Twenty Sermons, Sermon 7
AD AULAM. Sermon VII.
GREENWICH, JULY 1638.
Esay 52.3.
For thus saith the Lord; Ye have sold your selves for nought: and ye shall be Redeemed without Money.
1. THe Speaker is God: that is plain, (For thus saith the Lord.) And he speaketh to us: Not to the Iews only, (as some perhaps might imagine,) but to all mankinde; And so to us, as well as them: if not in the Literal and immediate sense (which to me seemeth so probable that I make little doubt of it,) yet at leastwise (which I finde not gain-said by any) in the Anagogical, and Spiritual Sence. The speech it self presenteth to our view a Sale, and a Redemption: and under those Metaphors, representeth to our thoughts, Mans inexcusable baseness and Folly in the Sale; Gods admirable power and goodness in the Redemption. The most wretched Sale that ever was; all passed away, and nothing coming in: But the most blessed Redemption that ever was; all fetch'd back again, and nothing laid out. A Sale, without any profit to us; it got us nought: in the former part of the verse, (You have sold your selves for nought). A Redemption without any charge to us; it cost us nought: in the latter part, (ye shall be redeemed without money.) These are the two points we are to hold us to at this time: the Sale first, by Sin; and then the Redemption by Christ.
2. You have sold your selves for nought.] Words not many in our Translations; But in the Original, (as also in the Greek) as few as can be to be a Number, but two: Yet do they fairly yield us these four Particulars. 1. The Act: and that is a Bargain of Sale, (ye have sold) 2. The Object of that Act; the Commodity, or thing sold, and that is themselves, (sold your selves.) 3. The Consideration, or Price; (if you will allow that Name to a thing of no Price:) and that is nothing, or as good as nothing, (sold for nought.) 4. The Agent, the Merchant or Salesman: and that is themselves too, (Ye have sold your selves.) To sell, and that themselves; and that for nought; and to do all this, themselves: of these in order.
3. The Act is first; it is a Bargain of Sale: (Ye have sold your selves.) If we had but deposited our selves with Satan, being so perfidious as he is; it had been hazard enough, and but too much. For even among Men, if the party that is trusted, have but the Conscience to deny the trust, and the face to forsweare it: he that trusteth him may soon come to lose all. But yet in point of right, and to common entendment, he that depositeth any thing in the hand of another, doth only commit it to his custody: both aRei depositae proprietas apud deponentem man…t. l. 17. F. depositi, vel contra.property and use still reserved to himself. 2. In a Demise a man parteth with more of his interest; he transmitteth together with the possession, the use also or fruit of the thing letten or demised, so as the ususructuarius or tenant may during his Terme use it at his Pleasure, and (so far as he is not limited by special Covenant) make benefit of it to his own most advantage. But here is yet no Alienation: it is but jus utendi salvâ substantiâ. Still the Property remaineth where it was: and the Possession too after a time, and when the terme is expired, reverteth to the first owner. 3. A Mortgage indeed hath in it something of the Nature of an Alienation: in as much as it passeth over bAlienatio est omnis actus, per quem dominium transfertur.Dominium, as well as Rem, and Usumfructum; that is property, and (as you would say) Ownership, as well as Possession, Use, and Benefit. Yet not absolutely any of these; but with a defeisance, and under a Condition performable by himself, so as the Mortgage is upon the point the proprietary still, if he will himself: because it is in his own power by performing the Condition to make a defeisance of his former act, and consequently to make the alienation void, and then he is in statu quo.
4. But in a Bargain of Sale there is a great deal more then in all these. There aVenditio alienatio est re… suae, jurisque in eâ sui in alium translatio. Senec. 5. de benef. 10. foreign. Suid. in foreign.the Alienation is absolute, and the contract Peremptory. Wherein the Seller transferreth and maketh over to the Buyer, together with the Possession, use and profits, the very property also of the thing sold; with all his right, title, claim, and interest therein for ever, without power of revocation, or any other reservation whatsoever. And this is our Case: this the fact, whereof we stand indited in the Text. What the Scripture chargeth upon Ahab for his particular, that he had sold himself to work wickedness: is (though not in the same height of sence, yet) in some degree, more or less chargeable upon all Man-kinde. 3 King. 21.25.We have all sold our selves to Sin and Satan. Venundati sub peccato, saith St Paul; and he seemeth to speak it of the better sort of Men too (in the judgment of many good interpreters) Rom. 7. And then how much more is it true of the rest? that they are Carnall, Rom. 7.14.sold under sinne.
5. The greater is our Misery, and the more our Presumption: which are the two Inferences hence. Our Misery first. For by selling ourselves over to sin and Satan, we have put our selves out of our own, into their Dominion: and (during that state) remain wholly to be disposed at their pleasure. They are now become our Lords; and it is not for us to refuse any drudgery, be it never so toilsome or irksome, whereabout they shall list to employ us. How should it else be possible for men endowed with reason, some to melt themselves away in Luxury and Brutish sensuality, as the Voluptuous; othersome to pine themselves lean with looking at the fatness of anothers portion, as the Envious; othersome to run themselves out of breath, sometimes till they burst, in the pursuit either of shadows, as the Ambitious; or of smoak, as the Popular or vain-glorious; othersome, like those that in old time were damnati ad Metalla, to moyl perpetually in lading themselves with thick clay, whereof it could give them to think that ever they should have use, as the Covetous? were it not that they are put upon such drudgeries, by their imperious Masters; Sin, who raigneth like a tyrant in their mortall Bodies, and will have all his lust obeyed: Rom. 6.12.and Satan who grown great by this new purchase (for by it it is that he claimeth to be Prince of the world) sitteth in the hearts of ungodly men, as in his Throne, and there commandeth like an Emperour: John 16.11.and who may be so bold as to contradict, or but to say, Domine cur ita facis? Acti agimus, is a true saying, in this sence howsoever. He must needs go, we say, whom the Devil driveth: and St Paul saith,Eph. 2.1. he is the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience. It is but an empty flourish then, that licentious men sometimes stand so much upon their liberty; saying with them Iohn 8. we were alwayes free, and were never in bondage unto any; or with them in Psalm 12.John 8.33. Psalm 12.4. Our lips are our own, who is Lord over us? who is Lord over you, do you say? No hard matter to tell you that: Even Satan. your lips and your tongues are his; your hearts and your hands his; your bodies, and your souls his; all you have, all you are, wholy and entirely his. You have sold your selves to him, and Emptum cedit in jus emptoris. He hath bought you, and his you are, to have and to hold: he may now do what he will with you, (if aNon miror quod Diabolus istud potuit: sed quòd Deus permisit. Bern. Epist. 141.God suffer him) and you must abide it. This being the case of us all by reason of Sin (till we be restored by Grace,) I need say no more to let us see, what misery we have pulled upon our selves by this Sale.
