that were wrought by Christ and to that sight that they had of his glory in the Mount Mâ—t. 17. Aâ—â—s 1. and to his Resurrection and visible ascension into the highest heaven he alludes to the familiar conversation which the Apostles had with Christ for about three years and also to that touching when after the Resurrection Christ offered himself to the Apostles that believed not in him to touch him The truth of these things were confirmed Luk. 24. to them by three senses hearing seeing handling the latter still surer than the former and this proves Christ to be true man as his being from the beginning sets out his Deity Christ had also those natural affections passions infirmities which are proper to a body as hunger Mat. 4. 2. When he had fasted forty days and forty nights he was afterwards an hungerd All Christ's Actions are for our instruction not all for our imitation Matthew expresly makes mention of nights lest it should be thought to be such a fast as that of the Jews who fasted in the day and did eat at the evening and in the Chemnit night He would not extend his fast above the term of Moses and Elias lest he should have seemed to have appeared only and not to have been a true man he was hungry not because his fasting wrought upon him but Hilar. because God leâ—t man to his own nature It seems Christ felt no hunger till the forty days and forty nights were expired but was kept by the power of the Deity as the three children or rather Champions from feeling the heat of Dan. 3. 27. the fire Christ fasted forty days and forty nights and not longer lest he might be thought not to have a true humane body for Moses and Elias had fasted thus long before but never did any man fast longer When Christ began to be hungry the tempter came to him not when he was fasting the Devil is cunning and will take all the advantage he can upon us during the forty days and forty nights the Devil stood doubtful and durst not assault the Lord Jesus partly because of that voice he heard from heaven This is my beloved son in whom I am well Mat. 3. 17. pleased and partly because his forty days and forty nights fast did portend some great thing but now seeing Christ to be hungry he impudently assaults him Christ was not hungry all the forty days but after he was hungry to shew he was man Some think that Christ by his hunger did objectively allure Satan to tempt him that so he might overcome him as souldiers sometimes feign a running away that they may the better allure their enemies closely to pursue them that so they may cut them off either by an Ambush or by an orderly facing about so the Devil tempted Christ as man not knowing him to be God or if he did know him to be God Christ did as it were encourage his cowardly enemy that durst not set upon him as God shewing himself to be man And as Christ was hungry so Christ was thirsty John 4. 7. There came a woman of Samaria to draw water Jesus saith unto her give me to drink here you see that he that is rich 2 Cor. S. 9. Psal 104. 27. v. and Lord of all became poor for us that he might make us rich and he that gives to all the creatures their meat in due season he begs water of a poor Tankerd-bearer to refresh himself in his weariness and thirst John 19. 28. Jesus saith I thirst bleeding breeds thirsting sleeping Mat. 8. 24. he was asleep to shew the truth of the humane nature and the weakness of his Disciples faith Christ was in a fast and dead sleep for so much the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies his senses were well and fast bound as if he had no operation of life and therefore the Disciples are said to raise him as it were from the dead The same Greek word is used in many places where mention is made of the Resurrection as you may see by comparing John 2. 19. Mat 27. 52. 1 Cor. 15. 12. the Scriptures in the margent together He was asleep 1. By reason of his labour in preaching and journey he slept 2. To shew forth the truth of his humane nature some think the Devil stirred up the storm hoping thereby to drown Christ and his Disciples as he had destroyed Job 1. 18 19. Job's children in a Tempest before but though Satan had malice and will enough to do it yet he had not power yea though Christ slept in his humane nature yet was he awake in his Deity that the Disciples being in danger might cry unto him more fervently and be saved more remarkably And as Jesus slept so he was also weary John 4. 6. Now Jacob's well was there Jesus therefore being wearied with his journey sat thus on the well and it was about the sixth hour about noon in the heat of the day Christ was weary Christ took on him not only our nature but the common infirmities thereof and he is to be as seriously eyed in his humanity as in the glory of his Godhead therefore it is recorded that he was weary with his journey ere half the day was spent and that through weariness he sat thus on the well that is even as the seat offered or as weary men use to sit c. But in a word he was conceived retained so long in the Virgins womb born circumcised lived about thirty years on earth conversed all that time with men suffered died and was crucified buried rose again ascended and sat down with his body at the right hand of God and with it will come again to judg the world Now what do all these things speak out but that Christ hath a true body and who in their wits will assert that all this could be done in and upon and by an imaginary body But Secondly The several denominations that are given to Jesus Christ in Scripture do clearly evidence the verity and reality of his humane nature he is called 1. The son of the virgin Isa 7. 14. 2. Her first born son Luk. 2. 7. 3. The branch Zach. 3. 8. and 6. 12. 4. The branch of righteousness Jer 33. 15. and 23. 5. 5. A rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch out of his roots Isa 11. 1. 6. The seed of the woman Gen. 3. 15. 7. The seed of Abraham Gen. 22. 18. 8. The fruit of David's loyns Psal 80. 36. and 132. 11. Act. 2. 30. 9. Of the seed of David according to the flesh Rom. 1. 3. 2 Sam. 7. 2. 10. The Lyon of the tribe of Judah Rev. 5. 5. 11. The seed of Jacob Gen. 28. 14. 12. The seed of Isaac Gen. 26. 4. 13. A son born to us a child given to us Isa 9. 6. 14. The son of man Mat. 8. 20. Mat. 16. 13. Rev. 1. 13. Dan. 7. 13. Joh.
comfortably conclude that his â—aith is a true justâ—fying saving faith the faith of Gods Eâ—acâ— and such a faith as clearly evidences a gracious Estate and will certainly bring the Soul to Heaven Now in Answer to this important Question we may suppose the poor Believer is ready to experess himself thus First Upon search and sad experience I find my self a poor lost miserable and undone Creature as the Scriptures every where do evidence Ephe. 2. 1 2 5 12. Colos 2. 13. Rom. 8. 7 Luk. 19. 10. Secondly I am convinced that it is not in my self to deliver my self out of this lost miserable and forlorne Estate could I make as many Prayers as might be piled up between Heaven and Earth and weep as much blood as there is water in the Sea yet all this could not procure the pardon of one sin nor one smile from God c. Thirdly I am convinced that it is not in Angels or men to deliver me out of my lost miserable and undone condition I know provoked Justice must be satisfied Divine wrath pacified my sins pardoned my heart renewed my state changed c. or my soul can never be saved and I know it is not in Angels or Men to do any of these things for me Fourthly I find that I stand in absolute need of a Saviour to save me from wrath to come 1 Thes 1. 10. to save me from the curse of the Law Gal. 3. 10. 13. and to save me from infernal slames Isa 33. 14. so that I may well cry out with those in Act. 2. 37. Men and Brethren what shall we do And with the Jaylour Act. 16. 36. Sirs what shall I do to be saved Fifthly I see and know through grace that there is an utter impossibility of obtaining salvation by any thing or by any person but by Christ alone according to that of the Apostle Act. 4. 12. Neither is there Salvation in any other for there is no other name that is no oother person under Heaven given among men by which we must be saved I know there is no Saviour that can deliver me from eternal death and bring me to eternal life and glory but that Jesus of whom it is said that he shall save his People from their sins Luk. 1. 21. and therefore I must conclude that there is an utter impossibility of obtaining Salvation by any other person or things c. But Sixthly I see and know through grace that Jesus Christ is an All-sufficient Saviour that he is a mighty yea an Almighty Saviour a Saviour that is able to save to the utmost all them that come to him as the Scripture speaks Psal 89. 19. I have laid help upon one that is mighty Isa 63. 1. I that speak in Righteousness mighty to save Heb. 7. 25. Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them I know that the Lord Jesus is mighty to save me from that Wrath and from that Curse and from that Hell and from that Damnation that is due to me by reason of my sins And that he is mighty to justifie me and mighty to pardon me and mighty to reconcile me to God the Father and mighty to bring me to glory as the Scripture do's every where testifie But Seventhly I know through grace that Jesus Christ is the only person anointed appointed fitted and furnished by the Father for that great and blessed work or office of saving Sinners souls as these Scriptures amongst others do clearly testifie Isa 61. 1 2 3 4. Luk. 4. 17. 18 19 20 21. Math. 1. 20 21. John 6. 27. Certainly were Jesus Christ never so able and mighty to save yet if he were not anointed appointed fitted and furnished by the Father for that great office of saving poor loâ—t Sinners I know no reason why I should expect Salvation by him But Eighthly I know through grace that the Lord Jesus Christ hath sufficiently satisfied as Mediatour the justice of God and pacified his wrath and fulfilled all Righteousness and procured the favour of God and the pardon of sin c. for all them that close with him that accept of him as he is offered in the Gospel of grace Gal 3. 19 20. 1 Tim. 2. 5. Heb. 8. 6. Heb. 9. 14 15. chap. 12. 24. Heb. 10. 12 14. Math. 3. 15. Rom. 8. 1 2 3 4. 33 34. chap. 5. 8 9 10. Act. 13. 39. Ninethly I find that Jesus Christ is freely offered in the Gospel to poor lost undone Sinners such as I am I find that the Ministers of the Gospel are commanded by Christ to proclaim in his Name a general pardon and to make a general offer of him to all to whom they Preach the everlasting Gospel without excluding any Mark 16. 15. And he said unto them Go ye into all the World and preach the Gospel unto every Creature and what is it to preach the Gospel unto every Creature but to say unto them as the Angels did to the Shepherds Luk. 2. 10 11. I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people for unto you is born this day in the City of David a Saviour which is Christ the Lord c. Tenthly I know through grace that all sorts of Sinners are invited to come to Christ to receive Christ to accept of Christ and to close with Christ Isa 55. 1 2. Math. 11. 28 29. Joh. 7. 37. Rev. 3. 20. and chap. 22. 17. c. But Eleventhly Through grace I do in my understanding really assent to that blessed record and report that God the Father in the blessed Scriptures has given concerning Christ 1 Joh. 5. 10 11 12. The report that God the Father has made concerning the Person of Christ and concerning the Offices of Christ and concerning the work of Redemption by Christ I do really and cordially assent unto as most true and certain upon the Authority of Gods Testimony who is truth it self and cannot lye Now though this assent alone is not enough to make a saving reception of Christ yet it is in saving faith and that without which it is impossible there should be any saving faith But 12thly I can say through grace that in my judgjudgment I do approve of the Lord Jesus Christ not only as a good but as the greatest good as a universal good as a matchless good as an incomparable good as an infinit good as an eternal good and as the most sutable good in Heaven and Earth to my poor soul as these Scriptures do evidence Psal 73. 25 26. Cant. 5. 10. 45. Psal 1 2. Phil. 3. 7 8 9 10. 1 Tim. 1. 15. I know there is every thing in Christ that may suit the state case necessities and wants of my poor soul there is mercy in him to pardon me and power in him to save me and wisdom in him to counsel me and grace in him to enrich me and
when Angels Devils Men shall stand before the Lord Jesus whom God the Father hath ordained to be the Judge of Quick and Dead Act. 17. 31. Now to this great Question I Answer that the sins of the Saints the infirmities and enormities of Believers shall never be brought into the Judgment of discussion and discovery they shall never be objected against them either in their particular day of Judgment or in the great day of their Account Now this truth I shall make good by an induction of particulars thus First Our Lord Jesus Christ in His judicial proceedings in the last day which is set down clearly and largely in Math. 25. 34. to ver 42. doth only enumerate the good works they have done but takes not the least notice of the spots and blemishes of the infirmities or enormities Deut. 32. 4 5 6. Dan. 9. 24. of the weaknesses or wickednesses of his people God has sealed up the sins of his people never to be remembred or lookt upon more In the great day the book of Gods Remembrance shall be opened and publickly read that all the good things that the Saints have done for God for Christ for Saints for their own Souls for Sinners and that all the great things that they have suffered for Christ's sake and the Gospels sake may be mentioned to their everlasting praise to their eternal honour And though the choicest and chiefest Saints on Rom 7. 23 24. Gal. 5. 17. Earth have 1. Sin dwelling in them 2. Operating and working in them 3. Vexing and molesting of them being as so many Goads in their sides and Thorns in their eyes 4. Captivating and prevailing over them yet in that large Recital which shall then be read of the Saints lives Math. 25. There is not the least mention made either of sins of Omission or Commission nor the least mention made either of great sins or of small sins nor the least mention made either of sins before Conversion or after Conversion Here in this world the best of Saints have had their buts their spots their blots their specks as the fairest day hath its Clouds the finest Linnen its spots and the richest Jewels their specks but now in the judicial process of this last and universal Assizes there is not found in all the Books that shall then be opened so much as one unsavory but to blemish the Rev. 20. 12. Dan. 7. 10. Num. 23. 21. fair Characters of the Saints Surely he that sees no Iniquity in Jacob nor perverseness in Israel to impute it to them whilst they live he will never charge Iniquity or perverseness upon them in the great day Surely he who has fully satisfied his Fathers Justice for his peoples sins and who hath by his own Blood ballanced and made Isa 53. up all Reckonings and Accounts between God and their souls he will never charge upon them their faults and follies in the great day Surely he who hath spoken so much for his Saints whilst he was on Earth and who hath continually interceded for them since he went to John 17. Heb. 7. 25. Heaven he won't though he hath cause to blame them for many things speak any thing against them in the great day Surely Jesus Christ the Saints Pay-master Heb. 10. 10 12 14. Matth. 18. 