Section 3
1. If we believe in God, we must believe in him who is One with him, the Brightness of his glory, and the express Image of his Person.^ Christ in his gospel has expressly told us, / and my Father are one J And when he says. My Father is greater than /,• the comparison is not between the person of the Father and of the Son, but between the Son's state of exaltation with the Father and his present ^tite of humiliation; as plainly appears, because p Oal. VI. 18. p Isa. xlv. 24. q Heb. i. 3. r John x. 30. • John xiv. 28. t John xvii. 21. n John xiv. 9. it comes in as a reason why the disciples should not mourn, but rejoice rather, in his departure from them, because he had told them he was to go to the Father, where his state would be not only more glorious to himself, but of greater capacity to serve them, than his present state was. When he was entering npon his sufferings, he comforted himself with this, thstheandhis Father were one, 7%ou, Father art in me and I in thee,^ and therefore he has reason to expect, that the world will believe, that they who believe in God, will believe also in him. So much are the Father and the Son one, that Christ says. He that has seen me, has seen the Father,^ We come to the knowledge of God, by the knowledge of Jesus Christ, for the glory of God shines in the face of Jesus Christ; and, therefore, he who believes in the Father, as far as the Son is revealed to him to be one with the Father, will believe also in him : and by that faith we come to be one with the Father and the Son, and one tit them.* And thus, by keeping Christ's commandments we abide in his love, even as he kept his Father's commandments, and abode in his love,^ Such a close and inseparable union the gospel all along shows us between the Father and the Son, as that we cannot divide them in our belief. The heathen worshipped their idols as rivals with God, we worship Christ as one with God: Believe me, says Christ, that I am in the Father, and the Father in me. So let us believe in him.
2. If we believe in God, we must believe also in him who is sent by him, has a commission from him, and to whom he has given testimony. We do not believe in God, unless we believe what he has said concerning his Son, and rest upon it; what he said by the prophets of the Old Testament, who all bare witness to him. And those predictions of theirs were all exactly and completely acoomplished, which had reference to his estate of humiliation, and the afllic-tions of it; not one iota or tittle of them fell to the ground. Christ himself observed this when he said. It is finished: which ratifies those predictions that had reference to his estate of exaltation, the honours of it, and the graces that flow to us from it; for the Spirit of Christ, in them, testified beforehand both of the sufferings of Christ, and of the glory that should follow,^ We must also believe, what he said by a voice fVom heaven concerning him, once and again. This is my beloved Son, tn whom I am well pleased, hear ye him;' and must concur vrith him by a sincere declaration. This is my beloved Saviour, tn whom I am well pleased, and whom I will hear,* Thus we set to our seal that he is true,* and subscribe to the record we have received in the everlasting gospel, which we are willing to venture our souls and our salvation upon, that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son; which if we receive not
▼ John xvii. 21. y Mat iii. 17.
w John XV. 10. s Blatt xvii. 5.
X iPeti. 11. • John iii. 33.
FROM FAITH IN GOD.
791 we make God* a liar,^ we not only declare that we do not believe in him ourselves, but that he is not fit to be believed by any one else. Justly therefore has Christ said. He that despiteth me, despiseth kim that sent me; as an affront done to an ambassador, is justly construed an affront to him who jave him his character and credentials.
We mnst also, if we believe in God, give credit fo the many confirmations which we have of his testimony to his Son; the many miracles which were wrought to prove his divine mission, miracles of mercy, healing mercy, which served likewise to explain and illustrate it; especially the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, by which he was declared to be the Son of God with power,« and in which God gave him glory, that our faith and hope might be in God f that believing in him whom he raised from the dead, our faith and hope in him miht be both evidenced and encouraged. The pouring out of the Spirit likewise, both in his glhs and in his graces, is a further attestation gin to Christ's mission, for in them God bare him witness ;* nay, the Holy Ghost whom God gave to them who believed in Christ, and obeyed him,' is said to be his witness; so that if we believe in the Spirit of God, we mast believe also in Christ, and, therefore, the impntingof Christ's miracles, which were wrought by the Spirit of God, to Beelzebub the prince of the devils, is jostly reckoned an unpardonable bias-phemif against the Holy Ghott,
3. If we believe in God, we musttre honour to him, by hdievin also in Jeiui Christ; for thereby be reckons himself honoured. If we confess that Jesus Christ is Lordj it is to the glory of God the Father J It is certain, there is nothing in which the glory of God, and of all his attributes, shines more bright, or more strong, than in the great work of our redemption wrought out by Jesus Christ; and therefore, when the First-begotten was brought into the world, the angels who were charged to worship him saog, Glory to God in the highest because, in Christ, there was on earth peace, and good-will towards mm ^ so that, an less by faith in Christ we receive that peace and good-will, and the record given concerning it, we do not as we ought give unto God the glory doe to him, from that greatest of all the works of wonder by which he has made himself known. Do we believe in God ? We ought then to fdve him the glory of all that infinite wisdom which contrived our redemption in such a way, that divine jastice might be satisfied, and yet sinners saved; this is the wisdom of God in a mystery, hidden wisdom, f»enifold wisdoms, ordained before the world for our 9lonf,i We ought also to give him the glory of that kindness and love of God which designed this salvation, those tender mercies, whereby the Day-
I John V. 10,11. e Rom. i. 4. d I Pet. i. 21. • Heb. ii. 4. f AcU V. 33. f PhlL ii. II. h Luke il. 14. ' spring from on high visited us; love without precedent, love without parallel, whereby God so loved the world, as to give his only-begotten Son for us. But how can we say we believe in him, which is giving glory to him, if we rob him of so great a part of his glory, by not believing in Jesus Christ, in whom his glory shines in a special manner ?
4. If we believe God speaking by Moses and the prophets, we must believe also in Jesus Christ; for to him bare all the prophets witness, and in all the ceremonies of the Mosaic institution, he was typi-. fied : if we believe the Old Testament, we must also believe the New; for such an exact correspondence and agreement is there between them, as between two tallies. The same grace which the Old Testament represents in shadows, promises, and predictions, the New Testament produces in the substance and accomplishment, 90 that they mutually confirm and illustrate one another. This our Lord Jesus insisted upon, as one of the strongest proofs of his divine mission, that the Scriptures of the Old Testament testified of him; and therefore he tells the Jews, who set up Moses in opposition to him, that Moses, instead of condemning him, condemned them for not believing in him; for, says he. Had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he wrote of me}' In the volume of the booh iv ceo Xii— in the head of it, (so the word is,) in the very beginning of the book of Moses, it was written of Christ, that as the seed of the woman, he should break the serpent's head. It is plain, therefore, ye believe not his writings because ye believe not my words* Christ blamed the two disciples, and afterwards all the rest, for their slowness to believe what was written concerning him in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, all which was to a tittle fulfilled in him." They who believed in the God of Israel, and received the oracles which by him were committed to them» knew very well that there was a salvation to be revealed in the last times; that a Messiah should come, to be a prophet like Moses, a priest like Aaron, a king like David,—and, like the sacrifices, to mako reconciliation for iniquity; and that he should be cot off*, not for himself, but for tlie sins of his people.** And do we not see all this abundantly made good in the Lord Jesus? Has he not done, has he not suffered, all that which it was foretold he should do and suffer ? If, therefore, we believe that a Messiah was to come, we must believe that this was he that should come, and we are not to look for any other. The apostles therefore all along appealed to the Scriptures of the Old Testament, saying no other things than those which Moses and the prophets said should come,^ and putting the unbelief of the Jews to their ignorance of the voice of the prophets, though they were read among them every sabbath i I Cor. ii. 7. k Jolin v. 45—47.
m Luke xxiv. 25, S7,44. B Dan. ix. 98.
1 Heb. X. 7. e Acts xxvi. 2S.
FAITH IN CHRIST INFERRED
day.p So that, in short, if we believe that there is such a thing as a divine revelation, that God has made a discovery of himself, and of his will and grace, to the children of men, we must believe the gospel, and the testimony it bears, God has sent his son into the worldy not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might have righteousness and life.
5. If we rightly apprehend how matters stand between God and man since the fall, as those must do who believe in God, who believe his holiness and justice, and his relations to man, we shall readily receive the notice which the gospel gves us of a Mediator between God and man; not only because we shall soon perceive how desirable it is that there should be such a Mediator, (and we are easily brought to believe what is for our honour and advantage, quod volumus facile credimus—^ohat we wish we easily believe,) but because we shall perceive, likewise, how probable it is that a God of infinite grace and mercy should appoint such a Mediator, and make him known to us. It is a great confirmation of the truth of the Christian religion, that it not only agrees with, and is a ratification of, the principles and laws of natural religion, and is an improvement and advancement of them, but that it supplies the deficiencies of it; it takes us up and helps us out, where that fails us and leaves us at a loss. So that if we make just reflections upon ourselves, and our own case as it appears to us by the light of nature, there cannot but be a disposition in us to receive and embrace the gospel, and to entertain it not only as a faithful saying, but as well worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. If we rightly believe in God, and withal rightly understand ourselves, we cannot but perceive our case to be such as calls for the interposition of a Mediator between us and God; and we are undone if there be no such a one; and we will therefore cheerfully receive him.
(I.) We cannot but perceive that man has in a great measure lost the knowledge of God, and therefore should gladly believe in him who has revealed him to us. It is certainly the greatest satisfaction and best entertainment to our intellectual powers, to know God the author and felicity of our being. The understanding of man cannot rest short of this knowledge; but we find that by the entrance of sin, our understandings are darkened,<i and the children of men are generally alienated from the divine light and life, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: The world by wisdom knew not God* and the things of God vne foolishness to the natural man,* Are we sensible of this as our misery, that we cannot by any researches of our own come to such a knowledge of God, as is necessary to our communion with him ? If we are p Acts ziii. 37. • 1 Cor. ii. 94.
q Eph. i. 18. t 1 John L 18.
r 1 Cor. 1.31. u John i. 0.
SO, we shall readily embrace Christ as a prophet* who having lain in the bosom of the Father from eternity, has declared him * to the children of men, and has brought into this dark world the light of the knowledge of this glory, with such convincing evidences of a divine truth, and such endearing instances of a divine grace and love in this light, as are abundantly sufiicient both to captivate the understanding and engage the affections. This is the true light, which is sufficient to lighten every man that Cometh into this world,"* and to direct him throogb it to a better world. And shall we not open our eyes to such a light? Can we be such strangers, such enemies, to ourselves, and our own interests, as to love darkness rather than this light ?^ (2.) We cannot but perceive, that there is an infinite distance between God and man, and therefore should gladly believe in one, in whose person the divine and human natures are wonderfully united. Tib light of nature shows us the glory of a God abov us ; as heaven is high above the earth, so are his thoughts and ways above ours: whence we are tempted to infer, that there is no having any communion with him, that he is not conversable with us, and that we cannot expect that he should take any cognizance of us. Shall we not therefore welcome the tidings of a Mediator between God and man, even the Man Christ Jesus ? Shall we not be glad to hoar, that this God above us is, in Christ, Immanuel, God with t»,* God in our nature, God manifested in the flesh; the Eternal Word incarnate, which will facilitate our communion with God, and represent it to us as a thing possible ? When we look upon God as the almighty Creator and Sovereign of the world, a being of infinite perfection and blessedness, we are tempted to say, Witt this God in very deed dwell with men, with mean and sinful worms, on the earth f But when we look upon the Son of God clothed with a body, and visiting in great humility this remote comer of the universe, which God has let out to the children of men, as a vineyard to unthankful husbandmen, we are encouraged to say with triumph. Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and his sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore.* We are quite lost in our thoughts, when we come to meditate seriously on the divine perfections, for they are an unfathomable depth, which we cannot find out, concerning which we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness; If a man speak, surely he shall be swallowed up :^ but when we come with an eye of faith to see the Father in Christ, who is both God and man, and are brought by faith to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and through him to God the Judge of all,' this makes his glory the more intelligible, (he that hath seen me, says Christ, hath seen the Father,) his example the more
T John iu. 19. » Malt i. 33. > Ezek. zuvii. 96,27. J Job xxxvii. 90. B Heb. ili. 33, %i.
FROM FAITH IN GOD.
793 jraitable, his favour the more attainahle, and man's communion with him the more practicable.
(3.) We cannot but perceive the matter to be yet worse;—^that there is a quarrel between God and man bj reason of sin ; that the God who made us is not only a God above «#, but a God agaimt us ; and therefore we should gladly believe in him by whom that quarrel is taken up, in whom God was reconciling the world to hintiself, * and who is our peace. You believe in God, your great Lord and Lawgiver; and do you not believe, that he requires of you an exact conformity to the law of your creation; that since he made you for himself, to show forth his praise, you should accordingly live to his honour; that he who eodaed you with the powers of reason, designed that Tour appetites and passions should always act under the direction and dominion of those powers? Does not even the light of nature tell you, that God, who is the best of beings, is to be loved and delighted in above all; that all the gifts of his bounty are to be received by us with thankfulness, and all the rebukes of his justice submitted to with patience ? These are the rules which 3*00 know you should ha\e been ruled by: but you know you have come short of these rules; that those affections of your son Is have been set upon the world and the flesh, which should have been set upon God only; that th(^ appetites of a mortal body, by which you are allied to the earth, have been indulged, to the unspeakable disgrace and detriment of an immortal spirit, by which you are allied to the upper world. It is not only the Scripture, but even natural conscience, that has concluded us all under sin. Those who had not the law, yet showed the accusing, convineing work of the law written in their hearts.*" And will not your own hearts tell you likewise, that TOQ having offended God, he is displeased with you, and yon lie under his wrath ? If God be infinitely perfect, as certainly he is, he is infinitely just and holy; and as the Governor of the world, is engaged in honour to punish sin, that his law may not be trampled on, and his dominion made contemptible. I)oyou believe this concerning God, and this con-eemiog yourselves? and will you not welcome the tidings of a reconciliation between you and God, and cladly believe in him who was made sin and a curse for Hit, that we through him might have righteousness and life ? Was Christ slain as a sacrifice to slay this enmity between us and God, and shall not v<^ by faith lay our hands on the head of this sacrifice, and apply for an interest in it ? Shall not the Prince of peace be our peace ? Shall not we receire the atonement,' consent to it, confide in it, and take the comfort of it, when it is an atonement ^hich God himself has appointed and accepted ? \^ hen we see that God contends with us, and that
4 Lflkc xiT. 31. • I Cor. i. 39. f Jcr. Hi. 19. it is in vain for us to think of contending with him; with ten thousand we dare not meet him that comes against us with twenty thousand;'^ it is like setting briers and thorns before a consuming fire, which are fuel to it, instead of being a fence against it; sure we shall see it is our interest to take hold on his strength, that we may make peace with him; especially when this method of reconciliation is not an uncertain thing, for he has told ns we shall make peace with him.
