he had not been perfectly able to pay the debt. He had never laid the sinner's help upon him, if he had not been able to bear the weight of it.

3. See here the manifold wisdom of God, how it is displayed in the contrivance of salvation through Christ. The first creation was a work of wisdom; but the second was more so; the confused heap at first was little in comparison of the confusion sin brought into the world, but divine wisdom brought order out of this confusion. Truth meets with mercy, righteousness and peace embrace each other, sin is punished, and the sinner spared. Out of the greatest affront to God, rises the occasion of his greatest glory, his Son's obedience instead of theirs. When at the fall hell rejoiced, angels stood astonished, and men lay groveling in the depth of misery, wisdom found out a way of recovery, to the marring of the devil's joy, the dissipating man's fears, and giving angels a mystery of wisdom to pry into: Eph. iii. 10, "To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Jesus Christ our Lord."

4. See here the amazing mercy of God to objects in the deepest misery. To have given rebel sinners some years' respite from their due punishment, to have locked them up in hell, to be released after some millions of years, would have glorified mercy; but for an offended God to provide a Mediator himself, proclaims the height and depth of infinite mercy.

5. See here the love of God to poor sinners. The love of the Father is wonderful, in sending his own Son to recover sinners by his obedience and death: John iii. 16, "God so loved the world, that he gave his Son, his only-begotten Son, unto the death, the most bitter death, even the death of the cross."-The love of Christ, which undertook that heavy work for poor sinners. Here is love admirable in all its dimensions: Christ coming in the room of sinners. If ye doubt his love, look into his pierced side, and behold its glowings there. The love of the Spirit dwelling in Christ, as the Head, to enliven poor sinners as his members, being in him, exciting, moving him forward to the work, and fitting him for it.-I shall only add a use of exhortation.

O sirs, let Christ be your choice, as he was the Father's. His Father is well pleased with him, be you also well pleased with him. Employ him in your every case, put all your cases in his hand, lay your help where the Father hath laid it. Receive him whom the Father hath sent, receive him for all the ends to which the Father hath anointed and sent him. He is called Messiah, and Christ,

to denote his being anointed as the Prophet, Priest, and King of his people; he was anointed for all these offices, receive and improve him in them all. He is anointed as the great Prophet, to declare the mind of God to sinners: Isa. lxi. 1, He is to "preach good tidings to the meek." Receive him for your Prophet, and teacher; renouncing your own wisdom, submit yourselves to be taught by his word and Spirit; and go to him for direction in all cases. He is an anointed Priest: Psalm cx. 4, "The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, thou art a Priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec." Receive him as your Priest, laying the weight of your souls on his sacrifice and intercession; renouncing all confidence in yourselves. Carry your guilt to him, to be carried off by his atonement, and put all your spiritual sacrifices in his hand, for only out of his hand will they be accepted. He is anointed King: Psalm ii. 6, "Yet have I set my King upon my holy hill of Zion." Submit yourselves a willing people to the royal Mediator to receive his commandments, to live according to his laws, to pursue the interest of his kingdom in the world, and to fight under his banner against the devil, the world, and the flesh; since for these ends he is sent, and has come, it lies on us to receive him as such. And that this may have weight with you, consider,

(1.) Who sent him; the Father, the first person of the glorious Trinity John v. 37, " The Father himself," said he, " that hath sent me, hath borne witness of me." And will we not welcome him whom the Father hath sent, and entertain him for the ends for which he is sent? The Father had a concern for the salvation of lost sinners, and hath sent them a deliverer, a Saviour. How will you answer if you slight him?-Consider,

(2.) Who is sent. The Father hath put an honour on man, beyond what he hath put on angels, in that he sent a Saviour for the one, not for the other. Had he sent a lower person, an angel, with what profound respect ought we to have received him as the messenger of the Lord? how much more when he hath sent his own Son? Consider,

(3.) The errand and design on which he was sent; namely, to recover a lost world, to make up the peace between God and sinners: Luke xix. 10, "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." O! may not his errand make him a welcome messenger to the world? If we will not receive him on this errand, we are self-destroyers a second time, who having first given ourselves a dreadful wound, in the next place reject the Saviour, the Physician sent to us.-Consider,

(4.) The work he was sent upon for this end; doing-work, suffer

ing-work. His doing-work we have in our text, it will be pleasing and acceptable to sensible sinners. His suffering-work was hard work, but was a necessary foundation for the other. He preached good tidings, but he brought them from his own death. He bindeth up the broken-hearted, but the healing medicine is his own blood; he proclaims deliverance, but the ransom was his own life.-Consider,

(5.) Whence and whither he was sent; from the Father's bosom to this earth, where he was entertained with all evil treatment, till they nailed him to a cross, and he was buried in a grave, Phil. ii. 6-8. He was sent from the regions of bliss to this lower world, and refused not the journey; he was sent from the hallelujahs of angels, to endure the contradiction of sinners against himself. And when he is come, will we not receive him?

