salvation, and have all the guilt of your sins lying upon you. See, I say, and consider whether these two points, of repentance as the way to Christ, and Christ as the only Saviour, are not plainly held forth to us in the chapter I have been reading. Read it over again when you go home. Ask yourselves, as in the presence of God, whether you have a sincere desire to understand it; and if you can put this desire into a prayer to have it applied, my life for it there will soon be an end of your lazy, unbelieving complaints of want of time, learning, or the difficulties of Scripture. When you can taste the sweetness of it, and take it into your hearts, you will read and meditate upon it daily, with many thanksgivings to God for so precious a gift. You will consider every miracle of Christ you read of, as wrought, as it were, on your own behalf, to point him out to you as your only remedy, and bring you to him for the miracle of your own healing and conversion. For this end the Gospels were written, that, seeing the power of Christ, you might convert it to your own use, and trust in it as engaged for your recovery; of which I shall have frequent occasion to remind you in the course of our reading. The Lord make you sensible of your want of Christ; and then, when you hear of his healing all manner of diseases, and know that sin, the worst of all others, is your disease, you will be glad to put yourselves into his hands for a cure.

PRAYER.

Almighty God, by whose providence thy servant John Baptist was wonderfully born, and sent to prepare the way of thy Son our Saviour, by preaching of repentance; as thou dost hereby show us our need of repentance, show us also our need of thy Spirit to enable us to repent; that in the sense of our danger and weakness, we may fly

to thee for help, who workest in us both to will and do of thy good pleasure. So work in us, that, hearing the call of thy word to repentance, we may enter without delay upon a serious consideration of our state; examine ourselves in thy presence by the rule of thy commandments; and be prepared for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in our sons, as our only Saviour from the guilt that is upon us. Suffer us not to deceive ourselves by thinking that we are partakers of Christ, and entitled to his blessings, when we never came to him in the way of thy appointing, nor saw ourselves wretched and miserable, lost and undone, without him. Thy wrath is now revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men; and we know, by the clear light of Scripture, that sin is the greatest of all evils, provoking to the eyes of thy glory, the object of thy heavy displeasure, and will for ever separate every soul of man from thee, in whom it is found. unrepented of, and unpurged by the blood of Christ. Work in our souls such an effectual, contrite sense of the accursed nature of sin, and of our own sinfulness, that we may abhor ourselves in thy sight, who art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity. Grant, O Lord, that our repentance may be a laying the axe to the root of the tree; and whenever we humble ourselves before thee in truth and sincerity, have mercy on us, and show us thy salvation. Turn our eyes to the Lamb of God, who only taketh away the sin of the world; that, receiving thy covenant of peace, and being grounded in the faith of thy love, we may walk with thee as obedient children; serve thee without fear; and evermore praise thee for thy mercy in Jesus Christ, our blessed Saviour and Redeemer. Amen.

SECTION IV.

ST. MATTHEW, iii. 15.

THUS it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.—What? He who did no sin, knew no sin, to come to John's baptism of repentance? Was not this rather counterfeit humility, and a denial of the truth, than matter of righteousness? Yes, as considered in his own person, but not as taking upon himself the sins of the whole human nature. One thing farther must be remarked. If he thought it just and right to come to John's baptism, surely it must be dangerous presumption in others to despise his own.

Ver. 16. Lo, the heavens were opened-In the sight of John and all the people.

-

And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him. That is, John saw this. Compare John, i. 32. And by the heavens opening, and the Spirit descending, we see, as it were, heaven opened to us with all its blessings; and always standing open to receive all who are cleansed by Christ's baptism, that is, those on whom the Spirit descends, and must descend, as it did upon him; for he was our pattern in all things. Let not the dove be overlooked. If we have not the innocence and meekness signified by it, our baptism is void; the Holy Ghost is not in it.

Ver. 17. And lo, a voice from heaven-Different from the Spirit descending, and Jesus on whom he descended. This is such full proof of a distinction of persons in the Trinity, as cannot be shaken.

Saying, This is

my

beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Observe, the voice of attestation came not till after the Spirit's descent; and that not for Christ's sake, for in him the Father was always well pleased; but

for ours, to show what we must be, and who are the sons of God; that is to say, not for any thing we are, or do, in our very best estate, but in and through the beloved Son, into whom we are engrafted by faith, and in whom alone he is well pleased. "Such trust have we through Christ to Godward." And blessed be God for the good hope he has given us of acceptance in the Beloved, and for sending down the Holy Ghost to establish us in this faith, and be the dove in us, as he was in Jesus.

LECTURE.

I AM endeavouring, by all the ways I can think of, to stir you up to a diligent study of Scripture, to open it to you, and assist you in the understanding of it, as God shall enable me. I would gladly persuade you of these two things: one is, That if you do not read and search the Scripture with great care and godly seriousness, to know, as exactly as you can, what you must do to be saved, you may be sure that all is wrong with you; whatever else you do, you cannot possibly have any true concern for your souls. The other is, That the Scripture is not so difficult as you pretend; but, in all great and necessary points, easy to be understood by all persons of ordinary capacity, or little learning, and would certainly be understood by all of you, if it concerned your bodies, or worldly estate, as it does your souls. I know that naturally we are blind to the doctrines it teaches, and averse to the duties which it enjoins; and there is the great difficulty. But, notwithstanding this, they are delivered in plain words; and the fault is entirely our own, if we do not receive and apply them to the knowledge of God in Christ, and the everlasting salvation of our souls. For instance,

In this chapter we are told, that John Baptist was sent to prepare the way of Christ, and that he did it by preaching repentance; telling us that he meant laying the axe to the root of the tree, or sin in the heart. Is not this plain?

But then repentance is to prepare us for Christ, and put us in the way to him: of itself it is not available to our salvation; it cannot procure the pardon of our sins; and therefore, in his preaching, he sends us to one who is mightier than he, to the Lord Jesus Christ. Is not this also plain?

He tells us that the coming of Christ was to baptize us with the Holy Ghost, whose office it is to work faith in us, and to cleanse and purify us, as with fire; and that he will one day separate the good from the bad, and gather the wheat into his garner, but burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Are not these plain words?

Again: in that part of the chapter which has now been read, you have heard that Jesus came to John to be baptized of him; thereby consecrating and confirming the ordinance of baptism for ever, because otherwise he himself would not have fulfilled all righteousness. The meaning of which, I told you in the exposition, is, that he fulfilled all righteousness, not for himself, who did not want it, but in our stead, and for our sakes; God' being always well pleased in him, and in him with us, as being made partakers of him, and members of his body by faith. The sense is deep, but the words are clear.

And lastly, here is a plain and full confirmation of the doctrine of the Trinity, or three persons in the Godhead; the Son on earth, the Father bearing witness to him by a voice from heaven, and the Holy Ghost descending upon him in a bodily shape like a dove.

These, now, are the chief points of doctrine and