fuited to the state and manner of fubfiftence affigned to each? Have the fundry kinds of creeping things and beafts of the earth, engaged our attention? The fubtile Serpent, the wily Fox, the stately Horfe, the majeftick Lion, the halfreafoning Elephant? Have we marked the amazing difference of their inward difpofitions, as welt as of their outward forms, and the wonderful provifion made for their prefervation and fupport, and that of their different fpecies? Have the feathered Fowl, and Birds of every wing, been confidered by us? Their beautiful figure, their rich plumage, their fwift motions, and the fweet harmony of their diverfified notes and artless mufick? Have we admired the pride of the Peacock, the innocence of the Dove, the affection of the Stork, the rapacity of the Vulture, and the ftrength and swiftnefs of the Eagle? Have we marked with what regularity, forefight, and care, they build their nefts, and provide for the fafety and fubfiftence of their young? 17. Has Man, that mafter-piece of divine workmanfhip, engaged our attention? Have we confidered the wonderful structure of his body? the more aftonishing formation of his mind? Have we obferved his erect form? his exact proportions? his comely figure? his divine face? his majestick appearance? Have we marked the number and variety of his fenfes and members? how fuited to each other, and to his ftate and place upon the earth, and his rank among the creatures? Have we reflected upon their contrivance and usefulness, and upon the profit and pleasure arifing from each in particular, and from all in general? Have we obferved the multiplicity of parts employed in the structure of each member or fenfe, and their happy union, in forming one perfect whole? Have we examined the eye or ear? the hand or foot? the head or heart? 18. Have we confidered the provision made for the nutrition and growth of the wonderful ma chine chine and all its parts? fo that the very hairs of our head and finger-nails, both useful and neceffary, do not want their proper nourishment ? Have we reflected upon the various means provided for preparing, receiving, digefting and extracting nourishment from our food, and throwing off the fuperfluous parts? Have we viewed the aftonishing apparatus of veins and arteries, miniftering to the circulation of the blood, and the life of the body? 19. Have we confidered the nervous fyftem, the chief means of animal life and fenfation ? The wonderful ftructure of the brain, lodged in the golden bowl (as Solomon feems to call the membrane that enclofes it) and the various and multiplied branchings of the filver cord, the fpinal marrow, spread over all the body, and rendering every part keenly fenfible? And have we obferved how the animal-appetites and propenfities ftrangely enfure the prefervation of life, and propagation of the fpecies? 20. Have we noticed a Spirit in Man? a foul in body? a mind in matter? an intelligent and free principle? a power that perceives, thinks, reafons, judges, approves, condemns, wills, defires, loves, hates, hopes, fears, rejoices, mourns? that pervades the earth, encompaffes the heavens, measures the Sun, afcends above the Stars, rifes from the creature to the Creator, beholds his glory, admires his beauty, feels his love, taftes his pleafures, imitates his perfections, and afpires after a conformity to him, and fellowship with him, through everlasting ages? 21. Have we reflected, that there are minds that were never joined to matter,-Spirits that never dwelt in flefh? Ethereal Beings, Flames of fire, Angels of light, pure and perfect Intelligences ? All life, all activity, all power? All eye, all ear, all fenfibility? Whofe knowledge is intuitive and certain, whofe love is fincere and flaming, whofe praile is cordial and ardent, and whofe obedience is free and conftant? Whofe duty is unintermitted, whofe loyalty is untainted, whofe fervices are difinterested, and whofe happiness is compleat, established and eternal? Have we remembered, that there are innumerable ranks and orders of thefe beings, of which we have no knowledge, and of whofe nature and state we can form n conception? Thrones, Dominions, Principalities, and Powers? 