Inf. 6. Lastly, what cause have they to rejoice, admire, and praise the Lord to eternity, who have a well-grounded confidence that they are freed from God's condemnation ? " O give thanks " to the Father, who hath delivered you from the power of dark- " ness, and translated you into the kingdom of his dear Son,*' Col. i. 13. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad ; for if you be freed from condemnation, you are out of Satan's power, he hath no more any dominion over you. The power of Satan over men comes in by virtue of their condemnation, as the power of the jailor, or executioner, over the bodies of condemned prisoners doth, Heb. ii. 14. If you be freed from condemnation, the sting of death shall never touch you ; for the sting of death smites the souls of men with a deadly stroke, only by virtue of God's condemnatorv sen- tence, 1 Cor. xv. 55, 56. " The sting of death is sin, and the " strength of sin is the law." If you be freed from condemnation now, you shall stand with comfort and boldness at the judgment- seat of Christ in the great-day ; and verily in this thing is the love of God perfected, 1 John iv. 17. O it is a privilege in which the grace, mercy, and love of God shine forth as clearly as the sun when it shineth in its full strength. And certainly you will find cause to lie at the feet of God, astonished and overwhelmed with the sense of this mercy, when you shall find yourselves free from the condemnation of God, whilst many others, as good as you were, are still under condemnation. Yea, yourselves freed, and many of your superiors in the world still under the curse, 1 Cor. i. 26. Yea, yourselves freed, and others that sat under the same means of grace, and had the same external advantages as you had, still in chains, 2 Cor. ii. 16. O brethren ! This is a marvellous deliverance ; look on it which way you will, your ransom is paid, and not a penny of it by you ; it cost you nothing to procure your pardon ; your pardon is full, and not one sin excepted out of it that you ever committed. You are freed, and Jesus Christ con- demned in your stead to procure your discharge ; your pardon is. sealed in his blood, and that for ever ; so that you shall never any more come into condemnation. " He that heareth my word, and
440 THE METHOD OF GRACE. SERM. XXXIH.
" believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall " not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life," John v. 24.
Let them that are so delivered, spend their days on earth in praise and cheerful obedience ; and, when they die, let them not shrink away from death, nor be afraid to take it by the cold hand, it can do them no harm. Yea, let them close their dying lips with — Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ.
Of the Aggravation of the Sin, and Punishment of Unbelief under the light of the Gospel.
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
\J UT of the foregoing verse it was fully proved in our last ser- mon, that all christless and unregenerate men are no better than dead men, being condemned already. Our Saviour proceeds in this verse to aggravate the misery of those that refuse and despise him ; yet farther, and to let them know, that those who remain in unbelief and the state of unregeneracy, must expect some greater and sorer wrath than other men ; not only a simple condemnation, but an ag- gravated and peculiar condemnation, " This is the condemnation, " that light is come," &c.
In the words we find these three parts.
1. The aggravation of sin by the abuse of gospel-light, " Light " is come," &c.
2. The aggravation of misery, in proportion to that abuse of light, " This is the condemnation."
3. The cause and occasion, ^drawing men into this sin and misery, " Because their deeds were evil."
First, We have here the aggravation of sin by the abuse of gos- pel-light, " Light is come." By light we are to understand the knowledge, discovery, and manifestation of Christ, and redemp- tion by him in the gospel. He is the Sun of righteousness that arises in the gospel upon the nations, Mai. iv. 1. When he came in the flesh, then did "the day spring from on high visit us," Luke i. 78. And the light may be said to come two ways ; either,
First, In the means by which it is conveyed to us ; or, Secondly,
SERM. XXXIII. THE METHOD OF GRACE. 441
in the efficacy of it upon our minds, when it actually shines in our souls. Light may come among a people in the means, and yet they actually remain in darkness all the while. As it is in nature ; the sun may be up and a very glorious morning far advanced, whilst many thousands are drowning upon their beds with their curtains drawn about them. Light in the means, we may call po- tential light. Light in the mind, wc may call actual light It is but seldom that light comes in the means, and continues long among men, but some light must needs actually shine into their souls also ; but this actual light is twofold.
1. Common, and intellectual only, to conviction ; or,
2. Special and efficacious light, bringing the soul to Christ by
real conversion, called, in 1 Cor. iv. 6. God " shining into the
Wherever light comes, in this last sense, it is impossible that such men should prefer darkness before it : But it may come in the means, yea, it may actually shine into the consciences of men by those means, and convince them of their sins, and yet men may hate it, and chuse darkness rather than light. And this is the sense of this place, light was come in the gospel-dispensation among them, yea, it had shined into many of their consciences, galled and reproved them for sin, but they hated it, and had rather be without such a troublesome inmate. In a word, by the coming of light, we are here to understand a more clear and open mani- festation of Christ by the gospel than ever was made to the world before : For we are not to think that there was no light in the world till Christ came, and the gospel was published in the world by the apostles' ministry. For Abraham saw Christ's day, John viii. 56. and all the faithful before Christ saw the promises, i. e. their accomplishment in Christ, afar off, Heb. xi. IS. For it was with Christ, the Sun of righteousness, as it is with the natural sun, " which illuminates the hemisphere before it actually rises or " shews its body above the horizon * ;" but when it rises and shews itself, the light is much clearer ; so it was in this case. The greater therefore was their sin that rebelled against it, and pre- ferred darkness to light ; this was their sin, with its fearful aggra- vation.