffered in body and soul that there was no part within or without free from the Cross but all was emptied and poured out for our Redemption Again We read That Christ through the eternal Spirit Heb. 9. 14 offered himself to God Whatsoever was in Christ did either offer or was offered His eternal Spirit only did offer ergo His whole humane Nature both Body and Soul was offered Thus Origen witnesseth in these words Origen â—om 9 in Levit. Vide quo modo verus pontifex Jesus Christus adsumptâ— batillocarnis humanae c. See how our true Priest Jesus Christ taking the censor of his humane flesh putting to the fire of the Altar that is His magnificent Soul wherewith he was born in the flesh and adding Incense that is an immaculate Spirit stood in the middest between the living and the dead Thus you see that he makes Christs soul a part in the Sacrifice Seventhly and lastly Christs love unto man in suffering for him was in the highest degree and greatest measure that could be as the Lord saith What could I have done any more for my Vineyard that I have not done unto it But if Christ had given his Body only and not his Soul for us he had not done for us all he could and so his love should have been greatly empaired and diminished ergo He gave his Soul also together with his Body to be the full price of our Redemption and certainly the travail and labour of Christs Soul was most acceptable unto God Isa 53. 12. Therefore I will give him a Portion with Isa 35. 12. the great because he hath poured out his Soul unto death c. and bare the sins of many Doubtless the sufferings of Christ in his Soul together with his Body doth most fully and amply commend and set forth Gods great love to poor Sinners Before I close up this particular take a few Testimonies of the Fathers which do witness with us for the sufferings of Christ both in Soul and Body Christ hath taken off us that which he should offer as Ambrose de Incarnat c. 6. proper for us to Redeem us and whatsoever Christ took off us he offered ergo He offered Body and Soul for he took both Another upon these words My Soul is heavy saith Anima Concil Hispalens 2. c. 13. passionibus obnoxia divinitas libra His Soul was subject to passions his Divinity was free c. If nothing were free but his Divine Nature than his Soul was subject to the proper and immediate passions thereof Perspicuum est sicut corpus flagellatum ita animam verè Hierom in 35. cap. Isa doluisse c. It is evident that as his body was whipped so his Soul was verily and truly grieved lest some part of Christs sufferings should be true some part false ergo Christs Soul as properly and truly suffered as his Body the Soul had her proper grief as the Body had whipping the whipping then of the body was not the proper grief of the soul Whole Christ gave himself and whole Christ offered himself ergo He offered his soul not only to suffer by way of compassion with his body as it may be Fulgenâ—ius ad Thâ—aâ—maud lib. 3. answered but he offered it as a Sacrifice and suffered all passions whatsoever incident to the soul The same Author expounds himself further thus Because this God took whole man therefore he shewed in truth in himself the passions of whole man and having a reasonable soul what infirmities soever of the soul without sin he took and bare If Christ then did take and bare all the passions of the soul without sin then the proper and immediate grief and anguish thereof and not the compassion only with the body To these let me add the consent of the reformed Churches French Confes Christ did suffer Harm p. 59. Sect. 6. both in body and soul and was made like unto us in all things Sin only excepted Thomas granteth that Christ Secundum genus passus est 3. Par. qu 46. Artic. 5. omnem passionem humanam in general suffered all humane sufferings as in his soul heaviness fear c. Now the Testimonies of the Fathers and the consent of the reformed Churches affirming the same that Christ was Crucified in his soul and that he gave his soul a price of Redemption for our souls Who can then doubt of this but that Christ verily properly immediately suffered in his soul in all the proper passions thereof as he endured pains and torments in his flesh and if you please this may go for an eighth argument to prove that Christ suffered in his soul Secondly That the sufferings of Christ in his soul were very high and great and wonderful both as to the punishment of loss and as to the punishment of sense all which I shall make evident in these four particulars First That Jesus Christ did suffer dereliction of God really that he was indeed deserted †Forsaken 1. By denying of protection 2. By withdrawing of solace Non solvit unionem sed subtraxit visionâ—m Leo. The Union was not desolved but the beams the influence was restrained forsaken of God is most evident Math. 27. 46. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But to prevent mistakes in this high point seriously consider 1. That I do not mean that there was nay such desertion of Christ by God as did desolve the union of the Natures in the person of Christ For Christ in all his sufferings still remained God and Man Nor 2. Do I mean an absolute desertion in respect of the presence of God For God was still present with Christ in all his sufferings and the God-head did support his Humanity in and under his sufferings but that which I mean is this That as to the sensible and comforting manifestations of Gods presence thus he was for a time left and forsaken of God God for a time had taken-away all sensible consolation and fâ—lt joy from Christs humane soul that so divine justice might in his sufferings be the more fully satisfied In this
instances and not blush Certainly the more Christ hath suffered for us the more dear Christ should be unto us the more bitter his sufferings have been for us the more sweet his love should be to us and the more eminent should be our love to him O let a suffering Christ lie nearest your hearts let him be your Manna your Tree of Life your Morning-star 't is better to part with all than with this Pearl of price Christ is that golden pipe through which the golden oyl of salvation runs and oh how should this inflame our love to Christ Oh that our hearts were more affected with the sufferings of Christ Who can tread upon these hot coals and his Can. 8. 7 8. heart not burn in love to Christ and cry out with Ignatius Christ my love is crucified If a friend should die Joh. 10. 17 18. for us how would our hearts be affected with his kindness and shall the God of Glory lay down his life for us and shall we not be affected with his goodness Shall Saul be affected with David's kindness in sparing his life 1 Sam. 24. 16. and shall not we be affected with Christ's kindness who Joh. 1. 18. to save our life lost his own O the infinite love of Christ that he should leave his Fathers bosom and come down Joh. 14. 1 2 3 4. from heaven that he might carry you up to heaven that he that was a Son should take upon him the form of a Phil. 2. 5 6 7 8. servant that you of slaves should be made Sons of enemies should be made friends of heirs of wrath should Rom. 8. 17. be made heirs of God and joynt-heirs with Christ that to save us from everlasting ruine Christ should stick at nothing but be willing to be made flesh to lie in a manger to be tempted deserted persecuted and to die upon a Cross O what flames of love should these things kindle in all our hearts to Christ Love is compared to fire in heaping love upon our enemy we heap coals of Râ—m 12. 19 20. Prov. 26. 21. fire upon his head now the property of fire is to turn all it meets with into its own nature fire maketh all things fire the coal maketh burning coals and is it not a wonder then that Christ having heaped abundance of the fiery coals of his love upon our heads we should yet be but key-cold in our love to him Ah what sad metal are we made of that Christ's fiery love cannot inflame our love to Christ Moses wondred why the Bush Exod. 3. 3. consumed not when he see it all on fire but if you please but to look into your own hearts you shall see a greater wonder for you shall see that though you walk like those three Children in the fiery furnace even in the Dan. 3. midst of Christ's fiery love flaming round about you yet there is but little very little true smell of that sweet fire of love to be felt or found upon you or in you Oh when shall the sufferings of a dear and tender-hearted Saviour kindle such a flame of love in all our hearts as shall still be a breaking forth in our lips and lives in our words and ways to the praise and glory of free Grace Cant. 2. 5. O that the sufferings of a loving Jesus might at last make us all sick of love O let him for ever lie betwixt our Cant. 1. 13. breasts who hath left his Fathers bosom for a time that he might be enbosom'd by us for ever But Thirdly Then in the sufferings of Christ as in a Gospel-glass you may see the odious nature of Sin and accordingly learn to hate it arm against it turn from it and subdue it Sin never appears so odious as when we Psal 119. 104 113 128. Rom. 7. 15. cap. 12. 9. behold it in the â—ed Glass of Christ's sufferings Can we look upon sin as the occasion of all Christ's sufferings can we look upon sin as that which made Christ a curse and that made him forsaken of his Father and that made him live such a miserable life and that brought him to die such a shameful painful and cruel death and our hearts not rise against it Shall our sins be grievous unto Christ and shall they not be odious unto us shall he die for our sins and shall not we die to our sins did not he therefore suffer for sin that we might cease from sin did not he bear our sins in his own body on the tree 1 Pet. 4. 1. that we being dead to sin should live to righteousness If 1 Pet. 2. 24. one should kill our father would we hug and imbrace him as our father no we would be revenged on him Sin hath killed our Saviour and shall we not be reveng'd on it Can a man look upon that Snake that hath stung his dearly beloved spouse to death and preserve it alive warm it at the fire and hug it in his bosom and not rather stab it with a thousand wounds 'T is sin that hath stung our dear Jesus to death that has crucified our Lord clouded his glory and shed his precious blood and oh how should this stir up our indignation against it ah how can a Christian make much of those sins that killed his deared Lord how can he cherish those sins that betrayed Christ and apprehended Christ and bound Christ and condemned Christ and scourged Christ and that violently drew him to the Cross and there murdered him It was neither Judas nor Pilate nor the Jews nor the Souldiers that could have done our Lord Jesus the least hurt had not our sins like so many Butchers and Hangmen come in to their assistance After Julius Caesar was treacherously murthered in the Senate-house Antonius brought forth his Coat all bloody cut and mangled and laying it open to the view of the people said Look here is your Emperors coat and as the bloody conspirators have dealt by it so have they dealt with Caesar's body whereupon the people were all in an uproar and nothing would satisfie them but the death of the murtherers and they run to the houses of the conspirators and burnt them down to the ground But what was Caesar's coat and Caesar's body to the body of our dear Lord Jesus which was all bloody rent and torn for our sins Ah how should this provoke us to be revenged on our sins how should we for ever loath and abhorr them how should our fury be whetted against them how should we labour with all our might to be the death of those sins that have been the death of so great a Lord and will if not prevented be the death of our Souls to all eternity To see God thrust the sword of his pure infinite and incensed wrath through the very heart of his dearest Son notwithstanding all his supplications prayers Heb. 5. 7. tears and strong cries
7. 15. 19. 21. 23. Isa 30. 22. 14. Hos 8. When the will stands upon such terms of defiance with all sin as that it will never enter into a league of friendship with any sin then is the Soul turned from every sin Thirdly In the judgments turning away from all sin by disapproving disallowing and condemning all sin Rom. 7. 15. O! saith the judgment of a Christian sin is the greatest evil in all the world 't is the only thing God abhors and that brought Jesus Christ to the Cross that damns Souls that shuts Heaven and that has laid the foundations of Hell O! It is the pricking thorn in my eye the deadly arrow in my side the two-edged-sword that hath wounded my Conscience and slain my comforts and separated between God and my Soul O! sin is that which hath hindred my prayers and imbittered my mercies and put a sting into all my crosses and therefore I can't but disapprove of it and disallow of it and condemn it to death yea to Hell from whence it came Fourthly In the purpose and resolution of the soul the soul sincerely purposing and resolving never willingly wilfully or wickedly to transgress any more Psal 17. 3. The general purpose and resolution of my heart is not to transgress though particular failings may attend me yet my resolutions and purposes are firmly set against doing evil Psal 39. 1. The true Penitent holds up his purposes and resolutions to keep off from sin and to keep close with God though he be not able in every thing and at all times to make good his purposes and resolutions c. But Fifthly In the earnest and unfeigned desires and careful endeavours of the Soul to abandon all sin to forsake all sin and to be rid of all sin Rom. 7. 22 23. You know when a prudent tender indulgent Father sees hs Child to fail and come short in that which he enjoyns him to do yet knowing that his desires and endeavours is to please him and serve him he will not be harsh rigid sowre or severe towards him but will spare him and exercise much tenderness and indulgence towards him and will God will God whose mercies reach above the Heavens and whose compassions are infinite and whose love is like himself carry it worse towards his Children then men do carry it towards theirs Surely no. God's Fatherly indulgence accepts of the will for the work Heb. 13. 18. 2 Cor. 8. 12. Certainly a sick man is not more desirous to be rid of all his Diseases nor a Prisoner to be freed from all his bolts and chains than the true Penitent is desirous to be rid of all his sins Sixthly and lastly In the common and ordinary declining shunning and avoyding of all known occasions of sin yea and all temptations provocations inducements and enticements to sin c. That royal Law 1 Thes 5. 22. Abstain from all appearance of evil is a Law that is very precious in a Penitent mans eye and commonly lyes warm upon a Penitent mans heart so that take him in his ordinary course and you shall find him very ready to shun and be shie of the very appearance of sin of the very shews and shadows of sin Job made a Covenant with his eyes Job 31. 1. and Joseph would not hearken to his bold tempting Mistriss to lye by her or to be with her Gen. 39. 10. And David when himself would not sit with Vain persons Psal 26. 3 4 5. Now a true penitential turning from all sins lyes in these six things and therefore you had need look about you for if there be any one way of wickedness wherein you walk and which you are resolved you will not forsake you are no true penitents and you will certainly lose your souls and be miserable for ever This Opinion that is now under-consideration is an opinion that will exceedingly deject many precious Christians and cause them greatly to hang down their heads especially in four days 1. In the day of common calamity 2. In the day of personal affliction 3. In the day of death 4. In the great day of account First In a day of common Calamity when the Sword is drunk with the blood of the slain or when the raging Pestilence lays thousands in heap upon heap or when Fevours Agues Gripes and other Diseases carry hundreds every week to their long homes O! now the remembrance of a mans beloved sins his bosom sins his darling sins if a Saint had any such sins will be very apt to fill his soul with fears dreads and perplexities Surely now God will meet with me now God will avenge himself on me for my beloved sins my bosom sins my darling sins O! how righteous a thing is it with God because of my beloved lusts to sweep me away by these sweeping Judgments that are abroad in the Earth On the contrary how sweet and comfortable a thing is it when in a day of common Calamity a Christian can appeal to God and appeal to Conscience that though he has many weaknesses and infirmities that hang upon him that yet he has no beloved sin no bosom sin no darling sin that either God or Conscience can charge upon him O! such a consideration as this may be as life from the dead to a gracious Christian in the midst of all the common Calamities that do's surround him and that hourly threaten him Secondly In the day of personal Affections when the smarting Rod is upon him and God writes bitter things against him when the Hand of the Almighty has toucht him in his Name Estate Relations c. O! now the remembrance of a mans beloved sins his bosom sins his darling sins if a Saint had any such sins will be as the hand writing upon the Wall Dan. 5. 5 6. that will make his counteance to be changed his thoughts to be troubled his joynts to be loosed and his knees to be dashed one against another O! now a Christian will be ready to conclude O! 't is my beloved sins my bosom sins my darling sins that has caused God to put this bitter cup into my hand and that has provokt him to give me gall and wormwood to drink Lam. 3. 19. Whereas on the contrary when a man under all his personal tryals though they are many and great yet can lift up his head and appeal to God and Conscience that though he has many sinful weaknesses and infirmities hanging upon him yet neither God nor Conscience can charge upon him any beloved sins any bosom sins any darling sins O! such a consideration as this will help a man to bare up bravely sweetly cheerfully patiently and contentedly under the heaviest hand of God as is evident in that great instance of Job who so sorely afflicted as Job and yet no beloved sin no bosom sin no darling sin being chargable upon him by God or Conscience Job 10. 7. chap. 31. 33. How bravely sweetly and Christianly do's Job bear up under
