LIII. SERM. What! and will you take pleasure in that sin, which put your Saviour to so much torment? Live in that for which the Son of God died? Continue to do that which brought the best friend you have, with so much grief and sorrow to His grave? God forbid. No. Let it never be said, that you prefer your sin before your Saviour, so as to crucify Him afresh, rather than mortify that. But rather as He died for, do you die to, all manner of sin, so as to "walk in all the Commandments of the Lord blameless." Otherwise you may pretend what you please, but I dare assure you, you are not such righteous persons as these in my text were; howsoever you may appear before men, you are not righteous before God. This therefore is the first thing to be done, in order to your being truly righteous. You must look every one into his own heart, and search out every sin, that hath hitherto reigned there, and do all you can for the future, to subdue and expel it. You must leave and forsake, not only others, but your own darling and beloved vices. You must be able Ps. 18. 23. to say with David, "I was also upright," or as the word signifies, "Perfect and righteous before Him, and I kept myself from mine iniquity." You must set all the Commandments continually before your eyes, and order all your actions according to them. You must not allow yourselves in any one thing that God hath forbidden, nor wilfully neglect any one duty that He hath commanded you to perform. You must keep your "conscience void of all offence both towards God and men." "As He who hath called you is holy, so must you be holy in all manner of conversation." In short, ye must walk in all the Commandments of the Lord, and then you will have but one more step to true righteousness, and that is, to walk in all His Ordinances too. [Acts 24. 16.] [1 Pet. 1. 15.] SERMON LIV. UNIVERSAL OBEDIENCE REQUISITE TO SALVATION. LUKE i. 6. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the WHAT these Ordinances were, which Zacharias and Elizabeth walked in, we have shewn already; and from thence may easily gather what those are, which we must walk in, if we would be righteous: for the Ordinances which they observed, were those of the Levitical Law, which were all positive precepts ordained by God, to make up the defects of their obedience to the Moral Law, by the exercise of their repentance and faith in Christ, the great propitiation for the sins of the world. For these being the terms upon which the merits of Christ's death are applied to any person for the pardon of his sins, and for the acceptance of his sincere, instead of perfect righteousness, it was as necessary for them, as it is for us, to have some means of God's own ordaining, whereby to obtain and act them. And such in the old Law, were the sacrifices which they were bound to offer for the sins they had committed: and therefore he that brought his sin or trespass-offering, was first to confess his sin, and to testify his repentance for it. "And it shall be," saith the Lev. 5. 5; Law, "when he shall be guilty in one of these things, that he shall confess that he hath sinned in that thing." And the Jews have a tradition, that this confession was made upon the head of the sacrifice which the person brought for laying his hands between the horns of the sacrifice, he was to say, "O Lord, I have sinned, I have done wickedly, I have Num. 5. 7. LIV. SERM. dealt falsely before Thee. Behold I repent, I am ashamed of my deeds, I will never do that thing any more." Which was as high and solemn an expression of their repentance, as could be well devised. And the Jews themselves acknowledge also, that the sacrifices were of no efficacy nor advantage at all, nor expiated any sin, without repentance and confession. And therefore the Prophets all along make repentance necessary unto pardon, notwithstanding all their Ezek. 18.30. sacrifices, as "Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin." And so frequently elsewhere. Indeed, this was one great end of all the bloody sacrifices, to put the people in mind of the heinousness of their sins, which could not be expiated without the shedding of blood, and so to put them upon an hearty and sincere repentance for them. And as for faith, they had continual occasion given them for the exercise of that, in all the sacrifices which were offered for the expiation of sin: faith in God, in that they were offered to Him; and faith in the promised Messiah or Christ, in that they were offered for the expiation of sin. For they could not imagine that there was any such virtue in the blood of beasts, as to satisfy God, the Almighty Creator of the world, for the sins which they had committed against Him, and so could have no ground to expect or hope, that He would pardon them for the sake of a company of slain beasts; but all their hopes of pardon were grounded upon God's promise annexed to such sacrifices, as that was upon the death of Christ, typified and represented by them. Col. 1. 14. For "it is only through His blood that we can have forgiveJohn 1. 29. ness of sins." He is that true "Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world;" that "Lamb without spot and Eph. 5. 