, which natively result thence, by way of use.
1. O what cause is there here for all of us to fall a wondering, both
that God should ever have condescended to have appointed a way how
sinners and rebels, that had wickedly departed from him, and deserved to
be cast out of his presence and favour for ever, might come back again,
and enjoy happiness and felicity in the friendship and favour of that
God that could have got the glory of his justice in our destruction, and
stood in no need of us, or of any thing we could do: as also, that he
appointed such a way, that Jesus Christ his only Son, should, to speak
so, lie as a bridge betwixt God and sinful rebels, and as a highway,
that they might return to the great God upon him. Let all the creation
of God wonder at this wonderful condescending love of God, that
appointed such a way; and of Christ, that was content to lout so low as
to become this way to us, this new and living way; and that for this end
he should have taken on flesh, and become Emmanuel, God with us, and
tabernacled with us, that through this vail of his flesh, he might
consecrate a way to us. Let angels wonder at this condescendency.
2. Hence we may see ground of being convinced of those things: (1.) That
naturally we are out of the way to peace and favour with God, and in a
way that leadeth to death, and so that our misery and wretchedness, so
long as it is so, cannot be expressed. (2.) That we can do nothing for
ourselves; set all our wits a-work, we cannot fall upon a way that will
bring us home. (3.) That it is madness for us to seek out another way,
and to vex ourselves in vain, to run to this and to that mean or
invention of our own, and be found fools in the end. (4.) That our
madness is so much the greater in this, that we will turn to our own
ways that will fail us, when there is such a noble and excellent, and
every way satisfying way prepared to our hand. (5.) That our wickedness
is so desperate, that the way which is pointed out to us doth not please
us, and that we will not enter into it, nor walk in it. (6.) That this
way, which is also the truth and the life, is only worth the embracing,
and is only safe and sure; we should be convinced and persuaded of the
worth, sufficiency, and desirableness of this way. Reason, with ordinary
light from the word, may teach these things; but grace can only carry
them into the heart, and make them take rooting there.
3. We may read here our obligation to
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