the creature are undivided What the Father doth the Son doth and the Spirit doth what the Father purposeth the Son purposeth and the Spirit purposeth It is true Election is in a peculiar manner attributed to the Father Eph. 1.3 4. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according as he hath chosen us in him Here we see Election is in a peculiar manner attributed to the Father but when Election is attributed to the Father the Son and the Spirit are not to be excluded from electing for Election being an act of Gods will there is but one and the same essential will in Father Son and Spirit what the Father wills the Son must needs will and the Spirit wills also and the reason is As there is but one and the same Essence so but one and the same Will in the three persons Therefore the Father willing to bestow grace and glory upon such a number of men the Son must needs will it too Therefore Christ saith All thine are mine and mine are thine Joh. 17.10 All the Elect are common to the Father and the Son they are both the Father's and Christ's As the Father hath chosen them so the Son hath chosen them and as the Father is glorified in their salvation so is the Son therefore are the Elect said to be Christs own Joh. 13.1 and they are called his sheep and these sheep he knows Joh. 10.14 How doth he know his sheep he knows them from Eternity and loves them from Eternity So that there is the love of Benevolence or good-will in Christ Therefore he saith in Joh. 10.28 I give unto them eternal life It is in the present Tense 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I do give unto them eternal life How can Christ be said to give to his sheep eternal life they are not as yet perfectly and compleatly possessed of eternal life The meaning is Christ from Eternity hath decreed to bestow eternal life upon them he gives them the beginnings of it in this world in their Justification and Sanctification and they shall as certainly have the complement and perfection of it in Glorification at last as if they had it already 2. There is the Love of Beneficence in Christ Christ doth not only will good to his people but he bestows good upon his people As he did from Eternity intend to bestow grace and glory upon them so he doth in time actually conser grace and glory upon them This is exprest by the Apostle to the full Rom. 8.30 Whom he did predestinate them he also called whom he called them he also justified whom he justified them he also glorified The creatures love is oftentimes a barren love men may wish well to others they may have a purpose and desire to do good to them but ostentimes they want that power and ability to do the good they would but Christs love is a fruitful love he actually bestows that good upon his people he intends Vocation Justification Sanctification Glorification are all the fruits of this eternal Love of his Christs Love is such a love as brings all manner of spiritual blessings along with it Eph. 1.3 not only Election which is the Decree of God to bestow good things upon us but also Adoption the forgiveness of sin the acceptation of our persons all which the Apostle speaks of in the same place and these things are actually conferred on Believers and they are brought into the possession of them 3. There is the love of Complacency in Christ which is that love whereby he takes delight in the persons and graces of his Saints 1. Christ takes delight in the persons of his Saints Isa 43.2 I have called thee by name thou art mine The Lord tells Moses Thou hast found grace in my sight and I know thee by name Exod. 34.17 What is it for God to know Moses by name It was to take special delight in Moses to know him so as he did not know other men to take that delight in him which he did not in other men Isa 43.4 Since thou hast been precious in my sight thou hast been honourable Zeph. 3.17 The Lord thy God will rejoyce over thee with singing he will rest in his love Isa 62.5 As the bridegroom rejoyceth over his bride so shall thy God rejoyce over thee 2. Christ takes delight in the graces of his people He first bestows grace upon his people and then he delights in his own graces Psal 147.11 The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear him Prov. 8.17 I love them that love me God is Love and he loves the love of his people If any man love me he shall be beloved of me and I will manifest my self to him Joh. 14.21 Thus we have seen what the nature of Christs love is in general We come now to the second particular and that is to speak of the dimensions of Christs love The love of Christ is such a love as hath breadths and lengths heights and depths in it What are these dimensions of Christs love We are now lanching into the vast Ocean the love of Christ is such an Ocean as hath no bounds nor bottom in it We may as soon think to comprehend the Ocean in the hollow of our hands as comprehend his love the Apostle tells us it passeth knowledge and if so then it is in vain for us to think to comprehend it but though we cannot comprehend it yet there is something we may know of it otherwise the Apostle would not have prayed as he doth in the Text that ye may comprehend with all Saints what are the heights c. We may gather in some drops of the Ocean though we may not think to drain the Ocean and all that we can hope for is to make known some drops of the infinite love of Christ And that we may be able a little to conceive of it we shall consider the love of Christ these three ways 1. In the properties of it 2. As it is to be found in both his Natures the love that is in his humane and that is in his Divine nature 3. In the effects of it 1. The love of Christ will appear to be a furpassing love to have all manner of dimensions in it if we consider the properties of Christs Love 1. Christs love is an ancient love Christs love is more ancient and of longer standing than the world Eph. 1.4 According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world The effects of Christs love are seen in time but the love it self was before all time Gods love to his people is as ancient as his love to himself Gods love to himself is from Eternity and his love to us is from Eternity therefore doth he say I have loved thee with an ever lasting love Jer. 31.3 It is a saying of one of the Ancients Mirus profecto amor hominum unà cum Deo aeternus Cyril Wonderful indeed is the love
of God to man which is together with God eternal that is eternal as God is eternal Where can we place the beginning of this love The Scripture teacheth us expresly that it was before the foundation of the world and therefore consequently before all time and if before all time then it must needs be from Eternity Christ loved us before we had a being yea it was his love that first of all gave us a being and he therefore gave us a being that he might demonstrate and set forth the riches of that grace and love he had in his heart towards us Rom. 9.23 That he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy which he had before prepared unto glory The Lord had prepared glory in his thoughts and purpose for the vessels of mercy from Eternity and he therefore gave them being that he might bestow that glory on them which he had prepared for them from Eternity Christs delights were with the sons of men from Eternity Prov. 8.31 Christs delight from Eternity was to think what he should do for us before ever we had a being even then when he was the object of the Fathers delight as it is in the verse immediately preceding I was daily his delight Even then when the eternal Son who lay in the bosom of the eternal Father was the Fathers delight yet if we may so speak he had another delight that took him up and that was to think what he should do for us It is the property of love not to be pleased in its own happiness only but have desires of the happiness of the person whom it loves Christ was infinitely happy in the Fathers bosom in being his delight but he loved us and therefore was not satisfied with his own happiness but pleased himself with the thoughts of making us happy 2. Christs love is a free love The freeness of Christs love appears in three respects 1. Christs love is free because it was not necessary Christ was not drawn from any necessity of nature to love us as if he could not chuse but love us he might have chosen whether he would have loved us God indeed loves himself necessarily he loves himself and cannot but love himself but God loves the creature freely and arbitrarily he might have chosen whether he would have set his love upon it yea or no Rom. 9.15 I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy Gods will is the reason of his own love to the creature God was under no constraint to shew mercy but he therefore shews mercy because mercy pleases him he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy Gods goodness and perfections were sufficient for himself and if he had needed any thing the creature could have given him nothing for the creature had nothing to give him but what God had first given to it and therefore Gods love was most free God was not necessitated to have made the creature or to have given it a being much less was he necessitated to have given it such a supernatural good as grace and glory was God might have made man and never ordained him to the glory of Heaven he was not necessitated to make man at all to give him so much as a natural being much less was he necessitated to give the happiness and glory of Heaven to him 2. Christs love is free for as much as there is no advantage or profit that comes to him by loving us Rom. 11.35 Who hath first given to him and it shall be given to him again God did not stand in need of any thing out of himself he had alsufficiency and perfection in himself within the compass of his own essence if we may so speak whatsoever is in the creature is first in God after an eminent manner before it is in the creature There is nothing in the effect but is first in the cause therefore the Ancients have this observation All created things are more perfectly in God than they are in themselves even as silver is more perfect in gold than in it self That virtue whereby the creatures were produced was first in God as the cause before it was drawn forth in the creature as the effect and therefore it is well observed by Austin God had a purpose from Eternity to make the creatures but he therefore made them in time that he might shew he did not stand in need of the creatures but had been perfect and happy without them from Eternity 3. Christs love is free for as much as it was without respect of merit in us Rom. 9.11 13. The children being yet unborn neither having done good or evil it was said Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated 2 Tim. 1.9 Who hath saved us and called us not according to our works c. Rom. 8.28 All things work together for good to them who love God to them who are the called according to his purpose It is true the Elect do love God yea but they are first called first loved of God It was not our love to God was the cause of Gods love to us but Gods love to us is the cause of our love to him God first elects and then calls us and then we love him God decrees to give to the Elect both faith and obedience Tit. 1.1.1 Pet. 1.2 therefore his love cannot possibly be grounded upon the foresight of our faith and obedience but is every way most free Sweet are the expressions which Bernard hath Amat Deus nec aliunde hoc habet sed ipse est unde amat ideò vehementiùs quia non amerem tam habet quà m hoc ipse est Bern. God saith he loves neither hath he his love from any thing out of himself but himself is the cause of his own love and therefore his love is most strong because he is not so properly said to have love as himself is love 1. It is a special peculiar love There is a common general love which God bears to all creatures but there is a special peculiar love which God bears to his people God loveth all his creatures with a general love but it is some only he loves with a special and peculiar love God Omnes quidem diligit sed non ad aequale honum Tolet as one observes loves all his creatures indeed but he doth not love them so as to will the same good or to bestow the same equal good upon them all God is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works He feeds the ravens cloaths the lilies gives life breath being to all creatures but then there is a special love which he bears to his people First he gives himself to them Heb. 8.10 This is the covenant I will make with them I will be their God Secondly he gives them his Son Having given us his Son Rom. 8.32 Joh. 3.16 Thirdly he gives Heaven Salvation and eternal life unto them Luk. 12.32 1
which is in the Divine nature is the fountain and spring of all the love that is in the humane nature and it was meet we should contemplate a little the love that was in Christs humane nature that by this consideration we might rise up to contemplate the love of the Divine nature which is the fountain and head-spring Now to help us a little to conceive of the love which is in the Divine nature of Christ I shall propound you three considerations to illustrate it 1. All the love of the Father resides and is to be found in the Divine nature of the Son The Scripture when it speaks of the love of God doth all along commend and set forth the love of God the Father Behold what manner of love the Father hath shewed us 1 Joh. 3.1 The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God c. 2 Cor. 16.14 The love of God that is the love of the Father for when Christ and God are set in distinction by God we are to understand the first person of the Trinity the Father So Joh. 3.16 God so loved the world that is God the Father Still we see the Scripture describes the Father to us as the fountain of love As the Father is the Fountain of the Deity 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so he is the fountain of love Now then if all the love of the Father resides and is to be found in the Son then certainly the Divine nature of the Son must needs be full of love but so it is the whole intire love of the Father is to be found in the Divine nature of the Son and the reason is because there is but one and the same Divine nature in the Father and in the Son Non 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Father and the Son are not of alike Essence but they are of the same Essence and because of the sameness of the Essence in the Father and in the Son there is the same love in the Father and in the Son Love is an essential property belonging to the Essence of God there being the same Essence both in the Father and the Son there must needs be the same love in both The Father communicates all he is and hath to the Son in the eternal Generation Joh. 16.15 All that the Father hath is mine therefore the Son receiving all from the Father in the eternal Generation the whole intire love of the Father is communicated to him and resides in him Therefore he is called the express image of his person the brightness of his glory Heb. 1.3 The whole nature of the Father is to be seen and is made conspicuous in the person of the Son Therefore if we conclude that there is the highest and most immense love in the Father we must necessarily conclude there is the same love in the Son who is the express image of his person Hence is that expression of our Saviour Joh. 14.21 If any man love me he shall be loved of my Father and I will love him Observe it my Father will love him and I will love him We may not conceive there is a twofold love one of the Father and another of the Son but both Father and Son do love with the same love There is but one and the same Divine love in the Father and the Son It is true if we understand it as some do of the love that is in Christs humane nature then we may suppose a twofold love and so there is a Learned man that gives this sense My Father will love him and I will love him i. e. I will love him not as God only for so the Father and the Son love with one love but I will love him as man also Quomodo Pater sine Filio aut Filius sine Patre diligeret quomodo cùm inseparabiliter operentur separabiliter diligant Aug. But I incline rather to understand it as Austin of the Divine Love there is but one and the same Divine love in the Father and the Son It is Austins Exposition upon the Text How is it possible the Father should love without the Son or the Son without the Father How is it possible when the Father and the Son work inseparably their love should be divided and separated The Son having all the Fathers love in him and the Scripture describing the Father to be the fountain of all love the Divine nature of the Son must needs be full of love We come now to make a little Use of what hath been opened Vse We have heard a little of the sweetness of Christs love not only in the properties of it but as this love is to be found in both his natures Behold here matter for new wonder Well may we cry out with the Apostle O the heights and depths and breadths and lengths of the love of Christ Here is love the most glorious love in both the natures of the Lord Jesus in his humane and in his Divine nature 1. Great was his love in his humane nature his humane nature was filled with that love that no creature was filled with great are the affections that are seated in his humane heart never so much sweetness kindness tenderness compassionateness to be found in any heart as his Never any thing so sweet so lovely so amiable in the whole Creation of God as the Humanity of Jesus Christ Thou art fairer than the sons of men Psal 45.2 The humane soul of Christ was composed and made up all of love and sweetness yea the humane nature was the receptacle as it were into which the Divinity poured forth all its love In him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily Col. 2.9 It is not a particle or some small portion of the Divinity but the fulness of the Godhead and if all the fulness of the Godhead then all the fulness of Divine love dwells in the humane nature assumed Not that the love of the Humanity is formally and essentially the same with the Divine love or that the love which immediately flows from his humane will and affections is simply infinite as the Divine love is although it is a far greater love than ever was found in the heart of any creature but thus we may conceive of it The Humanity is as it were the seat of the Divine person in this humane nature that person who is love it self dwells Gods nature is love now in the humane nature assumed that very person who is love it self dwells and takes up his abode how sweet how full of love must the heart of Christ be that hath love it self dwelling and inhabiting in it 2. Here is the love of the Divine nature and how great that love is no heart can conceive no tongue can express A few words from hence to Sinners and to the Saints of God O that poor Sinners would be perswaded to look after a share in this love
