The evil, the exceeding evil of fin, is likewife evident, as what nothing lefs could expiate, than our Lord's precious life. The eternal Father, who weighs perfons and things in an even balance, could not do lefs to his bofom Friend, his everlasting Fellow, his conftant delight, when fet in the gap, than

bruise him and put him to shame;" to fuch open fhame and fufferings, as he underwent in the horrible pit and miry clay. Sure, if the exceeding finfulnefs of fin had not made it neceffary, Juch a Father would never have made fuch exaction upon fuch a Son. And therefore, in making a fport of fo, men practically mock the fuffering Saviour; in the purfuit and perpetration of fin, men make mery with that, which filled him with forrow, even unto death. Nor can believers themselves furvey their hearts and ways, without feeling, or having reafon to feel, the moft tender and affecting emotions. Your lying, my brethren, your fabbathbreaking, your uncleannefs, your covetoufnefs, your immorality and ungodlinefs in your unconverted rays; together with fuch unbelief, unwatchfulness, unfruitfulness and backflidings from God, as, fince grace took hold of you, you are chargeable with, dashed the head of Christ with wrath, when in the pit; and bore him down, till he funk, died and was buried in the mire. Sin is evil in itfelf, unfpeaka bly fo, in the difhonour it does to the Lord God; but its evil nature appears moft awfully in the fears on the Saviour's hands and feet; and in the remarkable fcar on his facred fide; the indelible proofs of what fin coft him, and the dreadful evidence of what it fhall coft finners themfelves, who live and die without an intereft in him. If, while in the pit of humiliation, it drew wrath on his head, who had no fin of his own; can it fail of breaking the fluices of divine wrath, refpecting finners themselves,

in the pit of nature now, and in the pit of hell hereafter? Yea finners, though you roll this and the other fin, as a fweet morfel, under your tongues at prefent, it fhall draw down whole floods of vengeance, upon you, foul and body, hereafter; under the load whereof you fhall be preffed, crushed, tormented, and distracted through eternity.

But it is good news, that our Lord, was by the Father, taken up out of the horrible pit and miry clay; or, in the language of the New Teftament, 'that he was raifed from the dead. It is good news to faints. Primitive Chriftians are faid, particularly glorying in the refurrection of Chrift, to have frequently comforted themselves and one another with thefe words, Sir's, Chrift is rifen. No matter, my dear friends, though the grave-stone should be put on every other enjoyment and comfort; comparatively, that is of fmall confequence to you, fince your Lord is rifen; and, with him, your life, your hope, your liberty, your all. Befides, in his refurrection, there is full evidence of the work of your redemption being completed, and the most comfortable carneft of your own refurrection takingplace, with glorious advantage, at the laft day. As the refurrection of Chrift is good news to faints, fo it is pregnant with falvation to finners; because in it they have the fureft ground of hope to look to, and build upon. It is unquestionably certain, that, réfting upon this foundation, you fhall never be removed. Had our Lord been detained a prifoner in the grave, then you could have had no hope; had not these bands been loofed, your bands could never have been broken; but now, that he could not be bolden of them, there is a folid bottom-upon which you may build and warrantably venture for eternity. Be exhorted therefore to look to him, that you may be faved; and to wait for him,

that

that ye may not be afhamed: for in neglect of this ground of hope, you difhonour and defpife the Saviour, and lay in a foundation for his defpifing, and pouring contempt upon you. Think of these awful, awakening words, and pray that the Lord may write them, as with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond, upon your confciences: they are applicable to all the defpifers of Chrift, and neglecters of the great falvation. "Whosoever shall

"fall on this stone shall be broken; but on whom"foever it fhall fall, it will grind him to powder," Matth. xxi. 44.

Of the Father's fetting Chrift's feet upon a rock,

THE

SECT. I.

HE fame nature that was humbled, is exalted.. The Man Chrift was in the horrible pit and miry clay, and it is only as man he can be faid to be fet on a rock. To fuppofe him capable of exaltation in his divine nature, would no lefs argue against the perfection of his divinity; and be an error no less fubverfive of his glory, than if, as God, he had been fuppofed to fuffer. In his divine nature, he was, from eternity past, so perfect and glorious, that, through eternity to come, it is im poffible he can ever in any degree, be more fo.. Though, when the compliment of a ranfomed world is fully made up, he will have ftill a greater number of admirers and adorers; yet, even then, there will be nothing in the Redeemer's Godhead to admire and adore, which had not place, ere ever

the

the creation of angels or men was expede. So much is effential to the notion of that unchangeableness peculiar to the divine nature, as evidently taught in fcripture; being "the fame yesterday, "to day, and for ever," Heb. xiii. 8. "without ❝ variableness or shadow of turning," James i. 17. And, what is unfpeakably beautiful and comprehenfive, being "from everlasting to everlasting God," Pfal. xc. 2. When inspired writers fpeak

of God, they convey the idea of a Being, in whom all poffible, all imaginable perfection and excellence, beauty, dignity and glory, are fummed up. But Jefus Chrift, in his divine nature, was fuch a Being, from everlasting; and therefore, according to that emphatical text, he will, he can, be no more, to everlafting; which at once cuts off all fuch notions as would infinuate any rife or improvement in the circumstances and exaltation of Chrift, as God: whence, in the exaltation pointed out here, we must confine our view to his bleft, immaculate, but once fuffering, human nature. Nor was our Lord only exalted, as the Man Chrift; but ia a common, covenant, mediatory capacity. In tha horrible pit, he was preffed down by the load of wrath due to the fins of others; and, in his exaltation, he is poffeifed of the rights, bleffings and privileges, purchased, provided and referved for others. In his fufferings in the miry clay, he funk all the fins of an elect world, as in the depths of the fea, never to rife up in judgment against them; and, in his emerging out of the grave, he brought up their peace, pardon and redemption, to be loft no more for ever. In this view, when our Lord fpeaks of his feet being fet upon a rock; he speaks of the carneft and fecurity therein exhibited, that all whom his humiliation refpected, are virtually faved, in him, and fhall, in due time, be actually

poffeffed

poffeffed of perpetual falvation through him, All the ranfomed ones were federally exalted in their Head; though their full enjoyment of that triumph over fin, hell and wrath, be referved to the time of their tranflation to Immanuel's better land, where glory dwells. He and they being one, in a myftical regard, what is faid of him as the Redeemer, may be faid of them as the redeemed; and what he did, fuffered, deferved and procured, may be confidered as if done, deferved, fuffered and procured by them, in their own perfons.

SE C T. II.

Our Lord's circumftances, as Man-Mediator, are now the reverse of what they were in his humbled ftate. Instead of being in a pit or dungeon, out of view, ont of mind, inconfiderable and unobferved, his feet are now upon a rock, he is placed upon a glorious eminence, and fet up in the most public, confpicuous, advantagious and honourable point of light. His divinity, formerly vailed, is now manifefted and difplayed, and, as united to his human nature, it fhines forth with distinguishing fplendour and magnificence. His human nature itself, is exalted to the highest pitch of beauty and perfection, whether in a moral or material view. In a moral view, the human foul of Jefus Chrift bears the nearest resemblance, the greatest likeness, to the moral character and perfections of God, that the creature is capable of. The holiness of the most exalted angel, and diftinguished faint, bears little or no proportion to that divine holiness wherewith his foul is embellished and adorned. And in our Lord's material beauty, as Man-Mediator, there is fomething fo great, refplendent and majeftical, that, according to the defcription given

of

1