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with more earnest solicitude: we will congratulate his exultation with loyal joy. O triumphant, transporting thought, that Jesus is enthroned above all heavens; that he is anointed with an unequalled effusion of the oil of gladness! With angels we will fall down and worship him, as our Lord and our God. Our hosannahs shall proclaim it, that he is set down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, and that God hath engaged to make his enemies his footstool.

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1 made him just and right.
God made man upright. Ecles. vii. 29.
Man therefore shall find grace,
The other none; in mercy and justice both.

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Jehovah, the God, merciful and gracious, long suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth; keeping mercy for thousands, and forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin; but that will, by no means, clear the guilty. Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. 134 But mercy first and last shall brightest shine.

Mercy rejoiceth against judgment. Thy mercy, O Jehovah, endureth for ever. Psalms, cxxxviii. 8. The purest motive of human action, is the love of God. There may be motives stronger, and more general, but none so pure. The religion, the virtue which owes its birth in the soul to this motive, is always genuine religion, always true virtue. Well might our blessed Saviour preach up, as he did, the love of God: it is the source of every thing which is good in PALEY.

man.

153.

that be from thee far.

That be far from thee, to slay the righteous with the wicked; and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee. Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Gen. xviii. 25. 168 Oh Son, in whom my soul hath chief delight.

This is no other than Jesus Christ, the promised deliverer, who was born of woman, that he might, in our nature, pay a full obedience to the divine commandments and endure the punishment inflicted by Divine justice for man's transgression. He lived a holy and unspotted life. He was the lamb slain from the foundation of the world, being typified in the sacrifices of old, believed in by the ancient patriarchs, and described by the inspired prophets.

170 My word, my wisdom and effectual might.

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And his name is called the Word of God. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations; and he shall rule them with a rod of iron; and he treadeth the wine-press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh, a name written, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.

but

Freely vouchsaf'd.

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In that Revelation which God has given us, we learn that faith which is necessary to salvation, we are presented with numerous instances of persons who have lived and died in the enjoyment of it. By considering their examples, we not only see the beauties of virtue, and are charmed with the

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excellencies of an humble, contented, temperate and pious life; but we gather from the information concerning the kingdom of God. We see what animated them in their progress through a troublesome world. What enabled them to resist temptation, to overcome difficulties, to brave persecution, and to encounter the terrors of death without dismay? It was not the native energy of their own minds, nor a philosophical indifference to pain and pleasure; but a belief in the "great mystery of godliness," which the Messiah undertook to accomplish for the salvation of a lost world.

Invites.

while offered grace

We beseech you, that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. Now is the accepted time: now is the day of salvation. 2 Cor. vi. 1, 2.

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A state of darkness and corruption succeeded to that of light and purity, and the whole world was found guilty before God. To obey, in every point and to the utmost extent, the Law of God, was out of the power of man, whose faculties were weakened, perverted and defiled. In this state stood Adam and all his posterity; cut off from the Divine favour, and doomed to perdition by the justice of the Almighty. It is necessary that this important fact should be felt; otherwise, the volume of inspiration will be a sealed book, and the scheme of redemption must be perplexed and unintelligible. The promise of the Redeemer was made as soon as the offence came.

197 And to the end persisting,

But he that endureth to the end shall be saved. But, when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another; for verily, I say unto you, ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel till the son of man be come. Matt. x. 22, 23.

209 He, with his whole posterity, must die,

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The important principle, that the future state is a state of retribution, according to the spiritual condition and conduct of men in this world, was little understood, till our Saviour arose and threw the light of certainty upon the awful subject. He not only taught the immortality of the soul; but the doctrine of the resurrection and final judgment, when all the dead shall appear at the tribunal of the Almighty, to be judged every man according to his works.

and just the unjust to save? Christ suffered for sins, the just for the unjust. 1 Peter, iii. 18.

218 And silence was in heaven.

What an inimitable beauty lies in the representation that such an innumerable multitude of compassionate beings should be so struck with terror and surprise, at the mention of the deadly ransom set! What language could surpass or be so expressive as this idea of silence. Words, in so emphatical a manner, could not have expressed the inability of all creatures to execute the task. 236 Behold me then;

Then, said he, Lo, I come to thy will, O God. Could nothing short of this satisfy the demands of infinite justice: nothing less than this sacrifice

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save a guilty race from destruction, and open to them the gates of everlasting life! Heb. x. 9. The golden key

That opes the palace of eternity.

and for him lastly die.

Lord, what is man, that thou art mindful of him; or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Psalms, viii. 3, 4.

When we were yet without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. Romans, v. 6. 241 On me let death wreck all his rage.

Therefore doth my father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it up again. No man taketh it from me; but I lay it down of myself, and I have power to take it up again. This commandment have I received of my father. John, x. 17, 18.

244 Life in myself, for ever;

Though he appeared under the form of a servant, and, as man and mediator, confessed a holy subjection to his Father and his God: yet is he his own, his only begotten son, whom he loves, whom he honours, whom he commands all men to honour even as himself, and to whom such power and authority are committed, that he is the principle of life, and the administrator of judgment; for as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. John, v. 26. 250 and subdue

My vanquisher,

Death: one enemy then still remains to be subdued, a dreadful enemy, if we meet him unprepared; an easy conquest, if we have set God constantly before us, and have reason to believe

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