Vse 1 Never will you find any love to match this love you may go from creature to creature but never find any love like the love of Christ Look upon the love of Christ-man it is the sweetest love that ever was never any created love like to his but then look to his Divine love and where will you find a parallel What are a few drops to the Ocean All the love that is scattered among the creatures is but as a drop the Godhead that is the Sea and Ocean of love Here are you drawn by a double cord of love by the love of his humanity and his Divinity When Christ would win upon souls how doth he do it He sets his love before them I love them that love me Prov. 8.17 If any man love me he shall be loved of my Father and I will love him Joh. 14.21 Love is the thing which is most naturally loved who can withstand the power of love Can you hear of all this love in the heart of this amiable person the Lord Jesus and not find it in your hearts to love him Never will you find so much love and sweetness any where else as in the Lord Jesus The things that have been set before you are the greatest realities and not meer notions of words or love We hear much of love in this world men speak much of love but the love that is spoken of in the world is for the most part nothing but words and air there is little reality in it but the love of Christ is the most real solid substantial love Here is the love of God himself the love of the Divinity here is love lodged in a part of your own nature lodged in that nature which is akin to you here is the love of your own flesh and blood should not the consideration of this sweet matchless love of Christ joyned with the consideration of your extreme misery and necessity make up the most powerful argument to draw souls to Christ Here you have the sweetest and most glorious love in the world to invite you on the one hand and on the other you have the necessity of your own misery Vnless you believe that I am he you shall dye in your sins Joh. 8.24 He that believes not on the Son the wrath of God abideth on him Joh. 3. ult As many as are under the law are under the â—erse Gal. 3.10 If you despise and reject this Lord Jesus do you know where to find another Saviour If ever you be saved Divine Justice must be satisfied an angry God must be pacified your debts must be discharged otherwise your â—â—ns will be all charged upon you another day If you neglect such a Saviour whose love is most sweet and your need of him so great your condemnation will be most just If any man love not the Lord Jesus let him be anathema maranatha You that are the Saints of God Vse 2 learn from hence to study and contemplate the love of Christ more and more Ye complain your hearts are cold and frozen ye cannot get them inflamed with love to Christ warm your cold and frozen hearts by the fire of Christs love Love is the Load-stone of love Consider well the love that â—s in both his natures consider the sweetness of his humane nature consider the sweet kind compassionate sympathizing heart of Christ as man consider that love is lodged in the heart of one that is your elder Brother that it is seatâ—d in that nature that is near akin to you and â—s in all things made like to you sin only exceptâ—d and then consider the fulness and perfection â—f his Divinity consider well the infinite treaâ—ures of love and kindness that are lodged in his Divine nature let us ponder and consider these things surely our hearts are hard frozen indeed if they will not melt under these considerations The end of the second Sermon SERMON III. Eph. 3. vers 17 18 19. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love May be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge WE are yet under the consideration of the Love that is in Christs Divine Nature we have mentioned one consideration about it the second follows 2. The second Consideration about the love that is in Christs Divine nature To help us to conceive of the love that is in the Divine nature of Christ consider That love is most natural to God We have heard in the first consideration That the Divine nature of the Father is in the Son As the Father hath the whole nature of God in him so the Son hath the whole nature of God in him therefore doth John say of the Son This is the true God 1 Joh. 5.20 The Father and the Son are but one and the same true God Now love is most natural to God love is his very Essence hence it is said God is love 1 Joh. 4.7 I do not remember in all the Scripture that God is called anger wrath or hatred It is true anger wrath hatred are attributed to God but I do not remember that it is formally or categorically expressed thus that God is wrath anger hatred but God is love his very nature and essence is love In some sense we may say Had it not been for sin there had been no such thing as hatred in God Not that we do or can suppose that there are or can be any new immanent acts in God for then it could not be said that God was without variableness or shadow of change Jam. 1.17 God always was what now he is God was from Eternity that which now he is all the change is from the creatures part there is no change in God what God is once he is for ever there is no manner of change in him But thus we ought to conceive of it That property in God whereby he is inclined to hate sin which is natural and essential to him as the Psalmist tells us Thou lovest righteousness and hatest iniquity had never had an object to work upon had not sin entred into the world But now God had himself and his own goodness to love had there been no such thing as sin for him to hate therefore love is most natural to God it is most natural to God to love yea it were a wonder he should not love Austin observes it is as natural for God to love as it is for him to be and live God is an intellectual Being and being so he must needs know understand and love himself and God being a pure Act he cannot sometimes love and sometimes not love but as he knows himself always so he loves himself always It is true Gods love to the creature is not necessary as it is to himself God loves himself necessarily but he loves the creatures freely and arbitrarily but
all the money he hath to purchase that inheritance it is a sign he loves that child well So is it in this case the things that God intends to bestow upon his people are the greatest things and he hath been at the greatest cost and charges to bring them to this inheritance 1. God bestows upon his people the greatest things and therein he shews how strong his love is to them What things are they no less than himself his own glory and blessedness all the riches of Heaven Heirs of God coheirs with Christ Rom. 8.17 Heirs of God what is that We shall inherit God himself for our portion we shall enjoy all that he is all that God hath so far as we are capable or according to the measure and capavity of creatures 2. As the things are great in themselves which God bestows upon his people so God hath been at great charge and expences to bring us to this inheritance He hath given us his Son his Spirit his Promises his Providences his Ordinances to bring us to this inheritance All things work together for good to them that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose Rom. 8.28 Observe the last expression the called according to his purpose Those whom God hath a purpose to save those whom he hath laid out his eternal love upon all things are ordered to bring them to that happiness he hath purposed to bestow upon them God lays the train of all his providences so as to bring his Elect to that happiness he hath chosen them to 3. The love of Christ is constant unchangeable and everlasting The unchangeableness of Gods love ariseth from the unchangeableness of his nature Mal. 3.6 I am the Lord I change not therefore the sons of Jacob are not consumed As much as if God should have said My nature is unchangeable and that is the reason my love and mercy towards you is never changed The manifestation of Gods love may be changed towards us we may not apprehend the same effects of love at one time as at another therefore doth the Church complain Lam. 5. ult Thou hast utterly rejected us thou art very wroth against us but yet the root and fountain of Gods love is still the same Whom the Lord loves he rebukes and chastens Rev. 3.20 Gods correction of his people proceeds from his love Not but that God is truly displeased with the sins of his people when his people give way to such particular sins he disapproves of such particular acts of theirs and disapproves of them in relation to those acts therefore when David committed that sin in taking Vriah's wife the Text saith expresly but the thing which David did displeased the Lord 2 Sam. 11. ult It is contrary to the nature of God who is Holiness it self to approve of the sins of his people or of them with relation to such sinful acts nay God may be so far angry for particular miscarriages in his people as to take up the rod and correct them yet in this very case Gods original love remains The Scripture is very clear to this purpose Psal 89.30 31. If his children forsake my law c. then will I visit their transgression with the rood c nevertheless my loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him Here we see Gods paternal displeasure or his fatherly corrections may consist with his love yea in some sense Gods corrections are the Fruit of his love 1 Cor. 11.32 We are chastened of the Lord that we may not be condemned with the world he therefore chastens that he may not condemn Gods love to his people is a fixed unalterable thing Gods love is founded in his eternal purpose now there is no changing of Gods purpose It is a great expression that of the Apostle Rom. 9.11 That the purpose of God according to election might stand The purpose of God in election stands firm and this is matter of singular and unspeakable comfort to the Saints of God If thou canst once see a line of electing love drawn forth upon thee thou mayst conclude the purpose of God remains unalterable concerning thee Now it is possible a Saint may know his election 1 Thess 1.4 Knowing beloved your election of God A Saint may know his Election by his Vocation 2 Pet. 1.10 Give diligence to make your calling and election sure Now if thou canst find out thy election thou mayst conclude the purpose of God stands unalterable to thee Christs love is from Eternity and his love never ends Having loved his own he loved them to the end Joh. 13.1 2. Having spoken of the Properties of Christs love I come to speak of the love that is to be found in both his Natures in the Divine and in the humane nature The Love of Christ is a great love if we consider the love that is to be found in each of his Natures the Divine and humane nature Eph. 5.25 it is said Christ hath loved the Church and given himself for it Christ as God hath loved the Church from Eternity therefore is it said I have loved thee with an everlasting love Jer. 31.3 Now to this ancient and first love of his there was a new love added and that was the love of Christ as Man this love which is founded in his humane nature had a beginning even as the humanity it self had a beginning but yet it is such a love as never shall have an end Christ therefore loves his Church with a twofold love with a Divine and a humane love each of which is the most sincere the greatest the most perfect the most constant and abiding love I shall speak 1. Of the love that is in his humane nature because that will help us to conceive the better of the love that is in his Divine nature the love that is in the humane nature is the product or effect of the love that is in his Divine nature and if the love of his humane nature be so great the love of his Divine nature must needs be far greater as we shall hear The love which is in his humane nature is exceeding great To understand which we must consider as there are two natures in Christ the Divine and humane nature so there are two wills the Divine and humane will and as there are two wills in Christ so we must necessarily suppose a twofold operation of those wills and so by consequence a twofold love in Christ for love is nothing but the efflux of the will some motion in the will whereby some good is willed to another now the love that is in Christs humane nature is exceeding great It is true that which the School men call Habitual grace which is in the soul of Christ is not simply infinite and the reason that they give is this The humane soul of Christ being but a creature and not infinite the habits of grace which do inhere in his humane soul as the subject they
yet thus we ought to conceive of it God being love love being his very nature and essence God loves the creatures freely indeed but yet he loves according to the condecency or becomingness of his own goodness What so proper to Love as to love God is love Bonum est sui ipsius diffusivum and therefore he loveth us The more good any thing is the more diffusive it is of it self God is good by nature and essence there is no one good but God Mat. 19.17 Creatures are good by participation but they are not originally essentially good but the Essence of God is goodness therefore God being goodness it self it is most agreeable to his nature to impart and communicate good to the creature 3. The third Consideration The love that is in the Godhead or Divine nature in Christ is the cause of all the love that is to be found in his humane nature The humane nature indeed is the glass in which the perfections of the Divine nature do shine forth but the Godhead is the source and spring of all Gods love is most visible to us in the effects of it that God should be incarnate and become man that the Law should be fulfilled for us that the pains and torments of Hell should be suffered and undergone for us that our nature should be carried into Heaven and filled with glory there these are the effects of Divine love and these effects of love are made visible and conspicuous in the humane nature but the Divine nature is the principal Efficient in all these For mark it it is the Divine nature in the person of the Son which sanctifies the humanity and assumes it into unity of person that carries forth the humanity as to all actions and sufferings so that if these be demonstrations of the highest love for God to dwell in our nature to see the Law fulfilled for us to see the torments and pains of Hell undergone for us to see Divine Justice satisfied for us we ought to behold and contemplate the love of the Divine nature as the first root of these things for it is the Divine nature that is the principal efficient cause of all God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son c. 1 Joh. 3.16 There was the love of the humanity which did concur in Christs laying down his life for us That the world may know that I love the Father and as the Father gave me commandment even so I do Joh. 14.31 Christ as man loved the Father and having received a commandment from the Father he laid down his life for the sheep He was willing even as man out of love to the Father and to the sheep to lay down his life but notwithstanding this the love that was in his Divine nature was the principal therefore doth John say Hereby we perceive the love of God that he laid down his life for us 1 Joh. 3.16 Therefore we ought not to terminate our thoughts or to stick meerly in the consideration of the actions and sufferings of Christ-man but we ought to contemplate the love of the Divine nature in all these things for it was the Godhead was the primary and principal cause Habuit rationem causae minùs principalis ministrae and the humane nature is to be considered as the less principal cause and as the servant to the Divinity So that whatsoever is sweet or amiable in Christ as man consider all his actions and sufferings in the humane nature and whatsoever may make him amiable in that respect we ought to look to the Divine nature as the principal cause and to the humanity as acted by the Divinity the humanity is the Organ of the Divinity in all these things Thus have we passed over the second Consideration there are heights and lengths and depths and breadths in the love of Christ if we consider the love of Christ distinctly as it is to be found in both his natures in his Divine and humane nature 3. I proceed in the third place to speak something of the effects of Christs love As the love of Christ hath heights depths lengths and breadths and all manner of dimensions in it if we consider it in the properties of it and as it is to be found in both his natures so it hath the same dimensions in it if we consider the effects of his love The effects of Christs love are most admirable 1. The first effect of Christs love is his Incarnation O that God would give us an heart to listen to the great Mysteries of God that are contained herein as the weight of these things requires that the Word should be made flesh that God should assume a part of humane nature and become true man here are heights breadths lengths Opus mirabile opus singulare inter omnia super omnia opera sua and depths of love indeed Bernard calls the Incarnation of Christ a wonderful work a singular work among all the rest of Gods works yea above all the rest of his other works The work of Incarnation is the greatest of all the works of God it is a greater work than the creation of Heaven and Earth for God to make all creatures out of nothing this is a work suitable to the Majesty of God but for God to come into the nature of his own creature after he hath made it this is more wonderful Quid potentius quà m conjungere Creatorem creaturam Creator ac Dominus omnium unus voluit esse mortalium qui manens in forma Dei fecit hominem idem in formaservi factus est homo Leo. Non miror miracula mundi miror Deum in utero Virginis What greater Argument of power than to joyn the Creator and the creature in one Phil. 2.7 8. Made in the likeness of men and found in fashion as a man They are melting expressions to any one that weighs them and considers what the meaning of them is For the God of Heaven to be made in the likeness of men and to be found in fashion as a man this will overcome and swallow him up that understands a little what the meaning of that is Heb. 4.15 This work of Christs Incarnation is a stupendious work the greatest work that ever was done the greatest that ever shall be done The glorification of all the Saints in Heaven is not so much as this for the Godhead to dwell personally in our nature This was that made Cyprian to say I do not wonder at the other miracles that are in the world I wonder at this that God should be in the womb of a Virgin that God who is incorporeal should cover himself with the covering of our flesh that he who is invisible should after a sort make himself visible that he who is the immortal God should become a mortal man that he who is infinite and uncircumscribed should take to himself a finite nature these
