The Christian Life Part 2 Volume 2, Section 4
SECT. IV. Concerning the Sacrifice of our Saviour.
IN handling the first of these, viz. the Sacrifice of our Saviour, I shall endeavour, first, to shew that the death of Christ had in it all the requisite conditions of a most real and compleat Sacrifice for sin. Secondly, To make appear how effectually God's exacting such a Sacrifice in order to his being reconciled to sinners conduces to their reformation.
First, That the death of Christ had in it all the requisite conditions of a real and most compleat Sacrifice for sin. Now to make both a true and perfect expiatory Sacrifice, there are five things indispensibly necessary:
First, That in being sacrificed it should be substituted in the room of an Offender to be punished for him in order to his being released from his own Personal obligation to punishment. For in all those Legal expiations which prefigured this great Expiation of our Saviour, the killing of the Sacrifice, was, as I shewed before, a real transferring and inflicting upon it the punishment due to the Offender that offered it, in order to his being excused from suffering it in his own person.
Secondly, Another necessary condition of an Expiatory Sacrifice is that it should be pure, sound, and unblemished; and indeed this condition is required in all kinds of Sacrifices, whether Expiatory, or Eucharistical, that they should be pure or Legally clean, and that they should be sound and without blemish. For so Lev. 22.20. But whatsoever hath a blemish that shall ye not offer, for it shall not be acceptable for you; and ver. 21. It shall be perfect, i. e. sound and entire, to be accepted: there shall be no blemish therein; and then he goes on to particulars, it shall not be blind, or broken, or having a W…n, or scurvy, or scabbed, verse 22. Now though the legal uncleanness and the natural blemishes here forbidden in Sacrifices had nothing of sin or immorality in them, yet the prohibition of these natural blemishes in Sacrifices that were incapable of moral ones, denotes the necessity of a moral cleanness and unblemishedness in that great Expiatory Sacrifice for the sins of the World which they Typified and prefigured; and hence Christ is called, A Lamb without blemish and without spot, 1 Pet. 1.19.
Thirdly, Another necessary condition to a perfect Expiatory Sacrifice is, that it should be of such an intrinsick worth and value as that its death may be, in some measure, an equivalent Commutation for the punishment which the Offender deserves. For the end of punishing, whether it be the Offender himself, or another in his stead, is to secure and maintain the Authority of the Law; in order whereunto it is highly requisite that the punishment should ordinarily be equivalent to the demerit of the Crime; otherwise it will not be a sufficient motive to warn and deter men from committing it. And herein consisted the imperfection of the ancient expiatory Sacrifices, that what they suffered was much short of what the Offenders they suffered for deserved; for they only substituted the life of a Brute in the room of the life of a Man, which is of far greater worth and value; and therefore by how much less valuable the life of a Beast is than the life of a Man, by so much less was the punishment transferred upon the Sacrifice, than the guilt contracted by the Offender.
Fourthly, Another necessary condition to the making of a true and perfect Sacrifice was that it should be free and unforced on the part of the Offerer. For since he had deserved the punishment in his own Person, it was very fit, both that the Sacrifice that was to undergo it for him should be something that was his own, otherwise he could have no right to substitute it in his own stead, or to offer its life to God in exchange for his own; and that he should freely offer it to be killed in his stead, otherwise he had not been consenting to the exchange, without which it must have been invalid, and consequently the Expiation void; and hence Lev. 1.3. it is required that he should offer it of his own voluntary will at the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation before the Lord.
Fifthly, It is also a necessary condition to a true and perfect Sacrifice for sin that it should be admitted and accepted by God in the room and stead of the punishment that is due to him from the Offender himself. For by violating his Laws we give God a right to exact the Penalty of them at our own hands; so that if he pleases he may refuse to admit of any Substitute to suffer for us, and if he will insist upon his right to punish us in our own persons, and refuse to admit of any exchange; what another suffers for us will signifie nothing to our discharge or acquittal, because it is not our own suffering who stand personally obliged to God to suffer the utmost evil that our sin deserves; and therefore to admit another to suffer for us is an Act of pure Grace and Favour in him, which he may grant or refuse as he pleases. So that the Expiatory vertue of all Sacrifice lies in God's admitting and accepting it in exchange for that personal punishment we owe him; and hence he is said to have given them the bloud upon the Altar to make an atonement for their Souls, Lev. 17.11. that is, to have admitted and accepted that Bloud which was offered on the Altar as an Atonement for their lives which were forfeited to him. And thus you see what are the necessary conditions of a real, and perfect, Expiatory Sacrifice; all which, as I shall now shew you, do fully concenter in the Death and Sacrifice of our Saviour. As
I. In dying or being sacrificed he was substituted in the room of sinful men to be punished for them in order to their being released from their personal obligation to punishment. And hence, Tit. 2.14. he is said to have given himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purifie to himself a peculiar people zealous of good works, that is, he gave his life in exchange for ours, and thereby became our foreign. For by what follows, it is plain that his giving himself for us here is to be understood by way of an expiation, for it was, first, to redeem us from all iniquity, which is the very phrase by which the vertue and efficacy of Propitiatory Sacrifices is expressed; for so foreign, which signifies to redeem in the Greek, is the same with foreign which signifies to expiate by Sacrifice in the Hebrew; and accordingly the Greek word foreign, which in the Greek signifies the price of redemption, is frequently used for the Hebrew Copher, which signifies a price to reconcile or propitiate. So that Christ's giving himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity, must signifie, according to the common acceptation of the Phrase, his laying down his life for us as the price of our propitiation with God. For so among the Jews that common form of speech, Let me be your redemption, was as much as to say, let me bear your Iniquities, and undergo the punishment of them that you may escape, Buxt. Lex. Chald. 