Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

A SERMON,

ON THE PURPOSES FOR WHICH CHRIST

CAME INTO THIS WORLD.

I AM COME THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE LIFE, AND
THAT THEY MIGHT HAVE IT MORE ABUND-
ANTLY.
JOHN, CHAP. X. V. IO. LAST CLAUSE.

THESE words were originally spoken by the bleffed Jefus, the most glorious person that ever appeared to mankind, in whom the divine and the human nature were united. When one fo excellent deigned to vifit this world, and to appear vifibly upon it for feveral years, we may well conclude that the purpose for which he came was worthy of his dignity. The words before us contain his own, and confequently the best account of that purpose, a purpose the most excellent and godlike in itself, the most important, interesting, and beneficial to mankind. "I am

66

come (fays he) that they might have life, and "that they might have it more abundantly."

This paffage I hope will not be deemed an improper fubject for a difcourfe before thofe who have long been happy inftruments under God, of promoting the knowledge of the great purpose for which Chrift defcended from Heaven.-From which I intend, in a dependence on God,

ift, To point out the great purpose for which Christ came into this world, fo far as it refpects mankind.

2dly, To fet before you the distinguishing features in the character of those who shall enjoy the bliffings of his coming. And,

3dly, Make fome practical obfervations on this fubject.

An illustration of the whole of it, proportioned to its importance and intent, would far exceed the ordinary bounds of one difcourfe. All therefore that I intend, is to fet before you the great outlines of the subject.

We know that Chrift came into the world to manifeft the glory of the divine perfections in the redemption of mankind, in a lustre greater than even that with which it had been displayed in the works of creation and providence. Hence He thus addreffes his Heavenly Father, "I have

[ocr errors]

glorified thee on earth, I have finished "the work which thou gaveft me to do." He

came

came into the world to vindicate the honour of the divine law, and the wifdom of God's moral government; and, moft probably, in this way to afford fuch a just and striking view of the rectitude and wifdom of the divine adminiftration, to all the different orders of pure fpirits, as thereby to fecure them for ever in their rectitude, obedience, and happiness. But our text confines our view to the purpose for which Christ came into the world, in fo far as it refpects mankind. This was, "that they might have life, "and that they might have it more abundantly."

Of all the bliffings which could have been offered to man, this is the most valuable, as well on account of its own worth, as on account of that condition to which man had reduced himself, before Chrift graciously interpofed to bestow life upon him. Though God made man upright, yet by the temptation of the devil, and the abuse of that liberty, without which he could not have been an accountable creature, he foon finned against God, and thereby became not only dead in law as a guilty creature, but also really and spiritually dead as an intelligent and moral creature, who had perverted his nature.

A moral and an accountable creature is faid to

be dead in law, when he hath committed a tranf greffion of the will of God, the punishment of which he can neither fhun, nor commute by any obedience or atonement of his own. In this fituation all men stand as finners against God: For no man liveth and finneth not, no man can redeem his own foul, nor pay a fufficient ransom for his brother's. Man as an intelligent and moral creature, is faid to be spiritually dead, when his intellectual and moral powers cease to influence and direct his moral conduct; and when his conduct is chiefly influenced and directed by those merely animal powers which he poffeffed in common with the irrational creation. In this fituation all men ftand by the depravity of their nature, "dead in trefpaffes and fins." Accustomed to form their ideas of life and death, from what they fee to be the life and death of mere animals. The generality of mankind have formed very grofs, confused, and erroneous opinions of life and death in general, and in particular as they are applicable to fpiritual, intelligent, and moral creatures. Death does not confift in reduction to nothing. Annihilation feems to be unknown in nature; but every creature, of whatever order of beings it is, is faid to live fo long as it poffeffes and has the power of exerting thofe peculiar faculties by

which

which it is diftinguished from the order of beings immediately below it, and it is faid to die when it ceases to poffefs these characteristic powers. Thus, for instance, a mere animal lives fo long as it poffeffes these powers of refpiration, of the circulation of the blood and of felf-motion, by which it is dif tinguished from mere inanimate matter; and it dies, when, by ceafing to poffefs these powers, it is not annihilated, but is only reduced to the order of inanimate matter immediately below it. When the body returns to duft, this is the death of that part of man also, which is merely animal. like manner, man, as a moral and accountable

In

being, made up of fpirit and body, is faid to live fo long as his conduct is influenced and directed by thofe fpiritual, intellectual, and moral powers, by which he is diftinguifhed from the order of mere animals; and he is faid to die when these fpiritual powers, lofing their influence upon him, he falls down to the order of mere animals, and is, like them, directed in his conduct folely by bodily fenfes, paffions, and appetites. Hence, in fcripture, man in this ftate is ftiled the natural or carnal, in direct opposition to the spiritual man. Hence alfo it is faid in fcripture, "to be carnally "minded is death; but to be fpiritually minded "is life and peace." Rom. viii. 6, "If ye luft after

"the

« ZurückWeiter »