in himself, yet his love is transient to the creature. It is admir-

able in creating and preserving man, more in redeeming him,

and that by the death of his Son. II. The discovery of God's

love in our redemption is the strongest persuasive to repentance.

The law is ineffectual to produce real repentance. The common

benefits of providence are insufficient to cause faith and repent-

ance in the guilty creature. The clear discovery of pardoning

mercy in the gospel alone can remove our fears, and induce us to

return to God. III. The transcendent love of God should kindle

in us a reciprocal love to him. His excellencies and ordinary

bounty to mankind cannot prevail upon us to love him: his love

to us in Christ alone conquers our hatred. Our love to him must

be sincere and superlative. IV. The despising of saving mercy

is the highest provocation: it makes the condemnation of men

most just, certain, and heavy.

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CHAP. XII.-The Justice of God in Redemption.-Divine justice

concurs with mercy in the work of our redemption. I. The rea-

sons why we are redeemed by the satisfaction of justice are

specified; to declare God's hatred of sin, to vindicate the honour

of the law, to prevent the secure commission of sin. These

ends are obtained in the death of Christ. II. The reality of the

satisfaction made to divine justice considered. The requisites

in order to it. The appointment of God, who in this transaction

is to be considered not as a judge, that is minister of the law,

but as governor. His right of jurisdiction to relax the law as to

the execution of it. His will declared to accept of the compen-

sation made. The consent of our Redeemer was necessary.

He must be perfectly holy. He must be God and man.
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CHAP. XIII. The Justice of God in Redemption.-Divine justice

is declared and glorified in the death of Christ. The threefold

account the scripture gives of it, as a punishment inflicted for

sin, as a price to redeem us from hell, as a sacrifice to reconcile

us to God. Man was capitally guilty; Christ, with the allow-

ance of God, interposes as his surety. His death was inflicted

on him by the supreme Judge; the impulsive cause of it was

sin. His sufferings were equivalent to the sentence of the law;

the effect of them is our freedom. An answer to the objection,

that it is a violation of justice to transfer the punishment from

the guilty to the innocent. The death of Christ is the price that

redeems from hell. This singular effect of his death distinguishes

it from the death of the martyrs. An answer to the objections-

how could God receive this price, since he gave his Son to that

death which redeems us? and how our Redeemer, supposing

him God, can make satisfaction to himself? The death of Christ

represented as a sacrifice. The expiatory sacrifices under the

law were substituted in the place of guilty men. The effects of

them answerable to their threefold respect to God, sin and men;

the atonement of anger, the expiation of sin, and freedom from

punishment. All sorts of placatory sacrifices are referred to

Christ, and the effects of them in a sublime and perfect manner.

No prejudice to the freeness and, greatness of God's love, that

Christ by his death reconciled him to men.

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death of Christ there

II. The strictness of

The consideration of

scandal of the cross,

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CHAP. XIV. The Justice of God in Redemption.-III. The com-

pleteness of Christ's satisfaction proved from the causes and

effects of it. The causes are the quality of his person and de-

grees of his sufferings. The effects are his resurrection, ascen-

sion, intercession at God's right hand, and his exercising the

supreme power in heaven and earth. The excellent benefits

which God reconciled bestows on men, are the effects and evi-

dences of his complete satisfaction. They are pardon of sin,

grace, and glory. That repentance and faith are required in

order to the partaking of the benefits purchased by Christ's

death, doth not lessen the merit of his sufferings; that afflictions

and death are inflicted on believers doth not derogate from their

all-sufficiency.

214

CHAP. XV.—Practical Inferences.-I. In the

is the clearest discovery of the evil of sin.

divine justice is most visible in it. III.

the ends of Christ's death takes off the

and changes the offence into admiration. IV. The satisfaction

of justice by Christ's sufferings affords the strongest assurance

that God is ready to pardon sinners. V. The absolute necessity

of complying with the terms of the gospel for justification.

There are but two ways of appearing before the supreme Judge;

either in innocence, or by the righteousness of Christ. The

causes why men reject Christ are, a legal temper that is natural

to them, and the predominant love of sin. The unavoidable

misery of all that will not submit to our Saviour.