6. But there is another thing too in this Sale. besides our Misery meet for us to take knowledge of: and that is our high and intolerable Presumption, joyned with extreme injustice and unthankfulness. God made us to do him service: and his we are; his Creatures, his Servants. Now then Quis tu? What hast thou to do to judge, saith S. Paul: may not I say much more, what hast thou to do to sell anothers servant?Rom. 14.4. and that invito, nay inconsulto Domini; without any Licence of Alienation from the chief Lord, nay without so much as ever asking his consent: If God were pleased to leave us at first in manu consilij, and to trust us so far as to commit the keeping of our selves to our selves: he had no meaning therein to turn us loose, neither to quit his own right to us and our services. Nay may we not with great reason think that he meant to oblige us so much the more unto himself, by making us his depositaries in a trust of that nature? As if a King should commit to one of his meanest servants, the custody of some of his Royal houses or forts, he should by that very trust lay a new obligation upon him of fealty, over and above that common allegiance which he oweth him as a Subject. Now if such a servant, so entrusted by the King his Master, should then take upon him of his own head without his Masters privity, to contract with a stranger, perhaps a Rebel or Enemy, for the passing over the said house or fort into his hands: Who would not condemne such a person, for such an act, Of ingratitude, injustice, and presumption, in the highest degree? Yet is our injustice, ingratitude, and presumption, by so much more infinitely heinous then his, in selling our selves from God our Lord and Master into the hands of Satan a Rebel, and an Enemy to God and all goodness: By how much the disparity is infinitely more betwixt the eternall God and the greatest of the sons of Men, then betwixt the highest Monarch in the world, and the lowest of his Subjects.
7. So much for the Act: the other particulars belong to it as circumstances thereof. To a Sale they say three things are required, Res, Precium, and Consensus: a Commodity to be sold, a Price to be pai'd, and consent of Parties. Here they are all. And whereas I told you in the beginning, that in this Sale was represented to us Mans inexcusable baseness and folly; You shall now plainly see each particle thereof made good, in the three several Circumstances. In the Commodity our Baseness; that we should sell away our very selves: in the Price our folly; that we should do it for a thing of naught: in the Consent our inexcusableness in both; that an act so base and foolish should yet be our own voluntary act and deed. And first for the Commodity. (You have sold your selves.)
8. Lands, Houses, Cattel, and other like possessions made for mans use, are the proper subject matter of trade and commerce; and so are fit to pass from man to man by Sales and other Contracts. But that Man a Creature of such excellency, stamped with the image of God, endowed with a reasonable soule, made capable of grace and Glory, should Prost…are in foro, become merchantable ware, and be chaffered in the markets and fayres: I suppose had bin a thing never heard of in the world to this houre; had not the overflowings of pride, and Cruelty, and Covetousness, washed out of the hearts of Men, the very impressions both of Religion and Humanity. It is well, and we are to bless God, and under God to thank our Christian Religion and pious Governours for it; that in these times and parts of the world, we scarce know what it meaneth. But that it was generally practis'd all the world over in some former ages, and is at this day in use among Turks and Pagans, to sell men: ancient Histories and modern relations will not suffer us to be ignorant. We have mention of such Sales even in Scripture, where we read of some that sold their own brother, as Iacobs sons did Ioseph; and of one that sold his own Master, Gen. 37.…8. Matth. 26.15.as the traitor Iudas did Christ. Basely and wretchedly both: Envy made them base; and Covetousness him. Only in some cases of Necessity, as for the preservation of Life, or of liberty of Conscience, when other means fail, God permitted to his own people to sell themselves or Children into perpetual bondage; and Moses from him gave Laws and Ordinances touching that Matter, Levit. 25.
9. But between the Sale in the Text, and all those other, there are two main differences: Both which do exceedingly aggravate our baseness. The first that no man could honestly sell another, nor would any man willingly sell himself, unless enforced thereunto by some urgent necessity. But what necessity I pray you, that we should sell our selves out of Gods and out of our own hands into the hands of Sin and Satan? Were we not well enough before? sull enough, and safe enough? Was our Masters service so hard that it might not be abiden? Might we not have lived? Lived? Yea and that happily, and freely, and plentifully, and that for ever in his service? What was it then? Even as it is with many fickle servants abroad in the world, that begin in a good service, cannot tell when they are well, but must be ever and anon flitting, though many times they change for the worse: so it was only our Pride and folly, and a fond conceit we had of bettering our condition thereby, that made us not only without any apparent necessity, but even against all good reason and duty, thus basely to desert our first service, and to sell our selves for bondslaves to Sin and Satan.
