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
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.
do not 4. Psal 37. 1 2. Psal 73. 21. Prov. 3. 31. Psal 9. 17. envy the prosperity and flourishing estate and condition of wicked and ungodly men for God has given it under his hand that they shall be turned into Hell The wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God 'T was a wise saying of Marius to those that envy great men their honour let them saith he envy them their burdens I have read a story of a Roman who was by a Court-marshal condemned to die for breaking his rank to steal a bunch of Grapes and as he was going to execution some of the souldiers envied him that he had Grapes and they had none saith he do you envy me my Grapes I must pay dear for them Ah sirs do not envy wicked mens grapes do not envy their riches their honours their greatness their offices their dignities for they shall one day pay dear for these things high seats to many are uneasie and the down fall terrible How art Isa 14. 12. thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer son of the morning 't is spoken of the Chaldean Monarch who though high yet had a suddain change befel hm It is not a matter of so great joy to have been high and honourable as it is of grief anguish and vexation to be afterwards despicable and contemptible Come down and sit in the dust Babylon Isa 47. 1. was the Lady of Kingdoms but saith God sit in the dust Take the mill-stones and grind The Lord of hosts â—ers 2. â—sa 23. 9. hath purposed it to stain Heb. to pollute the pride of al glory and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth He shall bring down their pride together Wo to the Isa 25. 11. â—sa 28. 1. vers 3. crown of pride the crown of pride shall be trodden under feet God will bring down the Crown of pride to the dust to ashes yea to hell and therefore do not envy the Crown of pride Croesus was so puffed up with his Crown of pride with his great riches and worldly glory that he boasted himself to be the happiest man that lived But Solon told him that no man was to be accounted happy before death Croesus little regarded what Solon had said unto him until he came by miserable experience to find the uncertainty of his riches and all worldly glory which before he would not believe For when he was taken by King Cyrus and condemned to be burned and saw the fire preparing for him then he cried out O Solon Solon Cyrus asking him the cause of the outcry he answered that now he remembred what Solon had told him in his prosperity Nemo ante obitum foelix that no man was to be accounted happy before death Who can summ up those Crowns of pride that in Scripture and History God has brought down to the dust yea to the dunghil Have not some wished when they have been breathing out their last that they had never been Kings nor Queens nor Lords nor Ladies c. Where is there one of ten thousand who is advanced and thereby any thing bettered Solus Imperatorum Vespasianus â—n melius mutatus Few men believe what vexations lie under the pillows of Princes You look upon my Crown and my Purple Robes saith Artaxerxes but did you know how they were lined with thorns you would not stoop to take them up Damocles highly extolled Dionysius his condition Dionysius to convince him of his mistake provides a royal feast invites him to it commands his servants to attend him no meat no mirth no musick is wanting but withal caused a sharp sword to be hung over his head by an horse hair which made Damocles tremble and to forbear both meat and mirth Such even such saith Dionysius the Sicilian Tyrant is my life which thou deemest so pleasant and happy O sirs there is a sword of wrath which hangs over every sinners head even when he is surrounded with all the gay and gallant things of this world Outward prosperity is commonly given in wrath as you may see by comparing the Scriptures in the margin Hos 13. 11. Psal 73. Psal 78. 30 31. Prov. 1. 32. Luk. 12. 16. to the 22. Ecclâ—s 5. 12 13. together Prosperity kills and damns more than adversity The Germans have this proverb That the pavement of Hell is made of the glorious Crests of Gallants It had been infinitely better for the great men of this world that they had never been so great for their horrid abuse of God's mercy and bounty will but encrease their misery and damnation at last That Ancient hit it who said because they have tasted so liberally of God's kindness Augustine and have imployed it only against God's glory their felicity shall be short but their misery shall be endless and therefore to see the wicked prosper and flourish in this The whole Turkish Empire is nothing else but a crust cast by our Father to his dogs and it is all they are likely to have let them make them merry with it said Luther world is matter rather of pity than envy 't is all the heaven they must have These are as terrible Texts as any in the whole book of God Mat. 6. 2. Verily I say unto you they have their reward Luk. 6. 24. Wo to you that are rich for you have received your consolation James 5. 1 2 3. Go to now ye rich men weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you Your riches are corrupted and your garments are moth-eaten your gold and silver is cankred and the rust of them shall be a witness against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire Gregory being advanced to places of great preferment professed that there was no Scripture that went so near his heart and that struck such a trembling into his spirit as that speech of Abraham to Dives Luk. 16. 25. Son remember thou in thy life time receivedst thy good things They that have their heaven here are in danger to miss it hereafter It is not God's usual way saith one to remove a deliciis ad delicias from delights Jâ—rom to delights to bestow two Heavens one here and another hereafter and doubtless hence it was that David made it his solemn prayer Deliver me from the wicked from men of the world which have their portion in this life Psal 17. 14. and whose belly thou fillest with thy hid treasure It is a very hard thing to have earth and heaven too God did not turn man out of one Paradise that he should here provide himself of another Many men with the Prodigal cry out give me the portion that belongs to me give Luk. 15. 12. me riches and give me honour and give me preferment c. and God gives them their desires but 't is with a vengeance As the Israelites had Quails to choke them and afterwards a King to
