was heavy unto death beset with terrors as the word implies when he drank that bitter cup that cup of bitterness that cup mingled with curses which made him sweat drops of blood which if men or Angels had but sip'd of 't would have made them reel stagger and tumble into Hell The Soul of Christ was over-cast with a Cloud of Gods displeasure The Greek Church speaking of the sufferings of Christ calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unknown sufferings Ah Christians who can speak out this sorrow The spirit of a man will sustain Pâ—ov 18. 11. his infirmity but a wounded spirit who can bear Christs Soul is sorrowful but give me that word again his Soul is exceeding sorrowful but if that word be yet too low then I must tell you That his Soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death not only extensively such as must continue for the space of seventeen or eighteen hours even until death it self should finish it but also intensively such and so great as that which is used to be at the very point of death and such as were able to bring death it self had not Christ been reserved to a greater and heavier punishment of this sorrow is that especially spoken Behold Lament 1. 12. and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger Many a sad and sorrowful Soul hath no question been in the world but the like sorrow to this was never since the Creation the very terms or phrases used by the Evangelists speaks no less He was sorrowful and heavy saith one amazed and very heavy saith another in an Agony saith a third in a Soul-trouble saith a fourth Certainly the bodily torments of the Cross were much inferior to the Agony of his Soul the pain of the body is the body of pain Oh but the very soul of sorrow is the Souls sorrow and the very soul of pain is the Souls pain Secondly That which Christ assumed or took of our nature he assumed to this end to suffer in it and by suffering to save and redeem it But he took the whole nature of man both body and soul ergo He suffered in both first the assumption is evident and needs no proof that Christ took upon him both our soul and body the Apostle assures us where he saith That in all things it became Heb. 2. 17. him to be like unto us therefore he had both body and soul as we have Secondly Concerning the proposition viz. That what Christ took of our nature He took it by suffering in it properly and immediatly to Redeem us Now this is evident by that blessed word where the Apostle saith Christ took part with them that he might destroy vers 14 15. through death him that had the power of death that is the Devil and deliver them who through fear of death were all their life time subject to bondage Hence I reason thus that wherein Christ delivered us he took part with us in but he delivered us from fear of death Ergo he did therein communicate with us Now marke This fear was the proper and immediate passion of the Soul namely the fear of death and God's anger And the Text giveth this sense Because the fear of this death kept them in bondage but the sear only of the bodily death doth not bring us into such bondage witness that Song of Zachery That we being delivered from the hands of our Enemies Luke 1. 74. should serve him without fear this then is a spiritual fear from the which Christ did deliver us Ergo He did communicate with us in this fear for the Apostle saith Heb. 2. 18. In that wherein he suffered and was tempted he is able to succour them that are tempted Certainly that fear which fell on Christ was a real fear and it was in his Soul and did not arise from the meer contemplation of bodily torments only for the very Martyrs in the encountering with them have feared little Assuredly there was some great matter that lay upon the very Soul of Christ which made him so heavy and sorrowsul and so afraid and in such an Agony But if you please take this second Argument in another form of words thus What Christ took of ours that He in suffering offered up for us for His assuming of our Nature was for this end to suffer for us in our Nature but he took our Nature in Body and in Soul and he delivered our souls as well as our bodys and the sins of our souls did need his Sacrifice as well as the sins of our bodys and our souls were Crucified with Christ as well as our bodys Mens mea in Christo Crucisixa est saith Ambrose Surely if our whole man was lost then our whole man did need the benefit and help of a whole Saviour and if Christ had assumed only our flesh our body then our souls adjudged adjudged to punishment had remained under transgression without hope of pardon Several sayings of the Ancients doth further strengthen this Argument take a tast of some Si totus homo periit totus benesiâ—io salvateris indiguit c. If the whole man perished August â—ont Feliâ—i n. c. 13. the whole man needed a Saviour Christ therefore took the whole man body and soul if he had taken only flesh the soul should remain addict to punishment of the first transgression without hope of pardon By the same reason Christ must also suffer properly in soul because not by taking our soul but by satisfying in his soul our soul is delivered Suscepit animum meam Suscepit corpus meum Ambrose Ambrose He took all our passions or affections to sanctifie them Damaâ—cene Hâ—b 5. 9. all in himself but Christ was Sanctified and Consecrated by his death and so doth he consecrate us For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified Heb. 10. 14. Ergo By his offering of our soul and suffering in our soul hath he consecrated our soul and affections Suscepit affectum meum ut emanduret He took my affection to amend it c. Now he hath amended it in that he consecrated it by his offering Heb. 10. 14. Iâ—llud pro nobis suscepit quod in nobis amplius pâ—riclitabatur He hath taken that for us which was most in danger for us c. that is our soul as he expoundeth it de incarnat c. 7. But Christ hath not otherwise delivered us from the danger but by entring into the danger for us this danger of the soul is the fear and feeling of Gods wrath Thirdly Christ bore our sorrows Isa 53. 4. Now what sorrows should we bear but the sorrows due unto us for our sins and surely these were not corporal only but spiritual also and those did Christ bear in his soul The same Prophet saith ver 10. He shall make his soul
an offering for sin Ergo Christ offered his Soul as well as his Body Again Our Saviour himself saith My Soul is Math. 26. 38. very heavy unto death Certainly it was not the bodily death which Christ seared for then he should have been weaker than many Martyrs yea than many of the Romans who made no more of dying than of dining therefore Christs Soul was verily and properly stricken with heaviness and not with the beholding of bodily torments only as some dream But Fourthly That whereby Adam and we ever since do most properly commit sin by the same hath Christ the second Adam made satisfaction properly for our sin but Adam did and we all do properly commit sin in our souls our bodies being but the instruments Ergo Christ by and in his soul hath properly made satisfaction First The truth of the proposition is confirmed by the Apostle As by one mans disobediâ—nce we are made Sinners so by the Rom. 5 19. obedience of one many shall be made Righteous Christ then satisfied for us by the same wherein Adam disobeyed Nâ—w Adams soul was in the transgression as well as his body and accordingly was Christs very soul in his sufferings and satisfaction and Christ obeyed that is in his soul for obedience belongeth to the soul as one observeth upon those words of the Apostle Phil. 2. 8. He became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross Who Agatho Epist ad Constantin upon Phil. 2. 8. doth not understand saith the same Author that obedience doth belong to the humane will That there is a kind of dying in the soul when it is pierced with grief besides the death of the soul either by sin or damnation is not disagreeing to the Scripture Simâ—on saith to Mary A sword shall pierce through thy soul Luk. 2 35. Look as then the body dyeth being pierced with a sword so the soul may be said to dye or languish when it is pierced with grief what else is Crucifying but dying Now the soul is said to be Crucified as is evident by that passage of the Apostle I am Crucified to the World when as yet his body was alive So Ambrose doubts not to say Gal. 6. 14. Mens mea in Christo Crucifixa est My soul was Crucified Ambâ—ose lib. 5. â—â— Luc. in Christ that is Christ in His Soul was Crucified which he calleth our soul because he did assume our soul and body or else where he saith Mea est voluntas quam suam dixit Ambrâ—se lib. 2. de sid c. 3. c. It is my will which he calleth his it is my heaviness which he took with my affections yet was it properly and personally Christs Soul and Will but ours by community of nature Secondly For the Assumption 1. Howsoever it be admitted that the body is the instrument of the soul both in sinning and suffering yet the conclusion is this That because sin is committed in the soul principally and properly therefore the satisfaction must be made in the soul principally and properly If this conclusion be granted we have that we would for the bodily pains affecting the soul are not the proper passions of the soul neither is the soul said to suffer properly when the body suffereth but by way of compassion and consent 2. We grant that in the proper and immediate sufferings of the soul the body also is affected As when Christ was in his Agony in the Garden his whole body was therewith stirred and mâ—â—â— and that it did sweat drops of blood But it is one thing when the grief beginneth immediatly in the soul and so affecteth the body and when the pain is first infliâ—ted upon the body and so worketh upon the soul there the soul suffereth properly and principally of which sufferings we speak here neither properly nor principally which is not the thing in question 3. It is not the reasonable soul that is affected with the body for it is a ground in Philosophy that the soul suffereth not but only the sensitive part But the grief that we speak of that is satisfactory for sin must be in the very reasonable soul where sin took the beginning and so Ambrose saith upon those words of Christ Ambrose de Incarnat cap. 7. My Soul is heavy to death Ad rationabilis assumptionem animae c. naturae humanae refertur affectum It is referred to the assumption of the reasonable soul and humane affection Pride Ambition Infidelity began in Adams soul and had their determination there in the committing of those sins the body had no part indeed with the ear they heard the suggestion of Satan but it was no sin till in their minds they had consented unto it Wherefore seeing the first sin committed was properly and wholly in the soul for the same the soul must properly and wholly satisfie Because sin took beginning from Adams soul the satisfaction also must begin in Christs Soul as Ambrose saith Inciplo in Christo vincere unde in Adam victus sum Ambrose lib 4. in Luc. I begin there to win in Christ where in Adam I was overcome Then it followeth that the sufferings of Christs soul took beginning there and were not derived by simpathy from the stripes and pain of the body We infer then that therefore Christs Soul had proper and immediate sufferings besides those which proceeded from simpathy with his body and all Christs sufferings were satisfactory Ergo Christ did satisfie for our sins properly and immediatly in his soul But if you please take this fourth Argument in another form of words thus The punishment which was pronounced against the first Adam our first Surety and in him against us that same did Christ the second Adam our next and best Surety bear for us or else it must still lye upon us to suffer it But the punishment threatned and denounced against Adam for transgression was not only corporal respecting our bodyes but spiritual also respecting our souls There was a spiritual malediction due unto our souls as well as a corporal c. Look as God put a Sanction on the Law and Covenant of works made with all of us in Adam that he and his should be liable to death both of body and soul which Covenant being broken by sin all Sinners became obnoxious to the death both of body and soul so it was necessary that the Redeemed should be delivered from the death of both by the Redeemers tasting of death in both kinds as much as should be sufficient for their Redemption O Sirs as sin infected the whole Man soul and body and the Curse following on sin left no part nor power of the mans soul free so Justice required that the Redeemer coming in the room of the persons Redeemed should feel the force of the Curse both in body and soul But Fifthly He shall see of the travel of his soul Isa 53. Here the soul is taken properly and the travel of Christs
divine greatness stamp'd upon the works of providence but what are the works of Providence to the work of Redemption what are all providential works to Christ's coming from heaven to his being incarnate to his doings sufferings and dying and all this to ransom poor souls from the curse hell wrath and eternal death souls are dear and costly things and of great price in the sight of God Amongst the Romans those their proper goods and estates which men had gotten in the wars with hazard of their lives were called Peculium Castrense of a Field-purchase Oh how much more may the precious and immortal souls of men be called Christ's Peculium Castrense his purchase gotten not only by the jeopardy of his life but with the loss of his life and blood Ye know saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 1. 18. 19. that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as with silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition but with the precious blood of the son of God as of a lamb without a spot Christ that only went to the price of souls hath told us that one soul is more worth than Mat. 16. 26. all the world Christ left his father's bosom and all the glory of heaven for the good of souls he assumed the nature of man for the happiness of the soul of man he trod the Wine-press of his father's wrath for souls he wept for souls he swet for souls he prayed for souls he payed for souls and he bled out his heart-blood for the redemption of souls The soul is the breath of God the beauty of man the wonder of Angels and the envy of Devils 't is of an Angelical nature 't is a heavenly spark a celestial plant and of a divine off-spring 't is capable of the knowledg of God of union with God of communion with John 14. 8. Psal 17. 15. God and of an eternal fruition of God there is nothing that can suit the soul below God there is nothing that can satisfie the soul without God the soul is so high and so noble a piece that it scorns all the world what are all the riches of the East or West Indies what are Rocks of Diamonds or Mountains of Gold or the price of Cleopatra's draught to the price that Christ laid down for souls 't is only the blood of him that is God-man that is an equivolent price for the Redemption of souls Silver and Gold hath redeemed many thousands out of Turkish bondage but all the Silver and Gold in the world could never redeem one poor soul from Hellish bondage from hellish torments Souls are a dear commodity he that bought them found them so and yet at how cheap a rate do some sinners sell their immortal souls Callenuceus tells us of a noble man of Naples that was wont prophanely to say that he had two-souls in his body one for God and another for whosoever would buy it but if he hath one soul in Hell I believe he will never find another for Heaven A person of quality who is still alive told me a few years since that in discourse with one of his servants This pious Gentleman was with me in May 1673. at my house he asked him what he thought would become of his soul if he lived and died in his ignorance and enmity against God c. he most prophanely and atheistically answered that when he died he would hang his soul on a hedg and say run God run Devil and he that can run fastest let him Discipul at de tâ—mp Serâ— 132. take my soul I have read of a most blasphemous wretch that on a time being with his companions in a common Inn carrowsing and making merry asked them if they thought a man had a soul or no whereunto when they replyed that the souls of men are immortal and that some of them after death lived in hell and others in heaven For so the writings of the Prophets and Apostles instructed them he answered and swore that he thought it nothing so but rather that there was no soul in man to survive the body but that Heaven and Hell were mere fables and inventions of Priests to get gain and for himself he was ready to sell his soul to any that would buy it then one of his companions took up a cup of wine and said sell me thy soul for this cup of wine which he receiving We laugh at little children to see them part with rich Jewels for silly trifles and yet daily experience tells us that multitudes are so childish as to part with such rich and precious Jewels as their immortal souls for a lust or for base and unworthy trifles of whom it may be truly said as Augustus Caesar said in another case they are like a man that fishes with a golden hook the gain can never recompence the loss that may be sustained bad him take his soul and drank up the wine Now Satan himself being there in man's shape bought it again of the other at the same price and by and by bad him give him his soul the whole company affirming it was meet he should have it since he had bought it not perceiving the Devil but presently he laying hold of this soul-seller carried him into the Air before them all to the great astonishment and amazement of the beholders and from that day to this he was never heard of but hath now found by experience that men have souls and that Hell is no Fable Ah for what a thing of nought do many thousands sell their souls to Satan every day how many thousands are there who swear curse lye cheat deceive c. for a little gain every day I have read that there was a time when the Romans did wear Jewels on their shooes Oh that in these days men did not worse Oh that they did not trample under feet that matchless Jewel their precious and immortal souls Oh sirs there is nothing below heaven so precious and noble as your souls and therefore do not play the Courtiers with your poor souls now the Courtier does all things late he rises late and dines late and sups late and goes to bed late and repents late Christ made himself an offering for sin that souls might not be undone by sin the Lord died that slaves might live the son dies that servants might live the natural son dies that adopted sons may live the only begotten son dies that bastards might live yea the judg dies that Malefactors may live Ah friends as there was never sorrow like Christ's so there was never love like Christ's love and of all his love none to that of soul-love Christ who is God-man did take upon him thy nature and bare thy sins and suffered death and encountered the Cross and was made a sacrifice and a curse and all to bring about thy Redemption and therefore thou maist safely conclude that the work of Redemption is a great work But
soul is his sufferings for it follows And he shall bear their Iniquities But Sixthly Christ gave himself for his peoples sins Gal. 1. 9. 6. Ephe. 5. 25. 1 Tim. 2. 6. Who gave himself for our sins Tit. 2. 14. Who gave himself for us that he might Redeem us from all Iniquities c. but the body only is not himself ergo The Apostle saith Phil. 2. 7. Christus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Exinanivit Christ did empty or evacuate himself or as Tertullian expounds it Exhausit Teâ—tâ—llian Conâ—ra Marcian lib. 5. He drew out himself or was exhaust which agrees with the Prophesis of Daniel chap. 9. 26. Mâ—ssias shall have nothing being brought to nothing by his death without life strength esteem honour c. Hence we conclude that if Christ were exhaust upon the Cross if nothing was left him that he suffered in body and soul that there was no part within or without free from the Cross but all was emptied and poured out for our Redemption Again We read That Christ through the eternal Spirit Heb. 9. 14 offered himself to God Whatsoever was in Christ did either offer or was offered His eternal Spirit only did offer ergo His whole humane Nature both Body and Soul was offered Thus Origen witnesseth in these words Origen â—om 9 in Levit. Vide quo modo verus pontifex Jesus Christus adsumptâ— batillocarnis humanae c. See how our true Priest Jesus Christ taking the censor of his humane flesh putting to the fire of the Altar that is His magnificent Soul wherewith he was born in the flesh and adding Incense that is an immaculate Spirit stood in the middest between the living and the dead Thus you see that he makes Christs soul a part in the Sacrifice Seventhly and lastly Christs love unto man in suffering for him was in the highest degree and greatest measure that could be as the Lord saith What could I have done any more for my Vineyard that I have not done unto it But if Christ had given his Body only and not his Soul for us he had not done for us all he could and so his love should have been greatly empaired and diminished ergo He gave his Soul also together with his Body to be the full price of our Redemption and certainly the travail and labour of Christs Soul was most acceptable unto God Isa 53. 12. Therefore I will give him a Portion with Isa 35. 12. the great because he hath poured out his Soul unto death c. and bare the sins of many Doubtless the sufferings of Christ in his Soul together with his Body doth most fully and amply commend and set forth Gods great love to poor Sinners Before I close up this particular take a few Testimonies of the Fathers which do witness with us for the sufferings of Christ both in Soul and Body Christ hath taken off us that which he should offer as Ambrose de Incarnat c. 6. proper for us to Redeem us and whatsoever Christ took off us he offered ergo He offered Body and Soul for he took both Another upon these words My Soul is heavy saith Anima Concil Hispalens 2. c. 13. passionibus obnoxia divinitas libra His Soul was subject to passions his Divinity was free c. If nothing were free but his Divine Nature than his Soul was subject to the proper and immediate passions thereof Perspicuum est sicut corpus flagellatum ita animam verè Hierom in 35. cap. Isa doluisse c. It is evident that as his body was whipped so his Soul was verily and truly grieved lest some part of Christs sufferings should be true some part false ergo Christs Soul as properly and truly suffered as his Body the Soul had her proper grief as the Body had whipping the whipping then of the body was not the proper grief of the soul Whole Christ gave himself and whole Christ offered himself ergo He offered his soul not only to suffer by way of compassion with his body as it may be Fulgenâ—ius ad Thâ—aâ—maud lib. 3. answered but he offered it as a Sacrifice and suffered all passions whatsoever incident to the soul The same Author expounds himself further thus Because this God took whole man therefore he shewed in truth in himself the passions of whole man and having a reasonable soul what infirmities soever of the soul without sin he took and bare If Christ then did take and bare all the passions of the soul without sin then the proper and immediate grief and anguish thereof and not the compassion only with the body To these let me add the consent of the reformed Churches French Confes Christ did suffer Harm p. 59. Sect. 6. both in body and soul and was made like unto us in all things Sin only excepted Thomas granteth that Christ Secundum genus passus est 3. Par. qu 46. Artic. 5. omnem passionem humanam in general suffered all humane sufferings as in his soul heaviness fear c. Now the Testimonies of the Fathers and the consent of the reformed Churches affirming the same that Christ was Crucified in his soul and that he gave his soul a price of Redemption for our souls Who can then doubt of this but that Christ verily properly immediately suffered in his soul in all the proper passions thereof as he endured pains and torments in his flesh and if you please this may go for an eighth argument to prove that Christ suffered in his soul Secondly That the sufferings of Christ in his soul were very high and great and wonderful both as to the punishment of loss and as to the punishment of sense all which I shall make evident in these four particulars First That Jesus Christ did suffer dereliction of God really that he was indeed deserted †Forsaken 1. By denying of protection 2. By withdrawing of solace Non solvit unionem sed subtraxit visionâ—m Leo. The Union was not desolved but the beams the influence was restrained forsaken of God is most evident Math. 27. 46. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me But to prevent mistakes in this high point seriously consider 1. That I do not mean that there was nay such desertion of Christ by God as did desolve the union of the Natures in the person of Christ For Christ in all his sufferings still remained God and Man Nor 2. Do I mean an absolute desertion in respect of the presence of God For God was still present with Christ in all his sufferings and the God-head did support his Humanity in and under his sufferings but that which I mean is this That as to the sensible and comforting manifestations of Gods presence thus he was for a time left and forsaken of God God for a time had taken-away all sensible consolation and fâ—lt joy from Christs humane soul that so divine justice might in his sufferings be the more fully satisfied In this
