Chapter III

What support or matter of triumph Christ s death affords to faith for

justification.

2. Now, having thus directed your faith to the right object, Christ, and

Christ as dying ; let us, secondly, see what matter of support and encourage ment faith may fetch from Christ s death for justification. And surely that which hath long ago satisfied God himself for the sins of many thousand

souls now in heaven, may very well serve to satisfy the heart and conscience of any sinner now upon earth, in any doubts in respect of the guilt of any sins that can arise. We see that the apostle here, after that large discourse of justification by Christ s righteousness, in the former part of this Epistle to the Romans, and having shewed how every way it abounds, chap, v., he now in this 8th chapter doth as it were sit down like a man overconvinced, as ver. 31, What then shall we say to these things ? He speaks as one

satisfied, and even astonished with abundance of evidence ; having nothing to say, but only to admire God and Christ in this work ; and therefore pre

sently throws down the gauntlet, and challengeth a dispute in this point with all comers. Let conscience and carnal reason, law and sin, hell and devils, bring in all their strength.

* Who is he shall lay any thing to

* Who shall condemn ? Paul dares to answer them all, and carry it with these few words, It is God that justifies, it is

the charge of God s elect ?

* we are more than conquerors in

Christ that died. And (as in ver. 37)

all these. It was this that brought in the prodigal, that in his father s house there was bread enough. And so likewise he (whoever he was) who was the author of the 130th Psalm, when his soul was in deep distress by reason of his sins, verses 1, 2, yet this was it that settled his heart to wait

upon God, that there was plenteous redemption with him. Christ s re

demption is not merely dvr/Xyrgov, a price or ransom equivalent, or making due satisfaction according to the just demerit of sin, but it is

* plenteous redemption ; there is an abundance of

* the gift of righteousness, Rom.

v. 17, and unsearchable riches of Christ, Eph. iii. 8. Yea, 1 Tim. i. 14, the grace of our Lord, that is, of Christ, as verse 12, iwrs^iorXs^atfi, we

* it was overfull, redundant, more than enough. And yet (says Paul, verse 13) I had sins

translate it, was abundant, but the word reacheth farther,

enough to pardon, as one would think, that might exhaust it, I was a

blasphemer, &c. But I found so much grace in Christ, even more than I knew what to do withal.

I shall not insist so largely on this first head of Christ s dying, as upon those three following, because it is the main subject of another discourse,

22 CHRIST, THE OBJECT AND SUPPORT [SECT. II.

which, through God s grace, I intend to publish, though in another method.

Only, for a taste, to instance in some few particulars, shewing how Christ s

satisfaction may be opposed, and set against the guilt of a poor sinner s

offences. What is there that can be said to aggravate sin in the general, or any man s particular sins, that may not be answered out of this, Christ hath died ? and something be considered in it, which the conscience may oppose thereto ? So that whatever evil, which according to the rules of

spiritual reason, (which the righteous law proceedeth by, and containeth as

the foundation of its righteousness in condemning or aggravating sin), a man s conscience may suggest to be in sin ; oppositely hereunto may a man s faith, according to the like rules of true spiritual reason, shew a more transcendent goodness to have been in Christ s death, which the gospel reveals, and so many oppose the one to the other, and have as good reason

to shew why sin should not condemn, from Christ s death, as conscience can have, that the law may condemn.

(1.) As first, is sin the transgression of the law ? Christ dying, the law maker, was subjected to the law ; and will not that make amends ? Is sin the debasement of God s glory, manifested in his word and works ? Christ s

dying was the debasement and emptying of the brightness of his glory in the highest measure, who was God personally manifested in the flesh. The one of them is but as the darkening the shine or lustre of the sun upon a

wall, but the other is as the obscuring of the sun itself. Sin s highest evil

lies in offending God, but Christ s righteousness is (oppositely) the right eousness of God himself, or Jehovah made our righteousness. So that God in our sin is considered but as the object against whom ; but God in

this our righteousness, is the subject from whom and in whom this right eousness comes and is seated. And so his Godhead answerably gives a

higher worth to it, by how much the alliance which the subject hath to an action of its own, that proceeds from it, is nearer than that which an object hath, against which the action is committed.

