3G6 SERMONS UPON ROMANS VIII. [SeR. XLIV.
abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." You have no plea but that of a sinner.
(2dly.) Take heed of restin" in this estate, or going on in your sins. There is sententia lata, but dilata : Eccles. viii. 11, ' Because sentence against an evil doer is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.' There is nothing but the slender thread of a frail life between you and execution ; get it repealed quickly, or yon are imdone for ever — ' Their damnation slumbereth not,' 2 Peter iii. 3. God is slow in executing the sentence, as being willing that men should repent ; yet it will be executed, it is every day nearer and nearer.
(3d]y.) Embrace the offer of the gospel, and set yourselves in the way of your recovery. Christ hath delivered us from wrath to come, but you must upon warning ' flee from wrath to come,' Mat. iii. 7. And then that sentence of death, which you have received in yourselves, will be repealed. The door of grace is always open to those ' who have fled for refuge, to lay hold of the hope set before them,' Heb. vi. 8.
(4thly.) Make your qualification more explicit, by a holy and heavenly life : 1 Thes. v. 8, 9, ' But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breast-plate of faith and love, and for an helmet, the hope of salvation : for God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to ob- tain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.' The more you live upon the other world, and in a strict obedience to God, the sooner you will make out your qualification : 2 Cor. i. 12, ' For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity we have had our conversation in the world.'
I now proceed to
Doct. 2. That our triumph over the fear of condemnation mainly ariseth from the several acts of Christ's mediation.
1st. His death is mentioned — ' It is Christ that died ; ' that is, he hath expiated our sins by his death, and obtained release and pardon for us : and then, ' Who shall condemn ? ' This will appear —
[1.] By the notions by which it is set forth : a ransom, a mediatorial sacrifice, and a propitiation. A ransom — \vTpov avrl ttoWcov, Mat. xx. 28 ; avTiXvTpov, 1 Tim. ii. 6. A ransom is a price given to a judge, or one that hath the power of life and death, to save the life of one capitally guilty, and by law bound to suffer death, or some other evil of punish- ment. This was our case: God was the supreme judge, before whose tribunal man standeth guilty, and liable to death and condemnation ; but Christ gave himself as a ransom in our stead, to save us from the condemnation which we had deserved : Job xxxiii. 24, ' Deliver him from going down to the pit ; I have found a ransom.' From the beginning of the world Christ was known to be a redeemer, who saved the world by a ransom paid ; no other way could the effects of the Lord's grace be communicated to us. We receive mercies freely, but they were dearly j)urchased by Clirist. The second notion is that of a mediatorial sacrifice : Isa. liii. 10, 'He shall make his soul an offering for sin;' so Eph. v. 2, 'He gave himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God, for a sweet-smelling savour.' Sin is a wrong done to God, and therefore there must be something offered to God in our
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VeR. 34.] SERMONS UPON ROMANS vtir. 367
stead, by way of satisfaction, before he would quit his controversy against us. This Christ hath done. AU that was signified by the ancient sacrifices and offerings was accomplished by him : they were slayed, killed, burned, all which are but shadows of what our Lord endured. He is the true and real sacrifice, wherein provoked justice doth rest satisfied, his wrath appeased, and we that were loathsome by reason of sin, made acceptable and well-pleasing unto God. The third notion is that of a propitiation : 1 John ii. 2, ' He gave himself a propitiation for our sins ; and not for ours only, but for the sins of the whole world ; ' and Eom. iii. 25, ' Whom God set forth to be a propi- tiation through faith in his blood.' This implieth God's being pacified and appeased, so as to become propitious and merciful for ever to sinful man ; in which sense he is also said to make reconciliation for the sins of his people : IXdaKeaOai,, Heb. ii. 17, whereby is meant God's being reconciled to us. This was the great end why Christ died for us, to appease God's wrath and displeasure, and to reduce us into grace and favour with him again, by tendering a full compensation to God for all our sins.
[2.] The effects ascribed to it —
(1.) Sin is expiated or purged out: Heb. i. 3, 'When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.' As God would not be appeased without a ransom, sacrifice or satisfaction, so could not sin be purged out without bearing the punishment. So the conscience is said to be ' purged from dead works by the blood of Christ,' Heb. ix. 4; and Eev. i. 5, 'He hath washed us from our sins in his blood ; ' that is, done that which will remove the guilt and pollution of it when it is rightly applied to us ; and so he is said to ' finish transgression, and make an end of sin,' Dan. ix. 24 ; that is, to destroy the reign of sin, and to seal up the roll and hand- writing that was against us, that it may not be imputed and brought into the judgment.