{9} “Howsoever men when they sit at ease, do vainly tickle their own
hearts with the wanton conceit of I know not what proportionable
correspondence between their merits and their rewards, which in the
trance of their high speculations, they dream that God hath measured and
laid up as it were in bundles for them;—we see notwithstanding by daily
experience in a number even of them, that when the hour of death
approacheth, when they secretly hear themselves summoned to appear and
stand at the bar of that Judge, whose brightness causeth the eyes of
angels themselves to dazzle, all those idle imaginations do then begin to
hide their faces. To name merits then is to lay their souls upon the
rack. The memory of their own deeds is loathsome unto them. They
forsake all things wherein they have put any trust and confidence. No
staff to lean upon, no rest, no ease, no comfort then, but only in Christ
Jesus.”—_Richard Hooker_. 1585.
{10} “By the cross of Christ the apostle understandeth the
all-sufficient, expiatory, and satisfactory sacrifice of Christ upon the
cross, with the whole work of our redemption: in the living knowledge of,
whereof he professeth he will glory and boast.”—_Cudworth on Galatians_.
1613.
“Touching these words, I do not find that any expositor, either ancient
or modern, Popish or Protestant, writing on this place, doth expound the
cross here mentioned of the sign of the cross, but of the profession of
faith in Him that was hanged on the cross.”—_Mayer’s Commentary_. 1631.
“This is rather to be understood of the cross which Christ suffered for
us, than of that we suffer for Him.”—_Leigh’s Annotations_. 1650.
{12} “Christ crucified it the sum of the Gospel, and contains all the
riches of it. Paul was so much taken with Christ, that nothing sweeter
than Jesus could drop from his pen and lips. It is observed that he hath
the word ‘Jesus’ five hundred times in his Epistle.”—_Charnock_. 1684.
{14} “If our faith stop in Christ’s life, and do not fasten upon his
blood, it will not be a justifying faith. His miracles which prepared
the world for his doctrines; his holiness, which fitted himself for his
sufferings, had been insufficient for us without the addition of the
cross.”—_Charnock_. 1684.
{15} “Paul determined to know nothing else but Jesus Christ and him
crucified. But many manage the ministry as if they had taken up a
contrary determination, even to know anything save Jesus Christ and him
crucified.”—_Traill_. 1690.
{17} “In Christ’s humiliation stands our exaltation; in his weakness
stands our strength; in his ignominy our glory: in his death our
life.”—_Cudworth_. 1613.
“The eye of faith regards Christ sitting on the summit of the cross, as
in a triumphal chariot; the devil bound to the lowest part of the same
cross, and trodden under the feet of Christ.”—_Bishop Davenant on
Colossians_. 1627.
{19} “The world we live in had fallen upon our heads, had it not been
upheld by the pillar of the cross; had not Christ stepped in and promised
a satisfaction for the sin of man. By this all things consist; not a
blessing we enjoy but may put us in mind of it; they were all forfeited
by sin, but merited by his blood. If we study it well we shall be
sensible how God hated sin and loved a world.”—_Charnock_. 1684.
{20} “If God hateth sin so much that he would allow neither man nor
angel for the redemption thereof, but only the death of his only and
well-beloved Son, who will not stand in fear thereof?”—_Church of England
Homily for Good Friday_. 1560.
{22} “The believer is so freed from eternal wrath, that if Satan and
conscience say, ‘thou art a sinner, and under the curse of the law,’ he
can say, it is true, I am a sinner, but I was hanged on a tree and died,
and was made a curse in my Head and Lawgiver Christ, and his payment and
suffering is my payment and suffering.”—_Rutherford’s Christ Dying_.
1647.