260 SEKMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. [SeR, XXXIV.
have I any more to do with idols ? ' and Isa. xxx. 22, ' Thou shalt cast them away as a menstruous cloth ; thou shalt say unto it, Get ye hence.' Thirdly, How far Christ is concerned in it, and why.
1. God was resolved to lose no honour by the fall of man, hut to keep up a sense of his justice, goodness, and truth.
[1.] His justice. It was not fit that any of his attributes should fall to the ground, especially his justice, the sense of which is so necessary for the government of the world : Kom. iii. 5, 6, ' Is God unrighteous that taketh vengeance ? God forbid. How then shall God judge the world?' If God be not known for a just God, we cannot know him for the governor of the world. Well then, there was a condescendency in it, that mercy should be dispensed, so that justice should be no loser. Now, God saw that men could not keep up the honour of his justice ; our prayers, tears, repentance, will not do the deed without something- else. If the devils were supposed to be sorrowful for their sins, they would not be reconciled, because they had no surety to die for them and repair the honour of God's justice. In pity, God would not destroy all mankind, therefore findeth out a surety ; i-f they had suffered, they would only be satisfying, rather than to satisfy and have satisfied. ' But now Christ hath declared his righteousness/ Kom. iii. 24, 25, ' for the remission of sins.'
[2.] His holiness, which is the pattern of the creature's perfection. Such was God's hatred of sin that he would not let it go without a mark or brand ; he would be known to be an holy God, and that it is not an easy thing to regain his favour if we yield to sui. People are apt to look upon it as a matter of nothing. It is an easy matter to sin ; every fool can do that ; but when the breach is made, it is not easy to reconcile again ; none but the Son of God can do that. God stood upon a valuable compensation: 1 Peter, i. 18, *We are not redeemed with corruptible things, such as silver and gold ; but by the precious l)lood of the Son of God.' The Son of God, by the highest act of obedi- ence and self-denial, must bring it about for a caution to us, that we might not lightly break the law, or have favourable thoughts of sin any more.
[3.] His truth. God made a covenant with Adam — 'In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.' Adam's sin was mainly the sin of unbelief, and presumption of impunity is very natural to us all ; therefore the law must have death to keep up its authority, lest the threatening should seem a vain scarecrow, either from the sinner him- self, or from his surety.
2. Christ was a fit mediator.
[1.] Because of his mutual interest in God and us. Job ix. 33. He is beloved of the Father, and hath a brotherly compassion to us. He did partake of the nature of both parties ; he was man to undertake it in our name, God to perform it in his own strength.
[2.] He is able to satisfy. All the angels in heaven could not lay down a valuable consideration, btit 'he is able to save to the uttermost,' ITeb. vii. 26. Christ undertaketh to pacify God's wrath, and to take away our enmity also, and so to bring us to God.
Use 1. Let us admire the mercy and grace of God — ' God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself.' To this end consider —
1. This is an ancient mercy of an old standing: Eph. i. 4, ' He hath
YeR. 19.] SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. 261
chosen us in Christ before the fonndation of the world ; ' and 1 Peter i. 20, ' Who verily was fore-ordained before the foundation of the world, but manifested in these last times for you.' And who are we, that the thoughts of God should be taken up about us so long ago ? Nothing went before creation, but mere and naked eternity ; then was this busi- ness transacted between the Father and the Son, the result of God's eternal thoughts.
2. God is first in the design, he who is the wronged party, the highest judge, of whose vengeance Ave stand in dread, of whom we beg pardon ; we were first in the breach, but God in the design of love. The motion of sending a saviour and redeemer into the world was first bred in God's heart : 1 John iv. 19, ' "We love him, because he loved us first.'
3. This love is the more amplified by the worthlessness of the persons for whom all this is done ; the world that lay in wickedness and rebel- lion against God, the sinful race of apostatised Adam. At our best, how little service and honour can we bring to him. But he considered us as lying in the corrupt mass of polluted mankind ; yet this world would God reconcile to himself, and not angels. God would not so much as enter into a parley with them ; as if a king should take rustics and scullions into his favour, and pass by nobles and princes. There lay no bond at all to show mercy to us, more than to them ; we had cast him oil and rebelled against him as well as they.