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made to him, upon condition of perfect obedience, devolves upon him as a fecond Adam, and he becomes the righteous heir of everlasting life, not only by birth, but alfo by purchafe; and all the promises of the covenant, and all the falvation of the covenant, stands in him. And that moment a finner quits his holding of the firft Adam, and of the law as a covenant, and, by a faith of God's operation, is determined. to take hold of Christ, and the covenant whereof he is Head, that moment, I fay, he is brought into the bonds of the covenant of grace and promife, according to that which you have, If. lv. 3. "Hear, and your fouls fhall live, and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the fure mercies of David," &c.

3dly, He was fet up from everlasting, as a repairer of breaches between God and man. Whenever man fianed, and joined himself in a confederacy with Satan, the god of this world, the breach between God and man became wide like the fea; death and hell was the penalty of the law; the faithfulnels of God was engaged, that "without the fhedding of blood there could be no remiffion of fins." And though all the angels of heaven, and men upon earth, had been facrificed, and their blood shed, in order to fatisfy justice, it would have been rejected; the offence was infinite, with respect to the object of it, and therefore a fatisfaction of infinite value behoved to be offered, Pfal. xl. 6. Heb. x. Sacrifices and offerings thou wouldeft not, viz. of man's providing. Well, then, How shall the breach be repaired? How fhall the different claims of mercy and juftice be reconciled, with refpect to the guilty criminal? Lo, I come, fays Chrift, I will affume the human nature, and in that nature I will die in the room of the criminal; and in this way I will make peace through the blood of my crofs. I will be wounded for their tranfgreffions, and bruifed for their iniquities; the chaftifement of their peace fhall be upon me, and by my fripes they fhall be healed; and fo juftice fhall be fatisfied, and mercy fhall be for ever magnified. 1 Pet. iii. 18. "Chrift alfo hath once fuffered for fins, the juft for the unjuft, (that he might bring us to God.") Thus he is fet up as the Repairer of breaches; hence called the Mediator between God and man: and there is no Mediator between God and men, but the man Chrift Jefus.

4thly, He is fet up as the true temple where God fets his name, and in which alone God is to be worshipped in an acceptable way and manner. The Old Teftament tabernacle and temple was but a fhadow of Chrift, in whom the fulness of

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the Godhead dwells bodily. And as all the worship of Ifrael was to be performed in the temple; fo all our facrifices and fervices are to be offered up in the name of Chrift, for he hath made us accepted in the Beloved. In him, as our New Teftament: Temple, is to be feen the true Shechina, the brightness of the Father's glory, and the exprefs image of his perfon. Here is the true oracle whereby the mind of God is conveyed unto us," For no man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bofom of the Father, he hath declared him." Here is the true ark where the tables of the law are kept, and in whom the law is magnified and made honourable. In him we have the true mercy-feat and throne of grace, unto which we are called to come with boldness, that we may obtain grace, and find mercy to help in every time of need. Here we have the Priest of our profeffion miniftering in the holy of holies, and appearing in the prefence of God for us.

5thly, He is fet up as a bridge of communication between. God and man, between heaven and earth, by which God comes down to us, and we come up unto him, notwithstanding of the two infinite gulfs of natural and moral distance between him and us. Thefe gulfs were impaffable, until Chrift, by his incarnation, took away the natural distance; for in him, as IMMANUEL, God and Man meet together in one person: and by his death and fatisfaction he removed the moral diftance, by taking away the fin of the world; for this end was he manifefted, to take away our fin. Now, these two infinite gulfs being removed, God and man meet together in a blessed amity and friendship; and we have "boldnefs to enter into the holieft by the blood of Jefus." Hence is that of Christ's, John xiv. 16. "I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no man cometh to the Father but by me." This was fhadowed by Jacob's dream of the ladder, reaching from heaven unto earth, and the angels of God afcending and defcending thereupon; fignifying that, through Chrift (in whom all the rounds and fteps of the ladder are finished) the angels are miniftering spirits unto the heirs of falvation, upon the footing of Chrift's mediation; and that we have accefs to God through him. Through him we afcend unto God's holy hill, and abide in his tabernacle.

6thly, He is fet up as the great gospel city of refuge, typified by the cities of refuge under the law, unto which the manflayer was to fly for fafety from the avenger of blood, Heb. vi. 18. Believers are faid to fly for refuge, to lay hold upon the hope fet before them: juftice cries for vengeance: God's

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broken law cries for vengeance: confcience cries for vengeance: the devil, as God's executioner, cries for vengeance. O the deplorable cafe and condition of the poor guilty criminal before the revelation of Chrift! All refuges fail him for the hail fweeps away all his refuges of lies, and in this cafe his hope and strength perishes from the Lord, until God make a discovery of Christ as the city of refuge that he has fet open, with a cry from heaven, "Turn ye to your strong holds, ye prifoners of hope:" Then, O then, the foul flies for refuge as a dove to its windows, and gets in to the clefts of the rock, and abides in the fecret place and fhadow of the Almighty, faying, O this is my relt, and here will I dwell at ease; "for there is no condemnation to them that are in Chrift." Here the poor foul can turn about to law, to juftice, to confcience, to the devil, and the world, and fay, "Who can lay any thing to my charge? It is God that juftifieth, who is he that condemneth?"

