ther to search into the great ends of God's glory which were accomplished by the incarnation of his Son; than which no other exercise of soul can be more profitable to prepare us for entering within the veil of the mysteries of the Fall, and witnessing the glory of God which is manifested therein. Sure I am, beloved in the Lord, that according to our patient travail in meditation and prayer, in faith and knowledge, will be our progress in grace, in wisdom, in righteousness and truth, in humility and stedfastness, in consolation and assurance; which are blessed conditions of the soul, not otherwise to be attained, nor otherwise to be preserved, save in the worship and the service of God with all the heart, with all the mind, with all the soul, and with all the strength. Be ye therefore exhorted, dearly beloved brethren, to increase in all knowledge and wisdom and spiritual understanding: and may the Spirit open the eyes of your mind, and enlighten your understanding, that you may be able to know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints! For we are called, every one of us, to do the same offices for the glory of God which Christ did. Yea, all this which I have set forth to you concerning the Son of man, I might now turn and apply to every one of you, who have been engrafted into him by baptism to be partakers of his justice, and through faith have received the gift of the Holy Ghost; that in you, yea, in every one of you, God is to be glorified, as he was glorified in the Son of man. In you, the honour and glory of the eternal Trinity is to be shewn forth: the Father, in your doing his will, and not the will of the flesh

or the will of man; the Son, by your growing up into closer and closer union with him, and shewing forth the express image of his person; the Holy Ghost, by the spirit of power, and of love, and of a sound mind, in which you work the work of God and hold forth the image of Christ. For to this end Christ emptied himself of, or humbled the Divinity into manhood, that he might become the very type or pattern of every Christian who should come after, and of us, dear brethren, though born in a far distant age, and amongst a cold, indifferent generation. In us, by our triumphing over sin, is the glory of the holiness of God also to be shewn forth yea, and I may say in somewhat a more remarkable manner, forasmuch as sin hath already the possession of our mortal members, which have heretofore been the servants of sin, but are now become the servants of righteousness. Wherein also is magnified the almighty power of God, who by the Holy Spirit can work righteousness in these tabernacles of corruption, and bring a clean thing out of an unclean; beget the child of Christ in the dead womb of nature, and raise up children of Abraham's faith from the very stones. Whatever, therefore, the Son of man did in the days of his flesh to honour and glorify God, he expecteth us to continue and carry forward until he come again. Yea, not only expecteth it, but hath provided us with the power to fulfil it; which is our baptismal gift, when we become partakers of all the benefits of the new covenant, and enter into engagements to be wholly the Lord's. Wherefore, as the Apostle Paul did exhort Timothy to stir up the gift of the Holy Ghost which was in him by the laying on of the

hands of the Presbytery, so do I call upon every one of you, by faith, fervent prayer, and willing obedience, to stir up the gift that is in you by baptism. For which reason we should arise to the work of doing the will of him who hath sent us, even as Christ did when he was baptized by John; fearing nothing, dearly beloved, doubting nothing, but surely believing that he who hath called us will also justify us, will also sanctify us, will also glorify us. And if he glorify us, then will he first glorify himself in us, by making us serviceable to the manifestation of his glory in the midst of a wicked generation. Wherefore I entreat you again to stir up the gift that is in you by baptism; to stir it up by faith, fervent prayer, and willing obedience. Amen.

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SERMON III.

THE METHOD, IS BY TAKING UP THE FALLEN
HUMANITY.

LUKE i. 35.

And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

HAVING opened, in the two foregoing discourses, the origin of the Incarnation, in the will of God; and the end of it, for the glory of God; we do now proceed to treat of the scheme or method of it, in the purpose of God,-concerning which, though we have frequently spoken already, we have not yet given it that large and sufficient demonstration which is needful in a matter of such vast importance to the glory of God and the good of men.

This seemeth to me the logical way of handling any act of the Godhead: first, to shew wherein it originates; then, whereto it tendeth; then, by what method it proceedeth; then, in what way it is transacted; and finally, with what fruits or effects it is followed. The third of these steps, in the exposition of our great subject, we do now proceed to take, trusting in the help of God. And

to the end of opening with due order the method which God hath taken to bring about the incarnation of his Son, we shall first treat of the composition of his Divine person, from his conception even unto his resurrection, observing the most notable changes which he underwent during that period for with the resurrection I regard my present subject to conclude. It is only Christ in the flesh concerning which I have undertaken to discourse: the discourse of Christ from the resurrection onward belongeth properly to another subject, which is the church; whereof by his ascension into glory he became the Head.-After taking this view of the composition, and the successive changes which passed upon Christ's person until the resurrection, I shall proceed to open, in the second part of this sermon, how God, by uniting the person of his Son to fallen flesh, doth thereby reconcile the whole lump of fallen humanity unto himself, and is enabled, through Christ, to save as many as it pleaseth him, without any detriment unto, but rather with all illustration of, his righteousness and holiness. This will lead us to speak of the universality of the reconciliation, and the individuality of the election; and to shew how harmonious and mutually co-operating are these two great truths. From this we shall pass, in the third part, to shew how, by this same method of sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, God doth remove the law, which is the form of the enmity, and bring in unto all the world this dispensation of grace under which we now stand. After which we shall conclude this discourse upon the method of the Incarnation, with practical conclusions and improvements of the whole.