grace and mercy; the mercy and love of God appear no where else so brightly and gloriously as they do in the face of Jesus Christ. But an unbeliever sets no value at all upon the infiof Christ.

nite grace

Neither do unbelievers set any thing by those excellent virtues which appeared in Christ's human nature when he was upon earth. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners; he was meek and lowly of heart; he was patient under afflictions and injuries; when he was reviled, he reviled not again. But unbelievers set nothing by these things in Jesus Christ. They very often hear how excellent and glorious a person Christ is; they are told of his holiness, and grace, and condescension, and meekness, and have the excellencies of Christ plainly set forth to them; yet they set all at nought.

II. They set nothing by his excellency in his work and office. They are told how glorious and complete a Mediator he is, how sufficient to answer all our necessities, and to save sinners to the uttermost; but they make light of it all; yea they make nothing of it. They hear of the wonderful wisdom of God in contriving such a way of salvation by Christ, they have the manifold wisdom of God set forth to them; but they set nothing by this wisdom, nor do they make any account of the excellency of this way of salvation.

The unbeliever hears what a wonderful thing it was, that he who was in the form of God, and esteemed it no robbery to be equal with God, should take upon him the human nature, and come and live in this world in a mean and low condition ; but he makes nothing of this. He hears much of the dying love of Christ to sinners, how wonderful it was that so glorious a person, who is infinitely above the angels, should so set his love on such worms of the dust, so much below him, on such sinful creatures, who were his enemies, as to come and be made a curse for them, and die a cruel and ignominious death in their stead; but he sets nothing by all this. This dying love of Christ is a thing of no account with hin; those great VOL. VII.

3 H

things that Christ hath done and suffered are with him light matters, things of no weight at all.

Unbelievers not only set little by the glory and excellency of Christ, but they set nothing by these things. Notwithstanding all the shows and pretences which many natural men make of respect to Christ, by speaking honorably of Christ in their prayers, and in their common conversation, and by coming to sacraments, and attending other ordinances of Christ; yet indeed they do not set so much by all the glory and excellency of Christ, either the glory of his person, or the glory of his work as a Saviour, as they do by the smallest earthly enjoyment.

I proceed now to mention some evidences of the truth of this doctrine.

1. They never give Christ any honor on the account of this his glory and excellency. They may, and often do pay Christ an external and seeming respect; but they do not honor Christ in their hearts. They have no exalting thoughts of Christ, no inward respect or reverence towards him; they have indeed no honorable, respectful thoughts of Christ. All their outward worship is only feigned; none of it arises from any real honor or respect in their hearts towards Christ. It is either only for fashion's sake, and in compliance with custom, or else it is forced, and is what they are driven to by fear, as we read, Psalm lxvi. 3. "Through the greatness of thy power shall thine enemies submit themselves unto thee." In the original it is, shall thine enemies lie unto thee, i. e. yield a feigned obedience. Through the greatness of Christ's power, and for fear of his wrath, his enemies, who have no respect or honor for him in their hearts, will lie to him, and make a show of respect when they have none.

An unbeliever is not sensible that Christ is worthy of any glory, and therefore does not at all seek the glory of Christ in any thing that he does; he does nothing that he does in religion, out of respect to Christ's glory, but wholly for other

ends; which shows that he sees not Christ to be worthy of any glory. Christ is set last and lowest in the heart of an unbeliever. He has high thoughts of other things; he has high thoughts of creature objects and earthly enjoyments, but mean and low thoughts of Christ. He has more honorable thoughts of that which is but mere dirt and dung, than he has of Jesus Christ.

The unbeliever shows the mean and contemptible thoughts that he has of Christ, in refusing to accept of him, and in shutting the door of his heart against him. Christ stands at the door and knocks, and sometimes stands many years knocking at the door of his heart, and he refuses to open to him. Now it certainly shows that men have a very mean thought of a person, when they shut him out of their doors. Unbelievers show the mean and dishonorable thoughts they have of Christ, in that they dare not trust him. They believe not what he says to be true; they will not trust the word of Christ, so far as the word of one of their honest neighbors, or of a scrvant whom they have found to be faithful.