10. The other difference maketh the matter yet a great deal worse on our side. For in selling of slaves, for so much as bodily service was the thing chiefly looked after; therefore as the body in respect of strength, health, age, and other abilities was deem'd more or less fit for service, the price was commonly proportioned thereafter. Hence by a customary speech among the Grecians, aforeign &c. Anthol. 1.12.slaves were called foreign, that is, bodies; and they that traded in that kinde bforeign. Chrys. 1 Cor. ser. 40. v. Rad. Homer. 2. ver. quotid. 26. & Casaub. in Athen. 5.10. Rev. 18.13. Epiphan. in Ancorat. Plato.foreign, as you would say merchants of bodies. And so the word foreign is rendred Rev. 18. Mancipia or slaves. Epiphanius giveth us the reason of that use of the word, foreign, saith he &c. because all the command that a man can exercise over his slaves, is terminated to the body, and cannot reach the soule. And the soule is the better part of man; and that by so many degrees better, that in comparison thereof the body hath been scarce accounted a considerable part. foreign, could the Greek Philosopher say, and the Latin Orator. cCicer in Somn. Scip.Mens cujusque is est quisque. The soule is in effect the whole man; d—corpus quasi vas est, aut aliquod animi receptaculum Cic. 1. Tuscul. — foreign. Chrys. Mat.16.26. in Math. ser. 34. Luke 9.25.The body but the shell of him: the body but the casket, the soule the Jewel. It is observable, that whereas we read Matth. 16. (What shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world and lose his own soule?) in stead thereof we have it Luke. 9. thus, (if he gain the whole world and lose himself?) So that every mans soule is himself; and the body but e—videt enim —appendicem animi esse corpus. Cicer. apud Nonnium in Appendix.an appurtenance of him. Yet such is our baseness, that we have thus trucked away our selves with the appurtenances; that is, both our soules and our bodies. We detest Witches and Conjurers (and that worthily) as wicked and base People; because we suppose them to have made either an express, or at leastwise an implicite contract with the Devill. Yet have our rebellions against God put us in the same predicament with them. Verily Rebellion is as witchcraft. 1 Sam. 15. Ours is so: since by it we have made a Contract with the Devil, and sold our selves to him, souls and all.
1 Sam. 15.23.11. Yet are base-minded people most an end covetous enough: they will hardly part with any thing, but they will know for what. Ecquid erit precij? What will you give me? is a ready Question in every mans mouth that offers to sell. Iosephs brethren, though they were desirous to be rid of him,Gen. 37.28. Mat. 26.15. Amos. 2.6. yet would have somewhat for him: and Iudas would not be a Traitor for nought. They got twenty pieces of silver for their Brother, and he thirty for his Master. And those oppressors in Amos 2. that sold the needy for a pair of shooes, would be content with a small matter, so they might be on the taking hand. Esau had a very sorry recompence,Heb. 12.16. a morsel of meat and a mess of broth, for his own birthright and his fathers blessing: yet that was something (jus pro jure) and something we say, hath some savour. But to let all go, and to get nothing for it, this is our singular folly: in the next Circumstance of the Price (Ye have sold your selves for nought.)
12. A heavy charge, may some say! but is there any truth in it? or is there indeed any sence in it? Examine that first. It is well known there can be no buying and selling without the intervention of a Price: aNulla emptio sine pretio esse potest. Justin. 3. instit. 24.Pactio precij is by the learned put into the definition, and therefore is conceiv'd to be of the essence of this kind of contract. b—foreign. Anthol. 4. cap. 12. —foreign. Suid.foreign, is the old formula for buying and selling. So that if there be no price paid or to be paid, nothing given or to be given in compensation or exchange for what is received; it may be a Contract of some other species, but it can be no Sale. It seemeth then to be a meer implicat, a contradiction in adjecto, to say that a thing is sold, and yet for nothing.
13. But here we have a double help to salve it, in either of the Termes one. First, for the term of selling: True it is, in strict propriety of speech buying and selling cannot be without a price. But Divine, (especially Prophetical) expressions, are not ever tied to such strictness. We read therefore in the Scriptures, both of buying and selling, without a price; Of buying without a price, (come buy wine and milk without money and without silver, Esay 58.Esay 58.1.) And of selling without a price; (Thou sellest thy people for nought, and takest no money for them, Psalm 44.) and likewise here in the Text. Nay more,Psalm 44.12. that strictness of propriety is not alwayes observed in other Authors. aPratei. in lex. juris.Vendendi verbum ad omnem alienationem pertinet, saith a learned Civilian; The word selling may be extended to every Contract, the effect whereof is an alienation. And if so, then should we have given away our selves gratis (as it is said of some, Ephes. 4. that they have given themselves over to lasciviousness, foreign is the word there:Eph. 4.19.) yet might we be said to have sold our selves in this construction; that is, to have made over our selves to Satan by an absolute alienation: whereby whatsoever right and interest we had in our selves before (were it more or less, were it any or none) is now conveyed unto, and setled upon him.
14. Another help we have in the other Terme, for nought. For (to say truth) we do receive a price such as it is. He is content to allow us something; he knoweth we would not else bargain. Perhaps some little profit, or pleasure, or ease, or honour, or applause, or revenge; some small trifle or other: which being of very little worth or use, and so not to be taken for a valuable consideration, may therefore be called nought or nothing: not simply or absolutely nothing, but comparatively and respectively nothing. Even as in our common speech, when a man would express that he hath sold a thing much under worth, the forms are ordinary: I have even given it away; I have parted with it for a song; I have sold it for nothing. And this common usage of the phrase, as it well preserveth the sense, so doth it also (that I may stop two gaps with one Bush,) justifie the truth of this charge in my Text (you have sold your selves for nought) for between mere nothing, and as good as nothing, the difference is not great, in point of discretion.
