and the Son have wrought Hence it is that actions are given especially to the Father though not excluding the Sonne nor the holy Ghost but yet howsoever they are all equall in their working in regard of time yet the Father is first in regard of order A malefactor is now arraigned and condemned and the pardon is to be begged and none but the Kings sonne the young Prince can have a pardon his abilities are onely able to carry him through the worke the Prince begs it the Favorite brings it but the King onely grants it so it is here the Lord Iesus Christ is the Sonne of the everlasting Father and the Prince of peace and hee it is that begs the pardon of his Father hee sends it to us by the hands of the holy Ghost but only the Father grants the pardon When the soule hath long beene humbled and selfe denying and said Lord forgive the trespasses of thy servant and yeelds and layes downe the weapons of deflance and falls at the footstoole of the Lord Iesus Christ and rowles it selfe upon his merits then the Spirit comes and saith thy sinnes are pardoned thy person is accepted I bring thee this newes from God the Father God is now reconciled to thee in and by the Lord Iesus Christ now the Father is the King that grants this pardon the Sonne is he that begs it and the Spirit is the messenger that brings it Now you see how it is an act of God the Father Quest. 2 Secondly I come to shew why it is an act of God the Father upon the beleever Answer The reasons of the question are these we must understand that the actions of God are of two sorts First there are some actions which doe remain in God which are confined within the compasse of his owne Councell and goe no further and they are immanent actions they stay in God and goe no further A man may conceive in his mind what heresolves to doe in his heart whether hee will doe such a thing or no and no man can tell what he intends to doe but himselfe but if a man will practise answerably according to his purpose then he doth expresse the worke outwardly which he intended inwardly and now hee workes upon the creature and makes it to receive some impression of that good which hee kept secretly in himselfe There are some actions which remaine in God as the decrees and purposes of God before the foundation of the world and they are confined within the high Councell table of Heaven Father Sonne and holy Ghost and these never appeared to the eye of the world Secondly there are actions also which passe from God upon the creature and doe worke a change and an alteration upon the creature and these wee call transient actions or actions that passe which are not onely in God but passe from God and doe frame and order and dispose of the creature as God sees fit and of this sort are all the actions that belong to a Christian except predestination for the Lord doth not reveale those secrets unto any by the worke of vocation which is wrought upon the creature for there the Lord quickens desire and stirres up hope and kindles love and joy and the Lord turnes the face of the soule God-ward and in adoption regeneration and all the workes of grace and salvation and of this kinde is justification and this is the reason why I call it a transient action because it passeth upon the creature but that must be warily understood with a graine of salt as the Proverbe is now what change is this I answer the Lord workes a change upon the creature two wayes First the Lord is said to passe a worke or an action upon the creature when he puts some kind of abilitie upon the creature either spirituall or naturall as when the Lord makes a wicked man a good man an adulterous man a chaste man and of an envious proud malicious man a patient meeke and holy man and this we call a naturall change because there is a gracious frame put into the heart and soule which overpowers the creature and all things are become new new affections new desires but this is not all for here is the difficultie Secondly the Lord is said to make a change upon the creature when he takes off some relations and respects which the creature had and puts upon it some other respects hee doth not put them into the soule but puts the soule into another roome and they are not naturally qualities but onely relations which are imprinted upon the soule of man and these are called morall and of this kinde is justification as thus Take a Prentice that is bound by covenant and Indenture for so many yeeres and he is now fallen into an ague or a burning fever hee hath two relations First he is an apprentice Secondly hee hath a weake sickly distempered body now there may bee a double change wrought in this man according to this double disposition first the master burnes the Indentures and gives him his time and sets him free from his service and hee that was an apprentice before is now a freeman this is a morall change for all this while he is as sicke as he was before but the former relation is quite gone and the master cannot now command him to his service now the fellow servants cannot dominere over him because he is not now a servant but now the wise Physitian he comes and he by good means helps the man of his disease and brings him to a faire sweet and wholsome temper of body and now there is a change in the very nature of this servant before he was distempered but now he is well ordered before hot but now finely coole here is something wrought in the nature of this man Just so it is in this change of the soule there is a morall change in justification a man is bound to the Law and liable to the penaltie of it and guiltie of the breach of it now God the Father in Jesus Christ acquits a man of this guilt and delivers him from this revenging power of the Law and that 's not all but withall hee puts holinesse into the heart and wisedome into the minde and puritie into the affections this is called a naturall change because there are new spiritual abilities put into the heart not because of the nature of it but because of the thing which it works as to take the example of Scripture 1 Iohn 3.14 Wee are translated from death to life As it is with a man taken prisoner in Turkie or some other place haply a Christian of England he is accounted a Traitor there and is condemned as a Traitor the man being weake of himselfe and not able to deliver himselfe he must bee dealt by as a Traitor but now if this man bee rescued and finde some way of escape and bee set upon some other shore whereby he may be conveyed
Alas I doe it not it was the Lord that wrought this heart in mee I have seene the day when I could have beene as well content to heare the Minister preach plainly as to have a knife run to my heart but the Lord wrought my heart to it therefore the Spirit puts that magnet stone of the mercie and grace of Christ upon my heart hee puts this temper upon my heart and makes it able to close with it selfe in the promise in 2 Corin. 5.5 when Paul there had disputed of his desire to lay downe his life for the Gospell and to put his body upon suffering for the Gospels sake he was even weary of the world and would faine have beene gone how gat he this temper why the text saith Now he that hath wrought us for the same thing if God who also hath given us the earnest of his Spirit it is a great while before wee can bee brought to this temper when all the Ministers tongues are even worne to the stumps and the wicked will bee wicked still yet the Lord doth worke it so then you see that the Spirit of God by the promise works upon the soule and leaves a dint upon the heart and so brings the soule by the Spirit to close with it selfe in the promise and hence you may collect two things for your information in this kinde Colect 1 First that the beleever being moved by the stroke of the Spirit of the Father is made able to close with the Father and the Sonne because the Spirit of the Lord doth fasten fit and frame the heart hereunto in this manner and hence it is that the soule can close with the Father and the Sonne too why because the Spirit which proceeds and comes from the Father and the Sonne is able to frame the soule to close with both for the Spirit hath something of the Father and something of the Sonne and therefore is able to make the soule to close with both 1 Iohn 1.3 These things have I written unto you that you may have fellowship with us holy Iohn was a spirituall father unto them and hee writes to them that thereby they might have fellowship with the Saints and he saith Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Sonne Iesus Christ why doth he not say our fellowship is with the Father as well as to say our fellowship is with the Father and the Sonne because it is presumed before hand that a man must have fellowship with the Spirit before hee can have fellowship with the Father and the Sonne because it is the Spirit that hath fitted the heart and framed it to close with both Colect 2 Secondly hence it comes to passe that the person of the beleever may bee knit to the person of the Lord Jesus Christ the foot is knit to the head by the continuance of the order of the body and the members thereof as the foot is knit to the leg and the leg to the thigh and the thigh to the body and so to the head this is the meaning of that phrase Iohn 6.56 our Saviour presseth this hard upon the Disciples and saith My flesh is meat indeed and my bloud is drinke indeed hee that eateth my flesh and drinketh my bloud dwelleth in me and in him then they begun to wonder at it and to say How can this be and yet Christ saith what if you see the the Sonne of man carrying the body of his flesh into heaven you will thinke it more hard to eat my flesh then yet you must eat my flesh then too how it is the Spirit that quickneth the flesh profiteth nothing the words that I speak they are Spirit and life as if he had said my good Spirit is in the word and promise close you with my Spirit and then you draw my Spirit my flesh and my blood downe into your whole natures the words that I speake they are Spirit and Life that is my Spirit is in the Word of the promise though my body be gone up into heaven therefore close you with my Spirit in the promise and then you close with my flesh spiritually Thus much for the manner of the union Now for the order of this union how this is done and there the question will be this Whether the beleever is knit first to the humane nature of Christ or to the Divine nature Quest. 2 I am not greatly willing to meddle with this point in this popular congregation because there are many wise and orthodox Divines and godly too which are of contrary opinion they confesse both but they differ about the order but that I may bring no prejudice to the judgement of any I will shortly shew you the summe of those arguments Answ which either side hold and will shew to which I doe incline and so leave the point to the judgement of those that heare it to incline to which side they thinke best and thus I shall wrong none at all First some Divines wise holy and orthodox and many too doe goe that way all of them have it from that root they that hold that the soule is knit to the humane nature of Christ first have two reasons for it First say they as the Scripture reveales Christ to us so also our hearts embrace him and close with him but the Scripture reveales the Lord Christ more often and frequently in regard of his Manhood than in regard of his Godhead as in that place The seed of the Woman shall breake the Serpents head and such like therefore the understanding first closeth with this and the heart first receives it the second reason why they hold this is thus much If say they all the great works of our redemption both sanctification and justification and redemption were wrought in the humane nature of Christ and as by a channell conveyed to us by his humane nature then it is reason that the soule should first close with the humane nature but it is so that all the great workes of justification sanctification c. were all accomplished in the humane nature of Christ for as the text saith He died for our sins and triumphed over sin and hell and death therefore say they it is fit that the soule should first close with the humane nature of Christ and this is the life and pith of all their arguments Againe other Divines and they are wise and orthodox they hold this and though all hold the maine substantiall truths of eternall life yet they differ in this they say the beleever is first knit to the Deity and they have also two arguments and the first is this That which is the maine and the proper object of faith to that the soule first lookes and to that the soule is first united for all union comes by operation in this kinde but the Godhead is the first object of faith in beleeving the Godhead and the third person of Trinity they are the first objects of
