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ter into the rest of the bleffed Bridegroom; ye enter into the house which Wisdom hath built with feven pillars, and shall ere long be tranfported to the upper houfe of many manfions, where ye fhall behold his face, and "be with him for ever." The marriage-fupper is ready; for Wisdom has not only builded her house of mercy, but "the hath killed her oxen and fatlings; the hath mingled her wine, and furnished her table," Prov. ix. 2-5. "Wifdom hath builded her house, fhe hath hewn out her feven pillars. She hath killed her beafts, the hath mingled her wine; fhe hath alfo furnished her table. She hath fent forth her maidens, fhe crieth upon the highest places of the city. Whofo is fimple, let him turn in hither as for him that wanteth understanding, the faith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled." 7. The marriage-robe of righteousness, and garment of falvation, is ready; for the "righteousness of God is revealed in the gofpel." The Lord is crying to this company, "Hearken unto me, ye ftout-hearted, that are far from righteousness, I bring near my righteousness,—I have placed falvation in Zion, for Ifrael my glory."

Well then, Sirs, fince all is ready, there is nothing wanting but the bride. O come, and be the bride of the glorious Bridegroom; and let us all cry one to another, as Rev. xix. 7. "Let us be glad and rejoice, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herfelf ready." Amen, Amen, Amen.

THE BROKEN LAW MAGNIFIED AND MADE
HONOURABLE, &c.

ISA. xlii. 21.-The Lord is well pleafed for his righteousness fake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.

THE FIRST SERMON ON THIS TEXT.

HIS chapter, you fee, is ushered in with a folemn call

Gentiles, to take notice of Mefliah the Prince, the eternal Son of God, whom he was, in the fuluefs of time, to fend into the world,

world, upon the great errand and bufinefs of the redemption of loft finers of Adam's family: and to arrest their attention and admiration unto this extraordinary 'perfon, many great and glorious things are faid of him; as that he was his Father's honorary fervant, his elect, the darling and delight of his foul; that he is qualified, and fitted, and called to his work. And having spoken of the base treatment he was to meet with fron the Jewish nation, the prophet comes, in the words of my text, to declare what account his own Father made of his perfon and undertaking: Whatever bafe and low thoughts his friends and countrymen may have of him, yet he "isglorious in the eyes of the Lord;" God's fentiments of him are quite different from theirs, for the Lord is well pleafed for bis righteoufnefs fake; as if he had faid, However he be "despised and rejected of men, as a root fprung out of a dry ground," however you may make no more account of him than if he were deaf, blind, and dumb, yet "he is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." Obferve, from this con nection, that God's thoughts of Chrift are very different from the thoughts that an unbelieving world have of him; an unbelieving world, with Herod, and his men of war, fets him at nought, but his Father reckons him the "brightness of his glory," and calls him his elect.

The words then in general are, Jehovah's verdict concerning the righteoufnefs brought in by the great Meffiah, with the ground thereof; the Lord is well pleafed for bis righteousness fake.

Where we may notice, t. The great and glorious party here fpoken of, and that is the Lord, or, as in the original, Jehovah the righteous Judge, the offended Lord and Lawgiver, to whofe wrath all mankind are obnoxious and liable, through the breach and violation of the first covenant.

2. Something afferted concerning him, which may arrest the attention of all mankind, and fill their hearts with joy, and their mouths with praifes, and that is, that he is well pleafed. Whenever man had finned, the anger and wrath of God was kindled against him, and his fury was breaking out like fire, and nothing remained for poor man, but a fearful looking for of wrath, and fiery indignation, to consume him and all his pofterity, as a company of traitors and rebels; but here is a furprifing declaration, that though he was angry, yet his anger is turned away, his frowns are turned into fmiles; the Lord, Jehovah, is well pleafed. Again,

3. We have the caufe and ground of this furprifing declaration. Why, what is the cause of his being well pleafed? It is for his righteoufnefs fake; not for the fake of any ransom,

atonement,

atonement, or fatisfaction, that the finner could make, for no man can by any means redeem his own or his brother's foul, nor give unto God a ranfom for it. The redemption of the foul is precious, and ceaseth for ever as to him; but it is for his righteousness fake, who finished tranfgreffion, and made an end of fin, who makes "reconciliation for iniquity," and fo brings in an "everlafting righteoufnefs;" the "righteous Lord loveth righteousness," and without it he cannot look with pleasure on any of Adam's race; while Chrift becomes the end of the law for righteoufnefs," he fulfills the precept, and undergoes the penalty of it, whereupon the Lord declares himself to be well pleafed for his righteousness Jake.

4. We have the reafon why the Lord Jehovah fuftains the righteoufnels of the Surety in the room of the finner, or why he is fo well pleafed for his righteousness fake; why (he ball magnify the law, and make it honourable), the holy law of God, given unto man in innocency as a covenant, or an eternal rule of righteoufnefs, was violate and broken, and the authority of the great Lawgiver affronted and contemned by man's difobedience but Chrift, as our Surety, he is "made of a woman, and made under the law;" and, by bringing in everlasting righteoufnefs, he not only fulfilled the law, both in its precept and penalty, but he magnifies it, and makes it honourable; he adds a new luftre and glory unto the law, which it never had before, through the dignity of his perfon who obeys it.