desertion Christ is not to be looked upon simply as he is in his own person the Son of the Father in whom he is always well pleased but as he standeth in the room of Sinners Surety and Cautioner Math. 3. 17. Mark 1. 11. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Christ spake these words that thereby he might draw the Jews to a serious consideration and a nim adversion of his death and passion which he underwent not for his own but for our sins Pet. Gal. lib. 8. c. 18. pag 343. paying their debt in which respect it concerned Christ to be dealt with as one standing in our stead as one guilty and paying the debt of being forsaken of God which we were bound to suffer fully and for ever if he had not interposed for us There is between Christ and God 1. An eternal Union natural of the person 2. Of the God-head and Man-hood 3. Of Grace and Protection In this last sense he means forsaken according to his feeling Hence he said Not my Father my Father but my God my God which words are not words of complaining but words expressing his grief and sorrow Our Lord Christ was forsaken not only of all Creature comforts but that which was worse than all of his Fathers favour to his present apprehension left forlorne and destitute for a time that we might be received for ever Christ was for a time left and forsaken of God as David who in this particular was a type of Christs suffering cryed out Psal 22. 1. My God my God why hast thou forsaken me why art thou so far from my help He was indeed really forsaken of God God did indeed leave him in respect of his sense and seeling So was Christ truly and really forsaken of God and not in colour or shew as some affirm Athanasius speaking of Gods forsaking of Christ saith All things were done naturally and in truth not in opinion or shew Though God did still R liâ—quâ—t Deâ—s dum nâ—n pâ—â—â— â—aâ—h Tâ—â—uâ—â—n continue a God to David yet in Davids apprehension and feeling he was forsaken of God Though God was still a God to Christ yet as to his feeling he was left of God to wrestle with God and to bear the wrath of God due unto us Look as Christ was scourged that we Ambrose might not be scourged so Christ was forsaken that we might not be forsaken Christ was forsaken for a time that we might not be forsaken for ever Fevardentius absolutely denies that Christ did truly complain upon the Cross that he was forsaken of God Fevarden pag â—73 Con 〈…〉 and therefore he thus objecteth and reasoneth If Christ were truly forsaken of God it would follow that the Hypostatical Union was dissolved and that Christ was personally separated from God for otherwise he could not be forsaken To what he objects we thus reply first If Christ had been totally and eternally forsaken the personal union must have been dissolved but upon this temporal and partial rejection or dereliction there followeth not a personal dissolution or general dereliction But secondly As the Body of Christ being without life was still Hypostatically united to the God-head so was the soul of Christ though for a time without feeling of his favour the dereliction of the one doth no more dissolve the Hypostatical Union than the death of the other If life went from the body and yet the Deity was not separated in the personal consecration but only suspended in operation So the feeling of Gods favour which is the life of the soul might be intermitted in Christ and yet the Divine Union not dissolved Thirdly Augustine doth well shew how this may be August lib de 〈◊〉 divin when he saith Passio Christi dulcis fuit divinitatis somnus That the passion of Christ was the sweet sleep of his Divinity like as then in sleep the soul is not departed though the operation thereof be deferred so in Christs sleep upon the Cross the God-head was not separated though the working power thereof were for a time sequestred Look as the Elect Members of Christ may be forsaken though not totally or finally but ex parte in part and for a time and yet their Election remain firm still the same may be the case of our head that he was ex parte de relictus only in part forsaken and for a time always beloved for his own Innocency but for us and in our person as our pledg and Surety deserted There are two kinds of dereliction or forsaking one is for a time and in part so the Elect may be and so Christ was forsaken upon the Cross another which is total final and general and so neither Christ nor his Members never was nor never shall be forsaken Christ in the deepest anguish of his soul is upheld and sustained by his Faith My God my God whereby he sheweth his singular confidence and trust in God notwithstanding the present sense of his wrath But how can Christ be forsaken of God himself being God Quest for the Father Son and Holy-Ghost are all three but one and the same God Yea How can he be forsaken of God seeing he is the Son of God and if the Lord leave not his Children which hope and trust in him how can he forsake Christ his only begotten Son who depended upon him and his mighty power First By God here we are to understand God the Father Answ 1 the first person of the blessed Trinity according to the vulgar and common rule when God is compared with the Son or Holy-Ghost then the Father is meant by this title God not that the Father is more God than the Son for in dignity all the Three Persons are equal but they are distinguished in order only and thus the Father is the first Person the Son the Second and the Holy-Ghost the Third Secondly Our Saviours complaint that he was forsaken Answ 2 must be understood in regard of his humane Nature and not of his God-head although the God-head and Man-hood were never severed from the first time of his Incarnation but the God-head of Christ and so the God-head of the Father did not shew forth his power in his Man-hood but did as it were lye a sleep for a time that the Man-hood might suffer Thirdly Christ was not indeed utterly forsaken of Answ 3 God in regard of his humane Nature but only as it were forsaken that is Although there were some few minutes and moments in which he received no sensible consolations from the Deity yet that he was not utterly forsaken is most clear from this place where he flees unto the Lord as unto his God My God my God as also from his Resurrection the third day Fourthly Divines say that there are six kinds of dereliction Answ 4 or forsakings 1. By dis-union of person and 2. By loss of grace and 3. By diminution and weaknings of grace and 4. By want of assurance
to prove this expression is very weighty because all the wrath that was due for all the sins of the Elect all whose sins were laid on Christ Isa 53. 6. was greater than the wrath which belonged to any one sinner though damned for his personal sinning and besides this if you do seriously consider those sufferings of Christ in his Agony in the Garden you may by them conjecture what hellish torments Christ did suffer for us In that Agony of his he was afraid and amazed and fell Math. 14. 33. vers 34. flat on the ground He began to be sore amazed and to be very heavy and saith unto them My soul is exceeding sorowful unto death and his sweat was as it were great Luk 22. 44. drops of blood falling down to the ground He did sweat clotted blood to such abundance that it streamed through his apparel and did wet the ground which dreadful Agony of Christ how it could arise from any other cause than the sense of the wrath of God parallel to that in Hell I know not Orthodox Divines do generally take Christs sufferings in his soul and the detaining his body in the grave put in as the close and last part of Christs sufferings as the true meaning of that expression He descended into Hell not only because these pains which Christ suffered both in body and soul were due to us in full measure but also because that which Christ in point of torment and vexation suffered was in some respect of the same kind with the torment of the damned For the clearing of this consider that in the punishment of the damned there are these three things 1 The perverse disposition of the mind of the damned in their sufferings 2. The duration and perpetuity of their punishment And 3. The punishment it self tormenting soul and body Of these three the first two could have no place in Christ Not the first Because Heb. 9. 14. Heb. 10. 5 6 7 8. Act. 2. 24. 1 Pet. 2. 24. 1 Cor. 6. ult he willingly offered himself a Sacrifice for our sins and upon agreement paid the Ransom fully Not the second Because he could no longer be held under sorrows and sufferings than he had satisfied Divine Justice and paid the price that he was to lay down And his infinit excellency and glory made his short sufferings to be of infinit worth and equivalent to our everlasting sufferings The third then only remaineth which was the real and sensible torments of his soul and body which he did really feel and experience when he was upon the Cross O Sirs What need you question Christs undergoing of Hellish pains when all the pains torments curse and wrath which was due to the Elect did fall on Christ and lye on Christ till Divine Justice was fully satisfied Though Christ did not suffer eternal death for sinners yet he suffered that which was equivalent and therefore the justice of God is by his death wholly appeased It is good seriously to ponder upon these Scriptures Psal 18. 5. The sorrows of Hell did compass me about Psal 88. 3. My soul is filled with evil and my life draweth near to Hell Psal 86. 13. Thou hast delivered my Soul from the nethermost Hell In these places the Prophet speaks in the person of Christ and the Papists themselves do confess that the Hebrew word Sheol that is here used is taken for Hell properly and not for the Grave therefore these places do strongly conclude for the hellish sorrows or sufferings of Christ So Act. 2. 27. Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell If Christs soul be not left or forsaken in Hell yet it follows it was in Hell not that Christ did feel the sorrows of Hell after death but that he did feel the very sorrows of Hell in his soul while he lived Certainly the whole punishment of body and soul which was due unto us Christ our Redeemer was in general to suffer and satisfie for in his own person but the torments and terrors of Hell and the vehement sense of Gods wrath are that punishment which did belong to the soul ergo Christ did suffer the torments and terrors of Hell By the whole punishment you are to understand the whole kind or substance of the punishment not all the circumstances and the very same manner the whole punishment then is the whole kind of punishment that is in body and soul which Christ ought to have suffered though not in the same manner and circumstance 1. neither for the place of Hell Locally Nor 2. For the time Eternally Nor 3. For the manner Sinfully When we say Christ was to suffer our whole punishment all such punishments as cannot be suffered without sin as desperation final reprobation are manifestly excepted Christ did bear all our punishment though not as we should have borne it that is 1. Sinfully 2. Eternally 3. Hellishly But he did so bear all our punishment as to finish all upon the Cross and in such sort as Gods justice 2 Col 14. 15. was satisfied his Person not disgraced nor his Holiness defiled and yet mans Salvation fully perfected We Hâ—b 9. 4 cap. 10. 15. constantly affirm that Christ did suffer the pains of Hell in his Soul with these three restrictions 1. That there be neither indignity offered to his Royal Person 2. Nor injury to his Holy Nature 3. Nor impossibility to his glorious work All such pains of Hell then as Christ might have suffered 1. His Person not dishonoured 2. His Nature with sin not defiled 3. His work of our Redemption not hindered we do stedfastly believe were sustained by our Blessed Saviour Consider a few things First Consider the adjuncts of Hell which are these four 1. The place which is Infernal 2. The time which is Perpetual 3. The darkness which is unspeakable 4. The Ministers and Torments the Spirits and Devils which are irreconcileable Now these adjuncts of Hell Christ is freed from for the dignity of his person it was not fit that the Son of God the Heir of Heaven should be shut up in Hell or that he should for ever be tormented who is never from Gods presence sequestred or that the light of the world should be closed up in darkness or that he who bindeth the evil Spirits should be bound by them c. Secondly Consider the effects or rather the defects of Hell which are chiefly these two First The deprivation of all vertue grace holiness Secondly The real possession of all Vice Impiety Blasphemy c. Now the necessity of the work of Christ doth exempt him from these effects for if he had been either void of grace or possessed with vice he could not have been the Redeemer of poor lost souls for the want of Vertue he could not have Redeemed others for the presence of sin he should have been Redeemed himself and from fretting Indignation and fearful Desperation the piety and sanctity of his Nature doth preserve him who
Burial Resurrection and Ascension and besides they make rehearsal of very small circumstances therefore we may safely conclude that they would never have omitted Christs local descent into the place of the damned if there had been any such things besides the great end why they penned this History was That we might believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that thus believing Jâ—h 20. 31. we might have life everlasting Now there could not have been a greater matter for the confirmation of our Faith than this that Jesus the Son of Mary who went down to the place of the damned returned thence to live in all happiness and blessedness for ever But Secondly If Christ did go into the place of the damned then he went either in soul or in body or in his Godhead not in his God-head for that could not descend because it is every where and his body was in the grave and as for his soul it went not to Hell but immediatly after his death it went to Paradise that is the third Heaven a place of joy and happiness This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise which words of Christ must be understood Luk. 23. 43. of his Man-hood or Soul and not of his Godhead for they are an answer to a demand and therefore unto it they must be sutable The Thief makes his request Lord remember me when thou comest into thy Kingdom vers 42. to which Christ Answers Verily I say unto thee to day shalt thou be with me in Paradise I shall saith Christ this day enter into Paradise and there shalt thou be with me Now there is no entrance but in regard of his Soul or Man-hood for the God-head which is at all times in all Psal 139 7 13. Jer 23. 23 24. places cannot be properly said to entertain into a place But Thirdly When Christ saith To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise He doth intimate as some observe a resemblance which is between the first and second Adam The first Adam quickly sinned against God and was as Gen. 3. quickly cast out of Paradise by God Christ the second Adam having made a perfect and compleat satisfaction Heb 9. 26 28 cap. 10. 14. to the justice of God and the Law of God for mans sin must immediately enter into Paradise Now to say that Christ in Soul descended locally into Hell is to abolish this Analogy between the first and second Adam But Secondly 'T is not impossible that the pains of the second death should be suffered in this life time and place are but circumstances the main substance of the second death is the bearing of Gods fierce wrath and indignation Divine favour shining upon a man in Hell would turn Hell into a Heaven all sober seeing serious Christians will grant that the true though not the full joys of Heaven may be felt and experienced in this life 1 Pet. 1. 8. Whom having not seen ye love in whom though now ye see him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory or glorious either because this their rejoycing was a tast of their future glory or because it made them glorious in the eyes of men the original word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is glorified already a piece of Gods Kingdom and Heavens happiness afore-hand Ah how many precious Saints both living and dying have cryed out O the joy the joy the inexpressible joy that I find in my Soul Ephe. 2 6. He hath made us sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus What is this else but even while we live by Faith to possess the very joys of Heaven on this side Heaven Now look as the true joys of Heaven may be felt on this side Heaven so the true though not the full pains of Hell may be felt on this side Hell and doubtless Cain Judas Julian Spira and others have found it so That Father hit the mark who Gen. 4. 13. said Judicis in mente tua sedet ibi Deus ad est accusator conscientia tortor timor The Judges Tribunal seat is in Augustin in Psal 57. thy soul God sitteth there as Judge thy Conscience is the Accuser and fear is the tormentor Now if there be in the soul a Judg an Accuser and a Tormentor then certainly there is a true tast of the torments of Hell on this side Hell Thirdly The place Hell is no part of the payment the laying down of the price makes the satisfaction this is all that is spoken and threatned to Adam Thou shalt dye Gen. 2. 1â— Peter saith the Devils are cast down to Hell and kept in chains of darkness 2 Pet. 2. 4 And Paul calls the Devil the Prince that ruleth in the Ayr. Ephe. 2. 2. The Ayr then is the Devils Hell well then seeing this ayr is the Devils present Hell we may safely conclude that Hell may be in this present world and therefore it is neither impossible nor improbable that the Cross was Christs Hell the death and this may be suffered here The wicked go to Hell as their Prison because they can never pay their debts otherwise the debt may as well be paid in the Market as the Goal Now Christ did discharge all his peoples debts in the days of his flesh when he offered up strong crys and tears Heb. 5 7. and not after death Look as a King entring into Prison to loose the Prisoners Chains and to pay their debts is said to have been in Prison so our Lord Jesus Christ by his souls sufferings which is the Hell he entred into hath released us of our pains and chains and paid our debts and in this sense he may be said to have entred into Hell though he never actually entred into the local place of the damned which is properly called Hell for in that place there is neither vertue nor goodness holiness nor happiness and therefore the holiness of Christs person would never suffer him to descend into such a place in the local place of Heaven and Hell It is not possible for any neither to be at once nor yet at sundry times successively for there is no passing from Heaven to Hell or from Hell to Heaven Luk. 16. 26. The place of suffering is but a circumstance in the business Hell the place of the damned is no part of the debt therefore neither is suffering there locally any part of the payment of it no more than a Prison is any part of an earthly debt or of the payment of it The Surety may satisfie the Creditor in the place appointed for payment or in the open Court which being done the Debtor and Surety both are acquitted that they need not go to Prison if either of them go to Prison it is because they do not or cannot pay the debt for all that Justice requires is to satisfie the debt to the which the Prison is meerly extrinsical Even so the Justice of God
