and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ ; ' 1 Peter iii. 18, ' For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.' Christ's business is to bring us back again to God, from whom we have strayed and fallen, to put us into a capacity of pleasing and enjoying God. Kepentance is our consent of returning to God, as faith is our thankful owning of our Eedeemer to this good end in par- doning, that we should put ourselves in a posture and capacity to please God and enjoy God, and this should be our end in accepting the Redeemer.
Doct. 3. Such as have obtained remission of sins are bound to express their gratitude and thankfulness to God by new obedience.
1. That they may not undo what is done, and so build again the things they have destroyed : Gal. ii. 17, 18, ' But if while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners ; is Christ therefore the minister of sin ? God forbid ; for if I build again the things I have destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.' The objection against the grace of the gospel is, that it casteth off all care of holiness and new obedience, and so Christ is made a minister of sin. No ; this thought is to be rejected with horror : this is the objection of atheistical, loose, erring spirits, who are little acquainted with the heart of a par- doned and justified man. No, no ; pardon of sin doth not foster a man in sin. This is to make Christ a minister of sin, which all christians should abominate. But how doth he refute it ? Even by this argu- ment, that we shall build again the things we have destroyed. A man that seeketh after pardon, seeks with it the ruin and destruction of sin. Sin was his greatest trouble, the burden that lay upon his con- science from whence he sought ease, the wound which pained him at heart, the disease that his soul was sick of ; and can a man delight in his sorest trouble, take up his burden that he groaned under, and prefer it before ease, tear open the wound which was in a fair way of healing, willingly relapse into the sickness he is recovered of with so much ado ? This is to undo all, and to desire our bonds and chains again after we are freed of them. What is it we complained of but the debt and burden of sin ? Now when Christ hath paid our debts, and set us free, and entrusted us with a new stock of grace to begin the world anew, shall we unfix all, as if we were deceived, when, in the anguish of our hearts, we groaned under sin as the heaviest and most intolerable evil that could lie upon our souls ?
2. That we may make good our qualification. Certain it is that none are pardoned but those that are renewed and born again ; for the application of the merit of Christ and the gift of the Spirit are insepar- able : 1 Cor. vi. 11, ' And such were some of you, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified, in the name of our Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.' By the fall we were both unholy and guilty, under the power of sin, and obnoxious to the wrath of God ; so that the plaster might be as broad as the sore, we must be sanctified and justified ; and as we were first unholy before we were guilty, so doth Christ re- generate us that he may pardon us, and pardon us that he may further sanctify us and make us fit for the Lord's use. First we are changed by repentance towards God and faith in the Redeemer, and then receive remission of sins : Acts xxvi. 18, « To open their eyes, and turn them
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from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith.' The one must be done that we may obtain the other. Certainly a man must be united to Christ, and engrafted into him, before he can have benefit from him. Christ is the common storehouse, in whom are treasured up all spiritual blessings. There- fore before we are united to him, and take our spiritual being from him, we cannot get these spiritual blessings to be applied to us ; as Adam's posterity, before they take their natural being from him, receive not their original guiltiness, from whence all actual transgressions flow: Rom. v. 12, ' As by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all, for that all have sinned.' Till we be in Christ, united to him by faith, the wrath of God abideth on us, John iii. 18. Well, then, those that are new creatures are strictly tied to new obedience, unless they will forfeit their claim.
3. To express their gratitude and thankfulness : 2 Cor. v. 14, ' The love of Christ constraineth us ; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then are all dead ;' Kom. xii. 1, 'I beseech you, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service,' Luke vii. 47, She wept much, because she loved much ; and she loved much, because much was forgiven her. Our gratitude and thankfulness to God is expressed not only in word but in deed ; not only if we bless him and praise him the more, but if we love him the more, and fear him the more, and honour him the more in our lives and conversations. This is the true way of expressing our thankfulness to God, if we walk fruitfully, and be the more abundant in his service.