gations, and fubjected himself to fuch excruciating anguish and pain. The value of things amongst men is often judged of, from the importance of the price by which they are obtained; and as to particular commodities, their only value lies in the dearth of their purchase. Would we judge of the redemption of the foul by this rule, it will, on a double account, appear valuable, excecding valuable and precious. It is not filver or gold that could procure it: its price is far above the price of rubies. Thousands of rams, and ten thousand rivers of oil, fall infinitely fhort of the lowest rate at which it could be bought. Nay, my brethren, the fruit of the finner's body could, by no means, atone for the fin of the foul, far lefs pay for the redemption of it. The price you have feen: the awful fum has been told over in your prefence, amounting to nothing lefs-than the blood of bulls and goats? no, the precious blood of the Son of God. Nor does the value of redemption ly merely, in the price paid for it; but also, in the need, the abfolute, indifpenfible need all ftand in of it all, whether high or low, rich or poor, bond or free, must be interested in that falvation, to which our Lord's fufferings had a refpect; must be interefted in it, or muft inevitably perifh. Could we be instrumental in perfuading men of the precioufnefs. of falvation, one confiderable end of our miniftry would be reached; but how far men's ufual preference to the things of time and fenfe argues an undervaluing their fouls, it is easy to judge. Such need to confider, that in flighting your foul's redemption, you flight both the Purchafer and the price, both the contriver and the executor of it; which, if mercy prevent not, will expose you to the moft awful reproof at the judgment of the great day.

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The

The evil, the exceeding evil of fin, is likewife evident, as what nothing lefs could expiate, than our Lord's precious life. The eternal Father, who weighs perfons and things in an even balance, could not do lefs to his bofom Friend, his everlasting Fellow, his conftant delight, when fet in the gap, than "bruife him and put him to fhame;" to fuch open fhame and fufferings, as he underwent in the horrible pit and miry clay, Sure, if the exceeding finfulness of in had not made it neceffary, Juch a Father would never have made fuch exaction upon fuch a Son. And therefore, in making a sport of fin, men practically mock the fuffering Saviour; in the purfuit and perpetration of fin, men make merry with that, which filled him with forrow, even unto death. Nor can believers themfelves furvey their hearts and ways, without feeling, or having reafon to feel, the most tender and affecting emotions. Your lying, my brethren, your fabbathbreaking, your uncleannefs, your covetousness, your immorality and ungodliness in your unconverted days; together with fuch unbelief, unwatchfulness, unfruitfulness and backflidings from God, as, fince grace took hold of you, you are chargeable with, dafhed the head of Chrift with wrath, when in the pit; and bore him down, till he funk, died and was buried in the mire. Sin is evil in itself, unfpeakably fo, in the dishonour it does to the Lord God; but its evil nature appears most awfully in the fcars on the Saviour's hands and feet; and in the remarkable fcar on his facred fide; the indelible proofs of what fin coft him, and the dreadful evidence of what it fhall coft finners themfelves, who live and die without an intereft in him. If, while in the pit of humiliation, it drew wrath on his head, who had no fin of his own; can it fail of breaking the fluices of divine wrath, refpecting finners themfelves,

in the pit of nature now, and in the pit of hell hereafter? Yea finners, though you roll this and the other fin, as a fweet morfel, under your tongues at prefent, it fhall draw down whole floods of vengeance, upon you, foul and body, hereafter; under the load whereof you fhall be preffed, crushed, tormented, and distracted through eternity.

But it is good news, that our Lord, was by the Father, taken up out of the horrible pit and miry clay; or, in the language of the New Teftament, that he was raifed from the dead. It is good news to faints. Primitive Chriftians are faid, particularly glorying in the refurrection of Chrift, to have frequently comforted themselves and one another with these words, Sirs, Chrift is rifen. No matter, my dear friends, though the grave-ftone fhould be put on every other enjoyment and comfort; compa ratively, that is of fmall confequence to you, fince your Lord is rifen; and, with him, your life, your hope, your liberty, your all. Befides, in his refurrection, there is full evidence of the work of your redemption being completed, and the moft comfortable earnest of your own refurrection taking place, with glorious advantage, at the last day. As the refurrection of Chrift is good news to faints, fo it is pregnant with falvation to finners; because in it they have the fureft ground of hope to look to, and build upon. It is unquestionably certain, that, refting upon this foundation, you fhall never be removed. Had our Lord been detained a prisoner in the grave, then you could have had no hope; had not these bands been loofed, your bands could never have been broken; but now, that he could not be holden of them, there is a folid bottom upon which you may build and warrantably venture for eternity. Be exhorted therefore to look to him, that you may be faved; and to wait for him,

that

that ye may not be ashamed: for in neglect of this ground of hope, you difhonour and despise the Saviour, and lay in a foundation for his despising, and pouring contempt upon you. Think of these awful, awakening words, and pray that the Lord may write them, as with a pen of iron and the point of a diamond, upon your confciences: they are applicable to all the defpifers of Chrift, and neglecters of the great falvation. "Whosoever fhall

"fall on this stone shall be broken; but on whom"foever it fhall fall, it will grind him to powder," Matth. xxi. 44.

CHA P. III.

Of the Father's Jetting Chrift's feet upon a rock.

TH

'H E fame nature that was humbled, is exalted. The Man Chrift was in the horrible pit and miry clay, and it is only as man he can be faid to be fet on a rock. To fuppofe him capable of exaltation in his divine nature, would no lefs argue against the perfection of his divinity; and be an error no less fubverfive of his glory, than if, as God, he had been fuppofed to fuffer. In his divine nature, he was, from eternity paft, fo perfect and glorious, that, through eternity to come, it is impoffible he can ever in any degree, be more fo. Though, when the compliment of a ranfomed world is fully made up, he will have still a greater number of admirers and adorers; yet, even then, there will be nothing in the Redeemer's Godhead to admire and adore, which had not place, erc ever

the

the creation of angels or men was expede. So much is effential to the notion of that unchangeablenefs peculiar to the divine nature, as evidently taught in fcripture; being "the fame yesterday, "to day, and for ever," Heb. xiii. 8. "without "variableness or shadow of turning," James i. 17. And, what is unfpeakably beautiful and comprehenfive, being "from everlafting to everlafting "God," Pfal. xc. 2. When infpired writers speak

of God, they convey the idea of a Being, in whom all poffible, all imaginable perfection and excellence, beauty, dignity and glory, are fummed up. But Jefus Chrift, in his divine nature, was such a Being, from everlasting; and therefore, according to that emphatical text, he will, he can, be no more, to everlasting; which at once cuts off all fuch notions as would infinuate any rife or improvement in the circumstances and exaltation of Christ, as God: whence, in the exaltation pointed out here, we must confine our view to his bleft, immaculate, but once fuffering, human nature. Nor was our Lord only exalted, as the Man Chrift; but in a common, covenant, mediatory capacity. In the horrible pit, he was preffed down by the load of wrath due to the fins of others; and, in his exaltation, he is poffeffed of the rights, bleffings and privileges, purchafed, provided and referved for others, In his fufferings in the miry clay, he funk all the fins of an elect world, as in the depths of the fea, never to rife up in judgment against them; and, in his emerging out of the grave, he brought up their peace, pardon and redemption, to be loft no more for ever. In this view, when our Lord fpeaks of his feet being fet upon a rock; he speaks of the earnest and fecurity therein exhibited, that all whom his humiliation refpected, are virtually faved, in him, and fhall, in due time, be actually

poffeffed