(4.) Yet this is not the worst of it: we cannot but perceive that we are corrupt and sinful, that our nature is depraved and vitiated, and wretchedly degenerated from what it was, as it came out of God's hand; and, therefore, we should gladly believe in him who is made of God to us not only righteousness but sanctification,* and who came into the world, not only to restore us to the favour of God, but to renew his image upon us. Do we not sensibly find by daily experience, that our minds are alienated from God, and there is in them a strong bias toward the world and the flesh; that we are not of ourselves either inclinable to, or sufficient for, any thing that is good, but continually prone to that which is evil ? And being thus sick, from the crown of the head to the sole of the foot distempered, shall we not rejoice to hear of balm in Gilead, and a Physician there? And shall we not apply that balm, and put ourselves under the care of that Physician ? If you believe in God, you believe that as he is holy so you should be holy: but you find you are not so, nothing of his resemblance appears upon you, and therefore you cannot expect he should put you among his children, or give you the pleasant land.^ Will you not then believe also in him, who has undertaken not only to show us the glory of the Lord, but by his Spirit to change us into the same image from glory to glory ;S and is able to make good his undertaking? For therefore it pleased the Father ^ that in him all fulness should dwell, ihsit from his fulness all we might receive and grace for grace ;^ that being gifted into that good olive, we might partake of his root and fatness; and though severed from him we can do nothing, yet we may be able to do all things through Christ strengthening us.* If it be indeed, as it ought to be, our shame and sorrow, that we are by nature so much under the dominion of a vain and carnal mind,—no saying will appear to us so well worthy of all acceptation, as this, that Christ Jesus came to save his people from their sins,^ and to purify them a peculiar people to himself zealous of good works, ^ (5.) If we believe that God is the Father of our spirits, we cannot but perceive that they are immortal, that they must shortly return to God who gave them, and that we are made for another world,—and therefore will gladly believe in one who will be our r 3 Cor. iii. la k Matt. 1.21.
h John i. 16.
1 Phil. iv. 13. 1 Tit. ii. 14.
FAITH IN CHRIST INFERRED
guide to that world, who will stand our friend in the jadgment, and secure our welfare in the future state. Do we not find our souls strongly impressed with a belief of their own existence in a state of separation from the body ? The thinking part even of the heathen world, did so. Natural conscience, which is either a heaven or a hell in men's own bosoms, plainly intimates to them, that there is a state of rewards and punishments on the other side death, and a righteous doom of every man to the one or to the other: but when we come to inquire, ** How shall we make the Judge our friend ? What plea will bring us off in the judgment ? What is the happiness that is set before us in another world ? And what course shall we take to make it sure to ourselves?" When we ask *< What shall wc do to get above the fear of death ?" (we see its stroke inevitable;) " what have we wherewith to arm ourselves against its terror? From what advances here can we take a comfortable prospect of our state hereafter ? We must shortly be stript of all our enjoyments in this world; what is there'that will befriend us in our removal to another world ? " Here the light of nature leaves us quite at a loss. Neither ibe philosophers with their wisest considerations, nor the infidels with their boldest contradictions, could ever reconcile men to death, or enable them upon any good grounds cheerfally to quit this world. Animula vagula, hlandnla, (said one of the wisest of the heathen upon his death-bed,) qu4B nunc abibis in locaf^'Whither art thou now going, O my poor soul? Death, with a noted atheist, was ^great leap in the darh. It is certain, nothing but Christ and his gospel can furnish us with such comforts, as will carry us without the fear of evil through the valley of the shadow of death. Shall we not then readily believe in Christ, and bid his gospel welcome into our hearts, that light by which such clear and full discoveries are made of life and immortality ? Shall we not depend upon him with an entire satisfaction, and give up ourselves to his conduct, who has enabled us to triumph over death and the grave, and to say, O death, where is thy stingj where is thy terror? Have we not reason to entertain that institution as of a divine original, which is so wisely, so kindly, suited to our case in the last and greatest exigence of it; which shows us the wny, through this wilderness, to an everlasting rest for souls; which divides Jordan before us, and makes a path through it for the ransomed of the Lord to pass over? Do we believe that our souls must go to God ? and shall we not believe in him who will introduce us, who will receive our spirits, and present them to the Father, and lodge them in the mansions which be himself has prepared in his Father's house ? How forward should dying creatures be to embrace a living Saviour, who is and will be life in death to all who by faith are united to him, and who has said. Because I live ye shall live also.^ m John xiv. 19.
Now lay all this together, and then tell me, ^whether those who believe In God have not a great deal of reason to believe also in Jesus Christ; not only to desire such a Saviour, but to depend apon tbe Lord Jesus, as every way fitted to be the Savioar, and able to save to the uttermost.
And now will you hear the conclusion of the tvbole matter ?
1. Let us be more and more confirmed in oar belief of the principles of natural religion, which Christianity supposes, and is founded upon. Let the die-fates of the light and law of nature be always sacred with us, and have a commanding sway and empire in our souls. So agreeable is revealed relion to right reason, and the established rules of good and evil, that what contradicts and violates them, how plausible soever its pretensions may be, ought to be rejected, as no part of Christianity.
Therefore they who, under colour of seal for Christianity, hate and persecute their brethren, kill them, and say they do God good service, or under that pretence despise dominion, resist the powers that are ordained of God, break the public order, and disturb the public peace, who think no faith is to be kept with those they call heretics, and that it is lawful to lie for the truth ; these put a high affront upon the Christian religion, and do it the greatest wrong and injury imaginable. To such we may say, Yoa profess to believe in Christ, but do you believe in God? Is Christ the minister of sin? If he came not to destroy the law and the prophets, but to falfil them, can we think he came to set up a religion that should be served and advanced by a flat contradiction to those principles and rational instincts, (if I may so call them,) which were prior and superior even to the law of Moses and the prophetical inspirations? Christ came to renew the tables which sin had broken; not to blot out any thing that was engraven in the heart of man by nature, but to write apon the tables according to the first writing, and to add thereto many like words. If it became Christ, no doubt it becomes Christians, to fulfil all righteousnes* ;^ for we may say of the principles of natural relifion, as St. Paul does of the law of Moses, Do we make them void by the faith of the gospel ? God forbid ; nay, wc establish them.*^
2. Yet let us not rest in a mere natural religion, and a compliance with it, but let us, with the fullest conviction and highest satisfaction, embrace and firmly adhere to the principles of revealed religion, and submit to the commanding, constraining power and influence of them. Let pure Christianity govern us in every thing, and both give law to us and give peace to us. Let faith be our guide with relation to another world, as sense and reason are with relation to this world ; and then wc shall be led into the paths, and brought under the dominion, of Christ's n Matt. ili. 15.
e Rom. iii. 31.
FROM FAITH IN GOD.
796 boir religion. If there be any divine revelation in the world, it is in the Holy Seriptare, on which Christianity is built; and there certainly it is, for ire cannot think that God has pat fallen mankind npon a new trial, (which he has not done for fallen ingels,) and ^iven him no new rule of daty and ex-|)ectation, accommodated to that state of trial. The Scripture, therefore, is that which we are to believe, 0(0 which we must search, and on which we must mild, for that is it that testifies of Christ Christ herefore is he to whose conduct we must entirely leTote ourselves, and on the all-sufficiency of whose nediation we must rely; else we are unworthy to tear the name of Christians, and wear the livery of lis family.
As there is a practical atheism, which they are ;hargeable with who profess to know God, but in rorks deny him ; so there is a practical deism, which bey are chargeable with, who profess to believe in 'hrist, and yet have no regard to his mediation be-veen God and man: and both the one and the other n no less dangerous than the speculative, and so Duch the worse, that they carry in them a self-con-radiction.
Let OS who are ministers make it our business to idrance the honour of Christ, and to bring all to lim; as faithful friends of the Bridegroom, who re-wtgrentlif to hear tke Brideffroom's voice^^ and to erre his interests ; else we do not answer the cha->cter we are dignified vrith, as ku ministers. Messed Paul, though he was a great scholar, deter-oined to know nothing but Christ and him cruci-ed«^ counting all but loss for the excellency of that Bowledge •/ and be did as he determined, for *' in II his writings" (as one of the ancients observes) * he breathes nothing but Christ." ** Preach Christ, fotber," (said the famous Mr. Perkins, to a young unister who asked his advice,) '* preach Christ, mother." It is the language of all faithful minis-^^T We preach not ounelvet, but Christ Jenu the ^^ end ourselves your servants for his sake,* It is ^ eharacter of Christians, that they have learned •hrist :< but how shall they learn him, if their teach-n do not preach him ? The whole gospel centres 9 Christ; in him therefore let all our preaching cen-^e. Let us preach down sin as an enemy to Christ, Qd that which he died to separate us, and so to save ^ from: let us press duty with an eye to Christ, in ^pliance with him, and gratitude to him. Let us '«3cribe comforts fetched from Christ, and founded pon his mediation. Do we aim at the conversion dinners? Let us call them to Christ, persuade lem to come and take his yoke upon them, and re-■trnmend them to him as the best Master. Do we 'in at the edification of saints ? Let us lead them '^ a further acquaintance with Christ, that they fJohniiL« qICor.il. 2. r Phil. Hi. 8. . 9 Cor. iv. may grow up into him" in all things, as their Head and Root Are we God's mouth to his people ? Let us do as God did when he spake from heaven, give honour to Christ, and direct all to hear him.^ Are we their mouth to God ? Let us offer up all the spiritual sacrifices upon this altar, that sanctifies every gift Let this golden thread run through the whole web of our praying and preaching; and in every thing let precious Jesus ever have the pre-eminence.
Let us all, both ministers and Christians, make Jesus Christ all in all to us; to us to live must be Christ: and as we have received him by our profession of his name, we must so walk in him; and whatever we do in word or deed, do all in his name, with an eye to his will as our rule, and his glory as our end, depending upon him both for strength and righteousness, and continually rejoicing and glorying in him.
It is to be feared, Acre are some eyen within the pale of the church, who seem to have some little religion, but they forget Christ, and leave him out of it If we come to talk with them about their souls, and their eternal salvation, we find they have a reverence for God, and a sense of their duty to him, which they speak of with some clearness and concern ; they have right notions of justice and charity, fidelity, patience, and temperance, yea, and of devotion to God, and invocation of him; and are under convictions of the necessity of these, for they believe in God : but when we speak to them also of believing in Jesus Christ, of their coming to God as a Father by him as Mediator, of the need they have of him in every thing wherein they have to do with God, and the constant dependence they ought to have upon him, they are ready to say, as the people did of Ezekiel, Doth not he speak parables ?* This is a lamentation, and shall be for a lamentation, that among those who are called Christians, there should be those found who are strangers to Christ, and are content to be so; to whom the Light of the world is as a lamp despised and the Fountain of life as a broken cistern; and who are ready to say to Christ, Depart from «#, and. What can the Redeemer do for iM, which we cannot do for ourselves? We pitif those who never heard of Christ, whom this Day-spring from on high never visited; for, How shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? But we are justly anyry at those to whom the great things of the gospel are preached, and yet they are accounted by them as strange and foreign things, and things that they are no way concerned in. It is an amazing infatuation, and what we may stand and wonder at. Be astonished, O heavens, at this!
(1.) It is strange, that any who are baptized, and are called Christians, can forget Christ, and leave him out of their religion; surely they must have t Eph. iv. 90. II Eph. iv 1&. v Matt xvii. 5. w Ezek. xx. 4o. toe
FAITH IN CHRIST INFERRED
forgot their Christian name, for they have wretchedly forgot themselyes. What ? a Christian, and yet a stranger to Christ! Aui nomeHf aut mares mnta — Either change thy name, or change thy ipirit. Is not the whole family, hoth in heaven and earth,< denominated from him, as having a necessary and constant dependence upon him ? and yet he shall be out of mind because for the present he is out of sight. Shall he be made a cipher of, who is to us the only figure, and who in the upper world makes so great a figure? Were not we baptized into his name; and by our baptism entered into his school, hired into his family, and enlisted under his banner; and yet shall we set him aside, as if we had no occasion for him? If circumcision was to the breakers of the law made uncircumcision,^ shall not baptism be nullified, and made no baptism, to the contemners of the gospel ?
(2.) It is strange, that any who are convinced of sin, and see themselves, as all the world is, guilty before God, can forget Christ; and leave him out of their religion, as if they could do well enough without him. What ? a sinner, and yet make light of the Saviour! A dying perishing sinner, and yet not believe in him, whose errand into the world was to redeem us from all iniquity! Is the avenger of blood in pursuit of us, and just at our back, and shall not the city of refuge be ever in our eye ? Can we see our misery and danger by reason of sin, (and we are shamefully blind and partial to ourselves, if we do not,) and not be continually looking unto Jesus, the great propitiation ? Can we read the curse of the law in force against us ? can we see the fire of God's wrath ready to kindle upon us ? and not be glad to accept of Christ upon his own terms, Christ upon any terms ?
(3.) It is strange that any who desire to have communion with God, to hear from him, and speak to him, and in both to obtain his favour, should forget Christ, and leave him out of their religion. I hope none I speak to are of thosb who say to the Almighty, Depart from iw, we desire not the hnowledge of thy ways; but that you will each of you say, with David, It is good for me to draw near to God,* Do you indeed think it so ? Is that your choice ? Is that your delight ? Is this the thing you labour after, and are ambitious of, that whether present or absent you may be accepted of the Lord 7* You know not yourselves, you know not your God, if it be not: and if it be, how can you expect to be accepted, but in the Beloved ;^ and that the holy God should be well pleased with you who are unholy creatures, but in and through a Mediator ? It is by his Son that God does in these last days ^ speak to us, and it is by him that we are to speak to God; so that we cannot with any confidence approach to God, nor have any comforts Eph. iii. 15. r Rom. il. 35. i Ps. Izziil. 28. a 2 Cor. v. 9. able communion with him, out of Christ. If we neglect him, we come without our errand, and shall be sent away without an answer.
(4.) It is strange, that any who are in care about their souls and another world, should forget Christ, and leave him out of their religion. Brethren, you see yourselves dying daily, death is working in you; and you know that after death is a judgment, which will fix you in an unchangeable state of happiness or misery in perfection ; yon are standing upon the brink of an awful eternity, and are just ready to step in; now how can you hope to escape everlasting misery, much less to obtain everlasting happiness, unless you secure your interest in, and keep up your correspondence with, him, to whom all judgment is committed, who has the keys of hell and death in his hand, and is himself the resurrection and the life ? Are we not concerned still to make mention of him, to whom the Father has given power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as were given him,<i and who opens the kingdom of heaven to all believers. How dare we venture into another world, withoutbeing fixed on this foundation ? Were our eyes opened, and our consciences duly awakened, the very thoughts of dying and going to judgment, would make such a terror to ourselves, as nothing could relieve us against, but a believing sight of Christ sitting at the right hand of God, ready to receive the souls that are in sincerity committed to him, to redeem them from the power of the grave, and to present them to his Father.
3. Let us all make it to appear in all our devotions, and in our whole conversation, that we not only believe in God, but that we believe also in Jesus Christ. Let our spirits be purely Christian; leavened with the gospel of Christ, and partaking of its relish and savour; delivered into it as into a mould, receiving its shape and impression, and in every thing conforming ourselves to it The poor are said to receive the gospel f they are itMi77«X4^ovrfli— evangelized, so the word is. What will it avail us in the gospel, to behold as in a glass the glory of the Lord, unless we be changed into the same image, and reflect that light which shines upon us, so that all who converse with us, may take knowledge of us, that we have been with Jesus,^ and that he dwells in our' hearts by faith.
