made unto them in Chrift, and have been fulfilled unto Chrift. He is in the poffeffion of all the good contained in them; and he is almighty to beftow upon his people every grace and bleffing. The Father has fealed Chrift as Head and Saviour of his people. He has treasured up in him all fulness; and Christ, as the head, has it to communicate to all his members: and out of his fulness his people receive grace for grace. Chrift, as God's holy one, was to be anointed by which we are to understand the call of Chrift, and the fetting him apart to the great work and office of falvation. He is in the text called the most holy, in allufion to the holy of holies. And indeed he is the most holy, and has been celebrated by the creatures, the feraphims, with a thrice holy-Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hofts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the evangelift John, quoting this paffage from the prophet, fays, these things faid Ifaiah, when he faw his (Christ's) glory and fpake of him. He was the most holy; and he, the most holy, in concert with his eternal Father and eternal Spirit, undertook the work of redemption. He, as Man, Mediator, was anointed with all the unmeafurable fulnefs and unction of the Spirit's grace, and this moft holy and infinitely bleffed God-man has done all things well; and, having put away fin by the facrifice of himself, he is entered into the most holy place, where he appears before the throne as a lamb newly flain; and where he, as our true high priest, prefents himself as the everlafting reprefentative of his chofen ones, wearing their names upon the breastplate of his heart, and appearing in the prefence of

God for them. And, as the high prieft, on the great day of atonement, entered by means of the blood of the facrifice into the holy of holies: fo Chrift, by means of his own blood, entered as our great high prieft into heaven itfelf, there to appear in the prefence of God for us. And, as the high prieft carried into the holy of holies fome fweet-fmelling incense, and fumed it between the Cherubims: fo Chrift, by his divine interceffion for his people within the vail, perfumed their services, and in him, and by him, they are accepted. And, as the high priest, when he came out of the holy of holies, used to blefs the people in the name of the Lord: fo Jefus Chrift, the great high priest of his church and people, bleffes his people from heaven with spiritual bleffings; and fends down the Holy Ghost to turn them from their iniquities, to convince them in their confciences effectually of fin, of righteousness, and of judgment; and to fhew them what Jefus has done and fuffered; and then to take of the things of Chrift and fhew them their intereft in them. And when our great High Prieft fhall come out of the holy of holies, then he will lift up his facred hands, and blefs all his people in the name of the Lord, faying unto them, Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. On the day of atonement, after the fcape goat had carried the fins of the people into the wilderness, and the high priest had performed the fervices of the day, the jubilee trumpet ufed to be founded, and it was a joyful found: for it proclaimed liberty unto perfons in diftrefs. And in confequence

of the eternally efficacious atonement which Chrift has made, the trumpet of the gofpel founds, and it is a joyful found: for it proclaims pardon and peace, life and falvation, freedom and liberty, from fin and Satan, death and hell, through the facrifice of our Lord Jefus Christ. It is fuppofed by Grotius, that the 32d Pfalm was defigned to be fung on the great day of atonement; and it must be allowed, that no Pfalm could fuit the folemnity of that day better: for it begins thus, Blessed is he whofe tranfgreffion is forgiven, and whofe fin is covered. Bleffed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Now, that this was exactly fuited to the fervice of this day, will appear, if we confider that they had seen by faith, in a type and figure, their fins laid on the fcape goat and carried away by him, and the iniquity of the land thereby removed: and therefore they might well fing, Blessed is he whofe tranfgreffion is forgiven, and whofe fins are covered: blessed is the man unto whom the Lord will not impute fin. Now there is nothing that can cover or hide our fins from the eye of God's justice, but the blood of Chrift. He only is our propitiation, which word fignifies a covering. The mercy-feat was called a propitiatory, because it covered and hid what was contained in the ark, and the Lord was reprefented as looking down upon it. And, the ark being a type of Chrift, and the law, the two tables of the covenant, being put into the ark, it typified the law written upon Chrift's heart, and fulfilled in his life, and the mercy-feat pointed out his expiatory death fo that here, in a figure and type, was clearly fet forth how Jefus hides all our tranfgref

fions from the Father's view. That his blood is a covering fo thick, that God's juftice being fatisfied with the shedding of it, and God himself having placed it to the account of his people, all their fins are covered: And the apostle Paul will tell us plainly who thofe perfons are unto whom the Lord imputeth not fin. They are thofe unto whom God imputeth righteoufnefs without works, Rom. iv. 6. Now it may be obferved for our comfort, that it is not faid by the Holy Ghoft, bleffed is the man that never finned-or bleffed is the man who has no fin in him, or who feels no fin. No, bleffed be God! for then we must have been eternally confounded. But it is, blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute fin. And the man to whom the Lord will not impute fin, is he unto whom God imputes the righteoufnels of the Lord Jefus Chrift; whose fins he has laid upon Chrift, and which have been already carried away by him, and put away by his facrifice. Here is the believer's bleffed ftate, he is one with Chrift. The Father beholds him in the beloved, all fair and complete. And herein the believer's bleffedness confifts, to know his union with, and his intereft in the Lord Jefus Chrift, and this is made known unto him by the Holy Ghoft. He is the revealer of it; and he bears his teftimony in the heart and confcience to the truth of it. May the Holy Ghost shine upon his own truth, and blefs it, and to his name shall be the praise. Amen.

SERMON VI.

THE ABOUNDING OF GOD'S WISDOM AND PRUDENCE TOWARDS THE ELECT.

EPHESIANS, Chap. i. Ver. 8.

Wherein be bath abounded toward us in all Wisdom and Prudence.

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'HE writer of this epiftle was, at the time of his writing it, a prifoner for Chrift. But though he was bound, the word of God was not bound: his spirit was most enlarged when his body was most straightened. The Spirit of the Lord raised his foul, elevated and most divinely enlightened his understanding; fo that from what is contained in this facred treafury, the letter directed to the faints at Ephefus, he might truly fay, that it was given unto him to preach the unfearchable riches of Chrift.

From prison he most richly waters and refreshes the church of the living God with a rich doctrinal difplay of the riches, freenefs, fulness, and fovereignty of JEHOVAH's grace, displayed in eternal, unconditional, perfonal election, particular redemption, and effectual calling and fanctification, which he crowns with eternal glorification.