smallest threds and fibres of their hearts laid open and exposed to the view of men and Angels their own shame and the intolerable rack of their consciences will force them to confess their Charge and proclaim themselves guilty before all that vast Congregation of Spirits But O the inexpressible horror and confusion these wretched Souls will then be seized with when they shall see themselves thus publickly unmasked and turned inside outwards and be forced to stand forth like so many loathsom spectacles before God and his Angels without any excuse or retreat for their shame without any vail to hide their infamy and blushes when their filthy practices shall be no longer confined to the talk of a Town or a Village but be proclaimed in the hearing of all the rational World O now it would be happy for them if as formerly they could drown the retorts of their conscience in noise and laughter and forget its cutting repartees which were always uneasie to bear but impossible to Answer But alas those jolly days are gone and now in despite of themselves they must listen with horrour and confusion of face to what those two great Judges Iesus and their own Consciences unanimously give in charge against them Thus he whose piercing Eye doth now penetrate their hearts and ransack every corner of their souls will in that great day of discoveries bring forth all that secret filth that is there reposited and expose it for an infamous spectacle to the publick view of men and Angels IV. Another particular implied in this judgement of wicked men is their Sentence Their Trial being now over in which their guilt hath been sufficiently evinced and detected to their everlasting infamy and reproach they will by this time have received the sentence of death within themselves and stand condemned in the judgment of all the World the Righteous Iudg who is too great to be overawed too just to be bribed and too much provoked to be intreated whose Ears are now for ever stopped and whose Bowels are impenitrably hardened against all further Overtures of mercy will with a stern look and terrible voice pronounce that dreadful doom upon them Go ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels which though it be of a horrible import will appear so just considering the horrible things which have been charged and proved against them that it will be immediately seconded with the unanimous suffrage of all that bright Corona of glorified Saints that sit as Assessors round the Throne who with one consent will all cry out together Iust and righteous art thou O Iudge of the World in all thy ways But O the fearful shrieks and lamentations that will then be heard from those poor condemned Creatures For if A Lord have mercy upon thee A take him Iailor from an earthly Iudge be able to extort so many sighs and tears from a hardened Malefactor what will A go ye cursed do from the mouth of the Righteous Iudge of the World and when so many millions of men and women shall be all involved together in the same doom and all at once lamenting their dismal fate Lord what a horrible outcry will they make Now in the bitter Agonies of their souls they will cry to heaven for mercy mercy but alas poor souls they cry too late their Iudg was once as importunate with them to have mercy upon themselves but because when he called they refused when he stretched forth his hands they regarded not now when they call he will not answer when they cry he will not hear but will laugh at their calamity as they did at his counsel and mock when their fear and destruction is come upon them V. And lastly Another particular implied in this Iudgment of the wicked is the execution of their Sentence For immediately after their sentence is past by which they stand doomed to everlasting fire an everlasting fire shall be kindled round about them a fire which within a few moments shall spread it self over all this lower World and convert the whole Almosphere about us into a furnace of inquenchable flames For then all those fiery particles which are every where intermingled with these terrestial Bodies and have hitherto been kept within their proper limits shall be disintangled and set free from those more gross and sluggish ones that now bind and fix them and swarm together like so many sparks into one huge globe of Fire which from the lower-most centre of the Earth shall spire up and kindle upon all that Airy Heaven above and with one continued flame fill all the vast expansum all that fiery matter which is now dispersed up and down within the entrails of the Earth shall by degrees gather together into Rivers of Fire which rolling to and fro within to force their way into the open Air will perhaps produce those prodigious Earthquakes of which our Saviour speaks by which at length the Earth being cleft and torn it shall every where vomit out Torrents of Fire from its flaming bowels and at the same time the Sea shall boil and swell and roar like water in a seething Pot till 't is all evaporated by the strugling flames from below which having rarified its waters into vapours shall kindle those vapours into flames and at the same time also the Heavens above shall groan and crack with incessant Thunder accompanied with thick and fearful flashes of Lightning which joyning with those vast streams of Fire that will be continually issuing out of the Earth and Sea will make such a prodigious deluge of flames as will quickly overflow the whole World. For thus we are assured from Scripture that the Element shall melt with fervent heat and the earth and the works that are therein shall be burnt up 2 Pet. 3.10 So also St. Iohn in his Vision of the day of Judgment Rev. 20.11 I saw a great white Throne and him that sate on it from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away and there was found no place for them not that the matter of them shall be annihilated but the form of them shall be destroyed by their being converted into an everlasting Fire and in this Fire shall those condemned wretches live and suffer to eternal Ages Hence it is called the vengeance of eternal fire and we are told that it will be in flaming fire that the Lord Jesus will render vengeance to all that know not God and obey not his Gospel 2 Thess. 1.8 And that this flaming fire shall be the conflagration of the World that of St. Peter seems plainly to imply 2 Pet. 3.7 But the heavens and the earth which are now are kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men and being reserved unto fire against the day of perdition of ungodly men we may justly conclude that the fire it is reserved to will be the Perdition of ungodly men Thus upon our Saviours pronouncing
will 118. Fourthly He sealed his Declaration with his own Blood 120. Fifthly He Instituted an Order of Men to Preach what he had declared to the World 121. Sixthly He sent his Holy Spirit when he left the World to recollect and explain his Doctrine to those whom he had ordained to Preach it and to inable them also to prove it by Miracles 123 124. SECT IV. Of Christs Priestly Office. To what persons the Priesthood antiently belonged 130. What the Melchisedecan Priesthood was and in what respects Christs Priesthood is of that Order 132. what the old Priesthood was and in what acts it consisted 136. That it consisted first in Sacrificing and secondly in presenting the Sacrifice to God by way of Intercession for the People 136 c. That this ancient Priesthood was in both these acts of it intended by God for a Type of the Priesthood of our Saviour 142 c. SECT V. Concerning the first Act of our Saviours Priesthood viz. Sacrificing That the death of Christ had in it all the requisite Conditions of a Sacrifice for Sin and what those Conditions are shewed in five Particulars 147 c. these Conditions applyed to our Saviours death as first In his death he was substituted in the room of sinful Men to be punish'd for them in order to their being released from their personal Obligation to punishment 151. Secondly He dyed a pure and spotless Innocent Thirdly His death was of sufficient intrinsick worth and value to be an equivalent commutation for the punishment that was due to the whole World of sinners 155. Fourthly His death was on his part voluntary and unforced 160 161. Fifthly His death was admitted and accepted of God in lieu of the punishment which was due to him from Mankind 164. The wisdom of this method of Gods· admitting Christs sacrifice for sinners in order to the reforming Mankind shewn in five Particulars â— First That the Sacrifice of Christs death was a most sensible and affecting acknowledgement of the infinite guilt and demerit of our sin 167. Secondly It was an ample declaration of Gods severity against sin 169. Thirdly It was a most obliging expression of the love of God and our Saviour to us 171. Fourthly It is a sure and certain ground of our hope of pardon if we repent and amend 174. Fifthly