"Ye are bought with a price;" "be not ye the servants of men." It is Christ's prerogative to prescribe the rules of his own house; he has given no man dominion over your faith, 2 Cor. i. 24. One man is no rule to another, but the word of Christ is a rule to all: follow not the holiest of men one step further than they follow Christ, 1 Cor. xi. 1. Man is ambitious, affecting dominion; and that over the mind rather than the body. To give law to others feeds pride in himself; so far as any man brings the word of Christ to warrant his injunctions, so far we are to obey, and no further. Christ is your Lord and Lawgiver.

6. Let this persuade sinners to come to Christ; for, with him is liberty for poor captives. Oh that you did but know what a blessed state Jesus Christ would bring you into! "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden:" and what encouragement doth he give? "My yoke is easy, and my burden is light." The devil persuades you that the ways of godliness are a bondage; but if ever God regenerate you, you will find his ways ways of pleasantness, and all his paths peace: you will rejoice in the way of his commandments as much as in all riches. You will find the work to which Christ calls you, even suffering work, sweeter than all the pleasures you found in sin. O, open your hearts at the call of the gospel! Come unto Christ: then shall you be free indeed.

Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ.

For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. 1 Pet. iii. 18.

THE Scope of the apostle in this place is to fortify Christians for a day of suffering; in order to their cheerful sustaining of which, he prescribes two excellent rules: first, to get a good conscience within them; and secondly, to set the example of Christ's sufferings before them: "For Christ hath once suffered for sins." The sufferings of Christ for us are the great motives engaging Christians to suffer cheerfully for him.

In these words we have: (1.) The sufficiency and fulness of Christ's sufferings, intimated in the particle once; Christ needs to suffer no more, having completed that whole work at once. (2.) The cause of the sufferings of Christ, and that is sin; "Christ once suffered for sins," not his own sins, but ours. (3.) The admirable grace and unexampled love of Christ to us sinners, "the just for the unjust;" in which words, the substitution of Christ in the room and place of sinners is plainly expressed. (4.) The design of the suffering of Christ, which was to "bring us to God;"-and (5.) The issue of the sufferings of Christ, which was the death of Christ in the flesh, and the quickening of Christ after death by the Spirit. The DOCTRINE we now propose to illustrate is, that

The end of Christ's death and sufferings was to bring all those for whom he died unto God.

In the explication, two things must be considered: 1. What Christ's bringing us to God imports? and, 2. What influence the death of Christ has upon this design of bringing us to God?

I. WHAT CHRIST'S BRINGING US ΤΟ GOD IMPORTS? And, certainly, there are many excellent things contained in this expression. Generally, it denotes our state of reconciliation, and our state of glorification. By reconciliation, we are brought nigh to God: "Ye are made nigh," that is, reconciled, "by the blood of Christ," Eph. ii. 13. We are said to come to God the Judge of all, Heb. xii. 22, 23. By reconciliation, we are brought nigh unto God now; by glorification, we shall be brought home to God hereafter. "We shall be ever with the Lord," 1 Thess. iv. 17. But more particularly this phrase, "that he might bring us to God," imports,

1. That the chief happiness of man consists in the enjoyment of God. The creature has as necessary a dependence upon God for happiness, as the stream has upon the fountain, or the image in the glass upon the face of him that looks into it. For as the sum of the creature's misery lies in this, "Depart from me," separation from God being the principal part of damnation; so, on the contrary, the chief happiness of the creature consists in the enjoyment and blessed vision of God, 1 John iii. 2. "I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness," Psa. xvii. 15.

2. It implies man's apostasy from God. "But now in Christ Jesus, ye who some time were afar off are made nigh by the blood of Christ,” Eph. ii. 13. Those whom Christ brings unto God were before far off from him, both in condition and in disposition. We were lost, and had no desire to return to God. The prodigal was said to go into a far country, Luke xv. 13.

3. Christ's bringing us to God, implies our inability of ourselves to return to God. We must be brought back by Christ, or perish for ever in separation from God. The lost sheep is made the emblem of the lost sinner, Luke xv. 5. The shepherd seeks it, finds it, and carries it back upon his shoulders. The apostle plainly tells us that "When we were without strength," that is, to save ourselves, "in due time Christ died for the ungodly," Rom. v. 6.