in one is guilty of all 2 Jam. 10. Now that ye may not mistake Aquinas nor the Scripture he cites you must remember that the whole Law is but one copulative Exod. 16. 18. Ezek. 18. 10 11 12 13. v Mark he that breaketh one Command habitually breaketh all not so actually Such as are truly Goâ—ly in respect of the habitual desires purposes bents byasses inclinations resolutions and endeavours of their Souls do keep those very commands that actually they daily break But a dispensatory Conscience keeps not any one Commandement of God he that willingly and wilfully and habitually gives himself liberty to break any one Commandement is guilty of all That is 1. Either he breaks the chain of duties and so breaks all the Law being copulative or 2. With the same disposition of heart that he willingly wilfully habitually breaks one with the same disposition of heart he is ready prest to break all The Apostles meaning in that Jam. 2. 10. is certainly this viz. That suppose a man should keep the whole Law for substance except in some one particular yet by allowing of himself in this particular thereby he manifests that he kept no precept of the Law in obedience and conscience unto God for if he did then he would be careful to keep every precept thus much the words following import and hereby he manifests that he is guilty of all Some others conceive that therefore such a one may be said to be guilty of all because by allowing of himself in any one sin thereby he lyes under that Curse which is threatned against the transgressors of the Law Dan. 27. 26. Eighthly Every Christian should carry in his heart saith another a constant and resolute purpose not to sin in any thing for Faith and the purpose of sinning can never stand together This must be understood of an habitual not actual of a constant not transient purpose But Ninethly One flaw in a Diamond saith another takes away the lustre and the price One puddle if we wallow in it will defile us One man in Law may keep Possession One piece of ward Land makes the Heir liable to the King So one sin lived in and allowed may make a man miserable for ever But Tenthly One turn may bring a man quite out of the way One act of Treason makes a Traytor Giddcon had seventy Sons but one Bastard and yet that one Bastard destroyed all the rest Judg. 8. 13. One sin as well as one Sinner lived in and allowed may destroy much good saith another Eleaventhly He that favoureth one sin though he forgoe many do's but as Ben adab recover of one disease and dye of another yea he doth but take pains to go to Hell saith another Twelfthly Satan by one Lye to our first Parents made fruitless what God himself had Preached to them immediatly before saith another Thirteenthly A man may by one short act of sin bring a long Curse upon himself and his Posterity as Ham did when he saw his Father Noah Drunk Gen. 9. 24 25. And Noah awoke from his Wine and knew what his younger Son had done unto him and he said Cursed is Canaan a Servant of Servants shall he be unto his Brethren Canaan was Hams Son Noah as Gods mouth Prophesied a Curse upon the Son for his Fathers sin Here Ham is cursed in his Son Canaan and the curse entailed not only to Canaan but to his Posterity Noah Prophesies a long series and chain of curses upon Canaan and his Children he makes the curâ—e Hereditary to the Name and Nation of the Canaanites A Servant of Servants shall he be unto his Brethren that is the vilest and basest Servant for the Hebrews express the superlative degree by such a duplication as Vanity of Vanities that is most vain a Song of Songs that is a most excellent Song So here a Servant of Servants that is the vilest the basest Servant Ah heavy and prodigious Curse upon the account of one sin But Fourteenthly Satan can be content that men should yield to God in many things provided that they will be but true to him in some one thing for he knows very well that as one dram of Poyson may poyson a man and one stab at the heart may kill a man so one sin unrepented of one sin allowed retained cherrished and practised will certainly damn a man But Fifteenthly Though all the parts of a mans body be sound save only one that one Diseased and Ulcerous part may be deadly to thee for all the sound members cannot preserve thy life but that one diseased and Ulcerous member will hasten thy death So one sin allowed indulged and lived in will prove killing and damning to thee Sixteenthly Observe saith another that an unmortified sin allowed and wilfully retained will eat out all appearance of Vertue and Piety Herods high esteem of John and his Ministry and his reverencing of him and observing of him and his forward performance of many good things are all given over and laid aside at the instance and command of his master-sin his reigningsin Johns head must go for it if he won't let Herod enjoy his Herodias quietly But Seventeenthly Some will leave all their sins but one Jacob would let all his Sons go but Benjamin Satan can hold a man fast enough by one sin that he allows and lives in as the Fowler can hold the Bird fast enough by one wing or by one claw Eighteenthly Holy Policarp in the time of the fourth Persecution when he was commanded but to swear one Oath he made this Answer Four-score and six years have I endeavoured to do God Service and all this while he never hurt me how then can I speak evil of so good a Lord and Master who hath thus long preserved me I am a Christian and cannot swear let Heathens and Infidels swear if they will I cannot do it were it to the saving of my life Nineteenthly A willing and a wilfull keeping up either in heart or life any known transgression against the Lord is a breach of the holy Law of God it is a fighting against the honour an glory of God and is a reproach to the Eye of God the Omnipresence of God Twentiethly The keeping up of any known transgression against the Lord may endanger the souls of others and may be found a fighting against all the crys prayers tears promises Vows and Covenants that thou hast made to God when thou hast been upon a sick bed or in eminent dangers or near death or else when thou hast been in solemn seeking of the Lord either alone or with others these things should be frequently and seriously thought of by such poor souls as are entangled by any Lust Twenty-one The keeping up of any known transgression against the Lord either in heart or life is a high tempting of Satan to tempt the soul it will also greatly unfit the soul for all sorts of duties and services that he either owes to God
to himself or others it will also put a sting into all a mans troubles afflictions and distresses it will also lay a foundation for dispair and it will make Death which is the King of terrors and the terror of Kings to be very terrible to the soul Twenty-two The keeping up of any known transgression against the Lord either in heart or life will fight against all those patterns and examples in holy Writ that in duty and honour we are bound to immitate and follow Pray where do you find in any of the blessed Scriptures that any of the Patriarks Prophets Apostles or Saints are ever charged with a willing or a wilfull keeping up either in their hearts or lives any known transgression against the Lord. Twenty-three The keeping up of any known transgression against the Lord will highly make against all clear sweet and standing communion with God Parents use not to smile nor be familiar with their Children nor to keep up any intimate communion with them in their neglects and disobedience 't is so here Twenty-four The keeping up either in heart or life of any known transgression against the Lord will fight against the standing joy peace comfort and assurance of the soul Joy in the Holy-Ghost will make its nest no where but in a holy soul so far as the Spirit is grieved he will suspend his consolations Lam. 1. 16. A man will have no more comfort from God than he makes Conscience of sinning against God A Conscience good in point of Integrity will be good also in point of Tranquility If our hearts condemn us not then have we considence towards God and I may say also towards men Act. 24. 16 Oh what comfort and solace hath a clear Conscience he hath somthing within to answer accusations without I shall conclude this particular with a notable saying of one of the Ancients The joys of a good Conscience are the Paradise of Souls the delight of Angels the Garden of delights the Field of blessing the Temple of Solomon the Court of God the habitation of the Spirit Bernard Twenty-five The keeping up of any known transgression either in heart or life against the Lord is a high contempt of the All seeing Eye of God of the Omnipresence of God It is well known what Ahashuerus that great Monarch said concerning Haman when coming in he found him cast upon the Queens bed on which she sate What saith he will he force the Queen before me in the house Esth 7. 8. There was the killing Emphasis in the words before me Will he force the Queen before me What will he dare to commit such a Villany and I stand and look on O Sirs to do wickedly in the sight of God is a thing that he looks upon as the greatest affront and indignity that can possibly be done unto him What saith he whilt thou be Drunk before me and Swear and Blaspheam before me and be wanton and unclean before me and break my Laws before my Eyes This then is the killing aggravation of all sin that it is done before the Face of God in the presence of God whereas the very consideration of Gods Omnipresence that he stands and looks on should be as a Bâ—r a Remora to stop the proceedings of all wicked intendments a disswasive rather from sin than the least encouragement thereunto 'T was an excellent saying of Ambrose If thou canst not hide thy self from the Sun which is Gods Minister of light how impossible will it be to hide thy self fâ—om him whose Eyes are ten thousand times brighter than the Sun Ambrose offic l. 1. c. 14. Gods Eye is the best Marshal to keep the Soul in a comely order Let thine Eye be ever on him whose Eye is ever on thee The Eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good Prov. 15. 9. There is no drawing of a Curtain between God and thee God is totus Oculus all Eye He seeth all things in all places and at all times When thou art in secret consider Conscience is present which is more than a thousand Witnesses and God is present which is more than a thousand Consciences It was a pretty fancy of one that would have his Chamber painted full of eyes that which way soever he lookt he might still have some eyes upon him and he fancying himself according to the Moralists advice always under the eye of a Keeper might be the more careful of his carriage O! Sirs if the eyes of men makes even the vilest to forbear their beloved lusts for a while that the Adulterer watcheth for the twy-light and they that are Drunken are Drunken in the Night How powerful will the Eye and Presence of God be with those that fear His Anger and know the sweetness of his Favour The thought of this Omnipresence of God will affrighten thee from sin Gehezi durst not ask or receive any part of Nahamans Presents in his Masters presence but when he had got out of Elisha's sight then he tells his Lye and gives way to his Lusts Men never sin more freely then when they presume upon secrecy They break in pieces thy people O Lord and afflict thy Heritage They slay the Widdow and Stranger and murder the Fatherless yet they say The Lord doth not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it Psal 94. 5 6 7. They who abounded in abominations said The Lord seeth us not the Lord hath forsaken the Earth Ezek. 8 9 12. The wise man disswadeth from wickedness upon the consideration of Gods Eye and Omniscience And why wilt thou my Son be ravished with a strange Woman and embrace the bosom of a Stranger for the ways of man are before the Eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his goings Proverbs 5. 20 21. Joseph saw God in the Room and therefore durst not yield but his Mistress saw none but Joseph and so was impudently alluring and tempting him to folly I have read of two Religious men that took contrary courses with two lewd Women whom they were desirous to reclaim from their Vicious course of life One of the Men told one of the Women that he was desirous to enjoy her Company so it might be with secrecy and when she had brought him into a close room that none could pry into he told her All the barrs and bolts here cannot keep God out The other desired the other Women to company with him openly in the streets which when she rejected as a mad request he told her It was better to do it in the eyes of a multitude than in the eyes of God O why shall not the presence of that God who hates sin and who is resolved to punish it with Hell-flames make us ashamed or afraid to sin and dare him to his face Twenty-six There have been many a Prodigal who by one cast of the Dice have lost a fair Inheritance A man may be kill'd with one stab of a Pen-knife and one hole
a Curse as to himself The Cup which my 〈◊〉 giveth me he drank it I say and drank it 〈◊〉 every drop leaving nothing behind for his Redeem 〈…〉 of Love and Salvation in the Sacramenâ—â— Cup of his own Institution saying This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood for the Remission of sins This 〈◊〉 in remembrance of me 1 Cor. 11. 25. Math. 26. 28. Thus my Friends look upon Christ as Mediator in which capacity only he covenanted with his Father for the Salvation of man-kind and there was not so much as a shadow of any receding from or repenting of what he had undertaken But Secondly As the sufferings of Jesus Christ were very free and voluntary so they were very great and hainous what agony what torment was our Saviour wrackt with how deep were his wounds how weighty his burden how full of trembling his Cup when he lay under the Mountains of the guilt of all the Elect How bitter were his Tears how painful his Sweat how sharp his encounters how dreadful his Death who can impute how many Vials of Gods inexpressible insupportable wrath Christ drank off in that 53. of Isa you may read of despising rejected stripes smilings wounds sorrows bruising chastisement oppression affliction cutting off putting to grief and pouring out of his soul to death all these put together speaks out Christ to be a very great sufferer he was a man of sorrows as if he were a man made up of sorrows as the man of sin as if he were made up of sin as if He were nothing else He knew more sorrows than any man yea than all men ever did 〈◊〉 Iniquity and consequently the sorrows of all men met in him as if he had been their center and he was acquainted with griefs he had little acquaintance else grief was his familiar acquaintance he had no acquaintance with laughter we read not that he laughed at all when he was in the world his other acquaintance stood afar off but grief followed him to the Cross from his Birth to his Death from his Cradle to the Cross from the Womb to the Tomb he was a man of sorrows and never were sorrows like his he might say Never grief or sorrow like mine 'T is indeed impossible to express the sufferings and sorrows of Christ and the Greek Christians used to beg of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that for the unknown sufferings of Christ he would have mercy upon them Though Christs â—â—rings are abundantly made known yet they are but little known eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath it or can it enter into the heart of man to conceive what Christ suffered who hath known the power of Gods wrath Christ Jesus knew it for he underwent it his whole life was made up of sufferings He was no sooner born but sufferings came trooping in upon him He was born in an Inn yea in a Stable and had but a Manuger for his Cradle As soon as his Birth was noised abroad Herod under a pretence of worshiping of him had a design to murder him so that his supposed Father was fain to flye into Aegypt to secure his life he was persecuted before he could after the manner of men be sensible of persecution and as he grew up in years so his sufferings grew up with him Hunger and Thrist Travel and Weariness Scorns and Reproaches false Accusations and Contradictions still waited on him and he had not where to lay his head 1 Pet. 3. 18. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins This is the wonderment of Angels the happiness of fallen man and the torment of Devils c. that Christ hath suffered The Apostles words look like a Riddle Christ hath suffered as if he should say read thou if thou canst what he hath suffered as for my part they are so many that in this short Epistle I have no mind to Record them and they are so grievous that my passionate love won't suffer me to repeat them and therefore I content my self thus abruptly to deliver them Christ hath sufferd Christs sufferings were unspeakable His sufferings were unutterable and therefore the Apostle satisfies himself with this unperfect broken speech Christ hath suffered O what woes and lamentations what crys and exclamations what complaints and sorrows what wringing of hands what knocking of breasts what weeping of eyes what wayling of tongues belong to the speaking and hearing of this doleful Tragedy Even in the Prologue I tremble and at the first entrance I am as at a non-plus that I know not with what woful gesture to act it with what moanful voice to pronounce it with what mournful words with what pathetical speeches with what emphatical phrases with what interrupted accents with what passionate compassionate plaints to express it The multiplicity of the plot and the variety of the acts and scenes is so intricate that my memory falls to comprise it the matter so importent and the story so excellent that my tongue sailâ— to declare it the cruelty so savage and the massacre so barbarous that my heart even fails to consider it Wherefore I must needs content my self with the Apostle here to speak but unperfectly of it and thinks this enough to say Christ hath suffered and well may I think this enough for behold what perfection there is in this seeming imperfect speech For First To say indefinitely he suffered without any limitation of time what is it but to say that he always suffered without exception of time And so indeed the Prophet speaks of him namely That he was a man of sorrows Isa 53. 3. His whole life was fill'd up with sufferings But Secondly To say only he suffered and nothing else what is it but to say that he patiently suffered he never resisted never rebelled never opposed He was led as a Sheep to the slaughter and as a Lamb dumb before the Sheerer so opened he not his mouth Act. 8. 32. Isa 53. 7. And when he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not 1 Pet. 2. 23. But Thirdly To say precisely he suffered and no more what is it but to say that he freely suffered that he voluntarily suffered Christ was under no force no compulsion but freely suffered himself to suffer and voluntarily suffered the Jews to make him suffer having power to quit himself from suffering if he had pleased I lay down my life no man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again Joh. 10. 17. But of this before Fourthly To say plainly he suffered what is it but to say that he Innocently suffered that he wrongfully suffered for had he been a Malefactor or an Offender it should have been said that he was punished or that he was executed but he was full of Innocency he was holy and harmless and so it follows in that 1 Pet. 3. 18. The just for the unjust But
