5. The privileges are two — pardon and life. These are the great blessings ottered in the new covenant; you have both together. Acts xxvi. 18, ' To turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God ; that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.' These two benefits are most necessary, the one to allay the fears of the guilty creature, the other to gratify desires of happiness, which are natural to us ; the one to remedy the misery incurred by the sin and fall of man, the other to establish our true and proper felicity in the everlasting enjoyment of God ; the one to ease our consciences, and to support us against troubles of mind, the other to comfort us against all the outward troubles and afflictions which sin hath introduced into this world. In short, the one to free us from deserved punishment, the other to assure us of undeserved blessings ; for one importeth deliverance from eternal death, the other entrance into everlasting life.
282 SERMONS UPON ACTS II. 37, 38. [SeR. VI.
G. The duties thereof do either concern our first entrance into the christian state, or our progress therein. Our Lord representeth it under the notions of the ' gate ' and ' way ; ' Mat. vii. 14, ' Strait is the gate and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life.' Other scriptures deliver it under the notions of making covenant and keeping covenant with God. Making covenant : Ps. 1. 5, ' Gather my saints together imto me, those that have made a covenant with me by sacrifice.' Keeping covenant : Ps. xxv. 10, ' All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth to such as keep his covenant ; ' Ps. ciii. 18, ' To such as keep his covenant, and to those that remember his commandments to do them.' The covenant must not only be made, but kept.
[1.] As to entering into covenant with God, there is required true repentance and faith : Mark i. 15, 'Kepent ye, and believe the gospel.' Repentance respects God as our end, faith respects Christ as the way to the Father : Acts xx. 21, ' Repentance towards God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.' God is our end: 1 Peter iii. 18, ' Christ also hath once suffered, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God.' And Christ is our way : John xiv. 6, ' I am the way, the truth, and the life : no man cometh to the Father but by me.' And Christianity is a coming to God by Christ, Heb. vii. 25. Now in our first entrance faith and repentance are both mixed, and it is hard to sever them, and to show what belongeth to the one and what to the other ; at least it would perplex the discourse. Both together imply that a man be turned from a life of sin to God by faith in Christ, or a renouncing the devil, the world, and the flesh, and a devoting and dedicating ourselves to God as our God.
(1.) A renouncing the devil, the world, and the flesh ; for these are the three great enemies of God and our salvation. When God is laid aside, self interposeth as the next heir. That which we count self is the flesh : Eph. ii. 2, 3, ' Wherein in time past ye walked, according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience ; among whom also we had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind.' There all your enemies appear abreast : the devil as the grand deceiver and principle of all wickedness ; the world, with its pleasures, honours, and profits, as the bait by which the devil would deceive us, and steal away our hearts from God, and pervert and divert us, that we should not look after the one thing necessary ; the flesh is the corrupt inclination in us, which entertaineth. and closeth with these tempta- tions, to the neglect of God and the wrong of our own souls. The flesh is importunate to be pleased, and is the proper internal cause of all our mischief : James i. 14, ' But every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed.' These must be renounced before you can return to God : Josh. xxiv. 23, ' Now therefore put away, said he, the strange gods which are among you, and incline your heart to the Lord God of Israel' We must be turned from Satan to God ; we must be delivered from the present evil world ; we must abstain from fleshly lusts ; for God will have no copartners and competitors in our hearts.
(2.) A devoting, consecrating, and giving up ourselves to God,
VeR. 38.] SERMONS UPON ACTS 11. 37 38. 283
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, as our God : 2 Cor. viii. 5, ' But first gave themselves to the Lord ; ' Kom. vi. 13,' But yield yourselves unto God.' As our owner by creation : Ps. c. 3, ' The Lord is God ; it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves ; we are his people and the sheep of his pasture.' As his by redemption : 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20, ' And ye are not your own, for ye are bought with a price ; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's.' As your sovereign Lord : Jer, xxiv. 7, ' I will give them an heart to know me that I am the Lord ; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God : for they shall return unto me with their whole heart ; ' Isa. xxvi. 13, '0 Lord our God, other lords besides thee have had dominion over us.' As the fountain of our life and blessedness : Ps. xxxi. 14, ' But I trusted in thee, 0 God ; I said. Thou art my God ; ' Lam. iii. 24, ' Tiie Lord is my portion, saith my soul ; therefore I will hope in him ; ' Ps. cxix. 5, ' Thou art my portion, 0 Lord ; I have said, I will keep thy words.'