A SERMON Preached by the Late Eminent Mr. Steph. Charnock ON 2 COR. V. XIX LONDON Printed by Thomas Milbourn for J. K. and are to be Sold by Langley Curtis in Goat-Court on Ludgate-Hill 1680. A SERMON Preached on 2 Cor. 5.19 God was in Christ reconciling the World unto Himself The Doctrine from these Words was this That God the Father is the Chief Author of the whole Vndertaking and effecting our Reconciliation by Christ. T IS fit we should joyn Issue with God in being Reconciled to him We should comply with God in this great Ordinance The Consideration of this Doctrine should work Relenting and Believing Let therefore the Design of God prevail with us In this alone we shall find Expiation of our Sins the Grace of God Peace of Conscience In a word What-ever God as Reconciled can Give or Christ as Reconciling can Purchase 'T is tender Mercy Bowels of Mercy whereby the Day-Spring from on High hath visited us When we lay wallowing in a Miry Sink ready to be crush't by God's Righteous Hand then he pitied us So that we shall be the more dis-ingenuous if we refuse this Amity The Dignity of the Donor renders the Gift more valuable than it may be in it self The Present of a Prince is more priz'd than when it is bestow'd by an ordinary Person The Gift of Christ the Offer of Peace by him is Incomprehensible in it self and receives a Value from that God that hath Prepared and Offered it What Pleasure can any Man taste in Earthly Comforts though he hath a Confluence of all manner of Delight if he hath no Share in a Reconciled God by a Reconciling Mediator While he forces that God that is the Author of this Peace to stand over him with a drawn Sword pointed at his Breast Corn Wine and Oyl and whatsoever comes within the Compass of the delightful Things of this World are little in comparison of this Peace and the Light of God's Countenance And 1. Consider something must be done on our Parts something there is Incumbent upon us If all Men were Reconciled without Conditions on their Part the Apostle might have held his Peace and not added the other Clause We pray you be ye Reconciled unto God Then there would be no need of that Inference But in the Text he speaks of a Fundamental Reconciliation in This of the Actual If all Men had been Reconciled to God it would not have been Sense For then he would say Ye are Reconciled therefore be Reconciled It had been an Exhortation to do that which was already done to their Hands If all Men are Actually Reconciled How come any to miss the Fruits of it Why is it not applyed to All Because all that are Called do not comply with that Call they answer not God's Commands and Intreaties The Purchase and the Application of it are distinct The Purchase is made by Christ alone on the Cross without any Qualification in the Creature But the Application is not wrought without something in the Creature concurring with it though that also be wrought by the Spirit of God God ordained Peace for us but yet there is some Work to be wrought in us The one is Grace in the Spring the other is Grace in the Vessel The one is the Act of God in Christ the other is the Act of God by the Spirit Though the Fire burns if we would warm our selves we must not run from it but approach to it Something must be done by us 2. This Qualification is Faith As Infinite Grace in God qualified him if I may use that Expression for the effecting it so Faith in us qualifies us for the Enjoying it Though Christ be the Purchaser yet Faith is the Testator in it Rom. 5.1 This Inestimable Mercy is not conferr'd but on Men that affect value and consent to it We must lay our Hands on the Head of this Sacrifice and own him to be ours This is the Band that unites us to Christ the Purchaser by Him to God the Author of this Reconciliation This gives us a Right to this Peace and will at last give us the Comfort of it 3. The Order of Conveyance is first our Acceptance of Christ then of God in and through Christ We must first comply with the Means before we attain the End Our Nearness to God was purchased by the Blood of Christ and is Actually confer'd by our Union with Christ Ephes 2.13 But now in Christ Jesus ye that were sometime afar off are made nigh by the Blood of Christ They were made nigh by the Blood of Christ but it was Actually conferred by their being in Christ Faith hath Recourse first to the Atonement made by the Blood of Christ and by that Blood unto God Rom. 3.25 Whom God hath set sorth to be a Propitiation but how Through Faith in his Blood This Blood alone quencheth the Consuming Fire of God's Wrath. By Christ we are Reconciled by Him alone we receive the Atonement Rom. 5.11 As God was in Christ Reconciling so we must be in Christ Accepting this Reconciliation You are Christ's and Christ is God's In the Apostle's Order we must first be Christ's by our Acceptance of him as Christ was God's by his Calling and Commissioning him As God goes out to us by Him our return must be by Him to God He paid our Debts made an end of Sin and removed the Wrath we Merited God is our Judge Christ is our Mediatour By this Mediatour we must be Conducted to our Judge We have offended the Law-Maker we must