(2.) Or secondly, what peculiar aggravations or circumstances are there in thy sins, to weigh thee down, with which some circumstances in Christ s obedience and death may not be paralleled, to lift thee up again ? As first, is it the greatness of thy sin in the substance of the fact com mitted ? Hath there been lewdness in thy wickedness, as the prophet speaks ? Consider what guilt, of how heinous crimes, God suffered to be laid to Christ s charge by profane men, when he was made an offering for

sin. He died as a traitor to his prince, and a blasphemer of God in the

highest kind of blasphemy, as making himself equal with God ; an impostor, a seducer, yea, a devil, yea, a prince of devils, than whom a murderer was esteemed more worthy to live. Which imputations, though by men unjustly charged on him, yet by God were so ordered as just, in respect of his bear

ing our sins. For him who was holiness itself to be made the greatest of

* made sin, and the worst of sins, and accordingly to

sinners, yea, to be

suffer from God and men, what greater satisfaction for the taking of sins away can be desired or imagined ?

Or secondly, dost thou aggravate thy sins by the naughtiness of thy heart in sinning, and sayest that the inward carriage thereof hath been much worse than the outward ? Look thou into the heart of Jesus Christ dying, and behold him struggling with his Father s wrath, thou wilt find the suffer

ings of his soul more than those of his body, and in them to lie the soul of his sufferings.

Thirdly, may thy sin be aggravated, in that thou didst commit it with so

CHAP. III.] OF FAITH, IN HIS DEATH. 23

great delight and greediness, and pouredst out thy heart unto it ? Consider that Christ offered himself more willingly than ever thou didst sin. Lo, I

come, says he, Ps. xl., I delight to do thy will ; and how am I straitened

! Luke xii. 56. And though to shew how great an

till it be accomplished

evil and misery it was in itself, he shewed an averseness to it ; yet as it was

his Father s will for our salvation, he heartily embraced and drank off that

cup unto the bottom.

Fourthly, didst thou sin with much deliberation, when thou mightest have avoided it ? There was in this circumstance in Christ s sufferings to answer that, that he knew all he was to suffer, and yet yielded up himself, as John xviii. 4.

Fifthly, hast thou sinned presumptuously, and made a covenant with death and hell ? Christ in like manner offered up himself by a covenant and complot with his Father so to do.

! Sixthly, are there any especial circumstances of time and place, &c., that

aggravate thy sins ?

As first, that so great a person in the church should scandalize the name of God in sinning. Why, how great a person was Christ ? Even equal with God the Father ; and yet how greatly humbled, even to the death ; his offices of King, Priest, and Prophet being debased with him. How

great a name had he ! as Heb. i. 4, which notwithstanding was dishonoured more than ever any man s.

Or secondly, that thou sinnedst at such a time, or in such a company, which sometimes serve to make a sin the more heinous. Consider how God contrived to have the shame and affliction of his Son s death aggravated by all these circumstances. It was of deaths the most accursed, at a time most solemn, in a place most infamous, with company most wretched.

Thus might we find out that in Christ s suffering and satisfaction made, that would fitly answer to anything in our sins ; and so thereby we should be the more relieved. And though the whole body of his sufferings do stand and answer for the whole bulk of our sinnings, yet the consideration

of such particulars will much conduce to the satisfying of an humbled and

dejected soul, about the particulars of its sinnings.

Therefore (to conclude) get your hearts and consciences distinctly and

particularly satisfied in the allsufficiency of worth and merit which is in

the satisfaction that Christ hath made. As it is a fault and defect in hu

miliation, that men content themselves with a general apprehension and notion that they are sinners, and so never become thoroughly humbled ; so

it is a defect in their faith, that they content themselves with a superficial and general conceit, that Christ died for sinners, their hearts not being

particularly satisfied about the transcendent allsufficiency of his death. And thence it is, that in time of temptation, when their abounding sinfulness comes distinctly to be discovered to them, and charged upon them,

they are then amazed and their faith nonplussed, as not seeing that in

Christ which might answer to all that siniulness. But as God saw that in

Christ s death which satisfied him, so you should endeavour by faith to see

that worth in it which may satisfy God, and then your faith will sit down

as satisfied also. If a man were to dispute for his life some hard and diffi

cult controversy, wherein are many great and strong objections to be taken

away, he would be sure to view, and study, and ponder all that might be

said on that other part which he were to hold, in way of answer to them, and to get such a clear and convincing light as might make the truth of his

position apparent and manifest through those clouds of objections that hang

24 CHRIST THE OBJECT AND SUPPOET OF FAITH. [SECT. II.

in the way. Now you will all be thus called one day to dispute for your

souls, sooner or later ; and therefore such skill you should endeavour to get in Christ s righteousness, how in its fulness and perfection it answereth to

all your sinfulness ; that your hearts may be able to oppose it against all

that may be said of any particular, in or about your sins ; that in all the

conflicts of your spirits, you may see that in it which would clear your whole

score ; and that if God would but be pleased to impute it to you, you might

say, I durst presently come to an account with him, and cut scores with

his law and justice.

Thus much of the first thing made the object of faith, namely, Christ as

dying.