Let Christ be our plea for the pardon of sin, the plea we always put in, and firmly rely upon; let us never expect redemption but through his blood, even the forgiveness of our sins; therefore we hope it is God who does and will justify, because it is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again; and therefore we hope he will be our advocate with the Father, and a righteous, gracious advocate for us, because he is the propitiation for out sins. Let us bEph i.6. c Heb. i. i. d John xvii. 3. « Matt. xi. 5. f Acteiv. 13.
PROM FAITH IN GOD.
make him oar plea, and he will himself be our pleader.
Let Christ be our peace, and onr peace-maker. When oar consciences are offended and quarrel with us, when our hearts reproach us, and are ready to co Ddemn us; let the blood of Christ, by which we are reconciled to God, be effectual to reconcile us to ourselves, and let nothing else avail, or be admitted to do it What satisfied God, let that, and that only, satisfy us; and let that pacify our consciences which will also purify them. Let him also be oar peace among ourselves. Let all good Christians, however differing in other things, be one in kim, as he has prayed they may be: and let him who is the centre of their unity, be the powerful cement of their affections.
Let Christ be our prophet, and by him let us ask coansel of the Lord, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do J* Let him be our oracle, and by him let us be determined; let the mind of Christ be our mind in every thing, and in order to it let his word dwell richly in us.**
Let Christ be our priest, and into his hand let us pat all our services, all our spiritual sacrifices, to be offered up to God, because through him only they are acceptable.* By this name let us ever know him, let as ever own him. The Lord our rightcoutness.^
Let Christ be our pattern; let our spirits be renewed in conformity to his death and resurrection, and let as be so planted together in the likeness* of both, that it may be truly said, Christ is formed in us," Christ lives in us,° and we are the epistles of Christ.* Let onr whole conversation be governed in conformity to his example, which he has left us on porpose tiiat we might follow his steps.p Let us so bear about with us continually the dying of the Ix>rd Jesus, as that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal hody,^
Let Christ be the beloved of our soul, and let us make it appear that he is so, by our delight in his f Acts ix. e. k Jcr. xziii. 6. ■ Gal. iL sa b Col. iil. 16. 1 Rom. vi. 5. »2 Cor. iii. 3. i 1 Pet U. 5. m Gal. iv. 19. P1 Pet 11. 21. presence, onr grief for his withdrawings, our con-stant care to please him, and fear to offend him, and our diligence to approve ourselves to him, as one we esteem and love. Let us have such a constant regard to him, to his will as our rule, and to his glory as our end, that we may truly say. To us to live is Christ,' and to us living and dying he is gain.
Let Christ be our hope, let him be our joy; and let us make it to appear he is so, by such a holy cheerfulness of spirit, as will be a continual feast to us. Let us see, let us find, enough in Christ to silence all onr fears, and to balance all our griefs, and so to keep us always calm and easy. Do we believe in God ? Do we believe also in Jesus Christ? Then let not our hearts be troubled, whatever happens to us, but let us be kept in perfect peace.'
Let Christ be our crown of glory,' and our diadem of beauty; let us value ourselves by our interest in him, and relation to him. At his feet let all our crowns be cast; let boasting in ourselves be for ever excluded, and let him that glories glory in the Lord, in the Lord Jesus.
Let Christ be our heaven; let us reckon it one of the chief joys of glorified saints in the other world, that they are gathered to Christ" there, they see his glory,^ and share in it, they sit with him at his table, sit with him on his throne. And let us therefore not only be willing to die when God calls us, but be desirous to depart and to be with Christ,^ to be together for ever vrith him, which will be best of all.
To conclude. Let that be the language of our settled judgments, which a learned and religious gentleman of the last age took for his motto, wrote in his books, contrived to have continually before him, and ordered to be engraven in the rings given at his funeral; '* Christ is a Christian's all."* And let that be the language of our pious affection, with which one of the martyrs triumphed in the flames; *' None but Christ, none but Christ.''
4 2 Cor. iv. 10. c laa. izvllL 5. w Phil. 1. 23. r Phil. 1. 21. I ba. xxvi. 3. n 2The8B. 11. I. T John xvii. 24. • Judge Warbuiton.
A SERMON,
CONCERNING THE
FORGIVENESS OF SIN AS A DEBT,
PREACHED IN LONDON, JUNE Ist, 1711,
Matt. vi. 12. And forgive tu our debti,
COMPARED VITB
Luke XI. 4. And forgive vs our sins.
From this petition in the Lord's prayer, thas differently expressed by the two evangelists, we may easily observe, (for prayer may preach, this prayer preaches,)
I. That sin is a debt to God Almighty; nay, it becomes us to express it with application, (for, so such truths as these look best,XO«r sins are our debts.
II. That the pardon of sin is the forgiveness of this debt, and the discharge of the debtor from it: and as the former must be thought of with a penitent application, confessing and bewailing our sins, as our debts, so this with a believing application. This is a pririlege offered to us in the gospel: O that we might partaiie of it!
Repentance and remission of sins, are the two great things which ministers are appointed to preach, in Christ's name, to all nations; and which Christ is himself exalted to the right band of the Father to give,* else our preaching them would be in vain. I am here this day to preach them, depending upon divine grace to give them; as an ambassador for Christ, to beseech you, by repentance for sin, to be reconciled to God,^ th by the remission of sin he may be reconciled to you. Brethren, these are matters of life and death, matters of everlasting concern ; and therefore challenge your serious attention.
Many of you have a prospect of drawing nigh to the Lord, and having communion with him at his table: and what better service can I do you, than to assist your repentance in your preparations for that ordinance, and to assure you of pardon, upon repentance, in your attendance upon it? To show you sin, that in reflection upon it you may sow in tears ; and to show you Christ, that in dependence on him you may reap in joy,^ and by him may have your tears wiped away.
This similitude, which represents sin as a debt, and the pardon of sin as the forgiving of that debt, our Saviour often used: and it is a proper one, and very significant, and I hope by the blessing of God may be of use both to let us into the understanding of this great concern, and to affect us with it
I. The sins we are to repent of are our debts to God.
There is a debt to God, which arises from the command of the law, and we do not pray to be discharged from that: a debt of duty, which we always owe, and must be always paying in the strength of his grace; a yoke so easy, that we cannot desire to be eased of it; a service so reasonable, as that, if we understand ourselves aright, we cannot but be reasoned into it.
We are debtors not to the fiesh says the apostle ; we are under no obligation to serve it and please it, and make provision for it; which intimates that we are debtors to God: that which is said to be our duty to do,* is o wcXo/icv woifioatf that which we owe the doing of. We owe adoration to God, as a Being infinitely bright, and blessed, and glorious. We owe allegiance to him as our Sovereign Lord and Ruler. We are bound in honour and duty, in gratitude and interest, to observe his statutes, and to keep his laws; are bound by all the relations we stand in to him as our Creator, Owner, and Benefactor, to love and fear him, and under the influence of those two commanding principles, to serve and obey him: and we must reckon it our happiness, that we arc thas obliged, and labour to be more and more sensible of the obligations. The loosing of our other bonds a Luke xxiv. 47. Acts ▼. 31.
b S Cor. V. 90.
c Ps. cxxvl. 5, 6.
d Rom. viii. 13.
• Lxike xvii. 10.
A SERMON ON FORGIVENESS OF SIN.
strengthens these; so the Psalmist thoaght, when in consideration thereof he said, O Lord, truly lam tiff servanif I am thy servtmif for thoa hast loosed my There is likewise a debt we owe to one another, vhich we must not pray to be discharged from, but alirajs liept under the bonds of, and that is, brotherly love. When we are commanded to render to all their dae, so as to owe no man any thing; yet ¥e are told we most still owe this, to love one an-others which when we do we pay a just debt, and jet must still abound more and more.^
There isadebt to God, which arises from the curse and condemnation of the law, which we are fallen vnder, by our breach of the command of the law; aod this is that which we here pray to be discharged from: the debt of punishment, that death which we are told is the wages of tin,^ It is a penal bond, by vhich we are obliged to our dnty; so that for nonperformance of the duty we become liable to the penalty: and thus our sins are our debts; and being all sinners, we are all debtors. Know then that the Lord has a controversy ^ with you, an action against ym, an action of debt, wherein—^in his name—I here arrest yon all, pursuant to the great intention of the Spirit, which is to convince the world of sin,^ to charge men with a debt to God, and to prove it opon them.
In prosecution of this, I shall endeavour to show,
1. How we come to be in debt to God, how this debt is contracted, and what is the gond of the action. That I may keep to the comparison, not forcing it, but fairly following it, you shall see that ve ran in debt to God, as the children of men run in debt to one another.
(I.) We are in debt to God, as a servant u indebt--td to kis master, when he has neglected his business, ud wasted or embezzled his goods. Our Saviour represents our case like that of a servant to a king, vho when he came to be reckoned with, (probably tbe revenues of the crown passing through his hands,) vas foand in debt to the king his master ten tkou <W telents ;■ and that of a steward who was accused hkis lord thai he had wasted his goods,* either through ^oth and negligence, not taking the care and pains ^^t them, that by the duty of his place he ought to bve done; or through dishonesty, converting them to other uses than they were intended for, and serv-iD*: himself with them.
We are servants to God, and have work to do for ^ advancing of the interest of his glory and king-dtimin the world, and incur own hearts. This work is Qodone; we have stood all the day idle, and have done nothing, or next to nothing, of the great work ve were sent into the world about; nothing to answer f P». cxTt la.
I Bom. Ti. 13. a MaU. xTlii. M.
ff RoiD.xUI.8.
k Mic. vf. %
a Luke %fi, 1.
h 1 TheBB. iv. I.
1 John xvl. 1.
• Matt. sxT. 26,30.
the ends of our creation and redemption, and in pursuance of the intentions of our birth and baptism; and so we become to be in debt, and deserve, not only to have our wages stopt, but to lie under the doom of the unprofitable servant, who is therefore called wiched, because slothful.*
We have been intrusted with talents,? which were put into our hands with this charge, trade till I come; make use of them in your Master's senrice, and for his honour: but we have not improved these talents for the end for which we have been intrusted with them, we have hid our Lord's money, have buried our talent, and so we come to be indebted. Time is a talent, it ought to have been filled up with doty ; but we have mispent it, and trified it away, and have not done the work of each day in its day, according as the duty of the day required: we are therefore so much in debt for lost time, time that can never be recalled. Opportunity is a talent, time fitted for the doing of that which will not be done at all, or not so well done another time. The time of youth, sabbath-time, the seasons of grace-—the minutes of these are in a particular manner precious; but we have not improved these; we have received the grace of God in them in vain, have had many a price put into our hands to get wisdom,^ which for want of a heart, a heart at the right hand, for want of skill, and will, and courage, we have not made the right use of. Our reason is a talent, with all its powers and faculties, which should have been employed in honouring God, but has been so wretchedly misemployed, that the world hy wisdom (reason doing its best, as it thought) hnew not God, Our limbs and senses, our bodily health and strength, are talents; for it is designed we should glorify God with our bodies i' but the members of our bodies have been instruments of unrighteousness * to his dishonour; and for this abuse of them we are indebted. What estate we have in the world, what interest we have in others, or influence upon them, is a talent, puts us in a capacity of serving God, and doing good. But have we done so ? No, we have all come short, far short of the glory of God, have come short of glorifying him, and therefore deserve to come short of being glorified with him.*
We are stewards of the manifold grace of God:" a good stewardship it is, an honourable place, and very profitable. But have we been good stewards? It is required of stewards that they he faithful f but when instead of living to God, and doing all to his glory, we live to ourselves,^ eat and drink to ourselves, when self in every thing must be gratified, and self glorified, and our own things sought more than the things of Christ,' then, like unfaithful stewards, we convert that to our own use which should P Luke six. 13. • Rom. Ti. 10. » I Cor. iv. a. q ProT, xvii. 16. t Rom. lii. 23. V Zech. vii. 6. r 1 Cor. vi. SO. n 1 Pet. iv. 10. « Phil. ii. ai.
FAITH IN CHRIST INFERRED
dtty,p So that, in short, if we believe that there is such a thing as a divine revelation, that God has made a discovery of himself, and of his will and grace, to the children of men, we must believe the gospel, and the testimony it bears, God has sent his son into the worldf not to condemn the worlds but that the world through him might have righteoasness and life.
5. If we rightly apprehend how matters stand between God and man since the fall, as those must do who believe in God, who believe his holiness and justice, and his relations to man, we shall readily receive the notice which the gospel gives us of a Mediator between God and man; not only because we shall soon perceive how desirable it is that there should be such a Mediator, (and we are easily brought to believe what is for our honour and advantage, quod volumus facile credimus—^what we wish we easily believe^) but because we shall perceive, likewise, how probable it is that a God of infinite grace and mercy should appoint such a Mediator, and make him known to us. It is a great confirmation of the truth of the Christian religion, that it not only agrees with, and is a ratification of, the principles and laws of natural religion, and is an improvement and advancement of them, but that it supplies the deficiencies of it; it takes us up and helps us out, where that fails us and leaves us at a loss. So that if we make just reflections upon ourselves, and our own case as it appears to us by the light of nature, there cannot but be a disposition in us to receive and embrace the gospel, and to entertain it not only as a faithful saying, but as well worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. If wc rightly believe in God, and withal rightly understand ourselves, we cannot but perceive our case to be such as calls for the interposition of a Mediator between us and God; and we are undone if there be no such a one; and we will therefore cheerfully receive him.
(I.) We cannot but perceive that man has in a great measure lost the knowledge of God, and therefore should gladly believe in him who has revealed him to us. It is certainly the greatest satisfaction and best entertainment to our intellectual powers, to know God the author and felicity of our beings. The understanding of man cannot rest short of this knowledge; but we find that by the entrance of sin, our understandings are darkened,*! and the children of men are generally alienated from the divine light and life, through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: The world by wisdom hnew not God/ and the things of God SLte foolishness to the natural man.* Are we sensible of this as our misery, that we cannot by any researches of our own come to such a knowledge of God, as is necessary to our communion with him ? If we are
P Acts ziif. 37. ■ 1 Cot. ii. 94.
q Eph. i. 1& t I John i. la.
