, 4. And this done by Jesus Christ, that so costly a remedy should be provided for us : Rom viii. 32, ' God spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all.' God may be said to spare, either in a way of impartial justice, or in a way of bountiful and condescending love ; the first hath its use, this latter is the case there. We are sparing of what is precious, of what we value ; but though Christ was his dear Son, yet he spared not him : it is the folly of man to part with things of worth and value for trifles.
5. The benefit itself, that he would reconcile us to himself (1.) In laying aside his own just wrath, which is our great terror : Isa. xxvii. 4, ' Fury is not in me,' he being pacified in Christ. (2.) That he would take away the enmity that is in the hearts of men by his converting and healing grace, which is our great burden : Ps. ex. 3, ' Thy people shall be a willing people in the day of thy power.' (3.) That he will enter into league and covenant with us, God with us and we with God : Heb. viii. 10, ' I will put my laws into their minds, and write them upon their hearts ; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.' (4.) That from hence there floweth an entire friendship : John XV. 15, ' Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends ; for all that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you.' (5.) This friendship produceth most gracious fruits and eftects, especially free commerce with him here, till we are admitted into his immediate pre- sence : Heb. x. 22, ' Let us draw nigh with a true heart, in full assur- ance of faith, having our hearts sprinlded from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.'
Use 2. Let us consider seriously the mystery of Christ's death, which is the sacrifice of our atonement ; it is full of riddles, it is a spectacle which represents to you the highest mercy in God's sparing sinners, and
262 SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. [SeR. XXXV.
calling out his own Son to die in our stead ; and the highest justice in punishing sin, thongh transacted upon Christ. ' If this be done to the green tree, what shall be done to the dry ? ' Here you have Christ made sin, and yet at the same time the fountain of holiness, 2 Cor. v. 21, and John i. IG, * Out of his fulness we receive grace for grace ; ' so again, the fountain of blessedness made a curse for all the world, Gal. iii. 13. In man's account, never more weakness and foolishness shown, yet never more Avisdom and power : 1 Cor. i. 25, ' The foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God stronger than men.' He had said before that Christ was the ' wisdom of God, and the power of God.' The devil never seemed to triumph more, yet never more foiled, Luke xxii. 53 (compare with Col. ii. 15 ;) Christ is the true Samson, destroyed more at his death than in all his life. The cross was not a gibbet of shame and infamy, but a chariot of triumph. This was the holiest work and the greatest act of obedience that ever was, or can, or will be, performed, and yet the wickedest work that ever the sun beheld ; on Christ's part, an high act of obedience and self-denial, Phil. ii. 7 ; on man's part, the greatest act of villany and wickedness : Acts ii. 23, ' Who by wicked hands have crucified and slain,' the highest act of meekness and violence ; the truest glass wherein we see the greatness and smallness of sin. The heinousness of sin is seen in his agonies and ])loody sufferings ; the nothingness of it in the merit of them. Christ's death is the reason of the great judgment fallen upon the Jews, 1 Thes. ii. 15, 16, and yet the ground upon which we expect mercy, both for. ourselves and them, Ei:)h. ii. 16. In short, here is life rising out of death, glory out of ignominy, blessedness out of the curse ; from the abasement of the Son of God, joy, liberty, and confidence to us.
SERMON XXXV.
Not im.'putmg their trespasses to them. — 2 Cor. v. 19.
Doct. One great branch or fruit of our reconciliation with God through Christ is the pardon or non-imputation of sin.
Here I shall show — (1.) The nature and worth of the privilege; (2.) The manner, how it is brought about ; (3.) That it is a branch or fruit of our reconciliation with God.
First. The nature and worth of the privilege, not imputing. The phrase is elsewhere used : Eom. iv. 8, ' Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin ; ' so 2 Tim. iv. 16, /a?) Xo^iadelr), ' All men forsook me ; I pray God it be not laid to their charge,' or reck- oned to their account. It is a metaphor taken from those who cast M]} their accounts ; and so —