could not but be infinitely honourable to the law of the divine Majesty, and infinitely satisfying of the demands of justice, therefore unquestionably available to the pardon and acceptance of all that believe in his name, sinful and ungodly though they be. And being God as well as man, the other public actions proper to his manhood (as well as his death), his resurrection, ascension, and life, must needs be powerfully efficacious to our being risen, exalted, and living for evermore in him as our representative. Had he been only God, he could not have reached our necessitous case; had he been only man, he could not have given the needful glory to the holiness and justice of God which our rebellions had robbed him of. But now that I know him to be God and man in one person, I see him capable of giving all that glory to God, and all that salvation to men, which his rights or their needs require. And therefore I see in him all the direful consequences of Adam's sin taken away. By the offence of Adam am I made a sinner? By the obedience of the other I am made righteous. Through the sin of Adam am I under a curse? By the death of Jesus I am redeemed from it. By the fall of Adam was I born in sin? Jesus has power to raise me to spiritual life. In Adam am I consigned to death? In Jesus I am risen again. As I am in Adam, is there no hope for me beyond the grave? Christ hath brought life and immortality to light. In this God-man I see myself complete. The words he has spoken to me from lips like my own can want no authority, for he that speaketh them is God. He that intercedeth for me is he that also died in my behalf, bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh, touched with the feeling of my infirmities; and I am assured I can be denied nothing he asks for me, for he that died and pleadeth for me is God. Can sin, the world, or the devil, be too strong for me, when the Son of God has in my nature vanquished them all, and is still God in the flesh for my protection. and safety? This is the very person I wanted, and having such an one I can now want nothing. Gladly do I join my weak voice with that of the ministering angels, and, whilst I behold the incarnate God, sing with them, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men."

And now you may see how much is contained in this one sentence of the Creed, "conceived by the Holy Ghost." Have

you understood these things? It will behove you to do so, and to lay them up in your hearts, for they are very comfortable. But do you also believe them? Do you believe that the manhood of Jesus Christ was framed of the substance of the Virgin Mary by the operation of the Holy Ghost, and thereby conceived without the spot of original sin, and fitted for union with the Godhead, and for the work which the Son, as Redeemer, had to do in it and by it; and also that being thus prepared, it was actually taken into union with the eternal Word, in order to our salvation? If you do really believe this, First, You are very sensible of your own misery in yourself. Secondly, You are very thankful for this wonderful work of God. Thirdly, You rest all your hope concerning pardon, grace, and glory, upon an union with this God-man Jesus.

First. A real belief of this incarnation of the Son implies a true sense of your misery in yourself. For the conception of the Redeemer, so directly and necessarily out of the common course of nature, plainly shows to what a sad condition the nature of man is sunk since and by the fall of Adam, while also the consequence of such apostasy is alike evident in the necessity there was of the incarnation of the Son to satisfy justice, and every way to repair the damage done by the fall.-Wherefore, to own Christ's incarnation, as a means needful to save us, is to acknowledge our misery in ourselves, and particularly that of which all other misery is but the consequence, the sin of our nature. And you will understand, that to believe and own your fallen nature is indeed through such a divine conviction of the truth of it as no man has, nor can have by his own reason, but is really of the Holy Ghost. So that to be truly sensible of our fallen nature, without which there can be no practical believing in Christ as God incarnate, is the very gift of God; and the experience of it, especially in the deep iniquities thereof, instead of discouraging us, should give us great encouragement, that we are at least in the way to Christ.-But, alas! how little sense is there of our miserable fallen state to be met with among those who name Christ's name? Ask any one almost you meet whether they be corrupted creatures. Many will deny it; many know not what you mean. Others will say, why, yes; who does not know that? to be sure we are all born in sin.

