Christs having fully performed what he sent him into the world for And from either may be fetcht strong consolations and confirmations to our faith that Gods will must needs continue most serious and hearty to save sinners Many other sorts of Demonstrations of this point might be fetcht and drawn from the riches of his mercy lying by him to bestow on some great purchase on what greater purchase could they be bestowed to shew forth the glory thereof then upon the salvation pardon of sinners But these also I shal at the present let lie by untold having elsewere counted them up and set them forth such demonstrations being only proper to this Text as argue an engagement of his will whereas all those riches of mercie that are in him although the moving cause of all might have for ever remained in him as his nature without any determination of his will to save any man When therefore a poor sinner shall heare besides the mercifull disposition of Gods nature that acts and resolutions of his will have past from him about the pardoning of sinners so as his will hath engaged all the mercies of his nature to effect it this brings in strong consolation Now the deepnesse of these engagements of his wil to pardon sinners may be demonstrated 1. From such transactions of his as were held by him with Christ from everlasting which hath both put strong obligations upon him and also argue him fully and firmly resolved to save sinners Now all the particular passages of those treaties of his with Christ about the reconciliation of sinners from everlasting I have elsewhere also at large handled and therefore it is not my scope now to enumerate them I shall now onely draw Demonstrations from some few of them by way of Corollary to help our faith in this point in hand namely Gods resolvednesse to pardon sinners The first is drawn from this That God the Father had the first and chiefe hand in this matter of saving sinners as I then shewed the project was his and the first motion his 1. The Project he laid the plot of it and contrived all about it for the effecting of it Therefore John 5. 19. Christ sayes the Son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the Father do 2. The first Motion was his I came not to do my own will sayes Christ but the will of him that sent him Both which Project and first motion are shut up in that one sentence Ephes. 1. He worketh all things by the counsaile of his own will Now for God thus to have the first hand in it did put a great and deep engagement upon his Will in it We see among men the Projector and first motioner of a businesse is alwayes most forward in it because then it is most peculiarly his own and the greater will be his honour in the compassing of it How many great affaires have been spoiled because some men have not been the chiefe and first in them that affect the preheminence Now this honour God the Father may challenge that he was the first in reconciling and saving sinners It is therefore called Gods wisdome Eph. 3. 10. and his purpose Ephes. 1. 9. Gods righteousnesse Rom. 1. 17. and the pleasure of the Lord Isa. 53. Secondly this Project and Motion did rise up in him unto a strong resolution and purpose and to an unalterable decree to save sinners by Christ so Eph. 1. 9. And 1. For his purposes they are immutable Would not Paul lightly alter purposes taken up by him When I therefore was thus tamed sayes he 2 Cor. 1 17. did I use lightnesse or the things that I purpose do I purpose according to the Flesh that with me there should be yea yea and nay nay Would not Paul I say alter his purpose because he preached the Gospel and will God think you alter them who gave the Gospel no it is the ete nall Gospel Revel 14. 6. and God is of the same minde still so it follows in that place to the Corinths But as God is true or varies not so was our word to you which yet is his more then Pauls c. 2. For Gods Decrees whereof this was one they are also immutable The great Monarchs of the earth the Persians took to themselves the infallibility that they would not alter the Decrees which they made therefore when a thing was unalterable it was said to be as the Lawes of the Medes and Persians which was to shew their greatnesse and their wisdome that they could so resolve as no person or power whatsoever should be strong enough to cause them to change their resolutions and yet they were forced though not to alter a former Decree yet to give countermands unto it as Ahasuerus did and men do alter because they cannot foresee all events and so cannot make unalterable Decrees without prejudice Therefore the Pope who takes on him the style of Infallible and so assumes to himself the highest prerogative that ever man did yet of him it is said Papa nunquam lâ—gat sibi manus that he never binds his own hands by any Decree he makes because he cannot fore see all inconveniences notwithstanding what ever he assumes But with God it is not thus He is not a man that he should have cause to repent for he knows and foresees all that can or will follow Now 1. this immutability of his counsaile he shews by two oaths the first made to Christ the second to us 1. To Christ Heb. 7. 21. This Priest Christ was made with an oath by him that said unto him The Lord sware and will not repent Thou art a Priest for ever c. And this was from everlasting for then it was that Christ was first made Priest Now then God foresaw that he could never have a relenting thought at the pardoning of sinners through him this his Son would so satisfie and please him and thereupon he sware 2. To us Heb. 6. 17 18. God willing more abundantly to shew unto the heires of promise the immutability of his counsaile confirmed it by an oath that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie we might have a strong consolation c. The thing I alledge this place for and which I would have observed is that this oath is not mentioned as that now which makes God so immutable though that be a truth But Gods oath is here made that whereby God did declare unto us the immutability of his purpose formerly and from everlasting taken up and so that immutability of his counsaile was the cause of his oath and that was to pardon sinners for it is the Promise made to Abraham and his seed that is there specified Yea 3. God set his seale unto all further to confirm it He both sealed Christ to the work Joh. 6. 27. and likewise sealed up in his Decrees the persons of those sinners that shall be saved 2 Tim. 2. 19. The