10.78. Agreeably to which in Heb. 9.15. Christ is said to die for the redemption of transgressions, that is, to buy off the punishment of them with his own bloud. For so he is said to have given himself foreign, i. e. a ransom or price of Redemption for all, 1 Tim. 2.5, 6. and to have given his life as a foreign or ransom for many, Matth. 20.28. But then secondly, his giving himself for us was to purifie us, which also refers to the purifications which were made by Expiatory Sacrifices. For so the word foreign signifies, to cleanse from guilt by Sacrifice. Thus Lev. 16.30. On that day shall the Priest make Atonement for ye to purifie ye, that ye may be pure from all your sin before the Lord; and so the word is generally taken not only in the Writings of Moses, but also in all other Authors, by whom Expiatory Sacrifices are promiscuously called foreign, and foreign, i. e. atoning, sanctifying, and purifying. Agreeably to which, the bloud of Christ is said to purifie us from all sin, i. e. from the guilt of all sin, 1 Ioh. 1.7. For it was from that that the bloud of Sacrifices did immediately purifie men. And hence he is said to have died for our sins, 1 Cor. 15.3 to have given himself for our sins, Gal. 1.4. and to have once suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust, 1 Pet. 3.8. and his Bloud is said to be shed for many for the remission of sins, Matth. 26.28. and to be a Propitiation for our sins, 1 John 4.10. by which expressions it is evident that our sins were the cause, and the expiation of them the end of Christ's suffering; and it is upon this account that he is said to bear our sins in his own body on the tree, 1 Pet. 2.24. that is, to undergo the punishment of them in those exquisite torments he endured upon the Cross, and to be made sin for us, 2 Cor. 5.21. even as the Expiatory Sacrifices were made sin, i. e. Piacula, that underwent the punishment of sin for the Offenders that offered them, Lev. 4.3, 29. and also to be made a curse for us, Gal. 3.13. that is, by having the guilts of our sins transferred on him, even as the Sacrifices were cursed, as was shewed before, by the very translation of the guilts of the people upon them; and accordingly, as by this Translation those Sacrifices were rendered cursed and unclean, and as such, were to be burnt without the Camp, so our Saviour upon the same account suffered without the Gate, Heb. 13.11, 12. And to name no more, in Isa. 53. we are told, That he should bear our griefs, and carry our sorrows, and be wounded for our transgressions, and bruised for our iniquities; that the Chastisements of our peace were upon him, and that by his stripes we should be healed; that the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all, and that for our transgressions he was stricken, that his Soul was made an Offering for sin; that he should bear our iniquities, and be numbred with the transgressors, and bear the sins of many, and make intercession for the transgressors; all which expressions do as plainly denote him to be substituted to be punished for us, in order to our release, as it is possible for words to do; and, unless we will admit that to be the sence of Scripture, which the words of it do as plainly import as they could have done if it had been its sence, it will be impossible to determine it to any sence whatsoever; because men may prevaricate upon the plainest words, and with quirks of Wit and Criticism pervert them to a contrary meaning. And I dare undertake by the same Arts that our Adversaries use to avoid the force of these Testimonies, to elude the plainest words that the Wit of man can invent to express this Proposition, that Christ's Death was a punishment for our sins; which to any reasonable man is a sufficient answer to all the Socinian Cavils. And indeed the whole current of Scripture runs so clear against them, that they do as good as acknowledge, that according to the most common and natural acceptation of its words, it fairly implies the Doctrine we contend for, viz. that the Death of Christ was a real punishment for the sins of the World; but their main Plea is, that it is unjust, in the nature of the thing, to punish one man for the sins of another, and therefore we ought rather to impose any sence on the words of Scripture, how forein soever, than attribute to God so great a piece of injustice, as the punishing his own Son for the sins of the World. But as for the Iustice of this procedure, I shall endeavour by and by to clear and vindicate it.
II. He died in pure and spotless Innocence; and this was highly necessary to his being an Expiatory Sacrifice for the sins of others. For had he been a sinner, he had deserved to die upon his own account, and the utmost effect of his Death could have been only the Expiation of his own sin, by which his life must have been forfeited to the divine Justice; and it is impossible that he who hath forfeited his own life, should by his death redeem the forfeited lives of others. And accorcordingly, Heb. 7.26, 27. we are told, that such an High Priest became us who is holy, harmless, and undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the Heavens, who needed not daily, as those High Priests, to offer up sacrifice first for his own sins, &c. because the Sacrifice which he offered was his own life; so that had he been obliged to offer that for his own sins, it could have made no Expiation for ours; the bare payment of a man's own debt being no satisfaction for other mens. And therefore herein the Apostle places the vertue and efficacy of Christ's bloud, by which it was rendred sufficiently precious to be a ransom for the sins of the World, that it was of a Lamb without spot or blemish, i. e. the bloud of a most holy and innocent person, who never deserved the least evil on his own account, and therefore was truly precious, and sit to be a ransom for the sins of others, 1 Pet. 1.18, 19. And accordingly he is said to be made sin for us, i. e. to be devoted as a Sacrifice for our sins, who knew no sin, 2▪ Cor. 5.21. where you see the great Emphasis of his Sacrifice is laid upon his Innocence, as that which was necessary to qualifie him to be a Sacrifice for others. So that by that spotless obedience of Christ's life, through the whole course of which he did no sin, neither was there any guile found in his mouth, he consecrated himself an acceptable Sacrifice to God for the sins of the World.
