A GOLDEN-KEY TO OPEN Hidden Treasures OR Several great Points that refer to the Saints present blessedness and their future happiness with the resolution of several important questions Here you have also The Active and Passive Obedience of Christ vindicated and improved against men of corrupt minds c. Who boldly in Pulpit and Press contend against those glorious Truths of the Gospel You have farther Eleven serious singular Pleas that all sincere Christians may safely and groundedly make to those ten Scriptures in the Old and New Testament that speak of the general Judgment and of that particular Judgment that must certainly pass upon them all immediately after death The Godhead and Manhood of Christ is here largely proved and improved against all Gainsayers by what names and titles soever they are distinguished and known among us Several things concerning Hell and hellish torments opened cleared and improved against all Atheists and all others that boldly assert that there is no Hell but what is in us Some other points of importance are here cleared and opened which other Authors so far as the Author hath read have passed over them in great silence all tending to the confirmation of the strong and support peace comfort settlement and satisfaction of poor weak doubting trembling staggering Christians By Tho. Brooks late Preacher of the Gospel at Margarets-New-Fish-street LONDON Printed for Dorman Newman at the King's-Arms in the Poultrey and at the Ship and Anchor at the Bridg-foot on Southwark side 1675. To his much Honoured and Worthily esteemed Friend Sir NATHANIEL HERNE Kt. Sheriff of London and Governour of the East-India Company Grace Mercy and Peace be multiplyed upon you and yours SIR MUch might be said were it necessary for the Dedication of Books unto persons of worth interest service and honour this having been the constant practise of the best and wisest of men in all the Ages of the world And therefore I need not make any farther Apology for my present practice What is written is permanent litera scripta manet and spreads it self farther by far for time place and persons than the voice can reach Augustine writing to Volusian Aug Epist 1. ad Vâ—â—â—s saith that which is written is always at hand to be read when the reader is at leysure There are those that think and as they conceive from Scripture grounds too that the glory of the Saints in heaven receives additions and encreases daily as their holy walk and faithful service when here on earth doth after they are gone bring forth fruit to the praise of God amongst those that are left behind them If this be so what greater encouragement can there be to write print preach and to walk holily in this world I must also confess that that general acceptation that my former labours have found both in the Nation and It was a saying of 〈◊〉 concerning his first portraicture I◠〈◊〉 liked I will â—raw 〈◊〉 beiâ—e 〈…〉 this in forreign parts and that singular blessing that has attended them from on high hath been none of the least encouragements to me once more to cast in my Mite into the common Treasury Besides I am not unsensible of your candid esteem of some forme endeavours of mine in this kind neither do I know any way wherein I am more capacitated to serve the glory of God the interest of Christ the publick good reproached truths and the interest of the Churches in my Generation than this as my case and condition is circumstanced And I am very well satisfied that there is nothing in this Treatise but what tends to the advantage comfort support settlement and encouragement of those whose concernment lies in peace and truth in holiness and righteousness throughout the Nations Sir The points here insisted on are of the greatest use worth weight necessity excellency and utility imaginable they are such wherein our present blessedness and our future happiness yea wherein our very all both as to this and that other world is wrapped up It will be Dâ—uâ— 30. 15 19. cap. 32. 47. your life honour and happiness to read them digest them experience them and to exemplifie them in a suitable conversation which that you may let your immortal soul lye always open to the warm powerful and hourly influences 2 Cor. 5. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We ambitiously labour we count it our highest honour and glory to â—â— accepted of God of heaven Let it be the top of your ambition and the height of all your designs to glorifie God to secure your interest in Christ to seve your Generation to provide for Eternity to walk with God to be tender of all that have Aliquid Christi any thing of Christ shining in them and so to steer your course in this world as that you may give Mat. 25. 21. up your account at last with joy All other ambition is base and low Ambition saith one is a guilded misery Bâ—rnard Cardinal Burbon would not lose his part in Paris for his part in Paradise Act. and mon. Fol. 899. a secret poyson a hidden plague the Engineer of deceipt the mother of hypocrisie the parent of envy the original of vices the moth of holiness the blinder of hearts turning medicines into maladies and remedies into diseases In the enthronization of the Pope before he is set in his chair and puts on his triple Crown a piece of tow or wad of straw is set on fire before him and one appointed to say sic transit gloria mundi the glory of this Act 25. 23. world is but a blaze St. Luke calls Agrippa's pomp 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a phantasie or vain shew and indeed all worldly pomp and state is but a phantasie or vain shew St. Matthew calls all the world's glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 4. 8. an opinion and St. Paul calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mathematical 1 Cor. 7. 31. figure which is a mere notion and nothing in substance The word here used intimateth that there is nothing of any firmness or solid consistency in the creature it is but a surface out-side empty thing all the beauty of it is but skin-deep Mollerus upon that Psal The Romanâ— built Virtue 's honours Temples close together to shew that the way to true honour was by Virtue Aug. 73. 20. concludeth that men's earthly dignities are but as idle dreams their splendid braveries but lucid fantasies High seats are never but uneasie and Crowns are always stuffed with Thorns which made one say of his Crown Oh Crown more noble than happy shall the spirit of God the grace of God the power of God the presence of God arm you against all other sins evils snares and temptations as you are by a good hand of heaven armed against worldly ambition and worldly glory Sir you know he was a Saul that said honour me before 1 Sam. 15 30. 2 King 10 16. the people and he
dyed If the Glutton in that Historical parable being in Hell only in part to wit in Luk 16. 22 23 24. soul yet cryed out That he was horribly tormented in that flame what think we shall that torment be when body and soul come to be united for torture It being just with God that as they have been like Simcon and Levi Brethren Gen 49. 5. in Iniquity and have sinned together desperately and impenitently so they should suffer together joyntly eternally The Hebrew Doctors have a pretty Parable to this purpose A man planted an Orchard and going from home was careful to leave such Watch-men as both might keep it from Strangers and not deceive him themselves therefore he appointed one blind but strong of his Limbs and the other seeing but a Cripple these two in their Masters absence conspired together and the Blind took the Lame on his Shoulders and so gathered the fruit their Master returning and finding out this subtlety punished them both together So shall it be with those two sinful Yoke-fellows the soul and the body in the great day They have sinned together and they 2 Cor. 5. 10 11. shall suffer at last together But now in this world the greatest number of Transgressors do commonly escape all sorts of punishments and therefore we may safely conclude that there is another World wherein the Righteous God will revenge upon the bodies and souls of Sinners the high dishonours that have been done to his Name by them But Seventhly In all things natural and supernatural there is an opposition and contrariety There is good and there is evil there is light and darkness joy and sorrow Now as there are two several ways so there are two distinct ends Heaven a place of admirable and inexpressible happiness whether the good Angels convoy the souls of the Saints who have by a holy conversation Luk. 16. 22. glorified God and adorned their Profession And Hell a place of horror and confusion whither the evil Angels do hurry the souls of wicked incorrigible and impenitent wretches when they are once separated from their bodies The Rich man also dyed and was buryed and in ver 22 23. Hell he lifted up his eyes being in torments and these shall go away into everlasting punishment and the Righteous into life Eternal In these words we have described the different Estate of the Wicked and the Righteous Math. 25. 46. after Judgment They shall go away into everlasting punishment but these into life eternal After the sentence is past the Wicked go into everlasting punishment and the Righteous into life eternal Everlasting punishment the end thereof is not known its duration is undetermind Hell is a bottomless pit and therefore shall never be fathomed It is an unquenchable fire and therefore the smoak of their torments doth ascend for ever and Rev. 14. 11. ever Hell is a Prison from whence is no freedom because there is no Ransom to be paid no price will be accepted for one in that Estate And as there is no end of the punishments of Hell into which the wicked must enter so there is no end of the joys of Heaven into which the Saints must enter In thy presence is fulness of joy and at thy right Psal 16. 11. hand there are pleasures for evermore Here is as much said as can be said for quality there is in Heaven joy and pleasures for quantity a fulness a torrent for constancy it is at Gods right hand and for perpetuity it is for evermore The joys of Heaven are without measure mixture or end Thus you see that there are two distinct ends two distinct places to which the wicked and the righteous go And indeed if this were not so then Nero would be as good a man as Paul and Esau as happy a man as Jacob and Cain as blessed a man as Abel Then as Believers say If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of 1 Cor. 15 19. all men most miserable Because none out of Hell ever suffered more if so much as the Saints have done So might the wicked say If in this life only we were miserable Job 21. we were then of all men most happy But 8thly and lastly You know that all the Princes of the World for their greater Grandure and State as they have their Royal Palaces for themselves their Nobles and Attendants so they have their Goals Prisons and dark Dungeons for Rogues and Robbers for Malefactors and Traytors And shall not He who is the King of Kings Rev. 19. 16. Rev. 1 5. Dan. 2. 21. and Lord of Lords He who is the Prince of the Kings of the Earth He who removeth Kings and setteth up Kings shall not He have his Royal Palace a glorious Heaven where He and all his Noble Attendants Angels and Saints shall live for ever Shall not the great King have his Royal and Magnificent Court in that upper World as poor petty Princes have theirs in this lower Ephe. 2. 3. John 14. 1 2 3 4. Luk. 12. 32. Neh. 9. 6 1 King 8. 27. Heb 8. 1. Rev. 3. 21. world Surely he shall as you may see by comparing the Scriptures in the Margent together And shall not the same great King have his Hell his Prison his Dungeon to secure and punish impenitent Sinners in surely yes and doubtless the least glimpse of this Hell of this place of torment would strike the proudest and the stoutest Sinners dead with horror O Sirs they that have seen the flames and heard the roarings of Aetna the flushing of Vosuvius the thundering and burning flakes evaporating from those Marine Rocks have not yet seen no not so much as the very glimmering of Hell A painted fire is a better shadow of these than these can be of Hell-torments and the miseries of the Damned therein Now these 8 Arguments are sufficient to demonstrate that there is a Hell a place of torment to which the wicked shall be sent at last Now certainly Socinians Atheists and all others that are men of corrupt minds and that believe that there is no Hell but what they carry about with them in their own Consciences these are worse than those poor Indians that hold that there are thirteen Hells According Purchass his Pilgrimage 5 Vel. p 491. to the differing demerits of mens sins yea they are worse than Devils for they believe and tremble Jam. 2. 19. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This Greek word signifies to Roar as the Sea from thence saith Eustatius it is translated to the hideous clashing of Armour in the battel The original word seemeth to imply an extream fear which causeth not only tremblings but also a roaring shriking out Maâ—k 6. 49. Act. 16. 29. Their hearts ake and quake within them they quiver and shake as men do when their teeth chatter in their heads in extream cold weather The Devils acknowledg four Articles of our Faith Math.
giver or the taker the inconstancy and slipperiness of it is discernable in the instances last cited It hath raised some but hath ruined more and those commonly whom it hath most raised it hath most ruined Sir if there be any thing glorious in the world 't is a mind that divinely contemns that glory and such a mind I judge and hope God hath given you I have hinted a little at the vanity of worldly glory because happily this Treatise passing up and down the world may fall into the hands of such as may be troubled with that Itch and if so who can tell but that that little that I have said may prove a soveraign salve to cure that Egyptian Botch and if so I have my end Sir Let nothing lye so near your heart in all the world as these eight things 1. Your sins to humble you and abase you at the foot of God 2. Free and rich and soveraign grace to soften and mâ—lt you down Col. 1. 10 11 12 13. Phil. 4. 12 13 14. â—al 2. 20. 1 Cor. 15. 10. 2 Cor. 12. 10. Psal 119. 105. Amos 6. 3 4 5 6. â—â—â— 1. 1 2 3 4 5. into the will of God 3. The Lord Jesus Christ to assist help strengthen and influence you to all the duties and services that are incumbent upon you 4. The blessed Scriptues to guide you and lead you and o be a lamp unto you feet and a light unto your paths 5. The afflictions of Joseph to draw out your charity mercy pity sympathy and campassion to men in misery 6. The glory and happiness of another world to arm you and steel you against all the sins snares and temptations that your high places offices and circumstances may lye you open to 7. The grand points in this Treatise which being laid upon your heart by the warm hand of the spirit are able to make you wise unto salvation and to secure your precious and immortal soul against those pernicious and most dangerous may I not say damnable errours and opinions 2 Pet. 2. 1. that are preached printed and cryed up in the vain world 8. The interest of Christ and his people which will be your honour whilst you live your joy and comfort when you come to die and your Crown of 1 Thess 1. 19. 20. rejoycing in the great day of our Lord. Sir I shall not so far disgust you as to tell the world how many several score pounds of your money hath passed through my hands towards the relief refreshment support and preservation of such who for their piety and extreme poverty and necessity were proper objects of your charity but shall take this opportunity to tell you and all others into whose hands this Treatise may fall that of all the duties of Religion there are none 1. More commanded than this of charity pity compassion Prov. 3. 9 10. Eccles 11. 1 2. Gal. 6. 10. 2 Cor. 8. 3 4 5. cap. 9. 1 2. Isa 58. 7. to the 13. ponder upon it Mat. 25. 34 to vers 41. and mercy to men in misery especially to those of the houshold of faith 2. There is no one duty more highly commended and extolled than this 3. There is no one duty that hath more choice and precious promises annexed to it than this 4. There is no one duty that hath greater rewards attending it than this Evagrius a rich man being importuned by Sinesius a Bishop to give something to charitable uses he yielded at last to give three hundred pounds but first took bond of the Bishop that it should be repayed him in another world according to the promise of our Saviour Mat. 19. 29. with a hundred-fold advantage Before he had been one day dead he is said to have appeared to the Bishop delivering in the bond cancelled as thereby acknowledging that what was promised was made good It is certain that one days being in heaven will make a sufficient recompence for whatsoever a man has given on earth Neither shall I acquaint the world with those particular favours and respects which you have shewed to my self but treasure them up in an awakened breast and be your remembrancer at the throne of grace Only I must let the world know that I owe you more than an Epistle and if you please to accept of this mite in part of payment and improve it for your souls advantage you will put a farther obligation upon me to study how I may farther serve the interest of your immortal soul Let the lustre of your prudence wisdom charity fidelity generosity and humility of spirit shine gloriously through all your places offices abilities riches employments and enjoyments for this is the height of all true excellency and that it may be so remember for ever that the eyes of God of Christ of Angels of Jer. 16. 17. Job 34 21. Prov. 5. 21. Jer. 32. 19. Heb. 4. 13. 'T is a saying of the School-men quic quid est in deo est in deo est ipse deus Devils of Sinners of Saints of Good of Bad are always fixed upon you God is all ear to hear all hand to punish all power to protect all wisdom to direct all goodness to relieve all grace to pardon and he is Totus Oculus all eye to observe the thoughts hearts words ways and walkings of the children of men As the eyes of a well drawn picture are fastned on us which way soever we turn so are the eyes of the Lord. Zeno a wise Heathen affirmeth that God behold even the very thoughts of men Athenodorus another Heathen saith that all men ought to be careful of the actions of their life because God was every where and behold all that was done Of all men on earth Magistrates and Ministers had need pray with David Teach us thy â—sal 27. 1. way O Lord and lead us in a plain path because of our enemies or nearer the Hebrew because of our observers in all the Ages of the world there have been Sauls and Doegs who have looked upon God's Davids with an evil Jer 20. 10. eye and watched for their halting there are multitudes that will be still eyeing and prying into the practices offices carriages and conversations of Magistrates and Ministers the more it concerns them to watch pray act and walk like so many earthly Angels in the midst of a crooked perverse and froward Generation Phil. 2. 15. Wise and prudent Governours are an unspeakable mercy to a Kingdom or Commonwealth which Jethro well understood when he gave Moses that good counsel To make choice out of the people of grave and able men such as feared God men of trath hating covetousness Exâ—d 18. 21 22. 〈◊〉 tirum in â—â—a is a maximas true as old and to make them rulers over thousands and rulers over hundreds over fifties and over tens But in the Nations round how rare is it to find Magistrates qualified suitable to Jethro's counsel Alphonsus