is apparent in those words of Thomas My Lord and my God Joh. 20.28 First he saith My Lord Dominum propter humanam Deum propter Divinam dicit naturam then my God He calls him Lord in respect of his humane nature God in respect of the Divine nature Now Thomas saith first My Lord then my God it is one and the same person that is Thomas his Lord and his God but faith could more easily apprehend Christ in his humane nature than it could in the Divine nature and therefore Thomas his faith begins there my Lord and from thence climbs up and ascends to the Divinity my God Hence is that expression 1 Pet. 1.21 By him we believe in God 2. As by means of the Incarnation God hath brought himself down to us and rendred himself more facile and easie to be apprehended and conceived of by us so by means of the Incarnation God hath rendred himself more sweet for us to approach unto him We may now approach to God as dwelling in our nature and God dwelling in our nature must needs be sweet kind benign propitious to them that draw nigh to him Hence is that expression 2 Cor. 5.19 God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself God having brought himself down to us in Christ is full of grace and compassion to poor sinners It is an expression I have met with in Luther Christ is nothing else but meer and infinite mercy giving it self Christus nihil aliud est quà m mera infinita misericordia donans donata Luther and being given to poor sinners This is a true description of Christ When Divine love and grace would put forth it self and manifest it self to the uttermost then it manifests it self in the gift of Christ Hence Christ is called the gift of God Joh. 4.10 If thou knewest the gift of God The Mystery of Christ the Incarnation of the Son of God is the greatest instance and demonstration of Divine love that ever was Hence God is called Love upon this account 1 Joh. 4.8 God is love why so The next words tell us In this was the love of God manifested because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him As much as if it had been said Here was the great demonstration of Divine love that God sent his Son God in Christ is God manifesting himself all love all grace all kindness and compassion to poor Sinners Hence is that expression Tit. 3.4 But after that the kindness and love of God our Saviour had appeared to mankind The words are emphatical first we have here the kindness of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Criticks in the Greek Tongue tell us this word properly signifies the study of doing good to another that is kindness when a man studies to the uttermost how he may do good to another God to speak after the manner of men studied how he might recommend his love to man 1 Joh. 4.10 Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins Here is the kindness of God the study that was in God to express his good will to the sons of men And then there is another word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Philanthropy of God God took an affection to our race to our kind as it were God took that affection to our nature as he did not to Angelical nature if we may so speak Heb. 2.16 Verily he took not on him the nature of Angels as much as if he should say He did not take such an affection to Angelical nature so as to cloath himself with a part of their nature but it was his affection to our nature that he would cloath himself with it Now God taking such affection to us to come into our nature and cloath himself with it he must needs be most sweet most benign and kind for man to approach unto for as much as God himself now dwells in the nature of man It is a notable Scripture to illustrate this Heb. 12.18 19 20 21 22 23 24. There are two things which the Apostle here designs to set forth 1. The greatness and excellency of Gospel-grace above the Legal Dispensation and that he doth in the 22 and 23 verses 2. The sweetness of Gospel-grace Tandem subjicit Jesum Mediatorem quoniam is solus est per quem nobis placatur Pater qui serenum atque amabilem ejus vultum nobis reddit Calv. this is described to us at the 24. verse And to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant Calvin observes Last of all the Apostle speaks of Christ the Mediator because it is by him only that the Father is pacified and it is he that renders the countenance of the Father sweet and amiable to us by Jesus the Mediator is the Father become sweet propitious and benign to poor sinners 3. By means of the Incarnation God doth actually give and communicate himself to his people The flesh of Christ as Luthers expression is is the covering as it were of the Divine Majesty Involucrum Divinae Majestatis God by means of this flesh of his Son communicates and gives himself to his people the humanity of Christ is the Medium by which God exhibits offers and gives himself to be injoyed by his people Acts 20.28 God hath redeemed the Church with his own blood Though it was the flesh only that was capable of suffering and dying yet God was he who was in that flesh and it was he that did all in that flesh So in that other place God is in Christ reconciling the world Faith ought to apprehend God in Christ as giving himself to the soul and as doing all for the soul though we ought to contemplate Christ-man yet faith ought not to rest or terminate it self in Christs humanity but faith ought to apprehend God in Christ as giving himself to the soul and doing all for the soul He hath loved me and given himself for me saith Paul Gal. 2.20 And that passage of the Church in that triumphant Song of hers is most remarkable to illustrate this point Isa 12.2 Behold God is my salvation c. This Prophecy hath a manifest relation to the days of the Messias and it speaks clearly of Christ and his Kingdom Now what shall be the thanksgiving Song of the people of God in the days of the Messias This shall be the Song Behold God is my salvation c. The faith of the Saints looks to God in Christ they see God in Christ doing all for them and giving himself to them Though God hath sent his Son to take up the humanity and is pleased to make use of that Medium yet they see it is God himself that is the Author of their salvation and that it is God who doth all for them by his Son 2 Cor. 5.18 All things are of God who hath reconciled
not able to pay so that whatever the debt is the surety who is ingaged stands under an obligation to see it satisfied Christ then becoming our Surety all that obligation that lay upon us from the law is now derived upon him Now Christ brings himself under this obligation to the law two ways 1. By his own free consent and stipulation to the Father He that is otherwise free if he enter into Bonds and Covenants to discharge anothers debt become an engaged person Though he were free before he is now no longer free but becomes engaged by his own voluntary consent Thus Christ who was free and disingaged in himself did enter into a Covenant and agreement with the Father to undertake our cause and to do and suffer what was necessary to be done and suffered in order to our Salvation Heb. 10.7 Then I said Lo I come in the volume of the book it is written of me To do thy will O God When Christ saw the Fathers heart was set on the Salvation of man and that for that end the Father was willing Christ should undertake the cause and business of their Salvation Christ was as willing as the Father was and he saith Lo I come to do thy will Hence is it that the Counsel of Peace is said to be between them both Zac. 6.13 The Father to speak after the manner of men propounds and the Son consents so that the Son who was free and disingaged in himself brings himself under an obligation by his own free promise and stipulation Hence it is that Christ becomes the Head of the second Covenant the second Adam and all the Elect are his seed and Christ undertakes for them Isa 53.10 2. Christ brought himself under obligation to the Law by his own voluntary assumption of our nature for that end that he might become subject to the Law in it This the Apostle sets forth at large Phil. 2.6 He was in the form of God and counted it no robbery to be equal with God but he made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient Here are two things by which the Apostle sets forth the greatness of Christs Condescension 1. That he being in the form of God and who might have continued in the form of God only yet that he was pleased to take upon him the form of a servant and become true man this is one part of his condescension The other part of his condescension is that he would take upon him the form of a servant and become man for this very end that he might become obedient and that he might perform all the acts of obedience in the humane nature assumed Christ was not bound to take our nature at all but he might have continued always in the form of God only or if he will take our nature he was not bound to take it in that servile way so as to be bound to all acts of obedience but here was the greatness of Christs condescension as he will take our nature so he will take it for that end that in our nature he may obey and fulfil the Law for us And therefore it is emphatically expressed in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Factum seu redactum sub lege He was made obedient and so in the Text He was made under the Law Christ was made or reduced under the Law so some render it Christ was reduced to that state and condition as to be in a state of subjection to the Law whereas he was naturally above it Christ was made or reduced under this power and authority of the Law by his own free consent whereas naturally the Law had no such power or authority over him 3. The third and last Proposition is this For Christ to be under the Law is to be under the Judirisction of the Law and to be actually subject to it Christ having put himself under the obligation of the law the law hath full power and authority over him and the law requires perfect and exact obedience from him as it doth from any other man and Christ doth now stand bound and obliged to yield and perform that obedience which the law requires Hence Christ is called Isa 42.1 the Fathers servant he is said to love the Father to do and keep the Fathers commandments Joh. 14.31 15.10 Christ as man was under a law of love and obedience to his Father he was also subject to his Parents after the flesh he submitted to the Baptism of John and gives this reason for it Thus it becomes us to fulfil all righteousness Mat. 3.15 Christ being made man becoming our surety and being made under the law for us was bound to all the moral Duties which the law requires and so to fulfil all righteousness for us And the reason of it is If Christ had left any thing undone that the law requires of us then there had been so far a defect in that which was to become our righteousness for the obedience of Christ was to be the matter of our righteousness Rom. 5.19 By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous The law accepts of nothing but a perfect compleat righteousness therefore if Christ had left any thing to be done that the law requires to be done there had been so far a defect in that which must be our righteousness for Justification therefore Christ was obliged to all that obedience which the law required from us 2. I come now to the second thing to shew wherein the greatness of the love of Christ doth appear and discover it self in his being made under the Law I shall lay down several Propositions for the clearing of this 1. The love of Christ in being made under the law appears in this In that Christ in respect of his Original right was free from all subjection to the law Christ in respect of his person and his Divine nature was above the law Christ as he was God was Supreme and the Author of the law as he was the second person in the Trinity so he was equal to the Father and of equal authority with him It is true the humane nature in Christ was a creature and therefore in a state of subjection as every creature must necessarily be supposed to be But then we must consider that although the humane nature of Christ be a creature and considered simply so is in a state of subjection yet Christ in respect of his Original right is free from all subjection And this may be evidenced from these following Considerations 1. Although it be true that the humane nature in Christ be a creature yet the humane nature hath its subsistence in and by that person who is Divine and increated And hence is it that the Schoolmen do deny that Christ is to be called a Creature There is a
seek after reconciliation with God and to labour that we may be made friends with God Christ laid down his life for us not because we were made friends before but to make us friends Since therefore the end of Christs death was to reconcile us to God we should seek after reconciliation with him This is the Apostles Argument 2 Cor. 5.19 20. God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself not imputing their trespasses unto them and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation Now then we are Ambassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God It is as much as if the Apostle had said God is willing to be reconciled to us and he hath testified his willingness in giving his Son to dye for our sins and making satisfaction to his Justice Now since God hath expressed himself to be so willing to be reconciled to us we ought to be willing to be reconciled to him We pray you in Christs stead be ye reconciled to God Here it may be inquired But what is it for us to be reconciled to God When the Apostle prays us here with so much earnestness in Christs stead to be reconciled to God what is the reconciliation he aimeth at how ought we to be reconciled to God Two or three things I conceive are here intended 1. We ought to seek after reconciliation with God Isa 55.6 Seek ye the Lord while he may be found that is seek his face and favour seek reconciliation with him Secure sinners are not aware of the difference that is between God and them although the sinner thinks little of it sin makes a vast breach an hostile difference between God and him God is angry with the wicked every day saith the Psalmist Psal 7.11 And The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men Rom. 1.18 God doth maintain his controversie against thee whilst thou goest on in the ways of sin therefore seek reconciliation with him Agree with thy adversary quickly whilst he is in the way Mat. 5.25 Labour to take up all differences between God and thee 2. To be reconciled to God is to accept of the reconciliation which God tenders humbly to embrace that grace which God offers God is in Christ reconciling the world and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation As much as if he should say God hath put himself into Christ on purpose to exhibit and give forth grace and mercy to sinners and he sends his Ministers and Ambassadors on purpose to make a tender of grace and mercy to him Now then are we reconciled to God when we do humbly embrace this grace and mercy offered to us Rom. 10.10 With the heart man believeth unto righteousness We ought with the full bent of our affections to embrace the grace of God offered to us in the Gospel 3. If we would be reconciled to God we ought to pray for renewing grace that we may lay aside the old enmity that lurks in our hearts against God It is sin that first of all made the quarrel and difference between God and us and how can we expect in reason that ever we should be brought into perfect reconciliation with God so long as that which first bred the quarrel and made the difference between God and us is retained and kept by us Isa 59.2 Your iniquities saith the Prophet have separated between you and your God Sin is that which sets us at a distance from God If therefore we would have the breach made up and the difference reconciled we must pray for that grace from God whereby we may lay aside that which first made the quarrel The Apostle tells us we are enemies in our minds by evil works Col. 1.21 So long as our minds are set upon sin so long as we continue in the love and practice of any thing that God hates Amicorum est idem velle nolle how is it possible we should be friends with God It is the property of friends to will the same thing and nill the same thing If we would be the friends of God we must will what God wills hate what God hates and love what God loves You that love the Lord hate evil Psal 97.10 This therefore is the second Use an Use of Exhortation to exhort us to seek after reconciliation with God In the third and last place Vse 3 Learn from what hath been opened to admire the greatness of Christs love to us who in some sense accounts us friends whereas indeed we are enemies Greater love than this hath no man that a man lay down his life for his friends We are all by nature enemies so we have heard and yet in some sense Christ accounts us friends Christ had a purpose of good will to us even when we were enemies towards him It was from his love that God sent his Son to dye for us when we were enemies Herein God commended his love towards us in that whilst we were yet enemies Christ dyed for us Rom. 5.8 So that God had a purpose of good will in his heart towards us when we were full of enmity in our hearts towards him Only that none may abuse this Doctrine take this caution No man can conclude that God hath a purpose of good will to him that remains an enemy to God and persists in his enmity but he hath reason on the contrary to think that he being an enemy to God by nature and continuing still to be so God remains so to him But however this was the love of God to the world in general that when the whole world were enemies and all were found in a state of enmity against God God loved the world so far as to find out and prepare a means of Salvation for the world God loved the world so far as that he gave his only begotten Son to deliver the world from its perishing condition and to bring it eternal life this was the love of God to us and this commends and sets forth the greatness of Gods love to us that when we were enemies to him he had a kindness for us and so great was his kindness to us that he sent his Son to bring us unto life Joh. 4.9 In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him The end of the second Sermon SERMON III. Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends THE general Proposition that I have laid down as the foundation of our Discourse from these words hath been this That our Lord Jesus Christ hath laid down his life for his people In speaking to this Doctrine I have propounded to speak to these four Heads 1. To open the import of this Phrase what it is to lay down a mans life
