Chapter XXVIII: Part 28

VI. It is a rule as much fitted to awaken us to sincere repentance upon the transgression of it, as it is to direct us to our present duty. This rule abides in the bosom of a christian, it dwells so near him, that it is, as it were, mingled with conscience itself; and by this means it becomes not only a safe guide, but a sharp reprover too: It soon puts us in mind where either inclination or practice warps toward injustice and deceit. Have we never felt our conscience sting us with a bitter reflection derived from this rule, when we have neglected in any instance to fulfil our duty to our neighbour? I am sure if we kept it much in view, we could neither practise injustice with ease of mind, nor dwell long under this guilt, without some inward reproaches: If the precept had not power enough to restrain us from present sin, yet it would spur us on to serious and speedy repentance.

[Here the sermon may be divided, if it be too long to be read in a family at once.]

VII. It is a most extensive rule, with regard to all the stations, ranks and characters of mankind: for it is perfectly suited to them all: And I think it may be said, that it is equally useful to the rich and the poor, to the buyer and the seller, to the prince and to the peasant, to the master and the servant: They all come under the single rule of duty and justice: This should govern them in all their conduct. Be your condition, O christians, what it will in the world, do but put yourselves into the circumstances of one another, in your own thoughts, for a moment, and ask what is reasonable to be done to yourselves? And your consciences will return a speedy and easy answer what you should do to others.

Let the tenant say, “If I were a landlord, what should I think reasonable that my tenant should pay me?” And the landlord should ask himself, “Were I a tenant, what should I claim of my landlord?” I would have the master enquire, “What should I expect, if I were a servant, at the hand of my master?” And let the servant say, “What, if I were a master, should I expect from the hands of one that served me?” Parents should ask themselves, “if I had been a negligent child, and guilty of some trifling offence, could I think it just my father should be in such a passion with me?” And the son should enquire, “if I were a father, would I not think it reasonable my child should obey me in such particular instances or commands?” Thus the landlord and tenant, thus the master and servant, thus the father and the son may come to an adjustment of their mutual obligations.

The merchant should say to himself, “if I were an artificer, should I think it reasonable that the labour of my hands, and the sweat of my brows, should be screwed down to so cheap a price?” The seller of goods should say, “If I were the buyer, would I think it just to have such corrupt or faulty wares put into my hands? Am I willing to have my necessity, my ignorance, or unwariness thus imposed upon?” And the buyer should ask himself, “If I were the seller, should I bear to have my goods thus run down and depreciated below the just value?”

The learned professions may also learn their duty from this rule. The lawyer should say to himself, “What if I were the client should I think it equitable to have my cause so long delayed, by so many shiftings and escapes, from a determination?” The physicians and the surgeons should put themselves in the places of their sick and wounded patients, and say, “Do we prescribe never a potion, or use never a plaster more than we would think proper for ourselves, if we were languishing under the same sickness or wounds? Do we take the same safe and speedy methods of relief for others that we would have applied to ourselves?” And the preachers of the gospel should place themselves in the room of their hearers, and say, “Do we labour in our closets, in our secret hours of retirement, and in our public ministrations, for the conversion and salvation of those who hear us, as we would have ministers do for us, if we were perishing in our sins, and in danger of eternal death? Do we take such pains to awaken the slumberers upon the borders of hell, as we ourselves would have others take, in order to awaken us out of such fatal slumbers? Do we study and contrive with what divine cordials we shall refresh and comfort the mourners in Zion, even as we should desire to be comforted and refreshed?” Such sort of self-enquiries as these, will lead us to the practice of our present duty, and solve many a difficult case of conscience better than turning over the largest volumes.

VIII. This sacred rule is a most comprehensive one, with regard to all the actions and duties that concern our neighbours. It is not confined merely to the practice of justice, but it extends much wider and farther: It is of mighty influence in the direction and practice of meekness, of patience, of charity, of truth and faithfulness, and every kind of social virtue, and a most happy guard against every social vice. It would be endless to enter into all the special cases of vice and virtue, which relate to the social life, and to shew how much they are affected by this rule, and what divine advantages we may attain for the practice of morality, by keeping this one sentence ever upon our thoughts. Yet I cannot pass over so important a theme, without giving a short specimen of some of these advantages.

This golden precept would teach us how to regulate our temper and general behaviour in the world. Am I not willing to be treated in an affable and civil manner by those who converse with me? Let me treat others then with all becoming civility, and make it appear that christianity is a religion of true honour, and that a christian is indeed a well-bred man. Do I think it unreasonable that my neighbour, though he be my superior, should assume haughty airs and disdain me? Let me watch therefore against all such scornful speeches and disdainful airs, when I converse with one, who is inferior to me. Do I think it a grievous thing, that a man should break out into sudden passion against me, if I happen to speak a word contrary to his sentiment, or to set himself in a rage for a trifle? Let me set a strict guard then over all my passionate powers, and learn to bear opposition without impatience. Let me quench the first risings of sudden anger, lest they kindle into an ungoverned flame, and hurry me on to the practice of what I condemn in others.