15. Here then is our folly in this sale, that on the one side we shamefully a—adeo nihil est cui que se vilius. Senec. Epist. 42.underprised what we were to part with, and on the other side extremely overvalued what we were to receive in exchange for it. Renowned is bforeign. Hom. Ili. foreign.Glaucus for his folly in Homer, for changing armour with Diomedes with such palpable disadvantage, that Proverbs came of it. And we laugh't at the silliness of the poor Indians when the Portugals came first among them, for parting with a massy lump of Gold-ore for a three halfpenny knife. Yet is our folly far beyond theirs; they had something, yea and in the same kinde too; he brass, they iron for gold: that's yet one metall for another, though there be great difference in the worth. But what sottishness possessed us, thus to barter away Coelum pro caeno; Heaven for dung, Paradise for an apple, our selves for nothing.
16. But flesh and blood is ready to justifie it's own act, (as ever they that are guiltiest of folly, are the shyest to own it) and thus will argue it. If we have sold our selves to Satan; Yet the advantage seemeth to be on our side. We are sure we have got something from him, say it be but small, a vanity, a toy; yet such a toy as we are pleased withall. But he hath got a verier toy from us, a very nothing. For we have but sold our selves, and we are but men: and what is man, but like a thing of nought Psal. 144. Lay him in the ballance with vanity it self,Psalm. 144.4. he will prove the verier vanity of the two;—62.9. that will overweigh him. Psal. 62. If any man should chance to think better of himself, and take himself to be something, there is one will tell him that he mistaketh the matter, and deceiveth himself,Gal. 6.3. Esay 40.17. for he is nothing Gal. 6. Nay lesse then nothing saith our Prophet Esay 40. By all which it should seem we have rather cheated the Devil, then he us; and have gotten the better end of him: and are so far from having parted with something for nothing, as we are charged; as that quite contrary we have rather gotten something for nothing. Or at least wise, if we have but vanity for vanity; we a thing of nought from him, he a thing of nought from us, (fumum accepit, fumum vendidit,) as it is in the Apothegme; Or in an Epigram I have heard of two Dunces and their disputation, (Attulit ille nihil, rettulit ille nihil:) we are yet upon even terms, and that can deserve no great imputation of folly.
17. Indeed should we speak of our bodies only, these mortal, corruptible, vile bodies,Rom. 6.12. 1 Cor. 15.50. Phil. 3.21. (as we finde them termed by all those Epithets;) or look upon our whole nature, as it is now embased by Sin; or even taken at the best, and set in comparison against God; (in one of which three respects it must be understood, where ever the scriptures speak of our worthlesnesse or nothingnesse:) there might then be some place for these allegations. But take the whole Man together, soule as well as body, yea chiefly that; and state him as he was before he was sold, (as so we must do, if we will give a true judgement of the fact,) and compare it but with other creatures, (which is but reasonable;) and then all the allegations aforesaid are quite beside the purpose. The Soule is a most rich, indeed an inestimable commmodity; Preciosa anima, saith Solomon Prov. 6. the precious Soule. So he saith,Prov. 6.27. but that speech is somewhat too generall, he doth not tell us how precious. Indeed he doth not; for in truth he could not: it is beyond his, or any mans skill to give an exact praisment of it. There is somewhat bidden for it Mic. 6. But such a contemptible price, that it is rejected with scorn; though it seem to sound loud, (thousands of Rams, and ten thousands of Rivers of Oyle.Mic. 6.7.) He that alone knew the true worth of a soule, (both by his natural knowledge, being the eternall wisdom of God, and by his experimental knowledge, having bought so many and pai'd a full price for them,) our blessed Redeemer the Lord Iesus assureth us there is a— foreign. Chrysost. ad Theodor. Lapsum. serm. 1.6. edit Savi. 58.no foreign.Mat 16.26. All the universal world affordeth not a valuable compensation for it, Mat. 16. We will rest upon his word for this, as well we may, and spare further proof.
18. And then the inference will be clear; that there never was in the world any such folly, as sin is; any such fools as sinners are. foreign, as he said: and Solomon putteth the soole upon the sinner, I am not able to say how oft. That we should thus sell and truck away these precious souls of ours, the very aforeign, &c. Plato. — divinae particulam aurae. Hor. 2. serm. 2. —foreign. Nazi. jamb. 18.exhalations and arrachements (if I may so speak) of the breath of God; not estimable with any other thing, then with the precious blood of God: and that not for the whole world (which had been to our incomparable disadvantage,) no nor yet for any great Portion thereof, but for a very small pittance of it, whereof we can have no assurance neither that we shall hold it an houre; and which even whil'st we have it, and think to enjoy it perisheth in the using, and deceiveth our expectations! Which of us,Col. 2.22. laying the promises to heart, can do less then beshrew his own grievous folly for so doing; and beg pardon for it at the hands of God, as David did after he had numbred the People,2 Sam. 24.10. (I have sinned greatly in that I have done, and now I beseech thee O Lord take away mine iniquity; for I have done very foolishly.