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
third branch to this distinction and maketh it more plain by saying That all things that were made are either visible or invisible or mixt visible as the Stars and Fouls and Clouds of Heaven the Fish in the Sea and Beasts upon the Earth Invisible things as the Angels they also were made Then there is a third sort of creatures which are of a mixt nature partly visible in regard of their bodies and partly invisible in regard of their souls and those are Men Eph. 2. 9. who created all things by Jesus Christ Heb. 1. 2. He hath in these last days spoken to us by his son whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom also he made the worlds This may seem somewhat difficult because he speaketh of worlds whereas we acknowledg but one but this seeming difficulty you may easily get over if you please but to consider the persons to whom he writes which were Hebrews whose custom it was to stile God Rabboni Dominus mundorum the Lord of the worlds They were wont to speak of three worlds The lower world the higher world and the middle world The lower world containeth the Elements Earth and Water and Air and Fire The higher world that containeth the Heaven of the blessed And the middle world that containeth the starry Heaven They now being acquainted with this language and the Apostle writing to them he saith that God by Christ made the worlds those worlds which they were wont to speak so frequently of And whereas one scruple might arise from that expression in the Ephesians God created all things By Jesus Christ and this to the Hebrews By whom he made the worlds As if Christ were only an instrument in the Creation and not the principal efficient Therefore another place in this chapter will clear it which speaketh of Christ as the principal Efficient of all things Heb. 1. compare the 8th and 10th verses together To the son he saith thy throne O God is for ever and ever then Christ is God then And thou Lord vers 10. hast laid the foundation of the earth and the heavens are the works of thy hands Namely thine that is the Son which he spake of before Christ is the principal Efficient of the Creation and in this sence it is said by him were all things made not as by an instrument but as by the chief Efficient 6. The preservation and sustentation of all things Colos 1. 17. by him all things consist They would soon fall asunder had not Christ undertaken to uphold the shattered condition thereof by the word of his power All creatures that are made are preserved by him in being life and motion Heb. 1. 3. He upholdeth all things by the word of his power Both in respect of being excellencies and operations sin had hurled confusion over the world which would have fallen about Adam's ears had not Christ undertaken the shattered condition thereof to uphold it He keeps the world together saith one as the hoops do the barrel Christ bears up all things continuing to the several creatures their being ordering and governing them and this he doth by the word of his power by this word he made the world He spake and it was done And by this word he governeth the world by his own mighty word the word of his power both these are divine actions and being ascribed unto Christ evidence him to be no less than God Now from what has been said we may thus argue He to whom those actions are ascribed which are proper to the most high God he is the most high God but such actions or works are ascribed to Christ ergo he is the most high God But Sixthly Christ's eternal Deity may be demonstrated from that divine honour and worship that is due to him and by Angels and Saints given unto him The Apostle sheweth Gal. 4. 8. That religious worship ought to be performed to none but to him that is God by nature and that they are ignorant of the true God who religiously worship them that are no Gods by nature and therefore This is a clear full evidence that Jesus Christ is and must be more than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mere mâ—n or yet a divine man as Doctor Lusâ—ing â—n stiles him in Heb. 7. 22. vers if Christ were not God by nature and consubstantial with the father we ought not to perform religious worship to him Divine worship is due to the second person of this coessential Trinity to Jesus Christ our Lord and God There is but one immediate formal proper adequate and fundamental reason of divine worship or adorability as the schools speak and that is the soveraign supreme singular majesty independent and infinite excellency of the eternal Godhead for by divine worship we do acknowledge and declare the infinite majesty truth wisdom goodness and glory of our blessed God we do not esteem any thing worthy of divine honour and worship which hath but a finite and created glory because divine honour is proper and peculiar to the only true God who will not give his glory to any other who is not God God alone is the adequate object of divine faith hope love and worship because these graces are all exercised and this worship performed in acknowledgment of his infinite perfection and independent excellency and therefore no such worship can be due to any creature or thing below God There is not one kind of divine honour due to the father and another to the son nor one degree of honour due to the father and another to the son for there can be no degrees imaginable in one and the same excellency which is single because infinite and what is infinite doth excel and transcend all degrees and bounds And if there be no degrees in the ground and adequate reason of divine worship there can be no reason or ground of a difference of degrees in the worship it self The father and the son are one one in power excellency nature Jâ—hn 10. 30. one God and therefore to be honoured with the same worship That all men should honour the son even as John 5. 23. they honour the father every tongue must confess that Jesus Christ who is man is God also and therefore equal Pâ—il 2. 6 11 12. to his father and it can be no robbery no derogation to the father's honour for us to give equal honour to him and his coequal son who subsists in the form of God in the nature of God Thus you see the divine nature the infinite excellency of Jesus Christ is an undeniable ground of this coequal honour and therefore the worship due to Christ as God the same God with his father is the very same worship both for kind and degree which is due to the father But for the further and clearer opening of this consider First that all inward worship is due to Christ as 1. Believing on him Faith is a worship which belongs only to God
to divine Justice had not Christ been God-man he could never have been an able surety he could never have paid our Heb. 7. 25. debts he could never have satisfied divine Justice he could never have brought in an everlasting righteousness Dan. 9. 24. he could never have spoiled Principalities and Powers Câ—lâ—s 2. 15. and made a shew of them openly triumphing over them on the Cross a plain allusion to the Roman Triumphs where the Victor ascending up to the Capitol in a Charriot of state all the prisoners following him on foot with their hands bound behind them and the Victor commonly threw certain pieces of Coyn abroad to be pick'd up by the common people So Christ in the day of his solemn inauguration into his heavenly Kingdom triumphed over Sin Death Devils and Hell and gave gifts to men and had he not been God-man he could never have merited for us a glorious Reward If we consider Christ himself as a mere man setting aside his Godhead Eph. 4. 8â— he could not merit by his sufferings for 1. Christ as he was man only was a creature now a mere creature can merit nothing from the Creator 2. Christ's sufferings as he was man only were finite and therefore could not merit infinite glory indeed as he was God his sufferings were meritorious but consider him purely as man they were not This is wisely to be observed against the Papists who make so great a noise of men's merits for if Christ's sufferings as he was mere man could not merit the least favour from God then what mortal man is able to merit at the hand of God the least of mercies by his greatest sufferings But Seventhly Is Jesus Christ God-man is he very God and very man then from hence we may see the greatest pattern of humility and self-denyal that ever was or will be in this world that he who was the Lord of glory that he who was equal with God that he should Phil. 2. 6. John 1. 18. leave the bosom of his father which was a bosom of the sweetest loves and the most ineffable delights that he should put off all that glory that he had with the father John 17. 5. before the foundation of the world was laid that he should so far abase himself as to become man by taking on him our base vile nature that so in this our nature he Heb. 2. 10. might dye suffer satisfie and bring many sons to glory Oh here is the greatest humility and abasement that ever was and oh that all sincere Christians would endeavour to imitate this matchless example of humility and self denial Oh the admirable condescentions of dear Jesus that he should take our nature and make us partakers 2 Pet. 1. 4. of his divine nature that he should put on our rags and put upon us his Royal Robes that he should Rev. 19. 7 8. 2 Cor. 8. 9. make himself poor that we might be rich low that we might be high accursed that we might be blessed Gal. 3. 10 13. Oh wonderful Love oh Grace unsearchable ah Christians did Christ stoop low and will your be stout proud and high was he content to be accounted a worm a wine-bibber an enemy to Caesar a friend of Publicans and sinners a Devil and must you be all in a flame when vain men make little account of you was he willing to be a curse a reproach for you and will you shrug and shrink and faint and fret when you are reproached for his name did Jesus Christ stoop so low as John 13. 14. to wash his Disciples feet and are you so stout and sturdy that you cannot hear together nor pray together nor sit at the table of the Lord together though you all hope at last to sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in Mat. 8. 11. v. the Kingdom of Heaven shall one Heaven hold you at last and shall not one House one Bed one Table one Church hold you here Oh that ever worms should swell with such intolerable pride and stoutness he who was God-man was lowly meek self-denying and of a most condescending spirit and oh that all you who hope for salvation by him would labour to write after so fair a copy Bernard calls humility a self-annihilation The same Author saith that humility is conservatrix virtutum Thou wilt save the humble saith Job in the Hebrew Job 22. 20. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is him that is of low eyes an humble Christian hath lower thoughts of himself than others can have of him Abraham is dust and ashes in his own eyes Jacob is Gen. 18. Gen. 32. 10. less than the least of all mercies David though a great King yet looks upon himself as a worm I am a worm Psal 22. 6. and no man The word in the Original Tolugnath signifieth a very little worm which breedeth in Scarlet a worm that is so little that a man can hardly see it or perceive it Oh how little how very little was David in his own eyes and Paul who was the greatest among the Apostles yet in his own eyes he was less than the Eph. 3. 8. See my unsearchabletiches of Christ upon that Text. least of all Saints Non sum dignus dici minimus saith Ignatius I am not worthy to be called the least Lord I am Hell but thou art Heaven said blessed Cooper I am a most hypocritical wretch not worthy that the earth should bear me said holy Bradford Luther in humility speaks thus of himself I have no other name than sinner sinner is my name sinner is my surname this is the name by which I shall be always known I have sinned I do sin I shall sin in infinitum Ah how can proud stout spirits read these instances and not blush certainly the sincere humble Christian is like the Violet which grows low hangs the head down and hides it self with its own leaves and were it not that the frequent smell of his many virtues discovers him to the world he would chuse to live and die in his self-contenting secrecy But Eighthly Is Jesus Christ Godman is he very God and very man then hence we may see how to have access to God namely by means of Christ's humane nature which he hath taken upon him to that very end that he might in it die and suffer for our sins and so reconcile Rom. 5. 1 2. Eph. 3. 12. us to God and give us access to him Eph. 2. 18. By him we have access to the father The word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a leading by the hand an introduction an adduction it is an allusion saith Estius to the customs of Princes Eph. 1. to whom there is no passage unless we are brought in by one of their Favourites Though the Persian Kings held it a piece of their silly glory to hold off their best friends who might not come near them but upon special
King of Spain coming very young to the Crown some advised that seven Counsellors might be joyned to govern with him who should be men fearing God lovers lovers of Justice free from filthy lusts and such as would not take bribes To which Alphonsus replyed if you can find seven such men nay bring me but one so qualified and I will not only admit him to govern with me but shall willingly resign the Kingdom it self to him Wicked policies are ever destructive to their Authors as you may see in Pharaoh Exâ—d 1. 10 22. 2 Sam. 16. cap. 23. 23. Est 7. 10. in Achitophel in Haman c. As long as the Roman Civil Magistrates Senators and Commanders of Armies were chosen into places of honour and trust for their noble descent their prudence and valour their State did flourish and did enlarge its Dominions See Livim Deâ—â—â—â— more in one Century of years than it did in three after these places of honour came to be venal and purchased by concession For then men of no parts were for money promoted to highest dignities whereupon civil contentions were fomented factions encreased and continual bloody intestine Wars maintained by which the ancient Liberties of that State were suppressed and the last Government of it changed into an Imperial Monarchy As long as the chief officers of the Crown of France and the places of Judicature of the Realm were given by Charles the fifth surnamed the wise to men of Learning of Wisdom and Valour in recompence of their Loyalty virtue and merits that Kingdom did flourish with peace honour and prosperity and the Courts of Parliaments See the History of France of France had the honour for their Justice and equity to be the Arbitrators and Umpires of all the differences that happened in those days between the greatest Princes of Christendom But when these places of honour and trust were made venal in the reigns of Francis the second Charles the ninth and Henry the third and sold for ready money to such as gave most for them then was Justice and Equity banished and that flourishing Kingdom reduced to the brim of ruine and desolation by variety of factions and a bloody Civil War The wicked Counsel given by the Cardinal De Lorraign and the Duke of Guise his brother to Charles the ninth King of See the Massaâ—â— of Parâ—â— â—n the Inâ—eâ—tory of France France to allure all the Protestants to Paris under colour of the Marriage of Henry de Bourbon with Margaret de Valois the King's sister to have them all as in a trap for to cut their throats in their beds as they did for the greatest part proved fatal to the King to the Cardinal and the Duke For the King by the just judgment of God died shortly after by an Issue of blood which came out of his mouth ears and nostrils and could never be stopped and the Cardinal and the Duke were both slain by the Commandment of Henry the third in the Castle of Blois The barbarous policy of Philip the second See the 〈…〉 King of Spain to banish two or three hundred thousand Mores with their wives and children under colour of Religion on purpose to confiscate all their Land and to appropriate the same to his demesns was fatal to him and to all the Spanish Nation for by the just judgment of God he was eaten up of lice and the Spanish Nation never thrived since c. Were it not for exceeding the bounds of an Epistle I might shew in all the Ages of the world how destructive the wicked policies of Rulers and Governours have been to themselves and the States and Nations under them c. But from such policies God has and I hope will for ever deliver your soul Sir the best policy in the world is to know God savingly to serve him sincerely to do the work of your Generation throughly and to secure your future happiness and blessedness effectually c. Sir I do not offer you that which cost me nothing or little God best knows the pains the prayers and the Mal 1. 13 14. sâ—â—dy that the midwifing of this Treatise into the world hath cost me in the midst of tryals troubles temptations afflictions and my frequent labours in the Ministry The truths that I offer for your serious consideration in this Treatise are not such as I have formerly preached in Commonly men preach those points first that afterwards they print but not knowing how long the door of liberty may be open I have sent this Treatise into the world Eph. 5. 15 16. â—ol sâ— 4. 5. Eccl â— 9. 10. one place or another at one time or another but such as at several times the Lord has brought to hand and I hope in order to the service and saving of many many souls And should you redeem time from your many and weighty occasions and live to read it as often over as there be leaves in it I am apt to think you would never repent of your pains when you come to die and make up your account with God Sir I must and shall say because I love and honour you and would have you happy to Eternity that it is your greatest wisdom and should be your greatest care to redeem time from your worldly business to acquaint your self more and more with the great and main points of Religion to serve your God to be useful in your day and to make sure and safe work for your soul to escape hell and to get heaven Sir Thomas More one of the great wits of that day would commonly say there is a Devil called negotium business that carries more souls to hell than all the devils in hell beside Many men have so many Irons in the fire and â—uk 10. 40 41 42. When one preâ—ented Antipater King of Macedo â—ia wich a book treating of happiness his answer was on Scholazo I am not at leasure The Duke of Alva had so much to do on earth that he had â—o time to look up to heaven are cumbred about so many things that upon the matter they wholly neglect the one thing necessary though I hope better things of you The stars which have the least circuit are nearest the pole and men that are least perplexed with a croud of worldly business are commonly nearest to God Sir as you love God as you love your soul as you love Eternity as you would be found at Christ's right hand at last and as you would meet me with joy in the great day of the Lord make much conscience of redeeming time daily from your secular affairs to be with God in your closet in your family to read the Scriptures to study the Scriptures and such men's writings that are sound in the faith and that treat of the great things of the Gospel 'T is dangerous crying cras cras to morrow to morrow Mannah must be gathered in the morning the orient Pearl is generated
