to have a portion peculiar to himself; fomething that might denote a preference to others, and flatter that partial opinion which every one fondly cherisheth of his own perfonal importance.

Hence it is, that the record of God hath either been altogether rejected, or fo interlined with the gloffes of vain philofophy, as to alter its very frame, and render it not only ineffectual, but even adverse, to thofe falutary purposes for which it was intended.

The Almighty Independent Sovereign of the universe hath been tried at the bar of his own rebellious fubjects. There it hath been decided what is fit and becoming the high station he holds. Plans of admin.stration have been laid down for him, formed upon those systems of human government, which to each daring projector appeared the most complete: whereas the abfurdity, as well as the arrogance, of all fuch attempts, are detected and reproved by two very plain questions, which the Apostle Paul propofes in the 11th chapter of his epiftle to the Romans, at the clofe; "Who

"hath

"hath known the mind of the Lord, or who "hath been his counsellor? Or who hath "firft given to him, and it fhall be recom

pensed unto him again ?”—No man of common understanding will hefitate a moment in giving an answer to these questions, but will readily reply,-None hath been his counsellor, neither is there any who hath first given to God; "for," as it immediately follows, "of him, and through him, and

to him, are all things." And yet how obvious, and how important, are the confequences of fuch acknowledgements?

For if none hath been his counsellor, it is plain, that none can know his mind, till he fhall be pleafed to reveal it; nor even then can it be known any further than it is revealed. To fupply what is concealed, with conclufions drawn from the reasonings of our own minds, would be the height of prefumption: We must take his counfel as it lies before us in the record he hath given us, without adding to it, or fubtracting from it. Again, if none hath first given to him, how erroneous muft it be to measure the divine adminiftration even by

the

the most perfect models of government among men? Nay, if it would not feem another paradox, I could almost venture to affirm, that the more perfect any conftitution of human government is, the lefs it is adapted to be a ftandard in this matter. We reckon that fyftem the most excellent, because most agreeable to the foundest principles of reafon, by which the original equality of all men by nature is moft effectually preferved; where established law, to which the highest are subject, restrains the hand of violence, and fupports the meaneft individual in the poffeffion of those privileges, which, without fuch protection, he might be unable to defend. But here no parallel can be drawn with regard to the divine government; nor is there room to reafon from the one to the other, even by.. the remoteft analogy. The frame of human policy, the whole fyftem of legislation, is built upon the bafis of private right and property: Whereas, in the kingdom of God, there is, there can be, no fuch thing as property on the fide of the governed: All the fubjects are the creatures of the Supreme

Ruler;

Ruler; and whatever they poffefs, they derive from him. The more they receive, the greater debtors they are to his bounty: and when they improve their trust to the utmost extent of their capacity, they have no merit to plead; their fidelity can amount to nothing higher than innocence; while the leaft failure renders them criminal, and liable to punishment.

So that, in the very nature of things, whatfoever God beftows upon the moft perfect of his creatures, must be the effect of puré grace and favour. And if all be favour to the innocent, who have never left the station in which he placed them; furely what is bestowed upon the guilty, muft flow from the pureft grace, the most condefcending exercise of fovereign mercy.

And this is the light in which my text prefents to our view the record of God with regard to fallen man; where the whole contents of the gofpel-conftitution are comprehended in this fhort but emphatical fen

tence,

God hath given to us eternal life: and this life is in his Son.

It confifts, you fee, of two parts.
1. God hath given to us eternal life.
2. This life is in his Son.

I. THE first part of the record reprefents the great Lord of all, in the endearing character of a munificent benefactor and tenderhearted father, regarding his guilty creatures with an eye of pity, and graciously interpofing for their relief, after they had wilfully destroyed themselves.

1

I need not detain you with a tragical defcription of the fatal effects of our apostasy from God. It may fuffice to remind you of what is written, Rom. v. 12. "By one "man fin entered into the world, and death "by fin." This is the view which my text leads us to take of the prefent state of fallen man. He is not only become mortal, or liable to death, in the common acceptation of that term; but he is already dead, in the most important and awful fenfe of the word. He is feparated, or cut off, from the only fource of life: and though he is ftill alive in this material world, from which too he must foon remove; yet his connec→