SERM. most heinous act ever committed by men,) is the death of XXVII. our Lord confiderable. 15. lxxii. 14. 5. But more immediately the quality and condition of our Saviour's perfon do moft commend to us, and advance Pfal. cxvi. the worth of his death: if, as the Pfalmift faith, precious in the fight of the Lord is the death of his faints; if the 1 Pet. i. 19. fpotlefs candour and unblemished integrity of a lamb do 1 Pet. ii. 22. make its blood precious, and qualify it for an acceptable 1 John iii. 5. facrifice; how valuable to God fhall be the death of a Heb. vii. perfon fo perfectly holy and innocent; who did not fo 2 Cor. v. 21. Ifa. liii. 9. 26, 27. much as know fin; in whose mouth no guile was ever found; who was holy, harmless, undefiled, removed (at infinite distance removed) from finners; who needed not to offer facrifices for his own fins; whofe death therefore for others was apt to be more available and acceptable! Again, if the life of a king be (as king David's people 2 Sam.xviii. told him) worth ten thousand lives; if it be a moft enor3. xxi. 17. tous crime and highest treafon to imagine his death; how valuable must be the death of a person so incompaAas iii. 15.rably transcendent in dignity, of the Lord of glory, of the Prince of life! Ye denied the holy and the just One; ye flew 1 Cor. ii. 8. the Prince of life: They crucified the Lord of glory: fo the Apostles do aggravate the bufinefs. But a farther height, a perfect immenfity indeed, of worth and efficacy, muft needs accrue to the death of our Saviour, from his being the Son of God; from his being God, (one and the fame in nature with his almighty and all-glorious 1 John i. 7. Father:) for it is the blood of Chrift, the Son of God, which Acts xx. 28. purgeth us from all fin; yea, God himfelf did, as St. Tit. ii. 14. Paul faith in the Acts, purchase the Church with his own 16. 6. blood; it is the great God, and our Saviour Jefus Chrift, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all 1 John iii. iniquity: and, Hereby, faith St. John, perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us. That the immortal God should die, that the Moft High fhould be debased to fo low a condition, as it cannot be heard without wonder, so it could not be undertaken without huge, reafon, nor accomplished without mighty effect: well in deed might fuch a condefcenfion serve to advance us from SERM. the basest state to any pitch of honour and happinefs; XXVII. well might one drop of that royal blood of heaven, fuffice to purchase many worlds, to ransom innumerable lives of men, to expiate an infinity of fins, however grievous, and foul. But fo much for the peculiar adjuncts and respects of our Lord's death. Pf. xl. 7, 9. 11. 3. Let us now confider the caufes and principles whence it proceeded; which moved God to determine it, and our Lord to undertake it; they were in both acts most voluntary and free: of the Father it is faid, It pleafed Ifa. liii. 10. the Lord to bruife him; and, Behold, faith our Lord in Heb. x. 7. the Pfalm, I come to do thy will, O God; that is, as the Apostle to the Hebrews expoundeth it, to offer, not the blood of beasts in facrifice, but my own body, according to thy will and appointment: and, This commandment, John x. 18. faith he in St. John, I received of my Father, to lay down my life: and, The cup, faith he again, which my Father John xviii. hath given me, shall I not drink it? fo on the Father's part, and on our Saviour's likewife, it was no less voluntary; for, None, faith, he, taketh my life from me, (that John 1. 19. is, it is not from any neceffity or compulfion that I do part with it,) but I lay it down of myself, (with absolute choice and freedom;) I have power to lay it down, and I John vi. 51. have power to refume it: and, The bread, faith he, which I Matt. xxi. fhall give, is my flesh, which I shall give for the life of the Gal. ii. 20, world: The Son of man came to give his life a ransom for Tit. ii. 14. many. The yielding his flesh to death, the paying his life a ranfom, were deeds of gift, perfectly free: and that both in regard to God the Father and the Son this performance was voluntary, St. Paul together thus expreffeth; Who gave himself for our fins, that he might deliver Gal. i. 4. us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: fo this death iffued from the joint wills of God and his Son. But as the volitions of every intelligent and wife agent do always proceed from fome principle inclining, or are directed according to fome impulfive cause moving to them, fo divers principles and causes of these voluntary acts are declared in Scripture ; 28. &c. SERM. the chief of which are reducible to these two; one interXXVII. nally difpofing God's goodness; the other externally in χνα ἐλέους. viting man's diftrefs. The case stood thus: mankind lying in a fad and forlorn estate, oppreffed by Satan, enslaved to fin, fubject to a rigorous law, exposed to the feverity of justice, tormented by the fense of guilt, fearful of divine wrath and due vengeance; in fhort, by the sentence of heaven and by the fuffrage of confcience within, condemned to punishment unavoidable, and to intolerable mifery; man, I say, lying in so desperately uncomfortable a condition, God's infinite goodness regarded his poor Aià owady- creature, his bowels of compaffion yearned toward him, a defire of relieving sprang up in his will; thence was he inoved to provide fuch a remedy, fuitable and fufficient for his delivery; for the removing all those mischiefs and curing all thofe diftempers: the main fource of all this wonderful performance, (as of all other providential difpenfations and works, ad extra,) was that most excellent perfection of God, which, in regard to this matter, is Tit. iii. 4. fometime termed xgnsóτns, benignity, or bounty; implying Rom. 4. the great benefit and advantage we do thence receive; Heb. ii. 9. fometimes grace, or favour, fignifying the pure freenefs in difpenfing it, without