3. Are your own legs able to bear you before the tribunal of God? Surely not, Psal. cxliii. 2, "In thy sight shall no man living be justified." Why seek ye not then for shelter under the covert of blood? I say then,

1st, Insensible sinners, come to a sense of your weakness, and under the sense of it come to Christ. Without it ye will not.

2dly, Sensible sinners, let not your weakness scare you from Christ, but rather prompt you not to delay coming, Matt. ix. 12. "They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick." They will perish in their weakness that come not.

Let all consider, that whoever they be in whom the strength of Christ's grace shall not be displayed, in a state of union with him, the strength of his hand will be displayed against them for ever, in a state of separation from him, 2 Thess. i. 8.

USE. 2. Communicants may hence be directed in their approach, to come under a sense of their weakness. to receive the seal of God's covenant insuring the strength of Christ to be forthcoming for them under all their weakness. And all that are minded for heaven, may learn to set themselves to submit to this dispensation, and to lay their account to live by faith, not by sense, till they get home.

SECONDLY, The becomingness of this constitution. It will appear worthy of God, and therefore in reason should be satisfying to the creature, if ye consider,

1. That the man Christ is now in heaven, and will be to the end of the world, Acts iii. 21. But by this means his divine power is, for his glory, still illustrated in the world. While he was on the earth, he did now and then let out a beam of his divine glory: but he was nevertheless put to an ignominious death in it; and his enemies gave out, that he was swallowed up in death as other men. But by this means there is a continual proof of his resurrection, ascension, and divine power, kept up and to be kept up in the world to the end, in that continued display of his strength in the weakness of his people, 2 Cor. iv. 11. "For we which live, are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh." Consider,

1st, His divine power had a vail cast over it, when he was on earth, Phil. ii. 7. and in his sufferings, crucifixion, death, and burial, he appeared in human weakness, 2 Cor. xiii. 4. Is it not worthy of God then, that now, when he is in heaven, his divine power should shine forth in its turn in the world; and that there should be a scene of human weakness, wherein it may to the greatest advantage display itself?

2dly, This display of the strength of Christ in the weakness of his people appears full to their conviction: and the more weak they are, they see it the more clearly while it is exerted in them; as contraries appear best by one another's side. And thus the glory of the power of Christ continually shines in the world, in the eyes of them who feel it.

3dly, While there is a people in the world compassed about with much weakness yet professing their dependance on the strength of Christ, and they are accordingly strengthened, in many instances at least, to the conviction of beholders; this is a sufficient objective évidence of the power of Christ to the world, sufficient to extort a confession of it from them, as Psal. cxxvi. 2.-" Then said they among the Heathen, The Lord hath done great things for them." Is. lxi. 9. "Their seed shall be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the people: all that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed;" or to leave them inexcusable. Hence, in all times of persecution, the support from heaven that confessors and martyrs had, hath brought numbers over to their side, so that the blood of the martyrs usually proved the seed of the church.

Hence I conclude, that this constitution and method of providence and grace in the church on earth, is a glorious device worthy of God, for displaying the glory of Christ. There, where he was some time covered over with ignominy, reproach, and disgrace, as weak and contemptible, a worm not a man; a reproach of men, and despised of the people," is his glory displayed, Psal. xxii. 5.

2. It is agreeable to the method of divine procedure in other things, and so makes the divine conduct to be of a piece. Wherein we may observe, that it is God's ordinary way, (1.) To carry ou great works by degrees, and not immediately to bring them to their perfection. So the world was made, first, a confused dark mass of earth and water, and then step by step formed, and finished, and beautified. Was the old creation a work of time, for the more full manifesting of the power of God? it is congruous, that the new creation should be so too, for illustrating the strength of Christ, in and by whom it is done. (2.) From small and contemptible beginnings to raise the most eminent works, and by most unlikely and unpromising means to do great things; because the power of God appears the more clearly in such a situation. From Abraham's body in a sort dead, and Sarah a barren woman, whose womb by age was deadened too, he raised a nation like the stars for multitude, continuing to this day: and looking to their beginning, we see Isaac an only son, on an altar, ready to be

sacrificed; and the first-fruits of them long in slavery in Egypt, and, when delivered, wandering forty years in a wilderness. How congruous is it, then, that the innumerable multitude that shall at length stand on the mount Zion above, round about the throne, in white robes, and palms in their hands, should be brough tthither from lying among the pots, and straggling long in the wilderness?

3. Particularly, it is agreeable to the divine procedure in the case of Christ himself. And that, (1.) In the constitution of his person as God-man; wherein infinite power and creature-weakness met together as attributes of one and the same person; he who, being true man, was capable of being "crucified through weakness," being also the mighty God, 2 Cor. xiii. 4 Now, if the divine power was lodged with creature-weakness in Christ personal, how congruous is it that the same divine power should be illustrated in the weakness of his mystical members? (2.) In the conduct of providence about his person. The most signal display that ever God made of his power, was by the man Christ and in him, 1 Cor. i. 24. being "Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." By him as God-man he redeemed the world; the last a greater work than the first, as the giving his own Son was more than the speaking of a word. But how was this work brought about, but by subjecting him to a number of weaknesses for his lifetime in this world, concluded at length with his death? And in these the divine power sent forth its most radiant beams, and by them reared up the new creation. Shall it then be thought strange, that as Christ was in the world, Christians should be ever so too? or that, since the power of God was illustrated in the weakness of the man Christ, the same divine power in the person of Christ should be illustrated in the weakness of his people, while they are here in this world?