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
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
mouth and ever in Austin's mouth and should be ever in a Christians mouth when his eye is fixed upon the righteousness of Christ Every believer is in a more blessed and happy estate by means of the righteousness of Christ than Adam was in innocency and that upon a three-fold account all which are just and noble grounds for every Christian to rejoyce and triumph in Christ Jesus 1. That righteousness which Gen. 3. chap. Psal 8. 5. Eâ—cles 7. 29. Adam had was uncertain and such as it was possible for him to lose yea he did lose it and that in a very short time God gave him power and freedom of will either to hold it or lose it and we know soon after upon choice he proved a Bankrupt but the righteousness that we have by Jesus Christ is made more firm and sure to us it is that good part that noble portion that shall never be taken from us as Christ said to Mary Adam Luk. 10. 42. sinned away his râ—ghteousness but a believer cannot sin away the righteousness of Jesus Christ It is not possible â— John 3. 9. Râ—m 8. 35 39. for the Elect of God so to sin as to lost Christ or to strip themselves of that robe of righteousness which Christ hath put upon them The gates of â—ell shall never be able Mat. 16. 18. to prevail against that soul that is interested in Christ that is clothed with the righteousness of Christ Now what higher ground of joy and triumph in Christ Jesus can there be than this But Secondly the righteousness that Adam had was in his own keeping the spring and root of it was sounded in himself and that was the cause why he lost it so soon Adam like the Prodigal son had Luk. 15. 12. 13. all his portion his happiness his â—oliness his blessedness his righteousness in his own hands in his own keeping and so quickly lost stock and block as some speak it O but now that blessed righteousness that we have by Jesus Christ is not in our own keeping but in our father's keeping Look as our persons graces and inherent righteousness are kept as in a Garrison by the power of God 1 Pet. 1. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the original is a military word and signifies safe keepingâ— kept as with a Guard or in a Garrison that is well fenced with walls and works and so is made impregnable unto salvation so that righteousness that we have by Jesus Christ is kept for us by the mighty power of God unto salvation God the father is the Lord Keeper not only of our inherent righteousness but also of the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ unto us My sheep shall never perish saith our Saviour John 10. 28 29. neither shall any pluck them out of my hand my father that gave them me is greater than all and none is able to pluck them out of my father's hands Though the Saints may meet with many shakâ—â—gs and tossings in their various conditions in this world yet their final perseverance till they come to full possâ—â—sion of eternal life is certain God is so unchangeable in his purposes of love and so invincible in his power that neither Satan nor the world nor their own flesh shall ever be able to separate them from a Crown of righteousness 2. Tim. 4. 7 8. A Crown of life Rev. 2. 10. A Crown of glory 1 Pet. 5 4. The power of God is so far above all created opposition that it will certainly maintain the Saints in a state of Grace Now what a bottom and ground for rejoycing and triumphing in Christ Jesus is here But Thirdly Admit that the righteousness that Adam had in his Creation had been unchangeable and that he could never have lost it yet it had been but the righteousness of a man of a mere creature and what a poor low righteousness would that have been to that high and glorious righteousness that we have by Jesus Christ which is the righteousness of such a person as was God as well as man yea that righteousness that we have by Jesus Christ is a higher righteousness and a more excellent transcendent righteousness than that of the Angels though the righteousness of the Angels be perfect and compleat in its kind yet it is but the righteousness of merâ— creatures But the righteousness of the Saints in which they stand clothed before the throne of God is the righte ousness of that person which is both God and man Look as the second Adam was a far more excellent person than the first Adam was The first man was of the earth earthy 1 Cor. 15. 47. Look as Adam conveighs his guilt to all his children so Christ conveighs his righteousness to all his he was caput cum foedere as well as the first Adam as the Apostle speaks The second was the Lord from heaven not for the matter of his body for he was made of a woman but for the original and dignity of his person whereof you may see a lively and lofty description in Heb. 1. 