straits out of which ye will not be able to extricate your selves and he shall appear like everlasting burning when the great day of his wrath comes and when it shall be said by you who can stand before it or abide it It were good that ye who are most atheistical and who with a sort of triumph and gallantry will needs destroy your selves would lay this to heart and remember that the day comes when ye will be brought to this Bar and gravely consider what a Hell that will be to have the desperateness of the outgate sealed up in your Consciences and these evidences of Gods hatred and these aggravations that our Lords holy nature could not admit of in your bosome when Wrath meets with Corruption and Corruption with Wrath and when these mingle how dreadful will your case be 3ly Let Believers see here what ye are obliged to Christ Consider what he hath payed and what the satisfaction of Justice for you cost him Folks are ready to think that it was an easie thing to satisfie Justice and to drink of the brook by the way but if Sinners were sensible of challanges for sin and if they had the Arrows of the Almighty drinking up their spirits they would think otherwise of Christs drinking out the cup of Wrath for them not leaving so much as one drop of it It 's but the shorings or threatnings with some drops of it that any of you meet with in your sharpest Soul-exercises O! believing Sinners are ye not then eternally obliged to Christ who drunk out this wrathful-cup for you 4ly There is notable consolation here to poor Souls that would fain make use of Christ As 1. That Christ hath stepped thorow this deep Foord or rather Sea before them and if the Cup come in their hand it 's empty Freedom from the Wrath of God is a great consolation and yet it 's the consolation of all them that are fled unto him for refuge 2. It 's comfortable to them in their comparatively petty straits and difficulties when they wot not what to do when the Law seizeth and Justice pursueth and when the Conscience challengeth to consider that Christ was a prisoner before them though he had no challenge for his own debt yet he was challenged for ours that he might be a compassionate high Priest being made like to us but without sin Justice pursued him the Law arrested him wrath seized on him so that when we are set upon by these he will be tender of us for he knows our frame and that we cannot bear much and therefore on this ground a believing sinner may go with boldness to the Throne of Grace because Christ the Cautioner who hath payed his Debt is there it 's a shame for believing sinners to walk so heartlesly even under these things that are terrible as if Christ had not gone thorow them before them and for them 3. There is consolation here when they are under any pinshing cross and difficulty as there is also ground for patient and pleasant bearing of it because it was another sort of prison that Christ was put in for them ye may I grant lament over the long want of sensible presence it being kindly to the Believer to miss it and to long for it but ye should not be heartless under the want of it nor complain as the Lords people do lament Is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow but submissively and contentedly bear it without fretting seing our Lord bare so much for you 5ly There is here a notable encouragement to believe and a notable ground for the Believer to expect freedom from sin and from the pinshing straits that it deserveth because Christ payed dear for it wherefore was all this pinshing but to pay Believers Debt But when we come to speak of his outgate it will clear this more 2. While it 's said That he was brought from judgment which supposes and implyes that he was once at or under judgment even the judgment of God who is his great party all along He laid on him the iniquity of us all and vers 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise him He was the Creditor that caused take and arrest him Observe That in all the Soul-vexation in all the pinshing pressure of spirit that our Lord sustained he was standing judicially before the bar of God and was judicially proceeded against as the Elects Cautioner and Surety there was no access to bring Christ to â—udgment had he not engaged to be Surety and had not God laid on him our iniquities for it was for no Debt that he was owing himself but for what by his engagement as the Elects Surety he came under and was made lyable to That which I mean by his being brought to Judgment is not only that he suffered was occasionally condemned by a Court of men or by a humane Judicatory which was rather like a tumultuary Meeting or a company of men in an uproar than indeed a Court but whatever was before men there was a legal and judicial procedure before God For clearing whereof ye would consider 1. The account whereon he suffered and was brought before Gods Court of Judgment to speak so It was not for any thing that the Scribes or Pharisees or Pilate had to lay to his charge it was envy in them the former at least that stirred them in what they did but the next words tell us what it was for the transgression of my people was he striken The Priests and People had no mind of this but this was indeed the ground of his judicial Challenge and Arraignment before God the Elect were in their sins and he by the Covenant of Redemption stood lyable for their Debt because in it he had undertaken for them as their Cautioner and Surety 2. Consider who was his great party in his Sufferings it was not Pilate and the Jews he cared not so much for them but it is God and therefore he crys My God my God why hast thou forsaken me and therefore he makes his address to God Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me he cared not for answering them but looks to a higher hand and upon himself as standing before another Tribunal therefore it 's said v. 10. yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he looked not to Pilate but to the Lord pursuing him 3. Coâ—sider our Lords submission to his being brought to Judgment not only nor chiefly before men but before God therefore says he John 12.48 Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I to this hour come thâ—n Fâ—ther and let us compt he looks not only to the present dispensation but also to the ground whence it came and to the end that God had in it for this cause came I unto this hour even to have my soul troubled and to be put to answer for the D bt of my elect People according to my Engagement Lo I come saith he in that
making up of their defects in Grace as well as for the removing of Sin And as use making of Christ in these Three points out the way of a Sinners coming to Christ So a Sinners going on in this way evidenceth his right use making of Him which will serve to Answer both the Questions to wit how to make use of Christ's Offering and how to know that we are making use of it a right For the First to wit Going to God by Christ 1. It is opposed to stepping in to God at the first hand 2. It is opposed to the use making of any other thing in our coming to God for making up the Breach 3. It implyes the Sinners betaking of himself to Christ as the Mid-man by whom he expects to come to Friendship with God There are some Scriptural Similitudes whereof if we could rightly conceive and apply them to this Purpose they might serve much to clear it There is a Distance which like a Gulf is fixed betwixt God and Man a Soul then comes to God by Christ as one goes over a Gulf by a Bridge Hinted at by the Apostle Heb. 10.19 20. Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated to us through the vail which is his flesh We take the force of the Similitude to lye in this That as one that hath a Vail betwixt him and another whom he desires to approach to must go through the Vailere he win to that other So here Christ's Flesh being the Vail He by His Death hath rent it that Sinners might step through that Rent or Breach to God That is when all was before shut up and closs betwixt God and Sinners Christ was content that a Rent should be made in His Body through which they might come to God Coming to God by Christ in this Sense is to walk as 't were on Christ's Sufferings as a Bridge and to have no other Place or Ground to Stand or Walk on to God but this Again John 10. Christ calls Himself the Door I am the door and John 14. To the same purpose He is called the way To tell us That as none can come in to a House but by the Door nor can come to the end of their journey but by the way that leads to it So Heaven being shut up and closed upon Sinners any that would have entry into it must betake themselves to Christ by Faith For by Faith in Him the Door is opened and the Way Paved to Heaven It is a good token when the way to Heaven looks on the Sinner as a hard Wall or like a sinking Moss or Boge and Faith in Christ gives him some little hold whereby he wiâ—s over the Wall and leads him to some little Hillocks or hard Bits or Spots of Ground whereby he steps thorow the Moss or Boge to Christ Or when the Sinner layes his Reckoning to make use of Christ's Satisfaction for payment of his Debt So that if he were to appear at the Bar of Justice his answer would not be that if he had done a Fault he had made or would make a Mends nor that he Prayed and Repented and sought Mercy but this that he took with his Guilt and made use of Christ's Sacrifice So Paul speaking when renewed in opposition to what he was while a Pharisee sayes Philip. 3. That he counts all things to be but losse and dung for the excellencie of the knowledge of Christ that he may be found in him not having his own righteousness which is according to the law but that which is through the faith of Christ When he even he thinks on the Day of Judgement and where he will hide himself in that Day when it shal be asked and every other shall be asked the Question Where art thou his Desire and Resolution is to give this Answer I am in Christ Lord I have no righteousness of my own to lippen or to trust to I will never make mention of my painfulness in my Ministry of the tendernesse of my Walk nor of any thing else of that Kind But I will betake my self to Christ's Righteousness and will say Lord here is much Debt on my Score but there is a Righteousnesse to which I am fled by Faith And on this I will ground all my Answers This Righteousnesse is in Christ as the Purchaser thereof And it is ours by Faith when we betake our selves to it to make it the ground of our Claime even as if a number of Men were Pursued for Debt before a Judge and one should come in and say I have payed so much And another should say give me down a Part and I will pay the rest And a Third should say give me a Day and Time and I will Satisfie And a Fourth poor Body should come in and say I have indeed nothing my self to pay mâ— Debt with but I betake my self to the Râ—sponsall Cautioner who hath payed all for such as betake themselves to Hâ—â— This is Faith's Answering and Arguing It will neither shift the Debt nor yeâ— admit of the finall Sentence of Condemnation though readily acknowledged to be deserved But it Interposes Christ's Satisfaction as that which will be acceptable though the Sinner can do nothing of himself In a word this way of pleading is upon the one side an utter denying of the Mans self And of all that is or can be in him for attaining of Righteousnesse And upon the other side a crediting of himself to Christ for the attaining of that which he hath not in himself It 's not only Faith if it were possible to seperat these two to deny our own Righteousnesse but by the exercise of it there must be a stepping over on Christ and on His Righteousnesse unto God The 2d thing wherein the exercise of Faith in the use making of Christ's Sacrifice consists is in reference to particular Challenges For even when a Soul hath fled to Christ and made use of His Sacrifice for Pardon of Sin and for Peace with God it will not be free from Challenges and from new Accompts And therefore the exercise of Faith is to be continued in the use making of this Offering in reference to these particulars as well as in reference to the making of our Peace with God at first In which respect Faith is called a Shield Eph. 6.16 When new Guilt is contracted and drawn on and when Tentation sayes to the Believer Is this the Goodnesse of your Purposes and Resolutions which have been like Flaxe before the Fire No sooner was thou Essayed and Assaulted but thou didst greatly Succumb and wast much Foiled and Prevailed over The Soul runs to the same Targe Buckler or Shield and though every one of these Challenges be like a fiery Dart that would set the Conscience on a Flame yet by Faith the Dart is kept off or the Venome of it Suckt so out that it burns not and
