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258 SERMONS UPON TITUS II. 11-14. [SeL XX.
you serve sin, what dishonour you do to God, and what disadvantage it iS to yourselves.
1. The dishonour you do to God, to all the persons in the Godhead. To the Father, hy making void the whole plot of redemption. This was the eternal project and design, as it were, pi God the Father, the wise counsel his wisdom found out to remedy the fall of man. Jesus Christ was ordained before all worlds to redeem us from our vain con- versation : 1 Peter i. 20, ' Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world.' The Lord projected this way of restitution from all eternity, that this course should be taken to destroy sin. Now will you go about to make all this void ? Then you wrong God the Son, and that many ways. You disparage the worth of his price, as if it was not sufficient to purchase grace, and so seek to put your Redeemer to shame. Nay, you disparage the jnu-ity of his person, for you were redeemed with the blood of Christ as a lamb without spot and blemish. Nay, you disparage the greatness and extremity of his sufferings. It cost him dear to purchase grace and deliverance from sin, and you slight it, and make nothing of it. Then you rob him of the greatness of his purchase ; he bought us with this great price that we might not be our own and live to our lusts. Such as are bought with money are theirs who bonght them : 1 Cor. vi. 20, ' For ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are his.' Did Christ pay our debts, and shall we, like desperate prodigals, do nothing but increase them by our sin ? Then you disparage the Holy Ghost, the Spirit whom Christ doth shed abroad to accomplish his work : 2 Cor. iii. 17, ' ^Vhere the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.' The great work of the Holy Ghost is to fi'ee us from the bondage of sin. Have you the assistance of such a Spirit, and can you not resist carnal motions ? and are you taken with every vain delight, a fashion, a sensual bait ? Thus consider what a dis- honour it is to God to let sin live if Christ died to redeem us. You do as much as in you lieth to defeat the project of God the Father, the purchase of the Son, and the work of the Spirit.
2. It is a disadvantage to yourselves. You cut off your own claim, and declare you have no interest and share in Christ if sin live, for he came to redeem us from iniquity. We cannot have an interest in any part of Christ's redemption till this be, for all these go together. God's anger is not appeased, the devil's power is not restrained ; the law's curse is still in force as long as sin lives. You can have no comfort if you be not freed from sin ; the wrath of God is against you, and hell is your portion ; nay, if you are not redeemed from all sin, for he redeems us from all iniquity. A bird that is tied by the leg may make a show of escape, but it is fast enough ; so though many may abstain from gross sins (for they that commit such show plainly they are acted by the spirit of the devil), yet if one sin remains unmortified, it enthralleth as well as many ; but if it reigns in the soul, you have no interest in Christ.
Object. You will say, Why should we mortify? why should we trouble ourselves about this ? Christ hath done all this.
Ans. No ; Christ hath redeemed us from all iniquity, but his redemption doth not make void, but oblige our endeavours ; for he
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undertook as God's surety that sin should be destroyed, and as our surety that we should not serve sin : Eom. vi. 6, ' Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that- henceforth we should not serve sin.' There is a work on God's part ; lie undertook for the pouring out of grace ; and on our part, that we should be watchful, and strive against sin, and watch against all occasions of it ; and he hath given us encouragement so to do. Non jnigaa suhlata est, sed victoria — It is not the conflict against sin that is taken away by Christ, but the victory of sin. Look, as when the Israelites had a promise that God would give their enemies into their hands, the meaning was not that they should not strike a stroke, but they were to fight the battles of the Lord ; so when Christ hath redeemed us from iniquity, yet we are to use all spiritual means of mortification, to subdue the lusts, and to prevent the act of sin. It will be oar great condemnation, when we have so mucb help, that still sin should remain. Certainly he is very lazy that will not ply the oar that hath both wind and tide on his side ; and when the Lord Christ liath purchased grace and the Spirit, yet we will not endeavour against sin : ' Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again in the yoke of bondage,' Gal. v. 1.