diftance is removed in his incarnation, and the moral diftance in his fatisfaction. All bars and impediments that stood in our way from law and juftice removed, which could never have been effected by all the angels in heaven, or men upon earth; and yet this is done, and done by him, who took not on him the nature of angels, but the feed of Abraham. 8. Here you will fee" the veil of the temple rent from top to bottom, and the way to the holieft of all opened;" fo that we may now "enter in with boldness by the blood of Jefus." The veil of the ceremonial law is rent, the veil of the curfe of the moral law is rent, in the rending alunder of the foul and body of Chrift upon Mount Calvary. 9. In him you may fee God, firft marrying our nature into a personal union with himself, and then, having come upon a level with us, or having become one of our tribe, or family, prefents himfelf as a Bridegroom, profering marriage with our perfons; for this is the voice of Immanuel God-man, If. liv. 5." Thy maker is thine husband (the Lord of hofts is his name)"; or, Hof. ii. 19. "I will betrothe thee unto me for ever; yea, Ι will betrothe thee unto me in righteoufnefs, and in judgement, and in loving-kindness, and in mercy; I will ever betrothe thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord," viz. in a way of conjugal love and communion. 10. Here you will fee him confirming the, covenant of grace and promife, and turning it into an inviolable teftamentary deed, which no man can difannul. Dan. ix. 27. "He fhall confirm the covenant with many." Heb. ix. 16. 17. "Where a teftament is, there must also of neceffity be the death of the teftator, for a teftament is of force after men are dead: otherwife it is of no force at all while the teftator liveth." Sirs, this is what we are to prefent you with in this holy ordinance of the fupper, even the confirmed teftament of him who took on him the feed of Abraham," for Luke xxii. 29. "This cup (fays Chrift) is the new teftament in my blood," Matth. xxvi. 27. "drink ye all of it."

Secondly, Another word of exhortation is this. I call you who are the fons and daughters of Zion, not only to "go forth and behold king Solomon," and the wonders of his perfon and mediation, but I call you to be his bride and spouse, by giving the heart and hand to him as the bridegroom. Let there be a match this day made up betwixt Chrift and your fouls. Has the glorious Son of God, "the brightness of his Father's glory," taken hold of your nature in the family of Abraham? O then take hold of him as your kinfman; and fay, as Kuth did unto Boaz, "Spread thy fkirt over me,"

and

and perform the kinfman's part by marrying me. Sirs, I tell you, that our bleffed goel and kinfman, as he took part of your flesh, fo he wears your nature, that he may wed you, and betrothe you unto himself for ever. Oh! will you go with the man, 66 Immanuel, God with us?" His hand is ftretched out, while I am speaking, faying to every one in this company, "Behold me! behold me !" O! fubfcribe the contract with heart and hand, faying, 'I am the Lords; I will be for thee, and not for another, who took not on thee the nature of angels, but took on thee the nature of man, or the feed of Abraham. Oh! that this may be the weeding-day.' "All things are ready, O come to the marriage." 1. The Bridegroom is ready, the matchlefs Immanuel; behold he ftandeth behind your wall. "Behold the Bridegroom cometh," yea he is come; he ftands at the door and knocks, faying, Open to me, Rev. iii. 20. &c. 2. The Bridegroom's Father is ready; he confents that there fhould be a match between you and his eternal Son; he cries from heaven, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. This is his commandment, that ye believe in him,” and fo take him as my unfpeakable gift. 3. The Spirit, the third perfon of the glorious Trinity, is ready, as the minister, to caft the everlasting knot between you and him, Rev. xxii. 17. "The Spirit faith, Come." Heb. iii. 7. 8. The Holy Ghoft faith, "To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." Many a kind motion doth the Spirit of God make on your fouls, in order to carry on the match. 4. The friends of the Bridegroom, all faithful minifters and Chriftians, are ready they rejoice "greatly becaufe of the Bridegroom's voice" in the gofpel, offering marriage to you. Oh to hear the voice of the bride alfo faying, "My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefeft among ten thoufands-His countenance is as Lebanon; excellent as the cedars-My beloved is mine, and I am his; he feedeth among the lilies; until the day break, and the fhadows flee away." 5. The contract is ready, I mean the covenant of grace. The draught of it was made

the table of the council of peace from eternity, and the extract of it is in the Bible you have amongst your hands: and we bring it forth to you in the preaching of the gospel, and prefent it to every one, faying, "To you (and you, and you), is the word of this falvation fent. The promife is to you, and to your feed." Oh! let us all fear, left a promife being made, any of us fhould come fhort of it through unbelief. 6. The marriage-houfe is ready, both the lower and the higher ftories of it are ready: and that moment you believe, you en

ter

ter into the rest of the bleffed Bridegroom; ye enter into the house which Wisdom hath built with feven pillars, and shall ere long be tranfported to the upper houfe of many manfions, where ye fhall behold his face, and "be with him for ever." The marriage-fupper is ready; for Wisdom has not only builded her house of mercy, but "the hath killed her oxen and fatlings; the hath mingled her wine, and furnished her table," Prov. ix. 2-5. "Wisdom hath builded her house, The hath hewn out her feven pillars. She hath killed her beafts, the hath mingled her wine; fhe hath alfo furnished her table. She hath fent forth her maidens, fhe crieth upon the highest places of the city. Whofo is fimple, let him turn in hither as for him that wanteth understanding, the faith to him, Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled." 7. The marriage-robe of righteousness, and garment of falvation, is ready; for the "righteoufnefs of God is revealed in the gofpel." The Lord is crying to this company, "Hearken unto me, ye ftout-hearted, that are far from righteousness, I bring near my righteousness,-I have placed falvation in Zion, for Ifrael my glory."