nature to lay down his life and dye for our sins Certainly he that believes this will find no reason to doubt of the love of God If God sent his Son to be a propitiation for our sins if he had no other end in sending of him and if the Son of God did freely lay down his life for us then there is no reason that we should retain suspicious and jealous thoughts of the Father or the Son We know and believe the love that God hath to us How so Because God hath sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins If we can realize the sufferings of Christ to our minds by the eye of faith this will confirm our souls in the love of God towards us 2. Another effect of our studying the love of Christ in his sufferings for us is This will be a means to beget much love in us to Christ What more powerful argument to inflame our love to Christ than to consider what Christ hath done and suffered for us Can we behold the Son of God the second Person in Trinity God equal with the Father Emmanuel God with us God come down into our nature can we behold this great and excellent Person giving himself to suffer and dye for us taking the whole curse and punishment upon himself that we deserve and not love this person who hath so loved us and hath done and suffered such things for us The Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 5.14 The love of Christ constrains us The love of Christ that is Christs love to us the apprehension of Christs love to us constrains us why so Because saith the Apostle we thus judge That if one dyed for all then were all dead If Christ had not dyed we must all have dyed If Christ had not suffered the wrath of God we must have suffered it to Eternity If Christ had not been deserted we must have been deserted If he had not undergone dereliction and the hiding of Gods face the face of God must have been turned away from us for ever If Christ had not conflicted with the Divine displeasure we must have conflicted with the wrath of God for ever If Christ had not been cast into that Agony wherein he sweat drops of blood we must have been cast into those inexpressible horrours and torments of soul and body which would have pressed us down to all Eternity The deep and serious consideration of these things cannot but constrain us to love Christ The love of Christ constrains us saith the Apostle because we thus judge That if one dyed for all then were all dead The consideration of this That Christ hath freed us from that by his death which otherwise we must necessarily have undergone must needs be a strong ingagement upon us to love Christ We love him because he first loved us Learn how great the sin and ingratitude of the world is in slighting and abusing all this love Vse 2 and also how just that revenge is which God takes upon the world for slighting and abusing all this love If the love of Christ be so eminently seen in his suffering and dying for sinful men for the sinful world then how great is the sin and ingratitude of the world in slighting and abusing all this love God hath sent his Son from Heaven to save the world he hath sent his Son from Heaven to dye for the world but all this love is little thought of little regarded or esteemed by the generality of men this is the cause of the Lords great indignation against the world The world is guilty of many other sins it is guilty of great immoralities and many abominations in point of practice and these may have their influence and no doubt have as to the bringing down Gods displeasure upon the sinful world but that which is the fundamental sin the root sin of all it is the contempt of Christ and the Gospel the slighting and rejecting gospel-Gospel-love Gospel-grace This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather than light And we may say This is the condemnation that love is come into the world that the Son of God who is love it self the Son of God who hath all the love of the Father in him and God is love that he is come into the nature of man and hath dyed for men that they might be saved and this is not at all regarded by them When all this love of his hath been published and made known to men the generality of men have taken no notice of Christ and his love so they may have their honours pleasures and profits take Christ and his grace who will for them for this so great contempt of Christ and his grace when God hath offered his love and the grace of his Gospel to the world and men have slighted it taken no notice of it hath God come to revenge himself upon the ingrateful world and I speak it with a bleeding heart I fear will yet revenge it more sorely The end of the sixteenth Sermon SERMON XVII Job 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends I Come now to other Particulars that set forth the greatness of Christs suffering for us 5. The greatness of Christs love in laying down his life for us appears in this That there was no one else that could have satisfied for us If men or Angels had attempted this work their sufferings had been but the sufferings of finite creatures there would not have been infinite worth and value in them to have satisfied for the sins of the whole world The expiation of sin requires a price of infinite value and the reason is because every sin is committed against an infinite Majesty an infinite Majesty being offended there must be a price of infinite value to expiate the offence Now whoever had been but a meer man could not have offered a price of infinite value but Christs sufferings were of infinite value because he was God as well as man and this is that which enhanceth the price of Christs love that none else could have suffered for us but Christ so as to have satisfied Gods Justice this Christ himself sets before us Isa 63.3 I have trod the wine-press alone and of the people there was none with me So vers 5. I looked and there was none to help and I wondered there was none to uphold therefore mine own arm brought salvation This commends the greatness of Christs love in his sufferings That when none was able to suffer for us so as to satisfie Gods Justice Christ undertook the work The sixth Consideration is The greatness of Christs love in his sufferings appears in this That so great and excellent a person should come to suffer for us 1 Joh. 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of God that he laid down his life for us that is that he who was the Son of God and God that
Fathers love that he should give so excellent a person as his own Son his only begotten Son to suffer and to dye for us God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son Joh. 3.16 How did he give him He gave him to be incarnate and to become man that was one way of his giving of him and secondly he gave him to suffer and dye for us that is another way of his giving of him Rom. 8.32 He spared not his own Son but delivered him up for us all That the Father should give such a Son so great a Son a Son that was equal with himself as we have heard that he should give him to become man to suffer and dye for man how great was the Fathers love 2. Learn to admire the Sons love that he that was in the form of God and counted it no robbery to be equal with God should yet come to suffer and dye for men Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it Eph. 5.25 The love of Christ in giving himself for us is exceeding admirable for Christ as we have heard as he was God willed his own sufferings as he was man yea he ordered and disposed of his own sufferings and that which is more admirable he inflicted sufferings on himself for our sakes This is wonderful indeed No man saith the Apostle ever hated his own flesh and yet Christ after a sort might seem to hate his own flesh that is he afflicted himself for our sakes Isa 53.10 It pleased the Lord to bruise him he put him to grief the hand of the Father was upon Christ It pleased the Lord to bruise him he put him to grief It was not only the hand of the Jews that was upon him but the hand of the Father was upon him Now the Father had not only a hand in Christs sufferings but Christ himself as God had a hand in his own sufferings as he was man The Lord that is the Father bruised him saith the Prophet the Father put him to grief the Son also bruâ—sed himself he put himself to grief for all the actions of the Trinity towards the creature are inseparable and undivided what one of the Persons doth the other doth If the Father bruised the Son and put him to grief as he was man the Son also as he was God bruised himself and put himself to grief as he was man Now who ever was known to be cruel to himself And yet the Son of Son to express his love to us after a sort was cruel to himself he afflicted his own flesh and put it to grief for our sakes therefore is it said By his stripes we are healed Christ gave stripes and wounds to himself that so we might escape stripes and wounds Vse 2 This shews us our great stupidity and dulness that we should be no more affected with this stupendious and amazing love of God Hath Christ loved us as we have heard in such a manner was Christ so excellent a person had he his existence and subsistence with the Father from Eternity Did he know himself to be equal with God so that he should do no wrong or injury if he had kept to himself the same honour always which the Father did without abasing himself by his Incarnation and sufferings Hath he ordered his own sufferings willed them permitted them upheld his Humanity in them was he united to his own flesh in suffering Hath the Son of God done all this for us O let us be ashamed at our own stupidity and dulness that we should be no more affected with these things That God should become man for our sakes and being man give himself to suffer and dye for us and we no more affected with this O what strange stupidity is it The holiest and the best hearts have too snallow thoughts of these things and I for my part who am not worthy to be numbered among the Saints upon the slender consideration I have had of these things cannot but wonder at my self that I am no more affected with them SERMON XVIII Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends 3. THE third Consideration arising from the Dignity of Christs Person to shew the greatness of his love in his sufferings is this It was the Deity the Divine nature in Christ that gave virtue and efficacy to the sufferings of the humane nature Chemnitius It is the observation of a Judicious Divine That it is one thing to speak of the Passion and death of Christ as it is the property of the humane nature and another thing to speak of the Passion and death of Christ as by that Passion and death of his the wrath of God is pacified the head of the Serpent broken death destroyed and life restored these are the operations of the Divine power although not without the humane nature The humane nature could never have done this without the virtue of the Deity Therefore we must consider that although it was in the humane nature that Christ obeyed and kept the Law and though it was in the humane nature that he suffered and dyed yet it was by the power and virtue of the Deity that these actions and sufferings of the humane nature were meritorious and satisfactory as to God and salutary as to men that is that they had an influence upon our salvation Had not Christ been God as well as man neither would his actions and sufferings been satisfactory and meritorious with God neither would they have brought salvation unto us Who but God could have conquered death hell and the grave Who but God could have wrought out redemption and salvation for us Hence is it that the Church in her triumphant Song when she declares how it was that her salvation was wrought out for her she attributes it wholly unto God Isa 12.2 Behold God is my salvation the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song he also is become my salvation The Church looks upon all her salvation to be from God in Christ God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself 2 Cor. 5.19 It was God in Christ that gave the ranson and laid down the price for the Churches redemption Act. 20.28 Feed the Church of God which he hath purchased with his own blood The fourth Particular to set forth the greatness of Christs love in the work of his sufferings from the consideration of the dignity of his person That in the sufferings of Christ there was the humiliation of the whole person of the Mediator who was God as well as man This is a great thing to set forth the love of Christ in his sufferings to consider how great a person he was that humbled himself Phil. 2.8 He humbled himself and became obedient to the death Who was he that humbled himself that very person which the Apostle had spoken of before Now the person which he had spoken of before was he
Thess 5.9 These are the things that God bestows upon his people so then it is a special love in this respect God bestows common blessings upon others he bestows many temporal blessings upon all men but his special favours are reserved for the Elect therefore he is said to be the Saviour of all men especially of those that believe 1 Tim. 4.10 God preserves and saves all men by a common Providence but he is in a special peculiar manner the Saviour of Believers therefore he is called the Saviour of the body Eph. 5.23 Compare these Scriptures together in one place he is said to be the Saviour of all men and in another place he is said to be the Saviour of his body the Church Christ is the Saviour of all men in some respect but not so as he is the Saviour of his body the Church he saves all men with a common salvation but he doth not save all men with a spiritual eternal salvation it is the Church only he so saves 2. The love of Christ is a discriminating love because it is such a love as is bestowed upon some persons which is not bestowed upon others Whom he foreknew them he did predestinate Rom. 8.29 How did he foreknow them he foreknew them so as to love them He knows all his creatures from Eternity but he doth not so foreknow all as to love all alike but he foreknows some after a special manner he so foreknows some as he doth not foreknow others he so foreknows some from Eternity as to love them from Eternity he so foreknows some as to pass by others hence it is said he loved his own which were in the world Joh. 13.1 he hath chosen them out of the world Joh. 15.19 and he prays for them not for the world Joh. 17.9 Here we may cry out with the Apostle O the depths There was no reason on the part of the Elect why they should be chosen and not others Mal. 1.2 Was not Esau Jacobs brother saith the Lord yet I loved Jacob. As much as if it had been said What preheminence had Jacob more than Esau when I made my Election Was not Esau Jacobs brother Did not Esau and Jacob stand upon equal ground and might I not have taken one as well as another Nay Esau was the elder brother yet saith God Jacob have I loved There is no dignity or worth in the Elect why they should be chosen more than others the Elect themselves were involved in the same common condition of sin and misery with others but God who is rich in mercy for the great love wherewith he hath loved us Eph. 2.4 hath bestowed that love on some which he hath denied to others The reason of this love is not from any thing on the Elects part but from Gods own Soveraign will he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy Those who are chosen are not better and more worthy than others but God out of his own love will make them to be vessels of mercy when as he will pass by others 1. Vse 1 A word to Sinners O labour from what hath been spoken to be sensible of your mifery while you lye out of Christ and continue in your sins you can challenge no part in this rich and glorious love Rom. 8.29 whom he predestinated them he also called therefore till you be called you have no evidence of your Election of God Think then of thy sad condition poor sinner poor unconverted soul O there is all this rich and glorious love in the heart of Christ but for any thing that yet appears thou art never like to have share in it why thou art yet uncalled and lyest wallowing in thy sins The first dawnings of Christs love appear and break forth in vocation Eph. 5.26 Christ loved the Church that he might sanctifie and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word Christs love to the Church is seen in sanctifying the Church and cleansing it by the Word and Spirit O but thou wast never sanctified and cleansed by the Word and Spirit to this day Thou art a poor creature wallowing in thy blood thou continuest in thy ignorance unbelief prophaneness hardness to this day Whoever thou art whilst thou continuest such thou hast no evidence as yet of thy election of God that thou hast any share or part in this glorious love of Christ O pray that thou mayst feel the sanctifying and cleansing work of Christs Spirit that the Word may have a work on thy soul for conversion Christ loves the Church and sanctifies and cleanses it with the washing of water by the word The Word is the ordinary means by which the Elect are sartctified and therefore Christ prays Sanctifie them by thy truth thy word is truth Joh. 17.17 If thou wouldst have some evidence of Christs love pray that the Word of God may have some effect upon thee to bring thee from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God To the People of God Vse 2. Is there such a rich and glorious love in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ Oh then labour to admire and adore this glorious love labour to get your hearts affected with this love stand and wonder at it that the Lord Jesus should have such love for you such ancient free peculiar love for you that you should be made the objects of this ancient free peculiar love of his when so many are passed by Meditate much on this love think of it night and day never cease thinking of Christs love till you have thought your selves into love to him It is an excellent speech of Bernard When the love of Christ doth so swallow up our affections that we even forget our selves and can think of nothing else but Jesus Christ and the things of Jesus Christ then is love perfected in us The love of Christ is a great abyss that we should be swallowed up in and lose our selves in the contemplation of it and the more spirituality we grow unto the more shall we contemplate this love and the more we contemplate the love of Christ the more shall we find our selves drawn out in love to him The end of the first Sermon SERMON II. Eph. 3. vers 17 18 19. That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith that ye being rooted and grounded in love May be able to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height And to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge WE have already heard three Properties of Christs love viz. that it is ancient free peculiar The fourth Property of Christs love is that it is an intense and a strong love He is said to have the greatest and strongest love to another that intends most good to another and is willing to be at the greatest cost and charges to procure that good for him If a father intend to settle such an inheritance upon his child and will lay out