Fifthly To say peremptorily he suffered what is it but to say that he principally suffered that he excessively suffered To say he suffered What is it but to say he was the cheif sufferer the arch sufferer and that not only in respect of the manner of his sufferings that he suffered absolutely so as never did any but also in respect of the measure of his sufferings that he suffered excessively beyond what ever any did And thus we may well understand and take those words He suffered That lamentation of the Prophet Lam. 1. 12. is very applicable to Christ Behold and see if there be any sorrows like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fiorce anger Now is it not enough for the Apostle to say that Christ hath suffered but will you yet ask what But pray Friends be satisfied and rather of the two ask what not for what sufferings can you think of that Christ did not suffer Christ suffered in his Birth and he suffered in his Life and he suffered in his Death he suffered in his Body for he was diversly tormented he suffered in his Soul for his Soul was heavy unto death he suffered in his Estate they parted his Rayment and he had not where to rest his head he suffered in his good Name for he was counted a Samaritan a Devillish Sorcerer a Wine-bibber an Enemy to Caesar c. He suffered from Heaven when he cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me He suffered from the Earth when being hungry the Fig-tree proved fruitless to him He suffered from Hell Satan assaulting and encountering of him with his most black and horrid temptations He began his life meanly and basely and was sharply persecuted He continued his life poorly and distressedly and was cruelly hated He ended his life wofully and miserably and was most grievously tormented with Whips Thorns Nails and above all with the terrors of his Fathers wrath and horrors of hellish agonies Ego sum qui peccavi I am the man that have sinned but these Sheep what have they done said David when he saw the Angel destroying his people 2 Sam. 24. 17. And the same speech may every one of us take up for our selves and apply to Christ and say I have sinned I have done wickedly but this Sheep what hath he done yea much more cause have we than David had to take up this complaint For First David saw them dye whom he knew to be Sinners but we see him dye who we knew knew no sin 2 Cor. 5. 21. But Secondly David saw them dye a quick speedy death we see him dye with lingering torments He was a dying from six to nine Math. 27. 45 46. Now in this three hours darkness he was set upon by all the powers of darkness with utmost might and malice but he foyled and spoiled them all and made an open shew of them as the Roman Conquerors used to do triumphing over them on his Cross as on his Chariot of State Col. 2. 15. attended by his vanquished Enemies with their hands bound behind them Ephe. 4. 8. But Thirdly David saw them dye who by their own confession was worth ten thousand of them we see him dye for us whose worth admitteth no comparison But Fourthly David saw the Lord of glory destroying mortal men and we see mortal men destroying the Lord of glory 1 Cor. 2. 8. O how much more cause have we then to say as David I have sinned I have done wickedly but this Innocent Lamb the Lord Jesus what hath he done what hath he deserved that he should be thus greatly tormented Tully though a great Orator yet when he comes to speak of the death of the Cross he wants words to express it Quid dicam in crucem tollere What shall I say of this death saith he But Thirdly As the sufferings of Christ were very great so the punishments which Christ did suffer for our sins these were in their kinds and parts and degrees and proportion all those punishments which were due unto us by reason of our sins which we our selves should otherwise have suffered Whatsoever we should have suffered as Sinners all that did Christ suffer as our Surety and Mediator always excepting those punishments which could not be endured without a pollution and guilt of sinâ— The chasrisement of our peace was upon him Isa 53. 5. And including the punishments common to the nature of man not the personal arising out of imperfection and defect and distemper Now the punishments due to us for sin were corporal and spiritual And again they were the punishments of loss and of sense and all these did Christ suffer for us which I shall evidence by an induction of particulars First That Christ suffered corporal punishments is most clear in Scripture You read of the Injuries to his Person of the Crown of Throns on his Head of the smiting of his Cheeks of spitting on his Face of the scourging of his Body of the Cross on his Back of the Vinegar in his Mouth of the Nails in his Hands and Feet of the Spear in his Side and of his crucifying and dying on the Cross 1 Pet. 2. 24. Who himself in his own body on the Tree bare our sins 1 Cor. 15. 3. Christ dyed for our sins according to the Scriptures Rev. 1. 5. And washed us from our sins in his own Blood Col. 1. 14. In whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sins Math. 26. 28. For this is my Blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Christ suffered derision in every one of his Offices First In his Kingly Office They put a Scepter in his Hand a Crown on his Head and bowed their Knees saying Hail King of the Jews Matth. 27. 29. Secondly In his Priestly Office They put upon him a gorgeous white Robe such as the Priests wore Luk. 23. 11. Thirdly In his Prophetical Office When they had blindfolded him Prophesie say they who it is that smiteth thee Luk. 22. 64. Sometimes they said Thou art a Samaritan and hast a Devil Joh. 8. 48. And sometimes they said He is beside himself why hear ye him Mark 3. 21. And as Christ suffered in every one of his Offices so he suffered in every member of his Body in his Hearing by their reproaches and crying Crucifie him Crucifie him In his sight by their Scoffings and scornful gestures In his Smell in his being in that noysome place Gâ—lgotha Math. 27. 33. In his Tast by his tasting of Vinegar mingled with Gall which they gave him to drink Math. 27. 33. In his Feeling by the Thorns on his Head blows on his Cheeks spittle on his Face the Spear in his side and the Nails in his Hands he suffered in all parts and members of his body from head to foot His Head which deserved a better Crown than the best in
desertion Christ is not to be looked upon simply as he is in his own person the Son of the Father in whom he is always well pleased but as he standeth in the room of Sinners Surety and Cautioner Math. 3. 17. Mark 1. 11. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Christ spake these words that thereby he might draw the Jews to a serious consideration and a nim adversion of his death and passion which he underwent not for his own but for our sins Pet. Gal. lib. 8. c. 18. pag 343. paying their debt in which respect it concerned Christ to be dealt with as one standing in our stead as one guilty and paying the debt of being forsaken of God which we were bound to suffer fully and for ever if he had not interposed for us There is between Christ and God 1. An eternal Union natural of the person 2. Of the God-head and Man-hood 3. Of Grace and Protection In this last sense he means forsaken according to his feeling Hence he said Not my Father my Father but my God my God which words are not words of complaining but words expressing his grief and sorrow Our Lord Christ was forsaken not only of all Creature comforts but that which was worse than all of his Fathers favour to his present apprehension left forlorne and destitute for a time that we might be received for ever Christ was for a time left and forsaken of God as David who in this particular was a type of Christs suffering cryed out Psal 22. 1. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me why art thou so far from my help He was indeed really forsaken of God God did indeed leave him in respect of his sense and seeling So was Christ truly and really forsaken of God and not in colour or shew as some affirm Athanasius speaking of Gods forsaking of Christ saith All things were done naturally and in truth not in opinion or shew Though God did still R liâ—quâ—t Deâ—s dum nâ—n pâ—â—â— â—aâ—h Tâ—â—uâ—â—n continue a God to David yet in Davids apprehension and feeling he was forsaken of God Though God was still a God to Christ yet as to his feeling he was left of God to wrestle with God and to bear the wrath of God due unto us Look as Christ was scourged that we Ambrose might not be scourged so Christ was forsaken that we might not be forsaken Christ was forsaken for a time that we might not be forsaken for ever Fevardentius absolutely denies that Christ did truly complain upon the Cross that he was forsaken of God Fevarden pag â—73 Con 〈…〉 and therefore he thus objecteth and reasoneth If Christ were truly forsaken of God it would follow that the Hypostatical Union was dissolved and that Christ was personally separated from God for otherwise he could not be forsaken To what he objects we thus reply first If Christ had been totally and eternally forsaken the personal union must have been dissolved but upon this temporal and partial rejection or dereliction there followeth not a personal dissolution or general dereliction But secondly As the Body of Christ being without life was still Hypostatically united to the God-head so was the soul of Christ though for a time without feeling of his favour the dereliction of the one doth no more dissolve the Hypostatical Union than the death of the other If life went from the body and yet the Deity was not separated in the personal consecration but only suspended in operation So the feeling of Gods favour which is the life of the soul might be intermitted in Christ and yet the Divine Union not dissolved Thirdly Augustine doth well shew how this may be August lib de 〈◊〉 divin when he saith Passio Christi dulcis fuit divinitatis somnus That the passion of Christ was the sweet sleep of his Divinity like as then in sleep the soul is not departed though the operation thereof be deferred so in Christs sleep upon the Cross the God-head was not separated though the working power thereof were for a time sequestred Look as the Elect Members of Christ may be forsaken though not totally or finally but ex parte in part and for a time and yet their Election remain firm still the same may be the case of our head that he was ex parte de relictus only in part forsaken and for a time always beloved for his own Innocency but for us and in our person as our pledg and Surety deserted There are two kinds of dereliction or forsaking one is for a time and in part so the Elect may be and so Christ was forsaken upon the Cross another which is total final and general and so neither Christ nor his Members never was nor never shall be forsaken Christ in the deepest anguish of his soul is upheld and sustained by his Faith My God my God whereby he sheweth his singular confidence and trust in God notwithstanding the present sense of his wrath But how can Christ be forsaken of God himself being God Quest for the Father Son and Holy-Ghost are all three but one and the same God Yea How can he be forsaken of God seeing he is the Son of God and if the Lord leave not his Children which hope and trust in him how can he forsake Christ his only begotten Son who depended upon him and his mighty power First By God here we are to understand God the Father Answ 1 the first person of the blessed Trinity according to the vulgar and common rule when God is compared with the Son or Holy-Ghost then the Father is meant by this title God not that the Father is more God than the Son for in dignity all the Three Persons are equal but they are distinguished in order only and thus the Father is the first Person the Son the Second and the Holy-Ghost the Third Secondly Our Saviours complaint that he was forsaken Answ 2 must be understood in regard of his humane Nature and not of his God-head although the God-head and Man-hood were never severed from the first time of his Incarnation but the God-head of Christ and so the God-head of the Father did not shew forth his power in his Man-hood but did as it were lye a sleep for a time that the Man-hood might suffer Thirdly Christ was not indeed utterly forsaken of Answ 3 God in regard of his humane Nature but only as it were forsaken that is Although there were some few minutes and moments in which he received no sensible consolations from the Deity yet that he was not utterly forsaken is most clear from this place where he flees unto the Lord as unto his God My God my God as also from his Resurrection the third day Fourthly Divines say that there are six kinds of dereliction Answ 4 or forsakings 1. By dis-union of person and 2. By loss of grace and 3. By diminution and weaknings of grace and 4. By want of assurance
