LXVIII.

SERM. to Christ in Paradise, and there enjoy all the fruits of that blessed peace which He hath made for you, in their highest perfection. Then you will taste and see what infinite cause ye have to bless God, to praise Him, to worship Him, to glorify Him, to give Him thanks for His great glory, in reconciling you to Himself by His Only-begotten Son Jesus Christ; to Whom with the Father, and Holy Spirit, be honour and glory for ever. Amen.

SERMON LXIX.

THE SATISFACTION OF CHRIST EXPLAINED.

not.

1 JOHN ii. 1. 2.

My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

THIS Epistle, written by the Apostle and Evangelist St. John, is called his Catholic or General Epistle, because it is not written to any particular person, as both his other are; nor to any particular Church or society of Christians, as most of St. Paul's were; but this is written to the whole Catholic Church, to all Christians in general; which he calls his little children. Little children he might well call them, because the Church being as yet in its infancy, they were but newly born again of water and of the Holy Ghost, or as St. Peter speaks, were "but new-born babes;" at least in 1 Pet. 2. 2. respect of him, who was a father in the Church. And his little children, because he had been a great instrument in propagating the Church in which they were so regenerate and born again: and besides, he useth this endearing compellation, "my little children," the better to shew the great care and love he had for them, such as a father hath for his little children, that they might be the more ready to hearken to that fatherly advice he was now to give them. As St. Paul for the same purpose saith to the Corinthians, “I write not these things to shame you, but as my beloved sons I warn you. For though you have ten thousand instructors

1 Cor. 4. 14,

15.

SERM. in Christ, yet have ye not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus LXIX. I have begotten you through the Gospel." So St. John here saith to all Christians, "My little children, these things I write unto you, that ye sin not."

These things, all that went before, and all that follow after, all that I write in this Epistle, all these things I write unto you for this end and purpose, "that ye sin not;" that ye allow not yourselves in any known sin, or rather (as he afterwards expresseth it), that ye do not commit sin, no sin whatsoever, neither of omission, nor of commission; neither against the first, nor against the second table; that ye never wilfully and deliberately transgress any one of God's Laws, either by doing what He hath forbidden, or not doing what He hath commanded; but that ye make it your constant care and study to "walk in all the Commandments and Ordinances of the Lord," to the utmost of your knowledge and power, "blameless." This was the great end of his writing these things unto them, as it is of all the Holy Writings, that men might know the will of God and do it, and so not sin against Him; which the Apostle therefore requires them to take special heed of above all things else; even "that they sin not;" that they do not "turn the grace of God into wantonness;" that they do not abuse the great doctrine he was about to deliver to them concerning the propitiation which Christ hath made for their sins; that they do not abuse it, so as to take encouragement from thence to continue in sin, or do any thing contrary to the Laws of God; but that they make it the chief care of their whole lives to avoid all manner of sin, as much as possibly they "These things," saith he, "I write unto you, that ye

can.

sin not."

But then he adds, "And if any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father." He had said a little before, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the ch. 1. 8, 10. truth is not in us:" and again, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His Word is not in us." And therefore, notwithstanding the strict charge he here gives to all Christians not to sin, yet knowing and considering the frailty of our nature, he supposeth that any man, after all his care and diligence, may sometimes fall into sin,

not only into the common sins of human infirmity, which all are continually subject to, but likewise into some such sin as may wound his conscience to the quick, and lie so heavy upon his mind as to be ready to sink him down into horror and despair at the remembrance of it. Now, what would the Apostle have a man do in this case? Would he have him lay aside all hopes of mercy, and despair of ever having his sin pardoned? No; by no means. But he would have such a one look up to Heaven, and consider that we have an Advocate there; "If any man sin, we have an Advocate with the Father;" we, all of us, as we have all sinned, we have all an Advocate to plead our cause, and intercede with the Father for the pardon of our sins, and that no less a Person than "Jesus Christ the righteous," perfectly righteous in every circumstance and punctilio of the moral Law, "who Heb. 7. 27. needed not daily, as the High-Priests under the Law, to offer

up sacrifice, first for his own sins, and then for the people's;" "for He did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth," 1 Pet. 2. 22. and therefore is completely qualified (which otherwise He would not have been) to intercede for the pardon of other men's sins; and He is able to do it effectually too, in that "He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."

This is the design and meaning of the words in general. But seeing they contain matter of such extraordinary use and comfort to all sinners (such as we all are), it will be worth our while to treat a little more particularly of them, and for that purpose to shew,

I. In what sense Christ is here said to be the propitiation for our sins.

II. That He being the propitiation for our sins, He is therefore a most powerful Advocate with the Father for us.

III. That seeing Jesus Christ the righteous is such an Advocate with the Father for us, to our great comfort, we cannot fail of God's mercy in the pardon of our sins, if we do but repent and believe the Gospel.

First, therefore, we may observe, that "propitiation" is originally a Latin word, and signifies the appeasing the wrath of God, or doing something whereby He may be rendered propitious, kind, or merciful to us, notwithstanding that we

LXIX.

SERM. have provoked Him to anger by any sin or offence committed against Him. And the original word in my text, inacμòs, is used by the Greeks exactly in the same sense, as might easily be shewn. But that we may fully understand the true notion of the word as it is here used, our best way will be to consider how it is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, made long before St. John's time; for he writing to those who were generally accustomed to the words and phrases in that translation, it cannot be supposed but he useth this, as well as other words, in the same sense as it is used there; for otherwise they would not so well have understood him. Now there we find that ¡λάoneta, and ğıλáσadı, all along answer to the, which signifies 'to appease, to pacify, to reconcile a person offended, to atone or make him at one again with the offender.' So both the Hebrew and Greek words are used, where it is Prov. 16.14. said, "The wrath of a king is as messengers of death; but

a wise man will pacify it." And also, where Jacob having sent a present before him to his brother Esau that was Gen. 32. 20. offended with him, saith, "I will appease him with the present that goeth before me." He calls his present, a word commonly used for offerings to God. That was his propitiation, whereby his brother was reconciled to him. So were the sacrifices in the Levitical Law; they were the ihaouoi, the expiations, or propitiations,' whereby God was atoned or appeased towards him which brought them, or as Lev. 1.4. it is there expressed, they were accepted for him, to make atonement for him. And when a man had thus brought his offering, and the Priest had therewith made atonement for him for the sin he had committed, then it was forgiven him, as we often read, Lev. iv. 20, 26, 31; v. 10, 18. In all which places, both the Hebrew and Greek words beforementioned are used; the first by Moses himself, the other by the Seventy which translated him. And therefore we cannot doubt but that the Greek word in my text, coming from the same root, is here also used in the same sense, for such a propitiation, or propitiatory sacrifice whereby God is reconciled, or rendered propitious to us, and our sins are forgiven us; God accepting as it were of that sacrifice instead of the punishment which was due unto us for them.