satisfie God for us he must present himself before God as our surety in our stead as well as for our good else his obedience had signified nothing to us to this end he was made under the Law Gal. 4.4 comes under the same obligation with us and that as a surety For so he is called Heb. 7.22 Indeed his obedience and sufferings could be exacted from him upon no other account It was not for any thing he had done that he became a curse It was prophesied of him Dan. 9.26 the Messiah shall be cut off but not for himself and beeing dead the Scriptures plainly assert it was for our sins and upon our account So 1 Cor. 15.3 Christ dyed for our sins according to the Scriptures And it 's well observed by our Divines who assert the vicegerency and substitution of Christ in his sufferings that all those Greek particles which we translate for when applied to the sufferings of Christ do note the meritorious deserving procuring cause of those sufferings So you find Heb. 10.12 He offered one Sacrifice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for sins 1 Pet. 3.18 Christ once suffered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for sins Rom. 4.25 He was delivered 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for our offences Matth. 20.28 He gave his life a ransom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for many And there are that confidently affirm this last particle is never used in any other sense in the whole book of God As an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth i. e. one in lieu of another Just as those whom the Greeks called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 men that exchanged lives or gave life for life staking down their own to deliver anothers As Philumene did for Aristides And so the Poet Virgil speaks Si fratrem Pollux alterna morte redemit And indeed this very consideration is that which supports the doctrine of Imputation the imputation of our sins to Christ and the imputation of Christs righteousness unto us For how could our sins be laid on him but as he stood in our stead or his righteousness be imputed to us but as he was our surety performing it in our place So that to deny Christs sufferings in our stead is to loose the corner stone of our Justification and overthrow the very pillar which supports our faith comfort and salvation Indeed if this had not been he would have been the righteous Lord but not the Lord our righteousness as he is stiled Ier. 33.16 So that it is but a vain distinction to say it was for our good but not in our stead For had it not been in our stead we could not have had the good of it Thirdly The internal moving cause of Christs satisfaction for us was his obedience to God and love to us That it was an act of obedience is plain from Phil. 2.8 He became obedient unto death even the death of the cross Now obedience respects a command and such a command Christ received to dye for us as himself tells us Joh. 10.18 I lay down my life of my self I have power to lay it down and power to take it again this commandment have I received of my Father So that it was an act of obedience with respect to God and yet a most free and spontaneous act with respect to himself And that he was moved to it out of pity and love to us himself assures us Gal. 5.2 Christ loved us and gave himself for us an offering and a Sacrifice to God upon this Paul sweetly reflected Gal. 2.20 who loved me and gave himself for me As the external moving cause was our misery so the internal was his own love and pity for us Fourthly The matter of Christs satisfaction was his active and passive obedience to all that the Law of God required I know there are some that doubt whether Christs active obedience have any place here and so whether it be imputed as any part of our righteousness It is confâ—ssed the Scripture most frequently mentions his passive obedience as that which made the attonement and procures our redemption Matth. 26.28 Matth. 20.28 Rom. 3.24 25. alibi but his passive obedience is never mentioned exclusively as the sole cause or matter of satisfaction But in those places where it 's mentioned by it self it 's put for his whole obedience both active and passive by an usual Trope and in other Scriptures it is ascribed to both as Gal. 4.4 he is said to be made under the Law to redeem them that were under the Law Now his being made under the Law to this end cannot be restrained to his subjâ—ction to the curse of the Law only but to the commands of it also So Rom. 5.19 As by one mans disobedience many were made sinners so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous It were a manifest injury to this text also to restrain it to the passive obedience of Christ only To be short this twofold obedience of Christ stands opposed to a twofold obligation that fallen man is under the one to do what God requires the other to suffer what he hath threatned for disobedience We owe him active obedience as his creatures and passive obedience as his prisoners Suitably to this double Oblation Christ comes under the Commandment of the Law to fulfil it actively Matth. 3.15 and under the malediction of the Law to satisfie it passively And whereas it is objected by some if he fulfilled the whole Law for us by his active what need then of this passive obedience We reply great need because both these make up that one entire and compleat obedience by which God is satisfied and we justified It 's a good rule of Alsted obedientia Christi est una copulativa The whole obedience of Christ both active and passive make up one intire perfect obedience and therefore there is no reason why one particle either of the one or of the other should be excluded Fifthly the effect and fruit of this his satisfaction is our freedom ransom or deliverance from the wrath and curse due to us for our sins Such was the dignity value and compleatness of Christs satisfaction that in strict Justice it merited our redemption and full deliverence Not only a possibility that we might be redeemed and pardoned but a right whereby we ought to be so As the learned Dr. Twiss judiciously argues If he be made a curse for us we must then be redeemed from the curse according to justice so the Apostle argues Rom. 3.25 26. Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past through the forbearance of God to declare I say at this time his righteousness that God might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Iesus Mark the design and end of God in exacting satisfaction from Christ it was to declare his righteousness in
poenal evil and part of the curse so God inflicts it not upon believers but they must dye for other ends viz. to be made perfectly happy in a more full and immediate enjoyment of God than they can have in the body and so death is theirs by way of priviledge 1 Cor. 3.22 They are not deaths by way of punishment The same may be said of all the afflictions with which God for gratious ends now exercises his reconciled ones Thus much may suffice to establish this great truth Inference 1. If the death of Christ was that which satisfied God for all the sins of the Elect then certainly there is an infinite evil in sin since it cannot be expiated but by an infinite satisfaction Fools make a mock of sin and there are but few souls in the world that are duly sensible and affected with its evil but certainly if God should damn thee to all eternity thy eternal sufferings could not satisfie for the evil that is in one vain thought It may be you may think this is harsh and severe that God should hold his creatures under everlasting sufferings for sin and never be satisfied with them any more But when you have well considered that the object against whom you sin is the infinite blessed God which derives an infinite evil to the sin committed against him and when you consider how God dealt with the Angels that fell for one sin and that but of the mind for having no bodily organs they could commit nothing externally against God you will alter your minds about it O the depth of the evil of sin If ever you will see how great and horrid an evil sin is measure it in your thoughts either by the infinite holiness and excellency of God who is wrong'd by it or by the infinite sufferings of Christ who dyed to satisfie for it and then you will have deeper apprehensions of the evil of sin Inference 2. If the death of Christ satisfied God and thereby redeemed the Elect from the curse then the redemption of souls is costly souls are dear things and of great value with God Ye know saith the Apostle that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold from your vain conversation received by tradition but with the pretious blood of the Son of God as of a Lamb without spot 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Only the blood of God is found an equivalant price for the redemption of souls Gold and silver may redeem from Turkish but not from Hellish bondage The whole creation sold to the utmost worth of it is not a value for the redemption of one soul. Souls are dear ware he that paid for them found them so Yet how cheaply do sinners sell their souls as if they were but low priz'd Commodities But you that sell your souls cheap will buy repentance dear Inference 3. If Christs death satisfied God for our sins how unparallel'd is the love of Christ to poor sinners It 's much to pay a pecuniary debt to free another but who will pay his own blood for another We have a famous instance of Zaleucus that famous Locrensian Lawgiver who decreed and Enacted that whoever was convicted of Adultery should have both his eyes put out It so fell out that his own Son was brought before him for that crime hereupon the people interposing made suit for his pardon At length the Father partly overcome by their importunities and not unwilling to shew what lawful favour he might to his Son he first put out one of his own eyes and then one of his Sons and so shewed himself both a merciful Father and a just Law-giver So tempering mercy with justice that both the Law was satisfied and his Son spared This is written by the Historian as an instance of singular love in this Father to pay one half of the penalty for his Son But Christ did not divide and share in the penalty with us but bare it all Zaleucus did it for his Son who was dear to him Christ did it for enemies that were fighting and rebelling against him Rom. 5.8 while we were yet sinners Christ died for us O would to God said an holy one I could cause Paper and Ink to speak the worth and excellency the high and loud praises of our brother-ransomer Oh the ransomer needs not my report but oh if he would take it and make use of it I should be happy if I had an Errand to this world but for some few years to spread proclamations and out-crys and love-letters of the highness the highness for evermore of the ransomer whose cloaths were wet and dyed in blood how be it that after that my soul and body should go back to their mother nothing Inference 4. If Christ by dying hath made full satisfaction then God is no loser in pardoning the greatest of sinners that believe in Iesus and consequently his Iustice can be no bar to their Iustification and Salvation He is just to forgive us our sins 1 Joh. 1.9 What an Argument is here for a poor Believer to plead with God! Lord if thou save me by Jesus Christ thy Justice will be fully satisfied at one round payment but if thou damn me and require satisfaction at my hands thou canst never receive it I shall make but a dribling payment though I lye in Hell to eternity and shall still be infinitely behind with thee Is it not more for thy glory to receive it from Christs hand than to require it at mine One drop of his blood is more worth than all my polluted blood O how satisfying a thing is this to the Conscience of a poor sinner that is objecting the multitude agravations and amazing circumstances of sin against the possibility of their being pardoned Can such a sinner as I be forgiven Yes if thou believest in Jesus thou maist for so God will lose nothing in pardoning the greatest transgressors Let Israel hope in the Lord for with the Lord there is mercy and with him is plenteous redemption Psal. 130.7 i. e. a large stock of merit lying by him in the blood of Christ to pay him for all that you have done against him Inference 5. Lastly If Christ hath made such a full satisfaction as you have heard how much is it the concernment of every soul to abandon all thoughts of satisfying God for his own sins and betake himself to the blood of Christ the ransomer by faith that in that blood they may be pardoned It would grieve ones heart to see how many poor creatures are drudging and tugging at a task of repentance and revenge upon themselves and reformation and obedience to satisfie God for what they have done against him and alas it cannot be they do but lose their labour could they swelter their very hearts out weep till they can weep no more cry till their throats be parched alas they can never recompence God for one vain thought For such is