is good in it self or good for you and if you will adventure your Estate and livelihood in the World on able and faithful Lawyers when ye your selves are much unacquainted with and ignorant of Law and are disposed to think that the Suit that is commenced against you will ruine you while they think otherwise And if you will commit your health and life to skilful and painful Physicians or Chirurgions and receive from the one many unpleasant and loathsome Potions and Pills and suffer from the other such painful Incisions and Injections such Searchings Lancings and Pancings such Scarifications Cauterizings and Amputations From all which ye have so great an aversation if not abhorrency Will ye not much rather and much more confidently commit the conduct and care of your selves and of all that concerns you to him of whose undertaking there is no search as to what is good for his own People and whose faithfulness in his dealing with them reacheth to the very clouds Psal 36.5 Psal 89.33 and never faileth The skilfullest of these may mistake none of them being infallible and the most faithful of them may possibly at sometimes and in some things be found unfaithfully neglective none of them being perfect But it is simply impossible for him either to mistake or to be unfaithful for otherwise he should deny himself and so cease to be God whereof once to admit the thought is the highest blasphemy Let therefore your confident trusting of men in their respective Professions and Callings make you blush at and be ashamed of your distrustings and jealousings of God and of your quarrellings with him even when ye know not for the time what he is doing with you and when what is done would have been none of your own choise but doth very much thwart and cross your natural inclination Is it not enough that he is infinitely wise in himself and for you May you not therefore safely trust in him and with unsollicitous confidence commit the conduct of your selves and of all your concerns to him As knowing that he cannot himself be misled nor misgovern you May you not in Faith without distrustful and perplexing fear follow him Heb. 11.18 as faithful Abraham followed him not knowing whither he went and cast all your care on him who careth for you and hath made it your great care to be careful for nothing 1 Pet. 5.7 Phil. 4.6 and thus even sing care away Thirdly If it be considered that ye have in your own experience as the rest of the People of God have in theirs found that in all his by past dealings with you even these that for the time were most afflicting his will and your true welfare have been unseparably joyned together and that but very seldome and rarely your own will and welfare have trysted together So that ye have been constrained when at your selves and in cold blood to bless him that you got not your will in such and such things however for the time ye were displeassed with the want of it and have been made to think that if ever ye had any good days or hours along your Pilgrimage your most crossed and afflicted ones wherein God took most of his will and gave you least of your own have been your best days and hours Dare you say upon serious and just reflections that it hath been otherwayes Or that ye have not reason as to all bygone cross providences even the most apparently crushing of them since the day that ye were first brought under the Bond of his Covenant to this day to set up as it were your Stone and to call it Eben-ezer 1 Sam. 7.12 The stone of help saying Hitherto the Lord hath helped us May you not and should you not then humbly and confidently trust him that ye shall through grace have reason as to present and future ones how sadly and surprizingly soever they are or may be circumstantiated to say Gen. 22.14 Jehovah-Iireh the Lord will see or provide O! but it be a sweet pleasant spiritually wholsome and refreshful Air that breaths in that walk betwixt Ebenezer and Jehovah-Iireh wherein a few turns taken by the most afflicted Christians in their serious composed spiritual and lively contemplation would through Gods blessing very much contribute quickly to reconcile them to all their respective Crosses how cross soever and to the keeping of them in better firmer and more constant spiritual health Fourthly If it be considered That by your pettish fretful male-contented and unsubmissive contendings strivings and struglings with him ye will not help your selves ye may well make your own Burden the more uneasie and your Chain the heavier Should it be according to your mind Job 18.4 shall the earth be forsaken for you or shall the rock be removed out of his place will ye disannul his judgment Joh 40.8 will ye condemn him that ye may be righteous Job 13.33 will ye strive against him who giveth not account of any of his matters will ye tax his Wisdom as if he did not understand what is convenient for you will ye teach God knowledge Job 21. is it fit that he should come down to your will rather than ye should come up to his shall God change and break all his wisely laid measures and methods of governing his People and take new ones to gratify your peevish Humours he will not be diverted from his Purpose Job 23.13 14. when he in is one way who can turn him what his soul desireth that he doth for he performeth the thing that is appointed for you He is more just to himself to speak so and more merciful to you then to degrade as it were his infinite Wisdom so far as to suffer himself to be swayed against the Dictats of it by such short-sighted and froward Tutors as you the great Physician of Souls is more compassionate and wise than to permit his distempered and sometimes even in a manner distracted Patients to prescribe their own course of Physick but he will needs do what he thought fit and resolved to do Job 34.33 whether ye choose or whether ye refuse only he would to say so have your consent unto and your approbation of what he doth for the greater peace and tranquility of your own minds Job 34.31 32. Surely therefore it is meet meekly and submissively to be said to God whenever and however he chastiseth I have born chastisement I will not offend any more that which I know not teach thou me if I have dane iniquity I will do no more It is the surest and shortest way to get our will in so far as may be for our well to allow him to take his own will and way with us for he hath a special complacency in this and therein gives wonderful vent to the bowels of his tender compassion toward his chastised and humbly submissive Children Jer. 31.18 19 20. Surely saith he I
my self or separate my self to be a sacrifice 2. Christs satisfaction and his intercession being the two parts of his Priestly Office and his intercession being founded on his satisfaction as it is clearly v. 12. of this 53. of Isaiah yea â— very learned man affirms that Christs appearance in Heaven and his intercession are not properly Sacerdotal acts but in so far as they lean on the vertue of his perfected sacrifice What just relevant or cogent reason can there be to make a disjunction betwixt these parts of his Office and to extend the most difficult operous and costly part to all men and to narrow the other which is the more easie part as that whereby he only deals for the application of what he hath made a purchase of by his satisfaction which put him to much sad and sore soul-travel and to restrict it to the elect and gifted ones 3. Doth not the Scripture hold forth his death and the shedding of his blood as the great demonstration of his special love to his own elect people As is clear else-where so particularly Joh. 15.13 Greater love then this hath no man then that a man lay down his life for his friends Nay purchased reconciliation through the death of Christ is by the Holy Ghost made a greater evidence of divine love in some respect then the glorification of the reconciled according to what the Apostle saith Rom. 5.10 For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life 4. All the other gifts of God to sinners even the greatest spiritual ones fall hugely below the giving of Jesus Christ himself that gift of God by way of eminency As the Apostle reasoneth irresragably for the comfort of believers Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Will he give the greatest gift and not give the lesser As Justification Adoption Sanctification and Glorification Which how great soever in themselves are yet lesser then the giving of Christ himself to the death And if it be undeniably certain that he giveth not these to all which are the lesser and lower gifts why should it be thought that he hath given the higher and greater 5. Shall that grand expression of the special love of God be made common by extending it to all the world the greatest profligats and Atheists not excepted no not Pharaoh nor Ahab not Judas the traitor nor Julian the Apostat nay nor any of all the damned reprobates who were actually in Hell when he died and shed his blood 6. If he died thus for all it seems that the new Song of the redeemed Rev. 5. would have run and sounded better thus thou hast redeemed us all and every man of every kindred and tongue and people and nation to God by thy blood then as it there stands by inspiration of the Holy Ghost Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation But who may presume by such an universality to extend and ampliat what he hath so restricted and to make that common to all which God hath peculiarized to a few favourites But the Author having much to better purpose on this Head in these Sermons I need add no more here I shall only further say of these astonishing in a manner non-plussing and surpasing great sufferings of blessed Jesus that as they were equivalent to what all the elect deserved by their sins and should have suffered in their own persons throughout all eternity consistently with the innocency and excellency of his Person and with the dignity of his Mediatory Office Therefore it is said v. 9. And he made his grave with the wicked and with the rich in his death or as it is in the Original In his deaths in the Plural Number as if he had died the death of every one of the Elect or as if there had been a conjunction and combination of all their deaths in his one death And v. 6. That the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all or as the word is made the iniquity of us all to meet on him there having been a solemn tryst convocation and rendezvous as it were of all the iniquities of all the Elect more common and more peculiar in all their various aggravating circumstances not so much as one committed since Adams first transgression or to be committed to the day of Judgement being absent in the punishment of them upon his person no wonder that such a load of innumerable thousands and millions of iniquities made him heavily to groan and that the consideration thereof made great Luther say That Christ was the greatest sinner in all the world to wit by imputation of the guilt of all the sins of all the Elect to him and by his having had the punishment of them all laid upon his person So we may from them be instructed in these things First Concerning the hight of holy displicence and detestation that the Majesty of God hath at sin the only thing in the whole world that his soul hates and which in the vile and abominable nature of it hath an irreconciliable antipathy with and enmity against his infinitely pure holy and blessed nature and hath a tendency could it possibly be effected to seek after the destruction and annihilation of the very beeing of God and is interpretatively Deicide The Language of it being O that there were not a God That he cannot behold it in his own sinless innocent and dearly beloved Son though but by imputation for he was not made formally the sinner as Antinomians blasphemously averr but he will needs in so terrible a manner testify his great dislike of and deep displeasure at it and take such formidable vengeance on it even in his person Ah! the nature of sin which God who is of pure eyes cannot where-ever it be behold without perfect abhorrency of it is but little thorowly understood and pondered Would we otherwise dare to dally and sport with it or to take the latitudes in committing of it at the rate we do I have sometimes thought that it is an errour in the first concoction to say so of Religion in many Proffessors of it end pretenders to it that we have never framed suitable apprehensions of the most hateful vile and abominable nature of sin which hath a great influence on the superficiariness and overliness of all duties and practices of Religion and that many of us had need to be dealt with as skilful School-masters use to deal with their Schollars that are foundered in the first Principles of Learning lest they prove but smatters all their days to bring them back again to these even to be put to learn this first Lesson in Religion better and more thorowly to understand the jealousie of God as to
