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and the grace of the gospel precious; and effectually awaken us to gratitude and thankfulness; for now every thing in our circumstances, wherein we are better of it than the damned, will be accounted so great a mercy, and the effect of mere grace. And so far as we are from a clear sight and realizing sense of this our sinful, guilty, undone state, so far shall we be insensible of the preciousness of Christ, and the freeness of grace, and the greatness of God's mercy towards us.

Thus, having considered the grounds upon which the most high God did look upon mankind as being in a perishing condition, and the motives whereby he was excited to enter upon any methods for their recovery, we proceed now more particularly to consider the ways and means he has taken and used to bring it about.

SECTION III.

CONCERNING THE NATURE AND NECESSITY OF SATISFACTION FOR SIN.

I am now,

III. To show what necessity there was for a Mediator, and how the way to life has been opened by him whom God has provided. It is plainly supposed that there was a necessity of a Mediator, and of such an one too as God had actually provided, in order to our salvation; for, otherwise, it had been no love or goodness in God to have given his only begotten Son. For there can be no love or goodness in his doing that for us which we do not need, and without which we might have been saved as well. Nor is it to be supposed that God would give his Son to die for a guilty world without urgent necessity. If some cheaper and easier way might have been found out, he would surely have spared his beloved Son; he had no inclination to make light of his Son's blood; it was a great thing for a GOD to become incarnate, and die; and there must, therefore, have been some very urgent considerations, to induce the wise Governor of the world to such an expedient. And here, then, these things may be particularly inquired

into :

1. What necessity was there of satisfaction for sin?

2. What satisfaction has there been made? And wherein does its sufficiency consist?

3. How has the way to life been opened by the means ? 4. What methods has the great Governor of the world entered upon for the actual recovery of sinful creatures?

1. We are to consider what necessity there was of satisfaction for sin. It was needful, or else no satisfaction would have been ever required or made. And the necessity was certainly very great and urgent, or the Father would never have been willing to have given his Son, or the Son to have undertaken the work, a work attended with so much labour and suffering. But why was it necessary? This, I think, will appear, if we deliberately and seriously weigh these things:

(1.) That God, the great Creator, Preserver, and absolute Lord of the whole world, is not only a Being of infinite understanding and almighty power, but also a Being infinite and unchangeable in all moral propensities: he loves right and hates wrong to an infinite degree, and unchangeably ; or, in scripture-language, he thus loves righteousness and hates iniquity. By his infinite understanding, he sees all things as being what they really are. Whatsoever is fit and right, he beholds as being such; and whatsoever is unfit and wrong, he also beholds as being such. And as are his views, so is the temper of his heart; he infinitely loves that which is fit and right, and infinitely hates that which is unfit and wrong: or, in other words, he has an infinite sense of the moral fitness and unfitness of things, and an answerable frame of heart; i. e. infinitely loves the one and infinitely hates the other. From eternity, God has had an all-comprehensive view of things, of every thing that was possible to be, or that actually would be, and of all the relations one being would bear to another, and the relation that all would bear to him; and has seen what conduct would be right and fit in him towards them, and in them towards him and towards one another, and what would be wrong: and, from eternity, it has been his nature infinitely to love that which is right, and hate that which is wrong. And this, his nature, has influenced him in all his conduct, as moral Governor of the world; and he has given so bright a representation of it, that this seems to be the first and most

natural idea of God that we can attain. It shines through all the scriptures, through the law and the gospel, and through his whole conduct, in a thousand instances.

God does not appear to be a Being influenced, actuated, and governed by a groundless arbitrary self-will, having no regard to right reason; to the moral fitness and unfitness of things; nor does he appear to be a Being governed and actuated by a groundless fondness to his creatures. If a thing is not right, he will not do it, merely because he is above control, is the greatest and strongest, and can bear down all before him. Gen. xviii. 25. And if a thing is wrong, he will not connive at it at all, because it was acted by his creatures, although ever so dear to him, and although the most exalted in dignity, honour, and privileges; for instance, the sinning angels; sinning Adam; the Israelites in the wilderness, his peculiar people. Moses, for speaking unadvisedly with his lips, shall not enter into Canaan. David, the man after his own heart, he sinned; and the sword, says God, shall not depart from thy house. Yea, he spared not his own Son, when he stood in the room of sinners. If he had been governed by any thing like human fondness, surely it would now have appeared. And besides, if that were the case, he could never bear to see the damned lie in the dreadful torments of hell to all eternity. Indeed, by all he has said, and by all he has done, he appears to have an infinite sense of the moral fitness and unfitness of things, and an answerable frame of heart; and to be governed and actuated by this temper, under the direction of infinite wisdom. Hence, as is his nature, so is the name which he has taken to himself, viz. the HOLY ONE of Israel.