22. Have we taken a survey of these wonderful works, both above and below, both material and immaterial, and have we confidered that we know not one thousandth part of their number, magnitude, or minutenefs, or of the contrivance manifefted in the formation of the meanest of them, of a blade of grafs, a grain of fand, a drop of water, or a particle of air or light? And after all, dare we pronounce that a mere creature, an angelic, or fuper-angelic Being, was, and is, fufficient for the Creation, Prefervation, and Government of all these and other creatures? If fo, the facred Scriptures will remove our rafhnefs, and inform us, that he that built all things is God: and that this God is Chrift. For the Apostle, in this paffage profeffedly fpeaks of him. Ver. 3, he fays, -This perfon was counted worthy of more glory than Mofes, inafmuch as he who hath builded the houfe hath more honour than the houfe. For every houfe is builded by fome one; but he that built all things is God. The Apoftle's argument is manifeftly this: He that buildeth the house, hath more honour than the house he buildeth, or any part of it: But Chrift built the Jewish Church, yea, the whole Creation, of which Mofes was but a small, inconfiderable part Therefore Chrift is worthy of more honour than Mofes: yea, is as much above him, as the Creator of all things is above one of his creatures. -Again: He that built all things, is God: But Christ built all things-Therefore Chrift is God; yea, (in union with his Father) the everlafling Go Fehooan Jehovah the Creator of the ends of the earth, who fainteth not, neither is weary: and there is no fearching of his understanding, Heb. iii. 4—Ifa. xl. 28. CHA P. IX. That JESUS CHRIST is the Redeemer and Saviour of loft Mankind. 1. A WORD, that was in the beginning with God, as the Creator, Preferver, and Lord of all,— fo it will readily be allowed that they point him out to us as the REDEEMER and SAVIOUR of fallen Man. Unto you is born, in the City of David, a SAVIOUR, who is Chrift the Lord: Chrift Jefus came into the world to SAVE finners: The Son of man is come to feek and SAVE that which was loft: Looking for the bleed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God, even our SAVIOUR Jefus Chrift, who gave himfelf for us, that he might REDEEM us from all iniquity, and purify to himfelf a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 2. The foundation of this doctrine of our. Redemption and Salvation by Chrift Jefus, it is well known, is laid in the depravity and guilt of mankind. All have finned (fays the Apoftle) and come fhort of the glory of God: The whole world is guilty before God; and Jews and Gentiles, even all man kind, are by nature children of wrath, Rom. iii. 19 -23. Eph. ii. 3. According to the Scriptures, all have forfeited the everlasting life and happinefs for which they were created, and have deferved death and everlasting destruction. the wages of fin is death, even fuch a death as stands opposed to that eternal life which is the gift of God through Jefus Christ our Lord. For 3. Now it is the uniform doctrine, both of the Old and New Testament, that the Lord Jefus Christ hath ranfomed our lives by laying down his own. The Son of man came not to be miniftered unto, but to minifter and give his life a RANSOM for many: He gave himfelf a RANSOM for all: He died for our fins according to the Scriptures; died for ALL, when all were dead: tafted death for EVERY MAN: The Lord laid on him the iniquity of us ALL• He bore our fins in his own body on the tree; was 'wounded for our tranfgreffions, bruifed for our iniquities, and bore the chaftifement of our peace; was made fin (a fin-offering) for us, though he knew no fin, that we might be made the righteoufnefs of God in him, or might be juftified through him. Hence we are faid to be redeemed, not with corruptible things, fuch as filver and gold, but with the precious blood of Chrift, 1 Pet. i. 18; to be bought with a price, and therefore not to be our own, 1 Cor. vi. 20. and to have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our fins. 4. But if Jefus Chrift, whofe life is thus reprefented to be laid down as the price of man's redemption from everlasting death and deftruction, to everlasting life and falvation,-if Jefus Chrift (I fay) be but a mere man, it is certain his life must be of incomparably lefs value than this eternal falvation of all mankind, thus faid to be procured by it. For however holy and excellent we may fuppofe him to be, yet his life could not be worth the lives of all men-efpecially his temporal life could not be worth the eternal lives of all men. His parting with a fhort, uncertain, and afflicted life, and coming under the power of death with regard to his body merely, and that only for two or three days (his foul in the mean time neither dying nor fuffering the lofs, either of its holiness or happinefs) and doing this in fure and certain hope of being raifed again, and receiving in exchange, after that short space of time, an eternal and most bleffed life;- this furely was no fuch great thing, as that it could be any proper confideration, or redemption-price, on account of which divine and infinite juftice fhould deliver an innumerable multitude of rational and immortal beings, |