Though there are many mercies that lay an obligation upon men to be
holy, yet he that shall want the obligation that is begotten by the
faith of redeeming mercy, wanteth the main principle of true
holiness; nor will any other be found sufficiently to sanctify the
heart to the causing of it to produce such a life; nor can such
holiness be accepted, because it comes not forth in the name of
Christ. That which constrained David was forgiving and redeeming
mercy, and that which constrained Paul was the love that Christ
showed to him in dying for his sins and in rising from the dead.
Paul also beseecheth the Romans by the redeeming, justifying,
preserving, and electing mercy of God, that they present their body
a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which, saith he, is
your reasonable service. Hence all along, they that are exhorted to
holiness in the New Testament, are exhorted to it upon the
supposition of the benefit of redemption which they have received by
Jesus Christ. Walk in love, as Christ loved us.
Can you give me some motive to self-denial? Yes, the Lord Jesus
denied himself for thee: what sayest thou to that?
Oh, I have thought sometimes what bloody creatures hath sin made us.
The beasts of the field must be slain by thousands before Christ
came, to signify to us that we should have 'a Saviour; and after
that, he must come himself and die a worse death than died those
beasts, before the work of saving could be finished.
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