19. And the more cause have we most humbly to beg pardon for our baseness and folly herein, by how much less we are any way able to excuse either of both: it being our own voluntary act and deed. For so is the next Particular, (Ye have sold your selves.) Naturally what is blameworthy; we had rather put off upon any body else, light where it will, then take it home to our selves. aV. Cic. 1. ad Herenn; Quintil 7.4 &c.Translatio criminis the shifting of a fault, is by Rhetoricians made a branch of their Art. We need not go to their schools to learn it: Nature and our mother-wit will prompt us sufficiently thereunto: we brought it from the womb, suck'd it from the breasts of our mother Eve. Gen. 3.This base and foolish act whereof we now speak, how loath are we to own it? how do we strive to lay the whole burden and blame of it upon others: or if we cannot hope to get our selves quite off, yet (as men use to do in common payments, and taxes) we plead hard to have bearers & partners, that may go a share with us, and ease us (if not à toto, yet) at leastwise à tanto, and in some part.Ose 13.9. But it will not be. Still Perditio tua ex te: it will fall all upon us at the last, when we have done what we can.
20. We have but one of these three wayes to put off; a fourth I cannot imagine; By making it either Gods act, who is the original owner; or Adams act, who was our Progenitor, or Satans act, who is the Purchaser. If any of these will hold, we are well enough; Let us try them all. It should seem the first will: for is there not Text for it. How should one of them chase a thousand (saith Moses) except their rock had sold them, Deut. 32.30.Deut. 32. and God was their rock. So David, Psalm 44. Thou hast sold thy people for nought: and sundry times in the book of Iudges we read how God sold Israel sometimes into the hands of one enemy,Psal. 44.12. Judg. 2.14, &c. and sometimes of another. Very right. But none of all this is spoken of the sale now in Question: it is meant of another manner of Sale, which is consequent to this and presupposeth it. God indeed selleth us over to punishment, (which is the sale meant in those places) but not till we have first sold our selves over to sin, which is the sale in this place. We first most unjustly sell away our souls, and then he most justly selleth away our bodies, and our liberty, and our peace, and our credit, and the rest.
21. Let us beware then whatsoever we do that we do not charge God wrongfully, by making him in the least degree the author of our sins, or but so much as a party, or an accessory to our follies; either directly, or indirectly. Himself disclaimeth it utterly, and casteth it all upon us. Esay 50.1. Which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? if it were my deed, deal punctually, tell me when, and where, and to whom: But if it were not, why do you lay it to my charge? Behold, for your iniquities have you sold your selves. It was meerly your own doing: and if you suffer for it; blame your selves, and not me.
22. Hâc non successit: We must try another way, and see if we can leave it upon Adam. For did not he sell us many a fair year before we were in rerum naturâ? And if the Father sell away the inheritance from his unborn childe, how can he do withall? and if he cannot help it, why should he be blamed for it? Must our teeth be set on edge with the grapes our grand-father ate, and not we? It must be confest, the first Sale was his personal act, by which he passed away both himself and all his posterity; and so were we venditi antequam editi, sold a long while before we were born. And that Sale is still of force against us, (I mean that of Original sin, till it be annull'd by baptism) in as much as being virtually in his loins, when he made that contract, we are presumed to have given our virtual consent thereunto. But there is another part of the sale which lieth most against us, whereto our own actual consent hath passed in confirmation, and for the further ratification, of our fore-fathers act: when for satisfaction of some ungodly lust or other, we condescended by committing sin in our own persons, to strengthen Satans title to us, whatever it was, as much as lay in us. Like the unthrifty heir of some unthrifty father, who when he cometh at age, for a little spending money in hand, is ready to do any further act that shall be required of him, for the confirmation of his fathers act, who had long before sold away the lands from him. Whatever then we may impute of the former, I mean of original guilt to Adam: yet we must take the later, I mean our actual transgressions, wholly and solely to our own selves.
23. Nor can we thirdly, lay the blame upon Satan, or his instruments; which is our last and commonest refuge. Serpens decepit was Eves plea; and she pleaded but truth:Gen. 3.13. for the Serpent had indeed beguiled her; St Paul hath said it after her twice over. Esau after he had sold his birth-right his own self, 2 Cor. 11.3. 1 Tim. 2.14.yet accused his brother for supplanting him. Aaron for making the calf, and Saul for sparing the Cattle; both contrary to God's express command,Exod. 32.22. 1 Sam. 15.21. yet both lay it upon the people. Others have done the like, and still do, and will do to the worlds end. But alas! these fig-leaves are too thin to hide our nakedness: all these excuses are insufficient to discharge us from being the authors of our own destruction. Say Satan be a cunning cheater, (as he is no less!) who should have look'd to that? had not God endowed us with understanding to discern his most subtile snares, and with liberty of will to decline them? Say he do tempt us perpetually; and by most slie insinuations seek to get within us, and to steal away our hearts; That is the utmost he can do: a tempter he is: and that a shrewd one;Matth. 4.1. foreign (he hath his own from it;) yet he is but a tempter, he cannot enforce us to any thing, without our consent: and God hath given us power, and God hath given us charge too, not to consent. Say ungodly men (who are his agents) cease not by plausible perswasions, importunities, and all the engagements they can pretend, to solicit and entice us to evil: Yet, if we resolve and hold, not to consent, aQui suo sine alte…o impulsu cadere potest, al…eno abs que suo cadere non potest. Bern. serm. 85.they cannot hurt us. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not, Prov. 1.10. Say they lay many a cursed example before us, as Iacob did pilled rods in the sheep-troughs; or cast stones of offence in our way! Have we not a rule to walk by, by which we ought to guide our selves,Gen. 30.37. — 8. and not by the examples of men? And whereto serve our eyes in our heads, but to look to our feet, that we may so order our steps, as not to dash our foot against a stone?