T 1 Cor. i. 31. a John i. 0.
so, we shall readily embrace Christ as a prophet, who having lain in the bosom of the Father from eternity, has declared him < to the children of men, and has brought into this dark world the light of the knowledge of this glory, with such convincing evidences of a divine truth, and such endearing instances of a divine grace and love in this light, as are abundantly sufl Rcient both to captivate the understanding and engage the afiections. This is the true light, which is sufficient to (tAfn every man thai Cometh into this world^^ and to direct him through it to a better world. And shall we not open our eyes to such a light? Can we be such strangers, such enemies, to ourselves, and our own interests, as to love darkness rather than this light ? " (2.) We cannot but perceive, that there is an infinite distance between God and man, and therefore should gladly believe in one, in whose person the divine and human natures are wonderfully united. Tib light of nature shows us the glory of a God abov us ; as heaven is high above the earthy so are his thoughts and ways above ours: whence we are tempted to infer, that there is no having any communion with him, that he is not conversable with us, and that we cannot expect that he should take any cognizance of us. Shall we not therefore welcome the tidings of a Mediator between Qod and man, even the Man Christ Jesus ? Shall we not be glad to hoar, that this God above us is, in Christ, Immanuel, God with u«,* God in our nature, God manifested in t/ie flesh; the Eternal Word incarnate, which will facilitate our communion with God, and represent it to us as a thing possible ? When we look upon God as the almighty Creator and Sovereign of the world, a being of infinite perfection and blessedness, we are tempted to say. Will this God in very deed dwell with men, with mean and sinful worms, on the earth ? But when we look upon the Son of God clothed with a body, and visiting in geat humility this remote comer of the universe, which God has let out to the children of men, as a vineyard to unthankful husbandmen, we are encouraged to say with triumph. Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and his sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore,^ We are quite lost in our thoughts, when we come to meditate seriously on the divine perfections, for they are an unfathomable depth, which we cannot find out, concerning which we cannot order our speech by reason of darkness; If a man speah, surely he shall be swallowed up :' but when we come with an eye of faith to see the Father in Christ, who is both God and man, and are brought by faith to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and through him to God the Judge of all,' this makes his glory the more intelligible, (he that hath seen me, says Christ, hath seen the Father,) his example the more
T John ill. 19. w Blatt. i. 3a > Ezek. xxxvii. 38, -27. T Job xxzvil. 30. « Heb. z.ii. 33, m.
FORGIVENESS OF SIN.
601 life, and come to ask, What honour and what dignity kctk been done ^ to oar great Benefactor for all this; we find oar returns of doty and thankfulness no way answerable to oar receivings of mercy, and so we become to be in debt
This debt is still the greater, in that we have made not only poor returns, bot ill returns, to the God of our mercies: he has nourished and brought ns up as children, and yet we have rebelled against bim; > he has loaded us with benefits, and yet we bave loaded him with our iniquities: thus have we requited the Lord, like foolish people and unwise."* Mach of our debt is contracted by the most base in-i;Tatitade imaginable to the best of friends, the best of fathers ; and if you call a man ungrateful, you can call him no worse.
(4.) Oar debt to God is, a$ the debt of a trespasser to him upon whom he has trespassed. Our sins, which are here in the Lord's prayer called, ovr debts, in the verses following are called wapairrwfuira—our trespasses," and thence we commonly use that word, in repeating the Lord's prayer. An action of damage dil Tersi not much from an action of debt, and this action lies against us as sinners.
We have broken through the fences and bounds which God by his commands has set us, and by vhich our appetites and passions should have been restrained and kept within compass ; and so we are trespassers in debt to God, for trampling his law under foot, and his authority, as if we were resolved to be like our forefathers at Babel, from whom nothing would be restrained that they imagined to do.^ Nay, we have broken in upon God's rights, have invaded bis prerogatives, by taking that praise to ourselves which is due to him only. We have gone upon forbidden ground, and like our first parents have eaten the fruit of the forbidden tree, by enriching ourselves with unlawful gains, and indulging ourselves in unlawful pleasures, meddling with that of which the Lord our God has said. Ye shall not ent of it,9 neither shall ye touch it. By presuming on comforts which we were not entitled to, we become trespassers; as he was that intruded into the wed-ding'feast, not having on a wedding-garment: Friend, how earnest thou hither .^
By those trespasses upon the divine authority, we have injured God, have injured him in his honour. (And the creature cannot otherwise be injurious to the Creator but in his honour; If thou sinnest, what dost tkoM against kirn?)' By this, we are indebted to bim; satisfaction is demanded for the injury: for Shall a man rob God,* and never be called to an ac<^fMintfor it? trespass upon him, impeach his honour, and invade his property, and never hear of it?
(6.) Oar debt to God is as the debt of a covenant k Est. vi. 3. I IHL 1.3.
« Matt Ti. 15. r Gen. ii. 7.
3 F m Deat zxxii. 0. o Gen. zi. 6. q Matt, xxii 12. breaker, who entered into articles, and gave bond for performance, but has not made good his agreement, and so has forfeited the penalty of the bond, which is recoverable as far as the damage goes, by the non-performance of the articles. An oath is called a " Bond upon the soul," because it was commonly made with an imprecation of evil, if the promise was not performed; so that he who broke his promise so ratified, could not but feel himself under the burthen of his own curse.
This is our case; we are bound out from all sin, and bound up to all duty, not only by the bond of a command, but by the bond of a covenant, to which we have ourselves subscribed with the hand; we have by solemn promise engaged ourselves to be the Lord's, to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes ;* our baptism was an early and lasting obligation upon us to be religious: but we have broken our covenant with God, have violated our engagements, and thereby have not only forfeited the blessings of the covenant, but made ourselves obnoxious to the curses of it; and so we are in debt to God, as they were who transgressed the covenant which they made before God when they cut the calf in twain," wishing that they might so be cut asunder, if they did not deal faithfully. This is assigned as the ground of God's controversy with the world of mankind, and for which they are all laid under the arrest of his curse; they have changed the ordinance, and bro-hen the everlasting covenant, therefore hath the curse devoured the earth,'' (6.) Our debt to God is as the debt of a malefactor, to the law and to the government, when he is found guilty of treason or felony, and consequently the law is to have its course against him. And this is the most proper notion of the debt of sin; for though our Saviour in his parables alludes to money-debts, yet the case between God and man is not as that between debtor and creditor in commerce: for God is our Sovereign, and we are his subjects; he is our Law-giver, and we are bound by his laws. The primary obligation is the command of the law, *to obey that; which if we fail in, we fail under a secondary obligation to the curse of the law ; and therefore as many as being sinners are under the law, are under the curse, for so it is written, Cursed is every one, that continues not in every thing that is written in the booh of the law to do it.^ But God knows, and our own hearts know, that we have not continued, no not in any thing; we are all guilty before God,' subject to his judgment. The Scripture hath concluded us all under sin ; shuts us up as debtors and criminals are shut up in prison, that the law may have its course.
Wc have all broken the commands of the law, and so are become liable to the sentence of it. The T Job xxxT. e. • Mai. « Jcr. xxxiv. 18. w Gal. iii. lo. iit. 8. t Deut. xxvl. 17. V Isa. xxlv. % A. X Rom. Iii. 19.
A SERMON ON
soul that tins shall die;* shall die, as a soul can die; shall be made completely miserable. Our blessedness is forfeited, as the life, honour, and estate of a traitor is to the public justice, to which he is thus to make the uttermost satisfaction he is capable of making: the case is ours, and a deplorable case it is. As the corruption of our nature makes us odious to God's holiness, so our many actual transgressions make us obnoxious to his justice; and thus we are debtors to him.
(7.) To make the matter yet worse, there is a debt we owe to God, which is as a debt of an heirt-law upon his ancestor's account of a son who is liable to his father's debts, as far as what he has by descent will go, and as far as he has any assets in his hand. By Adam's disobedience we were all made sinners,* were all made debtors; and laid under this charge* That we are a seed of evil doers.
The human nature comes to us by descent from our first parents, and it comes to us not only distempered but attainted by law; as the blood of a traitor is corrupted by his attainder. When those are under the dominion of death who yet never sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression,^ and God visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, we must own ourselves indebted on the score of those who are gone before us.
(8.) There are debts of ours, likewise, which are as the debt of a surety upon account of the principal, I mean the guilt we have contracted by our partaking of other men's sins,' and making ourselves accessary to them, as if we had not had guilt enough of our own to answer for.
We have, by the influence of our example, by advice or encouragement, by contributing to their temptations, or exciting their corruptions, or by a consent' and approbation ex post facto—^fter the deed has been done, made ourselves partners with others in sin, and have had fellowship with the unfruitful worhs of darhnesSf which we should rather have reproved; and so must answer not only for our doings,' but for the fruit of our doings.
Having opened to you the several ways how we come into this debt to God, let us next inquire, what kind of debt sin is.
(1.) It is an old debt, it is an early, nay, it is an hereditary, encumbrance upon our nature. The foundation of this debt was laid in Adam's sin, we are in debt for the forbidden fruit he ate, so high does the account begin, and so far back does it look. We were bom in debt, were called, and not miscalled, Transgressors from the womb,^ debtors from the womb ; we began betimes to go astray from God, and so to run further and further into debt: it has been long in the contracting, and continual additions have been made to it, by renewed acts of rebellion s Ezra xvili. 4. & Rom. v. 19. b Rom. ?. 14. c i Tim. v. 32. d Isa. xWiil. s. * Job xiii. 26. f Jer. xxxi. IB. against God. Job when he is old is made to possess the iniquities of his youth, and Ephraim heart the reproach of his youth,^ And how earnestly does David pray, O remember not the sins of my youth J (2.) It is B.just debt, and the demand of it highly equitable. We cannot say that we are charged with more than is meet ;^ no, how high soever the penalty is with which we are loaded, certainly it is less than our iniquities have deserved.* It is divine justice, the eternal rule and fountain of justice, tliat charges us with this debt, and brings this action against us; and we are sure that the judgment of God is according to truth; nor is he unrighteous who takes vengeance.^ (3.) It is a great debt, more than we imagine. It is represented by our Saviour as a debt of ten thou-sand talents.* In the computation of money, a talent is the highest denomination, it amounts to above 187 pounds of our money; multiply that by ten thousand, and what an immense sum does it come to. This is designed to show us what a great deal of malignity there is in every sin, how heinous it is in its own nature, it runs us a talent in debt; and withal how numerous our sins are, how many, how very many, our actual transgressions, they are ten thousands, more than the hairs on our heads. Well might the master say to that servant, when be upbraided him with his pardon, / forgave thee thai great debt, (4.) It \B a growing debt; a debt we are still adding to, as a tenant who is behind of his rent, every rent* stage makes the debt more: till we return by repent-ance, wn are still running further upjn the s<K>re; still taking up upon trust, and treasuring up unto ourselves guilt and wrath against the day of wiatb.™
3. Having seen what kind of debt sin is, let us next see what kind of debtors sinners commonly are; and we shall find them like other unfortunate debtors, that are going down in the world, and bave no way to help themselves.
(1.) Bad debtors are oftentimes very careless and unconcerned about their debts; when they are so embarrassed and plunged that they cannot hear the thought of it, they contrive how to banish the thought of it, and live merry and secure; to laugh away, and drink away, and revel away the care and sorrow of it. Thus sinners deal with their convictions, tbey divert them with thebusiness of the world, or drown them in the pleasures of sense. Cain endeavonred to shake off the terrors of conscience, by building a city." It was once said of one who died over head and ears in debt, " Surely his pillow had some extraordinary virtue in it to dispose a man to rest, else one in that condition could not repose himself upon it." One would wonder what pillows sinners lay their heads on, who have been so long in debt, who r Ps. XXV. 7. h Job xxxiv. 83. i Job xi. 6. k Rom. ii. 2, a, s 1 Matt, xviii. 94. m Rom. ii. 5. » Gen. iv. 17.
FORGIVENESS OF SIN.
803 are so deep in debt to the jastice of God, and never Jaj it to heart, nor inquire into the things which belong to their peace. O what mnltitudcs of precious soals are lost, and perish for ever, through mere carelessness !
(2.) Bad debtors are commonly very wasteful and when they find they are in debt more than they can pay, care not bow much further they run into debt. How extravagant are sinners in spending upon their lasts! What waste do they make of their time and opportunity, and of the noble powers and faculties with which they are endued! like the prodigal son, irho, when he was run away from his father's house into a far country, there wasted his substance with riotoQS living. So true is that of Solomon, One ein-ntr destroys much good^** with which he might honour God, and do service to his generation; and runs tfaro Dgb »great deal of valuable treasure.
(3.) Bad debtors are commonly very shy of their creditors, and very loth to come to an account Thus sinners care not how little they come into the presence of God, but rather say to the Almighty, Depart from Ks ; they take no pleasure in hearing from him, in speaking to him, or in having any thing to do with him; they desire not the knowledge of his good ways, lest thereby they should come to the sight of their own evil ways. They are shy of communion with their own hearts, and looking into their consciences, becaase they are not willing to know the worst by themselves. God hearkens and hears, but they speak not aright;' they do not take the first step toward repentance and conversion, for they make no serious reflections upon themselves, they never ask. What have I done ? But the case of those tradesmen is justly suspected, who are strangers to their hooks, and are afraid of knowing what posture their affairs are in.
(4.) Bad debtors are sometimes timorous ; and tboogh they strive to cast off all care about their debts, yet, when they are threatened, their hearts fail them, they are subject to frights, and are ready to think every one they meet is a bailiff. Thus sinners carry about with them a misgiving conscience, vhich often reproaches them, and fills them with secret terrors, and a bitterness which their own heart only knows. When Cain was under an arrest for that threat debt he contracted by the murder of his brother, what a terror was he to himself, crying out, My punishment i» greater than lean bear,'^ though it was much less than he deserved. When Herod heard of Christ's miracles, he presently cried out, his John the Baptist whom I beheaded, he is certainly risen from the dead. The wicked are sometimes made to flee where no fear is, much more where there is fear. (d.) Bad debtors are apt to be dilatory and deceito EccL Ijl 18. rHag.i. a.
p Jer. viii. &
• Matt zvill. 29.
to promise payment this time and the other, but still to break their word, and beg a further delay. It is so with sinners; they do not say they will never repent, and return to God, but not yet: The time is not come, the time that the Lord's house should be built,' but they will assure you, that some time or other it shall be built They are called to come to an account with their own consciences, to search and try their ways ; and they are forward to promise that they will do it; nay, they will set the time when they will do it The servant that owed ten thousand talents thought he needed not be beholden to his master for a pardon of the debt, only he begged forbearance : Have patience with me and I will pay thee all,* They shake off their convictions, and elude them, by shifting off the prosecution of them, like Felix, to a more convenient season, which season never comes; and so they are cozened of all their time, by being cozened of the present time.
4. To affect you the more with the misery of an impenitent, unpardoned state, having showed you what your debt is, I shall next lay before you the danger we are in by reason of this debt Many who owe a great deal of money, yet are furnished with considerations sufficient to make them easy, but they are such as our case will not admit.
(1.) Anexact account is kept of all our debts. Some who are in debt please themselves with hopes that their debts cannot be proved upon them, and so they shall escape harm by them: but this will do us no service; all our sins will be proved upon us. These things thou hast done ;* it is in viin to deny it, or to avoid the action by pleading Non estfactutn — It is not thy deed. If the debtor keep not an account of his debts, yet the creditor does; they are all booked, all kept on record, laid up in store with God, and sealed among his treasures.** Job speaks of his transgressions as sewed up in a bag,* as the indictments are upon which the prisoners are to be arraigned ; or, as bonds and notes are carefully tied up together to be produced when there is occasion. It will be to no purpose to contest the account, when the omniscience of God will attest it. Went not my heart with thee ?^ says the prophet to his servant. Was not God's eye upon us, when our backs were upon him, and we were running from him into bypaths ? Were not all our ways, our sinful ways, ever before him ? They were, without doubt they were; but therefore sinners are secure, and see not their danger, because (says God) they consider not in their heart that I retnember all their wickedness,^ But consider this, ye who forget God,r and his goodness, that God does not forget you and your wickedness. Our sins are never cast behind his backy till we have set them before our faces, (3.) We are utterly insolvent, and have not wherea Dent xxadi. 34. s Hoft vii. 8.
Job It. 17.