comfortably conclude that his â—aith is a true justâ—fying saving faith the faith of Gods Eâ—acâ— and such a faith as clearly evidences a gracious Estate and will certainly bring the Soul to Heaven Now in Answer to this important Question we may suppose the poor Believer is ready to experess himself thus First Upon search and sad experience I find my self a poor lost miserable and undone Creature as the Scriptures every where do evidence Ephe. 2. 1 2 5 12. Colos 2. 13. Rom. 8. 7 Luk. 19. 10. Secondly I am convinced that it is not in my self to deliver my self out of this lost miserable and forlorne Estate could I make as many Prayers as might be piled up between Heaven and Earth and weep as much blood as there is water in the Sea yet all this could not procure the pardon of one sin nor one smile from God c. Thirdly I am convinced that it is not in Angels or men to deliver me out of my lost miserable and undone condition I know provoked Justice must be satisfied Divine wrath pacified my sins pardoned my heart renewed my state changed c. or my soul can never be saved and I know it is not in Angels or Men to do any of these things for me Fourthly I find that I stand in absolute need of a Saviour to save me from wrath to come 1 Thes 1. 10. to save me from the curse of the Law Gal. 3. 10. 13. and to save me from infernal slames Isa 33. 14. so that I may well cry out with those in Act. 2. 37. Men and Brethren what shall we do And with the Jaylour Act. 16. 36. Sirs what shall I do to be saved Fifthly I see and know through grace that there is an utter impossibility of obtaining salvation by any thing or by any person but by Christ alone according to that of the Apostle Act. 4. 12. Neither is there Salvation in any other for there is no other name that is no oother person under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved I know there is no Saviour that can deliver me from eternal death and bring me to eternal life and glory but that Jesus of whom it is said that he shall save his People from their sins Luk. 1. 21. and therefore I must conclude that there is an utter impossibility of obtaining Salvation by any other person or things c. But Sixthly I see and know through grace that Jesus Christ is an All-sufficient Saviour that he is a mighty yea an Almighty Saviour a Saviour that is able to save to the utmost all them that come to him as the Scripture speaks Psal 89. 19. I have laid help upon one that is mighty Isa 63. 1. I that speak in Righteousness mighty to save Heb. 7. 25. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them I know that the Lord Jesus is mighty to save me from that Wrath and from that Curse and from that Hell and from that Damnation that is due to me by reason of my sins And that he is mighty to justifie me and mighty to pardon me and mighty to reconcile me to God the Father and mighty to bring me to glory as the Scripture do's every where testifie But Seventhly I know through grace that Jesus Christ is the only person anointed appointed fitted and furnished by the Father for that great and blessed work or office of saving Sinners souls as these Scriptures amongst others do clearly testifie Isa 61. 1 2 3 4. Luk. 4. 17. 18 19 20 21. Math. 1. 20 21. John 6. 27. Certainly were Jesus Christ never so able and mighty to save yet if he were not anointed appointed fitted and furnished by the Father for that great office of saving poor loâ—t Sinners I know no reason why I should expect Salvation by him But Eighthly I know through grace that the Lord Jesus Christ hath sufficiently satisfied as Mediatour the justice of God and pacified his wrath and fulfilled all Righteousness and procured the favour of God and the pardon of sin c. for all them that close with him that accept of him as he is offered in the Gospel of grace Gal 3. 19 20. 1 Tim. 2. 5. Heb. 8. 6. Heb. 9. 14 15. chap. 12. 24. Heb. 10. 12 14. Math. 3. 15. Rom. 8. 1 2 3 4. 33 34. chap. 5. 8 9 10. Act. 13. 39. Ninethly I find that Jesus Christ is freely offered in the Gospel to poor lost undone Sinners such as I am I find that the Ministers of the Gospel are commanded by Christ to proclaim in his Name a general pardon and to make a general offer of him to all to whom they Preach the everlasting Gospel without excluding any Mark 16. 15. And he said unto them Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel unto every Creature and what is it to preach the Gospel unto every Creature but to say unto them as the Angels did to the Shepherds Luk. 2. 10 11. I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people for unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord c. Tenthly I know through grace that all sorts of Sinners are invited to come to Christ to receive Christ to accept of Christ and to close with Christ Isa 55. 1 2. Math. 11. 28 29. Joh. 7. 37. Rev. 3. 20. and chap. 22. 17. c. But Eleventhly Through grace I do in my understanding really assent to that blessed record and report that God the Father in the blessed Scriptures has given concerning Christ 1 Joh. 5. 10 11 12. The report that God the Father has made concerning the Person of Christ and concerning the Offices of Christ and concerning the work of Redemption by Christ I do really and cordially assent unto as most true and certain upon the Authority of Gods Testimony who is truth it self and cannot lye Now though this assent alone is not enough to make a saving reception of Christ yet it is in saving faith and that without which it is impossible there should be any saving faith But 12thly I can say through grace that in my judgjudgment I do approve of the Lord Jesus Christ not only as a good but as the greatest good as a universal good as a matchless good as an incomparable good as an infinit good as an eternal good and as the most sutable good in Heaven and Earth to my poor soul as these Scriptures do evidence Psal 73. 25 26. Cant. 5. 10. 45. Psal 1 2. Phil. 3. 7 8 9 10. 1 Tim. 1. 15. I know there is every thing in Christ that may suit the state case necessities and wants of my poor soul there is mercy in him to pardon me and power in him to save me and wisdom in him to counsel me and grace in him to enrich me and
when Angels Devils Men shall stand before the Lord Jesus whom God the Father hath ordained to be the Judge of Quick and Dead Act. 17. 31. Now to this great Question I Answer that the sins of the Saints the infirmities and enormities of Believers shall never be brought into the Judgment of discussion and discovery they shall never be objected against them either in their particular day of Judgment or in the great day of their Account Now this truth I shall make good by an induction of particulars thus First Our Lord Jesus Christ in His judicial proceedings in the last day which is set down clearly and largely in Math. 25. 34. to ver 42. doth only enumerate the good works they have done but takes not the least notice of the spots and blemishes of the infirmities or enormities Deut. 32. 4 5 6. Dan. 9. 24. of the weaknesses or wickednesses of his people God has sealed up the sins of his people never to be remembred or lookt upon more In the great day the book of Gods Remembrance shall be opened and publickly read that all the good things that the Saints have done for God for Christ for Saints for their own Souls for Sinners and that all the great things that they have suffered for Christ's sake and the Gospels sake may be mentioned to their everlasting praise to their eternal honour And though the choicest and chiefest Saints on Rom 7. 23 24. Gal. 5. 17. Earth have 1. Sin dwelling in them 2. Operating and working in them 3. Vexing and molesting of them being as so many Goads in their sides and Thorns in their eyes 4. Captivating and prevailing over them yet in that large Recital which shall then be read of the Saints lives Math. 25. There is not the least mention made either of sins of Omission or Commission nor the least mention made either of great sins or of small sins nor the least mention made either of sins before Conversion or after Conversion Here in this world the best of Saints have had their buts their spots their blots their specks as the fairest day hath its Clouds the finest Linnen its spots and the richest Jewels their specks but now in the judicial process of this last and universal Assizes there is not found in all the Books that shall then be opened so much as one unsavory but to blemish the Rev. 20. 12. Dan. 7. 10. Num. 23. 21. fair Characters of the Saints Surely he that sees no Iniquity in Jacob nor perverseness in Israel to impute it to them whilst they live he will never charge Iniquity or perverseness upon them in the great day Surely he who has fully satisfied his Fathers Justice for his peoples sins and who hath by his own Blood ballanced and made Isa 53. up all Reckonings and Accounts between God and their souls he will never charge upon them their faults and follies in the great day Surely he who hath spoken so much for his Saints whilst he was on Earth and who hath continually interceded for them since he went to John 17. Heb. 7. 25. Heaven he won't though he hath cause to blame them for many things speak any thing against them in the great day Surely Jesus Christ the Saints Pay-master Heb. 10. 10 12 14. Matth. 18. 24. Col. 2 14. who hath discharged their whole debt at once who hath paid down upon the nayl the ten thousand Talents which we owed and took in the Bond and nailed it to the Cross leaving no back-reckonings unpaid to bring his poor Children which are the travail of his soul afterward Isa 53. 11. into any danger from the hands of Divine Justice he will never mention the sins of his people he will never charge the sins of his people upon them in the great day Our dear Lord Jesus who is the Righteous Judg of Heaven and Earth in the great day of account He will bring in Omnia bene in his presentment all fair and well and accordingly will make Proclamation in that High-Court of Justice before God Angels Devils Saints and Sinners c. Christ will not charge his Children with the least unkindness he will not charge his Spouse with the least unfaithfulness in the great day yea he will represent them before God Angels and Men as compleat in him as all fair and spotless as without spot or wrinkle as without fault before the Throne of God as holy and Col. 2. 10. Cant. 4. 7. Ephe. 5. â—7 Rev. 14 5. unblameable and unreproveable in his sight as immaculate as the Angels themselves who kept their first Estate This honour shall have all the Saints and thus shall Christ be glorified in his Saints and admired in all 1 Thâ—s 2. 10 them that believe The greatest part of the Saints by far will have past their particular judgment long before Heb 9. 27. the general judgment and being therein acquitted and discharged from all their sins by God the Judge of the quick and dead and admitted into Heaven upon the credit 2 Tim. 4. 1. of Christs Blood Righteous satisfaction and their free and full justification It cannot be imagined that Jesus Christ in the great day will bring in any new charge against his Children when they have been cleared and absolved already Certainly when once the Saints are freely and fully Absolved from all their sins by a Divine Sentence then their sins shall never be remembred they shall never be objected against them any more For one Divine Sentence cannot cross and rescind another the Judge of all the world had long since cast all their sins behind his back and will he now set them before his face Isa 38. 17. and before the faces of all the world surely no he has long since cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea bottomless depths of everlasting Oblivion that they might Micah 7. 19. never be buoyed up any more He has not only forgiven their sins but he has also forgotten their sins And Jer. 31. 34. will he remember them and declare them in the great day surely no God has long since blotted out the transgressions Isa 43. 25. of his people This Metaphor is taken from Creditors who when they purpose never to exact a Debt will blot it out of their Books Now after that a Debt is strucken out of a Bill Bond or Book it cannot be exacted the Evidence cannot be pleaded Christ Col. 2. 14. having crost the debt-Book with the red lines of his Blood If now he should call the sins of his people to remembrance and charge them upon them he should cross the great design of his cross Upon this foundation stands the absolute impossibility that any sin that the least sin yea that the least circumstance of sin or the least aggravation of sin should be so much as mentioned by the Righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth in the process of that
which are covered from our eyes as dead carcasses are buried under the ground some from Garments that are put upon us to cover our nakedness others from the Egyptians that were drowned in the red Sea and so covered with water others from a great Gulf in the earth that is filled up and covered with earth injected into it and others make it in the last place an allusive expression to the mercy-seat over which was a covering Now all these Metaphors in the general tend to shew this that the Lord will not look he will not see he will not take notice of the sins he hath pardoned to call them any more to a judicial account As when a Prince reads over many Treasons and Rebellions and meets with such and such which he hath pardoned he reads on he passeth by he taketh no notice of them the pardoned person shall never hear more of them he will never call him to account for those sins more So here c. When Caesar was painted he puts his finger upon his scar his wart God puts his fingers upon all his peoples scars and warts upon all their weaknesses and infirmities that nothing can be seen but what is fair and lovely Thou art all fair my Love and there is no spot in thee Cant. 4. 7. Sixthly It best agrees to that expression of not imputing of sin Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not Iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile So Psal 32 2. the Apostle in that Rom. 4. 6 7 8. Now not to impute Iniquity is not to charge Iniquity not to set Iniquity upon his score who is blessed and pardoned c. Seventhly and lastly It best agrees with that expression that you have in the 113. Psalm and the 11 and 12. Verses For as the Heaven is high above the Earth so great is his mercy towards them that fear him as far as the East is from the West so far hath he removed our Transgressions from us What a vast distance is there betwixt the East and West of all visible latitudes this is the greatest and thus much for the third Argument The Fourth Argument that prevails with me to judge that Jesus Christ will not bring the sins of the Saints into the judgement of discussion and discovery in the great day is because it seems unsuitable to three considerable things for Jesus Christ to proclaim the infirmities and miscarriages of his people to all the world First It seems to be unsuitable to the glory and solemnity of that day which to the Saints will be a day of refreshing a day of Restitution a day of Redemption a day of Coronation as hath been already proved now how suitable to this great day of solemnity the Proclamation of the Saints sins will be I leave the Reader to judge Secondly It seems unsuitable to all those near and dear relations that Jesus Christ stands in towards his Isa 9. 6◠Heb 2. 11 12. Eph◠1. 21 22. Rev. 19. 7. Joh. 15. 