absolutely and properly forgive sin but God only Mark 2.7 the primary and principal wrong is done to him Psalm 51.4 Against thee thee only i. e. thee mainly or especially I have sinned Hence sins are metonymically called debts debts to God Matth. 6.12 not that we owe them to God or ought to sin against him but as a pecuniary debt obliges him that owes it to the penalty if he satisfie not for it so do our sins And who can discharge the Debtor but the Creditor It 's a gratious act or discharge 1 even I am he that blotteth out thy transgression for mine own name sake Isai. 43.25 And yet sin is not so forgiven as that God expects no satisfaction at all but as expecting none from us because God hath provided a surety for us from whom he is satisfied Eph. 1.7 In whom we have Redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace It 's a gratious discharge from the guilt of sin Guilt is that which pardon properly deals with Guilt is an obligation to punishment Pardon is the dissolving of that obligation Guilt is a chain with which sinners are bound and fettered by the Law pardon is that aqua-fortis that eats it asunder and makes the prisoner a free-man The pardoned soul is a discharged soul. Rom. 8.33 Who shall lay anything to the charge of Gods Elect It 's God that justifieth who shall condemn It 's Christ that died It 's Gods discharge of a believing penitent sinner Infidelity and impenitency are not only sins in themselves but such sins as bind fast all other sins upon the soul. By him all that believe are justified from all things Act. 10.43 So Act. 3.19 Repent therefore that your sins may be blotted out This is the method in which God dispenseth pardon to sinners Lastly It is for Christs sake we are discharged he is the meritorious cause of our remission As God for Christs sake hath forgiven you Eph. 4.32 It 's his blood alone that meritoriously procures our discharge This is a brief and true account of the nature of forgiveness Secondly Now to evince the possibility of forgiveness for such as ignorantly oppose Christ. Let these things be weighed First Why should any poor soul that is now humbled for its enmity to Christ in the daies of ignorance question the possibility of forgiveness when this effect doth not exceed the power of the cause nay when there is more efficacy in the blood of Christ the meritorious cause than is in the effect of it There 's power enough in that blood not only to pardon thy sins but the sins of the whole world were it actually applied 1 Iohn 2.2 There is not only a sufficiency but also a redundancy of merit in that pretious blood Surely then thy enmity to Christ especially before thou knewest him may not look like an unpardonable iniquity in thine eyes Secondly And as this sin exceeds not the power of the meritorious cause of forgiveness so neither is it any where excluded from pardon by any word of God Nay such is the extensiveness of the promise to believing penitents that this case is manifestly included and forgiveness tendered to thee in the promises Isai. 55.7 Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon Many such extensive promises there are in the Scriptures And there is not one parenthesis in all those blessed pages in which this case is excepted Thirdly And it is yet more satisfactory that God hath already actually forgiven such sinners and that which he hath done he may again do Yea therefore he hath done it to some and those eminent for their enmity to Christ that others may be incouraged to hope for the same mercy when they also shall be in the same manner humbled for it Take one famous instance of many it 's that of Paul in 1 Tim. 1.13 16. Who was before a blasphemer a persecutor and injurious but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Iesus Christ might shew forth all long suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to everlasting life It 's no small incouragement to a sick man to hear of some that have been recovered out of the same disease and that prevailing in an higher degree than in himself Fourthly Moreover It is encouraging to consider that when God hath cut off others in the way of their sin he hath hitherto spared thee What speaks this but a purpose of mercy to thy soul Thou shouldst account the long suffering of God thy Salvation 2 Pet. 3.15 Had he smitten thee in the way of thy sin and enmity to Christ what hope had remained But in that he hath not only spared thee but also given thee a heart ingenuously ashamed and humbled for thy evils doth not this speak mercy for thee Surely it looks like a gratious design of love to thy soul. Inference 1. And is there forgivenss with God for such as have been enemies to Christ his truths and people Then certainly there is pardon and mercy for the friends of God who involuntarily fall into sin by the surprisals of temptation and are broken for it as ingenious children for offending a good Father Can any doubt if God have pardon for enemies he hath none for children If he have forgiveness for such as shed the blood of Christ with wicked hands he hath not much more mercy and forgiveness for such as love Christ and are more afflicted for their sin against him than all the other troubles they have in the world Doubt it not but he that receives enemies into his bosom will much more receive and embrace children though offending ones How pensive do the dear children of God sometimes sit after their lapses into sin Will God ever pardon this Will he be reconciled again May I hope his face shall be to me as in former times Pensive soul if thou didst but know the largeness tenderness freeness of that grace which yearns over enemies and hath given forth thousands and ten thousands of pardons to the worst of sinners thou wouldst not sink at that rate Inference 2. Is there pardon with God for enemies how inexcusable then are all they that persist and perish in their enmity to Christ Sure their destruction is of themselves Mercy is offered to them if they will receive it Proclamation is made in the Gospel That if there be any among the enemies of Christ who repent of what they have been and done against him and are now unfeignedly willing to be reconciled upon the word of a King he shall find mercy But God shall wound the head of his enemies and the hairy scalp of such a one as goâ—th on still in his trespasses Psal. 68.21 If
wanting the Credidit vixit ut Christianus as an eminent Divine speaks O let the Keepers of the Vineyards look to and keep their own Vineyard we have an Heaven to win or lose as well as others Thirdly Let us take heed that we with-hold not our knowledge of Christ in unrighteousness from the people O that our lips may disperse knowledge and feed many let us take heed of the Napkin remembring the day of account is at hand Remember I beseech you the Relations wherein you stand and the obligations resulting thence Remember the great Shepherd gave himself for and gave you to the flock your time your gifts are not yours but Gods Remember the pinching wants of souls who are perishing for want of Christ and if their tongues do not yet their necessities do bespeak us as they did Ioseph Gen. 47.15 wherefore should we dye in thy presence give us food that we may live and not dye even the Sea-monsters draw forth their breasts to their young ones and shall we be cruel cruel to souls did not Christ think it too much to sweat blood yea to dye for them and shall we think it much to watch study preach pray and do what we can for their salvation O let the same mind be in you which was also in Christ. Secondly To the people that sit under the Doctrine of Christ daily and have the light of his knowledge shining round about them First Take heed ye do not reject and despise this light this may be done two ways first When you despise the means of knowledge by slight and low esteems of it Surely if you thus reject knowledge God will reject you for it Hosea 4.6 it is a despising of the richest gift that ever Christ gave to the Church and however it be a contempt and slight that begins low and seems only to vent it self upon the weak parts inartificial discourses and untaking tones and gestures of the speakers yet believe it it 's a daring sin that flyes higher than you are aware Luk. 10.16 he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me Secondly You despise the knowledge of Christ when you despise the directions and loving constraints of that knowledge when you refuse to be guided by your knowledge your light and your lusts contest and struggle within you Oh 't is sad when your lusts master your light you sin not as the Heathens sin who know not God but when you sin you must slight and put by the notices of your own Consciences and offer violence to your own convictions And what sad work will this make in your souls how soon will it lay your consciences waste Secondly Take heed that you rest not satisfied with that knowledge of Christ you have attained but grow on towards perfection it 's the pride and ignorance of many professors when they have got a few raw and indigested notions to swell with self-conceits of their excellent-attainments and it 's the sin even of the best of Saints when they see veritas in profundo how deep the knowledge of Christ lyes and what pains they must take to dig for it to throw by the Shovel of Duty and cry dig we cannot To your work Christians to your work let not your candle go out sequester your selves to this study look what intercourses and correspondencies are betwixt the two worlds what communion soever God and souls maintain it is in this way count all therefore but dross in comparison of that excellency which is in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. The SECOND SERMON PROV VIII XXX Then was I by him as one brought up with him and I was daily his delight rejoycing always before him THese words are a part of that excellent commendation of wisdom by which in this Book Solomon intends two things first grace or holiness Prov. 4.7 wisdom is the principal thing secondly Iesus Christ the fountain of that grace and look as the former is renowned for its excellency Iob 28.14 15. so the latter in this context wherein the spirit of God describes the most blessed state of Jesus Christ the wisdom of the Father from those eternal delights he had with his Father before his assumption of our nature then was I by him c. that long aevum was wholly swallowed up and spent in unspeakable delights and pleasures which delights were two-fold 1. The Father and Son delighted one in another from which delights the Spirit is not here excluded without communicating that their joy to any other for no creature did then exist save in the mind of God ver 30. 2. They delighted in the salvation of men in the prospect of that work though not yet extant ver 31. my present business lyes in the former viz. the mutual delights of the Father and Son one with and in another the account whereof we have in the Text wherein consider The glorious condition of the non-incarnated Son of God described by the person with whom his fellowship was then was I by him or with him so with him as never was any in his very bosom Ioh. 1.18 the only begotten Son was in the bosom of the Father an expression of the greatest dearness and intimacy in the World as if he should say wrapt up in the very soul of his Father embosomed in God This fellowship is illustrated by a Metaphor wherein the Lord will stoop to our capacities as one brought up with him the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is sometimes rendred a cunning workman or curious Artist as in Cant. 7.1 which is the same word and indeed Christ shewed himself such an Artist in the Creation of the World for all things were made by him and without him there was nothing made that was made Joh. 1.3 but Montanus and others render it nutricius and so Christ is here compared to a delightful child sporting before its Father the Hebrew root 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which our translation renders rejoycing before him signifies to laugh play or rejoyce so that look as Parents delight to see their Children sporting before them so did the Father delight in beholding this Darling of his bosom This delight is farther amplified by the perpetuity and uninterruptedness thereof I was day by day his delights rejoycing always before him these delights of the Father and the Son one in another knew not a moments interruption or diminution thus did these great and glorious persons mutually let forth their fullest pleasure and delight each into the heart of other they lay as it were imbosomed one in another entertaining themselves with delights and pleasures ineffable and unconceivable hence we observe DOCT. That the condition and State of Iesus Christ before his incarnation was a state of highest and most unspeakable delight and pleasure in the enjoyment of his Father Iohn tells us he was in the bosom of his Father to lye in the bosom is the posture