cannot be satisfied for the transgression of the Law but by the death of the Sinner but it doth not require that this should be done in the place of the damned The wicked go to Prison because they do not they cannot make satisfaction otherwise Christ having fully discharged the debt needed not go to Prison Object But the pains and torments that are due to mans Obj. 5 sins are to be everlasting and how then can Christs short sufferings countervail them Answ That Christs sufferings in his soul and body Answ were equivalent to it although to speak properly Eternity is not of the essence of death which is the reward of sin and threatned by God but its accidental because man thus dying is never able to satisfie God therefore seeing he cannot pay the last farthing he is for Math. 18 28. 35. ever kept in Prison Look as eternal death hath in it eternity despair necessarily in all those that so die so Christ could not suffer but what was wanting in duration was supplyed 1. By the immensity of his sorrows conflicting with the sense of Gods wrath because of our sins imputed to him so that he suffered more grief then if the sorrows of all men were put together Christs Hell sorrows on the Cross were meritorious and fully satisfactory Isa 53. for our everlasting punishment and therefore in greatness were to exceed all other mens sorrows as being answerable to Gods justice 2. By the dignity and worth of him that did suffer Therefore the Scripture calls it the blood of God The damned must bear the wrath of God to all Eternity because they can never satisfie the justice of God for sin therefore they must lye by it world without end but Christ hath made an infinit satisfaction in a finit time by undergoing that fierce battel with the wrath of God and getting the Victory in a few hours which is equivalent to the Creatures bearing it and grapling with it everlastingly This length or shortness of durance is but a circumstance not of any necessary consideration in this case Suppose a man indebted a 100 l. and likely to lye in Prison till he shall pay it yet utterly unable if another man comes and lays down the money on two hours warning is not this as well or better done that which may be done to as good or better purpose in a short time what need is there to draw it out at length The justice of the Law did not require that either the Sinner or his Surety should suffer the Eternity of Hells torments but only their extremity it doth abundantly counterpoise the eternity of the punishment that the person which suffered was the eternal God Besides it was impossible that he should be detained under the sorrows of death Act. 2. 24. And if he had been so detained Then he had not spoiled principalities and powers nor triumphed over them Col. 2. 15. but had been overcome and so had not attained his end But Secondly The pains of Hell which Christ suffered though they were not infinit in time yet were they of an infinite price and value for the dignity of the person that suffered them Christs temporal enduring of Hellish sorrows was as effectual and meritorious as if they had been perpetual the dignity of Christs person did bear him out in that which was not meet for him to suffer nor fit in respect of our Redemption for if he should have suffered Eternally our Redemption could never have been accomplished but for him to suffer in soul as he did in body was neither derogatory to his person nor prejudicial to his work Infinitly in time Christ was not to suffer as one well observes Christ dyed secundum tempus Ambrose in 5. ad Rom. 6. in time or according to time Tempora in mundo sunt c. Times are in the world where the Sun riseth and setteth unto this time he dyed but where there is no time there he was found not only living but conquering Christ God-Man suffered punishment in measure infinit and therefore there is no ground why he should endure it eternally and indeed it was impossible that Christ should be Act. 2. 24. holden of Death because he was both the Lord of life and the Lords holy One 1 Cor. 2. 8. Act. 2. 27. But Thirdly If the measure of a mans punishment were infinit the duration needs not be infinit sinful mans measure of punishment is finit and therefore the duration of his punishment must be infinit because the punishment must be answerable to the infinit evil of sin committed against an infinit God O Sirs continual imprisonment in Hell arises from mans not being able to pay the price for could he pay the debt in one year he needs not lye two years in Prison Now the debt is the first and second death and because sinful man cannot pay it in any time he must endure it eternally but now Christ has laid down ready pay upon the nail to the full for all his chosen Ones and therefore it is not reâ—uired of him that he should suffer for ever neither can it stand with the holiness or justice of God to hold him under the second death he having paid the debt to the utmost Farthing Now that he hath fully paid the debt himself witnesseth Joh. 19. 30. saying when he had received the Vinegar It is finished so vers 28. After this Jesus knowing that all things were accomplished Though there are many interpretations given of this place by Augustine Chrysostom Jansenuâ— and others yet doubtless this alone will hold water viz. That the heavy wrath of the Lord which did pursue Christ and the second death which filled him with grievous terrors is now over and past and mans Redemption finished he speaketh here of that which presently should be and in the yielding up his Ghost was accomplished And thus you see that Jesus Christ did feel and suffer the very torments of Hell though not after a Hellish manner and you see also that Christ did not locally descend into Hell Shall we make a few inferences from hence First then O! how should these sad sufferings of Christ for us endear Christ to us O! what precious thoughts should we have of him O! how should we Psal 136. 17 18. prize him how should we honour him how should we love him and how should we be swallowed up in the admiration of him as his love to us has been matchless so his sufferings for us has been matchless I have read of Nero that he had a Shirt made of a Salamanders skin so that if he did walk through the fire in it it would keep him from burning So Christ is the true Salamanders skin that will keep the soul from everlasting burnings Isa 33. 14. and therefore well may Christians cry out with that Martyr None but Christ none but Christ Tigranes in Zenophon Lambert coming to Redeem his Father and Friends with his
Look as he must be more than man that he may be able to suffer that his sufferings may be meritorious so he must be man that he may be in a capacity to suffer die and obey for these are no work for one who is only God A God only cannot suffer a man only cannot merit God cannot obey man is bound to obey wherefore Christ that he might obey and suffer he was man and that he might merit by his obedience and suffering he was God-man just such a person did the work of Redemption call for That Christ's merits might be sufficient he must be God for sufficient merit for Mankind could not be in the person of any mere man no not in Christ himself considered only as man for so all the grace he had he did receive it and all the good he did he was bound to do it for he was made of a woman and made under the Law not only Gal. 4. 4. under the Ceremonial Law as he was a Jew but under the Moral as a man for it is under that Law under which we were and from which we are redeemed therefore Gal. 3. 13. in fulfilling it he did no more than that which was his duty to do he could not merit by it no not for himself much less for others considered only as man therefore he must also be God that the dignity of his person might add dignity and vertue and value to his works in a word Deus potuit sed non debuit homo debuit sed non potuit God could but he should not man should but he could not make satisfaction therefore he that would do it must be both God and man Torris erutus ab igne as the Prophet speaketh Is not this a fire-brand taken out of the fire you know that in a fire-brand taken out of the fire there is fire and wood inseparably mixed and in Christ there is God and man wonderfully united He was God else neither his sufferings nor his merits could have been sufficient and if his could not much less any man 's else for all other men are both conceived and born in Original sin and also much and often defiled with actual sin and therefore we ought for ever to abhor all such popish Doctrines Prayers and Masses for the dead which exalt mans merits man's satisfaction For no man can by Psal 49. 7. 8. v. any means redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him for the redemption of their soul is precious and it ceaseth for ever And therefore all the money that hath been given for Masses Dirges Trentals c. hath been cast away for Jesus Christ who is God-man is the only Redeemer and in the other world money beareth no mastery Let me make a few inferences from what has been said and therefore First is it so that Christ is God-man that he is God 1. 1 Pet. 1. 21. and man then let this raise our faith and strengthen our faith in our Lord Jesus Christ faith is built on God Now Jesus Christ is very God and therefore the fittest foundation in the world for us to build our faith upon God manifest in the flesh is a firm basis for faith and comfort Heb. 7. 25. ad plenum saith Erasmus ad perfectum say others He is able to save to the uttermost Christ is a thorow Saviour he saves perfectly and he saves perpetually he never carries on Redemption-work by halves Christ being God as well as man is able by the power of his Godhead to vanquish Death Devils Hell and all the enemies of our Salvation and by the power of his Godhead is able to merit pardon of sin the favour of God the heavenly inheritance and all the glory of the other world for this dignity of his person addeth vertue and Acts 20. 28. efficacy to his death and sufferings in that he that suffered and died was very God therefore God is said to have purchased the Church with his own blood Christ having suffered in our nature which he took upon him that is in his humane soul and body the wrath of God the curse and all the punishments which were due to our sins hath paid the price of our Redemption pacified divine wrath and satisfied divine Justice in the very same nature in which we have sinned and provoked the holy one of Israel so that now all believers may triumphingly say There is no condemnation to us that are in Râ—m 8. 1. v. Christ Jesus Christ having in our nature suffered the whole curse and punishment due to our sins God cannot in justice but accept of his sufferings as a full and compleat satisfaction 1 John 1. 7 9. for all our sins so that now there remaineth no more curse or punishment properly so called for us to suffer either in our souls or bodies either in this life or in the life to come but we are certainly and fully delivered from all not only from the eternal curse and all the punishments and torments of Hell but also from the curse and sting of bodily death and from all afflictions as they are 1 Cor. 15. 55 56. curses and punishments of sin that Jesus who is God-man hath changed the nature of them to us so that of bitter curses and heavy punishments they are become fatherly chastisements the fruits of divine love and the Heb. 12. 5 6 7. Rev. 3. 19. promoters of the internal and eternal good of our souls Oh! how should these things strengthen our faith in dear Jesus and work us to lean and stay our weary souls wholly and only upon him who is God-man and who of God 1 Cor. 1. 30. is made unto us wisdom righteousness sanctification and redemption Among the Evangelists we find that Christ had a threefold entertainment among the sons of men some received him into house not into heart as Simon Luk. 7. 44. the Pharisee who gave him no kiss nor water to his feet some neither into heart nor house as the graceless Mat. 8. 34. swinish Gergesites who had neither civility nor honesty some both into house and heart as Lazarus Mary Martha John 11. 16. c. certainly that Jesus who is God-man deserves the best room in all our souls and the uppermost seat in all our hearts But Secondly If Jesus Christ be God-man very God and very man then what high cause have we to observe admire wonder and even stand amazed at the transcendent love of Christ in becoming man Oh! the firstness the freeness the unchangeableness the greatness the matchlesness of Christ's love to fallen man in becoming man men many times shew their love to one another by hanging up one another's pictures in their families but ah what love did Christ shew when he took our nature upon him Heb. 2. 16. For verily he took not on him the nature of Angels but he took on him the seed of Abraham 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
nourish but they cannot heal others can enrich buâ— they cannot secure others can adorn but cannot advance all do serve but none do satisfie they are like a beggars coat made up of many pieces not all enough either to beautifie defend or satisfie but there is enough in a suffering Christ to fill us and satisfie us to the full Christ has the greatest worth and wealth in him Look as the worth and value of many pieces of Silver is to be found in one piece of Gold so all the petty excellencies that are scattered abroad in the creatures we to be found in a bleeding dying Christ yea all the whole volume of perfections which is spread through heaven and earth is epitomized in him that suffered on the Cross nec Christus nec coelum patitur hyperbolen a man cannot hyperbolize in speaking of Christ and heaven but must entreat his hearers as Tully doth his readers concerning the worth of L. Crassus ut majus quiddam de iis quam quae scripta sunt suspicarentur 3. De oratore that they would conceive much more than he was able to express certainly it is as easie to compass the heavens with a span and contein the sea in a nut-shell as to relate fully a suffering Christ's excellencies or heaven's happiness O sirs there is in a crucified Jesus something proportionable to all the straits wants necessities and desires of his poor people He is bread to nourish them and a garment to John 6. 5 6 37. Rev. 13. 14. Mat. 9. 12. Isa 9. 6. Heb. 2. 10. Act. 5. 31. cover and adorn them a Physician to hâ—al them a Counseller to advise them a Captain to defend them a Prince to rule a Prophet to teach and a Priest to make attonement Act. 7. 37 38. Heb. 2. 17 18. cap. 4. 15 16. 2 Cor. 11. 2. Isa 9. 6 7. John 20. 17. Isa 28. 16. Rev. 22. 16. Eph. 1. 22 23. for them an Husband to protect a Father to provide a Brother to relieve a Foundation to support a Root to quicken a Head to guide a Treasure to enrich a Sun to enlighten and a Fountain to cleanse Now what can any Christian desire more to satisfie him and save him to make him holy and happy in both Worlds Shall the Romans and other Nations highly value those that have but ventur'd to lay down their lives for their Countrey and shall not we highly value the Lord Jesus Christ who hath actually laid down his life for his sheep I have John 10. 11 15 17. read of one who walking in the fields by himself of a sudden fell into loud cries and weeping and being asked by one that passed by and over-heard him the cause of his lamentation I weep saith he to think that the Lord Jesus Christ should do so much for us men and yet not one man of a thousand so much as mind him or think of him Oh what a bitter Lamentation have we cause to take up that the Lord Jesus Christ has suffered so many great and grievous things for poor sinners and that there are so few that sincerely love him or that highly value him most men preferring their lusts or else the Toys and Trifles of this world above him But Fifthly let the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ work us all into a gracious willingness to embrace sufferings for his sake and chearfully and resolutely to take up his Cross Mat. 16. 24. and follow him did Christ suffer who knew no sin and shall we think it strange to suffer who know nothing but sin shall he lie swelthering under his father's wrath and shall we cry out of men's anger was he crowned Godfrey of Bullen first King of Jerusalem refused to be crowned with a Crown of Gold saying that it became not a Christian to wear a Crown of Gold where Christ for our salvation had worn a Crown of thorns with thorns and must we be crowned with rose-buds was his whole life from the cradle to the cross made up of nothing but sorrows and sufferings and must our lives from the cradle to the grave be filled up with nothing but pleasures and delights was he despised and must we be admired was he debased and must we be exalted was he poor and must we be rich was he low and must we be high did he drink of a bitter cup a bloody cup and will no cups serve our turns but cups of consolation Let us not think any thing too much to do for Christ nor any thing too great to suffer for Christ nor any thing too dear to part with for such a Christ such a Saviour that thought nothing too much to do or too grievous to suffer that so he might accomplish the work of our Redemption He left heaven for us and shall not John 1. 18. we let go this world for him he left his father's bosom for us and shall not we leave the bosoms of our dearest Relations Psal 45. 10 11. Mat. 10. 37. for him he underwent all sorts of sufferings for us let us as readily encounter with all sorts of sufferings for him Paul was so inur'd to sufferings for Christ that â— Cor. 12. 10. 2 Cor. 11. 23 to verse 28. he could rejoice in his sufferings he gloried most in his chains and he looked upon his scars buffetings scourgings stoneings for Christ as his greatest triumphs And how ambitious were the primitive Christians of Martyrdom in the cause of Christ and of late in the times of the Marian Persecution how many hundreds chearfully and willingly laid down their lives mounting Eliah-like to heaven in fiery charriots And oh how will Christ own and honour such Christians at last as have Rev. 3. 21. not set on others but exposed themselves to hazards losses and sufferings for his sake as those brave souls who Rev. 12. 11. loved not their lives unto the death that is the despised their lives in comparison of Christ they exposed their Heb. 11 33 to 39. cap. 10. 34. bodies to horrible and painful deaths their temporal estates to the spoyl and their persons to all manner of shame and contempt for the cause of Christ in the days of that bloody persecutor Dioclesian the Christians shewed certatim Ploâ—iosa in certamina ruebatur c. Sulpitius as glorious power in the faith of Martyrdom as in the faith of Miracles the valour of the patients and the savageness of the persecutors striving together till both exceeding nature and belief bred wonder and astonishment in beholders and readers In all Ages and Generations they that have been born after the flesh have persecuted Gal. 4. 29. them that have been born after the spirit and the seed of the serpent have been still a multiplying of troubles upon the seed of the woman Would any man take the Churches picture saith Luther then let him paint a poor silly maid sitting in a wilderness compassed about with hungry
If thou wouldest have thy heart brought and kept 6. Psal 34. 18. Isa 57. 15. 2 Chron. 34. 27. in an humble broken bleeding melting tender frame then seriously peruse this Treatise But Seventhly If thou wouldest always come to the Lord's table with such a frame of spirit as Christ may take a delight to meet thee to own thee to bless thee to bid thee welcom Mat. 26. â—6 27 28 Luk. 22. 19 20. 1 Cor. 11. 23. to the 30. and to seal up his love and thy pardon to thee then seriously peruse this Treatise especially that part of it where the dreadful and amazing sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ both in body and soul are at large set forth But Eightly If thou wouldest have a clear sight of the length 8. Eph. 3. 18. Isal 146. 8. and breadth and depth and height of the love of Christ then seriously peruse this Treatise But Ninthly If thou wouldest have thy love to Christ tryed 9. Cant. 1. 7. cap. 8. 5 6 7. raised acted inflamed discovered and augmented c. then seriously peruse this Treatise But Tenthly If thou art a strong man in Christ Jesus and 10. 2 Tim. 2. 1. Hâ—b 5. 14. 1 â—oâ— 2. 6 7. 1 Joh. 2. 14. wouldest have thy head and heart exercised in the great things of God and in the deep things of God and in the mysterious things of God then seriously peruse this Treatise But Eleventhly If thou art but a weak Christian a babe a 11. 1. Cor. 3. 1. Heb. 5. 13. 1 Pet. 2. 2. 1 John 2. 1 12 13. little child a shrub a dwarf in grace holiness and communion with God and in thy spiritual attainments enjoyments and experiences then seriously peruse this Treatise especially the first part of it But Twelfthly If thou wouldest know whether thou art an indulger 12. Job 20. 11 12 13 14. Mica 6. 6 7. Rom. 13. ult James 4. 3. of sin and if thou wouldest be stocked with singular remedies against thy special sins then seriously peruse the former part of this Treatise But Thirteenthly If thou wouldest be rooted grounded 13. 1 Pet. 5. 10. Isa 53. Heb. 10. 10 12 14 Gal. 4. 4 5. Rom. 8. 3 4. 2 Cor. 5. 21. strengthened and settled in those two grand points of the Gospel viz. The active and passive obedience of Christ and be daily refreshed with those pleasant streams with those waters of life that flow from thence then seriously peruse this Treatise But Fourteenthly If thou wouldest be throughly acquainted 14. Isa 53. cap. 63. 2. 1 Pet. 2. 21 22 23 24. John 10. 11 15. 17 16. with the sufferings of Christ in his body and soul with their greatness and grievousness c. And if thou wouldest understand the mighty advantages we have by his sufferings then seriously peruse this Treatise But Fifteenthly If thou wouldest be able strongly to prove against the Socinians and the high Atheists of the day and such as make so great a noise about a light within them that there is a Hell a place of torment provided and prepared Mat. 25. 41. Psal 9 17. Prov. 5. 5. for all wicked and ungodly persons then seriously peruse this Treatise But Sixteenthly If thou wouldest in a Scripture-glass see the torments of hell and know how to avoid them and what divine improvements to make of them and be resolved in several questions concerning hell and hellish torments then seriously peruse this Treatise But Seventeenthly If thou wouldest be able strenuously to 17. 1 John 1. 2 14. 1 Tim. 2. 5. maintain and defend Christ's Eternal Deity and Manhood against all corrupt Teachers and Gain-sayers then seriously peruse this Treatise But Eighteenthly If thou wouldest be rooted and grounded in 18. Jer. 23. 6. Isa 45. 24. cap. 61. 10. 1 Cor. 1. 30. that great Doctrine of the Imputed Righteousness of Christ and be warmed refreshed cheared comforted and delighted with those choice and singular consolations that flow from thence then seriously peruse this Treatise But Nineteenthly If thou wouldest be set at liberty from many 19. Psal 42. 5 11. Psal 55. 5. 2 Cor. 7. 5. fears and doubts and disputes that often arise in thy soul about thy internal and eternal estate then seriously peruse this Treatise But Twentiethly If thou wouldest have all grace to flourish 20. Psal 92. 12 13 14. Rom. 15. 13. Act. 13. 36. 2 Cor. 12. 9 10. Rev. 12. 1. 2 Cor. 2. 14. and abound in thy soul if thou wouldest be eminently serviceable in thy Generation if thou wouldest be ripe for sufferings for death for heaven if thou wouldest be Temptation-proof if thou wouldest be weaned from this world and triumph in Christ Jesus when the world triumphs over thee then seriously peruse this Treatise Reader if thou wouldest make any earnings of thy reading this Treatise then thou must 1. Read and believe what Act. 18. 8. cap. 24. 14. Psal 1. 2. Psal 119. 5 18. Act. 17. 11. Psal 119. 9. John 13. 17. Psal 119. 105 106. thou readest 2. Thou must read and meditate on what thou readest 3. Thou must read and pray over what thou readest 4. Thou must read and try what thou readest by the touchstone of the word 5. Thou must read and apply what thou readest that plaister will never heal that is not applyed c. 6. Thou must read and make conscience of living up to what thou readest and of living out what thou readest this is the way to honour thy God to gain profit by this Treatise to credit Religion to stop foul mouths to strengthen weak hands to better a bad head to mend a bad heart to rectifie a disorderly life and to make sure work for thy soul for heaven for eternity Reader In a fountain sealed and treasures hid there is little profit or comfort no fountain to that which flows for common good no treasures to those that lie open for publick service If thou gettest any good by reading this Treatise give God alone the glory and remember the Authour when thou art in the Mount with God his prayers for thee are that thou mayest be a knowing Christian a sincere Christian a growing Christian a rooted Christian a resolute Christian an untainted Christian an exemplary Christian an humble Christian and then he knows thou wilt be a saved Christian in the day of Christ so he rests who is Thy Cordial Friend and Souls Servant Tho. Brooks The Interest of Reason in Religion together with the Import and Usage of Scripture Metaphors and the Nature of the Union between Christ and Believers modestly discoursed All occasioned by some late Writings particularly a Book of Mr. Sherlock's entituled Knowledg of God by Robert Ferguson Serious and Weighty QUESTIONS CLEARLY And Satisfactorily Answered The first Question or Case is this 1. Quest WHat are the special Remedies Means or Helps against cherishing or keeping up of any special or peculiar sin either in heart or