1. Joh. 2. 1 2. he stands in the Relation of a Father a Brother a Head a Husband a Friend an Advocate Now are not all these by the Law of Relation bound rather to hide and keep secret at least from the world the weaknesses and infirmities of their near and dear Relations and is not Christ is not Christ much more By how much he is more a Father a Brother a Head a Husband c. in a spiritual way than any others can be in a natural way c. Thirdly It seems very unsuitable to what the Lord Jesus requires of his in this world the Lord requires that his people should cast a Mantle of Love of Wisdom of Silence and Secresie over one anothers weaknesses and infirmities c. Hatred stirreth up strifes but Love covereth all sins Loves mantle is very large Love will find a hand a plaister to clap upon every sore Flavius Vespacianus Prov. 10 12. 1 Pet 4 8 the Emperour was very ready to conncal his friends Vices and as ready to reveal their Vertues So is Divine love in the hearts of the Saints If thy Brother offend thee go and tell him his fault between him and thee alone If he shall hear thee thou hast gained thy Brother As the Pills of Reprehension are to be gilded and sugar'd over Mat. 18. 15. with much gentleness and softness so they are to be given in secret tell him between him and thee alone Tale-bearers and Tale-hearers are alike abominable Heaven is too hot and too holy a place for them Psal 15. 3. Now will Jesus Christ have us carry it thus towards offending Christians and will he himself act otherwise Nay is it an evil in us to lay open the weaknesses and infirmities of the Saints to the World and will it be an excellency a glory a vertue in Christ to do it in the great day c. A fisth Argument is this It is the glory of a man to pass over a Transgression The discretion of a man deferreth his anger and it is his glory to pass over a transgression Prov. 19. 11. or to pass by it as we do by persons or things we know not or would take no notice of Now is it the glory of a man to pass over a transgression and will it not much more be the glory of Christ silently to pass over Non 〈◊〉 quen-◠quam nisi offendam said a Heathen the transgressions of his people in that great day The greater the Treasons and Rebellions are that a Prince passes over and takes no notice of the more is his Honour and Glory and so doubtless it will be Christs in that great day to pass over all the Treasons and Rebellions of his people to take no notice of them to forget them as well as to forgive them The Heathens have long since observed that in nothing man came nearer to the Glory and Perfection of God himself than in Goodness and Clemency Surely if it be such an honour to man to pass over a Transgression it cannot be a dishonour to Christ to pass over the Transgressions of his people he having already buried them in the Sea of his blood Again saith Solomon It is the glory of God to conceal a thing And why it should not make Prov 25. 2. for the Glory of Divine Love to conceal the sins of the Saints in that great Day I know not And whether the concealing the sins of the Saints in the great day will not make most for their joy and wicked mens sorrows for their comfort and wicked mens terrour and torment I will leave you to judge and time and experience to decide and thus much for the resolution of that great question Now from what has been said in answer to this third Question a sincere Christian may form up this first plea as Eccles 11 9. cap. 12. 14. Math. 12. 14. cap. 18. 23. Luk. 16 3. Rom 1◠10. 2
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
therefore we read the Text thus He struck Jesus with the palm of his hand that is with open hand or with his hand stretched out Some of the Ancients commenting on this cuff say Let the Heavens be afraid and let the Earth tremble at Christs Crysostâ—m Hom. 81. in John c. 18. patience and this Servants impudence O ye Angels how were ye silent how could you contain your hands when you saw his hand striking at God If we consider him Aug. in Trall 13. saith another who took the blow was not he that struck him worthy to be consumed of fire or to be swallowed up of Earth or to be given up to Satan and thrown down into Hell Bernard saith that his hand that struck Christ was Ber. ser de pas vinc Serm. de pas Ludo de vita Christi armed with an iron glove And Vincentius affirms That by the blow Christ was felled to the Earth And Ludovicus adds that blood gushed out of his mouth and that the impression of the Varlets fingers remained on Christs cheek with a tumour and wan colour If a Subject should but lift up his hand against his Soveraign would he not be severely punished but should he strike him would it not be present death O what desperate madness and wickedness was it then to strike the King of Kings and Lord of Lords whom not only men but the Cherubims and Siraphims Rev. 17. 16. and all the Celestial powers above adore and worship Heb. 1. 6. Those Monsters in that Math. 26. 67. did not only strike Christ with the palm of their hands but they buffeted him also Now some of the Learned observe this difference betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one is given with the open hand the other with the fist shut up and thus they used him at this time they struck him with their fists and so the stroke was greater and more offensive for by this means they made his face to swell and to become full of bunches all over One gives it in thus by these blows of their fists his whole head was swollen his face became black and blew and his teeth ready to fall out of his jaws Very probable it is that with the violence of their stroaks they made him reel and stagger they made his mouth and nose and face to bleed and his eyes to startle in his head Now concerning Christs sufferings on the Cross I shall only hint at a few things and so close up this particular concerning Christs corporeal sufferings take me thus First The death of Christ on the Cross It was a bitter death a sorrowful death a bloody death the bitter thoughts of his sufferings put him into a most dreadful agony Luk. 22. 24. Being in an agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as great drops of blood falling to the ground The Greek word that is here used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a striving or wrestling against as two combatants or wrestlers do strive each against other The things which our Saviour strove against was not only the terrour of death as other men are wont to do for then many Christians and Martyrs might have seemed more constant and couragious than he but with the terrible justice of God pouring out his high anger and indignation upon him on the account of all the sins of his chosen that Isa 53 4 5 6. were laid upon him then which nothing could be more dreadful Christ was in a vehement conflict in his soul through the deepest sense of his Fathers wrath against sinners for whom he now stood as a Surety and Redeemer 2 Cor. 5. 21. And for a close of this particular let me say that Gods justice which we have provoked being fully satisfied by the inestimable merit of Christs passion is the surest and highest ground of consolation that we have in this world but for the more full opinion of this blessed Scripture let us take notice of these following particulars First His sweat was as it were blood Some of the Antients looks upon these words only as a similitude or figurative hyberbole it being a usual kind of speech to call a vehement sweat a bloody sweat as he that weeps bitterly is said to weep tears of blood but the most and best of the Antients understand the words in a literal sense and believe it was truly and properly a bloody sweat and with them I close But some will object and say it was sicut guttae sanguinis as it were drops of blood Now to this I answer First If the Holy-Ghost had only intended that sicut for a similitude or hyperbole he would rather have exprest it as it were drops of nature than as it were drops of blood for we all know that sweat is more like to water than to blood But Secondly I answer that sicut as in Scripture-phrase doth not always denote a similitude but somtimes the very thing it self according to the verity of it Take an instance or two instead of many We beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father and their words seemed to them as it were idle tales and they believed them not the words in the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the same Certainly Christs sweat in the Garden was a wonderful sweat not a sweat of water but of red gore-blood But Secondly He sweat great drops of blood clotty blood issuing through flesh and skin in great abundance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clottered or congealed blood There is a thin faint sweat and there is a thick clotted sweat in this sweat of Christ blood came not from him in small dews but in great drops they were drops and great drops of blood crassy and thick drops Some read it droppings down of blood that is blood distilling in greater and grosser drops and hence it is concluded as preternatural for though much may be said for sweating blood in a course of Nature according to what Aristotle affirms Arist 〈◊〉 3. de hist Animal c. 29 August h. 14. de civit dei c 24. and Austin saith that he knew a man that could sweat blood even when he pleased it is granted on all hands that in faint bodies a subtile thin blood like sweat may pass through the pores of the skin but that through the same pores crassy thick great drops of blood should issue out it was not it could not be without a miracle Certainly the drops of blood that fell from Christs body were great very great yea so great as if they had started through his skin to out-run the streams and rivers of his Cross But Thirdly These great drops of blood did not only di 〈…〉 llare drop out but decurrere run down like a stream so fast as if they had issued out of most deadly wounds They were great drops of blood falling down to the ground Here is
Wife that were taken Prisoners by Cyrus was asked among other things what Ransom he would give for his Wife he answered He would Redeem her liberty with his own life but having prevailed as they returned together every one commended Cyrus for a goodly man and Tygranes would needs know of his Wife What she thought of him Truly said she I cannot tell for I did not so much as look on him or see him whom then said he wondring did you look upon Whom should I look upon replyed she but him that would have Redeemed my liberty with his own life So every Believer should esteem nothing 1 Cor. 6. 20. Act. 20. 28. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. Plutarch in vita Tit. Flam worth a looking on but that Jesus who hath Redeemed him with his own blood Plutarch tells us That when Titus Flaminius had freed the poor Graecians from the bondage with which they had been long ground by their oppressions and the Herald was to proclaim in their Audience the Articles of peace he had concluded for them they so pressed upon him not being half of them able to hear that he was in great danger to have lost his life in the press at last reading them a second time when they came to understand distinctly how that their case stood they so shooted for joy crying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Saviour a Saviour that they made the very Heavens ring again with their acclamations and the very Birds fall down astonisht And all that night the poor Graecians with Instruments of Musick and Songs of praise danced and sang about his Tent extolling him as a God that had delivered them But O then what infinite cause have we to exalt and cry up our dear Lord Jesus who by the Hellish sorrows that he suffered for us hath freed us from that more dreadful bondage of sin Satan and wrath that we lay under O! prize that Jesus O! exalt that Christ O! extol that Saviour who has saved you from that eternal wrath that all the Angels in Heaven and all the men on Earth could never have saved you from The name of Jesus saith one hath a thousand Chrysostom Dulce namen Christi Treasures of joy and comfort in it and is therefore used by Paul five hundred times as some have observed The name of a Saviour saith another is Hony in the Mouth and Musick in the Ears and a Jubile in the Heart Were Bernard Christ in your bosom as a flower of delight for he is a whole Paradise of delight saith one I had rather saith Justin Martyr Lâ—ther another be in Hell with Christ than in Heaven without him for Christ is the Crown of Crowns the glory of glorys and the Heaven of Heaven One saith That he Austin would willingly go thorow Hell to Christ Another saith He Bernard had rather be in his Chimny corner with Christ than in Heaven without him One cryed out I had rather have one Christ than a thousand worlds Jesus in the China tongue signifies the rising Sun and such a rising Sun was he to Julius Palmer that when all concluded that he was dead Mal. 4 2. being turned as black as a coal in the fire at last he moved his scorched lips and was heard to say Sweet Jesus It was an excellent answer of one of the Martyrs when he was offered riches and honours if he would recant Do but said he offer me somwhat that is better than my Lord Jesus Christ and you shall see what I will say to you Now O! that the Hellish sorrows and sufferings of Christ for us might raise in all our hearts such a high estemation and such a deep admiration as hath been raised in those worthies last mentioned It was a sweet prayer of him who thus prayed Lord make thy Son dear very dear exceeding dear and only dear and precious to me When ever we seriously think of the great and sore sufferings of 2. All the Hell Socinians grant is Annihilation by reason it is said they shall be destroyed vide Socinus Racoucat Crellius Bidle Richardson c. Christ it will be good to pray as he prayed But Secondly If Jesus Christ did feel and suffer the very torments of Hell though not after a Hellish manner then let me infer that certainly there is a Hell a place of torment provided and prepared for all wicked and ungodly persons Danaeus reckons up no less than nineteen several sorts of Hereticks that denyed it and are there not many erronious and deluded persons that stoutly and daily assert that there is no Hell but what men feel in their own Consciences Ah how many are there that rejoyce Jer. 11. 15. Prov. 2. 14. Isa 65. 3. 2 Thes 2. 11. Math. 25. 41. Isa 30. 33. to do evil and delight in their abominations and take pleasure in unrighteousness But could men do thus durst men do thus did they really believe that Hell was prepared and fitted for them and that the fiery Lake was but a little before them Heaven is a place where all is joyful and Hell is a place where all is doleful in Heaven there is nothing but happiness and in Hell there is nothing but heaviness nothing but endless easeless and remediless torments Did men believe this how could they go so merrily on in the way to Hell Cato once said to Caesar credo quae deniferis dicuntur falsa esse existimas I believe that thou thinkest all that is said of Hell to be false and fabulous So I may say to many in this day Surely you think that all that is spoken and written of Hell is but a story Don't you look upon the people of God to be of all men the most miserable and your selves of all men the most happy Yes O! but how can this be did you really believe that there was a Heaven for the Righteous and a Hell for the Wicked 'T is an Italian Proverb Qui venetias non vidit non credit c. He who hath not seen Venice will not believe and he who hath not lived some time there doth not understand what a City it is this in a sense is true of Hell But now for the Qâ—d sit that there is a Hell that there is such a place of misery prepared and appointed for the wicked I shall briefly demonstrate against the high Atheists and Socinians of this day and therefore thus First God Created Angels and Men after his own Image Man must be so much honoured as to be made like God and no Creature must be so much honoured as to be made like man The pattern after which man was made is somtimes called Image alonâ— So God Created Gen. 1. 27. man in his own Image in the Image of God Created he him Somtimes likeness alone In the day that God created man in the holiness of God made he him sometimes Gen. 5. 1. both Let us make man in our Image
