poffefsed of perpetual falvation through him. All the ranfomed ones were federally exalted in their Head; though their full enjoyment of that triumph over fin, hell and wrath, be referved to the time of their tranflation to Immanuel's better land, where glory dwells. He and they being one, in a mystical regard, what is faid of him as the Redeemer, may be said of them as the redeemed; and what he did, fuffered, deferved and procured, may be confidered as if done, deferved, fuffered and procured by them, in their own perfons.

SECT. II.

Our Lord's circumstances, as Man-Mediator, are now the reverse of what they were in his humbled state. Instead of being in a pit or dungeon, out of view, out of mind, inconfiderable and unobserved, his feet are now upon a rock, he is placed upon a glorious eminence, and set up in the most public, confpicuous, advantagious and honourable point of light. His divinity, formerly vailed, is now manifested and displayed, and, as united to his human nature, it shines forth with diftinguishing splendour and magnificence. His human nature itself, is exalted to the highest pitch of beauty and perfection, whether in a moral or material view. In a moral view, the human foul of Jesus Christ bears the nearest resemblance, the greatest likeness, to the moral character and perfections of God, that the creature is capable of. The holiness of the most exalted angel, and diftinguished saint, bears little or no proportion to that divine holiness wherewith his foul is embellished and adorned. And in our Lord's material beauty, as Man-Mediator, there is fomething so great, resplendent and majestical, that, according to the description given

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of it by inspired writers, it is hardly possible to form any adequate idea of what it really is. We see what a noble and magnificent figure he cut, when he but tried on his refurrection clothes, on the mount of transfiguration; "his face did shine

as the fun, and his raiment was white as the light," Matth. xvii. 2. And we fee the peculiar grandeur of his appearance to John in Patmos, "ched with a garment down to the foot, and

about the paps with a golden girdle; his head and his hairs white like wool, as white as "the snow, and his eyes as a flame of fire: his " feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a " furnace; and his voice as the found of many "waters," Rev. i. 13, 14, 15. Our Lord, as Man Mediator, is likewife eminent in respect of the place to which his present refidence is confined, namely, the highest heavens, where is the glorious throne of the Father: he resides there, in the view of angels and glorified saints, beheld and admired by thousands of thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousands daily in waiting, and continually ministring, not only before the throne of God, but of the Lamb. Moreover, he is set on a glorious eminence, as he is held up on the pole of the everlafting gospel, to be viewed and improved by finners of mankind. Under the Old Testament, men were directed to look to him, as to be manifested in due time; under the New Testament dispensation, they are called to look to him, as both come and gone, as one who is alive and was dead, and as one, whom, in his human nature, the Father has received into the most distinguishing mansions of bliss and glory. In the gospel, upon the pole of which he is exhibited, his divinity appears like that of the Father and the holy Ghost, universally diffused through heaven, earth and hell; but his human human nature, as the most glorious workmanship of God, is represented as inhabiting the highest pinnacle of glory in all his Father's kingdom above.

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Our Lord is now upon a folid bottom, in place of being in a miry clay; so much is included in the notion of a rock, which gives not way to the feet of him who is fet upon it. His present state is as fure, as it is eminent; as impregnable, as it alted: it is incapable of degenerating in itself, and proof against all attacks from his enemies of menor devils. Though their malice and resentment be radically the same, his present state baffles all their attempts, machinations, plots and designs: the rock on which he stands, they can neither fap nor scale; the whole artillery of hell and earth is incapable of shaking, touching, or even reaching that glorious bottom of reft.

Instead of reproach and wrath, our Lord, as Man-Mediator, is furrounded with glory and happiness. He is both the darling and wonder of heaven, the delight and stay of angels and men; the object of their adoration, as well as love; of their praise and worship, as well as surprise and esteem; while his person and performances are the burden of many fongs peculiar to the Jerufalem above. Instead of wrath, happiness, ineffable happiness, and bliss, are continually poured on his facred head; not only all the happiness that the most capacious creature-vessel can hold, but all the happiness whereof He, as the infinite Jehovah, would be possessed. As he was peculiar, in respect of the nature and degrees of his fufferings; so his happiness will be such as shall be peculiar, absolutely peculiar, to himself. It is, and will be, to the ransomed world, what the fountain is to the streams, or the fun to the rays of light; continually diffusing felicity

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felicity to others, without being lessened, exhaufted, or impaired.

Besides, the Man Christ, in his exalted state, is clothed with power and authority, in place of being covered with contempt, as was his lot in the days of his humiliation; with the power of administration and government, of trial and judgment, of approbation and condemnation. All worlds, of all creatures, in all circumstances, are under his rule, fubject to his controul; and, as to the rational part of them, answerable at his bar. The government and kingdom, whether of nature, grace, providence or glory; the authority over the creatures, whether angels, men or devils; whether rational, or irrational; animate, or inanimate; visible, or invisible; are intirely his own. In his divine nature, this doctrine bears no dispute; but even as Mediator, the language of inspiration is plain to the fame purpose. "All power is given "to me (faid he) in heaven and on earth," Matth, xxviii. 18. and the apostle is very explicit on this head, when, he says, "Wherefore, God hath

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highly exalted him, and given him a name a"bove every name; that, at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, of things in heaven, things on earth, and things under the earth; " and that every tongue should confess, that Jefus "Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father," Philip. ii. 9, 10, 11. Moreover, we are assured, by the fame authority, That, as "God hath ap

pointed a day, in which he will judge the world; fo he will do it by that man whom he " hath ordained; whereof (says the apostle) he " hath given assurance unto all men, in that he " hath raised him from the dead," Acts xvii. 31. and, by our Lord himself, that "the Father " judgeth

" judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment to the Son," John v. 22.

SECT. III.

This was all the doing of Jehovah the Father; as, in the plan of redemption, there are particular parts the province of each Person in the Trinity. Strictly speaking, indeed, there is nothing done by Jehovah, in the Perfon of the Father, but may be equally faid to be done by Jehovah, in the Perfons of the Son and holy Ghost: yet, in a fuitableness to our weak comprehenfions, as for other ends, worthy of infinite wisdom and grace, there are different parts in the execution of the council of peace, ascribed to the different Persons of the Godhead: the purchase of redemption is ascribed to the Son; and application of it to the Spirit; as the contrivance of it is to the Father: fo here, the reward bestowed on the Mediator, for "his becoming " obedient even unto death," is attributed to the Father, whose Servant, in that capacity, he was.

Our Lord's exaltation is the doing of the Father, as, in the different parts of it, it required nothing less than the power of God to accomplish. If divine power was necessary to raise him from the dead; fo, to give him glory, and to advance him, in his human nature, to fuch an exalted pitch of honour and magnificence.

It was, likeways, the doing of the Father, as the powers with which Christ, as Mediator, is clothed, were originally in the Godhead; were so much the province and prerogative of God, that it was competent for him to delegate and commission whom he pleased, to act in these exalted capacities. The creatures being all his, he might have ruled them by what instrument he chused, without leaving room to say, "What doest thou?" And