of future deliverance and present support and 5. By denial of Protection and 6. By withdrawing of all solace and comfort Now it is foolish and impious to think that Christ was forsaken any of the first four ways for the unity of his person was never dissolved his graces were never either taken away or diminished neither was it possible that he should want Assurance of future deliverance and present support that was Eternal God and Lord of Life but the two last ways he may rightly be said to have been forsaken in that his Father denied to protect and keep him out of the hands of his cruel bloody and merciless Enemies no ways restraining them but suffering them to do the uttermost that their wicked hearts could imagine and left him to endure the extremity of their fury and malice and that nothing might be wanting to make his sorrows beyond measure sorrowful withdrew from him that solace and comfort that he was wont to find in God and removed far from him all things for a little time that might any way lessen and asswage the extremity of his pain Secondly That Jesus Christ did feel and suffer the wrath of God which was due unto us for our sins The Prophet Isa 53. 4. saith That he was plagued and smitten of God and ver 5. The chastisement of our peace was upon him To be plagued and smitten of God is to feel and suffer the stroak of his wrath And so to be chastified of God as to make peace with God or to appease him is so to suffer the wrath of God as to satisfie God and to remove it And truly how Christ should possibly escape the feeling of the wrath of God incensed against our sins he standing as a Surety for us with our sins laid upon him and for them fully to satisfie the justice of God is not Christianly or rationally imaginable And whereas some do object that Christ was always the beloved of his Father and therefore could never be the object of Gods wrath I answer By distinguishing of the person of Christ Sol. whom his Father always loved and as sustaining our sins and in our room standing to satisfie the justice of God and as so the wrath of God fell upon him and he bore it and so satisfied the justice of God that we thereby are now delivered from wrath through him So the Apostle Rom. 5. 9. Much more being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath by him 1 Thes 1. 10. And to wait for his Son from Heaven whom he raised from the dead even Jesus which deliverod us from the wrath to come It is a groundless conceit of some learned heads who deny the cause of Christs Agony to be the drinking of that Cup of wrath that was given to him by his Father saying That the sight of it only and of the peril he saw we were in was the cause of his Agony for the Cup was not Joh. 18. 11. only shew'd unto him and the great wrath due to our sins set before him that he should see it and tremble at the apprehension of the danger we were in but it was poured not only on him but into him that he for the sins of his Redeemed Ones should suffer it sensibly and drink it that the bitterness thereof might affect all the powers of his soul and body for the Scripture do's sufficiently testifie that not only upon the sight and apprehension of this wrath and curse coming on him the holy humane Heb. 5. 7. Nature did holily abhor it but also that he submitted to receive it upon the consideration of the divine decree and Math. 26. 38 39 42 44. 1 Cor. 6. 20. cap. 7. 23. agreement made upon the price to be paid by him and that upon the feeling of this wrath this Agony in his soul and bloody sweat of his body was brought on But how could the pourings forth of the Fathers wrath upon Quest on his innocent and dear Son consist with his Fatherly love to him c Even as the innocency and holiness of Christ could well Answ consist with his taking upon him the punishment of our sins for even the wrath of a just man inflicting capital punishment on a condemned person put case it be his own Child can well consist with Fatherly affection towards his Child suffering punishment Did you never see a Father weep over such a Son that he has corrected most severely Did you never see a Judge shed tears for those very persons that he has Condemned There is no doubt but wrath and love can well consist in God in whom affections do not war one with another nor fight with reason as it often falls among men for the affections ascribed unto God are effects rather of his holy will towards us than properly called affections in him and these effects of Gods will about us do always tend to our happiness and blessedness at last how-ever they are diverse one from another in themselves Thirdly That Jesus Christ did feel and suffer the very torments of Hell though not after a Hellish manner I readily grant that Jesus Christ did not locally descend into Hell to suffer there amongst the damned neither did he suffer Hellish darkness nor the flames of Hell nor the Worm that never dyes nor final despair nor guilt of Conscience nor gnashing of teeth nor impatient indignation nor eternal separation from God these things were absolutely inconsistent with the holiness purity and dignity of his person and with the office of a Mediator and Redeemer But yet I say that our Lord Jesus Christ did suffer in his Soul for our sins such pain horror terror agony and consternation as amounted unto cruciatus infernales and are in Scripture called The sorrows of Hell The sorrows of Hell did compass me about or the Psal 18. 5. cords of Hell did compass me about such as wherewith they bind Malefactors when they are led forth to Execution Now these sorrows these cords of Hell were the things that extorted from him that passionate expostulation My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Math. 27. 46. Christs sufferings were unspeakable and somewhat answerable to the pains of Hell Hence the Greek Letany By thine unknown sufferings good Lord deliver us Funinus an Italian Martyr being asked by one why he was so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. and Mon. fol. 853. merry at his death sith Christ himself was so sorrowful Christ said he sustained in his soul all the sorrows and conflicts with Hell and death due to us by whose sufferings we are delivered from sorrow and the fear of them all It was a great saying of a very learned man that setting Iniquity and Eternity of punishment aside which Christ might not sustain Christ did more vehemently and sharply feel the wrath of God then ever any man did or shall no not any person reprobated and damned excepted and certainly the reason annexed
to prove this expression is very weighty because all the wrath that was due for all the sins of the Elect all whose sins were laid on Christ Isa 53. 6. was greater than the wrath which belonged to any one sinner though damned for his personal sinning and besides this if you do seriously consider those sufferings of Christ in his Agony in the Garden you may by them conjecture what hellish torments Christ did suffer for us In that Agony of his he was afraid and amazed and fell Math. 14. 33. vers 34. flat on the ground He began to be sore amazed and to be very heavy and saith unto them My soul is exceeding sorowful unto death and his sweat was as it were great Luk 22. 44. drops of blood falling down to the ground He did sweat clotted blood to such abundance that it streamed through his apparel and did wet the ground which dreadful Agony of Christ how it could arise from any other cause than the sense of the wrath of God parallel to that in Hell I know not Orthodox Divines do generally take Christs sufferings in his soul and the detaining his body in the grave put in as the close and last part of Christs sufferings as the true meaning of that expression He descended into Hell not only because these pains which Christ suffered both in body and soul were due to us in full measure but also because that which Christ in point of torment and vexation suffered was in some respect of the same kind with the torment of the damned For the clearing of this consider that in the punishment of the damned there are these three things 1 The perverse disposition of the mind of the damned in their sufferings 2. The duration and perpetuity of their punishment And 3. The punishment it self tormenting soul and body Of these three the first two could have no place in Christ Not the first Because Heb. 9. 14. Heb. 10. 5 6 7 8. Act. 2. 24. 1 Pet. 2. 24. 1 Cor. 6. ult he willingly offered himself a Sacrifice for our sins and upon agreement paid the Ransom fully Not the second Because he could no longer be held under sorrows and sufferings than he had satisfied Divine Justice and paid the price that he was to lay down And his infinit excellency and glory made his short sufferings to be of infinit worth and equivalent to our everlasting sufferings The third then only remaineth which was the real and sensible torments of his soul and body which he did really feel and experience when he was upon the Cross O Sirs What need you question Christs undergoing of Hellish pains when all the pains torments curse and wrath which was due to the Elect did fall on Christ and lye on Christ till Divine Justice was fully satisfied Though Christ did not suffer eternal death for sinners yet he suffered that which was equivalent and therefore the justice of God is by his death wholly appeased It is good seriously to ponder upon these Scriptures Psal 18. 5. The sorrows of Hell did compass me about Psal 88. 3. My soul is filled with evil and my life draweth near to Hell Psal 86. 13. Thou hast delivered my Soul from the nethermost Hell In these places the Prophet speaks in the person of Christ and the Papists themselves do confess that the Hebrew word Sheol that is here used is taken for Hell properly and not for the Grave therefore these places do strongly conclude for the hellish sorrows or sufferings of Christ So Act. 2. 27. Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell If Christs soul be not left or forsaken in Hell yet it follows it was in Hell not that Christ did feel the sorrows of Hell after death but that he did feel the very sorrows of Hell in his soul while he lived Certainly the whole punishment of body and soul which was due unto us Christ our Redeemer was in general to suffer and satisfie for in his own person but the torments and terrors of Hell and the vehement sense of Gods wrath are that punishment which did belong to the soul ergo Christ did suffer the torments and terrors of Hell By the whole punishment you are to understand the whole kind or substance of the punishment not all the circumstances and the very same manner the whole punishment then is the whole kind of punishment that is in body and soul which Christ ought to have suffered though not in the same manner and circumstance 1. neither for the place of Hell Locally Nor 2. For the time Eternally Nor 3. For the manner Sinfully When we say Christ was to suffer our whole punishment all such punishments as cannot be suffered without sin as desperation final reprobation are manifestly excepted Christ did bear all our punishment though not as we should have borne it that is 1. Sinfully 2. Eternally 3. Hellishly But he did so bear all our punishment as to finish all upon the Cross and in such sort as Gods justice 2 Col 14. 15. was satisfied his Person not disgraced nor his Holiness defiled and yet mans Salvation fully perfected We Hâ—b 9. 4 cap. 10. 15. constantly affirm that Christ did suffer the pains of Hell in his Soul with these three restrictions 1. That there be neither indignity offered to his Royal Person 2. Nor injury to his Holy Nature 3. Nor impossibility to his glorious work All such pains of Hell then as Christ might have suffered 1. His Person not dishonoured 2. His Nature with sin not defiled 3. His work of our Redemption not hindered we do stedfastly believe were sustained by our Blessed Saviour Consider a few things First Consider the adjuncts of Hell which are these four 1. The place which is Infernal 2. The time which is Perpetual 3. The darkness which is unspeakable 4. The Ministers and Torments the Spirits and Devils which are irreconcileable Now these adjuncts of Hell Christ is freed from for the dignity of his person it was not fit that the Son of God the Heir of Heaven should be shut up in Hell or that he should for ever be tormented who is never from Gods presence sequestred or that the light of the world should be closed up in darkness or that he who bindeth the evil Spirits should be bound by them c. Secondly Consider the effects or rather the defects of Hell which are chiefly these two First The deprivation of all vertue grace holiness Secondly The real possession of all Vice Impiety Blasphemy c. Now the necessity of the work of Christ doth exempt him from these effects for if he had been either void of grace or possessed with vice he could not have been the Redeemer of poor lost souls for the want of Vertue he could not have Redeemed others for the presence of sin he should have been Redeemed himself and from fretting Indignation and fearful Desperation the piety and sanctity of his Nature doth preserve him who
should in a physical sense suffer which indeed is impossible yet these sufferings did so affect the Person that it may truly be said that God suffered and by his blood bought his people to himself for albeit the Act. 20. 28. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19 20. 1 Cor. 6. 20. cap. 7. 23. proper and formal subject of physical sufferings be only the humane Nature yet the principal subject of sufferings both in a physical and moral sense is Christs Person God and Man from the dignity whereof the worth and excellency of all sorts of sufferings the merit and the satisfactory sufficiency of the price did flow O Sirs you must seriously consider that though Christ as God in his God-head could not suffer in a physical sense yet in a moral sense he might suffer and did suffer For he being in the form of God thought it not robbery Phil. 2. 6 7 8. to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a Man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross O! who can sum up the contradictions the railings the revilings the contempts the despisings and calumnies that Christ met with from Sinners yea from the worst of Sinners But how could so low a debasing of the Son of man or of the humane nature assumed by Christ consist with the Object 2 Majesty of the Person of the Son of God We must distinguish those things in Christ which are Answ proper to either of the two Natures from those things which are ascribed to his Person in respect of either of the Natures or both the Natures for infirmity physical suffering or mortality are proper to the humane Nature The glory of power and grace and mercy and super-excellent Majesty and such like are proper to the Diety but the sufferings of the humane Nature are so far from diminishing the glory of the divine Nature that they do manifest the same and make it appear more clearly and gloriously for by how much the humane Nature was weakned depressed and despised for our sins for our sakes by so much the more the love of Christ God and Man in one person toward man and his mercy and power and grace to man do shine in the eyes of all that judiciously do look upon him Object How could Christ indure Hell-fire without Obj. 3 grievous sins as blasphemy and despair c. I Answer That we may walk safely and without offence Answ these things must be premised First That the sorrows and sufferings of Hell be no otherwise attributed to Christ than as they may stand with the dignity and worthiness of his Person the holiness of his Nature and the performance of the office and work of our Redemption First then for the soul of Christ to suffer in the local place of Hell to remain in the darkness thereof and to be tormented with the material flames there and eternally to be damned was not for the dignity of his Person to whom for his excellency and worthiness both the place manner and time of those torments were dispensed with Secondly Final Rejection and Desperation Blasphemy and the worm of Conscience agreeth not with the holiness of his Nature Who was a Lamb without a spot and therefore we do not we dare not ascribe them to him Heb. 9. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 19. But Thirdly Destruction of body and soul which is the second death could not fall upon Christ for this were to have destroyed the work of our Redemption if he had been subject to destruction But Fourthly and lastly Blasphemy and Despair are no parts of the pains of the damned but the consequents and follow the sense of Gods wrath in a sinful Creature that is overcome by it But Christ had no sin of his own neither was he overcome of wrath and therefore he always Rev. 16. 9. 11. held fast his integrity and innocency Despair is an unavoidable Companion attending the pains of the second death as all Reprobates do experience Desperation is an utter hopelesness of any good and a certain expectation and waiting on the worst that can befall and this is the lot and portion of the damned in Hell The wretched sinner in Hell seeing the sentence passed against him Gods purpose fulfilled never to be reversed the gates of Hell made fast upon him and a great Gulf fixt Luk. 16. 26. betwixt Hell and Heaven which renders his escape impossible He now gives up all and reckons on nothing but uttermost misery Now mark this despair is not an essential part of the second death but only a consequent or at the most an effect occasioned by the sinners view of his irremediless woful condition but this neither did nor could possibly befall the Lord Jesus He was able by the power of his God-head both to suffer and to satisfie and to overcome therefore he expected a good issue and Psal 16. 9 10. Act. 2. 26 27 28 31. knew that the end should be happy and that he should not be ashamed Isa 5. 6 7. c. Though a very shallow stream would easily drown a little Child there being no hope of escape for it unless one or another should step in seasonably to prevent it Yet a man that is grown up may groundedly hope to escape out of a far more deep and dangerous place because by reason of his stature strength and skill he could wade or swim out Surely the wrath of the Almighty manifested in Hell is like the vast Ocean or some broad deep River and therefore when the sinful Sons and Daughters of Adam which are Rom. 5. 6. without strength are hurl'd into the mid'st of it they must needs lye down in their confusion as altogether hopeless of deliverance or escaping but this despair could not seize upon Jesus Christ because although his Father took Isa 63. 1 2 3. him cast him into the Sea of his wrath so that all the billows of it went over him yet being the mighty God with whom nothing is impossible he was very able to pass through that Sea of wrath and sorrow which would have drowned all the world and come safe to shore Object But when did Christ suffer Hellish Torments Obj. 4 they are inflicted after death not usually before it but Christs soul went strait after death into Paradise how else could he say to the penitent Thief This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Now to this Objection I shall give these following Answers First That Christs soul after his Passion upon the Cross did not really and locally descend into the place of the damned may be thus made evident First All the Evangelists and so Luke among the rest 1. Luk. 1. 3. intending to make an exact Narrative of the life and death of Christ hath set down at large his Passion Death