CHAP. XVI.-The Holiness of God in Redemption. Of all the di-

vine perfections, holiness is peculiarly admirable. The honour

of it is secured in our redemption. I. In the bitter sufferings of

Christ, God declared himself unappeasable to sin, though ap-

peasable to sinners. II. The privileges purchased by Christ,

are conveyed upon terms honourable to holiness. Pardon of

sin, adoption, the inheritance of glory, are annexed to special

qualifications in those who receive them. III. The Redeemer is

made a quickening principle to inspire us with new life. In

order to our sanctification, he hath given us the most perfect rule

of holiness, he exhibited a complete pattern of it, he purchased

and conveys the Spirit of holiness to us, he presents the strong-

est motives to persuade us to be holy. The perfect laws of

Christ are considered, as they enjoin an absolute separation

from all evil, and command the practice of all substantial good-

ness. Some particular precepts, which the gospel especially

enforces, with the reasons of them, are considered.

CHAP. XVII.-The Perfection of the Laws of Christ.-The perfec-
tion of Christ's laws appears by comparing them with the pre-
cepts of Moses. The temple service was managed with pomp
suitable to the disposition of the Jews, and the dispensation of
the law; the Christian service is pure and spiritual; the Levit-
ical ceremonies and ornaments are excluded from it, not only as
unnecessary, but inconsistent with its spirituality. The obliga-
tion to the rituals of Moses is abolished, to introduce real right-
eousness. The indulgences of polygamy and divorce is taken

249

away by Christ, and marriage restored to its primitive purity.

He cleared the law from the darkening glosses of the Pharisees,

and enforced it by new obligations. The law of Christ exceeds

the rules which the highest masters of morality in the school of

nature ever prescribed. Philosophy is defective as to piety, and

in several things contrary to it. Philosophers delivered un-

worthy conceptions of God. Philosophy doth not enjoin the love

of God, which is the first and great command of the natural law.

Philosophers lay down the servile maxim, to comply with the

common idolatry. They arrogated to themselves the praise of

their virtue and happiness. Philosophy doth not propound the

glory of God for the supreme end of all human actions. Philo-

sophy is defective as to the duties respecting ourselves and others.

It allows the first sinful motions of the lower appetites. The

Stoics renounce the passions. Philosophy insufficient to form

the soul to patience and content under afflictions, and to support

in the hour of death. A reflection upon some immoral maxims

of the several sects of philosophers.

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CHAP. XVIII.-The Example of Christ and the Gift of the Holy

Spirit.-Examples have a special efficacy above precepts to form

us to holiness. The example of Christ is most proper to that

end, being absolutely perfect, and accommodated to our present

state. Some virtues are necessary to our condition as creatures,

or to our condition in the world, of which the Deity is incapable;

and these eminently appear in the life of Christ; they are humil-

ity, obedience, and love in suffering for us. His life contains all

our duties, or motives to perform them. Jesus Christ purchased

the Spirit of holiness by his sufferings, and confers it since his

exaltation. The sanctifying Spirit is the concomitant of evan-

gelical mercy. The supernatural declarations of the law on

mount Sinai, and the natural discovery of the divine goodness

in the works of creation and providence, were not accompanied

with the renewing efficacy of the Spirit. The lower operations

of the Spirit alone were in the heathens. The philosophical

change differs from the spiritual and divine. Socrates and

Seneca considered. Our Saviour presents the strongest induce-

ments to persuade us to be holy. They are proper to work upon

fear, hope, and love. The greatness of those objects, and their

truth, are clearly manifest in the gospel.

CHAP. XIX.-Practical Inferences.-I. The completeness of our
recovery by Jesus Christ; he frees us from the power as well
as guilt of sin. Sin is the disease and wound of the soul; the
mere pardon of it cannot make us happy. Sanctification equals,
if not excels, justification; it qualifies us for the enjoyment of
God. II. Saving grace doth not encourage the practice of sin.
The promises of pardon and heaven are conditional. To abuse
the mercy of the gospel is dishonourable to God and pernicious
to man. III. The excellency of the Christian religion discovered
from its design and effect. The design is to purge men from
sin, and conform them to God's holiness according to their ca-
pacity; this gives it the most visible pre-eminence above other
religions. The admirable effect of the gospel in the primitive

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Christians. An earnest exhortation to live according to the

purity of the gospel, and the great obligations our Saviour hath

laid on us.

