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[1.] The death of the finner difcovers the firength of fin; for, The wages of fin is death. And here, firft, Sinning angels were ftung to death by their fin; and hence we are told, Jude 6. "That the angels that kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, are referved in everlasting chains under darkness, unto the judgment of the great day." And next, finning man was ftung to death; By one man fin entered into the world, and death by fin; and fo death paffed upon all men, for that all have finned, Rom. v. 12, The death of the finner, whereof death is the fting and ftrength, is threefold, namely, external, internal, and eternal: external relates to the body, internal relates to the foul, and eternal relates to the foul and body for ever.-Death external, or of the body and outward man, includes not only the feparation of foul and body, to the privation of bodily life; but alfo all the pains and ficknefs, public calamities, perfonal miferies, and grievous difeafes that do attend a prefent life, or are the forerunners and attendants of death: all which are parts of this fting and trength of fin.-Death internal, includes foul-defilement and pollution; foul-debasement and degradation to the rank of beasts; foul-difturbance, diforder, and confufion; foul-feparation from God, and alienation from the life of God; the life of God being gone, and the candle of the Lord put out, fo as nothing remains but the darkness of death and hell. Oh! how great a lofs is the lofs of God, the lofs of his favour, his image, his fellowship, and fweet communion with him! All the life of the carnal man, who is but dead while he lives, is at beft (inftead of righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghoft, which are part of the fpiritual life) nothing but a little while's eating, and drinking, and playing, and laughing, and living in filthiness, and enjoying no better pleasure than brute beans; but fo much the worfe, that, having an immortal foul, the iffue is terrible, nothing remaining but torment and terror of mind. and confcience whenever it begins to awaken.-Death eternal, includes everlafting feparation from the prefence of God indeed, the former deaths were not fo terrible to the finner, if there were not two fad words and fadder

things following thereupon, namely, judgment and eternity, that tread upon the heels of death; for, whenever the foul is feparate from the body, it must fee the things it would never believe, nor ferioufly think upon, that verily there is a God that judgeth in the earth; and that, dying in fin, and out of Chrift, it must receive from that juft Judge a fentence of excommunication from the glorious and joyful prefence of God, and that for ever and ever; befides the fuffering of everlafting torment, as the due demerit of fin.--Thus, in the death of the finner, the ftrength of fin is difcovered. But more

efpecially,

[2.] The death of the Saviour fhews forth the ftrength of fin above all other things; for fin was the caufe of it, and the very fting by which he fuffered unto death. Every life, whether it be the life of beaft, the life of men, the life of angels, or the life of God, hath an excellency according to its kind; and the more excellent the life is, the more powerful, terrible, and hurtful is the cause of the privation thereof. "The life of a flie,

fays Auguftine, is more excellent than the fun; be"cause the fun, though an excellent creature, hath "not life; but the flie, though little, yet it hath life: "it fhows the excellency of God to make fuch a living "creature." But if the life of a beaft, or infect, be fo excellent, how much more the life of a man! And if the life of a man, or an angel, be excellent, what infinite excellency is there in the life of God! Now, the principal excellency of the life of man lay at firft in this, that he was in the image of God; and how terrible is that fting of fin, that could deprive man of that excellent life, fo as to ftrike at God's image in man, both to deface and destroy it! But if fin ftrike at God himself, and aim at the highest life, even the life of God; and if the ftroak reach fo far, as to kill and take away the life of that person who was God as well as man; then we may fee and conclude, that the strength of fin is inconceivably more great and terrible than it can be seen to be in any other glafs. But fo it is, though God cannot die, and though the divine nature of Chrift could not be touched with the fting, yet he, who was God-man

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in one perfon, was preffed down to death with the ftrength, and wounded even to death with the fting of fin. And this one thing makes a greater difcovery of the ftrength of fin, than all the torments of the damned to eternity can do. In the red glass of the fufferings of Chrift you may fee more of the power and ftrength of fin, than if God should let you down to hell, and make you fee all the tortures and torments of the damned. In order, therefore, to your having a clearer infight into the ftrength of fin, O Sirs, look to a crucified Chrift: look upon his agony and crofs, when he was wounded for our fin. O fee the fting of fin, and the ftrength of it, when it made the Son of God to fay, My foul is exceeding forrowful, even unto death, Mat. xxvi. 38. There the fting was sticking in his foul, while he was under the apprehenfion of God's wrath, and was about to bear the wrath that fin deferved. Perhaps, upon the fight of fin, you content yourself with fome little flight forrow, faying, I am forry for it; Lord have mercy on me; and so it paffes away but when the weight of fin was lying on Chrift's back, it made his foul forrowful, compaffed about with forrow, and forrowful even unto death, and that for our fins. See the ftrength of fin in the fufferings of Chrift, expressed alfo in that word, Mark xiv. 33. He began to be fore amazed, and to be very beavy amazed at the dreadfulness of that cup of wrath for fin, which he, as Surety, behoved to drink. He knew very well, and understood perfectly, what that wrath of God was; and this made him ftand amazed. Many hear of God's wrath, but are never amazed at it, never affected with it, as all Chriftlefs finners ought to be: but, alas! they do not understand it, they do not know what it is for a creature to ftand before the wrath of an infinite Deity; they know not the power of his wrath, therefore they are not amazed. Chrift faw to the bottom of that cup, and to the dregs thereof; and when he was to drink it, he ftood amazed how great then is the strength of fin, that procured this amazement of the Son of God !-See again the ftrength of fin in Chrift's fufferings for it, while it is faid, he was in an agony, Luke xxii. 44.; that is, as it were, in a coмBAT; in combat with the

