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he fent his Son, not to take upon him the nature S ER M. "of angels, but of the feed of Abraham."

Now that he, who is fo far above us, and after that we by wilful tranfgreffion had loft ourselves, had no obligation to take care of us, but what his own goodness laid upon him, that he should concern himfelf fo much for us, and be fo folicitous for our recovery, this is a great evidence of his kindness and good-will to us, and cannot be imagined to proceed from any other cause.

II. Another evidence of God's great love to us, is, that he was pleased to design fo great a benefit for us. This the fcripture expreffeth to us by life; and it is usual in fcripture to express the best and most defirable things by life; because as it is one of the greatest bleffings, fo it is the foundation of all other enjoyments: and therefore the apostle ufeth but this one word to exprefs to us all the bleffings and benefits of CHRIST's coming into the world; "GOD "fent his only-begotten SoN into the word, that "we might live through him."

And this expreffion is very proper to our cafe; becaufe life fignifies the reparation of all that which was loft by the fall of man. For man by his wilful degeneracy and apoftafy from GOD, is funk into a state of fin and mifery, both which the scripture is wont to exprefs by death; In respect of our finful state we are spiritually dead; and in refpect of the punishment and mifery due to us for our fins, we are judicially dead, dead in law; "for the wages of fin "is death." Now GOD hath fent his Son into the world, that in both these respects "we might live "through him."

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SERM. 1. We were spiritually dead, dead in trefpaffes and fins, as the apoftle speaks, Eph. ii. 1, 2. "You hath "he quickened who were dead in trefpaffes and fins, "wherein in times paft ye walked according to the "courfe of this world." Every wicked man, though “in a natural sense he be alive, yet in a moral fense he is dead. So the apostle speaking of those "who live in finful lufts and pleafures, fays of them, "that they are dead while they live, 1 Tim. v. 6. ચંદ What corrupt humours are to the body, that fin is to the foul, their disease and their death. Now GOD fent his Son to deliver us from this death, by renewing our nature, and mortifying our lufts; by reftoring us to the life of grace and holiness," and destroying "the body of fin in us, that henceforth we should વડ not ferve fin." And that this is a great argument of the mighty love of God to us, the apoftle tells us, Eph. ii 4, 5. "GOD who is rich in mercy, for his

great love wherewith he loved us, even when we "were dead in fins, hath quickened us together with CHRIST." It is an argument of the richness of God's mercy, and of his great love to us to recover us out of this fad and deplorable cafe. It is a kindnefs infinitely greater, than to redeem us from the moft wretched flavery, or to refcue us from the most dreadful and cruel temporal death; and yet we should value this as a favour and benefit, that could never be fufficiently acknowledged: but God hath fent his Son to deliver us from a worse bondage, and a more dreadful kind of death; fo that well might the apoftle afcribe this great deliverance of mankind from the flavery of our lufts, and the death of fin, to the boundless mercy and love of GoD to us. "GOD who

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is rich in mercy, for the great love wherewith he SERM, "loved us, hath quickened us together with CHRIST, even when we were dead in fins;" when our cafe was as defperate as could well be imagined; then was Gob pleafed to undertake this great cure, and to provide fuch a remedy, as cannot fail to be effectual for our recovery, if we will but make use of it.

2. We were likewife judicially dead, dead in law, being condemned by the juft fentence of it. So foon as ever we finned, eternal death was by the fentence of God's law become our due portion and reward; and this being our cafe, GOD in tender commiferation and pity to mankind, was pleased to fend his SON into the world to interpofé between the juftice of God and the demerits of men; and by reverfing the fentence that was gone out against us, and procuring a pardon for us, to rescue us from the mifery of eternal death; and not only fo, but upon the condition of faith and repentance, of obedience and a holy life, to bestow eternal life upon us; and by this means to restore us to a better condition than that from which we were fallen, and to advance us to a happiness greater than that of innocency.

And was not this great love, to design and provide so great a benefit and bleffing for us," to fend his "SON JESUS to blefs us in turning away every one of "us from our iniquities ?" Our bleffed SAVIOUR,who came from the bofom of his FATHER, and knew his tender affection and compaffion to mankind, speaks of this as a moft wonderful and unparallel'd expreflion of his love to us, John iii. 16. "GOD fo loved the "world, that he gave his only begotten SoN." "GOD fo loved the world," fo greatly, fo ftrangely,

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SERM. fo beyond our biggest hopes, nay, fo contrary to all reasonable expectations, "as to fend his only "begotten Son, to feek and to fave the finful fons "of men.'

If it had only in general been declared to us, that' GOD was about to fend his Son into the world upon fome great defign, and been left to us to conjecture, what his errand and business fhould be; how would this have alarmed the guilty confciences of finful men, and filled them with infinite jealoufies and fufpicion, with fearful expectations "of wrath "and fiery indignation to confume them!" For confidering the great wickedness and degeneracy of mankind, what could we have thought, but that furely GOD was fending his Son upon a design of vengeance to chaftife a finful world, to vindicate the honour of his defpifed laws, and to revenge the multiplied affronts which had been offered to the highest majefty of heaven, by his pitiful and ungrateful creatures? Our own guilt would have been very apt to have filled us with fuch imaginations as thefe, that in all likelihood the Son of GOD was coming to judgment, to call the wicked world to an account, to proceed against his father's rebels, to pafs fentence upon them, and to execute the vengeance which they had deserved. This we might justly have dreaded; and indeed confidering our cafe, how ill we have deferved at GoD's hands, and how highly we have provoked him; what other weighty matter could we hope for?

But the goodness of GOD hath ftrangely out-done our hopes, and deceived our expectation; fo it follows in the next words, "GOD fent not his Son

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into the world to condemn the world," (inti-S ERM. mating that this we might juftly have imagined! and feared) but upon a quite contrary defign, "that "through him the world might be faved." What a furprize of kindness is here! that inftead of "fending his Son to condemn us, he fhould fend "him into the world to fave us ;" to rescue us from the jaws of death and of hell, from that eternal and intolerable mifery which we had incurred and deferved!

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And if he had proceeded no farther, this had been wonderful mercy and kindness: But his love ftopt not here, it was not contented to fpare us, and free us from mifery; but was reftlefs till it had found out a way to bring us to happiness; "for GOD fo "loved the world, that he gave his only-begotten "SON, not only that whofoever believes in him "might not perish, but might have everlafting life.' This is the fecond evidence of God's great love to us, the greatnefs of the bleffing and benefit which he hath defigned and provided for us, "that "we might live through him;" not only be delivered from spiritual and eternal death, but be made. partakers of eternal life.

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III. The last evidence of God's great love to us, which I mentioned, was this, that GOD was pleased to use such a means, for the obtaining and procureing of this great bleffing and benefit; "he fent his "only-begotten SoN into the world, that we might "live through him." And this will appear to be great love indeed, if we confider these four things. 1. The person whom he was pleased to employ upon this defign, "he fent his only-begotten Son."

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