6. This repenting and believing is such a hearty assent to the truth of the gospel as causeth us thankfully, and broken-heartedly and fiducially, to accept the Lord Jesus as he is offered to us, and to give up ourselves to God by him. An assent to the truth of the gospel there must be, for the general faith goeth before the particular ; a belief of the gospel before our commerce with Christ. This assent must produce acceptance, because the gospel is an offer of a blessedness suitable to our necessities and desires, and our great work is receiving Christ : John i. 12, ' But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.' A broken- hearted acceptance it is, because Christ and his benefits are a free gift to us, and we come to accept this grace as condemned sinners, with confession of our undeserviugs and ill deservings ; with confession that eternal wrath might justly be our portion. For God lets none go out of the first covenant till they have subscribed to the justice of it, felt sin, and know what is the smart of it. And then a thankful acceptance it is. For so great a benefit as pardon and life should not be entertained but with a grateful consent, and a deep sense of his love who doth so freely save us. Surely Christ cannot, should not, be received into the heart without a hearty welcome and cordial embracings. And it is a fiducial consent, such as is joined with some confidence ; for there is confidence or trust in the nature of faith, and cannot be separated from it ; and without it we are not satisfied with the truth of the offer, nor can depend upon God's word, Eph. i. 13. And this is joined with a giving up ourselves to him, or to God by him ; for he is our sovereign and lord as well as our saviour ; Col. ii. 6 ; Acts v. 31, * Him hath God exalted to be a prince, and saviour, for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins : ' 2 Peter iii. 2, ' The apostles of our Lord and Saviour,'
VeR. 21.] SERMONS UPON 2 CORINTHIANS V, 313
and we must be contented to be conducted to the unseen glory in bis own war. Besides, in this remedying law of grace, he cometh to us as the physician of our souls, and we must own him as such, and rest upon his skill, and suffer him to apply his sharpest plasters, and take his bit- terest medicines, which are most ungrateful to flesh and blood. Lastly, it is a return to God to enjoy, please, and glorify him, which is our main business, and therefore we must yield up ourselves to the Lord with a hearty consent of subjection, to be guided, ruled, and ordered by him.
7. All those that repent and believe have remission and justification, by Christ's satisfaction and merit given to them ; so that they are become acceptable and pleasing unto God. ' For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth,' Eom. x. 4. And God having by a sin-offering condemned sin in the flesh, the righteous- ness of the law is fulfilled in us, that is, such a righteousness as satisfieth the law, so that we shall be able to stand in the judgment, without which we could not : Ps. cxxx. 3, 4, ' If thou, Lord, shouldst mark iniquities, 0 Lord, who shall stand ? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared ; ' Ps. cxliii. 2, ' Enter not into judgment with thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified.' But why ? Upon a twofold account ; you have a righteous- ness to plead, to exempt you from the penalties of the law ; and you have the conditions of the new covenant to plead, to entitle you to the privileges of the gospel, — Christ's merits and satisfaction as a sinner impleaded, and faith and repentance as the condition.
Use 1. Let us propound this to our faith, ' That Christ was made sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in him.' It was agreed between the Father and the Son, that if he would be sin, or a sacrifice for sin, we should be made free from sin and death, and live by him. See Isa. liii. 10, 'AYhen thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.' By this one offering Christ hath restored as much honour to God as our sin took from him ; and therefore now. justice being satisfied, grace hath a free course. There- fore this should comfort us against the guilt of sin ; Christ's sacrifice is sufficiently expiatory ; Christ hath suffered those punishments which are due to us, that which is equivalent to what we should have suffered. He hath suffered all kinds of punishment. In his body, 1 Peter ii. 24, * Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sin, should live unto righteousness ; by whose stripes ye were healed.' In his soul, in his agonies ; ' His soul was heavy to death,' Mat. xxvi. 38. As a little before the shower falls, there is a gloominess and blackness, so in Christ's spirit, he suffered privative evils, or pcena clamni, in his desertion ; positive evils, or pcena sensus, when he sent forth * tears and strong cries unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared ; though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.' Heb. V. 7, 8. He hath suffered from all by whom evil could be inflicted — men, Jews and Gentiles ; strangers and his own disciples ; the powers of darkness, who were the authors of all those evils which Christ suflered from their instruments, Luke xxii. 53. He suffered from God himseff', the full cup of whose wrath he drunk off. Such a