art man indeed, O excellent Redeemer; but thou art also God-man, and therefore, the man that is God's fellow," Zechariah xiii. 7. Thou art God, and therefore thy countenance is altogether divine; and thou art man, and hereby God is visibly to be seen, and familiarly to be enjoyed in thee. Thou art God, and therefore thou art an infinite ocean of excellencies; and thou art man, and therefore all beauties whatsoever, created or uncreated, material or immaterial, are eminently in thee. Thou art God, and therefore possessed of all perfections; and thou art man, and therefore these perfections of thine are enjoyable by man as his necessities require, or his capacity can admit. O flower of all perfection, no wonder saints and angels are ravished with thy loveliness and love.

In thee, O eternal Son of God, are light, truth, and wisdom, as in their first seat, and enough to charm the eyes of every beholder for ever. Thou art the light of life, the light of heaven, the Sun of the morning, the Sun of glory, and whatsoever is lightsome, or pure, or pleasant, or joyful in heaven, or in earth, is a ray of the light, knowledge, and wisdom that are in thee, as the treasury of them: and that wisdom of God that is in thee, shines with such an infinite variety of draughts, counsels, and contrivances, as attracts the eyes of all the angels in heaven," 1 Pet. i. 12. The very hidden treasures of the divine wisdom and knowledge are opened up in our Immanuel, Col. ii. 3., and the fullest view of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, is to be seen in him, Col. ii. 2.

And what can be said either more or less of thy goodness and love, but that it is God-like goodness and Godlike love! It is goodness itself, and love itself: goodness in a thousand shapes, and love with a thousand charms. A goodness that is infinitely so, and therefore can satiate the soul with pleasures and delights: a good

ness that is purely so, and therefore can never glut in giving satisfaction. O amiable One, there are no clouds upon thy brows, no frown on thy face at all, but thy countenance is fair as the moon, and clear as the sun, and thou art all smiles, ravishments, and delights.

And oh, the beauty of thy holiness! Thou art the holy thing by way of singularity and eminency, Luke i. 35. There is no spot in thee at all, Cant. iv. 7. Thou art light, and in thee is no darkness at all, I John i. 5. This is the beauty of thy face, and an excellency that is so amiable, so God-like, so ravishing, as that it strikes all in heaven into eternal rapture, who with transport and ecstacy cry out, "Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty,” Rev. iv. 8.

Nor art thou less to be commended for thy power. And indeed, O excellent One, thou didst never appear more amiable than when thou didst come from Bozrah with thy garments dyed in red blood, Isa. lxiii. 1.; having by death given death and hell their deathwound, and vanquished all their gloomy power. Oh, it was well done! it was heroically done! and let the crown for ever flourish on thy head. Consubstantial Son of God, thou art fairer than the sons of men, and brighter than the most refined seraphim.

Was it not thou, O Lord, who, when poor sinners were sitting in darkness, and the shadow of death, amidst confusion, fear, and horror, that made them see a great and marvellous light? Was it not thou, when awakened and contrite souls found the guilt of sin bringing such a horrid gloom upon their conscience? Was it not thou, who not only offered thyself a sacrifice to expiate their sin, remove their guilt, and save them from hell, but also presented and applied this sacrifice so close to their souls, as made a light heart, a smiling conscience, and a serene spirit, in the soul that was deeply distressed before? Was it not thou, O Lord, who when the poor

sinner saw himself wretchedly polluted with the filth and stain of sin, was it not thou that washed him in thy blood, Rev. i. 5., and made him glorious within with raiment of needlework, and clothing of wrought gold, fit to be seen among angels and pure spirits. Oh, thou art perfect excellency, the brightness of thy Father's glory, and the express image of thy Father's person, and "let thy name be excellent in all the earth, and thy glory exalted above the heavens."

And as for graces, the unmeasured fountain and treasury of them is in thee, O wonderful Immanuel, to be poured out and disbursed according as we want, need, and can desire. Yea, thou art an overflowing fountain of all fulness, not waiting for our merit, but preventing it; not waiting for our good capacity, but making it; not waiting for our good desires, but creating them; not giving because we are worthy, but to make us so. Blessed

Jesus, how full of grace, goodness, sweetness, and excellency art thou! Let any comprehend, if they can, the riches, the fulness, the freeness, the efficacy of thy grace.

