Page images
PDF
EPUB

difpenfation with you, even though he lead you in paths thorny and difficult. Keep near to your God; commune frequently with him as your father and friend, and be true to all the promises which you have made to him. Jehovah, your redeemer and furety, will be faithful to all the words which have gone out of his mouth.-He will establish you more and more. The work of grace which he hath begun you, he will complete, and having guided you by his counfel through time, he will afterwards receive you into glors.

in

A ME N.

THE

PIOUS COMMUNICANT.

Lecture X.

ON THE GREAT MEDIATOR OF THE

COVENANT,

HAVING, in the two preceding lectures, treated at confiderable length, the interefting fubject of covenanting with God; we conceived that it would tend to encourage and animate the hearts of the afflicted and dejected children of God, if we attempted a delineation of the character of the great MEDIATOR OF THE COVENANT, who, in Scripture, is emphatically ftyled the wAY; and whom all his people own to be the ONLY way by which they can be restored to happiness and God.

We fhall, therefore, invite your attention,

I. To the FULNESS and ALL-SUFFICIENCY, which, it hath pleafed the Father, fhould dwell in Christ, the only Mediator for poor and miferable finners.

II. To his PERFECT WILLINGNESS to impart life and falvation to the vileft of the vile.

III. To fome applicatory OBSERVATIONS, tend

ing both to convince the impenitent, and to adminifter encouragement to those whofe hearts are dejected and filled with doubts and fears.

What refpects the FIRST point of difcuffion, viz. THAT IN THE GREAT MEDIATOR OF THE COVENANT THERE DWELLS A FULNESS AND ALL

SUFFICIENCY FOR SINNERS: As it is taken for granted, that those truths which are annually taught us in public from the Heidelbergh Catechifm, and which respect the neceffary QUALIFICATIONS of the Mediator, are well understood, we proceed, without any preliminary obfervations, to exhibit precious Chrift in his all-fufficiency.-There dwelleth in him,

1. A complete fulness as GoD: He is, in all perfections and attributes, the equal of God the Father, and God the Holy Ghoft. But especially,

2. He is all-fufficient as the great Mediator of the covenant: for, in confequence of his having, from all eternity, taken upon him to complete the great work of falvation; and because, in time, he hath actually accomplished it by his active and paffive obedience; the Father hath invested him with all that fulness which was neceffary for the finner's eternal happiness, to the end that all his elect and redeemed ones might, out of that fulness, receive grace for grace, John i. 16. Is it afked, Whence does it appear that the glorious Jefus poffeffes a fulness for his people? We answer,

A. The NAME'S which are given him, set forth in a most perfpicuous point of light, the all-fufficiency of the Mediator. Is he called JESUS? What does it import, but that he is the Deliverer and Saviour of his people; who, refcuing them from all evil, puts them in poffeffion of all bleffedness, both in the

world that now is, and in that which is to come. Is he denominated CHRIST? It implies that he is the ANOINTED one, who is fet apart and qualified for executing the three great offices of PROPHET, PRIEST, and KING:-offices which are necessary for him to hold, if happiness eternal and infinite shall be the portion of his people. Befides these proper names, Jefus, Chrift, he is also ftyled, The LORD our Righteoufnefs, Jer. xxiii. 6. Wonderful, Counfellor, the mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, Ifai. ix. 6.

He

B. The METAPHORS which Scripture employs to represent him, difplay his mediatorial fulness. is not only denominated an ANGEL, as he is the MESSENGER of the Father, but an angel by way of eminence, one infinitely fuperior to all the angelic hoft. If he be an angel, the name of Jehovah is in him, and he is Jehovah himself, Exod. xxiii. 21;the angel of his prefence, Ifai. Ixiii. 9;-the Head, and Lord of angels, whom they ALL muft worship and adore, Heb. i. 6.-He is exhibited in the word under the emblems of the Sun, Pfalm xxxiv. 12;— the Sun of Righteousness, Mal. iv. 2;-the Star out of Jacob, Numb. xxiv. 17;—the bright and morning Star, Rev. xxii. 16;-the day-fpring from on high, Luke i. 78: for, He fhall be as the light of the morning when the fun rifeth; even a morning without clouds, 2 Sam. xxiii. 4. And wherefore is it that fuch metaphors are employed, but to teach us, that what the natural fun is to the inhabitants of the

world, Jefus is to his church? He enlightens, warms, refreshes, and makes it fruitful.

C. To manifeft the fulness and all-fufficiency of the Mediator, he is defcribed as a MAN, yes, as one fairer than the children of men, into whofe lips grace

is poured, Pfalm xlv. 2. The spouse in the Canticles, after having given a very particular description of his head, hair, neck, breaft, and feet, exclaims, H: is the chiefeft of ten thousand, and altogether lovely, Songs v. 16. v. 16. And Ifaiah, with his usual elegance of expreffion, depicts him to be a man in whom the Spirit of the Lord is-The fpirit of wifdom and understanding, the fpirit of counfel and might, the fpiri of knowledge, and of the fear of the Lord, Ifai. xi. 2.

D. The Lord Jefus is the great ANTITYPE of all thofe celebrated worthies, who had flourished in the world previous to his being manifested in the flesh. Is he not ftyled the fecond ADAM, who is the head of the whole family of the elect? Is he not like NOAH, that TRUE COMFORTER, who brings falvation and comforts his people, with refpect to the toil and labour of our hands, as the name Noah imports, Gen. v. 29. He is the real ISAAC, who is the fource from whence holy laughter and joy fprings to his people. He is another MOSES, yes, a prophet greater than Mofes, who hath revealed the whole counfel of God: the real DAVID and SOLOMON, whole wifdom, fear of God, vaft riches, and triumphant victories over his enemies, are celebrated as unparallelled by any who have preceded or fhall fucceed him. But why is he reprefented as the great antitype of all these men, if not to teach us, that he hath done, is doing, and will do more for the advancement of his people's felicity, than any of those have done, who have appeared on the stage of the world before him?

E. He was SHADOWED forth under the Old Teftament by many things, all of which combine to teach us, that all fulness dwells in him. The REDEEMERS, or GOELS, who were to exert them

« PreviousContinue »