III. His Death was of sufficient intrinsick worth and value to be an equivalent commutation for the punishment that was due to the whole world of sinners. For the reason why God would not pardon sinners without some commutation for the punishment that was due from them to his Justice, was that he might preserve and maintain the Authority of his Laws and Government. For had he exacted the punishment from the sinners themselves, he must have destroyed the whole Race of Mankind; and had he pardoned them, on the other hand, without any punishment at all, he must have exposed his authority to the contempt and outrage of every bold and insolent Offender; and therefore to avoid these dangerous extremities of severity and impunity, his infinite wisdom found out this expedient, to admit of some exchange for our persons and punishment, that so some other thing or person being substituted in our stead, to suffer and be punished for us, neither we might be destroyed, nor our sins be unpunished. This therefore being the reason of God's admitting of Sacrifice, it was highly requisite that the punishment of the Sacrifice should bear some proportion to the guilt of the Offenders; otherwise it will not answer God's reason of admitting it. For since the reason of his admitting it was the security of his Authority, the less he had admitted, the less he must have secured his Authority by it. For to have exacted a small punishment for a great demerit, would have been within a few degrees as destructive to his Authority as to have exacted none at all; to punish but little for great Crimes, is within one remove as mischievous to Government as total impunity; and therefore to support his own Authority over us, it was highly requisite that he should exact not only a punishment for our sin, but also a punishment proportionable to the guilt and demerit of it. For there is no doubt but the nearer the punishment is to the demerit of the sin, the greater security it must give to his Authority. And upon this account the Sacrifices of the Iews were infinitely short of making a full expiation for their sins; because being but brute Animals, their death was no way a proportionable punishment to the great demerit of the sins of the People. For what proportion could there be between the momentany sufferings of a Beast, and those eternal sufferings which the sins of a man do deserve? The death of a Beast is a punishment very short of the death of a Man, but infinitely short of that eternal death to which the man's guilts do oblige him; and accordingly the Expiations which were made for Men by the death of those Beasts were very short and imperfect. For so the Apostle tells us, that they only sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, Heb. 9.13. that is, to the acquitting them from their Corporal Penalties and legal Vncleannesses; but could not at all make them perfect as pertaining to their Consciences, i. e. could not expiate the guilt of any wilful sin, by which their Consciences were laid waste and wounded, ver. 9. And accordingly the Heathen seem to be aware how short the death of Beasts was of the punishment which was due for the sins of Men. For though in ordinary cases they sacrificed Beasts, as well as the Iews, yet in great extremities, when they conceived their Gods to be highly displeased with them, even the most civilized of them sacrificed Men; which shews, that they thought the death of Beasts to be an insufficient expiation for the sins of men. And indeed it cannot be denied but that the Sacrifice of a Man, as such, is much more proportionable to the punishment which the sins of men deserve, than the Sacrifice of a Beast; because a Man is a much nobler Creature, as being far advanced above a Beast by the Prerogative of his Reason; and consequently his death, considered as a Man, must be a much more valuable exchange for the punishment that is due to those he dies for. But herein the Heathen were miserably mistaken, that they did not consider that the men whom they sacrificed, were sinners as well as themselves, and that it is a much greater flaw in an Expiatory Sacrifice to be a Sinner than to be a Brute. For whereas the latter only renders it less effectual and valuable; the former, as was shewn before, renders it utterly void and insignificant; and therefore though the death of a Man, considered as such, is of much more value than the death of a Beast, yet to expiate for the sins of men, there is more internal vertue and efficacy in the death of an innocent Beast, than of a sinful Man; because the latter can expiate only for his own sin, whereas the former can have no sin but that of others to expiate. Since therefore men were all spotted and blemished with Sin, there was no life so fit for them to offer to God, in commutation for their forfeited lives, as that of innocent Brutes; so that the best commutation they could make was infinitely short of their demerit. And suppose that the men which the Heathen offered had been all pure and innocent, yet their lives would have been only an equivalent commutation for the forfeited lives of an equal number of sinners; unless therefore one half of Mankind had been innocent, and they had been sacrificed for the other half that was guilty, it had not been an equal Commutation so much as for the temporal punishment which was due to God from the guilty; but then for their eternal punishment a Hecatomb of Angels had been short and insufficient. For what proportion is there between a temporary death and an eternal misery? Since therefore, in great compassion to us, God hath thought meet to accept of a Sacrifice in lieu of that punishment which was due to him from Mankind, and since to secure his own Authority, it was highly requisite that what this Sacrifice suffered for us, should be in some measure equivalent to what we had deserved, and since we had deserved to suffer for ever, it necessarily follows that this Sacrifice must be something infinitely more precious and valuable than the bloud of Bulls and Goats, yea, than the lives of Men or Angels; and what can that be but the bloud of the Eternal Son of God, the infinite dignity of whose Person rendered his sufferings for us equivalent to the infinite demerit of our sins. For it was the dignity of his Person that gave the value to his sufferings, and inhanced his temporary Death to a full equivalence to those endless miseries which we had deserved. For if the life of a King be (as David's People told him) worth ten thousand lives, of what an infinite value must the life of the Lord of glory and of the Prince of life be, who being the Son of God, of the same Nature and Essence with his eternal Father, must from thence necessarily derive upon his Sacrifice an immensity of worth and efficacy. And hence we are said to be purchased with the bloud of God, Acts 20.28. and to have the life of God laid down for us, Iohn 3.16. and to be redeemed not with corruptible things, as Silver and Gold, but with the precious bloud of Christ, 1 Pet. 1.18, 19. and accordingly the Author to the Hebrews makes the vertue and efficacy of Christ's bloud to consist in the worth and value of it; For if the bloud of Bulls and Goats, &c. sanctified to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the bloud of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works to serve the living God, Heb. 9.13, 14. By all which it is evident that it was the infinite dignity of Christ's Person which derived that infinite merit on his Sacrifice, whereby it became an equivalent to the infinite demerit of our sins. Nay, of such an infinite value and worth was his Sacrifice, that it not only countervailed for the punishment due for our sin, but did abundantly preponderate it; upon which account God ingaged himself, not only to remit that Punishment, in consideration of it, but also to bestow his Spirit and eternal life on us; both which, as hath been shewn before, are as well the purchace of Christ's bloud, as the remission of our sins. For God might have remitted our punishment without superadding the gift of his Spirit and eternal life to it; and therefore since, in consideration of Christ's bloud, he hath superadded these Gifts to the remission of our punishment, it is evident that his bloud was equivalent to both, i. e. that it was not only a valuable consideration for the pardon of our sins, but also for the assistance of his Spirit, and our eternal happiness.
