32 He that spared not his own Son, but deliver-
274, Sacramental Meditations. the fulfilling thereof, what ground remains for any todeube the fulfilling of lefter promises ?
Lastly, Is there any among you that desire to get up your affections at this table, to have your hearts in ameltingtemper, to awaken and rouze up all the powers ofyor fouls in fo great an occation for it as this ? Behold the Lamb of God! and this will do it.
Christ calls off your eyes and thoughts from all other objects to himself; Ifa. lxv. 11. " I said, Behold me ! behold
" me!" Fix theeyeoffaithhere,and you will feel apangquicklycominguponyour hearts like that, Cant. ii. 5. " Stay me
" with flaggons, comfort me with apples ; I am sick with love."
Your eyes will affect your hearts; whilst you behold,your hearts will melt within you.
THE SIXTH
MEDITATION,
UPON Rom. viii. 32. He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all ; how shall he not with him also freely give us all things.
THIS scripture contains a most weighty argumenttoencourage and confirm the faith of Christians in the expectation of all spiritual and temporal mercies.
It proceeds from the greater to the lesser affirmatively: he that delivered his Son for us, what can he denyusafter such a gift ? Every word hath its weight.
DidnotGod spare (i. e. abate) anything which his justice could inflict upon his Son, his own Son, opposed here to his adopted sons, as being infinitely more excellent than they, and most dear to him above and beyond all others ; but, on the contrary, delivered him up, how dear soever he was unto him, to humiliation, contradiction of sinners, to all sorrows and temptations, yea, to death, and that of the cross, and all this for us, for us sinners, for us enemies to God, for us unlovely wretches ? " How shall he not with him also freely give us all
" things ?" How is it imaginable that God should with-hold after this, spirituals or temporals, from his people ? How shall he not call them effectually,justify them freely, sanctify there thoroughly, and glorify them eternally ? How shall he nor cloath them, feed them, protect, and deliver them ?
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Surely if he would not spare or abate to his ownS on one stroke, one tear, one groan, one sigh, one circumstance of misery, it can never be imagined that ever he should, after this,deny or withhold from his people, for whosefakes all this was suffered, any mercies, any comforts, any privilege, spiritual or temporal, which is good for them, and needful to them. So that in the words we find, 1. A proposition. 2.
An inference from it.
The proposition opens the severity of God's justice to Christ; the inference declares the riches of his mercy to us in Christ.
1. We have here before us a proposition, containing the severity of divine justice towards Christ ; and this is expressed two ways, viz.
1st. Negatively ; he spared him not.
2dly, Affirmatively ; he delivered him up for us.
1st, Negatively ; He spared not his own Son.
There is a threefold mercy of God, viz. Preventing mercy, which steps between us and trouble : delivering mercy, which takes us out of the hand of trouble ; and sparing mercy, which tho' it do not prevent nor deliver, yet it mitigates, allays,and graciouflymoderates our troubles ; and tho' sparing mercy be defirableand sweet, yet it is the least and lowest fort of mercy that
God exercises towards any.
Tho' it be mercy to have the time offufferings shortned,or one degree offuffering abated, yet these are the lowest and least effects of mercy; and yet these were denied Jesus Christ, when he stood in our room to fatisfyfor us : God spared not one drop, he abated not one degree of that wrath which Christ was to suffer for us.
2dly, Affirmatively ; but on the contrary, He delivered him upforusall.
He delivered him,as a judge by sentence of law delivers up the prisoner to be executed.
It is true, Pilate delivered him to be crucified, and he also gave himself for us : butbetwixtGod's delivering, Pilate'sdelivering, and his own,there is
this difference to be observed ; in God it was an act ofhighestjustice; inPilate an act of greatest wickedness ; in himself, an act of wonderful obedience.
God, as by an act ofhighestjustice,delivered him up for us.
For us, notes thevicegerency of his sufferings, not only for our good, as the final cause; nor only for our fins,as the meritorious cause; but for us, (i e.) in our room,place, or steadaccordingto
Pet. iii. 18. and 2 Cor. v. 14.
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2. We have also here before us a most sweet and comfortable inference and conclusion from this proposition: If God have so delivered him, howshallhenot withhimfreelygive us all things ? For Christ comprehends all other mercies in himself; therefore in giving him for us, all other mercies are necessarily with him given to us.