any design of profit to himself, or 2 Cor. viii. any defert on our part, (By the grace of God he tafted Eph. ii. 8, death for every man ;) sometimes mercy, denoting our bad deferts, or obnoxiousness to justice and punishment; fomeLuke i. 78. times pity, fignifying the great need we had thereof, by Eph. ii. 4. reafon of our extreme diftrefs and mifery. Commonly alfo it is, by the moft obliging and endearing name styled love, and philanthropy, intimating the earnest regard and benevolence God had to us as his creatures, and as ca1 Tim. ii. 6. pable of being benefited and bettered by him; Herein, Tit. iii. 4. faith St. Paul, God commended his love toward us, in that Eph. H. 4. we being yet finners, Chrift died for us; and, God, faith St. John, loved us, and fent his Son to be a propitiation for John iii. 16, us; and, God, faith our Lord himself, fo loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son-that the world might be faved by him. Eph. ii. 7. Rom. iii. 24. 9. 5. i. 7. Tit. iii. 5. Heb, ii. 17. Rom. v. 8. 1 John iv. 9, 10. 17. By the way it is worth obferving, that there is diftin guishable a threefold love of God toward men, intimated SERM. in Scripture. 1. A general love to mankind, antecedent XXVII. to the fending our Lord, and his performances, being the ground of God's defigning them; which may be called a love of pity, or mercy toward poor man lying under condemnation and diftrefs; this is that havgaria TOU σwτйρos Яμшν Ozou, philanthropy of God our Saviour, Tit. iii. 4. which appeared in faving us, (that is, in granting us the capacity and means of falvation,) not by works of rightecufnefs, which we had done, but by his mercy; the love which he commended, in that while we were finners Chrift Rom. v. s. died for us. 2. A love, immediately confequent upon our Lord's performances and fufferings, and procured by them; whereby God is fo far pleased with men, and reconciled to the world, that he defireth all men's falvation, 1 Tim. ii. 4. and offereth to them terms and means thereof; in regard to which our Lord is faid to be the Saviour of the world, and Redeemer of all men; of which love St. Paul speaketh, when he faith, that being enemies we were reconciled 1 Tim. ii. 6. to God by the death of his Son; and that God was in Chrift reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing 2 Cor. v. 19. their fins; and that God having made peace by the blood Col. i. 20. of his crofs, did reconcile by him all things unto himself, Aas x. 33. whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven; the Rom. xi.32. which may be called a love of reconciliation and favour ; 1 Tim. ii. 4. or the grace of God, which came by Jefus Chrift. iv. 10. John i. 17. Luke ii. 14. 3. A peculiar love of friendship and complacence, which God beareth toward all thofe who do fincerely turn and steadfastly adhere to him, repenting of their fins and embracing the Gofpel, and perfifting in obedience to his laws; fuch God is every where represented to affect with tendereft love, as his faithful fervants, his good friends, and dear children; being efpecially the Saviour of 1 Tim. iv. them: this diftinction is obfervable for our better under- 10. ftanding the paffages of fcripture concerning this matter; in which God is fometime reprefented as bearing a general love to all men, fometime as more especially loving the faithful and good men. The like principles and impulfive caufes are faid to 25. Rev. i. 5. SERM. move our Lord to undertake and undergo death for us; XXVII. it was goodness and love toward us that inclined him Eph. v. 2, thereto : Chrift, faith St. Paul, loved us, and delivered up himself for us, an offering and facrifice to God: He loved John iii. the Church, and delivered up himself for it. He loved (John xv. us, and washed us from our fins in his blood: Hereby we perceive the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: I live, faith St. Paul again, by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. 16. 13.) Gal. ii. 20. Ifa. liii. 5, 6. 2 Cor. v. 15. 8, 10. 1 Pet. iii. 18. Such were the principles difpofing, and caufes in a fort moving; to which we may add our fins, as the merito1 Cor. xv.3. rious causes of our Saviour's death; He died for our fins; Heb. x. 12. He was wounded for our tranfgreffions, he was bruised for our iniquities. He died for us, not only as for men, not Rom. v. 6, only as for wretched men, but as for unjust and finful men; as for enemies, and strangers to God; fuch as had grievously displeafed God, had incurred heinous guilt, had deferved, and were become obnoxious to feverest punishment; so standing in need of reconcilement, propitiation, and redemption. Had we been innocent and guiltless, there had wanted sufficient cause, or just reason for his death; God would not have been angry, justice could have had no pretence, or hold; we should not have been liable to fuffer ourselves, nor could he have fuffered for Rom.vi. 23. us. Death is the debt, or wages due to fin; which he therefore paid, because we owed it, and could not disIfa. liii. 6, charge it: All we, as it is faid in the Prophet, have gone aftray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord (therefore) hath laid on him the iniquity of us all: our fins were not only indirect or remote occafions of his death, but did procure it in way of defert: even as they would have been meritorious causes of our death, had he not undertaken for us, fo were they the like causes of 2 Cor. v. his death, who died for us, and in our stead; who was 1 Tim. ii. 6. made fin (that is, a finner, or a facrifice) for us; who gave· himfelf ἀντίλυτρον, a ranfom infead of us all ; paying his 1 Cor. vi. blood a price for us, and redeeming us thereby from all 20. vii. 23. the penalties and inconveniencies we were liable to; buying Gal. iii. 13. us from the curfe, by becoming a curfe for us; who had 4, 11. 21. Matt. xx. 28. Heb. ix. 12. 1 Pet. i. 18. Rom. iii. 24. 2 Pet. ii. 1. Eph. i. 7. Col. i. 14. |