A second volume of discourses or sermons on several scriptures

First, The sending of Jesus Christ into the World.

Secondly, The great Gift of Faith.

First,¹ The sending of Jesus Christ into the World, who is the cause of all happiness unto sinful Man, was it self the effect of this purpose of God, to pardon and forgive Sinners. It is very difficult to trace out the Order of the Divine Decrees concerning the Salvation of Mankind, and to pass from one of them to another, as they lie ranked and methodized in God's Breast: And divers that have attempted to search out these Arcana Dei, this Art and Mystery of Justice and Mercy, have trodden in paths different from one another, and doubtless many of them differing from the Truth also. I shall not stand to draw a Scheme of these Decrees of God, let it now suffice us to know, that God, from all Eternity, foreseeing the Sin and Misery, which Man would, by his permission, and his own sin, involve himself in, did, for the manifestation of the Riches, both of his Mercy and ⟨p. 64⟩Justice, enter into Counsel, how to pardon and save him. This was the end of God's design, even to restore again to Happiness some of Mankind; even as many as he should select out of the Mass and common Rubbish of Sin and Misery, and set apart for himself. Well, but how shall this end be accomplished and brought about: Justice brandisheth its Sword in the Face of Sinners, and demands as great a share of Glory in punishment, as Mercy doth in pardoning; and God is resolved to glorify both of these Attributes of his in their several demands: This now put him upon ransacking of the deepest Counsel that ever lodged in his Heart, even of an Adored Mediator, in whom Justice receives full satisfaction, and Mercy triumphs in a full Pardon, and both are infinitely glorious. For this end, God sent down his Son from Heaven to Earth, to become a Propitiation for us, and so through the shedding of his Blood to obtain remission and forgiveness of sins for us. God's Mercy and his Beloved Son could not rest together in his Bosom, and therefore his purpose of pardoning Sin was so efficacious,