7. 15. 19. 21. 23. Isa 30. 22. 14. Hos 8. When the will stands upon such terms of defiance with all sin as that it will never enter into a league of friendship with any sin then is the Soul turned from every sin Thirdly In the judgments turning away from all sin by disapproving disallowing and condemning all sin Rom. 7. 15. O! saith the judgment of a Christian sin is the greatest evil in all the world 't is the only thing God abhors and that brought Jesus Christ to the Cross that damns Souls that shuts Heaven and that has laid the foundations of Hell O! It is the pricking thorn in my eye the deadly arrow in my side the two-edged-sword that hath wounded my Conscience and slain my comforts and separated between God and my Soul O! sin is that which hath hindred my prayers and imbittered my mercies and put a sting into all my crosses and therefore I can't but disapprove of it and disallow of it and condemn it to death yea to Hell from whence it came Fourthly In the purpose and resolution of the soul the soul sincerely purposing and resolving never willingly wilfully or wickedly to transgress any more Psal 17. 3. The general purpose and resolution of my heart is not to transgress though particular failings may attend me yet my resolutions and purposes are firmly set against doing evil Psal 39. 1. The true Penitent holds up his purposes and resolutions to keep off from sin and to keep close with God though he be not able in every thing and at all times to make good his purposes and resolutions c. But Fifthly In the earnest and unfeigned desires and careful endeavours of the Soul to abandon all sin to forsake all sin and to be rid of all sin Rom. 7. 22 23. You know when a prudent tender indulgent Father sees hs Child to fail and come short in that which he enjoyns him to do yet knowing that his desires and endeavours is to please him and serve him he will not be harsh rigid sowre or severe towards him but will spare him and exercise much tenderness and indulgence towards him and will God will God whose mercies reach above the Heavens and whose compassions are infinite and whose love is like himself carry it worse towards his Children then men do carry it towards theirs Surely no. God's Fatherly indulgence accepts of the will for the work Heb. 13. 18. 2 Cor. 8. 12. Certainly a sick man is not more desirous to be rid of all his Diseases nor a Prisoner to be freed from all his bolts and chains than the true Penitent is desirous to be rid of all his sins Sixthly and lastly In the common and ordinary declining shunning and avoyding of all known occasions of sin yea and all temptations provocations inducements and enticements to sin c. That royal Law 1 Thes 5. 22. Abstain from all appearance of evil is a Law that is very precious in a Penitent mans eye and commonly lyes warm upon a Penitent mans heart so that take him in his ordinary course and you shall find him very ready to shun and be shie of the very appearance of sin of the very shews and shadows of sin Job made a Covenant with his eyes Job 31. 1. and Joseph would not hearken to his bold tempting Mistriss to lye by her or to be with her Gen. 39. 10. And David when himself would not sit with Vain persons Psal 26. 3 4 5. Now a true penitential turning from all sins lyes in these six things and therefore you had need look about you for if there be any one way of wickedness wherein you walk and which you are resolved you will not forsake you are no true penitents and you will certainly lose your souls and be miserable for ever This Opinion that is now under-consideration is an opinion that will exceedingly deject many precious Christians and cause them greatly to hang down their heads especially in four days 1. In the day of common calamity 2. In the day of personal affliction 3. In the day of death 4. In the great day of account First In a day of common Calamity when the Sword is drunk with the blood of the slain or when the raging Pestilence lays thousands in heap upon heap or when Fevours Agues Gripes and other Diseases carry hundreds every week to their long homes O! now the remembrance of a mans beloved sins his bosom sins his darling sins if a Saint had any such sins will be very apt to fill his soul with fears dreads and perplexities Surely now God will meet with me now God will avenge himself on me for my beloved sins my bosom sins my darling sins O! how righteous a thing is it with God because of my beloved lusts to sweep me away by these sweeping Judgments that are abroad in the Earth On the contrary how sweet and comfortable a thing is it when in a day of common Calamity a Christian can appeal to God and appeal to Conscience that though he has many weaknesses and infirmities that hang upon him that yet he has no beloved sin no bosom sin no darling sin that either God or Conscience can charge upon him O! such a consideration as this may be as life from the dead to a gracious Christian in the midst of all the common Calamities that do's surround him and that hourly threaten him Secondly In the day of personal Affections when the smarting Rod is upon him and God writes bitter things against him when the Hand of the Almighty has toucht him in his Name Estate Relations c. O! now the remembrance of a mans beloved sins his bosom sins his darling sins if a Saint had any such sins will be as the hand writing upon the Wall Dan. 5. 5 6. that will make his counteance to be changed his thoughts to be troubled his joynts to be loosed and his knees to be dashed one against another O! now a Christian will be ready to conclude O! 't is my beloved sins my bosom sins my darling sins that has caused God to put this bitter cup into my hand and that has provokt him to give me gall and wormwood to drink Lam. 3. 19. Whereas on the contrary when a man under all his personal tryals though they are many and great yet can lift up his head and appeal to God and Conscience that though he has many sinful weaknesses and infirmities hanging upon him yet neither God nor Conscience can charge upon him any beloved sins any bosom sins any darling sins O! such a consideration as this will help a man to bare up bravely sweetly cheerfully patiently and contentedly under the heaviest hand of God as is evident in that great instance of Job who so sorely afflicted as Job and yet no beloved sin no bosom sin no darling sin being chargable upon him by God or Conscience Job 10. 7. chap. 31. 33. How bravely sweetly and Christianly do's Job bear up under
in one is guilty of all 2 Jam. 10. Now that ye may not mistake Aquinas nor the Scripture he cites you must remember that the whole Law is but one copulative Exod. 16. 18. Ezek. 18. 10 11 12 13. v Mark he that breaketh one Command habitually breaketh all not so actually Such as are truly Goâ—ly in respect of the habitual desires purposes bents byasses inclinations resolutions and endeavours of their Souls do keep those very commands that actually they daily break But a dispensatory Conscience keeps not any one Commandement of God he that willingly and wilfully and habitually gives himself liberty to break any one Commandement is guilty of all That is 1. Either he breaks the chain of duties and so breaks all the Law being copulative or 2. With the same disposition of heart that he willingly wilfully habitually breaks one with the same disposition of heart he is ready prest to break all The Apostles meaning in that Jam. 2. 10. is certainly this viz. That suppose a man should keep the whole Law for substance except in some one particular yet by allowing of himself in this particular thereby he manifests that he kept no precept of the Law in obedience and conscience unto God for if he did then he would be careful to keep every precept thus much the words following import and hereby he manifests that he is guilty of all Some others conceive that therefore such a one may be said to be guilty of all because by allowing of himself in any one sin thereby he lyes under that Curse which is threatned against the transgressors of the Law Dan. 27. 26. Eighthly Every Christian should carry in his heart saith another a constant and resolute purpose not to sin in any thing for Faith and the purpose of sinning can never stand together This must be understood of an habitual not actual of a constant not transient purpose But Ninethly One flaw in a Diamond saith another takes away the lustre and the price One puddle if we wallow in it will defile us One man in Law may keep Possession One piece of ward Land makes the Heir liable to the King So one sin lived in and allowed may make a man miserable for ever But Tenthly One turn may bring a man quite out of the way One act of Treason makes a Traytor Giddcon had seventy Sons but one Bastard and yet that one Bastard destroyed all the rest Judg. 8. 13. One sin as well as one Sinner lived in and allowed may destroy much good saith another Eleaventhly He that favoureth one sin though he forgoe many do's but as Ben adab recover of one disease and dye of another yea he doth but take pains to go to Hell saith another Twelfthly Satan by one Lye to our first Parents made fruitless what God himself had Preached to them immediatly before saith another Thirteenthly A man may by one short act of sin bring a long Curse upon himself and his Posterity as Ham did when he saw his Father Noah Drunk Gen. 9. 24 25. And Noah awoke from his Wine and knew what his younger Son had done unto him and he said Cursed is Canaan a Servant of Servants shall he be unto his Brethren Canaan was Hams Son Noah as Gods mouth Prophesied a Curse upon the Son for his Fathers sin Here Ham is cursed in his Son Canaan and the curse entailed not only to Canaan but to his Posterity Noah Prophesies a long series and chain of curses upon Canaan and his Children he makes the curâ—e Hereditary to the Name and Nation of the Canaanites A Servant of Servants shall he be unto his Brethren that is the vilest and basest Servant for the Hebrews express the superlative degree by such a duplication as Vanity of Vanities that is most vain a Song of Songs that is a most excellent Song So here a Servant of Servants that is the vilest the basest Servant Ah heavy and prodigious Curse upon the account of one sin But Fourteenthly Satan can be content that men should yield to God in many things provided that they will be but true to him in some one thing for he knows very well that as one dram of Poyson may poyson a man and one stab at the heart may kill a man so one sin unrepented of one sin allowed retained cherrished and practised will certainly damn a man But Fifteenthly Though all the parts of a mans body be sound save only one that one Diseased and Ulcerous part may be deadly to thee for all the sound members cannot preserve thy life but that one diseased and Ulcerous member will hasten thy death So one sin allowed indulged and lived in will prove killing and damning to thee Sixteenthly Observe saith another that an unmortified sin allowed and wilfully retained will eat out all appearance of Vertue and Piety Herods high esteem of John and his Ministry and his reverencing of him and observing of him and his forward performance of many good things are all given over and laid aside at the instance and command of his master-sin his reigningsin Johns head must go for it if he won't let Herod enjoy his Herodias quietly But Seventeenthly Some will leave all their sins but one Jacob would let all his Sons go but Benjamin Satan can hold a man fast enough by one sin that he allows and lives in as the Fowler can hold the Bird fast enough by one wing or by one claw Eighteenthly Holy Policarp in the time of the fourth Persecution when he was commanded but to swear one Oath he made this Answer Four-score and six years have I endeavoured to do God Service and all this while he never hurt me how then can I speak evil of so good a Lord and Master who hath thus long preserved me I am a Christian and cannot swear let Heathens and Infidels swear if they will I cannot do it were it to the saving of my life Nineteenthly A willing and a wilfull keeping up either in heart or life any known transgression against the Lord is a breach of the holy Law of God it is a fighting against the honour an glory of God and is a reproach to the Eye of God the Omnipresence of God Twentiethly The keeping up of any known transgression against the Lord may endanger the souls of others and may be found a fighting against all the crys prayers tears promises Vows and Covenants that thou hast made to God when thou hast been upon a sick bed or in eminent dangers or near death or else when thou hast been in solemn seeking of the Lord either alone or with others these things should be frequently and seriously thought of by such poor souls as are entangled by any Lust Twenty-one The keeping up of any known transgression against the Lord either in heart or life is a high tempting of Satan to tempt the soul it will also greatly unfit the soul for all sorts of duties and services that he either owes to God
righteousness in him to cloath me c. and therefore I can't but approve of the Lord Jesus as such a good as exceeds all the good that is to be found in Angels and Men the good that I see in Christ doth not only counterpoise but also excel all that real or imaginary good that every I have met with in any thing below Christ Christ must come into the will he must be received there else he is never savingly received Now before the Will will receive him the Will must be certainly informed that he is good yea the best and greatest good or else he shall never be admitted there Let the understanding assent never so much to all propositions concerning Christ as true if the judgment doth not approve of them as good yea as the best good Christ will never be truly received God in his working maintains the faculties of the Soul in their actings as he made them 13thly So far as I know my own heart I am sincerely willing to receive the Lord Jesus Christ in a Matrimonial Covenant according to these Scriptures Hos 2. 19 20. 2 Cor. 11. 2. Isa 54. 5. Isa 61. 10. Isa 62. 5. Cant. 3. 11. c. Through grace I am First Sincerely willing to take the Lord Jesus Christ for my Saviour and Sovereign Lord. So far as I know my own heart I do through mercy give my hearty consent that Christ and Christ alone shall be my Saviour and Redeemer It is true I do duties but the desire of my soul is to do them out of love to Christ and in obedience to his Royal Law and Pleasure I know my best Righteousnesses are but as filthy rags Isa 64. 6. And woe would be to me had I no other shelter or Saviour or resting place for my poor soul than rags than filthy rags And so far as I know my own heart I am sincerely willing to give up my self to the guidance and government of Jesus Christ as my sovereign Lord and King desiring nothing more in this world than to live and die under the guidance and government of his Spirit Word and Grace But Secondly I am willing through grace to give a Bill of Divorce to all other Lovers without exception or reservation So far as I know my own heart I desire nothing more in this world than that God would pull out right-eye sins and cut off right-hand sins I am very desirous through grace to have all sins brought under by the Power Spirit and Grace of Christ but especially my special sins my head corruptions I would have Christ alone to Rule Reign in the haven of my heart without any Competitour But Thirdly I am sincerely willing through Grace to take the Lord Jesus Christ for Better for Worse for Richer for Poorer in Sickness and in Health and in his Strength I would go with him through fire and water resolving through his Grace that nothing shall divide betwixt Christ and my Soul So far as I know my own heart I would have Christ though I beg with him though I go to Prison with him though in agonies in the Garden with him though to the Cross with him But Fourthly So far as I know my own heart I am sincerely willing First to receive the Lord Jesus Christ presently 1 John 12. Secondly to receive him in all his Offices as King Prophet and Priest Col. 2. 6. Acts 5. 31. Thirdly To receive him into every room of my soul to receive him into my understanding mind will affections c. Fourthly To receive him upon his own terms of denying my self taking up his Cross and following of him where-ever he goes Math. 16. 21. Rev. 14. 4. c. Fifthly and lastly So far as I know my own heart I do freely consent 1. To be really Christs 2. To be presently Christs 3. To be wholly Christs 4. To be only Christs 5. To be eminently Christs 6. To be for ever Christs c. Certainly that Christian that has and do's experience the particulars last mentioned under the second question that Christian may safely groundedly boldly and comfortably conclude that his faith is a true justifying saving Faith the Faith of Gods Elect and such a Faith as clearly evidences a gracious Estate and will never leave his Soul short of Heaven Now how many thousand Christians are there that have this Faith that is here described which is doubtless a true justifying saving Faith that gives a man an interest in the person of Christ and in all the blessings and benefits that comes by Christ who yet question whether they have true faith or no partly from weakness partly from temptations and partly from the various definitions that are given of Faith by Protestants both in their Preachings and Writings and it is and must be for a lamentation that in a point of so great moment the Trumpet should give such an uncertain sound The third Question or case is this viz. whether in the great day of the Lord the day of general Judgment or Eccles 11. 9. cap. 12. 14. Matth. 12. 36. cap. 18. 23. in the particular Judgment that will pass upon every soul immediately after death which is the stating of the soul in an Eternal estate or condition either of happiness or misery whether the sins of the Saints the follies and Luk. 16. 2. Rom 14. 10 12. 2 Cor. 5. 10. Heb. 9. 27. cap. 13 17. 1 Pet. 4 5. vanities of Believers the infirmities and enormities of sincere Christians shall be brought into the judgment of discussion and discovery or no Whether the Lord will either in the great day of account or in a mans particular day of account or judgment publickly manifest proclaim and make mention of the sins of his people or no This question is bottomed upon the ten Scriptures in the Margent which I desire the Christian Reader to consult and upon the sad and daily complaints of many dear sincere Christians who frequently cry out O! we can never answer for one evil thought of ten thousand nor we Jâ—â— 9. 3. Psal 19. 12. Psal 143. 2. Ezr 19. 6. can never answer for one idle word of twenty thousand nor we can never answer for one evil action of a hundred thousand and how then shall we stand in Judgment how shall we look the Judg in the Face how shall we be ever able to answer for all our Omissions and for all our Commissions for all our sins of Ignorance and sins against light and knowledge for all our sins against the Law and for all our sins against the Gospel and for all our sins against soveraign Grace and for all our sins against the Remedy against the Lord Jesus and for all the sins of our Infancy of our Youth Heb. 9 27. and of old Age c. What account shall we be able to give up when we come to our particular day of Judg-ment immediately after our death or in the great and general day of account
