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CHRIST's CROSS

AND

CROWN,

VIEWED

From PSALM XI. 1, 2, 3..

I waited patiently for the LORD, and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and fet my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he hath put a new fong in my mouth, even praises unto our God: many shall fee it, and fear, and shall trust in the LORD.

INTRODUCTION.

T

HE promises, prophecies, and doctrines of the Old Testament, meet in Jesus Christ, as the different radii, from whatever point of the circumference, meet in the center. They have all a regard, more immediate or remote, to him; and can only afford encouragement and confolation to finners, as they respect the Saviour. There are a variety of passages in the Old Testament writings,

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which have such a direct and evident relation to the Meffiah, that almost no Christians disagree in the application of them; but there are others, tho' no less expressive of the Messiah, in his humbled or exalted state, or both, which are not universally viewed in that light. Of these we take the paffage now mentioned to be one: for though generally these verses are confidered as pointing out the exercise of David, the then church, or after faints, they are more probably a prophetical description of his exercise who is David's Lord, the church's head, and the king of faints, namely, of the Old Testament Meffiah, our New Testament Redeemer; and they are so, chiefly, because we find the 6th, 7th, and 8th verses of that psalm quoted and applied to Jefus Chrift, by the author of the epistle to the Hebrews, in the xth chapter of that epistle, 5th, 6th and 7th verses; and having an inspired commentator to copy after, we need have no reluctance in treading his steps *. Besides, the repeated mention our Lord makes of what was written of him in the psalms, as well as by Mofes and the prophets, corroborates the presumption; and fur

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** The original text runs thus:

"Sacrifice and offering thou didst not defire, mine " ears haft thou opened: burnt-offering and fin-offering haft thou not required. Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me: I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart."

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The quotation by the apostle runs thus : "Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he "faith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but a

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body haft thou prepared me: in burnt-offerings, " and facrifices for fin thou haft had no pleasure: then "faid 1, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is " written of me) to do thy will, O God."

ther

ther justifies the application of that passage to him †. To which it need scarce be added, that in the Acts of the apostles, we are informed of their following that immaculate pattern, once, again and again ‡, for the imitation, doubtless, of after saints, in their study of the Old Testament scriptures.

PART I.

Of the REDEEMER'S Humiliation or Cross.

CHAPI.

Of Christ's active obedience, or of his waiting, waiting patiently, and crying.

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HIS waiting for the Father fays, that, as the

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Meffiah, or Christ, he stood and acted in the capacity of the Father's fervant; and did so in the different regards to be mentioned: according to the doctrine of the holy Ghost, Pfal. cxxiii. 2. where the church is represented as faying, " hold, as the eyes of servants look unto the hands " of their masters, and as the eyes of a maiden unto "the hand of her mistress; so our eyes wait upon "the Lord our God." For our Lord, in his mediatory character, is denominated the Father's servant, both by Old and New Testament writers. The prophet represents the Father as saying of Christ the Meffiah, "Behold my Servant whom I

+ Luke xx. 42. and xxiv. 44.

Acts ii. 25, 26, 27, 23. and xiii. 33, 35.

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" uphold;

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" uphold; mine Elect in whom my foul delight"eth," If. xlii. 1. And the apostle, inspired from the fame original, expresseth himself to the fame purpose; though from the view of Chrift's divinity, confiders it as a stupenduous act of condefcenfion in him: "Who being in the form of "God (faid he) thought it no robbery to be equal "with God, but made himself of noreputation, " and took upon him the form of a fervant," Phil. ii. 6, 7.

Our Lord in his humiliation, not only bore the designation of a fervant, but confidered himself as fuch, and therefore came to do his Father's work, to negotiate the errand and business of heaven. However voluntary and cheerful in the whole, he acted strictly by commission; and, in the execution of it, studied the Father's approbation, as his fole conAituent in that respect; "My meat (faid he) is to " do the will of him that fent me, and to finish " his work," John iv. 34. "I feek not mine own

will, but the will of the Father which fent me," John v. 30. and again, "I have glorified thee on earth, I have finished the work which thou gav-: " est me to do," John xvii. 4.

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In the execution of his Father's will, our Lord, as Man-Mediator, acted a dependence upon the Father, for what strength, through bearing and confolation he needed. Confidered as man, viewed as a creature, his circumstances required daily supplies from heaven, as to foul and body both. Accordingly, for these, in the station of a fervant, as well as in the capacity of a fon, he was properly and perfonally a believer : "Behold my fervant, (faid the "Father, pointing at the Meffiah) whom I uphold," If. xlii. 1. In his divine nature, Christ was independent; whence, in fo far as the Father upheld him, he must be confidered as man; and the Father's

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