which thou gaveft me to do." This God-glorifying work, of fuffering to the fatisfaction of juflice, behoved to be the work of God: tho' Chrift only was the fufferer, yet the Three-one God behoved to be the fupporter of him; that is, befide the divine nature of the Son, the fupereminent presence of God the Father, and the fuper-eminent unction of the Holy Ghoft; that the glory of the work might redound to the whole bleffed Trinity, which is one God, who could not give the glory of this work to another; "I the Lord have called thee in righteoufnefs, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light to the Gentiles, &c. I am the Lord, that is my name, and my glory will I not give to another," Ifaiah xlii. 6, 7, 8. Thus Chrift brought glory to God in the highest; and therefore God was with him, that God might have the glory of the work. I am not alone, because the Father

is with me.

2dly, Why will God be prefent with his PEOPLE, efpecially in their fuffering and lonely circumftances? In general, becaufe he was with CHRIST, therefore he will be with them, and allow them his gracious prefence. More particularly,

1. The Father is with them, because of his relation to them, and theirs to him, in and through Chrift. He is their Father, and they are his children; and will fuch an indulgent, merciful Father, from whom all other fathers derive their paternal affection, will he leave them alone and deny them his prefence, and forfake his children? Nay, Zion may fay, thro' unbelief, The Lord hath forfaken me, and my God hath forgotten me: but can a woman forget her fucking child, that she should not have compaffion on the fon of her womb? Yea, they may forget; yet will I not forget thee, faith the Lord," Ifa. xlix. 15, 16. There may be unnatural mothers; but he cannot be an unnatural Father: "Behold I have graven thee on the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me."

2. The Father is with them, and will not leave them. alone, becaufe this is the tenor of the new covenant,

Heb.

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Heb. xiii. 5. "I will never, never, never leave thee, nor forfake thee." The five negatives here in the original, import the frongeft affurance given, that he will not leave them alone, but will be with them. He hath promised to abide with them by his Spirit, the Comforter, to abide with them for ever; and will he not perform his promise, who hath faithfulness for the girdle of his loins? Yea, "The mountains fhall depart, and the hills be removed, but his kindness fhall not depart from them, neither shall his covenant of peace be removed."

3. He is prefent with them, because he loves them: he loved them with an everlasting love, and therefore with loving-kindnefs hath he drawn them. And will he leave them alone whom he loves with fuch an antient, everlasting, transcendent, fuperlative, and distinguishing love? He loves them as the birth of his eternal decree, the purchase of his Son's blood, and the fubjects of his Spirit's faving operation, having called them out of darknefs into his marvellous light.

4. The Father is with them, because as he is the Father of Chrift, their Head and Hufband; fo both the Father and the Son are intrufled with them. God the Father hath given them to Chrift, and Christ hath given them back to the Father; John xvii. 10. "All mine are thine, and thine are mine: Father, keep thro' thy name, thefe whom thou haft given me :" As if he fhould fay, Thou haft given them to me from eternity, to be redeemed by me; and now I give them back to thee, and commit them to thy care. Christ, like an indulgent Father, being to leave his people, as to his bodily prefence, commits his fatherlefs orphans, as it were, to the care of their Grand-father: and indeed, his Father's care is his, and his care is his Father's; for, he and his Father are one.

5. The Father is with them, because they feek him, and rely upon him for his prefence and affiftance; "They that know thy name will put their truft in thee; for thou, Lord, haft not forfaken them that feek thee," "Pfal. ix. 9. Yea, he is good to them that wait on him, and to the foul that feeketh him; for, He never faid to the feed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain."

6. The Father is prefent with them, because they need his prefence; efpecially when they are tempted and afflicted. There is a need of thefe trials, as the apostle faith, "If need be ye are in heavinefs thro' manifold temptations:" and there is a need of his prefence under them. When men and devils are on their top, they need his pity and prefence; and he affords it, efpecially in fuch circumftances; becaufe then, when they are left alone, his company and fellow fhip is moft fweet and comfortable; moft welcome and acceptable; most ufeful and feafonable; moft declarative of his name as a refuge for the oppreffed; a refuge in time of trouble; and moft evidential of his kindness, care, and compaffion, when winds of temptation blow away other companies and comforts from them, and leave them alone: then he comes faying, as Elkanah to Hannah, "Am I not better to thee than ten fons ?" Better than ten thoufand friends and familiars, as the rifing fun is better than ten thoufand ftars that are withdrawn.