were called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance Now concerning the passive obedience or suffering of Christ I would present unto you these conclusions First That the sufferings of Jesus Christ were free and voluntary and not constrained or forced Austin saith that Christ did suffer quia voluit quando voluit quomodo voluit Joh. 10. 17. I lay down my life ver 18. No man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again Gal. 2. 20. Who gave himself for me Christs sufferings did rise out of obedience to his Father Joh. 10. 18. This Commandement have I received of my Father and Joh. 18. 11. The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it And Christs sufferings did spring and rise out of his love to us who loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2. 20. so Ephe. 5. 25. As Christ loved the Church and gave himself for it And indeed had Christs sufferings been involuntary they could not have been a part of his obedience much less could they have mounted to any thing of merit for us Christ was very free and willing to undertake the work of mans Redemption when he cometh into the world he saith Sacrifice and Offerings thou wouldest not but a body hast thou prepared me Then said I Hâ—b 1â— 5. Lo I come to do thy Will O God It 's the expression of one overjoy'd to do the Will of God So Luk. 12. 50. I have a Baptisme to be Baptised with and how am I straitned till it be accomplished There was no power no force to compel Christ to lay down his life therefore it is called the offering of the body of Jesus Heb. 10. 10. Nothing could fasten Christ to the Cross but the golden link of his free Love Christ was big of love and therefore he freely opens all the pores of his body that his blood may flow out from every part as a precious Balsom to cure our wounds The heart of Christ was so full of love that it could not hold but must needs burst out through every part and member of his body into a bloody sweat Luk. 22. 44. At this time it is most certain that there was no manner of violence offered to the body of Christ no man touched him or came near him with Whips or Thorns or Spears or Lances Though the Night was cold and the Ayre cold and the Earth on which he kneeled cold yet such a burning love he had in his breasts to his people as cast him into a bloody sweat 'T is certain that Christ never repented of his sufferings Isa 53. 11. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied It is a Metaphor that alludes to a Mother who though she hath had hard labour yet doth not repent of it when she sees a Child brought forth So though Christ had hard Travel upon the Cross yet he doth not repent of but thinks all his sweat and blood well bestowed because he sees the Man-child of Redemption is brought sorth into the world He shall be satisfied the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies such a satiating as a man hath at some sweet repast or banquet And what do's this speak out but his freeness in suffering But here some may object and say that the Lord Jesus Obj. when the hour of his sufferings drew nigh did repent of his Suretyship and in a deep passion prayed to his Father to be released from his sufferings Father if it be possible let this Cup pass from me and that three times over Math. 26. 39 42 44. Now to this Objection I shall Answer first more generally Answ and secondly more particularly First in the general I say that this earnest prayer of his doth not denote absolutely his unwillingness but rather sets out the greatness of his willingness for although Christ as a man was of the same natural affections with us and desires and abhorrences of what was destructive to nature and therefore did fear and deprecate that bitter cup which he was ready to drink yet as our Mediator and Surety and knowing it would be a Cup of Salvation to us though of exceeding bitterness to himself he did yield and lay aside his natural reluctancies as Man and willingly obeyed his Fathers will to drink it as our loving Mediator as if he should say O Father whatsoever becometh of me of my natural fâ—ar or desire I am content to submit to the drinking of this Cup thy Will be done But Secondly and more particularly I Answer that in these words of our Lord there is a two-fold voice 1. There is vox naturâ— the voyce of nature Let this Cup pass from me 2. There is vox officii the voyce of his Mediatory office 〈…〉 less not as I will but as thou wilt The first voyce 〈◊〉 this Cup pass intimates the velleity of the inferiour part of his Soul the sensitive part proceeding from unnatural abhorrency of death as he was a Creature The latter voyce Nevertheless not as I will but as thou wilt expreâ—â— the full and free consent of his will complying with the will of his Father in that grand everlasting design of bringing many Sons unto glory by making the Captain of their Salvation perfect through sufferings Heb. 2. 10. It was an Argument of the truth of Christ his humane Nature that he naturally dreaded a dissolution He owed it to himself as a Creature to desire the conservation of his being and he could not become unnatural to himself For no man ever yet hated his own Flesh Ephe. 5. 29. Phil. 2. 8. But being a Son he learned submission and became obedient to the death even the death of the Cross that shameful cruel cursed death of the Cross the suffering whereof he owed to that solemn Astipulation which from everlasting passed between his Father and himself the third person in the blessed Trinity the Holy Ghost being witness And therefore though the Cup was the bitterest Cup that ever was given man to drink as wherein there was not death only but wrath and curse Yet seeing there was no other way left of satisfying the justice of his Father and of saving Sinners most willingly he took the Cup and having given thanks as it were in those words The Cup which my Father hath given me shall I not drink it Never did Bridegroom goe with more chearfulness to be Married to his Bride than our Lord Jesus went to his Cross Luk. 12. 20. Though the Cup that God the Father put into Christs hand was bitter very bitter yea the bitterest that ever was put into any hand yet he found it sweetned with three Ingredients 1. It was but a Cup it was not a Sea 2. It was his Father and not Satan that mingled it and that 〈◊〉 in all the bitter Ingredients that were in it 3. It was a gilt not
a Curse as to himself The Cup which my 〈◊〉 giveth me he drank it I say and drank it 〈◊〉 every drop leaving nothing behind for his Redeem 〈…〉 of Love and Salvation in the Sacramenâ—â— Cup of his own Institution saying This Cup is the New Testament in my Blood for the Remission of sins This 〈◊〉 in remembrance of me 1 Cor. 11. 25. Math. 26. 28. Thus my Friends look upon Christ as Mediator in which capacity only he covenanted with his Father for the Salvation of man-kind and there was not so much as a shadow of any receding from or repenting of what he had undertaken But Secondly As the sufferings of Jesus Christ were very free and voluntary so they were very great and hainous what agony what torment was our Saviour wrackt with how deep were his wounds how weighty his burden how full of trembling his Cup when he lay under the Mountains of the guilt of all the Elect How bitter were his Tears how painful his Sweat how sharp his encounters how dreadful his Death who can impute how many Vials of Gods inexpressible insupportable wrath Christ drank off in that 53. of Isa you may read of despising rejected stripes smilings wounds sorrows bruising chastisement oppression affliction cutting off putting to grief and pouring out of his soul to death all these put together speaks out Christ to be a very great sufferer he was a man of sorrows as if he were a man made up of sorrows as the man of sin as if he were made up of sin as if He were nothing else He knew more sorrows than any man yea than all men ever did 〈◊〉 Iniquity and consequently the sorrows of all men met in him as if he had been their center and he was acquainted with griefs he had little acquaintance else grief was his familiar acquaintance he had no acquaintance with laughter we read not that he laughed at all when he was in the world his other acquaintance stood afar off but grief followed him to the Cross from his Birth to his Death from his Cradle to the Cross from the Womb to the Tomb he was a man of sorrows and never were sorrows like his he might say Never grief or sorrow like mine 'T is indeed impossible to express the sufferings and sorrows of Christ and the Greek Christians used to beg of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that for the unknown sufferings of Christ he would have mercy upon them Though Christs â—â—rings are abundantly made known yet they are but little known eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath it or can it enter into the heart of man to conceive what Christ suffered who hath known the power of Gods wrath Christ Jesus knew it for he underwent it his whole life was made up of sufferings He was no sooner born but sufferings came trooping in upon him He was born in an Inn yea in a Stable and had but a Manuger for his Cradle As soon as his Birth was noised abroad Herod under a pretence of worshiping of him had a design to murder him so that his supposed Father was fain to flye into Aegypt to secure his life he was persecuted before he could after the manner of men be sensible of persecution and as he grew up in years so his sufferings grew up with him Hunger and Thrist Travel and Weariness Scorns and Reproaches false Accusations and Contradictions still waited on him and he had not where to lay his head 1 Pet. 3. 18. For Christ also hath once suffered for sins This is the wonderment of Angels the happiness of fallen man and the torment of Devils c. that Christ hath suffered The Apostles words look like a Riddle Christ hath suffered as if he should say read thou if thou canst what he hath suffered as for my part they are so many that in this short Epistle I have no mind to Record them and they are so grievous that my passionate love won't suffer me to repeat them and therefore I content my self thus abruptly to deliver them Christ hath sufferd Christs sufferings were unspeakable His sufferings were unutterable and therefore the Apostle satisfies himself with this unperfect broken speech Christ hath suffered O what woes and lamentations what crys and exclamations what complaints and sorrows what wringing of hands what knocking of breasts what weeping of eyes what wayling of tongues belong to the speaking and hearing of this doleful Tragedy Even in the Prologue I tremble and at the first entrance I am as at a non-plus that I know not with what woful gesture to act it with what moanful voice to pronounce it with what mournful words with what pathetical speeches with what emphatical phrases with what interrupted accents with what passionate compassionate plaints to express it The multiplicity of the plot and the variety of the acts and scenes is so intricate that my memory falls to comprise it the matter so importent and the story so excellent that my tongue sailâ— to declare it the cruelty so savage and the massacre so barbarous that my heart even fails to consider it Wherefore I must needs content my self with the Apostle here to speak but unperfectly of it and thinks this enough to say Christ hath suffered and well may I think this enough for behold what perfection there is in this seeming imperfect speech For First To say indefinitely he suffered without any limitation of time what is it but to say that he always suffered without exception of time And so indeed the Prophet speaks of him namely That he was a man of sorrows Isa 53. 3. His whole life was fill'd up with sufferings But Secondly To say only he suffered and nothing else what is it but to say that he patiently suffered he never resisted never rebelled never opposed He was led as a Sheep to the slaughter and as a Lamb dumb before the Sheerer so opened he not his mouth Act. 8. 32. Isa 53. 7. And when he was reviled he reviled not again when he suffered he threatned not 1 Pet. 2. 23. But Thirdly To say precisely he suffered and no more what is it but to say that he freely suffered that he voluntarily suffered Christ was under no force no compulsion but freely suffered himself to suffer and voluntarily suffered the Jews to make him suffer having power to quit himself from suffering if he had pleased I lay down my life no man taketh it from me but I lay it down of my self I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it again Joh. 10. 17. But of this before Fourthly To say plainly he suffered what is it but to say that he Innocently suffered that he wrongfully suffered for had he been a Malefactor or an Offender it should have been said that he was punished or that he was executed but he was full of Innocency he was holy and harmless and so it follows in that 1 Pet. 3. 18. The just for the unjust But
Fifthly To say peremptorily he suffered what is it but to say that he principally suffered that he excessively suffered To say he suffered What is it but to say he was the cheif sufferer the arch sufferer and that not only in respect of the manner of his sufferings that he suffered absolutely so as never did any but also in respect of the measure of his sufferings that he suffered excessively beyond what ever any did And thus we may well understand and take those words He suffered That lamentation of the Prophet Lam. 1. 12. is very applicable to Christ Behold and see if there be any sorrows like unto my sorrow which is done unto me wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fiorce anger Now is it not enough for the Apostle to say that Christ hath suffered but will you yet ask what But pray Friends be satisfied and rather of the two ask what not for what sufferings can you think of that Christ did not suffer Christ suffered in his Birth and he suffered in his Life and he suffered in his Death he suffered in his Body for he was diversly tormented he suffered in his Soul for his Soul was heavy unto death he suffered in his Estate they parted his Rayment and he had not where to rest his head he suffered in his good Name for he was counted a Samaritan a Devillish Sorcerer a Wine-bibber an Enemy to Caesar c. He suffered from Heaven when he cryed out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me He suffered from the Earth when being hungry the Fig-tree proved fruitless to him He suffered from Hell Satan assaulting and encountering of him with his most black and horrid temptations He began his life meanly and basely and was sharply persecuted He continued his life poorly and distressedly and was cruelly hated He ended his life wofully and miserably and was most grievously tormented with Whips Thorns Nails and above all with the terrors of his Fathers wrath and horrors of hellish agonies Ego sum qui peccavi I am the man that have sinned but these Sheep what have they done said David when he saw the Angel destroying his people 2 Sam. 24. 17. And the same speech may every one of us take up for our selves and apply to Christ and say I have sinned I have done wickedly but this Sheep what hath he done yea much more cause have we than David had to take up this complaint For First David saw them dye whom he knew to be Sinners but we see him dye who we knew knew no sin 2 Cor. 5. 21. But Secondly David saw them dye a quick speedy death we see him dye with lingering torments He was a dying from six to nine Math. 27. 45 46. Now in this three hours darkness he was set upon by all the powers of darkness with utmost might and malice but he foyled and spoiled them all and made an open shew of them as the Roman Conquerors used to do triumphing over them on his Cross as on his Chariot of State Col. 2. 15. attended by his vanquished Enemies with their hands bound behind them Ephe. 4. 8. But Thirdly David saw them dye who by their own confession was worth ten thousand of them we see him dye for us whose worth admitteth no comparison But Fourthly David saw the Lord of glory destroying mortal men and we see mortal men destroying the Lord of glory 1 Cor. 2. 8. O how much more cause have we then to say as David I have sinned I have done wickedly but this Innocent Lamb the Lord Jesus what hath he done what hath he deserved that he should be thus greatly tormented Tully though a great Orator yet when he comes to speak of the death of the Cross he wants words to express it Quid dicam in crucem tollere What shall I say of this death saith he But Thirdly As the sufferings of Christ were very great so the punishments which Christ did suffer for our sins these were in their kinds and parts and degrees and proportion all those punishments which were due unto us by reason of our sins which we our selves should otherwise have suffered Whatsoever we should have suffered as Sinners all that did Christ suffer as our Surety and Mediator always excepting those punishments which could not be endured without a pollution and guilt of sinâ— The chasrisement of our peace was upon him Isa 53. 5. And including the punishments common to the nature of man not the personal arising out of imperfection and defect and distemper Now the punishments due to us for sin were corporal and spiritual And again they were the punishments of loss and of sense and all these did Christ suffer for us which I shall evidence by an induction of particulars First That Christ suffered corporal punishments is most clear in Scripture You read of the Injuries to his Person of the Crown of Throns on his Head of the smiting of his Cheeks of spitting on his Face of the scourging of his Body of the Cross on his Back of the Vinegar in his Mouth of the Nails in his Hands and Feet of the Spear in his Side and of his crucifying and dying on the Cross 1 Pet. 2. 24. Who himself in his own body on the Tree bare our sins 1 Cor. 15. 3. Christ dyed for our sins according to the Scriptures Rev. 1. 5. And washed us from our sins in his own Blood Col. 1. 14. In whom we have Redemption through his Blood even the forgiveness of sins Math. 26. 28. For this is my Blood of the New Testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins Christ suffered derision in every one of his Offices First In his Kingly Office They put a Scepter in his Hand a Crown on his Head and bowed their Knees saying Hail King of the Jews Matth. 27. 29. Secondly In his Priestly Office They put upon him a gorgeous white Robe such as the Priests wore Luk. 23. 11. Thirdly In his Prophetical Office When they had blindfolded him Prophesie say they who it is that smiteth thee Luk. 22. 64. Sometimes they said Thou art a Samaritan and hast a Devil Joh. 8. 48. And sometimes they said He is beside himself why hear ye him Mark 3. 21. And as Christ suffered in every one of his Offices so he suffered in every member of his Body in his Hearing by their reproaches and crying Crucifie him Crucifie him In his sight by their Scoffings and scornful gestures In his Smell in his being in that noysome place Gâ—lgotha Math. 27. 33. In his Tast by his tasting of Vinegar mingled with Gall which they gave him to drink Math. 27. 33. In his Feeling by the Thorns on his Head blows on his Cheeks spittle on his Face the Spear in his side and the Nails in his Hands he suffered in all parts and members of his body from head to foot His Head which deserved a better Crown than the best in
esteemed the most shameful the most dishonourable and infamous of all kinds of death and was usually therefore the punishment of those that had by some notorious wickedness provoked God to pour out his wrath upon the whol Land and so were hanged up to appease his wrath as we may see in the hanging of those Princes that were guilty of committing Numb 25. 4. Whordom with the Daughters of Moab and in the hanging of those Sons of Saul in the days of David when 2 Sam. 21. 6. there was a Famine in the Land because of Sauls perfidious oppressing of the Gibeonites nor was it without cause that this kind of death was both by the Israelites and other Nations esteemed the most shameful and accursed because the very manner of the death did intimate that such men as were thus Executed were such execrable and accursed wretches that they did defile the Earth with treading on it and would pollute the Earth if they should dye upon it and therefore were so trussed up in the Ayre as not fit to live amongst men and that others might look upon them as men made spectacles of Gods Indignation and Curse because of the wickedness they had committed which was not done in other kinds of death And hence it was that the Lord God would have his Son the Lord Christ to suffer this kind of death that even hence it might be the more evident that in his death he bare the Curse due to our sins according to that of the Apostle Christ hath Redeemed us from the Curse of the Law being made a Curse for us for it is written Cursed is every one that hangeth on a Tree The Gal. 3. 13. Chaldee translateth For because he sinned before the Lord he is hanged The Tree whereon a man was hanged the Stone wherewith he was stoned the Sword wherewith he was beheaded and the Napkin wherewith he was strangled they were all Buried that there might be no evil memorial of such a one to say This was the Tree Sword Stone Napkin wherewith such a one was Executed This kind of death was so execrable that Constantine made a Law that no Christian should dye upon the Cross he abolished this kind of death out oâ— his Empire When this kind of death was in use among the Jews it was chiefly inflicted upon Slaves that either falsly accused or treacherously conspired their Masters death But on whomsoever it was inflicted this death in all Ages among the Jews hath been branded with a special kind of ignominy and so much the Apostle signifies when he saith He abased himself to the death even to the Phil. 2. 2. death of the Cross I know Moses's Law speaks nothing in particular of Crucifying yet he doth include the same under the general of hanging on a Tree and some conceive that Moses in speaking of that Curse sore-saw what manner of death the Lord Jesus should die and let thus much sussice concerning Christs sufferings on the Cross or concerning his corporal sufferingâ— I shall now in the second place speak concerning Christs spiritual sufferings his sufferings in his Soul which were exceeding high and great Now here I shall endeavour to do two things First To prove that Christ suffered in his Soul and so much the rather because that the Papists say and write That Christ did not truly and properly and immediatly suffer in his Soul but only by way of simpathy and compassion with his body to the Mystical body and that his bare bodily sufferings were sufficient for mans Redemption 2. That the sufferings of Christ in his Soul were exceeding high and great for the first that Christ suffered in his Soul I shall thus demonstrate First Express Scriptures do evidence this Isa â—3 When thou shalt make his Soul an offering for sin he shall see his Seed c. Joh. 12. 27. Now is my Soul troubled and what shall I say Father save me from this hour but for this cause came I unto this hour Math. 26. 37. 38. He began to be sorrowful and very heavy These were but the beginings of sorrow he began c. Sorrow is a thing that drinks up our spirits and he was heavy as seeling an heavy load upon him v. 38. My Soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death Christ was as full of sorrow as his heart could hold every word is Emphatical My Soul his Psal 6â— 1. 2. sorrow pierced his Heaven-born Soul As the Soul was the first Agent in transgression so it is here the first Patient in affliction The sufferings of his body were but Christs Soul was beleagured or compassed round round with sorrow as that word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sounds 26 Math. 28 the body of his sufferings the soul of his sufferings were the sufferings of his Soul which was nòw beset with sorrows and heavy as heart could hold Christ was sorrowsul his Soul was sorrowful his Soul was exceeding sorrowsul his Soul was exceeding sorrowful unto death Christs Soul was in such extremity of sorrow that it made him cry out Father if it be possible let this Cup pass and this was with strong cryings and tears To cry and to cry Heb. 5. 7. with a loud voyce argues great extremity of sufferings Mark 14. 33. Mark saith And he began to be amazod 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and to be very heavy or we may more fully express it thus according to the original He begun to be gastred with wondersul astonishment and to be satiated filled brim full with heaviness a very sad condition All the sins of the Elect like a huge Army meeting upon Christ made a dreadful on-set on his Soul Luk. 22. 43 44. 'T is said He was in an Agony That 's a conflict in which a poor Creature wrestles with deadly pangs with all his might mustring up all his faculties and force to grapple with them and with-stand them Thus did Christ struggle with the Indignation of the Lord praying once and again with more intense fervency O that this Cup may pass away if it be possible let this Cup pass away while yet an Luk 22 42 43. Angel strengthened his outward man from utter sinking in the conslict Now if this weight that Christ did bare had been laid on the shoulders of all the Angels in Heaven it would have sunk them down to the lowest Hell it would have crackt the Axel-tree of Heaven and Earth It made His blood startle out of his body in congealed cloddered heaps The heat of Gods fiery Indignation made his blood to boil up till it ran over yea Divine wrath affrighted it out of its wonted Channel The Creation of Geâ— 1. the world cost him but a word he spake and the world was made but the Redemption of Souls cost him bloody sweats and Soul-distraction What conflicts what struglings with the wrath of God the powers of darkness what weights what burdens what wrath did he undergoe when his Soul