IV. His Death was on his part voluntary and unforced. For since as a Sacrifice he was to be innocent, and yet to undergo the punishment of our sin, he could not be the one, and do the other without his own free consent and approbation. For no innocent person can be justly made obnoxious to punishment but by his own Act and Choice; because punishment bears a necessary respect to sin, and the desert of suffering evil doth originally spring out of doing evil. So that an innocent person, considered as such, cannot deserve to be punished, nor consequently be justly obliged thereunto; but yet, notwithstanding his innocency, he may by his own Will and Consent oblige himself to undergo a punishment which otherwise he did not deserve, and when he hath so obliged himself, the punishment may be justly exacted of him. For though he hath no sin of his own to be punished for, yet he may by his own act oblige himself to undergo the punishment of another man's. And therefore though merely as an innocent person he cannot deserve to be punished, either upon his own account, or any other man's, because having no sin of his own he cannot be guilty of another man's; yet so far as he hath the free disposal of himself, he may substitute himself in the room of one that is guilty, and thereby render himself obnoxious to his punishment. As for instance, suppose that by some criminal action of his own a man hath forfeited his liberty or life to the Law, it is certain that no innocent man, as such, can be thereupon obliged to suffer death or imprisonment; but suppose that this innocent man having the free disposal of himself shall voluntarily offer his own life or liberty to the Magistrate in exchange for the forfeited life or liberty of the Criminal, and the Magistrate shall think meet to accept it, in this case he is justly liable, notwithstanding his innocence, to undergo the punishment that was due to the Offender. For if he may justly offer this exchange, as there is no doubt but he may, supposing that he hath the free disposal of himself, to be sure the Magistrate may justly accept of it, because the life of the Offender is as much in his disposal as the life that is offered him in exchange for it, is in the disposal of the Offerer; so that he hath as much right to give the Offerer the Offender's life for his, as the Offerer hath to give his own life for the Offenders; and when both Parties have a right to the goods which they exchange with each other, and the goods which they receive are on both sides equivalent to the goods which they give, it is impossible the exchange should be injurious to either; the Magistrate cannot be injured, because for the life of the Offender which he gives he receives the life of the Offerer which is equivalent; the Offerer cannot be injured, because for his own life which he gives he receives the life of the Offender which is dearer to him; and neither Party being injured, the exchange must be just and equal on both sides. Now that Christ had the free disposal of his own life, he himself tells us,Iohn 10.18. No man taketh my life from me, but I lay it down of my self; I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again, this commandment have I received of my Father; And that the lives of our Souls were in God's free disposal, as being justly forfeited to him by our sins, the Scripture assures us when it tells, that all have sinned, and that the wages of sin is death. Christ's life therefore being in his own free disposal, he had an undoubted right to exchange it with God for the lives of our Souls, and the lives of our souls being in God's free disposal, he had as undoubted a right to exchange them with Christ's for his life upon the free Tendry which he made of it. And in this exchange neither Party could be injured, because they both received an equivalent for what they gave; Christ gave his own life to God, for which God gave him the lives of our Souls in exchange, which were far dearer to him; God gave the lives of our Souls to Christ, for which Christ gave him his own most precious life in exchange, which, considering the infinite dignity of his Person, was at the least tant-amount. It is true indeed, both Parties having a right to the free disposal of the goods which they exchange with each other, to render the exchange just and valid it was necessary that both should be freely consenting to it; now that God was freely consenting I shall shew by and by; and that Christ was so too the Scripture expresly testifies; for so we are told, that he gave himself for our sins, Gal. 1.4. and that he gave his life a ransom for many, and gave his flesh for the life of the World, Matt. 21.28. and in a word, that he gave himself for us that he might redeem us from all iniquity, Tit. 2.14. and that he laid down his life for us, 1 John 3.16. all which plainly imply, that by his own voluntary consent he substituted himself to suffer in our stead that we might escape, and freely exchanged his own life with God for the lives of our Souls which were forfeited to him. And if, notwithstanding his innocence, it were just in God to expose him, without any respect to our sins, to all those bitter sufferings he endured, (and that it was so the Socinians themselves must acknowledge, or charge God with injustice) how much more was it just when of his own accord he substituted himself to bear our punishment for us, and freely exchanged his life for our Salvation?