It is true he is a Being of infinite goodness and mercy; yet that is not a fond, but a holy propensity, under the government of infinite wisdom: that is, he considers the happiness and good of his creatures, his intelligent creatures, as being what it is. He sees what it is worth, and of how great importance it is, and how much to be desired in itself, and compared with other things: he sees it to be just what it really is, and has an answerable disposition of heart, i. e. is desirous of their happiness, and averse to their misery, in an exact proportion

to the real nature of the things in themselves. It is true, so great is his benevolence, that there is not any act of kindness or grace so great, but that he can find in his heart to do it; yea, has an infinite inclination to do it, if, all things considered, in his unerring wisdom, he judges it fit and best: and yet, at the same time, it is as true, such is the perfect rectitude and spotless purity of his nature, that there is not any act of justice so tremendous, or any misery so dreadful, but that he can find in his heart, his creatures' happiness notwithstanding, to do that act of justice, and inflict that misery, if need so require; yea, he has an infinite inclination thereto. He regards their happiness and misery as being what they are, of very great importance in themselves, but of little importance, compared with something else. He had rather the whole system of intelligent creatures should lie in hell to all eternity, than do the very least thing that is in itself unfit and wrong. Yea, if it was put to his own case, if we could possibly suppose such a thing, he would make it appear that he does as he would be done by, when he punishes sinners to all eternity. It was, in a sort, put to his own case once, when his Son, who was as himself, stood in the room of a guilty world; and his heart did not fail him; but he appeared as great an enemy to sin then as ever he did, or will do to all eternity. his Son as he did, in the garden and upon the cross, immediately himself and by his instruments, was as bright an evidence of the temper of his heart, as if he had damned the whole world. He appeared what he was then, as much as he will at the day of judgment. He is infinite in goodness; yet he is infinitely averse to do any act of kindness, at the expense of justice, from mere fondness to his creatures.

His treating

And as his goodness is not fondness, so his justice is not cruelty. He infinitely hates that which is unfit and wrong, and is disposed to testify his hatred in some visible, public manner, by inflicting some proportionable punishment; not because sinners hurt him, and so make him angry and revengeful; for their obedience can do him no good, nor their disobedience any hurt, Job xxxv. 6, 7.; nor indeed so much because they hurt themselves; for if they did wrong in no other respect, he would never treat them with such severity:

but this is the truth of the case; the great Governor of the world has an infinite sense of the moral fitness and unfitness of things, and an answerable frame of heart: and so he infinitely loves that which is fit, and commends and rewards it: and infinitely hates the contrary, and forbids and punishes it; only it must be remembered, that the rewards he grants to the good are of mere bounty as to them, because they can deserve nothing. Rom. xi. 35. But the punishments he inflicts on the wicked are pure justice, because they deserve all. Rom. vi. 23. For although creatures cannot merit good at the hands of God, from whom they receive all, and to whom they owe all, yet they can merit evil. Nevertheless, rewards and punishments are both alike in this respect, viz. that they are visible public testimonies borne by the Governor of the world to the moral amiableness of virtue on the one hand, and to the moral hatefulness of vice on the other. The one is not the effect of fondness, nor the other of cruelty; but the one results from the holiness and goodness of the divine nature, and the other from his holiness and justice. By the one it appears how he loves virtue, and how exceedingly bountiful he is: and, by the other, how he hates sin, and how much he is disposed to discountenance it, by treating it as being what it is.

Thus, I say, in the first place, we must consider God, the supreme Governor of the world, as a Being not only of infinite understanding and almighty power, but also infinite and unchangeable in all moral propensities; as one having a perfect sense of the moral fitness and unfitness of things, and an answerable frame of heart; or, in scripture-language, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty; the holy one of Israel. The Lord God gracious and merciful, but by no means clearing the guilty. Of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Who loveth righteousness and hateth iniquity. Who renders to every one according to their doings, &c. Without a right idea of God, the supreme Governor of the world, and a realizing, living, sense of him on our hearts, it is impossible we should rightly understand the methods he has taken to open a way for his mercy to come out after a rebellious, guilty world, or truly see into the grounds of his conduct, the reasons of his doing as he has done. If we know God, and have a taste for moral

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