24. Col. 2 14. who hath discharged their whole debt at once who hath paid down upon the nayl the ten thousand Talents which we owed and took in the Bond and nailed it to the Cross leaving no back-reckonings unpaid to bring his poor Children which are the travail of his soul afterward Isa 53. 11. into any danger from the hands of Divine Justice he will never mention the sins of his people he will never charge the sins of his people upon them in the great day Our dear Lord Jesus who is the Righteous Judg of Heaven and Earth in the great day of account He will bring in Omnia bene in his presentment all fair and well and accordingly will make Proclamation in that High-Court of Justice before God Angels Devils Saints and Sinners c. Christ will not charge his Children with the least unkindness he will not charge his Spouse with the least unfaithfulness in the great day yea he will represent them before God Angels and Men as compleat in him as all fair and spotless as without spot or wrinkle as without fault before the Throne of God as holy and Col. 2. 10. Cant. 4. 7. Ephe. 5. â—7 Rev. 14 5. unblameable and unreproveable in his sight as immaculate as the Angels themselves who kept their first Estate This honour shall have all the Saints and thus shall Christ be glorified in his Saints and admired in all 1 Thâ—s 2. 10 them that believe The greatest part of the Saints by far will have past their particular judgment long before Heb 9. 27. the general judgment and being therein acquitted and discharged from all their sins by God the Judge of the quick and dead and admitted into Heaven upon the credit 2 Tim. 4. 1. of Christs Blood Righteous satisfaction and their free and full justification It cannot be imagined that Jesus Christ in the great day will bring in any new charge against his Children when they have been cleared and absolved already Certainly when once the Saints are freely and fully Absolved from all their sins by a Divine Sentence then their sins shall never be remembred they shall never be objected against them any more For one Divine Sentence cannot cross and rescind another the Judge of all the world had long since cast all their sins behind his back and will he now set them before his face Isa 38. 17. and before the faces of all the world surely no he has long since cast all their sins into the depths of the Sea bottomless depths of everlasting Oblivion that they might Micah 7. 19. never be buoyed up any more He has not only forgiven their sins but he has also forgotten their sins And Jer. 31. 34. will he remember them and declare them in the great day surely no God has long since blotted out the transgressions Isa 43. 25. of his people This Metaphor is taken from Creditors who when they purpose never to exact a Debt will blot it out of their Books Now after that a Debt is strucken out of a Bill Bond or Book it cannot be exacted the Evidence cannot be pleaded Christ Col. 2. 14. having crost the debt-Book with the red lines of his Blood If now he should call the sins of his people to remembrance and charge them upon them he should cross the great design of his cross Upon this foundation stands the absolute impossibility that any sin that the least sin yea that the least circumstance of sin or the least aggravation of sin should be so much as mentioned by the Righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth in the process of that
the world was Crowned with Thorns and they smote him on the head Osorius writing of the sufferings of Christ saith That the Crown of Throns bor'd his head with seventy-two wounds To see that Head before which Angels cast down themselves and worshiped as I may say Crowned with Throns might well amaze us To see those Eyes that were purer than the Sun put out by the darkness of death To see those Ears which hear nothing to speak to capacity but Hallelujahs of Saints and Angels to hear the Blasphemies of the multitude To see that Face which was fairer than the Sons of men for being born and conceived without sin he was freed from the contagious effects of it Deformity and was most perfectly beautiful Psal 45. 2. Cant. 5. 10. to be spit on by those beastly wretched Jews To see that Mouth and Tongue that spake as never man spake accused for false Doctrines nay Blasphemy To see those Hands which freely swayed the Scepter of Heaven nayled to the Cross To see those Feet like unto fine brass Rev. 1. 15. nayled to the Cross for mans sins Who can behold Christ thus suffering in all the members of his Body and not be struck with astonishment Who can sum up the horrible abuses that were put upon Christ by his base Attendants The Evangelist tells us that they spit in his Face and buffeted him and that others smote him with the palms of their hands saying Prophesie unto us thou Christ who is he that smote thee Math. 26. 67 68. And as Luke adds many other things Blasphemously speak they against him Luk. 22. 65. What those many other things were is not discovered only some antient Writers say That Christ in that night suffered so many and such hideous things that the whole knowledge of them is reserved only for the last day of judgment Mallonius writes thus After Caiphas and the Priests had sentenc'd Christ worthy of death they committed him to their Ministers warily to keep till day and they immediatâ—ly threw him into the Dungeon in Caiphas house there they bound him to a stony pillar with his hands bound on his back and then they fell upon him with their palms and fists Others add That the Souldiers not yet content they threw him into a filthy durty puddle where he abode for the remainder of that night of which the Psalmist seems to speak Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit in darkness and in the deeps and I sink in the deep myre where there is no standing Psal 88. 6. Psal 69. 2. But that you may clearly see what horrible abuses were put upon Christ by his Attendants Consider seriously of these particulars First They spit in his Face Math. 26. 67. Now this was accounted among the Jews a matter of great infamy and reproach Numb 14. And the Lord said to Moses If her Father had spit in her Face should she not be ashamed seven days Spitting in the face among the Jews was a sign of anger shame and contempt Job 30. 10. They abhor me they flye far from me and spare not to spit in my Face The face is the table of beauty or comliness and when it is spit upon it is made the feat of shame Spitting in the face was a sign of the greatest disgrace that could be put upon a person and therefore it could not but be very bitter to Job to see base Beggars spit in that Face that was wont to be honoured by Princes But this we are not to wonder at for there is no indignity so base and ignominious but the choicest Saints may meet with it in and from this evil world Afflicted persons are sacred things and by the Laws of Nature and Nations should not be misused and trampled upon but rather pitied and lamented over But barbarous Miscreants when they have an opportunity they will not spare to exercise any kind of cruelty as you see by their spitting in the very Face of Christ himself I hid not my Face saith Christ from Isa 50. 6. 2. shame and spitting thou I was sairer than the Children of men Psal 45. 2. yet I used no Mask to keep me fair though I was white and ruddy the chiefest among ten thousand Cant. 5. 10. yet I preserved not my Beauty from their nasty spittle O that that sweet blessed Face of Jesus Christ that is so much honoured and adored in Heaven should ever be spit upon by beastly wretches in this world Secondly They struck him Joh. 18. 22. One of the Officers which stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand saying Answerest thou the high Priest so Because our Saviour gave not the High-Priest his usual titles but dealt freely with him this impious Apparitor or Serjant to curry favour with his Master strikes him with his hand with his rod say some with his stick say others like Master like Man O that that holy Face which was designed to be the object of Heaven in the beholding of which much of the Celestial glory doth consist that that Face which the Angels stare upon with wonder like Infants at a bright Sun-beam should ever be smitten by a base Varlet in the presence of a Judge Among all the sufferings of Christ one would think that there was no great matter in this that a vain Officer did strike him with the palme of his hand yet if the Scriptures are consulted you will find that the Holy Ghost layes a great stress upon it Thus Jeremy He giveth his Check to him that smiteth him he is filled full with reproach Lam. 3. 30. Christ did patiently and willingly take the stripes that vain men did injuriously lay upon him he sustained all kinds of vexations from the hands of all kinds of ungodly ones Thus Micah speaking of Christ saith They shall sinite the Judg of Israel with a rod upon the cheek Mica 5. 1. Hngo by this Judge of Israel understandeth our Lord Jesus Christ who was indeed at his passion contumeliously buffeted and smitten with rods upon the cheek Math. 26. 67. By smiting the Judg of Israel with a rod upon the cheek they express their scorn and contempt of Christ Smiting upon the face the Apostle makes a sign of great reproach 2 Cor. 11. 20. If a man smite you on the face there is nothing more disgraceful saith Chrysostom than to be smitten on the check Christ Hom. 82. in Joh. c. 18. And the diverse reading of the original word do's fully evidence it He struck him with a rod or he struck him with the palm of his han 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Now the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say some refers to his being struck with a rod or club or shoe or plantofle others say it refers to his being struck with the palm of mens hands Now of the two it is generally judged more disgraceful to be struck with the palm of the hand than to be struck with either a rod or a shooe and
therefore we read the Text thus He struck Jesus with the palm of his hand that is with open hand or with his hand stretched out Some of the Ancients commenting on this cuff say Let the Heavens be afraid and let the Earth tremble at Christs Crysostâ—m Hom. 81. in John c. 18. patience and this Servants impudence O ye Angels how were ye silent how could you contain your hands when you saw his hand striking at God If we consider him Aug. in Trall 13. saith another who took the blow was not he that struck him worthy to be consumed of fire or to be swallowed up of Earth or to be given up to Satan and thrown down into Hell Bernard saith that his hand that struck Christ was Ber. ser de pas vinc Serm. de pas Ludo de vita Christi armed with an iron glove And Vincentius affirms That by the blow Christ was felled to the Earth And Ludovicus adds that blood gushed out of his mouth and that the impression of the Varlets fingers remained on Christs cheek with a tumour and wan colour If a Subject should but lift up his hand against his Soveraign would he not be severely punished but should he strike him would it not be present death O what desperate madness and wickedness was it then to strike the King of Kings and Lord of Lords whom not only men but the Cherubims and Siraphims Rev. 17. 16. and all the Celestial powers above adore and worship Heb. 1. 6. Those Monsters in that Math. 26. 67. did not only strike Christ with the palm of their hands but they buffeted him also Now some of the Learned observe this difference betwixt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the one is given with the open hand the other with the fist shut up and thus they used him at this time they struck him with their fists and so the stroke was greater and more offensive for by this means they made his face to swell and to become full of bunches all over One gives it in thus by these blows of their fists his whole head was swollen his face became black and blew and his teeth ready to fall out of his jaws Very probable it is that with the violence of their stroaks they made him reel and stagger they made his mouth and nose and face to bleed and his eyes to startle in his head Now concerning Christs sufferings on the Cross I shall only hint at a few things and so close up this particular concerning Christs corporeal sufferings take me thus First The death of Christ on the Cross It was a bitter death a sorrowful death a bloody death the bitter thoughts of his sufferings put him into a most dreadful agony Luk. 22. 24. Being in an agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as great drops of blood falling to the ground The Greek word that is here used 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies a striving or wrestling against as two combatants or wrestlers do strive each against other The things which our Saviour strove against was not only the terrour of death as other men are wont to do for then many Christians and Martyrs might have seemed more constant and couragious than he but with the terrible justice of God pouring out his high anger and indignation upon him on the account of all the sins of his chosen that Isa 53 4 5 6. were laid upon him then which nothing could be more dreadful Christ was in a vehement conflict in his soul through the deepest sense of his Fathers wrath against sinners for whom he now stood as a Surety and Redeemer 2 Cor. 5. 21. And for a close of this particular let me say that Gods justice which we have provoked being fully satisfied by the inestimable merit of Christs passion is the surest and highest ground of consolation that we have in this world but for the more full opinion of this blessed Scripture let us take notice of these following particulars First His sweat was as it were blood Some of the Antients looks upon these words only as a similitude or figurative hyberbole it being a usual kind of speech to call a vehement sweat a bloody sweat as he that weeps bitterly is said to weep tears of blood but the most and best of the Antients understand the words in a literal sense and believe it was truly and properly a bloody sweat and with them I close But some will object and say it was sicut guttae sanguinis as it were drops of blood Now to this I answer First If the Holy-Ghost had only intended that sicut for a similitude or hyperbole he would rather have exprest it as it were drops of nature than as it were drops of blood for we all know that sweat is more like to water than to blood But Secondly I answer that sicut as in Scripture-phrase doth not always denote a similitude but somtimes the very thing it self according to the verity of it Take an instance or two instead of many We beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father and their words seemed to them as it were idle tales and they believed them not the words in the original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the same Certainly Christs sweat in the Garden was a wonderful sweat not a sweat of water but of red gore-blood But Secondly He sweat great drops of blood clotty blood issuing through flesh and skin in great abundance 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 clottered or congealed blood There is a thin faint sweat and there is a thick clotted sweat in this sweat of Christ blood came not from him in small dews but in great drops they were drops and great drops of blood crassy and thick drops Some read it droppings down of blood that is blood distilling in greater and grosser drops and hence it is concluded as preternatural for though much may be said for sweating blood in a course of Nature according to what Aristotle affirms Arist 〈◊〉 3. de hist Animal c. 29 August h. 14. de civit dei c 24. and Austin saith that he knew a man that could sweat blood even when he pleased it is granted on all hands that in faint bodies a subtile thin blood like sweat may pass through the pores of the skin but that through the same pores crassy thick great drops of blood should issue out it was not it could not be without a miracle Certainly the drops of blood that fell from Christs body were great very great yea so great as if they had started through his skin to out-run the streams and rivers of his Cross But Thirdly These great drops of blood did not only di 〈…〉 llare drop out but decurrere run down like a stream so fast as if they had issued out of most deadly wounds They were great drops of blood falling down to the ground Here is