24. Certainly no man can take harm but from himself. Let no man, then when he is tempted and yieldeth, say he is tempted of God: for God tempteth no man. Jam. 1.13.saith S. Iames; that is, doth not so much as endeavour to do it. Nay I may adde further, Let no man when he is tempted, say he is tempted of Satan. That is, let him not think to excuse himself by that: For even Satan bInfirmus hostis est, qui non potest vincere … volentem. Epist. Incerti ad Demetriad. cap. 25. —14.tempteth no man in that sense and cum effectu. Though he endeavour it all he can; yet, it cannot take effect, unless we will. S. Iames therefore concludeth positively, that every mans temptation, if it take effect, is merely from his own lust. It is then our own act and deed, that we are Satan's Vassals; Disclaim it we cannot: and what so ever misery or mischief ensueth thereupon, we ought not to impute to any other then our selves alone. He could never have laid any claim to us, if we had not consented to the bargain, and yielded to sell our selves.
25. Of the Sale hitherto, I come now to the Redemption, the more Evangelical, and comfortable part of the Text. And as in the Sale we have seen mans inexcusable baseness and folly in the severall circumstances: so we may now behold Gods admirable power and grace in this Redemption. His Power, that he doth it so effectually, The thing shall be done, (Ye shall be Redeemed.) His Grace, that he doth it so freely, without any mony of ours. (Ye shall be Redeemed without mony.)
26. First the work to be effectually done. It is here spoken in the future (Ye shall be Redeemed;) not only, nor perhaps so much, because it was a prophesie of a thing then to come, which now since Christs coming in the flesh is actually accomplished: but also, and especially, to give us to understand that when God is pleased to Redeem us, all the powers on earth, and in hell, cannot, shall not hinder it. By the Levitical Law, if a man had sold himself for a bondslave, his brother, or some other neer friend might redeem him: Levit. 25.26.or if ever God should make him able, he might redeem himself. If this had been all our hope, we might have waited till our eyes had sunk in their holes, and yet the work never the neerer to be done: for never would man have been found able, either to Redeem his own soule, or to make agreement for his brothers. It would cost more to redeem their souls, Psal. 49.8.then any man had to lay down: so that of necessity he must let that alone for ever. But when the son of God himself setteth in, and is content to be made of God to us Redemption: the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand, 1 Cor. 1.30. Esay 53.10.and the work shall go on wondrous happily and successfully.
27. His Power, his Love, and his Right, do all assure thereof. First his Power. Our Redeemer is strong and mighty, Jer. 50.34.even the Lord of hosts. And he had need be so: for he that hath us in possession is strong and mighty; Ter fortis amatus in the Parable Luke 11th.Luk. 11.21. —22. He buckleth his armour about him, and standeth upon his guard with a resolution to maintain what he hath purchased, and to hold possession if he can. But then when a stronger then he cometh upon him, and overcommeth him, breaketh into his house, bindeth him,Gen. 3.15. and having bruised his head taketh away from him his armour wherein he trusted (the Law, Sin, Death, and Hell:) there is no remedy but he must yield per-force what he cannot hold, and suffer his house to be ransack'd, and his goods and possessions to be carried away. Greater is he that is in you (saith S. Iohn) that is Christ,1 Joh. 4.6. then he that is in the world, that is the Devil. Christ came into the world on purpose to destroy the works of the Devil: 1 Joh. 3.8.and he did atchieve what he came for; he hath destroyed them. And amongst his other works he hath destroyed this Purchase also; wrung the evidences out of his hand, even the handwriting that was against us; Col. 2.14.and having blotted, defaced, and cancell'd it, took it out of the way, nayling it to his Cross.
28. Such was his Power: his Love secondly not less; which made him as willing as he was able, to undertake this work of our redemption. In his love and in his pitty he redeemed them. Esay 63.9. There is such a height, and depth, and length, Eph. 3.18.and bredth in that Love; such a foreign in every dimension of it, as none but an infinite understanding can fathom. Sic Deus dilexit: Joh. 3.16.So God loved the world; But how much that so containeth, no tongue or wit of man can reach. Nothing expresseth it better to the life, then the work it self doth. That the Word should be made Flesh; that the holy one of God should be made sin; Joh. 1.14. 2 Cor. 5.21. Gal. 3.13.that God blessed for ever should be made a curse; that the Lord of life and glory should suffer an inglorious death, and poure out his own most precious blood, to ransom such worthless, thankless, graceless Traitors, as we were, that had so desperately made our selves away; and that into the hands of his deadliest enemy, and that upon such poore and unworthy conditions! O altitudo! Love incomprehensible: It swalloweth up the sence and understanding of Men and Angels; fitter to be admired and adored with silence, then blemished with any our weak expressions.
29. I leave it therefore, and go on to the next, his Right. When de facto we sold our selves to Satan, we had de jure, no power, or right at all so to do, being we were not our own: and so in truth the title is nought, and the Sale void: Yet it is aDiaboli in hominem jus, etsi non justè de quisitum, justè tamen permissum. Bern. Epist. 190.good against us however: we may not plead the invalidity of it: for so much as in reason no man ought to make advantage of his own act. Our act then barreth us: But yet it cannot bar the right owner from challenging his own wheresoever he finds it. And therefore we may be well assured God will not suffer the Devil, who is but malae fidei possessor, an intruder and a cheater, quietly to enjoy what is Gods and not his: but he will eject him (we have that word, Iohn 12.21. Ejicietur, now is the Prince of this world cast out) and recover out of his possession that which he hath no right at all to hold.