of future deliverance and present support and 5. By denial of Protection and 6. By withdrawing of all solace and comfort Now it is foolish and impious to think that Christ was forsaken any of the first four ways for the unity of his person was never dissolved his graces were never either taken away or diminished neither was it possible that he should want Assurance of future deliverance and present support that was Eternal God and Lord of Life but the two last ways he may rightly be said to have been forsaken in that his Father denied to protect and keep him out of the hands of his cruel bloody and merciless Enemies no ways restraining them but suffering them to do the uttermost that their wicked hearts could imagine and left him to endure the extremity of their fury and malice and that nothing might be wanting to make his sorrows beyond measure sorrowful withdrew from him that solace and comfort that he was wont to find in God and removed far from him all things for a little time that might any way lessen and asswage the extremity of his pain Secondly That Jesus Christ did feel and suffer the wrath of God which was due unto us for our sins The Prophet Isa 53. 4. saith That he was plagued and smitten of God and ver 5. The chastisement of our peace was upon him To be plagued and smitten of God is to feel and suffer the stroak of his wrath And so to be chastified of God as to make peace with God or to appease him is so to suffer the wrath of God as to satisfie God and to remove it And truly how Christ should possibly escape the feeling of the wrath of God incensed against our sins he standing as a Surety for us with our sins laid upon him and for them fully to satisfie the justice of God is not Christianly or rationally imaginable And whereas some do object that Christ was always the beloved of his Father and therefore could never be the object of Gods wrath I answer By distinguishing of the person of Christ Sol. whom his Father always loved and as sustaining our sins and in our room standing to satisfie the justice of God and as so the wrath of God fell upon him and he bore it and so satisfied the justice of God that we thereby are now delivered from wrath through him So the Apostle Rom. 5. 9. Much more being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath by him 1 Thes 1. 10. And to wait for his Son from Heaven whom he raised from the dead even Jesus which deliverod us from the wrath to come It is a groundless conceit of some learned heads who deny the cause of Christs Agony to be the drinking of that Cup of wrath that was given to him by his Father saying That the sight of it only and of the peril he saw we were in was the cause of his Agony for the Cup was not Joh. 18. 11. only shew'd unto him and the great wrath due to our sins set before him that he should see it and tremble at the apprehension of the danger we were in but it was poured not only on him but into him that he for the sins of his Redeemed Ones should suffer it sensibly and drink it that the bitterness thereof might affect all the powers of his soul and body for the Scripture do's sufficiently testifie that not only upon the sight and apprehension of this wrath and curse coming on him the holy humane Heb. 5. 7. Nature did holily abhor it but also that he submitted to receive it upon the consideration of the divine decree and Math. 26. 38 39 42 44. 1 Cor. 6. 20. cap. 7. 23. agreement made upon the price to be paid by him and that upon the feeling of this wrath this Agony in his soul and bloody sweat of his body was brought on But how could the pourings forth of the Fathers wrath upon Quest on his innocent and dear Son consist with his Fatherly love to him c Even as the innocency and holiness of Christ could well Answ consist with his taking upon him the punishment of our sins for even the wrath of a just man inflicting capital punishment on a condemned person put case it be his own Child can well consist with Fatherly affection towards his Child suffering punishment Did you never see a Father weep over such a Son that he has corrected most severely Did you never see a Judge shed tears for those very persons that he has Condemned There is no doubt but wrath and love can well consist in God in whom affections do not war one with another nor fight with reason as it often falls among men for the affections ascribed unto God are effects rather of his holy will towards us than properly called affections in him and these effects of Gods will about us do always tend to our happiness and blessedness at last how-ever they are diverse one from another in themselves Thirdly That Jesus Christ did feel and suffer the very torments of Hell though not after a Hellish manner I readily grant that Jesus Christ did not locally descend into Hell to suffer there amongst the damned neither did he suffer Hellish darkness nor the flames of Hell nor the Worm that never dyes nor final despair nor guilt of Conscience nor gnashing of teeth nor impatient indignation nor eternal separation from God these things were absolutely inconsistent with the holiness purity and dignity of his person and with the office of a Mediator and Redeemer But yet I say that our Lord Jesus Christ did suffer in his Soul for our sins such pain horror terror agony and consternation as amounted unto cruciatus infernales and are in Scripture called The sorrows of Hell The sorrows of Hell did compass me about or the Psal 18. 5. cords of Hell did compass me about such as wherewith they bind Malefactors when they are led forth to Execution Now these sorrows these cords of Hell were the things that extorted from him that passionate expostulation My God my God why hast thou forsaken me Math. 27. 46. Christs sufferings were unspeakable and somewhat answerable to the pains of Hell Hence the Greek Letany By thine unknown sufferings good Lord deliver us Funinus an Italian Martyr being asked by one why he was so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. and Mon. fol. 853. merry at his death sith Christ himself was so sorrowful Christ said he sustained in his soul all the sorrows and conflicts with Hell and death due to us by whose sufferings we are delivered from sorrow and the fear of them all It was a great saying of a very learned man that setting Iniquity and Eternity of punishment aside which Christ might not sustain Christ did more vehemently and sharply feel the wrath of God then ever any man did or shall no not any person reprobated and damned excepted and certainly the reason annexed
should in a physical sense suffer which indeed is impossible yet these sufferings did so affect the Person that it may truly be said that God suffered and by his blood bought his people to himself for albeit the Act. 20. 28. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19 20. 1 Cor. 6. 20. cap. 7. 23. proper and formal subject of physical sufferings be only the humane Nature yet the principal subject of sufferings both in a physical and moral sense is Christs Person God and Man from the dignity whereof the worth and excellency of all sorts of sufferings the merit and the satisfactory sufficiency of the price did flow O Sirs you must seriously consider that though Christ as God in his God-head could not suffer in a physical sense yet in a moral sense he might suffer and did suffer For he being in the form of God thought it not robbery Phil. 2. 6 7 8. to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a Servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found in fashion as a Man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the Cross O! who can sum up the contradictions the railings the revilings the contempts the despisings and calumnies that Christ met with from Sinners yea from the worst of Sinners But how could so low a debasing of the Son of man or of the humane nature assumed by Christ consist with the Object 2 Majesty of the Person of the Son of God We must distinguish those things in Christ which are Answ proper to either of the two Natures from those things which are ascribed to his Person in respect of either of the Natures or both the Natures for infirmity physical suffering or mortality are proper to the humane Nature The glory of power and grace and mercy and super-excellent Majesty and such like are proper to the Diety but the sufferings of the humane Nature are so far from diminishing the glory of the divine Nature that they do manifest the same and make it appear more clearly and gloriously for by how much the humane Nature was weakned depressed and despised for our sins for our sakes by so much the more the love of Christ God and Man in one person toward man and his mercy and power and grace to man do shine in the eyes of all that judiciously do look upon him Object How could Christ indure Hell-fire without Obj. 3 grievous sins as blasphemy and despair c. I Answer That we may walk safely and without offence Answ these things must be premised First That the sorrows and sufferings of Hell be no otherwise attributed to Christ than as they may stand with the dignity and worthiness of his Person the holiness of his Nature and the performance of the office and work of our Redemption First then for the soul of Christ to suffer in the local place of Hell to remain in the darkness thereof and to be tormented with the material flames there and eternally to be damned was not for the dignity of his Person to whom for his excellency and worthiness both the place manner and time of those torments were dispensed with Secondly Final Rejection and Desperation Blasphemy and the worm of Conscience agreeth not with the holiness of his Nature Who was a Lamb without a spot and therefore we do not we dare not ascribe them to him Heb. 9. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 19. But Thirdly Destruction of body and soul which is the second death could not fall upon Christ for this were to have destroyed the work of our Redemption if he had been subject to destruction But Fourthly and lastly Blasphemy and Despair are no parts of the pains of the damned but the consequents and follow the sense of Gods wrath in a sinful Creature that is overcome by it But Christ had no sin of his own neither was he overcome of wrath and therefore he always Rev. 16. 9. 11. held fast his integrity and innocency Despair is an unavoidable Companion attending the pains of the second death as all Reprobates do experience Desperation is an utter hopelesness of any good and a certain expectation and waiting on the worst that can befall and this is the lot and portion of the damned in Hell The wretched sinner in Hell seeing the sentence passed against him Gods purpose fulfilled never to be reversed the gates of Hell made fast upon him and a great Gulf fixt Luk. 16. 26. betwixt Hell and Heaven which renders his escape impossible He now gives up all and reckons on nothing but uttermost misery Now mark this despair is not an essential part of the second death but only a consequent or at the most an effect occasioned by the sinners view of his irremediless woful condition but this neither did nor could possibly befall the Lord Jesus He was able by the power of his God-head both to suffer and to satisfie and to overcome therefore he expected a good issue and Psal 16. 9 10. Act. 2. 26 27 28 31. knew that the end should be happy and that he should not be ashamed Isa 5. 6 7. c. Though a very shallow stream would easily drown a little Child there being no hope of escape for it unless one or another should step in seasonably to prevent it Yet a man that is grown up may groundedly hope to escape out of a far more deep and dangerous place because by reason of his stature strength and skill he could wade or swim out Surely the wrath of the Almighty manifested in Hell is like the vast Ocean or some broad deep River and therefore when the sinful Sons and Daughters of Adam which are Rom. 5. 6. without strength are hurl'd into the mid'st of it they must needs lye down in their confusion as altogether hopeless of deliverance or escaping but this despair could not seize upon Jesus Christ because although his Father took Isa 63. 1 2 3. him cast him into the Sea of his wrath so that all the billows of it went over him yet being the mighty God with whom nothing is impossible he was very able to pass through that Sea of wrath and sorrow which would have drowned all the world and come safe to shore Object But when did Christ suffer Hellish Torments Obj. 4 they are inflicted after death not usually before it but Christs soul went strait after death into Paradise how else could he say to the penitent Thief This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Now to this Objection I shall give these following Answers First That Christs soul after his Passion upon the Cross did not really and locally descend into the place of the damned may be thus made evident First All the Evangelists and so Luke among the rest 1. Luk. 1. 3. intending to make an exact Narrative of the life and death of Christ hath set down at large his Passion Death
after our likeness Gen. 1. 26. which makes a prudent Interpreter think that when they are joyned it is by Hendiadys and that the Andr. Rivet in Gen. Exer 〈…〉 Nihil est in macrocosm 〈…〉 num praeter microcosmum â—avoâ—inus There is nothing in the vast world of Creatures truly great except the little world of man Holy Ghost meaneth an Image most like his own It is exceeding much for mans honour that he is an Epitomy of the world an abridgement of other Creatures partaking with the stones in being with the Stars in motion with the Plants in growing with the Beasts in sense and with Angels in science But his being made after Gods Image is far more You know when great men erect a stately building they cause their own picture to be hung upon it that spectators may know who was the chief founder of it So when God had created the Fabrick of this world the last thing he did was the setting up his own Picture in it Creating man after his own Image When the great Creator went about that noble work that prime piece of making of man He doth as it were call a solemn Counsel of the sacred persons in the Trinity And God said Let us make Man in our Image Gen 1. 26. Man saith one in his Creation is Angelical in his Corruption Diabolical in his Renovation Theological in his Translation Majestical an Angel in Eden a Devil in the World a Saint in the Church a King in Heaven c. Man before his Fall was the best of Creatures but since his Fall he is become the worst of Creatures He that was once the Image of God the glory of Paradise the worlds Lord and the Lords darling is now become an abomination to God a burden to Heaven a Plague to the World and a slave to Satan When Man first came out of Gods Mint he did shine most gloriously as being bespangled with Holiness and clad with the royal Robe of Righteousness his Understanding was filled with knowledge his Will with uprightness his Affections with holiness c. But yet being a mutable Creature and subject to temptations Satan quickly stript him of his happiness and cheated and cousened him of his Imperial Crown as we use to do Children with an Apple If God had created Angels and men immutable he had created them Gods and not Creatures but being made mutable we know they did fall from their primitive purity and glory and we know that out of the whole Host of Angels he kept some from falling and when all mankind was fallen he Redeemed some by his Son Now mark as he shews mercy upon some in their Salvation Rom. 7. 21 22 23. so it is meet that he should glorifie his justice upon others in their Condemnation And because there must be distinct places for the exercise of the one and for the execution of the other which are in God equally infinit by an irrecoverable decree from the foundation of the world a glorious habitation was prepared for the one and a most hideous Dungeon for the other These shall go into everlasting punishment and the Righteous into Math. 25. 6. life Eternal yea so certain are both these places that they were of old prepared for that very purpose Inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world and so Depart ye Cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Look as God foresaw vers 41. the different estates and conditions of Men and Angels so he provided for them distinct and different places Doubtless Hell was constituted before Angels or or Men fell Hell was framed before sin was hatched as Heaven was formed and fitted before any of the Inhabitants were produced But Secondly That there is a Hell both the Old and New Testament doth clearly and fully testifie take some instances Psal 9. 17. The wicked shall be turned into Hell Sheol is often put for the Grave Psal 16. 10. but not always and all the Nations that forget God in the Hebrew there are two into 's into into Hell that is The Wicked shall certainly be turned into the nethermost Hell yea they shall forcibly be turned into the lowest and darkest place in Hell God will as it were with both hands thrust him In tenebras ex tenebris infelicit ex exclusi in felicius excludendi August into Hell If Sheol here signifie the Grave only what punishment is here threatned to the Wicked which the Righteous is not equally liable to Doubtless Sheol here is to be taken for that prison or place of torment where Divine justice detayns all those in hold that have all their days rebelled against him scorned his Son despised the means of Grace and dyed in open Rebellion against him The Psalmist saith my Author declares the miserable Mollerus condition of all those who live and dye in their sins Aeternis punientur paenis They shall be everlastingly punished And Masculus reads the place thus Animi impiorum cruciatibus debitis apud inferos punientur The souls of the ungodly shall be punished in Hell with deserved torments Certainly the very place in which the wicked shall lodge and be tormented to all Eternity viz. Hell the bottomless Pit a Dungeon of darkness a Lake of fire and brimstone a fiery Furnace will extreamly aggravate the dolefulness of their condition O Sirs were all Vide Bellarm. de Eter Faelâ— the Water in the Sea Ink and every pile of Grass a Pen and every hair on all the mens heads in the world the hand of a ready Writer all would be too short graphically to delincate the nature of this Dungeon where all lost souls must lodge for ever Where is the man who to gain a world would lodge one night in a Room that 's haunted with Devils and is it nothing to dwell in Hell with them for ever So Solomon Prov. 5. 5. saith By death and Hell is in this place meant not only temporal death and the visible grave but also eternal death and hell it self even the place of the damned The Dutch Annotations of the Harlot That her feet go down to death her steps take hold on Hell here Sheol is translated Hell and in the judgment of Lavator is well translated to Foveam vel infernum passus ejus tenebunt which saith he is spoken not so much of natural death as of spiritual and that eternal destruction which followeth thereupon and he gives this for a reason why we should understand the place so Because Whordom being an abominable sin defiling the Members of the Body of Christ dissolving and making void the Covenant between God and Man must needs be accompanied with an equivalent judgment even excluding those that are guilty thereof without Repentance 1 Cor. 6. 9 10. Gal. 5. 19 20 21. Rev. 21. 27. Heb 13. 4. the Kingdom of Heaven into which pure and undefiled place no unclean
8. 29. And behold they cryed out saying what have we do do with thee Jesus thou Son of God Art thou come hither to torment us before the time 1. They acknowledge God 2. Christ 3. The day of Judgment 4. That they shall be tormented then They who Piscat scorn the day of Judgment are worse than Devils and they who deny the Deity of Christ are worse than Devils The Devils are as it were for a time respited and reprived in respect of full torment and they are suffered as free Prisoners to flutter in the Aair and to course about the Earth till the great day of the Lord which they 2 Pet. 3. tremble to think on and which they that mock at or make light of are worse than Devils The Devils knew that torments were prepared for them and a time when these torments should be fully and fatally inflicted on them and loath they were to suffer before that time Ah Sirs shall not men tremble to deny what the Devils are forced to confess Shall I now make a few short inferences from what has been said and so conclude this head First then O labour to set up God as the great object of your fear this grand Lesson Christ commands us to take out Fear not them which kill the body but art not able Math. 10. 28. to kill the soul but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in Hell yea I say unto you fear him Luk. 12 5. Christ doubles the precept that it might stick with more life and power upon us As one fire so one fear drives out another both the punishment of loss and the punishment of sense may be the objects of a filial fear the fear of a Son of a Saint of a Soul that is Espoused and Married 2 Cor. 11. 2. Hâ—s 2. 19 20. to Christ The fear of God and the fear of Sin will drive out the fear of death and the fear of Hell O Sirs will you not fear that God that hath the Keys of Hell and Death in his own hand that can spake you into Hell at pleasure that can by a word of command bring you to Rev. 1. 18 dwell with a devouring fire yea to dwell with everlasting burnings Ah Friends will you fear a burning Feaver and will you not fear a burning in Hell Will you fear when the House you live in is on fire and when the Bed you lye on Isa 33. 14. is on fire though it may be quenched and will you not fear that fire that is unquenchable when men run through the Streets and cry Fire Fire Fire How do your hearts quake and tremble in you and will you not fear the fire of Hell will you not fear everlasting fire Sir Francis Math. 3. 12. Math. 25. 41. Bacon in his History of Henry the Seventh relates how it was a by-word of the Lord Cordes who was a prophane Popish Atheistical French Lord that he could be content to lye seven years in Hell so he might win Callice from the English but had this Popish Lord lyen but seven minutes under unsupportable torments he would quickly have repented of his mad bargain It was good Counsel that one of the Ancients gave Descendamus in infernum viventes ne descendamus morientes Let us go into Hell while we are alive by a serious meditation and holy consideration that we may not go into it Bernard when we be dead by real miseries God can kill and more than that He can cast into Hell here is both temporal and eternal destruction both Rods and Scorpians He can kill the body and then damn both body soul and cast them into Hell and therefore it becomes every one to set up God as the great object of their fear Yea I say unto you fear him yea I say unto you fear him This redoubling of the speech adds a greater enforcement to the admonition 'T is like the last stroke of the hammer that rivets and drives up all to the head Thus David uses this ingemination Thou even Thou art to be Psal 76. 7. feared and who may stand in thy sight when thou art Angry thou canst look them to Death yea to Hell And 't is worth the observing that this ingemination and reinforcement here annexed is to the affirmitive clause not to the negative Our Saviour saith not Yea I say unto you fear not them but he places the reduplication upon the affirmative precept I say unto you fear him O Sirs temporal judgments are but the smoak of his Anger but in Hell there are the flames of his Anger that fire burns fiercely and there is no quenching of it Excuse me saith the Father thou breakest bonds and imprisonments O Emperour but God's threatnings are much more terrible He threatens Hell-torments and everlasting damnation and certainly where there is the greatest danger there 't is fit that there should be the greatest dread But Secondly Then flee from the Wrath to come 2. Math. 3. 7. Though destruction by the Romans is not here excluded yet the principal thing that he means by Wrath to come iâ— Hell-fire Math. 23. 33. Oh Sirs that you would seriously and frequently dwell upon these short hints 1. Wrath to come is the greatest Wrath 't is the greatest Evil that can befal a Soul Who knows the power of thy Wrath Psal 19. 11. Wrath to come is such Wrath as no man can either avoyd or abide and yet such is most mens stupidity that they will not believe it till they feel it As God is a great God so his Wrath is a great Wrath. I may allude to that which Zebah and Nahum 1. 16. Judg. 8. 21. Zalmunua said to Gideon As the man is so is his strength So may I say as the Lord is so is his Wrath. The wrath of an earthly King is compared to the roaring of Prov. 19. 12. a Lyon Heb. of a young Lyon which being in his prime roars most terribly he roars with such a force that he amazes the Creatures whom he hunts so as that they have no power to fly from him Now if the Wrath of a King be so terrible Oh how dreadful must the Wrath of the King of Kings then be The greater the Rev. 17. 14. evil is the more cause we have to flee from it Now Wrath to come is the greatest evil and therefore the more it concerns us to flee from it But Secondly Wrath to come is Treasured up Wrath. Sinners are still a Treasuring up Wrath against the day of Wrath in Treasuring there is 1. Laying in Rom. 2. 5. 2. Lying hid 3. Bringing out again as there is occasion Whilst wicked men are following their own Lusts they think that they are still adding to their own happiness but alas they do but add Wrath to Wrath they do but heap up Judgment upon Judgment punishment upon punishment Look as men are daily