1 Cor. 3.10 I have laid the foundation and another buildeth thereon but let every man take heed how he buildeth for other foundation can no man lay then that which is laid which is Jesus Christ importing that all Preaching should be squared to and made to agree with this Ground-stone 3. He standeth as the great End of Preaching not onely that Hearers may have Him known in their Judgments but may have Him high in their Hearts and Affections 2 Cor. 3.4 We preach not our selves that is not onely do we not preach our selves as the Subject but we preach not our selves as the end of our Preaching our scope is not to be great or much thought of but our end in Preaching is to make Christ great 4. He standeth in relation to Preaching as He is the Power and Life of Preaching without whom no Preaching can be effectual no Soul can be captivate and brought in to Him hence 1 Cor. 1.23 he sayeth We preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block they cannot abide to hear him and to the Greeks foolishness but to them that are saved the power of God and the wisdom of God Use 1. For Ministers which we shall forbear insisting on onely 1. Were Christ the subject and substance of our Report were we more in holding out Him it 's like it might go better with us 2. There is need of warriness that the Report we make suit well the Foundation And 3. the neglect of this may be the cause of much powerless Preaching because Christ is not so preached as the subject-matter and end of Preaching many Truths are alace spoken without respect to this end or but with little respect to it Uses particular for you that are Hearers are these 1 If this be the great subject of Ministers Preaching and that which ye should hear most gladly and if this be most profitable for you we may be particular in some few Directions to you which will be as so many branches of the Use And first of all Truths that People would welcome and study they would welcome and study these that concern Christ and the Covenant of Grace most as Foundation-truths and seek to have them backed by the Spirit we are affrayed there is a fault among Christians that most plain and substantial Truths are not so heeded but somethings that may further folk in their Light or tickle their Affections or answer a Case are almost only sought after which things it 's true are good but if the plain and substantial Truths of the Gospel were more studied and made use of they have in them that which would answer all Cases It 's a sore matter when folks are more taken up with Notions and Speculations then with these Soul-saving Truths as that Christ was born that he was a true Man that he was and is King Priest and Prophet of His Church c. and that other things are heard with more greediness But if these be the great subject of Ministers Preaching it should be your great study to know Christ in His Person Natures Offices and Covenant what He is to you and what is your duty to Him and how you should walk in Him and with Him this was Paul's aim I count saith he all things loss and dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings c. Phil. 3.8 9 10. It 's my design as if he had said not onely to make Him known but to know Him my self there is little Faith in Christ and distinctness in use making of His Offices and folks take but little pains to know these things Therefore on the one side let me exhort you to make this more the subject of your enquiry and on the other side take it for your reproof that there is such a readiness to snuff when plain Truths are insisted on or when they are not followed in some uncouth or strange way which sayes we are exceeding unthankful to God for giving us the best things to speak hear and think of 2. Think much of the Preaching of Christ and to have Ministers to preach of Him He is the best News and God hath sent Ministers on this errand to make them known to you had He sent them to tell you all the secret things to come that are in God's purpose and all the hid works of Nature it had not been compareable to these News what would ye have been O what would Sabbath-days and Week-days your lying down and rising up your living and dying been if these News had not been ye should have had a sinful and sad life and a most comfortless and terrible death therefore think this Gospel a thing of more worth then ye do and count their feet beautiful on the Mountains that bring these News and glad Tydings as it is Isa 52. that good Report of making Peace betwixt God and Sinners should be most thought of and prized and counted a greater favour then we use to count it 3. By this ye may know who thrives and profites best under the Gospel even these that learn most of Christ which consists not in telling over words But first in actual improving of Him as it is Eph. 3.20 Ye have not so learned Christ but so as to improve what is in Him 2. In an experimental finding of these effects in us that are spoken of to come by Christ which is that the Apostle meaneth Phil. 3.10 That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings that I may be conformable to his death I am affrayed that of the many that hear this Gospel there are but few that know Christ this way But if He be the great thing that should he preached by us and that ye should learn 1. What is the reason that so many should be ignorant of Him that the most part look rather like Tâ—â—ks and Pagans then like Christians God help us what shall we say of the condition of the most part of People when the preaching of the Gospel has not gained this much ground on us as to make us know Christ in His Person Natures Offices our need of Him and the use we should make of Him But 2. If we will try how he is improven it is to be feared there be far fewer that know hâ—m in this respect do not many Men live as if they had never heard tell of Him Though they hear that pardon of Sin is to be gotten through Him and that vertue to subdue Sin must flow from Him yet they live as if no such thing were in Him If your Consciences were posed besides the evidences that are in your practice this would be found to be a sad truth And 3. If we will yet try further what experience folk have of Christ what vertue they find flowing from His Resurrection what fellowship there is in His Sufferings what conformity
not mixed with Faith And that for making the Duty acceptable Faith is necessarily requisite we may clearly see Heb. 11.6 where it is expressly said that without Faith it is impossible to please God And how is it that Abel offers a more excellent Sacrifice than Cain it was nothing sure in Cain's Sacrifice it self that made it be casten nor any thing in Abel's that made it be received or acceptable but Faith in the Messiah to come that was found to be in the one and was a missing in the other Is there not reason then to press this Duty on you and to exhort you not to think this a common and easie thing though the most part think it to be so if we look to the benefites of it to the difficulty of it and to the rarity of it in the World there is no Duty had need more to be press'd than this even that Christ Jesus should get the Burthen of your immortal Souls cast on Him by this Saving Faith I shall therefore in the further prosecution of this First Shew what mainly ye would eshew and avoid as that whereat Folk more ordinarily stumble Secondly What it is we would press you to and on what Grounds For the first I know the deceits and mistakes in Men about the Exercise of Faith are so many that they are moe then can well or easily be reckoned up yet we shall in some generals spoken of before hint at a few of them for so long as ye continue in the same Snares they must be still pointed out to you and endeavours still used to undeceive and extract you out of them and therefore 1. Beware of resting on a Doctrinal Faith which before I called Historical We know it 's hard to convince some that they want Faith yet we would have you to consider that it is not every kind of Faith but Saving Faith that will do your turn it 's the want of that which the Prophet complains of And therefore to open this a little ye would consider That there may be really such a Faith as is an assent to the truth of the Word in a natural Man yea in a Reprobate but that Faith will never unite to Christ nor be waited with the Pardon of Sin First I do not say that every one that is in the visible Church hath this Doctrinal Faith to believe a Heaven and a Hell that the Scripture is the Word of God and that all that believe in Christ shall get Pardon of Sin and Life the carriage alace of many testifies that they have not this much whatever fleeting notions they may have of these things or whatever esteem they may seem to put on the Gospel and whatever profession they may make that they believe the truth of it yet in their deeds they deny it for if there were a fixedness in the Doctrinal Faith of the Gospel in Men they durst not for their Souls live as they do Neither yet Secondly Do we say that all they that have this Doctrinal Faith of the Gospel or somewhat of it do believe every passage in it alike but often as they please them they believe them Hence many believe what the Word speaks of Mercy and of Pardon of Sin and will not question that but what it speaks of Holiness and of the severity of God's reckoning with Men for Sin they do not so credit that part of the Word it 's true where the Faith of the one is the Faith of the other will some way be but because the one agrees better with their Corruption than the other therefore the one is not so so received as the other and it 's very frequent with such to be found diminishing from one place and adding to another of the Word of God Nor Thirdly Do we say that all Men do in a like and equal degree believe the truâ—h of the Word there is in some more Knowledge in some less in some moe Convictions in some fewer and though we preach to you all yet there are some that believe not this to be God's Ordinance albeit there are many who will not be saved that takes this Word to be the Word of God and believe what is the meaning of it because the Word it self says it is so And the reason of this is 1. Because there is nothing that is not Saving but a Natural Man may hâ—ve it now this Doctrinal Faith is not Saving and so a Natural Man may have it yea the Devils believe and tremble and James does not dispute with these to whom he writes on this account that they believe not thus but tells them that Historical Faith was not enough and we think a man in Nature may have a great perswasion of the truth of the Word of God and that what it says will come to pass and yet still continue but a Natural Man A second Reason is Because the Scripture speaks so often of many sorts of Faith that are not Saving as Exod. 14. at the close it 's said the People believed the Lord and Psal 106.12 then they believed His Word and sang His praise and John 2.23 many believed on Christ to whom He did not commit himself there was Faith in them which His Signs and Miracles extorted from them which was not Saving and Matth. 13. two or three such acts of Faith are spoken of in the Parable of the Sower that were not Saving however sound they might be in their own kind and 1 Cor. 13. we have such a Faith spoken of as a Man dare not deny the truth of the Word though he should bring his Body to be burnt by his avouching of the same A third Reason is Because as much credit may be given to the Word as is given to any other History that is creditably believed and it 's on this ground that we believe there was such Men as Cesar Pompey Wallace c. and it being certain that there may be impressions on the Consciences of Hearers that this is God's Word backed with some common work of the Spirit and that it is generally received to be the Word of God in the part of the World we live in what wonder is it that Folk believe thus and drink in this Historical or Doctrinal Faith of the Word so as they may even dare to suffer to Death for it and yet in the mean time they may want Saving Faith the Devils being as sure as any Natural Man is that God is true and that His Word will be performed and therefore they say to Christ Art thou come to torment us before the time the Paâ—gs of a Natural Conscience in Men will assure them of a Judgment coming though they tremble to think on it And therefore ere we proceed further take a word of Use from this and it may let you see the great and very general mistake of the most part of the Hearers of the Gospel in resting on this Doctrinal Faith If ye tell them that