V. And lastly, His Death was admitted and accepted by God in lieu of the punishment which was due to him from Mankind; and it is this that compleats it an Expiatory Sacrifice, and without this it had been altogether insignificant to the expiation of sin, notwithstanding all the above-named qualifications. For it is the personal punishment of the Offender which sin gives God a right to, and which the Obligation of his violated Law exacts; since therefore all Mankind had sinned, they all stood bound to God to suffer the desert of their sin in their own persons, and therefore the suffering of another in our stead can signifie nothing towards the releasing us from this Obligation, unless God in pure Grace and Favour to us shall please to admit and accept it; because anothers suffering is not ours, and it is ours that God hath a right to. Indeed the punishment of the guilty person himself, supposing it to be equal to his fault, doth without any interposal of Grace, extinguish the guilt of it, and by its own force and vertue dissolve his Obligation to punishment; because when a man hath suffered as much as he deserves, he hath suffered as much as the Law can oblige him to, and so consequently cannot be obliged to suffer any more; but should another suffer for me even as much as I deserved to suffer my self, it will be altogeth…r insignificant to the expiation of my guilt, unless God in meer grace will accept it for my suffering, because it is not anothers suffering but my own that the obligation of his Law demands and exacts of me; and although the others suffering for me may as effectually secure the Honour and Authority of God's Law as if I had suffered what I deserved in my own person, yet it is evident that in admitting the others suffering instead of mine, God remits and relaxes the Obligation of his Law, which requires that I should suffer in my own person. And therefore notwithstanding that Christ hath suffered for us, and God hath admitted his suffering for ours, yet this being out of meer grace and favour to us, he is still truly said to pardon and forgive us for Christ's sake, Eph. 4.32. because for the sake of Christ's suffering he graciously remits to us the Obligation of his Law which requires the punishment of our sin at our own hands; and since his remitting to us the Obligation of his Law for the sake of Christ's suffering was pure grace and favour, he was not at all obliged to remit it unconditionally, but being absolute Master of his own graces and favours he might remit it upon what terms and conditions he pleased. So that though if we had suffered in our own persons the utmost of what our sin doth deserve, he had been obliged in justice to discharge us without any farther condition, yet since out of his own free grace he hath admitted another to suffer for us, he may admit it with what limitations he pleases, and if he shall think meet (as he hath done) to limit it to our repentance and amendment, all that Christ hath suffered for us will be insignificant to our discharge from our obligation to punishment unless we repent and amend. So that the Death of Christ, you see, doth not expiate mens sins as their personal punishments do, by their own natural vertue, but by vertue of God's accepting it upon his own terms and conditions. And without God's accepting it, it would not have been at all an expiation for the sins of the World, and without the conditions upon which he accepteth it, viz. our repentance and amendment, it will not be at all an Expiation for ours. Now God hath solemnly declared his acceptance of Christ's Death as an Expiation for our sins; for it was God that laid upon him the iniquities of us all, Isa. 53.6. that gave his only begotten Son, John 3.16. and sent him to be a propitiation for us, 1 Joh. 4.10. which plainly imply his free acceptance of him; And therefore Christ is said to have given himself for us an Offering and a Sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savour, Eph. 5.2. i. e. for an Expiation that was highly grateful and acceptable to him. So that now the expiation of our sins by the bloud of Christ wholly depends on our performing the condition on which God hath accepted it, and since it is upon condition that we repent and amend, that God hath accepted the bloud of Christ in exchange for the eternal punishment we owe him, unless we perform this condition, the Bloud of Christ will not at all avail us, but we shall still remain as much obliged to undergo that punishment, as if he had never died for us at all. God's acceptance indeed hath made the Death of Christ available for us under those conditions and limitations upon which he accepted it, but if when he hath accepted it conditionally, we expect that it should avail us absolutely and unconditionally, we miserably deceive and abuse our own souls. Thus far therefore God's acceptance of Christ's Death instead of the punishment we have deserved hath rendred it an effectual expiation and ransom for sinners, that if they repent and amend they shall be released and acquitted from the obligation they lie under to suffer eternal punishment in their own persons, and entitled to everlasting life and happiness. And thus the Death of Christ, you see, had in it all the necessary qualifications of a real and compleat propitiatory Sacrifice; I proceed therefore in the second place to shew what a wise and effectual method this of God's admitting Christ's Sacrifice for sinners is to reduce and reform Mankind, which will evidently appear by considering these five things:
First, That the Sacrifice of Christ's Death was a most sensible and affecting acknowledgment of the infinite guilt and demerit of our sin. For thus under the Law the offering of Propitiatory Sacrifices implied a most solemn and sensible confession of the guilt of the Offerer. For his laying his hand upon the head of his Sacrifice, was a Symbolical action by which he solemnly acknowledged to God that he had justly deserved to suffer that death himself which his Sacrifice was suffering for him; and accordingly the Jews have this Maxim, Vbi non est peccatorum confessio, ibi non est impositio manuum, quia manuum impositio ad confessionem pertinet; where there is no confession of sins there is no imposition of hands, because the imposition of hands appertains to Confession. For so Lev. 5.5. they are particularly directed to confess their sins upon their bringing their Trespass-Offering before the Lord, and, as hath been shewn before, they had a set Form of Confession in all their expiatory Sacrifices, and particularly in that solemn Propitiation, viz. the dismission of the Scape-Goat, the High Priest is directed to lay both his hands upon the Goat's Head, and to confess over him all the iniquities of the Children of Israel, Lev. 16.21. so that as Confession is a kind of audible Sacrifice, so Sacrifice was a kind of visible Confession; and the demerit of their sin being thus represented to their Eyes by the death of their Sacrifice, was far more apt to move and affect them with horror and detestation of it, than any audible Confession how severe or pungent soever. And accordingly our Saviour in offering up himself as an expiation for our sin, did as it were, lay his hand upon his own head, and, as our Representative, solemnly acknowledge to God that we had justly deserved to suffer for our sin a punishment equivalent to that which he was undergoing for us. And what a dreadful one must that be which is equivalent to the Death of the Son of God? What less punishment than our everlasting misery can countervail the temporary death of him who was so eminent and innocent, who was God-man united in one person, and the Lamb of God without spot or blemish? If the Iews by sacrificing a Beast did make such a moving acknowledgment, that they themselves deserved to die, how much more did Christ by sacrificing himself for us, acknowledge in our stead that we deserved to die eternally? So that whatsoever vertue there is in the most bitter and pathetick confession to create in mens minds a horrour and detestation of their sins, all that and much more there is in the Sacrifice of our Saviour, whose Bloud cried louder against our sins, and made a far more Tragical confession of their demerit than it's possible for the most sorrowful Penitent to do with all the Eloquence of his grief and bitter strains of self-abhorrence. And hence our Saviour is said to have condemned sin in the flesh, Rom. 8.3. i. e. to have solemnly acknowledged by his dying for it, what a dreadful punishment it deserves.