2. blemish, by whose precious blood we are redeemed;" "Who gave Himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a Isa. 53. 10. sweet-smelling savour;" "Whose soul was made an offering for sin," or "a sin-offering," as the Prophet himself speaks. All other sin-offerings were only types and shadows of His: that which He offered, by offering up Himself, was the substance, the true and real sacrifice, which expiated the sins of the world. This they knew before as well, though not so clearly, as we do since it happened; as appears not only 1 Pet. 1. 19. from the Prophet before quoted, but from many other places of the Old Testament. And therefore they believed in Christ as well as we. "Abraham rejoiced to see Christ's day, he John 8. 56. saw it and was glad." "Moses esteemed the reproach of Heb. 11.26. Christ, greater riches than the treasures in Egypt.” “For ch. 4. 2. the Gospel was preached to them as well as unto us." And indeed, the chief end of all their sacrifices, was to put them in mind of that which Christ was to offer for them; and so to give them occasion to exercise their faith, and put their confidence in Him for pardon and Salvation. And therefore these Ordinances were indeed their means of grace, whereby they obtained the mercy and assistance of God for the pardon of their sins, and the acceptance of their sincere, instead of perfect righteousness, through the blood of Christ, and His merits and intercession for them. Now these Ordinances having respect to Christ as to come afterwards, and so being fitted only for that time, before His coming in the flesh, they must needs cease in course, when He was once come and had actually offered up Himself for the sins of the world and it was then necessary there should be other Ordinances instituted in their place, as the ordinary means whereby mankind might obtain grace, and the favour of God, through Christ, to the end of the world. And these we are now as much obliged to walk in, as they were in theirs, if we desire to be righteous before God; that is, to come up to the terms of the Gospel, by repenting of our sins, and believing in Christ, so as that we may be justified before God, by His merits and Mediation for us. Of this sort is, first, the solemn hearing of God's Holy Word read, expounded, or preached publicly, by a "minister" of His own, commissioned to do it in His Name. They had something I confess of this before. "For Moses of old time Acts 15. 21. had in every city them that preached Him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath-day." And so this might in some sense be one of those Ordinances which they also walked in: but the Scriptures, especially such as related to our Saviour, were so obscure then, and wrapt up in such types and figures, that the reading of them could not be so effectual to the working in them true repentance and faith in Christ, as it is 41. LIV. ch. 4. 4. SERM. now: when we have all the mysteries of our Salvation by Him, so clearly and fully revealed to us by Himself and His Apostles; whereby the hearing of God's Holy Word is now become quite another thing, and so great a means of grace and Salvation, that many have been converted by the hearing of one chapter read, or one sermon preached as it ought to be: as St. Peter's preaching that one short sermon upon Acts 2.37, the day of Pentecost, about "three thousand souls were pricked in their hearts, and so repented and turned to Christ." And after the same Apostle had preached another sermon in the temple, it is said, "Many that heard the Word, believed, and the number of the men was about five thousand." And while the same Apostle was preaching to ch. 10. 44. Cornelius and his friends, "The Holy Ghost fell on all them that heard the Word." Many such examples we have in the Acts, of those who were turned from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, by the preaching of the Gos1 Cor. 1.18. pel, which St. Paul therefore calls, "the power of God." And so it appeared to be, in that the greatest part of the known world was by this means converted to the Christian faith. And to this day it hath the same power and efficacy as it ever had, as many have found by their own experience; and if it ever fail of having the same effect, it is not for want of power in the Word preached, but by reason of some indisposition in them that hear it: the ground is bad, and then it is no wonder that the seed sown never comes to perfection. [Acts 26. 18.] And besides, as by this means men are brought to a due sense of their sins, and to a sincere repentance for them, so likewise to true faith in Christ. For as the Apostle saith, Rom. 10.17. "Faith cometh by hearing." By this we are instructed in what we ought to believe, and by this we are enabled to believe, what we are so instructed in: by this our faith is begun, and by this we are confirmed and strengthened in it: by this our understandings are enlightened, our judgments [Acts 16. informed, and our hearts opened, as Lydia's was, to receive the Word in love of it: by this, God is pleased to manifest Himself to us, and to incline our minds to Him, His own Holy Spirit usually working together with His Word, to make it effectual to those great ends and purposes for which 14.] |