SERM. XIV. Sol. Pardon could not be an act of pure grace, if God received fatisfaction from us; but if he pardon us upon the fatisfaction received from Chrift, though it be of debt to him, it is of grace to us for it was grace to admit a Surety to fatisfy, more grace to provide him, and most of all to apply his fatisfaction to us, by uniting us to Christ, as he hath done.

Object. But God loved us before Chrift died for us; for it was the love of God to the world that moved him to give his onlybegotten Son. Could God love us, and yet not be reconciled and fatisfied?

Sol God's complacential love is indeed inconfiftent with an unreconciled ftate: He is reconciled to every one he fo loves. But his benevolent love, confifting in his purpose of good, may be before actual reconciliation and fatisfaction.

Object. Temporal death, as well as eternal, is a part of the curfe if Christ have fully satisfied by bearing the curfe for us, how is it, that those for whom he bare it, die as well as o thers?

Sol. As temporal death is a penal evil, and part of the curfe, fo God inflicts it not upon believers; but they muft die for other ends, viz. to be made perfectly happy in a more full and immediate enjoyment of God, than they can have in the body: and fo death is theirs by way of privilege, 1 Cor. iii. 22. They are not death's by way of punishment. The fame may be faid of all the afflictions with which God, for gracious ends, now exercises his reconciled ones. Thus much may fuffice to establish this great truth.

Inference 1. If the death of Chrift was that which fatisfied God for all the fins of the elect, then certainly there is an in finite evil in fin, fince it cannot be expiated, but by an infinite fatisfaction. Fools make a mock at fin, and there are but few fouls in the world that are duly fenfible of, and affected with its evil; but certainly, if God fhould damn thee to all eternity, thy eternal fufferings could not fatisfy for the evil that is in one vain thought. It may be you may think this is harsh and fevere, that God fhould hold his creatures under everlasting fuf. ferings for fin, and never be fatisfied with them any more. But

By this death of Chrift we are greatly excited both to caution, and to deteftation of fin. For it mult furely be a deadly evil which could not be otherwife cured than by Chrift's death. What man therefore, feriously confidering that his fins were no other way expiated than by the blood of the very Son of God, will not tremble at the thoughts of trampling, as it were, on that most precious blood by daily finning? Daven, on Col. chap. 1. v. 20.

when you have well confidered, that the object against whom you fin, is the infinite bleffed God, which derives an infinite evil to the fin committed against him; and when you confider how God dealt with the angels that fell, for one fin, and that but of the mind; (for having no bodily organs, they could commit nothing externally against God :) you will alter your minds about it. O the depth of the evil of fin! If ever you will fee how great and horrid an evil fin is, measure it in your thoughts, either by the infinite holiness and excellency of God, who is wrong'd by it; or by the infinite fufferings of Chrift, who died to fatisfy for it; and then you will have deeper apprehenfions of the evil of fin.

Inference 2. If the death of Chrift fatisfied God, and thereby redeemed the elect from the curfe then the redemption of fouts is coftly; fouls are dear things, and of great value with God. "Ye know, (fays the apoftle,) that ye were not redeemed with

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corruptible things, as filver and gold, from your vain conver"fation, received by tradition; but with the precious blood of "the Son of God, as of a lamb without fpot," 1 Pet. i. 18, 19. Only the blood of God is found an equivalent price for the redemption of fouls. Gold and filver may redeem from Turkish, but not from hellish bondage. The whole creation fold to the utmost worth of it, is not a value for the redemption of one foul. Souls are very dear; he that paid for them found them fo: yet how cheaply do finners fell their fouls, as if they were but low prized commodities! but you that fell your fouls cheap, will buy repentance dear.

Inference 3. If Chrift's death fatisfied God for our fins, how unparalleled is the love of Chrift to poor finners! It is much to pay a pecuniary debt to free another, but who will pay his own blood for another? We have a noted inftance of || Zaleucus, that famous Locrenfian lawgiver, who decreed, that whoever was convicted of adultery, fhould have both his eyes put out. It fo fell out, that his own Son was brought before him for that crime; hereupon the people interpofing, made fuit for his pardon. At length, the Father, partly overcome by their importunities, and not unwilling to fhew what lawful favour he might to his Son, he first put out one of his own eyes, and then one of his fon's; and fo fhewed himself both a merciful father, and a just lawgiver; fo tempering mercy with juftice, that both the Law was fatisfied, and his Son fpared. This is written by the Hiftorian as an inftance of fingular love in his Father, to pay

Valerius, book vi, chap. 5.

one half of the penalty for his Son. But Chrift did not divide, and share in the penalty with us, but bare it all. Zaleucus did it for his Son, who was dear to him; Chrift did it for ene. mies, that were fighting and rebelling against him: Rom. v., 8. "While we were yet finners, Chrift died for us." "O would "to God (faid a holy one) I could caufe paper and ink to fpeak "the worth and excellency, the high and loud praifes of our "brother ranfomer! O the ranfomer needs not my report; but "O if he would take it, and make ufe of it! I fhould be happy if I had an errand to this world but for fome few "years, to fpread proclamations, and out-cries, and love-let"ters of the highnefs [the highnefs evermore] of the ranfomer, whofe cloaths were wet, and dyed in blood; howbeit, "that after that my foul and body should go back to their mo "ther nothing."