vex them and a Table to be a snare Psal 78. 24. 32. unto them when the Israelites had eaten of their dainty dishes Justice sent in a sad reckoning which spoiled all Ah friends there is no reason why we should envy the prosperity of wicked men Suppose saith one that a man Chrysostom one night should have a pleasant dream that for the time might much delight him and for the pleasure of such a dream should be tormented a thousand years together with exquisite torments would any man desire to have such a dream upon such conditions All the contentments of this life are not so much to Eternity as a dream is to a thousand years And oh how little is that man's condition to be envied who for these short pleasures of sin must endure an Eternity of torments Oh sirs do wicked men purchase their present pleasures at so dear a rate as eternal torments and do we envy their enjoyment of them so short a time would any envy a man going to execution because he saw him in prison nobly feasted and nobly attended and bravely courted or because he saw him go up the ladder with a Gold chain about his neck and a scarlet Gown upon his back or because he saw him walk to execution through pleasant fields or delightsome gardens or because there went before him Drums beating Colours flying and Trumpets â—ounding c. surely no Oh no more should we envy the grandure of the men of the day for every step they take is but a step to an eternal execution the sinner is curst and Isa 65. 20. Maâ— 2. 2. all his blessings are curst and who in their wits would envy a man under a curse oh how much more worthy of our pity than envy is that man's condition who hath all his happiness confin'd to the narrow compass of this life but his misery extended to the uttermost bounds of an everlasting duration But Fifthly and lastly if there be a Hell then Christians spend your days in admiring in being greatly affected with the transcendant love of Christ in undergoing hellish punishments in our steads Oh pray pray hard that you may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the bredth length Eph. 3. 18 19. and depth and height of that love of Christ which passeth knowledg of that love of Christ that put him upon these corporeal and spiritual sufferings which were so exceeding great acute extreme universal and continual and all to save us from wrath to come Christ's outward and inward miseries 1 Thes 1. 1â— sorrows and sufferings are not to be parralell'd and therefore Christians have the more cause to love themselves in the contemplation of his matchless love Oh bless Christ oh kiss Christ oh embrace Christ oh welcome Christ Psal 1â—3 1 2. Psal 2 12. Canâ— 3 4. Rev. 14. 4 5. Psal 63. 8. Gen. 6. 9. Cant. 8. ult oh cleave to Christ oh follow Christ oh walk with Christ oh long for Christ who for your sakes hath undergone insupportable wrath and most hellish torments as I have evidenced at large before and therefore a touch here may suffice Oh look up to dear Jesus and say oh blessed Gal. 3. 13. Jesus thou wast accursed that I might be blessed thou wast condemned that I might be justified thou didst Isa 53. Rom. 8. 30 34. Psal 16. 11. for a time undergo the very torments of Hell that I might for ever enjoy the pleasures of Heaven and therefore I cannot but dearly love thee and highly esteem thee and greatly honour thee and earnestly long after thee and this is all I shall say by way of Inference But for a close you will say ubi sit where is hell where is this place of torment where is that very place that is so frequently called Hell in the Scripture That there is a Hell you have sufficiently proved but pray where is it where is it Now to this I answer First That it becomes all sober serious Christians to rest satisfied and contented with those Scriptural Arguments that do undeniably prove that there is a Hell a place appointed where the wicked the damned shall be tormented for ever and ever though they do not know nor for the present cannot understand where this Hell is But Secondly I answer curiosity is one of the most dangerous 2. Curious enquirers have always layen under the lash of Christ as you may see by comparing these Scriptues together Joh. 21. 22. Act. 1. 6 7. Luk. 13. 22 24. Engines that the Devil uses to undo souls withal When Satan observes that men do in good earnest set themselves to the obtaining of knowledg then he strives to turn them to vain enquiries and curious speculations that so if they will be knowing he may keep them busied about unprofitable curiosities The way to make us mere fools is to affect to know more than God would have us Adam's tree of knowledg made him and his posterity fools Curiosity wa the bait whereby the Devil caught our first Gen. 3. 5 6. parents and undid us all Curiosity is the spiritual Adultery of the soul Curiosity is spiritual drunkenness so August Epist 77. that look as the Drunkard be the cup never so deep he is not satisfied unless he see the bottom of i so the curious searcher into the depths of God he is unsatisfied till he comes to the bottom of them and by this means they come to be mere fools as the Apostle saith Adam Rom. 1. 22. had a mind to know as much of God as God himself and by this means he came to know nothing Curiosity is that Green sickness of the soul whereby it longs for novelties and loaths sound and wholesome truths 't is Basil saith divers questions may be made about a very Fly which no Philosopher is ever able to answer how much rather about heaven hell or the work of Grace the Epidemical distemper of this Age Ah how many are there who spend their precious time in nice and curious questions As what did Christ dispute of among the Doctors where did Paradise stand in what part of the world is Local Hell what fruit was it that Adam eat and ruined us all what became of Moses his body how many orders and degrees of elect Angels are there c. O! that we could learn contentedly to be ignorant where God would not have us knowing and let 's nor account it any disparagement to acknowledge some depths in Gods Counsels Purposes Decrees and Judgments Rom. 11. 33. which our shallow reason cannot fathom 'T is sad when men will be wise above what is written and Rom. 12. 3. 1 Cor. 4. 6. love to pry into Gods secrets and scan the mysteries of Religion by carnal reason God often plagues such pride and curiosity by leaving that sort of men to strange and fearful falls When a curious Inquisitor asked Austin what God did before
3. 13. 15. He 's called the man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2. 5. 1 Cor. 15. 21. Since by man came death by man came also the resurrection of the dead God's justice would be satisfied in the same nature that had sinned 16. God's son made of a woman Gal. 4. 4. 17 Man 1 Tim. 2. 5. The man Christ Jesus 18. The son of David Mat. 1. 1. Mar. 12. 35. How say the Scribes that Christ is the son of David In that the Scribes and Pharisees knew and acknowledged according to the Scripture that Christ should be the son of David that is should be born and descend of the stock and posterity of David according to the flesh Hence we may easily gather the truth of Christ's humane nature that he was ordained of God to be true man as well as God in one and the same person for else he could not be the son of David Now that he must be the son of David even the Scribes and the Pharisees knew and acknowledged as we see here and this was a truth which they had learned out of the Scriptures and not only they but even the common sort of Jews in our Saviour's time John 7. 42. some of the common people spake thus Hath not the scripture said that Christ cometh of the seed of David and the Messiah was then commonly called the son Rom. 1. 3. of David so then Christ being of the seed of David after the flesh he must needs be true man as well as God for which cause he was incarnate in the due time appointed of God that is to say he being the son of God from everlasting did in time become man taking our nature upon him together with the infirmities of our nature sin only excepted John 1. 14. Now thus you see that the 18 denominations that are given to Christ in the blessed Scriptures do abundantly demonstrate the certainty of Christ's humane nature But Thirdly Christ took the whole humane nature he was truly and compleatly man consisting of flesh and spirit body and soul yea that he assumed the entire humane nature with whatever is proper to it Christ took to himself the whole humane nature in both the essential parts of man soul and body the two essential and constitutive parts of man are soul and body where these two are there 's the true man now Christ had both and therefore he was true man First Christ had a true humane and reasonable soul the reasonable soul is the highest and noblest part of man this is that which principally makes the man and hath the greatest influence into his being and essence if therefore Jesus Christ had only a humane body without a humane soul he had wanted that part which is most essential to man and so he could not have been looked upon as true and perfect man O Sirs Christ redeemed and saved nothing but what he assumed the redemption and salvation reach no farther than the assumption our soul then would have been never the better for Christ had he not taken that as well as our body Hence said Augustine Aug de civ Dei lib. 10. c. 27. p. 586 Therefore he took the whole man without sin that he might heal the whole of which man consists of the plague of sin And Fulgentius to the same purpose As Fulgent ad Thrasymund lib. 1. p. 251. the Devil smote by deceiving the whole man so God saves by assuming the whole man If he will save the whole man from sin he will assume the whole man without sin saith Nazianzen The Scriptures do clearly evidence that Christ had a real humane soul Mat. 26. 38. My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death every word is emphatical my soul his sorrows pierced his soul Psal 22. 16. and sorrowful round about even to death 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is heavy round about Look as the soul was the first Agent in transgression so it is here the first Patient in affliction to death that is this sorrow will never be finished or intermitted but by death My soul is exceeding sorrowful then Christ had a true humane soul neither was his Deity to him for a soul as of old men of corrupt minds have fancied for then our bodies only had been redeemed by him and not our souls if he had not suffered in soul as well as in body The sufferings of his body were but the body of his sufferings the soul of his sufferings were the sufferings of his soul which was now beset with sorrows and heavy as heart could hold John 12. 27. Now is my soul troubled and what shall I say The Greek word signifies a vehement commotion and perturbation as Herod's mind was troubled when he Mat. 2. 3. heard that a new King was born or as the Disciples were Mat. 14. 26. troubled when they thought they saw a spirit walking on the sea and cryed out for fear or as Zachary was troubled Luk. 1. 12. at the sudden sight of the Angel The rise and cause of Christ's soul-trouble was this the Godhead hiding it self from the humanitie's sense and the father letting out not only an apprehension of his sufferings to come but a present taste of the horrour of his wrath due to man for sin he is amazed overwhelmed and perplexed with it in his humanity and no wonder since he had the sins of all the Elect laid upon him by imputation to suffer for And so this wrath is not let out against his person but against their sins which were laid on him Now though Christ was here troubled or jumbled and puzzled as the word imports yet we are not to conceive that there was any sin in this exercise of his for he was like clean water in a clean vessel which being never so often stirred and shaken yet still keeps clean and clear neither are we to think it strange that the son of God should be put to such perplexities in this trouble as not to know what to say for considering him as man encompassed with our sinless infirmities and that this heavy weight of wrath did light upon him on a sudden it is no wonder that it did confound all his thoughts as man O Sirs look that as sin hath infected both the souls and bodies of the Elect and chiefly their souls where it hath its chief seat so Christ to expiate this sin did suffer unspeakable sorrows and trouble in his soul as well as torture in his body for my soul is troubled saith he Though some sufferings of the body be very exquisite and painful and Christ's in particular were such yet sad trouble of mind is far more grievous than any bodily distress as Christ also found who silently bare all his outward troubles but yet could not but cry out of his inward trouble Now is my soul troubled Isa 53. 10. Thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin when Christ suffered for us our sins were laid upon
readiness and resoluteness whatsoever calamities or miseries may attend us for Christ's sake or the Gospel's sake Ah what a shame would it be if we should â—ot be always ready to suffer any thing for his sake who hath suffered so much for our sins as is beyond all conception all expression Never was Jacob more gracious and acceptable to his father Isaac than when he stood before him cloathed in the garments of his rough brother Esau then the father smelling the savour of the elder Gen. 27. 27. brothers garments said Behold the smell of my son is as the smell of a field which the Lord hath blessed And never are we more gracious and acceptable to our heavenly father than when we stand before him cloathed in the rough garments of Christ's afflictions and sufferings Oh Christians all your sufferings for Christ they are but in lets to your glorious reigning with Christ Justin Martyr saith that when the Romans did immortalize their Emperours as they called it they brought one to swear that he see him go to Heaven out of the fire but we may see by an eye of faith the blessed souls of Martyrs fly to heaven like Elias in his fiery charriot or like the Angel that appeared to Manoah in the flames By the consent of the School-men all Martyrs shall appear in the Church triumphant bearing the signs of their Christian wounds about them as so many speaking testimonies of their holy courage that what here they endured in the behalf of their Saviour may be there an addition to their glory But Sixthly hath Jesus Christ suffered such great and grievous things for you Oh then in all your fears doubts and conflicts with enemies within or without fly to the sufferings of Christ as your City of refuge Did Christ endure a most ignominious death for thee did he take on him thy sinful person and bare thy sin and death and cross and was made a sacrifice and curse for thee Oh then in all thy inward and outward distresses shelter Psal 90. 1. Psal 91. 1 4 9. thy self under the wings of a suffering Christ I have read of Nero that he had a shirt made of a Salamander's skin so that if he went through the fire in it it would keep him from burning Oh sirs a suffering Christ is this Salamander's skin that will keep the Saints from burning in the midst of burning from suffering in the Dan. 3. 24. 29. Isa 43. 2. midst of sufferings from drowning in the midst of drowning In all the storms that beat upon your inward or your outward man eye the sufferings of Christ lâ—an upon Zach. 13. 10. Cant. 8. 5. 2 Cor. 2. 14. Eph. 6. 14. the sufferings of Christ plead the sufferings of Christ and triumph in the sufferings of Christ It is storied of a Martyr that writing to his wife where she might find him when he was fled from home oh my dear said he Surius in vita sancti Elzearii if thou desirest to see me seek me in the side of Christ in the cleft of the rock in the hollow of his wounds for there I have made my nest there will I dwell there shalt thou find me and no where else but there In every temptation let us look up to a crucified Christ who is fitted Heb. 2. 17 18. cap. 4. 15 16. and qualified to succour tempted souls oh my soul when ever thou art assaulted let the wounds of Christ be thy City of refuge whither thou maist fly and live Let us learn in every tentation which presseth us whether it be sin or death or curse or any other evil to translate it from our selves to Christ and all the good in Christ let us learn to translate it from Christ to our selves Look as the Burgess of a Town or Corporation sitting in the Parliament house beareth the persons of that whole Town or place and what he saith the whole Town saith and what is done to him is done to the whole Town even so Christ upon the cross stood in our Isa 53. 4 5 6. place and bare our sins and whatsoever he suffered we suffered and when he died all the faithful died with him and in him I have read of a gracious woman who being by Satan strongly tempted replyed Satan if thou hast any thing to say to me say it to my surety who has undertaken all for me who hath paid all my debts and satisfied Divine Justice and set all reckonings even between God and my soul Do your sins terrifie you oh then look up to a crucified Saviour who bare your sins in his own body on the Tree 1 Pet. 2. 24. When sin stares you in the face oh then turn your face The strongest Antidote against sin is to look upon sin in the red glass of Christ's blood Auâ—tin to a dying Jesus and behold him with a spear in his side with thorns in his head with nails in his feet and a pardon in his hands Hast thou wounded thy conscience by any great fall or falls O then remember that there is nothing in heaven or earth more efficacious to cure the Bern. Ser. 61. in cant wounds of conscience than a frequent and serious meditation on the wounds of Christ Doth death that rides upon the pale horse look gashly and deadly upon thee Rev. 6. 8. Rom. 5. 6 8. oh then remember that Christ died for you and that by his death he hath swallowed up death in victory Oh 1 Cor. 15. 55 56 57. remember that a crucified Christ hath stripped death of his sting and disarmed it of all its destroying power death may buzz about our ears but it can never sting our souls Look as a crucified Christ hath taken away the guilt of sin though he hath not taken away sin it self so he hath taken away the sting of death though he hath not taken away death it self He spake excellently that said that is not death but life wbich joyns the dying man to Christ Ambrosius in 1 Tim. 5. 6. Death will blow the bud of Grace into the flower of Glory and that is not life but death that separates the living man from Christ Austin longed to die that he might see that head that was crowned with thorns Did Christ die for me saith one that I might live with him I will not therefore desire to live long from him all men go willingly to see him whom they love and shall I be unwilling to die that I may see him whom my soul loves Bernard would have us never to let go out of our minds the thoughts of a crucified Christ let these says he be meat and drink unto you let them be your sweetness and consolation your honey and your desire your reading and your meditation your contemplation your life death and resurrection certainly he that shall live up to this counsel will look upon the King of terrors as the King of desires Are
