the apostle, who afferts, that no man can fay that Jefus Chrift is Lord but by the Holy Ghost *. But it is highly reasonable, to those who see that they must perish, without such an atonementas shall declare the righteousness of God, no less than his mercy, in the forgiveness of fin; who feel the neceffity of holiness, in order to happiness; and are acquainted with the nature and variety of the fnares, temptations, and enemies to which they are expofed. Such perfons cannot venture their eternal concerns upon the dignity, or care, or power, or patience of a meer creature, however exalted and excellent; they must be affured, that their Saviour is Almighty, or they dare not trust in him; nor would they dare to honour the Son as they honour the Father, to love him with all their heart and foul and strength, to devote themselves abfolutely to his fervice, and to expect their fupreme happiness from his favour and approbation, if they did not know that he is over all, God blessed for

ever.

With respect to the inferior character he fuftains in our nature and for our fakes, as the Father's fervant, he is ftyled, The Messenger * 1 Cor. xii. 3.

of the covenant. He is the gift, promife, head and fubftance of the everlasting covenant. And he came himself to establish the covenant, and to declare and bestow the bleffings it contained. God who had before Spoken at divers times and in fundry manners by his prophets, fpoke in the fulness of time by his Son *; testifying to him by a voice from heaven, This is my beloved Son, hear him, in him I am well pleafed. To the fame purpose our Lord fpake of himself. He prefaced his gracious invitation to all, without exception, who are weary and heavy laden, to come to him for reft‡, with a declaration of his commiffion and authority, faying, All things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no one (ouders) knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth any one the Father, fave the Son, and be to whom the Son will reveal him. The law was given by Mofes ||; the moral law to discover the extent and abounding of fin; the ceremonial law, to point out by typical facrifices and ablutions, the way in which forgiveness was to be fought and obtained. But grace, to relieve us from the condemnation of the one, and truth anfwerable to the *Heb.i.1. Matt.iii.17. Matt.xi.27. John i.17.

types

types and fhadows of the other, came by Jesus Christ.

It is farther faid, The Lord whom ye feek, and the Messenger in whom ye delight MESSIAH was the hope and defire of the true Ifrael of God, from the earliest times; and when he was born into the world, there was a prepared people waiting and longing for him, as their confolation. The people at large likewise profeffed to expect great things from the coming of MESSIAH. But their expectations were low and earthly. They fuppofed that he would deliver them from the Roman yoke, and give them victory and power over the Heathen nations. The more grievous bondage of fin under which they were enflaved, they were not fenfible of, nor had they had a disposition suited to the privileges and honours of the kingdom which he designed to establish; and therefore, their understandings being darkened by prejudice and prepoffeffion, they could not discern his character. The prophecies which were read in their fynagogues every fabbath, marked out the time and circumstances of MESSIAH'S appearance, the places which he fhould principally vifit, the doctrine he should teach,

and

and the works which he fhould perform: but though all these particulars exactly applied to Jefus, they obftinately rejected him, and proceeded to fulfil, what was farther foretold of his fufferings and death, with fuch a minute punctuality, as if they had defignedly taken the prophecies for the rule of their conduct. Thus, by giving neither more nor less than thirty pieces of filver to his betrayer, by buying the potter's field, and no other, with the money afterwards; by cafting lots for one of his garments, and making a distribution of the reft; by piercing his fide, contrary to the custom in such punishments, and by omitting to break his legs, which, from their treatment of the malefactors, who fuffered with him, feems to have been usual-in these and feveral other inftances, they acted, though unwittingly, as if it had been their defign and study to accomplish the scriptures to their own confusion and condemnation.

II. This was the reason why his coming to his temple was to them fudden. Though long foretold and long expected, and though the precife time of his advent, and the accompanying figns, were accurately defined and defcribed, yet when the feafon arrived he came

fud

fuddenly, unlooked for, and unknown. He came upon them in an hour that they thought not of, and in a manner of which they were not aware. When he ftood in the midft of them, they knew not that it was he. How dreadful does fin harden and infatuate the hearts of men! The Jews, in our Saviour's time, furnish us with a striking inftance, that it is poffible for people fatally to miscarry with the greatest advantages and means for information in their poffeffion. They accounted themselves the people of God, made their boast of his law, and their relation to Abraham. But they hated MESSIAH, and crucified him, who was the object of Abraham's faith. The oppofition of their leaders and teachers was the moft malicious, for many of them acted against the light of their minds, and were often convicted in their confciences, though they refused to be convinced. But an ignorant attachment to these blind guides was ruinous to their blind followers, who, though they sometimes from a view of his mighty works, were ftruck with aftonifhment, and constrained to fay, Is not this the Son of David? were at length influenced by their priests to prefer a murderer to him, and,