he created the world Austin told him he was making Hell for such busie Questionists for such cuious inquirers into Gods secrets such handsome jerks are the best answers to men Deut. 29. 29. of curious minds But Thirdly I answer I concerns us but little to know whether Hell be in the Air or in the concave of the 3. Let us not be inquisitive where Hell is but rather let our care be to escape it saith Chrysostem earth or of what longitude latitude or profundity it is Let Hell be where it hath pleased God in his secret counsel to place it to men unknown whether in the North or in the South under the frozen Zone or under the burning Zone or in a pit or a gulf Our great care should be to avoid it to escape i and not to be curiously inquisitive about that place which the Lord in his infinite wisdom hath not thought fit clearly to reveil or make known to the sons of men In Hell there 's nothing heard but yells and cryes In Hell the Fire never slacks nor Worm never dies A Pentelâ—gia dolor inserm But where is this Hell plac'd my Muse stop there Lord shew me what it is but never where To worm and fire to torments there Prudentius the Poet. No term he gave they cannot wear Look as there are many that please themselves with discourses of the degrees of Glory whilest others make sure their interest in Glory So many please themselves with discourses of the degrees of the torments of Hell As in Heaven one is more glorious than another so in Hell one shall be more miserable than another Augustin whilest others make sure their escaping those torments and look as many take pleasure to be discoursing about the place where Hell is so some take pleasure to make sure their escaping of that place and certainly they are the best and wisest of men who spend most thoughts and time and pains how to keep out of it than to exercise themselves with disputes about it But Fourthly I answer That it has been the common opinion of the Fathers that Hell is in the bowels of the Infernum est locus subterraneus Teriu lib. 3. de Anim. earth yea Christ and the blessed Scriptures which are the highest authority do strongly seem to favour this opinion by speaking of a Descent unto Hell in opposition unto Heaven and therefore we may as well doubt whether Heaven be above us as doubt of Hell being beneath us Among other Scriptures ponder upon these Psal 140. 10. Let them be cast into the deep pits that they rise not up again Bring them down into the pit of destruction Prov. 9. 18. Her Guests are in the depths of Hell Prov. 15. 24. The way of life is above to the wise that he may depart from Hell beneath Sheol is sometimes taken for a pit sometimes for the Grave and sometimes and that significantly too for Hell all downwards One saith that Sheol generally signifies all Mercerus upon Gen. 37. places under the earth whence some conclude that Hell is in the heart of the earth or under the earth without doubt it is below because it is every where opposed to Heaven wich is above it is therefore called Abyssus a deep pit a vast gulf such a pit as by reason of the depth thereof may be said to have no bottom The Devils entreated Christ that he would not send them to this place Luke 8. 31. in Abyssum which is saith one Immensae profunditatis vorago quasi absque fundo Beza upon Mat. A Gulf of unmeasurable depth c. The Apostle 2 Pet. 2. 4. speaking of the Angels that sinned saith God cast them down into Hell So Beza in his Annotations telleth us the Greeks called that place which was ordained for the prison and torment of the damned And reason it self doth teach us that it must needs be opposite and contrary to that place in which the spirits of just men Heb. 12. 23. made perfect do reside which on all hands is granted to be above and Hell therefore must needs be below in the center of the earth say some which is from the Superficies three thousand five hundred miles as some judge Hesiod saith Hell is as far under the earth as Heaven is above it Some have been of opinion that the pit spoken of ino which Corah Dathan and Abiram went Num. 16. 3â— down alive when the earth clave asunder and swallowed them up was the pit of Hell into which both their souls and bodies were immediately conveyed As we know little in respect of the height of Heaven so we know as little in respect of the lowness of Hell Some of the upper part of the earth is to us yet terra incognita an unknown land but all of the lowest part of Hell is to us an unknown land Many thousands have travelled thither but none have returned thence to make reports or write Books of their travels That piece of Geography is very imperfect Heaven and Hell are the greatest opposites or remotest extremes Thou Capernaum which art exalted unto Heaven shalt be Matth. 11. 23. brought down to Hell Heaven and Hell are at furthest natural distance and are therefoe the everlasting receptacles of those who are at the furthest moral distance Believers and Unbelievers Saints and Impenitents And 't is observable that as the heighthe of Heaven so the depth of Hell is ascribed to wisdom to shew the unsearchableness of it O the depth as well as O the Rom. 11. 33. heighth of the wisdom of God! how unsearchable are his judgments and his wayes past finding out Certainly Gods depths and Sathans depths and Hells depths lie far out 1 Cor. 2. 10. Rev. 2. 24. of our view and are hard to be found out though I ought religiously to reverence the wonderful wisdom of God and to wonder at his unsearchable judgments yet I ought not curiously and prophanely to search beyond the compass of that which God hath reveiled to us in his word The Romans had a certain Lake the depth whereof they knew not this Lake they dedicated to Victory doubtless Hell is such a Lake the depth whereof no man knows 't is such a bottomless pit that no mortal can sound But Fifthly and Lastly I answer Some of the Learned are 5. 2 Pet. 3. 10. 11. 12. 13. of opinion that Hell is without this visible world which will pass away at the last day and removed at the greatest distance from the sedes Beaâ—orum the place where the righteous shall for ever inhabit Matth. 8. 12. In tenebras ex tenebris intelicitâ—r exâ—â—usi infâ—l â—ius exclu â—endi Augusâ—m But the children of the Kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness Matth. 22. 13. Then said the King to his servants bind him hand and foot and take him away and cast him into outer darkness Matth. 25. 30. And cast
thus argue He who was in Heaven before he was on the earth and who was also in Heaven whilest he was on the earth is certainly the eternal God but all this doth Jesus Christ strongly assert concerning himself as is evident in the Scriptures last cited therefore he is the eternal God blessed for ever But Thirdly Christs eternal Deity Coequality and Consubstantiality with the Father may be demonstrated from his Divine Names and Titles As First Jehovah is one of the incommunicable names of God which signifies his eternal essence The Jews observe that in Gods name Jehovah the Exod. 15. 3. Gen. 2. 4. The Jews call it Nomen Dei inessabile But this name Jehovah is not unspeakable in regard of the name but in regard of the essence of God set forth by it as Zanchy noteth This name was always thrice repeated when the Priest blessed the people Num. 6. 24 25 26. Trinity is implied Je signifies the Present tense Ho the praeterperfect tense Vah the future The Jews also observe that in his name Jehovah all the Hebrew letters are literae quiescentes that denote rest implying that in God and from God is all our rest Every gracious soul is like Noah's Dove he can find no rest nor satisfaction but in God God alone is the godly mans Ark of rest and safety Jehovah is the incommunicable name of God and is never attributed to any but God Psal 83. 19. Thou whose name alone is JEHOVAH Jehovah is a name so full of Divine mysteries that the Jews hold it unlawful to pronounce it Jehovah signifies three things 1. That God is an eternal independent being of himself 2. That he gives being to all creatures Acts 17. 28. 3. That he doth and will give being to his promises God tells Moses Exod. 6. 3. That he appeared unto Abraham unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the name of El Gen. 22. 14. Abraham called the name of the place Jehovahlireh the Lord will see or provide Besides the Fathers of old are said not to have known God by his name Jehovah in comparison of that which their posterity knew afterwards for to them God made himself more clearly and plenarily known Shaddai God Almighty but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them The name Jehovah was known to Abraham Isaac and Jacob but not mysterium nominis the mystery of the name This was reveiled to Moses from God and from Moses to the people It is meant of the performances of his great promises made to Abraham God did promise to give the land of Canaan to Abraham's Seed for an inheritance which promise was not performed to him but to his seed after him so that this is the meaning God appeared to Abraham Isaac and Jacob El Shaddai God Almighty in protecting delivering and rewarding of them but by his name Jehovah he was not known to them God did perform his promise made to Abraham Isaac and Jacob but unto their seed and posterity after them This name Jehovah is the proper and peculiar name of the one only true God a name as far significant of his nature and being as possibly we are enabled to understand so that this is taken for granted on all hands that he whose name is Jehovah is the only true God when ever that name is used properly without a Trope or figure it is used of God only Now this glorious name Jehovah that is so full of mysteries is frequently ascribed to Christ Isa 6. 1. He is called Jehovah for there Isaiah is said to see Jehovah sitting upon a Throne c. And John 12. 41. This is expresly by the holy Evangelist applyed to Christ of whom he saith That Isaiah saw his glory and spake of him Exod. 17. 1. The people are said to tempt Jehovah and the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 10. 9. Let us not tempt Christ as some of them also tempted and were destroyed of Serpents It is said of Jehovah Of old hast thou laid the Psal 102. 25. 26. foundation of the earth and the Heavens are the works of thy hands they shall perish but thou shalt endure c. And the Apostle clearly testifies Heb. 1. 10. That these words are spoken of Christ So Jehovah rained fire and brimstone from Jehovah out of Heaven Gen. 19. 24. That is Jehovah the Son of God that stayed with Abraham Gen. 18. rained fire and brimstone from Jehovah the Father and Christ is called Jehovah Tsidkenu the Lord our righteousness and in that Zach. 13. 7. Christ is called the Fathers fellow The Lord Christ is that Jehovah to whom every knee must bow as appears by comparing Isa 45. 21 22 23 24 25. with Romans 14. 9 10 11 12. and Phil. 2. 6 9 10 11. I might further insist upon this argument and shew that the title of Lord so often given to Christ in the New Testament doth answer to the Title of Jehovah in the Old Testament And as some learned men conceive the Apostles did purposely use the Title of Lord that they might not offend the Jews with frequent pronouncing of the word Jehovah Thou shalt fear Jehovah thy God Deut. 6. 13. Deut. 10. 20. is rendred by the Apostle Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God And so Deut. 6. 5. Thou shalt love Jehovah thy God is rendred Matth. 22. 37. Thou shalt love the Lord thy God Thus you see that in several precious Scriptures Jesus Christ is called Jehovah and therefore we may very safely and confidently conclude that Jesus Christ is very God God blessed for ever But The second Name or Title which denotes the essence 2 The Hebrew Ehieh asher Ehieh properly signifies I will be that I will be The Septuagint renders it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am he that is and in that Rev. 16. 5. God is called he that is and that was and that will be of God is Ehieh I am that I am or I will be what I I will be Exod. 3. 14. It hath the same root with Jehovah and signifies that God is an eternal unchangeable being some make this name to be Gods extraordinary name Damascene saith this name containeth all things in it like a vast and infinite Ocean without bounds This Glorious name of God I AM THAT I AM implyes these six things 1. Gods incomprehensibleness as we use to say of any thing we would not have others prye into it is what it is so God saith here to Moses I AM WHAT I AM. 2. It implies Gods Immensity that his being is without any limits Angels and men have their beings but then they are bounded and limited within such a compass but God is an immense being that cannot be included within any bounds 3. It implyes that God is of himself and hath not a being dependent upon any other I am that is by and from and of my self 4. It implyes Gods eternal and unchangeable being in himself It implyes God's everlastingness I am before any thing was
let it slip out but Scripture addeth this hint too where it speaketh of the bosom as the place of secrets Prov. 17. 23. A wicked man taketh a gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of iudgment speaking of a bribe Prov. 21. 14. A gift in secret pacifieth Anger and a reward in the bosom expiateth wrath Here is secret and bosom all one as gift and reward are one So Christ lyeth in the fathers bosom this intimateth his being conscious to all the father's secrets But Thirdly as the Attribute of God's omniscience is asscribed to Christ so the Attribute of God's omnipresence is ascribed to Christ Mat. 18. 20. where two or three are gathered together in my name there am I in the midst of them and chap. 28. ult I am with you alway even to the end of the world he is not contained in any place who was before there Prov. 8. 22. Jâ—h 1. 1. 3. was any place and did create all places by his own power whilst Christ was on earth in respect of his bodily presence he was in the bosom of his father which must be understood Jâ—â— 1. 18. 2. â—oh 3. 13. 2. Psal 139. 7 8 9 10 11. of his divine nature and person he did come down from heaven and yet remained in heaven Christ is universally present he is present at all times and all places and among all persons he is repletively every where inclusively no where Diana's Temple was burnt down when she was busie at Alexander's birth and could not be at two places together but Christ is present both in paradise and in the wilderness at the same time ubi non Greg. in Ezâ— â—â— m. 8. Aug. m diâ— c. 29. where two are sitting together and conferting about the Law there is Shâ—inah the diâ—ine Majesty among them Grâ—tiâ—â— on Mat. 18. 20. est per gratiam adest per vindictam where he is not by his gracious influence there he is by his vindictive power Empedocles could say that God is a circle whose center is every where whose circumference is no where the poor blind heathens could say thar God is the soul of the world and thus as the soul is tota in toto tota in qualibet parte so is he that his â—ye is in every corner c. To which purpose they so portraied their Goddess Minerva that which way soever one cast his eye she always beheld him But Fourthly as the attribute of God's omnipresence is ascribed to Christ so the Attribute of God's omnipotency is ascribed to Christ and this speaks out the God head of See Colâ—s 1. 16 17. Psal 102. 26. compared with Heb. 1. 8. 10. Joh. 1. 10. Christ All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth Mat 28. 18. John 5. 19. What things soever the father doth these also doth the son Phil. 3. 21. he is called by a metonymy the power of God 1 Cor. 1. 24. He is the almighty Rev. 1. 8. He made all things Joh. 1. 3. He upholds all things Heb. 1. 3. He shall change our vile body saith the Apostle that it may be like unto his glorious body according to the mighty working whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself Phil. 3. ult Now from what has been said we may thus argue He to whom the incommunicable properties of the most high God are attributed he is the most high God but the incommunicable properties of the most high God are attributed to Christ ergo Christ is the most high God But Fifthly Christ's eternal deity coequality and consubstantiality with the father may be demonstrated from his divine works The same works which are peculiar to God are ascribed to Christ such proper and peculiar such divine and supernatural works as none but God can perform Christ did perform As 1. Election the Elect are called his Elect Mat. 24. 31. Joh. 13. 18. I know whom I have chosen Joh. 15. 16. I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain vers 19. But I have chosen you out of the world therefore the world hateth you 2. Redemption 1 Thes 1. ult Gal. 3. 13. Rom. 6. 14. cap. 8. 1. Luk. 1. 68-80 O Sirs none but the great God could save us from wrath to come none but God blessed for ever could deliver us from the curse of the Law the dominion of sin the damnatory power of sin the rule of Satan and the flames of hell ah friends these enemies were too potent strong and mighty for any mere creature yea for all mere creatures to conquer and overcome none but the most high God could everlastingly secure us against such high enemies 3. Remission of sins Mat. 9. 6. The son of man hath power to forgive sins Christ here positively proves that he had power on earth to forgive sins because miraculously by a word of his mouth he causes the Palsey-man to walk so that he arose and departed to his house immediately Christ he forgives sin authoritatively Preachers forgive only declaratively as Nathan to David the Lord hath put away thine iniquity I 2 Sam. 12. 7. John 20. 23. have read of a man that could remove mountains but none but the man Christ Jesus could ever remit sin All the persons in the Trinity forgive sins yet not in the same manner The Father bestows forgivness the Son merits forgivness and the Holy Ghost seals up forgivness and applies forgivness 4. The bestowing of eternal life Joh. 10. 28. My sheep hear my voice and I give unto them eternal life Christ is the Prince and principle of life and Colos 3. 3 4 2. therefore all out of him are dead whilst they live eternal life is too great a gift for any to give but a God 5. Creation Joh. 1. 3. All things were made by him and vers 10. The world was made by him Colos 1. 16. By him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in the earth visible and invisible Now the Apostle telleth Just Mart. quoteth two Greek verses out of Pyâ—hagoras to prove there is but one God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. saith Pythagoras If any will assume to himself and say I am God except only one let him lay such a world as this is to stake and say this world is mine then I will believe him not otherwise Heb. 1. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not propter quem as Gretius would evade the Text For whom he made the worlds but peâ— quem by whom so the Apostle to put it out of all doubt putteth them together Câ—los 1. 16. All thiâ—gs were creaâ—ed by him and for him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 you He that huâ—â—t all things is God Christ built all things ergo Christ is God The Argument lyeth fair and undeniable The all things that were created by Christ Paul reduceth to two heads visible and invisible but Zanchius addeth a