Burial Resurrection and Ascension and besides they make rehearsal of very small circumstances therefore we may safely conclude that they would never have omitted Christs local descent into the place of the damned if there had been any such things besides the great end why they penned this History was That we might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that thus believing Jâ—h 20. 31. we might have life everlasting Now there could not have been a greater matter for the confirmation of our Faith than this that Jesus the Son of Mary who went down to the place of the damned returned thence to live in all happiness and blessedness for ever But Secondly If Christ did go into the place of the damned then he went either in soul or in body or in his Godhead not in his God-head for that could not descend because it is every where and his body was in the grave and as for his soul it went not to Hell but immediatly after his death it went to Paradise that is the third Heaven a place of joy and happiness This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise which words of Christ must be understood Luk. 23. 43. of his Man-hood or Soul and not of his Godhead for they are an answer to a demand and therefore unto it they must be sutable The Thief makes his request Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom vers 42. to which Christ Answers Verily I say unto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise I shall saith Christ this day enter into Paradise and there shalt thou be with me Now there is no entrance but in regard of his Soul or Man-hood for the God-head which is at all times in all Psal 139 7 13. Jer 23. 23 24. places cannot be properly said to entertain into a place But Thirdly When Christ saith To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise He doth intimate as some observe a resemblance which is between the first and second Adam The first Adam quickly sinned against God and was as Gen. 3. quickly cast out of Paradise by God Christ the second Adam having made a perfect and compleat satisfaction Heb 9. 26 28 cap. 10. 14. to the justice of God and the Law of God for mans sin must immediately enter into Paradise Now to say that Christ in Soul descended locally into Hell is to abolish this Analogy between the first and second Adam But Secondly 'T is not impossible that the pains of the second death should be suffered in this life time and place are but circumstances the main substance of the second death is the bearing of Gods fierce wrath and indignation Divine favour shining upon a man in Hell would turn Hell into a Heaven all sober seeing serious Christians will grant that the true though not the full joys of Heaven may be felt and experienced in this life 1 Pet. 1. 8. Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory or glorious either because this their rejoycing was a tast of their future glory or because it made them glorious in the eyes of men the original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is glorified already a piece of Gods Kingdom and Heavens happiness afore-hand Ah how many precious Saints both living and dying have cryed out O the joy the joy the inexpressible joy that I find in my Soul Ephe. 2 6. He hath made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus What is this else but even while we live by Faith to possess the very joys of Heaven on this side Heaven Now look as the true joys of Heaven may be felt on this side Heaven so the true though not the full pains of Hell may be felt on this side Hell and doubtless Cain Judas Julian Spira and others have found it so That Father hit the mark who Gen. 4. 13. said Judicis in mente tua sedet ibi Deus ad est accusator conscientia tortor timor The Judges Tribunal seat is in Augustin in Psal 57. thy soul God sitteth there as Judge thy Conscience is the Accuser and fear is the tormentor Now if there be in the soul a Judg an Accuser and a Tormentor then certainly there is a true tast of the torments of Hell on this side Hell Thirdly The place Hell is no part of the payment the laying down of the price makes the satisfaction this is all that is spoken and threatned to Adam Thou shalt dye Gen. 2. 1â— Peter saith the Devils are cast down to Hell and kept in chains of darkness 2 Pet. 2. 4 And Paul calls the Devil the Prince that ruleth in the Ayr. Ephe. 2. 2. The Ayr then is the Devils Hell well then seeing this ayr is the Devils present Hell we may safely conclude that Hell may be in this present world and therefore it is neither impossible nor improbable that the Cross was Christs Hell the death and this may be suffered here The wicked go to Hell as their Prison because they can never pay their debts otherwise the debt may as well be paid in the Market as the Goal Now Christ did discharge all his peoples debts in the days of his flesh when he offered up strong crys and tears Heb. 5 7. and not after death Look as a King entring into Prison to loose the Prisoners Chains and to pay their debts is said to have been in Prison so our Lord Jesus Christ by his souls sufferings which is the Hell he entred into hath released us of our pains and chains and paid our debts and in this sense he may be said to have entred into Hell though he never actually entred into the local place of the damned which is properly called Hell for in that place there is neither vertue nor goodness holiness nor happiness and therefore the holiness of Christs person would never suffer him to descend into such a place in the local place of Heaven and Hell It is not possible for any neither to be at once nor yet at sundry times successively for there is no passing from Heaven to Hell or from Hell to Heaven Luk. 16. 26. The place of suffering is but a circumstance in the business Hell the place of the damned is no part of the debt therefore neither is suffering there locally any part of the payment of it no more than a Prison is any part of an earthly debt or of the payment of it The Surety may satisfie the Creditor in the place appointed for payment or in the open Court which being done the Debtor and Surety both are acquitted that they need not go to Prison if either of them go to Prison it is because they do not or cannot pay the debt for all that Justice requires is to satisfie the debt to the which the Prison is meerly extrinsical Even so the Justice of God
to be endured a thousand years me-thinks I could bear it but for ever that amazeth me Bellarmin out of Barocius tells us of a learned man De arte bene moâ—iendi who after his death appeared to his Friend complaining that he was adjudged to Hell-torments which saith he were they to last but a thousand thousand years I should think it tollerable but alass they are eternal The fire in Hell is like that stone in Arcadia I have read of which being once kindled could not be quenched There is no Estate on Earth so miserable but a man may be delivered out of it but out of Hell there is no deliverance It is not the prayer no not of a Gregory though never so great what ever they fable that can rescue any that is once become Hells Prisoner I might add other Scriptures out of the old Testament but let these suffice That there is such a place as Hell is prepared for the torment of the bodys souls of wicked impenitent Siners is most clear evident in the New Testament as well as in the Old Amongst the many that might be produced take these for a tast Mat. 5. 22. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause rashly vainly and unreasonably shall be in danger of the Judgment whosoever shall say to his Brother Raca shall be in danger of the Councel but whosoever shall say thou Fool shall be in danger of Hell-fire Gr to or in the Gehenna of fire In this Scripture our Lord Jesus doth allude to the custom of punishing Offenders used among the Jews now there were three degrees of punishments that were used among the Jews First In every Town where there were a hundred and twenty Inhabitants there was a little Councel of three which judged smaller matters for which whipping or some pecuniary mulct was imposed Secondly There was a Councel consisting of three and twenty seven of these were Judges fourteen Assessors Josephus who were mostly of the Levites and to these were added two supernumeraries which made the twenty-three which the Hebrews generally say was the number that made up this second Councel Now this Councel sate in the Gates of the City and did judge of civil matters having also power of life and death Thirdly There was the great Synedrion or High-Court of Judicatory which consisted of seventy and two six chosen of every Tribe Now this Councel sate in the Court of the Temple and had all matters of greatest moment brought before them as Heresie Idolatry Apostacy Beza Somtimes they convented before them the High-Priest and somtimes false Prophets yea somtimes a whole Tribe as my Reverend Author thinks Now look as there is a gradation of sin so there is a gradation of punishment pointed at in this Scripture for the opening of which consider you have here three degrees of secret murder or of inward heart-murder And 1. The first is Rash anger Now this brings a man in danger of the Judgment By the judgment he means not the judgment of the three who judged of mony-matters but by judgment he means the Counsel of the three and twenty men Now they are called the Judgment because they judged of Murthers and inflicted death c. Now he that shall rashly vainly causelesly unseasonably be angry with his Brother he shall be liable to the punishments that are to be inflicted by the Judges Look what punishments they in the Sanhedrim inflicted upon actual and apparent Murderers the same were they liable to and did deserve at the hands of God who were guilty of this secret kind of Murther viz. Rash Anger From the different degrees of punishments among the Jews Christ would shew the degrees of punishment in another world according to the greatness of mens sins as if he should say Look as among you Jews there are different offences some are judged in your little Counsel of three and others are judged in your Counsel of three and twenty and others in your great Sanhedrim So in the high Court of Heaven some sins as Rash Anger are less punished and others are more sorely punished as when your Rash Anger shall break forth into railings c. In these words Whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of Judgment You may see that Christ gives as much to Rash Anger as the Jews did to Murther as if he should have said You Pharisees exceed all measure and bounds in your anger and with a malicious heart you rail upon the most innocent persons upon me and my Disciples but I would have you take heed of Rash Anger for you shall have greater torments in Hell for your Rash anger than those that Murderers suffer by your Counsel of three and twenty But these words he shall be in danger of Judgment do contain the reward and punishment of unlawful anger as if our Saviour had said Rash Anger shall not escape just punishment but shall be arraigned and summoned before Gods Tribunal at the dreadful day of Judgment when the angry man shall not be able to answer one word of a thousand The second kind of secret Murder is to say to our Brother 2. Whether the word Raca be Hebrew or some say as Syriack as others say or Chaldee it matters not for all agree in this that it is a word that notes scorn and contempt c. Lapide Vide Weemes on the judicial Law of Moses and Dr. Field of the Church Michael Maronita Raca that is say some O vain man others say it signifies a brainless Fellow and the learned Tremellius saith it signifies one void of judgment reason and brains Some will have this word Raca come of the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Racos Cloth as though one should call a man a base patch or piece of cloath or beggarly Raca signifies an idle head a light brain for so Rik in the Hebrew to which the Syriack word Racha agreeth both in sound and sense signifieth light or vain Racha is a Syriack word and signifies say some these three things 1. Empty as empty of wealth or poor or as some empty of brains or wit or as others a light head or cock-brain wide and empty of wisdom or understanding 2. It signifies spittle or spit upon to signifie that they esteemed one another no better than the spittle they spat out of their mouths 3. It signifies contemned vile despised abject and in this signification one in his Proeme of the Syriack Grammer thinks it to be taken The Ethiopian expounds Racha thus He that shall say to his Brother be poor by contempt and of torne Garments shall be guilty of the Counsel such a one saith our Saviour Shall be in danger of the Counsel that is contract as great guilt unto himself and is subject to as severe a judgment in the Court of Heaven as any capital crime that is censured in the Sanhedrim or
High-Court of the Jews But The third kind of secret Murder is an open reviling and reproaching of a Brother in these words But whosoever shall say thou Fool shall be in danger of Hell-fire Thou Fool this is a word of greater disgrace than the former 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies unsavory or without rellish a Fool here is by a metaphor called insipid Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sote which we call Sot shall be in danger of Hell-fire or to be cast into Gehenna Gehenna comes from the Hebrew word Gettinnom that is the Valley of Hinnom lying near the City of Jerusalem in which Valley in former times the Itolatrous Josh 15. 8. Jews caused their Children to be burned alive between the glowing arms of the brazen Image of Moloch imitating vide 2. King 23 10. Jer. 7. 31. Jer. 32. 35. Jer. 19. 4 5 6. the Abominations of the Heathen And hence the Scripture often makes use of that word to signifie the place of eternal punishment where the damned must abide under the wrath of God for ever There were four kinds of punishments exercised among the Jews First Stranglings 2. The Sword 3. Stoning 4. The Fire Now this last they always judged the worst as Beza affirms upon this very place In these words Shall be in danger of Hell-fire Christ alludes to the great Sanhedrim and the highest degree of punishment that was inflicted by them namely to be burned in the Valley of Hinnom which by a known Metaphor is transferred to Hell it self and the inexpressible torments thereof For as those poor wretches being inclosed in a brazen Idol-heat with fire were miserably tormented in this Valley of Hinnom So the wicked being cast into Hell the Prison of the damn'd shall be eternally tormented in unquenchable fire This Valley of Hinnom by reason of the pollution of it with slaughter blood and stencth of Carkasses did become so execrable that Hell it self did afterwards inherit the same Name and was called Gehenna of this very place And that 1. In respect of the hollowness and depth thereof being a low and deep Valley 2. This Valley of Hinnom was a place of misery in regard of those many slaughters that were committed in it through their barbarous Idolatry So Hell is a place of misery and infelicity wherein there is nothing but sorrow 3. Thirdly By the bitter and lamentable crys of poor Infants in this Valley is shadowed out the crys and lamentable torments of the damned in Hell 4. In this Valley of Hinnom was another fire which was kept continually burning for the consuming of dead Carkasses and filth and the garbidge that came out of the City Now our Saviour by the fire of Gehenna in this Mat. 5. 22. hath reference principally to this fire signifying hereby the perpetuity and everlastingness of Hellish pains To this last judgment of the Sanhedrim viz. Burning Doth Christ appropriate that kind of Murder which is by open reviling of a Brother that he might notifie the heynousness of this sin marke in this Scripture Judgment Councel and Hell fire do but signifie three degrees of the same punishment c. See also Matth. 5. 29 30. And if thy right Eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee for it is profitable for thee that one of thy Members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into Hell And if thy right hand offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee for it is profitable for thee that one of thy Members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into Hell-fire Julian taking these commands literally mockt at Christian Religion as foolish cruel and vain because they require men to maim their members He mockt at Christians because no man did it and he mockt at Christ because no man obeyed him but this Apostate might have seen from the scope that these words were not to be taken literally but figuratively Some of the Antients by the right hand and the right eye do understand Relations Friends or any other dear enjoyments which draws the heart from God Others of them by the right eye and the right hand do understand such darling sins that are as dear to men as their right eyes and right hands That this Hell here spoken of is not meant of the Grave into which the body shall be laid is most evident because those Christians who do pull out their right eyes and cut off their right hands that is mortifie those special sins which are as dear and near to them as the very members of their bodies shall be secured and delivered from this Hell whereas none shall be exempted from the Grave though they are the choycest persons on Earth for grace and holiness Death like the Duke of Parma's Sword knows no difference twixt Robes and Raggs twixt Prince and Peasant All flesh is grass The Isa 40. 6. flesh of Princes Nobles Counsellors Generals c. is grass as well as the flesh of the meanest Beggar that walks the Streets The mortal Sythe saith one is master Hâ—rat l. 1. Oct. 28. of the Royal Scepter it mows down the Lillies of the Crown as well as the Grass of the Field Never was there Oratour so Eloquent nor Monarch so Potent that could either Dâ—aths Motto is Nulli cedo perswade or withstand the stroak of death when it came It is one of Solomons sacred Aphorisms The Rich and the Poor meet together somtimes in the same Bed somtimes Prov. 22. 2. at the same Board and somtimes in the same Grave Death is the common Inne of all Man-kind There is no defence against the stroak of death nor no discharge in that Hâ—b 9. 27. Eccles 8. 8. War Death is that only King against whom there is no rising up If your Houses be fired by good help they Prov. 30. 31. may be quenched if the Sea break out by art and industry it may be repaired If Princes Invade by power and policy they may be repulsed If Devils from Hell shall tempt by assistance from Heaven they may be resisted But Death comes into Royal Pallaces and into the meanest Cottages and there is not a man to be found that can make resistance against this King of terrors and terrour of Kings Deaths Motto is Nemini parco I spare none Thus you see that by Hell in Math. 5. 29 30. You may not you cannot understand the Grave and therefore by it you must understand the place of the damned But if you please you may cast your eye upon another Scripture viz. Math. 10. 28. Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell The word rather is not a comparative but an adversative We should not fear man at all when he stands in competition with God So Victorian the Pro-Consul of Carthage being sollicited to Arrianism