It is a seal and confirmation of the New Covenant 177. SECT VI. Of Christs Intercession or presenting his Sacrifice to God in Heaven by way of Advocation for us The Nature of it defined 183. The definition explained in the several parts of it which are four First It is a Solemn Address of our Blessed Saviour to God the Father in our behalf 184. Secondly This Address is performed by the presenting his Sacrificed Body to the Father in Heaven 186. Thirdly it is continued and perpetuated by the perpetual Oblation of this his sacrificed Body 190. Fourthly In vertue of this perpetual Oblation he doth always successfully move and solicit God 193. And that which he moves him to is First to receive and graciously accept our sincere and hearty Prayers 196. Secondly to impower him to bestow on us all those Graces and Favours which in consideration of his Sacrifice God hath promised to us 199. The admirable tendency of this method of Gods communicating his Favours to us through Christs Intercession to reform Mankind shewn in five Particulars First It naturally tends to excite in us a mighty awe of the Divine Majesty 204. Secondly It also tends to give us the strongest conviction of Gods hatred of Sin 206. Thirdly It secures us from presuming upon Gods mercy while we continue in our sins 208. Fourthly It encourages us to approach God with chearfulness and freedom 212. Fifthly It assures our diffident minds of Gods gracious intentions to perform to us all the good things which he hath promised to us upon our performing the condition of them 216. SECT VII Of Christs Kingly Office. Christs universal Royalty successâ—â—e to his Sacrifice and Intercession pag. 221 c. Christ had a particular Kingdom in this World viz. The â—ewish Church before his Incarnation and during his abode upon Earth 225. and therefore that which he was exalted to upon his ascension was the universal Kingdom of the World ibid. Six Heads proposed to be treated of concerning our Saviours Kingdom 226. SECT VIII Of the Rise and Progress of Christs Kingdom from the Fall to his Incarnation Of which an account is given at large in eight Propositions pag. 227. First That the Kingdom of Christ is founded in the new Covenant 228. Secondly That the new Covenant commenced immediatly after the Fall and was afterwards in a particular manner renewed to Abraham and his Posterity ibid. c. Thirdly That from its first Commencement Christ was Mediator of it and so he continued to be all along under that particular renewal of it to the People of Israel 233 c. Fourthly Christs being always Mediator of this Covenant necessarily implies his having been always King over all that were admitted into it and particularly over the People of Israel 235 c. and that he was the Divine King that reigned over Israel and who in the Old Testament is promiscuously called Jehovah and the Angel of Jehovah is proved in five Propositions 238 239 c. Fifthly That after his coming into the World he still retained this his right and title of King of Israel in particular 255 c. Sixthly That the main Body of the Jews rejected Christ from being their King and were thereupon rejected by him yet was there a remnant of them that received and acknowledged him 258. Seventhly That this remnant still continued the same individual Church or Kingdom of Christ with what it was before its main Body revolted they very much reformed and improved 259 c. Eighthly That to this individual Church or Kingdom of Christ thus reformed and improved was superadded all those Gentiles that were afterwards converted to Christianity 272 c. SECT IX Of the Nature and Constitution of Christs Kingdom The Kingdom and Church of Christ the same 275. The universal Church or Kingdom of Christ defined 277. This definition explained in the several parts of it which are eight 272 278. First It is one Vniversal Society consisting of all Christian People 278 c. Secondly It consists of all Christian People incorporated by the New Covenant 280 c. Thirdly These Christian People are incorporated by the New Covenant in Baptism 283 c. Fourthly They are incorporated under Iesus Christ their supreme Head 291. Fifthly This one Vniversal Society thus incorporated is distributed into particular Churches 292 c. Sixthly These particular Churches are distributed under Lawful Governors and Pastors 295 c. Seventhly These particular Churches thus distributed hold Communion with each other 298 c. Eighthly The Communion which these particular Churches hold is first in all the Essentials of Christian Faith 303 c. Secondly in all the
no sorts of objects do so vigorously impress and affect him as those which strike immediately on his senses and hence it is that he so greedily prefers carnal before rational and sensitive before spiritual goods notwithstanding the later are in themselves infinitely greater and more eligible and that in his conceptions of spiritual objects he is so prone to blend and intermix them with carnal and Corporeal Phantasms because his mind is so estranged from spiritual objects by its continual intimacy and familiarity with sensual ones that it can hardly frame any Idea of them without disguising them into some bodily semblance God therefore being a spiritual and invisible Essence and upon this account far removed out of the Ken and Prospect of our sense our sensual and depraved minds must either be naturally indisposed to think seriously of and consequently to be duly affected by him which renders us prone to Irreligion or to sophisticate our conceptions of him with corporeal Images and Phantasms which renders us prone to Idolatry to prevent both which God in great condescension to this deplorable weakness of humane minds hath always thought meet to converse with us under some sensible appearance or visible Symbol of his Divine Presence Thus when God conducted his Chosen People through the Red Sea and Wilderness he went before them in a Pillar of Cloud by day and in a Pillar of Fire by night and when afterwards he gave them his Law he descended upon Mount Sinai in a bright and glorious flame overcast with thick and solemn clouds in which illustrious appearance he afterwards made his entrance into the Tabernacle where he made his constant abode and from whence he frequently exhibited himself to the Peoples eyes and senses in a body of visible light and glory which visible light is in holy Scripture very often called the Glory of the Lord. And since God in condescension to the weakness of humane minds thought it meet to present himself to the senses of men in some visible appearance there is the same reason why the Mediator should assume some visible substance to his invisible Godhead that therein he might exhibit himself to our sense and thereby at once affect our minds with a great love and dread of his divine Majesty and by vouchsafing us a visible presence prevent our framing Idols and false Images and Representations of him in our own minds Now of all sensible substance there was none so proper for this end as Humane Nature which is that above all others that we are most intimately acquainted with and most accustomed to love and reverence and obey It is true had his design been to Govern us by terrors and affrightments as he did the Iews it would have been more proper for him to assume that dreadful appearance of a consuming fire in which he was wont to converse with them but his design being to erect his Empire in mens Souls and to captivate their Wills into a free and generous obedience he could not have appeared to us in any visible substance so proper for this end so apt to oblige and aw to indear and terrifie us together as Humane Nature And accordingly as God dwelt of old in the Iewish Tabernacle and thence displayed himself before the Eyes of that People in a visible Glory so the Word as St. Iohn tells was made flesh and tabernacled among us for so the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies i. e. as in condescension to the weakness of the Iews he pitched his Tabernacle among them and thence frequently appeared in a visible Glory to their sense so in condescension to ours he pitched his Tabernacle in our flesh or nature from whence as he proceeds we behold his Glory i. e. at his Baptism and Transfiguration as the glory of the only begotten Son or in which the only begotten Son was wont to display himself from between the Cherubins Iohn 1.14 In short therefore since in Mediating for God with us it was very needful that in compliance with our weakness he should address to our sense in some visible appearance and since there was no visible appearance in which he could so advantagiously address to us as that of Humane Nature it hence evidently appears how requisite it was that he should assume our Nature to his Deity and be Man as well as God. And as it was requisite he should be God-man in order to his Mediating for God with us so was it also no less