This excellent rule would teach us tenderness and beneficence to those that are unhappy. We should never make a jest of the lame or the blind, the crooked or the deformed: we should never ridicule the natural infirmities of the meanest of our fellow-creatures, nor their providential disadvantages, if we did but put ourselves in the room of the blind and lame, the deformed and the poor, and ask whether we should think it just and reasonable to be made the mockery and the jest of those that behold us. We should certainly be inclined to visit the sick, and feed the hungry, to give drink to him that is a-thirst, and to secure the feeble and helpless from the oppression of the mighty, if we enquired of our own hearts, what treatment we should expect if we were hungry and thirsty, if we were sick and helpless.

This blessed command of our Saviour would incline us to reprove with gentleness, to punish with mercy, and never to censure others without a just reason, and a plain call of providence; for we ourselves desire and would reasonably expect this sort of treatment from others. If we carried this sentence always in our memories, should we blaze abroad scandalous reports before we know the truth of them? and publish doubtful suspicions of our neighbour’s guilt? Should we blacken his character to the utmost, even where there is a real crime, and make no reasonable allowances for him? Should we perpetually teaze children, servants, or friends with old faults, and make their follies and miscarriages the matter of our delightful conversation? Should we censure every little deviation from the truth, as heresy? Should we pronounce anathemas and curses upon him that leaves out of his creed a few hard words which men have invented, or that differs from us in the business of meats, and days, and ceremonies? We ourselves think it hard to have doubtful reports of evil published concerning us, and suspicions blown up into guilt: We think it hard if our crimes are aggravated to the utmost, and no reasonable allowances are made: We find it very painful to us, and think it unreasonable to be ever teazed with the mention of our former follies, or to have our little differences from another’s faith or worship to be pronounced heresy, and to be cut off from the church for it.

In short, if this blessed rule of our Saviour did but more universally obtain, we should never persecute one another for our disagreement in opinion, for we should then learn this lesson, that another has as much right to differ from me in his sentiment, as I have to differ from him. If this rule did but prevail amongst all that own the christian name; then truth, honesty and justice, meekness and love would reign and triumph through all the churches of Christ, and those vile affections and practices of pride, envy, wrath, cruelty, backbiting, and persecution would be banished for ever from amongst us.

IX. It is not only a rule of equity and love to direct our whole conduct toward our neighbours in the social life, but it is also a rule of the highest prudence with regard to ourselves; and it promotes our own interest in the best manner: For if we make conscience of treating our neighbours according to all the justice and tenderness that this rule will incline us to, we may reasonably expect the same kind and tender treatment from those that are round about us. Such a practice will naturally engage the greatest part of mankind on our side, whensoever we happen to be assaulted or oppressed by the sons of malice or violence. Happy is that person who has gained the love of mankind, by making the love of himself a rule and measure of his actions toward them, and has piously followed that precept of the law of God, _Love thy neighbour as thyself_.

Let us remember that we live in a changeable world, and the scenes of life are continually shifting. I am now a master, and in possession of riches, and if I treat my servant, or any poor man insolently, I may expect the like insolent treatment if my circumstances sink, and reduce me to a state of poverty or service. But if I follow this golden rule of our Saviour, in treating my inferiors, I do, as it were, hoard up for myself a treasure of merit and benevolence amongst men, which I may hope to receive and taste of, in the day of my necessity and distress. Thus in behaving myself toward others according to this holy rule of friendship, I not only please and obey my God and my Saviour, but I happily secure my temporal interests also.

X. In the last place, to mention no more. This rule is fitted to make the whole world as happy as the present state of things will admit. It is not to be described nor conceived what a multitude of blessings and felicities the practice of this single precept would introduce among all mankind.

If we were not thus wrapped up entirely in self, in our own party, or in our own kindred, but could look upon our neighbours as ourselves, and seek their advantage together with our own, every man would become a diffusive blessing amongst his neighbours, and the mutual benefits of mankind would scatter happiness through all the world. In such a beneficent state as this, every man would be, as it were, a good angel to all that came within the reach of his commerce; this earth would be a little image of heaven; and our present social life amongst men would be a foretaste of our future happiness among saints and angels. In those glorious regions, every one rejoices in the welfare of the whole community and they have a double relish of their own personal blessedness, by the pleasure they take in contributing to the blessedness of all their fellows.

Thus have I given a short and very imperfect account of the excellencies of this sacred rule of equity and love, and named some of the advantages it has above most other precepts of morality. It remains only that I make two or three reflections on so agreeable a subject.