humane soul and body united to himself in the bond of personal Vnion The Divine person gives up the humane soul and body to be separated from each other at his death and yet holds them both to himself in the bond of personal Union Divines use an apt similitude to illustrate this by It is as if a man held a sword in his hand sheathed and should draw forth the sword out of the sheath the sword and sheath are separated one from the other yet the hand holds both Here then is the acting of the Divine will the Divine will in the person of the Son gives up the humane nature to suffer this is intimated in those expressions No man taketh away my life from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up again Now the humane will knowing that it is the pleasure of the Divine will that the humanity should be given up to suffer submits unto and complies with the Divine will this is implied in that expression This commandment have I received of my Father Joh. 10.18 The Divine will of the Father and of the Son are all one Now the humane will knowing that it was the pleasure of the Divine will that the humane nature should be given up to suffering and death complies with the Divine will herein 3. The third consideration to set forth the love of Christ as he is Man or in his humane nature is this The love of Christ as he is Man may be seen in the Petitions he offered up to the Father for us whilst he was here on earth Much of that love which dwelt in his humane soul may be seen by the prayers and petitions he offered up to the Father for us It is true Christs Intercession is a work that belongs to him as Mediator now Christ is Mediator not according to one nature only but according to both natures and there is a communion of both natures in this action of his praying for us as well as in the rest of his Mediatory actions but yet although the person praying for us be God-man that very person who subsists in both natures yet that nature in which he is most properly said to pray is his humane nature as in his sufferings the person suffering is God-man yet the nature according to which he is said to suffer is the humane nature therefore he is said to be put to death in the flesh 1 Pet. 3.18 So in his praying for us the person praying is God-man but the nature in which he prays is the humane the whole action proceeds from the person but the proximate and immediate principle is the humane will Christs praying was the act or desire of his humane will though it be true that will was acted influenced and governed by the Divine will Hence is that saying of the Ancients Christus orat ut homo ut Deus adoratur ut homo orat Patrem Christ prays as he is man as he is God so he is prayed unto as he is man so he intercedes prays and supplicates to the Father for us Now we may consider the love of Christ in the desires that were in his humane will for us It is true it was the Godhead that directed and inclined his humane will to those desires and gave that virtue and efficacy to his prayers If they had been the prayers of a meer man they had not had such efficacy But yet we may consider the love that was in his humane soul when he prayed here on earth for us There was no small love in the Humane soul of Christ when he asked such great things for us a little before his going out of the world It is true his humane love is not all or the principal thing to be considered in the great things he asked for us If his love had not been more than the love of a man he could not have asked such great things for us as we read of in Joh. 17. yet certainly there was a great deal of love in his humane soul which was filled by the Divinity inhabiting in it His heart was brim-full of love when he came to make that last prayer of his to the Father for us Judge of his love by the things he asks for us Cujus Christiani cor non liquescit dum manifestè cognoscit Filium Dei aeternum pro se rogâsse Patrem ut unum sit cum ipsis What are the things Christ asks No less than Union with himself and the Father Joh. 17.21 23. It is a good speech of one of the Ancients What Christian heart is it that doth not melt when he doth clearly understand that the eternal Son of God did ask for him in particular that he might be one with him and the Father Can we desire a greater happiness than this to be one with the Father and the Son This is the happiness Christ asks for us that we might be one in the Father and the Son And as he prays for this Union the top of all so he prays for many other blessings as 1. That the Father would keep all that are his through his own Name vers 11. How would he have them kept He would have them kept unto this union So it follows That they may be one as we are one As the Father and the Son had intended the Elect unto this union so he prays that they may be preserved unto this union preserved unto eternal life preserved from miscarrying that they might come unto that union the Father and the Son had elected them unto What comfort is this that our Lord Jesus hath prayed we may be kept to our last happiness that God would be his own power keep us to Salvation The Salvation of the Elect must needs be secure when Christ hath prayed the Father that he would keep all his by his own power to Salvation 2. He prays that we might be kept from the evil of the world vers 15. You that fear to be overtaken with any scandalous sin you may know the worth of this prayer 3. He prays for our Sanctification vers 17. 4. He prays that we might be where he is vers 24. 5. He prays that we might have a share in his Glory not only that we might be with him but also behold the glory that the Father had given him What love must that heart needs be filled with that prays for such things It is true it was not the love of a meer man that could ask such things but it was the Divine love filling his humane soul and acting of it that carried him forth to ask such things And thus I have finished the consideration of the love that was in the humane nature of Christ 2. There is the love that is in Christs Divine nature The love which is in the humane nature is very great but the love of the Divine nature is infinitely greater The love
humane nature assumed so that the humane nature as it is well exprest by one is by means of this union rooted in the Divine stock To understand this we must know that the Son of God was a person before his Incarnation and subsisted in the Divine nature by the work of his Incarnation the humane nature having no subsistence of its own hath the Divine person of the Son communicated to it and so subsists in and by that person so that now here is one and the same person that subsists in two natures The same person who subsisted in the Divine nature only before his Incarnation after his Incarnation subsists in both natures the Divine and humane nature All this is implied in that great Scripture Joh. 1.14 The Word was made flesh The Evangelist speaks of Christ the Son of God the eternal Word The Word was made flesh that is the Son of God the second person in Trinity was made flesh or became man That Christ was a person and had his subsistence in the Divine nature before his Incarnation that the Evangelist had shewn us in the two first verses In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God Here the Evangelist shews us plainly that Christ had his subsistence before his Incarnation he subsisted in the Divine nature he subsisted with the Father in the same Divine Essence Now after he comes to acquaint us that this very person whom he calls the Word and who did first of all subsist in the nature of God only did afterwards become man and was made flesh and after his Incarnation subsists in both natures the nature of man as well as the nature of God who before his Incarnation subsisted in the nature of God only The Word was made flesh How is this to be understood made flesh Not by any conversion in the natures as if so be the Divinity was absorpt by or turned into the humanity or as if so be the humanity was swallowed up into the Divinity but the Word is made flesh thus we ought to conceive of it the Word that is the eternal Word the second person of the Trinity who was a person before draws the humane nature into the Vnity of his own person so that the natures remain distinct and unconfounded but the person is but one The Word who was a person before his Incarnation assumes and takes the humane nature destitute of any personal subsistence of its own into the unity of his own personal subsistence so that now by means of the Incarnation of the Word there is one and the same person of the Word and the humane nature assumed This is in short the sum of that Doctrine which we call the Hypostatical or personal Union which is therefore called the Hypostatical or personal Union because both the natures the Divine and the humane nature are united into that one Hypostasis or person of the Son of God Now consider the greatness of Christs love in this Union This union the union of the two natures in that one person of Christ is the greatest of all unions next to the union of the three persons of the Sacred Trinity which indeed may not so properly be called a Vnion as a Vnity Summa illa TrinÃtas nobis hanc exhibuit Trinitatem The highest Trinity hath exhibited to us this Trinity that these three the Word the flesh and humane soul of Christ should be one one not by any confusion of substance but one in person In the Sacred Trinity the persons remain distinct but the nature is one in the personal Vnion the natures remain distinct but the person is but one Now this is the highest of all unions next that of the three persons in the Trinity in one and the same Essence namely that a created nature as the humane nature in Christ is should be made one person with the Son of God who also himself is God By this union God communicates himself after the highest manner that was possible unto the creature and the nature of the creature is united to God in the most perfect manner as it was possible for the creature to be united to God In the Incarnation of the Son of God man who is the last creature in Creation is joyned with his first Cause and Principle in such a union as that there is none greater under God To illustrate yet farther the greatness of this union that is made in the two natures in the person of Christ consider There is a presence of God and an inhabitation of his Spirit in the Saints but this falls far short of the personal Vnion which we are now speaking of for notwithstanding the mystical Union notwithstanding the inhabitation of the Spirit in Believers yet a Believer remains a true person the person of a Believer and the person of Christ remain distinct persons though Christ and Believers be one mystically and spiritually The Scripture He that is joyned to the Lord is one Spirit There is a mystical spiritual Union between Christ and Believers yet Christ and Believers remain distinct in their persons but in this other union the personal union the union of the two natures in the person of Christ the humane nature of Christ hath no subsistence of its own but subsists wholly in and by the person of the Son of God who was a person from Eternity and gives his own person to the humane nature destitute of any personality of its own so that could we suppose it were possible for the humane nature to be deserted by the Divine person that supports it it would be reduced to nothing so that here is a vast difference between this union and all other unions Yet a little farther to illustrate this It is the observation of a Learned Divine this Union is so near individual inseparable indissoluble that the Divine nature of the Son will not cannot ought not to be thought on sought for apprehended out of this union which it hath with the humane nature but it ought to be thought of sought for apprehended in that most near union and conjunction it hath with the humanity and the humane nature which is assumed ought not not to be thought of conceived or apprehended out of but within the most intimate embracings of the second person in Trinity who assumed it And that God is not to be sought for any where but in Christ is clear from that passage 1 Joh. 5.20 The Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we might know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ this is the true God The sum of this Scripture saith Calvin is this When once we have Christ then we have the true and eternal God because God is to be sought for no where else The Son of God hath so assumed a part of our nature as that he hath made it his own proper flesh so
imputation in us It is Davenants observation When I am called to account and the whole debt of obedience the law requires is exacted from me a Believer must then shew his Surety and say Behold here is my Surety which hath paid my debt and therefore I am free and the hand-writing that was against me is blotted out Col. 2.14 This is the great and only relief to the people of God in reference to their infirmities We ought to aspire and breathe after the most perfect yea if it were possible the most Angelical obedience but when we have done all we shall find we are still unprofitable servants and come infinitely short of what was our duty and of what the law requires but here is our relief that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness he hath so answered that end of the law as to bring in that righteousness which must justifie us God in Justification imputes righteousness without works Rom. 4.6 God hath no consideration of our works and obedience in the matter of Justification but he respects the Obedience and Satisfaction of Christ purely and singly Therefore though we find our selves sinners and ungodly yet we may believe in him that justifies the ungodly as Abraham did Rom. 4.5 When we are so far from having any sense of a righteousness that we nay appear before God withal as that we have a great deal of guilt which troubleth our conscience yet we may look to a righteousness without us and see the law fulfilled and satisfied for us in Christ our Head But here let me give this caution Take heed of abusing this Doctrine The end of this Doctrine is not to make men loose and licentious as that men should reason thus with themselves Christ hath fulfilled the law for us and therefore it is no matter how we live Christ hath done all and therefore it matters not what we do this is to turn the grace of God into wantonness And the Doctrine of free Grace doth not in it self teach any such thing but the corruption of man makes this ill use of this Doctrine The Doctrine of the Gospel teaches another thing The grace of God which bringeth salvation teacheth us that denying all ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godly in this present evil world Tit. 2.11 12. The end of this Doctrine is not to be an incouragement to security but to relieve afflicted consciences Christ came to heal the broken in heart and if there be any such who are conscious to themselves of their daily infirmities and seeing the many failings they are guilty of in all they do go mourning under their failings and imperfections this Doctrine concerns them Christ hath undertaken to answer the Law as a Covenant of Works though the law be still a rule of obedience yet Christ hath performed it as a Covenant of Works That perfect exact compleat obedience the law requires Christ hath performed it in our name and stead 3. If Christ was made under the Law let us learn to admire and adore the height depth breadth and length of the love of God in Christ God in Christ is become the sole Author of mans Salvation God in Christ hath done that for us which we never did do nor could do for our selves Christ hath fulfilled the Law for us and wrought out that righteousness for us which we could never work out for our selves Quid ex se agere poterat ut semel amissam justitiam recuperaret homo servus peccati vinctus Diaboli Assignata est ei proinde aliena qui caruit suâ Bernard It is an excellent passage of Bernard What could man do of himself who was the servant of sin the bond-slave of the Devil to recover that righteousness which once he had lost Therefore there was another righteousness assigned and given to him who wanted a righteousness of his own There was another righteousness given to man who had none of his own What the Law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us Rom. 8.3 Well therefore may we take up the Church her Song Isa 12.2 Behold God is my salvation I will trust and not be afraid for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song he also is become my salvation God in Christ hath done all for us Christ was made under the Law he hath fulfilled the Law for us which we could never have fulfilled and so our righteousness is of him as the expression is Isa 54.17 This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is of me saith the Lord. The end of the third Sermon SERMON I. Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends OUR Saviour having exhorted his Disciples to love one another and having propounded his own love as a motive and as a pattern to them to induce them to love one another This is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you He comes in this verse to shew us what that love of his to his people was and wherein the greatness of that love did manifest it self Therefore it is well observed by Grotius upon this Text That our Saviour doth here explain what it is that he means by that expression in the former verse As I have loved you This is my commandment that ye should love one another as I have loved you The pattern of your love each to other ought to be my love to you as I have loved you Now if you desire to know how it is that I have loved you I will plainly declare it to you I am ready to offer up my life a Sacrifice for you This certainly is the highest demonstration of love that can be on my part my love to you is such as that I am ready to lay down my life for you such ought your love to be one towards another 1 Joh. 3.16 Hereby perceive we the love of God because he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren This I take to be the plain coherence of these words In the words themselves we have two Assertions 1. The first Assertion is this That Christ hath laid down his life for his people or for his friends This is clearly implied Greater love than this hath no man that a man lay down his life for his friends But I intend to lay down my life for you or I am ready to lay down my life for you this is the Minor Proposition as we call it that is necessarily implied The Major Proposition is expresly laid down Greater love than this hath no man that a man lay down his life for his friends But I have laid down my life for you or I am