V 2 Kings ▼. 2& 7 Pa. 1.22.
A SERMON ON
withal to pay our debts. If a man be mach in debt, yet if he knows be has wherewithal to answer all his creditors, he needs not mach perplex himself, especially, if he can discount with his creditors themselyes: and there are those who flatter themse Wes with a conceit, that this will help them in their dealing with God. For being ignorant of his righteoasness, of the strictness of the demands of his justice, they go about to establish a righteousness■ of their own, and are willing to hope that their good qualities, and their good deeds, will atone for their bad ones, and be a competent satisfaction to the demands of divine justice. Thus it is common for foolish debtors to talk big, as if they had wherewithal to give every body their own, and nobody should lose by them, when, perhaps, their all is nothing, or next to nothing. Laodicea thought herself rich and increased in goods, when she was wretchedly and miserably poor and naked,* but withal blind, and would not see.
But what good will it do us thus to deceive ourselves ? Can the all-seeing God be deceived ? It is certain we owe more than we are worth; whether our debt be more or less, five hundred pence, or fifty, we are not able to pay it.'* We cannot plead that we have, by any 3ervices to God, or sufferings for him, made satisfaction for any part of our debts; nor can we promise that we will; for whatever good there is in us, it is God's own gift, it is his own work, for which we are yet more indebted to him. Whatever good is done by us, it is what we are already bound to. And though a tenant should pay his rent for the future, yet that will not discharge his old scores. We are become bankrupts, must own ourselves so, and for ever undone, if the debt we owe be exacted; for if God enter into judgment with us, and deal with us in strict justice according to our deserts, we are not able to answer him for one of a thousand ,^ In thy sight. Lord, shall no flesh living be justified. We have no oil to sell, as the prophet's widow had, wherewith to pay our debt; no equivalent to offer, nor any thing wherewith to make a composition. We are debtors to God, but he is no debtor to us, nor is he ever behind-hand with those who do any service for him: none has first given to him, that it should be recompensed to him again, Rom. xi. 36. There were those indeed who thought they had made God their debtor by their devotions. Wherefore have we fasted, say Mey, and thou seest not V But when the matter comes to be looked into, it appears that they are debtors to God, by reason of the wickedness of their conversations: Ye fast for strife and debate.
(3.) We have no friend on earth who can or will pass his word for us, or be our bail. Many poor debtors encourage themselves with this, that they
I Rom. s. a • Rev. Hi. 17. b Luke vii. 41,49. • Jobiz. 3. d Isa. Iviit 3,4. F 1 Pet i. 18. r AcU yiii. to. have some kind relations, who will stand by ihem and appear for them, and help them in a time of need: but poor sinful men can have no such prospect, since all their kindred are in the same helpless condition with themselves, adeep in debt as they are. The wealthiest worldlings, who have most money, cannot with it undertake to pay our debts to God: no, we are not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold.* Pardons are those gifts of God, which are not to be purchased with money in the court of hea Yen; ^ those, therefore, that are so purchased in the court of Rome, are but sham pardons ; even those who boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, yet none of them can by any means redeem his brother.' The wisest virgins, who have most grace, have most oil, yet have none to spare, there is not enough for us and them. If God contend with us, no man on earth, or angels in heaven, can undertake to arbitrate the matter, or as a Days-man, lay his hand upon us both; can undertake to open the book by which we stand charged, or to loose the seals; none can do it but the Lion of the tribe of Judah.^ (4.) We are often put in mind of our debts by the providence of God, and by our own consciences. Some who are in debt hope to have benefit by the statute of limitations, and that the debt will be dropt for want of being demanded; but the debts we owe to God are ever and anon demanded, and the right is kept up by a continual claim, God makes it to appear that he takes notice of them, for he frequently gives us notice of them. Conscience is a standing monitor in our own bosoms, to put us in mind of our sins, and of the danger we are in by reason of them, and to stir us up to think of agreeing with oar adversary in time. For this reason, they wbo resolve to go on in sin, and to have peace (such as it is) though they go on, do all they can to stifle the suggestions of their own consciences, and turn a deaf ear to them; as those who are in debt avoid them by whom they are dunned, and keep out of tbeir way. But sooner or later conscience will be heard, and will force sinners to say, as Jawph*s brethren did long after they had contracted the debt. We are verily guilty concerning our brother.^
Aflltctions are messengers sent to us on this errand, to remind us of our debts, by awaking our consciences, and setting our sins in order before as: when bitter things were written against us, it is with this design, to make us possess our iniquities.' When God distrains upon our comforts, and removes them from us, it is to remind us of the arrears of our; rent. Art thou come to call my sin to my remembrance^^ (said the widow of Sarepta,) and to slay my son * These sharp methods, which God takes to pat as in mind of our sins, are intimations how severe the r Pa. zlix. S, 7. k Gen. xti. 31.
k Job ix. 33. 1 Job ziU< S&
i Rev. ▼. &. 1 Kings xvii la.
FORGIVENESS OF SIN.
805 nekoniDs will be, if we never take care to get them pardoned.
(5.) Death will shortly arrest us for these debts, to bring as to an account. It is a sergeant, whose office is to require the soal, to strip it of the body, and to bring it to him who gave it, and to whom it is accoantable. The authority of this officer is not to be disputed, nor his power resisted. When we are sammoned by death to come to an account, we shall find there is no discharge in that war," no remedy, bat we must yield. The wages of sin is death,^ and its constant attendant ever since it first entered.^ Death in our discharge from other debts; in the ^ve the prisoners rest together, and hear not the voice of the oppressor,** but it lays us more open than ever to these debts, for " Afier death the judgment.*' It is a maxim in oar law. Actio moritur cum personSt --The action dies with the person ; but it will be of DO ose to us in this case, for God, the creditor, never dies, and sinners, the debtors, are by death fetched in to appear before him.
(6.) A dag ofrechoning will come, and the day is fixed. As sure as we see this day, we shall see that day, when every man must give an account of himself unto God,' ttnd etery worh shall be brought into jvdgmenty with every secret thing,* The young man who indulges himself in carnal mirth and sensual pleasures, is told that for all these things God shaU hing him into judgment.^ Though it is after a long time, yet it is in the set time, that the Lord of the servants, to whom the talents were committed, comes and reckons with them." The God to whom we gtand indebted, is one with whom we now have to do ;* for we live upon him, and subsist by him, and have continual business with him, which should make it the more uneasy to us to think of lying under his displeasure. But that is not all, he is one irpoc ov i7fuv o Xoyoc (as some read those words)— to vkom for us there is a reehoning ; we now have an account with him, and must shortly give up our ac-coant to him. How careful should we be so to jodge ourselves, that we may not be judged of the Lord ;* so to state our accounts, and halance them with the blood of Christ, that when the day of reckoning comes, we may give up our account with joy, and not with grief!'
(7.) Hell is the prison into which those debtors will at length be cast, who took no care to make their peace, and there are the tormentors to which they will be delivered.^ This our Saviour gives as a reason why we should agree vrith onr adversary qoickly, while we are in the way, because, if the matter be left to run on, we shall be delivered to the jadge, to the ofilcer,* to him who has the power of death; and so be cast into prison, into chains of ierknees, a prison, the miseries of which are endless
EocL viii. & • Rom. vi. S3, p Rom. v. 13. q Job iii. 1& r Som. xiv. 19. • £ccL zil. 14. t Eccl. zi. 9. and easeless. It b a pit in which there is no water, not the least mixture or allay of comfort, not a drop of water, so much as to cool the tongue.* Some prisoners for debt live so merrily, that one would think their prisons were designed for their protection rather than their punishment; but hell is no such prison; there is nothing there but weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth, and the more for the many fair warnings given those prisoners not to come into that place of torment It is a pit out of which there is no redemption; the debtor shall not depart thence till he has paid the last mite; which vrill never be, no, not during the endless ages of eternity.
And now, sirs, what say you to these things ? You are many of you great dealers in the world ; what a consternation would you be in, if upon casting up your books, you should discover yourselves to be in debt a great deal more than yon are worth ? You see yon are so to God, and does it make no impression upon you? are you in no care, no concern about it ? Is all I have said to you for your conviction of sin, and of your misery and danger because of sin, but as a tale that is told ? If so, all I have to say concerning the pardon of sin, will be but as a lovely song of one that can play well on an instrument. But I trust you have laid, and will lay, these things to heart, that the debt of sin is really a burthen to you, under which you labour, and are heavy laden; and if so, the doctrine of the remission of sins will be to you glad tidings of great joy, and as life from the dead. Nor would I have taken this pains to show you your sins, if your case had been desperate, and I could not at the same time have showed yon the great salvation from sin, which the Redeemer has wrought out by bringing in an everlasting righteousness.
II. The sins we are to repent of, being our debts to God, the mercy we are to pray for is the forgiveness of these debts. It is to God we are indebted, and therefore to him we must address ourselves for a discharge from the debt; for none can forgive sins, but God only, and therefore to him only must we go for that forgiveness. Having opened the wound, and showed you how dangerous it is, you vrill be ready to ask, It there no halm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Yes, blessed be God, there is. The same messengers that God sends to put you in mind of your debts, are appointed to put you in the way of obtaining the remission of them: and this is that which, in Christ's name, is preached to all nations; —it is now preached to you.
1. Let us inquire, what is included in this mercy of the forgiveness of sin as a debt, and what steps God graciously takes therein toward us, when we repent, and return, and believe the gospel. He acts as a merciful and compassionate creditor toward a poor debtor who lies at his mercy.
Matt. xxY. 19. r Heb. 1 v. 31. w i Cor. xi. 31. * Heb. xitL 17. r Matt zviii. 34. i Matt. v. 95. • Luke xvl. 34.
A SERMON ON
(1.) He stays process, and saffera not tbe law to have its coarse. Judgement is ^ven against us; bnt execution is not taken oat upon the judgment. The sinner is arrested by his own conscience as a debtor, and cried out against himself, / have tinned, and deserve to die. But pardoning mercy unties the knot between sin and death, and says, as Nathan to David, The Lord has taken away thy sin, thou f halt not die ;^ thou shalt not come into condemnation, thine iniquity is become thy grief and shame, and therefore fear not, it shall not be thy ruin. Thou shalt not have all thou hast seized on, thou shalt not go to prison, as thou deservest The debt shall not be laid to thy charge.
The sinner is arrested by affliction, it may be, as Elihu's penitent is, and is alarmed by it to expect a much sorer punishment; He is chastened with pain upon his bed, and the multitude of his bones with strong pain f and then, under the sense of guilt and dread of wrath, counts upon nothing else but that his life shall go to the destroyers.*' But he has a friend with At'jN, an interpreter, one among a thousand,^ who shows him God's uprightness; his hatred of sin; and yet his readiness to pardon sinners. This be begins to give heed to, and take hold of, and thinks of returning to God, as the prodigal to his father's house; and then he is gracious to him;' meets him in his jeturn, and says. Deliver him from going down to the pit ; let him be discharged from these pains, from these terrors, for / have found a ransom, a ransom for the soul. The sinner has said unto God, Do not condemn me;t and God has said, There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesiu.^ They in their repentings condemn themselves; men in their reproaches condemn them ; and it cannot be denied, but that there is that in them which deserves condemnation. But it is God that iustijies, and then who is he that shall condemn? Christ died, and therefore the believer shall not: he is afflicted and chastened of the Lord, but he shall not be condemned with the world,' that lies under the curse.
Well, this is a good step toward the forgiving of the debt; now there begins to be hope in Israel concerning this thing; herein appears the divine pity and compassion, God's slowness to anger, and readiness to show mercy; and this long-suffering of the Lord is salvation.'^ But the proceedings may perhaps be stopt for the present, and yet may be revived another time; a judgment that has long lain dormant may come against a man when he least thinks of it, and therefore God in forgiving these debts goes farther; for, (2.) He cancels the ^luf, vacates the judgment, and disannuls the hand-writing that was against us, b2Sam. xli.13. sJobxxxiii. 19. dJobxxxiii.22. • Job zxziil. 23. f Job xxxiil. 34. fr Job x.2. h Rom. viii. I. 11 Cor. xi. 32. k 9 Pet iii. IS. 1 Col. ii. U. m Heb. viil. 13. that was contrary to us, and takes it out of the way.' He pardons sin thoroughly and fully, so as to remember it no more " agnst the sinner. He casts it behind his back," as that which he is determined never more to inquire after; casts it into tbe depths of the sea,** as that which shall never more appear or come to light, as it might at low water, if it were cast near the shore side. The iniquity of Jacob shall be sought for and not be found :p therefore God is said to blot out tbe iniquities of poor penitents, as the memorandum of a debt is blotted oat when it is paid or pardoned ; he not only crosses the book, which leaves it legible, but blots it out, not to be read; for so is the promise to a true penitent. All his transgressions that he hath committed shall not be mentioned unto him,^ he shall not be so much as upbraided with them. It is blotted out as a cloud, as a thick cloud, by the heat of the sun; it is vanishetf, and there appears not the least remainder of it; The transgression is removed from the transgressors as far as the east is from the west* These and many the like expressions, give us abundant assurance that the sin once pardoned shall not rise up in judgment against the sinner another day; and give us abundant occasion to say, Who is a God like unto thee, pardoning iniquity ?
Well, this secures the life, and happiness, and eternal welfare of the penitent believer: but still be may want present comfort. The bond may be cancelled, and he not know it; the sentence of absola-tion passed, and yet he not hear the voice of joy and gladness ;* so that the broken bones are still complaining: therefore God is pleased many times to carry this act of grace on yet further.
(3.) He {pves an acquittance, and delivers it by his Spirit into the believer's hand, speaking peace to him, filling him with comfort, arising from a sense of his justification, and the blessed tokens and pledges of it When he says. Son, daughter, be of good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee ;■ (as be spake comfortably unto Zion, saying. Thy warfare is accomplished, thine iniquity is pardoned ;^) then be gives up the bond cancelled, to the unspeakable satisfaction of the penitent We read of a woman who had been a sinner, a notorious sinner, who, upon her repentance, had much forgiven her, and showed it by her loving much ;* yet afterwards Christ not only said of her, Her sins whick are many are forgiven, but turned and said to her. Thy sins are forgiven thee, and. Thy faith hath saved thee, to set forth this further act of divine favour, in causing as to hear God's loving-kindness, and to taste that he is i gracious.
Well, blessed, thrice blessed are they whose iniquities are thus forgiven, and to whom they are n In. xxxvili. 17. • Mic. vii. 10. pJer. f.3a , qlaa-xliii. 36. r Euk. xviil. 23. • P9.ciii..l2. tPs.1i. a u Matt. ix. 3l r Isa. xl. 3. w Luke v)i. 47,4&
FORGIVENESS OF SIN.