requisite in order to his Mediating for us with God because as I shall shew hereafter to Mediate for us with God implies first his making an atonement for our sins with his Bloud Secondly his appearing for us as our Advocate in Heaven Now as for the first it was highly requisite that he should be Man that so he might suffer for us his Divinity being wholly impassible and this reason the Apostle himself assigns Heb. 2.14 Forasmuch then as the Children are partakers of flesh and bloud he also himself speaking of Christ took part of the same that through death he might destroy him who hath the power of death and seeing he was to assume another Nature to his Divinity that so he might suffer for us it was most fit and proper that he should assume ours rather than any other For since God in mercy had consented to accept of another person's suffering for our sins it was very requisite that what he suffered for us should come as near to our own personal suffering as it was possible that so it might be more exemplary to us and more nearly affect us with dread and horrour for our sins and next to our own personal suffering is the suffering of our Nature and therefore since the punishment of our sins was to be transferred from our Persons it was highly fit it should be inflicted on our Nature which it could not have been had not he been Man who endured it And as it was requisite that he should be Man that so he might suffer and that so the Nature at least that had sinned might suffer so it was no less requisite that he should be God-man in one and the same person to render his sufferings a valuable Consideration for all that Punishment that was due to God upon the score of the infinite sins of an infinite number of sinners For how could the bloud of one man though never so innocent or excellent have amounted to a valuable commutation for the forfeited lives and souls of a world of guilty sinners Or what less than the bloud of God-man could have been any way equivalent to that Eternal Punishment that was due to God from the whole Race of Mankind And yet that it should be in some measure equivalent was highly requisite as I shall shew hereafter both to satisfie the divine Iustice for what is past and to secure the divine Authority for the future and accordingly we are said to be purchased with the bloud of God Acts
Spirit or Holy Ghost whom Christ hath substituted to carry on his Mediation for God with men in his absence is no other than the third divine Person subsisting in the eternal Godhead And indeed considering the mighty part he was to act viz. to Mediate under Christ for God with men the same reason which rendered it necessary for Christ to be God to qualifie him for this Office vide Page 24. do render it altogether as necessary for the Holy Ghost to be so And indeed how is it possible he should operate upon so many men together at such remote distances as he is obliged to do by his Office and at once move every member of that vast Body of Christ the Catholick Church dispersed over the Face of the whole Earth unless like an Omnipresâ—nt soul he be diffused through the whole and co-exists with every part and if he be Omnipresâ—nt â—e must be God. And now having given an account of the Person and Quality of this Divine Spirit I proceed Secondly To explain his subordination and substitution to Christ in this part of his Mediatorship for God with men In order to which it is to be considered that this subordination of the sacred Persons in the holy Trinity proceeds not from any inequality of Essence but from the inequality of their personal Properties For as to their Essence they are all of them God i. e. infinite in being and perfections and being infinite they must all be equal there being no such thing as more or less in infinity and then being equal in Essence they must necessarily be equal in essential Power and Dominion and consequently as such are no way subject or subordinate to one another But as to their personal Properties it cannot be denied but they are unequal for the Father who begot must in that respect be superiour to the Son who was begotten and the Holy Ghost who proceeded must in that respect be inferiour to the Father and Son from whom he proceeded and upon this inequality their subordination is founded For as there is a stated Number in the Trinity by which the sacred Persons are determined to Three so there is also a stated Order by which they are ranked into a First a Second and a Third which Order is not made by mutual consent or arbitrary constitution but founded in the nature of those personal properties by which they are distinguished from one another For as the Father being the Fountain of Godhead to the Son must be first in order of nature and as the Son together with the Father was the Fountain of Godhead to the Holy Ghost and therefore must be second to the Father and in order of nature before the Holy Ghost so the Holy Ghost proceeding from the Father and the Son must of the Three be in order of nature the Third For so the Scripture expresly asserts that he proceeded from the Father John 15.26 and also that he is the Spirit of the Son Gal. 4.6 and the Spirit of Christ Rom. 8.9 and the Spirit of Iesus Christ Phil. 1.19 And being the Spirit both of the Father and the Son he must be supposed to proceed from both And where-ever the Holy Ghost is in the Old Testament called the Spirit of God it is in the Hebrew Ruach Elohim in the Plural which seems to intimate that he proceeded not from one but from two divine Persons i. e. not from the Father alone but from the Son also So that though as to their Godhead they are all equal yet in order of nature and in respect of their personal properties the third is inferiour the second superiour and the first supreme and being unequal in those personal Properties by which they stand related to each other it is very reasonable that according to these their personal inequalities they should be subordinate to one another and consequently that the Father who is the Fountain of the Divinity should be supreme in the Divine Monarchy and that the Son who was begotten of him should minister to him and that the Holy Ghost who proceeded from the Father and the Son should minister to both And accordingly in all its external actions and administrations this hath ever been the Oeconomy of the Holy Trinity for the Father to act by the Ministry of the Son and the Son by the Ministry of the Holy Ghost For so before the Fall of man and consequently before this Mediation of the Son commenced it is evident that even in creating the World the Father acted by the Son and therefore is said to have made the World by him Heb. 1.2 and the Son acted by the Spirit who is said to have moved upon the face of the Chaos Gen. 1.2 for that by the Spirit of God there is meant the third Person in the Holy Trinity we have reason to believe because he is elsewhere said to have made man and to have garnished the Heavens as hath been already shewn And in the same Method of subordination the Godhead hath always proceeded in its transactions with the world and that more especially and remarkably in this great affair of Mediating with mankind wherein the Father hath always used the Ministry of the Son and the Son the Ministry of the Holy Ghost but in the matter of the Mediation it is evident that this subordination of these sacred persons was founded not only in these their personal inequalities but also in a mutual agreement between them in which the Son agreed with the Father that in case he would be so far reconciled to Rebellious Mankind as to grant them a Covenant of mercy and therein among other blessings to promise them his Holy Spirit he himself would assume our natures and therein not only treat with us personally in order to the reducing us to our bounden Allegiance but also die a Sacrifice for our sins upon which agreement the Father long before the Son had actually performed his part of it even from our first Apostasie granted his Spirit to mankind which Spirit was granted to this end that under the Son he should Mediate with men in order to the reducing them to their due subjection to the Father For all that heavenly influence which the Holy Ghost sheds forth upon the minds of men is wholly Mediatorial in God's behalf and in order to the reconciling men's minds unto him and therefore in this his Mediation he must be supposed to act in subordination to the Son who is supreme Mediator and accordingly as the Son hath been and will be always Mediating with men by this blessed Spirit even from his Ascension to the end of the World so I make no doubt but he always Mediated with them by the same Spirit even from the Fall of man to his Incarnation For so in the time of the Old World we read of the Spirit 's striving with men i. e. in order to the subduing their stubborn Wills to a due subjection to the Will of the Father Gen.
