The Liberty of Believers, opened and stated. John viii. 36. "If the Son therefore fhall make you free, ye The Saints coming Home to God, by Reconciliation, and Glorification, opened and applied. I Pet. iii. 18. For Chrift hath once suffered for fins, the just The great usefulness of the Law or Word of God, in or- der to the Application of Christ. Rom. vii. 9. "For I was alive without the law once; but when "the commandment came, fin revived, and I died," Rom. vii. 9. "For I was alive without the law once," &c. The Teachings of God opened, in their Nature and Ne- John vi. 45. "It is written in the Prophets, And they shall be "all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, "and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me," John vi. 45. "It is written in the Prophets," &c. Of the Manner, and Importance of the Spirit's Indwelling. Of the Nature and Neceffity of the New Creature. 2 Cor. v. 17. "creature: old things are paffed away; behold, all things 2 Cor. v. 17. "Therefore if any man be in Chrift, he is a new Of the Nature, Principle, and Neceffity, of Mortification. Wherein four weighty Ends of CHRIST'S Humiliation are opened, and particularly applied. ISA. liii. 2. He ball fee the travail of his foul, and be fatisfied. E are now arrived at the laft particular which we design. W ed to speak to in Christ's state of humiliation, namely, the defigns and bleffed ends for which he was fo deeply abafed. It is inconfiftent with the prudence of a common agent, to be at vast expences of time, pains, and coft, and not to propound to himfelf a defign worthy of all thofe expences. And it is much lefs imaginable, that Chrift should so ftupendously abase himself, by stooping from the bofom of his Father to the state of the dead, where our laft difconrse left him, if there had not been fome excellent, and glorious thing in his eye, the attainment whereof, might give him a content and fatisfaction, equivalent to all the forrows, and abafements, he endured for it. And fo much is plainly held forth in this fcripture," He shall "fee the travail of his foul, and be fatisfied." In which words three things fall under our confideration. First, The travailing pangs of Chrift. So the agonies of his foul, and torments of his body are fitly called, not only because of the sharpness and acuteness of them, being in that respect, like birth-pangs of a travailing woman, for fo this word fignifies, but also because they fore-run, and make way for the birth, which abundantly recompences all thofe labours. I fhall not here infift upon the pangs and agonies endured by Christ in the garden, or upon the cross, which the prophet ftiles "the travail of his "foul," having, in the former fermons, opened it largely in its particulars, but pass to the *D, wire, This word fignifies both the birth and pain attend. ing it. Strigel. VOL. II. A Second Thing confiderable in these words; and that is the affured fruits and effects of this his travail; he ball fee the travail of his foul. By feeing, understand the fruition, obtainment, or enjoyment of the end of his fufferings. He shall not fhed his blood upon an hazard: his design fhall not mifcarry; but he fhall certainly fee the ends he aimed at accomplished. And Thirdly, This fhall yield him great fatisfaction: as a woman forgets her forrow, for joy that a man is born into "the world," John xvi. 21. he shall fee it, and be fatisfied. As God, when he had finished the work of creation, viewed that his work with pleasure and fatisfaction; fo doth our exalted Redeemer, with great contentment, behold the happy issues of his hard fufferings. It affords pleasure to a man to fee great affairs, by orderly conduct, brought to happy iffues. Much more doth it yield delight to Jefus Chrift, to fee the results of that most profound wifdom and love, wherein he carried on redemption-work. All runs into this doctrine. Doct. That all the blessed designs and ends for which the Lord Jefus Chrift humbled himself to the death of the cross, shall certainly be attained, to his full content and fatisfaction. MY present business is not to prove, that Christ shall certainly obtain what he died for; nor to open the great fatisfaction and pleasure which will arise to him out of thofe issues of his death, but to point at the principal ends of his death; making fome brief improvements as we pafs along. First, Then let us enquire into the defigns and ends of Chrift's humiliation, at leaft the main and principal ones; and we shall find, that as the fprinkling of the typical blood in the Old Teftament was done for four weighty ends or uses, anfwerably, the precious and invaluable blood of the Teftator and furety of the New Teftament is fhed for four weighty ends alfo. First, That blood was thed and applied to deliver from danger; Exod. xii. 13. "And the blood fhall be to you for a "+token upon the houses where you are; and when I fee "the blood, I will pafs over you: and the plague shall not be "upon you, to destroy you when I fmite the land of Egypt." The Jews implicitly acknowledged by this ceremony, that they were to be liberated from eternal death by the blood of the Meffial Vatab. Secondly, That blood was shed to make an atonement betwixt God and the people; Lev. iv. 20. “And he thall do with the "bullock as he did with the bullock for a fin-offering; fo fhall "he do with this; and the priest shall make an atonement for "them, and it shall be forgiven them." Thirdly, That blood was shed to purify perfons from their ceremonial pollutions, Lev. xiv. 6. 