Burial Resurrection and Ascension and besides they make rehearsal of very small circumstances therefore we may safely conclude that they would never have omitted Christs local descent into the place of the damned if there had been any such things besides the great end why they penned this History was That we might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that thus believing Jâ—h 20. 31. we might have life everlasting Now there could not have been a greater matter for the confirmation of our Faith than this that Jesus the Son of Mary who went down to the place of the damned returned thence to live in all happiness and blessedness for ever But Secondly If Christ did go into the place of the damned then he went either in soul or in body or in his Godhead not in his God-head for that could not descend because it is every where and his body was in the grave and as for his soul it went not to Hell but immediatly after his death it went to Paradise that is the third Heaven a place of joy and happiness This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise which words of Christ must be understood Luk. 23. 43. of his Man-hood or Soul and not of his Godhead for they are an answer to a demand and therefore unto it they must be sutable The Thief makes his request Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom vers 42. to which Christ Answers Verily I say unto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise I shall saith Christ this day enter into Paradise and there shalt thou be with me Now there is no entrance but in regard of his Soul or Man-hood for the God-head which is at all times in all Psal 139 7 13. Jer 23. 23 24. places cannot be properly said to entertain into a place But Thirdly When Christ saith To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise He doth intimate as some observe a resemblance which is between the first and second Adam The first Adam quickly sinned against God and was as Gen. 3. quickly cast out of Paradise by God Christ the second Adam having made a perfect and compleat satisfaction Heb 9. 26 28 cap. 10. 14. to the justice of God and the Law of God for mans sin must immediately enter into Paradise Now to say that Christ in Soul descended locally into Hell is to abolish this Analogy between the first and second Adam But Secondly 'T is not impossible that the pains of the second death should be suffered in this life time and place are but circumstances the main substance of the second death is the bearing of Gods fierce wrath and indignation Divine favour shining upon a man in Hell would turn Hell into a Heaven all sober seeing serious Christians will grant that the true though not the full joys of Heaven may be felt and experienced in this life 1 Pet. 1. 8. Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory or glorious either because this their rejoycing was a tast of their future glory or because it made them glorious in the eyes of men the original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is glorified already a piece of Gods Kingdom and Heavens happiness afore-hand Ah how many precious Saints both living and dying have cryed out O the joy the joy the inexpressible joy that I find in my Soul Ephe. 2 6. He hath made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus What is this else but even while we live by Faith to possess the very joys of Heaven on this side Heaven Now look as the true joys of Heaven may be felt on this side Heaven so the true though not the full pains of Hell may be felt on this side Hell and doubtless Cain Judas Julian Spira and others have found it so That Father hit the mark who Gen. 4. 13. said Judicis in mente tua sedet ibi Deus ad est accusator conscientia tortor timor The Judges Tribunal seat is in Augustin in Psal 57. thy soul God sitteth there as Judge thy Conscience is the Accuser and fear is the tormentor Now if there be in the soul a Judg an Accuser and a Tormentor then certainly there is a true tast of the torments of Hell on this side Hell Thirdly The place Hell is no part of the payment the laying down of the price makes the satisfaction this is all that is spoken and threatned to Adam Thou shalt dye Gen. 2. 1â— Peter saith the Devils are cast down to Hell and kept in chains of darkness 2 Pet. 2. 4 And Paul calls the Devil the Prince that ruleth in the Ayr. Ephe. 2. 2. The Ayr then is the Devils Hell well then seeing this ayr is the Devils present Hell we may safely conclude that Hell may be in this present world and therefore it is neither impossible nor improbable that the Cross was Christs Hell the death and this may be suffered here The wicked go to Hell as their Prison because they can never pay their debts otherwise the debt may as well be paid in the Market as the Goal Now Christ did discharge all his peoples debts in the days of his flesh when he offered up strong crys and tears Heb. 5 7. and not after death Look as a King entring into Prison to loose the Prisoners Chains and to pay their debts is said to have been in Prison so our Lord Jesus Christ by his souls sufferings which is the Hell he entred into hath released us of our pains and chains and paid our debts and in this sense he may be said to have entred into Hell though he never actually entred into the local place of the damned which is properly called Hell for in that place there is neither vertue nor goodness holiness nor happiness and therefore the holiness of Christs person would never suffer him to descend into such a place in the local place of Heaven and Hell It is not possible for any neither to be at once nor yet at sundry times successively for there is no passing from Heaven to Hell or from Hell to Heaven Luk. 16. 26. The place of suffering is but a circumstance in the business Hell the place of the damned is no part of the debt therefore neither is suffering there locally any part of the payment of it no more than a Prison is any part of an earthly debt or of the payment of it The Surety may satisfie the Creditor in the place appointed for payment or in the open Court which being done the Debtor and Surety both are acquitted that they need not go to Prison if either of them go to Prison it is because they do not or cannot pay the debt for all that Justice requires is to satisfie the debt to the which the Prison is meerly extrinsical Even so the Justice of God
Wife that were taken Prisoners by Cyrus was asked among other things what Ransom he would give for his Wife he answered He would Redeem her liberty with his own life but having prevailed as they returned together every one commended Cyrus for a goodly man and Tygranes would needs know of his Wife What she thought of him Truly said she I cannot tell for I did not so much as look on him or see him whom then said he wondring did you look upon Whom should I look upon replyed she but him that would have Redeemed my liberty with his own life So every Believer should esteem nothing 1 Cor. 6. 20. Act. 20. 28. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. Plutarch in vita Tit. Flam worth a looking on but that Jesus who hath Redeemed him with his own blood Plutarch tells us That when Titus Flaminius had freed the poor Graecians from the bondage with which they had been long ground by their oppressions and the Herald was to proclaim in their Audience the Articles of peace he had concluded for them they so pressed upon him not being half of them able to hear that he was in great danger to have lost his life in the press at last reading them a second time when they came to understand distinctly how that their case stood they so shooted for joy crying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Saviour a Saviour that they made the very Heavens ring again with their acclamations and the very Birds fall down astonisht And all that night the poor Graecians with Instruments of Musick and Songs of praise danced and sang about his Tent extolling him as a God that had delivered them But O then what infinite cause have we to exalt and cry up our dear Lord Jesus who by the Hellish sorrows that he suffered for us hath freed us from that more dreadful bondage of sin Satan and wrath that we lay under O! prize that Jesus O! exalt that Christ O! extol that Saviour who has saved you from that eternal wrath that all the Angels in Heaven and all the men on Earth could never have saved you from The name of Jesus saith one hath a thousand Chrysostom Dulce namen Christi Treasures of joy and comfort in it and is therefore used by Paul five hundred times as some have observed The name of a Saviour saith another is Hony in the Mouth and Musick in the Ears and a Jubile in the Heart Were Bernard Christ in your bosom as a flower of delight for he is a whole Paradise of delight saith one I had rather saith Justin Martyr Lâ—ther another be in Hell with Christ than in Heaven without him for Christ is the Crown of Crowns the glory of glorys and the Heaven of Heaven One saith That he Austin would willingly go thorow Hell to Christ Another saith He Bernard had rather be in his Chimny corner with Christ than in Heaven without him One cryed out I had rather have one Christ than a thousand worlds Jesus in the China tongue signifies the rising Sun and such a rising Sun was he to Julius Palmer that when all concluded that he was dead Mal. 4 2. being turned as black as a coal in the fire at last he moved his scorched lips and was heard to say Sweet Jesus It was an excellent answer of one of the Martyrs when he was offered riches and honours if he would recant Do but said he offer me somwhat that is better than my Lord Jesus Christ and you shall see what I will say to you Now O! that the Hellish sorrows and sufferings of Christ for us might raise in all our hearts such a high estemation and such a deep admiration as hath been raised in those worthies last mentioned It was a sweet prayer of him who thus prayed Lord make thy Son dear very dear exceeding dear and only dear and precious to me When ever we seriously think of the great and sore sufferings of 2. All the Hell Socinians grant is Annihilation by reason it is said they shall be destroyed vide Socinus Racoucat Crellius Bidle Richardson c. Christ it will be good to pray as he prayed But Secondly If Jesus Christ did feel and suffer the very torments of Hell though not after a Hellish manner then let me infer that certainly there is a Hell a place of torment provided and prepared for all wicked and ungodly persons Danaeus reckons up no less than nineteen several sorts of Hereticks that denyed it and are there not many erronious and deluded persons that stoutly and daily assert that there is no Hell but what men feel in their own Consciences Ah how many are there that rejoyce Jer. 11. 15. Prov. 2. 14. Isa 65. 3. 2 Thes 2. 11. Math. 25. 41. Isa 30. 33. to do evil and delight in their abominations and take pleasure in unrighteousness But could men do thus durst men do thus did they really believe that Hell was prepared and fitted for them and that the fiery Lake was but a little before them Heaven is a place where all is joyful and Hell is a place where all is doleful in Heaven there is nothing but happiness and in Hell there is nothing but heaviness nothing but endless easeless and remediless torments Did men believe this how could they go so merrily on in the way to Hell Cato once said to Caesar credo quae deniferis dicuntur falsa esse existimas I believe that thou thinkest all that is said of Hell to be false and fabulous So I may say to many in this day Surely you think that all that is spoken and written of Hell is but a story Don't you look upon the people of God to be of all men the most miserable and your selves of all men the most happy Yes O! but how can this be did you really believe that there was a Heaven for the Righteous and a Hell for the Wicked 'T is an Italian Proverb Qui venetias non vidit non credit c. He who hath not seen Venice will not believe and he who hath not lived some time there doth not understand what a City it is this in a sense is true of Hell But now for the Qâ—d sit that there is a Hell that there is such a place of misery prepared and appointed for the wicked I shall briefly demonstrate against the high Atheists and Socinians of this day and therefore thus First God Created Angels and Men after his own Image Man must be so much honoured as to be made like God and no Creature must be so much honoured as to be made like man The pattern after which man was made is somtimes called Image alonâ— So God Created Gen. 1. 27. man in his own Image in the Image of God Created he him Somtimes likeness alone In the day that God created man in the holiness of God made he him sometimes Gen. 5. 1. both Let us make man in our Image
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