Reflection I. In what a compendious method has our Saviour provided for the practice of all the moral duties enjoined by Moses and the prophets! For he has summed them up in a very few words, and reduced them to one short rule; but the extent and comprehension of it is universal, and almost infinite.—Though we should forget twenty particular precepts of love and righteousness, yet if this be fresh in our thoughts, and always ready at hand, we shall practise all those particular precepts effectually, by the mere influence of this one general rule. It is true, it is a real advantage toward our practice of virtue and justice, to have the mind stored with special precepts, suited particularly to every case; but where the memory is defective, or other rules are not learned, this golden one will do very much towards supplying the place of many. Our Saviour himself grants this truth, when he says; _This is the law and the prophets_.

II. What divine wisdom is manifested in making this golden rule of equity a fundamental law, in the two most famous religions that ever God appointed to the children of men; that is, the Jewish and the christian! _Love thy neighbour as thyself_, was a rule appointed to the Jews; Lev. xix. 18. This is repeated by our Saviour; Mat. xix. 19. And a happy explication or comment on it given in my text, _Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so unto them; for this is the law and the prophets_. There were none of the heathen philosophers that delivered this as a general law, in so strong, so universal, and so comprehensive a manner as our Saviour has done, though one or two of them offered some occasional hints of the same kind. But our Saviour appoints it as the grand rule of social virtue, amongst all the subjects of his kingdom; and he tells us too, that this is the sum and substance of the directions given by Moses and the prophets for the conduct of men toward their fellow-creatures.

The wisdom of this precept eminently appears herein: Our blessed Lord well knew that self-love would be a powerful temptation to men, to turn them aside from the sacred laws of justice, in treating their neighbours; and therefore he wisely takes this very principle of self-love, and joins it in the consultation with our reason and conscience, how we should carry it toward our fellow-creatures. Thus by his divine prudence, he constrains even this selfish and rebellious principle to assist our consciences and our rational powers, in directing us how to practise the social duties of life.

It was Christ the Son of God who gave laws to Moses for Israel before his incarnation, and it is he who is come in the flesh, as a preacher of righteousness to men, in these latter days; and in both these seasons of legislature, he has manifested this sacred wisdom: _Ye know the heart of a stranger_, saith the Lord, in his dictates to Moses; Ex. xxiii. 2. _for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt; therefore thou shalt not oppress a stranger_. And he gives us still the same general rule for our conduct; “Look into your own hearts, consider what human nature is, you know you are men of like frailty with others, enquire what treatment you would reasonably expect from your fellows, and be sure you practise in the same manner toward them.”

III. Since the wisdom of Christ thought fit to teach us rules of equity and righteousness amongst men, and has, as it were, extracted the very soul and spirit of all social duties, and summed them up in this short sentence: Let not the disciples of Christ forget this rule; nor let the most eminent and exalted christians think it beneath their study and their practice. The love of God and Christ is not the whole of our duty, nor can we be christians indeed, if we neglect to love our neighbour. How vain are all our pretences to faith in Christ, and piety toward God, if we grow careless in our conduct toward men? All our fancied attainments in the school of Christ, how are they disgraced and destroyed, if we abandon this rule of moral virtue, and treat our neighbours contrary to this divine principle of equity and love.

What shall we answer in the great judgment-day to an enquiring God, when in flaming fire he shall put us in mind: “I gave you a plain and easy rule of righteousness in my word, I wrote it in your hearts also, in very legible characters: If you had but looked carefully into your consciences, you might have read it there: But you resolved to sacrifice all to your lusts: you have wronged and defrauded your brethren, and exposed yourselves to my righteous sentence, for your wilful practice of unrighteousness against so plain a law.”

It is a just remark which has often been made on this occasion: “The heathen emperor Severus shall rise up in the judgment with such a generation of christians, and condemn them: For he, by the light of nature, was taught highly to reverence this precept,” when he had learned it from the professors of christianity. You might read it upon the walls of his palace; it was engraven there to govern his court in the times of peace; and it is said, he carried it to war with him in the banners of his army, that it might regulate his conduct, upon all military occurrences. What a pity it is that Severus was a heathen! Or rather what a shame and sorrow it is, that there should be so few of this character in the courts, in the armies, in the markets, the shops, and the families of christians? When will that blessed day come, that shall bring this departed glory back again to the church of Christ? When shall the spirit of faith and charity be poured down from on high, and righteousness come from heaven to dwell among us?

Recollection.—Blessed Saviour, how great is thy goodness, to give us so complete, so plain, so easy, and so divine a rule to square all our actions in the social life! How happily hast thou comprized Moses and the prophets in two short lines, that is, the command of a supreme love to the Lord our God, and a love to our neighbour like that which we bear to ourselves?