Secondly, It is to be considered also, that the Sacrifice of Christ's Death was a most ample declaration of God's severity against our sins. All wise Governours ought so to exercise their Mercy, as that it may not be prejudicial to their Authority by giving Offenders encouragement to kick against it; but whilst their mercy is easie, and apt to be moved by slight Reasons and Motives, it will infallibly expose their Authority, and render it cheap and vile in the eyes of bold and insolent Offenders; the Reasons therefore which move a Prince to pardon Criminals ought to be such, if possible, as give all manner of discouragement to them from presuming upon impunity for the future. God therefore being inclined by the infinite benignity of his Nature to shew mercy to sinners, was obliged in wisdom to shew it in such a way, and upon such reasons as might sufficiently discourage them from presuming upon his Mercy to the prejudice of his Authority; and there is no reason could be so sufficient to this end, as a valuable Sacrifice to suffer in our stead, and bear the punishment of our sin; which reason carries with it such an awful severity, as must needs dishearten any considering sinner from presuming upon impunity if he go on in his sin. For next to exacting the punishment of the Offender himself, the most dreadful severity he could have expressed was not to remit it upon any consideration but this, that some other should undergo it in his stead; and by how much greater and more valuable the person is, who undergoes it for us, so much greater and more formidable God's severity appears in remitting it to us. Since therefore in consideration of our Pardon, God would admit no meaner Sacrifice than the precious Bloud of his own Eternal Son, he hath hereby expressed the utmost indignation against our sin, that he could possibly do, unless he had absolutely resolved never to pardon it at all. So that now we have all the reason that Heaven or Earth can afford us, to tremble at his severity, even while we are within the Arms of his mercy. For what man in his Wits would take encouragement to sin on from a mercy that cost the Bloud of the Son of God? He that can presume upon such a reason of mercy hath courage enough to out-face the flames of Hell, and if Hell it self had stood open before us, and we had seen the damned Ghosts weltering in the flames of it, it would not have given us such a loud and horrible warning of God's severity against our sin as this tremendous Sacrifice of the Son of God doth. If then a mercy that is so secured from being made an encouragement to sin by the terrible reason and consideration upon which it is founded cannot deter us from sinning on, there is no wise mercy that we are capable of, and consequently no mercy that the great God can indulge with safety to his Authority. For what mercy can be safe from our abuse and presumption, if this be not that is thus guarded with thunder, and attended with the utmost severity that mercy could possibly admit of? Wherefore if after I have seen my Saviour in his Agony deprecating with fruitless cries that fearful Cup which I deserved; if after I have beheld him hanging on the Cross, covered with Wounds and Bloud, and in the bitter Agony of his Soul heard him crying out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And, in a word, if after I have seen that God, to whom he was infinitely dear and precious, turn a deaf ear to his mournful cries, and utterly refuse to abate him so much as one degree or circumstance of a most shameful and tormenting death in consideration of my Pardon; If, I say, after such a horrible spectacle I have heart enough to sin on, I am a couragious sinner indeed, or rather a desperate one, not to be affected or restrained by all the terrors of Hell.
Thirdly, This Sacrifice of Christ is also to be considered as a most obliging expression of the love of God and our Saviour to us. For if God had so pleased he might have exacted our punishment at our own hands, and made us smart for ever in our own Persons, and this notwithstanding we had heartily repented. For though to repent is the best thing a sinner can do, yet it doth not alter the nature of the sin he repenteth of, so as to render it less evil or less deserving of punishment; nor indeed is Repentance a sufficient reason to move the all-wise Governour of the World to grant a publick Act of pardon and indulgence to sinners; it being inconsistent with the safety of any Government, Divine or Humane, so far to encourage Offenders, as to indemnifie them by a publick Declaration meerly upon condition of their future repentance and amendment. For all men are naturally apt to presume that God will be better to them than his word, and therefore had he declared that he would pardon them upon their repentance without any other reason, this would have encouraged them to hope that he might pardon them, though they repented not at all, or at least though they repented but by halves. Wherefore since our repentance is not a sufficient reason to oblige God to grant a publick Pardon to sinners, and since this was the best reason we could offer in our own behalf to move him thereunto, it hence necessarily follows, that he might have justly exacted the punishment of our sin of us, and made us smart for it for ever, notwithstanding the best reason we could have offered him to the contrary. But such was his goodness towards us, as to admit another to suffer in our stead, that so neither we might be ruined, nor our sins be unpunished. And then that the punishment of our sin might be a sufficient reparation to his injured Authority, he admitted his own Son upon his voluntary offering himself to undergo it for us, who by the dignity and innocence of his Person rendered that temporary Death he underwent for us equi…alent to that eternal Death which we had deserved. Now what a Prodigy of love was this, that the God of Heaven whom we had so infinitely offended, should part with his own Son for us, and freely consent that he should undergo our punishment! Which while I seriously consider, it puzzles my conceit, and out-reaches my wonder; so that though I have infinite reason to rejoyce in it, yet while I am contemplating it, I seem to be looking down from some stupendious Precipice, whose height fills me with a sacred horrour, and almost oversets my Reason. But Oh! the amazing love of the Son of God towards us, that he should put himself in our stead, and interpose his own Breast as a living Shield between ours and his Father's Vengeance! which, considering the greatness of his Person, and of our unworthiness, is such a stupendious expression of Love, as no Romance of Friendship ever thought of! And what is the proper influence of all this love, but to oblige us for ever to God and our Saviour, in the bands of a reciprocal affection; to melt down our stubbornness and enmity against them, and draw us on to our duty with the Cords of an invincible indearment? For is it possible my sins should be as dear to me as the Son of God was to his own Father, and yet the Father left him out of love to me, and shall not I leave them out of love to him? And when the Son of God hath been so kind to me as to lay down his life for me, can I be so ingrateful to him as to doat upon those sins which he hated more than all the shame and torment which he endured on their account; those sins that were the cause of all his sufferings, the Thorns that gored his Temples, and the Nails that pierced his hands and feet? Sure if we are not utterly lost to all that is modest and ingenuous, tender or apprehensive in Humane Nature, it will be impossible for us to resist these endearing instances of the love of God and our Saviour, which carry warmth and fervour enough with them to melt the most obdudurate natures.