enjoyned in the first Commandement and against trusting in man is there a curse denounced But Christ Jer. 17. 5. v. commands us to believe in him John 14 1. Ye believe in John 1. 12. God believe also in me John 3. 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life vers 36. He that believeth in the son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him John 6. 47. Verily verily I say unto you he that believeth on me hath everlasting life The same respect that Christians give unto God the father they must also give unto the son believing on him which is an honour due only to God other creatures men and Angels may be believed but not believed on rested on this were to make them Gods this were no less than Idolatry Secondly loving of Jesus Christ with all the heart commanded above the love nay even to the hatred of father mother wife children yea and our own lives Luk 14. 26. He who is not disposed where these loves are incompatible to hate father and all other relations for the love of Christ can be none of his I ought dearly and tenderly to love father and mother the Law of God and nature requiring it of me but to prefer dear Jesus Phil. 3. 7 8. Master Brad. Acts and Mon. Fol. 1492. who is God blessed for ever before all and above all as Paul and the primitive Christians and Martyrs have done before me your house home and goods your life and all that ever you have saith that Martyr God hath given you as love tokens to admonish you of his love to win your love to him again Now will he try your love whether you set more by him or by his tokens c. when Relations or life stand in competition with Christ and his Gospel they are to be abandoned hated c. But Secondly all outward worship is due to Christ as First Dedication in Baptism is in his name Mat. 28. 19. Baptizing them in the name of the father and of the son and of the holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into the name by that right initiating them and receiving of them into the profession of the service of one God in three persons and of depending on Christ alone for salvation Baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost is the consecrating of them unto the sincere service of the sacred Trinity Secondly Divine invocation is given to Jesus Christ 2. Ponderâ— upon these Scriptures 2 Cor. 12. 8. 9. 1 Thes 1. 1. 2 Thâ—s 1. 1 2. 2 Cor. 1. 2. Acts 7. 59. Stephen calls upon the Lord Jesus to receive his spirit 1 Cor. 1. 2. All that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord 1 Thes 3. 11. God himself and our father and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you Ephe. 1. 2. Grace be to you and peace from God our father and from our Lord Jesus Christ It is the Saints Character that they are such as call on the Lord Jesus Acts 2. 21. Acts 9. 14. But Thirdly Praises are offered to our Lord Jesus Christ Rev. 5. 9. And they sung a new song saying Thou arâ— worthy to take the book and to open the seals thereof for thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation vers 11. And I beheld and I heard the voice of many angels This is taken out of Daniel cap. 7. 10. whereby the glory and power of God and Christ is held forth they being attended with innumerable millions of Angels which stood before the fiery throne of God c. round about the throne and the beasts and the elders and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands of thousands vers 12. saying with a loud voice worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honour and glory and blessing Vers 13. And every creature which is in heaven and on the earth and under the earth and such as are in the sea and all that are in them heard I saying blessing and honour and glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever here you have a Catholick confession of Christ's divine nature and power All the creatures both reasonable and unreasonable do in some sort set forth the praises of Christ because in some sort they serve to illustrate and set forth his glory Here you see that Christ is adored with religious worship by all creatures which doth evidently prove that he is God since all the creatures worship him with religious worship we may safely and boldly conclude upon his Deity Here are three parties that bear a part in this new song 1. The redeemed of the Lord and they sing in the last part of the 8. verse and in the 9. and 10. verses Then 2. The Angels follow verse 11. and 12. in the third place all creatures are brought in joyning in this new song verse 13. That noble company of the Church Triumphant and Church Militant sounding out the Praises of the Lamb may sufficiently satisfie us concerning the divinity of the Lamb. But Fourthly Divine adoration is also given to him Mat. 4. Mark 1. 40. Luke 5. 12. So that he touched Christ his feet as the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies not kneeled as the word is translated Mark 1. 40. This Leper came to know Christ was God 1. by inspiration 2. by the miracles which Christ did 8. 2. A Leper worshipped him Mark saith he kneeled down and Luke saith he fell upon his face He shewed reverence in his gesture Lord if thou wilt thou canst make me clean He acknowledged a divine power in Christ in that he saith he could make him clean if he would This poor Leper lay at Christ's feet imploring and beseeching him as a dog at his master's feet as Zanch de Red. renders the word which shews that this Leper look'd upon Christ as more than a Prophet or a holy man and that believing he was God and so able to heal him if he would he gave him religious worship he doth not say to Christ Lord if thou wilt pray to God or to thy father for me I shall be whole but Lord if thou wilt I shall be whole He acknowledges the Leprosie curable by Christ which he and all men knew was incurable by others which was a plain argument of his faith for though the Psora or scabbedness may be cured yet that which is called Lepra Physicians acknowledg incurable for if a particular Cancer cannot be cured much less can an universal Cancer as Avicen observes Mat. 2. 11. Though the wise men
of the Mediator because of his fulness we all receive grace for grace and herein sheweth the unity of Essence in the holy Trinity and community of Power Wisdom Sanctity Truth Eternity Glory Majesty such is the strict union of the persons of the blessed Trinity that there is among them a perfect communion in all things for all things that the father hath are mine And let thus much suffice for the proof of the Godhead of Christ Concerning the Manhood of Christ let me say that as he is very God so he is very man 1 Tim. 2. 5. The man Christ Jesus Christ is true man but not mere man verus sed non merus The word is not to be taken exclusively as denying the Divine Nature Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both God and man sometimes denominated from the one nature and sometimes from the other sometimes called God and sometimes man yet so as he is truly both and in that respect fitly said to be a Mediator betwixt God and men having an interest in and participating of both natures This Title THE SON OF MAN is given to Christ in the New Testament four score and eight times The design being not only to express a man according to the Syrian Dialect then used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Bar Nosho nor only to express Christ's Humanity who was truly man in all things like unto us sin only excepted nor only to intimate his humility by calling himself so often by this humble name but also to tell us to what a high honour God hath raised our nature in him and to confute their Imaginations who denied him to be very Man Flesh Blood and Bones as we truly are and who held that whatever he was and whatever he did and whatever he suffered was only seeming and in appearance and not real and to lead us to that original promise the first that was made to Mankind The seed of the woman shall bruise Gen. 3. 15. the serpent's head that so he might intimate saith Epiphanius that himself was the party meant intended and foretold of by all the Prophets who was to come into the world to all nations in the world Jews and Gentiles originally a like descended of the woman who both had a like interest in the woman and her seed though the Rom. 3. 1 2. Jews did and might challenge greater propriety in the seed of Abraham than the Gentiles could but they having been a long time as it were God's Favourites a selected People a chosen Nation did wholly appropriate Exod. 19 6. 1 Pet. 2. 9. the Messias to themselves and would endure no co-partners nor that any should have any right title or interest in him but themselves and therefore they would never talk otherwise than of the Messias the King of Israel the son of David never naming him once the light of the Isa 42. 6. Isai 3. 6. Isai 63. 5. Gen. 3. 15. Luk. 3. 23. to the end Gentiles the expectation of the Gentiles the hope and desire of the eternal hills the hope of all the ends of the earth the seed of the woman the son of man as descending from Eve extracted from Adam and allied unto all Mankind And it is observable that the Evangelist Luke at the story of Christ's Baptism when he was to be installed into his Ministry and had that glorious testimony from Heaven deriveth his Pedigree up to the first Adam the better to draw all men's eyes to that first promise concerning the seed of the woman and to cause them to own him for that seed there promised and for that effect that is there mentioned of dissolving the works of Satan And as that Evangelist giveth that hint when he is now entring this quarrel with Satan even in the entrance of his Ministry so doth he very frequently and commonly by this very Phrase give the same intimation for the same purpose no sooner had Nathaniel proclaimed him the son of God John 1. 49. Nathaniel answered and said unto him Rabbi thou art the son of God thou art the king of Israel but he instantly titles himself THE SON OF MAN vers 51. not only to shew his humanity for that Nathaniel was assured of by the words of Philip who calls him Jesus of Nazareth the son of Joseph vers 45. but also to draw the thoughts of the hearers to the first promise and to work them to look for a full recovery of all that by the second Adam which was lost in the first Though the gates of Heaven were shut against the first Adam by reason of his fall yet were they open to the second Adam vers 51. And he saith unto him verily verily I say unto you This double Asseveration verily verily puts the matter beyond all doubt and controversie hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the son of man the Jacob's He alludes to Jacob's Ladder Gen 28. 12. v. Ladder the Bridg that joyneth Heaven and Earth together as Gregory hath it This 51. vers doth greatly illustrate Christ's glory and farther confirm believers saith that Christ is Lord of Angels even in his state of humiliation and hath them ready at his call as he or his people shall need their service to move from earth to heaven and from heaven to earth This Title THE SON OF MAN shews that the Son of God was also the son of man and that he delighted to be so and therefore doth so often take this Title to himself THE SON OF MAN Now concerning the Manhood of Christ the Prophet plainly speaks Isa 9. 6. Vnto us a child is born and unto us a son was given Parvulus a child that noteth his humanity Filius a son that noteth his Deity parvulus a child even man of the substance of his mother born in the Mat. 1. 25. world filius a son even God of the substance of his father begotten before the world Parvulus a child behold Prov. 8. 22. to the end Luk. 2. 7. his humility she brought forth her first born Son and wrapped him in swadling-cloaths and laid him in a manger Filius a son behold his dignity when he bringeth in his first begotten son into the world he saith and let all the Angels of God worship him to prove that he was Heb. 1. 6. v. man 't is enough to say that he was born he lived he died God became man by a wonderful unspeakable and unconceivable union Behold God is offended by man's affecting and coveting his wisdom and his glory for that was the Devil's temptation to our first parents ye shall Gen. 3. 5. be as Gods and man is redeemed by God's assuming and taking his frailty and his infirmity man would be as God and so offended him and therefore God becomes man and so redeemeth him Christ as man came of Acts 17. 31. Isa 7. 14. the race of Kings As man he shall judg the world
that were wrought by Christ and to that sight that they had of his glory in the Mount Mâ—t. 17. Aâ—â—s 1. and to his Resurrection and visible ascension into the highest heaven he alludes to the familiar conversation which the Apostles had with Christ for about three years and also to that touching when after the Resurrection Christ offered himself to the Apostles that believed not in him to touch him The truth of these things were confirmed Luk. 24. to them by three senses hearing seeing handling the latter still surer than the former and this proves Christ to be true man as his being from the beginning sets out his Deity Christ had also those natural affections passions infirmities which are proper to a body as hunger Mat. 4. 2. When he had fasted forty days and forty nights he was afterwards an hungerd All Christ's Actions are for our instruction not all for our imitation Matthew expresly makes mention of nights lest it should be thought to be such a fast as that of the Jews who fasted in the day and did eat at the evening and in the Chemnit night He would not extend his fast above the term of Moses and Elias lest he should have seemed to have appeared only and not to have been a true man he was hungry not because his fasting wrought upon him but Hilar. because God leâ—t man to his own nature It seems Christ felt no hunger till the forty days and forty nights were expired but was kept by the power of the Deity as the three children or rather Champions from feeling the heat of Dan. 3. 27. the fire Christ fasted forty days and forty nights and not longer lest he might be thought not to have a true humane body for Moses and Elias had fasted thus long before but never did any man fast longer When Christ began to be hungry the tempter came to him not when he was fasting the Devil is cunning and will take all the advantage he can upon us during the forty days and forty nights the Devil stood doubtful and durst not assault the Lord Jesus partly because of that voice he heard from heaven This is my beloved son in whom I am well Mat. 3. 17. pleased and partly because his forty days and forty nights fast did portend some great thing but now seeing Christ to be hungry he impudently assaults him Christ was not hungry all the forty days but after he was hungry to shew he was man Some think that Christ by his hunger did objectively allure Satan to tempt him that so he might overcome him as souldiers sometimes feign a running away that they may the better allure their enemies closely to pursue them that so they may cut them off either by an Ambush or by an orderly facing about so the Devil tempted Christ as man not knowing him to be God or if he did know him to be God Christ did as it were encourage his cowardly enemy that durst not set upon him as God shewing himself to be man And as Christ was hungry so Christ was thirsty John 4. 7. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water Jesus saith unto her give me to drink here you see that he that is rich 2 Cor. S. 9. Psal 104. 27. v. and Lord of all became poor for us that he might make us rich and he that gives to all the creatures their meat in due season he begs water of a poor Tankerd-bearer to refresh himself in his weariness and thirst John 19. 28. Jesus saith I thirst bleeding breeds thirsting sleeping Mat. 8. 24. he was asleep to shew the truth of the humane nature and the weakness of his Disciples faith Christ was in a fast and dead sleep for so much the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies his senses were well and fast bound as if he had no operation of life and therefore the Disciples are said to raise him as it were from the dead The same Greek word is used in many places where mention is made of the Resurrection as you may see by comparing John 2. 19. Mat 27. 52. 1 Cor. 15. 12. the Scriptures in the margent together He was asleep 1. By reason of his labour in preaching and journey he slept 2. To shew forth the truth of his humane nature some think the Devil stirred up the storm hoping thereby to drown Christ and his Disciples as he had destroyed Job 1. 18 19. Job's children in a Tempest before but though Satan had malice and will enough to do it yet he had not power yea though Christ slept in his humane nature yet was he awake in his Deity that the Disciples being in danger might cry unto him more fervently and be saved more remarkably And as Jesus slept so he was also weary John 4. 6. Now Jacob's well was there Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey sat thus on the well and it was about the sixth hour about noon in the heat of the day Christ was weary Christ took on him not only our nature but the common infirmities thereof and he is to be as seriously eyed in his humanity as in the glory of his Godhead therefore it is recorded that he was weary with his journey ere half the day was spent and that through weariness he sat thus on the well that is even as the seat offered or as weary men use to sit c. But in a word he was conceived retained so long in the Virgins womb born circumcised lived about thirty years on earth conversed all that time with men suffered died and was crucified buried rose again ascended and sat down with his body at the right hand of God and with it will come again to judg the world Now what do all these things speak out but that Christ hath a true body and who in their wits will assert that all this could be done in and upon and by an imaginary body But Secondly The several denominations that are given to Jesus Christ in Scripture do clearly evidence the verity and reality of his humane nature he is called 1. The son of the virgin Isa 7. 14. 2. Her first born son Luk. 2. 7. 3. The branch Zach. 3. 8. and 6. 12. 4. The branch of righteousness Jer 33. 15. and 23. 5. 5. A rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch out of his roots Isa 11. 1. 6. The seed of the woman Gen. 3. 15. 7. The seed of Abraham Gen. 22. 18. 8. The fruit of David's loyns Psal 80. 36. and 132. 11. Act. 2. 30. 9. Of the seed of David according to the flesh Rom. 1. 3. 2 Sam. 7. 2. 10. The Lyon of the tribe of Judah Rev. 5. 5. 11. The seed of Jacob Gen. 28. 14. 12. The seed of Isaac Gen. 26. 4. 13. A son born to us a child given to us Isa 9. 6. 14. The son of man Mat. 8. 20. Mat. 16. 13. Rev. 1. 13. Dan. 7. 13. Joh.