Remember, O my soul, this short and comprehensive lesson; and amongst all thy duties and zeal toward thy God, forget not this rule of conduct toward thy fellow-creatures. I can never complain, it is too high and hard for my understanding to apprehend, or too tiresome and painful for my memory to retain, or too burdensome to carry it about always with me. I am convinced, fully convinced of the justice of it: It strikes upon my conscience with strong light and evidence, and sometimes I feel the force of it, like an inward motive, awakening me to the practice of all that it enjoins. O that I might ever live under its prevailing influences, and then I might humbly appeal to God, that I have transacted my affairs with men, by the principles of sincere godliness, truth and justice.

Forgive, O my gracious God, all the wretched instances of my departure from this sacred law of equity. This sacred law will awaken the soul to repentance, as well as direct it to duty; and whatever station of life I am engaged in, whatever rank, character, office, or relation I bear in the world, or in the church of Christ; let me form all my future conduct by this command of my Saviour, let me bring all my past actions to this holy test, and let my conscience repent or rejoice.

O how bright a lustre would be cast on the religion of Jesus, and on all the professors of it, if this rule were always in use! But alas! it lies silent in our bibles, and we hear it not; or it sleeps in our bosom and we awake it not, when we have most need of its assistance. We read and we forget even this short rule of righteousness, and thus we practice iniquity daily, and injure our neighbours without remorse. O wretched creatures that we are? How great is our negligence and our guilt, that we do not so much as ask our consciences honestly, how we should treat our fellow-creatures; but we ask our lusts and our passions, we enquire of our ambition and pride, our covetousness, our wrath and revenge, how we should behave to others.

Reflect, O my soul, how often thou hast turned aside from this blessed rule of thy Saviour, by consulting with the corrupt principles of flesh and blood. How often hast thou neglected this holy precept, to follow the vicious customs of a sinful world, and a degenerate age! A degenerate age indeed, that has forgot the practise of truth and love! Where shall we write this rule in large and golden letters, that the whole city might read it daily? Shall we engrave it on every door, that all who pass by may see it? Shall it stand fixed to every post of the house, that it may direct all your domestic conduct? Shall it meet us at the entrance of every shop, and thus guard our traffic from iniquity, and sanctify all our commerce? Shall we make a philactery of it, and wear it on the borders of our garments, that we may never put it off, unless we lie down to sleep, and cannot act? But the Spirit of Christ is the best writer of his own golden rule, and the heart of man is the best table to receive and bear this writing. O that the holy Spirit would write this sacred law of justice and love more deeply, more effectually in all our hearts, that the religion of our Saviour might look like itself, all amiable and holy; and that while we give glory to God on high, for his saving grace, we might find peace and truth spreading through all the earth, and good-will multiplied among the children of men. Thus the will of God would be done on earth, as it is in heaven, and the kingdom of our Redeemer come in its expected glory. _Amen._ Even so come Lord Jesus.

HYMN FOR SERMON XXXIII.
_The Universal Rule of Equity._

Blessed Redeemer, how divine,
How righteous is this rule of thine,
“Never to deal with others worse,
Than we would have them deal with us.”

This golden lesson short and plain,
Gives nor the mind nor memory pain:
And every conscience must approve
This universal law of love.

’Tis written in each mortal breast,
Where all our tenderest wishes rest;
We draw it from our inmost veins,
Where love to self resides and reigns.

Is reason ever at a loss?
Call in self-love to judge the cause;
Let our own fondest passion shew
How we should treat our neighbours too.

How bless’d would every nation prove,
Thus rul’d by equity and love!
All would be friends without a foe,
And form a paradise below.

Jesus, forgive us that we keep
Thy sacred law of love asleep;
And take our envy, wrath and pride,
Those savage passions, for our guide.

SERMON XXXIV.
_The Atonement of Christ._
ROM. iii. 25.—Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation——

It is one of the chief glories of the gospel, that it discovers a full atonement for sin by the blood of Christ, that it sets before us the reconciliation of sinners to an offended God, by the death of his own Son. One would be ready to wonder, that any of the guilty race of Adam should be unwilling to receive so divine a discovery, or should refuse a blessing so important.

But such unhappy principles have prevailed over the minds of some men, and particularly the Socinians in the last age, that they have been content to venture their eternal hopes on the mercy of God, without a dependance on the satisfaction made for sin, by Jesus the Saviour. They imagine Christ the Son of God came into our world chiefly to be a teacher of grace and duty, to be an example of piety and virtue, to plead with God for sinners, and in short to do little more than any other divine prophet might have been employed in, if the wisdom of God had so appointed it. They suppose he yielded to death that he might seal his doctrine with his blood, and might set us a glorious pattern of suffering and dying, and then he led the way to our resurrection, by his own rising from the dead.