matchless wrath of an angry God that was so terribly imprest upon the Soul of Christ quickly spent his natural strength and turned his moisture into the Psal 32. 4. drought of summer and yet all this wrath he patiently underwent that Sinners might be saved and that he Heb. 2. 10. might bring many sons unto glory O wonder of love Love is passive it enables to suffer The Curtii laid down their lives for the Romans because they loved them so 't was love that made our dear Lord Jesus lay down his life to save us from hell and to bring us to heaven As the Pelican out of their love to her young ones when they are bitten with Serpents feeds them with her own blood Gen. 3. 15. to recover them again so when we were bitten by the old Serpent and our wound incurable and we in danger of eternal death then did our dear Lord Jesus that he might recover us and heal us feed us with his own Jeh 6. 53. 54 55 56. Dilexisti me Demine magis quà m teipsum Bern. blood O love unspeakable This made one cry out Lord thou hast loved me more than thy self for thou hast laid down thy life for me It was only the golden link of love that fastned Christ to the Cross and Joh. 10. 17. that made him die freely for us and that made him willing to be numbred among transgressors that we might Isa 53. 12. be numbred among general assemby and church of the Heb. 12. 23. first born which are written in heaven If Jonathan's 2 Sam. 1. 26. love to David was wonderful how wonderful must the Heb. 10. 10. love of Christ be to us which led him by the hand to make himself an offering for us which Jonathan never did for David for though Jonathan loved David's life and safety well yet he loved his own better for when his father cast a javelin at him to smite him he flies 1 Sam. 10. 33 34 35. for it and would not abide his fathers fury being very willing to sleep in a whole skin notwithstanding his wonderful love to David making good the Philosophers notion that Man is a life-lover Christ's love is like his name and that is wonderful yea it is so wonderful that Isa 9. 6. it is supra omnem creaturam ultra omnem mensuram contra omnem naturam above all creatures beyond allmeasure contrary to all nature 'T is above all Creatures for it is above the Angels and therefore above all others 'T is beyond all Measure for time did not begin it and time shall never end it place doth not bound it sin doth not exceed it no estate no age no sex is denied it tongues cannot express it understandings cannot conceive it and 't is contrary to all Nature for what nature can love where it is hated what nature can forgive where it is provoked what nature can offer reconcilement where it receiveth wrong what nature can heap up kindness upon contempt favour upon ingratitude mercy upon sin and yet Christ's love hath led him to all this so that wel may we spend all our days in admiring and adoring of this wonderful love and be always ravished with the thoughts of it But Secondly Then look that ye love the Lord Jesus Christ with a superlative love with an over-topping love there are none have suffered so much for you as Christ there are none that can suffer so much for you as Christ the least measure of that wrath that Christ hath sustained for you would have broke the hearts necks and backs of all created Beings O my friends there is no love but a superlative love that is any ways sutable to the transcendent sufferings of dear Jesus O love him above your lusts love him above your relations love him above the world love him above all your outward contentments and enjoyments yea love him above your very lives for thus the Patriarchs Ptophets Apostles Saints Primitive Christians and the Martyrs of old have loved Act. 20. 24. cap. 21. 12 13. 2 Cor. 1. 8 9 10. cap. 4. 11. cap. 11. 23. Heb. 11. 36 37 38 39. our Lord Jesus Christ with an over-topping love Rev 12. 11. They loved not their lives unto the death that is they slighted contemned yea despised their lives exposing them to hazard and loss out of love to the Lamb who had washed them in his blood I have read of one Kilian a Dutch Scholmaster who being asked whether he did not love his wife and Children answered Were all the world a lump of gold and in my hands to dispose of I would leave it at my enemies feet to live with them in a prison but my Soul and my Saviour are dearer to me than all If my father saith Jerom should stand Hieron ad Heliodor epist 1. before me and my mother hang upon and my brethren should press about me I would break through my brethren throw down my father and tread underfoot my mother to cleave to Jesus Christ Had I ten heads Cere non amaut illi Christum qui ali quid plusqe am â—â—ristum amant Aug. de resurr Hey do nâ—t lâ—ve Christ who love any thing more than Christ said Henry Voes they should all off for Christ If every hair of my head said John Ardley Martyr were a man they should all suffer for the Faith of Christ Let fire racks pullies said Ignatius and all the torments of Hell come upon me so I may win Christ Love made Hierom to say O my Saviour didst thou die for love of me a love more dolorous than death but to The more Christ hath suffered for us the dearer Christ should be â—nto us the greater and the bitterer Christs sufferings have been for us the greater and the sweeter should our love be to him me a death more lovely than love it self I cannot live love thee and be longer from thee George Carpenter being asked whether he did not love his wife and children which stood weeping before him answered My wife and children my wife and children are dearer to me than all Bavaria yet for the love of Christ I know them not That blessed Virgin in Basil being condemned for Christianity to the fire and having her estate and life offered her if she would worship Idols cried out Let money perish and life vanish Christ is better than all Sufferings for Christ are the Saints greatest glory they are those things wherein they have most gloried Crudelitas vestra gloria nostra your cruelty is our glory saith Tertullian It is reported of Babylas that when he was to die for Christ he desired this favour that his Chains might be buried with him as the ensigns of his honour Thus you see with what a superlative love with what an over-topping love former Saints have loved our Lord Jesus and can you Christians who are cold and low in your love to Christ read over these
against God Under the Law if an Oxe gored a man that he died the Exod. 21. 28. Oxe was to be killed Sin hath gored and pierced our dear Lord Jesus O let it die for it O avenge your selves upon it as Sampson did avenge himself upon the Philistines for Judg. 16. 28. his two eyes Pâ—lutarch reports of Marcus Cato that he never declared his opinion in any matter in the Senate but he would close it with this passage Methinks still Carthage should be destroyed so a Christian should never cast his eye upon the Cross of Christ the sufferings of Christ nor upon his sins but his heart should say Methinks pride should be destroyed and unbelief should be destroyed and hypocrisie should be destroyed and earthly-mindedness should be destroyed and self-love should be destroyed and vain glory should be destroyed c. The Jews would not have the pieces of silver which Judas cast down in the Temple put in the Treasury because Maâ— 27. 5 6. they were the price of blood Oh lodg not any one sin in the Treasury of your hearts for they are all the price of blood But Fourthly let the sufferings of our Lord Jesus raise in all our hearts a high estimation of Christ O let us prize a suffering Christ above all our duties and above all our Mat. 10. 37. Luk. 14. 26. graces and above all our privileges and above all our outward contentments and above all our spiritual enjoyments a suffering Christ is a commodity of greater value than all the riches of the Indies yea than all the wealth of the whole world he is better than Rubies saith Prov. 8. 11. Solomon and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to him he is that Pearl of price which the wise Merchant purchased with all that ever he had no Mat. 13. 46 man can buy such Gold too dear Joseph a type of the Lord Jesus then a precious Jewel of the world was far more precious had the Ishmaelitish Merchants known so Gen. 27. 37. much than all the Balms and Myrrhs that they transported and so is a suffering Christ as all will grant that really know him and that have experienced the sweet of union and communion with him Christ went through heaven and hell life and death sorrow and suffering misery and cruelty and all to bring us to glory and shall we not prize him When in a storm the Nobles of Xerxes were to lighten the ship to preserve their King's life they did their obeysance and leaped into the Sea but our Lord Jesus Christ to preserve our lives Col. 1. 18. our souls he leaps into a Sea of wrath Oh how should this work us to set up Christ above all what a deal ado has there been in the world about Alexander the great and Constantine the great and Pompey the great because of their civil power and authority but what was all their greatness and grandure to that greatness and grandure that God the father put upon our Lord Jesus Christ when Mat 28. 1â— Heb. 1. 13. Eph. 1. 20. he gave all power in heaven and in earth unto him and set him down at his own right hand Oh sirs will you value men according to their titles and will you not highly value our Lord Jesus Christ who has the most magnificent titles given him he is called King of Kings Rev. 17. 14. cap. 19. 16. and Lord of Lords It is observed by learned Drusins that those Titles were usually giâ—â—n to the great Kings of Persia than which there was none assumed more to themselves than they did yet the holy Ghost attributes these great Titles to Christ to let us know that as God hath exalted Christ above all earthly powers so we should magnifie him and exalt him accordingly Paul casting his eye upon a suffering Christ tells us that he esteems of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil. 3. 8. all things as nothing in comparison of Christ All things is the greatest account that can be casâ— up for it includeth all prizes all summs it taketh in heaven it taketh in the vast and huge Globe and Circle of the capacious world and all excellencies within its bosom all things includes all Nations All Angels all Gold all Jewels all Honours all delights and every thing else besides and yet the Apostle looks upon all these things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 micae quae canibus vide à Lapide vide Bezam the original word notes the filth that comes out of the entrails of beasts or off all cast to dogs but as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 dung dog's dung as some interpret the word or dogs meat course and contemptible in comparison of dear Jesus Galeacius that noble Italian Marquess was of the same mind and mettal with Paul for when he was strongly tempted and solicited with great summs of money and preferments to return to the Romish Church he gave this heroick answer Cursed be he that prefers all the wealth of the world to one days communion with Christ What if a man had large demains stately buildings and ten thousand rivers of Oyl what if all the mountains of the world were Pearl the mighty Rocks Rubies and the whole Globe a shining Chrysolite yet all this were not to be named in the same day wherein there is mention made of a suffering Christ Look as one Ocean hath more waters than all the rivers in the world and as one Sun hath more light than all the Luminaries in heaven so one suffering Christ is more all to a poor soul than if it had the all of the whole world a thousand times over and over Oh sirs if you cast but your eye upon a suffering Christ a crucified Jesus there you shall find righteousness in him to cover all your sins and plenty enough in him to supply all your wants and grace enough in him to subdue all your lusts and wisdom enouâ—h in him to resolve all your doubts and power enough in him to vanquish all your enemies and vertue enough in him to heal all your diseases Heb. 7. 25. I have read of a Roman servant who knowing his master was sought for by officers to be put to death he put himself into his master's cloaths that he might be taken for him and so he was and was putâ— to death for him whereupon his master in memory of his thankfulness to him and honour of him erected a brazen Statue but what a statue of Gold should we set up in our hearts to the eternal honour exaltation of that Jesus who not in our cloaths but in our very nature hath laid down his life for us and fulness enough in him both to satisfie you and save you and that to the utmost All the good things that can be reckoned up here below have only a finite and limited benignity some can cloath but cannot feed others can
readiness and resoluteness whatsoever calamities or miseries may attend us for Christ's sake or the Gospel's sake Ah what a shame would it be if we should â—ot be always ready to suffer any thing for his sake who hath suffered so much for our sins as is beyond all conception all expression Never was Jacob more gracious and acceptable to his father Isaac than when he stood before him cloathed in the garments of his rough brother Esau then the father smelling the savour of the elder Gen. 27. 27. brothers garments said Behold the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed And never are we more gracious and acceptable to our heavenly father than when we stand before him cloathed in the rough garments of Christ's afflictions and sufferings Oh Christians all your sufferings for Christ they are but in lets to your glorious reigning with Christ Justin Martyr saith that when the Romans did immortalize their Emperours as they called it they brought one to swear that he see him go to Heaven out of the fire but we may see by an eye of faith the blessed souls of Martyrs fly to heaven like Elias in his fiery charriot or like the Angel that appeared to Manoah in the flames By the consent of the School-men all Martyrs shall appear in the Church triumphant bearing the signs of their Christian wounds about them as so many speaking testimonies of their holy courage that what here they endured in the behalf of their Saviour may be there an addition to their glory But Sixthly hath Jesus Christ suffered such great and grievous things for you Oh then in all your fears doubts and conflicts with enemies within or without fly to the sufferings of Christ as your City of refuge Did Christ endure a most ignominious death for thee did he take on him thy sinful person and bare thy sin and death and cross and was made a sacrifice and curse for thee Oh then in all thy inward and outward distresses shelter Psal 90. 1. Psal 91. 1 4 9. thy self under the wings of a suffering Christ I have read of Nero that he had a shirt made of a Salamander's skin so that if he went through the fire in it it would keep him from burning Oh sirs a suffering Christ is this Salamander's skin that will keep the Saints from burning in the midst of burning from suffering in the Dan. 3. 24. 29. Isa 43. 2. midst of sufferings from drowning in the midst of drowning In all the storms that beat upon your inward or your outward man eye the sufferings of Christ lâ—an upon Zach. 13. 10. Cant. 8. 5. 2 Cor. 2. 14. Eph. 6. 14. the sufferings of Christ plead the sufferings of Christ and triumph in the sufferings of Christ It is storied of a Martyr that writing to his wife where she might find him when he was fled from home oh my dear said he Surius in vita sancti Elzearii if thou desirest to see me seek me in the side of Christ in the cleft of the rock in the hollow of his wounds for there I have made my nest there will I dwell there shalt thou find me and no where else but there In every temptation let us look up to a crucified Christ who is fitted Heb. 2. 17 18. cap. 4. 15 16. and qualified to succour tempted souls oh my soul when ever thou art assaulted let the wounds of Christ be thy City of refuge whither thou maist fly and live Let us learn in every tentation which presseth us whether it be sin or death or curse or any other evil to translate it from our selves to Christ and all the good in Christ let us learn to translate it from Christ to our selves Look as the Burgess of a Town or Corporation sitting in the Parliament house beareth the persons of that whole Town or place and what he saith the whole Town saith and what is done to him is done to the whole Town even so Christ upon the cross stood in our Isa 53. 4 5 6. place and bare our sins and whatsoever he suffered we suffered and when he died all the faithful died with him and in him I have read of a gracious woman who being by Satan strongly tempted replyed Satan if thou hast any thing to say to me say it to my surety who has undertaken all for me who hath paid all my debts and satisfied Divine Justice and set all reckonings even between God and my soul Do your sins terrifie you oh then look up to a crucified Saviour who bare your sins in his own body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2. 24. When sin stares you in the face oh then turn your face The strongest Antidote against sin is to look upon sin in the red glass of Christ's blood Auâ—tin to a dying Jesus and behold him with a spear in his side with thorns in his head with nails in his feet and a pardon in his hands Hast thou wounded thy conscience by any great fall or falls O then remember that there is nothing in heaven or earth more efficacious to cure the Bern. Ser. 61. in cant wounds of conscience than a frequent and serious meditation on the wounds of Christ Doth death that rides upon the pale horse look gashly and deadly upon thee Rev. 6. 8. Rom. 5. 6 8. oh then remember that Christ died for you and that by his death he hath swallowed up death in victory Oh 1 Cor. 15. 55 56 57. remember that a crucified Christ hath stripped death of his sting and disarmed it of all its destroying power death may buzz about our ears but it can never sting our souls Look as a crucified Christ hath taken away the guilt of sin though he hath not taken away sin it self so he hath taken away the sting of death though he hath not taken away death it self He spake excellently that said that is not death but life wbich joyns the dying man to Christ Ambrosius in 1 Tim. 5. 6. Death will blow the bud of Grace into the flower of Glory and that is not life but death that separates the living man from Christ Austin longed to die that he might see that head that was crowned with thorns Did Christ die for me saith one that I might live with him I will not therefore desire to live long from him all men go willingly to see him whom they love and shall I be unwilling to die that I may see him whom my soul loves Bernard would have us never to let go out of our minds the thoughts of a crucified Christ let these says he be meat and drink unto you let them be your sweetness and consolation your honey and your desire your reading and your meditation your contemplation your life death and resurrection certainly he that shall live up to this counsel will look upon the King of terrors as the King of desires Are