Glorious things are spoken of the Son of the living God; it is he that revealed " peace on earth, and goodwill to the children of men." It is he that hath purchased this peace by sufferings, blood, and death. It is he that rose again, for thousands of deaths could not hold down the Prince of life, and it is now he that rides upon the heavens by his name JAH; "the earth shook, the heavens dropped at the presence of God, the God of Israel." "The chariots of God, our Immanuel, are twenty thousand, even thousands of angels; the Lord God is among them as in Sinai the Holy place; "for thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive, thou hast received gifts for men," Ps. lxviii. It is he, who by a pull of his omnipotent grace, draws the most backward and rebellious sinner unto himself. O Hero! O most mighty Captain of our salvation,

gird thy sword upon thy thigh, and in glory, majesty, and state ride prosperously, subduing thousands and ten thousands unto thee in the day of thy power.

When the hellish antipathy of our nature is overcome, and the heart is inclined to thee, is it not thou thyself that hath done this? and in it thou hast taken to thyself thy great power. "When thou turnest a clod of earth into a heavenly nature, and raisest the soul that was wrapped in the mud of earth, and sunk in flesh, to a heavenly elevation, doth not this shew thee to be "wonderful in counsel, and excellent in working." When thou preservest the small spark of grace in the soul, notwithstanding the many quench coals from the devil, the world, and the flesh, then," the right hand of our Lord doth valiantly, the right hand of our Lord doth valiantly. Higgaion, Selah." When thou, O Lord, bearest up a poor feeble sinking soul, under a thousand pressures from guilt, the fear of wrath, and extremity of troubles, and continuance under them, and still keeps it, staying itself only on thyself, certainly it is the power of God that effects this, it is the work of our Lord this, and "it is marvellous in our eyes." Rejoice, ye heavens and earth, and all things therein; and let the multitude of the isles be glad, for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

O Son of the living God, thou art matchless in all thy excellencies. Thou art the form of God, Phil. ii. 6., and who then can be thine equal? What comparison can there be between finite and infinite? Angels and archangels be silent about your excellencies, in comparison of him, and cover your faces as ashamed of your deformity, comparative to his glorious beauty. Glorified saints, cast down your crowns at his feet, as holding your all of hìm. Ten thousand worlds own you are as nothing, and less than nothing and vanity before him, and sinners, for very shame mention not your lusts and idols in the same day with him.

Perfect excellency is in him. In the person of our Immanuel, God is fully to be contemplated in all the beauties of his holiness, in all the smiles of his grace, in all the pleasing aspects of his love, and in all the resplendency of his glory. Pure excellency is in thee. Thou, O Lord, art thousands of beauties, heaps of excellencies, and treasures of loveliness and love; thou art purely so. The angels have their folly, and the heavens their comparative impurity in thy sight; but thou art light itself, and perfection itself; there is nothing in thee but what is so. Thy person, thy gifts, thy promises, thy precepts, thy very crown, thy cross, is the perfection of beauty. When seen lifted upon the cross, thou art enough to draw all men unto thee, John xii. 32. Oh, it is enough to draw earth to heaven, and to subdue a whole world to thy grace and government. What hearts are ours; what but rocks and stones, or worse, that are not drawn more powerfully to thee, with such a cord of thy love, and are not ravished into an eternal transport with thy God-like countenance.

