Archive for January 19th, 2009
SERMON XXII.
And he is the propitiation for our sins; and not for our ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 John II. 2.
WORDS amiable as beauty to the eye, harmonious as music to the ear, sweet as honey to the taste, and joyous as wine to the heart. Who can read them and not be affected? hear them and not be ravished? meditate on them and not be delighted? Believe them and not be comforted? Diligenter obserranda cordibusque inscribenda sunt haee verba, saith Ferus1 aptly. These words deserve to be written, yea, engraven upon the tables of our hearts, as containing in them that which cannot but afford unspeakable joy to the wounded conscience. The person spoken of is Jesus Christ, whose very name is as a precious ointment; the thing spoken of is a pacification between God and sinners, than which no perfume can be sweeter. Finally, this benefit is set forth as obtained by this person, not for a few, but many, some, but all, and so like the light diffusing itself through the whole world; and therefore I trust, since we are all concerned in, we shall all be diligently attentive to, this precious scripture: ‘And he is the propitiation for our sins,’ &c. Having already unfolded the nature, we are now to handle the extent of this excellent benefit, which is expressed two ways:
Negatively, and not for ours only;
Affirmatively, but also for the sins of the whole world.
1. A word of the former, ‘not for ours only.’ It is that which lets us see the nature of faith. True faith applieth, but doth not appropriate; or if you will, it doth appropriate, but it doth not appropriate to itself. A believer so maketh Christ his own, as that still he is, or may be, another’s as well as his; and the reason of this is,
Partly in regard of the nature of the object, which is such that it is capable of being communicated to many as well as few; for as the air is a means of reconciliation, the sun an instrument of illumination, and the sea a place of navigation for the people of our country, and yet not ours only, those being things so communicative, that every one may have a share in them; nor is one man’s or people’s enjoying an hindrance to another; so is Christ a propitiation for the sins of St John and the rest of believers then living, but not for theirs only, he being koinon agathon, a common good, and his propitiation such as that the participation of it by some doth not at all impede others from having the like interest.
And partly in respect of the temper of the subject, this being the frame of a believer’s spirit, that he would have others partake of the same benefit with himself. The apostle St Paul saith of faith. Gal. v. 6, that it ‘worketh by love,’ and accordingly as faith brings Christ home to itself, so the love by which it worketh is desirous he might be imparted to others. To this purpose it is observable, that that holy apostle, when he speaketh of a crown which shall be given to him, 2 Tim. iv. 8, presently addeth, ‘and not to me only,’ as here St John, ‘ for our sins, and not for ours only.’
To wind up this. Whereas there are two objections amongst others made against the applying act of faith, as if it were a bold presumption in regard of Christ, and an uncharitable excluding of others from having the same benefit, to say he is ours, and that he is the propitiation for our sins, both will be found no better than calumnies; since, on the one hand, faith’s particular application is within the bounds, and according to the tenure of the gospel promise, and therefore it is no presumption; and, on the other hand, faith’s applying Christ to ourselves is not thereby to withhold him from any other, and therefore it is no uncharitableness; for whilst faith saith, ‘He is the propitiation for our sins,’ love addeth, and ‘ not for ours only.’ And so much, or rather so little, of the negative; pass we on to the,