were put to make a report of you as we will be put to it what could we say we are afraid to speak our apprehensions O! how little is this Gospel as to it's Fruit and Success upon the growing hand among you We shall therefore forbear to speak of that which we think hath deep Impressions on our selves concerning you but we would have you to look thorow Matters how they stand betwixt God and you and if we may humbly lay claim to any measure of the judgement of Discerning may we not ask where is there a Man or a Woman amongst most of us that hath a Conversation suitable to this Gospel If we begin at the great Folks that have the things of the World in abundance it 's their work for most part not to be Religious but to gather and heap up Riches and to have somewhat of a Name or a piece of Credit in the World this is the farthest that many of such design And if we come and take a look of the way of the Poorer sort they live as if they were not called to be exercised to Godliness and this is the condition of the Generality to live as if God were not to call them to a reckoning ye will say we are poor ignorant Folks and are not Book-learned but have ye not Souls to be saved and is there any other way to be saved then that royal Way wherein Believers have walked But if we should yet look a little further through you how many are there that have not the very form of Godliness who never studied to be Christians either in your fellowship with others nor when alone or in your Families There are some O! that I might not say many who are hearing me that will not once in the Year bow their Knee to God in their Families many of you spend your time in Tipling Jeasting Loose-speaking which are not convenient yea I dare say there are many that spend more time in Tipling Jeasting and Idle-speaking then in the Duties of Religion either in publick or in private what report shall we make of you Shall we say that such a man spent three or four Hours every day in going up and down the Streets or in Tipling and Sporting and would not spend half an Hour of the Day on God and His Worship and further how many are yet ignorant of the first Principles of Religion a fault that is often complained of and yet we would be ashamed to have it heard of that such Ignorance should be under half a Years preaching of the Gospel that is in this Place under many Years preaching of it and this not only among the Poorer sort but even amongst those who hold their Heads very high and are above others who can guide and govern their own Affairs and give others a good counsel in things concerning the World yet if we come to speak with them of Repentance or of Faith in its Exercise of Convictions and Challenges for Sin of Communion with God of the working of God's Spirit in the Regenerate or of the Fruits of the Spirit they have not a Mouth to speak a word of these things and if they speak any thing O! but it looks wersh tasteless and thieveless like Put them to discourse of Religion it hath no gust to say so it relishes not they have no understanding of it at least that is experimental doeth this look like Folks that have heard and received the Gospel let me say it the Wisdom of this World and the Knowledge of Christ are far different things and if some of you go that length as to get the Questions of the Catechism which is well done in it self if we put you but to express them in other words ye cannot which says plainly that ye are not Masters of your Knowledge And what shall we say of others of whom we cannot say but we get respect enough from them yet how do Selfishness and Worldly-mindedness abound in them and how Graceless and Christless are they found to be when put to the tryal We would also say to you that there is great difference betwixt Civility and Christianity Fairfashions will never pass in Christ's account for the suitable Fruits of the Gospel and will never hinder us from having a just ground of Complaint against you How many have a Form of Religion and want the Power of it who think themselves something when they are indeed nothing and their Profession is so thin and holled to speak so that their Rottenness and Hypocrisie may be seen thorow it Though these things be but general yet they will comprehend a great many of you that are here in this Assembly and if so is there not just ground of Complaint of and Expostulation with you as a People among whom this Word hath no suitable Fruit And as for you that live Prophanely and Hypocritically what shall we say to you or how shall we deal with you we bring the Word to you but ye make no more use of it then if ye had never heard it no more Religion sheweth it self in you then if ye lived among Heathens Shall we say to God the Fruit of the Gospel is there Dare we be answerable to God or can we be faithful to you to flatter you over as if all were well with you and must not our Complaint then rather be this Lord they have not believed our report though we be feckless and though there be ground of Complaint of us yet the Word is His Word and will take hold of you I know that Folks do not readily digest such Doctrine well and it may be some think that few Ministers are better dealt with then we are but we say that that is not our Complaint we confess if we look from the beginning of the World to this Time there will be few Ministers of the Gospel found to have been better dealt with as to outward and civil things but alace should that stop our Mouth yea rather ought it not to be the more sad to us to be so dealt with and to live in civil Love with Men and Women who yet do not receive the Gospel nor deal kindly with our Master Do not think that we will take external respect to us for the Fruit of the Gospel as we have no cause to complain of other things so let us not be put to complain of this but receive Christ in your Heart let Him and His precious Wares have Change and go off amongst you make use of Him for Wisdom Righteousness Sanctification and Redemption and go not for the fashion about the Means that should bring you near Him but be in good earnest and this would satisfie us much and prevent Complaints Lastly I would ask you what will come of it if we shall go on in Preaching and ye in Hearing and yet continuing still in Unbelief will there not be an account craved of us and must we not make a report and if ye
to Believe is That the Sinner would actually stretch out that Faith as the Souls Hand for the receiving of Christ and for the Application of Him to himself and would actually cast himself upon the Satisfaction of Jesus Christ for covering that Sinfulness that is in him and would catch hold of and grip to Him that is an able Saviour for keeping the Sinner from sinking under the weight of Sin that he lieth under This is the Exercise and Practice of Faith when it flows from the general Doctrine of the necessity of believing such things to be Truths in themselves and when it 's extended and put forth in Practice that we who are so certainly and sensibly lost must needs share of that Salvation which we believe to be in Jesus Christ and so for that roll our selves on Him The first piece of Sense may be in a Reprobate the second piece of Faith that there is a sufficient Salvation in Christ to be gotten by them that believe in Him may be in a Devil But this third of actual use-making of the Satisfaction of Christ for paying our Debt and rolling our selves upon Him that 's the Faith and Exercise of it that is peculiar to a sound Believer and the very thing that constitutes a Believer and it is that which we commend to you that ye may not stand and please your selves with looking only upon Christ but that ye may cast and roll your selves over upon Him that Christ may get your Weight and that all your Burthens and Wants may be upon Him which to do ye must be enabled by the mighty Power of Grace whereof in the next part of the Verse The second Branch of the Use which follows upon this is That we would desire you not only to follow this way of making your Peace with God but to follow the trying and proving of it to your own satisfaction that ye may be warrantably confident that it is so There is a great difference betwixt these to believe in Christ and to be clear and certain that we do believe in Him As there is a necessity of the first without which there cannot be Peace with God so there is a necessity of the second though not simply as without which there can be no Peace with God yet upon this account as without which we cannot be so comforted in God And seing there are so many who do not Believe who yet think themselves to be Believers and seing there is nothing more common among the Hearers of the Gospel then to reject Christ offered in it and to Misbelieve and yet nothing more common then to be confident that they do Believe There is good ground here to exhort you to put your Faith to the Touch-stone that ye may know whether ye can abide the Trial and whether ye may confidently assert your own Faith upon good ground and abide by it We would think if it were remembred and seriously considered how great a scarcety there is of Believers and how rare a thing it is to get any to receive Christ that Folk needed not be much pressed to put their Faith to the Trial and when there will not be one among many found who will pass under the account of a real Believer with Jesus Christ should not the most part suspect themselves seing the most part that hear the Gospel are the object of this Complaint Who hath believed our report or very few have believed it ye would study to have some well grounded confidence in this that ye are not guessing and presuming and going upon grounds that will fail you at last but that ye be in case to say on solid grounds with the Apostle I know whom I have believed c. There is a Faith and Hope that will make many ashamed and certainly in the day of Judgment when Christ shall have to do with these Persons that never once thought to be thrust away from Him they of all Men shall be thrust away from Him with greatest Shame O! the confusion that will fill and overwhelm them who had a profession of Christ and yet had never the root of the matter in them above and beyond many others Dare many of you upon the confidence ye have look Death in the Face It 's no great matter to be confident in the time of Health but will ye then be able to comfort your selves in the Promises of God do not promise to your selves the things in the Covenant except ye be endeavouring in God's way to be sure ye are Believers indeed Our Life depends upon our Faith but our Consolation depends much upon our clearness that we have Faith and that we are in Christ and therefore there is much need to press this upon you There is no way to rid you of the Terrours of God and to make you comfortably sure of your particular Interest in the Promises of God but by making it sure and clear that ye are Believers in Christ indeed There are three or four sorts of People to whom we would speak a little here 1. There are some who think that if they could do other Duties though they should never do this to wit to make their Calling and Election sure they would be and do well enough Are there not many of you that never so much as set your selves to try whether your Faith would abide God's tryal or not Ah! Ah! an atheistical Indifferency a slighting of the Consolations of God aboundeth amongst many so that they think the Promises and the Consolation that is to be gotten in the Promises are not of so much worth as to be thereby put to take pains to try and see whether they belong to them or not but the Day will come that many of you will curse your selves for your neglecting and slighting of this A second sort are these who because they were never sure of Peace with God themselves and because they were never sure of their own Faith neither ever concernedly endeavoured to be they think it 's all but fancy that 's spoken of assurance of Faith and of Peace with God they think it 's but guessing at the best There is such a sort of Persons who think they may be doing as they dow and need not trouble themselves with such fancies or nice things but if ye ask them what will come of them at last they will tell you they will lippen that to God Think ye it for nought that God hath laid so many Commands on you to make your Calling and Election sure and think ye it for nought that He hath given so many Marks to try it by and that some of the People of God do holily and humbly glory and boast so much of their Communion with God out of their assurance of His love to them and of their special interest in Him do not all these say that there is such a thing as this to be had There is a third sort that please themselves with meer
