his being the true Christ; How exactly in all the Circumstances of his Nativity, and all the Paffages of his Life, he fulfilled the Prophecies which went before of him; and how convincing the Teftimonies were, which God gave to the Truth of his Miffion: How ought this Confideration to ftrengthen our Faith in this Chrift? To make us conftant to the Death, in owning him for our Saviour, our Meffiah, in Oppofition to all the Pretences of the Jews, and Infidels, and Atheists, and Scep ticks, to the contrary.

Lastly, If we confider the mean Circumftances that this our Christ chofe to appear in; fo far below the Dignity of fo great a Prince, that there is not the pooreft Beggar's Child among us, but generally finds better Accommodation when it comes into the World: O what a Check, what a Rebuke ought this to be to that Spirit of Ambition, and Pride, and Vainglory, that too often poffeffes us poor Mortals? How ought it to take off our Admiration, and leffen the too great Efteem we are apt to have of all outward Pomp and Greatnefs? Nay, and to make us despise all the glittering Shews and Bravery of the World: Since God has given us fo vifible a Demonftration, by the fending his own Son into it, how little a Value he fets upon thefe Things. But,

II. I proceed to the Second Point, which my Text leads me to speak to, and that is the Time of our Saviour's Appearance here men tioned, Once hath he appeared in the End of the World.

You fee here, That the Time of his Appear ance is faid to be the End of the World. But how is that to be understood? If we take the Expreffion in the literal Senfe, and as we commonly use it; the Thing is not True: For there have already pafs'd full Seventeen Hundred Years fince our Saviour's Appearance; and yet the End of the World is not come, nor do we know when it will.

But there will be no Difficulty in this Matter, if we carefully attend to the Phrafe the Apostle here useth, and interpret it according to the Propriety of the Language, in which it is delivered. The Word in my Text is, Συντέλεια τῶν αἰώνων, which every Body, that is verfed in the Style of the New Testament, knows may be better and more naturally rendered the Confummation or Conclufion of the Ages, than the End of the World.

For the Understanding this Phrase, we must have recourfe to the known Idiom of the Jews, who used to fpeak of the feveral Oeconomies and Difpenfations, under which the World fucceffively had been, or was to be, as of fo many Alves, or Ages. The last of which Ages, and the Accomplishment and Completion of all of them, they held to be the Age of the Meffiah; beyond which they knew there was to be no other Age or Oeconomy. With reference to this way of fpeaking, the Times of the Gofpel-Difpenfation are frequently called in Scripture, The Last Times, The Last Days, The Fulneß of the Times, and in the Text, The Confummation or Shutting up of

the

the Ages. The meaning of all which Phrafes, is no more than this: That the Times of the Gospel, that is, the Appearance and Revelation of our Saviour, though God intended them from the beginning, yet should they be the last of all Times. There should be feveral Difpenfations fet on Foot in the World before they came; and when thofe Times were fulfilled, when the Ends of thofe Difpenfations were accomplished, then fhould our Saviour appear, and begin his Kingdom, which should never be fucceeded by any other.

This is the true Meaning of Chrift's appearing, & Συντέλεια τῶν αἰώνων, as the Text expreffeth it, that is, not (as we tranflate it) In the End of the World; but, In the last of the Ages, or, At the Time when the Ages were ful filled and accomplished.

Now what Ufe are we to make of this Confideration; the Apoftle himself doth fairly intimate to us in the beginning of this Epiftle: God (faith he) who at fundry Times, and in divers Manners, fpake in Times past unto the Fathers by the Prophets, hath in thefe last Days poken unto us by his Son, whom he hath made Heir of all Things, and by whom he made the Worlds. And fo he goes on, to fet forth the incomparable Dignity and Pre-eminence of this laft Meffenger of God, above that of either Angels or Men, by whom he had spoken to Mankind before. But what is the Inference he draws from all this? Why, that you may fee in the beginning of the Second Chapter; We ought therefore (faith he) to give the more earnest

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heed

heed to the Things we have heard, (that is to say, the Doctrine of the Gospel) lest at any Time we let them flip. For if the Word spoken by Angels was ftedfast, and every Tranfgreffion and Difobedience received a just Recompence of Reward; How shall we efcape if we neglect fo great Salvation as was spoken to us by the Lord Jesus?

The Apostle's Argument here proceeds on this Manner: God's Revelation of his Will to Mankind, and the Discovery of his Grace and Goodnefs was not all at once, but gradual and by Parts.

He firft fpake to Mankind by the Patriarchs, who were burning and fhining Lights in their Generations.

He afterwards fingles out the Nation of the Jews, to be his peculiar People, and to them he gives a written Law which was delivered to them by Angels in the Hand of Moses their Mediator (as the Apostle fpeaks in the Third of the Galatians) which Law was a Shadow or dark Representation of the Good Things which were afterwards to be revealed.

After this he fends Prophets in a continual Succeffion for feveral Ages, who do more clearly difcover God's Will to them; who call upon them to Holiness and Vertue; and who fpeak in very plain Terms of that Great Salvation, which God fhould one Day manifeft to the World.

And last of all, as the Lord of the Vineyard, in the Parable, dealt with his Husband. men, who after he had fent Servants, one after another, of different Qualities and De

grees,

grées, at laft fent his own Son: So, at laft, I fay, did the great Lord of the World, when the Fulness of the Time was come, fend his own Son to be his Embassador to Mankind; his own Son, who was the Brightness of his Glory, and the exprefs Image of his Perfon.

If now, as the Apostle here argues; If under the former Difpenfations, when God only declared his Will by Angels or by Prophets, he was yet so fevere, that no Tranfgreffion or Difobedience escaped, without a juft Recompence of Vengeance; How can we escape, if we neglect fo great a Salvation as that was, which in these last Days, was Preached by Fefus Chrift? How can we efcape, if these last and greatest Methods of God for our Good, and in which all the Treasures of his Goodness are displayed; I fay, if these have no effect upon us, in order to the making us both Holy and ·Happy?

What Teachers, what Inftruters can we further expect? What new Lights or Affiftances do we yet wait for? Can any one think that God fhould fet on foot fome other new Difpenfation, for the bringing off those wretched People, upon whom this laft could prevail nothing? Do we dream of another Covenant, or another Mediator between God and Man, befides Chrift Fefus? Do we fancy, that God will fend fome other Embalador, or Saviour into the World, after he hath fent his own Son? Or that the Son of God will come a Second Time in Humane Flesh, and again be Crucified for us?