oppreffion, extortion; fearlefsnefs, prefumption, obftinacy; card-playing, cock-fighting, horse-racing, balls, affemblies, mafquerades; and the whole train of fenflefs infignificant ways of spending time. Thefe are fome of the reigning fins of the age. But furely if the state of nature was right, moft men would not be rebels and rogues, finners against GOD, and oppreffors of men. Indeed it is impoffible to account for the general wickedness of the world, but on the fuppofition of the heart being evil. 'Tis unphilofophical to fuppofe, that most men act contrary to themfelves; that their lives are the reverse of their hearts. Rather, the motion follows the fpring; the heart being fet to difobey, it abounds in difobedience, as daily experience declares. 'Tis true, the animal nature of man has refpect to animal things, and there is an use of them, which confifts with a right ftate of mind; but fenfuality and exceffes can never be reconciled with reafon and religion. Befides, men have fpiritual evils, viz. pride, anger, malice, hatred, felf-will, averfion from good, and pronenefs to evil. Thefe fpring from the inward principle, the heart; and are contrary to the commands of GoD and christianity. The present state of man is fuch as makes it evident, that there is an evil in the core., How few fo fear GoD as to abstain from outward grofs fin? How much fewer appear to be actuated by a higher principle, by love to GOD and mankind?

Such has been, and fuch is the prefent ftate, of the moral world. A world of wickednefs, and a world of woe! Sin and mifery being infeparable attendants, and both the forerunners of final ruin.

SALVATION

Acts, Chap. iv. Ver. 12,

Neither is there falvation in any

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other.

S the goodness of man's firft estate did not exempt him from trial and danger; fo neither did the evil of his fecond exclude him from deliverance: For as the firft Adam by disobedience, suffered death; fo the fecond Adam was a quickening fpirit to restore him to life, And as the wisdom of GoD conftituted Adam the parent of all men, and involved their affairs in his fate; fo the fame wisdom provided a second Adam to be the parent of good to all, to retrieve their lofs, by reinitating them in their forfeited poffeffions and privileges.

And

1

And as this is the one meritorious caufe, the only ground of hope, and fingle fource of falvation, it concerns us to form a right judgment of its nature and operation; what it is and how it difcovers itself. And in difcourfing upon the words, I fhall attempt to give

I. Some account of the perfon in whom is falvation. II. What that falvation is. And III. conclude

with fome practical ufe of both.

I. 1. Now the person in whom alone is falvation, is he who was conceived by the HOLY GHOST, and born of the Virgin Mary; who was called JESUS,. the Saviour; and CHRIST, the Anointed; and IM-. MANUEL, God with us: Being God and man united in one; "who is over all, God blessed for ever§.”

2. And though his incarnation and coming into the world was of much later date than the world itfelf; yet his perfon, manner of coming, and unpa-rallelled performances, had been declared by the prophets in their fucceeding generations, from the infancy of time. The feed of the woman, the first promife made to fallen inan; and the feed of Abraham↑, which was CHRIST; and Jacob's dying declaration of the coming of Shiloh, to whom the gathering of the people fhould best, were early indications of what was to be in the latter days. Balaam's Star coming out of Facob, and his Sceptre rifing out of Ifraelį; and Mofes's Prophet to whom men should hearken, are concurring teftimonies, as well of the future coming of CHRIST, as of their acquaintance with it.

3.

Rom. ix.. 5. *Gen. iii. 15. Gen. xxii. 18. Gal.'iii, 16. §† Gen, xlix, 10. ‡ Num. xxiv, 17. || Deut. xviii. 15.

3. David's defcription, likewife, is truly charaċteriftic of the perfon and offices of the Saviour. “I "will (faith be) declare the decree: The Lord hath "faid unto me, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. Afk of me, and I will give thee the "heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermoft parts of the earth for thy poffeffion. Thou fhalt "break them with a rod of iron; thou fhalt dafh them "in pieces like a potter's veffel. Be wife, now, "therefore, ye Kings; be inttructed ye Judges of the "earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with "trembling. Kifs the Son left he be angry and ye "perifh from the way; when his anger is kindled "but a little: Bleffed are all they who put their truft "in him." He alfo exhibits his fufferings, in a pointed prediction, and the glory that fhould follow. "They peirced my hands and my feet; they parted "my garments, and caft lots for my vefture†." And adds, "Thy throne, O GOD, is for ever and ever: The fceptre of thy kingdom is a right fceptre. "Thou lovedft righteoufnefs and hatedft iniquity: "Therefore GOD, even thy GOD, hath anointed thee "with the oil of gladnefs above thy fellows. The "LORD hath fworn and will not repent, thou art a "prieft for ever, after the order of Melchizedeck.||"

4. Ifaiah too, under a prophetic impulse, speaks with a freedom of fentiment, and force of expreffion, little inferior to thofe who declare the things they have feen. He is clear and lively in his exhibition of the things which concern the LORD JESUS; predicting the modus of his birth, the characters he should fuftain, and the invaluable ends to be anfwered by his coming: "Behold

*Pfal. ii. †Pfal. xxii. 16. 18. § Pfal. xlv. || Pfal. cx. 4.

"Behold a Virgin fhall conceive and bear a Son, and "shall call his name Immanuel*." And adds, "Un"to us a child is born, unto us a Son is given, and "the government fhall be upon his fhoulders: And “his name shall be called, Wonderful, Counceller, "The mighty GoD, The Prince of Peace! Of the "increase of his government and peace there fhall be "no end; upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with justice, ❝ from henceforth even for evert.

5. He alfo decyphers his fufferings, in a manner honourable to his office as a Prophet; giving a parti cular account of the treatment he met with from men, the punishment inflicted by the Almighty, and the excellent effects of them in the falvation of finners. "Who hath believed our report? And to whom is the ❝ arm of the LORD revealed? For he fhall grow up and as a root out of a dry ground; he hath no form nor comeliness; and "when we hall fee him, there is no beauty that we "fhould defire him. He is despised and rejected of ❝men, a man of forrows, and acquainted with grief: "And we hid as it were our faces from him; he was "defpifed, and we efteemed him not. Surely he hath "borne our griefs, and carried our forrows; yet we "did efteem him ftricken, fmitten of GoD, and af"flicted. But he was wounded for our tranfgreffions,

"before him as a tender plant,

he was bruifed for our iniquities: The chaftisement "of our peace was upon him, and with his ftripes we "are healed. All we like sheep have gone aftray: “We have turned every one to his own way, and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Ifa. vii. 14. † Ifa. ix, 6, 7.

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