Thus hath our Lord in our behalf vanquished and de- SERM. feated every thing that is opposed or prejudicial to our LXXIV. salvation and welfare. Many indeed of these things do in a more immediate, more peculiar, and more signal manner concern the faithful members of the Christian Church, and are directly applied to them; yet all of them in some sort, according to God's design, and in respect to a remote capacity, may be referred to all men. They are benefits which God intended for all men, and which all men (if they be not faulty and wanting to themselves) may ob. tain. How they more especially appertain to the faithful, we may shew afterward. APPLICATION. 1. Hence ariseth great matter and cause of glorifying God; both from the thing itself and its extent; for the magnitude of beneficence is to be estimated, not only according to the degree of quality, but according to its amplitude of object: to redeem any doth signify goodness, to redeem many doth increase it, to redeem all doth advance it to the highest pitch; the more are obliged, the greater is the glory due to the benefactor. Hence the earth being full of the goodness of the Lord, the Lord being gracious unto all, and his mercy being over all his works, all creatures partaking of God's bounty, is so often insisted upon in those divine hymns, as a ground of praise to God. Some do indeed speak of glorifying God for his discriminating grace, as if grace the narrower it were the better it were: but is not selfishness and envy at the bottom of this? Is not this the disposition of those in the Gospel, who murmured is thine eye evil because mine is good? It is dangerous to restrain God's benevolence and beneficence within bounds narrower than they really are; thereby diminishing his glory. 2. Hereby is discovered the general obligation of men to love God; to praise him, to serve him in sense of his goodness, in regard to his beneficence, out of gratitude SERM. toward him. If God hath been so kindly affected toward LXXIV. men, and so careful of their welfare, as for procuring and Rev. v. 9. promoting their salvation to provide a Saviour for them, to design his own beloved Son to that performance, in prosecution thereof depressing him into so low a state, exposing him to such inconveniences and indignities, such crosses and afflictions, how much are then all men obliged to love him, as their gracious friend and benefactor; to praise and celebrate him for his favour and mercy, to render all blessings and thanks unto him? This certainly is the duty of all, if the redemption in God's design reach to all; otherwise in reality it lieth on few, in practice it could scarce touch any. They cannot be obliged to thank God for their redemption, who are not obliged to him for the thing itself; they cannot heartily resent the kindness, who are not assured that it extends to them: and to such assurance (according to the doctrine of particular redemption) it is certain that very few men, especially of the best men, can arrive; it is a question whether any men arrive thereto. According to the sense of all men, it is also no easy thing to know certainly, whether a man at present be in the state of grace and he that doth not know that, cannot (except upon the score of general redemption) be assured that he is redeemed; and therefore cannot thank God. It hath been the common doctrine of Christendom for fifteen hundred years together, that no man (without a special revelation) can in this life be assured of his perseverance, and consequently not of his salvation; and consequently not of his election or redemption, in case only they who are saved are in the design of God redeemed : no man therefore, without that special revelation, can thank God heartily for his redemption, as being uncertain thereof, it being a secret reserved in God's breast. It is yet a farther difficulty, supposing a man to have a good assurance of his present state, to be assured of his final perseverance in it: which he that hath not, cannot (except upon the said score) thank God for it. LXXIV. The best men especially, who, out of modesty and hu- SERM. mility, are apt to doubt of their present state; who studying their hearts, and discovering many imperfections in themselves; who reflecting on their lives, and observing in them many defects, are apt to question whether they are qualified for God's favour, or fitted for the future account and enjoyment of heaven; who considering the treachery of their hearts, the feebleness of their reason, that unsteadiness of their resolution, will be apt to fear they may fall away, will be rendered hence uncapable to give God thanks for their redemption: only the bold and blind bayards (who usually out of self-conceit are so exceedingly confident of their election and salvation) will be able to praise God for it. Hence the assurance of salvation happening to few, and of them to much fewer upon good grounds; it being necessary to none, it being perhaps (yet far more probably, according to the general sense of Christendom) groundless to any; few or none are capable to render God praise and thanks for it: so shall he lose in effect all thanks