us and pronounceth us righteous by a legall course of proceeding as in these words That we might bee made the righteousnesse of God in him such a righteousnesse as God the Father will worke in us and will accept of us As when the wife is betrothed and married to a man all her old debts are laid upon her husband and the law meddles no more with her and secondly all his lands at least the third part of them are made over to her What shee hath in point of debt is put over to him so all our sinnes and debts of corruptions are laid upon Christ and all the rich fefments of grace and mercy in Christ are made over to a beleever and hence a beleever comes to be acquitted and justified before God From the first part of this description the point is this Doctrine Iustification is an act of God the Father upon the beleever It is an act that passeth from God the Father upon the beleever For the proofe of this point there are three verses in the same Chapter which make it good the 18 19 20. verses and so on to the end of the Text in the 18. verse hee saith All things are of God which hath reconciled us unto himselfe by Iesus Christ of God that is of God the Father and yet more plainly in the 19. verse God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himselfe not imputing their sinnes to them Now what is meant by God in these two verses the old rule of Divines is this that wheresoever you finde the Name of God put in opposition to Iesus Christ it must not be taken essentially but personally for the Father For it were almost an absurd thing to say that Christ were in Christ reconciling the world unto himselfe therefore the Apostle implies thus much God the Father was in Christ reconciling and God the Father by Christ reconciled the world unto himselfe and then in the 20. and 21. verses he saith Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you through us we pray you in Christs stead that yee be reconciled to God that is to God the Father for he hath made him sinne for us which knew no sinne and another proofe is in the 3. of Saint Iohn 14.15 and so to the end of the 18. verse it is an observation of wise Divines and good Interpreters when our Saviour comes to trade with Nichodemus about eternall life hee doth not onely content himselfe to speake of himselfe alone as he was Christ the Redeemer of the world but he sets him yet a little higher in the 14. verse hee saith As Moses lifted up the brasen Serpent in the wildernesse so must the Sonne of Man bee lifted up that whosoever beleeveth in him should not perish but have eternall life A man would have thought that this had beene enough but hee stayes not here but he puts him one pin above all these and saith For God so loved the world that hee gave his onely begotten Sonne for it that whosoever beleeveth on him might not perish but have everlasting life as if hee had said there is not only a Christ prepared and sent but God the Father also loved the world here is the highest staire to stay up the heart so that the point is plaine and sure enough Now let us make it cleare and that I shall doe by answering two questions Quest. 1 First why it is called an act of God the Father Quest. 2 Secondly why an act of the Father upon the beleever Quest. 1 For the former why doth the description say it is an act of God the Father Answer I answer it is an act of the Father not excluding the Sonne or the worke of the holy Ghost which must both bee understood it is an act of God the Father upon the beleever but it is through Christ there are these two grounds or reasons why it is given to the Father Reason 1 First because the Father was the party that was properly offended the Father is the first person in the Trinitie and he was directly offended by Adams sinne it is true the Sonne and the holy Ghost were offended too as being friends with the Father and having a relation to the Father and a sweet fellowship with the Father but the sinne was directly against the Father and indirectly against the Son and the holy Ghost The groūd of the point is this it wronged that worke of Creation wherein the manner of the worke of the Father appeared in a speciall manner and the manner of the worke of the Son appeared in redemption and the manner of the worke of the holy Ghost appeared in sanctification so that God the Father was the first in the worke of the Creation the Sonne second in the worke of redemption the holy Ghost third in the worke of sanctification Now creation being the worke wherein the power of the Father did most shew it selfe Adam falling away from this did principally wrong the Father for his manner of worke appearing herein therefore Adam did herein goe directly crosse to God Excellent is that phrase 1 Iohn 2.1 Little children these things write I unto you that ye sinne not but some may say what if we doe sinne why saith hee we have an Advocate with the Father even Iesus Christ the Iust. Now no man saith wee have an Advocate with an advocate no for that were absurd for no advocate pleads to another advocate but he pleads to the partie offended for the partie which hath offended now in that the Apostle saith We have an Advocate with the Father even Iesus Christ It is plaine that God the Father was the Person directly offended the issue then is thus much The Father being the Creditor and the Person directly offended the Lord Iesus Christ became our Suretie and the creditor doth require the debt at the hands of our Suretie and acquits the debtor the creditor requires this but the acquittance comes mainly and properly from the Father because the debt was due to him so that God the Father is the Creditor the Sonne is the Suretie the poore sinner is the debtor the holy Spirit is the messenger that brings the acquittance from God the Father and saith loe the Father hath accepted of thee in his Sonne the Suretie hath paid the debt for thee and see here is the acquittance for thee so that though the holy Ghost doth bring the acquittance yet the Father must give it This is the first reason Reason 2 Secondly wee say that Iustification is an act of God the Father because the Father is the fountaine in the Deity as Divines use to say in all the workes that are done by the Deitie the Father is the first for as the Persons are in their being so they are in their working The Father in order workes before the Son and the holy Ghost the Sonne workes not before the Father hath wrought and the holy Ghost workes not before the Father
justified him Now the ground of this comfort lieth in three particulars or it affords a threefold consolation First because God the Father hath all things to doe with the soule of a beleever all the suits that are to bee made against a poore soule they come from God and if hee will cease the suit who can follow it if he will say hee is satisfied and well apaid then who can take any advantage against the soule Looke as it is with the Lord of a manour haply hee hath an ill neighbour lives under him and doth him much damage many wayes and the Noble man at last is resolved to follow the law against him therefore the poore man comes in and desires pardon of all that hee hath done amisse and promiseth never to doe the like and the Gentleman out of his noble disposition acquits him and forgives all now imagine some of the servants come in and raise clamours and complaints against him and all the servants of the family are against him well the poore man makes them this answer I have wronged none of you therefore if your Lord bee contented to acquit me I care not what you say I have not wronged you neither doe I feare you this is that which should chear up our hearts infinitely that God the Father is the Lord of the mannour even the Lord of the whole world and if there be any transgression done against thy neighbour whatsoever hee is the Lord of the manour it were no offence to steale but that he hath forbidden it and it were no offence to be disobedient to Parents but that hee hath said Honour thy father and mother c. The goods of thy neighbour are the Lords and the dammage that is done is against the Lord Now if God the Father doe mercifully acquit you and saith hee will pardon the breach of all his Commandements if God acquit us what need wee feare or care what the Devill sayes against us it may bee the Devill will come in and commence a suit against us and say what you be saved yes that 's a likely matter are you not guiltie of this and that well brethren we have done the Devill no wrong against thee onely have I sinned saith David it was against the commands of my good God and his holy Spirit it was against my Father and my Redeemer and they will pardon my sinne God saith I will forgive all that wrong done to me then let the Devill goe and shake his ears looke as it is with a creditor if he hath gotten the suretie in suit he will acquit the debtor and if the debtor be acquitted all the bailiffes in the world can doe him no hurt and hee saith I am out of your debt and danger so it is here God the Father is the Creditor wee have wronged God most infinitely wee owe unto God all that wee have but yet hee hath blotted out all our iniquities therefore if the Devill follow the suit it matters not The Lord saith I will remember his sinnes no more therefore the Devill can pursue him no further Secondly there can bee no court in the world can alter our justification if a man be righted in a lower court a higher court may call it over againe and overthrow it but this is admirable consolation doth God the Father acquit us in Heaven then let the Devill goe and appeale where he will A man never appeals from a higher court to a lower but from a lower court to a higher now all your sinnes are pardoned and you are acquitted in Heaven therefore goe your way comforted and