It is granted indeed, these are some of the designs of the coming of Christ, some of the necessary parts of the blessed gospel: But it seems to me, that this blessed gospel is shamefully curtailed, and deprived of some of its most important designs and honours, if a proper atonement for sin by the blood of Christ be left out of it.

Forgive me, my fellow-christians, if I spend a discourse or two on this great article of our common faith. I think it of so high a moment, that I would fain pronounce and publish it aloud in an age that verges towards infidelity; I would glory in the cross of Christ, and endeavour to support this doctrine with all my power. O may none of those who bear the christian name, ever grow weary of it, or run back again to the mere religion of nature, as though we had no gospel!

I shall not spin out my thoughts, or employ yours in a laborious enquiry into the connection of the words, but take them just as they lie, and make this plain sentence the foundation of my discourse.

Doctrine.—God hath set forth his Son, Jesus Christ, to be a propitiation for the sins of men.

When the apostle says, God hath set him forth, Christ is plainly the person intended: and this greek word προεθετο, set forth, denotes either, 1. That God hath fore-ordained and appointed his Son to become our propitiation by his divine purpose in eternity, which purpose he executed here in time: Or, 2. It intends that God hath set him forth, that is, proposed and offered him to the world as an atonement for the sins of those who trust in the merit of his death; for so the following words intimate, God set him forth for a propitiation, through faith in his blood. I am not solicitous which of these senses the reader will chuse; either of them perfectly agrees with the design of the apostle.

I would just take a brief notice also, that some interpreters transpose the words of the text a little, and read them thus, _whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation in his blood through faith_, and thus they suppose the apostle, in this very verse, declares that Christ atoned for our sins by his own blood: And if this be the true sense of it, it does but more effectually confirm the design of my doctrine, which is to shew that Christ, by his bloody death, became a sacrifice to God, in order to make satisfaction for the crimes of men. My method of discourse shall be this:

I. To explain more at large the manner in which I conceive Christ to become an atonement or propitiation for our sins.—II. To give some reasons to prove, that he is ordained of God, and set forth or offered to the world under this character.—And, III. I shall shew what glorious use is made of this doctrine throughout the whole christian life.

_First_, Let me explain the manner wherein Christ becomes an atonement or propitiation for sin. And to render this point easy to the lowest understanding, I would draw it out into these propositions:

Proposition I. The great God having made man, appointed to govern him by a wise and righteous law, wherein glory and honour, life and immortality are the designed rewards for perfect obedience; but tribulation and wrath, pain and death, are the appointed recompence to sinners who violate his law.

This law is in a great measure engraven on the hearts and consciences of all men by nature; at least the general precepts of it are written in the conscience: And mankind, by the light of nature, has some notion also of these penalties, _viz._ the _indignation and wrath of God on those that do evil_. And such as have enjoyed the benefit of divine revelation, in patriarchal, Jewish, or christian times, have had much clearer discoveries thereof. This might be proved at large from the discourse of St. Paul; Rom. ii. 6-16. compared with Rom. i. 32. _The heathens who are without the law, have the work of the law written in their hearts_, and they know, or might know, that those who break it _are worthy of death_.

II. All mankind have broken the law of God. _There is none righteous; no, not one_; Rom. iii. 10. By sinning against God, we have lost all pretence to the reward of life, and immortality, and glory; Rom. iii. 23. _All have sinned and come short of the glory of God._ And we have also subjected ourselves to guilt and punishment; verse 19. _Every mouth is stopped, and all the world becomes guilty before God._ A sentence of wrath and death is _passed upon all men, for that all have sinned_; Rom. v. 12. and the best of saints were by nature _dead in trespasses and sins, and the children of wrath even as others_; Eph. ii. 1-3.

III. God in His infinite wisdom did not think fit to pardon sinful man, without some compensation for his broken law, some recompence for the dishonour done to his government. He did not see it proper to forgive all our guilt without some satisfaction for breaking his holy commands. I will not enter into that curious enquiry, whether God, considered absolutely as a sovereign, could have done it. It is enough for us that he hath, in effect, declared he would not do it, and that probably for such reasons as these:

1. If the Great Ruler of the world had pardoned the sins of men without any satisfaction, then his laws might have seemed not worth the vindicating. It might have been questioned, whether his statutes were so wisely contrived and framed, as to deserve a vindication, if he had freely forgiven all rebels that had broken them, without any consideration, without any satisfaction at all. It becomes a wise lawgiver to see that his wisdom in framing his laws, be not exposed to dishonour; and therefore his laws must be vindicated, when they are broken.

