which he could not give you, because as great as hingelf. O that you could fee the Confequence of your anxious and perplexing Doubts, that they do not only an Injury to your own Souls, but they are of a more bloody Nature; if they hold good, they would cut off the Life and Salvation of all Believers, and, which is worse, they will by an unavoidable Confequence, Chrift is not come in the Flesh; I befecch you unbowel your Evils, that you may abhor them. ;fo many Thousands like you? Is there fo much Distance, I pray you, between you and another, as between him and all? If then he loves fo many miferable Sinners, is there any Impoffibility in it, but he may love you? For what is in them, that might conciliate his Love? I tell you, why I think the right Apprehenfion of the general Truths of the Gospel would be able, like the Sun in its Strength, to fcat-conclude an antichristian Poin, that ter all the Clouds and Mifts of our particular Intereft-debates; becaufe I find, that thefe very Grounds, upon which you call in Queftion your own particular Intereft, if you did confider them, you would find they go a further Length, to conclude against all others; and either they have no Strength in your Cafe, or they will be of equal Force to batter down the Confidence of all the Saints, and the Certainty of all the Promifes. What is it that troubles you, but that you are Sinners, and fuch Sinners, fo vile, and loathfome? From whence you do conclude, not only, that you have no prefent Affurance of his Love, but that he cannot love fuch a one as you are. Now, I fay, if this hold good, in Reference to you, take heed that you condemn not your felves in that which you approve, that is, that you do not difpute against the Intereft of all the Saints, who were fuch as you are, and the Truth of thefe fundamental Pofitions of the Gofpel, God fo loved the World, &c. And fo you do not only wrong your felves, but all others; and not only fo, but you offer the greatest Indignity to him, that out of Love fent his Son, and to him, who out of Love, came and laid down his Life. O confider how you indignify and fet at nought that great Manifeftation of God's Love, God manifefted in the Flesh; how you defpife his Love-pledge to Sinners, a greater than This may ftrengthen our Faith, and minifter much Confolation, in another Confideration too; that which is laid down Heb. ii. 17. and iv. 15. that he was Partaker of our Nature,and in all Things like unto his Brethren, that fo he might be a merciful High-priest, able to fuc-" cour us, and touched with the feeling of our Infirmities. What ftrong Confolation may be fuckt out of these Breafts.? When it was impoffible that Man could rife up to God, because of his infinite Highnefs, and Holiness, behold, God hath come down to Man, in his Lowness, and Bafenefs; he hath fent down this Ladder from Heaven to the Earth, that poor wretched Sinners may afcend upon it; it is come down, as low as our infirm, weak and frail Nature, that we may have eafy coming up to it, and going up upon it to Heaven: Therefore his Flesh is called, a new and living Way, becaufe a poor Sinner may be affured of Welcome, and Acceptation with one of his own Kind, his Brother, (he was not afbumed to call us Brethren,) Flefb of bis Flefb, and Bone of his Bone. This may make Boldness of Access, that we have not God to speak to, or come to, immediately, as he is cloathed with Glory. and Majefty, and as the Jews heard him Ff. ess unto come on Mount Sinai, and defired a Mediator | help him to be more pitiful, yet it was between him and them; but that, that done for us, to help us to have more great Prophet promifed to them, hath Confidence in him, and Boldness to come come, and we have him between us and unto him. What an Encouragement is God, as low as we, that we may speak to it for a poor Man to come him, riding upon an Afs, a low Afs, (once) poor Jefus Chrift, who bad that every one may whisper their De-not where to lay bis Head? He knows fires in his Ear, and yet as high as the Evil of Poverty, and he choofed to God, that he may fpeak to God, and know it, that he might have Compaffion have Power with him. Truly this is a on thee. With what Boldness may poor fweet tryfting Place, to meet God in, that afflicted and defpifed Believers no Sinner may have any Fear to come to to him? Why? becaufe, he himself had it, to this Treaty of Peace and Reconciliati- Experience of all that, and he was famion. How may it perfwade us of that great liarly acquainted with Grief and Sorrow, Privilege, that we may become the Sons therefore he can fympathize beft with of God, when the Son of God is be- thee. Let us fpeak even of finful Infirmicome the Son of Man, Joh. i. 11, 12. ties thou art fubject to, that there might Truly, though it be hard to be believed, be a Suitableness in him to help thee, he that such as we should become the Sons came as nigh as might be, he was willof the great King; yet it is nothing foing to be tempted to Sin, and fo he ftrange as this, that the eternal and only begotten Son of the great God, fhould become the Son of wretched Man; that Highnefs will be easily believed, if we confider this