virtue of his sufferings, you would account all your days but lost wherein you have not known him; and in all times, your hearts would find no refreshment like to the remembrance of his love.

II. Having somewhat considered these sufferings, as the apostle's argument for his present purpose, we come now, to take a nearer view of the particulars by which he illustrates them, as the main point of our faith and comfort. Here are two things to be remarked, their cause and their kind.

1. Their cause; both their meritorious cause and their final cause; first, what in us procured these sufferings unto Christ, and, secondly, what those his sufferings procured unto us. Our guiltiness brought suffering upon him, and his suffering brings us unto God.

Consider the meritorious cause, what in us brought sufferings on Christ. The evil of sin hath the evil of punishment inseparably connected with it. We are under a natural obligation of obedience unto God, and he justly urges it; so that where the command of his law is broken, the curse of it presently followeth. And though it was in the power of the supreme Law-giver to have dispensed with the infliction, yet, having in his wisdom purposed to be known a just God in that way, following the tenor of his law, of necessity there must be a suffering for sin. Thus the angels who kept not their station, falling from it, fell into a dungeon, where they are, under chains of darkness, reserved to the judgment of the great day. Man also fell under the sentence of death, but in this is the difference betwixt man and them; they were not of one, as the parent or common root of the rest, but each one fell or stood for himself alone, so a part of them only perished; but man fell altogether, so that not one of all the race could escape condemnation, unless some other way of satisfaction be found out. And here it is; Christ suffered for sins, the just for the unjust. Father, says he, I have glorified thee on earth. In this plan all the divine attributes shine in their full lustre, infinite mercy, and immense justice, and power, and wisdom. Looking on Christ as ordained for that purpose, I have found a ransom, says the Father, one fit to redeem man, a kinsman,

one of that very same stock, the Son of Man; one able to redeem man, by satisfying me, and fulfilling all I lay upon him; My Son, my only begotten Son, in whom my soul delights. And he is willing, undertakes all, says, Lo, I come. We are agreed upon the way of this redemption; yea, upon the persons to be redeemed. It is not a roving blind bargain, a price paid for we know not whom. Hear his own words; Thou hast given the Son, says the Son to the Father, power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him ; and all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I am glorified in them, John xvii. 2. 10.

Shall any man then offer to bear the name of a Christian, who pleases himself in the way of sin, and can delight and sport himself with it, when he considers this, that Christ suffered for sin? Do not think it, you who still account sin sweet, which he found so bitter, and account that light, which was so heavy to him, and made his soul heavy unto death. You are yet far off from him. If you were in him and one with him, there would be some harmony of your hearts with his, and some sympathy with those sufferings, as endured by your Lord, your Head, and for you. They who with a right view see him as pierced by their sins, that sight pierces them, and makes them mourn, brings forth tears, beholding the gushing forth of his blood. This makes the real Christian an avowed enemy to sin. Shall I ever be friends with that, says he, which killed my Lord? No, but I will ever kill it, and do it by applying his death. The true penitent is sworn to be the death of sin: he may be surprised by it, but there is no possibility of reconcilement betwixt them.

Thou that livest familiarly with sin, and either openly declarest thyself for it or hast a secret love for it, where canst thou reap any comfort? Not from these sufferings. To thee it is all one as if Christ had not suffered for sins; yea, it is worse than if no such thing had been, that there is salvation and terms of mercy offered unto thee, and yet thou perishest; that there is balm in Gilead, and yet thou art not healed. And if thou hast not comfort from Jesus crucified, I know not whence thou canst have

any that will hold out. Look about thee; tell me what thou seest either in thy possession or in thy hopes, that thou layest thy confidence on; or, to deal more liberally with thee, see what estate thou wouldst choose, hadst thou thy wish; stretch thy fancy to devise an earthly happiness. These times are full of unquietness; but give thee a time of the calmest peace, not an air of trouble stirring; put thee where thou wilt, far off from fear of sword and pestilence, and encompass thee with children, friends, and possessions, and honors, and comfort, and health to enjoy all these; yet one thing thou must admit in the midst of them allwithin a while thou must die, and having no real portion in Christ, but only a deluding dream of it, thou sinkest through that death into another death far more terrible. Of all thou enjoyest, nothing goes along with thee but unpardoned sin, and that delivers thee up to endless sorrow. O that you were wise and would consider your latter end! Do not still gaze about you upon trifles, but be entreated to take notice of your Saviour, and receive him, that he may be yours. Fasten your belief and your love on him. Give all your heart to him, who stuck not to give himself an offering for your sins.

