Inf. 4. If Christ by dying, hath made full satisfaction, then God is no loser in pardoning the greatest qf sinners, that believe in Jesus ; and consequently his justice can he no bar to their justifi- cation and salvation. He is just to forgive us our sins, 1 John i. 9- What an argument is here for a poor believer to plead with God ! Lord, if thou save me by Jesus Christ, thy justice will be fully satisfied at one full payment ; but if thou damn me, and re- quire satisfaction at my hands, thou canst never receive it : I shall make but a dribbling payment, though I lie in hell to eternity, and shall still be infinitely behind with thee. Is it not more for thy glory to receive it from Christ's hand, than to require it at mine ? One drop of his blood is more worth than all my polluted blood. O how satisfying a thing is this to the conscience of a poor sinner that is objecting the multitude, aggravations, and amazing circumstances, of his sins, against the possibility of their being pardoned ! Can such a sinner as I be forgiven ? Yes, if thou believest in Jesus, thou mayest ; for so God will lose nothing in pardoning the greatest transgressors: " Let Israel hope in the Lord; for with the Lord " there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption," Psal. cxxx. 7. i. e. a large stock of merit lying by him in the blood of Christ, to pay him for all that you have done against him.
Inf. 5. Lastly, If Christ hath made such a full satisfaction as you have heard, How much is it the concernment of every soul, to aban- don all thoughts of satisfying God for his own sins, and betake him-
SEEM. XIV. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 1ST
self to the blood of Christ, the ransomer, by faith, that in that blood they may be pardoned? It would grieve one's heart to see how many poor creatures are drudging aud tugging at a task of repen- tance, and revenge upon themselves, and reformation, and obedience, to satisfy God for what they have done against him : And alas ! it cannot be, they do but lose their labour ; could they swelter their very hearts out, weep till they can weep no more, cry till their throats be parched, alas, they can never recompence God for one vain thought ; for such is the severity of the law, that when it is once offended, it will never be made amends again by all that we can do : it will not discharge the sinner, for all the sorrow in the world. Indeed, if a man be in Christ, sorrow for sin is something, and renewed obedience is something; God looks upon them favour- ably, and accepts them graciously in Christ : but out of him they signify no more than the intreaties and cries of a condemned male- factor, to reverse the legal sentence of the judge. You may toil all the days of your life, and at night go to bed without a candle. To that sense that scripture sounds, Isa. 1. 11. " Behold, all ve " that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with sparks ; " walk in the light of your fire, and in the sparks that you have " kindled : This shall ye have of mine hand, ye shall lie down in " sorrow." By fire, and the light of it, some understand the sparkling pleasures of this life, and the sensitive joys of the crea- tures : but generally it is taken for our own natural righteousness, and all acts of duties, in order to our justification by them before God. And so it stands opposed to that faith of recumbency spoken of in the verse before. By their compassing themselves about with these sparks, understand their dependance on these their duties, and glorying in them. But see the fatal issue, Ye shall lie dozen in sorrow, that shall be your recompence from the hand of the Lord ; that is all the thanks and reward you must expect from him, for slighting Christ's, and preferring your own righteousness before his. Reader, be convinced, that one act of faith in the Lord Jesus pleases God more than all the obedience, repentance, and strivings to obey the law, through thy whole life, can do. And thus you have the first special fruits of Christ's priesthood, in the full satis- faction of God, for all the sins of believers.
188 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. SEItM. XV.
Of the blessed Inheritance purchased by the Oblation of Christ, being the second Effect or Fruit of his Priesthood.
Gal. iv. 4, 5. But when the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.
X HIS scripture gives us an account of a double fruit of Christ's death, viz. the payment of our debt, and the purchase of our inheritance.
1. The payment of our debt, expressed by our redemption, or buying us out from the obligation and curse of the law, which hath been discoursed in the last exercise.
2. The purchase of an inheritance for those redeemed ones, ex- pressed here by their receiving the adoption of sons ; which is to be our present subject. Adoption is either civil, or divine. Of the first, the civil law gives this definition : that it is,
" * A lawful act, an imitation of nature, invented for the com- " fort of them that have no children of their own. Divine adop- " tion is that special benefit whereby God, for Christ's sake, ac- " cepteth us as sons, and makes us heirs of eternal life with him."
•f Betwixt this civil and sacred adoption, there is a twofold agree- ment, and disagreement. They agree in this, that both flow from the pleasure and good-will of the adoptant ; and in this, that both confer a right to privileges, which we have not by nature : but in this they differ, one is an act imitating nature, the other transcends nature ; the one was found out for the comfort of them that had no children ; the other for the comfort of them that had no father. This divine adoption is, in scripture, either taken properly for that act or sentence of God, by which we are made sons, or for the privileges with which the adopted are invested : and so it is taken Rom. viii. 23. and in this scripture now before us. We lost our inheritance by the fall of Adam ; we receive it, as the text speaks, by the death of Christ, which restores it again to us by a new and better title. The doctrine hence, is this,
* Adoptio est actus legitimus, imitans naturam, repertus ad corum solatium, qui liberos non habent. Adoptio est beneficium, quonos Dens propter Christum in filios recipit, etjacit nos cum ipso hceredes vitce teterna. Ravanel.
f Here therefore adoption is taken (as redemption is in Rom. iii. 25.) for actual possession. For as, at the last day, we will perceive the fruit of our redemption, so now we perceive, &c. Calvin on this place. »
SERM. XV. THE F01PNTAIN OF LIFE. 189
Doct. That the death of Jesus Christ hath not only satisfied for our debts, but over and above purchased a rich inheritance for the children of' God.