let the Devill appeale where he will no man can reverse it The mercy of the Lord and his sentence endureth for ever you know it was Saint Pauls plea when hee saw that the Jewes were maliciously bent against him to have his life he said No man may deliver me unto them I appeale unto Cesar he saw hee should have hard dealing there if hee were committed to them therefore he appeals unto Cesar so we we have had our case tried in Heaven wee have Cesars judgement seat to goe unto the first person of the Trinitie is our Father the Creditor hath made it good unto us by the witnesse of the Spirit that our iniquities are pardoned and that he will heare no more of them therefore goe away for ever cheared and comforted Vse 2 Again in the second place we have here a word of direction Is God the Father the Judge of the Court then let me speak a word to all hūble broken hearted sinners when you have many Judges to sit upon you in your owne heart bee sure that you bee not judged by them but repaire unto God the Father and get his sentence upon them and whatsoever hee speakes submit unto it and bee contented to judge your selves and your estates answerable by it This is the great misery of many poore creatures that as many miseries as they have so many Judges they have sometimes their feare sits upon them and then they are damped sometimes their suspition sits upon them and then they are marvellously disquieted and sometimes hope sits upon them and then they are a little comforted Oh brethren and beloved in the Lord bee wise now for your soules and put your case to be tried onely by the Lord and not by every one Wee would count him a mad man that having a case of weight to bee tried should commit it to an enemy that hates him or else to an ignorant man that hath no skill at all in the businesse no wise man will doe it but hee appeales to the Judge of the court and lets him cast the cause just so it is here there are many of you some there are I am sure that have a sight of your sinnes and sometimes you thinke that God will certainly commence the suit against you what so many sinnes within mee and so many corruptions to follow mee and oppresse mee certainly my heart is naught are you so ignorant to commit your cause to bee judged by them your carnall reason is an enemie and your owne hearts are weake and not able to understand therefore go to a higher court and say with your selves I care not what the world saith and what carnall reason saith I passe not speake thou Lord a word of comfort to my soule and if his word bee for you then bee for ever comforted and quieted and looke onely to the judgement of the Lord and to none other it is in his hands onely to passe sentence and to condemne as hee seeth fit in his righteous judgement therefore stand to the sentence of him whose Word must stand and shall stand for ever as mount Zion If a plaintiffe have a case to be tried in the court of justice he cares not what the dispute of the lawyers be One man thinkes thus another thinkes thus another would be passing sentēce and saith thus it must be he cares not
have a title to it and that have great parts and abilities and answerable obedience let those take it and blesse God that ever they saw the day but what I have I any share in the death of Christ and what did Christ suffer the death of the crosse for me my sinnes so many and my condition so bad and I cannot tell whether I have any faith or no it is so weake and feeble are all punishments removed I cannot thinke it This is your owne fault for this mercy is for thee for every faithfull beleeving soule bee his estate never so low be thy saith never so weake Hast thou faith but as a grain of mustard seed that thou canst scarcely know whether thou hast faith or no yet if it bee true faith there is grace and mercy enough for thee in the Lord Jesus therefore come and draw the water of life and comfort out of the wels of salvation that is out of the sufferings and obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ You have heard that the heart of our Saviour was amazed and astonished it was for thee therefore bee thou cheared Christ suffered the wrath of the Father and came from under it and that is thy victory be thou for ever cheared Our Saviour was imprisoned that thou mightest bee delivered hee was accused that thou mightest be acquitted he was condemned and therefore there is no condemnation to thy soule he suffered death that thou mightest live for evermore therefore goe your way and goe chearily and the God of Heaven goe with you feare not any punishment now for why should you feare them when you shall not feele them You may here have a ground of double comfort in the time of thy greatest distresse whether it be in horrour of heart within or trouble without in both these the Lord Jesus Christ will pittie you and will rescue you from all in his owne season therefore lift up your heads in the middest of all troubles whatsoever First in all outward troubles and in the heaviest trials thou shalt be pittied in them though Christ be gone up to heaven yet hee hath his bowels of pitty and of mercy with him and his bowels of mercy in heaven earne over a poore dismaid creature that is dismaid either because of thy sinnes or because of those punishments which thou fearest for sinne Hebrews 4.15 Wee have not an high Priest that cannot bee touched with the feeling of our infirmities but was in all things tempted in like sort wee have not an high Priest that is a stranger to crosses and troubles neither have wee an high Priest like Gallio that cared nothing for those things that is he was not troubled with the persecutions of others as their cups are full and they are not troubled with the poverty of others they are at rest and ease and they are not troubled with those that are in misery but hee was tempted in all things like unto us and so Hebrewes 2.13 wherefore in all things it behoved him to bee made like unto his brethren that he might be mercifull and a faithfull high Priest because he suffered and was tempted hee is also able to succour those that are tempted When the poore doe crie oh pittie and compassion for the Lords sake oh you know not what belongs to a hungry belly nor to a naked backe so I say you know not what it is to have a distressed conscience and therefore you have no remorse to them that are such but you must not think that Christ was not touched with our infirmities though hee sit at the right hand of the Father yet he hath not forgotten his people but he hath left his love and his compassion with us and he is touched when we are troubled Paul persecuted the Church and Christ saith Saul Saul why persecutest thou me the foot is pricked in earth and the head complaineth of it in Heaven he felt the rage and malice of Pauls persecutions though haply poore goodman such a one and poore goody such a one was persecuted yet our Saviour was touched and troubled with it therefore let me tell you how to succour your selves when you finde the wrath of God lie heavie upon you and the anguish of soule lies sore upon you I might also speake of the rage and malice of the wicked but when the arrowes of Gods wrath seize upon the soule and God seemes to bee displeased and to goe away from the soule and mercy and love and the sweetnesse of compassion is going as it was with Christ when he cried out My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee Hee findes not that sweetnesse of mercies that formerly hee had done these are troubles indeed Now learne you to looke up to Christ and looke to bee pittied by the Lord Jesus Christ It may be thy husband or thy wife or thy friends will not pittie thee but will say he is turned a precise fellow and see now what good hee hath gotten by running to Sermons thus they adde sorrow to sorrow and persecution to persecution because God hath smitten thee therefore they smite thee too but yet notwithstanding all this looke thou up to the Lord Jesus Christ and know that thou shalt finde favour he will have a fellow-feeling with thee in all thy miseries therefore plead with the Lord Jesus Christ and say Lord in thy estate of humiliation thou wert a man full of sorrowes and thou sufferedst much perplexity thou knowest what it is to suffer the wrath of a displeased Father and thou didst crie out Father is mercy and love and goodnes and all gone Oh blessed redeemer heare those cries of them that crie to thee for mercy thou that didst suffer for poore sinners doe thou succour poore sinners and Jesus Christ will certainly pitie you and will send his good Spirit from heaven to comfort you and he will command loving kindnesse to comfort and refresh thee You that groane under your burthens hee will command loving kindnesse to come to such a mans house and to visite such a one and will say such a man is troubled I command thee to comfort him and salvation I charge thee goe to such a house and tell such a man that I love him tell him that I suffered for him and was forsaken that he might not be forsaken I was condemned that he might be redeemed It is a great comfort that the Lord Jesus Christ is touched and knowes how to deliver such as are tempted He that bore up the frame of the heavens and never groaned under the pillars of the earth yet when he was to beare the wrath of God he shrunke at it and said Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me he that bore the wrath of God for thee he will certainly pity thee Secondly you shall not be pittied in outward sorrowes onely but goe your way for ever cheared you shall bee free from all inward miseries and troubles you shall bee delivered from