7thly, He is fet up as a myftical brafen ferpent in the camp of Ifrael, in the camp of the vifible church, that the poor finner, finding himself ftung by the fiery ferpents, fin and Satan, may, by looking unto him, be healed. Hence is that of Christ, John iii. 14. 15. "As Mofes lifted up the ferpent in the wilderness, even fo muft the Son of Man be lifted up," &c. The gofpel is the pole upon which he is lifted up, in the view of all mankind: for by his commiffion we preach the gospel unto every creature; and the cry goes forth to the ends of the earth, "Look unto me, and be faved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none elfe." Sirs, the ve nom of the old ferpent has diffufed itself through all the powers and faculties of the foul and body; and it is worming out your life; and die you muft, unless you caft the eye of faith upon Chrift, as the only ordinance of God for your falva

As the ftung Ifraelite had infallibly died, unlefs he had looked unto the brafen ferpent; fo the finner that does not look by faith unto Chrift, the true brafen ferpent, fhall infallibly die, not the first death only, but also the fecond: for there is no name, under heaven, given among men, whereby a poor finner can be faved, but by the name of Jefus: but whofoever believes (in the name of Jefus) fhall not perish, but shall have everlasting life."

8thly, He is fet up as a foundation of hope and help to the loft family of Adam, to build upon for their eternal falvation: If. xxviii. 16. " Behold, I lay in Zion, for a foundation, a stone, a tried ftone, a precious corner ftone, a fure foundation: He that believeth fhall not make haste, ihall not VOL. III.

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be ashamed or confounded." All other foundations are but foundations of sand, and the house built upon the fand will /fall, and great will the fall thereof be ; " for other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jefus Chrift." Adam, in innocency, did indeed ftand upon another foundation; and, if he had continued there, he would have had obtained life and happiness, by way of pactional debt; but there is no other foundation for a loft finner to build upon, but the foundation Christ.

9thly, He is fet up as the end of the law for righteoufness to every finner that believes in him. He has, by his obedience. unto death, and the perfect holinefs of his nature, brought in an everlasting righteousness, for the juftification of the ungodly finner that believes in him: This is his name, whereby he is called, The Lord our Righteoufnefs, Jer. xxiii. 6. and "what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flef, God, fending his own Son, in the likeness of finful flesh, for fin condemned fin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us." This is that white raiment Chrift counfels us to buy of him, that the flame of our nakednefs may not appear. And fee how he fets up, or fets out, this righteoufnefs, even to the flout-hearted, and far from righteoufnefs, If. xlvi. at the clofe," I bring near my righteoufnefs; it fhall not be far off, and my falvation shall not tarry," &c. And the language of the foul, when it puts on that robe, is that which you find, If. xlv. at the close, "Surely, fhall one fay, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength: In the Lord fhall all the feed of Ifrael be juftified, and fhall glory."

10thly, He is fet up as a ftorehoufe, out of which the bankrupted and beggared finners of Adam's family may be fupplied with every thing they need: "For it hath pleafed the Father, that in him fhould all fulnefs dwell; and that, out of his fulness, all we may receive grace for grace." We, who are his minifters and ambaffadors, are authorised to caft open the gates of this ftorehouse, and give full liberty unto all wretched, miferable, blind, poor, and naked finners, to come and take what they want, without money and without price, If. lv. 1. Rev. xxii. 17.

11thly, To fhut up this head at prefent, he is fet up as the falvation of God to all loft finners. Chrift, in fcripture, is frequently called "The Salvation of God." Jacob, Gen. xlix. 19. when he is bleffing his children, makes a paufe, cafting his eyes upon the Shilch that was to fpring out of the tribe of Judah, and cries, "I have waited for thy falvation, O Lord."

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Old Simeon gets Chrift, when a babe, in his arms, Luke ii. 29. "Lord, now letteft thou thy fervant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have feen thy falvation." In him, he who is our God, is the God of falvation. He has wrought, and ftill works, manifold falvation in the midf of the earth; falvation from fin, Matth. i. 22.; falvation from the curfe of the broken law, Gal. iii. 13.; falvation from Satan, for he through death deftroyed him, Heb. ii. 14; falvation from the fting of death, 1 Cor. xv. 55.; falvation from hell, and the wrath that is to come, 2 Theff. i. 10. So that, whenever a finner looks into him by the eye of faith, he may fing that fong, If. xii. 1. 2. "I will praife thee; for though thou waft angry with me, yet thine anger is turned away, and thou comfortedft me. Behold God is my falvation: I will truft, and not be afraid; for the Lord JEHOVAH is my ftrength and my fong, he allo is become my falvation."

Thus you fee fome of thefe ends and ufes for which Chrift was fet up from everlasting.

Many more particulars might be infifted on, if time and frength would allow. I only name fome of them.

1. He was fet up as our Redeemer, to pay the ransom juf tice demanded, that we might not go down to the pit.

2. As a Surety, to pay the debts of bankrupts; therefore called, Heb. vii. 22. "The Surety of a better teftament.” 3. As a Phyfician, to heal us of all our difeafes. With him is the balm in Gilead, and he is the Phyfician there.

4. As a Shepherd, to gather his Father's flocks unto his fold: If. xl. 11. "He fhall feed his flock like a Shepherd."

5. As a wonderful Counsellor, to give advice in all doubtful cafes, If. ix. 6. So David, Pfal. xvi. 7. " I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counfel."

6. As an everlasting Father, in whom the fatherless orphans of Adam's family findeth mercy, If. ix. Hof. xvi. 7. As the mighty God, that was able to encounter princi palities and powers, and to fpoil them on his crofs, If. ix.

8. As the Prince of peace, the King of Salem, "I create the fruit of the lips, peace, peace, to him that is afar off," &c.

9. As the Amen, the faithful and true Witnefs, by whofe /declaration all controverfies are to be decided between God and man, and man and man.

10. As a Guide and Leader, to guide the blind by a way they know not, by his word and Spirit.

11. As a Captain of falvation, or Commander, under whofe

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