[2.] The grace and help merited. He obtained a new life for us, that we might be made capable to live, not to ourselves, but unto him. If he had obliged us only in point of duty to live unto God, and not obtained necessary grace to enable us to perform it, the love had not been so great. No, he hath obtained for us the gift of the Spirit, and the great work of the Holy Ghost is, by sanctifying grace, to bring off the soul from self to God : John svi. 14, ' He shall take of mine, and glorify me.' This grace is not given us to exalt or extol any other thing but Christ alone, as Christ his Father, John xv. 8. Tliat grace we have from Christ, and the Spirit iuclineth us to make God our end and scope.
[3.] The obligation left on the creature by this great and won- derful act of mercy and kindness doth persuade us to surrender and give up ourselves to the Lord's use : Rom. xii. 1, ' I beseech you there- fore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable ser- vice.' Take the argument either from the greatness of his sufferings, or the greatness of the benefits purchased ; still the argument and motive is exceeding strong and prevailing. Shall the Son of God come and die such a painful, shameful death for us, and shall not we give up ourselves to him, and love him and serve him all our days ?..
2. I shall prove it by reasons.
[1.] The title that God hath to us. We are not our own, and therefore we must not live to ourselves ; but we are God's, and there- fore we must live unto God. This reason is urged : 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20, ' What ! kn(>w ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you, which ye have of God ; and ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price ; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.' How are we God's ? By creation, redemption, regeneration, and consecration ; in all which respects God is more truly owner of you than you are of anything you ha.ve in the world.
(1.) We are his by creation — ' It is he that made us, not we our- selves,' Ps. c. 3. What one member was made at our direction or
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request, much less by our help and assistance ? Ifo, God framed us in the secret parts of the belly. Now if the husbandman may call the vine his o"wn which he hath planted, God may much more call the creature his own which he hath made. God made us out of nothini". The husbandman cannot make a vine, he doth only set it and dress it ; but God made us, and not we ourselves. The creature is wholly and solely of him and from him, and nothing else ; therefore it should be wholly and solely to him and for him. Sek-love is Gtxi's prerogative ; he alone can love himself and seek himseh, because he alone is from himself, and without dependence on any other; but we that are creatures, and depend upon God every moment for his providential assistance and supportation, are under the dominion and role of him upon whom we do depend. And every motion and inclination of ours is under a rule. If we could any moment be exempt from the influ- ence of his providence, we might be supposed to be exempted in that moment from his jurisdiction and government; but man wholly depending upon God for being and preservation, cannot lay claim or title to himself, or anything that is his, no, not for a moment. They were rebels against God's government who said, Ps. xii. 4, 'Our tongues are our own ; who is lord over us ? ' By what right can we call our tongue our own ? We neither made it nor can keep it longer than God will ; he is the maker of all things, and therefore should be the governor and end of all things. It is robbery and usurpation of God's right when you divert your respects from him, and set up self in his place.
(2.) By redemption. That right is pleaded : 1 Cor. vi. 20, ' Ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God with your bodies and souls, which are God's.' By creation we owe ourselves to God ; bat by redemption we owe ourselves to him by a double and a more com- fortable right and title. A man bought with another's money, if he died by his stripes, if he continued a day or two, his friends had no plea against his master. The law giveth this reason, for he is his money, Exod. xxi. 21 ; that is, his own purchase by money. But Grod hath bought tis at a higher rate — with the blood of his Son : 1 Peter i. 18, "' The precious blood of Christ.' Therefore the redeemed are bound to serve him that ransomed them. If a man had bought another out of captivity, or he had sold himself, all his strength, and time, and service, belonged to the buyer. Christ hath bought us from the worst slavery, and with the greatest price. Xo thraldom so bad as the bondage of sin and Satan ; no prison so black as heU ; and no ransom so precious as the blood of the Son of God- And he bc-ught us to this end, that we m;,c:ht live to God, not to ourselves. And therefore, unless we mean to defraud Christ of his purchase, we should mind this more than we do.