fery. No wonder, then, we be dead, that we can do no good while in this ftate of separation from God. God alfo is departed from us, Jer. vi. 7. Will not this end in eternal feparation, if we return not ?-The invitation imports,

2. That if you have a mind to meet and unite with God again, you must meet with him in Chrift, and unite with God in him. "All things (fays Jefus) are delivered unto me of my Father. Come therefore unto me, all ye that labour, and are heavy-laden, and I will give you reft." Would you have peace, pardon, and every blessing? you must come to him for it. God has condefcended fo far to forward the meeting, that he has come down, and dwelt in the flesh of Chrift, there to wait finners, to promote their meeting with him : 2 Cor. v. 19. "God is in Chrift, reconciling the world unto himself." He needed not to have come fo far, but of his own free grace he has done it; but he will never come farther. There, then, and only there, finners may meet him; God is in him, and is there to make up the peace through him; and if you will not come to him, and meet God there, you shall never fee his face in peace.Here it may be proper to fhew, that this is God's contrivance for re-uniting with finners that are by fin far from him; and that there is no other way. This appears,

1

(1.) From plain fcripture-teftimony: John, xiv. 6. "I (faid Jefus) am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh to the Father, but by me." He is the great Secretary of heaven, by whom alone you can be brought into the King's prefence: Eph. ii. 18. “ For through him we both have accefs by one Spirit unto the Father." The keys of the houfe of David hang at his girdle.

(2) If there were any other way of coming to

God again, it behoved to be one of these two: either, t, By fatisfying the law according to the firft covenant; but that is impoffible for us, feeing we cannot give perfect obedience, nor fatisfy juftice for the fins we are guilty of, Gal. iii. 10. often quoted: Or, 2dly, in a way of mere mercy, for mercy's fake. But this cannot be: for,The juftice of God neceffarily requires fatisfaction, and God will not dispense his mercy in prejudice of his juftice: Pfal. v. 5. "The foolish shall not stand in thy fight, and thou hateft all the workers of iniquity." One part of the character of God is, that "he will by no means clear the guilty," namely, without fatisfaction. The law is already made, fenced with threatenings of eternal wrath, and it is broken; God's justice and truth are both, in confequence, engaged to fee the threatening accomplifhed.--Again, God's last will and testament is already made, and fealed by the death of his Son, but there is no fuch way proposed in it; no mercy but in Chrift; yea, God has declared they shall have no mercy that come not to Chrift: Matth. xvi. 16. "He that believeth, and is baptised, shall be faved; but he that believeth not shall be damned."-Moreover, the very providing of this way makes it evident that there is no other. Were there another way of bringing finners to God, would not an infinitely wife God, and a loving Father, have fetched a compass, and difpenfed with the blood of his own Son? If any could have been fpared, it might have been expected that He would; but, Rom. viii. 32. "God fpared not his own Son, but delivered him up to the death for us all."-Finally, ever fince Adam was driven out of paradise, this has been held forth as the only way, as in the first promise. Abel's acceptance was by it, Heb. xi. 4. Jefus

Jefus is the only propitiatory, where God speaks in mercy to fianers.

Here I might also fhew, what a suitable contrivance this is, for the purpose of uniting God and finners. It is moft fuitable: For,

1. It is fuited to God's honour, the glory of his divine perfections: Heb. ii. 10. "For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many fons unto glory, to make the Captain of their falvation perfect through fufferings." God, with the fafety of his honour, may be reconciled to the worft of finners in Chrift; yea, the glory of all his perfections fhines forth moft illuftrioufly in the myftcry of Chrift; there would be no fafety in this plan, if it were not fo.

2. It is fuited to the comfort of the finner, the contrivance being fuch, that it anfwers all the ne-. ceffities of the finner: Rev. iii. 18. “I counfel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayeft be rich, and white raiment, that thou mayeft be cloathed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear, and anoint thine eyes with eye-falve, that thou mayeft fee." So that the foul may confidently come to God by Chrift, who can do fuch things for it.

LET us more particularly confider this contrivance of the finner's coming to, and uniting with God, by coming to Chrift.-With this view, we obferve,

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1. That Chrift is a fubftantial Mediator, partaking of both natures. He is the Father's fellow, yet bone of our bone. The worst of men are fibber to heaven than the fallen angels; for "Jefus took not upon him the nature of angels, but the feed of Abraham." Here is the true ladder, the foot of which, his humanity, is fet on the earth, the top of which,

More nearly related.

which, his divinity, reaching to heaven, Gen.xxviii. above which the Lord ftands making the covenant. If it confifted with the honour of God, for the divine nature to take into perfonal union with itself the human nature, it is equally confiftent to take men into myftical union with the divine perfon of our Immanuel, upon this foundation. And when finners fee the firft, they are encouraged to look for the fecond in Chrift.

2. In Chrift juftice is fatisfied: He said, "It is finifhed." In him God has had prefented to him a facrifice to offended juftice, a fatisfaction to his law. God exacted, and he answered, till the utmost farthing was paid: Gal. iii. 13. « Christ hath redeemed us from the curfe of the law, having been made a curfe for us ;" and he got up the discharge. The finner has in him a defence againft juftice, an everlasting righteousness, in which God may behold the finner, and be well pleafed with him, and the finner may fee God, and yet live. Mercy has a free vent in him, and pardons run freely through his blood. We obferve,

3. That the covenant is made with him in his blood; and all the promises of the covenant, all the benefits of it, finners have at the fecond hand, Gal. iii. 16. God has laid up all in him : 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." Sinners are to come to him for faving bleffings, and to take them from him as the purchase of his blood: John, v. 22. Our righteousness, pardon, peace, are all in him, " who of God is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption," 1 Cor. i. 30. Grace is in him, " for of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace," John, i. 16. Glory is from him: "The Lord will give grace and glory."

4. By this means, the grace of God is exalted. It is to the praife of the glory of his grace. This is neceffary for the glory of God in the fecond covenant, and for the finner's comfort, which could not be promoted nor fecured except in this way.

5. Here the matter is made fure; God is fure of the finner, and the finner sure of his union with God: fuch as are built upon this foundation, made members of him, Jefus will lofe none of them. From what has been stated, I would infer,

(1.) That all who come to Christ shall come back to the state of union and communion with God, through him who knits heaven and earth, rent asunder by Adam's fin. Let your fins be never fo great, these shall not ftop it, of his blood is. louder in God's ears, our fins.-Infer,

for the cry than that of

(2.) That they that never come to Chrift, fhall never see God in mercy. Meet they may, but it will be a fad meeting, a meeting as of a malefactor with an inexorable judge, dry ftubble with confuming fire, where our leaf will be as rottennefs, and the bloffoms of Christlefs duties go up as duft.

Thus you fee there is but one door to God; but what if it be fhut? No; it is open. For the invitation imports,

3. That finners are welcome to come to Chrift, that they may unite with God by him; Chrift is ready to receive you on your coming.As to this, confider,

(1.) Chrift has made a long journey to meet with finners. What brought him out of the Father's bofom into the world, but to bring finners to himself, and fo back to God again? What was the errand of the great Shepherd, but to feek them, even them that were ftraying on the moun