first go to him who is the Repairer of the Honour of the Law We must take the Redemption of Christ along with us his pacifying Blood and represent it to God by whose Authority we were under Wrath. This is that that upholds us before God If we are not in Christ as satisfying we shall still be as Stubble before the Consuming Fire Think not of standing sure by Absolute Mercy Mercy is through Christ only It breaths in no other Air. We must first take hold of the Strength of God before we can make Peace with him We must take hold of Christ who is the Power as well as the Wisdom of God There is a Direction how we must act By taking hold and the End That we may be at Peace and the Assurance in that Method And he shall obtain Peace with me Isa 27.5 To use some Motives First There is the highest Encouragement and Ground for Acceptance There 's no room for any hard Thoughts of God after so signal a Discovery of himself He is not a God of unquenchable VVrath but willing that his Justice should be Appeased He hath taken all the Courses that were possible for Infinite Wisdom to invent for Infinite Power to effect for Infinite Love to propose What greater Security can we have for our Blessing than that he hath made his Son a Curse that we might be Blest by him How should so much Love make
us change any unworthy Opinions of God that we harbour in our Breasts If the Father hath Contrived the Son hath Effected the Spirit stands ready to Apply it to every Believer The Refusal of it puts a Scorn upon all As soon as Adam sinned the same Day God applies the Plaister of a Redeemer Not a Day did slip for ought we know not an Hour before he made it known to him His Heart was in Travel and he long'd to be Delivered of this Gracious Promise of a Mediator He arm'd him with this Cordial before he subjected him to those standing Miseries What Heart he had then the same he hath still His Kindness made him desirous to Publish this Promise and Can his Truth be less zealous to perform it The same Kindness that moved him to Assure it he hath still to Effect it He is still willing to apply it to every one that seeks it through his Son The Wrath that we were under is over-come by his Love through the Mediation of his Son who hath honoured him more than Sin dishonoured him By our Accepting of this we Glorifie God and Honour him as much by our Faith as we have Dishonour'd him by our Sin Thereby we own that Satisfaction that was as grateful to him as Sin is Hateful As he honoured himself by the Death of his Son so he doth Christ by giving forth the Fruits of that Death also He Delighteth in honouring Christ and seeing us honour him It contributes to God's Delight when we approach with Faith in his Blood If he made this Provision contrived this Expiatory Offering before the World was made Will he not also Communicate it Can there be a greater Motive to overcome the Fears of Rebels extinguish the Rebellion hasten our Approach and quicken our Confidence Secondly The Terms on which it is offered are Just and Reasonable Nothing can be objected against the Conditions required Can any Malefactor expect a Peace with Arms in his Hand Is it not a fit Condition that we should Justifie God since we are guilty Offenders Can any thing less be required than to cast away our VVeapons to bewail our Crime to receive his Son as our Mediatour to serve him in Newness of Life All which are desirable Priviledges 'T was in his Power to appoint what Terms he pleased because he was a free Benefactor What could he appoint less than Believing and Receiving this Reconciliation It is impossible we should receive any Benefit without it 'T is not fit it should be confer'd upon us except we ask it There 's no reason any should enjoy a Benefit that doth not think it to be so All the Self-Love of Men could not have framed any reasonable Terms They would have thought of Rivers of Oyl and a Thousand of Rams impossible things to Appease God But he commands us to lie humbly at his Feet to reach out our Hands to receive the Assurance he gives us VVhat can be more easie than this If Faith be difficult 't is not in regard of it self but from our Natural Enmity against God and the Pride of our own Wills Faith is hard only as the Law is weak through the Flesh But nothing could be more reasonable nothing more easie in it self Ingenuous Amazement at this unexpected Kindness should make us run more swiftly to Embrace God than ever we ran from him We should subscribe to the Articles as God strives and presses us in the Method he hath enjoyned Thirdly There is an absolute Necessity of this Complyance for our Happiness If you have not a Peace of God's Ordaining never look for One of your own Inventing There can be no Fellowship with God without it And therefore we can't be Happy because we can't Enjoy him wherein all our Felicity doth consist Guilt and Purity cannot Converse together What Society can Stubble have with Fire but to its own Destruction We can't see God's Face without it and if a Sight of God's Face be wanting Felicity is at a distance The greatest part of Evil remains though there be no positive Evil. How can Two walk together except they