And these mercies the poorest,weakest believer in the world maywarrantably expect from God ; for as Goddeliveredhim for us all,so the treasures of all spiritual and temporal mercies are thereby freely opened to us all, to the weak as well as to the strong.
: He faith not, Christ was delivered for all absolutely, but for us all; i. e. all that believe, all that are elected and called; in whose person it is manifest the apostle here speaks, asParaeus on the place well observes.
Hence these two doctrinal conclusions fairly offer themselves.
Doct. 1. That the rigour andfeverity of divine justice was executed upon Jesus Christ, whenhesufferedfor us.
Doct. 2. That believers may strongly infer the greatest of mercies to themselves, from the severity of God'sjustice to Jesus Christ.
Iwouldwillinglyspeakto both these points at this time,each affording such proper matter of meditation to us in fuchafeafon as this.
To begin therefore with the first observation.
Doct. 1. That the rig our and severity ofdivinejustice was executed upon Jesus Christ, when he suffered for us ; God did not spare him.
In Zech. xiii . 7. you have God's commission given to the sword of justice, to smite his own Son, and that without pity; " Awake, O sword, against my Shepherd, and against " the man that is my fellow ; smitethe Shepherd," &c. And when this commission came to be executed upon Christ, the text tells us, Goddidnot spare him ; all the vials of his wrath were poured out to the last drop.
Two things require our attention in this point : 1. Wherein the severity of justice to Christ appeared.
2. Why must justice be executed on him in such rigour and severity ? Why there could be no abatement, mitigation, or sparing mercy shewnhim in that day ?
1. Whereintheseverityofdivinejustice to Christ appeared?
Andthiswillmanifestitselfinthe confiderationofthe following particulars.
First, Let us consider what Jesus Christ suffered, and we shall seethe severityofjustice in his sufferings, for he suffered
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all kinds of miseries, and that in the most intense degree of them:His sufferings were from all hands, from heaven, earth, and hell; from his enemies, who condemned him, buffeted him, reviled, scourged, and crucified him ; from his own dis ciplesandfollowers, one of whom perfidiously betrayed him, another openly denied him, and all in the hour of his greatest trouble forsook and abandoned him.
Hesufferedinhis body the most exquisite torments;the cross was a cruel engine of torment, and more so to him than any other,by reasonoftheexcellentcrafis and temperament ofhisbody,and his most acute and delicate sense ; for, as the schoolmen truly say, he was optime complexion at us, of the most exact and exquifitecomplexion; and his senses remained acute and vigorous, nowayblunted, during the whole time of his sufferings, but full of life and sense to the lastgasp, as may be gathered from Mark xv. 39. " When the centurion,which stood
" over against him, saw that he so cried out, and gave up the " ghost, he said, Truly this man was the Son of God."
He suffered in his soul ; yea, the sufferings of his soul were the very foul of his sufferings ; he felt in his inner man the exquisite torments and inxpressible anguish of the wrath of God.
Hence was thatpreternatural bloodysweatinthe garden ; and hence that heart-rending out-cry upon the cross, My God! my God ! why hast thou forsaken me ?
In all which sufferings from heaven, from earth, from hell, from friends, from enemies, there was no allay, or abatement of the least degree of misery. "God spared not his own Son,"
(faith the text) " but delivered him up."
Wherein the severityofdivine justice to Jesus Christ, is displayed in these five remarkable considerations following.
First, God spared not.
If mercy, pity, and forbearance mightbeexpected from any hand, surely it might be God ; he is the fountain of mercy ; "That the Lord is very pitiful, and " oftendermercy," faith the apostle, James v. 11. The most melting and tender compassions of a mother to her fucking child, are but cruelty in comparison with divine tenderness and mercy; Ifa. xlix. 15. "Can a woman forget her fucking
" child, that she should nothavecompaffiononthe son of her "womb ? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee."
Can a woman, the more affectionate sex, forget her fucking child, her own child (and not a nurse-child) her only child, whilst it hangs on her breast, and, with the milk from her breast, draws love from her heart ? Can such a thing as this be in nature! Possibly it may ; some such cruel mothers
Sacramental Meditationsmay be found, but yet I will not forget thee, faith God.
Though human corrupt nature maybe so vitiated, yet from the divine nature, compaffionand mercy are inseparable ; it flows as waters flow from their fountain, only here it restrained itself, and let not out one drop to Jesus Christ, in the day of his sufferings . God, the God of mercy, spared not.
