that mind, think you, when death and judgment shall have tho- roughly awakened you ! Oh, no : Then a thousand worlds for a Christ ! as it is storied of our crooked-backed Itichard, when he lost the field, and was in great danger by his enemies that pressed upon him ; Oh now, (said he) a kingdom for a horse ! Or think ye, that any beside you in the world are of your mind ? you are deceived, if you think so, " To them that believe he is precious," through all the world, 1 Pet. ii. 7. and in the other world they are of a quite contrary mind. Could you but hear what is said of him in heaven, in what a dialect the saved of the Lord do extol their Saviour ; or could you but imagine the self-revenges, the self- torments, which the damned suffer for their folly, and what a va- lue they would set upon one tender of Christ, if it might but again be hoped for ; you would see that such as you are the only des- pisers of Christ.* Beside, methinks it is astonishing, that you should despise a mercy in which your own souls are so dearly, so deeply, so everlastingly concerned, as they are in this gift of God. If it were but the soul of another, nay, less, if but the body of another, and yet less than that, if but another's beast, whose life you could preserve, you are obliged to do it ; but when it is thy- self, yea, the best part of thyself, thine own invaluable soul, that thou ruinest and destroyest thereby, Oh, what a monster art thou, to cast it away thus ! What ! will you slight your own souls ? care you not whether they be saved, or whether they be damned ? is it indeed an indifferent thing with you which way they fall at death ? have you imagined a tolerable hell ? is it easy to perish ? are you not only turned God's enemies, but your own too ? Oh see what monsters sin can turn men and women into ! Oh the stupifying, besotting, intoxicating power of sin ! But perhaps you think that all these are but uncertain sounds, with which we alarm you ; it may be thine own heart will preach such doctrine as this to thee : Who can assure thee of the reality of these things ? why shouldest thou trouble thyself with an invisible world, or be so much con- cerned for what thine eyes never saw, nor didst ever receive the report from any that have seen them? Well, though we cannot now shew you these things, yet shortly they shall be shewn you ; and your own eyes shall behold them. You are convinced and satisfied that many other things are real which you never saw : but be assured, That " if the word spoken by angels was stedfast, and " every transgression and disobedience received a just recompence
• Fy, fy, saith one, upon this condemned and foolish world, that will give so little for Christ and salvation : Oh ! if there were but a free market proclaimed of Christ and salvation in that day, when the trumpet of God shall awaken the dead, how many buyers would be there ? God send me no more happiness but that which the blind world (to their eternal woe) letteth slip through their fingers.
?3 THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 8ERM. V.
w of reward, how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salva-, " tion, which at first began to be spoken to us by the Lord, and " was confirmed to us by them that heard him, God also bearing " them witness F" Heb. ii. % 3, 4. But if they be certain, yet they are not near ; it will be a long time before they come. Poor soul ! how dost thou cheat thyself? It maybe not by twenty parts so long a time as thy own fancy draws it forth for thee ; thou art not certain of the next moment.
And suppose what thou imaginest : What are twenty or forty years when they are past ? yea, what are a thousand years to vast eternity ? Go trifle away a few days more, sleep out a few nights more, and then lie down in the dust ; it will not be long ere the trump of God shall awaken thee, and thine eyes shall behold Je- sus coming in the clouds of heaven, and then you will know the price of this sin. Oh, therefore, if there be any sense of eter- nity upon you, any pity or love for yourselves in you ; if you have any concernments more than the beasts that perish, despise not your own offered mercies, slight not the richest gift that ever was yet opened to the world ; and a sweeter cannot be opened to all eternity.
Of Christ's wonderful Person.
John i. 14. And the Word was made Flesh, and dwelt among us, &c.
jL OU have heard the covenant of redemption opened. The work therein propounded by the Father, and consented to by the Son, is such as infinitely exceeds the power of any mere crea- ture to perform. He that undertakes to satisfy God, by obe- dience for man's sin, must himself be God ; and he that performs such a perfect obedience, by doing, and suffering all that the law required, in our room, must be man. These two natures must be united in one person, else there could not be a concourse or co-operation of either nature in his mediatory works. How these natures are united, in the wonderful person of our Immanuel, is the first part of the great mystery of godliness :* a subject studied
* The incarnation is the miracle of miracles ; a testimony against unbelievers. Isa. yii. 14. and a document to believers. None can declare his generation, Isa. liii. 8. Neither can any declare his incarnation, his name is secret, Judges xiii. 18. Won-
SERM. V. THE FOUNTAIN OF LIFE. 1$
and adored by angels ! and the mystery thereof is wrapped up in this text. Wherein we have,
First, The incarnation of the Son of God plainly asserted.
Secondly, That assertion strongly confirmed.
(1.) In the assertion we have three parts.
1. The Person assuming', « AoXog, the Word,* i. e. the second Person or Subsistent in the most glorious Godhead, called the Word, either because he is the scope or principal matter, both of the prophetical and promissory word; or because he expounds and reveals the mind and will of God to men, as verse 18. The only-begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared or expounded him.
2. The Nature assumed, <r«fg, Flesh, i. e. the entire human na- ture, consisting of a true human soul and body. For so this word cafe, in Rom. iii. 20. and the Hebrew word *iwz which answers to it, by an usual Metcmomy of a part for the whole, is used, Gen. vi. 12. And the word Flesh is rather used here, than Man, on purpose to enhance the admirable condescension and abasement of Christ; there being more of vileness, weakness, and opposi- tion to spirit in this word, than in that, as is pertinently noted by gome. Hence the whole nature is denominated by that part, and galled flesh.