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The apoftle Paul begins the chapter with defcribing his diftrefs and affliction of mind for the obftinate infidelity of his countrymen, the Jews, in terms highly expreffive of his truly patriotic concern. His brethren, who were they? Their defcent was honourable, and their privileges peculiar, and truly glorious. Who are Ifraelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the fervice of God, and the promifes, whofe are the fathers, the renowned patriarchs, and illuftrious prophets, thofe lights from heaven, and holy apoftles, teachers of the world; and at the head of thefe, and who infinitely outfhines them all, came Chrift, as to his human defcent, and who, yet according to his eternal exiftence, is God, over all bleffed for evermore.Hail! ye people highly favoured of the Lord; happy had ye yet been, had ye known in this the merciful day of your visitation, the things which belonged to your peace, your city, your palaces, your glorious temple, had continued to this day with increasing fplendor; but to all your other crimes, when JESUS, the defire of all nations, came to his own, you, his own people, received him not, but, with wicked hands, crucified the Lord of glory; therefore your punishment was fignal as your guilt was unequalled; and ye remain a terrible monument of the divine indignation against infidelity, to every age and nation of the world.

In illuftrating the text, I fhall, through divine affiftance,

I. Delineate the mediatorial character of Chrift; and fhew in what refpects he may be faid to be " bleffed." II. In what fenfe he is God over all blessed.

III. Improve the subject.

1. Preliminary Remark.

Man, in his first eftate, when coming out of the hands of his creator, must have been a creature truly glorious. He ftood high

in

in the fcale of being, and was placed at the head of all other creatures in this world. His erect pofture, by which he touched the ground by a very fmall part of his frame, befpoke his exterior dignity a. But his mental powers, fo ftrong and comprehensive, and the beautiful luftre of his Maker's glory adorning his mind, made it like Solomon's holy of holies, every part being overlaid with pure gold, ferved as a confecrated temple, where the Deity would walk, faw his own image, and rejoiced in the work of his hands.

But the facred volume informs us of the fatal change that took place of all this happiness and dignity-Man violated the law of his God, and in the moment of tranfgreffion felt the weight of this dismal reverse. Sin, that ugly monfter, entered, and death followed, and gave man a mortal wound.

Behold him then in a threefold point of view: Refpecting his Maker, he fell under accumulated ruin. The image of God, after which he was formed, was defaced, and a far different image set up in his heart, even of him who had feduced him from his allegiance; darkness in the underftanding, rebellion in the will, fenfuality in the affections. The juftice of God threatened a penalty he could neither fatisfy nor fuftain; the law of God ftill challenged obedience, which, alas, he had neither power nor inclination to perform. The very gifts and bounties of God with which he was furrounded, intended not only for his comfort, but for his inftruction, leading him as by fo many fteps to their gracious author, became the occafion of withdrawing further from his duty, and increafing, as well as aggravating, his ingratitude. Thus flood man with refpect to his Maker.

With respect to his fellow creatures, inftead of that harmony and love, and milk of human kindness

a Charron on Wisdom, p. 100.

towards

towards each other, every man's hand was against his neighbour; violence, rage, envy, and confusion, overfpread the world, and filled it with fcenes of blood and death!

Refpecting himself-here was mifery indeed! he could fometimes fly from his neighbour, but never from himself. Hurried by reftlefs defires towards things either unfatisfying or unattainable; haunted with cares, tortured with pains, and ftung with remorfe, while confcience, like Daniel's hand writing on the wall, or like David's prophet, Nathan, faying, Thou art the man, filled him with terror; and vanity, like a worm, deftroyed the root of every flower that promised the faireft fuccefs. Such is the faint picture of man. Miferable in this life; more miferable ftill in the continual dread of lofing fuch a life, miferable moft of all, that neither his fancy can form, nor his fear conceive the confequences of death he dreads, which will drag him to the immediate prefence, and to the tribunal of an incenfed Almighty, and ever living God! Such accumulated woes, felt and feared, might make him cry out, in anguish, Would to God I had never been born, and mine infant eyes had never feen the light.

