283 / 674
sEttM. XLIV.3
AND
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USE
OF
IT.
'263
ful
and wretched
world.
Thus
we
have
access to
God
the Father,
by his Son
Jesus
Christ,
who
is
our great
Peace-maker.
I
grant,
that
several
other
necessary duties, which
we
owe to
Christ our Lord, might
be
mentioned
in
a more
distinct and explicit manner,
viz.
the acknowledging
him
as
our great Prophet,
receiving
his
divine
instruc-
tions, with
an humble
faith,
and
imitating
his
sacred
ex-
ample,
with holy
care
;
the submission
to him as
our
Lord
and
King, yielding a
ready and chearful obedience
to
his
commands,
and a
humble subjection
to his
provi-
dential
dispensations
;
to which
I
may add,
depending,
on
him
for daily
grace, and the promised aids
of
his
blessed Spirit,
as
being
appointed
of
the
Father
to
bestow
them;
for he
is
exalted
to be
a
Prince,
as well
as
a Savi-
our;
and
indeed,
Christ doth promote
this
great
work
of
the
salvation
of
men,
by his
universal government
of the
visible
and
invisible worlds, with this view
and
design,
by giving
and continuing
his
gospel, to
particular
nations,
by
sending
forth
his
ministers
and
messengers
to invite
sinners
to
be
reconciled
to
God, and
by
the
communica-
tions of
his
Spirit
to men.
But
these things do
not ap-
pear,
directly, to be the
present
view
of
the
apostle
in
my
text,
while he
is
describing
Christ
as
a medium
of
our
access
and reconciliation
to
God,
chiefly by his
death
and
its influences. And
as
for the work
of
the Spirit,
that
comes
next
in
course
to be
mentioned.
III.
Having
shewn
the glorious
service, which
the
second person, in the
Holy Trinity, performs for
our
salvation, according
to my
text,
we
come
now to
speak
of
the third,
that
is,
the blessed
Spirit
of
God,
who
is
here represented
as one, who
helps
our
return
or access
to
God
the
Father, through Jesus Christ; and
this
he
does,
eminently,
in
the
ways
following
:
1.
He
convinces
us
of
sin. FIe
makes
us see,
and feel
our
dreadful state
of
wretchedness, because
of
our
guilt
in the
sight
of
God. Mankind,
by
nature,
are
insensible
of their
own misery,
till
the Spirit of God
is
sent to
awaken
them,
out of their dead
sleep,
and make them
look
after a reconciliation
to
the
infinite Majesty
of
God,
whom they
have offended.
It
is
the powerful and inward
operation
of
the
Spirit,
that
makes sinners
cryQut,
"What
shall
I
do to be
saved
?"
s
4