2. Men would have been tempted to persist in their rebellions, and to repeat their old offences continually, if there had been no vindication of the honour of the law, nor any of the threatenings of it had been executed. Therefore God requires a satisfaction for his broken commands, that his subjects might be kept in due obedience, by an awful fear of his governing justice. And it is on this account, _viz._ to deter and fright men from sinning, and breaking his laws, he hath given them an account in what a severe and terrible manner he dealt with _angels that sinned, he spared them not_; 2 Pet. ii. 4. _but delivered them to chains of darkness until the judgment of the great day_; Jude 6.

3. His forms of government among his creatures, might have appeared as a matter of small importance: His threatenings might have been counted a trifling and useless formality, and mere vain terrors, if he had given laws, and took no care whether they were obeyed or no: and if he let those creatures that broke them come off, without any tokens of his displeasure, without any reparation of the honour due to his law and government: Let not sinners deceive themselves with vain hopes, and dress up the great God in their own imaginations, as a being of mere mercy, as an Almighty Creator, that keeps no discipline or authority among his creatures; Gal. vi. 7. “Be not deceived, God is not mocked; He that soweth to the flesh shall reap destruction.”

4. God had a mind to make a very illustrious display, both of his justice and of his grace among mankind, which should be the solemn spectacle and the wonder of other worlds besides this, even the world of angels, principalities and powers; and therefore he hath designed his grace and his justice should mutually set forth each other, in his transactions with sinful man: On this account he would not pardon sin, without a satisfaction; but he thought fit to require and demand that sin be punished, and that the honour of the law be repaired to the full, that his justice might shine in full glory: And at the same time, in order to display his rich mercy, he would find out a way to save multitudes of these rebellious creatures.

These, and other reasons, infinitely superior to all our thoughts, might be in the divine mind, why God would not pardon sinners without a satisfaction.

IV. Man, poor sinful man, is not able to make any satisfaction to God for his own sins, by his utmost labours of future obedience: For all that he can do for time to come, is but mere necessary duty, if he had not sinned at all; and therefore this can never make any recompence to the governing justice of God, for his past transgressions.

It is a most strange vain doctrine of the papists, that some persons are such great saints, that they do works of heroic virtue beyond what they are required to do; and these they call works of supererogation, whereby they can merit some favours at the hands of God, not only for themselves, but for their neighbours too. Strange doctrine indeed, made up of folly, pride, and absurdity! Our best services are so much due to God, that if any man could practise complete righteousness, and fulfil the law of God constantly through all his life, it would not make amends for one past offence, nor merit any favour of God for a criminal creature.

But, alas! man is so far from being able to fulfil perfect righteousness for time to come, that in this fallen state, he can do nothing that is truly good: he broke the law of God in days past, and he goes on to break it daily and hourly. His understanding is grown so dark, his will so perverse, and his affections and appetites so corrupt and vicious, by his departure from God, that he cannot answer the present demands of duty; much less can he bring an offering of righteousness to atone for past iniquities. “We are by nature dead in trespasses and sins.”

V. Neither can this guilty, wretched creature man, make any satisfaction to the broken law of God by his sufferings, any more than by his doings. For the penalty of the law is tribulation and anguish of soul and body, the wrath of God and death: and how far this dreadful sentence reaches, what miseries are implied in it, and how long the execution of it must continue, who can tell? This we know, that God himself, who sees the full evil, and complete desert or demerit of sin, hath, in some places of scripture, threatened eternal punishment of sinners.

And if we may venture to judge concerning the greatness of the guilt, and demerit of our offences against God, by the same rules, by which reason teaches us to judge of the guilt and demerit of an offence against our fellow-creatures, we must say the guilt of sin is infinite; and therefore the punishment due to a sinning creature is everlasting, because he cannot any other way sustain punishment equal to his infinite demerit of sin. Among men the crime is always aggravated in proportion to the person, against whom it is committed: Therefore any offence against a father, or a king, has much more guilt in it, and is more severely punished, than the same offence committed against an inferior, or an equal. An attempt upon the life of a neighbour, is punished With imprisonment or a fine: But an attempt made on the life of a king deserves death.

Now the great God our Creator, being a king of infinite glory and majesty, infinitely superior to his creature man, every offence against this God, has a sort of infinity in it[34]: And God may demand satisfaction equal to the offence, that is infinite, which poor sinful man can never pay, so as to out-live the payment. On this account, he is exposed to the execution of the sentence of God for ever: His punishment has no end. Perhaps this will be counted an old-fashioned argument, and not so generally received in our day, as it was in the days of our fathers: Therefore I have examined it afresh with all the skill I have, and having surveyed the objections which are raised against it, I think they are not hard to be answered: And, after all, so far as I can judge in a may of reasoning upon what scripture has revealed, this argument seems to have weight and strength in it still.

