it, "God manifest in the flesh." But it is not alone on the contrary, the Messiah is seldom mentioned, but something is either said of him, or referred to him, which teaches us the same important truth. "Behold the days come," (saith the Lord by Jeremiah, chap. xxiii.) “that I will raise unto David a righteous Branch; and a King shall reign and prosper, and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his days Judah shall be saved, and 'Israel shall dwell safely; and this is his name whereby he shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS." Isaiah in general styles him, "A Child to be born;" Jeremiah more particularly, "A Branch of David." Isaiah ascribes to him the name of "The Mighty God;" Jeremiah says, he shall be called "The Lord our Righteousness." You have the word LORD in capital letters here, as in other places where it is in the original JEHOVAH. Some of the names of God are occasionally applied to inferior subjects; to angels, to magistrates, and sometimes to idols. But Jehovah is allowed by all to signify the essential and incommunicable name of the Most High God. Yet this is not the only place where it is expressly and directly applied to the Messiah. David himself speaks to the same purpose: "The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand," Psal. cx. That the Messiah was to be David's Son, was known and acknowledged by the Jews in our Saviour's time; but how he could be the Son of David, and yet his Lord, was a difficulty that utterly posed and silenced the most learned Rabbies and Scribes among them; because, being destitute of that sincerity and humility we have before spoken of, they could not understand the Scriptures, which were read in their synagogues every day.

Now, although this important doctrine was not to be discovered by the light of nature, or the powers of human reason, yet, since it has pleased God to make it known to us, our reason, humbly tracing the steps of Divine revelation, can easily prove the expedience, and even the necessity, that it should be so. When we are informed from Scripture, that all mankind being sunk into a state of sin and misery, God had in great mercy appointed a person to atone for the one, and deliver them from the other; we may safely, from these principles, infer, by our own reason, 1st, That this person cannot be mere man: for as the whole human race, and consequently every individual, is supposed to be previously involved in the same circumstances of guilt and condemnation, it is impossible that any one of these should be able either to answer or satisfy for himself, much less be qualified to interpose in behalf of another. From hence reason may ascend a step higher, and conclude, 2d, That no mere creature, however great and excellent, can undertake this part: for the two great points necessary in order to our redemption to satisfy the justice of God, and to restore the divine image in man-are either of them beyond the sphere of finite power. We read in the Scripture of angels, archangels, thrones, principalities, and powers; and from several texts we may collect, that their number and excellencies are beyond any conceptions we can form. Could we suppose that the virtues and endowments of all these various and exalted beings were united and centred in one of them; however glorious this being would be in other respects, when we consider him as a creature of the Divine power, he will be found to be as unfit, and as unable, to interfere in the behalf of sinful man as the meanest worm that

crawls upon the earth. It is the duty of every being, great and small, to be entirely devoted, according to the extent of its capacity, to the service and glory of its great Creator: therefore an angel is no more capable than a man of performing the smallest work of supererogation. The highest archangel could not magnify the law of God, and make it honourable on the behalf of man, being already bound thereto for himself: much less can we suppose such a being capable of expiating the sins of mankind by suffering. If Divine justice insisted on a propitiation, it must follow, that nothing less than an equivalent could be accepted. But what would be the temporary sufferings of a creature, or of all creatures, in this view? A finite satisfaction, however heightened and exaggerated, would at last be infinitely short of the demand. As to the other branch of redemption, the restoration of the image of God in the soul, I need only mention it; for it appears, at first glance, that this must be the prerogative of Divine power alone to effect. It remains, therefore, that the deliverance of mankind could be attempted only by Him who, we are assured by the Apostle, agreeable to the passages already cited, is over all, God blessed for ever.

That the Son of God should take upon him the nature and circumstances of our humanity, sin excepted, in order to atone for our transgressions, is indeed such an instance of condescension and love, as must for ever dazzle and astonish the brightest understandings. It is true, some persons in these refined times, affect to speak of this point with admirable coolness and precision. But in the beginning it was not so. Either the Apostle Paul was less master of his temper, or more unequal to sublime speculations, than these gentlemen, or else we must allow he had a very different view of

the subject; for he cannot mention it without appearing to be transported, and (if I may use the expression) swallowed up by the thought: his ideas seem too great for words; and it is well if his best attempts to explain himself have not exposed him, in the judgment of some of his readers, to the charge of solecism. However, though this doctrine, above any other, is a proof that God "is able to do for us exceeding abundantly, beyond all we could ask or think," it is not, upon the premises I before mentioned, in the least repugnant to right reason; rather it is exactly calculated to remove all those surmises which would arise in the mind of a reasonable sinner, upon the first intimation of possible forgiveness. In our nature Christ fulfilled the law which we had broken; he sustained the penalty we had incurred; he vanquished the enemies we had to encounter; he trod the path which he has marked out for us; he is entered in our name into that heaven he has promised us; and retains a sympathy with us in all our sufferings and temptations, "in as much as he himself has suffered, being tempted," Heb. ii.

I am next to consider the testimony of Scripture concerning the offices of Christ. These are, in general, included in the character of Mediator.

66

There is one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus," 1 Tim. ii. In this word is summed up all that Christ has done, now does, or will do hereafter, either on the part of God or man. But, for our better apprehension, it is proposed to us under three distinct and principal views, answerable to the three particulars in which the misery of fallen man does principally consist.

And first, Man having departed from God, "became vain in his imaginations, and his foolish heart

was darkened," Rom. i.; so that he totally lost the knowledge of his Creator, and how entirely his happiness depended thereon. He forgot God and himself, and sunk so low as to worship the work of his own hands. His life became vain and miserable; in prosperity, without security or satisfaction; in adversity, without support or resource; his death dark and hopeless; no pleasing reflection on the past, no ray of light on the future. Such was the unhappy case when Christ undertook the office of a Prophet; in which character, under various dispensations, first by his servants inspired of old, and afterwards more clearly in his own person, and by his Apostles, he has instructed us in the things pertaining to our peace; not only renewing in us the knowledge of the true God, which, where revelation prevailed not, was universally lost out of the world, but disclosing to us the counsels of Divine love and wisdom in our favour, those great things "which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard," and which never could have entered "into the heart of man to conceive,” had not he who dwelt in the bosom of the Father declared them to us. We can now give a sufficient answer to that question, which must have for ever overwhelmed every serious awakened mind, "Wherewithal shall I appear before the Most High God," Mic. vi. We have now learnt how God can declare and illustrate his righteousness and truth, by that very act which, without respect to satisfaction given, would seem the highest impeachment of both; I mean, his justifying the ungodly. We have now a glass by which we can discover the presence of the Creator in every part of his creation, and a clue to lead us through the mysterious mazes of Divine providence. But who can enumerate the various, the important, the interesting