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Some read the latter claufe of the verfe thus, He fhall magnify the law, and make (him) honourable and fo the meaning is this: 1. Chrift fhall not only repair the honour of the law, but restore honour to God the great Lawgiver; and, indeed, never was there fuch a revenue of glory and honour brought in to the crown of heaven, as by the obedience and fatisfaction of Chrift: "Now (fays Chrift) is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him." Through Christ, God can fave finners, and give vent to his love, grace, and mercy, upon terms that are honourable to his law, juftice, holinets, feverity, and other perfections, that were lefed and injured by the fin of man. Or, 2. He ball magnify the law, and make him (i. e. Chrifl) honourable; and fo the latter claufe of the verse is a promise of the Father unto the Son, that, upon his repairing the honour of the law by his humiliation, he would make him honourable by a glorious exaltation, he would give him "a name above every name." But, in my fubfequent difcourfe, I fhall follow the reading in the tranflation, and the fenfe already given of it.

From

From the words thus opened, I obferve this comprehenfive doctrine, almoft the fame with the words:

"That Chrift, as our glorious Surety, having magnified the law, and made it honourable, the Lord Jehovah declares himself to be well pleafed for his righteoufnefs fake."

But I fhall divide this doctrine into these two:

First, "That Chrift, as our Surety, has magnified the law, and made it honourable, by his obedience to the death." Secondly, "That however God was difpleafed and provoked with the fin of man, yet he is well pleafed for the righteousness fake of the bleffed Surety."

I begin with the firft of thefe, viz. "That Chrift, as the Surety of loft finners, has magnified the law, and made it honourable."

.I only quote two fcriptures for the confirmation of this; the one you have, Rom. viii. 3. 4. where the apoftle tells you, that through the facrifice and fatisfaction of Chrift, "fin is condemned, and the righteoufnefs of the law is fulfilled in us;" and Rom. x. 4. Chrift is there faid to be "the end of the law for righteousness unto every one that believeth.”

Now, in difcourfing this doctrine, or this branch of the complex doctrine, 1 fhall, through divine affiftance, obferve the order and method following.

I. Suggest a few things concerning the law, and how it was difparaged by the fin of man.

II. Speak a little of the glorious perfon who undertakes the reparation of it as our Surety.

III. Inquire what may be imported in the expreffion of his magnifying the law, and making it honourable.

IV. How he magnifies the law, and what way he takes to make it honourable.

V. Give the reafons of the doctrine.

VI. Make fome application.

I. The first thing is, to fuggeft a few particulars concerning the law of God, which is debafed and difparaged by the fin of man.

ift then, Ye would know, that the law here principally intended is the moral law of the ten commandments, at firft engraven upon the hearts of our first parents at their creation, and afterwards, becaufe that edition or copy of it was much

obliterated

obliterated and defaced by the fall, published to Ifrael from the mouth of God upon Mount Sinai, and written upon tables of stone, and laid up in the ark for the ufe of Ifrael. This, I fay, is the law here intended. The ceremonial and judicia! law were things peculiar unto the Jews, or commonwealth of Ifrael; but the moral law had a being fo foon as man was created, and is binding upon all nations. For the breach of this law man was condemned, and all his pofterity laid under the curfe and therefore this must be the law which Chrift, as our Surety, came to magnify and make honourable. And concerning it, I offer,

2dly, That the moral law is nothing elfe but a tranfcript of the original holiness and purity of God's nature. God's effential holinefs and righteousness was too bright and dazzling a pattern for man, even in a state of innocency; and therefore he tranfcribes a copy of it, and pictures it out upon the heart of man, that he might make it the rule of his obedience in heart and in life, requiring him to be holy as he is holy.

3dly, The law being a copy or emanation of God's holinefs and righteousness, it must be dearer to him than heaven and earth, or the whole frame of nature. Hence is that of Chrift, Matth. v. 17. 18. “Think not that I am come to deftroy the law and the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. Verily I fay unto you, Till heaven and earth pafs, one jot or tittle fhall in no ways pafs from the law, till all be fulfilled." Sirs, whatever mean or low thoughts we may have of the law, through the blindness of our minds, yet I can affure you, that it is fuch a facred thing with God, that he will fooner unhinge the frame of nature, and reduce it to its original nothing, than fuffer it to be trampled upon by finners, without thewing a fuitable refentment.

4thly, This law was given to our first parents under the form of a covenant; a promife of life being made to them, upon condition of their yielding a perfect obedience; and a threatening of death added, in cafe of difobedience, "In the day thou eateft, thou fhalt furely die." In this covenant Adam stood as the public head and reprefentative of all his pofterity: had he continued in his obedience to the law of that covenant, eternal life had been conferred on him, and all his pofterity, by virtue of the promife of God; the fum and fubftance of that covenant being, as the apoftle tells us," the man who doth these things fhall live by them."

sthly, Man being left to the freedom of his own will, through the flattering hiffes of the old ferpent, "did break the law of God," and fo forfeited his title to life by virtue of VOL. III.

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