us When we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son Who would part with a Son for the sake of his dearest friends but God gave him to and delivered him for enemies O Love unspeakable 5. Lastly let us consider how freely this gift came from him It was not wrested out of his hand by our importunity for we as little desired as deserved it It was surprizing preventing eternal love that delivered him to us Not that we loved him but he first loved us 1 Ioh. 4.19 Thus as when you weigh a thing you cast in weight after weight till the scales break so doth God one consideration upon another to overcome our hearts and make us admiringly to cry what manner of Love is this And thus I have shewed you what Gods giving of Christ is And what matchless love is manifested in that incomparable gift Next we shall apply this in some practical Corolaries Corolary 1. Learn hence the exceeding preciousness of Souls and at what an high rate God values them that he will give his Son his only Son out of his bosom as a ransom for them Surely this speaks their preciousness God would not have parted with such a Son for small matters All the world could not redeem them Gold and Silver could not be their ransom 1 Pet. 1.18 So speaks the Apostle You were not redeemed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold but with the precious blood of Christ. Such an esteem God had of them that rather than they should perish Jesus Christ shall be made a man yea a curse for them O then learn to put a due value upon your own souls Don't sell that cheap which God hath paid so dear for Remember what a treasure you carry about you The glory that you see in this world is not equivolent in worth to it Matth. 16.26 What shall a man give in exchange for his Soul Corolary 2. If God have given his own Son for the world then it follows that those for whom God gave his own Son may warrantably expect any other Temporal mercies from him This is the Apostles Inference Rom. 8.32 He that spared not his own Son but delivered him up to death for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things And so 1 Cor. 3.21 22. All is yours for ye are Christs i. e. They hold all other things in Christ who is the Capital and most comprehensive mercy To make out the grounds of this comfortable deduction let these four things be pondered and duly weighed in your thoughts 1. No other mercy you need or desire is or can be so dear to God as Jesus Christ is He never layed any other thing in his bosom as he did his Son As for the world and the comforts of it it is the dust of his feet he values it not As you see by his providential disposals of it having given it to the worst of men All the Turkish Empire said Luther as great and glorious as it is is but a crum which the Master of the family throws to the Dogs Think upon any other outward enjoyment that 's valuable in your eyes and there is not so much compare betwixt it and Christ in the esteem of God as is betwixt your dear Children and the Lumber of your houses in your esteem If then God have parted so freely from that which was infinitly dearer to him than these how shall he deny these when they may promote his glory and your good 2. As Jesus Christ was nearer the heart of God than all these so Christ is in himself much greater and more excellent than them all Ten thousand worlds and the glory of them all is but the dust of the ballance if weighed with Christ. These things are but poor creatures but he is over all God blessed for ever Rom. 9.5 They are the common gifts but he is the gift of God Joh. 4.10 They are ordinary mercys but he is the mercy Luk. 1.72 As one Pearl or precious stone is greater in value than ten thousand common pebbles Now if God have so freely given the greater how can you suppose he should deny the lesser mercys Will a man give to another a large inheritance and stand with him for a trifle How can it be 3. There is no other mercy you stand in want of but you are entitled to it by the gift of Christ. It is as to right conveyed to you with Christ. So in the forecited 1 Cor. 3.21 22 23. The world is yours yea all is yours for ye are Christs So 2 Cor. 1.20 For all the promises of God in Christ in him they are yea and in him Amen With him he hath given you all things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 6.17 Richly to enjoy The word signifies rem aliquam cum laetitia percipere To have the sweet relish and comfort of an enjoyment So have we in all our mercys upon the account of our title to them in Christ. 4. Lastly if God have given you this nearer greater and all comprehending mercy when you were enemies to him and alienated from him it is not imaginable he should now deny you any inferiour mercy when you are come into a state of reconciliation and amity with him So the Apostle reasons Rom. 5.8 9 10. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son much more being reconciled we shall be saved by his life And thus you have the second Inference with its grounds Corolary 3. If the greatest love hath been manifested in giving Christ to the world then it follows that the greatest evil and wickedness is manifested in despising slighting and rejecting Christ. 'T is sad to abuse the love of God manifested in the lowest gift of providence but to sleight the richest discoveries of it even in that peerless gift wherein God commends his love in the most taking and astonishing manner this is sin with a witness Blush O heavens and be astonished O earth yea be ye horribly afraid No guilt like this The most flagitious wretches among the barbarous Nations are innocent in comparison of these But are there any such in the world Dare any slight this gift of God indeed if mens words might be taken there are few or none that dare do so but if their lives and practices may be believed this this is the sin of the far greater part of the Christianized world Witness the lamentable stupidity and supiness witness the contempt of the Gospel witness the hatred and persecution of his Image Laws and People What is the language of all these but a vile esteem of Jesus Christ. And now let me a little expostulate with these ungrateful souls that trample underfoot the Son of God That value not this love that gave him forth What is that mercy which you so contemn and undervalue Is it so vile and cheap a thing as your entertainment speaks it to
So that no man can be his own Priest to reconcile himself to God by what he can do or suffer And therefore one that is able by doing and suffering to reconcile him must undertake it or we perish Thus you see plainly and briefly the general nature and necessity of Christs Priesthood From both these several useful Corollarys or practical deductions offer themselves Corollary 1. This shews in the first place the incomparable excellency of the reformed Christian Religion above all other Religions known to or professed in the world What other Religions seek the Christian Religion only finds even a solid foundation for true peace and settlement of conscience While the Iews seek it in vain in the Law the Mahumetan in his external and ridiculous observances the Papist in his own merits the Believer only finds it in the blood of this great sacrifice this and nothing less than this can pacifie a disâ—â—â—â—sed conscience labouring under the weight of its own guilt Conscience demands no less to satisfie it than God demands to satisfie him The grand inquest of conscience is Is God satisfied If he be satisfied I am satisfied Woful is the state of that man that feels the worm of conscience nibling on the most tender part of the soul and hath no relief against it That feels the intollerable scalding wrath of God burning within and hath nothing to cool it Hear me you that slight troubles of conscience that call them fancies and melancholly whimsies if you ever had had but one sick night for sin if you had ever felt that shame fear horror and despair which are the dismal effects of an accusing and condemning conscience you would account it an unspeakable mercy to hear of a way for the discharge of a poor sinner from that guilt You would kiss the feet of that messenger that could bring you tydings of peace You would call him blessed that should direct you to an effectual remedy Now whoever thou art that pinest away in thine iniquities that droopest from day to day under the present wounds and dismal presages of conscience know that thy soul and peace can never meet till thou art perswaded to come to this blood of sprinkling The blood of this sacrifice speaks better things than the blood of Abel The blood of this sacrifice is the blood of God Act. 20.28 invaluably pretious blood 1 Pet. 1.18 one drop of it infinitely excels the blood of all other creatures Heb. 10.4 5 6. Such is the blood that must do thee good Lord I must have such blood saith conscience as is capable of giving thee full satisfaction or it can give me no peace The blood of all the Cattle upon a thousand Hills cannot do this What is the blood of beasts to God The blood of all the men in the world can do nothing in this case What is our polluted blood worth No no it 's the blood of God that must satisfie both thee and me Yea Christs blood is not only the blood of God but it 's blood shed in thy stead and in thy place and room Gal. 3.13 He was made a curse for us And so it becomes sin pardoning blood Heb. 9.22 Eph. 1.7 Col. 1.14 Rom. 3.26 And consequently conscience pacifying and soul quieting blood Col. 1.20 Eph. 2.13 14. Rom. 3.26 O bless God that ever the news of this blood came to thine ears With hands and eyes lifted up to Heaven admire that grace that cast thy lot in a place where this joyful sound rings in the ears of poor sinners What had thy case been if thy mother had brought thee forth in the desarts of Arabia or in the wastes of America or what if thou hadst been nursed up by a Popish father who could have told thee no other remedy when in distress for sin but to go such a pilgrimage to whip and lash thy self to satisfie an angry God! Surely the pure light of the Gospel shining upon this generation is a mercy never to be duly valued never to be enough prized Corollary 2. Hence also be informed of the necessity of faith in order to a state and sense of peace with God For to what purpose is the blood of Christ our sacrifice shed unless it be actually and personally applyed and appropriated by faith You know when the sacrifices under the Law were brought to be slain he that brought it was to put his hand upon the head of his sacrifice and so it was accepted from him to make an attonement Lev. 1.4 Not only to signifie that now it was no more his but Gods the propriety being transferred by a kind of manumission nor yet that he voluntarily gave it to the Lord as his own free act but principally it noted the putting off his sins and the penalty due to him for them upon the head of the sacrifice and so it implyed in it an execration as if he had said upon thy head be the evil So the Learned observe the Ancient Aegyptians were wont expresly to imprecate when they sacrificed If any evil be coming upon us or upon Aegypt let it turn and rest upon this head laying their hand at these words on the sacrifices head And upon that ground saith the Historian none of them would eat of the head of any living creature You must also lay the hand of faith upon Christ your sacrifice not to imprecate but apply and appropriate him to your own souls he having been made a curse for you To this the whole Gospel tends even to perswade sinners to apply Christ and his blood to their own souls To this he invited us Matth. 11.28 Come unto me ye that are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest For this end our sacrifice was lifted up upon the Altar Joh. 3.14 15. As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the wilderness so must the son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life The Effects of the Law not only upon the conscience filling it with torments but upon the whole person bringing death upon it are here shadowed out by the stingings of fiery Serpents and Christ by the brazen Serpent which Moses exalted for the Israelites that were stunâ— to look unto And as by looking to it they were healed so by believing or looking to Christ in faith our souls are healed Those that looked not to the Brazen Serpent died infallibly so must all that look not to Jesus our sacrifice by faith It 's true the death of Christ is the meritorious cause of remission but faith is the instrumental applying cause and as Christs blood is necessary in its place so is our faith in its place also For to the actual remission of sin and peace of conscience there must be a co-operation of all the causes of remission and peace As there is the grace and love of God for an efficient and impulsive cause and the death of Christ our