the Word tels the deepe things of God the Word saith I am sanctified therefore I am justified therefore called therefore elected the Word reveals these deepe things of God therefore the spirit must needs goe inseparably with it this is an undoubted conclusion Conclus 2 The second is this and I take it to bee somewhat difficult the Spirit of grace the holy Ghost the third Person in Trinitie working with and accompanying of the promise of grace and salvation it doth therein and thereby leave a supernaturall dint and power and a spirituall and overpowring vertue upon the soule and thereby carries it and brings it unto Christ and there lieth a great weight and observe it The principall and efficient cause in the worke of the soule to bring it to beleeving it is not so much any thing in the soule as a spirituall assisting and moving and working upon the soule by vertue of which working and motion it is moved and carried to the Lord Iesus Christ as thus the spirit let in a power to stirre hope and it is stirred and moved it lets in a power to quicken desire and it goes it lets in a power to kindle love and it flames it lets in a power to perswade the will and it takes and chuses the Spirit moves upon these faculties and by vertue thereof they are moved and carried to the Lord therefore I conceive the maine principall cause of faith is rather an assisting power working upon than any inward principall put into the soule to worke of it selfe but the worke is upon the soule the soule by that power and assistance is conveyed and carried home to Christ observe it I will expresse it in severall passages because here lies the difficulty of the point Then know that the Spirit of God doth in the first stroke of faith as the Spirit of God did upon the waters Gen. 1.2 the text saith there 〈◊〉 confused lumpe and the Spirit moved upon the 〈◊〉 and set upon that confused lumpe fasâ—â—◠〈…〉 the creature out thereof so it is with the Siprit and when I speake of the Spirit I intend the promise too the Spirit in the promise meeting with an humbled soule now abased and staggering and quarrelling with himselfe he is in a confused estate hee knowes not what to make of himselfe nor of his confused condition now the good Spirit of the Lord moves upon the soule and leaves a spirituall dint and supernaturall work upon it and the soule by vertue thereof is carried and fitted and fashioned to goe to Christ this I take to bee the meaning of that place Acts 26 18. Saint Paul was sent to turne men from darknesse to light Now it is a confession amongst all Protestant Divines that the first stroke of the Spirit is upon the soule there is nothing in the soule that can drive sinne from the soule and plucke the soule from sinne but the Spirit works this and the soule takes this blow and by vertue of that Spirit the soule is pulled from corruption and turned from sinne this is a confessed truth that the first stroke in conversion is not from any thing within the soule but it is from the Spirit nay the same stroke doth two things it turnes from darknesse to light the same hand and the same stroke doth both these as for example when you teare one thing from another as you reare it from the other you pull it to your selfe he that puls a bough from a tree as he pulls it from the tree hee pluckes it to himselfe so the same Spirit that workes upon the soule in calling it from sinne it doth worke upon the soule in drawing it to Christ it pulls off hope from the world and makes it expect a Christ it pulls off desire from the world and makes it long for Christ it pulls off love from the world and makes it entertaine a Christ it pulls off the will from the world and makes it chuse a Christ so that one stroke doth both and it is plaine therefore the worke of the Spirit upon the soule must bring it unto Christ The like phrase wee have Iohn 15.19 I have called you out of the world therefore the world hates you so that it is there the same voyce the same spirit that calls a man from sin as that is not the way thou poore sinner the way of pride and idlenesse c. that is not the way to Heaven Now that call as it pulls the soule from sinne so that motion and moving and supernaturall worke that it leaves upon the soule the soule thereby being moved and drawne it is comming to the Lord the soule hath not so much the worke of the Spirit of grane in him as the work of the spirit of grace working upon him to draw him from evill and to turne him to the Lord and by vertue of the same worke hee is drawne from the one and brought to the other this I conceive to be the great difference between the union that Adam had with God and that which the faithfull have Adam had a stocke in his owne hand God made him wise and holy and righteous this was his stocke he had a principle within himselfe either to hang upon God and so to bee sustained or to slide and withdraw himselfe from God he had power either to hold or to let goe he had the staffe in his owne hand he might turne unto God and close with the command if he would or he might depart from God and withdraw himselfe from the assistance which hee lent him as he did but now here is a maine difference in the bringing of the heart home to Christ in this union because the first stroke that drawes the soule and brings the soule to Christ is not from any thing within so much as from the spirit without the hand of Christ it layes hold upon the heart and workes upon the heart and brings him home to himselfe this first stroke is from without wee doe beleeve being framed thereunto and drawne by the Spirit of the Father the everlasting arme of the Lord that appeares in the Gospell hee lets it downe and workes upon the soule and brings the heart to himselfe and so the heart is brought to Christ not from any Principle first in it selfe but by the Spirit that workes upon it when the Word of God comes to the soule the Spirit of God accompanies that Word and puls the earthly minde from earthlinesse and the uncleane heart from his lusts and saith Come out thou poore soule this is the way to a Christ that will pardon thee this is the way to a Christ that will purge thee so that my soule moves but it is because it is moved my will closeth but it is because it is perswaded so that the first stroke of this union is not from my selfe but it comes from Christ the hand of the Spirit layes hold on me and drawes me to him hence in the third place
and receives those that are most exact in a Christian course if thy heart be estranged from such as doe walke exactly before God either because he hath given them parts and gifts or because he hath made them humble and faithfull if the Spirit of the Lord be in the Saints then the Spirit of malice and of the Devill is in thee Gods Spirit closeth with all the faithfull ones but thy Spirit cannot close with them when they are made one Spirit with Christ wilt thou be of two Spirits with them then either Christ is to bee blamed or else thou art to be condemned for this basenesse of thine either Christ knowes not how to chuse a good Spirit or else thou art a base vilde spirit this is the great sinne of this last age of the world men are lovers of themselves and not lovers of God nor his grace nor Spirit it is admirable to see how every one that is wicked findes favours in the world but only those that are holy and gracious and one spirit with Christ a drunkard is no mans enemie but his owne and with adulterers you can make matches and if they were murtherers or theeves wee have a kinde of lamentation for them but when it comes to a sincere soule their hearts rise up against him with a desperate spleene and they say these are the holy brethren why what are they Oh saith the Father he is quite spoild I had a sonne which I had some hopes of but now he is gone downe the winde and he will never be good for any thing and then saith the drunkard hee was as good a companion as ever lived and had â—s brave jests to make us merrie withall but now he is quite spoild then thy meaning is that when hee had an uncleane spirit thou didst love him but now because he is come to have a neere union with the Lord Jesus Christ therefore thou art estranged from him then cursed be thy wrath for it is fierce and thy rage for it is cruell if the Spirit of God be holy and good to which hee is united then thou art a vilde unholy wretch I hope now you may know what will become of such and such in the townes and places where you live such I meane as are holy and gracious and yet are hated and despised even those poore creatures are glued to the Lord Christ nay they are holy spirited men which the Spirit of God delights in therefore thy spirit is of Sathan that thou doest thus malice him I confesse a godly heart will have his sits and excursions now and then like an unruly colt and may run wildly into sinne this may befall a godly gracious heart but all this while this is poison and the soule of a godly man sees this and is wearie of it and is marvellously burthened with it and saith Oh vilde wretch that I am what would I have and what is he that I cannot love him is it because the good Spirit of the Lord is there â— shall I resist the good Spirit of the Lord and so commit the sinne against the holy Ghost away thou vilde wretched heart I will love him thus the soule labours and strives for that exactnesse and would faine have that goodnesse which hee sees in other it is in this thing as it is in a mans meat he that hath an unwholesome stomack and seeth that the meat is good and knowne not but that he may eat it he will not blame the meat if hee be ill after it but his stomack but there are some that love to bee cating lome wals and such trash as is naught for them for the stomack is vilde within and would have as bad as himselfe so out of the pride of nature and self-confidence these distempers will bee rising in us but a gracious soule is even sick at the heart and weary of his life and he is never well untill he hath gotten a purge but he that hath the disease and is sick of hatred and malice looke how his heart is so is his tongue and as his heart is so is his carriage Oh poore wretched creature what God may doe for him I know not but for the present he hath the spirit of the Devill in him he is no man but a toad that can live of poison and make a meale of it and yet his heart never be affected with it Vse 3 In the third place is man a sociable creature and must he have some to keepe company with him then in the next place be exhorted to close with such as Christ himselfe doth close withall chuse such companions as the good Spirit of the Lord doth meet withall doest thou see a gracious sincere hearted Christian that is one spirit with the Lord love him and let thy heart be one Spirit with him too and not only the rich but the poore too it is that which we have in nature every man desires to have one that is of a faire nature and a loving disposition he is a â—â— man to make a friend of and these things are not discommendable it is strange to see when God hath cut the 〈◊〉 of these wolves how taâ—â— and quiet they are but would you have a man of a good nature indeed for as one saith hee that hath no more than restraining grace is no more than a tame Devill but would you have a friend of a good nature indeed for this is the maine of all then chuse such as are one with Christ and remember that place in 2 Peter 1.4 Wee are partakers of the divine nature he that is one Spirit with Christ he is partaker of the divine nature even the nature of God himselfe the Spirit of God and the Spirit of meeknesse and self-deniall is in him therefore let thy heart be inlarged towards him and joyne thou side with him which is joyned so neerely to the Lord it was the old practice of those in Zach. 8.22 when God shall honour the Jewes and make them glorious in sanctification and holinesse and they shall goe to market and buy and doe all things holily then shall ten men take hold of the skirt of him that is a Iew and shall say We will goe with you for wee have heard that God is with you would you not goe with the Spirit of the Lord Jesus Christ Yes Oh then get you to the Saints of God and get them to your houses and lay hold upon gracious Christians and say I will live and converse with you for the Spirit of Christ is with you THE SOVLES BENEFIT FROM VNION WITH CHRIST By T. H. LONDON Printed by Iohn Haviland for Andrew Crooke and are to be sold at the Black Beare in S. Pauls Church-yard 1638. THE SOVLES BENEFIT from Vnion with CHRIST 1 CORIN 1.30 But of him are yee in Christ Jesus who is made unto us wisdome righteousnesse sanctification and redemption HOw the soule of a sinner should be prepared for our Saviour and
