peace between God and finners: Luke, xix. ro. "For the Son of man is come to feek and to fave that which was loft." O! may not his errand make him a welcome meffenger to the world? If we will not receive him on this errand, we are felf-deftroyers a fecond time, who having firft given ourselves a dreadful wound, in the next place reject the Saviour, the Phyfician fent to us.-Consider,

(4.) The work he was fent upon for this end; doing-work, fuffering-work. His doing-work we have in our text, it will be pleafing and acceptable to fenfible finners. His fuffering-work was hard work, but was a neceffary foundation for the other. He preached good tidings, but he brought them from his own death. He bindeth up the brokenhearted, but the healing medicine is his own blood;. he proclaims deliverance, but the ranfom was his own life. Confider,

(5.) Whence and whither he was fent; from the Father's bofom 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 fent from the regions of bliss to this lower world, and refufed not the journey; he was fent from the halleluiahs of angels, to endure the contradiction of finners against himself. And when he is come, will we not receive him?

Lastly, Confider the neceffity of this miffion: Pfal. xl. 6. "Sacrifice and offering thou didst not defire; mine ears haft thou opened; burnt-offerings and fin-offerings halt thou not required; then faid I, Lo! I come." The world had univerfally perished without remedy if he had not come. He bare up the pillars thereof, and warded off the blow of juftice, by laying his own neck on the block. And now that he is come, he must be embraced

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and improved, elfe we perish; for, Acts, iv. 12. "Neither is there falvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be faved." There is no other falvation to look to: Heb. ii. 3. "How then fhall we escape, if we neglect fo great falvation ?" -I fhall now go on to illuftrate very briefly,

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

IN illuftrating this, all that I intend is, To confirm the point briefly, and then conclude with a very fhort improvement.

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

1. Chrift is the Days-man betwixt God and finners. He was employed to take cognifance 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 judgement 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 fo much defired, Job, ix. 33. "a days-man to lay his handsupon both;" namely, to keep the diffenting parties. afunder, left 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 finners, like the ram caught in the thicket, when Ifaac was lying bound on the altar, which stopped the execution, and held the hand of justice, Pfal. vi, 7. (quoted above).--He is a days-man, to keep

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them together, left they should quite seperate, and the reconciliation of the parties blow up. Thus Christ deals with finners, who otherwife 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 fet matters on a new footing.

2. He is the Meffenger that goes betwixt the parties, intimating the mind of the one to the other, in order to make reconciliation. And in this respect Mofes was a typical mediator: Deut. v. 5. "I ftood between the Lord and you at that time, to fhew you the word of the Lord; for ye were afraid by reafon of the fire, and went not up into the mount." So Christ is called the Meffenger of the covenant, Mal. iii. 1. He brings the Lord's mind to poor finners, unfolds the thoughts of love which were from eternity in his breast: John, i. 18. “ No man hath feen God at any time, the only-begotten Son,. who is in the bofom 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 gaveft unto me, and they have received them, and have known furely that I came out from thee; and they have believed that thou didft fend me."

3. He is a Surety betwixt the parties, and therefore is called the furety of a better teftament, Heb. vii. 22.; engaging and taking burden upon him on their behalf, that fo the peace may be firm and. lafting. Chrift, the Mediator, is furety. for man to God. In the first covenant, man had no furety for himself; and there needed none. He was able to do all that was required of him; for he was in good

good cafe, there was no flaw in his estate; but in his fallen state, God would not take his word, nor his most folemn engagement; it behoved him to have a furety to undertake for him, and that both by way of fatisfaction 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 fatisfaction, who fhould be able, and would engage himself to pay the debt. Chrift the Mediator then became furety 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: Pfal. lxxxix. 19. “I have laid help upon one that is mighty;" he engaged body for body, life for life, like Judah for Benjamin, 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 falfe and fickle, and not to be trusted; fo needed a cautioner who would bind for his good behaviour. Chrift became cautioner for the poor prodigals, engaging himself that they fhall consent to the covenant: John, vi. 37. "All that the Father giveth me, fhall come to me: and him that cometh to me, I will in no wife caft out." And that having confented, they fhall hold by it, and never fall away totally and finally: John, x. 28." And will give unto them eternal life, and, they shall never perifh, neither fhall any one pluck them out of my hand." By his Spirit of faith and holiness, which he puts in them, he accordingly fecures them. He is alfo furety for God to man. He undertook that God's part of the covenant fhall 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

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of a furety, in respect of himself; but poor guilty finners, fenfible of their own unworthinefs, are timorous, misbelieving, diftrustful creatures; and therefore, that they may be helped to believe, there is a furety of their own nature, even the man Christ Jefus, granted unto them. That all the promises of God in the covenant, shall be fulfilled to those who come into it, he has completely enfured. He has given his cautionary word: John, v. 24. " Verily, verily, I fay unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that fent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is paffed from death to life." He hath given his Spirit as the earnest and seal of the promises, Eph. i. 13. "In whom alfo, after ye believed, ye were fealed with the holy Spirit of promife, which is the carneft of our inheritance, until the redemption of the purchased poffeffion, 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 death with it, faying, "This is my blood of the New Teftament, which is fhed for many, for the remission of fins,” Matth. xxvi. 28.

4. He is an Interceffor betwixt the parties: Ifa. liii. 12. "He makes interceffion for the transgressors." He, by his intereft, manages betwixt the Lord and poor finners, to fet matters right, and keep them fo. 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-Prieft appeared in the holy of holies, prefenting the blood of the facrifice to the Lord; fo does Christ appear in heaven to intercede for those for whom he has died. And he intercedes,-as a Peace-maker, who actually makes peace betwixt God and every believing finner: Hence, Heb.xii. 24.

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