yeâ— the unprofitable servant into outer darkness Into a darkness beyond a darkness into a Dungeon beyond and beneath the prison The darkness of Hell is compared 2. Pet. 2. 4. Juâ—le verâ—â— 6. Acts 12. 10. This priâ—on was without the gate near mount â—alâ—â—ry and it was the loathsoâ—est and vilest prison of all for iâ— it the Thieves who were carried to Calvary to be executed were kep't and Christ alludeth to this prison in that Matth. 8. 12. and that Matth. 22. 13. and that Matth. 25. 30. Cast him into utter darkness Which allusion could not be understood unless there had been a dark prison without the City where was utter darkness to the darkness of those prisons which were often times out of the City By outer darkness the Holy-Ghost Would signifie to us that the wicked should be in a state most remote from all heavenly happiness and blessedness and that they should be expulsed out of the blessed presence of God who is mentium Lumâ—n It is usual among the Greeks by a comparative to set forth the superlative degree by outer darkness we are to understand the greatest darkness that is as in a place most remote from all light They shall be cast into outer darkness that is they shall be cast into the corporal and palpable darkness of the infernal prison Immediately after death Sinners Souls shall be cast into the infernal prison and in the day of judgment both their souls and their bodies shall be cast into outer darkness Darkness is no other thing than a privation of light Now Light is twofold viz. 1. Spiritual as Wisdom Grace Truth now the privation of this light is internal darkness and ignorance in the spirit and inward man 2. There is a sensible and corporal light whose privation is outer darkness and this is the darkness spoken of in the three Scriptures last cited For although there be fire in hell yet it is a dark and smoaky fire and not clear except only so as the damned may see one another for the greater encrease of their misery as some write Now I shall leave the ingenious Reader to conclude as he pleases concerning the place where Hell is desiring and hoping that he will make it the greatest business of his life to escape Hell and to get to Heaven c. Thirdly and Lastly If Jesus Christ did feel and suffer the very torments of Hell though not after a hellish manner then let me infer that certainly the Papists are greatly out they are greatly mistaken and do greatly err who boldly and confidently assert that Christs Soul in substance went really and locally into Hell Bellar. de Christ Animâ— lib. 4. cap. 10. 11 12 13 14 15 16. Teâ— 1. Vide Calvin in Instituâ— lib. 2. cap. 16. Sect. 9. Bellarmine takes a great deal of pains to make good this assertion but this great Champion of the Romish Church may easily be confuted First because that limbus patrum and Christs fetching the fathers from the skirts of Hell about which he makes so great a noise is a meer fable and not bottomed upon any solid grounds of Scripture Secondly because upon Christs dying and satisfying for our sins his soul went that very day into Paradise as Adam sinning was that very day cast out of Luke 23. 43. Gen. 3. 23 24. John 18. 30. Heb. 9. 12. 1 Thâ—s 1. 10. Eph. 4. 8. Heb. 2. 14. 15. Coloss 2. 14. 15. 'T is a plain allusion to the Roman Triumphs where the Victor ascended to the Capitol in a Chariot of State the prisoners following on foot with their hands bound behind them c. Paradise and his soul could not be in two places at once Thirdly because this descent of Christs Soul into Hell was altogether needless and to no end what need was there of it or to what end did he descend not to suffer in Hell for that was finished on the Cross not to redeem or rescue the Fathers out of Hell for the elect were never there and Redemption from Hell was wrought by Christs death as the Scriptures do clearly evidence not to triumph there over the Devils c. For Christ triumphed over them when he was on the Cross Christ in the day of his solemn inauguration into his Heavenly Kingdom triumphed over Sin Death Devils and Hell when Christ was on the Cross he made the Devils a publick spectacle of scorn and derision as Tamerlane did Bajazet the great Turk whom he shut up in an Iron Cage made like a Grate in such sort as thaâ— Turk Hist 220. â—e might on every side be seen and so carried him up and down all Asia to be scorned and derided by his own people By these few hints you may see the vanity and folly of the Papists who tell you that Christs soul in substance went really and locally into Hell I might make other inferences but let these suffice at this time Fourthly As Jesus Christ did feel and suffer the very torments of Hell though not after a hellish manner so Jesus Christ was really certainly made a curse for us Jesus Christ did in his soul and body bear that curse of the Law which by reason of transgression was due to us Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law Gala. 3. 13. being made a curse for us for it is written cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree He saith not Christ was cursed but a curse which is more it shews that the curse of all did lie upon him The death on the tree was accursed above all kinds of deaths as the Serpent was Gen. 3. 14. accursed above all the beasts of the field This Scripture Not that all that are hanged should be damned for the contrary appears in that Luke 23. 43. Neither is hanging in it self or by the law of nature or by civil law more execrable than any other death refers to Deut. 21. 33. His body shall not remain all night upon the tree but thou shalt in any wise hury him that day for he that is hanged is accursed of God The holy and wise God appointed this kind of punishment as being the most cruel and reproachful for a type of the punishment which his Son must suffer to deliver us from the curse Hanging on a tree was accounted the most shameful the most dishonourable the most odious and infamous and accursed of all kinds of death both by the Israelites and other nations because the very manner of the death did intimate that such men as were thus executed were such execrable base vile and accursed wretches that they did defile the earth with treading on it and would pollute the earth if they should die upon it and therefore were hang'd up in the air as persons not fit to converse amongst men or touch the surface of the ground any more But what should be the reason why the ceremonial Law affixed the curse to this death rather than any
As man he was wonderfully born of a Virgin called therefore Mat. 1. 23. by a peculiar name Shiloh which signifieth a secundine or after-birth Gen. 49. 19. The word comes of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies tranquillum esse intimating that Christ is he who hath brought us peace and tranquility and that he might be our peace-maker it was necessary that he should be Shiloh born of the sanctified seed of a woman without the seed of man The Apostle expounds the name where Gal. 4. 4. he saith of Christ that he was made of a woman not of a man and woman both but of a woman alone without a man Christ as man was foretold of by the Prophets and by sundry Types Christ as man was attended upon at his birth by holy Angels and a peculiar star was created Luk. 2. 13 14. Mat. 2. 1 2. for him Christ as man was our sacrifice and expiation he was our 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a counterprice such as we could never have paid but must have remained and even rotted in the prison of hell for ever Christ as man was Maâ— 1. 18. Act. 1. 9 10. Câ—l 11. 3. 1. conceived of the holy Ghost Christ as man is ascended into heaven Christ as man sits at the right hand of God Now what do all these things import but that Jesus Christ is a very precious and most excellent person and that even according to his manhood Christ had the true properties affections and actions of man He was conceived born circumcised he did hunger thirst he was cloathed he did eat drink sleep hear see touch speak sigh groan weep and grow in wisdom and stature c. as all the four Evangelists do abundantly testifie But because this is a point of grand importance especially in these days wherein there are risen up so many deceivers in the midst of us it may not be amiss to consider of these following particulars First of those special Scriptures that speak out the certainty and verity of Christ's body John 1. 14. And the word was made flesh 1 Tim. 3. 16. without controversie great is the Mystery of godliness God manifested in the flesh Christ is one and the same begotten of the father without time the son of God without mother and born of the Virgin in time the son of man without father the natural and consubstantial son of both and Oh what a great mystery is this Heb. 2 14. 16. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood he also himself likewise took part of the same that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the devil For verily he took not on him the nature of angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham according to the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He assumed caught laid hold on as the Angels did on Lot Gen. 19. 16. Maâ— 14. 31. or as Christ did on Peter or as men use to do upon a thing they are glad they have got and are loath to let go again Oh Sirs this is a main pillar of our comfort that Christ took our flesh for if he had not taken our flesh we could never have been saved by him Rom. 1. 3. Concerning his son Jesus Christ our Lord who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh Rom. 9. 5. Whose are the fathers and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came who is over â—ll God blessed for ever Amen This is a greater honour to all mankind than if the greatest King in the world â—hould marry into some poor family of his Subjects Christ saith my flesh is meat indeed and I say his flesh was flesh indeed as true real proper very flesh as that which any of us carry about with us Col. 1. 22. In the body of his flesh through death Heb. 10. 5. wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith sacrifice and offering thou wouldst 〈◊〉 but a body hast thou prepared we 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 'T is a Metaphor taken from Mechanicks who do artificially fit one part of their work to another and so finish the whole God fitted his Son's body to be joyned with the Deity and to be an expiatory sacrifice for sin 1 Pet. 2. 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree c. The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 himself hath a great Emphasis and therefore that Evangelical Prophet Isaiah mentions it no less than five times in that Isa 53. v. 4 5 7 11 12. Christ had none to help or uphold him under the heavy burden Isa 63. 3. v. of our sins and his father's wrath It is most certain that in the work of man's Redemption Christ had no coadjutor He who did bear our sins that is the punishments that were due to our sins in his own body on the Tree he did assume flesh cast into the very mould and form of our bodies having the same several parts members lineaments the same proportion which they have Christ's body was no spectrum or phantasm no putative body as if it had no being but what was in appearance and from imagination as the Marcionites Manicheâ—s and other hereticks of old affirmed and as some men of corrupt minds do assert in our days but as real as solid a body as ever any was And therefore the Apostle calls it a body of flesh a body to shew the Organization of it and a Câ—los 1. 22. body of flesh to shew the reality of it in opposition to all aerial and imaginary bodies Christ's body had all the essential properties of a true body such as are organicalness extension local presence confinement circumscription penetrability visibility palpability c. as all the Evangelists do abundantly witness take a few instances for all Luk. 24 39. Behold my hands and my feet that it is I my self handle me and see for a spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have Christ here admits of the testimony of their own senses to assure them that it was no vision or spirit but a true and real body risen from the dead which they now saw certainly whatever is essential to a true glorified body that is yet in Christ's body Those stamps of dishonour that the Jews had set upon Christ by wicked hands those he retained after his resurrection partly for the confirmation of his Apostles and partly to work us to a willingness and resoluteness to suffer for him when we are called to it 1 John 1. 1. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life He alludes to the Sermons which he and the other Apostles heard from Christ's own mouth and also to the glorious testimony which the father gave once and again from heaven to Christ he alludes also to the miracles
3. 13. 15. He 's called the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2. 5. 1 Cor. 15. 21. Since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead God's justice would be satisfied in the same nature that had sinned 16. God's son made of a woman Gal. 4. 4. 17 Man 1 Tim. 2. 5. The man Christ Jesus 18. The son of David Mat. 1. 1. Mar. 12. 35. How say the Scribes that Christ is the son of David In that the Scribes and Pharisees knew and acknowledged according to the Scripture that Christ should be the son of David that is should be born and descend of the stock and posterity of David according to the flesh Hence we may easily gather the truth of Christ's humane nature that he was ordained of God to be true man as well as God in one and the same person for else he could not be the son of David Now that he must be the son of David even the Scribes and the Pharisees knew and acknowledged as we see here and this was a truth which they had learned out of the Scriptures and not only they but even the common sort of Jews in our Saviour's time John 7. 42. some of the common people spake thus Hath not the scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David and the Messiah was then commonly called the son Rom. 1. 3. of David so then Christ being of the seed of David after the flesh he must needs be true man as well as God for which cause he was incarnate in the due time appointed of God that is to say he being the son of God from everlasting did in time become man taking our nature upon him together with the infirmities of our nature sin only excepted John 1. 14. Now thus you see that the 18 denominations that are given to Christ in the blessed Scriptures do abundantly demonstrate the certainty of Christ's humane nature But Thirdly Christ took the whole humane nature he was truly and compleatly man consisting of flesh and spirit body and soul yea that he assumed the entire humane nature with whatever is proper to it Christ took to himself the whole humane nature in both the essential parts of man soul and body the two essential and constitutive parts of man are soul and body where these two are there 's the true man now Christ had both and therefore he was true man First Christ had a true humane and reasonable soul the reasonable soul is the highest and noblest part of man this is that which principally makes the man and hath the greatest influence into his being and essence if therefore Jesus Christ had only a humane body without a humane soul he had wanted that part which is most essential to man and so he could not have been looked upon as true and perfect man O Sirs Christ redeemed and saved nothing but what he assumed the redemption and salvation reach no farther than the assumption our soul then would have been never the better for Christ had he not taken that as well as our body Hence said Augustine Aug de civ Dei lib. 10. c. 27. p. 586 Therefore he took the whole man without sin that he might heal the whole of which man consists of the plague of sin And Fulgentius to the same purpose As Fulgent ad Thrasymund lib. 1. p. 251. the Devil smote by deceiving the whole man so God saves by assuming the whole man If he will save the whole man from sin he will assume the whole man without sin saith Nazianzen The Scriptures do clearly evidence that Christ had a real humane soul Mat. 26. 