Fourthly, Christ's Death and Sacrifice is also to be considered as a sure and certain ground of our hope of pardon, if we repent and amend. For it was upon the vertue of Expiatory Sacrifices that all Mankind depended for their reconciliation with God; and therefore these Sacrifices were a principal part not only of the Religion of the Iews, but of the Gentiles too, who besides their Eucharistical, had their constant Expiatory Oblations to atone and pacifie their Gods. And this more especially in times of publick Danger and Calamity, when they conceived their Gods to be most offended with them; at which Seasons they were wont to offer up their most costly Sacrifices, and devote not only Hecatombs of Beasts to their Altars, but many times the more precious lives of Men, Women, and Children, imagining that the more valuable the life was, the greater vertue there was in it to appease the angry Deity. And upon this sacred Rite did all the World build their hope of reconciliation with God, as being conscious that by their sin they had forfeited their own lives to him, and that there was no other way to redeem them, but by making a commutation with him, and offering him another life for their own, which was therefore called foreign, i. e. a life for their life, and foreign, i. e. the price of their Redemption. But alas so miserably defective were the very best of their Sacrifices, that they could not rationally depend on them with any confidence or assurance. For as for the Heathen Sacrifices, God had never promised to accept them, and it being an act of pure grace and favour in him to admit of such a commutation, it wholly depended on his own goodwill, whether he would admit it or no; and without some express revelation it was impossible for them to know which way his Will was determined in the case. And then even their most precious Sacrifices, which were the lives of Men, were infinitely short in value to redeem the Lives and Souls of those that offered them; those sacrificed men being sinners themselves, and they but a few sinners for many. And as for the Iewish Sacrifices, though God in many cases had promised to accept them in commutation for the lives of their Bodies, yet those being only the lives of Brutes, which were but negatively innocent, as being incapable of Sin or Vertue, could merit nothing of God, and consequently were infinitely short of a valuable commutation for the forfeited lives of their Souls. All which considered, there was no relying on them for Redemption from the Obligation they lay under to eternal punishment. But now all these defects are abundantly supplied in the Sacrifie of our blessed Saviour. For his life was not only infinitely valuable by reason of his personal Union to the Godhead, and so in it self an equivalent Ransom; he was not only no Sinner, which the best of the Heathen Sacrifices were; he was not only Negatively innocent, which was all that the Iewish Sacrifices were; but he was also perfectly righteous, and by vertue thereof infinitely dear and acceptable to God; and, to crown all, God himself both by express Revelation, and by raising him from the dead, hath openly declared his acceptance of his precious bloud, as a Ransom for the sins of the World. And upon this most sure and certain ground stands our hope of pardon and reconciliation with God. So that in the precious bloud of this our meritorious and accepted Sacrifice we openly behold the mercy of God inviting us into grace and favour, and with out-stretched arms ready to receive and embrace us; which gives us the most effectual encouragement in the World to return to our duty. I confess if we had no such Sacrifice to depend on, the sence of our past guilts might justly discourage us from all thoughts of future repentance; for though the natural goodness and benignity of God might happily give us some small hope, yet on the other hand the consideration of his natural abhorrence of sin, and the mighty Obligations he lies under to punish it, as he is a wise and righteous Governour, would very much dash our hope out of countenance. So that the utmost encouragement we could have had, would be that which the King of Nineveh gave his People, Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger that we perish not? Jonah 3.9. But now we can certainly tell, that if we will turn from our sins, he will turn from his anger; for our hope depends not on a doubtful peradventure, but upon a full, perfect, and sufficient Sacrifice, paid down to, and accepted of God. What then should hinder us from returning to him, who are thus firmly assured of his gracious reception, and do certainly know before-hand, that all our past provocations shall be blotted out, and our penitent Souls embraced with the same grace and favour as if we had never offended?