Law he did come up to perfect and universal consâ—rmity to it he did whatever the Law enjoyns and he suffered whatever the Law threatens Christ by his active and passive obedience hath fulfilled the Law most exactly and completely Gal. 3. 13. As he was perfectly holy he did what the Law commanded and as he was made a curse he underwent what the Law threatned and all this he did and suffered in our steads and as our Surety what ever Christ did as our Surety he made it good to the full so that neither the righteous God nor yet the righteous Law could ever tax him with the least defect And this must be our great Plea our choice our sweet our safe our comfortable our acceptable Plea both in the day of our particular accounts when we die and in the great day of our account when a crucified Saviour shall judge the World Although sin as an act be transient yet in the guilt of it it lies in the Lord 's high Court of Justice filed upon record against the sinner and calling aloud for deserved punishment saying Man hath sinned and man must suffer for sin but now Christ hath suffered that plea is taken off Lo here saith the Lord the same Nature that sinned suffereth mine own Son being made flesh hath suffered death for sin in the flesh the thing is done the Law is satisfied and so non-suits the action and casts it out of the Court as unjust Thus whereas sin would have condemned us Christ hath condemned sin he hath weakned yea nullified and taken away sin in the guilt and condemning power of it by that abundant satisfaction that he hath given to the Justice of God by his active and passive Obedience so that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus for Rom. 8. 1 3. the blood of the Mediator out-cries the clamour of sin and this must be a Christians joy and triumph and plea in the great day of our Lord Jesus As Christ was made 2 Cor. 5. 21. sin for us so the Lord doth impute the sufferings of Christ to us that is he accepts of them on our behalf and puts them upon our account As if the Lord should say unto every particular believer My Son was thy Surety and stood in thy stead and suffered and satisfied and took away thy sins by his blood and that for thee in his blood I find a ransom for thy soul I do acknowledge my self satisfied for thee and satisfied towards thee and thou art delivered and discharged I forgive thee thy sins and am reconciled unto thee and will save thee and glorifie thee for my Sons sake in his blood thou hast Redemption the forgiveness of thy sins As when Simile a Surety satisfies the Creditor for a debt this is accounted to the Debtor and reckoned as a discharge to him in particular I am paid and you are discharged saith the Creditour so it is in this case I am paid saith God and you are discharged and I have no more to say to you but this Enter into the joy of your Lord Matth. 25. 21. The Fifth Plea that you are to make in order to the 5. Eccles 11. 9. cap. 12. 14. Mat. 12. 14. cap. 18 23. Luk. 16. 3. Rom. 14. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 10. Heb. 9. 27 cap. 13. 17. 1 Pet. 4 5. Ten Scriptures in the Margin that respects the account that you are to give up in the great day of the Lord is drawn from the imputed Righteousness of Christ to us the Justification of a Sinner in the sight of God upon the account of Christ's Righteousness imputed to him whereby the guilt of sin is removed and the person of the Sinner is accepted as righteous with the God of Heaven is that which I shall open to you distinctly in these following Branches First That the Grace of Justification in the sight of God is made up of Two parts 1. There is Forgiveness of the offences committed against the Lord 2. Acceptation of the person offending pronouncing him a righteous person and receiving him into favour again as if he had never offended This is most clear and evident in the blessed Scriptures First there is an Act of absolution and acquittal from the guilt of sin and freedom from the condemnation deserved by sin the desert of sin is an inseparable accident Rom. 8. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is a forensick word relating to what is in use amongst men in their Courts of Judicature to condemn 'T is the sentence of a Judge decreeing a mulct or penalty to be inflicted upon the guilty Person or concomitant of it that can never be removed it may be truly said of the sins of a justified person that they deserve everlasting destruction but Justification is the freeing of a sinner from the guilt of his iniquity whereby he was actually bound over to condemnation as soon as any man doth sin there is a guilt upon him by which he is bound over to the wrath and curse of God and this guilt or obligation is inseparable from sin the sin doth deserve no less than everlasting damnation Now forgiveness of sin hath a peculiar respect to the guilt of sin and removal of that when the Lord forgives a man he doth discharge him of that obligation by which he was bound over to wrath and condemnation Rom. 8. 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus vers 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect it is God that justifieth vers 34. who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died Beloved the Lord is a holy and just God and he reveils his wrath from heaven against Rom. 1. 18. Gel. 3. 10. Râ—m 1. 32. Rom. 6. 23. all unrighteousness and there is a curse threatned to every transgression of the Law and when any man sinneth he is obnoxious unto the curse and God may inflict the same upon him but when God forgives sins he therein doth interpose as it were between the sin and the curse and between the obligation and the condemnation When the sinner sins God might say unto him sinner by your sinning you are now fallen into my hands of Justice and for your sins I may according to my righteous Law condemn and curse you for ever but such is my free my rich my sovereign grace that for Christ's sake I will spare you and pardon you and that curse Jer. 31. 20. and condemnation which you have deserved shall never fall upon you Oh! my bowels my bowels are yearning towards you and therefore I will have mercy mercy Jâ—b 33. 13 24 28 30. upon you and will deliver your souls from going down into the pit when the poor sinner is indicted and arraigned at God's bar and process is made against him and he found guilty of the violation of God's holy Law and accordingly judged guilty by God and adjudged to Job
in some respects the breach of the commands of the Gospel are greater than the breach See Heb. 2. 2 3. 8. 6. 10. 28 29. of the commands of the Moral Law for the breach of the commands of the Gospel carrieth in it a contempt and light esteem of Jesus Christ Men's not rejoycing in Christ Jesus must flow from some dangerous humour and base corruption or other that highly distempers their precious souls If all created excellencies if all the privileges of God's people if all the kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them were to be presented at one view they would all appear as nothing and emptiness in comparison of the excellency and fulness that is to be found in Christ Jesus and therefoâ—e the greater is their sin who rejoyce not in Christ Jesus Do you ask me where be Plutarch in Phocione my Jewels my Jewels are my Husband and his Triumphs said Phocion's wife do you ask me where be my ornaments my ornaments are my two sons brought up in vertue and learning said the mother of the Gracchi Do you ask me where be my Treasures my Treasures are my friends said Constantius the father of Constantine but now if you ask a child of God when he is not clouded tempted deserted dejected where be his Jewels his Treasures his Ornaments his comfort his joy his delight he will answer with that Martyr none but Christ none but Christ Oh! none to Christ none to Christ Christ is all in all unto me Colos 3. 11. Aeterna erit exultatio quae bono laetatur aeterno That joy lasts for ever whose object remains for ever such an object is our Lord Jesus Christ and therefore the joy of the saints should still be exercised upon our Lord Jesus Christ shall the worldling rejoyce in his barns the rich man in his bags the ambitious man in his honours the voluptuous man in his pleasures and the wanton in his Dalilahs and shall not a Christian rejoyce in Christ Jesus and in that robe of righteousness and in those garments of salvation with Isa 61. 10. which Christ hath covered him The joy of that Christian that keeps a fixed eye upon Christ and his righteousness cannot be expressed it cannot be painted no man can paint the sweetness of the honey-comb nor the sweetness of a cluster of Canaan nor the fragrancy of the Rose of Sharon As the being of things cannot be painted so the sweetness of things cannot be painted The joy of the Holy Ghost cannot be painted nor that joy that arises in a Christian's heart who keeps up a daily converse with Christ and his righteousness cannot be painted it cannot be expressed who can look upon the glorious body of our Lord Jesus Christ and seriously consider that even every vein of that blessed body did bleed to bring him to heaven and not rejoyce in Christ Jesus who can look upon the glorious righteousness of Christ imputed to him and not be filled with an exâ—berancy of spiritual joy in God his Saviour There is not the pardon of the least sin nor the least degree of grace nor the least drop of mercy but cost Christ dear for he must die and he must be made a sacrifice and he must be accursed that pardon may be thine and grace thine and mercy thine and oh how should this draw out thy heart to rejoyce and triumph in Christ Jesus The work of redemption sets both Angels and Saints Rev. 5. 11 12 13 14. Rev. 1. 5 6. cap. 5. 8 9 10. a rejoycing and triumphing in Christ Jesus and why not we why not we also who have received infinite more benefit by the work of Redemption than ever the Angels have A beautiful face is at all times pleasing to the eye but then especially when there is joy manifested in the countenance Joy in the face puts a new beauty upon a person and makes that which before was beautiful to be exceeding beautiful it puts a lustre upon beauty so does holy joy and rejoycing in Christ Jesus put as it were a new beauty and lustre upon Christ Though the Romans punished one that feasted and looked out at a Plin. 1. c. 7. window with a Garland on his head in the second Punick war yet you may be sure that God will never punish you for rejoycing and triumphing in Christ Jesus let the times be never so sad or bad in respect of war blood or misery But Eighthly The Imputed Righteousness of Christ may serve to comfort support and bear up the hearts of the people of God from fainting and sinking under the sense of the weakness and imperfection of their inherent righteousness The Church of old have lamentingly said we are all as an unclean thing and all our righteousness Isa 64. 6. is as filthy rags when a Christian keeps a serious eye upon the spots blots blemishes infirmities and follies that cleaves to his inherent righteousness fears and tremblings arise to the sadding and sinking of his soul but when he casts a fixed eye upon the righteousness of Christ imputed to him then his comforts revive and his heart bears up for though he hath 〈◊〉 righteousness of his own by which his soul may 〈◊〉 â—ccepted before God yet he hath Gods righteousness which infinitely transcends his own and such as in God's account goes for his as if he had exactly fulfilled the righteousness which the Law requires according to that of the Apostle Rom. 9. 30. What shall we say then the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness even the righteousness which is of faith Faith wraps it self in the righteousness of Christ and so justifieth us The Gentiles sought righteousness not in themselves but in Christ which they apprehending by faith were by it justified in the sight of God and the Jews seeking it in themselves and thinking by the goodness of their own works to attain to the righteousness of the Law missed of it it being in no man's power perfectly to fulfil the same only Christ hath exactly fulfilled it for all that by faith close savingly with him Oh sirs none can be justified in the sight of God by a righteousness of their own making but whosoever will be justified must be justified by the righteousness Râ—m 3. 20 28. cap. 10. 2. Gal. 2. 16. Tâ— 3. 5. of Christ through faith The Gentiles by faith attain the righteousness of the Law therefore the righteousness of the Law and of faith are all one viz. in respect of matter and form the difference is only in the worker The Law requires it to be done by our selves the Gospel mitigates the rigour of the Law and offers the righteousness of Christ who performed the Law even to a hairs breadth The right way to righteousness for justification is by Christ who is the way the door the truth and the life because we want a righteousness of our own God hath assigned us the righteousness of
