' 'H fft^'ia ijTi rut rifi.iiora.ru)i Al'ist.
' Ta "hiKKiuj/.a Tou Bssi/ iTiyviiirtf en el ra reittura ^^ccrretris a^iei ^cttccrev tiriy. — Roill. i. 32. "Peifeclo (Icimim scolere, inagiiitmlo ejus iiitellecta est." — Tacit.
T( ^^rifict Tcitr^iK ; ris a a.-x'eX'Kvfti teres;
'H a-vn<ris, on iruveilcc SiiV ti^yairf/.ivos ■ — Klirip. Orest. 395, 396. ' "Primus est deonim cultus, Deos credere: deinde reddere illis iiiajestatem suani, reddere bonitatem, sine qua nulla inajestas est. Scire illos esse qui prassideiit niundo : qui universa vi sua teuiperaut: qui huniani generis tutelam gerunt." —
OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST. 95
evil. Hence were all the sacrifices, purgings, expiations, which were so generally spread over the face of the earth. But this was and is but very dark, in respect of that knowledge of sin with its appurte- nances, which is to be obtained.
A farther knowledge of sin, upon all accounts whatever, is giver by the law ; that law which was " added because of transgressions." This^ revives doctrinally all that sense of good and evil which was at first implanted in man ; and it is a glass, whereinto whosoever is able spiritually to look, may see sin in all its ugliness and deformity. The truth is, look upon the law in its purity, hohness, compass, and perfection; its manner of delivery,'^ with dread, terror, thunder, earthquakes, fire; the sanction of it, in death, curse, wrath; and it makes a wonderful discovery of sin, upon every account : its pollution, gTiilt, and exceeding sinfulness are seen by it. But yet all this doth not suffice to give a man a true and thorough conviction of sin. Not but that the glass is clear, but of ourselves we have not eyes to look into it ; the rule is straight, but we cannot apply it : and therefore Christ sends his Spirit to convince the world of sin, John xvi. 8 ; who, though, as to some ends and purposes, he makes use of the law, yet the work of conviction, which alone is a useful knowledge of sin, is his peculiar work. And so the discovery of sin may also be said to be by Christ, — to be part of the wisdom that is hid in'him. But yet there is a twofold regard besides this, of his sending his Spirit to convince us, wherein this wisdom appears to be hid in him : — First, because there are some near concernments of sin, which are more clearly held out in the Lord Christ's being made sin for us, than any other way. Secondly, in that there is no knowledge to be had of
Senec.jEpist. xcvi. "Neque honor ullus deberi potest Deo, si nihil prsestat colenti; nee ullus metus, si uon irascitur non colenti." — Lactan. " Raro antecedentem scelestum
Deseruit pede psena claudo." — Horat., Od. iii. 2, 31, 32. " Quo fugis Encelade? quascunque accesseris eras, Sub Jove semper eris," etc.
" Hos tu
Evasisse putes, quos diri conscia facti
Mens habet attonitos, et surdo verbere caedit?" — Juvenal, Sat. xiii. 192.
O'si ffu Tovs Bavivraf, a IfixoifrpaTl,
XlKptwyivcei, to BiTov cug XiXn^oTa;; "EvTiy Aixris i(p^xXfilis, og ra 5rav^* o^k. Kai yao xaf aS^in Swo r^iSovf vi>//.i^of/,tv, Miav omecitiv, iTi^ecv o a/riQuiv I'lv ooov. K' i'l Tov; ivc xaXv'^ii h yij, (pairi, ^^ovcu 'AoTaZ,', aviX^uv, kXitt, ccTriffripii, kvxu,. MjjSev -rXavi]^^;, sV-ra/ xav a^au x^'uris- "Hyrio Tor/id'ii &ios o 'pravrav bifrroT'/i;, OS TomofJi.tt, ^oSipov ovo ccv ovo/^airctifi 'lytu. x. <r. X.
— Philemon, juxta Justin. Martyr, seu Diphil. juxta Clement. ' Gal. iii. 19; Rom. vii. 13. 3 Exod. xix. 18-20 ; Deut. iv. 11; Heb. xii. 18-21.
96 OF COMMUNION WITH THE SON JESUS CHRIST.
sin, so as to give it a spiritual and saving improvement, but only in him.
For the first, there are four things in sin that clearly shine out in the cross of Christ: — (1.) The desert of it. (2.) Man's impotency by reason of it. (3.) The death of it. (4.) A new end put to it.
(1.) The desert of sin doth clearly shine in the cross of Christ upon a twofold account: — [1.] Of the person suffering for it. [2.] Of the penalty he underwent.
[1.] Of the person suffering for it. This the Scripture oftentimes very emphatically sets forth, and lays great weight upon: John iii. 1 6, " God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son." It was his only Son that God sent into the world to suffer for sin, Rom. viii. 32. " He spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all." To see a slave beaten and corrected, it argues a fault committed ; but yet perhaps the demerit of it was not very great. The correction of a son argues a great provocation ; that of an only son, the greatest imaginable. Never was sin seen to be more abo- minably sinful and full of provocation, than when the burden of it was upon the shoulders of the Son of God. God having made his Son, the Son of his love, his only begotten, full of grace and truth,^ sin for us, to manifest his indignation against it, and how utterly impossible •it is that he should let the least sin go unpunished, he lays^ hand on him, and spares him not. If ^ sin be imputed to the dear Son of his bosom, as upon his own voluntaiy assumption of it it was (for he said to his Father, " Lo, I come to do thy will," and all our iniquities did meet on him), [and] he will not spare him any thing of the due desert of it; is it not most clear from hence, even from the blood of the cross of Christ, that such is the demerit of sin, that it is altogether impossible that God should pass by any, the least, un- punished 1 If he would have done it for any, he would have done it in reference to his only Son ; but he spared him not.