Fifthly, and lastly, This Sacrifice of Christ is also to be considered as the Seal and Confirmation of the New Covenant. For thus of old Covenants between God and Men were wont to be sealed and transacted by Sacrifice. So Gen. 15. Abraham, by God's Command, being to strike Covenant with him, offered a Sacrifice, which he divided in the middle, laying each Moyety one against the other, between which God passed in the likeness of a burning Lamp, and so made a Covenant with him, saying, VntoUnto thy Seed will I give this Land; in which Rite of passing between the parts, God condescended to the manner of Men; for so the Iews, when they struck Covenant with God, were wont to cut the Sacrifice in sunder, and pass between the parts thereof, Ier. 34.18, 19. by which action they made this imprecation on themselves, Thus let me be divided and cut in pieces if I violate the Oath I have now made. And accordingly, the bloud of the Sacrifice is called by Moses, The bloud of the Covenant, Exod. 24.8. and the Iews are said to make a Covenant with God by Sacrifice, Psal. 50.5. For all Expiatory Sacrifices were regularly attended with Peace-offerings, in both which the Priest or the People were God's Guests, and in token of reconciliation did eat and drink with him of the provisions of his Altar or Table. For in the burnt-offerings, the sin-offerings, and the trespass-offerings, the Priests only, as the Proxies and Representatives of the People, were admitted to be God's Guests; but then in the Peace-offerings which followed them, the People themselves were admitted to his Table to partake with him of those sacred Viands. So that in the first the Priests, as the Peoples Representatives, struck Covenant with God for them, in the second they struck Covenant with God for themselves. Thus as it was the Custom of all Nations to solemnize their Covenants with one another, by eating together, so God, in condescension to the manner of men, and to confirm their Faith in his Promises, did by the same Rite engage himself in Covenant with them. And in the same manner the Sacrifice of our blessed Lord was a Seal and Ratification of the New Covenant; upon which account it is called, as the Iewish Sacrifices were, the bloud of the Covenant, Heb. 10.29. Heb. 13.20. For his Sacrifice upon the Cross was the meritorious Sin-offering, in which he, as the High-Priest, the Head and Representative of his Church, did solemnize the New Covenant between God and us, and obtained of his Father an inviolable Ratification of his Promise of Grace and Eternal life. For in that dreadful transaction God did solemnly engage himself to Christ in the behalf of his Church, to perform to her what he had promised, to the utmost, upon the terms specified in the New Covenant. And therefore Christ is said to have made reconciliation in his own body on the Cross, and to have slain the enmity thereon, Eph. 2.16. and to have made peace, that is, a Covenant of peace, through the bloud of the Cross, Col. 1.20. But then to this Sin-offering there follows a Peace-offering, and that is the Lord's Supper, in which the Church, for her self, by eating and drinking at this Table, strikes Covenant with God, and upon those holy signs of Christ's Body and Bloud, gives to, and receives from God assurance of mutual Amnesty and Friendship; and hence, 1 Cor. 10.16, 20. this holy Supper is called, The Communion of the Body and Bloud of Christ, and drinking the Cup of the Lord, and being partakers of the Table of the Lord. For when God in this Supper doth by the hand of his Priest present his Bread and Wine to us, he doth thereby renew his Covenant with us, and when we receive, and eat and drink God's Viands, we thereby renew our Covenant with him. Thus God in great condescension to our desponding minds hath been pleased to ratifie his Covenant with us in our own way and manner; not that this ratification doth render his Covenant surer in it self, for nothing can be surer than his promise; and yet for the confirmation of our diffident minds, he is sometimes pleased to add his Oath to his Promise, and, for the same reason, to his Promise and Oath he hath superadded these federal Ratifications, which being the same with those legal Forms and Rituals by which men were wont to ratifie their Covenants and Agreements with one another, are upon that account more apt to assure and confirm our minds. And now what a mighty influence must this solemn confirmation of the New Covenant have upon us, to excite and quicken our Piety and Vertue, and render us actively zealous of good Works? For when God hath not only owned all the promises of the New Covenant to be his, by the many miraculous attestations he hath given them, but hath also vouchsafed by all those federal Rites, that were most sacred among men, to oblige himself to perform them, we have abundant reason to believe, not only that it is he that hath promised all the good things of this Covenant, but also that he is fully resolved to perform those promises to us, if we perform the conditions of them; since by the Bloud of his own Son he hath engaged himself to him in our behalf, and by the Sacramental signs of the Body and Bloud of his Son he hath engaged himself to us in our own persons to perform what he hath promised to the utmost punctilio. So that now our Faith in the Covenant stands upon a firm and immoveable foundation, as having not only the Promise a…d the Oath, but also the Seal of God to depend on; and having all the good things of the Covenant thus solemnly consigned to us, what abundant encouragement doth it give us to return to God and our Duty? For now we are not only assured of his pardon and gracious reception, but also of the assistance of his blessed Spirit to back and enforce our pious endeavours, and to enable us to conquer all those resistances of flesh and bloud with which we are to contend; and to encourage us to contend with all our might, we have an immortal Crown of Glory proposed to us as the reward of our victory, and are firmly assured, that after we have spent a few moments here in the practice of Piety and Vertue, we shall be removed from hence into that triumphant state of Immortality, there to reign in unspeakable glory and delight among the blessed Conquerors above, and sing Hallelujahs with them for ever. For to all these blessed things we are entitled by the ratifications of the New Covenant. Having therefore these great and precious Promises sealed to us by the bloud of Iesus, Let us cleanse our selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord ▪ 2 Cor. 7.1.
And thus you see how effectually the Death of Christ, as it is a Sacrifice for sin, contributes to our reformation. But after all, it must be acknowledged that it contributes only as a concurrent cause with our own endeavours; it doth not work upon us as if we were dead Machines, that have no vital principle of action in us; nor yet as necessary Agents, that have no free-will or principle of self-determination; it draws us indeed, but it is with the cords of a man, i. e. with a powerful grace and perswasion, but doth not drive or hale us with any violent or irresistible Agency. For after all the powerful influence of his Death to reform and amend us, we are still in our own disposal, and so may resist and baffle the efficacy of his Death, and in despite of it continue in our wickedness if we please. But if we do, it is at our own eternal peril, and we must one day expect to answer, not only for the bloud of our own souls, which in despite of the most powerful method of saving them we have wilfully ruined and destroyed, but also for the bloud of our Saviour, which we have not only defeated, but trampled on; and if both these be brought to our account, it had been better for us, not only that we had never been born, but that our Saviour himself had never been born, since all that he hath done to save us will be brought in judgment against us, as an horrid aggravation of our guilt, to inflame the reckoning of our punishment. So that unless we concur with this great design of Christ, by endeavouring our own reformation to the utmost of our power, his Death will not only be as insignificant to our happiness as it is to the redemption of Devils, but even those vocal wounds of his, which were made to plead for, will accuse and condemn us, and that eloquent Bloud, which in its Native Language speaks better things for us than the bloud of Abel, will like the Souls under the Altar, raise a cry of vengeance on us as high as the Tribunal of God. Wherefore as we would not find this blessed Sacrifice, which was designed for our City of refuge, converted into an avenger of bloud let us diligently concur with it to our utmost …ower in this n…cessary design of our reformation, that so being washed white and clean in the bloud of it, we may appear before God holy, and unblameable, and unreproveable in his sight. And thus I have given an account of the first Act of Christ's Priesthood, viz. his Sacrifice.