peculiar work it 's not all who hear Paul preach whose Hearts are opened but it 's the Heart of one Lydia 4. It 's in the nature of it a real work that makes a real inward change on her 5. It 's an immediate work for the Lord not only enlightens her Judgment but goes down to the Heart and opens it and works a change in it immediatly Paul indeed by his preaching opens the way of Salvation to all that heard him from which though many go away with their Hearts unopened yet the Lord hath a secret mysterious real inward work on her Heart which is evidenced by the effect for He not only enlightens her Mind but makes her willingly yield to the call of the Gospel by opening of her Heart In the second place To speak a little for confirmation of the Doctrine we would consider these four or five Grounds or Reasons to shew that there is such a work of the Spirit wherever Faith is begotten and that most intelligibly in them that are at Age. 1. It 's clear from these places of Scripture where there is an express distinction and difference put betwixt the outward Ministry of the Word and this inward powerful efficacious work of Grace on the Heart and wherein the great weight of Conversion is laid on this inward work and not on the outward Ministry of the Word as Deut 29.4 where the Lord by Moses tells the People how many things they had seen and heard and yet says he The Lord hath not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear unto this day They had the outward Means in plenty when they wanted in the mean time the inward Power The gift of a spiritual Life and the making them spiritually active to exerce it was with-holden and therefore they did not savingly perceive see nor â—ear Joh. 6.44 Murmure not among your selves no man can come to me except the Father which hath sent me draw him It 's written in the Prophets and they shall be all taught of God every man therefore that hath heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me where there is very clearly a distinction put betwixt the outward teaching and the Father's drawing betwixt the Ministers teaching and God's teaching It was one thing to be taught outwardly by Christ as the Prophet of His Church and another thing to be drawen and taught inwardly of the Father This inward teaching is called drawing to shew that it is not external Oratory or Eloquence consisting in words to perswade that can effect the business but a powerful draught of the Arm of the Lord reaching the Heart There are several other Scriptures full and clear to this purpose as Psal 110.3 and Acts 11.21 A second Ground of kin to the former Is from the many and various expressions that are used in the Scriptures for holding forth this work of the Spirit of God in Conversion that point out not only an Hand working and an work wrought but an inward powerful way of working and bringing about the woâ—k as Jeâ— 31.34 I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts Ezek. 11.19 I will give them one heart I will put a new spirit within them and will take away the stony heart out of their flesh Ezek. 36.26 27. A new heart will I give unto you and a new spirit will I put within you c. Jer. 32.40 I will put my fear in their heart that they shall not depart from me It 's called the Father's drawing John 6.44 as I shew In the Saints Prayers as Psal 51. it 's called even as to further degrees of this work or restoring of lost degrees creating of a clean heart and renewing a right spirit within And many moe the like expressions there are which shew not only Mans impotency and inability to convert or savingly to change himself but also that to his Conversion there is necessary an inward real peculiar efficacious powerful work of the Spirit of Grace 3. It 's clear and may be confirmed from the Power of God which He puts forth and applys in the begetting of Faith and in working Conversion It 's not a mediate work whereby He only perswades congruously as some love to speak but an immediate and efficacious work whereby with mighty Power He works Conversion It is God saith the Apostle Phil. 2 13. that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure and as he not only perswadeth but effectually worketh so he not only works on the Judgment to the enlightning of it but on the Will to encline and determine it by curing it of its crookedness and perversness backwardness obstinacy and rebellion and the Power whereby He worketh this great work is said Eph. 1.19 To be that same mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead that ye may know saith the Apostle what is the exceeding greatness of his powâ—r to us-ward who believe according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand c. It is such a Power that works Faith and so exercised in the working of Faith as it was in the raising of Christ from the Dead Now could there be use for such a Power if there were no more requisite to Conversion but an objective swasion or a bare proposal of the object with external perswasion to embrace it wherein the Soul is left to it self to choise or refuse as it pleaseth certainly if there were no more considering our natural enmity at God â—nd His Grâ—ce the Devil and Corruption would have much more influence and a far greater stroak upon the Heart to closing up of the same in Unbelief then any outward perswasion would have as to the opening of the Heart and the begetting of Faith therefore His Power is necessarily called for and the Lord addeth it in converting Sinners else the work would for ever ly behind and if Men be spâ—ritually dead in Sins and Trespasses as all Men by Nature are as real a Power must be exerced in raising and quickening of them as there is exerced in raising and quickening of the Dead 4. It may also be cleared from some in whom this Power is exerced as some Children some deaf Persons and others whom we cannot deny to be reached by the Grace of God and yet there can be no other way how thâ—y are reached but by this effectual efficacious and immediate powerful work of the Spirit they not being capable of reasoning or perswasion by force of Argument We shall only add two Reasons further to confirm and some-way to clear why it is that the Lord works and must work thus distinctly inwardly really powerfully and immediatly in working Faith and converting of Sinners The first is drawen from the exceeding great deadness indisposition averness perversness impotency inability and
and the exacting of the price according to the transaction is the ground of his expectation of the benefit of Christs purchase And there is Justice for it as the Apostle intimats Rom. 8.34 35. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again c. And upon this follows the believing souls triumph O! but there is much need to be thorowly acquainted with the mutual relations that are betwixt Christ and believing sinners with the ground of their approaching to him and with the good they are to expect through him Use 4. This word is made use of 1 Pet. 2.21 To give us a notable and none such pattern of patience Christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that we should follow his steps He did bear all wrongs patiently and packed them up quietly to say so and opened not his mouth He could have told Pilate and Caiaphas what they were but spoke not a word save one to the High Priest notwithstanding all his provoking carriage and a very meek one too If I have spoken evil bear witness of the evil and if well why smitest thou me Among other Copies then that Christ hath casten take this for one make him a Copy and Pattern for Patience It is to be regrated that folks are so unlike to Christ in this respect they think it a disdainful thing to pack up a wrong and they will scorn and rush at it But what if Jesus Christ had been of that temper and disposition if it be fit to make such a supposition ye had been without a Redeemer and had perished for ever When he calls you to be followers of him and to suffer patiently as he did though most unjustly as to men for you to think or say that ye scorn it and that ye are not so mean spirited what is it else but to think and say on the matter that blessed Jesus in his patient and silent carriage under all the injuries that he suffered very unjustly from men shewed himself to be of a low and base spirit and that ye disdain to follow his way O! intollerably saucy and proudly blasphemous reflection The many contests the many high reâ—entments of wrongs the great grudging frettiâ—g and foaming at them that there are in Châ—istians say plainly that there is little of the meek and patient Spirit of Christ in and amongst us and that many of us know not what spirit we are of SERMON XXVIII ISAIAH LIII VIII Vers 8. He was taken from prison and from judgement and who shall declare his generation For he was cut off out of the land of the land of the living for the transgression of my people was he stricken WE need not tell you of whom the Prophet is speaking here every verse and every word almost do make it manifest that he speaks of Christ the Saviour and indeed it can be applyed to none other It 's the same verse Acts 8.34 from which Philip proceeds to preach Christ to the Eunuch The Prophet hath been largely holding forth Christ's sufferings in the former verse and we conceive he takes a turn to speak of Christ's exaltation and out gate from these sufferings It 's true as if he had said He was brought to Prison and Judgement He was indeed straitned and pinched and laid very low but Prison and Judgement did not keep him He was taken or as the word is He was lift up from both And for as despicable as he was in man's eyes yet he was not so in himself for who shall declare his generation There is a wonderfulness in him who suffered that cannot be reached but must be left with admiration And a wonderfuâ— glory whereunto he was after his humiliation exalted and there is a reason of this given for preventing of offence if any should say how then could he suffer and be brought so low in suffering if he was so glorious a persoâ— He answers it is true that he was cut off out of the land of the living but for no offence in himself but for the transgression of Gods Elect was he stricken or as the word is The stroak was upon him Yea this as we conceive is given as a reason of his exaltation Because in the lowest steps of his humiliation he condescended to fulfil his ingagement to the Father in satisfying Justice for the sins of the Elect according to that of John 10.17 Therefore doth my Father love me because I lay down my life that I might take it again Because according to his ingagement he suffered for the sins of his Elect People therefore he could not but have a comfortable and glorious outgate There are these three things in the words 1. Somewhat asserted concerning Christ Jesus He was taken from Prison and from Judgement 2. Something hinted at which cannot be expressed Who shall declare his generation 3. There is a reason given in reference to both For he was cut off c. which we shall expound when we come to it For the first He was taken from Prison and from Judgement We conceive these words look both to his humiliation and to his out-gate from it the one being clearly supposed that he was in prison or straits and brought to judgement and the other being expressed that he was brought from prison and from judgement 1. Prison here may be taken generally for any strait pinch or pressour thaâ— one may be brought unto which we conceâ—ve both the Words and the Prophets scope will clear Christ never having been properly in prison at least for any considerable time but straitned and pinched And he was taken from that being in his humiliation and in his sufferings in the room of the Elect pursued by the Law and Justice of God 2. Judgement is taken passively for Judgement past on him and it looks not only to the procedour of Pilate of the Chief Priest and of the Scribes and Pharisees but to a Judicial Process which the Justice of God led against him in which respect he answered as the words after will clear for the sins of God's people 3. The word He was eaken sometimes signifies to deliver as a Captive is delivered when he is taken from him that took him Captive as it is Isai 49.24 Shall the prey be taken from the mighty or the lawful captive delivered To which the Lord here answers It or he shall be taken So then the scope and meaning of the words is that the Prophet subjoyns a narration of Christ's Exaltation upon the back of his Humiliation as it is usual in the Scripture to put these together and in this order as namely Philip. 2.8 9. He bumhled himself and became obedient unto death even to the death of the cross Wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name c. He was exceedingly straitned and pinched for the Elects sins but death had