807 not imputed ; who by their own experience of the breaking of the power of sin in them, are made to know that the guilt of sin is removed; and to whom it appears, by their being reconciled to God, and to bis whole will, that God is in Christ reconciled to them. But may it be hoped that these criminals shall not only be pardoned, but preferred* and made faTOurites again ? Yes, to complete the mercy, he not only forgives the debts we have contracted, but, (4.) He condescends to deal with us again, audio admit us into covenant and communion with himself. Tboqgh we have gne behind-hand in our rent, he remits the arrears, and continues us his tenants; though we have buried and wasted our talents, yet he continues us in his service, and intrusts us with more. Those we have been great losen by, though we may forgive them, yet we do not forget them, nor care for trusting them again. But in this, as in other things, the God with whom we have to do, is Gikl and not man ; heforgivei and/br-geu, and yet will be no loser in his glory by forgiving. Lord! what is man, that he should be thus regarded? that he should not only be delivered from going down to the pit, bgt that his life should see the light,' the eternal light, and the paths that lead to it. When we pray that God would forgive us our debts, we pray not only that we may not be rejected, but that we may be accepted in the Beloved, according to the riches of that grace wherein he has abounded toward us ;7 that with the remission of sins, we may receive the gift of the Holy Ghost,' the earnest of the Spirit, and tkat, at length, which it is the earnest of, even an inheritance among all them who are sanctified; for whom he justified them he glorified.
2. Having seen how much is included in God's forgiving us our debts, because it is so great a favour, that we may be tempted to think it too much for sacb worthless unworthy creatures as we are to expect, let us next inquire, what ground we have to hope for it: how is it that a God infinitely just and holy, should be thus readily reconciled to a giilty and polluted sinner upon bis repenting ? If we owe a great sum of money to a man like ourselves, we could not have the face to go to him, and desire him to remit it, when we have not wherewithal to make any composition with him. Why should not a just debt be paid ? and if nothing is to be had, why should not the debtor be sold,* currat lex — ond the law take its eourte ? What reason have we to expect that the lawful captive should be delivered 1^ Blessed be God we may expect it, we may be sure of it, if we tepent and believe the gospel.
(1.) We may ground our expectations upon the goodness of his nature. This is so much his glory, that by it he has proclaimed his name not only gra-rious and merciful in general, but in this particular s Job xxxiii. SS. «IflL xlix. 34.
7 Epb. i. 6,7. t AcU ii. 36. • Matt xviii. 35. e Ezek. xxziT. 6^7. d Matt, xviii. 37. I instance, so that he forgives iniquity, transgression, and sin f and therefore pardons the sin, because he desires not nor delights in the ruin of the sinner. How vast were the compassions of that prince in the parable, which moved him to forgive so great a debt, as that of ten thousand talents \^ And yet, as heaven is high above the earth, so do the divine compassions exceed those: Israel of old found them so, when their transgressions were so very numerous, so very heinous; yet he being full of compassion, forgave their iniquity. Merciful men will sometimes lend, hoping for nothing again; and where nothing is to be had, will not be rigorous nor extreme in demanding their right: and shall not the Father of mercies take pity on the miserable ? He who is good, and therefore ready to forgive; merciful and gracious,* and therefore removes our transgressions from us as far as the east is from the west.^ He is a God with whom that plea is of force, What ftrojlt is there in my blood? And whose soul was geved for the misery of Israel,s though they brought it upon themselves by' their own sin and folly.
Well, it is true that God is infinitely good, and we have abundant reason to hope in his mercy, and abundant encouragement to plead it with him ; but it is as true that he is just and righteous, that he is the great Governor of the world, and the honour of his government must be maintained; his injured justice calls for satisfaction, and one attribute of his shall not be glorified by the damage and reproach of another. It is true, he is merciful, and yet there is a world of angels who lie, and are like to lie for ever, under the pouring out of the full vials of his wrath; and therefore, though his goodness and mercy, as it is revealed to us in the Scripture, is our great encouragement, yet, (2.) We are to ground our expectations upon the mediation of our Lord Jesus. Therefore God forgives our debt, because Jesus Christ, by the blood of his cross, has made satisfaction for it, and given his life a ransom for ours: which is so far from lessening the freeness of that grace which forgives us, that it greatly magnifies it, for it was he himself who found the ransom,** it was he himself who gave his Son to be a propitiation for our sins.* And herein more than in any thing he commended his love,'' that he would not only forgive our debt, but put himself to such vast expense of blood and treasure, that he might do it so as to secure, nay to declare, his righteousness ; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness; (such an emphasis does the apostle lay upon this;) that he might be not only merciful but just, and the justi-fier of them who believe in Jesus.^ If sinners are debtors, it is Christ who is their surety, upon the account of whose satisfaction their debt is forgiven: Christ is called the surety of the covenant ;^ not that e Ps. Ixxxvi. A. f Ps. ciii. 8,12. rJudg.x. 16. h Job xxxiii. 34. i 1 John iv. 10. k Rom. v. 8. 1 Rom. iii. 25,80. » Heb. vii. 23.
A SERMON ON
he was originally bound in the bond with us, as if it were implied in the penalty annexed to the coTe-nant of innocency, which was, Thou thaU surely die, that is, ihou or thy surety. No, Christ's undertaking supposes us already debtors, and under arrest for the debt; so that Christ comes in rather as bail to the action, than as a secondary undertaker from the beginning. His office as mediator takes it for granted, that God and man are at variance, for a mediator is not of one ;■» we are looked upon as under the law, that is, under the curse, when Christ to redeem us makes himself sin and a curse for us.» Let us see how this is done.
[1.] Our Lord Jesus Tolnntarily undertook to be a surety for us: pitying our deplorable case, and concerned for his Father's injured honour, that divine justice might be satisfied, and yet sinners saved, he offered to make his own soul a sacrifice for sin, and himself a propitiation, answering the demands of the law, as the propitiatory, or mercy-seat, exactly answered the dimensions of the ark. The Father intrusted him with this great piece of service, and he voluntarily and cheerfully consented to it: he said, Lo, 1 come, and not only did this vrill of God, but delighted to do it ;p drawn to it, and held to it, with no other cords but those of his own love, and the agreeableness of his undertaking to his Father's commandment
Christ had no debt of his own to pay, for he always did those things that pleased his Father. Such was the dignity of his person, and such the value of the price he paid, that he had wherewithal to make full satisfaction, and to pay this debt, even to the last mite. He said. Upon me he the curse, my Father. Thus he became bound for us, as Paul for Onesimus to Philemon his master: If he have wronged thee, or oweth thee ought, I Paul have written it with my own hand, the blessed Jesus has written it with his own blood, / will repay it.^ And this undertaking of Christ's shall redound more to the glory of God, eyen to the glory of his justice, than the damnation of these sinners would have done ; for if they had perished, the righteousness of God would have been, to eternity, but in the satirfy-ing; but now, by the merit of Christ's death, it is once for all satisfied, and reconciliation made for iniquity. Thus he restored that which he tooh not away.'
Let us pause a little, and think with wonder and thankfulness of this glorious undertaking. How great was that kindness and love of God our Saviour towards man, which set this work going I How admirable the wisdom that contrived it! The wisdom of God in a mystery.* Let every crown be thfown at the Redeemer's feet, and every song sung to his praise. Who is this that engageth his heart to n Gal. iii.20. e QfU. ill 10, la p Pb. xl. 7. q Phil. 18. 19. r Ps. Ixix. 4. • I Cor. ii. 7 t Jer. zxx. ai.
IML liii. 1. T In. lilt. 12. » Isa. zl 2. approach unio God,* as a surety for us ? It is he who speaks in righteousness, and will never unsay what he has said, for he is mighty to save," be is almighty.
[2.] Having made himself a surety for us, he made full satisfaction to divine justice for our debt, by the blood of his cross. He poured out his soul unto death,' not only for our good, but in our stead; and paid, though not the idem — the same, that we should have paid, yet the tantundem — the equivalent, that which was more than equivalent; so that in him God might be said to have received double for all our sins,* so much was the Father glorified in him.
God charged the debt upon him, according to his undertaking. Those he undertook for being insolvent, the action was brought against him; and God laid upon him the iniquity of us all;' made it all to meet upon him, (so the word is,) as the sins of all Israel were made to meet upon the head of the goat, that on the day of atonement was to be sent into a land of forgetfulness.y Solomon says. He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it, shall be broken by it: our Lord Jesus being surety for us who were strangers and forcipiers, he smarted for it ;* for it pleased the Lord to bruise him, and put him to grief
He voluntarily and freely paid the debt; his life was not forced from him, but he laid it down of himself.^ The satisfaction was to be made to God in his HONOUR; for in that he had been injured, and to that he had an eye, when he said. Father, glorify thy name,^ take the satisfaction that is demanded. And it was to be made by his death, for without shedding of blood, that blood which is the life, there was no remission; and, therefore, he laid down his life with these words. Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit i that life, that soul, which is to be given as a ransom for many, I here give to thee; I put it into thy hands, as the surety pays the debt into the hands of the creditor, the proper per-son to receive it.
[3.] The satisfaction which Christ made for oor sins was graciously accepted, and God was so well pleased in him,* as to be well pleased with us in him. This was a further act of divine grace; for in strict justice it might have been insisted on, that the law should have had its course against the sinners themselves. Christ intimated, that pursuant to the counsels of peace,' which were between the Father and him, concerning man's redemption, his arrest should be our discbarge, when he said to those who seized him in the garden. If ye seek me, let these go their way.% He delivered up himself to suffer and die, that we might be delivered from wrath and ruin, and divine justice agreed to it s ISL liii. 6. y Lev. xvi.si. « Prov. xi. 15. • In. liil. 10. b John X. 18. e John xli. 98. d Luke xxiii. 4S.
Matt xTii. 5. f Zech. vi. I3l r John xviii. &
FORGIVENESS OF SIN.
809
In token of the acceptance of his satisfaction, God raised him from the dead, sent an angel to roll away the stone from the door of the sepulchre, and so to release the prisoner; which he did, and then sat upon it in triumph, signifying that then death had no more dominion over him, but was perfectly conquered and abolished. But are we certain that he had a fair discharge? Yes, for he was often seen alive, seen at liberty, and the Father having raised him from the dead, set him at his own right hand, which would have been no place for him, if he had not fully made good his undertaking. Christ's death beio the payment of our debt, for he was delivered for oar offences, his resurrection was the taking out of oar acquittance, for he rose again for our justifi-cation.i Therefore the apostle lays the stress of our faith, hope, and comfort upon this. Who is he that shall condemn? Who can take out an execution against us ? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again :^ by which it appears that his dying for as was accepted, especially since he now is even at the right hand of God making intercession in the virtue of his satisfaction; and it is an effectual intercession, for the Father hears him always.
[4.] The satisfaction being accepted, a release of debts is published and proclaimed in the everlasting gospel to all penitent and obedient believers. Full assurance is given them that their sins shall be pardoned, and they shall be made accepted in the Beloved. The preaching of the gospel is called the proclaiming of the acceptable year of the Lord,^ in allasion to the year of release, which was every seventh; and, especially, to the year of jubilee, which was every fiftieth ;* when all debts were discharged, mortgaged possessions restored, and all encumbrances on men's estates taken off. And this was proclaimed by sound of trumpet in the evening of the day of atonement, to signify, that upon the account of the atonement which Christ was to make, poor sinners should be delivered from that wrath and corse to which they were bound over, and brought into the glorious liberty of God's children, and restored to all the glorious privileges and inheritances of free-born Israelites. Blessed is the people that hear this joyful sound,* the trumpet of the everlasting gospel publishing this release, this act of indemnity, liberty to the captivesj and the opening of the prison to them that were bound.
These glad tidings of great joy are to be brought to all people; whoever will come and take the benefit of this general release, and sue out a particular discharge upon it, on very easy and unexceptionable terms; for the gospel excludes none, who do not by their own wilful impenitence and unbelief exclude themselves. Nay, we have not only this discharge offered us, but we are courted, and earnestly invited, h Matt, nviii. 3. i Rom. !▼. SS. k Rom. tUI. 34. t Luke iv. 19. m Lev. », 9, 10. a Pb. luxix. lAb o 3 Cor. V. 19, 30. to come in and accept of it. God having in Christ laid a foundation for the reconciling the world unto himself, has sent his ambassadors, not only to propose the matter to us, but to beseech us, nay, God does by them beseech us to be reconciled to God,* though it had better become us to beseech him first to be reconciled to us.
[5.] It is upon the account of Christ's satisfaction, that our sins are actually pardoned upon our repenting and believing; and that is it which we are to plead with God, and to rely upon as a valid plea in our prayers to God for the forgiveness of our debts. In his righteousness we must appear before God; making mention of that, even of that only, and not thinking to justify ourselves.P It is through his blood that we have redemption, even the remission of sins,4 for that is it which, having been shed for us without the city, speaks for us vdthin the veil, and speaks better things than that of Abel;'' and he still appears in the midst of the throne, a Lamb as it had been slain,* newly slain, and bleeding afresh, to intimate the constant perpetual virtue of his satisfaction, and the continual advantage which believers have and may have by it.
In praying for the forgiveness of our sins, we must have an eye to Christ as our Redeemer; the Redeemer of our persons that were in bondage, and of our inheritance which was in mortgage. He is our Goel; Job calls him so, and the prophets often: it is the title of the next hinsman; who by the law was to redeem the possession which his brother sold.^ Christ having taken our nature upon him, is become our kinsman, and he is the next kinsman who is able to redeem, so that to him the right of redemption does belong: and he has graciously condescended to do the kinsman's part; so that we return to our inheritance again, from which we had other¥rise been for ever banished ; and have the earnest of it until the complete redemption of the purchased possession." We must also in a particular manner have an eye to his death as our ransom: for the sake of which we are delivered from going down to the pit.^ Very fitly therefore is that sacrament which is the memorial of his death, made the seal of our pardon.
3. Having showed you how sad your case is upon the account of sin, and what a dangerous debt it is; and yet that your case is not desperate, but there is hope for you through grace, I promise myself, you will now be willing and glad to hear, what is expected and required from you, that you may obtain this favour, and that your debts may be forgiven. Christ, as a surety for us, has made satisfaction; but what must we do that we may have an interest in that satisfaction ? It is true that atonement is made for sin, and is accepted as sufficient to gpround a P Ps. IxxL 16. q Eph. i. 7. r Heb. xil. 34. ■ Rev. ▼. & t Lev. xzT. 35. « Eph. 1.14. ▼ Job zzxlil. 94.
A SERMON ON
treaty of peace upon; and yet it is as true, that multitudes perish eternally under the load of this debt, and continue in their captivity, notwithstanding the proclamation of liberty. It therefore concerns us all to see to it, that we be duly qualified, according to the tenor of the new covenant, for the comforts of a sealed pardon and a settled peace; and that we may be so, (I.) We must eonftis the debt, with a humble, lowly, penitent, and obedient heart. We must own ourselves guilty before God, and concluded under sin. Let not those expect to prosper, or recover themselves from under this load, who cover their sins, for they, and they only, who confess and forsake them, shall find mercy." We arc charged as debtors, and must not go about to deny the debt, no, nor to excuse or extenuate it; but be ready to acknowledge that we have sinned, and have perverted that which was right, and it profited us not;» that we have been both unjust to God and injurious to ourselves, as debtors are.