4. Lastly. This dispensation tends to the heightening of the glory of the victory of the Son of God against the devil. That proud apostate spirit rose in rebellion against God; and having seduced man, set up a kingdom in the world in opposition to God's. Against him the Son of God, for his Father's glory, and the recovery of fallen man, proclaimed war in paradise, Gen. iii. 15. "I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel;" and, for his more shameful defeat, encounters him in human nature, a weak one in comparison of the more powerful angelic nature, whereof Satan was; and illustrates his strength against him in the weakness of that nature, as in his natural body, so in his mystical body. The heat of that battle was on the cross, where he was "crucified through

weakness," yet triumphed over him. The battle is carried on in his mystical members laden with weaknesses: yet even in them also he defeats him; and sets them off the field conquerors, one generation after another, without the loss of a man. It will last till the end of the world and then Christ's victory with his weak men will be complete, Satan with his party being chained down under everlasting darkness. So there will be no more occasion for Christ's illustrating his power in weakness: consequently, there shall no more for ever be a weak one among Christ's party; all their weaknesses come then to an end.

USE. This may be of manifold use in the Christian life,

1. As an oracle to satisfy serious inquirers anent the whole of the divine conduct about believers, and particularly as to two difficult questions.

1st, Why the Lord leaves sin in the regenerate? Why though they pant, long, and breathe after perfection, yet they cannot reach it; though they would buy their freedom from sin with ten thousand worlds if they had them, and the bondage of a body of sin cleaving to them makes them long for cold death, to set them free, yet they must wrestle on with it? See what may satisfy. It is that the power of Christ may be illustrated in your weakness; therefore it is that the "wheels of his chariot tarry."

2dly, Why the Lord keeps his people under long and sore afflictions? The reason is the same. Satan might be too hard for the Christian, in a perfect calm of providence about him: yet our Lord will give the Christian a disadvantageous post in a thicket of afflictions and trials, therefore called temptations, James i. 2; and Satan having that advantage of the ground, shall be suffered to attack him, and yet be baffled: to the greater glory of the strength of Christ, and shame of the enemy.

2. As a way-mark, to direct us, if we mind for heaven, unto the King's high-way to it; that is, the way of faith, and not of sense, 2 Cor. v. 7. Whatever sweet clusters of sense the Lord may allow any of his people for their refreshment by the way; the life of sense is certainly reserved for heaven, where all weakness is put off. The life of Christians here is a life of believing, hoping, patient waiting, in a course of doing, suffering, struggling, and wrestling, where Christ's power is illustrated in their weakness.

3. As an interpreter of Christ's mind anent the actings of grace in his people. The carnal world despises these actings as things of no value. A look of a weak creature to Christ, a groan to him for help, believing of a promise, hoping in his word, some confidence in him that he will at length appear for them, are bat trifling things

in their eyes. And in the eyes of believers themselves, except when they are bound up from them, they are but of small value, hardly worth their own notice, far less Christ's; especially considering that they are so weak, and so long a time intervenes between them. But certainly Christ notices them all, and looks on them as very precious, else this dispensation, whose end is to draw them out, had never been chosen by him, 1 Pet. i. 7, "That the trial of your faith being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise, and honour, and glory, at the appearing of Jesus Christ." Cant. iv. 9, "Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes, with one chain of thy neck."

4. As a cordial to support, with the prospect of a happy event, all the followers of Christ.

1st, Under their own personal weakness and pressures. He that has brought them under them to illustrate his own strength in them, will surely make a shining morning follow their darkest night.

2dly, Under the low case of the church, whether in point of corruption or persecution. Though she be either of these ways brought to death's door, she cannot die out for Christ will not let her fall so low, but for the clearer manifesting of his divine strength in her recovery. The utmost point of hopelessness is the usual signal for Christ's exerting his power for his people: Deut. xxxii. 36, " For the Lord shall judge his people, and repent himself for his servants; when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up, or left."

5. Lastly, As a persuasive to Christians, with a holy submission of spirit to this dispensation, resolutely to wrestle on, till the Lord have fully served the ends of his glory by all their weaknesses. This bids us,

1st, Stoop to the dispensation, and not quarrel; and after he has thus far discovered to us the design of it, to crucify all our hows and whys on the matter; and that both with respect to our spiritual and bodily weaknesses.

2dly, Resolutely to keep up the struggle, to get forward in the way the Lord calls us. What though we be weak? the works of the Christian life are not to be laid aside, but we are to stretch out the withered hand, that his strength may be perfected in our weak

ness.

Whoso thus struggle resolutely, and yet stoop humbly to the dispensation, shew their concern for his honour, insomuch that they are pleased his strength should be displayed in their weakness. Thus honouring him here, he will honour them in the other world.