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suasion concerning any such act or actings. But of the natural properties of God, and of his acting suitably thereunto, there is a secret light and persuasion engrafted on the hearts of all men by nature. At least those things of God, whereof there is a natural and indelible character in the hearts of all men, are necessary and essential to him. Now that God is just, and that therefore he will punish our sin, is an inbred presumption of nature, that can never be rooted out of the minds of men. All sinners have an inbred apprehension that God is displeased with sin, and that punishment is due to it. They cannot but know, that "it is the judgment of God that they who commit sin are worthy of death." And, therefore, though they have not the law written to instruct them, yet "their thoughts accuse them" upon sinning, Rom. i, 14, 15; that is, their consciences; for conscience is the judgment that a man makes of himself in reference to the judgment of God. And therefore all nations who retained any knowledge of a Deity, constantly invented some way and means whereby they thought they might expiate sin, and appease the God that they feared. All which manifests that the punishment of sin inseparably follows the nature of God, and such properties thereof as men have a natural notion and presumption of. For if it depended merely in the will of God, and his faithfulness in the accomplishing of that threatening and constitution, whereof they had no knowledge, they could not have had such an immoveable and unconquerable apprehension of it.

$28. And this fully discovers the vile and horrid nature of sin. Fools, as the wise man tells us, make a mock of it. Stifling for awhile their natural convictions, they act as if sin were a thing of nought; at least a thing not so horrible as some represent it. And 30

VOL. II.

few there are who endeavor aright to obtain a true notion of it; contenting themselves in general, that it is a thing that ought not to be. What direct opposition it stands in to the nature, properties, rule, and authority of God, they consider not. But the last day will discover the true nature of it; when all eyes shall see what it deserves in the judgment of God, which is according to righteousness and truth. Is it a small thing for a creature to break that order which God at first placed him and all things in? To cast off the rule and authority of God, to endeavor to dethrone him, so that he cannot continue to be the supreme moral Governor and Judge of all the world, unless he will punish it? Is it a small thing to set up that which hath an utter inconsistency with the holiness and righteousness of God; so that if it go free, God cannot be holy and righteous? If these things will not now sink into the minds of men; if they will not learn the severity of God in this matter from the law, on the very threatening and curse of which he had impressed the image of his holiness and justice, they will learn it all in hell. Why doth God thus threaten sin and sinners? Why hath he prepared an eternity of vengeance and torment for them? Is it because he merely would do so? Nay, but because it could not be otherwise, God being invariably holy and righteous as he is. Men may thank themselves for death and hell; they are no more than sin hath made necessary, unless God should cease to be holy, righteous, and the Judge of all; or by unmerited and unfathomable mercy find out a ransom. And this appears most eminently in the cross of Christ; for God gave in him an instance of his righteousness, and of the desert of sin. Sin being imputed to the only Son of God, he could not be spared. If he be made sin, he must be made a curse;

if he will take away our iniquities, he must make his soul an offering for sins, and bear the punishment due to them. Obedience in all duties will not do it; intercession and prayers will not do; sin required another manner of expiation. Nothing but undergoing the wrath of God, and the curse of the law, and therein answering what the eternal justice of God required, will effect that end. How can God spare sin in his enemies, who could not spare it on his only Son? Had it been possible, this cup should have passed from him; but this could not be, and God continue righteous., These things, I say, will give us an insight into the nature of sin, and the horrible provocation wherewith it is attended. And this also opens the mystery of the wisdom, love, and grace of God in the salvation of sinners. This is that which he will for ever be admired in; a way he hath found out to exercise grace, and satisfy justice, at the same time, and by the same person; sin shall be punished, yet grace exercised; sinners shall be saved to the uttermost, yet justice exalted to the highest degree in the cross of Christ!

VERSES 11-13.

For both he that sanctifieth, and they who are sanctified, are all of one; for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren; saying, I will declare Thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto Thee. And again, I will put my trust in Him: and again, behold Tand the children which God hath given me.

1. The words introduced and the subject stated. 2. (I.) The mutual relation of Christ and his people. $3. (II.) Wherein consists their oneness. $4. (II.) In consequence of which he is not ashamed of them. $5--7. (IV.) Corroborating scripture testimonies. 8. Observations, 1 All the children, before their union to Christ, are unholy. $92. Christ sanctifies all whom he brings to glory. $10. 3. It is a marvellous condescension in Christ not to be ashamed of us. $11. What was principally on the heart of Christ in his sufferings, was to declare the love and grace of God to men. $12. Which is a frame of mind indispensably necessary for ministers.

§1. THE great reason or ground of the necessity of

Christ's sufferings hath been declared. It "became"

God that he should suffer. But it doth not yet appear on what grounds this suffering of his could be beneficial to the sons to be brought to glory. It was the sinner himself against whom the law denounced the judgment of death. And although the Lord Christ, undertaking to be a captain of salvation to the sons of God, might be willing to suffer for them, yet what reason is there that the punishment of one should be accepted for the sin of another? Let it be granted, that the Lord Christ had an absolute and sovereign power over his own life, and all the concernments of it, in the nature which he assumed; as also, that he was willing to undergo any sufferings that God should call him to; this indeed will acquit the justice of God in giving him up to death. But whence is it that sinners should come to be so interested in these things, as thereon to be acquitted from sin, and brought into glory? In these verses the apostle enters upon a satisfactory answer to these important inquiries: the words contain,

I. A farther description of the captain of salvation and the sons to be brought to glory by him, taken from his office and work towards them, and the effect of it; "He that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified."

II. An assertion concerning them; they are "all of one."

III. A natural consequence of that assertion, which includes also the design and scope of it, "he is not ashamed to call them brethren."

IV. The confirmation thereof by a triple testimony from the Old Testament, "Saying I will declare," &c.

§2. (I.) He describes the captain of salvation, and the sons to be brought to glory, by their mutual relation to one another in sanctification. He is (ò ayıalav) "he that sanctifieth;" and they are ( yoμevos)

"they that are sanctified." As Christ sanctifies, so are the children sanctified. And the act of Christ which is here intended, is that which he did for the sons when he suffered for them according to Divine appointment; as verse 10. Now, as was said before,

to "sanctify," is either to separate for sacred use, or morally to purify, which latter sense is here principally intended.

§3. (II.) Having given this description of the captain of salvation, and of the sons to be brought to glory, the apostle here affirms of them that they are (ε εvos) “of one," which made it meet for him to suffer, and for them to be made partakers of his sufferings. The apostle here treats not of the spiritual oneness which is the result of spiritual life, but of their being so of one, that he might be meet to suffer for them, which is antecedent to their being sanctified, as the cause is to the effect. It is then one common nature that is here intended; he and they are of the same nature, of one mass, of one blood. And hereby he became meet to suffer for them, and they capable to

enjoy the benefit of his sufferings. The Lord Jesus Christ being taken as the first fruits of the nature of the children, and as such offered to God, the whole lump, or the whole nature of man in the children, that is, all the elect, is separated to God, and effectually sanctified in their season. Being thus of one nature with them, he is not ashamed to call them brethren; and yet being the principle, head, and first fruits of our nature, and therein the author and finisher of our salvation, he is a father to us, and we are his children. "Behold I and the children which God hath given me."

But if any one desire to extend this oneness (ε EVCS) farther, and to comprise in it the manifold relation sub

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