be agreed What Intercourse can there be between a Guilty Rebel and a Frowning Judge a Sinful Creature and a Provoked God When he hides his Face who can behold him Job 34.29 But when an Agreement is made there are Mutual Endearments We are Enemies to God by Birth He is an Enemy to us by his Law The Enmity will remain on God's Part if it remain on ours Strike up therefore a Treaty with God since there is a Necessity for it and you can't be Happy without it Shall not God's Love melt us and our own Necessities move us Fourthly Wrath is unavoidable without our Complyance with God If we will not enter into these Terms of Reconciliation the Heart of God which before was incensed by Sin cannot but rise higher in Indignation If we are resolv'd to resist it abused Love will be kindled into the hottest Wrath. When Man after his Creation grew Perfidious unto God then there rose a War between them which can be ended only by Him that hath put an end to Sin We must all have endured what Christ suffered had he not stood in our stead And those that refuse the Grace proffer'd them by the Great God must endure the same for ever If we do not receive him as a Friend we cannot avoid him as an Enemy His Eye will behold us his Hand will pass through the thickest Covering of Darkness VVhere he is not received as the Author of Reconciliation in his own way he will be the Author of Judgment in his own way If the Satisfaction to his Justice that he hath provided be slighted then his Justice will be satisfied on our own Persons If we deny him the Honour of the Sufferings of Christ he will vindicate it by the Sufferings of our selves His Law is in full Force against us and God is obliged to inflict Death upon the Sinners The Law is on Record The Gospel also will be the Author of Damnation to every one that believes not There 's no Discovery out of Christ but of Wrath prepared against the Day of Wrath Rom. 2.5 The Day wherein God is unreconciled to his Enemies is called not only the Day of Wrath but Wrath against the Day of Wrath. His Feet will be as Pillars of Fire to consume those that refuse his Peace Revel 10.1 Consider then that we are sunk under Infinite Guilt and can't rise up without an Almighty Hand We are drowned in an Universal Filth and cannot be cleans'd without an Infinite Purity Sin is strong in its Accusations our Righteousness is imperfect to effect a Compensation for the VVrongs we have done our Duties are bespotted and not fitted for a pure Eye VVhat VVrath is due to all There is but one way of Escaping but one City of Refuge to escape the Edge of the Avenging Sword Divine Justice will seize on all that are without this
it He Dyed not only to make Peace but he Dyed also to make us Holy and purifie a People to himself The Designe of God in the Manifestation of Christ in the Flesh was to destroy the VVorks of the Devil The chief VVork of the Devil was to enter Man into a League with himself in his Rebellion against God his Maker God aimed at the Death of Sin when he aimed at the Life of our Souls The Ends of Christ's Death are not separated He is no Atoner where he is not a Refiner 'T is as certain as any VVord the Mouth of God hath spoken That there is no Peace to the Wicked An unspotted Conscience and a pure Will are the Benefits of this Reconciliation For this Reconciliation must be Mutual As God lays down his VVrath against us so we must throw down our Arms against him As there is a double Enmity the one rooted in our Nature the other in our wicked VVorks so there must be an Alteration of our State and of our Actions The End of Christ's Reconciling us to God was to bring us back to him We cannot be link't in Peace to him except we be transform'd into the Image of his Son How can we expect to be received into the Bosom of God if we every Day dawb our Souls Can there be any Familiarity with God when we daily lay Bars in the way God was in Christ Reconciling the World because he was a Holy as well as a Gracious God because he had a Detestation of Sin as well as because he had a Love for the Creature He is of purer Eyes than to behold the least Iniquity As before God was sanctifyed in Christ when he Reconciled the World so he will be in those that entertain it There must be an Enmity with that for which the Son of God was made a Sacrifice Else we shall act but Judas's Part with God's Grace betray it to serve our Lusts Be afraid therefore of offending God not only because he hath Power to hurt but because of his Love whereby he hath obliged you The Peace that was broken by the Disobedience of Adam was restored by the Obedience of Christ But our Obedience is necessary for the Joyful Fruits of it Psal 119. Great Peace have they that love thy Law III. EXHORTATION BE Industrious and Affectionate in your Services to God Hath God done so much for us and shall we put off God with a little Service with the scantlings of Duty God hath done his utmost to engage our Affection and encourage our choicest Service There was not an higher way to Procure it nor a dearer way to Conferr it View the Creatures and God's Goodness in them to Man and it will raise a Natural Love But What an Height of Love