sacrifice the meritorious cause so of necessity there must be faith the instrumental cause And these concauses do all sweetly meet in their influences and activities in our remission and tranquility of conscience and are all suo genere in their kind and place absolutely necessary to the procuring and applying of it What the near that the blood of Christ is shed if I have no interest in it no saving influences from it O be convinvinced this is the end the business of life Faith is the Phoenix grace as Christ is the Phoenix mercy He is the gift Joh. 4.10 And this is the work of God Ioh. 6.29 the death of Christ the offers and tenders of Christ never saved one soul in themselves without believing application But wo is me how do I see sinners either not at all toucht with the sense of sin and so being whole need not the Physitian or if any be sâ—â—â—g and wounded with guilt how do they lick themselves whole with their own duties and reformations as Physitians say of wounds let them but be kept clean and nature will find balsom of its own to heal them If it be so in spiritual wounds what need Christ to have left the Fathers bosom and come down to dye in the quality and nature of a Sacrifice for us O if men can but have health pleasure riches honours and any way make a shift to still a brawling conscience that it may not check or interrupt them in these enjoyments Christ may go where he will for them And I am assured till God shew you the face of sin in the glass of the Law Make the Scorpions and fiery Serpents that lurk in the Law and in your own consciences to come hissing about you and smiting you with their deadly stings till you have had some sick nights and sorrowful days for sin you will never go up and down seeking an interest in the blood of this sacrifice with tears But Reader if ever this be thy condition then wilt thou know the worth of a Christ. Then thou wilt have a value for the blood of sprinkling As I remember it 's storied of our Crook-back Richard when he was put to a rout in a field battel and flying on foot from his pursuing enemies he cried out O now said he a Kingdom for a Horse So wilt thou cry a Kingdom for a Christ. Ten thousand Worlds now if I had thâ—m for the blood of sprinkling Corollary 3. Is Christ your High-Priest and is his Priestood so indispensably necessary to your salvation then freely acknowledge your utter impotency to reconcile your selves to God by any thing you can do or suffer And let Christ have the whole glory of your recovery ascribed to him It 's highly reasonable that he that laid down the whole price should have the whole praise If any man think or say he could have made an attonement for himself he doth therein cast no light reproach upon that profound wisdom which laid the design of our redemption in the death of Christ. But of this I have spoken elsewhere And therefore Corollary 4. In the last place I rather choose to perswade you to see your necessity of this Priest and his most excellent sacrifice and accordingly to make use of it The best of you have polluted natures poisoned in the womb with sin those natures have need of this sacrifice They must have the benefit of this blood to pardon and cleanse them or be eternally damned Hear me ye that never spent a tear for the sin of nature if the blood of Christ be not springled upon your natures it had been better for you that you had been the generation of beasts the off-spring of Dragons or Toads They have a contemptible but not a vitiated sinful nature as you have Your Actual sins have need of this Priest and his sacrifice to procure remission for them If he take them not away by the blood of his cross they can never be taken away They will lie down with you in the dust They will rise with you and follow you to the Judgement seat crying we are thy works and we will follow thee All thy repentance and tears shouldst thou weep as many tears as there be drops in the Ocean can never take away sin Thy duties even the best of them need this sacrifice It is in the verture thereof that they are accepted of God And were it not God had respect to Christs offering he would not regard or look towards thee or any of thy duties Thou couldst no more come near God than thou couldst approach a devouring fire or dwell with everlasting burnings Well then say I need such a Priest every way Love him in all his offices See the goodness of God in providing such a sacrifice for thee Meat drink and air not more necessary to maintain thy natural life than the death of Christ is to give and maintain thy spiritual life O then let thy soul grow big whilst meditating of the usefulness and excellency of Christ which is thus displaied and unfolded in every branch of the Gospel And with a deep sence upon thy heart let thy lips say blessed be God for Iesus Christ. The TWELFTH SERMON HEB. X.XIV. For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified AFter this more general view and consideration of the Priesthood of Christ method requires that we come to a nearer and more particular consideration of the parts thereof which are his Oblation and Intercession answerable to the double office of the High-Priest offering the blood of the Sacrifices without the holy place which Typed out Christs oblation and then once a year bringing the blood before the Lord into the most holy place presenting it before the Lord and with it sprinkling the mercy-seat wherein the intercession of Christ the other part or Act of his Priesthood was in a lively manner Typified to us My present business is to open and apply the Oblation of Christ. The efficacy and excellency whereof is excellently illustrated by a comparison with all other oblations in the precedent context and with a singular Encomium commended to us in these words from the singularity of it It is but one offering one not only specifically but one numerically considered But once offered and never more to be repeated For Christ dieth no more Rom. 6.9 He also commends it from the efficacy of it By it he hath perfected i. e. not only purchased a possibility of salvation but all that we need to our full perfection It brings in a most intire compleat and perfect righteousness All that remains to make us perfectly happy is but the full application of the benefits procured by this Oblation for us Moreover it 's here commended from the extensiveness of it Not being restrained to a few but applicable to all the Saints in all the ages and places of the world For this indefinite them that are sanctified is
friendship For this end Christ offered up himself to God I say not for this end only but more especially hence it 's called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a propitiation and so the Seaventy render that place Num. 15. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the propitiating Ram. But here I would not be mistaken as though the reconciliation were made only between us and God the Father by the blood of the Cross for we are reconciled by it to the whole Trinity Every sin being against the divine Majesty it must needs follow that the three persons having the same divine Essence must be all offended by the commission and so all reconciled by the expiation and remission of the same But reconciliation is said to be with the Father because though the works of the Trinity ad extra be undivided and what one doth all do and what is done to one is done to all yet by this form and manner of expression as a learned man well observes the Scriptures point out the proper offices of each person The Father receives us into favour the Son mediates and gives the ransom which procures it the Spirit applies and seals this to the persons and hearts of believers However being reconciled to the Father we are also reconciled to the Son and Spirit as they are one God in three persons And if it be objected that then Christ offered up a Sacrifice or laid down a price to reconcile us to himself I shall more fairly and directly meet with and satisfie that objection when I come to speak of Christs satisfaction which is one of the principal fruits of this his excellent Oblation For present this may inform you about the nature and pretious worth of Christs Oblation The uses whereof follow in these five practical Inferences Inference 1. Hence it follows that actual Believers are fully freed from the gilt of their sins and shall never more come under condemnation The Obligation of sin is perfectly abolished by the vertue of this Sacrifice When Christ became our Sacrifice he both bare and bare away our sins First It was laid upon him then expiated by him So much is imported in that word Heb. 9.28 Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many To bear the word is a full and emphatical word signifying not only to bear but to bear away So Joh. 1.29 behold the Lamb of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that taketh away the sins of the world Not only declaratively or by way of manifestation to the Conscience but really making a purgation of sin as it is in Heb. 1.3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 word for word a purgation being made and not only declared Now how great a mercy is this that by him all that believe should be justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses Act. 13.39 What shall we call this grace Surely we should do somewhat more than admire it and faint under the sense of such a mercy Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered Psal. 32.1 or Oh the blessedness or felicities of him that is pardoned who can express the mercies comforts happiness of such a state as this Reader let me beg thee if thou be one of this pardoned number to look over thy cancelled bonds and see what vast sums are remitted to thee Remember what thou wast in thy natural estate possibly thou wast in that black bill 1 Cor. 6.3 what and yet pardoned fully and finally pardoned and that freely as to any hand that thou hadst in the procurement of it what canst thou do less than fall down at the feet of free grace and kiss those feet that moved so freely towards so vile a sinner It is not long since that thy iniquities were upon thee and thou pinest away in them Their guilt could by no creature power be separated from thy soul. Now they are removed from thee as far as the East from the West Psal. 103.11 So that when the East and West which are the two opposite points of Heaven meet then thy soul and its guilt may meet again together O the unspeakable efficacy of Christs Sacrifice which extends to all sins 1 Joh. 1.7 the blood of Christ cleanseth from all sins sins past and present without exception And some Divines of good note affirm all sins to come also for saith Mr. Paul Baines original sin in which all future sins are as fruits in the root is pardoned and if these were not pardoned they would void and irritate former pardons And lastly it would derogate from the most plenary satisfaction of Christ. But the most say and I think truly that all the past sins of Believers are pardoned without revocation All their present sins without exception but not their sins to come by way of anticipation and yet for them there is a pardon of course which is applied on their repentance and application of Christs blood so that none of them shall make void former pardons O let these things slide sweetly to thy melting heart Inference 2. From this Oblation Christ made of himself to God for our sins we infer the inflexible severity of divine Iustice which could be no other way diverted from us and appeased but by the blood of Christ. If Christ had not presented himself to God for us Justice would not have spared us And if he do appear before God as our surety it will not spare him Rom. 8.32 He spared not his Son but delivered him up to death for us all If forbearance might have been expected from any surely it might from God who is very pitiful and full of tender mercy Jam. 5.11 yet God in this case spared not If one might have expected sparing mercy and abatement from any surely Christ might most of all expect it from his own Father yet you hear God spared not his own Son Sparing-mercy is the lowest degree of mercy yet it was denied to Christ. He abated him not a minute of the time appointed for his suffering nor one degree of wrath he was to bear Nay though in the Garden Christ fell upon the ground and sweet clodders of blood and in that unparallel'd Agony scrued up his spirit to the highest intention in that pitiful cry Father if it be possible let this cup pass and though he brake out upon the Cross in that heart rending complaint my God my God why hast thou forsaken me Yet no abatement Justice will not bend in the least but having to do with him on this account resolves to fetch its pennyworths out of his blood If this be so what is the case of thy soul Reader if thou be a man or woman that hast no interest in this Sacrifice For if these things be done in Christ a green tree what will be done to thee the dry tree Luk. 23.31 That is if God so deal with me that am not only innocent but like a green and fruitful
