(2.) Because of the good depending upon it in this life and the next.
{1st) In this life — Partly, because we are not fitted to serve God till sin be pardoned : Heb. ix. 14, ' How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your consciences from dead works, to serve the living God ? ' God pardoneth, that he may further sanctify us and fit us for his own use. The end of forgiveness is, that God may have his own again which was lost, and we might be engaged to love him and live to him. Forgiveness tends to hoHness, as the means to the end ; and so there is way made for our thankfulness and love to our Kedeemer, which is the predominant ruling affection in the kingdom of grace, and the main motive of obedience. Partly, because we cannot please God till sin be pardoned ; for God will not accept our actual service, till our guilt be removed — till pardoning grace cover our defects. Whence should we hope for acceptance ? From the worth of our persons ? that is none at all. From the integrity of the work ? Alas, after grace received, Ave are maimed in our principles and operations ; much more before : Heb. xi. 6, ' Without faith no man can please God: ' Kom. viii. 8, 'They that are in the flesh cannot please God.' Till we are adopted, reconciled, absolved, neither our persons nor our actions can find acceptance with him. And partly, because we have no sound comfort and rejoicing in ourselves till we obtain the pardon of our sins, and be in such an estate that God will not impute our tres- passes to us ; for while sin remaineth unpardoned, and the sentence of the law not reversed, the soul is still in doubt or fear ; if not, it pro- ceedeth from our security and forgetfulness, which will do us no good ; for we do but put off the evil, rather than put it away, and deal as a
VeR. 19.] SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V. 265
malefactor that keepetli himself drunk till he cometh to execution. In scripture a pardon is made the solid ground of comfort : Isa. xl. 1, 2, ' Comfort ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God ; speak ye com- fortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accom- plished, that her iniquity is pardoned.' When God's wrath is pacified and appeased, then there is ground of comfort indeed ; when God for Christ's sake hath forgiven and forgotten all our transgressions, and accepted a ransom for us ; so Mat. ix. 2, ' Son, be of good cheer ; thy sins be forgiven thee.' Aye, then misery is stopped at the fountain- head, our great trouble is over; but till then all our comforts are soured by our fears : when the sun by its bright beams appeareth, it dispelleth mists and clouds.
{2dl?/.) In the next life we are not capable of enjoying God, and being made happy for evermore in his love, till we be in such an estate that God will not impute our trespasses to us ; for till we escape wrath we "cannot enjoy happiness, nor till his anger be pacified can we have any interest in his love : Kom. v. 18, ' The free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.' Now our right beginneth when sin is taken out of the way ; and hereafter our impunity in heaven is a means to our perfect enjoying, pleasing, and glorifying of God, Acts xxvi. 18, when we are made capable of the blessed inheritance.
Secondly. The manner how this privilege is brought about and applied to us by these steps.
1. The first stone in this building was laid in God's eternal decree and purpose to reconcile sinners to himself by Christ, not imputing their trespasses to them. I cannot pass over this consideration, because it is of principal importance in this place : ' God was in Christ reconciling the Avorld to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them,' Then he was thinking of a sufficient sacrifice, ransom, and satisfaction for all the world of sinners, and that he would not deal with them according to the desert of their sin, but in mercy, and provided a sufficient remedy for the pardon of sin for all those who would or should accept of it in time. The covenant of grace is founded upon the covenant of redemption, Isa. liii. 10, 11; and the plot and design for our reconciliation, pardon, and adoption, was then laid according to the terms agreed upon between the Father and the Son — what the Redeemer should do for the satisfying of his wrath, what sinners should do that they may have pardon in the method which God hath appointed ; and so God should be actually reconciled to us, and sinners actually pardoned in time when we submit to the terms
2. The second step towards this blessed efiect was, w^hen Christ was actually exhibited in the flesh, and paid our ransom for us ; for then he came to take away sin : 1 John iii. 5, ' The Son of God was mani- fested to take away sin, and in him was no sin ; ' so John i. 29, ' Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sins of the world ; ' and it is said, Heb. i. 3, ' When he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of majesty ; ' and Heb. x. 14, ' By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.' There needed no more to be done by way of merit, and satisfaction, and sacrifice. We must carefully distinguish between impetration and application, Christ's acquiring and our applying ; as also between God's purposing