Remedy (3). The third remedy against this device of Satan is, Constantly to keep one eye upon the promises of remission of sin, as well as the otlter eye upon the inward operations of sin. This is the most certain truth, that God would graciously pardon those sins to his people that he will not in this life fully subdue in his people. Paul prays thrice, i.e. often, to be delivered from the thorn in the flesh. All he can get is, ' My grace is sufficient for thee/ 2 Cor. xii. 9; I will graciously pardon that to thee that I will not conquer in thee, saith God. ' And I will cleanse them from all their iniquity, whereby they have sinned against me, and whereby they have transgressed against inc. I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins,'* Jer. xxxiii. 8, Isa.
1 The primitive Christians chose rather to be thrown to lions without than left to within. Ad leones may is quam leonem, saith Tertullian. [Often in his famous ' Apology.'— G.]
" It is a sign that sin hath not gained your consent, but committed a rape upon your souls, when you cry out to God. If the ravished virgin under the law cried out, she was guiltless, Deut, xxii. 27; so when sin plays the tyrant over the soul, and the soul cries out, it is guiltless ; those sins shall not be charged upon the soul.
3 Isa. xliv. 22, Micah vii. 18, 19, Col. ii. 13, 14. The promises of God are a precious hook, every leaf drops myrrh and mercy. Though the weak Christian cannot open, read, and apply them, Christ can and will apply them to their souls. nTV3, an Hebrew
2 Cor. II. 11.] against satan's devices. 93
xliii. 25. Ah ! you lamenting souls, that spend your days in sighing and groaning under the sense and burden of your sins, why do you deal so unkindly with God, and so injuriously with your own souls, as not to cast an eye upon those precious promises of remission of sin which may bear up and refresh your spirits in the darkest night, and under the heaviest burden of sin ?
Remedy (4). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan is, To look upon all your sins as charged upon the account of Christ, as debts which the Lord Jesus hath fully satisfied; and indeed, were there but one farthing of that debt unpaid that Christ was engaged to satisfy, it would not have stood with the unspotted justice of God to have let him come into heaven and sit down at his own right hand. But all our debts, by his death, being discharged, we are freed, and he is exalted to sit down at the right hand of his Father, which is the top of his glory, and the greatest pledge of our felicity : ' For he hath made him to be sin for us that knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him/ saith the apostle, 2 Cor. v. 2 1.1 All our sins were made to meet upon Christ, as that evangelical prophet hath it : ' He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all \ or, as the Hebrew hath it, ' He hath made the iniquity of us all to meet in him,' Isa. liii. 5, 6. In law, we know that all the debts of the wife are charged upon the husband. Saith the wife to one and to another, If I owe you anything, go to my husband. So may a believer say to the law, and to the justice of God, If I owe you anything, go to my Christ, who hath undertaken for me. I must not sit down discouraged, under the apprehension of those debts, that Christ, to the utmost farthing, hath fully satisfied. Would it not argue much weakness, I had almost said much madness, for a debtor to sit down discouraged upon his looking over those debts that his surety hath readily, freely, and fully satisfied ? The sense of his great love should engage a man for ever to love and honour his surety, and to bless that hand that hath paid the debt, and crossed the books, &c. But to sit down discouraged when the debt is satisfied, is a sin that bespeaks repentance.2
Christ hath cleared all reckoning betwixt God and us. You re- member the scapegoat. Upon his head all the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their transgressions in all their sins, were confessed and put, and the goat did bear upon him all their iniquities, &c, Lev. xvi. 21. Why ! the Lord Jesus is that blessed scapegoat, upon whom all our sins were laid, and who alone hath carried ' our sins away into the land of forge tfulness, where they shall never be remembered more/3
participle, and notes a constant, a continued act of God. I, I am he, blotting out thy transgressions to day and to-morrow, &c.
1 Christ was peccatorum maximus, the greatest of sinners by imputation and reputation.
2 Christ hath the greatest worth and wealth in him. As the worth and value of many pieces of silver is in one piece of gold, so all the excellencies scattered abroad in the creatures are united in Christ. All the whole volume of perfections which are spread through heaven and earth are epitomised in him.
3 Christ is canalis gratia, the channel of grace from God.
94 PRECIOUS REMEDIES [2 COR. II. 11.
A believer, under the guilt of bis sin, may look the Lord in the face, and sweetly plead thus with him : It is true, Lord, I owed thee much, but thy Sou was my ransom, my redemption. His blood was the price ; he was my surety and undertook to answer for my sins ; 1 know thou must be satisfied, and Christ hath satisfied thee to the utmost farthing : not for himself, for what sins had he of his own ? but for me ; they were my debts that he satisfied for ; be pleased to look over the book, and thou shalt fiud that it is crossed by thy own hand upon this very account, that Christ hath suffered and satisfied for them.1