For he has in his person every possible subject of triumphant joy. He is true and very God: and he is true and very man-God and man in one Christ. The prophet Isaiah foretold this marvellous union, and gloried in the prospect: For us men, and for our salvation, a child is born, and a son is given and his name shall be called Wonderful, because the child is the mighty God, and the Son is the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. This is the great mystery of godliness, of which the Saints in the Old Testament sang with the sweetest melody, in their hearts unto the Lord, as the prophet does in the one hundred and forty-eighth Psalm, calling upon all in heaven and earth, with all their inhabitants, to join him in the praises of Immanuel: Because his Name alone is excellent, and his praise above heaven and earth. So that New Testament saint felt it, who declared, that he accounted all things but loss, for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things,

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and I do account them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in himfound so united to him as to be one with him: for he was united to our nature, in order to bring about another most blessed union. He, taking our nature, that we might take his-He, made the Son of man, that we might be made the sons of God-He, having the power of an endless life, that he might give spiritual and eternal life to all believers! For they, in the day of his power, are joined to the Lord by one Spirit-the same Spirit in the members as in the headthat through him, their Head, they might be able to say, Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ, by the bond of his Spirit. It is not possible for man to conceive higher things than our Lord has prayed for in these words: "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that thou hast sent me: and the glory which thou

gavest me, I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one." By virtue of this union with Christ, who is the head over all things to the church, his members have fellowship with him in his holy life: He is the Lord Jehovah their righteousness: for them he became subject to the law, and obedient to its precepts, born of a woman, and made under the law, that through his obedience many might be made righteous. Lo! I come, says he, to DO thy will, O God! and he did it by fulfilling all righteousness. As the surety for his people, what he did, when he magnified the law, and made it infinitely honourable in all its demands, was for them, and for their justification, that it might be imputed unto them for righteousness, and they might be dealt with as righteous at the judgment seat of God. In this the father of the faithful made his boast, and gloried all the day long: for we read, that he believed in God, and God imputed to him for righteousness, loving him as his friend, and blessing him in all things. Now it was not written for his sake

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alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead: for the children of believing Abraham are freely made heirs, as he was, of the righteousness which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Hear one of them; what heart felt-joy he celebrates his triumphant state in Christ! "I will hope continually, and I will praise thee more and more— my mouth shall show forth thy righteousness, and thy salvation all the day for I know not the numbers thereof: I will go in the strength of the Lord God, I will make mention of thy righteousness, even of thine ONLY." He found the blessings flowing from it numberless, and endless: so that it was all he wanted for his justification to life, and for his title to glory-it ONLY. In the same Psalm, admiring and adoring the wonders of the gift of grace, he breaks out:

Thy righteousness, O God, is very high, who hast done great things; O God, who is like unto thee?" He was so complete in this righteousness of Christ, that he would mix

nothing with it for his free access to God, or for his full acceptance before God. He knew that this righteousness of faith was appointed of God, was the gift of his grace, and was all-sufficient, being an everlasting righteousness and therefore it effectually removed the consciousness of sin from his heart, and enabled him to come boldly to the throne of grace, where he stood perfectly justified in Jesus. And in the same spirit we hear a New Testament saint resolving to exclude all glorying, except in Christ, and in his righteousness," in whom God can be just, and yet the justifier of him who believ eth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? By the law of works? nay, but by the law of faith: therefore we conclude, that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law; and that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth." This was the apostle's highest ambition, to be found in his precious Saviour. O that I may rejoice in him through life, and may be found in