Use 2. Get an interest in him. Oh ! be not quiet till you are able to say. Our Saviour. You can take no comfort in the great God until the next title follows, and you can call Christ your Saviour ; but that is matter of joy and comfort: Luke i. 46, 47, ' My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour.'
But what shall we do that we may apply this ?
1. Eeject all other saviours : ' Neither is there salvation in any other ; for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved,' Acts iv. 12. Mark, when God threatened a deluge to sweep away the old world, there was no safety but in the ark ; if the world had devised other ships, yet they would not hold out against the flood ; so whatever you do, unless you close with Christ, and are grafted and implanted into Christ, as members of his body (for he is only the saviour of his body), you are not safe. But especially take heed of making a saviour of self, that we are wont to set up instead of Christ, of setting up the merit of thy works, and the power of thy nature ; the one renounceth the humiliation of Christ, the other his exaltation. Be at a loss till you close with Christ, for Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost. The sinking disciples cried, ' Lord, save us, we perish,' Mat. viii. 25. It is long ere God bringeth us to this. We never look after Christ till we are ready to perish and be undone. Why should we make choice of a saviour but in case of danger ? Faith necessarily implies this, a renouncing ourselves, not in words, but in the temper and frame of our hearts. You cannot practise swimming on shore or on the firm land, but then we strive to swim when we are ready to perish in the flood ; so when you are utterly lost in yourselves, then you will look after Christ,
2. Be earnest with God for an interest in Christ, and for the mani- festation of it. Cry out with David, Ps. xxxv. 3, ' Say to my soul, I am thy salvation.' You must choose Christ as a Saviour. Faith is a consent to take Christ as God offers him ; you must consent to the articles of the covenant of grace, that you will have no other Saviour but Christ : Lam. iii. 24, ' The Lord is my portion, saith my soul.' And go to God that he would ratify your choice by his consent ; desire God that he would say. Amen, that Christ might be thy Saviour. You had better be a beast than a man if you have not an interest in this salvation. The death of a beast is the end of his woe and labour, but then yours begins. The greatest part of salvation is to be delivered from evil to come ; therefore be earnest with God, that your interest in this salvation might be cleared up.
240 SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. [SeR. XIX.
SERMON XIX.
WJio gave Jiimselffor us, &c. — Titus ii. 14.
In this paragraph I have observed— (1.) The teacher ; (2.) The lesson ; (3.) The encouragements to learning. The teacher is the grace of God. The lesson is the whole duty of our heavenly calling. The encouragements to learning are twofold — some taken from the hope of eternal life, and some from the end and effect of Christ's death. I have finished the former, and now come to the latter sort, taken from the end and effect of Christ's death. So that, whether we look forward or backward, we still meet with obligations to obedience. Forward, there is a glorious and blessed hope ; backward, there is a great obligation established upon the creature, ' The Lord Christ gave himself for us, to redeem us from all iniquity.' Certainly there is a lawful use of hope that hath a great influence upon grace, but the great principle of the gospel is gratitude and thankfulness to Christ ; therefore let us look upon this second encouragement. We enter upon other services out of hopes, but we enter upon Christ's service out of thankfulness and gratitude ; it is an ingenuous service. In this verse you have —
1. Christ's act — ' He gave himself for us.'
2. His aim, ' To redeem us,' &c ; and this is expressed partly by the privative part, ' To redeem us from all iniquity ; ' and partly by the positive part of it, ' And purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.' Here is redemption and sanctification. I observe it the rather because both parts are suited to the exhortation. There was the privative part, ' Denying ungodliness and worldly lusts ; ' and suitably hereunto we are ' Redeemed from all iniquity ; ' then the positive part, ' Living soberly, righteously, godly.' So Christ did not only die to free us from hell, but to make us holy ; where we have the inward constitution, ' To purify unto himself a peculiar people ; ' and the outward conversation, or the sign and manifestation of it, ' Zealous of good works.' All these things are arguments to enforce the matter in hand. There is the act of Christ. Shall Christ die for us, and we cherish his enemy ? Shall he be our Saviour, and we hug and cherish that which is contrary to him, worldly lusts and ungodliness in the heart ? Then his aim, he died to free us from the bondage of sin ; therefore they that would have their sins live are said to put their Redeemer to shame, and make his kindness void. Then Christ died to make us a peculiar people, and shall we live as the rest of the multi- tude do ? We expect great benefit from him, therefore certainly we must be holy, and not pick and choose how we would have him a Saviour unto us.