more willing now to do it when Christ has done all that was required and failed not and that at the due time as it is said Rom. 5. If Christ had failed or come short but of a little of what he was to do God might have denyed to let the world go upon trust any longer But now Jesus Christ hath performed all and is aforehand with him and hath put in stock enough to pardon sinners to the end of the world Yet 5. Now even Justice it self will call upon him to discharge sinners it will not let him rest in quiet till he has pardoned and shewed mercy unto poor sinners that come to Christ and hath given in their bond and this though we had no promise to shew for it yea though Christ himself had nothing to shew for it Gods very justice would trouble him I may so speak with reverence for he himself sayes that he was troubled for Ephraim Ier. 29. till he had given out an acquitance because he knows the debt is paid and also that Christs and his own intent was that when Christ had once dyed sinners should thereby be justified Even as if an honest man had a bond for a debt that is discharged lying still in his hands of which payment he whose debt it is knowes nothing although he or they that paid this debt were dead so that there were no one left that were able to challenge an acquaintance from him and a cancelling of that bond yet meer honesty would cause him to give it in Now Jesus Christ dyed and God himselfe put him to death meerly to pay our debts and says Christ at his death Let sinners require my blood and the merits of it at thy hands and have out in pardon That was Christs will which he made at his death as you have it Heb. 9. 16 17. where the Apostle calls it Heb. 9. 16 17. where the Apostle calls it a Testament confirmed by the death of the Testator now there is nothing so sacred as the performance of the will of the dead And now Christ himself is alive again and is ordained by God to be his own Executor and so lives to claime an acquitance therefore certainly God will never withhold it In justice he cannot he will not have a bond lie by him that is discharged Hence it is said that God is just to forgive our sinnes 1 Iohn 1. There are three things which do cry for Justice and all do meete in this 1. The wages of a hireling if detained are said to cry So in the 5. of Iames it is said The wages of Hirelings detained do crie in the eares of the Lord of Hosts They cry wages being due in justice and because Gods Justice is thereby provoked and cannot be quiet till God hath avenged it And so would Christs satisfaction having been made for us It would restlesly cry to God and not suffer his Justice to be quiet unles we were pardoned For he was truly and indeed Gods hired Servant in this work And God covenanted to give him the salvation of those he dyed for as his wages and reward as Isaiah often represents it Chap. 53. and elsewhere So that if God be just he must give forth salvation otherwise Christs obedience would cry as the work of an hireling doth for wages A Second thing that cries for justice is the will of one that is dead unperformed who hath bequeathed legacies left wherewith to pay and discharge them And this is yet a louder cry then the former Now Christ before he dyed did thus make his will and bequeathed pardon of sin and justification and that eternall inheritance in heaven as legacies to those for whom he dyed and to be given out by God after his death as I observed even now out of Heb. 9. 15 16 17. where it is said that Christ was The Mediator of the New Testament that by meanes of death they who are called might receive the promise or bequeathed legacie of eternall life And thereupon ver. 16 17. the Apostle calls this a Testament confirmed by his death and which at his death began to be in force so ver. 17. And of all things that in justice are held due the performance of the will of the dead hath ever been held most sacred There is yet a third thing which cries for justice and that is innocent blood spilt And this cries lowder then all the rest So Genes 4. 10. And the Apostle Heb. 12. 24. sets forth the cry of Christs blood for us by Abels blood crying against Cain It may be notwithstanding this that God may put the bond in suit against a sinner to make him come to acknowledge the debt as the Apostle there speakes If we confesse our sins But if any soul doth say I have sinned and it profited me not God then cannot withhold from throwing down his bond canceld saying Deliver him I have found a ransome Iob 33. God will not have innocent blood such as his Sons is to ly upon him If he should not pardon sinners Christs blood would be upon him for it was for them only that Christ dyed being in himself innocent 6. God mends not himself by damning those for whom Christ dyed Now there were not only an injustice to Christ and us in it but God himself also would prove a loser For the end of Christs death was not simply to satisfie justice so as without it justice could not have permitted a pardon that might have been dispensed with but it was chiefly to declare the glory of Gods justice which required such a satisfaction as the Apostle sayes Rom. 3. 25. To declare his righteousnesse for the remission of sins that are past through Gods forbearance Is was we see the manifestation or declaration of the glory of his justice that he aimed at in it So as if any one mans sin satisfied for by Christ should be left unforgiven Gods justice should lose so much glory And if justice should think to get a greater glory out of the sinners that could never be for the sinner is unable ever to satisfie and so to glorify Gods justice by suffering as Christ hath done Yea and besides God would be a further and a greater loser in the glory of his mercy also which by his pardoning sinne is advanced The second part of the Observation Demonstrations of Christs willingnesse to receive sinners that come to him First how his heart stood from everlasting AND so now I come to Christs willingnesse which was the second thing propounded in the doctrine to be demonstrated Now though his will was not first in it as was said yet we shall finde him to have been no lesse willing then his Father As Christ in subsisting is the second person and hath his personall subsistence from his Father so he is second also in order of working and consequently of willing too yet he is not second to him in heartinesse of willing but as his Father and he