was a Jehu that said come see my zeal for the Lord of hosts and they were three Irish Kings that rebelled in Henry the second 's days being derided for their rude habits and fashions and they were some of the worst of Cardinals that when they were like to die would give great summs of money for a Cardinal's Eâ—asmus writes that he knew some such Cardinals hat that they might be so stiled upon their tombs And they were the Romans and other barbarous nations that were most ambitions of worldly honour and glory And he was a Julius Caesar whose excessive desire of honour made him to be mortally hated by the Senators and all others God grants no man a pattent for honour durante vita but durante bene-placito as the Lawyers speak during his life but during his own good pleasure All worldly honour and glory is subject to mutability Honours Riches and Pleasures are the three Deities that in these days a world of men adore and to whom they sacrifice morning and evening their best thoughts and these for their unparallel'd vanity may well be called the vanity of vanities Worldly honours Ecâ—lâ—s 1. 2. are but a more conceit a shadow a vapour a feather in the cap without substance or subsistence and yet the most powerful charm of Satan whereby he Iulls men to sleep in the Paradise of fools to cast them when they are awake into the bottomless pit of eternal woe For had not Satan hold them to be the strongest of all his temptations he had not reserved them for his last battery against Mat. 4. 8 9. the constancy of our blessed Saviour as he did And although this roaring Cannon of his could not prevail against Christ the Rock of Ages yet how many cap. 16. 18. thousands in these days are captivated and deluded by the glorious glistering of worldly honours Men of great honour and worldly glory stand but in slippery places Adonibezek a mighty Prince was made fellow-commonner Judg. 1. 7. Dan. 4. 28. with the Dogs And Nebuchadnezzar a mighty Conquerour was turned a grazing among the Oxen and Herod was reduced from a conceited God to the most Act. 12. 23. loathsome of men a living carrion arrested by the vilest creatures upon the suit of his affronted Creator the lice did fully confute his Auditory and triumph over his Throne A great Haman is feasted with the King one Hest 7. 10. day and made a feast for Crows the next In all the Isa 23. 9. Ages of the world God hath taken a delight to stain the pride of all the glory of this lower world see it in a few instances Valerian The Roman Emperour fell from being an Emperour to be a foot-stool to Sapor King of Persia as often as he took horse Bibulus the Consul riding in his triumphant Charriot by the fall of a Tyle-stone from a house was made a Sacrifice before he could reach the Capitol to offer up there the Bulls and Garlands he had prepared Aurelianus The Roman Emperour brought Tetricus his opposite and the brave Queen Zenobia of Palmerina in Triumph to Rome in Golden chains Sejanus That podigious favourite on the same day that he was attended by the Senate on the same day he was torn in pieces by the people Seneca speaking of him saith that he who in the morning was swollen with Titles â—ere night there remained not so much as a mammock of flesh for the hang man to fasten his hook in Belisarius a most famous General under Justinian the Emperour after all the great and famous services that he had done he had his eyes put out in his old age by the See Decad. pag. 649 650. Empress Theodora and at the Temple of St. Sophy forced to beg Date panem Belisario c. Give a crust to old blind Belisarius whom virtue advanced but envy hath brought into this great misery Henry the fourth Emperour in sixty two Battels for the most part he became victorious yet he was deposed and driven to that misery that he desired only a Clerk's place in a house at Spire of his own building which the Bishop of that place denied him whereupon he brake forth into that speech of Job Miseremini Job 19. 21. mei amici quia manus dei tetigit me have pity upon me oh my friends for the hand of God hath touched me he died of grief and want Bajazet a proud Emperour of the Turks whom Tamberlain a Tartarian took prisoner and bound him in chains of Gold and used him for a foot-stool when he took horse when he was at table he made him gather crums and scraps under his table and eat them for his food Dyonisus King of Sicily was such a cruel Tyrant that his people banished him after his banishment he went to Corinth whee he lived a base and contemptible life At last he became a School-master so that when he could not tyrannize any longer over men he might over boys Pythias was pined to death for want of bread who 9. Turk Histâ—ry pag. 220. once was able to entertain and maintain Xerxes his mighty army Great Pompey had not so much as room to be buried in and William the Conqueour's Corps lay three days unburied his interment being hindred by one that claimed the ground to be his Caesar having bathed his sword in the blood of the Senate and his own Countrey-men is after a while miserably murdered in the Senate by his own friends Cassius and Brutus King Guillimer a potent King of the Vandals was 12. Prâ—â—â—ptus reports this of him brought so low as to enteat his friend to send him a spunge a loaf of bread and a harp a spunge to dry up his tears a loaf of bread to maintain bis life and a harp to solace himself in his misery A Duke of Exeter who though he had married Edward 13. Philipâ—le Câ—mines saw him thus beg the fourths sister yet was seen begging bare foot in the Low-countreys The Emperour Nero promoted Tygelenus to the greatest 14. See Tacâ—â—us in Otho's Life dignities of the Roman Empire but it was because he had been the private Agent to his base and lascivious delights for which he was justly deprived of his honours and life by Otho the Emperour By all these instances and many more that might be produced it is most evident that worldly glory is but a breath a vapour a â—roth a phantâ—sm a â—â—adow a reflection an apparition a very nothing Like the Incubâ—s or night mare in a dream you imagine it a substance a weight you grasp at it and awake and 't is nothing Pleasue and wealth will abide a sense or two the one a touch or taste the other a sight of the eyes but this of glory can neither be felt seen or understood The Philosophers are at strife among themselves where to fix it in any being or existence whether in Honorante or in Honorato the
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
judicial Tryal in the great day except it be in a way of absolution in order to the magnifying of their pardon God has long since blotted out as a thick Cloud Isa 44. 22. the transgressions of his people and as a Cloud their sins Now we know that the clouds which are driven away by the winds appear no more nor the Mist which is dryed up by the Sun appears no more other Clouds and other Mists may arise but not they which are driven away and dryed up Thus the Sins of the Saints being forgiven they shall no more return upon them they shall never more be objected against them Further The Lord saith Though your sins be as Scarlet Isa 1. 18. they shall be as white as Snow though they be red like Crimson they shall be as Wooll Pardon makes such a clear riddance of sin that it is as if it had never been the Scarlet Sinner is as white as Snow Snow newly fallen from the Skye which was never sullied The Crimson Sinner is as Wool Wool which never received the least tincture in the Dye-fat you know Scarlet and Crimson are double and deep dyes dyes in grain yet if the Cloath dyed therewith be as the Wooll before it was dyed and if it be as white as Snow what is become of those dyes are they any more is not the Cloath as if it had not been dyed at all even so though our sins by reiterating them by long lying in them have made deep impressions upon us yet by Gods discharge of them we are as if we had never committed them Again The Psalmist pronounceth him blessed whose Psal 32. 1. sin is covered A thing covered is not seen so sin forgiven is before God as not seen The same Psalmist pronounceth him blessed to whom the Lord imputeth not sin Psal 32. 2. Now a sin not imputed is as not committed The Prophet Jeremiah tells us That the Iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none and the sins of Judah and they shall not be found Now is not that fully Jer. 50. 20. discharged which shall never be found never appear never be remembred never be mentioned Thus by the many Metaphors used in Scripture to set out forgiveness of sin pardon of sin you plainly and evidently see that Jer. 31. 34. Ezek. 18. 22. God's discharge is free and full and therefore he will never charge their sins upon them in the great day But Some may object and say that the Scripture saith that God shall bring every work into Judgment with every Eccles 12 14. secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil How then can this be that the sins of the Saints shall not be mentioned nor charged upon them in the great day I Answer This Scripture is to be understood Respective c. with a just respect to the two great parties Matth 25 3â— 33. which are to be judged Sheep and Goats Saints and Sinners Sons and Slaves Elect and Reprobate Holy and Prophane Pious and Impious Faithful and Unfaithful that is to say all the Grace the Holiness the Godliness the Good of those that are good shall be brought into the Judgment of mercy that it may be freely graciously and nobly rewarded and all the wickedness of the Wicked shall be brought into the Judgment of Condemnation that â—t may be righteously and everlastingly punished in this great day of the Lord. All Sincerity shall be discovered and rewarded and all Hypocrisie shall be disclosed and revenged In this great day all the works of the Saints shall follow them into Heaven and in this great day all the evil works of the Wicked shall hunt and pursue them into Hell In this See Wisd 2. thâ—oughâ—uâ— and cap. 5. from the first verse to the tenth great day all the hearts thoughts secrets words ways works and walkings of Wicked men shall be discovered and laid open before all the world to their everlasting shame and sorrow to their eternal amazement and astonishment And in this great day the Lord will make mention in the years of all the world of every Prayer that the Saints have made and of every Sermon that they have heard and of every Tear that they have shed and of every Fast that they have kept and of every Sigh and Groan that ever they have fetcht and of all the good words that ever they have spoke and of all the good works that ever they have done and of all the great things that ever they have suffered Yea in this great day they shall reap the fruit of many good Services which themselves had forgot Lord when saw we Thee Hungry and fed Thee or Thirsty and give Math 25 34. 41. Thee drink or Naked and Cloathed Thee or Sick or in Prison and Visited Thee They had done many good works and forgot them but Christ records them remembers them and rewards them before all the World In this great day a bit of Bread a cup of cold Water shall not pass without a reward In this great day the Saints shall reap a plentiful and glorious crop as the Matth 10. 24. 25. â—ecles 11. 16. fruit of that good seed that for a time hath seemed to be buried and lost In this great day of the Lord the Saints shall find that Bread which long before was cast upon the waters But my Second Reason is taken from Christs vehement protestations That they shall not come into Judgment Joh. 5. 24. Verily Verily I say unto you he that heareth my Vide Aquâ—â— 87. Supâ—l est in l. 4. Sâ—â— dist 47. Word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into Condemnation but is passed from death unto life Those words shall not come into Condemnation are not rightly translated the Original is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 shall not come into Judgment not into Damnation as you read it in all your English Books I will not say what should put men upon this Exposition rather than a true translation of the Original word further it is very observable that no Evangelist useth this double asseveration but St. John and he never useth it Jâ—h 1. 51 ch 3. 3 11 chap. 6. 26. 32 47 53 c. but in matters of greatest weight and importance and to shew the earnestness of his Spirit and to stir us up to better attention and to put the thing asserted out of all question and beyond all contradiction as when we would put a thing for ever out of all question we do it by a double asseveration verily verily 't is so c. Thirdly Because his not bringing their sins into Judgment doth most and best agree with many pretious and glorious expressions that we find scattered as so many shining sparkling Pearls up and down in Scripture As First With those of Gods blotting out the sins of his people I even I am he that blotteth
he died chearfully and comfortably without murmuring or repining O what a wonder of love is this that Jesus Christ who is the Author of life the Fountain of life the Lord of life that he should so freely so readily so cheerfully lay down his life for us c. About four in the Afternoon he was pierced with a Spear and there issued out of his side both blood and water John 19. 34. And one of the Souldiers with a Spear pierced his side and forthwith came thereout blood and water Out of the side of Christ being now dead there issues water blood signifying that he is both our Justification Sanctification Thus was fulfilled that which was long before foretold Zach. 1â— 10. 1 Jâ—◠〈◊〉 Zach. 12 1. They shall by water and by blood Thus was there a Fountain opâ—â—ed to the house of David and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem even to all the Elect for sin and for uncleanness The Souldiers malice lived when Christ was dead The water and blood forthwith issuing out as soon as 't was pierced with a Spear did evidently shew that he was truely dead The Syriack paraphrase saith he pierced his rib that is the fifth rib where the pericardium lay It is very likely that the very Pericardium was pierced now the Pericardium is a film or skin like unto a Purse wherein is contained clear water to cool the heat of the heart The blood saith one signifies the perfect expiation of the sins of the Church and the water the daily Ambrose on Luk. â—â— washing and purging of it from the remainder of her corruption Water and blood issued on t of Christs side saith another to teach us that Christ justifieth none by his merit but such whom he sanctifieth by his Spirit Christ was pierced with a Spear and water and blood presently issued out of his side that his Enemies might not object that he rose again because he was but half dead on the Cross and being so taken down he revived to testifie the contrary truth John so seriously affirmeth the certainty of his death he being an eye-witness of the streaming out of Christs blood as he stood by Christs Cross O Gates of Heaven O Windows of Paradise O Palace of Refuge O Tower of strength O Sanctuary of the just O flourishing Bed of the Spouse of Solomon Me-thinks I see water and blood running out of his side more freshly than these golden streams which ran out of the Garden of Eden and watered the whole world But here I may not dwell c. But to shut up this particular about five which the Jews call the eleventh and the last hour of the day Christ was taken down and Buried by Joseph and Nichodemus But Thirdly As the death of Christ on the Cross was a lingring death so the death of Christ was a painful death this appears several ways First His Legs and Hands were violently racked and pulled out to the places fitted for his fastenings and then pierced through with Nails his Hands and Feet were nailed which parts being full of sinnews and therefore very tender his pains could not but be very acute and sharpe Secondly By this means he wanted the use both of his Hands and Feet and so he was forced to hang immoveable upon the Cross as being unable to turn any way for his ease and therefore he could not but be under very dolorous pains Thirdly The longer he lived the more he endured for by the weight of his body his wounds were opened and enlarged his Nerves and Veins were rent and torn asunder and his blood gushed out more and more abundantly still Now the invenomed Arrows of Gods wrath shot to his heart this was the direful Catastrophe and caused that vociferation and out-cry upon the Cross My God my God why hast thou forsaken me The Justice of God was now inflamed and heightned to its full 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 8. 