of it by infpired writers, it is hardly poffible to form any adequate idea of what it really is. We fee what a noble and magnificent figure he cut, when he but tried on his refurrection clothes, on the mount of transfiguration; "his face did fhine' "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, "clothed with a garment down to the foot, and

girt about the paps with a golden girdle; his "head and his hairs white like wool, as white as "the fnow, and his eyes as a flame of fire: his "feet like unto fine brafs, 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 prefent refidence is confined, namely, the highest heavens, where is the glorious throne of the Father: he refides there, in the view of angels and glorified faints, beheld and admired by thousands of thousands, and ten thousand times ten thousands daily in waiting, and continually miniftring, not only before the throne of God, but of the Lamb. Moreover, he is fet 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 Teftament, men were directed to look to him, as to be manifefted in due time; under the New Teftament difpenfation, 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 diftinguishing mansions of blifs and glory. In the gofpel, upon the pole of which he is exhibited, his divinity appears like that of the Father and the holy Ghoft, univerfally diffused through heaven, earth and hell; but his

human

human nature, as the moft glorious workmanship of God, is reprefented as inhabiting the highest pinnacle of glory in all his Father's kingdom above.

Our Lord is now upon a folid bottom, in place of being in a miry clay; fo much is included in the notion of a rock, which gives not way to the feet of him who is fet upon it. His prefent ftate is as fure, as it is eminent; as impregnable, as it is exalted: it is incapable of degenerating in itself, and proof against all attacks from his enemies of men or devils. Though their malice and refentment be radically the fame, his prefent ftate baffles all their attempts, machinations, plots and defigns: the rock on which he stands, they can neither fap nor fcale; the whole artillery of hell and earth is incapable of fhaking, touching, or even reaching that glorious bottom of rest.

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 ftay 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 perfon and performances are the burden of many fongs peculiar to the Jerufalem above. Inftead of wrath, happiness, ineffable happiness, and blifs, are continually poured on his facred head; not only all the happiness that the moft capacious creature-veffel can hold, but all the happinefs whereof He, as the infinite Jehovah, would be poffeffed. As he was peculiar, in refpect of the nature and degrees of his fufferings; fo his happiness will be fuch as fhall be peculiar, abfolutely peculiar, to himself. It is, and will be, to the ranfomed world, what the fountain is to the ftreams, or the fun to the rays of light; continually diffufing

felicity

felicity to others, without being leffened, exhausted, or impaired.

9

Befides, the Man Chrift, 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 adminiftration and government, of trial and judg ment, 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; whe-. ther rational, or irrational; animate, or inanimate; vifible, or invifible; are intirely his own. In his divine nature, this doctrine bears no difpute; but even as Mediator, the language of infpiration is plain to the fame purpose. "All power is given

16

to me (faid he) in heaven and on earth," Matth. xxviii. 18. and the apoftle is very explicit on this head, when, he fays, "Wherefore, God hath "highly exalted him, and given him a name a"bove every name; that, at the name of Jefus,

every knee 'fhould bow, of things in heaven, "things on earth, and things under the earth; " and that every tongue fhould confefs, that Jefus "Chrift is Lord, to the glory of God the Father," Philip. ii. 9, 10, 11. Moreover, we are affured, 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 (fays the apoftle) he "hath given affurance unto all men, in that he "hath raised him from the dead," Acts xvii. 31. and, by our Lord himfelf, that "the Father

"judgeth

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

SE C T. III.

This was all the doing of Jehovah the Father; as, in the plan of redemption, there are particular parts the province of each Perfon 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 Ghoft: yet, in a fuitablenefs to our weak comprehenfions, as for other ends, worthy of infinite wifdom and grace, there are different parts in the execution of the council of peace, afcribed to the different Perfons of the Godhead the purchase of redemption is afcribed 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, whofe 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 lefs than the power of God to accomplish. If divine power was neceffary 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 Chrift, as Mediator, is clothed, were originally in the Godhead; were fo much the province and prerogative of God, that it was competent for him to delegate and commiffion whom he pleased, to act in thefe exalted capacities. The creatures being all his, he might have ruled them by what inftrument he chufed, without leaving room to fay, "What doest thou?" And

And it was the Father's doing, as, at a future, an appointed period, he will reaffume the reigns of government into his own hand. Though they are now laid on the fhoulders of Chrift, it is only for a time; in the language of infpiration, " until "the mystery of God be finished,” Rev. x. 7. "when (as Paul expreffeth it) the kingdom fhall "be delivered up to God, even the Father, and " he be all in all," 1 Cor xv. 24, 28. The Father's committing all things into the hand of Christ, fays, they were, originally, in his own; and the kingdom's being delivered up to the Father, fays, it was formerly under his perfonal management, as was obferved above. 1

The change in our Lord's circumftances now, compared with what they were, in the days of his humiliation, is truly wonderful. Who would think, that the Glorious Man, in the midft of the throne, fhining with a fplendour which far outdoes the fun in his brightness, was the poor, afflicted and defpifed Jefus of Nazareth, who tabernacled, above thirty years, with men upon earth? who would think that the diftinguished Perfon, enthroned with the Father, and encompassed with the praises of eternity, was the fame Galilean, who was panneled before a heathen tribunal, and treated, by Jews and Gentiles, with unfufferable contempt? who would take the living Lamb, in Immanuel's land, to be the very perfon, who bled, was torn, panted, and expired on the accurfed tree? who could know that exalted Redeemer, as he appears in his Father's kingdom, to be He whom Jofeph of Arimathea wrapped in clean linen, and interred in his garden at Jerufalem? Nothing will