To you who have fled unto him for refuge, if sensible of the church's distress, be upheld with this thought, that he who suffered for it will not suffer it to be undone. All the rage of enemies, yea, the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. He may, for a time, suffer the church to be brought low for the sins of his people, and other wise reasons, but he will not utterly forsake it.

But what shall they think, who have no assurance, they who doubt that Christ is theirs, and that he suffered for their sins? I know no way but to believe on him, and then you shall know that he is yours. From this arises the grand mistake of many-they would first know that Christ is theirs, and then would believe; which cannot be, because he becomes ours by believing. It is faith which gives title and propriety to him. He is set before sinners as a Saviour who hath suffered for sin, that they may look to him and be saved; that they may lay over their souls on him, and then they may be assured he suffered for them. See then what is it that scares thee from Christ? This, thou seest, is a poor groundless ex

ception, for he is set before thee as a Saviour to believe on, that so he may be thy Saviour. Why wilt thou not come unto him? Why refusest thou to believe? Art thou a sinner? Art thou unjust? Then he is fit for thy case; He suffered for sins, the just for the unjust. "O but so many and so great sins!" Yea, is that it? It is true indeed, and good reason thou hast to think so; but consider whether they be excepted in the proclamation of Christ, the pardon that comes in his name: if not, if he make no exception, why wilt thou? Consider if thou wilt call them greater than this sacrifice, He suffered. Take due notice of the greatness and worth first of his person, and then of his sufferings, and thou wilt not dare to say thy sin goes above the value of his sufferings, or that thou art too unjust for him to justify thee. Be as unrighteous as thou canst be, art thou convinced of it? then know that Jesus the just is more righteous than thy unrighteousness. And, after all is said that any sinner hath to say, they are yet, without exception, blessed, who trust in him.

2. Consider now the final cause of his sufferings, That he might bring us to God. It is the chief point of wisdom to proportion means to their end: therefore the allwise God, in putting his only Son to so hard a task, had a high end in view, and this was it, That he might bring us unto God. In this we have three things-first, the nature of this good, nearness unto God; secondly, our deprivement of it, by our own sin; thirdly, our restoration to it, by Christ's sufferings.

First; the nature of this good. God hath suited every creature he hath made with a convenient good to which it tends, and in the obtainment of which it rests and is satisfied. Natural bodies have all their own natural place, whither, if not hindered, they move incessantly till they be in it; and they declare, by resting there, that they are, as I may say, where they would be. Sensitive creatures are carried to seek a sensitive good, as agreeable to their rank in being, and attaining that, aim no further. Now in this consists the excellency of man, that he is made capable of a communion with his Maker, and, because capable of it, is unsatisfied without it: the soul,

being cut out, so to speak, to that largeness, cannot be filled with less. Though he is fallen from his right to that good and from all right desire of it, yet not from a capacity of it, no, nor from a necessity of it for the answering and filling of his capacity. Though the heart once gone from God, turns continually further away from him, and moves not towards him, till it be renewed, yet even in that wandering it retains that natural relation to God as its centre, that it hath no true rest elsewhere, nor can by any means find it. It is made for him, and is therefore still restless till it meet with him.

It is true, the natural man takes much pains to quiet his heart by other things, and digests many vexations with hopes of contentment in the end, but still the heart misgives, Many times he attains not the thing he seeks; but if he do, yet he never attains the satisfaction he seeks and expects in it, but only learns from that to desire something further, and still hunts on after a fancy, drives his own shadow before him, and never overtakes it; and if he did, yet it is but a shadow. And so in running from God, besides the sad end, he carries an interwoven punishment with his sin, the natural disquiet and vexation of his spirit, fluttering to and fro, and finding no rest for the sole of his foot; the waters of inconstancy and vanity covering the whole face of the earth.

We study to debase our souls, and to make them content with less than they are made for; yea, we strive to make them carnal, that they may be pleased with sensible things. And in this men attain a brutish content for a time, forgetting their higher good. But certainly we cannot think that no more is to be desired beyond ease, and plenty, and pleasures of sense, for then a beast in good case and a good pasture might contest with us in point of happiness, and carry it away; for that sensitive good he enjoys without sin, and without the vexation that is mixed with us in all.

These things are too gross and heavy. The soul, the immortal soul, descended from heaven, must either be more happy or remain miserable. The highest, the uncreated Spirit, is the proper good, the Father of spirits, that pure and full good which raises the soul above itself;