7. "He fhall dip the cedar "wood, and scarlet, and hyffop, with the living bird, in the "blood of the bird that was killed over the running water, and "he shall sprinkle upon him that is to be cleanted from the "leprofy feven times; and fhall pronounce him clean, and "fhall let the living bird loofe in the open field," Fourthly, That + blood was fhed to ratify and confirm the testament or covenant of God with the people, Exod. xxiv. 8. "And Mofes took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people and "faid, behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord hath "made with you concerning all these words." Thefe were the four main ends for fhedding, and sprinkling that typical blood. Suitably, there are four principal ends for hedding and applying Chrift's blood. As that typical blood was shed to deliver from danger, fo this was fled to deliver from wrath, even the wrath to come. That was shed to make an atonement, fo was this. That was shed to purify persons from uncleanness, fo was this. That was fhed to confirm the Teftament, fo was this. As will appear in the following particulars more at large. Firft, One principal design and end of thedding the blood of Chrift was to deliver his people from danger, the danger of that wrath which burns down to the lowest hell. So you find, i Theff. i. 1o." Even Jefus who delivered us from the wrath to come." Here our mifery is both specified and aggravated. Specified, in calling it wrath, a word of deep and dreadful fignification. The damned beft understand the importance of that word. And aggravated, in calling it wrath to come, or coming wrath. Wrath to come implies both the futurity and perpetuity of this wrath. It is wrath that fhall certainly and inevitably come upon finners. As fure as the night follows the day. As fure as the winter follows the fummer, fo fhall wrath follow fin, and the pleafures thereof. Yea, it is not only certainly future, but when A 2 * Seven times, Signifies perfect expiation; this number was confecrated to denote perfection. Menoch. + The bedding and sprinkling of blood fignifies that the covenant. would be fure and stable, even with the hazard of life. Rivet. it comes it will be abiding wrath, or wrath ftill coming.. When millions of years and ages are past and gone, this will still be wrath to come. Ever coming as a river ever flowing. Now, from this wrath to come, hath Jefus delivered his people by his death. For that was the price laid down for their redemption from the wrath of the great and terrible God, Rom. v. 9. Much more then being juftified by his blood, we shall "be faved from wrath through him." The blood of Jefus was the price that ransomed man from this wrath. And it was fhed not only to deliver them from wrath to come, but to deliver them freely, fully, distinguishingly, and wonderfully from it. Firft, Freely, by his own voluntary interpofition and susception of the mediatorial office, moved thereunto by his own bowels of compaffion; which yearned over his elect in their mifery t. The faints were once a loft generation, that had fold themselves, and their inheritance alfo; and had not wherewithal to redeem either: but they had a near kinfman (even their elder brother by the mother's fide) to whom the right of redemption did belong; who being a mighty man of wealth, the heir of all things, undertook to be their Goell; and out of his own proper fubftance to redeem both them and their inheritance. Them to be his own inheritance, Eph. i. 10. And heaven to be theirs, 1 Pet. i. 4. All this he did moft freely, when none made fupplication to him. No fighing of the prifoners came before him. He defigned it for us before we had a being. And when the purposes of his grace were come to their parturient fulness, then did he freely lay out the infinite treasures of his blood to purchase our deliverance from wrath. Secondly, Chrift by death hath delivered his people fully. A full deliverance it is, both in refpect of time and degrees. A full deliverance in refpect of time. It was not a reprieve, but a deliverance. He thought it not worth the fhedding of his blood to refpite the execution for a while. Nay, in the procurement of their eternal deliverance from wrath, and in the purchase of their eternal inheritance, he hath but an even bargain, not a jot more than his blood was worth. Therefore is he become the author of (eternal falvation) to them that obey him,' Heb. v. 9. And as it is full in refpect of time, fo likewife in refpect of degrees. He died not to procure a mitigation or abatement of the rigour or severity of the sentence, but to refcue his people fully from all degrees of wrath. So that there * See Mr. Cafe's Mount Pifgah, p. 85. |