Ifse. To press you to regard the gospel more, as you would salvation itself, for it bringeth salvation. By Avay of motive and encouragement —
VeR. 11.] SERMONS UPON TITUS TI. 11-14. 59
1. Consider the greatness of the salvation : Heb. ii. 3, ' How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation ? ' It is not a slight matter. In the gospel God doth not treat with you about trifles ; your eternal life lies upon it ; we preach to you a doctrine that tends to salvation. That so the argument may be more operative, consider what is salva- tion. Salvation implieth a deliverance from danger and distress, and a preservation in a condition of safety. Sometimes he is called a saviour, qui quod semel factum est conservat, ne pereat, that keepeth a thing in a condition of safety, though it were never lost. In this sense God is said to save man and beast : Ps. xxxvi. 6, ' O Lord, thou pre- servest man and beast ; ' as he doth preserve them from decay and ruin ; so he is ' the saviour of all men,' 1 Tim. iv. 10. There is not a creature but may call God saviour. But this salvation I speak of is a salvation proper but to a few creatures, not a general preservation or act of providence. Here is not only safety, but glory ; it is a trans- lation, to a place of happiness. Again, he is said to save that delivers out of danger and destruction, as the shepherd that snatcheth the lamb out of the teeth of the lion saveth him ; and in common speech we call him a saviour that delivers from evil. But mark, this salvation is not only^privative, but positive. Christ doth not only deliver us from evil, from sin, from the wrath of God, the accusations of the law, and eternal death, but positively he gives us grace, and righteousness, and everlast- ing life ; he is not only a saviour te defend us, but a saviour to bless us, *a sun and shield,' Ps. Ixxxiv. 11 ; not only a shield to keep from danger, but a sun who is the fountain and cause of vegetation and life ; it is not preservation merely, but preferment. If Christ had only delivered us from wrath to come, and been a saviour privatively, it had been more than we could expect ; or if he had procured some place where we might have been unacquainted with pain or trouble, yet then he had been a saviour ; but here is not only a ransom and deliverance, but an inheritance, an exaltation ; heaven and everlasting glory are included in this salvation. Instead of horror and bowlings, here are everlasting joys, and we shall ever be with God, praising his grace in the midst of all his saints. The blessing is so excellent, that we can- not neglect it without great danger : Heb. ii. 3, ' How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation ? ' For what can we expect but that God's mercy and patience abused should be turned into wrath and fury ? And we cannot despise it without a great deal of sin and pro- faneness: Heb. xii. 16, 'Lest there be any profane person, as Esau, who for one morsel of meat sold his birthright.' The birthright was a pledge of the blessing, and a right of priesthood and ministration before the Lord depended upon it. This was Esau's by birth ; and he is called /Se/Sr/Xo?, ' a profane man,' for parting with it at so low a rate, and thinking so meanly of spiritual privileges. Oh ! but what profaneness is this, to despise the great salvation that will cause us ever to be before the Lord, and minister in his presence ! We count him a profane man that is guilty of murder, theft, adultery, perjury, because those sins bring public shame and contempt, and because these sins are most destructive to human society ; but he is a profane man indeed that despiseth the gospel, because it offereth such an excellent salva- tion ; that is profaneness, to slight God's best provision, to scorn his
60 SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. [SeR. II.
bowels, and, when the Lord hath made the bait an allurement so strong to gain man's heart, yet to turn his back upon it.
2. Consider the completeness of the Saviour. Jesus Christ is so by merit, and by efficacy and power, and so every way fitted to do us good. He doth something for us, and something in us. Look, as in the gospel there is the history of salvation, and there Christ doth all, he is a saviour by merit ; and there is the counsel of salvation, and there he is a saviour by power, he helps us to do the duty on our part. We have the merit of his humiliation and the power of his exaltation ; for us he prevails by the merit of his death, and in us by the efficacy of his Spirit. When Christ was to save us, there were several hindrances — one on God's part, and another on ours ; there was hindrance put in by God's justice, and a hindrance by our unbelief. Justice requires merit, and unbelief power ; Christ was a saviour both ways. Again, there are different enemies to our salvation, which were of several qualities — God and the law, and sin and death, and Satan and the world. Now God and the law are to be considered in a distinct rank from sin and death, from Satan and the world. God was an enemy that could not be overcome, therefore must be reconciled. The law was an enemy that was not to be disannulled and destroyed, but to be satisfied ; the precepts of it were not to be relaxed or repealed, but fulfilled ; the curses of it were not to fall to the ground ; some must be made a curse, that the autho- rity of it might be kept up. Now Jesus Christ he is made a curse for us, and by his merit he satisfies the law and the justice of God. Then, among the other enemies, look to Satan ; he is not only a temp- ter, but an accuser. As he is a tempter, so Christ is to overcome him by his power ; as he is an accuser, so Christ is to overcome him by his merit. Certainly so far as Satan is an enemy, so far must Christ be a saviour, that the plaster may be as broad as the sore ; and therefore against the accusations of Satan he interposeth as our advocate, by representing his merit, and by bringing his blood unto the mercy-seat. Once again, consider, that our comfort may be full, Christ saves us by merit and by power. By his obedience and merit he gives us jus ad rem, a right and title to salvation ; but by his efficacy and power he gives us possession, jus in re. He was first to buy our peace, our com- fort, our grace, our glory of God, and then to see that we be possessed of it ; and therefore we are said to be reconciled by his death, and saved by his life. He died that we might rely on his merit, and ran- som, and blood, which was a price to reconcile us to God ; and he lives that we might wait for his power, and so be saved by his life.