[3.] As a king ; so he taketh away sin by his Spirit. So backward are our minds, so bad our hearts, so strong our lusts, so manifold our temptations, that bare teaching will not serve the turn without a spirit of light, life, and love, to open our eyes, and change our hearts, and incline us, and bring us back again to God. Therefore it is said, Titus iii. 5, 6, ' Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour.' His merit giveth us confidence, his word, means and helps, and his sanctifying Spirit maketh all effec- tual to the soul.
III. That this is the great end and scope of Christ's coming into the world appeareth by sundry scriptures : 1 John iii. 5, ' And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins, and in him is no sin.' He was manifested in the flesh, and manifested in the gospel for this end. He came as an holy innocent saviour to take away sin : Mat. i. 21, ' Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.' Not to ease them of their trouble only, but chiefly to destroy sin, with the mischievous effects of it. He is a saviour that saves us from sin, not in sin.' Titus ii. 14, ' Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity.' Not only from the curse of the law, but from all inquity. The Mediator's blessing was not to free us from the Roman yoke, but from the slavery and bondage of sin : Acts iii. 26, ' Unto you first, God having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities,'-
Reasons.
1, Sin is the great makebate between God and us. The first breach was by sin, and still it continueth the distance : Isa. lix. 2, ' Your iniquities have separated between you and your God.' Till sin be taken out of the way, there can be no perfect communion between God and the creature. The purity of God is irreconcilable to sin, though not to the sinner, and therefore, though the sinner be pardoned, the sin must be taken away.
2. Sin is the great disease of mankind, and the cause of all misery ; therefore Christ came to stop mischief at the fountain-head. Take away sin, and you take away wrath ; for when the cause is gone, the
492 SERMONS UPON JOHN I. 29.
effect ceaseth. Those who are most sensible of their true evil do- mainly desire the taking away of sin. Pharaoh said, ' Take away this plague ; ' but the church saith, * Take away all iniquity,' Hosea xiv. 2. Many seek to get rid of trouble and temporal afHictions, but not of sin; because they have a gross sense of things, and measure their happiness and misery by their outward condition: Hosea vii. 14, * They assemble themselves for corn and wine, and they rebel against me.' They sought not God's favour, but corn, and wine, and oil. Others, if they mind spiritual things, they mind only pardon of sin» and ease of conscience, but not to be freed from the power of it ; as if a man that had broken his leg should only desire to be eased of the smart, but not to have it set again. But the true penitent is troubled with the stain as well as the guilt, therefore the promise is suited to such : 1 John i. 9, ' If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.' Others, if they would be freed from sin, they respect only the pre- venting the outward act, but you must abstain from the lust : 2 Peter ii. 11, ' I beseech you, as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul.' If they look after the heart and inward man, it is some branch of sin, not the root, or the change of the heart, and so die impenitent. Evil practices do not flow from a present temptation, but an evil nature. All these lose their labour ; they neither get rid of trouble nor prevent the act, nor are free from the breach of God's law, but Christ would make a thorough cure.
3. Taking away of sin is a greater benefit than impunity, or taking away the punishment. Those means which have a more immediate connection with the last end are more noble than those which are more remote. The last end is the glory of God. Now the holiness and subjection of the creature is a nearer means to it than our comfort and pardon. Christ's end was to fit us for God's use, and therefore his end was to sanctify us and free us from sin.
Use 1. Is caution. Let us renounce all sin, that we may not make Christ's coming into the world in vain. You go about to frustrate your Redeemer's end, and so to put him to shame, if you cherish sin, for then you cherish that which he came to destroy : 1 John iii. 8, ' For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil ; ' that is, dissolve, untie, and loose this knot. The work of the devil is to bring us into sin and misery, and will you tie the knot the faster ? If you go about to frustrate his undertaking, you renounce all benefit by him, and slight the price of your redemption.