In confessing the debt we must be particular; must not only own that we are sinners, but, in this and the other instance, we have sinned; not for information to God, he knows our sins better than we ourselves know them, but for humiliation and warning to ourselves. / have tinned, (says David,) and have done this evil J I have sinned, (says Achan,) and thus and thus have I done.* And the more particular we are in the acknowledgment of sin, the more comfort we may expect to have in the sense of the pardon. If I can say, '' This sin I confessed; I trust, through grace, this sin is pardoned, and shall not be laid to my charge. But then this confession of sin must be accompanied with true remorse and godly sorrow for it; we must bewail it, and bemoan ourselves because of it; must give glory to God, and take shame to ourselves in making this confession: And as the prodigal when we own we have sinned against God, we must own, that we are no more worthy to be called his children ; nay, that it were a righteous thing with him to deliver us to the tormentors. And if we thus judge ourselves, we shall not be judged.
(2.) We must achnowledge a judgment of all we have to our Lord Jesus, who has been thus kind to satisfy for our debt. This is one proper act of faith. To resign, surrender, and give up ourselves, our whole selves, body, soul, and spirit; all we are, have, and can do; to be under the direction and government of his word and Spirit, to be devoted to his honour, employed in his service, and disposed of at his will. Our own selves we must give unto the Lord,* and to us to live must be Christ: our all must be put into his hands, must be laid at his feet. It is indeed a very poor counter-security, but such w Prov. xxviii. 13. *. Job xzxiii. 37. j Ps. li. 4. s Josh. vii. 30. • 2 Cor. viii. 5. b Luke i. 74, 7S. e Titus ii. 14 as it is he requires it, and is pleased to accept of it, provided we be sincere and faithful in the sur render.
There is good reason why we should do this ; for therefore he delivered us out of the hands of our enemies, that we might serve him ;^ therefore redeemed us, that we might be to him a peculiar people, purijied from sinful works, and zealous oj good works.^ Nor can we do better for ourselves, than to give up ourselves entirely to Christ; we are never more our own, than when we are wholly his. If we resign ourselves to him, it is in trust for the securing of ourselves, and our own true welfare, that we may not again be our own ruin. Thus will he complete his kindness to us, if it be not our own fault: he who was our surety to save us from perishing under the load of guilt we had contracted, will be our trustee, to save us from faliini a$cain under the like load ; for he has said, Sin shall not have dominion over you.^ Thus will he perfect all that which concerns us ;* and if we commit ourselves and our all to him, we shall find he is able to keep what we have committed unto him against that day, and he will be found a faithful trustee.
(3.) We must give to Christ the honour of our pardon, by relying entirely on his righteousness as our plea for it; acknowledging that other foundation of hope can no man lay,' and other fountain of joy can no man open. We must for ever disclaim all dependence upon our own sufficiency, and with the highest satisfaction rest upon Christ only as a complete and all-sufficient Saviour. The great concerns of our immortal souls, our reconciliation to God, and our felicity in him, we must lodge in his hands, by a submission not only to his government, as the Lord our Ruler, but to his grace, as the Lord our Righteousness, made of God to us righteousness,^ that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.^ For, thus, boasting is for ever excluded, and he that glories must glory in the Lord.
(4.) We must study what we shall render to him who has loved us, who has so loved us. Let us mention it to his praise, take all occasions to speak of that great love wherewith he loved us, in purchasing for us the remission of that great debt. We cannot expect an interest in Christ and his righteousness, unless we be willing to own our obligations to him, as those who are sensible the bonds he has loosed us from * bind us closely and constantly to him, (6.) We must engage ourselves for the future that we will render to God the things that are his, and be careful not to run in debt again. If we would find mercy, we must not only confess our sins, but forsake them, and keep close to the way of onr doty. Ceasing to do evil, and learning to do well, are the commanded fruits of repentance, and without those
4 Ps. cxxxviii. a g 1 Cor. i. 30.
f I Cor. iii. 11. * Ps. CXTi. 16.
FORGIVENESS OF SIN.
811 we cannot expect the promised fruits of it Has God graciously remitted us our arrears, let us pay oor rent more panctually for time to come. Every day is a rent day with us, and we most be careful, by filling up time with duty, and doing the work of every day in its day, to pay our rent duly; and wherein we come short, balance our accounts with the blood of Christ, which cleanses from all sin,*' by a renewed application of the virtue of that to our souls; and thus keep touch with him who is, and ever will be, faithful to us. Have we wasted our talents,! and so contracted debt, and yet are we still intrttsted with them? Let us henceforth be more diligent in the improvement of them, that by the blessing and grace .of oor Master, our five talents may be made other five, and we may have our Master's approbation, and enter at length into his joy. And let us always remember, that God speaks peace to his people, and to his saints, on this condition, that they do not return agn to folly.*" (6.) Our forgiving others is made the indispensable coodition of our being forgiven of God. Nothing can be more express than this, If we forgive not men their tregpatses neither will our Father who is in heaven forgive us ours.^ For God will have his children to be like him, merciful as he is merciful, and good as he is, even to the evil and unthankful. That servant in the parable, who was rigorous in exacting a small debt from his fellow-servant, by that instance of the hardness of his heart made it to appear, that he was never truly humbled for his own debt to his Lord, that great debt, nor ever truly sensible of his Lord's kindness to him in forgiving it ,* and therefore, his repentance being counterfeit, his pardon was never ratified, but he was delivered to the tormentors, as a wicked servant®
Let this consideration prevail to pacify the most provoked, and mollify the most severe ; let it not only suppress every root of bitterness in us, but extirpate it and pluck it up: let us not harbour the least tboabts of malice and revenge against those wbo have been any way injurious tons, nor render to any evil for evil, nor be extreme to mark what is done amiss against as; for what then shall we do, when Gtf riseth up, and when he visiteth, what shall we anncer him .'r
And now,(bretbrcn,) having very briefly and plainly opened to you this great concern that lies between >oa and God, I must leave it to you to make the application of what has been said, each of you to yourselves ; nay, I hope you have been applying it as we have gone along; for these are things of which none of us can say. They belong not to us. Leave it to you, did I say ?—I leave it with God by his Spirit to apply it to all your consciences, that you may be delivered into the mould of these great truths. I
V 1 Jdm 1.7. 1 Matt. xxv. SO. m Pt. Ixxxv. S n Matt vi. 14, lA • Matt xviii. 39, 34. p Job xxxi. 14. q Hag. i. 5. shall therefore close only with a few words of ex* hortation upon the whole matter.
1. Do not delay to come to an account with your own consciences, but search diligently and impartially, that you may see how matters stand between you and God. Consider your ways,'* search and try themJ Commune with your own hearts, saying, What have I done ? What have I done amiss ? Take an account of your debts to God, as all prudent tradesmen do of their debts to those with whom they deal. Think how many the particulars are, how great the sum total is, and what circumstances have enhanced the debt, and run it op to a great height; how ex^* needing sinful your sins have been, how exceeding hateful to God, and hurtful to yourselves. Put that question to yourselves which the unjust steward put to his lord's debtors. How much owest thou unto my Lord? and tell the truth as they did, for themselves; and do not think to impose upon God, by making the matter better than it is, as the steward did for them, writing fifty for a hundred.*
2. Be thoroughly convinced of your misery and danger by reason of sin ; see process ready to be taken out against yon, and consider what is to be done: it is no time to trifle, when all you have is ready to be seized, and if the present season be slipped, you know not how soon the things that belong to your peace may be for ever hid from your eyes, and you will rue your carelessness when it is too late to retrieve what you have lost by it.
3. Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are in the way with him ;* make your peace with God, and do it with all speed. You need not send to desire conditions of peace,* they are ofiered to you, if you will but accept of them; and they are not only easy but very advantageous. Take the advice which Solomon gives to his son who is insnared in suretyship. Do this, my son, that thou mayest deliver thyself, go humble thyself, and thereby thou wilt not only pacify an adversary, but make sure a friend: and give not sleep to thine eyes, nor slumber to thine eyelids, till thou hast done this.^
4. In order to the making of your peace with God, make sure your interest in Jesus Christ, and make use of him daily for that purpose: retain him of counsel for you in this great cause on which your all depends, and let him be not only your plea but your pleader, for that is his office; If any man sin, and so run into debt, we have an advocate with the Father,^ who is ready to appear for us, and attends continually to this very thing. Be advised by him, as the client is by his counsel, and tiien refer yourselves to him, put your case into his hand and say. Thou shah answer, Lord, for me, when I have nothing to say for myself.
5. Renew your repentance every day for your sins r Lani. lit 40. Q Luke xiv. 33.
■ Luke xvt 5, 6. y Ptov. vi. 3, 4. t Matt V. 25. w I John it I-
A SERMON ON THE FORGIVENESS OF SIN. of dailJ infirmity, and be earnest witb God in prayer for the pardon of them. Hereby we give to God the glory of his never-failing mercy, which abundantly pardons; and to Christ the glory of his inex-haastible merit and grace; and keep ourselves continually easy by leaving no guilt to lie upon the conscience nnrepented of. '* Even reckonings (we say) make long friends.'' And the more we are humbled for our daily sins, and the more we see of our obligation to Christ, and his merit, for the pardon of them, the more watchful we shall be against them, and the more careful to abstain from all appearances of evil, and approaches towards it.
Lastly, Let those to whom much is forgiven, love much.* We have all of us much forgiven us, it is a X Luke vii 48,43. yery great debt from which we have been discharged; now it may be expected, that we should have our hearts accordingly enlarged in gratitude to him who Jhst loved us, who mo loved us, and gave himself for us, loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood. How shall we express our love to him ? What box of precious ointment shall we pour upon his head ? What song of love shall we sing to his praise! O that the love of Christ may constrain us? to love him, and live to him, who loved us and died for ns; to be faithful and constant in our love to him, who having loved his own which were in the world, loveth them unto the end,* and will love them all at length into the world of everlasting love.
« John xULl.
HOPE AND FEAR BALANCED:
IN
A SERMON,
PREACHED AT THE TUESDAY LECTURE, AT SALTERS HALL,
JULY, 24th, 1711.
Psalm cxlvii. 11.
The Lord tmkeik pleasure in them that fear him, in those that hope in hie mercy.
The dignity and privilege of the righteous, who are God's favourites, here appear bright and blessed, very blessed, very bright; and to an eye of faith, the lustre of them far exceeds even that of crowns aod coronets; though their honour like their life is hidden,* and, therefore, the world knows them not.^ What can prove them more great, what more happy, thaa this, that the God of heaven tahee pleasure in them?
That God should be at peace with any of the chil-dreo of men, (that degenerate, guilty, and obnoxious race,) is more than we could have expected, considering his justice and holiness; but that he should takt pleasure in them, should set them apart for himself,^ gather them in his arms, carry them in his bosom,*' value them as his peculiar treasure, and make them up as his jewels;* this is that which eternity itself will he little enough, and short enough, to be spent in the thankful admiration of. Lord, vket is man thai thou shouldst thus magnify him, and ut thine heart upon him f
God takes pleasure in his saints, that is, in his own image upon them: he rejoiceth in the worh of kis own hands/ Not that God is capable of receiving any addition to the infinite complacency he takes io himself, and in his own perfections, from any creature; but thus he is pleased to express the favour he bears to his chosen.^ He delights not in tkt strength of a horse, (so it is said in the foregoing verse,) he taheth not pleasure in the legs of a man,^ Princes and great men take delight in these, both for their entertainment, they divert themselves with horse races and foot races, and for their service, they
• Col. iii. 3.
* laa. xLll.
b 1 John fit. t.
make use of horse guards and foot guards, bring into the field squadrons of horse and battalions of foot, and review their troops with a great deal of satisfaction. But does God do so ? No, he tahes pleasure in them that fear him : he delights to behold the righteous^^ delights to converse with them, invites them into fellowship with himself, and with them his secret is. He delights to employ them, and makes them the instruments of his glory : and herein he magnifies himself, that he has pleasure in the prosperity of his servants,^
But the CHARACTER here given of God's favourites is THAT for the sake of which I chose this text, and which I shall speak more largely to. They are such as both fear God, and hope in his mercy. The fear of God I know is often put for all religion; but it being here distinguished from a hope in his mercy, I choose rather to understand it in a more limited sense, as signifying a dread of his majesty.
Fear and hope are passions of the mind so contrary the one to the other, that, with regard to the same object, it is strange they should meet in the same laudable character: yet here we see they do so, and it is the praise of the same persons, that they both fear God, and hope in him.
Whence we may ga Uier this doctrine: That in every concern that lies upon our hearts, we should still endeavour to keep the balance even between hope and fear.
We know how much the health of the body de-l»ends upon a due temperament of the humours, such as preserves any one from being predominant above the rest; and how much the safety and peace of the nations result from a due balance of trade and power, that no one grow too great for its neighbours: and, so necessary is it to the health and welfare of our souls, that there be a due proportion maintained between their powers and passions, and that the one may always be a check upon the other, to keep it f Pb. civ. 31. ff Pb. cvl. 4,5. b Ps cxlvii. 10.
HOPE AND FEAR BALANCED. from ranning into extremes; as in these affections mentioned in the text. A holy fear of God must be a check upon our hope, to keep that from swelling into presumption; and a pious hope in God must be a check upon our fear, to keep that from sinking into despondency.
This balance must, I say, by a wise and steady hand, be kept even in every concern that lies upon our hearts, and that we have thoughts about I shall enumerate those that are of greatest importance.
We must keep up both hope and fear,
I. As to the concerns of our souls, and our spiritual and eternal state.
II. As to our outward concerns, relating to the body, and the life that now is.
III. As to the public concerns of the church of God, and our own land and nation.
In reference to each of these, we must always study and strive to support that affection, whether it be hope or fear, which the present temper of our minds and circumstances of our case make necessary to preserve us from an extreme.
I. Nothing certainly does so much concern us, and ought to lie so near our hearts, as the prosperity of our souls, and their happiness in the favour of God, and their fitness to serve him here, and enjoy him for ever. This certainly ought to be the chief and continual care of every man in this life, to approve himself to an eternal God above him, and to prepare himself for an everlasting state before him. This is the concern of the better part, and is of all other the most weighty concern. Now, for the due managing of this concern, it is requisite that we take our work before us, and give each part of it its place and due proportion, so as that one devout affection may not intrench upon and exclude another. As the beauty of God's being consists in the harmony of his attributes, so the beauty of his image on our souls consists in the harmony of our graces, and the concurrence of them all to the maintaining of our due subjection to God, and due government of ourselves.
In eternity there is neither hope nor fear. In heaven they are both lost in an endless fruition: glorified saints, as they are for ever quiet from the ^ear of evil, and out of the reach of it, so they have nothing more or better to hope for, than what they are already entered into the enjoyment of; and what a man sees, why doth he yet hope for ?^ In hell they are both lost in an endless despair: they have nothing to fear there, where they know the worst, and must feel to eternity what they would not fear; nor have they any thing to hope for, when the door of mercy is shut against them, and a great gulf fixed between them and all blessedness, never to be removed. But in our present state, there is and 1 Rom. viii. 94. m Ps. ci. 1. n Pa. Ixviii. 4,5. o laa. Ivil. 1^. p laa. Izvi. 1,2. q Ezod. xzxiv. 6,7. must be a mixture both of hope and fear; and we must keep up our communion with God, and do oor duty to him by the seasonable exercises of bolb : and thus we must sing both of mercy and judgment and sing unto God of both.i
1. We must keep up both a holy dread of God and a humble delight in him; both a reverence of fa is majesty, with a fear of incurring his displeasure, and at the same time a joy in his love and grace, and an entire complacency in his beauty and boanty, and that benignity of his which is better than life.