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Inference 4. If Chrift, by dying, hath made full fatisfaction, then God is no lofer in pardoning the greatest of finners that believe in Jefus; and confequently his juftice can be no bar to their juftification and falvation. He is just to forgive us our fins, John i. 9. What an argument is here for a poor believer to plead with God! Lord, if thou fave me by Jefus Chrift, thy juftice will be fully fatisfied at one full payment; but if thou damn me, and require fatisfaction at my hands, thou canft never receive it: I fhall make but a dribbling payment, though I lie in hell to eternity, and fhall ftill be infinitely behind with thee. Is it not more for thy glory to receive it from Christ's hand, than to require it at mine? One drop of his blood is more worth than all my polluted blood. O how fatisfying a thing is this to the confcience of a poor finner that is objecting the multitude, aggravations, and amazing circumftances, of fins, against the poffibility of their being pardoned ! Can fuch a finner as I be forgiven? Yes, if thou believeft in Jefus, thou mayeft; for fo God will lofe nothing in pardoning the greateft tranfgreffors: "Let Ifrael hope in the Lord; for "with the Lord there is mercy, and with him is plenteous redemption," Pfal. cxxx. 7. i. e. a large flock of merit lying by him in the blood of Chrift, to pay him for all that you have done against him.

Inference 5. Laftly, If Chrift hath made fuch a full fatisfaction as you have heard, How much is it the concernment of every foul, to abandon all thoughts of fatisfying God for his own fins, and betake himself to the blood of Chrift, the ranfomer, by faith, that in that blood they may be pardoned? It would grieve one's heart to fee how many poor creatures are drudging and tugging at a

task of repentance, and revenge upon themfelves, and reformation, and obedience, to fatisfy God for what they have done against him: And alas! it cannot be, they do but lofe their labour; could they fwelter their very hearts out, weep till they Can weep no more, cry till their throats be parched, alas, they can never recompenfe God for one vain thought; for fuch is the feverity of the law, that when it is once offended, it will never be made amends again by all that we can do; it will not discharge the finner, for all the forrow in the world. Indeed, if a mad be in Chrift, forrow for fin is fomething, and renewed obedience is fonething; God looks upon them favourably, and accepts them graciously in Chrift: but out of him they fignify no more than the intreaties and cries of a condemned malefactor, to reverfe the legal fentence of the judge. You may toil all the days of your life, and at night go to bed without a candle. To that fenfe that fcripture founds, Ifa. 1. Ir. "Behold, all ye that kin "dle a fire, that compafs yourselves about with fparks; walk in the light of your fire, and in the fparks that you have "kindled: This hall ye have of mine hand, ye fhall lie down

in forrow." By fire, and the light of it, fome understand the fparkling pleasures of this life, and the fenfitive joys of the creatures: but generally it is taken for our own natural righteoufnefs, and all acts of duties, in order to our juftification by them before God. And fo it ftands oppofed to that faith of recumbency spoken of in the verfe before. By their compaffing themJelves about with thefe fparks, understand their dependance on thefe their duties, and glorying in them. But fee the fatal issue, Te fhall lie down in forrow: that fhall be your recompence from the hand of the Lord; that is all the thanks and reward you must expect from him, for flighting Chrift's, and preferring your own righteoufuefs before his. Reader, be convinced, that one act of faith in the Lord Jefus pleafes God more than all the obedience, repentance, and ftrivings to obey the law, through thy whole life, can do. And thus you have the firft fpecial fruits of Chrift's priesthood, in the full fatisfaction of God, for all the fins of believers:

Surveys the bleffed Inheritance purchased by the Oblation of Chrift, being the fecond Effect or Fruit of his Priesthood.

GAL. iv. 4, 5. But when the fulness of time was come, God fent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of fons.

THI

HIS fcripture gives us an account of a double fruit of Chrift's death, viz. the payment of our debt, and the purchase of our inheritance.

1. The payment of our debt, expreffed by our redemption, or buying us out from the obligation and curfe of the law, which hath been difcourfed in the last exercise.

2. The purchase of an inheritance for thofe redeemed ones, expreffed here by their receiving the adoption of fons; which is to be our prefent fubject. Adoption is either civil, or divine. Of the first, the civil law gives this definition: that it is,

"A lawful act, in imitation of nature, invented for the "comfort of them that have no children of their own.

Divine

adoption is that fpecial benefit whereby God, for Chrift's "fake, accepteth us as fons, and makes us heirs of eternal life "with him."

Betwixt this civil and † facred adoption, there is a twofold agreement and difagreement. They agree in this, that both, flow from the pleasure and good will of the adoptant; and in this, that both confer a right to privileges, which we have not by nature but in this they differ, one is an act imitating nature, the other tranfcends nature; the one was found out for the comfort of them that had no children; the other for the comfort of them that had no father. This divine adoption is,

*Summa Angel. ad verbum. Adoptio eft actus legitimus, imitans naturam, repertus ad corum folatium, qui liberos non habent. Adoptio eft beneficium, quo nos Deus propter Chriftum in filios recipit, et facit nos cum ipfo haeredes vitae aeternae. Ravanel,

+ Here therefore adoption is taken (as redemption is in Rom, iii, 23.) for actual poffeffion., For as, at the laft day, we will perceive the fruit of our redemption, fo now we perceive, &c. Calvin on this place.