CHAP. XX.-The Power of God in Redemption. The divine power

is admirably glorified in the creation of the world, in respect of

the greatness of the effect and the manner of its production. It

is as evident in our redemption. The principal effects of it are

considered. I. The incarnation of the Son of God is a work

fully responsible to omnipotence. II. Our Redeemer's superna-

tural conception by the Holy Ghost. III. The divine power was

eminently declared in the miracles Jesus Christ wrought in the

course of his ministry. His miracles were the evidence of his

celestial calling; they were necessary for the conviction of the

world: their nature considered. IV. The divine power was

glorified in making the death of Christ victorious over all our

spiritual enemies. V. The resurrection of Christ the effect of

glorious power. The reasons of it from the quality of his per-

son, and the nature of his office, that he might dispense the

blessings he had purchased for believers. His resurrection is

the foundation of faith. It hath a threefold reference, to his per-

son as the Son of God, to his death as an all-sufficient sacrifice,

to his promise of raising believers at the last-day.

CHAP. XXI.-The Power of God in Redemption.-VI. The divine

power was glorified in the conversion of the world to Christian-

ity. Notwithstanding the imaginary infirmity in Christ crucified,

yet to the called he was the power of God. The numerous and

great difficulties that obstructed the receiving of the gospel.

What the state of the world was at the first preaching it. Igno-

rance was universal, idolatry and the depravation of manners,

were the consequences of it. Idolatry was fortified by custom,

antiquity, and external pomp. The depravation of manners was

extreme. The principal account of it from their disbelieving a

future state, and their attributing to their gods those passions

and vices that were pleasing to the flesh. The aversion of the

vulgar heathens was strengthened by those in veneration among

them. The philosophers, priests, and princes, vehemently op-

posed the gospel; an account of their enmity against it. The

consideration of the means by which the gospel was conveyed,

discovers that omnipotency alone made it successful.
The per-

sons employed were a few fishermen, without authority and

power to force men to obedience, and without art or eloquence

to insinuate the belief of their doctrine. The great, sudden, and

lasting change in the world, by the preaching of the gospel, is a

certain argument of the divine power that animated those weak

appearances. Idolatry was abolished. A miraculous change

followed in the lives of men. Christians gave a divorce to all

the sinful delights of sense; and embraced, for the honour of

Christ, those things that nature most abhors. A short view of

the sufferings and courage of the martyrs; Their patience was

inspired from heaven. Christianity was victorious over all op-

position. VIL. The divine power will be gloriously manifested

in the complete salvation of the church at the last day. Our

Saviour shall then finish his mediatory office. Death, the last

enemy, shall be destroyed. The bodies of the saints shall be

raised and conformed to the glorious body of Christ. - 339

CHAP. XXII.-Practical Inference.-The extraordinary working

of the divine power is a convincing proof of the verity of the

Christian religion. The internal excellencies of it are clear

marks of its divinity, to the purified mind. The external opera-

tions of God's power were requisite to convince men in their

corrupt state, that the doctrine of the gospel came from God.

The miraculous owning of Christ by the whole Divinity from

heaven. The resurrection of Christ the most important article

of the gospel, and the demonstration of all the rest. How valu-

able the testimony of the apostles is concerning it; that it was

impossible they should deceive or be deceived. The quality of

the witnesses considered. There cannot be the least reasonable

suspicion of them.

It is utterly incredible, that any human,

temporal respects moved them to feign the resurrection of Christ.

The nature of the testimony considered. It was of a matter of fact,

and verified to all their senses. The uniformity of it assures

us there was no corruption in the witnesses, and that it was no

illusion. They sealed the truth of it with their blood. The

miracles the apostles did in the name of Christ, a strong demon-

stration that he was raised to a glorious life. That power was

continued in the church for a time. The conclusion, how rea-

sonable it is to give an entire assent to the truth of Christianity.

It is desperate infidelity not to believe it; and the highest mad-
ness to pretend to believe it; and to live in disobedience to it. 365

CHAP. XXIII.—The Truth of God in Redemption.—The honour

of God's truth, with respect to the legal threatening, was pre-

served in the death of Christ. The divine truth, with respect to

the promises and types of Christ under the law, was justified in

his coming and the accomplishment of our redemption by him.

I. Some special predictions considered, that respect the time of

his coming. The particular circumstances that represent the

Messiah, are verified in Jesus Christ. The consequences of the

Messiah's coming, foretold by the prophets, are all come to pass.

II. The types of the law are complete in Christ. A particular

consideration of the manna, the rock, and the brazen serpent,

as they referred to him. The paschal lamb considered. A

short parallel between Melchizedec and Christ. The divinity

of the gospel proved, by comparing the ancient figures with the

present truth, and predictions with the events. The happiness

of Christians above the Jews, in a clear revelation of our Sa-

viour to them. From the accomplishment of prophecies con-

cerning the first coming of Christ, our faith should be confirmed

in the promise of his second.

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