Page images
PDF
EPUB

alter our Natures, and make us another fort of Creatures: but fuch care is taken, fuch provifion is made for our Happiness, that we have nothing left us but only the power of being miserable, if it be our refolved Mind (notwithstanding all poffible Obligations to the contrary) to be fo.

If Men will stop their Ears against the Voice of the Charmer, tho he charm never fo wifely; if they will chufe, court and embrace Sin and Ruin; if the strongest Arguments will not prevail, if the most forcible Engagements will not perfuade; if neither the most glorious Promises, nor the feverest Threatnings, nor Intereft, nor Self-Love, nor any of thofe Confiderations by which Men are fway'd in other Affairs, will at all move them in matters of greatest moment, they muft perifh, and that most deservedly and irrecoverably. If after all this, Sinners will die, and be damned even as it were in fpite of Heaven, maugre all that God or Chrift hath done for them, they muft e'en thank themselves for it, and are only to charge it upon their own wilful and incurable Folly, and bafe Contempt of fuch infinite Love and Kindness. Thus I have briefly fhewn you how, or by what means, the Son' of God truly became our Jefus or Saviour, by faving his People from their Sins.

II. It only remaineth that in a few words I draw fome Conclufions from what I have faid.

1. Hence

1. Hence we may learn that the Honour of the Son of God, as Saviour of the World, is best secured and exalted by an actual Obedience to his Laws; that we ought not to shift off all Duty and Work from our felves upon him alone, leaving it wholly to him to fave us if he pleaseth, without any care or trouble of ours; nor trust to, and rely altogether upon his Righteoufness and Obedience, without any of our own; fince, as I have fhewn you, he must fave us from the Power of our Sins, before ever he will fave us from the penal Confequences of them. So that the Efficacy of Chrift's Undertaking for us, and the Neceffity of our own personal Righteousness, do very well confift together, and each hath its proper Work in obtaining the Pardon of our Sins, and the Favour of God. Our Saviour's Incarnation and perfect Obedience even unto Death, is the fole meritorious Cause of our Acceptance with God, and of our Salvation. He alone purchased thofe great Benefits for us, made Atonement, paid our Ranfom, and procur'd this Covenant of Grace from God, wherein eternal Life is promised to penitent Sinners. But then these great Advantages are not immediately and abfolutely confer'd upon us, but under certain Qualifications and Conditions of Repentance, Faith, and fincere Obedience; for the performance of which the Holy Spirit is never wanting to fincere EndeaWe do therefore vilely affront and difgrace our blessed Lord, when we boldly expect

vours.

[merged small][ocr errors]

to be faved by him whilst we continue in our Sins. Nay we ought to think our felves as much beholden to him for his Doctrine, and the Affistances of his Grace, and the glorious Promises of the Gofpel, by which we are made truly holy and righteous, as for his Sufferings and Death, by which he satisfied God's Justice, and purchased the Pardon of our Sins.

2. I fhall hence make that Inference of the Apoftle, Heb. 2. 3. How then fhall we escape, if we neglect fo great Salvation? Hath God fo abundantly provided for our Happiness, hath his only begotten Son done and fuffer'd fo much for it, and fhall we be fo fottish and stupid as foolishly to despise it, when it hath been fo fignally the unwearied Care of Heaven to procure it for us? It is only our own Advantage that is defign'd, God projects no private Profit, nor doth any accrue to him from the Salvation of all Mankind. Shall we our felves therefore madly defeat all these Designs of Grace and Goodness towards us, by our invincible Refolution to ruin and undo our felves? Did the only begotten Son of God as at this time defcend from the Regions of Bliss and Happiness? Was he born into this miserable World, and did he humble himself to take our Flesh, that by that means he might exalt Mankind, and make us capable of dwelling in the highest Heavens; and all this out of mere Pity and Compaffion to our defperate Condition and fhall we think the denying our

felves a Luft, or the Satisfaction of a forbidden Appetite, or a fhort liv'd Pleasure too much for the obtaining the fame Glory? Did he live here a poor, mean and contemptible Life, and at laft die a fhameful Death to merit eternal Life for us; and for the obtaining the fame, fhall we grudg to live a fober, temperate and honeft Life?

Oh how will this Confideration one day aggravate our Torment! What Vexation and Anxiety will it one day create in our Minds, with what Horror and Defpair will it fill our guilty Souls: Had God predeftinated us from all Eternity to everlasting Mifery, fo that it had been impoffible for us to have avoided our fad Fate; had he never provided a Mediator and Redeemer for us, it would have been a great ease in another World to confider that we could no ways have efcaped this Doom. But when we shall reflect upon the infinite Love and Kindness of God, and how defirous he was that all Men fhould be faved; when we fhall confider the wonderful Pity and Compaffion of our Saviour in being born and dying for us, and procuring for us fuch easy Terms of Salvation, and fo often by his Spirit moving and exciting us to our Duty, and the Care of our Souls; when we shall think of those many Obligations he hath laid upon us, and the wife Methods he hath used for our Recovery and Amendment; and how that nothing was wanting on God's part, but that we might now have been praifing, bleffing and

adoring

adoring his Goodness and Wisdom among the glorified Spirits in the happy Regions of undifturbed Peace and Joy; and yet that we, thro our own most shameful Neglect (tho often warned to the contrary) are now forced in vain to feek but for a drop of Water to cool the tip of our Tongues: How will this heighten our future Pains, and prove the very Ef fence of Hell?

Better fhall it be in the last Day for Tyre and Sidon, for Sodom and Gomorrah, Places overrun with Luft and Barbarity; for the Nations that fit in Darkness, and never heard of these glad Tidings of a Saviour, than for you to whom this Salvation is come, but you caft it behind your backs. The fierceft Vengeance, the feverest Punishments are referved for wicked Christians and what can we imagine shall be the just Portion of those whom neither the Condefcenfion and Kindness, nor Wounds and Sufferings of the Son of God could perfuade; nor yet the Excellency, Eafinefs and Profitableness of his Commands invite, nor the Promises of unexpreffible Rewards allure, nor the Threatnings of eternal Punishment engage to live well and be happy.

In vain therefore do fuch come hither to celebrate the Memory of Chrift's Birth. They of all Men who defpife this great Salvation, purchased by the Son of God, have no great cause to rejoice this Day; nay, happy had it been for them (who ftill perfift in their Sins, notwithstanding all that Chrift hath done to

« PreviousContinue »