SERM. THESE Services our Apoftle ftyles, the one of Sin, the other of Obedience: And I will, as diftinctly as I can, confider them in the Order, he has here mentioned them in, beginning with that of Sin. were THIS Divifion of Servants St. Paul feems to have borrowed from common Ufage, as all fuch were of old ranged in that lowest Clafs of Life by Conftraint or by Choice,--either Bond or Covenant-Servants. The former, to whom the Servants of Sin bear a manifeft Allufion, anciently became fo, and do ftill in many Parts of the World, by Conqueft, by Purchase, by the Commiffion of fuch Crimes as are punished with the Lofs of Liberty, by contracting Debts beyond People's Ability to discharge, or by Birth. THIS was one early Effect of Man's Original Depravation; by which the lawless Paffions being enflamed and difdaining the Reftraints of Juftice and Moderation, they invaded each other's Perfons as well as Properties, and the weaker became a Prey to the ftronger: Though all were by Nature equal, and at firft only the Servants of their common Creator, who by giving them Being had had from thence the fole Right to their SERM. Service. VII. As God made all Things for himself,-for his Glory and Pleafure,---and to fhew forth his Praise they are and were created; fo all inanimate Creatures are in their Kind obedient to the divine Hand, which formed them, tending invariably to the End whereunto they were ordained. The Sun, Moon and Stars obferve their appointed Courses, and by their regular Viciffitudes, their Light and other Influences ftrongly display the glorious Power and Wisdom of their Maker: Fire and Hail, Snow and Vapours, Winds and Storms fulfil his Word. Neither are all living Creatures without Reafon lefs obfervant of God's Will than all material Creatures without Life: They too inviolably purfue the Designs of his Providence, and adhere to thofe Laws, which have been fet them. AND might not the fame Submission have been fairly expected from Man? To whom the Lord of all Things had been much more beneficent, having created him in his own Image, in Righteousness and Holiness,--having given him fufficient Light to difcern, Q4. and SERM, and not with-held fufficient Strength to VII. perform what he required of him. Obedi ence doubtless might have been looked for without the Affignment of any Reward for obeying; though to engage him the more chearfully and heartily in the Service of God, his gracious Master condefcended to enter into Covenant with his Creature, and tie himself down by folemn Contract to continue that Light and Strength, which should te wanted towards his paying an acceptable Service, and to crown his dutiful Fidelity with eternal Life: And thus was Man at first by Compact, as well as Creation, the Servant of God. BUT the ungrateful Wretch, having by the Inftigation of the Tempter bafely broken this Covenant, almost as foon as Life and all Good Things had been given him richly to enjoy, he deferted the beft, and placed himself under the worft of Masters,----he became a willing Slave to Sin and Satan, in fuch an unhappy Manner, that all naturally defcending from him are born in the fame State of Captivity. For Adam is faid (k), to have begotten a Son, not in the Image of God, but in his own corrupt Likeness, after (k) Gen. v. 3. VII. after his Image; and it is the Condition of SERM. Bond-Servants to bring their Offspring into the like fad Circumftances with themselves. HOWEVER, as the Breach of the Commandment appointed for his Trial, the Effect whereof was the Fall of Adam, was principally owing to the fubtil Temptation of the Devil, though it must not be dif fembled, that the eafy Compliance of the first human Pair was inexcufable, yet as the Envy and Malice of the Apostate Spirit had the chief Share in that fatal Tranfaction, what was denied to the Deceiver was vouchfafed to the Deceived, ----God had a Referve of Mercy for miferable Man,---he determined to look on the offending Inhabitant of Paradife with a reconciled Countenance, and to redeem the Slave from the Bondage, he had brought himself into. A SCHEME was fixed upon, infinitely wife in the Contrivance, infinitely good in the Execution, infinitely full in the Extent! The Ranfom was immediately fettled, and though not actually paid till many Ages after, ftill the Virtue and Efficacy of it reached back to the Beginning. As foon as the new-formed Creature had yielded himfelf SERM. himself a voluntary Captive to the Enemy, VII. a Redeemer was promifed to refcue him out of the Snare of the Devil, and no lefs a Perfon than God's own eternal Son was to work this mighty Deliverance. In abundant Pity towards fallen Man, much Matter of Comfort was intermixed with the awful Sentence of Condemnation: Part of that pronounced on the Seducer in Difguife is faid to run in these Words, I will put Enmity between thee and the Woman, and between thy Seed and her Seed: It shall bruife thy Head, and thou shalt bruife bis Heel (1). This prophetick Threatening to the one was in Effect a Promife to the other, fufficient to prevent his defpair of Mercy, and encourage him to depend on God for his Recovery: Which has been fince remarkably compleated in Chrift Jefus ; who, by taking human Nature upon him and condefcending to be born of a pure Virgin, became in the most fingular Manner that Seed of the Woman, which was to bruize the Serpent's Head. And until the Fullnefs of Time fhould come for God thus to fend forth his Son, Sacrifices were introduced as a principal Part of Divine Worship, to be a fenfible Evidence both of the Guilt and (7) Gen. iii. 15. the |