38. My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death every word is emphatical my soul his sorrows pierced his soul Psal 22. 16. and sorrowful round about even to death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is heavy round about Look as the soul was the first Agent in transgression so it is here the first Patient in affliction to death that is this sorrow will never be finished or intermitted but by death My soul is exceeding sorrowful then Christ had a true humane soul neither was his Deity to him for a soul as of old men of corrupt minds have fancied for then our bodies only had been redeemed by him and not our souls if he had not suffered in soul as well as in body The sufferings of his body were but the body of his sufferings the soul of his sufferings were the sufferings of his soul which was now beset with sorrows and heavy as heart could hold John 12. 27. Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say The Greek word signifies a vehement commotion and perturbation as Herod's mind was troubled when he Mat. 2. 3. heard that a new King was born or as the Disciples were Mat. 14. 26. troubled when they thought they saw a spirit walking on the sea and cryed out for fear or as Zachary was troubled Luk. 1. 12. at the sudden sight of the Angel The rise and cause of Christ's soul-trouble was this the Godhead hiding it self from the humanitie's sense and the father letting out not only an apprehension of his sufferings to come but a present taste of the horrour of his wrath due to man for sin he is amazed overwhelmed and perplexed with it in his humanity and no wonder since he had the sins of all the Elect laid upon him by imputation to suffer for And so this wrath is not let out against his person but against their sins which were laid on him Now though Christ was here troubled or jumbled and puzzled as the word imports yet we are not to conceive that there was any sin in this exercise of his for he was like clean water in a clean vessel which being never so often stirred and shaken yet still keeps clean and clear neither are we to think it strange that the son of God should be put to such perplexities in this trouble as not to know what to say for considering him as man encompassed with our sinless infirmities and that this heavy weight of wrath did light upon him on a sudden it is no wonder that it did confound all his thoughts as man O Sirs look that as sin hath infected both the souls and bodies of the Elect and chiefly their souls where it hath its chief seat so Christ to expiate this sin did suffer unspeakable sorrows and trouble in his soul as well as torture in his body for my soul is troubled saith he Though some sufferings of the body be very exquisite and painful and Christ's in particular were such yet sad trouble of mind is far more grievous than any bodily distress as Christ also found who silently bare all his outward troubles but yet could not but cry out of his inward trouble Now is my soul troubled Isa 53. 10. Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin when Christ suffered for us our sins were laid upon
divine greatness stamp'd upon the works of providence but what are the works of Providence to the work of Redemption what are all providential works to Christ's coming from heaven to his being incarnate to his doings sufferings and dying and all this to ransom poor souls from the curse hell wrath and eternal death souls are dear and costly things and of great price in the sight of God Amongst the Romans those their proper goods and estates which men had gotten in the wars with hazard of their lives were called Peculium Castrense of a Field-purchase Oh how much more may the precious and immortal souls of men be called Christ's Peculium Castrense his purchase gotten not only by the jeopardy of his life but with the loss of his life and blood Ye know saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 1. 18. 19. that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as with silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition but with the precious blood of the son of God as of a lamb without a spot Christ that only went to the price of souls hath told us that one soul is more worth than Mat. 16. 26. all the world Christ left his father's bosom and all the glory of heaven for the good of souls he assumed the nature of man for the happiness of the soul of man he trod the Wine-press of his father's wrath for souls he wept for souls he swet for souls he prayed for souls he payed for souls and he bled out his heart-blood for the redemption of souls The soul is the breath of God the beauty of man the wonder of Angels and the envy of Devils 't is of an Angelical nature 't is a heavenly spark a celestial plant and of a divine off-spring 't is capable of the knowledg of God of union with God of communion with John 14. 8. Psal 17. 15. God and of an eternal fruition of God there is nothing that can suit the soul below God there is nothing that can satisfie the soul without God the soul is so high and so noble a piece that it scorns all the world what are all the riches of the East or West Indies what are Rocks of Diamonds or Mountains of Gold or the price of Cleopatra's draught to the price that Christ laid down for souls 't is only the blood of him that is God-man that is an equivolent price for the Redemption of souls Silver and Gold hath redeemed many thousands out of Turkish bondage but all the Silver and Gold in the world could never redeem one poor soul from Hellish bondage from hellish torments Souls are a dear commodity he that bought them found them so and yet at how cheap a rate do some sinners sell their immortal souls Callenuceus tells us of a noble man of Naples that was wont prophanely to say that he had two-souls in his body one for God and another for whosoever would buy it but if he hath one soul in Hell I believe he will never find another for Heaven A person of quality who is still alive told me a few years since that in discourse with one of his servants This pious Gentleman was with me in May 1673. at my house he asked him what he thought would become of his soul if he lived and died in his ignorance and enmity against God c. he most prophanely and atheistically answered that when he died he would hang his soul on a hedg and say run God run Devil and he that can run fastest let him Discipul at de tâ—mp Serâ— 132. take my soul I have read of a most blasphemous wretch that on a time being with his companions in a common Inn carrowsing and making merry asked them if they thought a man had a soul or no whereunto when they replyed that the souls of men are immortal and that some of them after death lived in hell and others in heaven For so the writings of the Prophets and Apostles instructed them he answered and swore that he thought it nothing so but rather that there was no soul in man to survive the body but that Heaven and Hell were mere fables and inventions of Priests to get gain and for himself he was ready to sell his soul to any that would buy it then one of his companions took up a cup of wine and said sell me thy soul for this cup of wine which he receiving We laugh at little children to see them part with rich Jewels for silly trifles and yet daily experience tells us that multitudes are so childish as to part with such rich and precious Jewels as their immortal souls for a lust or for base and unworthy trifles of whom it may be truly said as Augustus Caesar said in another case they are like a man that fishes with a golden hook the gain can never recompence the loss that may be sustained bad him take his soul and drank up the wine Now Satan himself being there in man's shape bought it again of the other at the same price and by and by bad him give him his soul the whole company affirming it was meet he should have it since he had bought it not perceiving the Devil but presently he laying hold of this soul-seller carried him into the Air before them all to the great astonishment and amazement of the beholders and from that day to this he was never heard of but hath now found by experience that men have souls and that Hell is no Fable Ah for what a thing of nought do many thousands sell their souls to Satan every day how many thousands are there who swear curse lye cheat deceive c. for a little gain every day I have read that there was a time when the Romans did wear Jewels on their shooes Oh that in these days men did not worse Oh that they did not trample under feet that matchless Jewel their precious and immortal souls Oh sirs there is nothing below heaven so precious and noble as your souls and therefore do not play the Courtiers with your poor souls now the Courtier does all things late he rises late and dines late and sups late and goes to bed late and repents late Christ made himself an offering for sin that souls might not be undone by sin the Lord died that slaves might live the son dies that servants might live the natural son dies that adopted sons may live the only begotten son dies that bastards might live yea the judg dies that Malefactors may live Ah friends as there was never sorrow like Christ's so there was never love like Christ's love and of all his love none to that of soul-love Christ who is God-man did take upon him thy nature and bare thy sins and suffered death and encountered the Cross and was made a sacrifice and a curse and all to bring about thy Redemption and therefore thou maist safely conclude that the work of Redemption is a great work But
honour fire will descend as on Sodom and Gomorrah and water Gen. 19. Exod. 14. 22. though a fluid body stand up like a solid wall as in the Red Sea if he do but speak the word Oh let not the inanimate creatures one day rise in judgment against us for not giving Christ his due honour if we honour Christ we shall have honour that is a bargain of Christ's own making but if we dishonour him he will put dishonour 1 Sam. 2. 30. upon us as Scripture and History in all Ages do sufficiently evidence in History we read of an Impostor that gave it out that he was that star which Balaam prophesied Nâ—m 24. 17. of which was a Prophecy of Christ this fellow called himself Ben-chomar the son of a Star this man professed himself to be Christ but he was slain with thunder and lightning from heaven and then the Jews called him Ben-cosmar which signifieth the son of a lye Learned Synag Julaics cap. 5. 36. Buxtorf tells us that the Jews call Christ Bar-chozabb the son of a lye a Bastard and his Gospel Aven-gelaion the Volume of lyes or the Volume of iniquity and hath not God been a revenging this upon them for above this sixteen hundred years Rabbi Samuel who long since writ a Tract in form of an Epistle to Rabbi Isaac Master of the Synagogue of the Jews wherein he doth excellently discuss the cause of their long Captivity and extreme misery and after that he had proved it was inflicted for some grievous sin he sheweth that sin to be the same which Amos speaks of For three transgressions of Israel and for Amos. 2. 6. four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shooes The selling of Joseph he makes the first sin the worshipping the Calf in Horeb the second sin the abusing and killing God's Prophets the third sin and the selling of Jesus Christ the fourth sin For the first they served four hundred years in Egypt for the second they wandred forty years in the Wilderness for the third they were Captives seventy years in Babylon and for the fourth they are held in pitiful Captivity even to this very-day Oh how severely has God reveng'd the wrongs and indignities done to Christ the Lord by this miserable people to this very hour and yet Oh the several ways wherein this poor people do every day express their malice and hatred against the Lord Jesus Oh pray pray hard that the veil may be taken away that has been so long before their eyes Herod imprisons Peter and killeth Act. 12. 1 2 3 4 James with the sword this God puts up but when he comes to usurp the honour due to Christ he must die vers 23. for it Herod might more safely take away the liberty of one and the life of another than the glory due to Christ long before his death being in chains he met with a strange Omen For as he stood bound before the Palace Josephus of the Antiquities of the Jews lib. 18. pag. 475. 476. leaning dejectedly upon a tree among many others that were prisoners with him an Owl came and sat down in that Tree to which he leaned which a German seeing being one of those that stood there bound he asked who he was that was in the Purple and leaned there and understanding who he was he told him of his enlargment promotion to honour and prosperity and that when he should see that bird again he should die within five days after Now when Herod had imprisoned Peter and slain James with the sword he went down to Caesarea and there he made sports and shows in honour of Cesar and Pag. 510. 511. on the second day being most gorgeously apparelled and the Sun shining very bright upon his Robe of Silver his flatterers saluted him for a God and cryed out to him Be merciful unto us hitherto have we feared thee as a man but hence forward we will acknowledg thee to be of a nature more excellent than mortal frailty can attain to the wretched King reproved not this abominable flattery but was well pleased with it and not long after he espyed the Owl which the German had foretold to be the Omen of his death And suddenly he was seized with miserable gripings in his belly which came upon him with vehement extremity whereupon turning himself towards his friends saith Loe he whom ye esteem for a God is doomed to die and destiny shall evidently confute you in those flattering and false speeches which you lately used concerning me for I who have been adored by you as one immortal am now under the hands of death and his griefs and torments increasing his death drew on apace whereupon he was removed into the Palace and all the people put on Sack-cloth and lay on the ground praying for him which he beholding could not refrain from tears and so after five days he gave up the Ghost Thus you see how dearly they have paid for it that have not given Christ his due glory and let these instances of his wrath alarm all your hearts so that we may make more conscience than ever of setting the Crown of honour only upon Christ's head for he only is worthy of all honour glory and praise Rev. 14. 10 11. But Sixthly Is Jesus Christ God-man is he very God and very man then from hence as in a glass you may see the true Reasons why the death and sufferings of Christ though short very short yet have a sufficient power and vertue in them to satisfie God's justice to pacifie his wrath to procure our pardon and to save our immortal souls viz. because of the dignity of his person that died and suffered for us the son of God yea God himself there was an infinite vertue and value in all his sufferings hence his Heb. 9. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 19. Acts 20. 28. Gal. 4. 4 5 6. blood is called precious blood yea the blood of God did man transgress the Royal Law of God behold God himself is become a man to make up that breach and to Rom. 8. 2 3 4. satisfie divine Justice to the uttermost farthing for the man Christ Jesus to stand before the bar of the Law and to make full and compleat reparation to it was the highest honour that ever was done to the Law of God this is infinitely more pleasing and delightful to divine Justice than if all the curses of the Law had been poured out upon fallen man and than if the Law had built up its honour upon the destruction of the whole Creation To see one Sun clouded is much more than to see the Moon and all the Stars in Heaven overcast Christ considered as God-man was great very great and the greater his person was the greater were his sorrows his sufferings his Isa 53. humiliation his compassion his satisfaction