often cited 40. Psalm in the volum of thy book it is wretten of me I delight do thy will Consider 4ly The effects of his bringing to Judgment A sentence passes 1 Tim. 3. ult Great is the mystery of godliness God manifested in the flesh justified in the spirit not before Pilate but in Gods Court having satisfied for the Elects Debt according to his undertaking he gets an absolviture which reaches not only to himself but to all them whose persons he sustained as is clear 2 Cor. 5. ult He was made sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in him and the Elects obtaining eternal Redemption and Absolution by his death with the accrescing of his satisfaction to their justification clears that he stood there judicially at the Bar of God in their name to answer for them And there are three steps of this his judicial answering 1. He gets the Libel of the Elects Debt put in his hand though there was no guile in his mouth yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him he laid on him the iniquity of us all and for the iniquity of my people was he stricken these are the persons that he undertook for and for their Debt he answers the verity of the fact is clear for they are under guilt the Laws claim is clear for it 's broken and upon this the Libel is put in his hand hence it 's said He died for us He was made sin for us and he died for our sins 2. As the Libel is put in his hand so a sentence passes accordingly he is found lyable to the Elects Debt and must answer for it as the former word is it was exacted on him and 2 Cor. 5. ult He was made sin for us and Gal. 3.13 He was made a curse for us that is by the sentence of Justice he is decerned to bear the curse 3. The sentence is executed as it was past the cup is put in his hand and not only is he decerned and doomed to the curse but actually he is made a curse and all this as judicially sustaining the persons of the Elect and as their Cautioner and Surety Here we have some sweet and profitable Uses 1. See here and take up the way of Redemption contrived so as it runs on Mercy and Justice Mercy to the Elect and Justice to the Cautioner their Debt being fully exacted of him 2. It learns us how to establish our Faith and also gives us a ground of Believing To make it distinct Justice behoved to be satisfied without which no Mercy could be shewed to the Sinner and God hath laid down the way by the Cautioners interposing even as it is among men the Cautioners being imprisoned and satisfying is the Debtors liberation and as God hath condescended to deal with us by way of Covenant so he condescended in the Covenant of Redemption to proceed legally and judicially with Christ that we might have the clearer way to make application of it 3. Are there any here that look for Redemption thorow Christ and hope that their sins were in the Libel given to him O! how warming would this be to your hearts and how should it make them to melt in love and godly sorrow to behold Christ standing at Justice-bar and that for you O! what an aspect would his sufferings have on us if we were clear about our interest in him and could hear him in our name saying Father here am I if thou take me let these go thy will be done for this cause came I here to answer for my peoples debt to take with the challenges given in against them and to undergo thy sentence for them then says Justice thou must pay their Debt Content says he Here am I and so he gives his back to the smiter and his cheeks to them that plucked off the hair and hid not his face from shame and spitting If we were clear that our share was there and that our iniquities came in among the rest to make up the Libel and if we could aright discern him so pinshed and straitned in satisfying for us would we not think our selves eternally obliged to him to hate sin and to glorifie him in our bodies and spirits which are his as it it 1 Cor. 6. ult If indeed ye be Christs as ye are all ready to profess your selves to be he pays dear for you and if so will not this ly upon you as a just Debt to him to glorifie him in your bodies and in your spirits for both in body and spirit he payed for you 4. It 's a notable ground of consolation to Believers against dispondency and fear to appear before the Throne of Godâ— because our Lord Jesus Christ hath been before us and in our name and hath answered for us to the full and hath satisfied all that Justice could crave of us What wakens terror at Death and makes the thoughts of Christ's appearing to be dreadful but our looking on our appearing at the Bar of God but it is a comfort against it that Christ as our Cautioner was brought to Prison to Judgment and was also brought from both yea which is more and without which the consolation is but halved he was brought to both for us and he was also brought from both as our Surety as Surety for all them that betake themselves by Fâ—ith to him He was carried to Prison and to Judgment as Cautioner for the Elect and he was pursued as their Cautioner and therefore his payment of the Debt as Cautioner must be accepted in name of them for whom he payed the Debt Our Lord Jesus not only died and was laid in the Grave but he went further in to speak so he was even at the Bar of Justice libelled exacted upon and sentenced and the sentence executed upon him else wo had been unto us on this ground is that triumph Rom. 8. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect it's God that justifies who shall condemn it's Christ that died year rather who is risen again c. and it 's said Rom. 7. That we are delivered from the law being dead to that wherein we were held the Law had us in Prison and a lock on the door and had us under irons but our Lord came and as Sampson did in another case carried the ports and bars to the hill top He spoiled principalities and powers and triumphed openly over them on the cross so that now the prince of this world is judged These are the true and faithful sayings of God We have through Christ access and may with boldness come to the throne of Grace having him as high priest who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities and was in all things tempted like as we are he knew not only what it was to be hungry and thirsty and weary to be pained and to die but what it was to come before the terrible Tribunal of God and to
of patience and obedience to them But the efficacy of his death was from the beginning of the world He was still in that sense the Lamb slain before his Incarnation as well as since And if it be not meritorious in procuring Salvation to Elect Infants what influence or advantage can it have as to them Either they are not taken to Heaven at all or they are taken to Heaven and yet not in the least obliged to Christ for their being brought thither or if they be obliged to him it is certainly by vertue of the merit of his sufferings for expiating the sins of his people 4. It 's clear from this that in this same Chapter and throughout the Gospel all the benefits that come to Gods people as namely Justification and pardon of sin they are attributed to this as the cause of them as vers 11. By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many And if all the spiritual benefits that come to us were procured by his death there must necessarily be vertue in it that procured them and it must be a price and satisfaction in reference to the procuring and purchasing thereof that he laid down in his dying 5. It is clear from the end that God had before him in the work of Redemption and in Christ's Sufferings which was to glorify his Justice as well as his Mercy and that neither of them might be clouded or reflected upon now by Christ's death God's Justice is glorified and he is seen to be just in executing his threatning against sin even in the person of his own dearly beloved Son when he became Surety for sinners but if his sufferings had not a satisfaction in them to Divine Justice though there might be some shew of shewing Mercy yet none at all of a satisfaction to Justice but saith the Apostle Rom. 3.25 26. God hath set him forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness and that he might be just and the justifier of them which believe in Jesus by this God hath made it manifest that he is a just God that none may preposterously presume upon Mercy nor dare to bourd with sin when it is pursued in the Surety with such severity For Use and Application 1. Do not think these truths to be of little concernment to you as alace they and such like truths of the Gospel are often thought of by many and therefore they are tasteless to them and it 's a weariness to people to hear them spoken of and yet notwithstanding this same truth that we are now upon is a great ground of our faith for if we believe not this that Christ was a propitiation for sin we can have no ground of lippening to him or believing on him but knowing and being confirmed in the faith of this truth we have cordially closing with him ground from it to expect God's favour and to be fred from the curse because Christ as our Surety undertook and accordingly satisfied for us which is the thing that makes his death to be sweet that Christ in his death should demit himself to leave us an example is much yet if we had no more by it it would be but cold comfort except we had it as a satisfaction to Divine Justice to rest upon Though this may be looked upon as doctrinal only yet it comes nearer to our practice then we are aware of and though we have not Socinians in opinion and profession to deal with yet we have two sorts that are Socinians in heart amongst us 1. These that securely sin on still and yet hope to get mercy and who will confess that they are sinners but that for making an amends they will pray and mend their life and they will speak of a number of things but it may be not one word of Christ or of his purchase or of their natural inclination to presume and to slight Christ as if they had nothing yet to look to but a Covenant of works without a Saviour or as if God had removed or would remove the curse threatned without a satisfaction so that Christs satisfaction is not known nor rested on by the multitude of Hypocrites that live in the visible Church and this is easily proven from this that there are but very few who make use of him or stand in awe to sin if it were believed that Justice required and will have satisfaction either of the sinner himself or of a surety in his room and that Christ is the only Surety Folks would either quite their hopes of Heaven or be more in Christs common and that so many mantain the hope of Heaven without a due consideration of a satisfaction to Justice by Christ and without employing of him it declares plainly that they are drunken with this error A 2d sort are these who being wakened in Conscience and sensible of sin yet are as heartless hesitating and hopeless to get peace through him as if he had not satisfied what else does the doubting and despondency of such say but that there is not a compleat satisfaction in Christ's death and that therefore they dare not trust to it otherwise they would wonder that God hath provided such a remedy and yet adventure to rest upon it seing God is as well pleased with it as if they had not provocked him at all or had satisfied his Justice themselves 2ly It serves to let us see what we are in God's common and debt and how much we are obliged to the Mediator when there was a necessity that either he should suffer or that we should perish and that though his sufferings drew so deep as to bring him to prison and to judgment and to put him to a holy sinless anxiety and perplexity that yet he yielded to it and underwent all for our sakes this is our great ground of confidence and the strong stay of the mind of a wakened Believer And should make us wonder at the Fathers love that gave the son and at the Sons love that was so condescending and should make our souls warm towards him who when we deserved nothing but to be hurried away to the Pit was content to enter himself as our Surety and to pay our Debt It should also be a motive to chase souls in to him knowing that where sin is there a satisfaction must be and that there is therefore a necessity to fly to him and to be in him because there is no other way to get Justice satisfied the through conviction whereof is that which through grace not only chaseth the soul to but engageth it to close with Christ and to rest upon him and to give him the credit of its thorow-bearing when it is ready otherwise to sink Now the Lord himself teach you to make this use of this Doctrine SERMON XXXII ISAIAH LIII VIII Vers 8. He was taken from prison and from judgement and who shall declare his generation For he was cut off out of the
