330 SERMON UPON I CORINTHIANS XT. 26.
of Christ constraineth us ; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead ; and that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again.' Yea, the life and soul of every duty, the veiy design and tenor of the gospel, and the way of salvation by a redeemer, is so ordered by God as to raise the highest thankfulness in man, and that we might be deeply possessed with his love. Thankful- ness is the great duty of the gospel, and which containeth and animateth all the rest ; for the gospel from first to last is a benefit : 1 Tim. vi. 2, ' Partakers of the benefit ; ' and therefore to be received with thank- fulness ; for what obedience is to a mere law, that is thankfulness to a benefit. This duty is called iv)(aptarla, or an eucharist. The Lord Jesus hath gone before us as a pattern : 1 Cor. xi. 24, ' When he had given thanks, he brake it ; ' and ver. 25, ' After the same manner he took the cup ; ' that is, giving thanks ; Mat. xxvi. 27, ' He took the cup, and gave thanks.' And all because of that grace and bounty of God which he came to discover to mankind, and would seal with his blood. Well, then, this grace, love, and goodness of God, in giving his Son to die for our sins, should never be overlooked by us, that all our acts may be acts of thankfulness, our repentance may be a thankful repentance, our love may most affect the heart with sin : Ezek. xvi. 63, ' Thou mayest remember and be confounded, and never open thy mouth any more, because of thy shame, when I am pacified toward thee, for all that thou hast done.' Our faith a thankful acceptance of Christ and all his benefits ; our obedience a thankful obedience, not out of fear of hell, but gratitude ; all our duties but the thankful returns of Christ's redeemed ones for the great love he hath showed to us. So for all works of charity ; our giving an imitation of Christ, who loved us and gave himself for us : 2 Cor. viii. 9, ' Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might become rich.' Forgiving ; so it is said, Eph. iv. 32, ' Forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.' Our works of piety : wor- shipping God ; love should bring us into his presence, and his mercies to us in Christ should be continual matter of praise and thanksgiving. Our preaching ; love to God should sweeten the labours of it. Oh ! had we a deeper sense of this great love that provided such a remedy for us, we would feel the constraining influence of it in everything that our hand findeth to do for God.
[2.] The next thing is the outward occasion or procuring cause, which is our misery by reason of sin. He came to propitiate God, offended by man's sin. Sin was the cause of enmity between God and man, and did set us at such an infinite distance from him, that our peace could be made no other way but by Christ's ' making his soul an off'ering for sin,' Isa. liii. 10, and laecoming ' a curse for us,' Gal. iii. 13. Therefore, when we remember the agonies and death of Christ, we should remember the odiousness of sin. To make light of sin is to make light of the sufferings of Christ. The scripture often shows the greatness of sin by the greatness of the price that was given to redeem us from it : 1 Peter i. 18, 19, ' Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation, but with the iprecious blood of Christ.' And this both in order to caution and humi-
SERMON UPON I CORINTHIANS XL 26. 331
Hation. Caution : ver. 17, * Pass the time of 3'our sojourning here in fear.' And humiliation : Zech. xii. 10, ' I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplication ; and they shall look on him whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his first- born.' Before God would be propitious to sinners the Son of God must be made man, and sufier and die to expiate our offences. Well, then, is sin nothing, that sowed the seeds of that woful discord between God and us, that he will have no communion with us till the blood of Christ be shed to purge us from our sins ? Generally we have slight and superficial apprehensions of sin, therefore we are not much troubled for what is past, nor careful to avoid it for the time to come ; ye are not deeply affected with what our Mediator hath done to deliver us from it. 0 christians ! without these bitter herbs, due thoughts of sin, Christ our passover will not relish with us. Do but consider what you conceive of wrongs done to you, how they provoke and stir your passions, so that there is much ado to get you pacified. What heinous- ness must there be in your offences against God, both as to the quality of their nature, and their multiplicity both as to number and kind ! It is true God is free from passion, and is not troubled as your spirits are ; but such is the provoking nature of sin that it crieth for ven- geance, and bringeth you under the dreadful sentence of divine wrath, which would fall upon you with all its weight if Christ had not inter- posed and catched the blow. In short, the sinner is in a dreadful and damnable condition by reason of sin ; but Christ bore our sins in his own body on the tree, which should increase our thankfulness — for woe be to us if we bear our own sin — and heighten our repentance, that we may not provoke God for the future ; for you see satisfaction cannot be easily made for the injury of sin. The ignorance of God's majesty and holiness hath tempted the world to fancy some lesser expiations of sin and satisfaction to God, by sacrifices of beasts, or penances, or such a number of prayers or costly alms ; but the gospel teacheth us there is no purgation of sin but only by the death of Jesus Christ.