delivered us from the wrath to come: 1 Thes. i. 10. And therefore, O doubting and trembling Christian, be not so injurious to thy God, as to fear he will revenge those sins upon thee, for which thy Redeemer hath so fully satisfied: thou mayest go thy way, eat thy bread with joy, and drink thy wine with a merry heart, for God hath accepted thee: he is at peace with thee, and smiles upon thee. But, if thy conscience still lour, and speak nothing but thunders and threatenings, tell it that thou hast a PeaceMaker: the blood of Jesus, shed upon the cross, hath pacified God; and his blood, sprinkled upon thy conscience, will likewise atone and pacify it towards thee.

2. We are redeemed from under the Slavery and Vassalage of the Devil.

He is that mighty tyrant, that hunts after our souls to destroy them; that great dragon, that casts out of his mouth whole floods of persecutions and temptations to overwhelm us. And, if his rage be so inveterate against us here on earth, how implacable, think you, would his malice be towards us in hell! how would he triumph in our eternal perdition, who is now so aborious and solicitous to procure it! But, thanks be unto God, who hath delivered us from the snare of the fowler; so that now, through the redemption purchased for us by Christ our Lord, we may safely defy his spite, and contemn all the poor and impotent effects of it.

His power is seen chiefly in three things; in tempting, in accusing, in tormenting. But, by the virtue of the sacrifice of Christ, and the price that he hath paid for our redemption, this threefold power is either wholly taken from him, or else much abated.

(1) His Tempting power is restrained and cut short.

He can tempt us no farther, than he hath a permission given him by that God, who hath promised, that we shall not be tempted beyond what we are able to bear, or that he will make a way for us to escape. We see what manacles are upon him, when he must first petition God before he could stretch forth his hand against Job, or touch any thing that he had. And, therefore, Ŏ Christian, be confident, that, if he cannot touch thy body or estate, much less, shall he touch thy soul and thy conscience by his horrid temptations and injections, without the special leave of God. And, in all his temptations, suppose them never so violent, if thou be but true to thyself, they shall all redound more to his shame, and disappointment, than to thine.

If thou canst but resist them, and, with a holy scorn and disdain. cast back his fiery darts in his face, and keep close to thy duty and allegiance, all his temptations shall but fall upon himself, and be reckoned as his sins, and only thy troubles.

(2) His Accusing power is rebuked.

Thus, when Satan comes with a vehement accusation against Joshua, Zech. iii. 2. The Lord rebuke thee, O Satan; even the Lord, that hath chosen Jerusalem, rebuke thee. Our Redeemer will be our advocate: and though, according to the terms of the first Covenant of Works, which requires perfect and spotless obedience, his accusations will most of them be found true against us; yet, according to the Covenant of Grace, which requires faith and sincerity, they will be found malicious and impertinent and our Redeemer will fetch us off with the loud applause of saints and angels.

(3) His Tormenting power shall be wholly abolished.

The great end and design of the Devil is, only that he might train us into that dark region, where himself hath the sole jurisdiction, there to satiate his revenge upon us in our eternal torments. But Christ, our Redeemer, hath destroyed this power of the Devil: he hath ransacked this dark shop, and broken in pieces all his horrid racks and instruments of cruelty; so that, unless we ourselves will, not a soul of us shall ever fall into the hands of that merciless executioner.

3. We are redeemed from the Power of Sin.

And that, both from its reigning, and likewise from its condemning power.

(1) From its Reigning power.

It is true, that we cannot, in this life, be freed totally from its molestations. It is like the leprosy, that hath eaten so deep into the walls, that it can never be perfectly cleansed till the house itself be destroyed and demolished. But, yet, every true Christian is free from the dominion of it. It may tumultuate and rebel in the best; for we find a law in our members, warring against the law in our minds; many uproars, bandyings, and intestine dissentions: but, yet, it hath lost the sovereignty over them; and is now, not a commander, but a rebel.

(2) We are redeemed, likewise, from the Condemning power of sin.

The other freedom from sin is, by the Spirit of Christ, working mightily in us; but this is by the merits of Christ, effectually applied unto us: Rom. viii. 1. There is now no condemnation to

them which are in Christ Jesus. For, certainly, there is not so much malignity in our sins to destroy us, as there is in the blood of Christ to save us. And, he having interposed his infinite merits in our behalf, it would be a great disparagement to his all-sufficiency, if thou, who art but a poor vile creature, couldst have done that, which he, who is an Infinite God, could not expiate.

4. We are redeemed from the Curse and Malediction of the Law.

All our trials, crosses, and afflictions, that may befal us, are sanctified to us, and have nothing of the curse in them: for nothing is a curse, but what is inflicted in order to the satisfying of divine justice upon us. But, the justice of God being fully satisfied in the sufferings of our Lord Christ, all our own sufferings, how sharp soever they may be, are only for the exercise of our graces, the trial of our faith and patience, the conforming of us to the pattern of our Saviour, demonstrations of God's holiness, and means to make us partakers of it. We may rest confidently assured, that, if we believe, there is nothing of the venom and malignity of the curse in them; for Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, saith the Apostle: Gal. iii. 13.