and there is no reason could be so sufficient to this end as a valuable Sacrifice to suffer in our stead and bear the punishment of our sin which reason carries with it such an awful severity as must needs dishearten any considering sinner from presuming upon impunity if he go on in his sin For next to exacting the punishment of the Offender himself the most dreadful severity he could have expressed was not to remit it upon any consideration but this that some other should undergo it in his stead and by how much greater and more valuable the person is who undergoes it for us so much greater and more formidable God's severity appears in remitting it to us Since therefore in consideration of our Pardon God would admit no meaner Sacrifice than the precious Bloud of his own Eternal Son he hath hereby expressed the utmost indignation against our sin that he could possibly do unless he had absolutely resolved never to pardon it at all So that now we have all the reason that Heaven or Earth can afford us to tremble at his severity even while we are within the Arms of his mercy For what man in his Wits would take encouragement to sin on from a mercy that cost the Bloud of the Son of God He that can presume upon such a reason of mercy hath courage enough to out-face the flames of Hell and if Hell it self had stood open before us and we had seen the damned Ghosts weltering in the flames of it it would not have given us such a loud and horrible warning of God's severity against our sin as this tremendous Sacrifice of the Son of God doth If then a mercy that is so secured from being made an encouragement to sin by the terrible reason and consideration upon which it is founded cannot deter us from sinning on there is no wise mercy that we are capable of and consequently no mercy that the great God can indulge with safety to his Authority For what mercy can be safe from our abuse and presumption if this be not that is thus guarded with thunder and attended with the utmost severity that mercy could possibly admit of Wherefore if after I have seen my Saviour in his Agony deprecating with fruitless cries that fearful Cup which I deserved if after I have beheld him hanging on the Cross covered with Wounds and Bloud and in the bitter Agony of his Soul heard him crying out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And in a word if after I have seen that God to whom he was infinitely dear and precious turn a deaf ear to his mournful cries and utterly refuse to abate him so much as one degree or circumstance of a most shameful and tormenting death in consideration of my Pardon If I say after such a horrible spectacle I have heart enough to sin on I am a couragious sinner indeed or rather a desperate one not to be affected or restrained by all the terrors of Hell. Thirdly This Sacrifice of Christ is also to be considered as a most obliging expression of the love of God and our Saviour to us For if God had so pleased he might have exacted our punishment at our own hands and made us smart for ever in our own Persons and this notwithstanding we had heartily repented For though to repent is the best thing a sinner can do yet it doth not alter the nature of the sin he repenteth of so as to render it less evil or less deserving of punishment nor indeed is Repentance a sufficient reason to move the all-wise Governour of the World to grant a publick Act of pardon and indulgence to sinners it being inconsistent with the safety of any Government Divine or Humane so far to encourage Offenders as to indemnifie them by a publick Declaration meerly upon condition of their future repentance and amendment For all men are naturally apt to presume that God will be better to them than his word and therefore had he declared that he would pardon them upon their repentance without any other reason this would have encouraged them to hope that he might pardon them though they repented not at all or at least though they repented but by halves Wherefore since our repentance is not a sufficient reason to oblige God to grant a publick Pardon to sinners and since this was the best reason we could offer in our own behalf to move him thereunto it hence necessarily follows that he might have justly exacted the punishment of our sin of us and made us smart for it for ever notwithstanding the best reason we could have offered him to the contrary But such was his goodness towards us as to admit another to suffer in our stead that so neither we might be ruined nor our sins be unpunished And then that the punishment of our sin might be a sufficient reparation to his injured Authority he admitted his own Son upon his voluntary offering himself to undergo it for us who by the dignity and innocence of his Person rendered that temporary Death he underwent for us equiâ—alent to that eternal Death which we had deserved Now what a Prodigy of love was this that the God of Heaven whom we had so infinitely offended should part with his own Son for us and freely consent that he should undergo our punishment Which while I seriously consider it puzzles my conceit and out-reaches my wonder so that though I have infinite reason to rejoyce in it yet while I am contemplating it I seem to be looking down from some stupendious Precipice whose height fills me with a sacred horrour and almost oversets my Reason But Oh! the amazing love of the Son of God towards us that he should put himself in our stead and interpose his own Breast as a living Shield between ours and his Father's Vengeance which considering the greatness of his Person and of our unworthiness is such a stupendious expression of Love as no Romance of Friendship ever thought of And what is the proper influence of all this love but to oblige us for ever to God and our Saviour in the bands of a reciprocal affection to melt down our stubbornness and enmity against them and draw us on to our duty with the Cords of an invincible indearment For is it possible my sins should be as dear to me as the Son of God was to his own Father and yet the Father left him out of love to me and shall not I leave them out of love to him And when the Son of God hath been so kind to me as to lay down his life for me can I be so ingrateful to him as to doat upon those sins which he hated more than all the shame and torment which he endured on their account those sins that were the cause of all his sufferings the Thorns that gored his Temples and the Nails that pierced his hands and feet Sure if we are not utterly lost to all that is modest and
bestows upon us he bestows by the hand of Jesus Christ whom upon his first Oblation of his precious Sacrifice in heaven and continual intercession with it he constituted and continues the Royal distributer of all his graces and favours to the World. And therefore since there is no doubt but that that which he obtains by his intercession is the thing which he intercedes for it necessarily follows that the thing which he intercedes for is power to bestow on us the blessings of the New Covenant because he hath actually obtained that power by his Intercession Having thus given as plain and as brief an account as I could of this second Priestly Act of our Saviour viz. his Intercession for us in Heaven by the continual Oblation of his Sacrifice there I proceed in the second place to shew the admirable tendency of this method of God's communicating his Graces and Favours to us through the intercession of our Saviour to reduce and reform Mankind which will plainly appear by considering the following particulars First This method naturally tends to excite in us a mighty aw and reverence of God's Majesty Secondly It also tends to give us the strongest conviction of God's hatred and abhorrence of our sins Thirdly It also tends most effectually to secure us from presuming upon God's mercy while we continue in our sins Fourthly It tends to encourage us to draw near to God with Chearfulness and freedom Fifthly It tends to give us the most ample assurance of his gracious