SERM. are principally concerned in, is, that the Son of Man came to feek and to fave that, which was loft. } Let us, in the next place, confider the circumstances, in which this divine perfon was placed, and the part affigned him to act, in order to fecure the great end for which he came into the world. The Son of God appeareth in a manner, which became him the power of the highest is feen to reft upon him; from him the blind receive fight, the lame obtain health and foundnefs, the deaf are made to hear, lepers are cleanfed at his command, devils are caft out, the dead are raised, he calm-eth the tempeftuous fea by his word, and, in some instances, fhewed a power to create and as he came with the glory of a power, which became the only begotten of the Father, fo he came with the fulness of grace and truth. But he appeared without any of the pomp or greatnefs, the fiches or authority of this, world; he was in a mean and low external ftate: His fuppofed and his real Parent, though of the royal line, yet of no figure in the world Jofeph a perfon, who earned his fuftenance Luke xix. 10. by by the labour of his hands; his mother a SERM. poor virgin and in a low estate. Our Sa- I. viour had no poffeffions of his own, and as it is poffible, that, before he entered upon his public miniftry, he wrought with his hands, fo during the courfe of that, he was fupported by the benevolence of others. He was a man of forrows and acquainted with griefs; he was defpifed, reproached, and perfecuted by the great and who were accounted the wife in the Jewish nation; and, at the laft, their prejudice fo prevailed against him, that he was feized, tried, and put to death as an impious malefactor, to a death most painful and infamous. This he himself had predicted. *Behold we go up to Jerufalem, and the Son of Man fhall be betrayed unto the chief priefis and the fcribes, and they fhall condemn him to death; and shall deliver him to the Gentiles to mock and to fcourge and to crucify him, and the third day he shall rife again. At first fight, a moft extraordinary scene, for a perfon of fuch dig nity, and in the profecution of fuch a defign, to go through; and than which nothing could be more offenfive to, or lay in SERM. ftronger prejudices in the minds of the I. Jews against him, as they expected in their Meffiah a great temporal prince, and therefore would look upon what befel our Lord as demonftration, that he could not be the Saviour of Ifrael. But yet in this manner he fulfilled the prophecies, which went before concerning him, and devoted himfelf as a facrifice for the falvation of mankind. • No man could take his life from him; he laid it down of himself, and with perfect refignation bore the fufferings, to which, by the determinate counfel and foreknowledge of God, he was delivered; thereby doing the highest honour to his heavenly father, and by his obedience unto death, even the death of the cross, fully answering the whole intention of divine wisdom, in appointing fuch an amazing interpofition and facrifice, as the means of our deliverance from the power and penal confequences of fin: to which facrifice full authority to pronounce remiffion of fin to the penitent was annexed; and to which, as a great means, our fal vation is ascribed. John x. 18. Therefore Therefore this matchlefs perfon, who SERM." was crucified, died, and was laid in a I. tomb, was not suffered to fee corruption. As he had acted the most benevolent and useful part to mankind, and the most worthy and pleafing in the fight of the Father, he was rewarded by a glorious refurrection from the dead, by being received up on high to the Father's right hand, invested with all power in heaven and on earth, and with an univerfal dominion, which he will hold till the time of the reftitution of all things, when he will deliver up the kingdom to God, even the Father, that God may But having thus confidered the excellency of this perfon, the defign, upon which he came into the world, the circumstances and manner, in which he appeared, and the part he acted, it will be proper to look more particularly into his moral character, as that may be collected from the facred writers, F 3 SERM. writers, who give us the history of his 1. life. It hath been already obferved, that he is represented as quite above all moral infirmity. He did no fin, neither was guile found in his mouth. And though such a character is quite above human nature in the prefent ftate of it, yet it is maintained through a great variety of difcourses and actions. His enemies could not convince him of fin; no word fpoken by him, or deed done by his hand, could lay a foundation for the leaft reproach. Nothing the evangelifts afcribe to him, which is un→ worthy of him, which is not in character. But that he was without fin is the lowest thing afcribed to him; we find every thing excellent in his character. How great his piety towards his heavenly Father! How perfect his refignation to the Father's will! I came down from beaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him, who fent me + I have meat to eat, that ye know not of; for my meat is to do the will of him that fent me, and to finifh his work. And in his address * Pet. ii. 22. † John vi. 38. ‡ Ib. iv. 34. to |