[3.] There are excellent enforcements to encourage us to embrace this salvation. God is very impatient of being denied, now he speak.s in the gospel, and useth all kinds of methods. As a man who cannot undo a door, and having a bunch of keys in his hand, tries one after another, till the lock doth fly open, so the Lord tries all kind of methods, beseecheth, threateneth, promiseth, that the heart of the sinner might fly open. He beseecheth ; God falls a-begging to his own creature, and deals with us as importunately as if the benefit were his own; thus doth he pray us to be reconciled. And then God threa- tens eternal death, to stir us up to take hold of eternal life ; he tells us of a pit without a bottom, and a worm that never dies. Sometimes he seeketh to work upon our hope, and sometimes upon our fear. He not only tells us of the loss of happiness, which is very grievous to an in- genuous spirit : Heb. xii. 14, ' Follow holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord ; ' but he tells us of those eternal torments that are without end and ease, of a worm that never dies, and of a fire that shall never be quenched. Oh ! whose heart doth not tremble at the mention of these things ? Then, on the other side, we have promises as great as heart can wish for, and more : 2 Peter i. 4, ' Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises.' It hath not entered into the heart of man to conceive of these things. Who ever hired a man to be happy, or a thirsty man to drink, or a hungry man to eat ? Salva- tion is so acceptable, and the heavenly and blessed hope so glorious^ that we should purchase it at any rate ; but God taketh all methods to awaken man. Thus the gospel may well be said to be a powerful in- strument of our salvation, because it hath a powerful tendency that way.
2. Because it hath the promise of the Spirit's assistance. Piom. i. 16, the gospel is said to be ' the power of God unto salvation,' not only because it is a powerful instrument which God hath appropriated to this work, but this is the honour God puts upon the gospel, that he will join and associate the operation of his Spirit with no other doctrine but this. And therefore the apostle saith. Gal. iii. 2, ' Received you
58 SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. [SeR. II.
the spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith ? ' How come you to receive the Spirit ? Either by endeavouring to get ac- ceptance with God according to the terms of the law, or by the doctrine of the gospel. The assistance of the Spirit is joined with no other doctrine. This is the authentic proof of the excellency of that doctrine, that God hath reserved the power of his grace to go along with it ; he will not associate and join his Spirit with any other doctrine. The law, as it is contradistinguished from the gospel, it is called ' the ministra- tion of condemnation,' 2 Cor. iii. 9, and 'the ministration of death' to fallen man, ver. 7. It is the office of the law to condemn a man, not to save him. Not as if preaching of the law did make us guilty, but shows us to be guilty. To him that is guilty of death, it puts the guilt before his eyes, that knowing it, and feeling it, he may be terrified, and despair in himself, and beg for deliverance. To this end the apostle gives us an account of his own experience : Kom. vii. 9, ' I was alive without the law once ; ' that is, I thought I was alive, and did not know myself, or feel myself guilty of death ; I thought myself to be in as good a condition towards God as any man ; ' but when the command- ment came, sin revived, and I died;' then I counted myself to be lost and utterly undone. A sinner, before the law comes, is like a beggar, that dreams he is a king, and that he wallows in ease and plenty ; but when he awakes, his soul is empty, and he feeleth his poverty and his hungry belly, and his rags confute all his dreams and false surmises. So we thought ourselves to be alive, in a good condition towards God ; but when the law comes, then we see ourselves to be dead and lost. Therefore the law, as it is opposed to the gospel, is not the means of salvation, so it is only the law of sin and death : Rom. viii. 2, ' For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.'
Object. You will say, These seem to be hard expressions, to call it the law of sin and death ; but you must understand it aright. To man fallen the law only convinceth of sin, and bindeth over to death ; it is nothing but a killing letter ; but the gospel, accompanied by the power of the Spirit, bringeth life. Again, Ps. xix. 7, it is said there, ' The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul ; ' therefore it seems the law may also be a word of salvation to the creature. I answer — By the law there is not meant only that part of the word which we call the covenant of works, but there it is put for the whole word, for the whole doctrine of the covenant of life and salvation ; as Ps. i. 2, ' His delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate day and night.' And if you take it in that stricter sense, then it converteth the soul but by accident, as it is joined with the gospel, which is the ministry of life and righteousness, but in itself it is the law of sin and death. Look, as a thing taken simply would be poison and deadly in itself, yet mixed with other wholesome medicines it is of great use, is an excellent physical ingredient ; so the law is of great use, as joined with the gospel, to awaken and startle the sinner, to show him his duty, to convince him of sin and judgment ; but it is the gospel properly that pulls in the heart.