what was it for Not that himself should be glorified by so great a miracle even the greatest that ever he wrought but sayes he I am glad for your sakes that I was not there to the end that you might beleeve He rejoyced if any of his got a little more or further degree of faith And on the other side as sorry was he when men came not in Witnesse his tears over Jerusalem and those speeches of his Iohn 5. 34. These things I speake that you might be saved And thereupon in the ensuing verse he complainingly utters himself You will not sayes he come to me that you may have life He speaks as one greedy of winning soules and as sorry that any customers or hearers of his should passe by and not turne in You will not come to me c. And he relieves himself with this that there wâ—â—e others that would though they would not So here in this place when in the verse before my Text he had complained of them that they would not beleeve he comforts himself with this in the words of the Text All that the Father giveth me shall come unto me And the like you have Ioh 5. 25 26. You beleeve not but my sheep they heare my voice c. And then at his death when he was upon the Crosse he then converts a thiefe that was crucified with him and prayes for those that crucified him And after his Resurrection his last words recorded in Luke 24. 47. are That remission of sins should be preached in his name beginning at Ierusalem that so those whom he had prayed for though they had crucified him might be converted and saved Thus stood his heart all the while he was on earth both before and after his death And then in the third place now that he hath dyed and laid down that price which was to purchase the salvation of sinners he must needs be much more willing if it were possible he should be then ever Many Demonstrations there are from those obligations which Christs sufferings and death do put upon him which I have already given in a Treatise upon this very argument The heart of Christ in Heaven Part 2. onely I have reserved one or two for this place As 1. It was the aim and utmost intent of Christs soul in his being crucified to have sinners saved and saved effectually It was that travaile which his heart was then big with And certainly Christ would not that so many and so great sufferings now that they are past and over should be in vaine The Apostle makes a motive of it unto the Galatians Gal. 3. 34. Are ye so foolish have ye suffered so many things in vain To be sure Christs death shall not be in vain He will not lose the end of his sufferings as the same Apostle intimates but 4. verses before Chap. 2. ult. A businesse that a man hath praied for much how doth he long to see it accomplished and fulfilled and how glad is he when it falls out as he hath prayed and why but because it is the fruit of his Prayers Now much more glad is Christ to see the fruit of his death The travaile of his soul and thereby is satisfied Isai. 53. 10. a place I often quote to this purpose I will add but this to it When a woman hath been in travaile she forgets all her paines for joy that a man-childe is borne which is the fruit of that her travail and so doth Christ And then again for that other word that Christ is said to be satisfied Satisfaction is the accomplishment of desire or the fulfilling of ones longing So in that speech of Christ Blessed are those that hunger for they shall be satisfied So that this doth argue and presuppose the most vehement desires and longings in Christ for the salvation of souls and his having dyed must needs encrease them And 2. Adde this engagement unto that former That his death can be put to no other use then for the pardon of sinners So as if he should not expend it that way he should utterly lose the fruit of it or let it lye uselesse by him For divert it to any other use he cannot And yet if he knew how to improve it to any other purpose yet his love he having intended it for the sons of men would not suffer him to do it But besides if it be not imployed and bestowed this way it will be wholly in vaine for the good Angels though they stand in need of his Personall mediation to confirme them in grace yet his blood was not requisite thereunto And for the bad Angels they are utterly excluded the benefit of it And then Christ himself he stands in no need of it nor can he have any benefit by it all that Personall glory which now he hath in Heaven being due unto him by that Hypostaticall union So that his death serves for no end if not for this Christ indeed hath an honour in Heaven besides the glory of the personall union but then it ariseth to him from the salvation of sinners through his death which salvation is the purchase of his blood as you have it Ephes. 1. which might afford a third engagement In that Christ should not only lose the fruit of his death but that glory that is ordained him by the salvation of men So that he should be a loser not only of his sufferings by-past but of all that glory that is to come from the salvation of believers which is no small thing unto him As Officers in Courts of Law or in Universities get the more fees the more Clients and the more Commercers there are so it is the more for Jesus Christs gain that many sinners get out and are received to grace and mercy Some Extrinsecall demonstrations of Gods and Christs willingnesse to pardon sinners ANd unto all these secret engagements both of God and Christ mutually to each other and to us we may adde all the professed publications of their minds herein unto us which have been made upon all occasions and by all means possible As First This newes hath been published by all three persons first God the Father he began to preach it to Adam in Paradise and hath renued it again and again as with his own immediate voice from Heaven when Christ was baptized This is my welbeloved Son in whom I am well pleased heare him which the Apostle Peter records and confirmes as spoken a second time upon the Mount as a matter of highest moment to be known by us which voyce he heard sayes he and is no fable 2 Pet. 1. 16 17. Secondly Christ who is the faithfull and true witnes Rev. 1. 5. he came from the bosome of his Father and preached peace Ephes. 2. 17. Yea and it was one of his first texts he preached upon Luke 4. 18. The spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anoynted me to preach the Gospel to preach deliverance to