intentions towards us if we repent and return to our duty I. This method of God's communicating his Favours to us through our Saviour's intercession is naturally apt to excite in us a mighty aw and reverence of the divine Majesty For in this degenerate condition wherein our Nature is inverted and turned upside down and our sensitive faculties have got the ascendant of our Reason rational Objects have incomparably less force on and prevalence with us than material and sensitive And hence it is that we are so unapt to be affected with the Majesty of God though in it self infinite and incomprehensible because it being purely spiritual is objected only to our Faith and Reason and doth not strike upon our sense with the Rays of a visible glory And hence it was that under the Old Testament God so frequently exhibited himself to mens eyes in sensible appearances as particularly sometimes in a humane shape and sometimes in a body of light or of shining flame that so by making an impression of his great Majesty on their sense he might affect them with a sutable aw and dread of it And for the same reason that he conversed with them in these sensible appearances he also treated with them by a Mediator on Mount Sinai for God commanded that bounds should be set round about the Mountain which the People were forbid upon peril of death to break through unto the Lord to gaze and only Moses their Mediator together with his Brother Aaron were permitted to ascend the Mount and to have immediate access to him and by thus keeping them at a distence from his sacred presence and only suffering them to approach him by their Mediator he took an effectual course to inspire their minds with a reverential aw of his divine Majesty which is in it self so infinitely sacred and August that it seems it would have been an high Prophanation in them to have conversed with it immediately And accordingly God by keeping us at a distance from him and allowing us to have access to him only by our Mediator expresses the greatness of his Majesty which is too sacred to be mingled in conversation with us too sublime to admit of the immediate addresses of poor Mortals yea and which no Mortal must approach without the Mediation of his own Eternal Son for thus Plato in his Sympos gives it as an instance of the Majesty of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. God doth not mingle himself with men but all the converse and intercourse between him and us is transacted by the Mediation of Demons And if it were thought so great an instance of God's Majesty that he would not be approached by us without the Mediation of Angels to what an infinite height must he be exalted above us when no less a person than he who is God-man can so much as give us access to him or present our Prayers and Supplications at his feet O! what an awful sense therefore of the Majesty of God should this consideration beget in our minds For how can we think of him without dread and reverence when we consider how he is secluded by the infinite sacredness of his own Majesty from all immediate converse and intercourse with us and how he is exalted so infinitely above us as that we cannot have access to him so much as by our Prayers and Supplications without the interposition of a Mediator who is greater than the greatest of all the Kings on Earth or Angels in Heaven Surely he who can thus think of God without being struck into a profound aw and reverence of his Majesty must have a mind so hardened against all the impressions of Reason as that no wise thought can ever move or affect it II. This method of God's communicating his favours to us through our Saviour's Intercession tends also to give us the strongest conviction of God's hatred and abhorrence of our sins For doubtless to convince us how deeply he resents our sinful behaviour towards him the most effectual course he could take next to that of banishing us from his presence for ever was to exclude us from all immediate intercourse with him and not to admit of any more addresses or supplications from us but by the hand of some Mediator Hereby he plainly demonstrates how infinitely pure and abhorrent to sin his nature is that he will not suffer a sinful Creature to come near him but by Proxy nor accept of a service from a guilty hand nor listen to a Prayer from a sinful mouth till it is first hallowed and presented to him by a pure and holy Mediator If therefore we are not infinitely conceited of our selves this procedure of his cannot but lay us low in our own eyes and make us deeply sensible of our own vileness and baseness For how infinitely detestable must our sins be in his eyes when notwithstanding all his kindness and benevolence towards us he keeps us at such a distance from him and will not be prevailed with without some powerful intercession so much as to hear our Prayers or to have any kind of communication or intercourse with us And accordingly you find that when the three Friends of Iob had treated him so despitefully and uncharitably God to manifest his displeasure against them commands them to make use of Iob's Mediation Iob 42.7 My wrath saith he to Elephas is kindled against thee and against thy two Friends for ye have not spoken of me the thing that
is right as my servant Iob hath therefore take unto you seven Bullocks and seven Rams and go to my servant Iob and offer up for your selves a burnt Offering and my servant Iob shall pray for you for him will I accept lest I deal with you after your folly as if he should have said that you may see how ill I resent your severe and cruel usage of that good man know that if you offer to address to me immediately for your selves I will certainly throw your Prayers back upon your faces as therefore you hope to be restored to my favour go to that injured Friend of yours and beseech him to mediate for you and I will hear him though I will not hear you And after the same manner doth God manifest his high displeasure against our sins that he will not suffer us to approach him immediately to present our Petitions to him with our own hands but will have them all presented to him by a hand that is more acceptable to him than our own and not only so but by the greatest and most acceptable hand in the World even that of his own Eternal Son the Son of his Essence and delight in whom he is for ever well pleased For it is through him alone that we have access to the Father whom our sins have so horribly incensed against us that no Advocate in Heaven or Earth less great and less dear to him than his own Son can prevail with him to be reconciled to us upon our most unfeigned repentance or so much as to accept of our humble Supplications O good God! what a woful distance have my sins made between thee and me that notwithstanding the infinite goodness and benignity of thy nature I cannot be admitted to thee nor expect any favour at thy hands upon any less powerful interest or application than that of thine only begotten Son but O stupid creature that I am to make light of those sins that have so highly incensed thee against me that none in Heaven or Earth but only that dearly beloved Son can prevail with thee to cast a propitious eye on me or so much as to give me access to the footstool of the Throne of thy grace III. This way of God's communicating his favours to us through the intercession of Christ is also most apt to secure us from presuming upon God's mercy while we continue in our sins There is no one thing doth more universally obstruct the reformation of men than their confident presumption that God will be merciful to them notwithstanding they persist in their rebellions against him For all men have a natural notion of the infinite goodness and benevolence of the Divine Nature together with which all bad men have a natural desire to sin without disturbance when therefore their Conscience begins to clamour against their wickedness and to vex and persecute them for it the mercy of God is the usual Sanctuary they fly to Peace