Sermons preached

3. The Unworthiness of him that receiveth. This is also in the Case. We were altogether unworthy that the Son of God should be incarnate, and die for our sakes. This is notably improved by the Apostle, Rom. 5. 7, 8. For scarcely for a righteous Man will one die, but for a good Man some would even dare to die: But God commendeth his Love to us, in that while we were yet Sinners, Christ died for us. The Apostle alludeth to the Distinction familiar among the Jews; they had their good Men, or bountiful; their righteous Men, zealous for the Law; and their wicked Men, obnoxious to Judgment. Peradventure one would venture his Life for a very merciful Person; but you shall hardly find any to be so liberal and friendly, as to venture his Life for a righteous and just Man, ⟨p. 298⟩or a Man of rigid Innocence. But mark, there are abating Terms, Scarcely, and perhaps; the Case is rare that one should die for another, be he never so good and righteous. But God's Expression of Mercy was infinitely above the proportion of any the most friendly Man ever showed. There was nothing in the Object to move him to it, when we were neither good nor just, but wicked; without respect to any Worth in us, for we were all in a damnable estate, he sent his Son to die for us, to rescue and free us from Eternal Death, and to make us Partakers of Eternal Life. God so loved the World, when we had so sinned, and wilfully plunged our selves into an estate of Damnation.

3. The Unworthiness of him that receiveth. This is also in the Case. We were altogether unworthy that the Son of God should be incarnate, and die for our sakes. This is notably improved by the Apostle, Rom. 5. 7, 8. For scarcely for a righteous Man will one die, but for a good Man some would even dare to die: But God commendeth his Love to us, in that while we were yet Sinners, Christ died for us. The Apostle alludeth to the Distinction familiar among the Iews; they had their good Men, or bountiful; their righteous Men, zealous for the Law; and their wicked Men, obnoxious to Judgment. Peradventure one would venture his Life for a very merciful Person; but you shall hardly find any to be so liberal and friendly, as to venture his Life for a righteous and just Man, ⟨p. 298⟩