listen to a prayer from a sinful mouth, till it is first hallowed and presented to him by a pure and holy mediator. So that unless we are strangely inconsiderate, we cannot but be touched with a deep sense of our own vileness, when we think at what a distance the pure and holy God keeps us; how he stands off at the stench of our abominations; and notwithstanding all his benignity towards us, will neither hear us, nor have any thing to do with us, without the powerful intercession of his own Son.

And as our conviction of the necessity we have of Christ's sacrifice and intercession is very apt to affect us with holy sorrow and fear, both which are very powerful instruments of our reformation; so our persuasion of the reality and excellency of his mediation is no less apt to inspire us with a mighty hope and assurance of acceptance with God, if we reform and amend for it seems that upon propitiatory sacrifices and interceding spirits guilty minds have been always inclined to place their confidence of acceptance with God. Hence it was a principle generally received by men of all nations and religions, (however it came to pass I know not,) that for sinful men to appease the incensed Divinity, it was necessary, first, that some life should be sacrificed to him by way of satisfaction for their sins; and that the nobler it was, the more propitious it rendered him. 1. That some high favourite of his should be prevailed with to intercede with him in their behalf. Whereupon, understanding by universal tradition that there were a sort of middle beings (whom they call demons, and we angels) between the sovereign God and men, they began to address to these, and to bribe them with sacred honours to interpose with God in

VOL. I.

their behalf. And if they could make a shift to rely upon sacrifices, the most precious of which were the lives of sinful men; and to depend upon intercessors, of whose interest with God they had little or no security; what a mighty ground of confidence and assurance have we, for whom the Son of God once offered such a meritorious sacrifice upon earth, and continues to make such a powerful intercession in heaven! For besides that, as he was a spotless and innocent person, his sacrifice was wholly meritorious for guilty offenders; and besides that, as he was a person of infinite value and dignity, his sacrifice was meritorious for a world of guilty offenders; God, upon whose good pleasure the admission or refusal of it entirely depended, has openly declared his acceptation thereof as a propitiation for the sins of the world, and engaged himself by a public grant and · charter of mercy, to indemnify, for the sake of it, every sinner in the world that will but return to him by a serious and hearty repentance; neither of which great things could ever be said of any other sacrifice. And in the virtue of this sacrifice, as well as his own personal interest with his Father, he now intercedes in our behalf; and pleading our cause, as he doth, with the price of our souls in his hand, even in his precious blood by which he redeemed them, we may be sure that, with that powerful oratory, he cannot fail of succeeding in our behalf. For having purchased for us, by his blood, all those favours which he intercedes for, he is invested with the right and power of bestowing them upon us. So that now, for our greater security, all those favours, which God hath promised us, are actually deposited in the hands of our Mediator: and though his bare

promise is in itself as great an assurance as can be given us; yet it is to be considered that guilty minds are naturally anxious and full of unreasonable jealousies, and consequently, whilst they looked upon God as their adverse party, and a party infinitely offended by them, would have been very prone to suspect the worst, had they had nothing but his bare word to depend on. And therefore, in condescension to this pitiable infirmity of his sinful creatures, he hath not only promised them his acceptance and favour upon condition of their return to him, but hath also put the performance of his promise into a third hand, even into the hand of a mediator, who, by the nature of his office, is equally concerned for both parties; as well that God should perform his promise, if we performed our duty; as that we should perform our duty, if we received the benefit of his promise. And hence, Heb. vii. 22. our Mediator is called the Sponsor, or surety of a better covenant. So that now we have no longer to do with God immediately as our adverse party, but by a mediator, who by his office is obliged to be on our side as well as God's, and to take care that neither receive the other's part of the covenant without performing his own. Thus as he hath been sometimes pleased in compliance with human weakness to enforce his promise with his oath; not that the one is in its own nature a greater security from God than the other, but because with men an oath is more obliging than a promise; so, in great condescension to the unreasonable diffidence of our guilty minds, he hath not only promised us pardon and acceptance upon our repentance, but he hath also given us a collateral security for the performance of it, even the security of

a mediator, in whose hands he hath deposited whatsoever he hath promised us. Not that in itself this is a greater security than his own bare word and promise, which he cannot falsify without renouncing his being; but because this way of giving security by a third person is more accommodate to the method of our covenants and agreements with one another, and consequently more apt to satisfy our anxious and diffident minds.

And thus the conviction of our need of a mediator, and the persuasion of the reality and excellency of his mediation, will powerfully work both on our hope and fear, which are the main springs of all our religious endeavours; and give us at once the most horrible prospect of the evil of sin, and the most comfortable assurance of pardon and acceptance with God upon our repentance and amendment; both which are absolutely necessary to our successful entrance into the Christian warfare.

IV. To our beginning of this holy warfare, it is also necessary that we should be affected with a deep sorrow and shame and remorse for our past iniquities for this the apostle calls sorrowing to repentance; and tells us that godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of, 2 Cor. vii. 9, 10. and accordingly it is recorded of St. Peter's converts, that the beginning of their repentance was their being pricked at the heart, Acts ii. 37. and even repentance itself is in scripture called a broken and contrite heart; this being the most immediate preparation to a true repentance or change of mind, Psalm li. 17. And hence the ancient penitents are described in scripture as girding themselves with sackcloth, and repenting in dust and

ashes; in allusion to the ancient manner of

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and solemn mournings, which was to put on sackcloth, cover the head with ashes, and sit in the dust. And in the primitive and purest ages of Christianity, it is evident, that the bitterest sorrows and remorses were looked upon as necessary preparations to repentance; for the penitents, in those days, as Tertullian and Nazianzen describe them, lay prostrate at the church-doors in sackcloth and "ashes, supplicating the prayers of the presbyters " and widows, hanging on the garments and knees "of those that entered into the church, kissing "their footsteps, and with rivers of tears in their "eyes beseeching their prayers to God for their par"don." Now though we are not under the severities of such an ecclesiastical discipline, yet we are equally obliged with those ancient penitents to exercise it internally in our hearts. For sin is as bad now as it was then, and as great an evil in us as it was in them; and therefore ought to be lamented by us with an equal sorrow and remorse. And indeed if we ever mean to wage war with it with success, it is necessary we should acquire beforehand a through sense and feeling of the evil of it; that we should chastise our souls with some degree of that bitter sorrow and regret it deserves, and inflict upon ourselves some part of that hell of infinite horror and anguish that is engendering in its womb; that so being the more sensible of its malignity, we may be the more enraged against it, and enter the lists with it with the greater resolution and animosity. For our sorrow and remorse for our sins, if it be serious and hearty, will convert into hatred and indignation against them, and that hatred will ani