Were it not for the supposition of the infinite guilt and demerit of sin, I do not so plainly see the justice or equity of God in preparing everlasting chains of darkness, and eternal fire, for the devil and his angels, as a proper punishment due to their first act of rebellion against him, and because they _kept not their own first estate_[35]; Jude 6. Nor indeed do I see such evident reason, why sinners among men should be threatened with eternal punishments, and punished with everlasting destruction, as a legal penalty due to past sins; Mat. xxv. 46. and 2 Thess. i. 9. which sins were done perhaps in a few days or hours, unless upon a supposition that all offences committed against the infinite majesty of God, have a sort of infinite demerit in them.

I beg leave to add this one thought more, and that is, if sin has not a sort of infinite demerit in it, I cannot see why man himself, by some years of penal sufferings, might not make full atonement for his own sins: But the language and current of scripture seems to represent sinful man as for ever lost to all hope in himself, and then the necessity of a Mediator appears with evidence and glory.

VI. Though man be incapable to satisfy for his own violation of the law, either by his obedience or his punishment, and so to restore himself to the favour of God, yet God would not suffer all mankind to perish. Therefore out of his abundant mercy, he appointed his own Son to undertake this work. His own, his only begotten Son, who is the brightness of his Father’s glory, and who lay in the bosom of the Father before all worlds, his Son who was one with the Father, by a communion of the godhead, and who is himself, on this account, called God over all, blessed for ever; this well-beloved Son of God is ordained and appointed to be the great Reconciler between God and man.

VII. Because God intended to make a full display of the terrors of his justice, and his divine resentment for the violation of his law; therefore he appointed his own Son to satisfy for the breach of it, by becoming a proper sacrifice of expiation or atonement: Now, both among Jews and heathens, the original notion and design of an expiatory sacrifice, is, when some other creature or person is put in the room or place of the transgressor, and the punishment or pain due to the transgressor is transferred to that other person or creature. Therefore beasts were slain for the offences of men, who were supposed to deserve death. And when any person became a surety for a city or nation that was defiled with sin, among the heathens, that person was substituted in their room, and so devoted to death. So the Son of God became a surety for sinful men: It pleased the Father to make him their sacrifice, and substituted him in their stead: God ordained that he should put himself into their circumstances, as far as was possible, with a due condescendency to his superior character, and that he should sustain, as near as possible, the very same pains and penalties which sinful man had incurred. Since tribulation and anguish of soul and body, a sense of the wrath of God, and death, were the appointed penalties of the sin of man; therefore he determined that his own Son should pass through all these: And since the law curses all that continue not in all the commands of it, therefore Christ _was made a curse for us, that he might redeem us from the curse of the law_; Gal. iii. 10-13. Hereby he gave a most awful and sensible demonstration to this visible world of mankind, and perhaps, much more to the invisible world of angels and devils, how dreadful a thing it is to break the law of a God, what infinite evil is contained in sin, and at what a terrible rate it must be expiated and atoned for.

VIII. The Son of God being immortal, could not sustain all these penalties of the law which man had broken, without taking the mortal nature of man upon him, without assuming flesh and blood: Thus his incarnation was necessary, that he might be a more proper surety, substitute, and representative of man who had sinned; and that he might be capable of suffering pain, and anguish, and death itself, in the room and stead of sinful men. It was because the _children who were_ given to Christ; Heb. ii. 13, 14. because these _children were partakers of flesh and blood, therefore he himself also took part of the same, that through death he might redeem them_, that by his own dying he might make atonement for their sins; Heb. x. 5. _Sacrifice and offering_ of beasts, thou wouldst not accept as equivalent for the sins of men: _But a body hast thou prepared me_, saith our Lord, _that men might be redeemed by the offering the body of Christ, once for all_; ver. 10.

It was in the prospect of the Son of God becoming man, by taking flesh and blood upon him, that God spake thus to David; Ps. lxxxix. 19. “I have exalted one chosen out of the people; that is, out of mankind: I have laid help upon one that is mighty: And when he was found in fashion as a man;” Phil. ii. 10. God laid on him the iniquities of us all by imputation; Is. liii. 5, 6. even as the sins, and iniquities, and trespasses of the children of Israel were laid on the head of the goat of old, by the confession and hand of Aaron; Lev. xvi. 21.

When the guilt was thus transferred to him, as far as it was possible for the Son of God to sustain it, he then became liable to punishment; and indeed that seems to me to be the truest and justest idea of transferred or imputed guilt, _viz._ when a surety is accepted to suffer in the room of the offender, then the pain or penalty is due to him by consent: And as this is the true original and foundation of expiatory sacrifices, as I have shewn before, so this seems to be the foundation of that particular manner, wherein scripture teaches us this doctrine: “He that knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him;” 2 Cor. v. 21. “His own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree;” 1 Pet. ii. 24. “The chastisement or punishment of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed;” Is. liii. 5. And in many other places of scripture we read the same sort of language. This doctrine is supported with great strength, by the most learned and pious Dr. Owen, in his short treatise of the satisfaction of Christ.