2 3. so his righteousness also must needs be far more excellent absolute glorious and every way all-sufficient to satisfie the infinite justice of God and the exact perfection of his holy Law than ever Adam's righteousness could possibly have done Remember sirs that that righteousness that we have by Jesus Christ is called the righteousness of God He made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him saith the Apostle in 2 Cor. 5. 21. Now that righteousness that we have by Jesus Christ is called the righteousness of God 1. because it is such a righteousness as God requires 2. As he approves of and accepts 3. As he takes infinite pleasure and delight and satisfaction in The Righteousness the Apostle speaks of in that Scripture last mentioned is not to be understood of the essential righteousness of Christ which is infinite and no ways communicable to the creature unless we will make a creature a God but we are to understand it of that righteousness of Christ that is imputed to believers as their sin is imputed to him Now what a Well of salvation is here what three noble grounds and what matchless bottoms are here for a Christian's joy and triumph in Christ Jesus who hath put so glorious a Robe as his own righteousness upon them Ah Christians let not the consolations of Job 15. 11. God be small in your eyes why take you no more comfort and delight in Christ Jesus why rejoyce you no more in him not to rejoyce in Christ Jesus is a plain breach of that Gospel command Rejoyce in the Lord alway that is Phil. 4. 4. rejoyce in Christ and again I say rejoyce saith the Apostle he doubleth the mandate to shew the necessity and excellency of the duty so Phil. 3. 1. Finally my brethren rejoyce in the Lord. Now
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
by the morning-dew There is nothing puts a more serious frame into a man's spirit than to know the worth and preciousness of time Time saith one were a good commodity in hell Bernard Blessed Hoâ—p was spare of diet sparer of words sparest of time And Bradford counted that hour lost where in he did not some good by his tongue pen or purse A Heathen could say he lived no day without a line that is he did something remarkable every day Maâ—k Cato was wont to say that there were three things which he abhored 1. To commit secrets to a woman 2. To go by water when he might go by land 3. To spend one day idle Plutarâ—h and the traffick of it most gainful where for one day a man would give ten thousand worlds if he had them One called his friends thieves because they stole time from him and certainly there are no worse thieves than those that rob us of our praying seasons our hearing seasons our mourning seasons c. There was an eminent Minister who would often say that he could eat the flesh off his arm in indignation against himself for his lost hours It was good counsel that an ancient Christian that is now triumphing in glory gave to another who is still alive be either like Christ or Mary The first was always doing good the latter was still a receiving good this is the way to be strong in grace and to be soon ripe for glory Certainly time is infinitely precious in regard of what depends upon it What more necessary than repentance yet that depends upon time Rev. 2. 21. I gave her space to repent of her fornications What more desirable than the favour of God This depends upon time and is therefore called the acceptable time Isa 49. 8. What more excellent than salvation this likewise depends upon time 2 Cor. 6. 4. Now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation Pythagoras saith that time is anima coeli the soul of heaven But to draw to a close what can there be of more worth and weight and moment than Eternity it is the Heaven of Heaven and the very Hell of Hell without which neither would Heaven be so desirable nor Hell so formidable Now this depends upon time Time is the Prologue to Eternity the great weight of Eternity hangs upon the small wire of Time Whether our time here be longer or shorter upon the spending of this depends either the bliss or the bane of body and soul to all Eternity This is our seed-time Eternity is the harvest whatsoever seed we sow whether of sin or grace it cometh up in Eternity whatsoever a man soweth Gal. 6. 7 8. 2. Cor. 9. 6. the same shall he reap This is our market time in which if we be wise Merchants we may make a happy exchange of earth for heaven of a Valley of tears for a Paradise of delights This is our working time I must work the works of him that sent me the night cometh Joh. 9. 4. when no man can work according as the work is we do now such will be our wages in Eternity Though time it self lasts â—ot yet whatsoever is everlasting dependeth upon it and therefore should be carefully improved to the best advantage for our souls and for the making sure of such things as will go with us beyond the grave Shall your Lady live to be an honour to God to be wise 1 Pet. 3. 3 4 5. 1 Tim. 2. 9 10. Eph. 6. 4. Prov. 31. 1 2 3 Gal. 4. 19. 1 Tim. 1. 5 6. Isa 44. 3 4. cap. 59. 21. Psal 112. 1 2. Eph. 1. 3. for Eternity to be a pattern of piety humiliy modesty c. to others to be a joyful mother of many children and to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord Shall you both live to see Christ formed up in your Off-spring and to see their souls flourish in grace and holiness and God bestowing himself as a portion upon them Shall you all round be blessed with all spiriual blessings in Heavenly places in Christ and shall you all round be crowned with the highest glory happiness and blessedness in the world to come Shall you all live in the sense of divine love and diâ— in the sense of divine favour Now to the everlasting arms of divine protection and to the constant influences of free rich Gal. 5. 