froward Conscience cry they God is a most gracious and merciful Being hard to be provoked and easie to be pacified fear not therefore his mercy is infinitely greater than my faults and I am sure so good a God as he is can never find in his heart to destroy his Creature and Off-spring for such Peccadillo's as these With such presumptions as these they commonly lull their Consciences asleep and so sin on securely in despite of all the threats and warnings of Heaven that Thunder about their ears Now to prevent such presumptions as these and dash them quite out of countenance there is no consideration in the world can be more effectual than this of God's communicating his mercies to us through the intercession of our Saviour For if notwithstanding the goodness of his nature he will not be propitious to us no not upon our repentace without being moved thereunto by the powerful intercession of his own Son how can we ever expect that he should be propitious to us whether we repent or no Is it likely he should be more indulgent to us for our own sake than he is for his Son's sake and our own together or that when all that his Son can obtain for us is to receive us into favour in case we will lay down our Arms that we by our own interest should prevail with him to receive us while we persist in our obstinacy and rebellion in short if our repentance which is the best thing we can render him be not sufficient to move him to pardon us without being seconded and enforced with the powerful Oratory of our Saviour's Intercession what should move him when we have neither repentance nor a Saviour to intercede for us For our Saviour will not intercede for us unless we repent and our repentance will not prevail for us unless he intercede what hope have we therefore while we continue impenitent when our repentance it self which is the best thing we can do to move God to be propitious to us is insufficient without Christ's intercession and when without our repentance Christ will not intercede for us and if the tears of a penitent suppliant will not prevail with him without an Intercessor what hope is there that the affronts of an impenitent rebel should But suppose we might reasonably presume upon the benignity of God's nature that he will be propitious to us notwithstanding our impenitence yet it is to be considered that now he hath placed the dispensation of his mercy in the hand of a Mediator who is not left to dispose of it arbitrarily as he shall think fit but is confined and limited to dispose of it only to penitent offenders For Christ's Trust can extend no farther than to dispence God's mercy to us upon the terms of that Covenant of which he is Mediator which Covenant proposes mercy to us only upon condition of our repentance So that now we can expect no mercy from God but what passes through the hands of Jesus our Mediator who cannot without violating his trust dispence the mercy of God to us except we repent and amend For now God cannot dispence his mercy to us immediately without displacing his Son from his Mediatorship and his Son cannot dispence his mercy to us unconditionally without transgressing the bounds and limits that are prescribed to him and therefore since God hath restrained himself to dispence his mercy only through his Son and restrained his Son to dispence it only to penitents for us to presume upon the mercy of God while we continue impenitent is the greatest nonsense in the world it is to suppose either that God will cancel the Oeconomy of his mercy for our sakes and resume the dispensation of it immediately into his own hands meerly to favour and encourage us in our Rebellion against him or that Christ will betray the trust which his Father hath reposed in him and dispence his mercy to us contrary to his Orders that is either that God the Father will depose his Son
Messias and by the Serpent the Devil who in the form of a Serpent had tempted our first Parents to that fatal revolt which drew after it all those miserable consequents which their Posterity have groaned under ever since by the Messias his bruising the Serpent's head is meant his assaulting and crushing under foot the very seat of all his strength and power and finally rescuing mankind from under his Dominion and Tyranny For this Promise was the first dawning the morning Twilight of the New Covenant and so far as we can find the only discovery of it to the Old World and therefore in all probability was the sole ground and object of that faith by which Abel and Enoch were justified in the sight of God Heb. 11.4 5. For though that Promise was but a dark and obscure intimation of the Gospel-Covenant yet thus much it plainly proposed to them that from the first Parents of the World there should descend a certain Person who should conquer the Devil that had conquered them and thereby repair the damage of their Apostasie by believing of which it seems and acting accordingly they found grace and favour in the sight of God but however it is apparent that the New Covenant was in force in the time of the Old World because it is evident both that the faith of the Ante-diluvian Patriarchs was actually accepted by God and that their faith could upon no other account have been accepted by him but only in the vertue of this New Covenant But after the Floud God more clearly and expresly renewed this gracious Covenant with Abraham and his Children Gen. 12.2 3. where he promises to bless him to make his name great and himself a blessing and to bless them that blessed him and curse them that cursed him and in him that is in the Messias who should descend from him vid. Gal. 3.16 to make all the Families of the Earth blessed which Covenant he again renews to him Cap. 13. and Cap. 15. and then in Chap. 17. he yet again renews it more largely and solemnly assuring him not only that he should be a Father of many Nations c. but that that Covenant should extend to his Posterity as well as to him and that he would be a God to him and to his Seed after him immediately after which he institutes the Ceremony of Circumcision for a perpetual Seal and Ratification of his Covenant between him and them and upon this Covenant it was that the Iewish Church was founded For so Circumcision which was the standing Seal of this Covenant was also the standing Rite of admission into that Church which is a plain argument that to be a Member of that Church and a Confederate in this Covenant was one and the same thing because they were admitted both by one and the same Rite Now from the New Testament it is evident that this Covenant with Abraham upon which the Iewish Church was built was the Gospel or New Covenant For so Gal. 3.8 the Apostle calls the delivery of this Covenant preaching the Gospel to Abraham which must be apparently fals if this and the Gospel Covenant were not the same and in verse 29. he tells them if ye be Christ's i. e. true Christians then are ye Abraham's Seed i. e. that spiritual Seed to whom the Covenant with Abraham extends and heirs according to the Promise i. e. of that Covenant but how could they be Abraham's seed by being Christians and heirs to the promise of Abraham's Covenant if the Seed with whom Abraham's Covenant was made were of a different Religion from Christians and the Covenant it self were of a different kind from the Christian Covenant But that it was the very same appears yet further because in the first place it requires the same Condition viz. an obediential or practical Faith. For so Gen. 15.6 it is said that Abraham believed in the Lord and he accounted it to him for righteousness i. e. though he had formerly been guilty of many sins and at present could not challenge any reward from God yet upon that obedient faith which he exercised God acquitted and justified him or which is the same thing dealt with him as if he had been perfectly righteous and accordingly his Circumcision which was the Ratification of that Covenant is in Rom. 4.11 called the Seal of the righteousness of faith i. e. of