Use. To press you —
1, To mark the order of the benefits — first righteousness, then salvation.
[1.] We can never have found peace ; there is no appearing before God without some righteousness, of one sort or other. God is holy and just, therefore somewhat we must have to stand before this holy God.
[2.] No other righteousness will serve the turn but the righteousness of faith. We are in a woful case till we get an interest in the right- eousness of Christ ; Job xxxiii. 24, ' Then he is gracious to him, and saith, Deliver him from going down into the pit, for I have found a ransom.'
[3.] Till we heartily and sincerely believe or enter into this cove- nant, we have not this interest : Phil. iii. 9, ' And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.' Then for salvation, is this all your hope and desire, that your soul may be saved in the day of the Lord ? Then let not lesser pur- suits divert you : Acts xvi. 30, ' The jailer said to Paul and Silas, Sirs, what must I do to be saved ? ' It doth not touch us so near, how we shall live in this world, as how to live in the other.
2. Mark the order of duties — first faith, then confession. Hear, and your souls shall live. First hear, then live. There must be a believ- ing with the heart, and a confession with the mouth ; both go together : ' Por with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.'
SERMON UPON 1 CORINTHIANS VIII. 6.
But to us there is hut one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and loe in him; and one Jesus Christ, hy lohom are all things, and we hy him. — 1 Cor. viii. 6.
In the text, there is a perfect antithesis or opposition to the fabulous devices of the pagan religion. Among the pagans there were Oeou TToWol, 'many gods,' and Kvpiot ttoWoI, 'many lords/ ver. 5. By gods, meaning the supreme deities ; by lords, middle powers, or gods of an inferior order, supposed to be mediators and agents between the supreme gods and mortal men ; called by the orientals Baalim, lords, as gods here by the apostles. By the Greeks Bdi/xove';. So Plato in his Sympos. : Sia BaL/xovLtov irdcrd eazLv i] ofjuiXia kclI t] BidkeKTo^ d€OL<; tt/oo? dvOpcoirov^ — All the commerce and intercourse between gods and men is performed by demons. Now the christian religion doth herein agree with the pagan, that there is a supreme God and a mediator ; but it differeth in that they had a plurality in both sorts of their gods, we but one in each ; and so the christian religion is distinguished from all others by one God and one Lord. ' To us/ that is, to us christians, 'there is but et? 0eo?, one sovereign God,' from whom, as supreme, we derive all our graces, and to whom, as supreme, we direct all our services. * And one Lord,' that is, one mediator, by whom, as through a golden pipe, all mercies are conveyed to us, and by whom also we have access to God : ' But to us there is but one God,' &c. . In the words observe —
1. What is said of the supreme and most high God.
[1.] The unity of his essence, that though he be distinguished into three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, yet there is but one, the only and true God.
[2.] He is represented by his relation to the creatures, ' the Father.' It is not taken viroaTarLKw^, personally, but ova-Lwhm, essentially, as often in scripture ; as Isa. Ixiii. 16, 'Doubtlese thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us;' meaning not only the first person, but all the rest; and Mat. v. 16, 'Glorify your Father which is in heaven;' and Mat. vi. 9, ' Our Father which art in heaven;' James iii. 9, ' Therefore we bless God, even the Father.' In all these and many other places, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost is the only true God, and called Father.
[3.] He is set forth by his dignity and pre-eminence, as the first
260 SERMON UPON I CORINTHIANS VIII, 6.
cause and last end : ' For from him are all things, and we in him,' ei<?, dvTov, i.e., to him and for him. I take the marginal reading. So Rom. xi. 36, * For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things.'
2. What is said of the mediator. He is described —
[1.] By his person or name, signifying his person, ' Jesus Christ : ' * There is no other name given under heaven,' Acts iv. 12, &c.
[2.] By his dignity, ' Lord,' that is, mediator. Christ is often set forth by this term or title : Acts ii. 36, ' God has made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ.' He is Lord over all creatures, and over the house of God : Phil. ii. 11, ' And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.' He died for that end and purpose : Eom. xiv. 9, ' To this end Christ both died, and rose again, and revived, that he might be Lord both of dead *and living.' Therefore we should own him as such : John xx. 28, ' My Lord and my God ; ' both in word and deed. In word: Phil. ii. 11, 'That every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.' In deed, in worship : Ps. xlv. 11, ' He is thy Lord ; wor- ship thou him.' In ordinary practice and conversation, loving, serving, studying to please him in all things : Luke vi. 46, ' Why call you me Lord, and do not the things which I say ? ' Col. i. 10, ' Walk worthy of the Lord in all pleasing.' It is our comfort that he is head over all things, Eph. i. 22. So he is able to subject the church to himself by his Spirit, to vanquish its enemies, and defend us by his power. And it is both our comfort and duty that he is our Lord : ' He purchased us by his blood,' Acts xx. 28, and Eph. i. 14. Therefore the church is given him as an inheritance, Ps. ii. 8. We are married to him in the covenant of grace. Therefore he appeaseth the wrath of God by his passion and intercession. He cherisheth and takes care of us.