V. The fifth head propofed, on the general method, was, To deduce fome inferences for the application.And,

1. Hence we may fee the wonderful love of God the Father, in the concern he had about our redemption, manifefted by the active fupport he gave to our Redeemer, in the whole of his redeeming work. He fent him to this work, and he was with him in it. The Father's good-will was the fountain-head of our redemption : and as Chrift came chearfully to do his will, faying, "Lo I come; I delight to do thy will:" fo, with heart and good-will, he attended Chrift in the whole of his work, which was juft a doing the Father's will; by which will we are fan&tified and faved; and by which will the covenant of promife was fealed with the blood of Chrift; every promife whereof are fo many expreffions of his will: "I will be your God: I will take away the heart of ftone, &c. I will put my Spirit within you."-O fee the wonderful love of God the Father, as well as of the Son, in the glafs of the Redeemer's doing and fufferings! The Father was engaged to uphold the Son therein.

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therein. This he declared to the world, that he would be with him to affift him therein, Pfal. lxxxix. 16.20,21. "I have laid help upon one that is mighty; with my oil have I anointed him: with whom my hand fhall be establifhed; mine arm alfo fhall ftrengthen him. Ifa. liii.10. 12. The pleasure of the Lord fhall profper in his hand. I will divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the fpoil with the ftrong." God the Father promised to bear down all oppofition that fhould be made to him in his undertaking, Pfal. ii. where you fee the ftrong combination of the princes of the earth against the Redeemer, and yet how he fhould break them with a rod of iron, and dafh them in pieces like a potter's veffel. He promised that the enemy fhould not exact upon him, nor the fon of mifchief wrong him; that he would beat down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him, Pfal. Ixxxix. 22, 23. Hence he is called, the mighty Redeemer; the man of God's right-hand. We find Chrift folacing himself with the thoughts of this affifting prefence of his Father, Isaiah xlix. 5. "Tho' Ifrael be not gathered, yet fhall I be glorious in the eyes of the Lord; and my glory fhall be my ftrength."

Yea, not only folacing himself with the thoughts of it, but bidding defiance to all his enemies on this very ground, Ifa. 1. 7, 8, 9. "The Lord God will help me, therefore I fhall not be confounded: therefore have I fet my face like a flint," &c. Here these promifes were accomplished, I am not alone, for the Father is with

me.

2. Hence fee, what need there was that our Redeemer fhould have his Father's prefence. It does not imply any weakness or impotency in the Son; for, confidering Chrift, as to his divine nature, he is one and the fame God with the Father: but it implies, the joint concurrence of both Father and Son, in carrying on this glorious work. And befides, Chrift is not here to be confidered fimply as God, but as Mediator; in which refpect he is man, as well as God: and in this refpect he stood in need not only of habitual grace, but of actual and renewed influences. To clear this we fhould confider,

(1.) That

(1.) That as man, he was a creature; and being a creature, he could not but depend upon his Father, for influences and fupplies of grace.

(2.) There were special promises of influences made to him; "And there fhall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jeffe, and a branch fhall grow out of his roots. And the Spirit of the Lord fhall reft upon him, the Spirit of wifdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord," Ifa. xi. 1, 2.

(3.) We find him praying for actual fupport and renewed influences; it is faid, Pfal. lxxxix. 26. "He fhall cry unto me, Thou art my Father, my God, and the rock of my falvation:" and accordingly, it is faid, that in the days of his flefh, he offered up prayers and fupplication, with ftrong cries and tears, to him that was able to fave him from death; and was heard in that he feared, Heb. v. 7.

(4.) Unlefs that his human nature had been fupported by the actual influences of the Spirit, it would have been intirely overwhelmed, under the preffure of wrath that lay on him as our Surety; for, he had that weight upon him which would have broken the backs of all the angels in heaven, cracked the axle-tree of the universe, and funk the whole creation to ruin. But, he was not alone, for the Father was with him.

3. Hence fee the foundation upon which we may, with affured confidence, expect the prefence of God with us, especially in all our fufferings and defolate circumflances: why? because he was prefent with Chrift, our Head and Surety, on our account, and when fuffering in our nature, room, and ftead, that this privilege of the divine nature might redound to the members of his myftical body. Because the Father was with him, we may be fure he will be with us. Hence comes it, that the Father's word and Spirit is with us: and hence we have his fpiritual prefence and fpiritual union; for, He that is joined to the Lord, is one Spirit: and his Spirit is in the believer as a well of water fpringing up to everlafting life. Hence comes his affimulating prefence; turning thefe that were haters and flighters of God, to