forming willing Obedience; ] Burnt-Offering and Sin-Offering haft thou not required: Then faid I, Lo, I come [as a Servant that chearfully answers the Calls of his Mafter:] I delight to do thy Will, O my God, and thy Law is within mine Heart. Matt. xvii. 5. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am wellpleafed. And Chrift tells us exprefly, that the Father loves Him for that wonderful Inftance of his Obedience, his voluntarily yielding himself to Death, in Compliance with the Father's Command, Joh. x. 17, 18. Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my Life: --No Man taketh it from me; but I lay it down of myself — This Commandment received I of my Father.

And if there was no Merit in Chrift's Obedience unto Death, if it was not worthy of Praife, and of the most glorious Rewards, the heavenly Hofts were exceedingly mistaken, by the Account that is given of them, in Rev. v. 8,-12.---The four Beafts and the four and twenty Elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them Harps, and golden Vials full of Odours;- And they fung a new Song, Saying, Thou art WORTHY to take the Book, and to the Seals thereof; for Thou waft flain, open And I beheld, and I heard the Voice of many Angels round about the Throne, and the Beasts, and the Elders, and the Number of them was ten Thousand Times ten Thousand, and Thousands of Thousands, faying with a loud Voice, WORTHY is the Lamb that was flain, to receive Power, and Riches, and Wifdom, and Strength, and Honour, and Glory, and Bleffing.

Chrift fpeaks of the eternal Life which He was to receive, as the Reward of his Obedience to the Father's Commandments. Joh. xii. 49, 50. I have not spoken of myself, but the Father which fent me, Ile gave me a Commandment what I should fay,

He

and

and what I should speak: And I know that his Commandment is Life everlasting: Whatsoever I Speak therefore, even as the Father faid unto me, so I speak.

God promises to divide him a Portion with the Great, &c. for his being his righteous Servant, for his glorious Virtue under fuch great Trials and Sufferings, Ifai. liii. 11, 12. He fall fee of the Travel of his Soul and be fatisfied: By his Knowledge fball my righteous Servant justify many; for he fhall bear their Iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a Portion with the Great, and he shall divide the Spoil with the Strong, because he bath poured out his Soul unto Death. - The Scriptures represent God as rewarding Him far above all his other Servants, Phil. ii. 7, 8, 9. He took on Him the Form of a Servant, and was made in the Likeness of Men: and being found in Fashion as a Man, He humbled himself, and became obedient unto Death, even the Death of the Cross: Wherefore GOD also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a Name above every Name. Pfal. xlv. 7. Thou loveft Righteousness, and hateft Wickedness; therefore God, thy God, hath anointed Thee with the Oil of Gladness above thy Fellows.

There is no Room to pretend, that the glorious Benefits bestowed in Confequence of Chrift's Obedience, are not properly of the Nature of a Reward. What is a Reward, in the most proper Sense, but a benefit bestowed in Confequence of fomething morally excellent in Quality or Behaviour, in Teftimony of Well-pleafednefs in that moral Excellency, and Refpect and Favour on that Account? If we confider the Nature of a Reward most strictly, and make the utmost of it, and add to the Things contained in this Defcription, proper Merit or Worthinefs, and the Beftowment of the Benefit in Confequence of a Promife; ftill it will be found, that there is Nothing belonging

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belonging to it, but the Scripture is most exprefs as to its belonging to the Glory bestowed on Christ, after his Sufferings; as appears from what has been already obferved: There was a glorious Benefit bestowed in Confequence of fomething morally excellent, being called Righteoufnefs and Obedience: There was great Favour, Love and Well-pleafednefs, for this Righteousness and Obedience, in the Beftower; There was proper Merit, or Worthiness of the Benefit, in the Obedience; It was bestowed in Fulfilment of Promises, made to that Obedience; and was bestowed therefore, or because he had performed that Obedience.

