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X V.

SER M. Good the Messenger of Peace; Welcome, Eternity; Welcome, thou fupreme Being, who, as the Source of Nature, didft create and speak us into Exiftence; who, as the Source of Grace, didst make us new Crea tures; and who, as the Source of Glory, wilt advance us into Angels of Blifs and Partakers of the Divine Nature,

Then fhall we be fenfible, that we mifcall Things here; and, what we ftile the Day of our Death, is, in the true Estimate of Things, our great Birth-Day, our BirthDay to eternal Life.

When the Sun fhall be no more our Light by Day, neither for Brightness shall the Moon give Light unto us: But the Lord fhall be unto us an everlasting Light, and our God our Glory. Our Sun fhall no more go down, neither fhall our Moon withdraw itself: For the Lord fhall be our everlasting Light, and the Days of our Mourning fhall be ended.

That we may enjoy ourselves, let us be temperate, chafte, moderate; that we may enjoy one another, let us be benevolent, humane, charitable; that we may enjoy God, let us be pious, devout and holy, detefting the Vices, and defpifing the Vanities of this World.

Now to God, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghoft, be afcribed, as is moft due, all Might, Majefty, Dominion, Praise and Adoration, both now and for ever. Amen,

The END of the SERMONS.

THREE LETTERS

TO A

FRIEND

ON THE

SATISFACTION OF CHRIST:

Wherein are occafionally confidered

THE INFINITY OF THE DEITY, HIS ETERNITY, PRESCIENCE, etc.

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THE FIRST LETTER.

DEAR SIR,

You

OU fum up the Force of your firft Objection against the Satisfaction thus: "Whatever Diftinction there is in the "Divine Nature, yet it is a Diftinction "which enters not into the Effence of that "Nature. If then God the Son be truly "God, and God the Son fuffered in our "Stead for the Sin of Man committed "against God; then the Confequence must "be, that God fuffered for a Crime com"mitted against God." In Answer to this,

First, Let it be obferved, that God did not, could not fuffer at all. The only Thing, that the fecond Perfon in the Blessed Trinity did, was this; by affuming our Nature, and by a perfonal Union with it, he ennobled it fo far, as to make it a meritorious Sacrifice. The Godhead then did not fatisfy, It only empowered and enabled the Human Nature to fatisfy the Divine, by ftamping a Value upon it. And pray where is the Abfurdity of this Procedure? If you fay, that the Satisfaction in the last Resort terminates in God; I anfwer, fo all our Sufficiency and Power does too. He is the Party pleafing, and the Party pleafed; fince He gave and

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upholds every Power and Faculty that we have. It is not fufficient to reply, that we co-operate with God: Because, the Human Nature did act in Concert with the Divine in the Cafe now under Confideration. In fhort, God as well enables every One to please him, as he enabled Christ's Human Nature to fatisfy Him.

Secondly, Let it be fuppofed that the Divine Nature, as perfonalized in Chrift, fatisfied the Divine Nature as perfonalized in the Father. You tell me, "That my Cafe "of two Kings jointly reigning, One of "which foregoing his Right makes Satis"faction to the Other for an Offence "committed against Both, doth not come up to the Point: Because They are two Separate Beings" (for that is your Mean

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though their Authority be the fame." Now, Sir, when we confider the Divine Nature, I know of no Cafe, that can be exactly parallel to what concerns it. Whatever Cafe you can imagine, it will have no Property of an exact Parallel, except it be this; that the two Cafes, like Parallel Lines, will never meet.

But then, either Arguments from Human to Divine are inconclufive, or they are not. If they are inconclufive, then you cannot infer a Contradiction in one Nature from what is a Contradition in another, and quite different Nature. No more than a Blind Man

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