Well then, Sirs, fince all is ready, there is nothing wanting but the bride. O come, and be the bride of the glorious Bridegroom; and let us all cry one to another, as Rev. xix. 7. "Let us be glad and rejoice, for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready." Amen, Amen, Amen.

THE BROKEN LAW MAGNIFIED AND MADE
HONOURABLE, &c.

ISA. xlii. 21.-The Lord is well pleafed for his righteousness fake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable,

THE FIRST SERMON ON THIS TEXT.

TE

HIS chapter, you fee, is ushered in with a folemn call from God the father of all the world, both Jews and Gentiles, to take notice of Mefliah the Prince, the eternal Son of God, whom he was, in the fuluefs of time, to fend into the

world,

world, upon the great errand and business of the redemption of loft finners of Adam's family: and to arrest their attention and admiration unto this extraordinary perfon, many great and glorious things are faid of him; as that he was his Father's honorary fervant, his elect, the darling and delight of his foul; that he is qualified, and fitted, and called to his work. And having spoken of the base treatment he was to meet with fron the Jewish nation, the prophet comes, in the words of my text, to declare what account his own Father made of his perfon and undertaking: Whatever bafe and low thoughts his friends and countrymen may have of him, yet he "is glorious in the eyes of the Lord;" God's fentiments of him are quite different from theirs, for the Lord is well pleafed for bis righteousness fake; as if he had faid, However he be "despised and rejected of men, as a root sprung out of a dry ground," however you may make no more account of him than if he were deaf, blind, and dumb, yet "he is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleafed." Obferve, from this con nection, that God's thoughts of Christ are very different from the thoughts that an unbelieving world have of him; an unbelieving world, with Herod, and his men of war, fets him at nought, but his Father reckons him the "brightnefs of his glory," and calls him his elect.

The words then in general are, Jehovah's verdict concerning the righteoufnefs brought in by the great Meiliah, with the ground thereof; the Lord is well pleafed for his righteoufniss fake.

Where we may notice, t. The great and glorious party here fpoken of, and that is the Lord, or, as in the original, Jehovah the righteous Judge, the offended Lord and Lawgiver, to whose wrath all mankind are obnoxious and liable, through the breach and violation of the first covenant.

2. Something afferted concerning him, which may arrest the attention of all mankind, and fill their hearts with joy, and their mouths with praifes, and that is, that he is well pleafed. Whenever man had finned, the anger and wrath of God was kindled against him, and his fury was breaking out like fire, and nothing remained for poor man, but a fearful looking for of wrath, and fiery indignation, to confume him and all his pofterity, as a company of traitors and rebels; but here is a furprifing declaration, that though he was angry, yet his anger is turned away, his frowns are turned into Imiles; the Lord, Jehovah, is well pleafed. Again,

3. We have the caufe and ground of this furprifing declaration. Why, what is the cause of his being well pleased? It is for his righteoufness fake; not for the fake of any ransom,

atonement,

atonement, or fatisfaction, that the finner could make, for no man can by any means redeem his own or his brother's foul, nor give unto God a ranfom for it. The redemp tion of the foul is precious, and ceaseth for ever as to him; but it is for his righteousness fake, who finished tranfgreffion, and made an end of fin, who makes "reconciliation for iniquity," and fo brings in an "everlasting righteoufnefs;" the righteous Lord loveth righteoufnefs," and without it he cannot look with pleasure on any of Adam's race; while Christ becomes the end of the law for righteoufnefs," he fulfills the precept, and undergoes the penalty of it, whereupon the Lord declares himself to be well pleafed for his righteousness Jake.

61

4. We have the reafon why the Lord Jehovah fuftains the righteoufnels of the Surety in the room of the finner, or why he is fo well pleafed for his righteousness fake; why (he ball magnify the law, and make it honourable), the holy law of God, given unto man in innocency as a covenant, or an eternal rule of righteoufnefs, was violate and broken, and the authority of the great Lawgiver affronted and contemned by man's difobedience but Chrift, as our Surety, he is "made of a woman, and made under the law;" and, by bringing in everlafting righteoufnefs, he not only fulfilled the law, both in its precept and penalty, but he magnifies it, and makes it honourable; he adds a new luftre and glory unto the law, which it never had before, through the dignity of his person who obeys it.

Some read the latter claufe of the verfe thus, He ball magnify the law, and make (him) honourable and fo the meaning is this: 1. Chrift fhall not only repair the honour of the law, but restore honour to God the great Lawgiver; and, indeed, never was there fuch a revenue of glory and honour brought in to the crown of heaven, as by the obedience and fatisfaction of Chrift: "Now (fays Chrift) is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him." Through Christ, God can fave finners, and give vent to his love, grace, and mercy, upon terms that are honourable to his law, juftice, holiness, feverity, and other perfections, that were lefed and injured by the fin of man. Or, 2. He fball magnify the law, and make him (i. e. Chrifl) honourable; and fo the latter claufe of the verse is a promise of the Father unto the Son, that, upon his repairing the honour of the law by his humiliation, he would make him honourable by a glorious exaltation, he would give him "a name above every name." But, in my fubfequent difcourfe, I fhall follow the reading in the tranflation, and the fenfe already given of it.

From