32. God spared not his Son God would not abate one farthing of the debt But Fourthly He dyed by piece-meals he dyed by little and little he dyed not all at once he that dyed on the Cross was long a dying Christ was kept a great while upon the rack it was full three hours betwixt his affixion and expiration and certainly it would have been longer if he had not freely and willingly given up the Ghost I have read that Andrew the Apostle was two whole days on the Cross before he dyed and so long might Christ have been a dying if God had not supernaturally heightened the degrees of his torment Doubtless when Christ was on the Cross he felt the very pains of Hell though not locally yet equivalently But Fourthly As the death of Christ on the Cross was a painful death so the death of Christ on the Cross was a shameful death Christ was in medio positus he hung between two Thieves as if he had been the principal Malefactor Math. 27. 38. Here they placed him to make the world believe that he was the great ring-leader of such men Christ was crucified in the mid'st as the chief of Sinners that we might have place in the mid'st of Heavenly Angels the one of these Thieves went railing to Hell the Zach. 3 7. other went repenting forth right to Heaven living long in a little time If you ask me the names of these two Thieves who Q. were crucified with Christ I must answer That although the Scripture nominates them not yet some Writers give them these names Dismas and Gâ—smas Dismas the happy and Gesmas the miserable Thief according to the Poet Gesmas damnatur Dismas ad astra levatur That is When Gesmas died to Dives he was sent When Dismas died to Abraham up he went Well might the Lamp of Heaven withdraw its light and mask it self with darkness as blushing to behold the Sun of Righteousness hanging between two Thieves He shall be an Apollo to me that can tell me which was the greater The blood of the Cross or the shame of the Cross Heb. 12. 2. It was a mighty shame that Sauls Sons were 2 Sam. 21. 6. hanged on a Tree O what a shameful death was it for Christ to hang on a Tree between two notorious Thieves But Fifthly and lastly As the death of Christ was a shameful death so the death of Christ was a cursed death Cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree The death on Deut. 21. 23. the Tree was Accursed above all kinds of death as the Serpent was Accursed above all Beasts of the field both for Gen. 3. 14. the first transgression whereof the Serpent was the instrument the Tree the occasion Since the death of any Malefactor might be a Monument of Gods Curse for sin it may be questioned why this brand is peculiarly set upon this kind of punishment that he that is hanged is Accursed of God To which I Answer that the reason of this was because this was
to be endured a thousand years me-thinks I could bear it but for ever that amazeth me Bellarmin out of Barocius tells us of a learned man De arte bene moâ—iendi who after his death appeared to his Friend complaining that he was adjudged to Hell-torments which saith he were they to last but a thousand thousand years I should think it tollerable but alass they are eternal The fire in Hell is like that stone in Arcadia I have read of which being once kindled could not be quenched There is no Estate on Earth so miserable but a man may be delivered out of it but out of Hell there is no deliverance It is not the prayer no not of a Gregory though never so great what ever they fable that can rescue any that is once become Hells Prisoner I might add other Scriptures out of the old Testament but let these suffice That there is such a place as Hell is prepared for the torment of the bodys souls of wicked impenitent Siners is most clear evident in the New Testament as well as in the Old Amongst the many that might be produced take these for a tast Mat. 5. 22. But I say unto you that whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause rashly vainly and unreasonably shall be in danger of the Judgment whosoever shall say to his Brother Raca shall be in danger of the Councel but whosoever shall say thou Fool shall be in danger of Hell-fire Gr to or in the Gehenna of fire In this Scripture our Lord Jesus doth allude to the custom of punishing Offenders used among the Jews now there were three degrees of punishments that were used among the Jews First In every Town where there were a hundred and twenty Inhabitants there was a little Councel of three which judged smaller matters for which whipping or some pecuniary mulct was imposed Secondly There was a Councel consisting of three and twenty seven of these were Judges fourteen Assessors Josephus who were mostly of the Levites and to these were added two supernumeraries which made the twenty-three which the Hebrews generally say was the number that made up this second Councel Now this Councel sate in the Gates of the City and did judge of civil matters having also power of life and death Thirdly There was the great Synedrion or High-Court of Judicatory which consisted of seventy and two six chosen of every Tribe Now this Councel sate in the Court of the Temple and had all matters of greatest moment brought before them as Heresie Idolatry Apostacy Beza Somtimes they convented before them the High-Priest and somtimes false Prophets yea somtimes a whole Tribe as my Reverend Author thinks Now look as there is a gradation of sin so there is a gradation of punishment pointed at in this Scripture for the opening of which consider you have here three degrees of secret murder or of inward heart-murder And 1. The first is Rash anger Now this brings a man in danger of the Judgment By the judgment he means not the judgment of the three who judged of mony-matters but by judgment he means the Counsel of the three and twenty men Now they are called the Judgment because they judged of Murthers and inflicted death c. Now he that shall rashly vainly causelesly unseasonably be angry with his Brother he shall be liable to the punishments that are to be inflicted by the Judges Look what punishments they in the Sanhedrim inflicted upon actual and apparent Murderers the same were they liable to and did deserve at the hands of God who were guilty of this secret kind of Murther viz. Rash Anger From the different degrees of punishments among the Jews Christ would shew the degrees of punishment in another world according to the greatness of mens sins as if he should say Look as among you Jews there are different offences some are judged in your little Counsel of three and others are judged in your Counsel of three and twenty and others in your great Sanhedrim So in the high Court of Heaven some sins as Rash Anger are less punished and others are more sorely punished as when your Rash Anger shall break forth into railings c. In these words Whosoever is angry with his Brother without a cause shall be in danger of Judgment You may see that Christ gives as much to Rash Anger as the Jews did to Murther as if he should have said You Pharisees exceed all measure and bounds in your anger and with a malicious heart you rail upon the most innocent persons upon me and my Disciples but I would have you take heed of Rash Anger for you shall have greater torments in Hell for your Rash anger than those that Murderers suffer by your Counsel of three and twenty But these words he shall be in danger of Judgment do contain the reward and punishment of unlawful anger as if our Saviour had said Rash Anger shall not escape just punishment but shall be arraigned and summoned before Gods Tribunal at the dreadful day of Judgment when the angry man shall not be able to answer one word of a thousand The second kind of secret Murder is to say to our Brother 2. Whether the word Raca be Hebrew or some say as Syriack as others say or Chaldee it matters not for all agree in this that it is a word that notes scorn and contempt c. Lapide Vide Weemes on the judicial Law of Moses and Dr. Field of the Church Michael Maronita Raca that is say some O vain man others say it signifies a brainless Fellow and the learned Tremellius saith it signifies one void of judgment reason and brains Some will have this word Raca come of the Greek 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Racos Cloth as though one should call a man a base patch or piece of cloath or beggarly Raca signifies an idle head a light brain for so Rik in the Hebrew to which the Syriack word Racha agreeth both in sound and sense signifieth light or vain Racha is a Syriack word and signifies say some these three things 1. Empty as empty of wealth or poor or as some empty of brains or wit or as others a light head or cock-brain wide and empty of wisdom or understanding 2. It signifies spittle or spit upon to signifie that they esteemed one another no better than the spittle they spat out of their mouths 3. It signifies contemned vile despised abject and in this signification one in his Proeme of the Syriack Grammer thinks it to be taken The Ethiopian expounds Racha thus He that shall say to his Brother be poor by contempt and of torne Garments shall be guilty of the Counsel such a one saith our Saviour Shall be in danger of the Counsel that is contract as great guilt unto himself and is subject to as severe a judgment in the Court of Heaven as any capital crime that is censured in the Sanhedrim or
High-Court of the Jews But The third kind of secret Murder is an open reviling and reproaching of a Brother in these words But whosoever shall say thou Fool shall be in danger of Hell-fire Thou Fool this is a word of greater disgrace than the former 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies unsavory or without rellish a Fool here is by a metaphor called insipid Hebrew 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sote which we call Sot shall be in danger of Hell-fire or to be cast into Gehenna Gehenna comes from the Hebrew word Gettinnom that is the Valley of Hinnom lying near the City of Jerusalem in which Valley in former times the Itolatrous Josh 15. 8. Jews caused their Children to be burned alive between the glowing arms of the brazen Image of Moloch imitating vide 2. King 23 10. Jer. 7. 31. Jer. 32. 35. Jer. 19. 4 5 6. the Abominations of the Heathen And hence the Scripture often makes use of that word to signifie the place of eternal punishment where the damned must abide under the wrath of God for ever There were four kinds of punishments exercised among the Jews First Stranglings 2. The Sword 3. Stoning 4. The Fire Now this last they always judged the worst as Beza affirms upon this very place In these words Shall be in danger of Hell-fire Christ alludes to the great Sanhedrim and the highest degree of punishment that was inflicted by them namely to be burned in the Valley of Hinnom which by a known Metaphor is transferred to Hell it self and the inexpressible torments thereof For as those poor wretches being inclosed in a brazen Idol-heat with fire were miserably tormented in this Valley of Hinnom So the wicked being cast into Hell the Prison of the damn'd shall be eternally tormented in unquenchable fire This Valley of Hinnom by reason of the pollution of it with slaughter blood and stencth of Carkasses did become so execrable that Hell it self did afterwards inherit the same Name and was called Gehenna of this very place And that 1. In respect of the hollowness and depth thereof being a low and deep Valley 2. This Valley of Hinnom was a place of misery in regard of those many slaughters that were committed in it through their barbarous Idolatry So Hell is a place of misery and infelicity wherein there is nothing but sorrow 3. Thirdly By the bitter and lamentable crys of poor Infants in this Valley is shadowed out the crys and lamentable torments of the damned in Hell 4. In this Valley of Hinnom was another fire which was kept continually burning for the consuming of dead Carkasses and filth and the garbidge that came out of the City Now our Saviour by the fire of Gehenna in this Mat. 5. 22. hath reference principally to this fire signifying hereby the perpetuity and everlastingness of Hellish pains To this last judgment of the Sanhedrim viz. Burning Doth Christ appropriate that kind of Murder which is by open reviling of a Brother that he might notifie the heynousness of this sin marke in this Scripture Judgment Councel and Hell fire do but signifie three degrees of the same punishment c. See also Matth. 5. 29 30. And if thy right Eye offend thee pluck it out and cast it from thee for it is profitable for thee that one of thy Members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into Hell And if thy right hand offend thee cut it off and cast it from thee for it is profitable for thee that one of thy Members should perish and not that thy whole body should be cast into Hell-fire Julian taking these commands literally mockt at Christian Religion as foolish cruel and vain because they require men to maim their members He mockt at Christians because no man did it and he mockt at Christ because no man obeyed him but this Apostate might have seen from the scope that these words were not to be taken literally but figuratively Some of the Antients by the right hand and the right eye do understand Relations Friends or any other dear enjoyments which draws the heart from God Others of them by the right eye and the right hand do understand such darling sins that are as dear to men as their right eyes and right hands That this Hell here spoken of is not meant of the Grave into which the body shall be laid is most evident because those Christians who do pull out their right eyes and cut off their right hands that is mortifie those special sins which are as dear and near to them as the very members of their bodies shall be secured and delivered from this Hell whereas none shall be exempted from the Grave though they are the choycest persons on Earth for grace and holiness Death like the Duke of Parma's Sword knows no difference twixt Robes and Raggs twixt Prince and Peasant All flesh is grass The Isa 40. 6. flesh of Princes Nobles Counsellors Generals c. is grass as well as the flesh of the meanest Beggar that walks the Streets The mortal Sythe saith one is master Hâ—rat l. 1. Oct. 28. of the Royal Scepter it mows down the Lillies of the Crown as well as the Grass of the Field Never was there Oratour so Eloquent nor Monarch so Potent that could either Dâ—aths Motto is Nulli cedo perswade or withstand the stroak of death when it came It is one of Solomons sacred Aphorisms The Rich and the Poor meet together somtimes in the same Bed somtimes Prov. 22. 2. at the same Board and somtimes in the same Grave Death is the common Inne of all Man-kind There is no defence against the stroak of death nor no discharge in that Hâ—b 9. 27. Eccles 8. 8. War Death is that only King against whom there is no rising up If your Houses be fired by good help they Prov. 30. 31. may be quenched if the Sea break out by art and industry it may be repaired If Princes Invade by power and policy they may be repulsed If Devils from Hell shall tempt by assistance from Heaven they may be resisted But Death comes into Royal Pallaces and into the meanest Cottages and there is not a man to be found that can make resistance against this King of terrors and terrour of Kings Deaths Motto is Nemini parco I spare none Thus you see that by Hell in Math. 5. 29 30. You may not you cannot understand the Grave and therefore by it you must understand the place of the damned But if you please you may cast your eye upon another Scripture viz. Math. 10. 28. Fear not them which kill the body but are not able to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell The word rather is not a comparative but an adversative We should not fear man at all when he stands in competition with God So Victorian the Pro-Consul of Carthage being sollicited to Arrianism
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.