III. We have spoken hitherto of the two former parts of the Text; the Doctrine, and the Reason of it.

The next thing to be considered, is the INFERENCE or COROLLARY, which the Apostle draws from them: Therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit.

Wherein we have Two parts:

An Exhortation: Glorify God.

A Direction how we ought to do it: In our body, and in our spirit.

It is only the former of these, that I intend to insit on. Possibly, I may briefly touch and glance upon the other, in my way. And, as a foundation of my following discourse, I shall lay down this plain Proposition.

THAT THE INFINITE MERCY OF GOD IN OUR REDEMPTION LAYS AN OBLIGATION UPON US TO GLORIFY HIM IN ALL THAT WE DO, HAVE, AND ARE.

This Proposition, I suppose, reacheth the full sense and meaning of the Apostle.

And, in prosecuting it, I shall observe this method:

Shew you what it is to glorify God.

How we are to glorify him.

What force and influence the consideration of our redemption hath to oblige us thus to glorify him.

i. WHAT IT IS, TO GLORIFY GOD.

And, here, we may take notice, that there are very many words used in Scripture, equipollent to this phrase of glorifying God. Such are, To do all things to the glory of God: 1 Cor. x. 31. To give glory to God: Ps. xxix. 2. Give unto the Lord the glory due unto his name. To honour God: 1 Sam. ii. 30. Them, that honour me, I will honour. To make God's name, and his praise glorious: Ps. Ixvi. 2. which is indeed the most proper signification of this word "glorify," though other expressions also speak the same sense.

So then, to glorify God, is to make him glorious.

"But, what is it in the power of any creature to do this? is not God's glory infinite, eternal, and immutable? and would it not be an attempt, both fond and blasphemous, to go about to crown his Deity with any new rays, which shone not in his essence from all eternity? for, since the divine nature is infinitely simple and uncompounded, whatsoever is in God must be God himself; and, therefore, we may as well create a new godhead, as contribute any new accession of glory to that nature, which is altogether unchangeable. How then can we be said to glorify God, or to make him glorious ?”

To this I answer, that glory is twofold: either a real glory, perfecting the subject in which it is; or else a relative glory, which doth not perfect the subject, but only declare those perfections which are already in it. The one we may well call a subjective, the other an objective glory.

Now,

1. As to Real and Subjective Glory, certain it is, that we cannot so glorify God, but God may and doth thus glorify us.

We cannot thus glorify God; since this would be utterly inconsistent with his eternal unchangeableness, and independency, and self-sufficiency: for, if we could add any real and absolute perfection to his nature, it would necessarily argue a preceding defect, a present change, and a perpetual obligation to his creatures; all which are infinitely incompatible with the divine

essence.

But, yet, it is his prerogative so to glorify us; even by endowing our natures with real and absolute perfections.

Which also he doth,

(1) In our Creation:

Bestowing upon us rational and intellectual faculties, a discursive mind, and many other peculiar privileges both of soul and body; and investing us with sovereignty and dominion over inferior creatures. Upon which account, the Psalmist tells us, that God hath crowned man with honour and glory: Ps. viii. 5. (2) In our Restitution from our lapsed estate:

Implanting in us the seminal inchoations and initials of glory, in our regeneration: for grace is glory in the seed, and glory is but grace in the flower. Thus the Apostle, 2 Cor. iii. 18. We are changed into the same image from glory to glory : that is, the image of God is still perfecting in us by his Spirit, carrying on his work from one measure and degree of grace unto another. For the whole life of a Christian here on earth, is but as it were one continued sitting under the hand and pencil of the Holy Ghost; till those first lines and obscurer shadows, which were laid in his New Birth, receive more life, sweetness, and beauty from his progressive sanctification. And this is a being changed from glory to glory. And when this is come to that perfection as to need only the last hand, and the completing touch, then, (3) God glorifies us by the full Consummation of our Holiness and Happiness in Heaven.

Thus Christ prays, John xvii. 1. The hour is come: glorify thy Son and so, v. 5. Glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. And so, when our hour is likewise come, when we have attained to the full measure of our stature in Christ Jesus, God will then glorify us with himself; in that glory, which he hath prepared for us before the world was.

Thus, then, God doth confer real glory upon us; which if we should again think to do towards him, it were no less than an impious and blasphemous arrogance: for it would imply, that he were a defective, mutable, and dependent God. And, therefore, in this sense, Eliphaz speaks excellently, Job xxii. 2, 3. Can a man be profitable unto God?....Is it any pleasure to the Almighty, that thou art righteous? or is it gain to him, that thou makest thy ways perfect? certainly, we can neither add any real good to him by our righteousness, nor detract it from him by