Secondly, Observe, grace is ascribed both to God and Christ. To God the Father, as the giver ; and to Jesus Christ, as the meritorious procurer of it. Whatsoever God bestoweth upon us by his grace, he doeth it by Jesus Christ : 1 Cor. viii. 6, ' To us there is but one God.the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him ; and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him.' All is from God, and by Christ, and for God, and through Christ. If you consider the goodness of God, as it is issued from him in a way of creation, nothing was made without him : John i. 3, ' Without him nothing was made that was made.' If it were thus in a way of nature, it is much more so in a way of grace. Whatever gift we have cometh to us by Jesus Christ. Sometimes these kind of blessings are said to come from him, and sometimes by him. From him, to show that he is not only a mediator to procure, but a God to act : John xiv. 13, 14, ' Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glori- fied in the Son. If ye shall ask anything in my name, I will do it for you.' These expressions show him to be God, and the author of grace, as well as mediator. But most usually we are said to receive these blessings by him and through him ; as Titus iii. 6, ' The renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he hath shed on us abundantly through Christ Jesus our Lord.' the reason is, because fallen man cannot converse with God without a mediator. Two things hinder our commerce with him — distance, and difference ; distance by reason of imparity, and dif- ference by reason of enmity.
1. Distance. God is a god of glorious majesty, and we are poor des- picable creatures, unworthy of immediate access to him, unless one that is more near and dear to him than we are intercede for us. God is out of the reach of our commerce, till he cometb nearer, and is made more accessible to us in Jesus Christ, who is God-man in one person : John i. 14, ' The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us ; ' 1 Tim. iii. 16, ' Great is the mystery of godliness ; God was manifest in the flesh.' Otherwise how could we address ourselves with any confidence to one so far above us ?
344 SERMONS UPON 2 THESSALONIANS I. [SeR. XVI.
2. Difference. God is angry, and man is guilty ; therefore our con- science representeth him as terrible to us. He is a consuming fire, and we are as stubble fully dry ; and ' Who among us can dwell with devouring burnings ? ' Isa. xxxiii. 14. Of ourselves we cannot ap- proach an offended majesty in any friendly manner, and expect mercy from him ; therefore Christ interposeth as a propitiation for our sins, 1 John ii. 2, that he may satisfy God's provoked justice, and thereupon he may become propitious to us. Though God be merciful, and in- clined to pardon and bless ; yet he is just also, and some expiation must be made to demonstrate his purest holiness and hatred of sin, and that he may not suffer his just and holy laws to be trampled under foot. Therefore Christ must stand in the sinner's stead : 2 Cor. v. 21, ' Become sin for us,' &c. ; that is, a sin-offering, or a sacrifice of pro- pitiation, that his mercy may the more freely and abundantly flow forth to us.
Thirdly, Observe, that in the context there are causes, means, and ends mentioned.
1. The causes are the pleasure of God's goodness, and his divine power. Now one of the causes is the same with grace ; the other, his power, is set a-work by grace, to effect and bring about our salvation. The one (grace) is principium imperans ; power, principium esequens. So that the spring and rise of all is in the pleasure of his goodness, or of his grace, as will appear by this consideration. If you ask why so much wisdom and power was set a-work to effect so great a work for us, here is the reason or answer at hand — Because of his love, good- will, or grace. But if you ask again why he loved us at such a rate, no reason can be given of that, but that he loved us, or such was his grace towards us ; we can go no higher : Mat. xi. 26, ' Father, so it seemed good in thy sight.'
2. Come we to the means. They are of two sorts — (1.) Impetra- tion ; (2.) Application.
[1.] Impetration. Christ's death is not mentioned in the former verse indeed, but plainly implied in the text : ' The grace of our God, and the Lord Jesus Christ.' And therein his grace appeareth to us, partly because grace appointed the Son of God to die for us : John iii. 16, ' God so loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten Son,' &c. God loved lost mankind so that he sent his Son to suffer, and do the office of a mediator, that through his mediation he might communicate his love to us in a way agreeable to his justice. His love was antece- dent to his giving Christ, and the cause of it. Secondly, it was grace that Christ undertook it. His life was not forced from him by man, but voluntarily laid down by himself : John xvi. 18, ' No man taketh my life from me, but I have power to lay it down of myself, and take it up again.' And though he did it in obedience to his Father, yet that doth not diminish his love and grace, because he so freely offered himself to this work. Sometimes Christ's death is made an act of obedience : Rom. v. 19, ' By the obedience of one shall many be made righteous ; ' Phil. ii. 7, ' He took upon him the form of a servant, and became obedient to death.' Sometimes an act of love : Gal. ii. 20, ' The life which I live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me; ' Rev. i. 5, ' Unto him