Secondly, Godfpared not, faith the text ; i. e. heabatednot any thing which justice could inflict : Christ was not spared one stroke, one tear, one groan, one drop, one sigh, one shame, one circumstance, no, not the least which justice could demand as satisfaction for man's fin.
There be divers kinds of mercy in God; there is in him preventing mercy, delivering mercy, and sparing mercy. Now sparing mercy(as Mr. Caryl on Job well observes) is the lowest mercy of all the three ; it is less mercy to be spared or abated some degree or circumstance of misery,than to have miferypreventedby mercy's stepping in betwixt us and it; it is less also than to be wholly delivered out ofthehandofmifery:"
Either of these are greater acts of mercy, than to abate a degree, or shorten an hour of our trouble ; the least abatement of anyone circumstance of misery had been sparing mercy, though it had been but the least and lowest act of mercy ; and yet even this was denied to Christ ; he was not abatedone minuteoftime, or the least degree of sorrow. Godsparednot.
Thirdly, He spared not his own Son, τυιον ιδιον. So stiledfignanter, his own or his proper Son, in a special and peculiar manner nearer and dearer to him than the angels, who are his fonsby creation, Job i. 6. or any of the saints, who are his fonsbygrace, in the wayofregeneration and adoption, John
1. 12, 13. This was his own Son by nature, a son of an higher rank and order, Psal. ii. 7. begotten in anineffable manner, from all eternity, inhisowndivine essence; and so is his Son by nature, having the same essence and nature with the Father, being co-equal, co-essential, and co-eternal with the Father.
No relation in nature is so intimate, strict and dear as this ; our children are not so much our own children, our bodies are not fomuch our own bodies, as Christ was God's own Son ; and yet, though he were so dear to him, his other self, his express image, his owndearSon, He spared him not : Godfpared not his own Son.
Fourthly, And that which makes a farther discoveryofdivine severity towards Jesus Christ, is this, that God spared not
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his own Son in the day of his greatest distress, when he cried to his Father in an agony, that if it were possible the cup mightpassfrom him : For of that day, this scripture is mainly to be understood, the day when he fell to the ground and prayed, " That if it were possiblethehour might passfromhim .
And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee, "takeaway this cup from me," Mark xiv. 35, 36. He beheld his own dear Son sweltering under the heaviest pressure of his wrath, sweating great drops of blood, crying, " I fit flible, " let this hour, let this cup pass ;" and yet it could not be granted. O the severity of God! he heard the cry ofAhab, and spared him; he heard the Ninevites cry, and spared them; heheardthecries ofHagar and Ishmael,andsparedthem ; yea, he hears the young ravens when they cry, and feeds them ; but,when his Son cried with the mostvehement cry, that the cup might pass, he cannot be excused, he must drink it up, eventheverydregs of the cup of trembling,and that to the last drop. O the justice and severity of God!
Fifthly, and lastly, Confider what the Father of mercies did instead of sparing the Son of his love, and the text will in- : form you,that " he delivered him up for us all." So it is noted in Acts ii. 23. "Him, being delivered by the deter- " minate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken,
"and by wicked hands have crucified and slain."
There was a concession or permission to those wicked instruments that shed his blood, a loofingofthe chain to those ban dogs that compassedhim about; such a concession as never was given them before ; for till then they were tied up from perpetrating their wickedness ; but now the restraints ofProvidencearetaken away, and he is delivered unto their will ; his own Father delivers him into the hands of cruelty. And thus you fee wherein the severityofdivinejustice to Christ was manifest.
In the last place, let us fee the ground and reason of this rigour and severity to Christ. Now, there are, among others, three special reasons why Christcouldnotbe spared.
Thehonour of divine justice required,that he should suffer the utmost degree of punishment.
It was meet that the rights ofheavenshould be vindicated to the full, and that the justice ofGodshould have the last mite it could demand for satisfaction. And this was the special design and aim of God in the fufferingofChrist, as the apostle speaks, Rom. iii. 25, 26. It was " to declare his righteousness ;" and lest we should lose the emphatical word, it is doubled and repeated, " to declare,
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" I say, at this time his righteousness." Andindeedherein God fully obtained his design; for neverwasjusticeso honouredbefore, to have suchaperson as the Son of God stand at its bar,and such a sum as his blood paid down at once for ourdifcharge: fo that justice triumphs as well as mercy, and one attribute is not robbed to pay another.