I may add to all these Things, that Jefus Chrift, while here in the Flesh, was manifeftly in a State of Trial. The last Adam, as Chrift is called, Rom. v. 14. 1 Cor. xv. 45. taking on Him the human Nature, and fo the Form of a Servant, and being under the Law, to ftand and act for us, was put into a State of Trial, as the firft Adam was.-Dr. Whitby mentions these three Things as Evidences of Perfons being in a State of Trial (on the five Points, p. 298, 299.) namely, Their Afflictions being fpoken of as their Trials or Temptations, their being the Subjects of Promises, and their being expofed to Satan's Temptations. But Chrift was apparently the Subject of each of these. Concerning Promifes made to Him, I have spoken already. The Difficulties and Afflictions He met with in the Courfe of his Obedience, are called his Temptations or Trials, Luke xxii. 28. Ye are they which have continued with me in my Temptations, or Trials. Heb. ii. 18. For in that he Himself bath fuffered, being tempted [or tried] He is able to fuccour them that are tempted. And Chap. iv. 15. We have not an High-Priest, which

cannot

cannot be touched with the Feeling of our Infirmities ; but was in all Points tempted like as we are, yet without Sin. And as to his being tempted by Satan, it is what none will difpute.

The Cafe of fuch as are given up of God to Sin, and of fallen Man in general, proves moral Neceffity and Inability to be confiftent with Blame-worthiness.

R. Whitby afferts Freedom, not only from Coaction, but Neceffity, to be effential to any Thing deferving the Name of Sin, and to an Action's being culpable; in these Words (Discourse on five Points, Edit. 3. p. 348.) "If they be "thus neceffitated, then neither their Sins of O"miffion or Commiffion could deferve that "Name; it being effential to the Nature of Sin, "according to St. Auftin's Definition, that it be "an Action, à quo liberum eft abftinere. Three

..

Things feem plainly neceffary to make an Ac❝tion or Omiffion culpable; 1. That it be in our "Power to perform or forbear it: For, as Origen, "and all the Fathers fay, no Man is blame-wor

thy for not doing what He could not do."

And elsewhere the Doctor infifts, that "when any "do Evil of Neceffity, what they do is no Vice, "that they are guilty of no Fault, * are worthy "of no Blame, Difpraife, + or Dishonour, ‡ "but are unblameable." §.

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If

*Difc. on five Points, p. 347. 360. 361. 377. + 303. 326. 329. and many other Places. 371. $304. 361.

If thefe Things are true, in Dr. Whitby's Senfe of Neceffity, they will prove all fuch to be blamelefs, who are given up of God to Sin, in what they commit after they are thus given up. That there is fuch a Thing as Men's being judicially given up to Sin, is certain, if the Scripture rightly informs us; fuch a Thing being often there fpoken of as in Pfal. lxxxi. 12. So I gave them up to their own Hearts Luft, and they walked in their own Counfels. Act. vii. 42. Then God turned, and gave them up to worship the Host of Heaven. Rom. i. 24. Wherefore, God also gave them up to Uncleanness, through the Lufts of their own Hearts, to difhonour their own Bodies between themfelves. Ver. 26. For this Caufe God gave them up to vile Affections. Ver. 28. And even as they did not like to retain God in their Knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate Mind, to do thofe Things that are not convenient.

'Tis needless to ftand particularly to inquire, what God's giving Men up to their own Hearts Lufts fignifies: It is fufficient to obferve, that hereby is certainly meant God's fo ordering or difpofing Things, in fome Respect or other, either by doing or forbearing to do, as that the Confequence should be Men's continuing in their Sins. So much as Men are given up to, so much is the Confequence of their being given up; whether that be lefs or more. If God don't order Things fo, by Action or Permiffion, that Sin will be the Confequence, then the Event proves that they are not given up to that Confequence. If Good be the Confequence, inftead of Evil, then God's Mercy is to be acknowledged in that Good; which Mercy must be contrary to God's Judgment in giving up to Evil. If the Event muft prove that they are given up to Evil as the Confequence, then the Perfons who are the Subjects of this Judgment,

muft