his Iustification or being accounted righteous and dealt with accordingly by God upon his Faith or practical Assent to God's Promise And accordingly the Apostle Gal. 3.9 thus concludes so then they which be of faith i. e. sincere Believers as Abraham was are blessed with faithful Abraham in which words he expresly asserts that Abraham and Christians are blessed upon the same terms viz. upon an obediential and practical Faith. And as Abraham's required the same Condition with the New Covenant so it also contained the same Promises For although those Promises according to the outside and literal sence of them do contain only temporal blessings yet it is apparent that they had all the eternal blessings of that New Covenant lock'd and treasured up in the mystical sence of them For thus S. Paul expresly tells us that the Iustification of the New Covenant was couched in that Promise that was made to Abraham Gal. 3.8 The Scripture foreseeing that God would justifie the Heathen through faith preached the Gospel before unto Abraham saying In thee shall all Natioâ—s be blâ—ssed which necessarily implies that in that blâ—ssing was included their Iustification in the sight of God. And as for divine Grace and Assistance to inable men to repent and persevere in well-doing the Prophet Micah tells us that one part of God's performing his truth unto Iacob and his mercy to Abraham consisted in his subduing our iniquities and casting our sins into the depths of the Sea Micah 7.19 20. And lastly as for eternal life the Apostle plainly tells us that God gave the inheritance i. e. of Justification to eternâ—l life to Abraham by promise Gal. 3.18 upon which gift we are assured that Abraham looked for a City which hath fâ—undations whose builder and makâ—r is God Heb. 11.10 Since therefore both the conditions required and the blessings promised in Abraham's and the New Covenant were in all particulars the same it necessarily follows thâ—t they were one and the same Covenant It is true indeed as to the manner of the revelation of it there was a vast difference for whereas in the Gospel it is revealed throughout with the greatest clearness and perspicuity and in plain and literal terms it was delivered vailed to Abraham and his Posterity under general and obscure expressions which at best exhibited to them but a dark and confused apprehension of it But however it is still the same Covenant notwithstanding it be thus differently expressed even as it is the same Sun that sometimes is overcast with clouds and other times shines forth with a full splendor Thirdly From the very
of himself to God and if every one then to be sure the Righteous must as well as the wicked not that there will be any doubt of the righteousness of the Righteous in the breast of the Judge to whose all-seeing Eye the darkest secrets of all hearts lie open but yet for otheâ—â—â—asons it is highly convenient they should undergo a trial as well as others As first for the more solemn and publick vindication of their wronged innocence that all that infamy and scandal with which their malicious Enemies have bespattered them may be wiped off before men and Angels and that being assoiled before all the World they may triumph for ever in a bright and glorious reputation And secondly That all those brave and unaffected acts of secret Piety and Charity to which none but God and themselves were conscious may be brought into the open light and to their everlasting renown proclaimed throughout all the vast Assembly of Spirits for now we shall see all those modest souls unmask'd whose silent and retired graces do make so little shew and noise in the world and all their humble pieties and bashful beauties which scarce any Eye ever saw but Gods shall be exposed to the publick view and general applause of Saints and Angels Thirdly They shall be tried also for the vindication of Gods impartial procedure in proportioning their reward to their vertue that so the degrees of each mans proficiency in piety and vertue being exposed to the view of the world by an impartial trial Angels and Men may be convinced that in distributing the different degrees of happiness the Almighty Judge is no way biassed by a fond partiality or respect of persons but that he proceeds upon immutable Principles of Iustice and doth exactly adjust and ballance his rewards with the degrees and numbers of our deserts and improvements that so even those that are set lowest in those blessed Forms and Classes of glorified Spirits may not envy those that are above them or complain that they are advanced no higher but every one may chearfully acknowledge himself to be placed where he ought to be as being fully convinced that he is only so many degrees inferiour to others in glory as they are superiour to him in divine graces and perfections Fourthly and lastly The Righteous shall undergo this Trial for the more glorious manifestation of the divine mercy and goodness For which reason I am apt to think that even their sins of which they have dearly and heartily repented shall in this their trial be exposed and brought upon the Stage that so in the free pardon of such an infinite number of them the whole Congregation of the blessed may behold and admire the infinite extent of the divine mercies and be thereby the deeper affected with and more vigorously excited to celebrate with Songs of praise the goodness of their merciful Iudge For these reasons the Wise man tells us Eccles. 12.14 that God shall bring every secret thing to judgment whether it be good or whether it be evil which Proposition being universal must extend to the Righteous as well as to the Wicked But yet though their sores shall be then laid open it shall be done by a soft and gentle hand by a serene Conscience and a smiling Iudge who without any angry look or severe reflection or any other circumstance but what shall contribute to the joys and triumphs of that day shall read over all the Items of their guilt and then cancel them for ever For IV. This Iudgment of the Righteous doth also include their Sentence Although to us whose operations are so slow and leisurely by reason of the unwieldiness of these fleshly Organs with which we act such a particular trial as hath been before described of such an infinite number of men and women may seem to require an unreasonable length of time yet if we consider that then both the Iudge and those who are to be judged shall be array'd in spiritual bodies in which they will be able to act with unspeakable nimbleness and dispatch we shall find that a little time comparatively may very well suffice for so great a transaction for the Iudge being one that can attend to infinite causes at once without any distraction and they who are to be judged being by reason of their spirituality in a condition to attend to every ones trial while they are undergoing their own I see no reason we have to imagine that they shall be tried successively one after another and if not why may we not suppose that we shall all be tried together at the same time and consequently that the trial of all may be transacted in as short a time as the trial of one And that they shall all be tried together is very probable since it is apparent from Scripture that they shall all be sentenced together for thus Mat. 25.34 Then shall the King say to those on his right hand i. e. to them all together Come ye blessed c. Having first by an accurate and impartial Trial manifested their integrity to all the world he shall arise out of his flaming Throne and with an audible voice and smiling Majesty pronounce their Sentence all together in these or such like words Come ye blessed Children of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world to which welcome Sentence they will doubtless all immediately resound a joyful Choir of Halelujahs through Heaven and Earth Allelujah Salvation and Glory and Power be to the Lord our God for true and righteous are his Iudgments ' Salvation be unto our Lord