SERMON GAL. III. XIII Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a curse for us YOU have seen the general nature necessity and parts of Christs Priesthood viz. his Oblation and Intercession Before you part from this office it 's necessary you should further take into consideration the principal fruits and effects of his Priesthood Which are compleat Satisfaction and the Aquisition or purchase of an eternal inheritance The former viz. the satisfaction made by his blood is manifestly contained in this excellent Scripture before us wherein the Apostle having shewn before at the tenth verse that whosoever continues not in all things written in the Law to do them is cursed declares how notwithstanding the threats of the Law a Believer comes to be freed from the curse of it Namely by Christs bearing that curse for him and so satisfying Gods justice and discharging the Believer from all obligations to punishment More particularly in these words you have the Believers discharge from the curse of the Law and the way and manner thereof opened First The Believers discharge Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law The Law of God hath three parts Commands Promises and Threatnings or Curses The Curse of the Law is its condemning sentence whereby a sinner is bound over to deaâ—h even the death of soul and body The chains by which it binds him is the guilt of sin and from this none can loose the soul but Christ. This curse of the Law is the most dreadful thing imaginable It strikes at the life of the sinner Yea his best life the eternal life of the soul. And when it hath condemned it is inexorable No cries nor tears no reformations or repentance can loose the guilty sinner for it requirâ—s for its reparation that which no meer creature can give even an infinite satisfaction Now from this curse Christ frees the Believer That is he dissolves the obligation to punishment Cancels the hand-writing Looses all the bonds and chains of guilt So that the curse of the Law hath nothing to do with him for ever Secondly We have here the way and manner in an by which this is done And that is by a full price paid down and that price paid in the room of the sinner both making up a compleat and full satisfaction He pays a full price every way adequate and proportionable to the wrong So much this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we translate redeemed imports He hath bought us out or fully bought us That is by a full price This price with which he so fully bought or purchased our freedom from the curse is not only called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Matth. 20.28 a ransom But more emphatically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 1 Tim. 2.5.6 which might be translated an adequate or fully answerable ransom And so his freeing us by this price is not only expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thou hast bought us to God by thy blood Rev. 5.9 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath fully perfectly bought us out And as the price or ransom paid was full perfect and sufficient in it self so it was paid in our room and upon our account So saith the Text by his being made a curse for us The meaning is not that Christ was made the very curse it self Changed into a curse no more than when the word is said to be made flesh the divine nature was converted into flesh but it assumed or took flesh and so Christ he took the curse upon himself Therefore it 's said 2 Cor. 5.21 He was made sin for us who knew no sin That is our â—in was imputed to our surety and laid upon him for satisfaction And so this word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for implies a substitution of one in the place and stead of another Now the price being full and paid in lieu of our sins and thereupon we fully redeemed or delivered from the curse It follows as a fair and just deduction that DOCT. The death of Christ hath made a full satisfaction to God for all the sins of his Elect. He to wit our surety Christ was oppressed and he was afflicted saith the Prophet Isai. 53.7 it may be as fitly rendred and the words will bear it without the least force it was exacted and he answered But how being either way translated it establisheth the satisfaction of Christ may be seen in our learned Annotations on that place So Col. 1.14 in whom we have 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sin Here we have the benefit viz. redemption interpreted by way of Apposition even the remission of sins and the matchless price that was laid down to purchase it the blood of Christ. So again Heb. 9.12 by his own blood he entred once into the holy place having obtained 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 eternal redemption for us Here 's eternal redemption the mercy purchased His own blood the price that procur'd it Now for as much as this Doctrine of Christs satisfaction is so necessary weighty and comfortable in it self and yet so much opposed and intricated by several enemies to it the method I shall take for the clearing establishing and preparing it for use shall be First To open the nature of Christs satisfaction and shew what it is Secondly To establish the truth of it and prove that he made full satisfaction to God for all the sins of the Elect. Thirdly To answer the most considerable Objections made against it And Lastly to Apply it First What is the satisfaction of Christ and what doth it imply I answer Satisfaction is the Act of Christ God-man presenting himself as our surety in obedience to God and love to us to do and suffer all that the Law required of us and thereby freeing us from the wrath and curse due to us for our sins First It is the Act of God-man no other was capable of giving satisfaction for an infinite wrong done to God But by reason of the union of the two natures in his wonderful person he could do it and hath done it for us The humane nature did what was necessary in its kind it gave the matter of the Sacrifice the divine nature stampt the dignity and value upon it which made it an adequate compensation So that it was opus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the act of God-man Yet so that each nature retained its own properties notwithstanding their joynt influence into the effect If the Angels in Heaven had laid down their lives or if the blood of all the men in the world had beeen poured out by Justice this could never have satisfied because that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 worth and value which this Sacrifice hath would have still been wanting It was God that redeemed the Church with his own blood Act. 20.28 If God redeem with his own blood he redeems as God-man without any dispute Secondly If he
remission of sin to believers and lest we should lose the Emphatical word he doubles it to declare I say his righteousness Every one can see how his mercy is declared in remission but he would have us take notice that his justification of Believers is an act of Justice and that God as he is a just God cannot condemn the believer since Christ hath satisfied his debts This attribute seems to be the main bar against remission but now it 's become the very ground and reason why God remits Oh how comfortable a text is this Doth Satan or Conscience set forth thy sin in all its discouraging circumstances and aggravations God hath set forth Christ to be a propitiation Must justice be manifested satisfied and glorified So it is in the death of Christ ten thousand times more than ever it could be in thy damnation Thus you have a brief account of the satisfaction made by Jesus Christ. Secondly We shall gather up all that hath been said to establish the truth of Christs satisfaction Proving the reality of it that it is not an improper catechristical fictitious satisfaction by divine acceptilation as some have very diminutively called it but real proper and full and as such accepted by God For his blood is the blood of a surety Heb. 7.22 who came under the same obligations of the Law with us Gal. 4.4 and though he had no sin of his own yet standing before God as our surety the iniquities of us all were laid upon him Isai. 53.6 and from him did the Lord with great severity exact satisfaction for our sins Rom. 8.32 punishing them upon his soul. Matth. 27.46 and upon his body Act. 2.23 and with this obedience of his Son is fully pleased and satisfied Eph. 5.2 And hath in token thereof raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand 1 Tim. 3.16 And for his righteousness sake acquitted and discharged believers who shall never more come into condemnation Rom. 8.1 34. All this is plain in Scripture and our faith in the satisfaction of Christ is not built on the wisdom of man but the everlasting sealed truth of God Yet such is the perverse nature of man and the pride of his heart that whilst he should be humbly adoring the grace of God in providing such a surety for us he is found accusing the justice and diminishing the mercy of God and raising all the objections which Satan and his own heart can invent to overturn that blessed foundation upon which God hath built up his own honour and his peoples salvation Thirdly In the next place therefore we shall reject those doctrines and remove the principal of those objections that are found militating against the satisfaction of Christ. And in the first place we reject with deep abhorrence that doctrine which ascribes to man any power in whole or in part to satisfie God for his own or other mens sins This no meer creature can do by active obedience were it so compleat that he could never sin in thought word or deed any more but live the most holy life that ever any lived For all this would be no more than his duty as a creature Luk. 17.10 and so can be no satisfaction for what he is by nature or hath done against God as a sinner Nor yet by sufferings For we have offended an infinite God and can never satisfie him by our finite sufferings We also with like detestation reject that doctrine which makes the satisfaction of Christ either impossible or fictitious and inconsistent with grace in the free pardon of sin Many are the cavils raised against Christs satisfaction the principal are such as these that follow The Doctrine of Christs Satisfaction is absurd for Christ say we is God if so then God satisfies himself then which what can be more absurd to imagine I Answer God cannot properly be said to satisfie himself for that would be the same thing as to pardon simply without any satisfaction But there is a twofold consideration of Christ. One in respect of his Essence and divine nature in which sence he is the object both of the offence and of the satisfaction made for it Another in respect of his person and oeconomy or office in which sense he properly satisfies God being in respect of his manhood another and inferior to God Ioh. 14.28 the blood of the man Christ Jesus is the matter of the satisfaction The divine nature dignifies it and makes it of infinite value A certain family hath committed treason against the King and are all under the condemnation of the Law for it the Kings Son moved with pity and love resolves to satisfie the Law and yet save the Family in order whereunto he marries a daughter of the family whereby her blood becomes Royal blood and worth the blood of the whole family whence she sprang this Princess is by her Husband executed in the room of the rest In this case the King satisfies not himself for the wrong but is satisfied by the death of another equivalent in worth to the blood of them all This similitude answers not to all the particulars as indeed nothing in nature doth or can but it only shews what it was that satisfied God and how it became so satisfactory If Christ satisfied by paying our Debt then he should have endured eternal torments For so we should and the damned shall We must distinguish betwixt what is essential and what is accidental in punishment The primary intent of the Law is reparation and satisfaction he that can make it at one intire payment as Christ could and did ought to be discharged He that cannot as no meer creature can ought to lye for ever as the damned do under sufferings If God will be satisfied for our sin before he pardon them how then is pardon an Act of Grace Pardon could not be an act of pure grace if God received satisfaction from us but if he pardon us upon the satisfaction received from Christ though it be of debt to him it is of grace to us For it was grace to admit a surety to satisfie more grace to provide him and most of all to apply his satisfaction to us by uniting us to Christ as he hath done But God loved us before Christ died for us for it was the love of God to the world that moved him to give his only begotten Son Could God love us and yet not be reconciled and satisfied Gods complacential love is indeed inconsistent with an unreconciled state He is reconciled to every one he so loves But his benevolent love consisting in his purpose of Good may be before actual reconciliation and satisfaction Temporal death as well as eternal is a part of the curse if Christ have fully satisfied by bearing the curse for us how is it that those for whom he bare it dye as well as others As Temporal death is a