2. Remark. That a Mediator was abfolutely neceffary, on every account, if grace was to be extended to man. Since the fall it did not confift with the honour of God to converfe with apoftate man; nor was he, in his unhappy circumftances, capable of converfing with God. But fince it was the merciful defign of God to dwell again with men, and diffufe the bleffings of religion among them, it was fit fome expedient fhould be fallen on for reftoring finners, on honourable terms, to the divine favour; for fecuring the return of the Holy Ghoft to their hearts, and for rendering them capable of those divine pleasures, which by fin had been totally with

held.

held. And, rejoice, O ye heavens, for this expedient had been fixed upon in the eternal councils, and the fon of God bowed the heavens and came down as Mediator betwixt God and Man; he puts off the crimson robes of the judge, and put on the bowels of the Father, and announced, in promises, types and prophefies, that God in very deed would dwell with man upon earth, and after the revolution of 4000 years, this long expected, this aufpicious babe was born.

It may feem that these preliminary remarks were an unneceflary digreffion from the fubject; but when I obferve that the offices, names, and mediatorial character of Chrift, were all relative; all had a refpect to the people he was to fave, I hope I fhall be forgiven. I return now to the I. Head; which was to delineate the mediatorial character of Chrift, and fhew in what refpects he may be faid to be bleffed.

And in defcribing this glorious character, I wish to be led intirely by the light of Revelation. Overwhelmed with the profpect of his future glories, confequent upon his temporary fufferings, the enraptured Prophet, Ifaiah, crys out-And who shall declare his generation! And without all doubt fays Paul-Great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifefted in the flesh. In the preceding preliminary remark, I have enumerated fome of the high and important purposes why he was born, and for what caufes he came into the world. Others vaft, and truly divine, will appear in the further profecution of the fubject.

He fhall be called, Wonderful; and fo indeed he was; he is Chrift over all bleffed; he is alfo God, over all bleffed, for ever. The word Chrift, fignifies anointed, or qualified for fome high and eminent defigns. The word bleffed, fignifies chofen, or felected for thefe purposes and intentions. Thus the

Angel,

Angel, Gabriel, address the Virgin Mary Bleffed ar thou among women. To which her coufin Elizabeth added-And blessed is the fruit of thy womb. He fhall be fet apart and anointed by the Holy Ghoft, for the mighty purpofe of faving a loft world.

The ancient prophets who foretold Chrift's coming, appear transported with the view of his glory. Not only the New Teftament, but also the Old, reprefent the Meffias as the moft remarkable and moft honourable perfon, that ever appeared on the stage of the world: it fpeaks of him as a glorious governor, a prince, a king, a conqueror, befides other magnificent titles of the greatest dignity; fhewing that his government should be extenfive and everlasting, and that his glory fhould fill the whole earth. But while the prophets foretel his greatnefs, they foretel alfo his meannefs; they fhew, indeed, he was to be a glorious king, but a king who was to be despised and rejected of men; and that after the great expectation that men would have of him, he was to pafs over the ftage of the world, unobferved and difregarded.

About the time of his coming; the Jews were big with hopes of him as the great deliverer, and chief ornament of their nation. And if history may be credited, even the heathens had a notion about that time, which poffibly was derived either from the Jewish prophefies, or from heathen oracles, which God over-ruled fometimes to announce truth, that there was a prince of unparalleled glory, to rife in the eaft, and even in Judea, in particular, who was to found an univerfal monarchy a. But their vain hearts, like that of moft men in all ages, were so intoxicated with worldly pomp, that that was the only greatness they had any notion or relifh of; this made

a See Suetonius Vita Tiberii, Taciti Annal. Cudworth's Intellectual Syftem, Gales's Court of the Gentiles, Stillingfleet's origines Sacræ.

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