IS THE DOCTRINE OF THE TRINITY. Christ alone is the way to God ; No man eometh to the Father but by me; John xiv. 8. We must give thanks to the Son of God, for his amazing condescension to take our nature on him, and dwell in flesh and blood ; and for his voluntary submission to death, to redeem suchguilty creatures as we are. We must trust in him for com- plete salvation, both from sin and hell, and resign ourselves, as guilty, sinful and perishing creatures, into his hands, and to his methods ofrelief. All our prayers, and acts ofworship and obe- dience, must be recommended to the Father by his name, and throughhis intercession. After every fresh instance of sin, we must fly to hint as our faithful advocate in heaven, and have daily recourse to him, as our great Sacrifice and our Mediator; becauseour sins are daily renewed in this imperfect state. In short we must surrender ourselves up to him, that he may bring us as near to God, as this present state of things will admit ; and when we are dying, we must commit our departing spirits to him as Ste- phen did, that he may present us to his Father, when we leave this sinful and wretched world. Thus we have access to God the Father, byhis 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 acknowledginghim as our great Pro- phet, receiving his divine instructions with an humble faith, and imitating his sacred example with holy care ; the submission to him as our Lord and King, yielding a ready and chearful obedi- ence to his commands, and a humble subjection to his providen- tial dispensations ; to which I may add, depending on him for daily grace, and the promised aids of his blessed Spirit, asbeing appointed of theFather to bestow them ; for he is exalted to be a Prince, as well as a Saviour; and indeed, Christ doth promote this great work of the salvation of men, by his universal govern- ment of thevisibleand 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 sinnners to be reconciled to God, and by the communications of his Spirit to men. But these things do not appear directly to bethe present viewof the apostle inmy text, while he is describing Christ as a medium of our access and reconciliation to God, chieflyby 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 lierson in the Holy-Trinity performs for our salvation, according to my text, wé come now to speak ofthe third, thatis, theblessed
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