how apt are we to regret at providences as if it had no conducency at all to the glory of God or to our good Exod. 5.22 Yea to limit providence to our way and time thus the Israelites tempted God and limited the Holy One Psal. 78.20 41. How often also do we unbelievingly distrust providence as though it could never accomplish what we profess to expect and believe Ezek. 37.11 Our bones are dry our hope is lost we are cut off for our part So Gen. 18.13 14. Isai. 40.27 There are but few Abrahams among believers who against hope believed in hope giving glory to God Rom. 4.20 And it is but too common for good men to repine and fret at providence when their wills lusts or humours are crossed by it This was the great sin of Ionah Brethren these things ought not to be so Did you but seriously consider either the design of providence which is to bring about the gratious designs and purposes of God upon you which were laid before this world was Eph. 1.11 or that it is a lifting up of thy wisdom against his as if thou couldst better order thine affairs if thou hadst the conduct and management of them Or that you have to do herein with a great and dreadful God in whose hands you are as the clay in the Potters hand that may do what he will with you and all that is yours without giving you an account of any of his matters Iob 33.13 Or whether providence hath cast others as good by nature as your selves tumbled them down from the top of health wealth honours and pleasures to the bottom of Hell Or Lastly Did you but consider how often it hath formerly baffled and befool'd your selves Made you retract with shame your rash headlong censures of it and enforced you by the sight of its births and issues to confess your folly and ignorance as Asaph did Psal. 73.22 I say if such considerations as these could but have place with you in your troubles and temptations they would quickly mould your hearts into a better and more quiet frame O that I could but perswade you to resign all to Christ. He is a cunning workman as he he is called Prov. 8.30 and can effect what he pleaseth It 's a good rule de operibus Dei non est judicandum ante quintum actum Let God work out all that he intends have but patience till he hath put the last hand to his work and then find fault with it if you can You have heard of the patience of Iob and have seen the end of the Lord. Iam. 5.11 Inference 3. If Christ be Lord and King over the providential Kingdom and that for the good of his people let none that are Christs henceforth stand in a slavish fear of creatures It 's a good note that Grotius hath upon my text It 's a marvailous consolation saith he that Christ hath so great an Empire and that he governs it for the good of his people as an head consulting the good of the body Our Head and Husband is Lord General of all the Hosts of Heaven and Earth No creature can move hand or tongue without his leave or order The power they have is given them from above Ioh. 19.11 12. The serious consideration of this truth will make the feeblest spirit cease trembling and fall a singing Psal. 47.7 The Lord is King of all the earth sing ye praises with understanding that is as some well paraphase it every one that hath understanding of this comfortable truth Hath he not given you abundant security in many express promises that all shall issue well for you that fear him Rom. 8.28 All things shall work together for good to them that love God And Eccles. 8.12 Verily it shall be well with them that fear God even with them that fear before him And suppose he had not yet the very understanding of our relation to such a King should in it self be sufficient security For he is the universal supream absolute meek and merciful victorious and immortal King He sits in glory at the Fathers right hand and to make his seat the easier his enemies are a footstool for him His love to his people is unspeakably tender and fervent He that touches them touches the apple of his eye Zech. And it 's hardly imaginable that Jesus Christ will sit still and suffer his enemies to thrust out his eyes Till this be forgotten the wrath of man is not feared Isai. 51.12 13. He that fears a man that shall die forgets the Lord his Maker he loves you too well to sign any order to your prejudice and without his order none can touch you Inference 4. If the Government of the world be in the hands of Christ then our engaging and entitling of Christ to all our affairs and business is the true and ready way to their success and prosperity if all depend upon his pleasure then sure it 's your wisdom to take him along with you to every action and business It 's no lost time that 's spent in prayer wherein we ask his leave and beg his presence with us And take it for a clear truth that which is not prefaced with prayer will be followed with trouble How easily can Jesus Christ dash all your designs when they are at the very birth and article of execution and break off in a moment all the purposes of your hearts It 's a Proverb among the Papists that Mass and Meat hinder no nan The Turks will pray five times a day how urgent soever their business be Blush you that enterprise your affairs without God I reckon that business as good as done to which we have gotten Christs leave and engaged his presence to accompany us to it Inference 5. Lastly Eye Christ in all the events of providence see his hand in all that befals you whether it be evil or good The works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein Psal. 111.2 How much good might we get by observation of the good or evil that befals us throughout our course First In all the evils of trouble and affliction that befal you eye Jesus Christ in it all And set your hearts to the study of these four things in affliction First Study his Soveraignty and Dominion For he creates and forms them They rise not out of the dust nor do they befal you casually But he raises them up and gives them their commission Jer. 18.11 Behold I create evil and devise a device against you He elects the instrument of your trouble He makes the rod as afflictive as he pleaseth He orders the continuance and end of your troubles And they will not cease to be afflictive to you till Christ say leave off it is enough The Centurion wisely considered this when He told him Luk. 7.8 I have souldiers under me and I say to one go and
a debased state but was really and indeed humbled and that not only before men but God As man he was humbled really as God in respect of his manifestive glory And as it was real so also voluntary It is not said he was humbled but he humbled himself He was willing to stoop to this low and abject state for us And indeed the voluntariness of his humiliation made it most acceptable to God and singularly commends the love of Christ to us That he would choose to stoop to all this ignominy sufferings and abasement for us Secondly The degrees of his humiliation it was not only so low as to become a man a man under law but he humbled himself to become obedient to death even the death of the Cross. Here you see the depth of Christs humiliation both specified it was unto death and aggravated even the death of the Cross. Not only to become a man but a dead corpse and that too hanging on the tree Dying the death of a malefactor Thirdly The duration or continuance of this his humiliation It continued from the first moment of his incarnation to the very moment of his vivification and quickning in the grave So the terms of it are fixed here by the Apostle From the time he was found in fashion as a man that is from his incarnation unto his death on the Cross which also comprehends the time of his abode in the grave So long his humiliation lasted Hence the observation is DOCT. That the state of Christ from his Conception to his Resurrection was a state of deep abasement and humiliation We are now entring upon Christs humbled state which I shall cast under three general heads viz. his Humiliation in his incarnation in his life and in his death My present work is to open Christs Humiliation in his incarnation imported in these words he was found in fashion as a man By which you are not to conceive that he only assumed a body as an assisting form to appear transiently to us in it and so lay it down again It is not such an apparition of Christ in the shape of a man that is here intended but his true and real assumption of our nature which was a special part of his Humiliation as will appear by the following particulars First The Incarnation of Christ was a most wonderful humiliation of him in as much as thereby he is brought into the ranck and order of creatures who is over all God blessed for ever Rom. 9.5 This is the astonishing mysterie 1 Tim. 3.16 that God should be manifest in the flesh That the eternal God should truly and properly be called the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 It was a wonder to Solomon that God would dwell in that stately and magnificent Temple at Ierusalem 2 Chron. 6.18 But will God in very deed dwell with men on the earth behold the Heaven and Heaven of Heavens cannot contain thee how much less this house which I have built But it 's a far greater wonder that God should dwell in a body of flesh and pitch his Tabernacle with us Ioh. 1.14 It would have seemed a rude blasphemy had not the Scriptures plainly revealed it to have thought or spoken of the eternal God as born in time The worlds Creator as a Creature The Ancient of daies as an Infant of daies The Heathen Chaldeans told the King of Babel that the dwelling of the Gods is not with flesh Dan. 2.11 But now God not only dwells with flesh but dwells in flesh Yea was made flesh and dwelt among us For the Sun to fall from its Sphear and be degraded into a wandring Attom For an Angel to be turned out of Heaven and be converted into a silly fly or worm had been no such great abasement for they were but Creatures before and so they should abide still though in an inferiour order or species of creatures The distance betwixt the highest and lowest species of creatures is but a finite distance The Angel and the worm dwell not so far assunder But for the infinite glorious Creator of all things to become a creature is a mystery exceeding all humane understanding The distance betwixt God and the highest order of creatures is an infinite distance He is said to humble himself to behold the things that are done in Heaven What a humiliation then is it to behold the things in the lower world But to be born into it and become a man Great indeed is the mysterie of Godliness Behold saith the Prophet Isai. 40.15 18. The nations are as the drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the ballance he taketh up the Isles as a very little thing All nations before him are as nothing and they are accounted to him less than nothing and vanity If indeed this great and incomprehensible Majesty will himself stoop to the state and condition of a creature we may easily believe that being once a creature he would expose himself to hunger thirst shame spetting death or any thing but sin For that once being man he should endure any of these things is not so wonderful as that he should become a man This was the low stoop a deep abasement indeed Secondly It was a marvelous humiliation to the Son of God not only to become a creature but an inferiour creature a man and not an Angel Had he took the Angelical nature though it had been a wonderful abasement to him yet he had staid if I may so speak nearer his own home and been somewhat liker to a God than now he appeared when he dwelt with us For Angels are the highest and most excellent of all created Beings For their nature they are pure spirits for their wisdom Intelligencies For their dignity they are called principalities and powers For their habitations they are stiled the Heavenly Host and for their imployment it is to behold the face of God in Heaven The highest pitch both of our holiness and happiness in the coming world is expressed by this we shall be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 equal to the Angels Luk. 20.36 As man is nothing to God so he is much inferiour to the Angels So much below them that he is not able to bear the sight of an Angel though in an humane shape rendring himself as familiarly as may be to him Iudg. 13.22 When the Psalmist had contemplated the Heavens and viewed the Coelestial bodies the glorious Luminaries the Moon and Stars which God had made he cries out Psal. 8.5 what is man that thou art mindful of him or the son of man that thou visitest him Take man at his best when he came a perfect and pure piece out of his Makers hand in the state of innocency yet he was inferiour to Angels They alwaies bare the image of God in a more eminent degree than man as being wholly spiritual substances and so more lively representing God than man could do whose noble soul is immerst