now take notice of it this will be thy miserie because thou shalt see whole treasures of mercie counted out before mercie for Manasses and mercie for Paul and mercie for the bloudy jaylour and mercie for such a rebellious sinner that humbled himselfe before God and no mercie for thee there is plentifull rich abundant redemption in the Lord Jesus Christ but thou shalt never partake thereof when thou shalt see Abraham and Isaak and Iakob and a companie of poore creatures goe into heaven at the day of the resurrection when thou shalt see a companie of poore creatures goe up to Christ and receive mercie and great redemption and thou shalt goe without this will bee gall and worm-wood to thy soule and strike thy soule into everlasting despaire therefore the Lord open thine eyes that thou maist come in and receive mercie at his Majesties hand now you have your share now stand by and let us set the bread before the children that they may take their part also and be cheaâ—ed and comforted then you that are beleevers in the Lord you that are called attend to your share and sit downe and eat and bee refreshed O my well-beloved receive what comes and be happie in receiving it Vse 2 The second use therefore is a ground of comfort and that is the proper inference and collection from the former doctrine is it so that the Lord Jesus Christ conveyeth all grace to all beleevers to all his poore servants from day to day then you that have a share therein and have interest to all the riches of Gods goodnesse let this be a cordiall to cheare your drooping hearts and stay your soules notwithstanding temptations notwithstanding persecution notwithstanding opposition notwithstanding any thing that may befall you for the present or any thing you may feare for the future time cheare up your drooping spirits in the consideration hereof and be for ever comforted for ever contented for ever refreshed you have a faire portion what would you have what can you desire what would quiet you what will content you would the wisedome of a Christ satisfie you would the sanctification of a Christ please you would the redemption of a Christ cheare you you complaine your hearts are hard and your sinnes great and your selves miserable and many are the troubles that lie upon you will the redemption of a Christ now satisfie you if this will doe it it is all yours his wisedome is yours his righteousnesse is yours his sanctification is yours his redemption is yours all that he hath is yours and I thinke this is sufficient if you know when you are well therefore goe away cheared goe away comforted Christ is yours therefore be fully contented I would not have the Children of God drooping and dismaid because haply of the policy of the world their parts are great and they reach deepe and in the meane time your parts are small and your ignorance great and your memories feeble 1 Pet. 11. Be not thou troubled be not thou discontented because of that which they have thou wantest for know thy portion is better than theirs the wisedome of Christ is better than all the policy of the world the sanctification of a Christ is better than all the reformation and all the trickes of all cunning Hypocrites under Heaven the redemption of a Christ is better than all the hope and safetie the world can afford this is thy part and portion therefore be thou satisfied therewith the wisdome saith Iames that is malicious and envious and the like it is earthly carnall sensuall and devillish but the wisedome that is from above it is first pure then meeke then abundant in good workes one drop of this wisdome of a Christ is better than all the wisdome in the world art thou a poore creature and knowest Christ to bee thy Saviour and hast an intimation of the love of God to be thy Father and the Spirit thy Comforter thy knowledge is more worth than all the knowledge of all the great Cardinals and mightie Popes and learned Clearks upon the face of the earth a dram of gold is better than a cart-load of earth it is little but it is precious so it is here a dram of spirituall wisdome it is golden wisdome it is heavenly wisdome it is able to make thee wise unto salvation a dram of that wisdome though it be little is worth a thousand cart-loads of that dung-hill carnall wisdome that all the machivilian Politicians in the world can have or improve therefore quiet thy selfe and content thy soule that it is sufficient that what thou wantest Christ will supply unto thee dost thou want wisdome Christ will be thy wisdome dost thou want memory Christ will be thy remembrance hast thou a dead heart Christ will inlarge thee whatever is awanting on thy part there is nothing awanting on Christs part but he will do whatsoever is fitting for thee therefore let nothing hinder thee from that comfort that may beare up thy heart in the greatest triall but I know what troubles you the poore soule will say Is Christ wisdome to me that is a like matter did I but thinke that were my judgement convinced and my heart perswaded of that I were satisfied What I what such a base creature as I am let not that basenesse that hangs upon thee nor the meanes of thy condition that troubles thee discourage thy heart for that cannot withdraw Gods favour from thee nor abridge thee of that favour and mercie that is tendered unto thee in the Lord Jesus Christ all the basenesse of the place wherein thou art and the meanes of thy condition cannot hinder thee of this favour looke upon the text to whom is this promise made to whom doth the Apostle speake He is made to us to us base ones to us foolish ones thou art ignorant and foolish bee it so thou art base and weake grant that despised in the world and made nothing of confesse that and all nay thou art not in thine owne account nor in the account of the world there is no regard had of thee no value put upon thee in this nature why marke what the text saith God hath chosen the foolish things the weake things the base things the despised things nay the things that are not to whom is Christ made wisdome to you fooles to whom is Christ made strength to you weak ones to whom is Christ made honour to you base to whom is Christ made sanctification and redemption to you that are not in the world thou hast nothing thou canst doe nothing it skils not God the Father hath appointed it unto thee and Christ hath brought it therefore be cheared herein though thou beest a foole Christ is able to informe thee though thou beest base and weak and miserable Christ is able to succour and releeve thee and sanctifie that soule of thine therefore bee fully contented and fully setled with strong consolation for ever but you will confesse it
bee made a sacrifice for sinne and beare the punishment of sinne If Christ became a debtor for us then he must also lay downe the payment of the debt onely here remember this consider the bounds and limits of this mercy of the Lord it is limited onely to the faithfull they onely share therein and are partakers of that benefit that comes by the sufferings of Christ To prove this Doctrine looke Hebrewes 2.17 compare it with Hebrewes 4.15 In chap. 2.17 the text saith Wherefore it behoved him to bee made like unto his brethren in all things and in chap. 4.15 He was tempted in all things like unto us sinne onely excepted for there were no punishments excepted as appeareth in the former place therefore in Esay 53.5 6 7 8. the whole chapter is a full description of the punishments of our Saviour and you shall finde these three degrees of it in the afornamed verses Hee was stricken and so stricken that hee was wounded and so wounded that hee was bruised for our transgressions and then in the 6. verse it is very pithily laid downe All we like sheep have gone astray and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquitie of us all that is the punishments of us all they were laid that is God made all the sorrowes and all the punishments of all the faithfull to meet upon our Saviour It is a terme taken from warre when an army is levied out every towne and countie sets out so many men and they all meet at such a place such a day so every faithfull soule sets out miseries and mans out afflictions and they all levie out an army of sorrowes and they all meet upon our Saviour all those sinnes and miseries of the godly from one end of the world to the other from east to west from north to south they run amain upon our Saviour and besiege the soule and body of him and they lie heavie upon him the chastisement of our peace was upon him that is it overwhelmed him for the while and made him cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Another proofe of this point is Gal. 3.13 The text saith Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made a curse for us as it is written cursed be every one that hangeth on a tree He that was made such a curse for us as the Law did require and such a curse as wherein the Law was satisfied even he was made a full curse for us and bore all the punishment due to us but hee was made such a curse as the Law prefigured and wherein the Law was satisfied and therefore he must needs beare whatsoever the Law required and therefore I may say to the faithfull soule as Paul said to Philemon concerning Onesimus If he hath hurt thee or oweth thee ought set that upon my score so saith our Saviour whatsoever punishments the faithfull have deserved by their sinnes I will beare it and answer it Now for the opening of the Doctrine give mee leave to open these three questions Quest. 1 First what were the kindes of punishment which Christ did suffer and how farre did he suffer them Quest. 2 Secondly when did those sufferings begin and when did they end Quest. 3 Thirdly whether did he suffer them in soule or in body or in both Quest. 1 First what were the punishments that our Saviour suffered of what kinds were they Answer For answer hereunto hee suffered the pains of the first death by the first death I mean the death naturall when the frame of the body and soule was taken downe and those two old familiar friends were parted this death our Saviour did suffer but if you aske mee how farre he did suffer the death naturall let me answer it in three conclusions First whatsoever appertaines to the substance and the essentials of the first death that is the desolation of soule and body that our Saviour Christ did suffer for that onely was threatned unto Adam by reason of his sin therefore Christ needed not to suffer any thing but that which was threatned in Genesis 2.17 The curse threatned was this In the day that thou dost eat thereof thou shalt die the death the curse doth not mention many deaths nor doth it punctually set forth any one death but whatsoever death it is it is left indifferently to the choyce of our Saviour this I speake to wipe away a carnall cavill that is cast upon this truth by some that would diminish the sufferings of Christ If Christ did suffer punishment for all then why was hee not stoned with stones as Steven was and why was hee not sawne in peeces or burnt or the like The force of the argument followes not our Saviour was not bound to suffer many deaths nay the curse doth not intimate any one death in particular but onely death in the generall Now say they if our Saviour suffered all the punishments of the faithfull then hee suffered so many particular deaths the argument is false for looke how Adam being in the root of all mankinde and committed sinne looke what death he deserved that death our Saviour was to suffer and it was required of him and this death our Saviour undertooke but when Adam had committed sinne there were not many deaths denounced nay nor any one particular death but onely death in the generall and therefore death in the generall being onely threatned death in the generall our Saviour was onely bound to suffer Secondly though the curse doth not require any one particular death and say thou shalt bee stoned or sawne in peeces or the like yet that the Lord might shew the hainousnesse of sinne which deserves the worst death of all and to expresse the greatnesse of the lâ—â—e of Christ that was contented to die in that manner and that God the Father might shew his justice in punishing of sinne for this end God the Father appointed it and Christ undertooke it to die the death of the crosse a most shamefull and base death onely appropriate to the basest malefactors now Christ did willingly submit himselfe to this and God the Father did lay this upon Christ that sinne might appeare to bee most hainous and that sinne might be hated and Christ might appeare most mercifull and gracious and holy in loathing sinne as Philippians 2.6 8. Our Saviour being equall with the Father and thought it no robbery so to be yet he humbled himselfe and tooke on him the forme of a servant and became obedient to the death even the death of the crosse Thirdly those dishonourable infirmities which befall men because of the infirmitie of the flesh because they cannot avoid them and those dishonourable cruelties which are laid upon some men as to bee torne in peeces with wilde horses our Saviour had no need to suffer these First those dishonorable infirmities as the rotting of the body in the grave and returning to its own proper elemeÌ„ts the body of Christ did not