I would fain strive to exalt thee, O lovely and loving Redeemer; but what can I say worthy of thee, or suitable to thy super-excellent perfection? I may say, thou art white and ruddy, white in thy divine nature, which is the brightness of thy Father's person, and red in thy humanity, which was of the first Adam, who was made of red earth; white in thine own immaculate purity and innocence, but red in the imputation of our scarlet crimson sins; white in thy goodness and free grace to humble sinners, but red and bloody to thy incorrigible enemies. I may say, thou art the chosen, the chief, the standard-bearer among thousands of myriads. I may tell, that thy face is like the face of the Son of God, that thou hast a majestic head, enriched with light, and crowned with glory; that the words of thy mouth pass in sweetness honey distilling from the honeycomb, that thy

It appears from this quotation of the apostle Peter, that all the three Divine Persons in the Godhead are equally concerned in the salvation of sinners. The Father elected them from all eternity in Christ Jesus; the Son shed his (actual) blood for them in time, though he is represented as slain from before the foundation of the world, and thereby he redeemed and saved from the Adam-fall transgression, and consequently from eternal condemnation, all the Old Testament saints through his blood, according to that scripture, which saith, "There is none other name given among men whereby we must be saved," Acts iv. 12.; the Holy Spirit sanctifies them, by bringing them to a sense of their sins and danger, and to a saving knowledge of the truth, as it is in Christ Jesus.

It is evident also from the above passage, that the objects of election were considered in that eternal decree as an absolutely fallen race, totally undone, and entirely ruined, by breaking the command of God: were it not so, I cannot conceive how they could ever be chosen unto the sprinkling of Messiah's precious blood, and unto the

sanctification of the Holy Spirit of God.

You

Again. Election, though productive of good works, is not founded upon them; the elect were not chosen on account of, or for, their good works, for "every imagination [margin, the whole imagination, the purposes, and desires] of the heart of man is only evil continually (margin, every day] from his youth;" but on the contrary, good works are one of the ever-glorious ends, to which the elect, "according to the fore-knowledge of God," are chosen. Election is ever followed by regeneration; and regeneration is the real and sole cause and source of all good works. "We (the elect) are his (subsequent) workmanship, created (anew) in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath fore-ordained that we should walk in them," Eph. ii. 10. The elect are chosen as much to holiness as to heaven; and are foreordained to walk in all good works by virtue of their election from eternity, and of their conversion in time. may, perhaps, say, but the thief that was crucified with Jesus, that monster of wickedness, was he born to holiness? Did he live a holy life? I answer, yes; he was born to holiness, as well as to heaven, for no unholy thing can enter therein. He had lived a wretched, abandoned life, I admit; but were not his feelings holy, when, with contrition, he exclaimed, "Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom!" You may again say, But where were his good works, then? Did he perform any good works? To this, also, I answer, yes. What work do you call that which he performed, after the Spirit had softened his callous and wretched heart; when he rebuked his fellow-sufferer, who also, with himself, derided Jesus-"Dost thou not (said he) fear God, seeing that thou art in the same condemnation? and we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath done nothing amiss!" (Luke xxiii. 39-42. and Matt. xxvii. 44.)

What God said to Moses was as as much as if he had said, you are not saved by good works. For he said to Moses, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." "So then, (says Paul) it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy." It is also written, (2 Thess. ii. 13.) "God hath from the beginning (that is, from everlasting, Prov. viii. 23. John i. 1, 2.) chosen you to salvation, through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth." It is very evident, therefore, that all who are thus chosen to salvation, are no less, and unalterably predestinated to holiness and faith, or good works, in the mean while; that is, from the time of their conversion, till they enter the heavenly rest.

The elect, the chosen of God, the redeemed of Christ, the sanctified of the Holy Ghost, like the blessed and precious person who redeemed them,

came not into the world to do their own will, but the will of him that sent them;" and this is the will of God, even their sanctification, 1 Thess. iv. 3.; and yet the elect, the dear people of God, do their own will, because God's will is their will; for they do nothing against their will. They love to do his will. The love of Christ constrains them to every good word and work. Hence the children of God are said to be elect unto obedience; not indeed chosen on account or by reason of their obedience: oh, no; for they are "black as the tents of Kedar," (Cant. i. 5.) but they are chosen unto it. For works of righteousness are by no means the fountain of grace, but they are the streams that flow from it.

Election is the eternal and immutable purpose and design of the eternal and immutable God, to save a determinate number of the fallen race of Adam by grace, and grace alone; that is, by free favour, or unmerited kindness. Election, therefore, does not