Upon this account, though God the Father was never truly angry with his beloved Son, yet it pleased the Father to bruise him, when he stood in the room of guilty creatures. The Father himself put him to grief, and made his soul an offering for sin; Is. liii. 10. Then the Son of God began to be sore amazed, and very heavy at the approaching deluge of this sorrow; Mark xiv. 33. The Father forsook him for a season, withdrew his comfortable influences, and gave him some such exquisite sight and sense of that indignation and wrath that was due to sin, as filled his holy soul with anguish, “his soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death;” Mat. xxvi. 38. While his body sweat drops of blood in the garden: And at last he poured out his soul to death, and “gave his life a ransom for many: he reconciled us to God by the blood of his cross;” Col. i. 20.

Though we allow the human nature of Christ to be the highest, the noblest, and best of creatures, and in that sense might be worth ten thousand of us: yet if sin has an infinite evil in it, then no mere creature, by all his sufferings, could make complete and equal satisfaction for sin: But when the Son of God, who is one with the Father, takes flesh and blood upon him, and becomes God manifest in the flesh, here God and man are united in one complex person, and hereby we enjoy an all-sufficient Saviour, a Reconciler beyond all exception, a Sacrifice of atonement, equal to the guilt of our transgressions. And so far as I can judge, it is on this account one apostle says; Acts xx. 28. “God redeemed the church with his own blood; and another asserts, Hereby perceive we the love of God, that he laid down his life for us;” 1 John iii. 16.

And I do not yet see sufficient reason why that expression of St. Paul; Heb. ix. 14. may not be referred to the same sense. “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience, &c.” If the eternal Spirit signify the divine nature or godhead, which dwelt bodily in the man Jesus, then the dignity of his complete person is made the foundation of the value of his blood. This dignity of the godhead which was personally united to the man who suffered, spreads an infinite value over his sufferings and merit: And this renders them equal to that infinite guilt and demerit of sin, which would have extended the punishment of man to everlasting ages. The infinite dignity of the person suffering, answers to the infinite dignity of the person offended, and so takes away the necessity of the everlasting duration of it.

Thus our blessed Mediator, the man Jesus Christ, in whom dwells all the fulness of the godhead bodily, fulfilled the righteous demands of the law, and suffered the penalties due to our sins. He magnified his Father’s law in this manner, and made it honourable, beyond what all the sons of Adam could do by their utmost sufferings. Thus the justice of God shines most gloriously in the sufferings of his Son Jesus Christ: Thus the great God vindicated his own character, as a wise and righteous law-giver, before the face of men and angels, in the anguish and death of his own Son: He gave a most awful and formidable assurance, that he was not a God to be trifled with, and that the sin of his creatures should not go unpunished. He that spared not his own Son, when he stood in the room of sinners, will never spare guilty rebels that persist in their rebellions. Thus far we see how Christ became a sacrifice of atonement.

IX. God, the great Ruler of the world, having received such ample satisfaction for sin, by the sufferings of his own Son, can honourably forgive his creature man, who was the transgressor. There is so glorious a reparation made to the honour of his righteous and broken law, that he can pardon sinners without dishonour to himself, and his government. He can glorify his justice and his mercy, at once, in a most exuberant and illustrious manner, since his own Son has become a priest of atonement, and offered up himself as a sacrifice, to make _propitiation for sin_: _He can declare his righteousness, though he passes by a thousand offences that are past, and can shew himself, just to his own law and government, at the same time that he forgives millions of sins; and is a justifier of him who believeth in Jesus_; Rom. iii. 25, 26.

X. I might add in the last place, since my text intimates it, that as the great God in his eternal counsels, appointed his Son Jesus Christ to undertake this difficult and glorious work, for the salvation of sinful men, so in the days of the gospel he has, in the most plain and explicit manner, offered this reconciliation to sinners who return to God by the mediation of Jesus Christ: He has proposed peace to those who are sincerely desirous to be reconciled to God, and to have all enmity done away on both sides; to those who trust in the virtue of the blood of Christ, as the foundation of this divine peace between God and them, or in the language of my text, to those who have faith in his blood.

But let it be remembered, that this desire to be reconciled, must proceed from a painful sense of sin, that makes a separation between God and the soul: This implies sincere repentance in the nature of it. It must be such a faith in Jesus and his sacrifice, as works powerfully by holy love, and produces all the good fruits of religion in the heart and life. All faith is useless to attain peace with God, unless it carries in it the springs and seeds of love and holiness. Though we are justified by faith, yet it must not be a mere bold presumption, but a living faith, which will appear in its fruits.