gations, and subjected himself to such 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 silver 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 short of the lowest rate at which it could be bought. Nay, my brethren, the fruit of the sinner's body could, by no means, atone for the fin of the foul, far less pay for the redemption of it. The price you have feen: the awful fum has been told over in your prefence, amounting to nothing less 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 absolute, indispensible need all stand in of it: all, whether high or low, rich or poor, bond or free, must be interested in that salvation, to which our Lord's fufferings had a respect; must be interested in it, or must inevitably perish. Could we be instrumental in perfuading men of the preciousness of falvation, one confiderable end of our ministry would be reached; but how far men's usual preference to the things of time and sense argues an undervaluing their fouls, it is easy to judge. Such need to confider, that in slighting your foul's redemption, you flight both the Purchaser and the price, both the contriver and the executor of it; which, if mercy prevent not, will expose you to the most awful reproof at the judgment of the great day.

The evil, the exceeding evil of fin, is likewise evident, as what nothing lefs could expiate, than our Lord's precious life. The eternal Father, who weighs persons and things in an even balance, could not do less to his bosom Friend, his everlasting Fellow, his constant delight, when fet in the gap, than

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bruise him and put him to shame;" to such open shame and fufferings, as he underwent in the horrible pit and miry clay, Sure, if the exceeding finfulness of iin had not made it necessary, such 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 themselves survey their hearts and ways, without feeling, or having reason to feel, the most tender and affecting emotions. Your lying, my brethren, your fabbathbreaking, your uncleanness, your covetousness, your immorality and ungodliness in your unconverted days; together with fuch unbelief, unwatchfulness, unfruitfulness and backslidings from God, as, fince grace took hold of you, you are chargeable with, dashed the head of Christ 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, unspeakably so, in the dishonour it does to the Lord God; but its evil nature appears most awfully in the fscars on the Saviour's hands and feet; and in the remarkable scar on his facred fide; the indelible proofs of what fin cost him, and the dreadful evidence of what it shall cost sinners themselves, 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 sluices of divine wrath, respecting finners themselves,

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in the pit of nature now, and in the pit of hell hereafter? Yea sinners, though you roll this and the other fin, as a sweet morsel, under your tongues at present, it shall draw down whole floods of vengeance, upon you, foul and body, hereafter; under the load whereof you shall be pressed, 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 Testament, that he was raised from the dead. It is good news to faints. Primitive Christians are faid, particularly glorying in the refurrection of Christ, to have frequently comforted themselves and one another with these words, Sirs, Christ is risen. No matter, my dear friends, though the grave-ftone should be put on every other enjoyment and comfort; comparatively, that is of small consequence to you, fince your Lord is rifen; and, with him, your life, your hope, your liberty, your all. Besides, in his refurrection, there is full evidence of the work of your redemption being completed, and the most 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, so it is pregnant with falvation to finners; because in it they have the surest ground of hope to look to, and build upon. It is unquestionably certain, that, refting upon this foundation, you shall 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 loosed, 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

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that ye may not be ashamed: for in neglect of this ground of hope, you dishonour 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 despisers of Christ, and neglecters of the great falvation. "Whosoever shall "fall on this stone shall be broken; but on whom" soever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder," Matth. xxi. 44.

CHAP. III.

Of the Father's setting Christ's feet upon a rock.

SECT. I.

THE same nature that was humbled, is exalted. The Man Christ was in the horrible pit and miry clay, and it is only as man he can be said to be fet on a rock. To suppose him capable of exaltation in his divine nature, would no less argue against the perfection of his divinity; and be an error no less subversive of his glory, than if, as God, he had been supposed to fuffer. In his divine nature, he was, from eternity past, so perfect and glorious, that, through eternity to come, it is impossible he can ever in any degree, be more fo. Though, when the compliment of a ransomed 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, ere ever the

the creation of angels or men was expede. So much is essential to the notion of that unchangeableness peculiar to the divine nature, as evidently taught in fcripture; being "the fame yesterday,

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to day, and for ever," Heb. xiii. 8. "without "variableness or shadow of turning," James i. 17. And, what is unspeakably beautiful and comprehensive, being "from everlasting to everlasting "God," Pfal. xc. 2. When inspired writers speak of God, they convey the idea of a Being, in whom all possible, all imaginable perfection and excellence, beauty, dignity and glory, are summed up. But Jesus 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 rise 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 blest, immaculate, but once fuffering, human nature. Nor was our Lord only exalted, as the Man Christ; but in a common, covenant, mediatory capacity. In the horrible pit, he was prefsfed down by the load of wrath due to the fins of others; and, in his exaltation, he is possessed of the rights, blessings and privileges, purchased, 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 sea, never to rise 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 speaks of his feet being set upon a rock; he speaks of the earnest and security therein exhibited, that all whom his humiliation respected, are virtually faved, in him, and shall, in due time, be actually poffefsed