infinite

infinite juftice and wrath of God, and with the dreadful threatenings and curfe of the law, that fin brought upon him, when he flood our Surety. How great is the strength of fin, that put the Son of God, the Strength of Ifrael, the Captain of falvation, into fuch an agony! -Again, it is faid, Mark xiv. 35. that he fell down to the ground; and Mat. xxvi. 39. that he fell on his face: Alas! Sirs, when he, that upholds the heavens and the earth by his power, fell grovelling on the earth, when the weight and burden of fin was upon him; how flirong muft fin be! Chrift fell upon his face, and fell to the ground; furely that weight, that made Chrift fall to the ground, would have preffed all the angels of heaven, and men on earth to the bottomlefs gulf of defpair. If all the ftrength of all the men that ever were from the beginning of the world, and of all the angels in heaven were put into one, and that perfon had the weight upon him that Chrift had, it would make him fink to the lowest hell, and ly there for ever. If Christ had not been God, as well as man, he could never have borne it, but would have funk down eternally: but though he was God as well as man, yet fuch was the ftrength of fin, that under its burden he funk down to the ground. Again, the firength of it appears, in that it made him to fweat great drops of blood, Luke xxiii. 44. The word fignifies GREAT CLOTS of blood; blood thickened into clots. Never was there fuch a fweat, and that upon the cold ground, in a cold winternight, and nothing else upon him to make him fweat but the burden of fin, and the weight of wrath that it brought upon him.-But again, how does the ftrength of fin appear, in his crying under this weight, Father, if it be poffible, let this cup pass from me? And thus he cried three times. Why, this was the very end for which he came to the world, to drink that cup; and he knew that the falvation of an elect world of poor finners depended upon his drinking of it: and, was he now unwilling? No, by no means: but knowing the dreadfulnefs of it, when it was put to his head, he put it away, as it were, faying, Father, if it be poffible, let this cup pafs from me but now he fees, if he drink it not, all VOL. V.

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the children of men must eternally perifh; therefore, he put it to his mouth again the fecond time; but knowing the dreadfulness of it, he takes it away again, and cries, "Father, if it be poffible, let it pals away from me." But, because he could not fee fo many thousands of poor finners perifh eternally, he put it to his mouth again, the third time; and yet, beholding the dreadfulnefs of it, he put it away again, faying, "Father, if it be poffible, let this cup pafs." But, after all, his infinite love overcame his dreadful amazement; and away he goes to the crofs, to drink that bitter cup of vengeance to the bottom and while he was drinking it, he cries out with a more bitter cry than ever, My God, my God, why baft thou forfaken me? This was fuch a cry from the Son of God the Son of his eternal love, that heaven was not able to bear it without blafhing, nor the earth to bear it without trembling: therefore, as the fun withdrew his light, and became dark and black at the fight; fo the earth fhook, the rocks clave, and the vail of the temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom. Mean

time, the fting went to his heart, and ftabbed him to death; and all this was done, that the fting of death, which is fin, and the ftrength of fin, which is the law, might be vanquished by him, and that poor finners might be victorious through him.

However, the more we view here the firength of fin, the more sweet will be the fong of victory. Dwell a little further upon this then: Chrift is the Strength of Ifrael; but never was the Strength of Ifrael tried fo much as by the ftrength of fin, when he had that to deal with, and when by the fin of man he was made a curfe, Gal. iii. 13. What made the death and fufferings of Chrift fo dreadful to him, even before he fuffered? Let me afk here four queftions.

1. Did not Chrift perfectly know all that he was to fuffer, long before he fuffered? What made it then fo dreadful when he expected it? Had he any fin of his own, to weaken him, or take away his ftrength? No; he had none, but by imputation. Had he any impatience? No; his patience was abfolutely perfect. What then was the matter? Weakness of patience makes us

cry;

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