22 23. and sovereign Grace and Mercy he commends you all who is Sir Your much obliged friend and soul's servant Tho. Brooks TO THE READER Christian Reader SOme preachers in our days are like Heraclitus who was called the dark Doctor because he affected dark Heraclitus was a Philosopher of Ephesus he was surnamed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Obseurus because he affected dark speeches Joh 38. 2. speeches so they affect sublime noions obscure expressions uncouth phrases making plain truths difficult and easie truths hard c. They darken counsel by words without knowledg Men of abstracted conceits and wise speculations are but wise fools like the Lark that soareth up on high peering and peering but at last falleth into the net of the Fowler Such persons commonly are as censorious as they are curious and do Christ and his Church but very very little service in this world The Heathenish Priests had their Mythologies and strange canting expressions of their imaginary unaccessable Deities to amaze and amuze their blind superstitious followers and thereby to hold up their Popish and apish Idolatries in greater Veneration the prudent reader can tell how to make application If thou affectest high strains of wit or larded pompous and high-flown expressions or eloquent trappings or fine new notions or such things that thou mayest rather wonder at than understand I shall not encourage thee to the perusal of this Treatise But First If thou wouldest be furnished with soveraign Antidotes 1. 2 Pet. 3. 16. 1 John 4. 1 2 3. 2 Epâ—st John 7 8. 9 10. 11. against the most dangerous errours that are rampant in these days then seriously peruse this Treatise Secondly if thou wouldest be established strengthened setled and confirmed in the grand points of the Gospel then 2. 1 Pet. 5. 10. seriously peruse this Treatise But 3. Thirdly If thou wouldest know what that faith is 3. John 1. 12. cap. 3. 16. John 5. 24. that gives thee an interest in Christ and in all that fundamental good that comes by Christ then seriously peruse this Treatise But Fourthly If thou wouldest have thy judgment rightly informed 4. 1 Cor. 2. 6 7. Psal 119. 18. in some great truths about which several men of note have been mistaken then seriously peruse this Treatise But Fifthly If thou wouldest know what safe and excellent 5. 2 Cor. 5. 10. Heb. 9. 27. Pleas to make to those ten Scriptures that refer to the general Judgment and to thy particular day of Judgment then seriously peruse this Treatise But Sixthly
7. 15. 19. 21. 23. Isa 30. 22. 14. Hos 8. When the will stands upon such terms of defiance with all sin as that it will never enter into a league of friendship with any sin then is the Soul turned from every sin Thirdly In the judgments turning away from all sin by disapproving disallowing and condemning all sin Rom. 7. 15. O! saith the judgment of a Christian sin is the greatest evil in all the world 't is the only thing God abhors and that brought Jesus Christ to the Cross that damns Souls that shuts Heaven and that has laid the foundations of Hell O! It is the pricking thorn in my eye the deadly arrow in my side the two-edged-sword that hath wounded my Conscience and slain my comforts and separated between God and my Soul O! sin is that which hath hindred my prayers and imbittered my mercies and put a sting into all my crosses and therefore I can't but disapprove of it and disallow of it and condemn it to death yea to Hell from whence it came Fourthly In the purpose and resolution of the soul the soul sincerely purposing and resolving never willingly wilfully or wickedly to transgress any more Psal 17. 3. The general purpose and resolution of my heart is not to transgress though particular failings may attend me yet my resolutions and purposes are firmly set against doing evil Psal 39. 1. The true Penitent holds up his purposes and resolutions to keep off from sin and to keep close with God though he be not able in every thing and at all times to make good his purposes and resolutions c. But Fifthly In the earnest and unfeigned desires and careful endeavours of the Soul to abandon all sin to forsake all sin and to be rid of all sin Rom. 7. 22 23. You know when a prudent tender indulgent Father sees hs Child to fail and come short in that which he enjoyns him to do yet knowing that his desires and endeavours is to please him and serve him he will not be harsh rigid sowre or severe towards him but will spare him and exercise much tenderness and indulgence towards him and will God will God whose mercies reach above the Heavens and whose compassions are infinite and whose love is like himself carry it worse towards his Children then men do carry it towards theirs Surely no. God's Fatherly indulgence accepts of the will for the work Heb. 13. 18. 2 Cor. 8. 12. Certainly a sick man is not more desirous to be rid of all his Diseases nor a Prisoner to be freed from all his bolts and chains than the true Penitent is desirous to be rid of all his sins Sixthly and lastly In the common and ordinary declining shunning and avoyding of all known occasions of sin yea and all temptations provocations inducements and enticements to sin c. That royal Law 1 Thes 5. 22. Abstain from all appearance of evil is a Law that is very precious in a Penitent mans eye and commonly lyes warm upon a Penitent mans heart so that take him in his ordinary course and you shall find him very ready to shun and be shie of the very appearance of sin of the very shews and shadows of sin Job made a Covenant with his eyes Job 31. 1. and Joseph would not hearken to his bold tempting Mistriss to lye by her or to be with her Gen. 39. 