SER M. ges in the Mind of Man be wrought likeIX. wife by degrees invifible, and by means

not difcernable to Senfe: Marvel not that I faid unto thee, ye must be born again: The Wind bloweth where it lifteth, and thou hearet the Sound thereof, but canft not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth; fo is every one that is born of the Spirit.

HAVING thus prepared the Way, by explaining the Foundation; our Saviour from hence makes a Tranfition, ver. 12. to the higher and more fublime Doctrines of the Gofpel; If I have told you, fays he, earthly things, and ye believe not; how fhall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? If ye believe me not even in these plain and more obvious matters, which I have fuited to your Capacities, and delivered in eafy Comparifons, drawn from the moft natural and common things here upon Earth; how much less will ye believe me, when I tell you more fublime and heavenly mysteries? when I declare to you the Dignity of my Perfon and Office, the fpiritual Nature of my Kingdom, and the Sufferings I must first undergo for the Redemption of Mankind?

And

And yet these things are true and certain SER M. as the others, and the Works which I do, IX. are fufficient Arguments, why ye should believe me even in These things alfo. Now Thefe fublimer Doctrines he begins to enumerate, ver. 13. No man, fays he, bath afcended up to Heaven, but he that came down from Heaven, even the Son of Man which is in Heaven: That is; Chrift, the Son of Man, the promised Meffias, That Son of Man defcribed in the Prophet Daniel as coming in the clouds of Heaven, to receive an everlasting Dominion; This Son of Man came forth from God, fo as no other Prophet, no not Mofes himself, ever did; For he was with God, before he came amongst Men; and when he first appeared in the World, he had before had a Being in Heaven in the Bofom of his Father, in which Dignity he still continues. And 'tis the Prerogative of him only, who came thus from God as no other ever did, throughly to understand and to reveal to Men, the yet fecret Counfels of God concerning the establishment of his Kingdom, and the Method of Men's Salvation. No man bath afcended up to Heaven, but he that came down from HeaVOL II.

ven,

SERM.Ven, even the Son of Man which is in Heds IX. ven. What This Method of Men's Salva

tion was, he proceeds more diftinctly to declare, ver. 14 and 15, As Mofes lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness, even fo must the Son of Man be lifted up; That whofoever believeth in him, should not perish, but have eternal Life. That is: That the Meffiah, by his Sufferings and Death fhould accomplish the Redempti

and Salvation of Men, opening an entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven, tơ all those who shall fincerely obey him ; This (fays our Saviour) ye ought not to be furprized at, as a new and strange Doctrine; fince ye have a reprefentation and prediction of it, even in your own Law. For as Mofes fet up in the Wildernefs the Figure of a Serpent, which being indeed the Likeness of a venomous Beast, yet was fo far from having any thing of its poisonous Nature, that on the contra ry all those which had been bitten by real Serpents, were immediately healed by looking up towards this Representation; So the Son of Man, the Angel of the Coİf. lxiii. 9. venant, being made in the likenefs of finful Flesh, yet having really no Sin in him,

Mal. iii.

I.

fhall

fhall be lifted up on the Crofs, that by SER M. the Power of his Death, finful men be- IX.

lieving in him, and being enabled to conquer and forfake their Sins, may obtain remiffion of Sin, and Everlasting Life: For thus he adds in the Words of the Text, fumming up his whole Difcourfe; God fo loved the World, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him, fhould not perish, but have ever lafting Life.

THE Connexion of our Lord's Dif courfe being thus explained; we may in the Words themselves confider ft, how and in what fenfe it is fuppofed, that without the coming of Christ into the World, Men could not but have perished: 2dly, in what Senfe it is affirmed, that all who believe in him, shall not petish, but have everlasting Life: and 3dly, we may take Notice, that this Salvation of Men by the Coming of Chrift is afcribed to the antecedent Love of God, the original Goodness and Mercy of the Father Almighty. God fo loved the World, that he gave his only-begotten Son, that whofoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting Life. 1st, WE

SERM.
IX.

ift, We are to confider, how it is fuppofed in the words of the Text, that without the Coming of Chrift into the World, Men could not but have perished. And for the clearer explaining the ground of this Suppofition, it may be proper to obferve in the first place, that when God originally created Man in the State of Innocence, and feated him in the Garden of Paradife, there was no Obligation upon God to indue him with Immortality. 'Twas not by Virtue of any Claim of Right, or by any Neceffity in the Nature of the Thing, but an Effect of his unbounded Goodness only, and a mere free Gift, that God created Man to be Immortal, and made him to be an Image of his own Eternity. He might juftly have created him for what Time he pleafed; and even in the State of Innocence, might without any Wrong have put a Period to That Being, which at first 'twas nothing but his own good Pleasure, that moved him to give Beginning to at all. And if This was the Cafe even in the State of Innocence itself, how much more when Man by Sin had forfeited all Title to the Divine Favour! If God was under no Obligation

L