30. Sundry inferences we might raise hence, if we had time, I may not insist: yet I cannot but touch at three duties which we owe to God for this Redemption; because they answer so fitly, to these three last mentioned assurances. We owe him Affiance, in respect of his Power; in requital of his Love, thankfulness; and in regard of his Right, Service. First, the consideration of his Power in our Redemption, may put a great deal of comfort and confidence into us: that, having now redeemed us, if we do but cleave fast to him, and revolt not again, he will protect us from Sin and Satan, and all other enemies and pretenders whatsoever. O Israel fear not, for I have redeemed thee, Esay 43. If then the Devil shall seek by any of his wiles or suggestions at any time to get us over to him again,Esay 43.1. (as he is an unwearied sollicitor, and will not lose his claim by discontinuance: Luke 1.69.) Let us then look to that Cornu salutis, that horn of salvation, that God hath raised up for us in Christ our Redeemer; and flie thither for succour as to the horns of the Altar, (saying with David Psalm 119. I am thine, oh save me:) and we shall be safe. In all inward temptations, Psal. 119.94.in all outward distresses, at the hour of death, and in the day of judgment, we may with great security commit the keeping of our souls to him, both as a faithful creator, and as a powerful Redeemer: saying once more with David, (Into thy hands I commend my spirit, for thou hast redeemed me, O Lord thou God of truth, Psalm 31.6.
31. Secondly, the consideration of his love in our Redemption, should quicken us to a thankful acknowledgment of his great and undeserved goodness towards us. Let them give thanks whom the Lord hath redeemed, Psal. 107.7.and delivered from the hand of the enemy, Psal. 107. Let all men, let all creatures do it: but let them especially. If the blessings of corn and wine and oyl, of health and peace and plenty, of deliverance from sicknesses, pestilences, famines, and other calamities; can so affect us, as to provoke at least some overly and superficial forms of thanksgiving from us: how carnal are our minds, and our thoughts earthy, if the contemplation of the depth of a—justè homo addictus, sed misericorditer liberatus, Bernard. Epist. 190.the riches of Gods mercy, poured out upon us in this great work of our Redemption, do not even ravish our hearts with an ardent desire to pour them out unto him again in hymns and Psalms and songs of thanksgiving with a Benedictus in our mouths, (Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people. Luke 1.68.)
32. Thirdly, the consideration of his Right should bind us to do him service. We were his before, for he made us; Psal. 100.3.and we ought him service for that. But now we are his more then before, and by a new title; for he hath bought us and paid for us: and we owe him more service for that. The Apostle therefote urgeth it as a matter of great equity: you are not your own but his; 1 Cor. 6.19, …0therefore you are not to satisfie your selves by doing your own lusts, but to glorifie him by doing his will. When Christ redeemed us by his bloud, his purpose was to redeem us unto God, (Rev. 5.9.) and not to our selves: and to redeem us from our vain conversation (1 Pet. 1.18.) and not to it. And he therefore delivered us out of the hands of our enemies, that we might the more freely and securely and without fear serve him in holiness and righteousness all the dayes of our lives, Luke 1.74.Luke 1. which being both our bounden duty, and the thing withall so very reasonable; we have the more to answer for, if we do not make a conscience of it to perform it accordingly. He hath done his part, (and that which he was no way bound unto) in redeeming us; and he hath done it to purpose, done it effectually: Let it be our care to do our part (for which there lie so many obligations upon us) in serving him; and let us also do it to purpose, do it really, and throughly and constantly.
33. Thus is our Redemption done effectually: it is also done freely; which is the only point now remaining. Not for price, nor reward, Esay 45.13. but freely and without money here in the Text. Nor need we here fear another contradiction. For the meaning is not, that there was no price paid at all; but that there was none paid by us: we laid out nothing toward this great purchase, there went none of our money to it. But otherwise, that there was a price paid, the Scriptures are clear: You are bought with a price saith St Paul, 1 Cor 6. and he saith it over again, Chap 7.1 Cor. 6.20. He that paid it calleth it foreign, a ransome, —7.23. Mat. 20.28. 1 Tim. 2.6.that is as much as to say a price of redemption: and his Apostle somewhat more; foreign, which implieth a just and satisfactory price, full as much as the thing can be worth. Yet not paid to Satan, in whose possession we were; for we have found already, that he was but an Usurper, and his title naught. He had but bought of us; and we by our sale could convey unto him no more right then we had our selves: which was just none at all. Our Redeemer therefore would not enter into any capitulation with him, or offer to him any Termes of composition: But thought good rather in pursuance of his own right to use his power. And so he vindicated us from him by main strength: With his own right hand and with his holy arm he got himself the victory, Psal. 98.2.and us liberty, without any price or ransome paid him.
34. But then unto Almighty God his father, and our Lord under whose heavy Curse we lay, and whose just vengeance would not be appeased towards us for our grievous presumption without a condign satisfaction to him, I say there was a price paid by our Redeemer, and that the greatest that ever was paid for any purchase since the world began.1 Pet. 18. Not silver and gold, saith S. Peter, which being corruptible things are not valuable against our immortall and incorruptible souls;Col. 2.3. But even himself, in whom are absconditi thesauri, amassed and hidden all the treasures of the wisdom of God, and even the whole riches of his grace; treasure enough to redeem a whole world of sinners. Take it collectively, or distributively; singula generum, or genera singulorum; this way or that way, or which way you will▪ in Christ there is copiosa redemptio, redemption plenty and enough for all if they will but accept it.Psal. 130.7. Take all mankinde singly one by one;Gal. 2.20. 1 Tim. 2.6. He gave himself for me, saith S. Paul in one place. Take them altogether in the lump; He gave himself a ransom for all; in another.
35. Now for a man to give himself, what is it else, but to give his soule, (for that is himself, as we heard before,) and his life, for vita in animâ, the life is in the soule: and these he gave. He gave up his soule (when thou shalt make his soule an offering for sin… Esay 53.10.) and he laid down his life (the son of man came to give his life a ransom for many Mat. 10.Mat. 10.28.) More then this in love he could not give; for what greater love, then to lay down ones life. And less then this in justice he might not give:Joh. 15, 13. for Death by the Law being the wages of sin, Rom. 6.23.there could be no Redemption from death so as to satisfie the Law, without the death of the Redeemer.
