ness to forgive; which manifests how dear the glory of them is to him.

2. To what end shall we conceive the providence and patience of God to be exercised towards the race of mankind for so long a season? We see what is the general event of the continuance of mankind in the world; God saw it, and complained of it long ago, Gen. vi, 5, 6. Shall we now think, that God hath no other design in his patience towards the children of men for so many generations, but merely to suffer them all without exception, to sin against him, dishonor him, provoke him, that so he may at length everlastingly destroy them? That this, indeed, is the event with many, or even with the most, through their own perverse wickedness, blindness, and love of sinful pleasures, cannot be denied. But to suppose that God hath no other design, but merely by his patience to bear with them awhile in their folly, and then to avenge himself upon them, is unsuitable to his wisdom and goodness. It cannot be, then, but that he would long since have cut off the whole race (to prevent its propagation) if there were no way for them to be delivered out of this perishing condition.

3. That there is a way of deliverance for mankind, the event hath manifested in two remarkable and undeniable instances.

1. In that sundry persons who were, as others, "by "nature children of wrath," and under the curse, have obtained an undoubted and infallible interest in the love and favor of God, and this testimony, "that they "pleased him." Some persons, in all generations, have, enjoyed the friendship, love, and favor of God; which they would never have done, unless there had been some way for their deliverance out of the state of sin and misery, before described. For, therein ev

ery man, upon a just account, will find himself in the state of Adam, who, when "he heard the voice of God, was afraid."

2. God hath been pleased to require from men, a revenue of glory, by way of worship, prescribed them after the entrance of sin. This he hath not done to the angels that sinned; nor could it have been done consistently with righteousness to men, without supposing a possibility of deliverance from under his wrath. For in every prescription of duty, God proposeth himself as a rewarder, which he is only to them that please him; and to please God, without the deliverance inquired after, is impossible. Deliverance, then, from this condition, may on just grounds be expected. Our next inquiry is, how it might be effected.

§9. The great relief must be brought about, either by men themselves, or by some other for them. About what they can do themselves, we may be quickly satisfied. The nature of the evils under which they suffer, and the event of things in the world, sufficiently discover the disability of men to be their own deliverers. Besides, who should contrive the way of it for them? one single person, more, or all? How easily the impossibility of it might be demonstrated on any of these suppositions, is too manifest to be insisted on.

There are but two ways conceivable (setting aside the consideration of what shall be afterwards fixed on) whereby mankind, or any individual amongst them, may obtain deliverance from this evil:

1. That God, without any farther consideration, should remit it, and exempt the creation from under it. But although this way seems possible to some, it is, indeed, utterly otherwise. Did not the sentence against this evil proceed from his righteousness, and

the essential rectitude of his nature? Did he not engage his truth and faithfulness, that it should be inflicted? And doth not his holiness and justice require that it should be so? What should become of his glory; what should he do unto his great name, if now, without any cause or reason, he should, contrary to all those engagements of his holy perfections, wholly remit and take it off? nay, this would plainly justify the serpent in his calumny, that, whatever he pretended, yet indeed, that no execution could ever ensue. How also can it be supposed, that any of his future comminations should have a just weight upon men, if that first great and fundamental one should be evacuated? or what authority would be left unto his law, when he himself should dissolve the sanction of it? Besides, if God should do thus, which reason, revelation, and the event of things manifest, that he neither would, nor could, (for he cannot deny himself) it would have been His work, and not an acquisition of men themselves. But this way of deliverance is, at best, but imaginary. Therefore,

2. There is no other way for man, if he will not perish eternally under the punishment due to his apos◄ tasy and rebellion, but to find out some way of commutation, or making a recompense for the evil of sin, to the law and righteousness of God. But herein his utter insufficiency quickly manifests itself; for whatever he is, or hath, or can claim any interest in, lies no less under the curse, than he doth himself; and that which is under the curse can contribute nothing to its removal. That which is, in its whole being obnoxious to the greatest punishment, can have nothing wherewith to make commutation for it; for that must first be accepted for itself, which can either make atonement, or be received for any other in exchange. And

this is the condition of every individual of mankind, and will be so to eternity, unless relief arise from another quarter. It is farther evident, that all the endeavors of men must needs be unspeakably disproportionate to the end aimed at, from the concernment of the other parts of the creation, in the curse against sin. What can they do to restore the universe to its first glory and beauty? How can they reduce the creation to its original harmony? Wherewith shall they recompense the great God, for the defacing of so great a portion of that impress of his glory and goodness that he enstamped upon it? In a word, they, who from their first date, to their utmost period, are always under the punishment, can do nothing for the total removal of it. The experience also of five thousand years hath sufficiently evinced how insufficient man is to be a savior to himself. All the various and uncertain notions of Adam's posterity in religion, from the extreme of atheism, to that of sacrificing themselves and one another, have been designed in vain towards this end. Nor can any of them, to this day, find out a better, or a more likely way for them to thrive in, than those wherewith their progenitors deluded themselves. And in the issue of all we see, as to what man has been able of himself to do towards his own deliverance, that both he, myself, and the whole world, are continued in the same state wherein they were upon the first entrance of sin, cumulated, as it were, with another world of confusion, disorder, mischief, and misery. The corrupt spring of moral evil that is in man's nature, is universal and endless: it mixeth itself with all, and every thing that man doth, or can do, as a moral agent, and that always, and for ever, Gen. vi, 5. It is, then, impossible that it should have an end, unless it either destroy, or spend itself;

but ever sinning, which man cannot but be, is not the way to disentangle himself from sin.

§10. If, then, any deliverance be ever obtained for mankind, it must be by some other, not involved in the same misery as themselves. This must be either God himself, or good angels; other rational agents there are none that we know of. If we look to the latter, we must suppose them to undertake this work, either by the appointment of God, or of their own accord, without his previous command or direction. The latter cannot be supposed. As remote as men are from all thoughts of recovering fallen angels, so far were they from contriving the recovery of man.

But it may be said, that God himself might design them to work this deliverance. But this makes God, and not them, to be the Savior, and them only the instrument of this work. But yet he has neither done so in fact, nor were they meet to be so employed. Whatever is purely penal in the misery of man, is an effect of the righteous judgment of God. This, therefore could be no otherwise diverted from him, but by the undergoing of it by some other in his stead. And two things are indispensably required, to qualify any for that purpose: First, that they were not themselves obnoxious to it, either personally, or upon the common account; should they be so, they ought to look to their own concernment in the first place. Secondly, that they were such, as that their benefit of undergoing the penalty might, according to the rule of justice, redound to them, in whose stead they underwent it; otherwise they would suffer in vain. Now, although the angels might answer the former of these, in their personal immunity from obnoxiousness to the curse; yet the latter they were totally unsuited for. They had no relation to mankind, except that they were the workman