opened by the Mediator for us to return to God, and recover our forfeited interest in him; and of consequence, all the right exercises of soul towards him. But then, the soul must see and believe this new and living way consecrated by Christ, Lefore it will feel itself enlar ged, or discover any possibility of confidence towards God in its guilty state. When under awakenings and convictions, natural conscience shows the sinner the sanction of the law which he hath broken, excluding him from all interest in God, and cutting him off from all confidence towards him. And the soul, while under these views only, can exercise no dependence upon God, sees all interest in him forfeited, and can place no hope, nor put any trust in him for the bestowment of any favor, till the saving fulness of the Mediator, and the riches and sovereign freedom of the grace of God through him to the guilty, come into view. So that although the disfranchisement is removed in law; yet the soul doth not actually par take of, or possess that liberty wherewith Christ makes it free, till the glory of the Mediator comes into view, and the soul is suitably affected and influenced by the new covenant. For it is plain that guilty creatures can have no real or true confidence towards God, nor any hope or trust in him, but what must be predicated upon a Mediator. And therefore that inability which was brought upon us by the fall, will abide in us till it is removed by faith in Christ; that is, by the effectual operation of the new covenant on the heart.

Still, it may be inquired wherein the inability of the sinner to believe in Christ doth consist?

To this I answer. We cannot believe the truth of any report, till we see reason for it; that is, till we see sufficient evidence to confirm the truth of it. And a divine faith must rest upon a divine testimony. When the soul discovers that God hath borne witness to his Son Jesus Christ, it will immediately give credit to the gospel. And although human reason may collect sufficient evidence to prove the truth of

the gospel; yet an awakened conscience will not be satisfied, nor be brought to rest upon the promises without divine illumination or teaching. John vi. 44. "No man can come to me, except the Father who hath sent me, draw him." But when the divine spirit teacheth, the soul will so learn as to come to the Son. John vi. 45. "Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me."

Here is the impotency of our fallen state, of which we can have very clear and distinct ideas, without being perplexed with those abstruse speculations and metaphysical distinctions between natural and moral inability, which many divines make use of in treating of moral impotency. The soul finds itself utterly unable to exercise any hope in, or confidence towards God; unable to exercise complacency, or to take up its rest in God, as his God, his satisfying good and portion, till the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ shines in upon it. Herein we see total inability in the sinner with respect to all holy excicises towards God, very different in some respects from inere unwillingness,

And that famous dispute about a self-determining power in the will, may be wholly set aside, and left to the philosophers to determine as they please, while the religion of the gospel remains unconcerned with it.

In

Attention to these awful effects of sin upon our nature, will lead us to see something of the evil nature of it, how hateful it is in its own nature, and how ruinous to the soul. The law of God, therefore, is good, as well as holy and just, in its forbidding all sin. It aims at our good, as well as the glory of God. every instance in which we choose sin, we forsake our own mercies. It is what, in its own nature, brings total ruin upon the soul. Although it was a very gracious covenant that God made with man, whereby he was put into much better circumstances than he would have been, if God had left him to stand

under the law of his creation; in much less danger of falling into sin; and had peculiar advantages of obtaining very great and valuable privileges which could not have been obtained without such a covenant; yet we see man soon ruined himself. And hereby we see something of the dependent nature of a creature, how excellent, or how perfect soever he is made. A creature is of a finite, limited, mutable nature; and its effectual security is therefore not in itself, but in God. And it is a natural transition, for our minds to be hereby led to a view of the transcendent goodness of God, expressed to fallen man in providing such a glorious new covenant head, who partakes of an unchangeable nature, which afforded infallible security of success in accomplishing the probation assigned him in the new covenant, for the recovery and salva, tion of the children of men. An attentive view of the ruins of our fallen state discovers our perishing need of help from the rich and sovereign grace of God. Man was lost beyond all possibility of delivering himself; could lay no claim to any help from God; and is therefore infinitely indebted to the boundless riches of divine grace, in laying help upon one that is mighty to save, one able to save to the uttermost, all that come to God by him.

6

THE RECOVERY OF MAN BY JESUS

CHRIST.

IN the preceding part we have been entertained

with a melancholy view of the ruin of our nature by the apostacy of our first parents. But we come now to take a view of the bright side of our subject, and to turn our thoughts upon the glorious discoveries of redeeming grace, manifested to us by God's sending his Son to save sinners. Known unto God are all his works. The fall of Adam was foreseen before the foundation of the world; and the plan was laid in the eternal counsels of the divine mind, for the redemption of fallen man by the mediation of the Son of God; who in due time was to take our nature on him, become man, and perform that work by which he might be the author of eternal redemption to all them that obey him. And although the real appearance of the Son of God amongst men, and his actual performance of the work of redemption, was not till many years after the fall; yet his mediation took place before his incarnation; and, in the acceptance of God, he was "The Lamb slain from the foundation of the world." For when God came to our first parents after the fall, and had convicted them of their breach of covenant; he thereupon revealed to them the covenant of grace, in the promise of the seed of the woman that should bruise the serpent's head. Then it was, that the covenant of grace was introduced, the Redeemer's kingdom was set up, and the influence of his mediation took place between God and man, as the foundation of all his subsequent dealings with them. And for a distinct view of these important matters, I shall divide my subject into the following heads :

I. I shall represent the true character of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom this new dispensation is brought in.

II. Take a general view of this dispensation which is brought in by the Son of God.

III. Inquire into the state of mankind under this dispensation, and the tenor of God's various dealings with them.

I The character of this glorious person, the Son of God, who hath brought in this new dispensation, is first to be attended to.

This wonderful person who appeared for the important purpose of sustaining the sinking world is IMMANUEL, God manifest in the flesh. The fall of man has perhaps been the occasion of revealing in a more clear light, the great mystery of a Trinity in the God-head, who are distinguished by the personal appellations of FATHER, SON, and HOLY GHOSг. It is the second person in the Trinity, the Son, who came into the world, took our nature on him, and is truly God and man, in two distinct natures and one person; who has brought in the dispensation of redeeming grace for a lost world. Many questions both curious and important, might be moved concerning these gospel-doctrines of a Trinity in the God-head, and the incarnation of the Son; all which I purposely pass by, and take this character of the Son of God as it is clearly revealed in the gospel, which is sufficient for us to know, that we may form just thoughts of the present divine constitution under which we stand probationers for the rewards or punishments of the eternal state.

The two natures in the person of the Son render him a meet person for the work upon which he came into the world. The human nature was necessary, that he might be under the law, might fulfil all righteousness, and might suffer the death due for sin. And the divine nature was necessary to prevent his sinking under the weight of his sufferings, and to render his bedience and sufferings truly meritorious. No one that was less than divine, was able to atone for sin, to overcome death, to ascend into the