one only Mediator betwixt Isa 63. 3. I confess the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is given to Moses in that Gal. 3. 19. but Moses was but a typical Mediator and you never find that Moses is called a Mediator in a way of redemption or satisfaction or paying a Ransom for so dear Jesus is the only Mediator so the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 us used in that 1 Tim. 2. 5. Heb. 8. 6 7. 8. Heb. 9. 14 15. Heb. 12. 22 23 24. God and men and 't is as high folly and madness to make more Mediators than one as 't is to make more Gods than one There is one God and one mediator betwixt God and men for look as one husband satisfies the wife as one father satisfies the child as one Lord satisfies the servant and on sun satisfies the world so one Mediator is enough to satisfie all the world that desire a Mediator or that have an interest in a Mediator The true sence and import of this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mediator is a middle person or one that interposes betwixt two parties at variance to make peace betwixt them Though 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mediator be rendred variously sometimes an Umpiere or Arbitrator sometimes a messenger betwixt two persons sometimes an interpretor imparting the mind of one to another sometimes a reconciler or peace-maker yet this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 doth most properly signifie a Mediator or a midler because Jesus Christ is both a middle person and a middle officer betwixt God and man to reconcile and reunite God and man This of all others is the most proper and genuine signification of this name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ is the middle that is the second person in the Trinity betwixt the Father and the Holy Ghost He is the only middle person betwixt God and man being in one person God-man and his being a middle person fits and capacitates him to stand in the midst between God and us And as he is the middle person so he is the middle officer intervening or interposing or coming between God and man by office satisfying God's justice to the full for man's sins by his sufferings and death and maintaining our constant peace in heaven by his meritorious intercession Hence as one observes Jesus Christ is Gerhard a true Mediator is still found in medio in the middle He was born as some think from Wisd 18. 14. about the middle of the night he suffered in the middle of the world that is at Jerusalem seated in the middle of the Heb. 11. 12. earth he was crucified in the midst between the two John 19. 18. thieves he died in the air on the cross in the midst between heaven and earth he stood after his Resurrection John 20. 19. in the midst of his Disciples and he has promised that where two or three are gathered together in his name he Mat. 18. 20. will be in the midst of them and he walks in the midst Rev. 2. 1. of the seven golden candle-sticks that is the Churches And he as the heart in the midst of the body distributes Ephe. 4. 15 16. spirits and vertue to all the parts of his mystical body Thus Jesus Christ is the Mediator betwixt God and man middle in person and middle in office And thus you have seen at large what a meet Mediator Jesus Christ is considered in both his natures considered as God-man But Secondly If Jesus Christ be not God then there is no spiritual nor eternal good to be expected or enjoyed If Christ be not God our preaching is in vain and your hearing is in vain and your praying is in vain and your believing is in vain and your hope of pardon and forgivness by Jesus Christ is in vain for none can forgive sins but a God Mark 2. 7. John 3. 16. John 10. 28. 2 Tim. 4. 8. James 1. 12. 1 Pet. 5. 4. v. Rev. 3. 21. Rev. 2. 11. Christ hath promised that believers shall never perish he hath promised them eternal life and that he will raise them up at the last day he has promised a Crown of Righteousness he has promised a Crown of Life he has promised a Crown of glory he has promised that conquering Christians shall sit down with him in his throne as he is set down with his father in his throne He has promised that they shall not be hurt of the second death And a thousand other good things Jesus Christ has promised but if Jesus Christ be not God how shall these promises be made good If a man that hath never a foot of Land in England nor yet worth one groat in all the world shall make his will and bequeath to thee such and such houses and Lands and Lordships in such a County or such a County and shall by Will give thee so much in Plate and so much in Jewels and so much in ready money whereas he is not upon any account worth one penny in all the world certainly such Legacies will never make a man the richer nor the happier None of those great and precious promises which are hinted at above will signifie any thing if Christ be not God for they can neither refresh us nor chear us in this world nor make us happy in that other world If Christ be not God how can he purchase our pardon procure our peace pacifie divine wrath and satisfie infinite justice A man may satisfie the justice of man but who but a God can satisfie the justice of God will God accept of thousands of Micah 6. 7. Rams or ten thousands of Rivers of Oyl or the first-born of thy body for the sin of thy soul Oh? No he will not he cannot that Scripture is worthy to be written in letters of Gold Acts 20. 28. Take heed therefore unto your selves and to all the flock over the which the holy Ghost hath made you over-seers to feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood This must needs relate to Christ and Christ is here called God and Christ's blood is called the blood of God and without a peradventure Christ could never have gone through with the purchase of the Church if the blood he shed had not been the blood of God This blood is called God's own blood because the son of God being and remaining true God assumed humane flesh and blood in unity of person by this phrase that which appertaineth to the humanity of Christ is attributed to his Divinity because of the union of the two natures in one person and communion of properties The Church is to Christ a bloody Spouse an Acheldama or field of blood for the could not be redeemed with silver and gold but with 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. the blood of God so it is called by a communication of properties to set forth the incomparable value and vertue thereof But Thirdly if
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he assumed apprehended caught laid hold on the seed of Abraham as the Angel did on Lot as Christ Gen. 19. 16. did on Peter or as men do upon a thing they are glad Mat. 14. 31. they have got and are loath to lâ—t go again Oh sirs it is a main ground and pillar of our comfort and confidence that Jesus Christ took our flesh for if he had not took our flesh upon him we could never have been saved by him Christ took not a part but the whole nature of man that is a true humane soul and body together with all the essential properties and faculties of both that in man's nature he might die and suffer the wrath of God and whole curse due to our sins which otherwise Heb. 2. 14. being God only he could never have done and that he might satisfie divine justice for sin in the same nature that had sinned and indeed it was most meet and fit that the Mediator who was to reconcile God and man should partake in the natures of both parties to be reconciled Oh what matchless love was this that made our dear Lord Jesus to lay by for a time all that glory that he John 17. 5. had with the father before the world was and to assume our nature and to be found in fashion as a man to see Phil. 2. 8. the great God in the form of a servant or hanging upon the Cross how wonderful and astonishing was it to all that believed him to be God-man God manifested in 1 Tim. 3. 16. 1 Pet. 1. 11. our flesh is an amazing mystery a mystery fit for the speculation of Angels that the eternal God should become 1 Tim. 2. 5. the man Christ Jesus that a most glorious Creator should Dan. 7. 9 13 22. Mat. 2. 11. become a poor creature that the Ancient of days should become an Infant of days that the most high should stoop so low as to dwell in a body of flesh is a glorious mystery that transcends all humane understanding It would have seemed a high blasphemy for us to have thought of such a thing or to have desired such a thing or to have spoken of such a thing if God in his everlasting Gospel had not reveiled such a thing to us Among the Romish Priests Friars Jesuits they count it a great demonstration of love an high honour that is done to any of their orders when any Noble man or great Prince who is weary of the world and the world weary of him comes among them and takes any of their habits upon him and lives and dies in their habits Oh what a demonstration of Christ's love is it and what a mighty honour hath Jesus Christ put upon mankind in that he took our nature upon him in that he lived in our nature and died in our nature and rose in our nature and ascended in our nature and now sits at his fathers right hand in Acts 1. 10 11. our nature Though Jacob's love to Rachel and Jonathan's love to David and David's love to Absolom and the primitive Christians love to one another was strong very strong yet Christ's love in taking our humane nature upon him does infinitely transcend all their loves I think Bern. sup cant ser 20. saith one speaking of Christ he cannot despise me who is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh â— for if he neglect me as a Brother yet he will love me as a husband that 's my comfort Oh my Saviour saith one didst thou Hierom. die for love of me a love more dolorous than death but to me a death more lovely than love it self I cannot live love and be longer from thee I read in Josephus that when J. s Bel. Jud. l. 1. c. 8. Herod Antipater was accused to Julius Caesar as no good friend of his he made no other Apology but stripping himself stark naked shewed Caesar his wounds and said let me hold my tongue these wounds will speak for me how I have loved Caesar ah my friends Christ's wounds in our nature speak out the admirable love of Jesus Christ to us and Oh how should this love of his draw out our love to Christ inflame our love to that Jesus who is God-man blessed for ever Mr. Welch a Suffolk-minister weeping at table being asked the reason said it was because he could love Christ no more ah what reason have we to weep and weep again and again that we can love that Jesus no more who hath shewed such unparalelled love to us in assuming of the humane nature Et ipsam animam odio haberem si non diligeret meum Jesum I must hate my very soul if it should not love my Jesus saith Bernard ah what cause have we given to hate our selves because we love that dear Jesus no more who is very God and very man But Thirdly Is Jesus Christ God-man is he very God and 3. consult hese Scriptures Isa 61. 1. Dan. 9. 24. 1 John 3. 8. Luk. 1. 74. 75. Tit. 2. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 4. very man then we may very safely and roundly assert that the work of Redemption was a very great work the Redemption of souls is a mighty work a costly work to redeem poor souls from sin from wrath from the power of Satan from the curse from hell from the condemnation was a mighty work wherefore was Christ born wherefore did he live sweat groan bleed die rise ascend was it not to bring deliverance to the captives and the opening of the prison to them that are bound was it not to make an end of sin to finish transgression and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to destroy the works of the Devil and to abolish death and to bring life and immortality to light and to redeem us from all iniquity and to purifie us to himself and to make us a peculiar peple zealous of good works Certainly the work of Redemption was no ordinary or common thing God-man must engage in it or poor fallen man is undone for ever The greater the person is that is engaged in any work the greater is that work the great Monarchs of the world do not use to engage their sons in poor low mean and petty services but in such services as are high and honourable noble and weighty and will you imagine that ever the great and glorious God John 1. 18. 8. Pro. 22. 33 would have sent his son his own son his only begotten son his bosom son his son in whom his soul delighted before the foundations of the earth was laid to redeem poor sinners souls if this had not been a great work a high work and a most glorious work in his eye The Creation of the world did but cost God a word of his mouth Let there be light and there was light but the Redemption Gen. 1. 3. of souls cost him his dearest son there is a
licence yet the great King of Heaven and Earth counts it his glory to give us free access at all times in all places and upon all occasions by the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2. 5. There is one mediator between God and us even the man Christ Jesus Christ was made true man that in our nature he might reconcile us to God and give us access to God which he could never have done had he not been very God and very man without the humane nature of Christ we could never have had access to God or fellowship with God being by nature enemies to God Rom. 5. 10. Eph. 2. 1. 12 13 14. and estranged from God and dead in trespasses and sins 'T is only by the mediation of Christ incarnate that we come to be reconciled to God to have access to him and 1 John 1. 1 2 3. acceptance with him in Christ's humane nature God and we meet together and have fellowship together It could never stand with the unspotted holiness and justice of God who is a consuming fire to honour us with one Heb. 12. 29. cast of his countenance or one hours communion with himself were it not upon the account of the man Christ Jesus the least serious thought of God out of Christ will breed nothing in the soul but horrour and amazement which made Luther say Nolo Deum absolutum let me have nothing to do with an absolute God Believers have free and blessed access to God but still 't is upon the credit of the man Christ Jesus Let us come boldly to the throne Heb. 4. 15. 16. of Grace saith the Apostle speaking of Christ that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need the Apostles phrase is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a word which signifies liberty of speech and boldness of face as when a man with a bold and undaunted spirit utters his mind before the great ones of the world without blushing without weakness of heart without shaking of his voice without imperfection and faltring in speech when neither Majesty nor Authority can take off his courage so as to stop his mouth and make him afraid to speak with such heroick and undaunted spirits would the Apostle have us to come to the Throne of Grace and all upon the credit of Christ our High Priest who is God-man But Ninthly Is Jesus Christ God-man is he very God and 9. Ezek. 35. 10 11 12 13. Isa 37. 23 24. very man then you may be very confident of his sympathizing with you in all your afflictions then this may serve as a foundation to support you under all your troubles and as a Cordial to comfort you under all your afflictions in that Christ partaking of the same nature and having had experience of the infirmities of it he is the more able and willing to help and succour us Heb. 2. 17. wherefore As the Brazen Serpent was like the fiery serpent but had no sting in all things it behoveth him to be like his brethren that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people so Heb. 4. 15. If one come to visit a man that is sick of a grievous disease who hath himself been formerly troubled with the same disease he will sympathize more and shew more compassion than twenty others who have not felt the like so here from Christ's sufferings in his humane nature we may safely gather that he will shew himself a merciful high Priest to us in our sufferings and one that will be ready to help and succour us in all our afflictions and miseries which we suffer in this life in as much as himself had experience of suffering the like in our nature for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted and this should be a staff to support us and a cordial to comfort us in all our sorrows and miseries It is between Christ and his Church as it is between two lute strings that are tuned one to another no sooner is one struck If weperish Christ persheth with us Luâ—her but the other trembles Isa 63. 9. In all their afflictions he was afflicted These words may be read interrogatively thus was he in all their afflictions afflicted Christ took to heart the afflictions of his Church he was himself grieved for them and with them The Lord the better to allure and draw his people to himself speaks after the manner of men attributing to himself all the affection love and fatherly compassion that can possibly be in them to men in misery Christ did so sympathize with his people in all their afflictions and sufferings as if he himself had felt the weight the smart the pain of them all he was in all things made like unto his brethren not only in nature but also in infirmities and sufferings and by all manner of temptations that thereby he might be able experimentally to succour them that are tempted he Zech. 2. 8. Ishon of Ish It is here called Bath the daughter of the eye because it is as dear to a man as his only daughter Act. 9. 4. Mat. 25. 35 36. that toucheth them toucheth not only his eye but the apple of his eye which is the tenderest piece of the tenderest part to express the inexpressible tenderness of Christ's compassion towards them let persecutors take heed how they meddle with God's eyes for he will retaliate eye for eye Exod. 21. 24. he is wise in heart and mighty in strength and sinners shall one day pay dear for touching the apple of his eye Christ counts himself persecuted when his Church is persecuted Saul Saul why persecutest thou me And he looks upon himself as hungry thirsty naked and in prison when his members are so so greatly does he sympathize with them hence the afflictions of Christians are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the remainders of the afflictions of Christ such as Christ by his fellow-feeling suffereth in his members and as they by correspondency are to fill up as exercises and tryals of their faith and patience Christ gave many evidences of his sympathy or fellow-feeling of our infirmities when he was on earth as he groaned in his spirit John 11. 33. and was troubled when he saw those that wept for Lazarus vers 35. Luk. 19. 41. he wept also as he did over Jerusalem also It is often observed in the Gospel that Christ was moved with compassion and that he frequently put forth acts of pity mercy and succour to those that were in any distress either in body or soul Christ retaineth this sympathy and fellow-feeling with us now he is in Heaven and doth so far commiserate our distresses as may stand with a glorified condition Jesus Christ grieves for the afflictions of his people the angel of the Lord answered and Zach. 1. 12. said
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