But do you go further with them, and say, now therefore if you be born in sin, if your nature is sin, you must needs have sin in you, and truly it is visible to this day your heart abounds with pride, and self-will, and covetousness, and unbelief, and hypocrisy, and envy, and malice. "What! I? (the party will be ready to answer.) Pray what do you take me for? I proud and covetous? I am as far from it as any person in the world, Nobody ever took me for such before. And to be plain, you are very uncharitable to judge of me so hardly, and very impertinent to say what you do." The truth is, very few people take any kind of notice of what is within them, and, if their outsides be tolerably clean, are ready to think all is well. And yet we all alike profess to believe in Christ's conception by the Holy Ghost, that he might be free from that original corruption all others are defiled with.

Secondly. If you really believe the incarnation of the Son, you are very thankful for such a wonderful work of God. Truly it is of all others the most wonderful of God's works; and St. Paul might well call it a great mystery, because of the unsearchable wisdom, power, condescension, and love that is therein. It is indeed so mysteriously wonderful, that the angels can find nothing in heaven like it, and therefore, as it were, forget the proper glories of their own station, to look into, admire, and adore, this unparalleled instance of God's workmanship. They sing, in the views of it, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will towards men." And if you really believe it, you will join their praises and adorations. And what say you? Is it thus with you? Is your heart affected as it ought, while you look upon the incarnate God? Does it astonish you to see this condescension; the Son leaving his Father's bosom, and assuming our nature? Do you love to look upon this glorious sight? Does it dwell upon your soul with power, and bear away every earthly thing before it; filling you with real gratitude, that you could cheerfully do anything, and suffer anything, and lose everything for Jesus? And are you waiting, expecting, longing for the transporting day when you shall see and be for ever with Jesus?—This is our duty; and if we be not thus disposed towards Jesus, where is our faith? Do we really believe that the great God is come down from heaven to be our Saviour?

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It cannot be. And yet in what breast almost are these honourable, these grateful thoughts of Jesus, to be found? Say, my brother, dost thou thus think of Jesus, thus love to think of him, thus burn for him and his interest? Ah, traitor! mayest thou not rather say of thyself, "The love of Jesus, of Jesus the incarnate God, never warmed my heart; I never look upon him, never, never, no not one moment of my life do I look upon him with love and delight. Every day I slight him, I despise him. I dishonour him, I live to his disgrace, to the hinderance, to the injury of his kingdom and the hurt of his people. I, even I, live daily confirming, strengthening, upholding, and with all my power maintaining and enlarging the kingdom of the devil. O where, where is my faith!"

Thirdly. If you really believe the incarnation of the Son, you are actually resting all your hope concerning pardon, grace, and glory, in your being united unto this God-man Jesus. And this indeed is the best proof of your faith in the matter before us. As far as you see your misery and helplessness in yourself, you can have no confidence in yourself for acceptance with God, ability to serve him, and interest in his everlasting favour; and therefore, as far as, in the sense of this your misery in yourself, you are made really to believe in Jesus Christ as the Word made flesh to help you in all these respects, you will unquestionably rest all your hope in him. And here I must observe, that it will be impossible for you to put your trust in him, with any confidence and satisfaction to your soul, unless and any further than you are persuaded that he is God-man, not only man but God, and both God and man in one person. You will not, indeed you cannot, believe there is a sufficiency in his righteousness and atonement for your pardon and acceptance, or that he is able to raise you from and above sin now, or to life everlasting from the grave hereafter, unless you believe him to be God. Wherefore your real trust in Christ for pardon, grace, and glory from the Father, in, by, and through him, can be the only satisfying proof to your own soul that you believe him to be God manifest in the flesh for our salvation. And do you thus rest your all on him? And are you thus persuaded he is sufficient for you? Search and try your hearts, for nothing but they can testify whether you have or no this faith in you.

Here, brethren, lies all your real hope; and if you turn to any other, if you are thinking to stand before God in your own righteousness, or to get heaven by your own doings, I must plainly tell you that you overturn Christianity from the very foundation, and your own soul along with it. Look therefore well to yourselves, for there is no other name under heaven given unto men whereby we must be saved, but only the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.