82. 16. are nor by office and Title only as Magistrates are called Gods nor catachrestically and Ironically as the Heathen Gods are called nor a diminutive God inferiour to the Father as Arrius held but God by nature every way co-essential co-eternal and co-equal with the Father and the Holy Ghost Hold fast all truth but above all hold fast this glorious truth that Jesus Christ is God blessed for ever The Eourth name or Title which denotes the Essence of God is El Gibbor The strong and mighty God God is not only strong in his own Essence but he is also strong in the defence of his people and it is he that giveth all 2 Chron. 16. 9. strength and power to all other creatures There are no men no powers that are a match for the strong God Now this Title is also attributed to Christ Isa 9. 6. El Gibbor the strong God the mighty God The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying God doth also signify strong he is so strong that he is almighty he is one to whom nothing is impossible Christ's name is God for he is the same Essence with God the Father this Title the mighty God fitteth well to Christ who hath all the names of the Deity given to him in Scripture and who by the strength and power of his God-head did satisfie the justice of God and pacifie the wrath of God and make peace and purchase pardon and eternal life for all his Elect. The Fifth name or Title which denotes the Essence of God is El Shaddai God omnipotent or all-sufficient he wanteth nothing but is infinitely blessed with the infinite Gen. 17. 1. perfection of his glorious being by this name God makes himself known to be self-sufficient all-sufficient absolutely perfect certainly that man can want nothing who hath an all-sufficient God for his God he that loseth his all for God shall find all in an all-sufficient God Mat. 19. â—9 Esau had much but Jacob had all because he had the Gen. 33. 9. 11. God of all Habet omnia qui habet habentem omnia what are Riches Honours Pleasures Profits Lands Friends Augustin This name Shaddai belongeth only to the God-head and to no creature no not to the humanity of Christ yea millions of worlds to one Shaddai God Almighty God All-sufficient This glorious name Shaddai was a noble bottom for Abraham to act his faith upon though in things above nature or against it c. He that is El Shaddai is perfectly able to defend his Servants from all evil and to bless them with all spiritual and temporal blessings and to perform all his promises which concern both this life and that which is to come Now this name this Title Shaddai is attributed to Christ as you may clearly see by comparing Gen. 35. 6 9 10 11. and Gen. 32. 24 25 26 27 28 29 30. with Hosea 12. 3 4 5. That Angel that appeared to Jacob See my Treatise on Closet-Prayer opening that Gen. 3â— and that 12. Hâ—s pag. 48 49 50 51. where you haâ—e four Arguments to prove that Jesus Christ is the Angel the man that is there spoken of c. was Christ the Angel of the Covenant Mark you shall never find either God the Father or the Holy Ghost called an Angel in Scripture nor was this a created Angel for then Jacob would never have made supplication to him but he was an uncreated Angel even the Lord of Hosts the almighty God who spake with Jacob in Bethel He that in this divine story is said to be a man was the Son of God in humane shape as is most evident by the whole narration The Angel in the Text is the same Angel that conducted the Israelites in the Wilderness and fought their battels for them Exod. 3. 2. Act. 7. 30. 1. Cor. 10. 4 5 9. even Jesus Christ who is stiled once and again the Almighty Rev. 1. 8. cap. 4. 8. In this last Scripture is acknowledged Christ's Holiness Power and God-head Ah Christians when will you once learn to set one Almighty Christ against all the mighty ones of the world that you may bear up bravely and stoutly against their rage and wrath and go on chearfully and resolutely in the way of your duty The sixth name or Title is Adonai my Lord. Though this name Adonai be given sometimes analogically to creatures yet properly it belongs to God above this name is often used in the old Testament and in Mal. 1. 6. it is used in the plural number to note the mystery of the holy Trinity If I be Adonim Lords where is my fear some derive the word Adonai from a word in the Hebrew that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies judicare to judg because God is the Judg of the world others derive it from a word which signifies Basis a foundation intimating that God is the upholder of all things as the foundation of a house is the support of the whole building Now this name is given to Christ Dan. 9. 17. Cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary that is desolate for Adonai the Lord Christ sake Daniel pleads here no merits of their own but the merits and mediation of the Messias whom God hath made both Lord and Christ So Aâ—â—s 2. 36. Luk. 1. 4â— cap. 2. 11 12. Heb. 1. 13. Psal 110. 1. The Lord said unto my Lord sit thou at my right hand untill I make thine Enemies thy footstool Christ applies these words to himself as you may see in that Mat. 22. 24. Jehovah said that is God the Father said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 La-adoni unto my Lord that is to Christ sit thou at my right hand sit thou with me in my Throne it notes the Math. 28. 13. John 3. 35. advancement of Christ as he was both God and man in one person to the supremest place of power and authority of honour and heavenly glory God's right hand notes a place of equal power and authority with God even that Epâ—â— 1. 21. Heb. 1. 3. Luk. 22. 69. he should be advanced far above all principallity and power and might and dominion Christs reign over the whole world is sometimes called The right hand of the Majesty and sometimes the right hand of the power of God until I make thine enemies thy foot-stool This implies 1. That Jesus Christ hath ever had and will have enemies even to the end of the world 2. Victory a perfect Conquest over them Conquerours used to make their enemies their foot-stool Those proud enemies of Christ who now set up their Crests face the heavens and strut it out against him even those shall be brought under his feet 3. It implies ignominy the lowest subjection Sapores King of Persia overcoming the Emperour Valerian in battel used his back for a stirrup when he got upon his horse and so Tamberlane served Bajazet 4. The foot-stool is a piece of State and both raiseth and easeth him that
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
and if so then what would become of us what would become of our salvation then our faith would be in vain and our hope would be in vain and our hearing preaching praying and receiving would all be in vain yea then all our Religion would vanish into a mâ—re fancy also when a man's conscience is awakened to see his sin and misery and he shall find guilt to lay like a load upon his soul and when he shall see that divine justice is to be satisfied and divine wrath to be pacified and the curse to be born and the Law to be fulfilled and his nature to be renewed his heart to be changed and his sins to be pardoned or â—lsâ— his soul can never be saved how can such a person venture his soul his all upon one that is but a mâ—re crcature certainly a mere man is no Rock no City of refuge and no sure foundation for a man to build his faith and hope upon woe to that man that ever he was born that has no Jesus but a Socinian's Jesus to rest upon oh 't is sad trusting to one who is man but not God flesh but not spirit as you love the eternal safety of your precious souls and would be happy for ever as you would escape Hell and get to Heaven lean on none rest on none but that Jesus who is God-man who is very God and very man Apollinaris held that Christ took not the whole nature of man but a humane body only without a soul and that the Godhead was instead of a soul to the Manhood Also Eutyches who confounded the two natures of Christ and their properties c. Also Apelles and the Manichees who denied the true humane body and held him to have an aerial or imaginary body Though the popular sort deified Alexander the great yet having Plutarch in vita got a clap with an Arrow he said ye stile me Jupiter's son as if immortal sed hoc vulnus clamat esse hominem this blood that issues from the wound proves me in the issue a man this is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the blood of man not of God and smelling the stench of his own flesh he asked his flatterers if the God's yielded such a scent so may it be said of Jesus Christ our Saviour though Myriads of Angels and Saints acclaim he is a God ergo immortal and a crew of Hereticks disclaim him to be man as the Marcionites averred that he had a phantastical body and Apelles who conceived that he had a sydereal substance yet the streams of blood following the arrow of death that struck him makes it good that he was perfect man of a reasonable soul and humane flesh subsisting And as this truth looks sowerly upon the above mentioned persons so it looks sowerly upon the Papists who by their Doctrine of the real presence of Christ's body in the Sacrament do overthrow one of the properties of his humane nature which is to be but in one place present at once This truth also looks sowerly upon the Lutherans or Ubiquitaries who teach that Christ's humane nature is in all places by vertue of the personal union c. I wonder that of all the old Errours swept down into this latter Age as into a sink of time this of the Socinians and Arrians should be held forth among the rest O sirs beware of their Doctrines shun their meetings and persons that come to you with the denial of the Divinity of Christ in their mouths this was John's Doctrine and Practise Irenaeus saith that after he was returned from his banishment and came to Ephesus he came to bathe himself and in the bath he found Cerinthus that said Christ had no being till he received it from the Virgin Mary upon the sight of whom John skipped out of the Bath and called his companions from thence saying let us go from this place lest the Bath should fall down upon us because Cerinthus is in it that is so great an enemy to God ye see his Doctrine see his words too 2 John 10 11. If any come to you having not this doctrine receive him not into your house neither bid him God speed For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds What that Doctrine was if you cast your eye upon the Scripture you shall find it to be the Doctrine of the Divinity of Christ shew no love where you owe nothing but hatred I hate every Psal 119. 113. false way saith David And I shall look upon Auxentius as upon a Devil so long as he is an Arrian said Hilarius We must shew no countenance nor give no encouragement to such as deny either â—ne divinity or humanity of Christ I have been the longer upon the Divinity and humanity of Christ 1. Because the times we live in require it 2. That poor weak staggering Christians may be strengthned established and setled in the truth as it is in Jesus 3. That I may give in my testimony and witness against all those who are poysoned and corrupted with Socinian and Arrian Principles which destroy the souls of men 4. That those in whose hands this book may fall may be the better furnished to make head against men of corrupt minds who by slight of hand and cunning craftiness lie in wait to deceive Eph. 4. 14. Sixthly As he that did feel and suffer the very torments of Hell though not after a hellish manner was God-man so the punishments that Christ did sustain for us must be referred only to the substance and not unto the circumstances of punishment The punishment which Christ endured if it be considered in its substance kind or nature so 't was the same with what the sinner himself should have undergone Now the punishment due to the sinner was death the curse of the Law c. now this Christ underwent for he was made a curse for us Gal. 3. 13. but if you consider the punishment which Christ endur'd with respect to certain circumstances adjuncts and accidents as the eternity of it desperation going along with it c. then I say it was not the same but equivalent Whether the work of man's redemption could have been wrought without the sufferings and humiliation of Christ is not determinable by men but that it was the most admirable way which wisdom justice and mercy could require cannot be denied And the reason is because though the enduring of the punishments as to the substance of them could and did agree with him as a surety yet the circumstances of those punishments could not have befallen him unless he had been a sinner and therefore every inordination in suffering was far from Christ and a perpetual duration of suffering could not befall him for the first of these had been contrary to the holiness and dignity of his person and the other had made void the end of his suretiship and Mediatorship which was so to suffer as yet to conquer and
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
A GOLDEN-KEY TO OPEN Hidden Treasures OR Several great Points that refer to the Saints present blessedness and their future happiness with the resolution of several important questions Here you have also The Active and Passive Obedience of Christ vindicated and improved against men of corrupt minds c. Who boldly in Pulpit and Press contend against those glorious Truths of the Gospel You have farther Eleven serious singular Pleas that all sincere Christians may safely and groundedly make to those ten Scriptures in the Old and New Testament that speak of the general Judgment and of that particular Judgment that must certainly pass upon them all immediately after death The Godhead and Manhood of Christ is here largely proved and improved against all Gainsayers by what names and titles soever they are distinguished and known among us Several things concerning Hell and hellish torments opened cleared and improved against all Atheists and all others that boldly assert that there is no Hell but what is in us Some other points of importance are here cleared and opened which other Authors so far as the Author hath read have passed over them in great silence all tending to the confirmation of the strong and support peace comfort settlement and satisfaction of poor weak doubting trembling staggering Christians By Tho. Brooks late Preacher of the Gospel at Margarets-New-Fish-street LONDON Printed for Dorman Newman at the King's-Arms in the Poultrey and at the Ship and Anchor at the Bridg-foot on Southwark side 1675. To his much Honoured and Worthily esteemed Friend Sir NATHANIEL HERNE Kt. Sheriff of London and Governour of the East-India Company Grace Mercy and Peace be multiplyed upon you and yours SIR MUch might be said were it necessary for the Dedication of Books unto persons of worth interest service and honour this having been the constant practise of the best and wisest of men in all the Ages of the world And therefore I need not make any farther Apology for my present practice What is written is permanent litera scripta manet and spreads it self farther by far for time place and persons than the voice can reach Augustine writing to Volusian Aug Epist 1. ad Vâ—â—â—s saith that which is written is always at hand to be read when the reader is at leysure There are those that think and as they conceive from Scripture grounds too that the glory of the Saints in heaven receives additions and encreases daily as their holy walk and faithful service when here on earth doth after they are gone bring forth fruit to the praise of God amongst those that are left behind them If this be so what greater encouragement can there be to write print preach and to walk holily in this world I must also confess that that general acceptation that my former labours have found both in the Nation and It was a saying of 〈◊〉 concerning his first portraicture I◠〈◊〉 liked I will â—raw 〈◊〉 beiâ—e 〈…〉 this in forreign parts and that singular blessing that has attended them from on high hath been none of the least encouragements to me once more to cast in my Mite into the common Treasury Besides I am not unsensible of your candid esteem of some forme endeavours of mine in this kind neither do I know any way wherein I am more capacitated to serve the glory of God the interest of Christ the publick good reproached truths and the interest of the Churches in my Generation than this as my case and condition is circumstanced And I am very well satisfied that there is nothing in this Treatise but what tends to the advantage comfort support settlement and encouragement of those whose concernment lies in peace and truth in holiness and righteousness throughout the Nations Sir The points here insisted on are of the greatest use worth weight necessity excellency and utility imaginable they are such wherein our present blessedness and our future happiness yea wherein our very all both as to this and that other world is wrapped up It will be Dâ—uâ— 30. 15 19. cap. 32. 47. your life honour and happiness to read them digest them experience them and to exemplifie them in a suitable conversation which that you may let your immortal soul lye always open to the warm powerful and hourly influences 2 Cor. 5. 9. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 We ambitiously labour we count it our highest honour and glory to â—â— accepted of God of heaven Let it be the top of your ambition and the height of all your designs to glorifie God to secure your interest in Christ to seve your Generation to provide for Eternity to walk with God to be tender of all that have Aliquid Christi any thing of Christ shining in them and so to steer your course in this world as that you may give Mat. 25. 21. up your account at last with joy All other ambition is base and low Ambition saith one is a guilded misery Bâ—rnard Cardinal Burbon would not lose his part in Paris for his part in Paradise Act. and mon. Fol. 899. a secret poyson a hidden plague the Engineer of deceipt the mother of hypocrisie the parent of envy the original of vices the moth of holiness the blinder of hearts turning medicines into maladies and remedies into diseases In the enthronization of the Pope before he is set in his chair and puts on his triple Crown a piece of tow or wad of straw is set on fire before him and one appointed to say sic transit gloria mundi the glory of this Act 25. 23. world is but a blaze St. Luke calls Agrippa's pomp 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a phantasie or vain shew and indeed all worldly pomp and state is but a phantasie or vain shew St. Matthew calls all the world's glory 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mat. 4. 8. an opinion and St. Paul calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Mathematical 1 Cor. 7. 31. figure which is a mere notion and nothing in substance The word here used intimateth that there is nothing of any firmness or solid consistency in the creature it is but a surface out-side empty thing all the beauty of it is but skin-deep Mollerus upon that Psal The Romanâ— built Virtue 's honours Temples close together to shew that the way to true honour was by Virtue Aug. 73. 20. concludeth that men's earthly dignities are but as idle dreams their splendid braveries but lucid fantasies High seats are never but uneasie and Crowns are always stuffed with Thorns which made one say of his Crown Oh Crown more noble than happy shall the spirit of God the grace of God the power of God the presence of God arm you against all other sins evils snares and temptations as you are by a good hand of heaven armed against worldly ambition and worldly glory Sir you know he was a Saul that said honour me before 1 Sam. 15 30. 2 King 10 16. the people and he