weigh and ponder these things you may well cry out O the depths O the depths of Christs love 3. The third Particular is this The Heart of Christ was much in this work As Christ was ready and prepared to dye and what he did was free and voluntary of his own accord without any necessity compelling him thereunto but what he voluntarily brought himself under so the heart of Christ was much set upon this work of laying down his life for us Lo I come to do thy will O God Heb. 10.7 I have a Baptism to be baptized with and how am I straitned till it be accomplished Luk. 12.50 The Heart and Spirit of Christ as he was man was most intent upon this work yea there was the concourse of both his Wills his Divine and humane will in laying down his life for us Here I shall shew a little how there was the concourse of both Christs Wills his humane and Divine will in this work 1. Christ as man according to his humane will was willing to suffer and dye for us For though he prayed Father save me from this hour Joh. 12.27 and thereby shewed the verity and truth of our nature in him and the greatness of the sufferings he was to undergo yet presently he adds in the very next words Nevertheless for this end came I to this hour hereby plainly declaring that although the Verity of humane nature which was in him had a natural aversness in it from suffering yet such was his love to the Father and to our Salvation that that love overcame that inclination of nature if I may so call it or that natural aversness rather which was in humane nature from suffering Save me from this hour for this end came I to this hour Though Nature would have abhorred suffering and spared it self take it as to its natural inclination and tendency yet such was his love to his Father and us that it made him lay aside the inclinations of Nature and to break through that natural aversness that was in humane nature from suffering 2. Christ who was God as well as true man according to his Divine will was willing to dye and suffer even in that nature of ours which he had assumed The Divinity did not suffer could not suffer but the person who was God as well as man according to his Divine will as well as according to his humane will was willing to suffer and dye in that nature of ours which he assumed Joh. 17.19 For their sakes sanctifie I my self For what was it that Christ was sanctified he sanctified himself to be a Sacrifice for our sins he sanctified himself by his Death and Sufferings so is this Text generally expounded by Divines I sanctifie my self to suffer well but how did Christ sanctifie himself he sanctified himself in that nature in which he suffered and dyed he suffered in the humane name therefore it was in that nature that he sanctified himself O but who was the person sanctifying all this while It was I I sanctifie my self None but God can say I sanctifie my self no meer creature can say I sanctifie my self Christ therefore that was God could say I sanctifie my self Christ therefore as he was God or according to his Divine will sanctifies himself as man to be a Sacrifice for our sins Hence is it that we have that expression Heb. 10.10 By the which will we are sanctified even by the offering up the body of Jesus once for all By the which will we are sanctified The will here spoken of is the will of God the Father as is plain by the Context Now then this will of the Father and Christs will as he is God is one and the same for as the Father and the Son have but one Essence so they have but one Will. Now by the Divine will which is one and the same in the Father and the Son are we sanctified By the which will we are sanctified by the offering up of the body of Jesus once for all saith the Apostle It was the Divine will that the body of Jesus should be offered up and Christ according to his humane will was willing to offer himself up for the Son being in our nature speaks to the Father after this sort Lo I come to do thy will so that as I said there was the concourse of both wills in Christ the humane and Divine will in offering up himself in laying down his life for us And this I speak to shew how willing how infinitely willing Christ was in this work of offering himself and that his heart lay wholly in this work both his wills his will as God and his will as man was ingaged in this work of laying down his life for us 4. The fourth Particular is this As Christ was ready and willing to give up his life for us so he did actually lay down his life for us Eph. 5.24 Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it that is he gave himself actually for the Church It was not only in the purpose and intention of his heart to do it but he gave himself actually for the Church Christ did actually offer up his life a Sacrifice for us Eph. 5.2 Christ hath loved us and given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour In every Sacrifice there is the thing sacrificed the Altar the Priest and the Oblation or the offering up of the Sacrifice Now Christ did actually offer up himself a Sacrifice for us It was not enough that the beast to be sacrificed was brought to the Altar but he must be slain there and offered up upon the Altar Thus Christ gave his body to be crucified and he actually offered himself to Divine Justice for us hence is it said that He was delivered up for our offences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 4.25 Who was delivered up that is delivered up to death delivered up to death and suffering by the Fathers will and pleasure and by his own voluntary offering up of himself Hence is it that we read of the offering up of the body of Jesus once for all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 10.10 By the oblation of the body of Jesus Christ made an offering or oblation of himself to the Father Heb. 9.26 Now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself The meaning is Christ hath appeared in our nature to destroy and abolish sin by offering up himself a Sacrifice for sin 5. The fifth and last Particular is this That Christ in laying down his life for us intended it as a price and ransom to expiate and take away the guilt of our sins The Socinians the great Adversaries to Christian Religion cannot bear this They will not admit that Christ laid down his life as a price or ransom or by way of satisfaction to atone God for the sins we have committed They tell
lies all our comfort Homo qui debuit homo qui solvit Propter nostram justificationem sic dictum est per Christum nam nos peccatores in ipso infernales poenas quae justè merebamur exolvimus That Christ hath born what we should have born he hath suffered what we should have suffered It was man that owed the debt and man that paid the debt It is a memorable passage of a Learned man For our Justification it was that Christ was so dealt with for we sinners have suffered and undergone in Christ those very pains of Hell which we deserved 2. The Doctrine of Christs Satisfaction confutes the Papists who bring in other satisfactions besides that of Christ The Papists tell us That a man by some good act as they call it an act of charity or love to God may satisfie for sin also they tell us That we may make satisfaction by external works as by Fasting Prayers and Almsgiving and the like also some of them have affirmed That one man may make satisfaction to Divine Justice for another But all these assertions are impious and most derogatory to the honour of our Saviours Satisfaction For if it had been possible for us to have satisfied Divine Justice our selves what need our Saviour have suffered and undergone such things as we have heard Besides the Scripture teaches us That by one offering Christ hath for ever perfected them that are sanctified Heb. 10.14 That one Sacrifice of his was sufficient to make satisfaction for sin therefore if Christs Satisfaction were sufficient whatever is done by us must needs be superfluous upon that account If that one offering of Christ were enough there is no need of other satisfactions of mens invention and bringing in Heb. 9.26 Christ hath appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He hath appeared to the abrogating of sin to the disannulling of sin so the word properly signifies Christ by his Sacrifice hath taken away the condemning power of sin wholly so that the power which sin had before to condemn us is perfectly abrogated and cancelled Therefore there is no need of humane satisfactions or if there were need of some satisfaction to be made by us what should we be able to bring to satisfie God Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams or ten thousands of rivers of oyl shall we give the fruit of our body for the sin of our soul as the Prophet expresseth it Mic. 6.7 If we should attempt any of these things none of these would be able to satisfie God what then will become of all the Popish Satisfactions They tell us indeed That an act of love to God especially if it be intense and strong may satisfie for sin but how can that satisfie for a crime committed which is in it self due and a just debt Love to God yea the highest degree of love is a just debt that we owe to God The first and great Commandment of the Law is That we should love the Lord our God with all our heart with all our soul with all our strength with all our might Therefore it is not possible that by any good act as they call it we should satisfie God for any sin committed by us and the reason is because that good act was a thing due that which is a just debt in it self cannot satisfie for a former debt Besides there is no proportion between the act of a finite creature to make satisfaction and an infinite Majesty that is offended And whereas they suppose that some external works as Fasting Alms Penances and the like may pacifie God and make satisfaction for sin this proceeds from gross ignorance of the Nature of God and of the nature of sin For if God be infinitely holy and do infinitely hate sin and if God be infinitely just that he cannot but punish sin and that in the highest manner and if the demerit and desert of sin be such as that it deserves no less than the wrath of God and the torments of Hell it is very ridiculous to imagine that the Justice of God should be satisfied with such pitiful things as men may impose upon themselves And that one man who is but a meer man should be able to satisfie for another this is much more absurd For if a man be not able to satisfie for himself how is it possible that he should satisfie for another Si alio peccante alium poenitet non est ista prudens sed insana poenitentia August And we may well apply that speech of Austin If when one man sins another man thinks to repent and to make satisfaction for it that is not a prudent but a mad and frantick repentance And yet Bellarmine and other of the Papists tell us That one man may compensate and bear the punishment for another But we may oppose to them another speech of Austin Christus suscipiendo poenam non suscipiendo culpan culpam delevit poenam Aug. Christ by taking upon him the punishment of our sins and not taking upon him sin it self hath blotted and taken away both sin and punishment If Christ hath fully born the punishment that was due to our sins nothing need to be done by us by way of satisfaction for that is but a diminution to what our Lord Jesus Christ himself hath suffered and done for us The second Use is by way of Exhortation Vse 2 Let us be exhorted to make use of Christs Satisfaction and to have recourse to it upon all occasions in our approaches unto God this is in effect the use which the Author to the Hebrews makes of the Doctrine of Christs Priesthood Christs Satisfaction belongs to his Priestly Office and is a principal part of it Christs Satisfaction is that act of his Priestly Office whereby he offers himself as a Sacrifice to God to make atonement for our sins Now we ought by faith to have continual recourse to this great and eternal Sacrifice of the Son of God This is the Use which the Apostle teaches us to make of the great Doctrine of Christs Priesthood Heb. 10.19 20 c. Having therefore brethren boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the veil that is to say his flesh and having an High Priest over the house of God let us draw near with a pure heart in full assurance of faith Having therefore boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus it is the Blood of Christ that lays the foundation for out access to God and our acceptance with him This expression By the blood of Jesus is a Synecdoche a part being put for the whole the blood of Christ signifies his whole sufferings that Sacrifice of his and the work of his Satisfaction upon the Cross by that great and most perfect Sacrifice of his it is he offering
great thing for God to become man but it was a greater thing for that person who was God to put himself into the nature of man to dye for man Joh. 6.51 I am the living bread which came down from heaven and the bread which I will give is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world Christ is said to come down from Heaven by his Incarnation when the Son of God took our nature into unity of person with himself this was his coming down from Heaven Now that the Word as he is called Joh. 1.1 In the beginning was the Word that the Word the second Person in Trinity should not only assume flesh but give that flesh for the life of the world this was the highest demonstration of love Hence is that expression of the Apostle 1 Joh. 3.16 Hereby preceive we the love of God that he lay down his life for us As if he should say This is the most illustrious and glorious manifestation of the love of God to us that that Person who was God laid down his life for us He that was God by nature took up the humanity in a voluntary way of condescension and having voluntarily taken up our nature voluntarily laid down the life of his humanity for us It was not possible for him to lay down the life of his Divinity but that Person who was God took up the humane nature and in that nature laid down the life of his humanity for us This is that which sets forth the greatness of Christs love that he should lay down his life for us What more contrary or unsuitable to the Nature of God than sin suffering and death and yet Christ who was God as well as man God and man in one person although he had no sin of his own no sin inherent in him yet was he content to be accounted a sinner He was numbered among the transgressors as the Prophet speaks Isa 53. yea He was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him 2 Cor. 5.21 Christ also who was above suffering and death exposed himself to suffering and death for us He tasted death for every man Heb. 2.9 Thus was the Son of God pleased out of the greatness of his love to us to put himself as it were out of Heaven into Hell and to descend from the height and top of happiness to the lowest degree of misery and abasement He humbled himself saith the Apostle and became obedient to the death even the death of the cross This Doctrine of the Cross is the greatest stumbling-block and offence to carnal reason to hear of a crucified God to hear that he that was to be the Saviour of the world should suffer and dye this is that which carnal reason cannot away with 1 Cor. 1.23 We preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness A crucified Saviour was the great stumbling-block to the world and yet that which was accounted foolishness by the men of the world was the Wisdom of God to save the world by it This I say was the lowest degree of Christs humiliation or exinanition that the Lord of glory should expose himself to suffering and death for our sakes this is commonly expressed in that Article of our Faith That Christ descended into Hell When we say that Christ descended into Hell we are not to understand any local descension as if Christ did descend into the place of the Damned thus indeed Bellarmine and some others have understood that Article of a local descension but by Christs descending into Hell we are to understand the lowest degree of his humiliation his descending into a state of mortality and death first being content to put himself into a passible and mortal state who himself had been impassible and immortal and then actually undergoing suffering and death for us Eph. 4.9 That he ascended what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth What are those lower parts of the earth into which Christ descended Compare it with Acts 2.27 Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell that is thou shalt not leave it in the grave So that Christs descending into the lowest parts of the earth is his descending into the grave Christ indeed suffered the pains of Hell but we do not read he descended into Hell locally and Christ suffered the pains of Hell in this life as I had occasion to shew heretofore But his soul did not locally descend into Hell no his soul was taken into Paradise This day saith Christ to the repenting Thief shalt thou be with me in Paradise Thou shalt be with me that is as a Learned man understands it thy humane soul shall be with my humane soul in Paradise Christ as to the presence of his Divinity is every where therefore when he speaks of his being in Paradise this is most properly to be understood of his humane soul that his humane soul was to be in Paradise Christs descending into Hell therefore notes his descending into the state of the dead which was the completion of all his sufferings and the lowest state of his humiliation 2. The love of Christ in his sufferings and in the work of his Satisfaction appears in this That we were the offending persons and Christ a person most innocent It was we that had done the wrong and injury unto God and yet Christ who had not committed the least offence was content to suffer for us Isa 53.6 All we like sheep have gone astray and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all So in vers 9 10. He had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him Hence also is that of the Apostle Peter 1 Pet. 3.18 Christ suffered for sin the just for the unjust Christ who was a just and an innocent person gave himself to suffer for us who were the unjust and nocent persons yea which is much more admirable Christ who was one of the persons offended unto whom the wrong and injury was done he comes to suffer and bear the punishment for them that had committed the offence The injured person is content to bear the punishment for them who had done him the wrong and injury Sin is an offence against all the Persons of the Trinity for as all the Persons of the Trinity have but one Essence one Majesty one and the same Will so sin strikes at all the Persons and is an offence against all because it is one and the same common Divinity that is offended in all and yet the Son of God who is one of the Persons of the Trinity and had received wrong and injury from men by reason of their sins was pleased to take upon him the nature of man and to bear the punishment which man had deserved for his offence against himself as well as against the other Persons Hence is it said