36. Yea, and it must be a bloody death too: for anima in sanguine, Heb. 9.22.the life is in the blood, and without shedding of blood there can be no remission, no redemption. All those bloody sacrifices of buls and goats and lambs in the old Testament; all those frequent sprinklings of blood, upon the door posts, upon the book, upon the people, upon the tabernacle, and upon all the vessels of ministry; and all those legal purifications in which blood was used, (as almost all things are by the Law purged with blood. Heb. 9.22. — 12.24.Heb. 9.) they were all but so many types and shaddows, prefiguring this blood of sprinkling; which speaketh so many good things for us, pacifieth the fierce anger of God towards us, purgeth us from all sins, and redeemeth us from hell and damnation.Col. 1.20. I mean the meritorious blood of the Cross, the most precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish. 1 Pet. 1.18.
37. But can there be worth enough, may some say in the blood of a Lamb, of one single Lamb, to be a valuable compensation for the sins of the whole world? First, this was agnus singularis, a lamb of special note; not such another in the whole flock. All we like sheep have gone astray: Esay. 53.6.but so did this lamb never. All of us like the encrease of Laban's flock, speckled or ring-streaked, but this lamb foreign if Momus himself were set to search,1 Pet. 1.19. he could not yet finde the least spot or blemish. A cunninger searcher then he hath pried narrowly into every corner of his life; who if there had been any thing amiss, would have been sure to have spied it and proclaimed it, but could finde nothing.Ioh. 14.30. The Prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me. That is something; his Innocency. But if that be not enough, (for the Angels also are innocent,) behold then more. He is secondly, Agnus Dei, the Lamb of God; that is,Ioh. 1.29. the Lamb which God had appointed and set apart for this service by special designation: so as either this party must do it, or none. There is no other name given under heaven, Act. 4.12. Ioh. 6.27.no nor in heaven neither, nor above, by which we can be redeemed. Him, and him alone, hath God the Father sealed: and by vertue of that seal authoris'd and enabled to undertake this great work. Or if you have not yet enough, (for it may be said, what if it had been the pleasure of God to have sealed one of the Angels?) Behold then thirdly that which is beyond all exception, and leaveth no place for cavil or scruple: He is Agnus Deus. This lamb is God, the son of God, very God of very God: and so the blood of this Lamb is the very blood of God. Act. 20. And it is this dignity of his nature especially, (and not his innocency only,Act. 20.28. no nor yet his deputation too, without this,) that setteth such a huge value upon his blood, that it is an infinite price, of infinite merit, able to satisfie an infinite justice, and to appease an infinite wrath.
38. You will now confess I doubt not, that this Redemption was not gratis, came not for nothing, in respect of him: it cost him full dear, even his dearest lives-blood. But then in respect of us, it was a most free and gracious redemption. It was no charge at all to us; we disburs'd not a mite, not a doyt towards it: Which is the very true reason why it is said in the Text, Ye shall be redeemed without mony. This work then is meerly an act of grace, not a fruit of merit: grace, abundant grace on his part; no merit, not the least merit at all on ours. And well it is for us, that we have to do with so gracious a God. Go to an officer, and who can promise to himself any ordinary favour from him without a fee? Go into the shops, and what can ye take up without either mony, or credit, or security for it? Si nihil attuleris ▪ bring nothing, and have nothing. Only when we have to do with God, Poverty is no impediment, but rather an advantage to us. foreign. This Gospel belongeth to none but the poor only. The tidings of a Redeemer, Mat. 11.5.most blessed and welcome news to those that are sensible of their own poverty, and take it as of Grace. But who so thinketh his own penny good silver, and will be putting in and bidding for it; will stand upon his terms as David did with Araunah, 2 Sam. 24.24.and will pay for it, or he will not have it. Let that man beware lest his mony and he perish together, and lest he get neither part nor fellowship in this Business.Acts 8.20, 21.
39. Yet this I must tell you withall, there is something to be done on our part, for the applying of this gracious redemption wrought by Christ to our own souls for their present comfort and future salvation. Tit. 2.12.We must repent from dead works, believe the Gospel, and endeavour to live godly, righteously, and soberly in this present world. The grace of God is proclaimed, and (as it were) exposed to sale in the preaching of the Gospel: there is an offer made us of it there, and we are earnestly invited to buy it, (Ho every one that thirsteth, come to the waters and buy. Esay 55.1.) But he that cometh to buy, must bring his manuprecium with him, or he were as good keep away. He that cometh to this market without a price in his hand (and the price is faith, Prov. 17.16.repentance, and godliness) it is a sign he hath no heart, and he is no better then a fool, saith Solomon, Prov. 17. But still we must remember, that this is but conditio non causa: a condition which he requireth to be performed on our part, not any just cause of the performance on his part. And he requireth it rather as a testimony of our willingness to embrace so fair an offer, then as a valuable consideration in any proportion at all to the worth of the thing offered. What we bring, if it be tendred kindly and as it ought, in sincerity and humility, he kindly accepteth of it. But if we bring it either in Pride; or would have it taken for better then we know it is, which is our hypocrisie: Luke 1.53.we quite marr our own market, and shall be sent away empty.
40. The sum of all is this, and I have done. Let us take the whole shame of our inexcusable baseness and folly in this Sale to our selves;; and let us give to God the whole glory of his admirable power and grace in our Redemption. Non tibi, Domine, non tibi; not unto thee O Lord, not unto thee, but unto us be all the shame, that had thus wretchedly sold our selves for nought: Non nobis, Domine, non nobis; not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy Name be all the glory, that thou hast thus graciously redeemed us without money. Amen. So be it.