rich man nor to the wise man c. God hath not choâ—en many of these as is clear 1 Cor. 1.26 buâ— say to the righteous or holy man it shall be weâ—l with him and is herâ— any thing that should have so much influence on men and take them so much up as how to be well in the close Folk may have a fighting life of it here and may suffer much and be under reproach for a time as Christ was but if thou be holy ere thy Body be laid in the Grave it shall be well with thy Soul And as for all who have chosen the way of Holiness we are allowed to say this to you that it shall be well with you at death and after death at Judgment and even for evermore To them saith the Apostle Rom. 2.9 who by patient continuance in well-doingr seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life O how many great and good things are abiding all the honest-hearted Students of Holiness Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor heart conceived what they are 3ly It 's ground of expostulation with them that neglect and slight Holiness As it will be well with the Righteous or Holy so they shall have a miserable and desperate lot of it who either despise or neglect Holiness Wo to the wicked saith Isaiah 3 1â— it shall be ill with him Some of you may think that ye are rich and honourable are well cloathed fit in fine Houses and have richly covered Tables when poor Bodies are keeped at the door and are destitute of these things and are ready to bless your selves as being well though ye care not for nor seek after Holiness but wo unto you for ye must die and go to the bottomleâ—s Pit and there ye will not get so much as a drop of water to cool your Tongues in these tormenting Flames neither your Riches nor Honours nor Pleasures will hold off the heat and fury of the vengeance of God nor in the â—eâ—st ease you in your exâ—ream pain but as it is Rom. 2.9 Indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish four sore words wiâ—l be upon every soul of man that doeth evil O dâ— ye believe this â—'s the truth of God and a very plain truth and we are perswaded none of you will dare downright to deny it Holiness will have a sweet and comfortable close and the neglect of it will have fearful effâ—cts following on it what is the reason then that Holiness is so little thought of aâ—d followed do ye believe that ye will die and think ye ever to come to Judgment or to hear that word Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you for I was hungry and ye fed me naked and ye cloathed me c. O what will become of many of you when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels iâ—flaming fire to render vengeance to all them who know not God and who obey not the Gospel and will say to you Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels for when I was hungry ye fed me not c. this is I grant a general truth yet if it be not received we know not what truth will be received and if it were received the practice of Holiness would be more studied there would be less Sin and more Prayer Reading Meditation more seeking after Knowledge and more watchfulness and tenderness in Folks Conversation always in this the Lord shews the connexion that is betwixt Holiness and Hâ—ppiness and hâ—re ye have the copy and pattern of an examplary walk 3ly From this that the holiâ—ess and blamâ—nleâ—eâ—s of Christ here spoken of is marked in him as peculiar to him for it fits him to be a High Priâ—st and proves that only he could be the Priest that â—uited and became us anâ— that no other could do our turn as the Apostle râ—asons Heb 7 26 27 28. For the law maketh men priests that have infirmity but the word of â—he oath which was since the law maketh the son who is consecrated for evermore From this I say Obseâ—ve That all men even the most holy except Christ who was both God and Man a e sinful and not one of them sinless while living here on earth and the reâ—son is becâ—uâ—e 〈◊〉 any were sinless then this that is said here would not be peculiar to our Lord Jesus Christ that He diâ— no violence neither was there deceit â—n his mouth This being a singular character of our High Priâ—st that none of his Types could clâ—â—m to it exclusively agreeth to him so as it agreeth to none other The Scripture is full to this purpose in asserting that not only all mâ—n are sinnâ—rs as considered in theiâ— naturâ—l condition but that even Bâ—lieveâ— are sinful in part for the same Apostle John that saiâ—h 1 Epist 1.3 Truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ saith also vers 8. If we say we have no siâ— we deceive our selves and the truth is not in us and vers 10. If we say that we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word is not in us and 1 Kings 8.46 and Eccles 7.20 There is no man that doth good and sinneth not plainly insinuating that all have need of an Intercessouâ— We shall not insist in this only from these words compared with the scope making it peculiar to Christ to be without sin and implying that none other are so we would consider the necessity of its being so 1. For differencing and separating of Jesus Christ from all others by putting this dâ—gnity on him of being holy harmless undefiled separate from sinners this is his prerogative and badge of honour above others 2. It 's necessary for this end to demonstrate the need that there is of his offering himself a Sacrifice for sinners and that it was not for himself but for sinners that he offered up himself and that there is a continual necessity of making use of that Sacrifice for if there were not a continuance of sin in part while Believers are out of Heaven there would be no need of this part of Christs office if we were holy and harmless our selves we needed not such an High Priest Use 1. To establish us in the faith of this Truth That among all men there is none that were true men except Christ that is without sin sin is still abiding in them while in this world of none of them all it can be said that they have done no violence neither is there any deceit in their mouth none of them could ever say since Adam fell the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me yea this is a special qualification of Christ Jesus for his Priest-hood that he was without sin and behoved to be so I am not pleading that sinners should take a liberty to sin because there is no perfection to be win at in this life God
the sin offering is appointed it is the same Word that 's here intimating that that Sin-offering was designed to bear their sin They shall lay their hands on the Sin or Sin-offering because the Sacrificed Beast was Typically to have the Peoples sins imputed to it though properly no mans fin is imputed to any but to Christ This is also clear if we compare Psal 40.6 with Heb. 10.5 6. That which in the Psalm is rendered Sin-offering in the Original is Sin but the Apostle Heb. 10. hath it sacrifice for sin and it is the same Word which he hath 2 Cor. 5. ult He was made sin for us that is an offering for sin by which we may see the unwarrantableness of some Mens accounting Christ to be formally a Sinner because He is called Sin and because our Sin is said to be laid on Him which in Scripture Phrase is as much as His being a Sacrifice for sin in the room of Sinners 3. His soul may be taken either simply for He shall be an offering for sin the Soul being often taken for the whole Person or it may be taken more properly to relate to His Sufferings called the travel of his soul Vers 11. however it is the Person the Man Christ Soul and Bodie that is the Sacrifice and more especially His Soul as the Wrath of God was on it and when He suffered His Soul did undergo that Wrath as well as His Back was given to the Smiter and His Cheecks to them that plucked off the Hair 4. There are two Words furder which we would hint at in the Exposition for clearing of Christ's being called an offering for sin 1. We would put a difference between the Offerings and Sacrifices which were for Sin under the Law and this Offering which is applyed to Christ The Apostle sayes Heb. 10. That it was impossible that the blood of bullocks and of goats could take away sin They were not properly Sin-offerings but as they were Types of that Offering which was to come and so when Christ is called an Offering He is differenced from all the Offerings that were offered before Him by Priests on Earth In this That His Offering oâ— Sacrifice takes away Sin by vertue of it self according to the Covenant But these Offerings of of those Priests that were under the Law as is clear Heb. 9.13 Took not away sin by themselves but only in so far as Christ who was Typifyed by them was made use of and from this we may see it clear 1. That it was by the Blood of Christ that the Fathers under the Law had their sin pardoned and that the Pardon of sin was to them an effect of this Offering as well as unto us 2. That all these Sacrifices and Offerings under the Law were Types of this one Offering and not that one Anniversarie Sacrifice only which was offered once a Year by the High Priest which we the rather hint at because both these are by Socinus that enemie of Christ's Satisfaction controverted he aiming thereby to draw Souls from leaâ—ning to this Offering 2. What we speak of Christ's Sacrifice relates to that which He performed on Earth though He be yet a Priest and lives for ever to make intercession for us yet this Offering respects that which He offered while He was here in the World and especially that which He offered on the Cross as it is said Eph. 5.2 He hath loved us and given himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour and Heb. 10.12 This man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever sat down on the right hand of God and by His Sacrifice once offered up before He went into the most Holy He hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified which is also a Truth controverted by that same enemy Soncinus the clearing of it serves not only to open up the meaning of this place but to let us see the effecacy of Christs Sufferings and the nature of them that in them especially His Offering as it brings Pardon of sin and Peace with God does consist so then the meaning of the place is in short That though our Lord Jesus had no sin yet it pleased God in His Counsell to appoint Him to Suffer and that His Sufferingt should be an Offering for the sin of others More particularly If it be asked what is meaned by this an offering for sin we shall clear it from the Type and 1. It is here supponed that there is sin on the Person and that wrath due for sin is to be removed 2. It is supposed that there is an inability in the Person to remove the sin and yet a necessity to have it removed or else he must suffer 3. There is supposed the interveening or coming of something in the place of that Person that is guilty of sin and lyable to wrath 4. There is supposed the acceptation of that which interveeneth by God the Partie offended and so it presupposeth a Covenant whereby the Lord hath condescended to accept of that offering Take it in the Sin-offering goat the Scape-goat Levit. 16. A vive Type of Christ when He is brought into the Congregation 1. The Priest must put his hands upon him and confess the sins and transgressions of the People over him which signified their acknowledgement of their sins and a lyableness to suffering because of them 2. It supposed their proposing of that Goâ—t as a Sacrifice to bear their sins and to take them on him Therefore it was said The Priest shall put the iniquities of the People upon him 3. The one of these Goats was to be sent away into the Wilderness and the other was to be killed and generally all the Sin-offerings were to be killed So that no Remission of sins was without Blood and they came in the room of the Sinners bearing as it were their sin and their punishment And 4. It is to be an atonement to wit a Typical Atonement by this means the People were to have access to Ecclesiastical Priviledges but they could not purifie the Conscience except Christ were made use of who was the true atonement then as He is now still for sin and by vertue of His Sacrifice according to the Covenant they were to deall for the pardon of the sins born by Him We come now to Observe somethings from the Words and 1. It is supponed here that even the Elect and consequently all others are by their sin lyable to God's Judgement and obnoxious to His wrath there were no need of a Sin-offering if this were not The name that Christ gets here supposes that there was Sin and that there was wrath for Sin lying at the door of all Men since Man fell and brake God's Command all Men are before God like Isaac lying before his Father ready to be killed his Father having his hand stretched out with the knif ready to take away his Life And our Lord Jesus is as the Ram
