Acts 111. 2G.] the third sekmon. 207
to the obedience of God's will, there is peace. Pax est tranqnilUtaH ordinis, when all things keep their place, as in an accurate orderly life they do : Gal. vi. IG, ' As many as walk according to this rule, peace and mercy be upon them, and the whole Israel of God.' There is peace, for there is a harmonious accord between God and them, and between them and themselves : Ps. cxix. 165, ' Great peace have they that love thy law ;' not only peace, but great peace, ' a peace that passeth all understanding.' Whilst we are in our sins, there is ever a fear of the war which is between God and us, and there is a war in ourselves, conscience disallowing our practices, and our practices dis- liking the conduct of conscience, so that there is no peace to the wicked. But when the Lord Jesus hath taken us in hand, and begun to cure us, and frame us aright, and show us his wonderful grace in turning us from our sins, here is matter provided for serenity and peace.
[2.] It is the pledge of our eternal felicity hereafter ; for heaven is the perfection of holiness, or the full fruition of God in glory. Now, when the Mediator begins to take away sin, he blesses you ; for the life is then begun which shall be perfected in heaven. Unless it be begun here, it will never be perfected there : for ' without holiness no man shall see God,' Heb. xii. 14. But if it be begun, it will surely be per- fected there; for ' Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.' The vision and fruition of God is begun here, the spirit of holiness is the earnest of our inheritance, Eph. i. 13, 14. Oh, what blessedness is it then to have the new heart planted into us by Christ, and to live the new life ! It is the beast about you that delights in the momentary, base, dreggy pleasures of sin. But when Christ hath turned you from your sins, you are blessed indeed, you are in the way to blessedness, and you shall be blessed for ever ; he gives peace as a pledge of happiness and eternal glory.
III. I shall prove that this is the Mediator's blessing.
1. Let me lay down this, that those blessings that are most proper to the Mediator are spiritual blessings. We forfeited all by sin, but especially the grace of the Spirit, whereby we might be made service- able to God. Other mercies run in the channel of common providence, but spiritual blessings are the discriminating graces and favours that are given us by the Mediator : Eph. i. 3, ' Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.' Christ came not to distribute honours, and greatness, and worldly riches to his followers, but to turn away every one of us from our sins, to reduce us to God, that we may love him, and be beloved of him. He came as a spiritual Saviour, to give us grace rather than temporal happiness. Most men have a carnal, Jewish notion of Christ, they would have a temporal safety and happiness, they would have deliverance from affliction, rather than deliverance from sin. To be 'delivered from every evil work' is more than to be 'delivered from the mouth of the lion.' This is most proper to the Mediator, 2 Tim. iv. 18. A sanctified use of troubles is more than an exemption from them ; a carnal man may have exemp- tion from them, but not a sanctified use of them. Poverty, lameness, blindness, are not as bad as ignorance, unruly lusts, and want of grace.
208 THE TlllUD iSEKMuX. [AcTb 111. 2G,
Moral evils are worse than natural. Daniel was cast into a lion's den, you would think that was a misery; but it was a greater misery when Kebuchadnezzar was thrust out among the beasts, being given up to a brutish heart. Exemption from trouble may be hurtful to us, but deliverance from sin is never hurtful to us.
Among the spiritual blessings we have by the Mediator, conversion from sin to God is the chicfest we have on this side heaven. That it was the main part of Christ's undertaking, I shall prove by scripture and reason. For scripture, the text is clear for it ; for thus the apostle interprets the covenant-blessing, ' In thy seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed,' namely, ' God hath sent him to bless you.' Wherein ? ' In turning every one of you from your sins.' ' He shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins,' Mat. i. 21 ; not only from the guilt, but the power of sin ; not only from the evil after sin, but the evil o/sin itself. Dcnominafio est a majori — the name is taken from what is chiefest. And so when he is promised to the Jews, ' The Redeemer shall come out of Sion, and he shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.' There is his principal work : 1 John iii. 5, Christ came ' to take away sin, and in him is no sin.' lie means not only the con- denming power, but the power of it in the heart ; for he is pleading arguments for holiness, why believers should not run into sin, which is ' a trangression of the law.' One is from the undertaking of Christ, he came ' to take away sin ;' and from the example of Christ, ' in him is no sin.' He plainly means the power of sin.