should we ascend to that have an higher Step to mount The least Love is more than is due to us How much more that Immensity of Love he hath shewn us And Shall we return but Drops for an Ocean when he hath stopt the Torrent of Legal Penalties that were deserved by us How should we combine all our Thoughts and Affections together to serve that God who hath made all his Thoughts conspire to reduce us Honourably and Successfully I am the Lord thy God that brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt c. is the Preface to the Decalogue and an Incitement to the Israelites to obey all his Precepts God hath been in Christ Reconciling us to himself is the Tenour of the Gospel and should be an Incitement to greater Service by how much our Spiritual Deliverance the Antitype of it is greater We should serve God as Friends And as he hath given us an higher State so we should give him the greater Honour Do all things therefore unto God as Reconciled without base Ends and sordid Designs God had no other End in being the Author of Peace but his own Glory and Man's Good We should have no other Design but God's Glory and our own Welfare Serve him then with Delight a dull and sluggish Temper doth not become us when we approach so hearty a Friend that was so industrious to be at Peace with us Next to that Delight God hath in his Reconciling Son is that he hath in his Reconciled Children IV. EXHORTATION LEt all your Approaches to God be begun and ended with a Sense of this in any Duty especially in Prayer God in all his Communications to his People acts as a Reconciling God we should eye him so in all our Addresses to him As there is not one Mercy not one Act of Grace God shews to us but the Spring is from this restored Affection so there is not a Duty we offer to God but should do it in the Sense of this What is not by and through Christ will not be accepted as a Duty This Consideration should animate us in all our Addresses This is necessary to be acted by us to make us humble and to consider what we were before we were freely reduced to make us believe and come with holy Boldness And What Ground can there be for Despondency when we have so many Tokens of his Heartiness in it This will make us more earnest to fetch Fire from Heaven to enflame our Souls This will raise our Hope For What can be a greater Foundation for it than this We should think before we perform our Duties of the Love that God bears to Chr st and this will be Ground of Confidence for this Love was with a respect to those that Believe Think much of the Vertue of Christ's Death when he sprinkled the Mercy-seat with his Blood Turn God's Mercy-seat into a Throne of Grace Every Act about Christ is a fit Argument in Prayer God will never deny his own Acts nor the Ends of them which made way for him to Communicate himself Christ and God in Christ is Entertaining as well as Reconciling us Let us not therefore lift up our Eyes to Heaven but then carry this Atonement by Faith in his Blood in the Hand of every Prayer to him V. EXHORTATION LOok for Grace and Strength from God in Christ The Conduit of Grace and Mercy was unstopt in Christ and by him it flows freely down to Man This is the Foundation of all Regeneration In the 16 17 18. Verses of this Chapter having spoken of the New-Creature Verse 16. he shews the Ground of it It was all from this Reconciler Seek for Grace only on this Bottom for Strength and increase in it only on this Ground 'T is not the Consideration of God's Precepts but of his Promises and the Application of this Reconciling Love by Faith that is attended with a Vigorous Benediction on the Soul for the pulling up the Foundation of Enmity The Spirit is received by the Mediation of the Gospel not by the Precepts of the Law Men begin at the wrong End when they would rise from Obedience to Faith They deal with God as if he were gratified
and appeased by them But begin with Faith whereby we cast our selves on God in Christ and receive Vigour for all Spiritual Actions Faith is the Principle whereby we Obey not the Effect of our Obedience God is a God of Peace then a God of Grace We must look on God as a God of Peace and then implore him as a God of Grace and for all our habitual growth in Grace As he is a God of Peace he works in us that which is well pleasing in his Sight VI. EXHORTATION WHen there are any Risings of Enmity in thy Soul go to God in Christ As God was in Christ Reconciling the World so he is in Christ Reconciling the Soul Not that I think that the whole Mass of Guilt returns on a Believer on his Fall but the Particular Guilt of that Sin for which we must fetch fresh Applications of Reconciling Grace We must go to God in Christ for it As the First Application was from God in Christ so must the Second and Third Christ is an Officer in Heaven for this Purpose The Apostle writes to the Corinthians some whereof were reconciled yet he beseeches them to be reconciled That is to renew their Reconciliation on every New Breach to regain the Favour they had forfeited by their Sins for which he had reproved them in the former Epistle This should be sued out every Day What was the Foundation of our