ransom for it? O how is the black visage of sin portrayed in the beauty
and glory of the Mediator's person? How is it painted, even to horror, in
his death? Again, what divinity and worth is put upon the immortal soul of
man, that is but of yesterday, since the beginning, when he that was the
delight of God, before all beginning, is weighed in the balance, as it
were with it, and no other thing found sufficient for exchange and
compensation, that the soul may be redeemed? And doth not this answer all
the jealousies and suspicious thoughts, and fearful apprehensions, arising
from the consideration of our own weakness and infirmity, when such an One
is offered, as is able to save to the utmost? Then I would desire you may
believe, that the Father is as well minded to the salvation of sinners, as
the Son, for they were sweet company together from all eternity, and, as
it were, contrived this plot and design between them, to save and redeem
mankind. Some entertain harsher thoughts of the Father, as if Christ were
more accessible, and exorable. But the truth is, he hath given his Son
this command, and therefore he professed, that it was not so much his
will, as his Father's, he was about. Therefore correct your
apprehensions, do not stand aback from the Father, as it were till you
have prevailed with Christ. No, that is not the way. Come in your first
address to the Father, in the Son, for so he wills you, not because he
must be overcome by his Son's persuasion but because he would have his
love to run in that channel through Christ to us. And indeed our Saviour
was much in holding out the love of the Father, and laboured to persuade
the world of it. Withal, I wish you to consider whom ye neglect and
despise who hear this gospel duly, and the Word of life holden out unto
you and yet suffer not your hearts to be moved, or stirred after him.
Alas, my beloved, to forsake so great a mercy, as the eternal Word of life
as the infinite Wisdom of the Father, and to let the offer of this every
day run by us, and never to find leisure and vacancy from the multitude of
businesses and throng of the thoughts and lusts of the world, never to
start so far backward, as to look beyond this world, to God, and his Son
Jesus Christ, never to mind seriously either him that was before all
things visible, or our own souls, that must survive and outlive all this
visible frame. This, I say, is the great misery and condemnation of the
world, that th