Chap.3.Se6t.5 L~Bicing t~nto 1eflu. Book IV. Parq. 6)1 tient contrivement that }eft1s Chrift fhould dye for fin, and that all our fins lhould be layd on the back of Jefus Chrift : and therefore he fecm~ to fpeak comfort to them in this; that howfoever they defigned it, yet God and Chrift defigned a further end in it than they imagined, even to remiffion of !ins : who wM delivered to d(ath fo~ our fins' and rofe againefor our juftijicarion. !\om· 4· 1 )· The death of. Chnft (as one obfcrves) was the greateft and ftrangeft ddigne that ever God undertook, and therefore fure· he had an end proportionable to it ; God that willeth not the death ofafinner, would not for any inferiour end, will the death of his Son , whom he loved more than all the world befides; it muft needs be fome great matter for which God fhould contrive the death of his Son, and indeed it could be no leffe than toremove th01.t which he moft hated, and .that was fin. Here then is another end ofChrifts death, it was'for the remiffion offin, one maine part ofour juftHication. 3• Another defigne of Cbrifts death was to mortifie our members which are upon the earth. Not only would he remit fin, but he would deftroy it, kill it, crucifie it; he would not have it reigne in our mertal bodies, thillt we fhou!d obey it in the lufts R 6 th'ereof. This defigne the Apoftle fets out in thefe words, he bare 1 opm• .a. · h · '- , h h b . d d Ji eter a. ~+· our fins m u own ,oay rtpon t e tree, t at we etng Nl unto m, fhould live unto righmu[nef[e; Chrift by his death haq not only a defigne to deliver us from the guilt of fin, but alfo from the power offin, God forbid thatl jbouldglory, [ave in the crof{eof gur G 1 6 • L ord'fefmChrlj/, bywhomtheworldiocrucijiedtom~, andl1mto ' · ' 14 " the world: Paul was a mortified man, dead to the world, a'nd dead to G.n, but how came he fo to be? why this he attributes to the crolfe of Chrift, to the death of Chrift; the death of Jefus was the caufe of this death in Pau!; how much more jbafl th; blood ofChrift--purgeyour confciences fr om dead worlz! to ferve Hcb, 9,! 4• the living God! there is in the death of Chrift firft a valew, and fecondly a vertue.. the former is availeable to our jnftification, the latter to our fanttification ; now fantl:ifi<:ation hath tdro parts, ri1ort ification, and vivification; Chrifts death or paffive obedience is more properly conducible to the one, his life or atl:iveobedience tj) the other. Hence beleevers are faid to be Rom.~.$. engraffed with Chrift in thelik.r;nef{e gf ht5 ae~tth; there is a kinde oflikeneffe betwixt Chrift and Chrifiians : Chrift dyed, and Oooo 2 ·the
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy OTcyMjk=