the suit against the partie offending our Saviour steps into our roome and submits himselfe to the censure of the Father and as we were accounted so he was content to bee accounted and as we were to suffer so he was content to suffer for us God the Father loved him as he was God and holy and innocent yet he condemnes him and lets in his wrath upon him as he was to beare our sins for God the Father might love Jesus Christ and yet give his body to death naturall so God the Father might love the soule of our Saviour and yet give it over to paine supernaturall all the world confesseth that it was without anger that Christ died and yet the Father slew him this conclusion helps us to the interpretation of that place Matthew 27.46 My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee He was a Father to our Saviour and our Saviour a Son to him Fourthly whatsoever punishment proceeded from the Father our Saviour tooke it upon himselfe yet so as neither his sins deserved it neither did he sinne in bearing of it nor yet was hee overwhelmed in bearing of it as the wicked are which are damned but hee wrestled with it and overcame it hee first tooke upon himselfe that should have come upon a beleever when the wrath of God comes out like a Lion to take the sinfull sons of men from off the earth and the sea of his indignation flowes in amain then the Lord Jesus Christ steps in between the wrath of the Father and the soule of a beleever and hee bears all Iohn 18.11 when Peter would have rescued our Saviour from the high Priests Our Saviour said suffer it to bee so put up thy sword into its place shall I not drinke of the cup which my Father giveth me to drinke of hee doth not say shall I not sip or taste of the cup but shall I not drinke of it that is he drinkes the cup of wrath which was prepared for poore sinners cleane off therefore Esay 63.3 hee is said to tread the wine-presse of the Fathers wrath alone he did squeese it all out observe these explications in this kinde and know thus much that the want of the sense and feeling and operation of Gods love and the feeling of the indignation of Gods wrath in it selfe considered it is not a sinne but so far as our sinnes deserve this wrath of God and deserve this separation and so far as we out of our infidelitie dash the sweetnesse of Gods love we sin in this kinde but none of all this befell our Saviour the bare want of the one and the sense of the other is not a sinne but we sin in bearing it It is a sweet observation of the Schoolmen that our Saviour cried my God my God even in the losse of the sweetnesse of Gods favour and when Christ complaines and sweat water and blood yea clods of blood so that his heart broke within him under the fierce indignation of the Lord this fierce indignation may be attended two wayes or there are two things in it I say in the separation of God from the soule there are these two things to be attended First a want of that grace and holinesse and confidence whereby the soule should close with God that howsoever God goes away yet the soule should follow him as Iacob did after the Lord when hee said I will not let thee goe unlesse thou blesse mee Now it is one thing when God goes away and it is another thing when we push him away therefore that want of grace and holinesse and confidence whereby the soule should cleave to and close with God this is one thing which causeth the separation of God from us this is on our part Secondly there is another worke on Gods part that howsoever the soule stands Godward and Christward and it cleaves to him as Iob did that would trust in him though he kild him yet God may withdraw the sweet refreshing operation and the sensible conveyance of his mercy and compassion from his soule and he frownes upon him and plucks away the hold and lets in his indignation upon him the first of these two can never bee without sinne and it is a hainous sinne when our soules sit loose from God and when we shall separate our selves from the mercy and goodnesse of God and are weary of Gods presence in his ordinances as many wicked men are and are weary of the promises and say as those in Iob did Depart from us for wee desire not the knowledge of thy wayes this is a cursed sinne and this never was nor could not be in our Saviour but now that the Lord may plucke away the sense of his love and favour and take away the operation and conveyance of his mercy this God may justly doe as he seeth good this was not a sinne in Iob that God did take away the sense of his love and mercy and seemed to be his enemy but if Iob had gone away from God as God did from him then he had sinned but hee held God still this was not a sinne in Iob that God did thus forsake him though haply it was through his sinne deserving it all this did befall our Saviour Christ and yet he was full of holinesse and hangs upon God and said My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And God was angry with him because he had our sinnes upon him but the first of these was not in Christ hee did not depart from God the second was inflicted upon our Saviour and that might be justly this ads much light to those passages those two ardent petitions of those two worthy lights Moses and Saint Paul Exodus 32.32 Moses perceiving that the Lord was ready to destroy the Israelites for their sinne he saith Now if thou pardon this sinne thy mercy shall appeare but if thou will not then rase mee out of the booke of life which thou hast written and in Rom. 9.3 Saint Paul foreseeing the rejection of the Jewes and that God would throw them away for sixteen hundred yeeres together the good man seeing the dishonour that was like to come to God the utter destruction of the people of the Jewes he saith I could even desire to be separated from Christ to be cut off from the Nation of the Iewes that they might not be forsaken of God Now should a man pray to be removed out of Gods presence and to be separated from God for ever and to be cut off from God and to be separated from Christ Jesus no for this were sinfull either it signifies that Paul should have his heart loosened and sit loose in his affections to God and to Jesus Christ this Paul did not pray for for it is a horrible sinne and it is an argument he hated Christ and himselfe too Now so farre as it implies our want of love to God and our want of depending upon God it is a fearfull sinne and these holy
the soule with his indignation his heart would sinke but that a little leane starved hope supports him and he sees than Gods will is not yet fully revealed but that he may be saved and he saith this conscience may bee quieted and this soule may be saved and these sins may bee pardoned now despaire is the quite contrary when the soule hath no good in expectation and that which cuts the heart strings of a mans consolation and plucke a mans comforts up by the roots as hee hath nothing for the present so all means and wayes of getting any good are cut off and then he casts off hope and never lookes to God more because he never lookes for mercy from God and then hope goes out and saith Oh when will it once be cannot these sinnes bee pardoned c And at last hee sees there is no way of getting any good and therefore hee never lookes for mercy more but expects hell and damnation and cries out I am damned I am damned This is despaire and this is the nature of it Secondly this despaire is not any part or essentiall property appertaining to the pains of the second death whether we looke at the withdrawing of the sweetnesse of Gods love or whether wee looke at the inflicting of the wrath of God upon the soule this is no part of them for besides that which Divines will observe namely that all punishments are passions and they suffer them but despaire is a worke of the creature and it issues from himselfe and the creature doth it and therefore it cannot properly bee a punishment nor any part of the second death but besides all this which they observe this desperation so opened it is so farre from being any part of the second death as that it is not a consequent which nextly followes from the second death but from the weaknesse and sinfulnesse of the creature Desperation is not any effect flowing immediatly from the wrath of God upon the creature but it proceeds and comes directly and immediatly from the weaknesse and sinfulnes of the creature Imagine that yee saw the Lord Iesus Christ comming in the clouds with thousand thousands of his holy Angels and the thrones were set up and all flesh appeared the sheep on the right hand and the goats on the left hand and the Lord Iesus Christ passeth the doome and the sentence against them saying Goe yee cursed into everlasting fire Now when a poore damned creature seeth that the sentence is gone and seeth the good wil of God pass'd upon him and the power of his wrath now to bee exprest to the full against him and he apprehends the will of God now fulfild never to be crost more and the decree of God is now exprest never to bee altered more and hee seeth the gates of hell now sealed upon him and that the Lord hath cast upon him the tombstone of his wrath and that he is buried under the power of the second death and now he seeth the time is gone and the justice of God can never bee satisfied more and this power of the Lords wrath can never be removed Oh the time was that I had the word and the power of into quicken me and to informe me and the Spirit of God to strive with me and then there was some hope but now the decree of God is maâ—e unrevokable and this wrath I shall never beare nor never remove There is now to word no