faith brings the pardoned foul into that condition and state, where he may find perfect rest in his confcience, with refpect to the guilt and danger of fin. The blood of Chrift fprinkles us from an evil (that is, an accufing, condemning) confcience. We are apt to fear, that this or that special fin, which has moft terrified and affrighted our confciences, is not forgiven: but if there be riches enough in the grace of God, and efficacy enough in the blood of Chrift, then the fins of believers, all their fins, great as well as fmall, one as well as another, without limitation or exception, are) pardoned.

For let us but confider, If Chrift remits no fin to any man, but with respect to the blood of Chrift, then all fins are pardoned, as well as any one fin; because the dignity and desert of that blood is infinite, and as much deserves an univerfal pardon for all fins, as the particular pardon of any, even the least fin: moreover, remiffion is an act of God's fatherly love in Chrift; and if it be fo, then certainly no fin of any believer can be retained or excluded from pardon; for then the fame foul fhould be in the favour of God, fo far as it is pardoned, and out of favour with God, fo far as it is unpardoned, and all this at one and the fame inftant ef time; which is a thing both repugnant to itself, and to the whole ftrain of the gospel.

To conclude: What is the defign and end of remiffion, but the faving of the pardoned foul? But if any fin be retained or exclu ded from pardon, the retaining of that fin muft needs make void the pardon of all other fins; and fo the acts of God muft cross and contradict each other, and the design and end of God miscarry and be loft; which can never be. So then we conclude, faith brings the believing foul into a state of reft and peace.

Inf. Hence it also follows, That no remiffion is to be expected by any foul, without an intereft by faith in Jefus Chrift: no Christ, no pardon; no faith, no Chrift. Yet how apt are many poor deluded fouls to expect pardon in that way, where never any foul yet did, or ever can meet it. Some look for pardon from the abfolute mercy of God, without any regard to the blood of Chrift, or their intereft therein; we have finned, but God is merciful! Some expect remiffion of fin by virtue of their own duties, not Christ's merits: I have finned, but I will repent, restore, reform, and God will pardon! But little do fuch men know how they therein diminish the evil of fin, undervalue the juftice of God, flight the blood of Christ, and put an undoing cheat upon their own fouls for ever. To expect pardon from abfolute mercy, or our own duties, is to knock at the wrong door, which God hath fhut up to all the world, Rom. iii. 20. Whilft thefe two principles abide firm, that the price of pardon is only in the blood of Christ, and

the benefit of pardon, only by the application of his blood to us; this must remain a fure conclufion, that no remiffion is to be expected by any foul, without an intereft by faith in Jefus Chrift. Repentance, reftitution, and reformation are excellent duties in their kind, and in their proper places, but they were never meant for / faviours, or fatisfaction to God for fin.

Inf. 4. If the riches of grace be thus manifested in the pardon of fin, How vile an abufe is it of the grace of God, to take the more liberty to fin, because grace abounds in the pardon of it!

"Shall we continue in fin, that grace may abound? God for"bid!" Rom. vi. 1, 2. Will nothing cheaper than the grace of God ferve to make a cloak for fin? O vile abuse of the most excellent thing in the whole world? Did Chrift fhed his blood to expiate our guilt, and dare we make that a plea to extenuate our guilt? God forbid !

If it be intolerable ingratitude among men, to requite good with evil, fure that fin muft want a name bad enough to exprefs it, which puts the greatest dishonour upon God, for the greatest mercy that ever was given by God to the world. "There is mercy "with thee, (faith the Pfalmift), that thou mayest be feared," not that thou mayeft be the more abufed, Pfal. cxxx. 4, Nay, let me fay, the devils never finned at this rate; they cannot abuse the pardoning grace of God, becaufe fuch grace was never offered unto them. And certainly, if the abuse of the common mercies of God, as meat and drink, by gluttony and drunkenness, be an heinous fin, and highly provoking to God; then the abuse of the riches of his grace, and the precious blood of his Son, must be out of measure finful, and the greatest affront we can put upon the God of mercy.

Inf. 5. To conclude: If this be fo, as ever you expect pardon and mercy from God, come to Chrift in the way of faith; receive and embrace him now in the tenders of the gafpel.

To drive home this great exhortation, I befeech you, as in the bowels of Chrift Jefus, and by all the regard and value you have for your fouls, let thefe following confiderations fink down in your hearts.

First, That all chriftless perfons are actually under the condem nation of God, John iii. 18" He that believeth not, is condemn"ed already" and it muft needs be fo, for every foul is concluded under the curfe of the law, till Chrift make him free, John viii. 36. Till we are in Christ, we are dead by law; and when we believe unto juftification, then we pass from death to life. A blind mistaken confcience may poffibly acquit you, but affure yourselves, God condemns you.

Secondly, Confider what a terrible thing it is to lie under the con

demnation of God; the most terrible things in nature cannot shadow forth the mifery of fuch a ftate: put all fickneffes, all poverty, all reproaches, the torments invented by all tyrants into one scale, and the condemnation of God into the other, and they will be all found lighter than a feather. Condemnation is the fentence of God, the great and terrible God; it is a fentence fhutting you up to everlasting wrath; it is a fentence never to be reverfed, but by the application of Chrift in the season thereof. O fouls! you cannot bear the wrath of God; you do not understand it, if you think it tolerable: One drop of it upon your confciences now, is enough to distract you in the midft of all the pleasures and comforts of this world: yet all that are out of Christ, are sentenced to the fulness of God's wrath for ever.

Thirdly, There is yet a poffibility of escaping the wrath to come; a door of hope opened to the worft of finners; a day of grace is offered to the children of men, Heb. iii. 15. God declares himself unwilling that any should perifh, 2 Pet. iii. 9. O what a mercy is this! Who, that is on this fide heaven or hell, fully underftands the worth of it?

