The souls exaltation A treatiseThe soules exaltation A treatise

I ground this Doctrine out of the Text thus; the text saith, Christ was made sin, that is, he had our sins imputed to him, and therefore he must be made a sacrifice for sin, and bear the punishment of sin: If Christ became a debtor for us, then he must also lay down the payment of the debt, only here remember this; consider the bounds and limits of this mercy of the Lord, it is limited only to the faithful, they only share therein, and are partakers of that benefit that comes by the sufferings of Christ.

I ground this Doctrine out of the Text thus; the text saith, Christ was made sinne, that is, he had our sinnes imputed to him, and therefore hee must bee made a sacrifice for sinne, and beare the punishment of sinne: If Christ became a debtor for us, then he must also lay downe the payment of the debt, onely here remember this; consider the bounds and limits of this mercy of the Lord, it is limited onely to the faithfull, they onely share therein, and are partakers of that benefit that comes by the sufferings of Christ.

To prove this Doctrine, look Hebrews 2.17. compare it with Hebrews 4.15. In chap. 2.17. the text saith, Wherefore it behoved him to be made like unto his brethren in all things: and in chap. 4.15. He was tempted in all things like unto us, sin only excepted; for there were no punishments excepted, as appeareth in the former place; therefore in Isaiah 53.5, 6, 7, 8. the whole chapter is a full description of the punishments of our Saviour, and you shall find these three degrees of it in the afornamed verses, He was stricken, and so stricken that he was wounded, and so wounded that he was bruised for our transgressions; and then in the 6. verse, it is very pithily laid down, All we like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquity of us all; that is, the punishments of us all; ⟨p. 203⟩they were laid, that is, God made all the sorrows, and all the punishments of all the faithful to meet upon our Saviour. It is a term taken from war, when an army is levied out, every town and county sets out so many men, and they all meet at such a place such a day: so every faithful soul sets out miseries, and mans out afflictions, and they all levy out an army of sorrows, and they all meet upon our Saviour: all those sins and miseries of the godly from one end of the world to the other, from east to west, from north to south, they run amain upon our Saviour, and besiege the soul and body of him, and they lie heavy upon him, the chastisement of our peace was upon him; that is, it overwhelmed him for the while, and made him cry out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Another proof of this point is,