Lastly, Consider the necessity of this mission: Psalm xl. 6, “Sacrifice and offering thou didst not desire; mine ears hast thou opened; burnt-offerings and sin-offerings hast thou not required; then said I, Lo! I come." The world had universally perished without remedy if he had not come. He bare up the pillars thereof, and warded off the blow of justice, by laying his own neck on the block. And now that he is come, he must be embraced and improved, else we perish; for, Acts iv. 12, "Neither is there salvation in any other for there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved." There is no other salvation to look to Heb. ii. 3, "How then shall we escape, if we neglect so great salvation?"-I shall now go on to illustrate very briefly,

DOCTRINE II. That the work upon which the Mediator was sent forth, necessarily required the fulness of the Spirit to be lodged in him.

In illustrating this, all that I intend is, to confirm the point briefly, and then conclude with a very short improvement.

To confirm this point, we need do no more but give a short account of Christ's mediatory work.

1. Christ is the day's-man betwixt God and sinners. He was employed to take cognisance of the difference between the two parties, to decide who it was had done the wrong, and on what terms they might be reconciled. Hence we read, John v. 22, "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son." He has framed the covenant of reconciliation, as Mediator between the parties: Song iii. 9, "King Solomon made himself a chariot of the wood of Lebanon." In him is found what Job so much desired, Job ix. 33, a day's-man to lay his hands upon both :" namely, to keep the dissenting parties asunder, lest they should

fall foul of one another. This the Mediator had to do; this he did when he timeously stept in betwixt an offended God and guilty sinners, like the ram caught in the thicket, when Isaac was lying bound on the altar, which stopped the execution, and held the hand of justice, Psalm vi. 7, (quoted above).—He is a day's-man, to keep them together, lest they should quite separate, and the reconciliation of the parties blow up. Thus Christ deals with sinners, who otherwise would run away from God, and never come in terms with him. Thus he did with our first parents, whom he brought out of their hiding-place, to set matters on a new footing.

2. He is the Messenger that goes betwixt the parties, intimating the mind of the one to the other, in order to make reconciliation. And in the respect Moses was a typical mediator: Deut. v. 5, “I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to shew you the word of the Lord for ye were afraid by reason of the fire, and went not up into the mount." So Christ is called the Messenger of the covenant, Mal. iii. 1. He brings the Lord's mind to poor sinners, unfolds the thoughts of love which were from eternity in his breast: John i. 18, "No man hath seen God at any time, the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." Thus he brings down the covenant out of the register of heaven, and proclaims it to rebels: and if there be any among them content to come into it, and who accept of it, he reports their acceptance to his Father: John xvii. 8, "For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest unto me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee; and they have believed that thou didst send me."

none.

3. He is a Surety betwixt the parties, and therefore is called the surety of a better testament, Heb. vii. 22; engaging and taking burden upon him on their behalf, that so the peace may be firm and lasting. Christ the Mediator, is surety for man to God. In the first covenant, man had no surety for himself; and there needed He was able to do all that was required of him; for he was in good case, there was no flaw in his estate; but in his fallen state, God would not take his word, nor his most solemn engagement; it behoved him to have a surety to undertake for him, and that both by way of satisfaction and caution. Man was broken, was drowned in debt which he never would be able to pay, and so he needed a surety to make satisfaction, who should be able and would engage himself to pay the debt. Christ the Mediator then became surety for the broken man, undertook to pay all his debt, gave in his bond for it in the covenant of redemption, which the Father accepted: Psalm lxxxix. 19, "I have laid help upon one that is mighty;"

:

he engaged body for body, life for life, like Judah for Benjaman, Gen. xliii. 9, in the fulness of time he paid the debt, and got up the discharge at his own resurrection from the dead. Man was false and fickle, and not to be trusted; so needed a cautioner who would bind for his good behaviour. Christ became cautioner for the poor prodigals, engaging himself that they shall consent to the covenant: John vi. 37, "All that the Father giveth me, shall come to me: and him that cometh to me, I will in nowise cast out." And that having consented, they shall hold by it, and never fall away totally and finally John x. 28, " And I will give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any one pluck them out of my hand." By his Spirit of faith and holiness, which he puts in them, he accordingly secures them. He is also surety for God to man. He undertook that God's part of the covenant shall be punctually fulfilled to us: 2 Cor. i. 20, ❝ For all the promises of God in him are yea, and in him amen, to the glory of God by us." It is true, the infinite veracity and power of the principal leaves no need of a surety, in respect of himself; but poor guilty sinners, sensible of their own unworthiness, are timorous, misbelieving, distrustful creatures; and therefore, that they may be helped to believe, there is a surety of their own nature, even the man Christ Jesus, granted unto them. That all the promises of God in the covenant shall be fulfilled to those who come into it, he has completely ensured. He has given his cautionary word: John v. 24, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death to life." He hath given his Spirit as an earnest and seal of the promise, Eph. i. 13, " In whom also, after ye believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory." He has given them the first-fruits of the Spirit in themselves, Rom. viii. 23. He has also given them the sacrament. He has gone to deal with it, saying, "This is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for many, for the remission of sins,” Matth. xxvi. 28.

4. He is an intercessor betwixt the parties: Ias. liii. 12, “He makes intercession for the transgressors." He, by his interest, manages betwixt the Lord and poor sinners, to set matters right, and keep them so. This is that which relates to the application of his redemption, and puts life in the Mediator's death, that it may be efficacious to his chosen ones. As the high priest appeared in the holy of holies, presenting the blood of the sacrifice to the Lord; so does Christ appear in heaven to intercede for those for whom he has