praying no hearing no conference no mercy nor salvation to bee hoped for and so the soule lookes no more for any good because the Lord hath so peremptorily set downe his doâ—me thus the soule breaks under the wrath of God and is not able to satisfie and the wrath of God can never bee removed the fire will ever burne and the worme will ever gnaw and now the soule casts off all hope and this is the meaning of those phrases 2 Pet. 3.7 and in the 6. verse of the Epistle of Iude where speaking of the devils the text saith They are reserved in everlasting chains under darknes to the judgement of the great day the devill is hopelesse he hath no hope of good nor shall never receive any good but our Saviour Christ that was able by the power of his God-head to suffer this wrath of God and to satisfie justice and to support himselfe under this wrath and to come out from it he hath a certaine hope to please God the Father and to have everlasting blisse and happinesse with him there is hope with our Saviour because he can beare and satisfie and come from under this wrath Take a bason of water and cast it upon a few coales of fire and it will put them clean out but throw the same boson full upon a great fire and though it may damp it a little at first yet it cannot quench it but rather increaseth the flame and makes it burne the faster what 's the reason of this that it quenched the little fire and not the great fâ—re it was not firstly and nextly because of the coldnesse and crosnesse of the water to the fire for the same water was as cold upon the great fire and as crosseâ— the nature of the great fire but the little fire was rob weake of it selfe to beare the coldnesse of the water and therefore it was quenched but the great fire was able to beare the coldnesse of the water and therefore it was not quenched so it is here the wrath of God is like this water as David saith All thy waves and billowes have passed over me that is the waves of Gods indignation and the ocean sea of Gods wrath â—hen this fals upon a poore weake sinfull creature that cannot beare this but breakes under this wrath and cannot take off the vengeance of the Lord but sinkes under it this creature despaires of all helpe not because of the wrath of the Lord firstly but because of the weaknesse and the sinfulnesse of the creature that could not beare the wrath of the Lord and hence he despaires and the soule saith alas I am weake and a poore sinne creature and this wrath of the Lord is of an infinite vigour I shall never be able to beare it nor to get from under it therefore I despair and cast away all hope of helpe but the Lord Jesus Christ being perfect God and perfect man having a great flame of holy affections kindled in him by the spirit of the Father this did assist him hereby to beare the wrath of God in his soule and not onely was hee able to beare it but to overcome it and although hee were tossed up and downe in the sea of Gods wrath yet he was not drowned and though hee sipped of the poyson yet he was not poysoned therefore he bore the paines of the second death and overcame them and did not despaire he expected to receive good because he knew he should have good thus our Saviour Iohn 19.30 when
beleagered with sorrowes in every part and I would expresse it thus our Saviour Christ knowing Gods counsell and the hour approaching and the thrones of justice prepared and God as an angry Judge sitting thereon with all the bookes brought forth and all the sinnes of all the world there laid open and God the Father as a Judge saith these are the sinnes of those for whom thou hast undertaken to die and if thou answer not for them they must be damned and there he saw the sinnes of Manasses and David and Peter and Paul appeare before the Lord and withall he saw the glorious attributes of God all comming out against him and mercy pleads I have beene despised and patience pleads and saith I haue beene despised and justice pleads and saith I have beene wronged by these men in the time of their ignorance and therefore mercy and patience and goodnesse and holinesse and long suffering and all these that have beene wronged they all come to the Father for justice and say These have beene opposers of thy grace and spirit and they have wronged us if they be saved Christ must be punished and hee seeth the wrath of the Lord making a breach against him and seizing against him and not onely so but even all the Devils and all the Jewes and Gentiles God lets them all in upon our Saviour now see whether hee had good cause to complaine if hee looked up to God there were all his attributes crying for justice against him and death before his face and the Jewes and the Gentiles Herod and Pilate and all conspired against him to bring in sorrow upon our Saviour therefore hee cries Oh my soule it heavie even to the death my soule is beset with sorrowes the Jewes and the sinnes of all the world will have my life thus he began to be astonied and was faine to gather up all his abilities that hee might fortifie himselfe against those evills This is the sufferings of Christ in the garden and yet I speake under it and if I had the tongues of men and of Angels I could not expresse it for these words are never read of any mortall man but that there is weaknesse in the same onely Christ hath exprest thus much that howsoever misery and wrath was able to overcome a poore creature yet hee bore it and that without sinnes Let these two cavils of the Jesuites bee removed before wee goe any further and the explication before spoken of will answer both Object 1 First say they if Christ in his agonie suffered the wrath of God and if this made him to crie out Father if it bee possible let this cup passe from mee if this bee so then say they our Saviour must continue in the agonie from the garden till he came upon the crosse but that hee could not doe for hee checks Iudas and reproves Peter not as a man astonished but as a man in his right wits and hee answered Pilate calmly and hee prayed holily and commended himselfe to God the Father and he was not as a man astonished in all this therefore hee was not now in the agonie Answer To this I answer the objection growes upon a false ground for they conceive that because he was in the agonie therefore it must continue untill his being upon the crosse I say no that 's false for our Saviour entred into the agonie as into a combat and he that enters into a combat hath many bouts in it as there are many stormes and tempests but there are some beames of sun-shine betweene them so here there is some interims It is in this case as it is with a man in a burning fever a man hath many intermissions betweene the fits so although our Saviour bore all the whole wrath of God yet he had intermitting fits of it as in Matthew 26.39 42 44 in the 39. verse he prayed and said Father if it bee possible let this cup passe from mee and he went away againe the second time and prayed saying Father if it bee possible let this cup passe from mee and hee went againe the third time and prayed yet more earnestly saying Father if it be possible let this cup passe from me and as it is in Luke â—2 44 Hee entred into the agonie that is into the fit as we use to say of a sicke man now the fit is upon him he prayed once and came againe so one fit was over he prayed yet againe so two fits were over then he prayed yet more earnestly so the the third fit was over here are three bouts which hee had when hee wrestled with the indignation of the Lord. There were three stormes in this tempest and betweene every little storme he had a pleasant gale of ease and refreshing This is the answer to the first objection Object 2 Secondly if the wrath of God seized upon the soule of our Saviour then the cause being the same the effect must needs be the same therefore he must needs be still in the agonie when he was upon the crosse You must know that the sorrowes and sufferings of our Saviour issued onely from these two causes First from the wrath of God comming upon him for our sinnes Secondly our Saviour did willingly according to the agreement made betweene him and the Father put himselfe under the wrath of the Father he laid his head upon the blocke and upon the anvill under the blow of divine Justice Now it is not the wrath of God alone nor the willingnesse of Christ alone but from the wrath of God comming upon him and his willingnesse in submitting to the wrath of God for Justice saith if these bee saved thou must suffer and Christ saith I am contented I will yet so farre as I see fit and may be for my honour this shewes that he did it willingly Therefore hee was a cause by counsell and a voluntary disposer of his owne worke therefore he might either satisfie justice by bearing the whole wrath of God or else he might take a breathing while as he saw fit so that howsoever you frame the objection yet the answer is cleere for when a man hath taken worke to doe by the great hee may goe to his worke or he may leave his worke provided that he doe performe it according to bargaine or a man may speake if he will or else if he will he may keep silence so Christ undertooke to suffer for us but provided when hee would and as he would Matthew 26.37 He began to wax sorrowfull that is hee did it freely hee entred into the combat of Gods displeasure he undertooke it when he would and as much at once as he would provided that hee did pay and suffer all for the curse doth not require that Christ should suffer all at once but onely that he should satisfie the justice of God againe the humane nature of Christ could not so well beare all the wrath of God at once therefore he tooke it at three