he who was so excellent a person should lay down his life for us By this perceive we the love of God that is this was the most eminent expression and declaration of the love of God that that person who was no other than the Son of God and God should lay down his life for us As the dignity and excellency of Christs person gives virtue and value to his Sacrifice so the dignity and excellency of his person is that which doth enhance the price of his love that so great and excellent a person should come to suffer and to dye for us this commends the greatness of Christs love to us Act. 20.28 God redeemed the Church with his own blood The person that redeemed the Church was no other than God in our nature Without controversie great is the mystery of godliness God manifested in the flesh 1 Tim. 3.16 In him the fulness of the Godhead dwells bodily Col. 2.9 The whole Divinity says one of the Ancients fills his whole humanity Totum corpus ejus implet tota Divinitas And Athanasius hath this expression When the Son of God suffered he was not out of his own body but the Word was intimately present was personally united to the flesh that suffered Non erat extra corpus The Word the second Person in Trinity was not absent from but was personally united to the flesh that suffered therefore he says This is my body that was broken for you The Son of God calls it his body when it was broken Now that so great a person should give himself to suffer and dye for us this is that which demonstrates the greatness of Christs love to us This is notably set forth by the Apostle Phil. 2.6 8. Who being in the form of God counted it no robbery to be equal with God and yet vers 8. saith the Apostle He humbled himself and became obedient to the death even the death of the cross The Apostle sets forth the greatness of Christs condescension and humiliation by this That so great a person as Christ was should come to suffer and dye for us He was in the form of God and counted it no robbery to be equal with God Now that this person who was in the form of God and counted it no robbery to be equal with him that he should come to suffer and dye for us this was the admirableness of his love And that we may see how excellent a person that was that came to suffer and dye for us there are several things to be considered in what the Apostle here speaks of him 1. The Apostle speaks of Christ as a person long before his Incarnation that is to be gathered from that expression when it is said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 qui existens Who existing in the form of God The Apostle saith of Christ That he existed in the form of God before he took upon him the form of a servant Christ then had his existence and subsistence before his Incarnation 1. He had his Existence Joh. 1.1 In the beginning was the Word He speaks of Christ the essential Word the Son of God the second Person in Trinity Now saith the Evangelist In the beginning was the Word The Word the Son of God had his existence in the beginning that is in the beginning of the Creation The Word was that is when all other things had their being and beginning given them before that the Word was the Word had his Being and existence before that and therefore by consequence he was from Eternity for whatever was before all time that must needs be from Eternity Now the Word the Son of God the second Person in Trinity was in the beginning that is he was in the beginning of time and the Creation when all other things began to be he had his Being and Existence antecedent unto this 2. The Evangelist doth not only say In the beginning was the Word but he also saith The Word was with God there is his subsistence he had his subsistence with the Father in the Divine Essence The first Proposition In the beginning was the Word declares the Eternity of the Son of God that his Being was from Eternity The second Proposition And the Word was with God declares the manner of his Being namely that he had a distinct subsistence in the Divine Essence with the Father The Word the Son of God the second Person in Trinity had his subsistence with the Father in the Divine Essence This is that which is set forth by the Apostle in this expression Who being in the form of God or as it is most properly rendred Who existing in the form of God The Son of God then had his existence in the form of God before he took on him the form of a servant i. e. before he took up humane nature And this perfectly cuts the throat of that Heresie of some of the Ancients and of the Socinians their off-spring who deny that the Son of God had any existence before his being born of the Virgin The Apostle saith plainly he had his Being and existence in the form of God before he took on him the form of a servant 2. As the Apostle speaks of Christ as a person before his Incarnation so he shews what manner of person he was he shews him to be an excellent person yea the most excellent person He was saith he in the form of God and counted it no robbery to be equal with God We ought to consider both these expressions a little because this person of whom it is said He was in the form of God and counted it no robbery to be equal with God this was the person that humbled himself and became obedient to the death even the death of the cross 1. It is said He was in the form of God What doth that expression import The plain meaning I take to be this That he was truly and properly God he was God by nature he was not God by name only as some have been called Gods and have had that appellation given to them but were not so by nature so Magistrates are sometimes called Gods I have said ye are Gods but ye shall dye like men Psal 82 6. God said to Moses I have made thee a God to Pharaoh so that some have been called Gods by name and appellation but were not so by nature but Christ was so by nature truly and properly God he had the verity and truth of the Divine Essence in him In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God that is he was truly and properly God as the Father was whatever might be said of God might be said of him God is eternal infinite almighty omniscient now all this was Christ because he was in the form of God and whatever was proper to God was proper to him Essentia Dei suis coloribus depicta Essentia omnibus suis proprietatibus
who was in the form of God and counted it no robbery to be equal with God Now this was the person that humbled himself as this person emptied himself in his Incarnation so the Apostle tells us He made himself of no reputation he took upon him the form of a servant so the very same person humbled himself in his sufferings he humbled himself and became obedient to the death Christs humiliation both in his Incarnation and in his sufferings redounds to the whole person of the Mediator who is God as well as man Zanchy observes from that He was in the form of God and took upon him the form of a servant That as Christ is Mediator according to both natures so the whole person by reason of his taking on him the form of a servant is become a servant Now as the whole person of the Mediator God manifested in the flesh is humbled in his Incarnation humbled in his assumption of our nature so the whole person of the Mediator is humbled in his sufferings in his being obedient to the death the death of the cross It is true this humiliation of the Son of God both in his Incarnation and in his sufferings properly agrees and belongs to the humane nature and the reason is because the Deity simply and in it self considered is not capable of humiliation or abasement but yet we must know by the communion of Idioms as they call it that being attributed to the whole person which is proper to either of the natures the whole person of the Mediator is said to be humbled both in his Incarnation and in his sufferings so that it was the person of the Son of God who humbled himself taking on him the form of a servant and it was the person of the Son of God who humbled himself being obedient to the death even the death of the cross Now it is a contemplation worthy of our most serious thoughts to consider how in the death and sufferings of Jesus Christ there was the humiliation of the whole person and this I shall endeavour to open in a few Particulars 1. This is evident That Christ as God willed his own sufferings as man If Christ had not willed his own sufferings no one could have brought sufferings upon him for no man takes away my life saith our Saviour Joh. 10.18 No man takes away my life that is no one hath power to take it away unless I first give it This therefore we may take for granted That Christ as God willed his own sufferings as man Now consider what a condescension was this that that person who was in the form of God and was equal with God and knew himself to be so should yet will the taking up of our nature and also will his own sufferings in that nature This was the greatest condescension that he that knew the dignity of his own person his equality with the Father should yet in a voluntary way will his own abasement that he who was equal with the Father in respect of his Divine nature should yet by taking on him the nature of man and office of Mediator make himself inferiour to the Father for as he was man and Mediator so the Father was greater than he Joh. 14.28 Compare these two Texts together Phil. 2. and that of Joh. 14. In Phil. 2. it is said He was in the form of God and counted it no robbery to be equal with God and in Joh. 14. it is said The Father is greater than I. How is this to be understood He that was equal with the Father in respect of his Divine nature the same person becoming man and Mediator so he made himself inferiour to the Father and so the Father was greater than he This was the condescension and love of this great person that he that was in an equality with the Father in respect of the Divine nature becoming man and Mediator makes himself inferiour to him this will appear yet farther in the next Particular 2. Christ by taking on him the office of Mediator became subject to the Father therefore doth the Apostle fay 1 Cor. 11.3 That the head of Christ is God Christ as he is made man hath God for his head is subject unto him is under God as his head Hence also is it said Phil. 2. That he became obedient to the death Christ taking on him the office of Mediator became obedient to his Father and he underwent suffering and death in a way of obedience to him Now this was the great condescension of this excellent person who when he knew himself to be in a state of equality with the Father would yet put himself into a state of subjection to him and in obedience to the Fathers will expose himself to suffering and death This is that which our Saviour himself intimates to us Joh. 14.30 31. Hereafter I will not talk much with you for the Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me But that the world may know that I love the Father and as the Father gave me commandment even so I do Satan or men had nothing to do with Christ they had no power over his life but Christ laid down his own life meerly in obedience to the Father and out of his love to us The Prince of this world comes and finds nothing in me Satan had no right or power to touch Christs life but Christ had the power to dispose of his own life as he pleased and having freely and of his own accord taken on him the office of Mediator he must be subject to the Father and dispose of his life as he pleased and his Father commanding him to dye he must give up his life in obedience to him Thus he that was the Author and Prince of life he that gives life to all others was content to give up his own life to be at the Fathers dispose and this speaks the humiliation of this great person that was in a state of equality with the Father that he would in a voluntary way of condescension make himself subject to him 3. To set forth the humiliation of the person how he humbled himself in the work of his Satisfaction let us consider that it is the person of the Divine Word or the second Person in Trinity subsisting in humane nature that tenders and offers the satisfaction by the operations of the humane nature To understand this we must consider that the operations and passions of the humane nature in Christ are not Non principium quod sed principium quo as the Schools call it the Principle that makes the satisfaction but they are the Principle by which satisfaction is made The Principle that as they call it which makes satisfaction is the person of the Word the second Person in Trinity which subsists in humane nature and the ground of it is founded upon this Logical Axiom That actions belong to persons Actiones sant suppose torum or actions
have crucified the Lord of glory The Apostle here speaks of Christ crucified as the Wisdom of God this the Princes of the world knew not The Rabbies among the Jews the Philosophers among the Heathen knew not this Wisdom of God they were not acquainted with it they little knew the Lord of Glory was in that body that was crucified pierced and that hung upon the Cross they were ignorant of the Divinity of Christs person the Son of God containing and keeping in the rays of his Divinity and permitting his flesh his humane nature to suffer they thought him to be but as another man Hence was it that the spectators mockt him with those words If thou be the Son of God come down from the cross they took it for granted that he that was the Son of God and God would not have suffered in that manner Now this was the great the wonderful and stupendious humiliation of this great Person that the Divinity in Christ hid it self and withdrew its lustre as it were in the time of Christs suffering that so the Humanity might suffer It is true there were some rays of his Divinity let forth in the time of his suffering that the veil of the Temple was rent from the top to the bottom that the rocks clave in sunder that the Sun was darkened and the graves were opened and the bodies of the dead Saints arose Such prodigious things as these were manifest tokens that the person that suffered was more than an ordinary person therefore the Centurion and those that were with him said Truly this was the Son of God But yet these things had not such an influence upon the generality of men but that the Cross of Christ was to the Jews a stumbling-block and to the Greeks foolishness the world hath not been able to bear the Doctrine of a crucified Saviour and as Luther hath observed There is no Doctrine of Faith that the world is so offended at as this That whereas the wisdom and love of God hath been laid out to the uttermost in this way namely to save men by the death of his Son this hath been the greatest offence to the world Such is the pride and ignorance of men that they cannot think of being saved by one that was crucified But what doth the Apostle say The foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God is stronger than men Christ crucified is the power of God and the wisdom of God 1 Cor. 1.20 24. Whatever the world thinks of it this is the way of God and the wisdom of God to save men by the death of his own Son And herein did the greatness of Christs love to us appear That he who was so great a Person would suffer the glory of his Divinity to be obscured and darkened by his death and sufferings whenas he knew what he did and suffered for man would expose him to the disesteem of men and minister an occasion to them to think the more contemptuously of him than ever they would have done had he not stooped so low to do and suffer such things as he did for their sakes Behold Vse how great the price of our Redemption was the Word the second Person in Trinity was united to the flesh that suffered as we have heard God incarnate is the price of mans Redemption God hath redeemed the Church with his own blood Act. 20. This is notably set forth by the Apostle Peter We were redeemed not with corruptible things as gold and silver from our vain conversation but with the precious blood of Christ 1 Pet. 1.18 Precious blood indeed which was the blood of that person that was God as well as man It is well observed by Cyril It was not the blood of Peter or Paul or some other particular Saint that was but a meer man that we were redeemed by but it was by the blood of Christ God-man whose name is Emmanuel God with us Tanta medicina salus requiritur Divinitas incarnata sanguis ipse Filii Dei Luther This should teach us to have high thoughts of the work of our Redemption and of the price that was laid down for it O that the work of our Redemption should cost the death of so excellent a person as the Son of God! So great aremedy so great salvation says Luther was required that Divinity it self must be incarnate and the very blood of the Son of God must be shed for us O let us labour to get our hearts more deeply affected with these things The end of the eighteenth Sermon SERMON XIX Joh. 15.13 Greater love hath no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends THE second Use is this Vse 2 Learn from what hath been opened how great a sin the contempt of Christs person and of his sufferings is If so excellent a person as the Son of God and God was the person that suffered for us and wrought out redemption for us how great a sin then must it be to contemn this person and his sufferings The Apostle joyns both these together Heb. 10.29 Of how much sorer punishment shall he be thought worthy who hath trodden under foot the Son of God and hath counted the blood of the Covenant by which he was sanctified an unholy thing The Apostle here speaks 1. Of the contempt of Christs person Who hath trodden under foot the Son of God 2. Of the contempt of his sufferings And counted the blood of the Covenant an unholy thing So that to be guilty of the contempt of Christs person and of his sufferings must needs be the most hainous sin 1. As for the contempt of Christs person the Apostle calls it a treading under foot the Son of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Treading upon a thing is an argument of contempt and scorn we tread upon nothing but what is vile and of no esteem we tread upon a worm as upon a poor abject thing a thing of no account yea sometimes treading upon a thing is an argument of hatred thus we tread upon spiders and other venemous creatures Now that so excellent a person as the Son of God one and the same God with the Father that he should be contemned and looked upon as a vile person what an indignity is this which is offered to so excellent a person 2. The contempt of Christs sufferings is set forth in that other expression And hath counted the blood of the Covenant wherewith he is sanctified an unholy thing We may render it thus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who hath counted the blood of the Covenant a common thing To count the blood of the Covenant the blood of Christ as common blood to count the sufferings of Christ but as the sufferings of a common ordinary man this is great contempt The blood of Christ is the blood of that person who is God as well as man and therefore to reckon his sufferings but as the sufferings