Lownefs. It will not be fo hard to perfwade a Soul, that there is a Way of Union and Reconciliation to God, of being vet at Peace with him, if this be pondered, that God hath married his own Nature with ours, in one Perfon, to be a Pledge of that Union and Peace. And then, how much quickening and Comfort may it yield us, that he was not only a Man, but a miferable Man, and that not through any Neceffity of Love and Compaffion? He had enough of Mercy to fave us as God, he had enough of Love and Compaffion as Man; but he would take on Mifery too, in his own Perfon, that he might be experimentally merciful to us. Certainly, the Experience of Mifery and Infirmity, muft fuperadd fome Tenderness, to the Heart of our High-priest: But though it did not knows the Power that Temptations muft have over weak and frail Natures; but fin he could not, for that had been Evil for us. Let this then give us Boldness to come to him. I would defire to perfwade you to Humility from this, according to the Lef on Chrift gives us, Matth. xi. 29. Learn of me, I am meek and lowly. And the Apoftle makes fingular Ufe of this Myfery of the Abafement of the Majesty, to abate from our high Esteem of our felves, Phil. ii. 3, 4, 5, 6: 0 bould not the fame Mind be in us, that was in Chrift. God abafed, Man exalted, how unfuitable are these think you? God lowly in Condition and Dif pofition, and Man, though bafe in Condition, yet high in his Disposition, and in his own Eftimation: What more myfterious, than God humbled? And what more monftrous, than Man proud? Truly, Pride it is the most deformed Thing in a Man, but in a Chriftian, it is monftrous and prodigious. If he did ration of our own Bafenefs, Emptiness, humble himself out of Charity and Love, Frailty, and Nothingness. But this Lef who was fo high and glorious, how fon is taught in Chrift's School, not from fhould we humble our felves out of Ne- that Motive only, the Force of Necefceffity, who are fo low and bafe? And fity, but from a higher Motive, the Conout of Charity and Love too, to be con- ftraint of Love to Jefus Chrift: Learn formed and like unto him? Nature may of me. Suppose there were no Necef perfwade the one, but Chriftianity teach- fity of Reafon in it, yet Affection might eth the other, to be lowly in Mind, and be a ftronger Neceffity, to perfwade Coneffeem every one better than our felves.formity to him, and, following his ExamTo be meek, patient, Long-fuffering, Rea-ple, who became fo low, and bumbled fon may perfwade it, upon the Confide- bimself to the Death, even for us. Ver. 3. SERMON XIII -And for Sin condemned Sin in the Flefb. THE great and wonderful Actions of great and excellent Perfons, muft needs have fome great Ends anfwerable to them. Wifdom will teach them not to do Strange Things, but for fome rare Purpofes; for it were a Folly and Madness to do great Things, to compass fome fmall and petty End, as unfuitable as that a Mountain fhould travel to bring forth a Moufe. Truly we muft conceive, that it muft needs be fome honourable and high Bulinefs, that brought down fo high and honourable a Perfon from Heaven, as the Son of God; it it must be fomething proportioned to his Majefty and his Wifdom; and indeed fo it is. There is a great Capital Enemy againft God in the World, that is Sin; this arch Rebel hath drawn Man from his Subordinaton to God, and fown a perpetual Difcord and Enmity between them; this hath conquered all Mankind, and among the reft, even the Elect and Chofen of God, thefe whom God had in his eternal Council predefti nated to Life and Salvation; Sin brings all in Bondage, and exercifeth the most perfect Tyranny over them, that can be imagined; makes Men to serve all its imperious Lufts and then all the Wages is Death, it binds them over to Judgment. Now this Sedition and Rebellion being arifen in the World, and one of the moй noble Creatures carried away in this Revolt, from Allegiance to the Divine Majefty; the moft holy and wife Council of Heaven concludes to fend the King's Son, to compefce this rebellion, to .reduce Men again unto Obedience, and to deftroy that arch Traitor, Sin, which his Nature moft abhors. And for this End the Son of the great King, Jefus Chrift, came down into the World, to deliver captive Man, and to condemn conquering Sin. There is no Object that God hath fo pure and perfect Displeasure at, as Sin; therefore he fent to condemn that which he hates moft, and perfectly he hates it, to condemn Sin; and this is expreffed as the Earrnd of his coming, Job. iii. 5, 8. to destroy the Works of the Devil; all his wicked and hellish Plots and Contrivances againft Man, all that Poison of Enmity and Sin, that out of Envy and Malice he fpued out upon Man, and instilled into his Nature; all thefe Works of that Prince of Darkness, in enticing Man from Obedience to Rebellion, and tyrannizing over him fince, by the imperious Laws of his own Lufts; in a Word, all that Work that was contrived in Hell, to bring poor Man down to that fame Mifery with Devils; all that Chrift the only begotten Son ot the great King, came (for this noble Bulinefs) to deftroy it: That Tower which Satan was building up againft