would reprefent it, then come once more, and take a view of it, So 8. In the fufferings of Chrift. Here is a glass, O criminals, wherein you may fee your own face. You think it a little thing that you have finned; nay, it may be, you roll fin as a fweet morfel under your tongues. But come here, and fee what a thing it is which you thus dreadfully mistake! Come fee it holding the fword; O ftrange! Nay more, thrusting it into Chrift's fide! Here, finners, is a fight that made the earth to tremble, and the Sun to hide his face, as we fee, Matth. xxvii. 51. Luke xxiii. 45. In this glafs you may fee, (1.) What God's thoughts of fin are. highly oppofite to his nature is it, that the bowels of affection he had to the fon of his love, whom he fo highly honoured, when the voice came from the excellent glory, faying, This is my beloved fon in whom I am well pleased, were not able to hold up the hand of inexorable juftice from striking at him, nay, ftriking him dead for the fin of the elect world. Would not that be a great proof, think ye, of the averfion of a parent to any thing, if he would rather choose to flay his fon, nay, his only fon, his fon whom he loved moft tenderly, than it should escape a mark of his displeasure? (2.) Here you may fee more of the pollution of fin than any where elfe. Never was there any thing that gave fo juft apprehenfions of the ftain of fin, as the death of Chrift. An ingrain'd pollution it must indeed be, if no lefs will wash it out than the blood of God. (3.) Here is a dreadful evidence of the power of fin. Never did this more appear, than when it blinded the eyes of the degenerate fons of men fo far, that they could not difcern the glory of the only begotten of the fa ther, ther, who was fo full of grace and of truth, whofe diviné natu e daily beamed, as it were, through that of his human, in miraculous operations, works and words, which none but God could do, hone but God could fpeak. And no lefs was the power of fin feen, when it hurried men headlong into that heaven-daring pitch of impiety, to imbrue their hands in the blood of God. O finners, would you fee what fin is? look at it with its hands reeking in the gore and blood of God, and tell what you think of it. But it is like, fome of you may fay, What is this to the purpofe? This is not the fin that we are guilty of. We have never imbrued our hands in the blood of God, and fo herein we cannot fee our crimes. This makes nothing to 'that which now you are doing, the unfolding the hainous, nature of that crime you now implead us as guilty of before God. To this we answer, (1.) Should we grant what is alledged as to your innocency in this matter, to be true, yet herein there is much of the nature of your fin to be feen, fince it partakes of the common nature of fin with that of the murder of God; and fince it is every equal way to, if not that very fame, against which God did evidence his hatred in so wonderful a manner, in the death of his only begotten fon, whom he spared not, but gave to the death, when he laid on him the iniquity of the elect world. But, (2.) We fay that very fin lies at your door, O finners; and if you deny it, I would only afk you one question, Dare you hold up your faces, and in the fight of God fay, That you did receive Jefus Ghrift the first time ever there was an offer of him made to you? If not, then you are guilty in that you practically determine the putting him to death no crime. You by your practice bear witness to, or affert the juftice of the Jews quarrel, and bring the blood of God upon your head: and therefore in their crimes you may see your own. All the world, to whom the gofpel report comes, must either be for or against the Jews in their profecution of him; and no otherwife can we give teftimony against them, but by believing the gospel report of him, that he was indeed the fon of God, the Saviour of the world. In fo far as we refuse a compliance with this, in as far are we guilty of the death of Chrift: for unbelief fubfcribes the Jews charge against the fon of God, and afferts him an impoftor. (3.) Either you are believers or unbelievers; if believers, then it was your very fins which killed Chrift, it was for your iniquities he was bruifed. But he was wounded for our tranfgreffions, he was bruifed for our iniquities, the chaftifement of our peace was upon him, and with his ftripes we are healed. All we like loft sheep have gone aStray we have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all, faith the prophet in the name of all the elect, Ifa. liii. 5, 6. If you be unbelievers, then you do not believe the witnefs that Chrift gave of himself, that he is the fon of God; and therefore, do praEtically declare him an impoftor, and worthy of death, and fo may fay of yourselves, with refpect to the Jews cruelty, that when they condemned him, they had your confent to what they did. Now, what think ye, O criminals, when we have in thefe eight different glaffes given you a profpect of the crime we implead you of? Is it not a fear a fearful one? If you be not ftrangely ftupified, fure you muft own it fo: but left there should be any fo blind, as not to difcern what it is we accufe them of, we fhall, Secondly, Proceed to mention fome great evils that are all implied in the leaft fin, in every pro'vocation. This charge which we intent against you is no mean thing. For, 1. It has atheism in it. An Atheist who denies the being of a God, is a monfter in nature; a creature fo extremely degenerate, that fome have doubted, whether there ever was, or could be, any of the fons of Adam fo debauched as in principle to avouch this monftrous untruth. But there are practical atheifts, fuch as the apoftle mentions and characteriseth, Tit. i. 16. who profefs to know God, but in works deny him, being abominable and difobedient; or, as it is in the firft language, children of unperfuafion, or imperfuadible, and to every good work reprobate: that there are fuch none can deny, fince every finner is in fome fort fuch, for every fin has atheism in it. In the 14. and 53 Pfalms we have a defcription of the natu ral state of man; and look to the fpring of all the impieties, in the i ver. The fool hath faid in his heart there is no God; and then a train of lamentable practical impieties follow; they are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doth good. The Pfalmift doth not there difcourfe of fome profligate wretches among the Jews, or of the Gentiles who knew not God, but of the whole race of Adam, Jew and Gentile, as the apoftle proves in the 10, 11 and 12 verfes of this chapter wherein our text lies, when he adduces teftimonies from this Pfalm to prove all and every one to have finned and come short of the glory of God. And D 3 in * indeed the thing proves itself. What? do not we deny his fovereignty when we violate his laws? Do not we deny and difgrace his holiness, when we caft our filth before his face? And we difparage his wifdom when we fet up our own will, as the rule and guide of our actions. We de ny his fufficiency when we profefs that we find more in fin, or in the creature than in him. In fine, every fin is a denial of all God's attributes one way or other; and therefore every fin has a theifm in it: fo that our charge against you runs very high, it amounts to no less than an impeachment for atheifin. A crime, than which there is not, nor indeed can there be any more odious ; for all other distempers naturally fall in here; they all iffue themselves into this infection: and hence is it that the atheift is generally fo odious and hateful, and yet even they who hate the atheift moft, want not atheism, and they who will be moft forward to question this truth, That all finners are guilty of atheifin, are, it is like, moft guilty. This then is one branch of the charge laid against you; but it is not all. For, but 2. We charge you all with idolatry. Sinners you are, and every fin has idolatry in it. How can this be? will you fay, we never worshipped an idol all our life, we never bowed at the name of a ftrange God; we blefs God we were better taught than fo, we were not bred Papifts nor pagans, reformed chriftians, who renounce all idols, and, plead for the worship of one God alone. Well, notwithstanding of all this, idolaters you are. What, do you think that only the more grofs acts of idolatry are reputed fuch by the holy God? This certainly flows from your ignorance of him, and of his law. Did you understand either, you would |