10. And David when himself would not sit with Vain persons Psal 26. 3 4 5. Now a true penitential turning from all sins lyes in these six things and therefore you had need look about you for if there be any one way of wickedness wherein you walk and which you are resolved you will not forsake you are no true penitents and you will certainly lose your souls and be miserable for ever This Opinion that is now under-consideration is an opinion that will exceedingly deject many precious Christians and cause them greatly to hang down their heads especially in four days 1. In the day of common calamity 2. In the day of personal affliction 3. In the day of death 4. In the great day of account First In a day of common Calamity when the Sword is drunk with the blood of the slain or when the raging Pestilence lays thousands in heap upon heap or when Fevours Agues Gripes and other Diseases carry hundreds every week to their long homes O! now the remembrance of a mans beloved sins his bosom sins his darling sins if a Saint had any such sins will be very apt to fill his soul with fears dreads and perplexities Surely now God will meet with me now God will avenge himself on me for my beloved sins my bosom sins my darling sins O! how righteous a thing is it with God because of my beloved lusts to sweep me away by these sweeping Judgments that are abroad in the Earth On the contrary how sweet and comfortable a thing is it when in a day of common Calamity a Christian can appeal to God and appeal to Conscience that though he has many weaknesses and infirmities that hang upon him that yet he has no beloved sin no bosom sin no darling sin that either God or Conscience can charge upon him O! such a consideration as this may be as life from the dead to a gracious Christian in the midst of all the common Calamities that do's surround him and that hourly threaten him Secondly In the day of personal Affections when the smarting Rod is upon him and God writes bitter things against him when the Hand of the Almighty has toucht him in his Name Estate Relations c. O! now the remembrance of a mans beloved sins his bosom sins his darling sins if a Saint had any such sins will be as the hand writing upon the Wall Dan. 5. 5 6. that will make his counteance to be changed his thoughts to be troubled his joynts to be loosed and his knees to be dashed one against another O! now a Christian will be ready to conclude O! 't is my beloved sins my bosom sins my darling sins that has caused God to put this bitter cup into my hand and that has provokt him to give me gall and wormwood to drink Lam. 3. 19. Whereas on the contrary when a man under all his personal tryals though they are many and great yet can lift up his head and appeal to God and Conscience that though he has many sinful weaknesses and infirmities hanging upon him yet neither God nor Conscience can charge upon him any beloved sins any bosom sins any darling sins O! such a consideration as this will help a man to bare up bravely sweetly cheerfully patiently and contentedly under the heaviest hand of God as is evident in that great instance of Job who so sorely afflicted as Job and yet no beloved sin no bosom sin no darling sin being chargable upon him by God or Conscience Job 10. 7. chap. 31. 33. How bravely sweetly and Christianly do's Job bear up under
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
by the Embassadours of King Hunnerick answered thus Being assured of God and my Lord Christ I tell you what Victor Uticens l. 3. Wandâ—l perfecat you may tell the King Let him burn me let him drive me to the Beasts let him torment me with all kind of torments I shall never consent to be an Arrian and though the Tyrant afterwards did torture him with very great tortures yet he could never work him over to Arianism The best remedy against the slavish fear of Tyrants is to set that great God up as the object of our fear who is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell Mark He doth not say to destroy soul and body simply or absolutely so that they should be no more for that many that love their Lusts and prize the World above a Saviour would be contented withal rather than to run the hazard of a fierce hot persecution but to punish them eternally in Hell where the Worm never dyeth nor the Fire never goeth out Now by Hell in this Math. 10. 28. The Grave cannot be meant because the soul is not destroyed Eccles 12 7. Phil. 1. 3. with the body in the Grave as they both shall be if the person be wicked after the Morning of the Resurrection in Hell From the immortality of the soul we may infer the Eternity of mans future condition the soul being immortal it must be immortally happy or immortally miserable It was Luthers complaint of old We Luther Tim. 4. 33. 4. more fear the Pope with his Purgatory than God with his Hell and we trust more in the Absolution of the Pope from Purgatory than in the true Absolution of God from Hell and is it not so with many this day who bears their heads high in the Land and who look and long for nothing more than to see Room flourishing in the mid'st of us Take one Scripture more viz. 1 Pet. 3. 