seized upon his soule and unlesse they doe grant this then this absurditie must needs follow upon it that Christ was not at all forsaken of God for he that was constantly assisted and refreshed by the sense of the love and favour of God he was no way forsaken Ioseph was in prison but God was with him and Daniel was in the Lions den but God was with him and in 2 Chron. 15.2 God is with you while yee are with him now if Christ had assistance from God the Father to strengthen him and the sense of the sweetnesse of Gods love to refresh him then hee was no way forsaken which is profesly contrary to this truth and it is to give the good Spirit of God the lie therefore away with those imaginations so that the answer is cleare that God the Father did take away the sense and feeling of the sweetnesse of his love from our Saviour and this made him to crie out My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee thus much to wipe away the cavils of the Jesuits Now I come to shew the right sense and interpretation of the words which wee ought to receive and here you may see the great worke of Christ and the love of Christ and the comfort of a Christian the text includes two things which containes the very dregs of the cup First that God tooke away the sense and feeling of his love and favour Secondly God the Father laid a curse upon him There is a dereliction and a malediction in the words forsaking and the curse therefore adde to this place but Gal. 3.13 and you shall have the full sufferings of Christ Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us because it is written cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree so that when hee was crucified and hanged on the crosse then hee was made a curse for us and then he was forsaken Let mee a little open both the passages to you First for the forsaking of our Saviour Why hast thou forsaken mee when he cried thus and rored for the very disquietnesse of his soule there was more in it than ordinarie I will discover the substance of this forsaking of Christ how farre it went and that in three particulars that you may know how far to steere your judgements in conceiving the sense of the Spirit of God in this place this forsaking of Christ may be conceived of in three conclusions First it was not a totall forsaking of our Saviour but onely in part and it was not a perpetuall forsaking but for a while and it was not a taking away the Godhead from the manhood of our Saviour but the Godhead was ever united to the manhood and did evermore support it Secondly this forsaking was on the Fathers part and not on our Saviours part the Father forsakes Christ but Christ went after him God tooke away the sense of his love but the Lord Jesus Christ cried after him and laid hold upon him and saith My God my God why hast thou forsaken me the Father went away but the Lord Jesus Christ went after the Father and would not let him goe God the Father might justly forsake our Saviour being made sinne for us by account and imputation being our suretie God the Father might justly take away and withdraw the sense of the sweetnesse of his love and favour from the Lord Jesus Christ without any sinne but now the Lord Jesus Christ could not have forsaken and gone away from the Father without sinning so that this forsaking was on the Fathers part but our Saviour held fast and would not be carried away My God my God c. As Iob saith Though hee kill mee yet will I trust in him so that Iobs trusting and Gods killing anger might stand together and when the Lord wrestled with Iacob and said Let me goe for the day breaketh Iacob said I will not let thee goe untill thou blesse me God may goe away from Iacob but Iacob may not goe away from God for want of confidence and affiance so that this forsaking is to be apprehended wholly on the Fathers part for our Saviour did not goe away from God by diffidence and distrust Thirdly and here lies the main pith and heart blood of the point that wee may speake tremblingly and wisely in this great and difficult point The conclusion is this the soule of our Saviour that is the whole man was for the while deprived of the sense of Gods favour and the feeling operation of his love and mercy that might comfort him I say it was for the while and this seemes to be the reason of those strong cries and heart-breaking complaints of his You know when a man cries then there is misery and trouble upon him and when he cries loud and puts forth all his powers it implies a marvellous weight nay it gives us to conceive of a kinde of admiration and a kinde of wondering with himselfe what the cause of it should bee It seemes here that this was the cause of the sad complaint because in his agonie there were some inklings of Gods mercy and now and then a starre-light and a little flash of lightning to cheere him but now all the sense and feeling of Gods love was gone and not so much as any little star-light to cheere him up and that drives him to a wonderment saying My God my God why hast thou forsaken mee Is it possible that thou canst thus forsake thy Sonne what 's the reason of it what and an onely begotten Sonne not that the spirit of consolation was ever taken away from our Saviour nor that the Godhead was taken away from the manhood and so left comfortlesse and supportlesse no no but howsoever the spirit of comfort and consolation was there yet the sweetnesse of that consolation wherein he had refreshed and solaced himselfe that was quite taken await Object Oh but say the Jesuites this seemes strange for if this bee so that all the sense and sweetnesse of Gods love was taken away from him then how can he say my God my God Answer It is a conceit for a Jesuite and not for a Christian for faith and the want of feeling may goe together Christ longed after mercy though hee saw nothing and hee cried my God my God though hee had no sense of Gods love the strongest faith may stand where no sense is Esay 50.10 Hee that walketh in darknesse and hath no light that is he that is altogether in misery and sorrow and anguish and seeth no light of comfort and consolation what must hee doe must hee cast away all hope no let him stay himselfe by the power of faith upon his God So then Christ may have and had confidence to say my God my God and yet hee was deprived of the sense of Gods love and the feeling operation of his mercy and favour and God the Father might take away the sense and sweetnesse of it without
threatnings of God can take no hold upon them but though they are so rebellious here yet everlasting condemnation shall take hold of them and shall have power over them hereafter and will drag their soules and bodies downe to hell and there they shall suffer intolerably and incomprehensibly and then hell and condemnation shall tell them thus much seeing the commands of God could take no hold upon you therefore we will the mercies of God could not perswade with you but the judgements of God shall prevaile against you What becomes of all the great and mighty men of the world where is Pharaoh and Nimrod and the rest of them the wrath of God hath throwne them upon their backs in hell but you that are true beleevers the second death shall have no power over you though wrath and condemnation seeme to lay hold upon you yet there is no power in them to condemne you because if Christ hath taken away the paines of the second death then it shall never oppresse such as belong to the Lord Jesus Christ therefore goe your way comforted there is nothing that shall ever prevaile against you Object Oh but saith the soule could I see Heaven gates set open if the way were open and plaine that I might see the way and walke in it then I could be comforted but what I in heaven the Angels are all holy and God is a holy God and a pure redeemer and all things there are pure and undefiled can such a wretch as I am come to heaven certainly the Saints will goe out of heaven if I come there Answer No the blood of Christ will doe all this for you and it will make way for thee into heaven as Hebr. 10.19 20. Seeing therefore brethren that by the blood of Iesus we may most boldly enter into the holy places by the new and the living way which hee hath prepared for us through the vaile which is his flesh marke two things in that place you may have boldnesse you feare now that your sinnes will not bee pardoned and that God the Father will not accept of you well be not proud and sawcie but take the blood of Christ along with you and goe on boldly and chearfully All you that have an interest in the great worke of God either for brokennesse of heart or vocation to call you to rely upon the Lord Jesus Christ bee thou a sinner If thou hast faith I speake not of the measure of faith but hast thou faith then why sittest thou here drooping Go you on cheerily and undauntedly and goe with comfort to everlasting happinesse every thing gives you comfort had you but eyes to see it God and men Heaven and earth sinne justice hell and condemnation gives you all comfort If you looke up to justice that saith you poore beleeving creatures goe your way comforted I am setisfied to the full If you looke to hell and death and condemnation they say be comforted you poore beleeving soules we have no power over you the Lord Iesus Christ hath conquered us and if you looke to your owne sinnes they tell you thus much and say be for ever comforted for wee have pleaded against you but wee have lost the cause If you looke up to heaven there you may see glory and happinesse and blessednesse ready to entertaine every beleeving soule and they all call after you and say Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdome prepared for you therefore goe away cheerily and get you to heaven and when you come there be discomforted if you can if Christ and God and Heaven and all call you and say come all hither you beleeving soules then lift up your heads with joy and draw the waters of comfort and consolation from this truth onely remember this here when you finde your sins roaring upon you and telling your Father that you have sinned and justice cries and hell threatens then take the blood of Christ and see before your eyes all that ever Christ hath suffered and see justice fully satisfied and heare the blood of Christ speaking as well as the clamours of sinne it is the misery that we are in that we can here the bawlings of Satan and of corruption crying and saying what you salvation and yet have these and these corruptions we heare these and we hearken not to the other the blood of Christ hath pardoned all and will cleanse all Oh heare that voyce and you shall see and heare that it speakes admirable things this is the second use Vse 3 Thirdly hath Christ done all this then stand amazed at that endlesse and boundlesse love of the Lord Jesus Christ but onely that the Scripture cannot lie and God hath said which is faithfull and true and cannot be deceived and is infinite in all his workes otherwise man that is sensible of his sins and wants could not beleeve it but yet Christ hath done it and it is worth the while to weigh it and to consider of it in a holy admiration although wee are not able to walke in any measure answerable thereto had our Saviour only sent his creatures to serve us and had we onely had some Prophets to advise us in the way to Heaven or had hee onely sent his holy Angels from his chamber of presence to attend upon us and minister to us it had beene a great deale of mercy or had Christ come downe from the heavens to visit us It had beene a peculiar favour that a King will not onely send to the Prison but goe himselfe to the lungeon and aske saying is such a man here a man would thinke himselfe strangely honoured and the world would wonder at it and say the King himselfe came to the prison to day to see such a man certainly he loves him dearly or had Christ himselfe come onely and wept over us and said Oh that you had never sinned and oh that you had more considered of my goodnesse and the excellency of happinesse oh that you had never sinned this had beene marvellous mercy but that Christ himselfe should come and strive with us in mercy and patience and we slight it and not onely to provide the comforts of this life but the means of a better life and to give us peculiar blessings nay that the Lord Jesus should be so fond of a company of rebels and hell-hounds that he thinkes nothing good enough for them hee hath prepared heaven for them and he gives them the comforts of the earth for their use too nay he hath given them his blood and his life and all and yet you are not at the highest what doe you talke of life hee was not onely content to part with life but hee was content to part with the sense and sweetnesse of Gods love which is a thousand times better than life it selfe as David saith The loving kindnesse of God is better than life it selfe He was content to be accused that we might be blessed he was content