4. Christ's bringing us to God, implies that God's justice was once the great bar between him and man. Man can have no access to God but by Christ; and he brings us to God in no other way but that of satisfaction by his blood: "He hath suffered for sins, the just for the unjust,

that he might bring us to God." Better ten thousand worlds should perish for ever, than that God should lose the honour of his justice. This great bar to our enjoyment of God is effectually removed by the death of Christ, whereby God's justice is not only fully satisfied, but highly honoured and glorified, Rom. iii. 24. And so the way by which we are brought to God is again opened, to the wonder and joy of all believers, by the blood and sufferings of Christ.

5. It shows us the happiness of believers above all people. These only shall be brought to God by Jesus Christ in a reconciled state. Others, indeed, shall be brought to God as a Judge, to be condemned: believers only are brought to God in the Mediator's hands as a reconciled Father, to be made blessed for ever in the enjoyment of him. Every believer is brought singly to God at his death, Luke xvi. 22; and all believers shall be jointly and solemnly presented to God in the great day, Col. i. 22. They shall be all presented "faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy," Jude 24. The privilege of believers in that day will lie in divers things.

(1.) They shall be all brought to God together. This will be the "general assembly," mentioned Heb. xii. 23. There shall be a collection of all believers in all ages of the world into one blessed assembly: they shall come from the east and west, the north and south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God. Luke xii. 29. 0, what a glorious train will be seen following the Redeemer in that day!

(2.) As all the saints shall be collected into one body, so they shall be all brought or presented unto God faultless, and without blemish, Jude 24. "A glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing," Eph. v. 27. This is the general assembly of the spirits of just men made perfect, Heb. xii. 23. All sin was perfectly separated from them, when death had separated their souls and bodies.

(3.) As believers shall be all brought together, and that in a state of absolute purity and perfection, so they shall be all brought to God: they shall see his face, in the vision whereof is fulness of joy, and at whose "right hand are pleasures for evermore," Psa. xvi. 11. The blessedness of the saints consists in their fruition of God, Psa. lxxiii. 25. To see God in his word and works, is the happiness of the

saints on earth; but to see him face to face, will be the fulness of their blessedness in heaven, 1 John iii. 2. This is that transforming and sanctifying vision of which the Scriptures frequently speak, Psa. xvii. 15; 1 Cor. xv. 28; Rev. vii. 17.

(4.) To be brought to God, implies a state of perfect joy and highest delight. Christ shall present, or bring them to God with exceeding joy, Jude 24. And more fully the

joy of this day is expressed, Psa. xlv. 15: "With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought; they shall enter into the King's palace." It will be a day of universal joy when all the saints are brought home to God in a perfected state. For,

1. God the Father will rejoice when Christ brings home that precious number of his elect whom he redeemed by his blood: he rejoices in them now, though imperfect and under many corruptions and weaknesses, Zeph. iii. 17. How much more will he rejoice in them when Christ presents them, without spot or wrinkle, to him, Eph. v. 27.

2. Jesus Christ will exceedingly rejoice; it will be the day of the gladness and satisfaction of his heart; for then, and not till then, he will receive his mystical fulness, Col. i. 24, and behold all the blessed issues of his death, which cannot but give him unspeakable joy. "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied," Isa. liii. 11.

3. The day in which believers are brought home to God, will be a day of unspeakable joy to the Holy Spirit himself: for unto this all his sanctifying designs had respect; to this day he sealed them, and stirred up desires in their hearts that cannot be uttered, Eph. iv. 30; Rom. viii. 26. Thus the blessed persons, Father, Son, and Spirit, will rejoice in the bringing home of the elect to God. For as it is the greatest joy to a man to see the designs which he has been long projecting and anticipating, at last brought to a happy issue, much more will it be so here, each person of the Holy Trinity being deeply concerned in this blessed design.

4. The angels of God will rejoice at the bringing home of believers to him: the spirits of just men made perfect will be united in one general assembly, with an innumerable company of angels, Heb. xii. 22, 23. Great is the love of angels to redeemed ones; they rejoiced at the incarnation of Christ for them, Luke ii. 13; they delight to pry into the mystery of their redemption, 1 Pet. i. 12; they were