thy son, make me as one of thy hired servants: So that I may not be estranged from thee, reconcile me unto thyself, though in the condition of thy meanest servant. But neither doth the happy fruit of our Lord's suffering rest here.

3. To restore unto us that near and blessed relation of being sons of God. That we might receive the adoption of sons. Behold now we are the sons

of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. This was that dear expression of our Lord, after his resurrection: Go to my brethren, and tell them I ascend unto my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. He seems to interest them, in this blessed relation, in a kind of equality with himself; my Brethren, my Father and your Father, and the sweet and comfortable consequents of this are incomparable. Is he my Father? Then I know he can pity me, as a father pitieth his children; he can pardon and spare me, as a father spareth his son that serves him. Is he my Father? Then whither should I go but to him for protection in all my dangers, for directions in all my difficulties, for satisfaction in all my doubts, for supply in all my wants? This I can with confidence expect from a poor earthly father, according to the compass of his abilities. If ye then, being evil, know how to give good things unto your children, how much more shall your Father, who is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him. Mercy, and compassion, and love, is a virtue in a man, in an earthly father, a piece of that image of God which at first he imprinted on man; and yet passion and human infirmity, as it hath much weakened the habit thereof in us, so it may suspend the exercise thereof to a near relation: but in Almighty❤

God these virtues are in their perfection, and nothing at all in him that can remit it. Mercy and tenderness are attributes which he delights in, mercy pleaseth him; it was the great attribute he proclaimed his name by, and so diffusive is his mercy that it extends to all. He is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all his works, and not only to the just and good, but even to the unkind; causing his sun to shine upon the evil and the good: and surely he, that hath mercy and goodness for an enemy, cannot deny it unto a child. Can a mother forget her sucking child, &c.? yea she may forget: yet will I not forget thee; saith the Lord.

To restore us to a most sure, everlasting, and blessed inheritance in heaven. If a son, then an heir of God through Christ: and here is the complement of all; not only absolved from the guilt of sin, reconciled to God, put into the relation of a child of God; but after all this, to be everlastingly and unchangeably stated into a blessed condition unto all eternity and all this from the condition of a most vile, sinful, lost creature, and by such a price as the blood of Christ!' More need not, cannot be said.

• And by what hath been said, it is easy to see what the fruits and effects of this are. God will not be disappointed in the end of so great a work, and therefore we cannot be disappointed in the fruit of it; and those are either such as are enjoyed in this life, or principally appropriated to that which is to come. Those benefits that naturally arise from Christ Crucified, and are enjoyed in this life, are these:

1. Justification and acceptation in the sight of God; he looks upon us as those, that have satisfied his justice when his Son suffered; and as those that

performed his will, when his Son performed it: so that, as our Lord imputed our sins to our Redeemer, he imputes his righteousness unto us; and as he was well pleased with him, so he was well pleased, in him, with as many as are received into this covenant. 2. Peace with God. This is the natural consequence of the former. Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The only cause of breach between God and his creature is removed, and peace and love restored between them.

3. Free access unto God. For we are restored unto peace with him, and consequently access unto him; and indeed it is a part of that duty, which he expects from us. Our access to him is not only our privilege, as the access of a subject to his prince, or a child to his father; but it is our duty, as a thing injoined unto us in testimony of our dependence and love to him.

4. Consequently, peace with our own selves, and our own conscience; and that upon a double ground. 1. Because our conscience is sprinkled by the blood of Christ, which defaceth and obliterateth all those black items, that otherwise would be continually calling upon us: 2. Because conscience ever sideth with God, whose vicegerent she is in the soul, and hath the very same aspect for the most part that heaven hath and therefore, if it be clear above, it is ordinarily quiet within; and if God speaks peace, the conscience, unless distempered, doth not speak trouble.

5. An assurance of a continual supply of sufficient grace, to lead us through this vale of trouble, without a final apostasy or falling from him. Were

our salvation in our own hands, or managed by our own strength, we should utterly lose it every moment: but the power, and truth, and love of God is engaged in a covenant of the highest solemnity that ever was, sealed in the blood of the Son of God, for our preservation; and it shall be as impossible for us to fall from that condition, as for the Almighty God to be disappointed. No, his counsel and truth, the constant supply of the blessed Spirit of Christ, shall keep alive that seed of life, that he had thrown into his soul. For his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

6. Sufficient grace to preserve us from, or support us in, or deliver us out of, temptations. We stand more in need of grace, than we do of our bread; because the consequence of the want of the former is of more danger than the latter, by so much as the soul is more valuable than the body. If our Father is pleased to furnish us with our daily bread, how shall he then deny us our daily and hourly supplies of his grace? Especially, since our interest therein is founded upon the covenant made in the blood of Christ: My grace is sufficient for thee.

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7. A favourable acceptation of our duties; since they are the performances of children, and therefore not measured according to their own worth, but according to the relation and affection whence they proceed.

8. A gentle and merciful pardon of our failings, even as a father pitieth and pardoneth the infirmities of a child, and though he does not dispense with presumptuous offences, yet he either observes not, or forgives their many infirmities. And it is a privilege of high concernment to us, that as in our first con

version the blood of Christ washeth away a whole life of sins at once, so after our conversion the same fountain stands open, whereunto we may and must resort to cleanse our daily failings. Christ received by faith in the heart is a continual sacrifice, which I may present unto the Father, for my sins committed after my conversion.

9. A comfortable restitution of a just interest in the creatures. When man forsook the allegiance he owed to his Maker, the interest he had in the creature did, as it were, escheat to the Lord: and though his goodness afterward permitted him the use of them, yet it was still, as it were, upon account: and, as the sons of men have a great account to give unto God for their sins, so they have for his creatures. Christ hath restored unto us a better propriety in that, which civil right hath made ours, than what we had before.

10. A comfortable and sanctified use of all conditions: in prosperity, moderation; in adversity, contentedness; in all, sobriety. For as our Lord hath purchased for our grace, to use all things aright, so he hath obtained for us an inheritance that renders the best the world can give us unworthy to be valued, and the worst it can give us unworthy to be feared, in respect of the blessedness which he hath settled upon us.

11. Consequently, contempt of the world; because higher matters are in my eye, such as the best the world can yield cannot equal, nor the worst it can inflict cannot take away. All this upon,

12. A lively hope, a hope that maketh not ashamed; even of that glory, which my Saviour came down from heaven to purchase by his blood, I go to prepare a place for you, and if I go, and prepare a