19 20. By which also he went and Preached unto the Spirits in Prison Spirits that is the Souls departed not Men but Spirits to keep an Analogy to the 18th ver Christ suffered being made dead in the flesh and made alive by the Spirit in which Spirit he had gon and Preached to them that are now Spirits in Prison because they disobeyed when the time was when the Patience of God once waited in the days of Noah Broughton in his Epistle to the Nobility of England August lib. 1. de civ dei cap. 17. which somtimes were disobedient When once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah That is Christ by his Spirit in the Ministry of Noah did Preach to the men of the Old World who are now in Hell In Noahs time they were on Earth but in Peters time they were in Hell Mark Christ did not Preach by his Spirit in his Ministry or any other way to Spirits who were in Prison or in Hell while he Preached to them There are no Sermons in Hell nor any Salvation there The loving kindness of God is abundantly declared on Earth but it shall never be declared in Hell Look as there is nothing felt in Hell but destruction so there is nothing found in Hell of the offers of Salvation One offer of Christ in Hell would turn Hell into a Heaven One of the Ancients hath reported the opinion of some in his time who thought that thou there be destruction in Hell yet not eternal destruction but that Sinners should be punished some a lesser others a longer time and that at last all shall be freed And yet saith he Origen was more merciful in this point than these men for he held that the Devil himself should be saved at last Of this opinion I shall say no more in this place then this one thing which he there said These men will be found to erre by so much the more fouly and against the right words of God so much the more perversly by how much they seem to themselves to judge more mercifully for indeed the justice of God in punishing of Sinners is as much above Isa 55. 7 8 9. the reach of mans thoughts as his mercies in pardoning them are O let not such who have neglected the great Heb. 2. 3. Salvation when they were on Earth ever expect to have an offer of Salvation made to them when they are in Hell consult these Scriptures Math. 25. 30. Math. 13. 41 42. Rev. 9. 2. 〈◊〉 Rev. 14. 19 20. Rev. 20. 1 2 3 7. I must make hast and therefore may not stand upon the opening of these Scriptures having said enough already to prove both out of the Old and New Testament that there is a Hell a place of torment provided and prepared for all wicked and ungodly men But The third Argument to prove that there is a Hell is this The beams of natural light in some of the Heathens have made such impressions on the heart of natural Conscience that several of them have had confused notions of a Hell as well as of a Judgment to come Though the poor blind Heathens were ignorant of Christ and the Gospel and the great work of Redemption c. yet by the light of Nature and reasonings from thence they did attain to the understanding of a Deity who was both just and good as also that the soul was immortal and that both rewards and punishments were prepared for the souls of men after this life according as they were found either vertuous or vicious Profound Bradwardine and Bradw de causa dei l. 1. c 1. c. several others have produced many proofs concerning their apprehensions of this truth What made the Heathen Emperour Adrian when he lay a dying cry out O animula vagula blandula c. O my little wretched wandring soul whether art thou now hasting c. Oh what will become of me live I cannot dye I dare not but some discoveries of Hell of wrath to come Look as these poor Heathens did feign such a place as the Elizean Fields where the Vertuous should spend an Eternity in pleasures so also they did feign a place called Tartarum or Hell where the Vicious should be Eternally tormented Tertullian and after him Chrysostom affirmeth that Poets and Phylosophers and all sorts of men speaking of a future retribution have said that many are punisht in Hell Plato is very plain that whoever are not expiated but prophane shall go into Hell to be tormented for their wickednesses with the greatest most bitter and terrible punishments for ever in that Prison in Hell And Jupiter speaking to the other Gods concerning the Grecians and Trojans saith If any shall so hardy be To aid each part in spight of me Him will I tumble down to Hell In that Infernal place to dwell So Horace speaking concerning Joves Thunder-bolts saith Quo bruta tellus vaga slumina Quo styx invisi horrida Taenari scdes c. With which Earth Seas the Stygian
sufferings of Hell are eternal Certainly Infernal fire is neither tolerable nor terminable Impenitent Sinners in There is no Christian which doth doth not believe the fire of Hell to be everlasting Dr. Jackson on the Creed l. 11. c. 3. Hell shall have end without end death without death night without day mourning without mirth sorrow without solace and bondage without liberty the damned shall live as long in Hell as God Himself shall live in Heaven their imprisonment in that land of darkness in that bottomless pit is not an imprisonment during the Kings pleasure but an imprisonment during the everlasting displeasure of the King of Kings Suppose say some that the whole world were turned to a Mountain of Sand and that a little Wren should come every thousand year and carry away from that heap one grain of Sand what an infinite number of years not to be numbred by all finite beings would be spent and expired before this supposed Mountain could be fetcht away Now if a man should lye in everlasting burnings so long a time and then have an end of his Woe it would administer some ease refreshment and comfort to him but when that immortal Bird shall have carryed away this supposed Mountain a thousand times over and over alass alass sinful man shall be as far from the end of his anguish and torment as ever he was he shall be no neerer a coming out of Hell then he was the very first moment that he entred into Hell If the fire of Hell were terminable it might be tolerable but being endless it must needs be easeless Bellar de arte moâ—iendi l. 2. c. 3. and remediless we may well say of it as one doth O killing Life O immortal death Suppose say others that a