As it was necessary to God's satisfaction, so it was necessary to ours also.
If the Lord Jesus had not made full payment to the utmost mite,we could never have had full satisfaction in ourconfciences, about that deep and dear concernment of our souls, the remission of fin. Man is a guilty and a suspicious creature, and hard to be brought to an entire confidence in the pardoningmercyofGod.
Yea, it is impossible to persuade a convincedconfcience, of the poffibilityof remission, except you can also prove the fulness of divine satisfaction ; for conscience requires as much to satisfy it, as God doth to satisfy him.
If God be satisfied,then confciencecan be fatisfiedtoo, and securelyrestuponthatground; but iftherebeanydoubt of that, there is no appeasing of an anxious and jealous conscience: greatlythereforehathGod consulted our peace in the severity of his justice to Jesus Christ. "Now the God of peace,
" who brought again from the dead ourLordJesus, that great " Shepherd of the sheep,through the blood of the everlasting
" covenant," Heb. xiii. 20. Let the words be weighed; he is stiled the God of peace, when he brought back Christ from the dead; it was incensed justice that put him to death, and appeased justice that brought him back from the dead ; and that which pacifiedGod, is the only thing in the world that is able to fatisfythe conscience ofa sinner.
3. ThereforedidGod proceed with such rigour and severity with JesusChrift, that thereby thedemerit andeviloffin might be fullydifcovered to the world, and an everlasting caution left upon all hearts to beware of contracting new guilt.
If jufticehad descended ina visible form, and hangedupmillions offinners in chains, it had not been such a warning as this against sin.
Nay, let me say, the grievous and eternal torment that the damned suffer in hell, is not such a demonstration of the evil off in as this is; for those torments are much unknowntomen till they feel them ; and whentheybegin to feel them, it is too late to be convinced or cautioned against fin then.
But to see such a person as Christ exposed to the utmost severity of God's wrath for our fin, to fee such things done in the green tree, maywellmake us cry out, " Lord,
"what will be done to the dry tree ?" O the infinite evil of
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28f fin ! O the inflexible severity ofdivinejustice! It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God!
4. In a word ; hereby Jesus Christ is endeared the more to his people, by suffering such great and hard things in their place and for their fakes.
The extremity of his sufferings for us,commands the strength of his affection to us.
And thus you see the reasons of all this severity to Jesus Christ. God intended the sweetest mercies for you, and therefore prepared the bitterest sufferings for Christ: from his deep sufferings you may confidently conclude the best of mercies are designed for you ; as you will hear in the prosecuting of the second doctrine, which, for dispatch, I purpose to handle as one use of this point now before me.
O the admirable and astonishing love of God to us poor worms of the earth, to deliver up his own Son into the hands of his enemies, that thirsted for his blood ! Long had they been reftrainedfrom satisfying their wickedness, and executing their malice, till now ; and this was the hour which he often spake of, " My hour is not yet come."
But, oh ! what a dismal hour was it when itdidcome, when Providence let loose both devils and men upon Christ, delivered him over to the will of his enemies ! And this was not all ; Christ was not onlydeliVeredup into the hands of the worst of men, but, which was much more terrible, into the severe hands ofdivinejustice, to grapple with the pure, unmixed, and unallayed wrath of the great and terrible God.
Lastly, We will improve this point by a double use, byway of information, and exhortation.
Use 1. Of information.
First, The severity of God's justice to Jesus Christ informs us what a dreadful evil fin is, which so incenfes the wrath of God even against his own Son, when he bare our fins, and stood before the bar of God as our surety.
Come hither, hard hearts (hard indeed if this cannot break ( them;) you complain,you cannot see the evil of fin, so as to bedeeplyhumbledfor it: fix your eyes awhile here, and intently confider the point in hand: suppose you fawa tender and pitiful father come into open court with fury in his face, to charge his own, his only, and his most beloved Son, and to profecutehimtodeath,and nothing able to satisfy him but his blood, andbewellpleased when he fees it shed; would you not say, Oh ! what horrid evil hath he done! It must be some deep wrong, some heinous crime that he is gulty of, else i
VOL . VIII.
Sacramental Meditations. could never be that his own father could forget his bowels of pity and mercy.
Yet thus did the wrath of God break forth against his dear Son, when he stood before the bar, as our surety, charged with the guilt of our fins.