nourish but they cannot heal others can enrich buâ— they cannot secure others can adorn but cannot advance all do serve but none do satisfie they are like a beggars coat made up of many pieces not all enough either to beautifie defend or satisfie but there is enough in a suffering Christ to fill us and satisfie us to the full Christ has the greatest worth and wealth in him Look as the worth and value of many pieces of Silver is to be found in one piece of Gold so all the petty excellencies that are scattered abroad in the creatures we to be found in a bleeding dying Christ yea all the whole volume of perfections which is spread through heaven and earth is epitomized in him that suffered on the Cross nec Christus nec coelum patitur hyperbolen a man cannot hyperbolize in speaking of Christ and heaven but must entreat his hearers as Tully doth his readers concerning the worth of L. Crassus ut majus quiddam de iis quam quae scripta sunt suspicarentur 3. De oratore that they would conceive much more than he was able to express certainly it is as easie to compass the heavens with a span and contein the sea in a nut-shell as to relate fully a suffering Christ's excellencies or heaven's happiness O sirs there is in a crucified Jesus something proportionable to all the straits wants necessities and desires of his poor people He is bread to nourish them and a garment to John 6. 5 6 37. Rev. 13. 14. Mat. 9. 12. Isa 9. 6. Heb. 2. 10. Act. 5. 31. cover and adorn them a Physician to hâ—al them a Counseller to advise them a Captain to defend them a Prince to rule a Prophet to teach and a Priest to make attonement Act. 7. 37 38. Heb. 2. 17 18. cap. 4. 15 16. 2 Cor. 11. 2. Isa 9. 6 7. John 20. 17. Isa 28. 16. Rev. 22. 16. Eph. 1. 22 23. for them an Husband to protect a Father to provide a Brother to relieve a Foundation to support a Root to quicken a Head to guide a Treasure to enrich a Sun to enlighten and a Fountain to cleanse Now what can any Christian desire more to satisfie him and save him to make him holy and happy in both Worlds Shall the Romans and other Nations highly value those that have but ventur'd to lay down their lives for their Countrey and shall not we highly value the Lord Jesus Christ who hath actually laid down his life for his sheep I have John 10. 11 15 17. read of one who walking in the fields by himself of a sudden fell into loud cries and weeping and being asked by one that passed by and over-heard him the cause of his lamentation I weep saith he to think that the Lord Jesus Christ should do so much for us men and yet not one man of a thousand so much as mind him or think of him Oh what a bitter Lamentation have we cause to take up that the Lord Jesus Christ has suffered so many great and grievous things for poor sinners and that there are so few that sincerely love him or that highly value him most men preferring their lusts or else the Toys and Trifles of this world above him But Fifthly let the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ work us all into a gracious willingness to embrace sufferings for his sake and chearfully and resolutely to take up his Cross Mat. 16. 24. and follow him did Christ suffer who knew no sin and shall we think it strange to suffer who know nothing but sin shall he lie swelthering under his father's wrath and shall we cry out of men's anger was he crowned Godfrey of Bullen first King of Jerusalem refused to be crowned with a Crown of Gold saying that it became not a Christian to wear a Crown of Gold where Christ for our salvation had worn a Crown of thorns with thorns and must we be crowned with rose-buds was his whole life from the cradle to the cross made up of nothing but sorrows and sufferings and must our lives from the cradle to the grave be filled up with nothing but pleasures and delights was he despised and must we be admired was he debased and must we be exalted was he poor and must we be rich was he low and must we be high did he drink of a bitter cup a bloody cup and will no cups serve our turns but cups of consolation Let us not think any thing too much to do for Christ nor any thing too great to suffer for Christ nor any thing too dear to part with for such a Christ such a Saviour that thought nothing too much to do or too grievous to suffer that so he might accomplish the work of our Redemption He left heaven for us and shall not John 1. 18. we let go this world for him he left his father's bosom for us and shall not we leave the bosoms of our dearest Relations Psal 45. 10 11. Mat. 10. 37. for him he underwent all sorts of sufferings for us let us as readily encounter with all sorts of sufferings for him Paul was so inur'd to sufferings for Christ that â— Cor. 12. 10. 2 Cor. 11. 23 to verse 28. he could rejoice in his sufferings he gloried most in his chains and he looked upon his scars buffetings scourgings stoneings for Christ as his greatest triumphs And how ambitious were the primitive Christians of Martyrdom in the cause of Christ and of late in the times of the Marian Persecution how many hundreds chearfully and willingly laid down their lives mounting Eliah-like to heaven in fiery charriots And oh how will Christ own and honour such Christians at last as have Rev. 3. 21. not set on others but exposed themselves to hazards losses and sufferings for his sake as those brave souls who Rev. 12. 11. loved not their lives unto the death that is the despised their lives in comparison of Christ they exposed their Heb. 11 33 to 39. cap. 10. 34. bodies to horrible and painful deaths their temporal estates to the spoyl and their persons to all manner of shame and contempt for the cause of Christ in the days of that bloody persecutor Dioclesian the Christians shewed certatim Ploâ—iosa in certamina ruebatur c. Sulpitius as glorious power in the faith of Martyrdom as in the faith of Miracles the valour of the patients and the savageness of the persecutors striving together till both exceeding nature and belief bred wonder and astonishment in beholders and readers In all Ages and Generations they that have been born after the flesh have persecuted Gal. 4. 29. them that have been born after the spirit and the seed of the serpent have been still a multiplying of troubles upon the seed of the woman Would any man take the Churches picture saith Luther then let him paint a poor silly maid sitting in a wilderness compassed about with hungry
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
as a God of compassion God is infinite in all his attributes in his justice as well as in his mercy these two cannot interfere as justice cannot intrench upon mercy so neither may mercy encroach upon justice the glory of both must be maintained Now by the breach of the Law the justice of God is wronged so that although mercy be apt to pardon yet justice requires satisfaction and calls for vengeance on sinners Every transgression Heb. 2. 2. must receive just recompence and God will not in any case absolve the guilty till this be done the hands of Exod. 34. 7. mercy are tied that she cannot act And seeing satisfaction could not be made to an infinite majesty but by an equal person and price therefore the son of God must become a curse for us by taking our nature and pouring out his soul to the death and by this means justice and mercy are reconciled and kiss each other and mercy now being set at liberty hath her free course to save poor sinners God will have his justice satisfied to the full and therefore Christ must bear all the punishment due to our sins or else God cannot set us free for he cannot go against his own just will observe the force of that phrase Christ ought to suffer And thus it behoved Christ to suffer Luk. 24. 26. and Mat. 26. 54. Thus it must be why must but because it was 1. So decreed by God 2. Foretold by the Prophets every particular of Christ's sufferings were foretold by the prophets even to their very spitting in his face 3. Prefigured in the daily morning and evening sacrifice this Lamb of God was sacrificed from the beginning of the world A necessity then there was of our Saviour's sufferings not a necessity of coaction for he died freely John 10. 11 14 17 18. and voluntarily but of immutability and infallibility for the former reasons mentioned An earthly Prince that is just holds himself bound to inflict punishment impartially upon the malefactor or his surety it stands upon his honour he saith it must be so I cannot do otherwise this is true much more of God who is Justice it self God who is great in counsel and excellent in working had store of means at hand whereby to set free and recover lost man-kind yet he was pleased in his infinite wisdom to pitch upon this way of satisfaction as being most agreeable to his holy nature and most suitable to his high and sovereign ends viz. Man's salvation and his own glory and that God doth stand upon full satisfaction and will not forgive one sin without it may be thus made evident First from the nature of sin which is that abominable 1. â—eâ— 44. 4. God could not â—salvâ— jure pass over the sin of man so as absolutely to let it go unpunished thing which God hates The sinner deserves to die for his sins Rom. 6. 23. Tho wages of sin is death every sinner is worthy of death They which commit such things are worthy of death Rom. 1. 32. Now God is just and righteous It is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you 2 Thes 1. 6. yea and God did therefore set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in bis blood Rom. 3. 25. To declare his righteousness that he might be just vers 26. Now if God be a just and righteous God then sin cannot absolutely escape unpunished for it is just with God to punish the sinner who is worthy of punishment and certainly God must deny himself if he will not be just 2 Tim. 2. 13. but this he can never do sin is of an infinite guilt and hath an infinite evil in the nature of it and therefore no person in heaven or earth but that person our Lord Jesus who is God-man and who had an infinite dignity that could either procure the pardon of it or make satisfaction for it no prayers no cries no tears no humblings no repentings no resolutions no reformations c. can stop the course of Justice or procure the guilty sinners pardon 't is Christ alone that can dissolve all obligations to punishment and break all bonds and chains of guilt and hand a pardon to us through his own blood Eph. 1. 7. we are set free by the blood of Christ By the blood of thy Zach. 9. 11. covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit 't is by his blood that we are justified and saved from wrath Rom. 5. 9. Much more being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath by him Pray tell me what is it to be justified but to be pardoned and what is it to be saved from wrath but to be delivered from all punishment Eph. 2. 13. Colos 1. 20. and both these depend upon the blood of Christ But The veracity of God requires it Look as God cannot but be just so he cannot but be true and if he cannot but be true then he will make good the threatnings that are gone out of his mouth Gen. 2. 17. In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Heb. in dying thou Under the name of death are comprehended all other calamities miseries and sorrows shalt die death is a fall that came in by a fall and without all pâ—radventure every man should die the same day he was born for the wages of sin is death and this wages should be presently paid did not Christ reprieve poor sinner's lives for a season upon which account he is said to be the Saviour of all men not of eternal preservation but of a temporal reservation He will by no means clear 1 Tim. 4. 10. the guilty The soul that sinneth it shall die Ezek. 18. Exod. 34. 7. 20. The wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him Rom. 2. 6. He will render to every man according to his deeds Oh sirs God can never so far yield as to abrogate his own Law and quietly to sit down with injury and loss to his own Justice himself having established a Law c. The Law pronounces him cursed that continues not in all things Gal. 3. 10. that are written therein to do them Now though the threatnings of men are frequently vain and frivolous yet the threatnings of the great God shall certainly take place and have their accomplishment though many ten thousand millions of sinners perish not one tittle of the Mat. 5. 18. dreadful threatnings of God shall fail till all be fulfilled Josephus saith that from that very time that old Eli heard those terrible threatnings that made their ears tingle 1 Sam. 3. 11 12 13 14. and hearts tremble that heard them Eli never ceased weeping ah who can look upon the dreadful threatnings that are pointed against sinners all over the book of God and not tremble and weep God cannot but in justice punish sinners neither is it in his choice
makes Rom. 8. 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect it is God that justifieth some read Râ—m 8. 33. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies in â—â—s vecare o call in o thâ— I am It is a Law custom to clear men by Proclaration if one hath been indicted at the Assizes and no Bill â—roughtin against him there is an Oh yes made if any haâ—e any thing to say against the prisoner at the bar let him come forth since he stands upon his freedom The application is easie it question-wise thus shall God that justifieth no such matter and if the judg acquit the prisoner at the bar he cares not though the Jaylor or his fellow prisoners condemn him so here there are no accusers that a believer needs to fear seeing that it is God himself who is the supreme Judg that absolves him as just God absolves and therefore it is to no purpose for Satan to accuse us Rev. 12. 10. nor for the Law of Moses to accuse us John 5. 45. nor for our own Consciences to accuse us Rom. 2. 25. nor for the world to accuse us God is the highest Judg and his Tribunal-seat is the supreme Judgment-seat therefore from thence there is no appealing As amongst men persons accused or condemned may appeal till they come to the highest Court but if in the highest they are absolved and discharged then they are free and safe and well so the believer being absolved before God's Tribunal seat there is no further accusations to be feared all appeals from thence being void and of no force The consideration of which should arm us and comfort us and strengthen us against all terrours of conscience guilt of sin accusation of the Law and cruelty of Satan in as much as these either dare not appear before God to accuse us or charge us or if they do it is but lost labour Ambrose gives the sence thus None can or dare retract the judgment of God for he confidently provoketh all adversaries if they dare come forth to accuse not that there is no cause but because God hath justified It is God that justifieth therefore it is in vain to accuse them and It is God that justifieth them if God doth it none can reverse it for there are none that are equal with God Let all the accusations which shall come in against thee from one hand or another be true or false they shall never hurt thee for he from whom there is no appeal hath fully acquitted thee and therefore no accusation can endanger thy peace Ah what a strong Cordial would this be to all the people of God if they would but live in the power of this glorious truth that It is God that judifies them and that there lies no accusations in the Court of Heaven against them the great reason why many poor Christians are under so many dejections despondencies and perplexities is because they drink no more of this water of life It is God that justifieth did Christians live more upon this breast It is God that justifieth they would be no more Gen. 41. 1 2 3. like Pharaoh's lean Kine but would be fat and flourishing did they but draw more out of this Well of salvation It is God that justifieth how would their spirits revive and a new life rise up in them as did in the dead child by 2 King 4. 34 35 36 37. the Prophet Elisha's applying himself to it The Imputed Righteousness of Christ is a real sure and solid foundation upon which a believer may safely build his peace joy and everlasting rest yea it will help him to glory in Rom. 5. 1 2 3. tribulations and to triumph over all adversities Isa 45. 24. Surely shall one say in the Lord I have righteousness and strength That which is the greatest terrour in the world to unbelievers is the strongest ground of comfort to believers that is the justice and wrath of God against sin Look how it was when the Angel appeared at the resurrection of our Saviour Jesus Christ The keepers were affrighted Mat. 28. 4 5. and became as dead men but it was said to the women Fear not ye for ye seek Jesus of Nazareth that was crucified so it is much more in this case when God's Justice is powerfully manifested the sinners of Sion and Isa 33. 14. the world are afraid and terrified but yet poor believers seek for Christ who was crucified ye need not fear any thing yea you may be wonderfully cheared at this and it is your greatest comfort that you have to deal with this just God who hath already received satisfaction for your sins It is observable that the Saints triumph in the justice and judgments of God that are most terrible to the enemies of God in that which is the substance of the song of Moses and the Lamb Rev. 15. 3 4 5. so in that Luk. 26. 28. where the day of judgment is described say some and that in it there shall be distress of nations and men's hearts failing them for fear viz. of the justice and wrath of God Why so it is for looking after those things that are to come upon the earth for the powers of the earth shall be shaken c. But when these things begin to come to pass Then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth near This day is the most dreadful day that ever was in the world to all the ungodly but the just and faithful then shall be able to lift up their heads to see all the world on a light fire about them and all the Elements in terrible confusion But how dare a poor creature lift up his head in such a case as this They shall see the son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory here is enough to comfort the poor members of Christ to see Christ on whom they have believed and who hath satisfied God's justice for them and imputed his own righteousness to them to see him set upon his judgment seat cannot but be matter of joy and rejoycing to them Now they shall find the power of that word upon their souls Isa 40. 1. Comfort ye comfort ye my people saith the Lord speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem and say unto her that her warfare is accomplished that her iniquity is pardoned for she hath received at the Lord's hand double for her sins i. e. Their conflict with the wrath of God is at an end the punishment of their iniquity is accepted they have received in their head and surety Christ Jesus double for their sins i. e. Justice hath passed upon them in their head Christ Jesus and they are sure that the judg of all the earth will do right and will not punish their sins twice The exactness of Gods justice cannot do this Job 34. 10. Far be it from God that he should do wickedness and from the Almighty that be should commit iniquity
transgressors and upon that score we stand indebted to the justice of God and lie under the stroke of his wrath Now the Lord Jesus Christ seeing us in this condition he steps in and stands between us and the blow yea he takes this wrath and curse off from us unto himself he stands not only or meerly after the manner of a Surety among men in the case of debt for here the Surety enters bond with the Principal for the payment of the debt but yet expects that the debtor should not put him to it but that he should discharge the debt himself he only stands as a good security for the debtor no Christ Jesus doth not expect that we should pay the debt our selves but he takes it wholly upon himself As a surety for a murtherer or traytor or some other notorious malefactor that hath broken prison and is run away he lies by it body for body state for state and undergoes whatsoever the malefactor is chargeable withal for satisfying the Law Even so the Lord Jesus stands Surety for us runagate malefactors making himself liable to all that curse that belongs to us that he might both answer the Law fully and bring us back again to God As the first Adam stood in the room of all mankind fallen so Christ the second Adam stands in the room of all mankind that are to be restored he sustains the person of all those which do spiritually descend from him and unto whom he bears the relation of a Head When God appointed his dearest Son to be a Surety for us and charged all our debts upon him and required an exact satisfaction to his Law and Justice insomuch that he would not abate the Son of his love one farthing token of the debt he did demonstrate a greater love to Justice than if he had damned as many worlds as there are men in the world O let us never cast an eye upon Christ's Suretyship but let us stand and wonder yea let us be swallowed up in a deep admiration of Christs love and of his Fathers impartial justice Ah what transcendent wisdom also does here appear in reconciling the riches of Mercy and infinite Justice both in one by the means of a Surety If all the Angels in heaven and all the men on earth had been put to answer these Questions How shall sin be pardoned how shall the sinner be reconciled and saved how shall the wrath of God be pacified how shall the Justice of God be satisfied how shall the Redemption of Man be brought about in such a way whereby God may be most eminently glorified they could never have answered the questions But God in his infinite Wisdom hath found out a way to save sinners not only in a way of Mercy and Grace but in a way of Justice and Righteousness and all this by the means of Christ's Suretyship as hath been already declared Now from the consideration of Christ's Suretyship a believer may form up this Seventh safe comfortable and blessed Plea as to the ten Scriptures formerly cited that refer to the great day of account or to a man's particular account O blessed Father remember that thine own Son was my Ransom his blood was the price he was my Surety and undertook to answer for my sins I know O blessed God that thou must be satisfied but remember When a man matries a woman with her person he takes her debts and satisfaction too so does Christ when he takes us to be his he takes our sins also to be hiâ— my Surety has satisfied thee not for himself for he was holy and harmless a Lamb without a spot but for me They were my debts he satisfied for and look over thy Books and thou shalt sind that he hath cleared all accounts and reckonings between thee and me the guilt of all my sins have been imputed to my Surety who did present himself in my stead to make full payment and satisfaction to thy Justice as Paul said to Philemon Philem. ver 18. concerning his servant Onesimus If he hath wronged thee or oweth thee any thing put it upon my account So saith Christ to the penitent and believing soul If thou hast any guilt any debt to be answered for unto God put them all upon my account if thou hast wronged my Father I will make satisfaction to the uttermost for I was made sin for thee 2 Cor. 5. 21. Isa 53. 12. I poured out my soul for thy transgressions it cost me my hearts blood to reconcile thee to my Father and to Acts 20. 28. Gen. 27. 13. slay all enmity And as Robeckah said to Jacob in another case Vpon me my son be the curse so faith Christ to the believing soul why thy sins did expose thee unto the curse of the Law but I was made a curse for thee I did Gal. 3. 13. bear that burthen my self upon the Cross and upon my shoulders were all thy griefs and sorrows born I was Isa 53. 4 5 6 7 8. 10. Eph. 1. 7. wounded for thy transgressions and I was bruised for thy iniquities and therefore we are said to have redemption and remission of sins in his blood O blessed God! thou knowest that a surety-doth not pay the debt only for the debtors good but as standing in the debtors stead and so his payment is reckoned to the dâ—btor And thus the case stands between Christ and my soul for as my Surety he hath paid all my debts and that very payment that he hath made in honour and justice thou art obliged to accept of as made in my stead Oh dearest Father that Jesus who is God-man as my Surety he hath done all that the Law requireth of me and thereby he hath freed me from wrath to come and from the curse that 1 Thes 1. ult was due to me for my sins This is my plea O holy God and by this plea I shall stand Hereupon God declares this plea I accept as just and good and therefore enter thou into the joy of thy Lord. Christian Reader I have gone as far in the opening and clearing up of those Grand Points of the Gospel that have fallen under our consideration as I judge meet at this time By the Title-page thou mayest safely conclude that I have promised much more than in this Treatise I have performed but be but a little patient and by divine assistance I shall make sure and full payment The Covenant of Grace and the Covenant of Redemption with some other Points of high importance I shall present to thee in the Second Part which will be the Last Part. In this First Part I don't offer thee that which cost me nothing I desire that all the interest thou hast in heaven may be so fully and duly improved that this First Part may be so blest from on high as that Saints and Sinners may have cause to bless God to all Aeternity for what is brought to hand and beg hard