Tree O let the place where you assemble to so see this sight of your crucified Jesus be a Bokim a place of lamentation Inference 3. Moreover hence it 's evident that the believing and affectionate remembrance of Christ is of singular advantage at all times to the people of God For it 's the immediate end of one of the greatest Ordinances that ever Christ appointed to the Church To have frequent recognitions of Christ will appear to be singularly efficatious and useful to Believers if you consider First If at any time thy heart be dead and hard this is the likeliest means in the world to dissolve melt and quicken it Look hither hard heart hard indeed if this hammer will not break it Behold the blood of Jesus Secondly Art thou easily overcome by Temptions to sin This is the most powerful pull back in the world from sin Rom. 6.2 How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein We are crucified with Christ what have we to do with sin Such a thought as this when thy heart is yielding to Temptations How can I do this and crucifie the Son of God afresh Haâ—h he not suffered enough already on earth shall I yet make him groan as it were for me in Heaven look as David poured the water brought from the Well of Bethlehem on the ground though he was athirst for said he it is the blood of the men i. e. they eminently hazarded their lives to fetch it much more should a Christian pour out upon the ground yea despise and trample under foot the greatest profit or pleasure of sin saying nay I will have nothing to do with it I will on no terms touch it for it is the blood of Christ. It cost blood infinitely pretious blood to expiate it If there were a knife in your house that had been thrust to the heart of your Father you would not take pleasure to see that knife much less to use it Thirdly Are you afraid your sins are not pardoned but still stand upon account before the Lord what more relieving what more satisfying than to see the Cup of the New-Testament in the blood of Christ which is shed for many for the remission of sins Who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect it 's Christ that died Fourthly Are you staggered at the sufferings and hard things you must endure for Christ in this world doth the flesh shrink back from these things and cry spare thy self What is there in the world more likely to steel and fortifie thy spirit with resolution and courage than such a sight as this Did Christ face the wrath of men and the wrath of God too Did he stand as a pillar of brass with unbroken patience and stedfast resolution under such troubles as never met in the like height upon any mear creature till death beat the last breath out of his nostrils And shall I shrink for a trifle Ah he did not serve me so I will arm my self with the like mind 1 Pet. 2.2 Fifthly Is thy faith staggered at the promises canst thou not rest upon a promise Here 's that will help thee against hope to believe in hope giving glory to God For this is Gods seal added to his Covenant which ratifies and binds fast all that God hath spoken Sixthly Dost thou idle away pretious time vainly and live unusefully to Christ in thy generation what more apt both to convince and cure thee than such a remembrance of Christ as this O when thou considerest thou art not thine own thy time thy tallents are not thine own but Christs When thou shalt see thou art bought with a price a great price indeed and so art strictly obliged to glorifie God with thy soul and body which are his 2 Cor. 5.14 This will powerfully awake a dull sluggish and lazy spirit In a word what grace is there this remembrance of Christ cannot quicken What sin cannot it mortifie What duty cannot it animate O it is of singular use in all cases to the people of God Inference 4. Lastly Hence we infer Though all other things do yet Christ neither doth nor can grow stale Here 's an Ordinance to preserve his remembrance fresh to the end of the world The blood of Christ doth never dry up The beauty of this Rose of Sharon is never lost or withred He is the same yesterday to day and for ever As his body in the grave saw no corruption so neither can his Love or any of his excellencies When the Saints shall have fed their eyes upon him in Heaven thousands and millions of years he shall be as fresh beautiful and orient as at the beginning Other beauties have their prime and their fading time but Christs abides eternally Our delight in creatures is often most at first acquaintance when we come nearer to them and see more of them the edge of our delight is rebated But the longer you know Christ and the nearer you come to him still the more do you see of his glory Every farther prospect of Christ entertains the mind with a fresh delight He is as it were a new Christ every day and yet the same Christ still Blessed be God for Iesus Christ. The TWENTY SECOND SERMON LUK. XXII XLI XLII XLIII XLIV And he was withdrawn from them about a stones cast and kneeled down and prayed saying Father if thou be willing remove this Cup from me nevertheless not my will but thine be done And there appeared an Angel unto him from Heaven strengthning him And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground THE hour is now almost come even that hour of sorrow which Christ had so often spoken of Yet a little a very little while and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners He hath affectionately recommended his Children to his Father He hath set his house in order and ordained a memorial of his death to be left with his people as you have heard There is but one thing more to do and then the Tragoedy begins He recommended us he must also recommend himself by prayer to the Father and when that is done he is ready let Iudas with the black guard come when they will This last Act of Christs preparation for his own death is contained in this Scripture wherein we have an account First Of his Prayer Secondly Of the Agony attending it Thirdly His relief in that Agony by an Angel that came and comforted him First The Prayer of Christ in a praying posture he will be found when the enemy comes He will be taken upon his knees He was pleading hard with God in prayer for strength to carry him through this heavy trial when they came to take him And this prayer was a very remarkable prayer both for the solitariness of it he withdrew about a stones cast vers 41. from his dearest intimates
God and plenteous redemption for the greatest of Sinners that by Faith apply the blood of the Cross to their poor guilty Souls So speaks the Apostle Col. 1.14 In whom we have redemption through his blood even the forgiveness of sins And 1 Ioh. 1.7 The blood of Christ cleanseth us from all sin Two things will make this demonstrable First That there is sufficient efficacy in this blood of the Cross to expiate the greatest Sins Secondly That the efficacy of it is designed and intended by God for believing sinners How clearly do both these propositions lie in the Word First That there is sufficient efficacy in the blood of the Cross to expiate and wash away the greatest sins This is manifest for it is pretious blood as it 's call'd 1. Pet. 1.18 Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as Silver and Gold but with the pretious blood of the Son of God This pretiousness of the blood of Christ rises from the union it hath with that person who is over all God blessed for ever And on that account is stiled the blood of God Acts 20.28 And so it becomes Royal Princely blood Yea such for the dignity and efficacy of it as never was created or shall ever run in any other veins but his The blood of all the creatures in the world even a Sea of humane blood bears no more proportion to the pretious and excellent blood of Christ than a dish of common water to a Rivâ—r of liquid Gold On the account of its invaluable pretiousness it becomes satisfying and reconciling blood to God So the Apostle speaks Col. 1.20 And having made peace through the Blood of his Cross by him to reconcile all things to himself by him I say whether they be things in earth or things in heaven The same blood which is Redemption to them that dwell on earth is Confirmation to them that dwell in Heaven Before the efficacy of this blood guilt vanishes and shrinks away as the the shadows before the glorious Sun Every drop of it hath a voice and speaks to the soul that sits trembling under its guilt better things than the blood of Abel Heb. 12.24 It sprinkles us from an evil i. e. an unquiet and accusing conscience Heb. 10.22 For having enough in it to satisfie God it must needs have enough in it to satisfie conscience Conscience can demand no more for its satisfaction nor will it take less than God demands for his satisfaction And in this blood is enough to give both satisfaction Secondly As there is sufficient Efficacy in this blood to expiate the greatest guilt so it 's as manifest that the vertue and efficacy of it is intended and designed by God for the Use of believing sinners Such blood as this was shed without doubt for some weighty end That some might be the better for it Who they are for whom it is intended is plain enough from Acts 13.39 And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which they could not be justified by the Law of Moses That the remission of the sins of believers was the great thing designed in the pouring out of this pretious blood of Christ appears from all the Sacrifices that figured it to the ancient Church The sheding of that Typical blood spake a design of pardon And the putting of their hands upon the head of the Sacrifice spake the way and Method of believing by which that blood was then applyed to them in that way and is still applyed to us in a more excellent way Had no pardon been intended no Sacrifices had been appointed Moreover let it be considered this blood of the Cross is the blood of a surety that came under the same obligations with us and in our name or stead shed it and so of course frees and discharges the principal offender or debtor Heb. 7.22 Can God exact satisfaction from the blood and death of his own Son the surety of Believers and yet still demand it from Believers It cannot be Who saith the Apostle shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods elect It is God that Iustifieth Who shall condemn It is Christ that died Rom. 8.33 34. And why are faith and repentance prescribed as the means of pardon Why doth God every where in his word call upon sinners to repent and believe in this blood Encouraging them so to do by so many pretious promises of remission and declaring the inevitable and eternal ruine of all impenitent and unbelieving ones who despise and reject this blood What I say doth all this speak but the possibility of a pardon for the greatest of sinners and the certainty of a free full and final pardon for all believing sinners O what a Joyful sound is this What ravishing voices of peace pardon grace and acceptance come to our ears from the blood of the Cross The greatest guilt that ever was contracted upon a trembling shaking Conscience can stand before the efficacy of the blood of Christ no more than the sinner himself can stand before the Justice of the Lord with all the guilt upon him Reader The word assures thee what ever thou hast been or art that sins of as deep a die as thine have been washt away in this blood I was a blasphemer a persecutor in urious but I obtained mercy saith Paul 1 Tim. 1.13 but it may be thou wilt object this was a rare and singular instance and it 's a great question whether any other sinner shall find the like grace that he did No question of it at all if you believe in Christ as he did for he tells us vers 16. For this cause I obtained mercy that in me first Iesus Christ might shew forth all long suffering for a pattern to them which should hereafter belief on him to life everlasting So that upon the same grounds he obtained mercy you may obtain it also Those very men who had an hand in the sheding of Christs blood had the benefit of that blood afterwards pardoning them Act. 2.36 There is nothing but unbelief and impenitency of heart bars thy soul from the blessings of this blood Inference 2. Did Christ die the cursed death of the Cross for believers then though there may be much of pain there is nothing of curse in the death of the Saints It still wears its dart by which it strikes but hath lost its sting by which it hurts and destroys A Serpent that hath no sting may hiss and affright but we may take him in our hand without danger Death poured out all its poison and lost its sting in Christs side when he became a curse for us But what speak I of the innocency and harmlesness of death to believers It is certainly their friend and great benefactor As there is no curse so there are many blessings in it Death is yours 1 Cor. 3.22 Yours as a special priviledge and favour Christ hath not only conquered it but is more than a conqueror