Elders and chief Priests and Scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day Our Saviour was not ignorant of his own sufferings but had a perfect contemplation of them in his mind before-hand he knew how great and bitter and sore they would be and yet he was content to undergo them for our sakes Consid 8 The love of Christ in his sufferings appears in this That so great a person should give himself to suffer such things to expiate so vile a thing as sin which yet he hated so much and had power to punish that the life of the best person should go to expiate the worst thing this is admirable Sin is the worst of evils the vilest thing in the world Now that the life of the most excellent person the life of the Son of God should be given to expiate so vile a thing as sin this is admirable indeed The Lord hath caused to meet on him the iniquity or perversness of us all Isa 53. Sin is the perversness of the creature it is the crookedness or depravation of a mans actions sin is a defection or turning aside from a right path and yet the Son of God gave himself to expiate so vile a thing as sin is Dedit tam inaestimabile pretium pro tam despecta odioque dignissima re Luther It is a speech of Luther He gave so inestimable a price for our sins for a thing so vile so despicable so worthy to be hated What more abominable what more odious in the sight of God than sin and yet the Son of God gave himself to expiate our sins Sin is most hareful to Christ Heb. 1.9 Thou hast loved righteousness and hated iniquity it is spoken of Christ and yet though Christ hated sin so much he gave himself for our sins Gal. 1.4 Who gave himself for our sins and as Christ hated sin so had he power to punish and to be avenged for it and yet rather than we should undergo the punishment that was due to us he himself who had power to inflict the punishment and might justly have done it was content to suffer the punishment for us Well may we cry out with Luther O the condescension and love of God to wards man God was the person offended and yet God came to suffer the punishment that man deserved Consid 9 The love of Christ in his sufferings appears in this That Christ had all the Elect before him at once and suffered for all the Elect. It was not for one or a few of the Elect only that he suffered or for some or a few of their sins that he suffered but it was for all the sins of all the Elect Eph. 5.25 Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it It was the Church that Christ gave himself for Christ knew all his sheep by name and he laid down his life for his sheep Paul could say He hath loved me and given himself for me and every true Believer may say He hath loved me and given himself for me Why now what an insinite Sea and Ocean of love must there needs be in the heart of Christ when as Christ out of the greatness of his love gave himself as a Sacrifice to expiate the guilt of all the sins of all the Elect that ever had been committed or should be committed to the end of the world This is set forth by the Apostle 1 Joh. 2.2 He is the propitiation for our sins and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world that is Christ is not only the propitiation for ours sins who do now live and believe on him but he is also the propitiation for the sins of all others who shall live after us and believe on him even to the end of the world The virtue of Christs death and the efficacy of his sufferings to the Elect of all Ages Consid 10 The love of Christ in his sufferings appears in this That Christ by his death and sufferings hath delivered us from that which was the greatest matter of fear to us The great thing which all the sons of men have feared hath been death and the consequence of death The great thing threatned for sin was death In the day that thou eatest thou shalt dye the death Death was the great punishment threatned for sin hence it comes to pass that all mankind ever since the Fall have been under a slavish fear of death and the consequence of death The great things which we do naturally dread are death and what follows death Hell and the wrath of God Now Christ by laying down his life hath taken away the fear of death and the consequences of death This is fully expressed by the Apostle Heb. 2.14 That through death he might destroy him that had the power of death and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life-time subject to bondage There are two things which the Apostle intimates are the great things that do keep men in bondage all their days the one is the fear of death and the other is the power that the Devil had over men That he might destroy him that had the power of death that is the Devil The Devil hath not the power of death simply and absolutely but he is said to have the power of death as he is the Executioner of Gods wrath and drags men to the torments of Hell Now Christ by his death delivers us from both these he delivers us from the fear of death and from the power of the Devil 1. Christ by death delivers us from death the strength and venom of death is spent in the death of Christ Christ underwent death as it was the Curse that was denounced upon us for sin Now death is no more a part of the Curse to a Believer because Christ hath undergone it as a curse for us 2. Christ hath also undergone the pains and torments of Hell as formerly hath been shewed and therefore he hath enervated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 made void or frustrated the power of the Devil as the word signifies Christ by his death hath taken away Satans power The Devil after a sort as he was the Executioner of Gods wrath might be said to have the power of death that is of eternal death after a sort and in a sense he hath power over those torments which the damned feel But now Christ having born those pains and torments for his people the Devil hath nothing to do with them he hath no power over them Could we contemplate death as we ought to do in the death of Christ we might see death to have lost all its strength all its venom in the death of Christ It is the observation of Luther Could we believe so firmly as we ought to do that Christ dyed for our sins and rose again for our justification there would remain nothing of fear or terrour in us for saith he the
by the eye of faith see and behold what it was that the Son of God suffered in our nature for us There may we see him suffering dereliction undergoing the deprivation of the sense and comfort of Gods love there may we see him bear the whole Curse suffering the wrath of God yea the very pains and torments of Hell for us We ought to contemplate these things and by faith to realize the sufferings of Christ and the greatness of his love to us in his sufferings We ought not to look upon the sufferings of Christ as a story but to see what he suffered was for our sakes and out of love to us and the desire of our salvation Now the more we meditate upon the sufferings of Christ there are two things that will follow thereupon 1. The more we meditate upon the sufferings of Christ the more shall we understand what those heights and depths and lengths and breadths of the love of Christ are which the Apostle speaks of The Apostle speaks of infinite dimensions in the love of Christ and the more we study the sufferings of Christ the more shall we see what those heights and depths and lengths and breadths of Christs love are O what immense love was this that the Son of God should come from Heaven to Earth to suffer and dye for men God might have glorified himself although man had never been saved A manifest proof of this we have in the Angels the Angels that fell were never recovered out of their sin and misery and yet God is glorified upon them and if fallen man had never been recovered God might have glorified himself upon men in their condemnation and destruction as he is now glorifying himself upon the fallen Angels Now this was the abundant love of God to man that God did not only will mans salvation but that so great a person as the Son of God and God should come from Heaven to Earth to save and dye for man O let us stand and wonder at this love the more we soak our hearts in the meditation of these things that the Son of God and God should come into the nature of man for this very end to suffer such things for man that man might be saved the more shall we be taken up in the admiration of this love 2. The more we meditate on Christs sufferings and of the end which Christ had in his sufferings that he suffered such and such things for us the more shall we be confirmed in the belief and assurance of our own salvation Christ did not suffer in vain he did not shed his blood in vain If Christ did indeed suffer the pains of Hell that is a certain sign that God hath no mind that such as believe in Christ shall suffer those pains The sufferings of Christ are a clear miroir to shew us what we are delivered from What Christ hath suffered we shall not suffer for God will not punish sin twice If God hath inflicted the full punishment of our sins upon the person of our Head he will not lay the punishment of sin upon us too God indeed may correct his children in a way of fatherly discipline but he will not lay the punishment of sin upon them in a way of vindictive Justice and the reason is because God hath already punished their sins in the person of their Head Christ their Head and Surety hath born the full punishment of their sins for them This is the force of the Apostles argument Rom. 8.33 34. 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 dyed As much as if he had said If Christ hath dyed we shall not dey if we be Believers who shall condemn It is Christ that dyed that is if Christ hath dyed we shall not dye eternally if the Law hath had its full power and strength upon Christ if the Law hath put Christ to death if it hath executed the Curse upon Christ to the uttermost then it hath no more to execute upon a Believer as a part of the Curse for Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us Gal. 3.13 Therefore the consideration of what Christ hath suffered for us may be as food to our faith Hath Christ indeed suffered such things as we have heard of in the Doctrine of Satisfaction then we shall never suffer them Hath Christ suffered dereliction hath he been forsaken of God and that as our Surety then will God never forsake us for ever God may hide his face from us for a moment but he will not forsake us for ever Hath Christ born the wrath of God then shall we never bear it O when-ever the sense of guilt and the fear of Gods wrath oppress our consciences and lye heavy upon us the best course we can take is to dip our consciences in the wounds and blood of Christ as Luther's expression is and the realizing by faith what Christ hath suffered will be the best balm to cure a wounded conscience for if the sufferings of Christ were real then first there is real satisfaction made and if there was real satisfaction made then is God really pacified and really atoned and if God be really satisfied why then should we doubt and call in question his love any more Only our great concernment is to secure our part in Christ and to secure our interest in his sufferings till Christ himself be ours we can lay no claim to the benefits of his sufferings 1 Joh. 5.12 He that hath the Son hath life We must first have the Son himself before we can have life by the Son Our first work therefore is to make sure our interest in the Son himself Let me now in a few words close up the whole Doctrine concerning the Sufferings of Christ and the work of his Satisfaction We have heard much concerning the preciousness of Christs sufferings and that ample and full satisfaction that he hath made by his sufferings All that we have heard concerning the sufferings of Christ and the work of his satisfaction will signifie nothing to us will nothing at all avail us as to our salvation unless we get an interest in that great and blessed Person who hath done and suffered all these things That which must make the sufferings of Christ and his satisfaction available unto us is to know that Christ hath suffered as our Head that he hath suffered in our room and in our stead Now we cannot know that Christ hath suffered as our Head and as our Representative unless we first chuse him for our Head and pitch our faith upon his Person It is the Person of the Son of God who hath done and suffered all that in our nature which is necessary to be done and suffered for our salvation therefore as ever we expect benefit by what Christ hath done and suffered in our nature we must first direct the eye of our faith to that great person who hath taken up our nature and done and suffered such things in it Joh. 6.40 This is the will of him that sent me that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life We must first by the eye of faith see that great Person the Son of God come down into our nature and doing and suffering such things in it for the accomplishment of our salvation and then we must close with this Person and embrace him with both the arms of our faith It is the Election of Christs Person that gives us union with him Now we having chosen Christ to be our Head we ought to contemplate what was done by him in our nature and to have all our expectation of salvation from what was wrought by him in it thus shall we have communion in the obedience death sufferings and satisfaction of Christ and what Christ our Head hath done and suffered in our nature he dwelling in our hearts by faith shall be accounted as if we had done it The end of the twentieth Sermon FINIS
death and suffering in those words Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me Though Christ did discover the verity and truth of humane nature in him by those expressions yet his will was not absolutely bent and set against suffering and that appears from hence That knowing it to be his Fathers will that he should suffer he did readily and presently comply with the will of his Father but when he saith Father if it be possible let this cup pass from me he shews that the verity and truth of our nature was in him that the inclination of nature was not to suffer he shewed this that humane nature as humane nature had no delight in suffering But now seeing it was his Fathers will that he should suffer he puts off nature as it were lays aside the inclinations of it and saith Not my will but thy will be done His Father willing suffering he wills it too not as I will but as thou wilt as much as if he should say If thou wilt have me suffer I am willing I am content to suffer Christ therefore as man willed his own sufferings but still as I said at first his humane will was governed by his Divine will so that it was the Divine will that willed his sufferings primarily and the humane will was carried out by the Divine will to will them in conformity thereunto 2. It was the Divine nature in Christ that did permit the humane nature to suffer If the Divinity had exerted it self and put forth its power and efficacy it could and would have prevented all suffering and death in the humane nature No man saith our Saviour takes my life from me I lay it down of my self Joh. 10.18 Had not Christ freely and voluntarily laid down his own life no man could have taken away his life from him And hence is it that the Ancients do often use this expression That in the Sufferings and Passion of Christ the Divinity in Christ aid rest that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it did not put forth its virtue for if the Divinity which was personally united to the humane nature had exerted its virtue it had certainly prevented all sufferings in the Humanity therefore the Divinity did suspend its influence that so the humane nature might be in a capacity to suffer The Divine nature did not put forth its strength and efficacy to restrain the sufferings of the humane nature And this shews the love of Christ that the Divine nature suspended its influence that so the humane nature might be in a capacity to suffer 3. It was the Divine nature that did strengthen and uphold the humane nature in suffering so great was the burden of our sins and Gods wrath that was due to us for them that it was enough to have sunk a meer creature if there had not been infinite and almighty power to support it Now the Humanity of Christ considered in it self being but a creature could not of it self have stood under the weight and burden of our sins and Divine wrath therefore was it supported by the infinite and almighty power of the Deity therefore is it said That Christ by the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God Heb. 9.14 By the eternal Spirit that is Christ was supported by the power of the Deity in offering himself as a Sacrifice for our sins The second Consideration is this The Word the second Person in Trinity was united to the flesh when the flesh suffered the union between the two natures in Christ was not dissolved but it continued firm and inviolable in the time of Christs suffering Verbo inviolabili non sepâ—rato à carne passibili Hence is that of Leo The inviolable Word was not separated from his passible flesh therefore is it that our Saviour calls it his flesh his body The bread which I will give you is my flesh which I will give for the life of the world Joh. 6.5 So in the words of the Sacrament This is my body which is broken for you the flesh that was given upon the Cross was his flesh the flesh of the Word his own proper flesh not another mans but the flesh of the Word the flesh of him that came down from Heaven I am the bread that came down from heaven and the bread which I will give is my flesh so likewise it is said This is my body Hence is that expression of Athanasius Caro illa trat corpus Dei. That flesh which suffered was the body of God not that God hath a body but thus we must understand it God was personally present with personally united to that body that suffered Another of the Ancients hath this passage Dominus gloriae erat in corpore quod crucifigebatur Epiphan The Lord of Glory was in that body which was crucified which was struck through which did suffer that body of his being no other but the Temple of the Word the Temple of the Son of God it was full of the Deity And hence was it saith he that the Sun beholding its Maker in the assumed body withdrew its rays and was covered with darkness So we read that in the time of our Saviours Passion there was a darkness over all the earth from the sixth hour to the ninth hour O what an astonishing Mystery is this How great a spectacle must this needs be to the holy Angels to see the Son of God and God that person whom they were wont to worship and adore in Heaven personally united to that flesh which was now hanging on the Cross and suffering in that flesh which he had assumed If this must needs be matter of wonder and astonishment to the Angels well may it be to us This is one of the things the Apostle speaks of when he speaks of the great Mystery of Godliness Without controversie saith he great is the mystery of godliness God manifested in the flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 conspectus ab Angelis seen or beheld of Angels He appeared to the Angels How did he appear to them He appeared to them in such a way he never appeared before God was seen of Angels in mans nature he appeared to the Angels in humane nature this was such a sight as the Angels never saw before they never saw God in mans nature before the Son of God was incarnate therefore the Angels were struck with admiration at the novelty and excellency of this sight to see God made visible in flesh And as this was matter of great admiration to the Angels to see God come down into our nature so it ought to be to us and certainly as it was matter of wonder to the Angels to see God incarnate so it was matter of greater wonder to them to see God suffering and dying in the nature of man for man Vse 1 Learn to admire the infinite love of the Father and of the Son 1. Admire the