Heaven, and had laid the Foundation of it as low as Hell, this was Chrift's Bulinefs, down among Men, to deftroy that Babylon, that Tower of Darknets and Confufion, and to build up a Tower of Light and Life, to which Tower, Sinners might come, and be fafe, and by which they might really afcend into Heaven. Some do, by thefe Words, for Sin, understand the Occafion and Reason of Chrift's coming, that it was, because Sin had conquered the World, and fubjected Man to Condemnation; therefore Jefus Chrift came into the World, to conquer Sin, and condemn it, that we might be free from Condemnation by Sin. And this was the fpecial Caufe of his taking on Fle. If Sin had not entered in the World, Chrift had not come into it; and if Sin had not erected a Throne in Man's Flesh, Chrift had not taken on Flesh, he had not come in the Likeness of finful Flefh: So that this may adminifter unto us abundant Confolation. If this was the very Cause of A his coming, that which drew him down from that delightful and bleffed Bofom of the Father, then he will certainly do that which he came for; he cannot fail of his Purpose, he cannot mifs his End: he must condemn Sin, and fave Signers. And truely this is wonderful Love, that he took Sin only for his Party, and came only for Sin, or against Sin, and not against poor Sinners: He had no Commiffion of the Father, but this, as himself declares, Job. iii. 17. For, God fent not bis Son into the World, to condemn the World, but that the World through bim might be faved. As one obferves well, Chrift would never have hinted at fuch à Jealoufy, or fuggefted fuch a Thought to Mens Minds, had it not been in them before; but this we are naturally inclined unto,to think hard of God, and can hardly be perfwaded of his Love, when once we are perfwaded of our Enmity. Indeed the moft Part of the World fancy a Perfwation of God's Love, and have not many Jealoufies of it, because they know not their ownEnmity against God; but let à Man fee himself indeed God's Enemy, and it is very hard to make him believe any other Thing of God, but that he carries a hoftile Mind against him; and therefore Chrift, to take off this, perfwades and affures us, that neither the Father nor he had any Defign upon poor Sinners, nor any Ambushment against them, but mainly, if not only, this was his Purpose in fending, and Chrift's in coming, not against. Man, but againft. Sin, not to condemn Sinners, but to condenm Sin, and fave Sinners. - O bleffed and unparallel'd Love that made fuch a real Diftinction between Sin and Sinners, who were fo really one. Shall not we be content to have that woful and accurfed Union with Sin diffolved? Shall not we be willing to let Sin.be condemned in us, and to have our own Souls faved?, it. The Word, for Sin, may be taken in another Senfe as fitly, a Sacrifice for Sin; fo that the Meaning is, Jefus Chrift came to condemn and overthrow Sin, in its Plea against us, by a Sacrifice for Sin, that is, by offering up his own Body or Flesh. And thus, you have the Way and Means how Chrift conquered Sin, and accomplished the Bufinels he was fent for. It was by offering a Sacrifice for Sin, to expiate Wrath, and to fatisfy Juftice: The Siing and Strength of Death is Sin, and -the Strength of Sin is the Law, as the Apoftle speaks it, 1. Cor. xv. 55. We had two great Enemies against us, two great Tyrants over us, Sin and Death. Death had paft upon all Mankind, not on ly the Miseries of this Life and temporal Death had fubjected all Men, but the Fear of an eternal Death, of an everlasting Separation from the bleffed Face of God, might have feized upon all, and subjected them to Bondage, Heb. ii. 15. But the Strength and Sting of that is Sin; it is Sin that arms Death and Hell against us, take away Sin, and you take away the Sting, the Strength of Death, it hath no Force or Power to hurt Man, but Death, being the Wages due for Sin, Rom. vi. 23. All the Certainty and Effica cy in the Wages, flows from this Work of Darkness, Sin. But, Now the Strength of Sin is the Lars; this puts a poifonable and deftructive Vertue in the Sting of Sin, for it is the Sentence of God's Law, and the Juftice and Righteoufnefs of God, that hath made fo infeparable a Connection. between Sin and Death; this gives Sin a deftroying and killing Vertue. Juftice arms it with Power and Authority, to condemn Man, fo that there can be no Freedom, no Releasement from that Condemnation, no efchewing that fatal Sting of Death, unless the Sentence of God's Law, which hath pronounced, thou shalt die, be repealed, and the Juftice of God be fatisfied by a Ranfom. And this being done, the Strength of Sin is quite gone, and fo the Sting of Death removed. Now this had been impoffible for Man to do, thefe Parties were too ftrong for any created Power, the Strength of Sin to condemn may be called fome way infinite, because it flows from the unchangeabie Law of the infinite Juftice of God. Now, what Power could encounter that Strength, except that which hath infinite Strength too? Therefore, it behoved the Son of God, to come for this Bufinefs, to condemn Sin, and fave the Sinner. And being come, he yokes firft with the |