First, One principal design and end of shedding the blood of Christ was to deliver his people from danger, the danger of that wrath which burns down to the lowest hell. So you find, 1 Thess. i. 1 0. " Even Jesus who delivered us from wrath to come.11 Here our misery is both specified and aggravated. Specified, in calling it wrath, a word of deep and dreadful signification. The damned best understand the importance of that word. And aggravated, in call- ing it wrath to come, or coming wrath. Wrath to come implies both the futurity and perpetuity of this wrath. It is wrath that shall certainly and inevitably come upon sinners. As sure as the night follows the day ; as sure as the winter follows the summer, so shall wrath follow sin, and the pleasures thereof. Yea, it is not only certainly future, but when it comes it will be abiding wrath, or wrath still coming. When millions of years and ages are past and gone, this will still be wrath to come. Ever coming as a river ever flowing.
Now from this wrath to come, hath Jesus delivered his people by his death. For that was the price laid down for their re- demption from the wrath of the great and terrible God, Rom. v. 9- " Much more then, being justified by his blood, we shall be " saved from wrath through him." The blood of Jesus was the price that ransomed man from this wrath. And it was shed not only to deliver them from wrath to come, but to deliver them freely, fully, distinguishingly, and wonderfully from it.
First, Freely, by his own voluntary interposition and susception of the mediatorial office, moved thereunto by his own bowels of
* Seven times, signifies perfect expiation ; this number Mas consecrated to denote perfection. Henoch.
f The shedding and sprinkliiig of blood signifies that the covenant would be sure and stable, even with the hazard of life. Rivet.
470 THE FOUNTAIN' OF LIFE.
compassion, which yearned over his elect in their misery *. The saints were once a lost generation, that had sold themselves, and their inheritance also ; and had not wherewithal to redeem either: but they had a near kinsman (even their elder brother by the mother's side) to whom the right of redemption did belong ; who being a mighty man of wealth, the heir of all things, under- took to be their God; and out of his own proper substance to redeem both them and their inheritance. Them, to be his own inheritance, Eph. i. 10. and heaven, to be theirs, 1 Pet. i. 4. All this he did most freely, when none made supplication to him. No sighing of the prisoners came before him. He designed it for us before we had a being. And when the purposes of his grace were come to their parturient fulness, then did he freely lay out the infinite treasures of his blood to purchase our deliverance from wrath.
Secondly ', Christ by death hath delivered his people fully. A full deliverance it is, both in respect of time and degrees. A full deliverance in respect of time. It wras not a reprieve, but a de- liverance. He thought it not worth the shedding of his blood to respite the execution for a while. Nay, in the procurement of their eternal deliverance from WTath, and in the purchase of their eter- nal inheritance, he hath but an even bargain, not a jot more than his blood was worth. Therefore is he become " the author of " eternal salvation to them that obey him," Heb. v. 9. And as it is full in respect of time, so likewise in respect of degrees. He died not to procure a mitigation or abatement of the rigour or severity of the sentence, but to rescue his people fully from all degrees of wrath. So that there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ, Rom. viii. 1. All the wrath of God to the last drop, was squeezed out into that bitter cup which Christ drank off, and wrung out the very dregs thereof.
Thirdly, This deliverance obtained for us by the death of Christ, is a special and distinguishing deliverance. Not common to all, but peculiar to some ; and they by nature no better than those that are left under wrath. Yea, as to natural disposition, moral qualifica- tions, and external endowments, oftentimes far inferior to them that perish. How often do we find a moral righteousness, an harm- less innocency, a pretty ingenuity, a readiness to all offices of love, in them that are notwithstanding left under the dominion of other lusts, and under the damning sentence of the law ; whilst on the other side, proud, peevish, sensual, morose, and unpolished na- tures, are chosen to be the subjects of this salvation ? " You see " your calling, brethren," 1 Cor. i. 26.
* See Mr. Case's Mount Tisgah, p. 85.
SEKM. XXXVIIT. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 471
Fourthly and lastly, It is a wonderful salvation. It would weary the arm of an angel to write down all the wonders that are in this salvation. That ever such a design should be laid, such a project of grace contrived in the heart of God, who might have suffered the whole species to perish. That it should only concern man, and not the angels, by nature more excellent than us ; that Christ should be pitched upon to go forth upon this glorious design- That he should effect it in such a way, by taking our nature and suffering the penalty of the law therein. That our deliverance should be wrought out and finished when the Redeemer and his design seemed both to be lost and perished. These with many more are such wonders as will take up eternity itself to search, ad- mire, and adore them.
Before I part from this first end of the death of Christ, give me leave to deduce two useful corollaries from it, and then proceed to a second.
Cor oil. 1. Hath Christ by death delivered his people from the wrath to come ? How ungrateful and disingenuous a thing must it be then for those that have obtained such a deliverance as this, to repine and grudge at those light afflictions they suffer' for a moment upon Chris fs account in this zvorld !
Alas ! what are these sufferings, that we should grudge at them ? Are they like those which the Redeemer suffered for our deliverance ? Did ever any of us endure for him what he endured for us ? Or is there any thing you can suffer for Christ in this world, comparable to this wrath to come, which you must have en- dured, had he not, by the price of his own blood, rescued you from it.
Reader, wilt thou but make the compa- ~ rison in thine own thoughts, in the following -*
particulars, and then pronounce when thou hast duly com- pared.
First, What is the wrath of man to the wrath rpi of God ? What is the arm of a creature to the anger of a Deity ? Can man thunder with an arm like God ?
Secondly, What are the sufferings of the vile „ v. body here, to the tortures of a soul and body in U & hell ? The torments of the soul, are the very soul of torments.