that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for wonderful are thy works O Lord God Almighty just and true are thy ways O thou King of Saints And now all their business being finished here below they shall from henceforth be no longer detained in this Vale of tears and misery but with overjoyed hearts shall take their leave of it for ever For V. And lastly Another thing implyed in this their Iudgment is their Assumption into the Clouds of heaven For their blessed Lord having thus publickly acquitted and pronounced them blessed they shall immediately feel the happy effect of it for now he will no longer suffer them to stand below at the Bar but from thence will call them up to his Tribunal there to give them a nearer access to his beloved person and more intimate participation of his glory At which powerful call and invitation of his they shall in an instant all take wing together like a mighty flock of pure and innocent Doves and fly aloft into the air singing and warbling as they go to meet their Redeemer in the Clouds of Heaven For so the Apostle in 1 Thes. 4.17 Then that is after their Resurrection and Judgment we which are alive and remain who never died but only have been changed and glorified shall be caught up together with them who shall be raised from the dead
deserve he had been obliged in justice to discharge us without any farther condition yet since out of his own free grace he hath admitted another to suffer for us he may admit it with what limitations he pleases and if he shall think meet as he hath done to limit it to our repentance and amendment all that Christ hath suffered for us will be insignificant to our discharge from our obligation to punishment unless we repent and amend So that the Death of Christ you see doth not expiate mens sins as their personal punishments do by their own natural vertue but by vertue of God's accepting it upon his own terms and conditions And without God's accepting it it would not have been at all an expiation for the sins of the World and without the conditions upon which he accepteth it viz. our repentance and amendment it will not be at all an Expiation for ours Now God hath solemnly declared his acceptance of Christ's Death as an Expiation for our sins for it was God that laid upon him the iniquities of us all Isa. 53.6 that gave his only begotten Son John 3.16 and sent him to be a propitiation for us 1 Joh. 4.10 which plainly imply his free acceptance of him And therefore Christ is said to have given himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour Eph. 5.2 i. e. for an Expiation that was highly grateful and acceptable to him So that now the expiation of our sins by the bloud of Christ wholly depends on our performing the condition on which God hath accepted it and since it is upon condition that we repent and amend that God hath accepted the bloud of Christ in exchange for the eternal punishment we owe him unless we perform this condition the Bloud of Christ will not at all avail us but we shall still remain as much obliged to undergo that punishment as if he had never died for us at all God's acceptance indeed hath made the Death of Christ available for us under those conditions and limitations upon which he accepted it but if when he hath accepted it conditionally we expect that it should avail us absolutely and unconditionally we miserably deceive and abuse our own souls Thus far therefore God's acceptance of Christ's Death instead of the punishment we have deserved hath rendred it an effectual expiation and ransom for sinners that if they repent and amend they shall be released and acquitted from the obligation they lie under to suffer eternal punishment in their own persons and entitled to everlasting life and happiness And thus the Death of Christ you see had in it all the necessary qualifications of a real and compleat propitiatory Sacrifice I proceed therefore in the second place to shew what a wise and effectual method this of God's admitting Christ's Sacrifice for sinners is to reduce and reform Mankind which will evidently appear by considering these five things First That the Sacrifice of Christ's Death was a most sensible and affecting acknowledgment of the infinite guilt and demerit of our sin For thus under the Law the offering of Propitiatory Sacrifices implied a most solemn and sensible confession of the guilt of the Offerer For his laying his hand upon the head of his Sacrifice was a Symbolical action by which he solemnly acknowledged to God that he had justly deserved to suffer that death himself which his Sacrifice was suffering for him and accordingly the Jews have this Maxim Vbi non est peccatorum confessio ibi non est impositio manuum quia manuum impositio ad confessionem pertinet where there is no confession of sins there is no imposition of hands because the imposition of hands appertains to Confession For so Lev. 5.5 they are particularly directed to confess their sins upon their bringing their Trespass-Offering before the Lord and as hath been shewn before they had a set Form of Confession in all their expiatory Sacrifices and particularly in that solemn Propitiation viz. the dismission of the Scape-Goat the High Priest is directed to lay both his hands upon the Goat's Head and to confess over him all the iniquities of the Children of Israel Lev. 16.21 so that as Confession is a kind of audible Sacrifice so Sacrifice was a kind of visible Confession and the demerit of their sin being thus represented to their Eyes by the death of their Sacrifice was far more apt to move and affect them with horror and detestation of it than any audible Confession how severe or pungent soever And accordingly our Saviour in offering up himself as an expiation for our sin did as it were lay his hand upon his own head and as our Representative solemnly acknowledge to God that we had justly deserved to suffer for our sin a punishment equivalent to that which he was undergoing for us And what a dreadful one must that be which is equivalent to the Death of the Son of God What less punishment than our everlasting misery can countervail the temporary death of him who was so eminent and innocent who was God-man united in one person and the Lamb of God without spot or blemish If the Iews by sacrificing a Beast did make such a moving acknowledgment that they themselves deserved to die how much more did Christ by sacrificing himself for us acknowledge in our stead that we deserved to die eternally So that whatsoever vertue there is in the most bitter and pathetick confession to create in mens minds a horrour and detestation of their sins all that and much more there is in the Sacrifice of our Saviour whose Bloud cried louder against our sins and made a far more Tragical confession of their demerit than it 's possible for the most sorrowful Penitent to do with all the Eloquence of his grief and bitter strains of self-abhorrence And hence our Saviour is said to have condemned sin in the flesh Rom. 8.3 i. e. to have solemnly acknowledged by his dying for it what a dreadful punishment it deserves Secondly It is to be considered also that the Sacrifice of Christ's Death was a most ample declaration of God's severity against our sins All wise Governours ought so to exercise their Mercy as that it may not be prejudicial to their Authority by giving Offenders encouragement to kick against it but whilst their mercy is easie and apt to be moved by slight Reasons and Motives it will infallibly expose their Authority and render it cheap and vile in the eyes of bold and insolent Offenders the Reasons therefore which move a Prince to pardon Criminals ought to be such if possible as give all manner of discouragement to them from presuming upon impunity for the future God therefore being inclined by the infinite benignity of his Nature to shew mercy to sinners was obliged in wisdom to shew it in such a way and upon such reasons as might sufficiently discourage them from presuming upon his Mercy to the prejudice of his Authority