and if so then what would become of us what would become of our salvation then our faith would be in vain and our hope would be in vain and our hearing preaching praying and receiving would all be in vain yea then all our Religion would vanish into a mâ—re fancy also when a man's conscience is awakened to see his sin and misery and he shall find guilt to lay like a load upon his soul and when he shall see that divine justice is to be satisfied and divine wrath to be pacified and the curse to be born and the Law to be fulfilled and his nature to be renewed his heart to be changed and his sins to be pardoned or â—lsâ— his soul can never be saved how can such a person venture his soul his all upon one that is but a mâ—re crcature certainly a mere man is no Rock no City of refuge and no sure foundation for a man to build his faith and hope upon woe to that man that ever he was born that has no Jesus but a Socinian's Jesus to rest upon oh 't is sad trusting to one who is man but not God flesh but not spirit as you love the eternal safety of your precious souls and would be happy for ever as you would escape Hell and get to Heaven lean on none rest on none but that Jesus who is God-man who is very God and very man Apollinaris held that Christ took not the whole nature of man but a humane body only without a soul and that the Godhead was instead of a soul to the Manhood Also Eutyches who confounded the two natures of Christ and their properties c. Also Apelles and the Manichees who denied the true humane body and held him to have an aerial or imaginary body Though the popular sort deified Alexander the great yet having Plutarch in vita got a clap with an Arrow he said ye stile me Jupiter's son as if immortal sed hoc vulnus clamat esse hominem this blood that issues from the wound proves me in the issue a man this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the blood of man not of God and smelling the stench of his own flesh he asked his flatterers if the God's yielded such a scent so may it be said of Jesus Christ our Saviour though Myriads of Angels and Saints acclaim he is a God ergo immortal and a crew of Hereticks disclaim him to be man as the Marcionites averred that he had a phantastical body and Apelles who conceived that he had a sydereal substance yet the streams of blood following the arrow of death that struck him makes it good that he was perfect man of a reasonable soul and humane flesh subsisting And as this truth looks sowerly upon the above mentioned persons so it looks sowerly upon the Papists who by their Doctrine of the real presence of Christ's body in the Sacrament do overthrow one of the properties of his humane nature which is to be but in one place present at once This truth also looks sowerly upon the Lutherans or Ubiquitaries who teach that Christ's humane nature is in all places by vertue of the personal union c. I wonder that of all the old Errours swept down into this latter Age as into a sink of time this of the Socinians and Arrians should be held forth among the rest O sirs beware of their Doctrines shun their meetings and persons that come to you with the denial of the Divinity of Christ in their mouths this was John's Doctrine and Practise Irenaeus saith that after he was returned from his banishment and came to Ephesus he came to bathe himself and in the bath he found Cerinthus that said Christ had no being till he received it from the Virgin Mary upon the sight of whom John skipped out of the Bath and called his companions from thence saying let us go from this place lest the Bath should fall down upon us because Cerinthus is in it that is so great an enemy to God ye see his Doctrine see his words too 2 John 10 11. If any come to you having not this doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds What that Doctrine was if you cast your eye upon the Scripture you shall find it to be the Doctrine of the Divinity of Christ shew no love where you owe nothing but hatred I hate every Psal 119. 113. false way saith David And I shall look upon Auxentius as upon a Devil so long as he is an Arrian said Hilarius We must shew no countenance nor give no encouragement to such as deny either â—ne divinity or humanity of Christ I have been the longer upon the Divinity and humanity of Christ 1. Because the times we live in require it 2. That poor weak staggering Christians may be strengthned established and setled in the truth as it is in Jesus 3. That I may give in my testimony and witness against all those who are poysoned and corrupted with Socinian and Arrian Principles which destroy the souls of men 4. That those in whose hands this book may fall may be the better furnished to make head against men of corrupt minds who by slight of hand and cunning craftiness lie in wait to deceive Eph. 4. 14. Sixthly As he that did feel and suffer the very torments of Hell though not after a hellish manner was God-man so the punishments that Christ did sustain for us must be referred only to the substance and not unto the circumstances of punishment The punishment which Christ endured if it be considered in its substance kind or nature so 't was the same with what the sinner himself should have undergone Now the punishment due to the sinner was death the curse of the Law c. now this Christ underwent for he was made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. but if you consider the punishment which Christ endur'd with respect to certain circumstances adjuncts and accidents as the eternity of it desperation going along with it c. then I say it was not the same but equivalent Whether the work of man's redemption could have been wrought without the sufferings and humiliation of Christ is not determinable by men but that it was the most admirable way which wisdom justice and mercy could require cannot be denied And the reason is because though the enduring of the punishments as to the substance of them could and did agree with him as a surety yet the circumstances of those punishments could not have befallen him unless he had been a sinner and therefore every inordination in suffering was far from Christ and a perpetual duration of suffering could not befall him for the first of these had been contrary to the holiness and dignity of his person and the other had made void the end of his suretiship and Mediatorship which was so to suffer as yet to conquer and
against God Under the Law if an Oxe gored a man that he died the Exod. 21. 28. Oxe was to be killed Sin hath gored and pierced our dear Lord Jesus O let it die for it O avenge your selves upon it as Sampson did avenge himself upon the Philistines for Judg. 16. 28. his two eyes Pâ—lutarch reports of Marcus Cato that he never declared his opinion in any matter in the Senate but he would close it with this passage Methinks still Carthage should be destroyed so a Christian should never cast his eye upon the Cross of Christ the sufferings of Christ nor upon his sins but his heart should say Methinks pride should be destroyed and unbelief should be destroyed and hypocrisie should be destroyed and earthly-mindedness should be destroyed and self-love should be destroyed and vain glory should be destroyed c. The Jews would not have the pieces of silver which Judas cast down in the Temple put in the Treasury because Maâ— 27. 5 6. they were the price of blood Oh lodg not any one sin in the Treasury of your hearts for they are all the price of blood But Fourthly let the sufferings of our Lord Jesus raise in all our hearts a high estimation of Christ O let us prize a suffering Christ above all our duties and above all our Mat. 10. 37. Luk. 14. 26. graces and above all our privileges and above all our outward contentments and above all our spiritual enjoyments a suffering Christ is a commodity of greater value than all the riches of the Indies yea than all the wealth of the whole world he is better than Rubies saith Prov. 8. 11. Solomon and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to him he is that Pearl of price which the wise Merchant purchased with all that ever he had no Mat. 13. 46 man can buy such Gold too dear Joseph a type of the Lord Jesus then a precious Jewel of the world was far more precious had the Ishmaelitish Merchants known so Gen. 27. 37. much than all the Balms and Myrrhs that they transported and so is a suffering Christ as all will grant that really know him and that have experienced the sweet of union and communion with him Christ went through heaven and hell life and death sorrow and suffering misery and cruelty and all to bring us to glory and shall we not prize him When in a storm the Nobles of Xerxes were to lighten the ship to preserve their King's life they did their obeysance and leaped into the Sea but our Lord Jesus Christ to preserve our lives Col. 1. 18. our souls he leaps into a Sea of wrath Oh how should this work us to set up Christ above all what a deal ado has there been in the world about Alexander the great and Constantine the great and Pompey the great because of their civil power and authority but what was all their greatness and grandure to that greatness and grandure that God the father put upon our Lord Jesus Christ when Mat 28. 1â— Heb. 1. 13. Eph. 1. 20. he gave all power in heaven and in earth unto him and set him down at his own right hand Oh sirs will you value men according to their titles and will you not highly value our Lord Jesus Christ who has the most magnificent titles given him he is called King of Kings Rev. 17. 14. cap. 19. 16. and Lord of Lords It is observed by learned Drusins that those Titles were usually giâ—â—n to the great Kings of Persia than which there was none assumed more to themselves than they did yet the holy Ghost attributes these great Titles to Christ to let us know that as God hath exalted Christ above all earthly powers so we should magnifie him and exalt him accordingly Paul casting his eye upon a suffering Christ tells us that he esteems of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3. 8. all things as nothing in comparison of Christ All things is the greatest account that can be casâ— up for it includeth all prizes all summs it taketh in heaven it taketh in the vast and huge Globe and Circle of the capacious world and all excellencies within its bosom all things includes all Nations All Angels all Gold all Jewels all Honours all delights and every thing else besides and yet the Apostle looks upon all these things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 micae quae canibus vide à Lapide vide Bezam the original word notes the filth that comes out of the entrails of beasts or off all cast to dogs but as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dung dog's dung as some interpret the word or dogs meat course and contemptible in comparison of dear Jesus Galeacius that noble Italian Marquess was of the same mind and mettal with Paul for when he was strongly tempted and solicited with great summs of money and preferments to return to the Romish Church he gave this heroick answer Cursed be he that prefers all the wealth of the world to one days communion with Christ What if a man had large demains stately buildings and ten thousand rivers of Oyl what if all the mountains of the world were Pearl the mighty Rocks Rubies and the whole Globe a shining Chrysolite yet all this were not to be named in the same day wherein there is mention made of a suffering Christ Look as one Ocean hath more waters than all the rivers in the world and as one Sun hath more light than all the Luminaries in heaven so one suffering Christ is more all to a poor soul than if it had the all of the whole world a thousand times over and over Oh sirs if you cast but your eye upon a suffering Christ a crucified Jesus there you shall find righteousness in him to cover all your sins and plenty enough in him to supply all your wants and grace enough in him to subdue all your lusts and wisdom enouâ—h in him to resolve all your doubts and power enough in him to vanquish all your enemies and vertue enough in him to heal all your diseases Heb. 7. 25. I have read of a Roman servant who knowing his master was sought for by officers to be put to death he put himself into his master's cloaths that he might be taken for him and so he was and was putâ— to death for him whereupon his master in memory of his thankfulness to him and honour of him erected a brazen Statue but what a statue of Gold should we set up in our hearts to the eternal honour exaltation of that Jesus who not in our cloaths but in our very nature hath laid down his life for us and fulness enough in him both to satisfie you and save you and that to the utmost All the good things that can be reckoned up here below have only a finite and limited benignity some can cloath but cannot feed others can
fundamental guilt no no but he was made sin by imputation and law-account he was our Surety and so our sins were laid on him in order to punishment And to prefigure this all the iniquities of Gods people were imputed to their sacrifice though they were not inherently his own as we read Levit. 16. 21 22 Aaron shall put all the iniquities of all the children of Israel and all their transgressions and all their sins upon the head of the Goat and the Goat shall bear upon him all their iniquities and why then should it seem strange that the perfect righteousness of our sacrifice and surety though it be not our own inherently should be imputed to us by the Lord and made ours Frequently and seriously consider that the word answering this imputing is in the Hebrew Chashab and in To impute in the General is to acknowledg that to be another's which is not indeed his and it is used either in a good or bad sense so that it is no more than to account or reckon It is the Righteousness of Christ imputed to us and accepted for us by which we are judged righteous the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which the summ as the learned say comes to this That though the words in the general signifie to think to reason to imagine c. yet very frequently they are used to signifie to account or reckon by way of computation as Arithmeticians use to do so that it is as it were a judgment passed upon a thing when all reasons and arguments are cast together And from this it is applied to signifie any kind of accounting or reckoning and in this sence imputation is taken here for God's esteeming and accounting of us righteous 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies to reckon or account 't is taken by a borrowed speech from Merchants reckonings and accounts who have their debt-books wherein they set down how their reckonings stand in the particulars they deal in Now in such debt-books Merchants use to set down whatever payments are only made either by the debtors themselves or by others in the behalf of them an example whereof we have in the Epistle to Philemon vers 18. where Paul undertakes to Philemon for Onesimus if he hath wronged thee or oweth thee any thing put that on my account that is account Onesimus his debt to Paul and Paul's satisfaction or payment to Onesimus which answers the double imputation in point of justification Psal 32. 1 2. that is of our sins to Christ and of Christ's satisfaction to us both which are implyed 2 Cor. 5. 21. He made him to be sin for us that is our sins were imputed to him that we might be the righteousness of God in him that is that his rightcousness might be imputed to us The language of Jesus Christ to his father seems to be this Oh holy Father I have freely and willingly taken all the debts and all the sins of all the believers in the world upon me I have undertaken to be their pay-master to satisfie thy justice to pacifie thy wrath to fulfil thy Law c. and therefore Loe here I am ready Psal 40. 6 7 8. Heb. 10. 4 5 6 7 8 9. to do what ever thou commandest and ready to suffer whatsoever thou pleasest I am willing to be reckoned a sinner that they may be reckoned righteous I am willing to be accounted cursed that they may be for ever blessed I am willing to pay all their debts that they may be set at liberty I am willing to lay down my life that John 10. 11 15 17 18. Rev. 20. 6. they may escape the second death I am willing that my soul should be exercised with the most hideous Agonies that their souls may be possessed of heaven's happinesses Oh what wonderful wisdom grace and love is here manifested that when we were neither able to satisfie the penalty of the Law or to bring a conformity to it that then Christ should interpose and become both redemption and righteousness for us Now from the imputed righteousness of Christ a believer may form up this fifth plea as to all the ten Scriptures Eâ—cles 11. 9. cap. 12. 14. Mat. 12. 14. cap. 18. 23. Luk. 16. 3. Rom. 14. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 10. Heb. 9. 27. cap. 13. 17. 1 Pet. 4. 5. in the margent that refer to the great day of account Oh blessed God thou hast given me to understand that the mediatory righteousness of Christ includes first the habitual holiness of his person in the absense of all sin and in the rich and plentiful presence of all holy and requisite qualities Secondly the actual holiness of his life and death by obedience By his active obedience he perfectly fulfilled the commands of the Law and by his passive obedience his voluntary sufferings he satisfied the penalty and commination of the Law for transgressions That perfect satisfaction to divine justice in whatsoever it requires either in way of punishing for sin or obedience to the law made by the Lord Jesus Christ God and man the Mediator of the new Covenant as a common head representing all those whom the father hath given to him and made over unto them that believe in him This is that righteousness that is imputed to all believers in their Justification and this imputed righteousness of thy dear son and my dear saviour is now my plea before thy bar of Justice Imputed righteousness is the same materially with that which the Law requireth The Righteousness which the Law requireth upon pain of damnation is a perfect obedience conformity to the whole Law of God performed by every son and daughter of Adam in his own person Now imputed righteousness is the same materially with that which the Law requireth it is obedience to the Law of God exactly and punctually performed to the very utmost Iota and tittle thereof without the least abatement Christ hath paid the uttermost farthing He is the fulfilling of the Law for righteousness and he hath fulfilled the Law in the humane nature to the intent that it might be fulfilled in the same nature to which it was at first given and all this he hath expresly done in all their names and on all their behalfs that believe in him That the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in them Rom. 8. 3 4. It is as if our dear Lord Jesus had said oh blessed father this I suffer and this I do to the use and in the stead and room of all those that have ventured their souls upon me that they may have a righteousness which they may truly call their own and on which they may safely rest and in which they may for ever glory Isa 45. 24 25. Now it will never stand with the unspotted holiness justice and righteousness of God to reject this righteousness of his son or that plea that is bottomed upon it Oh the matchless happiness of believers who have so