Our affections toward God must correspond with the discoveries he has made of himself to us. As be has proclaimed his name for our instruction, so we must proclaim it to his praise. Now in God there is both every thing that is awful, and every thing tbat is amiable ; and in his manifestations of himself he seems to have taken a delight in putting these together, and setting the one over against the other. When he makes him.self known in his greatness, as riding on the heavens, by his name J AH, he adds, in the next words, this instance of his goodness, that he is a Father of the fatherless, and a Judge for the widows.'* Is he the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, and dwells in the holy place ?• Yet we must know that with this man he will dwell, to this man he will look, that is of a contrite and humble spiritP And on the other hand, when he tells as how gracious he is in forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin,^ he tells us presently how just he is also, that he will by no means clear the impenitently guilty.
Thus, therefore, must we have an eye to him, both as he is infinitely great, and greatly to be feared, and as he is infinitely good, and greatly to be loved. And as no love one degree short of perfect must cast out all fear;' so no fear, in those who have received the Spirit of adoption, must damp the delight which, as children, we must have in our Father.^ We must both fear God's name, and love it; both fear the commandment, and love it. We must delight ourselves always in the Lord ; and yet we mast make him our fear and our dread,' and be in the fear of him every day, and all the day long. In the duties of religious worship, we must know our disparity ; and in consideration of that we must serve him with reverence and godly fear," because God, even our God, though he be a rejoicing light to those who serve him faithfully, yet he is a consuming fire to those who trifle with him: but we must also knovr our privilege, and draw near to him in full assurance of faith, and must serve the Lord with gladness.^
2. We must keep up both a trembling for sin, an>l a triumphing in Christ, as the propitiation ybf sin. We must be afraid of the curse, and the terrors of it, and yet must rejoice in the covenant, and the r 1 John 1v. 18. • Ps. xxxvii. 4. tlsa. viii. 13.
u Ueb. xii. 28. ▼ Hebu x. 22.
HOPE AND FEAR BALANCED.
815 ncbes and graces of it. With one eye we mast look at the fiery serpents, and see what danger we are in by our hairing been stung by them; but with the other eye we most look up to the brazen serpent ■ lifted ap on the pole, and see what a fair way we are in of being helped and healed by looking to it Look unio me (saith Christ) and be ye Mated.
We mast not so look apon the comforts of the pspel, as to forget the condemnation of the law, and that we are guilty before God, and liable to that condeoination: which we must be ever mindful of, that we may daily reflect with regret upon sin, and may be quickened to flee from the wrath to come, and to flee for refuge to the hope set before us; and tiiat knowing the terrors of the Lord, we may be persuaded to stand in awe and not sin. And yet we must not so look upon the condemnation of the law, as to forget that we are under grace, and not under the law ;* and that we have a Redeemer to rejoice in, and with an entire confidence to rely upon, who died to save his people from their sins. We mast look upon sin, and be humbled, and be afraid of God's wrath ; but at the same time we must look upon Christ, and be satisfied, and hope in his mercy.
3. We must keep up both ajealouty of ourselve», and of our own sincerity; and a gratrfnl thankful sense of GotiTi grace in «#, and the workings of that grace. It is true, the heart of man is deceitful above all things,' and in nothing more so than in its jadgment of itself. We are all apt to be partial in our own favours; to say we are rich and increased vitk goods, when we do not know, or will not own, that we are wretched and miserable.^ We have therefore reason to fear lest we should be mistaken, lest our graces should prove counterfeit, and we should be rejected as hypocrites at last And O that those who live a carnal, worldly, sensual life, under the disguise of a religious profession, were awakened to see their mistake before the flames of hell awaken them! O that fearfulness would surprise those who, indeed, are hypocrites; and that the sinners in Zion were afraid; and that their Tain hopes, which are built upon the sand, might be taken down before they are thrown down !
But let not those who fear the Lord, and obey the voice of his servant, walk in darkness, but trust in the name of the Lord, and stay themselves upon their God.' Let not those who, through grace, are brought to prefer the favour of God before the smiles of the world, and are more in care about the things that relate to the soul and eternity, than about those that have reference only to the body and time; let not their godly jealousy over themselves run into an extreme. Let them not be upon all occasions arraigning their evidences, and questioning. Is the m Jobo ill. 14. n Rev. fii. 17.
• Rom. vi. 14. r ba. 1. to.
p Jer. xTii. 0. • laa. 11.13.
Lord among ifi, or is he not ? Hearken to this, you that tremble at God's word, and are fearing continually every day.* How can you say you do not love God, when yon cannot but say that you would not for all the world wilfully ofiend him, and that there is nothing you desire so much as to be in his favour, and in communion with him ? And therefore, though you have no reason to trust in your own merit, yet you have a great deal of reason to hope in that mercy of God, which accepts the willingness of the spirit, and overlooks the weakness of the flesh.' Why should you wrong yourselves by bearing false witness against yourselves; as they do who make themselves poor, and yet have great riches ?" And why should you wrong God, by robbing him of the honour of what he has wrought for you ? It is true, we must not be proud of our graces, but we must be thankful for them; we must not pretend to justify ourselves to the covenant of inno-cency, for we are not innocent; yet we must not therefore reject the advantages of the covenant of grace, nor put from us the comforts that thence flow.
4. We must keep up both a constant caution over our goingSf and a constant confidence in the grace of God. When we consider how weak we are; how apt to stumble in the way, and wander out of it, apt to tire, and apt to turn aside; we shall see cause enough to walk humbly with God. And yet, when we consider how the promises of divine aids are adapted to our case in all the exigences of it, how rich, how sure they are, and how certainly made good to all those who depend upon them, and by faith derive strength and wisdom from them, we shall see cause enough to walk boldly with God. He wh<^ walks uprightly,y walks with a good assurance, and may travel in the greatness of the strength of him who is mighty to save.
We have need to stand always upon our guard ; as knowing that our way lies through an enemy's country, where we have reason to expect that ambushes will be laid for us, and all the stratagems of war made use of to do us mischief. We have need to look well to our goings, and never so much as to feed ourselves without fear,'' lest our table should become a snare;* nor walk abroad without trembling, lest under the green grass there should be a snake; lest for want of watchfulness we should be surprised by a sudden temptation, for want of resolution we should be overpowered by a violent temptation. Happy is the man who thus fcareth always,' as seeing himself never out of the reach, no, nor ever out of the way of Satan's temptations, till he comes to heaven.
But still in the midst of this fear we must hope in God's mercy, that he will take our part against our spiritual enemies, will watch over us for good, will preserve our souls from sin, from every evil work, ( Mat. zxTl. 41. V Prov. xiii. 7. v Prov. x. 9.
Jade 19. X PsaL Ixix. 22. j Prov. xxviil. 14.
HOPE AND FEAR BALANCED. the only thing that can do them any real damage. What Christ said to St. Paul, when he was buffeted by a messenger of Satan, he has said to all who, like him, fly to the mercy of God, and continue instant in prayer: My grace is sufficient for thety* though thou hast no strength of thy own that is so. Infinite Wisdom knows what grace thy case calls for; and thou sbalt have enough to secure the life and happiness of thy soul, from every thing that aims at its death and ruin. Be strong therefore in the Lord, and in the power of his might; go forth, and go on, in his name; as David against Goliah; and be assured that the God of peace, the God of your peace, will, in order to that, be the God of your victory; he will tread Satan under your feet, will do it shortly, will do it effectually, that he may be to eternity the God otyour triumphs.
6. We must keep up both a holy fear lest we come short, and a yood hope that through grace we shall persevere. If we rightly understand ourselves, we cannot but be often looking forward, and considering what will be our last end, what will be our future state. And what will it be ? Will our end be peace? Will our endless condition be a happy one ?
Truly when we look upon the brightness of the crown set before us, and our own meanness and un-worthiness ; when we look upon the many difficulties that lie in our way, and our own weakness, and utter inability to break through them; we may justly be afraid, lest some time or other we be guilty of a fatal miscarriage, and perish at last. And such a fear as this is recommended to us as a means to keep us from apostasy, that we may not really come short, as the unbelieving Israelites did of Canaan: Let us fear lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of us should seem to come short,* should do any thing that looks like, or tends towards, a drawing back to Egypt again. We have no reason to be secure ; many who thought they stood, stood as high, stood as firm as we, yet have fallen, have fallen fatally and irrecoverably. Let us, therefore, who think we stand, take heed lest we fall,** and with a holy fear and trembling ^ let us be continually working out our salvation. Vigilaniibus non dormi-entibus succurrit lex — The vigilant, not the negligent, are favoured by the law.
Yet let not this fear degenerate into amazement, nor take off our chariot wheels, or make us drive heavily. While we fear lest God should leave us to ourselves, and put us into the hand of our own counsels, as justly he might, and then we are undone, let us hope in his mercy, that having begun a good work in us he will perform it. If it be the work of his own hands he will not forsake it, nay, he will perfect it, if it be indeed that which truly concerns us.^ The same apostle who bids us fear lest
I 9 Cor. xii. 9. c Phil. ii. 13.
> Heb. iv. I. 4 Ps. cxxxviii. 8.
we come short, bids us give diligence to a full assur-ance of hope unto the end ;* for faithful is he that has called us, faithful is he that has promised, who will perform his promise, and perfect his call. To him, therefore, let us commit the keeping of our souls in well doing, the greatest trust to the best trustee; and then let it be our comfort that we Anote? whom we have trusted, even one who is ahU to heep what we have committed to him against that day,^ when it shall be called for.
Thus you see how in the gat concerns of our souls there is occasion both for hope and fear, and each have their work to do, so that the two extremes of presumption and despair, those dangerous rocks, may be avoided. This is the levelling work by which the way of the Lord is to be prepared : by a good hope, every valley shall be exalted, and by a holy fear, every mountain and hill shall be brought low.v And thus the glory of the Lord being revealed, all flesh shall see it together.
II. The balance must likewise be kept even between hope and fear, as to our temporal concerns, about which we cannot be wholly unconcerned. Many cares we have upon our hearts about our life, health, ease, and safety; about our callings and estates, and the prosperity of them; our reputation and interest among men; our relations and families, and our comfort in them: all these we hold between hope and fear, and must take heed, that when things look ever so hopeful we be not rocked asleep in security; and when they look ever so frightful, we do not faint away in despondency.
I. When the world smiles upon us, and our affairs in it prosper, yet then we must keep up a holy fear, and not be too confident in our pleasing prospects ; not flatter ourselves with hopes of the great advancement and long continuance of our peace and prosperity; but balance the hopes which sense suggests, with the fears which reason and religion will suggest. When our bodies are in health, and we are in our full strength, the breasts full of milk, and the bones moistened with marrow ;*> when our relations are all agreeable, and such as we could wish ; when our affairs are in a good posture, the trade growing, the credit firm, and every thing running in our favour; yet even then we must fear God, and the turns of his providence against us, remembering that in such as fear him he takes pleasure.
Let us not say at such a time, as David said in his prosperity,* / shall never be moved my mountain stands so strong, that nothing can stir it, nothing shake a state of health so confirmed, a reputation so established ; or as Job said in his prosperity, / »haU die in my nest, and multiply my days as the sand ;^ or as Babylon in the height of her grandeur, / shall be a lady for ever} I sit as a queen, and shall see no sor f STinLl. 13. i Pi. zxx. S.
f! In. si. a 4. k Job xxlx. la
h Job xxi. M. 1 ba. xlvii. 7.
HOPE AND FEAR BALANCED.
817 row.'^ Let us never promise ourselves, that because this day smiles upon us, to-morrow must needs be as this day, and much more abundant;° since we know not what shall be on the morrow, nor what one day may bring forth. Let us not put the evil day far from us, which for ought we know may be Tcry near, and at the door. But, to prevent the security we are in danger of falling into at such a time, (I.) Let us keep up an awful regard to the sovereignty of the Divine Providence, and its disposals of us and ours. We are in its hands, as clay is in the band of the potter,e to be formed, unformed, new formed, as be pleases. That which seemed designed for a vessel of honour, is either marred, or with one turn of the wheel made a despised vessel, in which there is no pleasure: and shall we say, dare we say. Why hast thou made me thus ? May not God do what he will with his own creature ? and shall he not fulfil his own counsel, whether we refuse or whether we choose ?^ for we are sure he is debtor to no man.
Whatever we have, it was God who gave it us; and we said when we had it. Blessed be the name of tke Lordy who in a way of sovereignty gave that to Ds, which he denied to others more deserving: and whatever we lose, it is God who takes it away ; and when it is gone, we must say. Blessed he the name of the Lord, who in a way of sovereignty takes from us that which he had given us, and does us no wrong; for we are but tenants at will of all our enjoyments, eren of life itself, and may be turned out at less than an hour's warning, for our times are in God's hands, not in our own.
It is true, that godliness has the promise of the hit that now is; but we must take heed of misunderstanding those promises which relate to temporal irood things, which are all made with this implicit proviso. As far as is for God's glory and our good ; and further than those, if we love cither God or our-sel Tes, we shall not desire them. It is promised, that it shall be well with them tliat fear God ; but it ii not promised that they shall be always rich and i:reat in the world, always in health, and at ease. It is promised, that no evil shall befall them, nothing that shall do them any real hurt; but it is not promised that no affliction shall befall them, for there may be need, that for a season they should be in heaviness, and it shall be for their advantage.
(2.) Let us keep up a full conviction of the vanity of this world, and the uncertainty of all our enjoyments In it We are very unapt scholars, if we have not learned, even by our own experience and obser-TatioD, that there are no pleasures here below that are lasting, but they are all dying things ; and that often proves least safe that is most dear. They are « Rev. xviii. 7. a \i
Ivi. 12. o Jer. xviii. 4,8. p Jobxxxiv. 33. 3 G as flowers which will soon fade, and the sooner for being much smelled to; as snow which will soon melt, and the sooner for being taken up in our hands, and laid in our bosoms. The things we dote so much upon make themselves wingS' (though we should not by our own improvidence and prodigality make them wings) and flee away as an eagle towards heaven. And shall we then set our eyes and hearts upon things that are not, the fashion of which pass-eth away, and we with it?
The things we are so fond of, we call good things, though if we have not grace to use them well, and to do good VFith them, they are to us good for nothing. But the Scripture calls them deceitful riches, and the mammon of unrighteousness, because they put a cheat upon those who depend upon them, and trust in them; they are not what they seem, perform not what they promise, nor last so long as one would think they should. What God has graciously promised us in them, they do perform, but not what we foolishly promise ourselves from them: so that if we are deceived, we may thank ourselves; it is our own fault for trusting to them. They perish in the using,* much more in the abusing. Let those, therefore, who are rich in this world, receive the apostle's charge, not to trust in uncertain riches, because they are uncertain ; nor to lay up their treasure in them, because our estates as well as our bodies are subject, both to diseases, for moth and rust corrupt them, and to disasters, for thieves breah through and steal them. What assurance can we have of, what confidence can we put in, those goods, which may be lost in an instant by the firing of a house, or the foundering of a ship at sea, by the unsuspected fraud of those we deal with, or the overpowering force of those we contend with ? How can we call that our own, which is so much in others' hands, or think to hold that fast; when even that which is in our hand slips through our fingers like dust, especially if wc grasp it hard.