many come before Him when it shall be told them That He craved no more Satisfaction from them for all that He Suffered but that they would have improved His Sufferings for their own good and that yet they would not give Him that much Doeth not this say that their is need that we should look well what Fruit there is of His Sufferings that there may be more then if He had not Suffered at all 9. Consider the great weight that will be laid on this Sin of refusing to believe and to Satisfy Him in this to wit in improving of His Sufferings above all other Sins This is a Sin that will be found to be against Equity Thankfullnesse and Ingenuity that when He had done and Suffered so much He was so ill requited Yea it will be found to be a wilfull and malicious Sin That when your Good and His Satisfaction were joyned together ye would rather choise to destroy your selves then to Satisfie Him in saving your selves through Use-making of His Sufferings There are two remarkable Words to this purpose Heb. 6.10 In the 6. Chap. it 's said of such That they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame That is they do displease and anger Him and do what in them lyes to cast reproach upon Him as if He were no Saviour at all or an insufficient Saviour to put Him to Suffer over again in His wanting of Satisfaction for His Sufferings As it is a great pain for a Mother to be in Travel but it 's another and in some respect a greater pain if the Child die in the bringing forth In the 10. Chap. v. 28. It 's called A trading under foot the son of God and an accounting the blood of the Covenant to be an unholy thing And in the 26. v. Before it 's said There remains no more sacrifice for sin but a certain fearful looking for of judgement And it 's upon this very account As we did at another occasion make use of these two Scriptures to a like purpose and did thus Caution our Application of them against mistakes For what greater indignity can be put on Him then when His Satisfaction depends on the improving of His Sufferings yet people will not do it As nothing pleases Him better then to improve His Sufferings so on the contrary There is no Sin that doth displease Him more then when they are not improven And if ye will not now believe this to be a Truth yet when the Lord shall call you to count for it ye will find it to be a most certain and sad Truth That He called you to believe and that ye would lye still in your Unbelief Ignorance and Prophanity That ye destroyed your own Souls and made His Sufferings as uselesse as to you as if there had never a door been opened to Sinners to Heaven by them Is there any of you that will be able to answer to this challenge If not Then let Him have this Satisfaction by improving of His Sufferings that He may find to say so that His Death hath not been for nought as to you Study to have Him great in your esteem and to have your Souls saved by the vertue and efficacy of His Sufferings otherwayes the challenge will be unanswerable Considering that He declared that this would satisfie Him and ye knew that it would have pleased Him and removed the quarrel and saved your selves And that withall by this means a comfortable sentence at Judgement might have been procured to you And that yet ye disdained to do it And therefore since it stands so with you be intreated to make earnest and greater earnest of believing and of the great work of getting your own Souls saved which He hath thought so much of else it had been better for you that ye had never had a delightsome hour in the World And sad will the encounter be that ye will have with Him and with your own Conscience in that Day when it shall have this to tell you that ye cannot now expect any Good or Favour from the Judge Because when He would have saved you ye would not have it so but would needs run on your own damnation And therefore we say again either give Him Satisfaction by improving of His Sufferings and by making Earnest of the businesse of your Salvation Or resolve to meet with a most terrible Pursuer of the Quarrel against you The Wrath of God is dreadfull but much more the Vengeance of the Mediator who because ye would not give Him His will in your Salvation He shall have it in your Ruine and Destruction 4. There is here a sweet Word of Consolation to poor Souls that faln would have Sin taken away and are afraid to presume Our Lord will never be angry that ye make use of His Sufferings for your own good Nay He accounts it a Satisfaction to Him that ye improve them That when ye find your selves Arrested for Sin ye put it on His Score and draw a Bill on Him to pay your Debt That when you find your selves under that which to you looks like the dominion of Sin ye look to His Cross for Vertue to Crucifie Kill and Subdue it If therefore as I have often said ye would do Him a Favour or Pleasure make use of Him Be assured that the more weight ye lay on Him ye do Him the greater pleasure And this is all the amends that He seeks for all the wrâ—ngs ye have done to Him and all the Satisfaction that He seeks for all the good turns He hath done to you That ye come to Him thus to make use of Him And it is good Reason even all the Reason in the World that He get this amends made to Him and this Satisfaction granted to Him SERMON XLIX ISAIAH LIII XI Verse 11. He shall see of the travell of his soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many for he shall bear their iniquities THere are two things of great Concernment for Men to know for sinfull Men to know if any thing be of Concernment The one is how the Justice of God that is provoked may be Satisfied or what it is by which provoked Justice is Satisfied And the other is What the way is how we come to get that Satisfaction applyed to us or what is the way to get the Benefit of it made ours And both of them are Answered in this v. clearly and shortly The first is holden out in the first part of the v. To be the travel of Christs soul Which hath a special look to the Covenant of Redemption and to the Condition on which it is Accomplished and Performed That is His Soul-travel under which all His Sufferings are comprehended The other is in the Latter Part of the verse By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justifie many for he shall bear their iniquities This holds forth in short the Gospel nay how
present purpose is to shew how a guilty Sinner may be Justified And therefore we shall 1. Give you a general view of the Truth of the Doctrine by confirming it from Scripture in all the parts of it 2. We shall â—peak more paticularly to the severall branches of it And 3ly To the way of attaining Justification in the severall Causes of it as it is here holden forth For Confirmation of the General Doctrine ye shall 1. Look upon some Scriptures And 2. To some Grounds of Reason As for the Confirmation of it by Scripture If we look through the Gospel it is Our Lord Jesus Christ His own Doctrine which He preached and the way which He laid down therein for Justifying and saving a Sinner So John 3. Where it is three or four times repeated As v. 16. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life v. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he believeth not in the name of the only begotten Son of God v. 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that believeth not the son shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him And v. 14 15. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have eternal life And that is all one as to say he that believes shall be Justified Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned These are the terms on which the Apostles are by Christ warranded to preach the Gospel and to make the offer of Life to every Creature And therefore if we look forward to their Preaching we will find it to run in the same sâ—rain A Acts 13.38 39. Be it known unto you therefore men and brethren that through this man is preached unto you the forgivenness of sins and that by him all that believe are justified from all things from which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses Where while Paul is summing up the whole Message that he had to deliver he goes upon the same ground And wherein we have these three clearly holden forth 1. That all Mâ—n are lyable as in their Natural Estate to God's Curse and by the Law cannot be Justified 2. That there is a way laid down through Jesus Christ to come by Justification and Remission of Sins 3. That the way how Sinners came by this is Faith in Christ All that believe are justified Look to the Epistles especially these written to the Romans and Galatians Where this question about Justification is exprâ—sly and of purpose handled and we will find that it is the sum of both As Rom. 3. Where having said v. 23 That all have sinned and come short of the glory of God And so that all are lyable to Gods Judgement he subjoyns v. 24. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ Where is the great mean of our Justification and then he adds v. 25. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood Where we have the mean of Application to wit Faith and Chap. 4.5 To him that worketh not but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness Which place demonstrats this That an ungodly Person taking hold by Faith of Christs Righteousnesse may be and is Justified and Absolved and fred from the guilt of Sin as if he had never Sinned So Gal. 2.15 16. We who are Jews by nature and not sinners of the Gentiles or not without the Covenant as they are Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by the faith of Jesus Christ even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified Which place shews not only this that through Faith in Christ is Justification and Life to be had but it also excludes all other wayes of Justificâ—tion Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith But that which we are now speaking to is only the positive part of the Doctrine To shew that a Guilty Sinner obnoxious to the Curse May by Faith come to be Justified and made free from the Guilt of Sin and from the Curse as if he had never Sinned nor been under the Curse For further Confirmation of the Doctrine ye would consider these Four Grounds and ye will see from them good reason for it Only remember this That Justification looks alway to a Judicial Procedour as we hinted before Wherein the Lord is as it were on the Throne and the Guilty Sinner at the Bar pleading through Christs Righteousnesse and Satisfaction to be Absolved which is even as if a Debtor were arrested for Debt should plead for a Liberation not because he is not owing the Debt neither because he hath payed the Debt but because his Cautioner hath payed it for him This being supposed and remembred ye would we say consider these Grounds or Reasons for confirming the Doctrine 1. The Sufferings that Christ hath endured and the Satisfaction that He hath made in the Room of Sinners as the next Words hold out For he shall bear their iniquities And v. ult He bare the sin of many Nay this is the great scope of the Chapter Therefore it 's said That he hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows and that the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all This makes a Ground of Confirmation 2. Consider How that there is not only a sufficient price payed but there is a Covenant of Redemption warranding Him to pay it and accepting it off His hand as compleat Payment and Satisfaction for the Elects Debt And except there be a look had to this Covenant Faith hath not a sufficient Ground to rest on for Justification through Jesus His Satisfaction because otherwayes we see not a Reason why His Sufferings can be accepted for us For suppose if such a supposition may warrantably be made Christ to have Suffered yet it was free for God to have accepted that as a Satisfaction for our Debt or not But the consideration of the Covenant of Redemption removes that Doubt and gives Faith a Ground to lay hold on Christ's Sufferings as Satisfactory to the Justice of God because in the Covenant of Redemption it 's so transacted and agreed upon betwixt God and the Mediator Therefore the Apostle speaking Heb. 10.8 9. and forward from Psal 40. of this Covenant shews That when Sacrifices and Offerings will not do the turn Christ comes in Saying Lo I come in the volume of thy book it is written of me I delight to do thy