pleasures and enjoyments of the wicked which feed them for the day of slaughter How little stomach can a man have to those dainties that understands the end and meaning of them Give not sleep therefore to thine eyes Reader till thou have got good evidence that thou art of that number whom Iesus hath delivered from wrath to come Till thou canst say he is a Jesus to thee This may be made out to thy satisfaction three waies First If Iesus have delivered thee from sin the cause of wrath thou maist conclude he hath delivered thee from wrath the effect and fruit of sin Upon this account the sweet name of Iesus was imposed upon him Matth. 1.21 Thou shalt call his name Iesus for he shall save his people from their sins Whilst a man lies under the dominion and guilt of sin he lies exposed to wrath to come and when he is delivered from the guilt and power of sin he is certainly delivered from the danger of this coming wrath Where sin is not imputed wrath is not threatened Secondly If thy soul do set an inestimable value on Iesus Christ and be endeared to him upon the account of that inexpressible grace manifested in this deliverance it 's a good sign thy soul hath a share in it Mark what an Epithite the Saints give Christ upon this account Col. 1.12 13. Giving thanks to the Father who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the Kingdom of his Dear Son Christ is therefore Dear and dear beyond all compare to his saved ones I remember it 's storied of the poor enthralled Grecians that when Titus Flamminius had restored their ancient liberties and proclamation was to be made in the Market place by an Herald They so prest to hear it that the Herald was in great danger of being stifled and prest to death among the people but when the Proclamation was ended there were heard such shouts and joyful acclamations that the very birds of the air fell down astonished with the noise while they continued to cry 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Saviour a Saviour and all the following night they continued dancing and singing about his Pavilion If such a deliverance so indeared them to Titus How should the great deliverance from wrath to come endear all the Redeemed to love their dear Iesus This is the native effect of mercy on the soul that hath felt it Thirdly To conclude a disposition and readiness of mind to do or endure any thing for Christs sake upon the account of this deliverance from the wrath to come is a good evidence you are so delivered Col. 1.10 11. That we may walk worthy of the Lord to all pleasing being fruitful in every good work There 's readiness to do for Christ. Strengthened with all might according to his glorious power unto all patience and long suffering with Ioyfulness There 's a chearful readiness to endure any thing for Christ. And how both these flow from the sence of this great deliverance from wrath the 12. vers will inform you which was but now cited Oh then be serious and assiduous in the resolution of this grand case Till this be resolved nothing can be pleasant to thy Soul End 2. As the Typical blood was shed and sprinkled to deliver from danger so it was shed to make attonement Levit. 4.20 He shall expiate We translate attone the sin The word imports both And the true meaning is that by the blood of the Bullock all whose efficacy stood in its relation to the blood of Christ signified and shadowed by it the people for whom it was shed should be reconciled to God by the expiation and remission of their sins And what was shadowed in this Typical blood was really designed and accomplisht by Jesus Christ in the shedding of his blood Reconciliation of the Elect to God is therefore another of those beautiful births which Christ travailed for So you find it expresly Rom. 5.10 If when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the Death of his Son This if is not a word of doubting but argumentation The Apostle supposes it as a known truth or principle yielded by all Christians that the death of Christ was to reconcile the Elect to God And again he affirms it with like clearness Col. 1.20 And having made peace by the blood of his Cross by him to reconcile all things And that this was a main and principal end designed both by the Father and Son in the humiliation of Christ is plain from 2 Cor. 5.18 19. God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself God filled the humanity with grace and authority The Spirit of God was in him to qualifie him The authority of God was in him by Commission to make all he did valid The grace and love of God to mankind was in him and one of the principal effects in which it was manifested was this design upon which he came viz. to reconcile the world to God Upon which ground Christ is called the propitiation for our sins 1 Joh. 2.2 Now Reconciliation or attonement is nothing else but the making up of the ancient friendship betwixt God and men which sin had dissolved and so to reduce these enemies into a state of concord and sweet agreement And the means by which this blessed design was effectually compassed was by the death of Christ which made compleat satisfactâ—on to God for the wrong we had done him There was a breach made by sin betwixt God and Angels but that breach is never to be repaired or made up Since as Christ took not on him their nature so he never intended to be a mediator of reconciliation betwixt God and them That will be an Eternal breach But that which Christ designed as the end of his deaâ—h was to reconcile God and man Not the whole species but a certain number whose names were given to Christ. Here I must briefly open First how Christs death Reconciles Secondly why this Reconciliation is brought about by his death rather than any other way Thirdly what are the Articles according to which it 's made And Fourthly what manner of Reconciliation this is First How Christ Reconciles God and men by his death And it must needs be by the satisfaction his Death made to the Justice of God for our sins And so reparation being made the enmity ceases Hence it 's said Isa. 53.5 The chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes are we healed That is as our English Annotators well sense it He was chastized to procure our peace by removal of our sins that set God and us assunder the guilt thereof being discharged with the price of his blood Now this Reconciliation is made and continued betwixt God and us three waies namely by the oblation of Christ which was the price that procured it and so we were virtually or meritoriously reconciled By the application of Christ and his benefits to
gave us Commandment to Preach and testifie it to the people We had it in charge from his own mouth and dare not hide it Hence the point of Doctrine is plainly this DOCT. That our Lord Iesus Christ is ordained by God the Father to be the Iudge of quick and Dead This truth stands upon the firm basis of Scripture authority You have it from his own hand Ioh. 5.22 The Father judgeth no man but hath committed all Iudgement to the Son viz. in the sense before given And so the Apostle Act. 17.31 He hath appointed a day in the which he will Iudge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained whereof he hath given assurance c. And again Rom. 2.16 In the day when God shall Iudge the secrets of men by Iesus Christ. Three things will be opened here First the certainty of a Judgement to come Secondly the quality and nature of it Thirdly that it 's a special part of Christs Exaltation to be appointed Judge in this day First The certainty of a Judgement This is a truth of firmer establishment than Heaven and Earth It 's no devised fable no cunning artifice to keep the world in awe but a thing as confessedly true as it is awfully solemn For First As the Scriptures fore-mentioned with these 2 Cor. 5.10 Eccles. 12.14 Matth. 12.36 and many other the true and faithful sayings of God do very plainly reveal it so the Iustice and righteousness of God require it should be so For the Judge of all the earth will do right Gen. 18.25 Now righteousness it self requires that a difference be made betwixt the righteous and the wicked Say ye to the righteous it shall be well with him wo to the wicked it shall be ill with him Isa. 3.10 But no such distinction is generally and fully made betwixt one another in this world Yea rather the wicked prosper and the righteous perish There is a just man that perisheth in his righteousness and there is a wicked man that prolongeth his life in his wickedness Eccles. 7.15 Yea not only in but for his righteousness as it may be fairly rendred Here the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than himself Hab. 1.14 As the fishes of the Sea where the great and strong swallow up the small and weak And even in Courts of Judicature where the innocent might expect relief there they often meet with the worst oppressions How fairly and justly therefore doth the wise man infer a Judgement to come from this consideration Eccles. 3.16 17. I saw under the Sun the place of Iudgement that wickedness was there and the place of righteousness that iniquity was there I said in my heart God shall Iudge the righteous and the wicked for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work q. d. the Judgement to come is the only relief and support left to poor innocents to quiet and Comfort themselves withal To the same purpose also is that Iam. 5.6 7. Ye have condemned and killed the Iust and he doth not resist you be patient therefore brethren unto the coming of the Lord. It is confest that sometimes God vindicates his providence against the Atheism of the world by particular strokes upon the wicked but this is but rare And as the Father well observes if no sin were punished here no providence would be believed again if every sin were openly punished here no Judgement hereafter could be expected Besides Secondly Man is a reasonable being and every reasonable being is an accountable being He is a capable subject of moral government His actions have relation to a Law He is swayd by rewards and punishments He acts by counsel and therefore of his actions he must expect to give an account as it is Rom. 14.12 So then every one of us shall give an account of himself to God Especially if we add that all the gifts of body mind estate time c. are so many Talents concredited and betrusted to him by God and every one hath one Talent at least therefore a time to render an account for all these Talents will come Matth. 25.14 15. We are but Stewards and Stewards must give an account in order whereto there must be a great audit day Thirdly And what need we seek evidence of this truth further than our own conscience Lo it is a truth engraven legibly upon every mans own breast Every one hath a kind of little Tribunal or privy Sessions in his own conscience which both accuses and excuses for good and evil which it could never do were there not a future Judgement of which it is now conscious to it self In this Court Records are now kept of all that we do even of our secret actions and thoughts which never yet took air but if no Judgement what need of Records Nor let any imagine that that this may be but the fruit of education and discourse We have heard of such things and so are scared by them For if so how comes it to obtain so universally Who could be the Author of such a common deception Reader bethink thy self a little if thou hadst a mind as one saith to impose a lie upon all the world what course wouldst thou take How wouldst thou lay the design or why dost thou in this case imagine what thou knowest not how to imagine 'T is evident that the very consciences of the Heathens have these offices of accusing and excusing Rom. 2.15 And it 's hard to imagine as an ingenious Author speaks that a general Cheat should bow down the backs of all mankind and induce so many doubts and fears and troubles amongst them and give an interruption to the whole course of their corrupt living and that there should be no account of it And therefore it 's undoubted that such a day will come But I shall rather chuse in the Second place to open the nature and manner of this Judgement than to spend more time in proving a truth that cannot be denyed without violence offered to a mans own light If then the question be what manner of Judgement will this be I answer First It will be a great and awful day It 's called the Iudgement of the great day Jud. 6. Three things will make it so the manner of Christs coming The work he comes about And the issues or events of that work The manner of Christs coming will be awfully solemn For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the Trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air c. 1 Thes. 4.16.17 Here Christ breaks out of Heaven with the shouts of Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifies such a shout saith one as is to be heard among Seamen when after a long and dangerous voyage they first