Fourthly, The door of mercy will be fhortly fhut, Luke xii. 25. God hath many ways to fhut it: he fometimes fhuts it by withdrawing the means of grace, and removing the candlesticks; a judgment at this time to be greatly feared. Sometimes he shuts it by withdrawing the Spirit and bleffing from the means, whereby all ordinances lofe their efficacy, I Cor. iii. 7. But if he fhut it not by removing the means of grace from you, certain it is, it will be thortly fhut by your removal from all the means and opportunities of falvation by death.

Fifthly, When once the door of mercy is fhut, you are gone beyond all the poffibilities of pardon and falvation for evermore. The night is then come, in which no man can work, John ix. 4. All the golden feafons you now enjoy, will be irrecoverably gone out of your reach.

Sixthly, Pardons are now daily granted to others: fome (and they once as far from mercy as you now are), are at this day reading their pardons with tears of joy dropping from them. The world is full of the examples and inftances of the riches of pardoning grace. And whatever is needful for you to do in the way of repentance and faith to obtain your pardon, how eafily fhall it be done, if once the day of God's power come upon you? Pfal. cx. 3. O therefore, lift up your cries to heaven, give the Lord no reft, take no denial till he open the blind eye, break the ftony heart, open and bow the stubborn will, effectually draw thy foul to Christ, and deliver thy pardon figned in his blood.

SERMON XVII.

Opening the eighth Motive to come to CHRIST, drawn from the fixth Benefit purchased by CHRIST for Believers.

EPH. i. 6.

To the praife of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved.

IN

'N our laft difcourfe we opened to you the bleffed privilege of remiffion of fin, from the following verfe; in this verse lies another glorious privilege, viz. the acceptation that believers have with God through Jefus Chrift; both which comprise (as the two main branches) our juftification before God. In the words read, (to omit many things that might be profitably obferved from the method and dependence of the apoftle's difcourfe) three things are obfervable, viz.

1: The privilege itself,

2. The meritorious caufe,

3.

The ultimate end thereof.

First, The privilege itself, which is exceeding rich and sweet in its own nature; "he hath made us accepted; the word is exapirwory nuas, he hath ingratiated us, or brought us into the grace, favour and acceptance of God the Father; endeared us to him, fo that we find grace in his fight,

Secondly, The meritorious caufe, purchafing and procuring this benefit for us, noted in the words, y tw nyanμew, in the Beloved; which words are a periphrafis of Chrift, who is here emphatically ftiled the Beloved, the great favourite of heaven, the delight of God's foul, the prime object of his love: it is he that obtaineth this benefit for believers: he is accepted for his own fake, and we for his.

Thirdly, The ultimate end and aim of conferring this benefit upon believers; "To the praife of the glory of his grace;" or, to the end that his grace might be made glorious in praises: there are riches of grace in this act of God; and the work and business of believers, both in this world and in that to come, is to fearch and admire, acknowledge and magnify God for his abundant grace herein. Hence the note is,

Do&t. That Jefus Chrift hath purchased and procured fpecial favour and acceptation with God for all that are in him.

This point lies plain in fcripture, Eph. ii. 13. "But now in Je

"fus Chrift, ye who fometimes were afar off, are made nigh by "the blood of Christ," ylus eyenne, made nigh, a term of endearedness: nothing is taken into the very bofom and embraces but what is very dear, precious and acceptable; and in Rev. ii. 5, 6. believers are faid to be made by Jefus Chrift "kings and priests "unto God, and his Father," i. e. dignified favourites, upon whom the special marks of honour are fet by God.

In opening of this point three things must be doctrinally difcuffed and opened, viz.

1. What the acceptation of our perfons with God is?

2. How it appears that believers are fo accepted with God? 3. How Chrift the Beloved procures this benefit for believers? Firft, What the acceptation of our perfons with God is? To open which, it may be proper to remember, that there is a twofold acceptance of perfons mentioned in fcripture.

1. One is the finful act of corrupt man.

2. The other the gracious act of a merciful God.

Firf, Accepting of perfons is noted in fcripture as the finful act of a corrupt man; a thing which God abhors, being the corruption and abuse of that power and authority which men have in judgment; overlooking the merit of the caufe through finful refpect to the quality of the perfon whofe caufe it is; fo that the caufe doth not commend the perfon, but the person the cause. This God every where brands in men, as a vile perverting of judgment, and utterly disclaims it himself, Gal. ii. 6. " God accept"eth no man's perfon;" Rom. ii. 11. There is no respect of "perfons with God."

Secondly, There is alfo an accepting of perfons, which is the gracious act of a merciful God; whereby he receives both the perfons and duties of believers into special grace and favour for Chrift's fake; and of this my text fpeaks. In which act of favour three things are fuppofed or included.

Firft, It fuppofes an eftate of alienation and enmity; thofe only are accepted into favour that were out of favour; and indeed fo ftood the cafe with us, Eph. ii. 12, 13. "Ye were aliens and "strangers, but now in Chrift Jefus, ye who fometimes were afar "off, are made nigh by the blood of Chrift:" So the apostle Peter, in 1 Pet. ii. 10. "Which in time past were not a people, but "now are the people of God; which had not obtained mercy, " but now have obtained mercy." The fall made a fearful breach betwixt God and man. Sin, like a thick cloud, intercepted all the beams of divine favour from us; the fatisfaction of Chrift diffolves that cloud, Ifa. xliv. 22. " I have blotted out, as a thick "cloud, thy tranfgreffions, and, as a cloud, thy fins." This dark cloud thus diffolved, the face of God fhines forth again with cheer