first Peace must be the Foundation of our Renewal of the same The Course we took for the First will be successful for the Second God was not out of Christ in the first he will not be out of Christ when we need it again If God was willing and desirous to make Reconciliation by the Blood of Christ for all our Sins when they lay before him in their Crimson Aggravations much more will he renew it on a particular Fall But he may hide his Face with-draw the Comfort of this Peace for a long while even for as long as we live Let none therefore presume on this for the making up of our Enmity on a particular Breach belongs not to those that live in a Course of known Sin This is Inconsistent with a Reconciled State which is to make up the great Breach the Breach of Nature VII EXHORTATION HOw contented should those be in every Condition that are Reconciled This Peace of God should bear Rule in their Hearts and compose them under all Emergencies Phil. 4.6 7. We may despise the Promises of the World that allure us and the Threatnings of the World that scare us If this Peace guard our Souls it will render us Happy when the World thinks us Miserable If you have not the Honour of the World it will content us without it Bear the Scorns and Reproaches of the World with it The whole World can't secure you if you have War with God Nothing can defend you from the Arrows of his Wrath. But if you have this Peace of God you are mounted above the Enmity of the World Let your Spirits be guarded by it against tumultuous Passions You may well endure the Strokes of a Father since you are not like to feel his Sword as a Judge VIII EXHORTATION LEt us be reconcileable to others not only where we offer but to those from whom we receive an Injury God's Reconciliation should be our Rule of dealing with others Hard Hearts and uncharitable Dispositions are unlike to God that had a Heart full of Tenderness Such will not part with a Grain of their Right though God parted with his Son to work our Peace And had he not been more forward in it than we we had perisht for ever Luk. 6.36 God sets his own Actions as a Pattern for ours If we are Irreconcileable to our Brother we do not imitate God but reject this Blessed Pattern and discover no sense of the Kindness of God to us Since God hath made Christ a Propitiation for our Sins if God so loved us ought not we also to love one another 1 Joh. 4.10 11. The Son of his Bosom vailed his Glory that he might be at Peace with us Entertain us and Accept us into Favour And shall we on every occasion be at Swords-point with our Brother Such a Disposition such a Woolfish and Bruitish Nature is against the Tenour of the Gospel Christ came to slay the Enmity between God and Us 'T is a crossing his Designe to preserve it between Christian and Christian This is a keeping up the Partition-Wall a frustrating of Christ's Death which was to demolish it IX Last EXHORTATION GLorifie God for this Since God hath sent his own Son out of his Bosom let us send our lowd Praises up to him When Heaven smiles upon the Earth the Earth blesses Heaven 'T is to the Glory of God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ that though all we have comes immediately from Christ yet Christ and All comes from the Father He is the Propitiation for our Sins but he was appointed by the Father He came to Redeem us but he was sent by God He paid our Debts as our Surety but he was Accepted by God He was our Mediatour to bring us to God but he was Commissioned by Him to this purpose What Love had he for the Creature though he abominated the Sin In the mid'st of his Indignation against his Iniquities he had Bowels of Mercy for his Person God had fore-cast the Prisoner into the Pit where was no Water and the Captive was under a mighty Sea of Trouble The Law of God was against him The Truth of God took part with his Law His Bowels and VVisdom took a Way to satisfie the Curse of the Law that we might enjoy the Blessings of the Gospel We could plead nothing of our own Deserts unless Perversity Peevishness Disloyalty Weakness and Wilfulness could pass for Desert Then indeed we had been unconceivable Meritors But seeing we could not merit it nor contract Peace of our selves How great therefore is the Depth of that VVisdom And How is that Goodness to be adored that found out a Refuge when Heaven and Earth were at War There is no Sinner but is born the Object of the Curses of the Law and the Scorn of the Malicious Devil Jesus Christ was sent to pacifie the Law and slay Satan our Enemy The Angels glorifie God for this Peace and Shall we be out-stript by those Beings that are less concerned God was Appeased through Christ and through Him we should offer up our Sacrifices of Thanksgiving to God If all the Sparks that have leapt out of the Fire since the Creation and all the Drops of Rain that have been distilled on the World were turned into the Tongues of Angels they would come short of the Praises due to God for this Excess of Love O that our Praises of God for this might be the Business not of a Day or an Hour but of our whole Lives since Eternity it self is too little to set forth God's Magnificent Love FINIS