It also appears that they have no real honor for Christ in their hearts, in that they refuse to obey his commands. They do nothing that they do from a spirit of obedience to him; and that external obedience which they render, is but a forced, feigned obedience, and not from any respect to Christ's authority or worthiness to be obeyed.

2. They have no love to him on the account of his glory and excellency. If they did set any thing by all the glory and excellency of Christ, or if they saw any excellency or glory in in Christ, they would have some measure of love to Christ. But the truth is, they see no form or comeliness in Christ, and hence they have no love at all to Christ: An unbeliever never exercises one act of true love to Christ. All that he is told of the glory of Christ, of his divine perfections, of his holiness, his meekness, and grace, has no influence at all to draw forth any love. The display of these things doth no more draw forth love out of the heart of an unbeliever, than it draws forth lové from the stones and rocks.

A natural man hath no love of benevolence towards Christ. Notwithstanding all that is declared to him of the excellency of Christ, he has no good will towards Christ. He rejoices not in his glory and happiness; he would not care what be came of Christ, if he could but escape hell. If Christ should be dethroned, or made miserable, or should cease to be, he has not so much good will to Christ, as would make him concern. ed about it. And if the kingdom and interest of Christ in the world should go to ruin, it would be no wise grievous to the unbeliever, provided his own interest could be secure.

So also an unbeliever has no love of complacency in Jesus Christ for his excellency. He takes no delight in the view or consideration of any of that glory and excellency of Christ of which he is told. He is told that it is exceedingly beauti ful and glorious; but he sees nothing entertaining in it; he takes no pleasure in the view of any thing that he can see in Christ: The thoughts of the glory of Christ are nowise entertaining to him: He has no delight in the thoughts of it, or in any contemplations, upon it. He takes delight in think ing of these and those earthly objects; but when he comes to turn his mind upon Jesus Christ, if ever he so does, this is to him a dry and barren subject; he finds nothing there to feed and delight his soul; no beauty or loveliness to please or grat ify him.

3. Unbelievers have no desires after the enjoyment of Christ. If they did set any thing by the glory and excellency of Christ, they would have some desires after him on account of that excellency; especially when he is offered to them, and is from time to time set forth as the proper object of their choice and desires. That which men prize, they are wont to desire, especially if it be represented to them as attainable, and as fit and suitable for them. But unbelievers have no desires after the enjoyment of Christ. They desire to be delivered from hell, but they desire not to enjoy Christ.

They have no idea of any happiness to be had in the enjoyment of Christ: They cannot conceive what happiness

there can be in beholding Christ and being with him, in seeing his holiness, and contemplating his wonderful grace and divine glory. They have no relish for any such thing, nor appetite after it.

4. They show that they set nothing by the glory, and excellency of Christ, in that they seek not at all a conformity to that glory and excellency. A natural man may seek to be holy, but it is not for holiness' sake, it is only that he may escape wrath. He has no desires after holiness, nor is it indeed holiness that he seeks, because he is all the while an enemy to holiness. A natural man has no desires to have his soul conformed to the glorious beauty and excellency of Christ, nor to have his image upon him.

If he in any degree prized or delighted in the excellencies of Christ, he would necessarily desire to be like him so far as he could. This we see in ourselves and in all men: When we see any qualifications in others that are pleasing to us, and that we set by, it is natural for us to endeavor to imitate them, and to seek to be in those things conformed to those persons. Hence men are apt to learn of those of whom they have a great esteem; they naturally fall into an imitation of their ways and manner of behavior. But natural men feel within themselves no disposition or inclination to learn of Christ, or to imitate him. Their tempers and dispositions remain quite contrary to Christ's, neither do they grow at all better or more conformed to Christ, but wax worse and worse. 2 Tim. iii. 13. “Evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse.”

APPLICATION.

I. This doctrine may teach us the heinousness of the sin of unbelief, as this sin sets all the glory and excellency of Christ at nought. It often appears strange to natural men, that unbelief should be spoken of as such a heinous and crying sin. They cannot see such evil in it. There are other sins which often trouble natural men's consciences, when this sin