Secondly, Learn hence what a fearful thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God. Well might Luther cry out,
Nolo Deum abfolutum, Let me have nothing to do with an abfoluteGod.
Wo to them that stand before God in their own persons, without Christ, how will justice handle them ! " For " if these things weredoneinthe green tree, what shall be done
" in the dry tree ?" Luke xxiii. 31. Did the Son of God fear, tremble, sweat clots of blood ? Did he stand amazed, and fall into such an agony of foul when he drank that cup, which he knew in a few hours he should drink up, and then never taste the bitterness of it more ? How fadis their case that must drink of that cup for ever, a cup that hath eternity to the bottom !
Thirdly, How incomprehensible and ravishing is the love of God to men, that would rather be so severe to Jesus Christ, the darling of his soul, than make us the objects of wrath for ever ? Which of you (though there be infinitely less tenderness in your hearts than God's)would lay your hands upon a child, the worst child you have, and put him to death for the sake of the best friend you have in the world ? But God with his own hand delivered his Son, his only Son, that from everlasting was the delight of his soul, who never offended him, to death, the most cursed and cruel death, and all this for enemies : how unspeakable is this love, and past finding out !
Fourthly, Did not God spare his own Son ? then letnoneof us spare our own sins.
Sin was that sword which pierced Christ: O let sorrow for fin pierce your hearts! if you spare fin, God will not spare you, Deut. xxix. 20. We spare fin when we faintly oppose it,when we excuse, cover and defend it, when we are impatient under just rebukes and reproofs for it ; but all kindness to fin is cruelty to our own souls.
Fifthly, and lastly, IfGoddid not spare Christ, certainly he intends to spare believers for his sake.
The surety could not be spared, that the principal might be spared for ever.
If God had spared him, he could not have spared us; if he afflicts his people, it is not for satisfaction to himself, but profit to us, Heb. xii. 10. Should God spare the rod of affliction, it would not be for our advangtage; so many sanctified afflictions as are spared or abated,fo many mercies and spiritual advantages are withheld from us. But as for those itrokes of justice that are the effects of God's vindictive wrath,
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theyshallnever be felt by believers for ever.
All the wrath, all the curse, all the gall andwormwood was squeezed into Christ'scup, and not one drop left to imbitter ours.
Use 2. Of Exhortation.
Did not God spare his own Son, but give him up to the death for us all ! Then possess your hearts fully in the assurance of this great truth, That the greatest and best of mercies shall not be denied or withheld from you, if you be in Christ ; lay it down as a fureconclufion of faith, and buildup your hope and comfort upon it.
This takes in the second observation ; and surely never was any truth better fortified, never any inference more strongly inferred.
Henceforth ye may infer temporal, spiritual, and eternal mercies ; all must be yours, if : you be Christ's, 1 Cor. iii. 21, 22, 23. O, make sure that Christ's is yours, and never hesitate at any other mercy ! For,
First, God hath certainly a value and esteem for his own Son infinitely above all other things ; he is his own Son, his dear
Son, Col. i. 13. the Beloved, Eph. i. 6. the delight of his foul, Ifa. xlii. 1. Nothing is valued by God at that rate that Christ is valued. If therefore he spare not the most excellent mercy, but partswiththeverydarling of his soul for us, how shall he deny, or with-hold, any lesser inferior mercy ? It is not to be imagined, for he is the mercy, emphatically so called, Luke i. 72.
Secondly, Jesus Christ is a comprehensive mercy, including all other mercies in himself; he is the tree of life, all other mercies are but the fruits growing on him; he is the fun of righteousness ; and whatever comfort, spiritual or natural, refreshes your souls or bodies, is but a beam from that fun, a stream from that fountain.
IfthenGod part with Christ to you, and for you, he will not withhold other mercies ; he will not give the whole tree, and deny an apple ; bestow the fountain itself, and deny you the streams.
All spiritual mercies are in him, and given with him ; Eph. i. 3. " Bleffedbe the " God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed
" us with all spiritual blessings, in heavenly places in Christ " Jesus."
All temporals are in him, and given with him, Matth. vi. 33. they are additionals to that great mercy.
Thirdly, IfGodspared not Christ, the best mercy, but delivered him up for us all when we were his enemies, then cer tainly he will not deny lesser mercies when we are reconciled and made friends to him.
And this is the forcible reason of the apostle, which even compels affent ; Rom . v. 9. "Much
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