for the greatest benefit he did ever confer on mankind. It is therefore a dangerous opinion, which checketh their gratitude, which stoppeth their mouths from praising God, which so depriveth God of his due praise. It is much more safe to praise God for the benefits we conceive we have, but have not, than to neglect to praise him for that we have, 3. This doctrine doth afford great matter of comfort. If a man reflecting on his own heart and ways (observing in them many blemishes and defects) is apt to be discouraged, yet it will raise him to consider, that he is not thereby excluded from a possibility of salvation, seeing he is assured of God's favourable inclination, and who hath expressed so much good-will and favour toward him in his redemption; seeing he is persuaded, that he hath a Saviour so kindly and pitifully affected toward him; who wisheth him well; who is concerned in his salvation, that he might not be crossed or defeated in his designs, that he might not lose the effects of his endeavours, the price of SERM. his blood. But he that seeth himself in so doubtful a conLXXIV.dition, as to his own qualifications, and withal hath no assurance that God was ever graciously disposed toward him, cannot but thereby be much discouraged. 1 Cor. vi. 20. 1 Pct. i. 17. This doctrine therefore is safe and useful; it can do no man harm; it may do him great good, by giving him hopes of being assisted and accepted by his Redeemer. But the other is dangerous, as tending to discourage and deject men. 4. This doctrine is a great incitement to the performance of duty; both as working upon men's ingenuity, and disposing them in gratitude to serve God, from the resentment of their obligation for so great a favour; and as assuring them of acceptance in case of endeavour to obey. How can he but be moved willingly to serve God, who hath an apprehension of God's such merciful design to save him? of his having done so much in order thereto ? But how can he be moved to serve God in consideration of such a benefit, who is ignorant of its being intended him? How can any man apply himself cheerfully to serve that master, whose favourable inclination toward him, whose readiness to accept his service, he doubteth of? The Apostles propound it as a ground of gratitude, and an obligation to the performance of duty, that they are redeemed by Christ; which supposeth they do all know and believe it. Supposing Christ is not the Redeemer of all, but of those only who shall be finally saved, these grounds of thankfulness and enforcements of duty cannot properly or pertinently respect all Christians, and indeed only those who are sure of their salvation. My thanking Christ for his redeeming me, my diligently serving him as my Redeemer, supposeth my opinion, and is grounded upon the truth of his being really so:-I cannot heartily, confidently, or comfortably do it, except I know it, and am assured thereof; which I cannot do, except Christ died for all men, or that I am assured of my particular election. So that either Christ is an universal Saviour, or the LXXIV. greatest part of Christians are disobliged and incapacitated SERM. reasonably to thank him, to praise him, to serve him, as they are enjoined to do. 5. It is a great aggravation of infidelity, of apostasy, of all disobedience, that we are guilty of them, do frustrate the designs and undertakings of Christ, do reject the overtures of his grace, do abuse the goodness and mercy of their Redeemer; it consequently deterreth from those things. The Pharisees and Lawyers rejected the counsel of God Luke vii. toward them, (God therefore designed their good.) 30. How shall we escape that neglect so great salvation? A Heb. ii. 3, salvation which they were capable of, which was designed for them, which was offered to them; otherwise there would have been no danger in neglecting it, no fault in doing it. It is said of the Jews at Antioch in Pisidia, that they Acts xiii. did åra, thrust away the Gospel, (the word of salva- 26, 46. tion, that was sent them,) judging themselves unworthy of eternal life: God did think fit out of goodness seriously to offer it to them, but they did not think fit to embrace it. Despisest thou the riches of God's goodness? How can 2 Pet. iii. 9. any man despise that which doth not concern him, which Rom. ii. 4. never was offered him, which at least he hath no ground of confidence, that it extendeth to him? These things I speak that ye may be saved: so our Lord John v. 34, saith to those who did not believe in him. How often have I willed, &c. Denying the Lord that bought them. 6. It is a great encouragement and excitement to devotion. Who can be backward of having recourse to his Redeemer; or of using his mediation? Whom will not such an experiment of goodness invite and encourage? But the contrary apprehension must needs damp devotion, and discourage from it. He can apply himself to God but faintly and distrustfully, who distrusteth whether he hath any Redeemer or Mediator, or no; who must thus conceive and say to himself: Perhaps God hath loved me, and perhaps he never had nor will have any regard to my 38. Matt. xxiii. 47. 2 Pet. ii. 1. |