man were to endure the torments of Hell as many years and no more as there be Sands on the Sea-shore drops of water in the Sea Stars in Heaven Leavs on Trees Piles of Grass on the ground Hairs on his head yea upon the heads of all the Sons of Adam that ever were or are or shall be in the world from the beginning of it to the end of it yet he would comfort himself with this poor thought Well there will come a day when my misery and torment shall certainly have an end But wo and alass this word Never Never Never will fill the hearts of the Damned with the greatest horror and terror wrath and rage amazement and astonishment Suppose say others that the torments of Hell were to end after a little Bird should have emptyed the Sea and only carry out her bill full once in a thousand years Suppose say others that the whole world from the lowest Earth to the highest Heavens were filled with grains of Sand and once in a thousand years an Angel should fetch away one grain and so continue till the whole heap were spent Suppose say others if one of the Damned in Hell should weep after this manner viz. That he should only let fall one tear in a thousand years and these should be kept together till such time as they should equal the drops of water in the Sea how many millions of Ages would pass before they could make up one River much more a whole and when that were done should he weep again after the same manner till he had filled a second a third and a fourth Sea if then there should be an end of their miseries there would be some hope some comfort that they would end at last but that they shall Never Never Never end This is that which sinks them under the most tormenting terrors and horrors You know that the extremity and eternity of Hellish torments is set forth by the Worm that never dyes and it is observable that Christ at the close of his Sermon makes a threefold repetition of this Worm Mark 9. 44. where their Worm dyeth not and again ver 48. where their Worm dyeth not and their fire goeth not out Certainly those punishments are beyond all conception and expression which our Lord Jesus doth so often inculcate within so small a pace Now if there be such a diversity extremity and eternity of Hellish pains and torments which the great God will certainly inflict upon the bodys and souls of all impenitent persons after the day of Judgment then there must certainly be some Hell some place of torment wherein the wrath of God shall be executed upon wicked and ungodly men But Sixthly The greatest part of wicked and ungodly men escape unpunished in this world the greatest number of men do spend their days in Pride ease pleasures and delights in Lust and Luxury in Voluptuousness Psal 73 3. to the 13. ver Job 21. 12. Amos 5. 6. and Wantonness They take the Timbrel and Harp and rejoyce at the sound of the Organ They chant to the sound of the Vial and invent themselves Instruments of Musick They drink Wine in bowls They lye upon beds of vers 3 Ivory and stretch themselves upon their Couches and eat the Lambs out of the Flock and the Calves out of the midst of the Stall and therefore there will be a time when these shall be punished in another world God doth not punish all here that he may make way Rom 2. 4 5. 2 Pet. 3 9. 15. vers for the displaying of his mercy and goodness his patience and forbearance Nor doth he forbear all here that he may manifest his Justice and Righteousness lest the World should turn Atheist and deny his Providence He spares that he may punish and he punisheth that he may spare God smites some Sinners in the very acting of their sins as he did Korah Dathan and Abiâ—am Num. 16. and others not till they have fill'd up the measure of their sins as you see in the men of the old World Gen. 6. 5 6 7. But the greatest number of sinners God reserves for the Math. 7. 13 great day of his Wrath. There is a sure punishment though not always a present punishment for every Sinner Eccles 8 12 13. Those wicked persons which God suffers to go uncorrected here He reserves to be punished for ever hereafter 2 Thes 1 7 8 9 10. Sinners know your Doom you must either smart for your sins in this world or in the world to come That Ancient hit the mark that said Many sins are punished in this World that the providence of God might be more Augustin Epist 54. apparent and many yea most reserved to be punished in the World to come that we might know that there is yet Judgment behind Sir James Hambleton having been Murdered by the Mr. Knox in his History of Scotland Scotish Kings means he appeared to the King in a Vision with a naked Sword drawn and strikes off both his arms with these words Take this before thou receivest a final payment for all thy impieties and within twenty-four hours two of the Kings Sons
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
Isa 53. 7. 1 Pet. 2. 24. him vers 5. 6. as by the Law of sacrificing of old the sinner was to lay his hands upon the head of the beast Levit. 8. 14. 18. 22. v. confessing his sins and then the beast was slain and offered for expiation thus having the man's sins as it were taken and put upon it and hereby the sinner is made righteous The sinner could never be pardoned nor the guilt of sin removed but by Christ's making his soul an offering for sin what did Christ in special recommend to God when he was breathing out his last gasp but his soul Luk. 23. 46. When Jesus had cried out with a loud voice he said father into thy hands I commend my spirit and having said thus he gave up the Ghost that is to thy safe custody and blessed tuition I commend my soul as a special treasure or Jewel most charily and tenderly to be preserved and kept Luke 2. 