as a God of compassion God is infinite in all his attributes in his justice as well as in his mercy these two cannot interfere as justice cannot intrench upon mercy so neither may mercy encroach upon justice the glory of both must be maintained Now by the breach of the Law the justice of God is wronged so that although mercy be apt to pardon yet justice requires satisfaction and calls for vengeance on sinners Every transgression Heb. 2. 2. must receive just recompence and God will not in any case absolve the guilty till this be done the hands of Exod. 34. 7. mercy are tied that she cannot act And seeing satisfaction could not be made to an infinite majesty but by an equal person and price therefore the son of God must become a curse for us by taking our nature and pouring out his soul to the death and by this means justice and mercy are reconciled and kiss each other and mercy now being set at liberty hath her free course to save poor sinners God will have his justice satisfied to the full and therefore Christ must bear all the punishment due to our sins or else God cannot set us free for he cannot go against his own just will observe the force of that phrase Christ ought to suffer And thus it behoved Christ to suffer Luk. 24. 26. and Mat. 26. 54. Thus it must be why must but because it was 1. So decreed by God 2. Foretold by the Prophets every particular of Christ's sufferings were foretold by the prophets even to their very spitting in his face 3. Prefigured in the daily morning and evening sacrifice this Lamb of God was sacrificed from the beginning of the world A necessity then there was of our Saviour's sufferings not a necessity of coaction for he died freely John 10. 11 14 17 18. and voluntarily but of immutability and infallibility for the former reasons mentioned An earthly Prince that is just holds himself bound to inflict punishment impartially upon the malefactor or his surety it stands upon his honour he saith it must be so I cannot do otherwise this is true much more of God who is Justice it self God who is great in counsel and excellent in working had store of means at hand whereby to set free and recover lost man-kind yet he was pleased in his infinite wisdom to pitch upon this way of satisfaction as being most agreeable to his holy nature and most suitable to his high and sovereign ends viz. Man's salvation and his own glory and that God doth stand upon full satisfaction and will not forgive one sin without it may be thus made evident First from the nature of sin which is that abominable 1. â—eâ— 44. 4. God could not â—salvâ— jure pass over the sin of man so as absolutely to let it go unpunished thing which God hates The sinner deserves to die for his sins Rom. 6. 23. Tho wages of sin is death every sinner is worthy of death They which commit such things are worthy of death Rom. 1. 32. Now God is just and righteous It is a righteous thing with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you 2 Thes 1. 6. yea and God did therefore set forth Christ to be a propitiation through faith in bis blood Rom. 3. 25. To declare his righteousness that he might be just vers 26. Now if God be a just and righteous God then sin cannot absolutely escape unpunished for it is just with God to punish the sinner who is worthy of punishment and certainly God must deny himself if he will not be just 2 Tim. 2. 13. but this he can never do sin is of an infinite guilt and hath an infinite evil in the nature of it and therefore no person in heaven or earth but that person our Lord Jesus who is God-man and who had an infinite dignity that could either procure the pardon of it or make satisfaction for it no prayers no cries no tears no humblings no repentings no resolutions no reformations c. can stop the course of Justice or procure the guilty sinners pardon 't is Christ alone that can dissolve all obligations to punishment and break all bonds and chains of guilt and hand a pardon to us through his own blood Eph. 1. 7. we are set free by the blood of Christ By the blood of thy Zach. 9. 11. covenant I have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit 't is by his blood that we are justified and saved from wrath Rom. 5. 9. Much more being justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath by him Pray tell me what is it to be justified but to be pardoned and what is it to be saved from wrath but to be delivered from all punishment Eph. 2. 13. Colos 1. 20. and both these depend upon the blood of Christ But The veracity of God requires it Look as God cannot but be just so he cannot but be true and if he cannot but be true then he will make good the threatnings that are gone out of his mouth Gen. 2. 17. In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die Heb. in dying thou Under the name of death are comprehended all other calamities miseries and sorrows shalt die death is a fall that came in by a fall and without all pâ—radventure every man should die the same day he was born for the wages of sin is death and this wages should be presently paid did not Christ reprieve poor sinner's lives for a season upon which account he is said to be the Saviour of all men not of eternal preservation but of a temporal reservation He will by no means clear 1 Tim. 4. 10. the guilty The soul that sinneth it shall die Ezek. 18. Exod. 34. 7. 20. The wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him Rom. 2. 6. He will render to every man according to his deeds Oh sirs God can never so far yield as to abrogate his own Law and quietly to sit down with injury and loss to his own Justice himself having established a Law c. The Law pronounces him cursed that continues not in all things Gal. 3. 10. that are written therein to do them Now though the threatnings of men are frequently vain and frivolous yet the threatnings of the great God shall certainly take place and have their accomplishment though many ten thousand millions of sinners perish not one tittle of the Mat. 5. 18. dreadful threatnings of God shall fail till all be fulfilled Josephus saith that from that very time that old Eli heard those terrible threatnings that made their ears tingle 1 Sam. 3. 11 12 13 14. and hearts tremble that heard them Eli never ceased weeping ah who can look upon the dreadful threatnings that are pointed against sinners all over the book of God and not tremble and weep God cannot but in justice punish sinners neither is it in his choice
to himself or others it will also put a sting into all a mans troubles afflictions and distresses it will also lay a foundation for dispair and it will make Death which is the King of terrors and the terror of Kings to be very terrible to the soul Twenty-two The keeping up of any known transgression against the Lord either in heart or life will fight against all those patterns and examples in holy Writ that in duty and honour we are bound to immitate and follow Pray where do you find in any of the blessed Scriptures that any of the Patriarks Prophets Apostles or Saints are ever charged with a willing or a wilfull keeping up either in their hearts or lives any known transgression against the Lord. Twenty-three The keeping up of any known transgression against the Lord will highly make against all clear sweet and standing communion with God Parents use not to smile nor be familiar with their Children nor to keep up any intimate communion with them in their neglects and disobedience 't is so here Twenty-four The keeping up either in heart or life of any known transgression against the Lord will fight against the standing joy peace comfort and assurance of the soul Joy in the Holy-Ghost will make its nest no where but in a holy soul so far as the Spirit is grieved he will suspend his consolations Lam. 1. 16. A man will have no more comfort from God than he makes Conscience of sinning against God A Conscience good in point of Integrity will be good also in point of Tranquility If our hearts condemn us not then have we considence towards God and I may say also towards men Act. 24. 16 Oh what comfort and solace hath a clear Conscience he hath somthing within to answer accusations without I shall conclude this particular with a notable saying of one of the Ancients The joys of a good Conscience are the Paradise of Souls the delight of Angels the Garden of delights the Field of blessing the Temple of Solomon the Court of God the habitation of the Spirit Bernard Twenty-five The keeping up of any known transgression either in heart or life against the Lord is a high contempt of the All seeing Eye of God of the Omnipresence of God It is well known what Ahashuerus that great Monarch said concerning Haman when coming in he found him cast upon the Queens bed on which she sate What saith he will he force the Queen before me in the house Esth 7. 8. There was the killing Emphasis in the words before me Will he force the Queen before me What will he dare to commit such a Villany and I stand and look on O Sirs to do wickedly in the sight of God is a thing that he looks upon as the greatest affront and indignity that can possibly be done unto him What saith he whilt thou be Drunk before me and Swear and Blaspheam before me and be wanton and unclean before me and break my Laws before my Eyes This then is the killing aggravation of all sin that it is done before the Face of God in the presence of God whereas the very consideration of Gods Omnipresence that he stands and looks on should be as a Bâ—r a Remora to stop the proceedings of all wicked intendments a disswasive rather from sin than the least encouragement thereunto 'T was an excellent saying of Ambrose If thou canst not hide thy self from the Sun which is Gods Minister of light how impossible will it be to hide thy self fâ—om him whose Eyes are ten thousand times brighter than the Sun Ambrose offic l. 1. c. 14. Gods Eye is the best Marshal to keep the Soul in a comely order Let thine Eye be ever on him whose Eye is ever on thee The Eyes of the Lord are in every place beholding the evil and the good Prov. 15. 9. There is no drawing of a Curtain between God and thee God is totus Oculus all Eye He seeth all things in all places and at all times When thou art in secret consider Conscience is present which is more than a thousand Witnesses and God is present which is more than a thousand Consciences It was a pretty fancy of one that would have his Chamber painted full of eyes that which way soever he lookt he might still have some eyes upon him and he fancying himself according to the Moralists advice always under the eye of a Keeper might be the more careful of his carriage O! Sirs if the eyes of men makes even the vilest to forbear their beloved lusts for a while that the Adulterer watcheth for the twy-light and they that are Drunken are Drunken in the Night How powerful will the Eye and Presence of God be with those that fear His Anger and know the sweetness of his Favour The thought of this Omnipresence of God will affrighten thee from sin Gehezi durst not ask or receive any part of Nahamans Presents in his Masters presence but when he had got out of Elisha's sight then he tells his Lye and gives way to his Lusts Men never sin more freely then when they presume upon secrecy They break in pieces thy people O Lord and afflict thy Heritage They slay the Widdow and Stranger and murder the Fatherless yet they say The Lord doth not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it Psal 94. 5 6 7. They who abounded in abominations said The Lord seeth us not the Lord hath forsaken the Earth Ezek. 8 9 12. The wise man disswadeth from wickedness upon the consideration of Gods Eye and Omniscience And why wilt thou my Son be ravished with a strange Woman and embrace the bosom of a Stranger for the ways of man are before the Eyes of the Lord and he pondereth all his goings Proverbs 5. 20 21. Joseph saw God in the Room and therefore durst not yield but his Mistress saw none but Joseph and so was impudently alluring and tempting him to folly I have read of two Religious men that took contrary courses with two lewd Women whom they were desirous to reclaim from their Vicious course of life One of the Men told one of the Women that he was desirous to enjoy her Company so it might be with secrecy and when she had brought him into a close room that none could pry into he told her All the barrs and bolts here cannot keep God out The other desired the other Women to company with him openly in the streets which when she rejected as a mad request he told her It was better to do it in the eyes of a multitude than in the eyes of God O why shall not the presence of that God who hates sin and who is resolved to punish it with Hell-flames make us ashamed or afraid to sin and dare him to his face Twenty-six There have been many a Prodigal who by one cast of the Dice have lost a fair Inheritance A man may be kill'd with one stab of a Pen-knife and one hole
Law he did come up to perfect and universal consâ—rmity to it he did whatever the Law enjoyns and he suffered whatever the Law threatens Christ by his active and passive obedience hath fulfilled the Law most exactly and completely Gal. 3. 13. As he was perfectly holy he did what the Law commanded and as he was made a curse he underwent what the Law threatned and all this he did and suffered in our steads and as our Surety what ever Christ did as our Surety he made it good to the full so that neither the righteous God nor yet the righteous Law could ever tax him with the least defect And this must be our great Plea our choice our sweet our safe our comfortable our acceptable Plea both in the day of our particular accounts when we die and in the great day of our account when a crucified Saviour shall judge the World Although sin as an act be transient yet in the guilt of it it lies in the Lord 's high Court of Justice filed upon record against the sinner and calling aloud for deserved punishment saying Man hath sinned and man must suffer for sin but now Christ hath suffered that plea is taken off Lo here saith the Lord the same Nature that sinned suffereth mine own Son being made flesh hath suffered death for sin in the flesh the thing is done the Law is satisfied and so non-suits the action and casts it out of the Court as unjust Thus whereas sin would have condemned us Christ hath condemned sin he hath weakned yea nullified and taken away sin in the guilt and condemning power of it by that abundant satisfaction that he hath given to the Justice of God by his active and passive Obedience so that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus for Rom. 8. 1 3. the blood of the Mediator out-cries the clamour of sin and this must be a Christians joy and triumph and plea in the great day of our Lord Jesus As Christ was made 2 Cor. 5. 21. sin for us so the Lord doth impute the sufferings of Christ to us that is he accepts of them on our behalf and puts them upon our account As if the Lord should say unto every particular believer My Son was thy Surety and stood in thy stead and suffered and satisfied and took away thy sins by his blood and that for thee in his blood I find a ransom for thy soul I do acknowledge my self satisfied for thee and satisfied towards thee and thou art delivered and discharged I forgive thee thy sins and am reconciled unto thee and will save thee and glorifie thee for my Sons sake in his blood thou hast Redemption the forgiveness of thy sins As when Simile a Surety satisfies the Creditor for a debt this is accounted to the Debtor and reckoned as a discharge to him in particular I am paid and you are discharged saith the Creditour so it is in this case I am paid saith God and you are discharged and I have no more to say to you but this Enter into the joy of your Lord Matth. 25. 21. The Fifth Plea that you are to make in order to the 5. Eccles 11. 9. cap. 12. 14. Mat. 12. 14. cap. 18 23. Luk. 16. 3. Rom. 14. 10. 2 Cor. 5. 10. Heb. 9. 27 cap. 13. 17. 1 Pet. 4 5. Ten Scriptures in the Margin that respects the account that you are to give up in the great day of the Lord is drawn from the imputed Righteousness of Christ to us the Justification of a Sinner in the sight of God upon the account of Christ's Righteousness imputed to him whereby the guilt of sin is removed and the person of the Sinner is accepted as righteous with the God of Heaven is that which I shall open to you distinctly in these following Branches First That the Grace of Justification in the sight of God is made up of Two parts 1. There is Forgiveness of the offences committed against the Lord 2. Acceptation of the person offending pronouncing him a righteous person and receiving him into favour again as if he had never offended This is most clear and evident in the blessed Scriptures First there is an Act of absolution and acquittal from the guilt of sin and freedom from the condemnation deserved by sin the desert of sin is an inseparable accident Rom. 8. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 't is a forensick word relating to what is in use amongst men in their Courts of Judicature to condemn 'T is the sentence of a Judge decreeing a mulct or penalty to be inflicted upon the guilty Person or concomitant of it that can never be removed it may be truly said of the sins of a justified person that they deserve everlasting destruction but Justification is the freeing of a sinner from the guilt of his iniquity whereby he was actually bound over to condemnation as soon as any man doth sin there is a guilt upon him by which he is bound over to the wrath and curse of God and this guilt or obligation is inseparable from sin the sin doth deserve no less than everlasting damnation Now forgiveness of sin hath a peculiar respect to the guilt of sin and removal of that when the Lord forgives a man he doth discharge him of that obligation by which he was bound over to wrath and condemnation Rom. 8. 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus vers 33. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect it is God that justifieth vers 34. who is he that condemneth it is Christ that died Beloved the Lord is a holy and just God and he reveils his wrath from heaven against Rom. 1. 18. Gel. 3. 10. Râ—m 1. 32. Rom. 6. 23. all unrighteousness and there is a curse threatned to every transgression of the Law and when any man sinneth he is obnoxious unto the curse and God may inflict the same upon him but when God forgives sins he therein doth interpose as it were between the sin and the curse and between the obligation and the condemnation When the sinner sins God might say unto him sinner by your sinning you are now fallen into my hands of Justice and for your sins I may according to my righteous Law condemn and curse you for ever but such is my free my rich my sovereign grace that for Christ's sake I will spare you and pardon you and that curse Jer. 31. 20. and condemnation which you have deserved shall never fall upon you Oh! my bowels my bowels are yearning towards you and therefore I will have mercy mercy Jâ—b 33. 13 24 28 30. upon you and will deliver your souls from going down into the pit when the poor sinner is indicted and arraigned at God's bar and process is made against him and he found guilty of the violation of God's holy Law and accordingly judged guilty by God and adjudged to Job
33. 24. everlasting death then mercy steps in and pleads I have found a Ransom the sinner shall not die but live When the Law saith ah sinner sinner thus and thus hast thou transgressed all sorts of duties thou hast omitted and all sorts of sins hast committed and all sorts of mercies thou hast abused and all sorts of means thou hast neglected and all sorts of offers thou hast slighted then God steps in and saith ah sinner sinner what dost thou say what canst thou say to this heavy charge is it true or false with thou grant it or deny it what defence or plea canst thou make for thy self Alas the poor sinner is speechless Mat. 22. 12. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he was muzzled or haltered up that is he held his peace as though he had a bridle or a halter in his mouth this is the import of the Greek word here used he hath not one word to say for himself he can neither deny nor excuse or extenuate what is charged upon him why now saith God I must and do pronounce thee to be guilty and as I am a just and righteous God I cannot but adjudg thee to die eternally but such is the riches of my mercy that I will freely justifie thee through the righteousness of my son I will forgive thy sins and discharge thee of that obligation by which thou wast bound over to wrath and curse and condemnation so that the justified person may triumphingly say who is he that condemneth He may read over the most dreadful passages of the Law without being terrified or amazed as knowing that the curse is removed and that all his sins that brought him under the curse are pardoned and are in point of condemnation as if they had never been This is to be justified to have the sin pardoned and the penalty remitted Rom. 4. 5 6 7 8. But to him that worketh not but believeth on him that justisieth the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without works saying Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin It is observable that what David calleth forgiveness of sin and not imputing of iniquity St. Paul stiles a being justified But Secondly as the first part of Justification consists in the pardon of sin so the second part of Justification consists in the acceptation of the sinners person as perfectly righteous in God's sight pronouncing him such and dealing with him as such and by bringing of him under the shadow of that divine favour which he had formerly lost by his transgressions Cant. 4. 7. Thou art all fair my love and there is no spot in thee that is none in my account Deut. 32. 5. nor no such spots as the wicked are full of Look as David saw nothing in lame Mephibosheth but what was lovely 2 Sam. 9. 3 4 13 14. because he saw in him the features of his friend Jonathan so God beholding his people in the face of his son sees nothing amiss in them They are all glorious within and without Psal 45. 13. Look as Absolom had no blemish from head to foot so they are irreprehensible and Jer. 2. 32. without blemish before the throne of God Rev. 14. 5. The pardoned sinner in repect of divine acceptation is without Eph. 5. 26 27. spot or wrinkle or any such thing God accepts the pardoned sinner as compleat in him who is the head Colos 2. 10. of all principality and power Christ makes us comely through his beauty he gives us white raiment to stand before the Lord Christ is all in all in regard of divine acceptance Eph. 1. 6. He hath made us accepted in the beloved All persons out of Christ are cursed enemies objects of God's wrath and Justice displeasing offending and provoking creatures and therefore God cannot but loath them and abhor them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath made us favourites so Chrysostom and Theophilact render it God hath ingratiated us he hath made us gracious in the son of his love through the blood of Christ we look of a sanguine complexion ruddy and beautiful in God's eyes Isa 62. 4. Thou shalt no more be termed forsaken but thou shalt be called Hephzibah for the Lord delighteth in thee The acceptation of our persons with God takes in six things 1. God's honouring of us 2. His delight in us 3. His being well pleased with us 4. His extending love and favour to us 5. His high estimation of us 6. His giving us free access to himself It is the observation of Ambrose that though Jacob was not by birth the first-born yet hiding himself under his brother's cloaths and having put on his coat which smelled most fragrantly he came into Gen. 27. 36. his father's presence and got away the blessing from his elder brother so it is very necessary in order to our acceptation with God that we lie hid under the precious Robe of Christ our elder brother that having the sweet 2 Cor. 2. 15. savour of his garments upon us our sins may be covered with his perfections and our unrighteousness with the Robes of his righteousness that so we may offer up our selves unto God a living and acceptable sacrifice not Rom. 12. 1. Isa 64. 6. Phil. 3. 9. having our own righteousness which are but as filthy rags but that which is through the faith of Christ the righteousness which is of God by faith Thus you see that Justification for the nature of it lies in the gracious pardon of the sinners transgressions and in the acceptation of his person as righteous in Gods sight But Secondly In order to the partaking of this grace of the forgiveness of our sins and the acceptation of our persons we must be able to produce a perfect righteousness before the Lord and to present it and tender it unto him and the reason is evident from the very nature of God who is of purer eyes than to behold iniquity Habak 1. 13 that is Habak 1. 13. Heb. And to look on iniquity thou canst not do it with patience or pleasure or without punishing it There are four things that God cannot do 1. He cannot lie 2. He cannot die 3. He cannot deny himself 4. He cannot behold iniquity with approbation and delight Josh 24. 19. And Joshua said unto the people ye cannot serve the Lord for he is an holy God he is a jealous God he will not forgive your transgressions nor your sins such is the holiness of God's nature that he cannot behold sin Psal 5. 4 5 6. that he cannot but punish sin where ever he finds it God is infinitely immutably and inexorably just as well as he is incomprehensibly gracious Now in the justification of a sinner God doth act as a God of justice as well