52. He increased in wisdom and stature here 's stature for his body and wisdom for his soul his growth in that speaks the truth of the former and his growth in this the truth of the latter his body properly could not grow in wisdom nor his soul in stature therefore he must have both There are two essential parts which make up one of his natures his Manhood viz. soul and body but both of these two of old have been denyed Marcion divests Christ of a body and Apollinaris of a soul and the Arrians held that Christ had no soul but that the Deity was to him instead of a soul and supplyed the office thereof that what the soul is to us and doth in our bodies all that the divine nature was to Christ and did in his body and are there not some among us that make a great noise about a light in them that dash upon the same rock but the choice Scriptures last cited may serve sufficiently to confute all such brain-sick men But Secondly as Christ had a true humane and reasonable soul so Christ had a perfect entire compleat body and every thing which is proper to a body for instance 1. he had blood Heb. 2. 14. He also took part of the same that is of flesh and blood Christ had in him the blood of a man shedding of blood there must be for without it Heb. 9. 22. there is no remission of sin the blood of bruit creatures Heb. 10. 4 5 10. v. could not wash away the blots of reasonable creatures wherefore Christ took our nature that he might have our blood to shed for our sins There is an Emphasis put upon Christ as man in the great business of man's salvation The Man Christ Jesus the remedy carrying in it a suitable 1 Tim. 2. 5. ness to the Malady the sufferings of a man to expiate the sin of man 2. He had bones as well as flesh Luk. 24. 39. A spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see me have 3. Christ had in him the bowels of a man Phil. 2. 8. which bowels he fully expressed when he was on earth Mat. 12. 18 19 20. nay he retaineth those bowels now he is in heaven in glory he hath a fellow feeling of his people's miseries Acts 9. 4. Saul Saul why persecutest thou me see Mat. 25. 35. to the end of that chapter though Christ in his glorified state be freed from that state of frailty passibility Mortality yet he still retains his wonted pity 4. He had in him the familiarity of a man how familiarly did Christ converse with all sorts of persons in this world all the Evangelists do sufficiently testifie Man is a sociable and familiar creature Christ became man Heb. 2. 17. that he might be a merciful High Priest Not that his becoming man made him more merciful as though the mercies of a man were more than the mercies of God but because by this means mercy is conveyed more suitably and familiarly to man But Fourthly and lastly our Lord Jesus Christ took our infirmities upon him when Christ was in this world he submitted to the common accidents adjuncts infirmities miseries calamities which are incident to humane nature For the opening of this remember there are three sorts of infirmities 1. There are sinful infirmities Jam. 5. 7. Psal 77. 10. the best of men are but men at the best witness Abraham's unbelief David's security Job's cursing Gen. 20. 2. Psal 30. 6. 7. Job 3. Jen. 4. Jonas his passion Thomas his unbelief Peter's lying c. Now these infirmities Jesus Christ took not upon him for though he was made like unto us in all things yet without sin Heb. 4. 15. 2. There are personal infirmities which from some particular causes befall this or that person as Leprosie blindness dumbness Palsie Dropsie Epilepsie Stone Gout Sickness Christ was never sick sickness arises from the unfit or unequal temperature of the humours or from intemperance of labour study c. but none of these were in Christ he had no sin and therefore no sickness Christ took not the passions or infirmities which were proper to this or that man 3. There are natural infirmities which belong to all Mankind since the fall as hunger thirst wearisomness sorrowfulness sweating bleeding wounds death burial now these natural infirmities that are common to the whole nature these Jesus Christ took upon him as all the Evangelists do abundantly testifie our dear Lord Jesus he lay so many weeks and months in the Virgin 's womb he received nourishment and growth in the ordinary way he was brought forth and bred up just as common infants are he had his life sustained by common food as ours is he was poor afflicted reproached persecuted tempted deserted falsely accused c. he lived an afflicted life and died an accursed death his whole life from the cradle to the cross was made up of nothing but sorrows and sufferings and thus you see that Jesus Christ did put himself under those infirmities which properly belong to the common nature of man though he did not take upon him the particular infirmities of individuums Now what do all these things speak out but the certainty and reality of Christ's Manhood Que. But why must Christ partake of both natures was it absolutely necessary that he should so do An. Yea it was absolutely necessary that Christ should partake of both natures and that both in respect of God and in respect of us First in respect of us and that First because man had sinned and therefore man must 1. 1 Cor. 15. 21. be punished by man came death therefore by man must come the resurrection of the dead man was the offender therefore man must be the satisfier man had been the sinner and therefore man must be the sufferer it is but justice to punish sin in that nature in which it had been committed by man we fell from God and by man we must be brought back to God by the first
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
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